Karen’s Blog

Babylon Rolling by Amanda Boyden

Set in New Orleans in August of 2004, Babylon Rolling is a good story full of well-developed characters, and a rich tapestry of ethnicities and origins and attitudes that populate one neighborhood in the storied city.


The main characters are all neighbors in one of those neighborhoods that was both old and new, with black, white, and Indian families. Their lives begin to intersect in more than a normal, casual way, and events and circumstances snowball gradually into the climax of the tale, and beyond.


Fearius (real name Daniel) - 15 and just out of lock-up, and his hilariously-named sisters are the children of an African-American family that has been in the neighborhood forever. His family hopes that he is done with the trouble that got him into Juvie in the first place, but he’s still figuring out who and what he’s going to be. Contrasting with him are Ed and Ariel Frank and their two small children - a young white family that moved down from Minneapolis for her job as a hotel manager. Ed is being a stay-at-home parent, and there is tension as Ariel sees him as being too soft, and weak, without ambition. Older neighbors Cerise Brown and Philomene Beauregard de Bruges and their husbands are long-term residents but not exactly friends, but everyone is a united in their suspicious of the Guptas, a perfectly friendly family but with exotic accents and highly fragrant foods that scent the neighbor’s air.


All in all, the struggles of each character and their interactions leading up to the non-event of Hurricane Ivan - which spared New Orleans, unlike Katrina in 2007, and their struggles with mental illness, identity, and how to make their way in the world make an engrossing tale, and a fascinating read.


As the book was published in 2008, there is a brief epilogue concerning Katrina, and that just adds to the feeling that these could be real people, living in a very real neighborhood in the mixed bag of life that is New Orleans.


I do recommend it, it’s a quick read and a satisfying story. And I didn’t review this when I first read it, as we had hurricane after hurrican this summer rolling into the Gulf of Mexico. It really has very little to do with the storms, and I didn’t want to leave that impression. It’s totally about the people, fascinating in their own right. And of course, now Hurricane Paloma is active in the Atlantic.

Category 7 by Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson

My dentist took one look of this cover and said “Oh, science fiction, huh?” But as I was incapable of responding (he waited until everything was installed in my mouth for the work on my back molar) I couldn’t say “Yes, and no, not really.”

I guess he’s right, after all the story is based on scientists and the government being able to secretly control the weather. That’s gotta be fiction, right? At least we all hope so. I think.

The more you read, the more little doubts creep in, but hey, that’s what good fiction does, right? Takes everyday things and tweaks them just enough to make you wonder …

The book is more about politics, elections, power, the influences of business and wealth and government, and at the same time, it is a murder mystery, a character-driven story, and the classic “mad scientist” - though in this case, one might argue more mad-as-in-angry than mad-as-in-crazy …

A really interesting (yes, I use that word a lot) story, in which you learn a lot about the weather and how storms form (a meteorologist is the main female character), and much more. Some of the characters are more well-developed than others, but it is a good story, and a quick read.Had I not grown up on Science Fiction, and have been convinced we’d have FTL travel by the time I was a grown-up, maybe I wouldn’t find some of the weather-manipulation ability quite so convincing. And yes, you are right, there’s no such thing as a “Category 7″ hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, but that’s how big the storm brewing is …