Song For A Lost Kingdom-- A Novel of Music,Time Travel and Jacobites

I received Song For A Lost Kingdom from the Canadian author , Steve Moretti, via the promotional freebie website Prolific Works, and fell in love with the premise.  So I immediately volunteered to provide Moretti with feedback without having read a single word that he'd written.   I'm glad to say that I haven't regretted that impulsive decision since then.

                               

A facile description of Song For A Lost Kingdom would be that it's Outlander with music. This is true, but in a limited way.    If you love Outlander because it's about time travel to 18th century Scotland, then Song For A Lost Kingdom may be the sort of book that you'll enjoy.  Yet if you're an Outlander fan because of  the romance between Jamie and Claire, then you may be disappointed by Moretti's novel.  There is romance in the novel, but it isn't the central focus. The time traveling 21st century protagonist, Adeena Stewart, is a musician.  Music is Adeena's primary commitment in both time periods.   That's what I loved most about this book.  It shows that music can transcend time and place.

Another significant difference between Outlander and Song For A Lost Kingdom  is that the time travel method isn't what you would normally expect.  I read another novel that utilizes the same concept, but approaches it superficially.  Moretti gets extra points for making the fantastical seem so real.

Unfortunately, this time travel technique makes it easy for 21st century characters to believe  that Adeena is hallucinating rather than time traveling.  Even Adeena isn't sure about what's happening to her for almost the entire novel. She has serious medical problems.  Couldn't she also be mentally ill? Some readers might assume that the time travel is  an elaborate fantasy that's all in Adeena's mind.

It did seem to me that Adeena was irresponsible in some of her decisions.  This is partly the result of immaturity.  She is accustomed to being rescued which means that she never needs to grow up and face the consequences of her actions.    So she  is an ambivalent character.  Her dedication to the music she loves is admirable, but the wreckage of her personal life  could make readers want to slap some sense into her.  Some of us may find her similar to people in our own lives which makes her recognizable if not always likeable.

 Song For A Lost Kingdom is composed of  comfortable elements of the familiar and intriguing elements of the mysterious.   Yet it's the music that continued to haunt me.

                               

The Scalpel and the Silver Bear--The Memoir of a Navajo Surgeon

When I first encountered The Scalpel and the Silver Bear by Navajo Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord, I wondered how she overcame the Navajo prohibition against contact with the spirits of the dead referred to as chindi in so many Tony Hillerman novels.  This barrier, and my curiosity about how traditional Navajo healing became part of her medical practice, were what drove my interest in reading this memoir.

                           

                               
 It did turn out that emotional discomfort over exposure to chindi was a hurdle for Alvord in medical school, but why didn't this issue arise when she first told her family that she planned to become a physician?  I discovered that Alvord came from a family who weren't traditionalists.  In fact, she was following her father's dream.

When Alvord graduated from medical school, she came back to Navajo country to serve her people at an Indian Health Service hospital.  Alvord initially thought that Navajo traditional healers could calm her patients before surgery, but she discovered that they could also use what sounded to me like a form of biofeedback to control bleeding.

Later Alvord went back to her alma mater, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire,  to teach medical students how to relate to Native patients.

I thought that Alvord's experiences were fascinating, and that she had a number of valuable insights to share with readers.  I also felt that The Scalpel and the Silver Bear was moving--particularly in the section that dealt with her difficult pregnancy.   I would recommend this memoir to anyone who is interested in Native Americans or in alternative approaches to medicine.

                           

The Public--A Movie Dealing With The Rights of the Homeless

Today I saw a newly released movie called The Public.  It takes place at the downtown Cincinnati Public Library, and was actually filmed there which lends it authenticity.  Emilio Estevez directed The Public, wrote the script and starred in it.  So it was  obviously a project that he felt was of urgent importance.  He did an advance screening of the movie at the American Library Association's annual conference in 2018.  Here's a report on that screening from Information Today.

The events in this film are fictional, but I could easily imagine that they might actually happen.  The Public takes place during a bitterly cold winter in which some of the homeless were freezing to death because there weren't enough beds in Cincinnati's homeless shelters.  Seventy homeless men decided to occupy the library as a protest.   This was a desperate unplanned action.   These men just didn't want to die and didn't know what else to do.

Although the central theme of the movie was the rights of the homeless, I felt that it was also a struggle over who would control the public narrative about this event.   Would it be the compassionate and principled librarian, Stuart Goodson, (portrayed by Emilio Estevez) who wanted the action to be perceived as a non-violent protest in the tradition of  Gandhi and MLK?  Would it be the image obsessed prosecutor, Josh Davis, (portrayed by Christian Slater) who wanted this event to be perceived as a hostage crisis which required the intervention of a SWAT team?  Josh Davis' false narrative  brought the issue of the over-militarization of local law enforcement to the fore as well.

While this movie is of particular interest to those concerned about the homeless, The Public has so much immediacy that all moviegoers are likely to feel that it has tremendous impact.