To be the body of the state

ltpatridge's avatar October 23, 2014

An image of a “virtual autopsy” of Tutankhamun has been released in order to promote a new BBC documentary. It’s breathtaking.

Here is the image of the man – so barely a man – as the king that he truly was. How do I say “that he truly was”? Is that not cruel, dismissive, ableist? We could never say of an ordinary disabled person, or indeed of any person, that she “was” her body. But a pharaoh’s body was the body of the state. He was a god; his flesh was supposed to be of gold, his hair of lapis lazuli. At his jubilee festivals, the king ran ritual laps around a track to mark the boundaries of his kingdom. He was the Mighty Bull, the Horus and the resurrected Osiris.

And there he was, little Tutankhamun, the son of a brother and sister, the last male left in the path of his father’s wake of destruction. The sickness and suffering at the heart of the kingdom must have struck everyone that looked on him – except, perhaps, for his half-sister-wife. Ankhesenamun’s virtual autopsy will probably never exist in this detail, but if it did, it would no doubt look much like this one with a wig on top.

What it was to be Tutankhamun is inextricable from what it is to see, to inhabit, this body.

My review for KBR of My Name Is Thank-You by Kaizen Love

ltpatridge's avatar August 6, 2014

NOTE: The Kindle Book Review received a free copy of this book for an independent, fair, and honest review. We are not associated with the author or Amazon.

This is a warm and immediately engaging story of two young African-American girls, one a biracial orphan, and another who, despite her family’s wealth, might as well be an orphan. The sweet, rich narrative voice of the girl named Thank-You drew me in right away, and it was well contrasted with the cool, educated voice of Josephine, the girl who grew up in another world right next to her, in the divided, half-patrician South.

There are some minor flaws. I wondered particularly why a very important choice was never mentioned in the narrative, in regards to Josephine’s health, but it’s impossible to mention here without spoiling the book, and in any case that would have meant a very different story. Nonetheless, this is a great book for young readers, or for anyone who wants something to make them choke up a little as they smile.

– L.T. Patridge (The Kindle Book Review)

My review for KBR of A Different Place to Die by R.R. Gall

ltpatridge's avatar July 28, 2014

NOTE: The Kindle Book Review received a free copy of this book for an independent, fair, and honest review. We are not associated with the author or Amazon.

The delightfully unlikable civilian inspector Shona Bally drags her superior Police Inspector Tom Quiss into a increasingly bizarre investigation, in which the bodies of elderly couples are found poisoned inside houses not their own. The pace is perfect, and the characters well-matched, with a real and unromantic tension between them. At the climax, the killers’ motive is found to be so startling that I balked at it for a moment. The skill of the scene, though, carried me through to a suspension of disbelief. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole book, and would read another adventure with this pair.

My review for KBR of Burning Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Carl Waters

ltpatridge's avatar July 16, 2014

NOTE: The Kindle Book Review received a free copy of this book for an independent, fair, and honest review. We are not associated with the author or Amazon.

This vigorous retelling of Uncle Tom’s Cabin focuses on George Harris, the young and innovative enslaved worker who ran away to find Canada and freedom for his family. Waters aims to find the story still alive behind the outdated original novel. Unlike the original, this book does not need to rely on the persuasion of white characters (or readers) of the essential equality of mankind. It tells a tense and nerve-wracking story of brutality and escape. The dialogue is a little weak, and I would have appreciated a darker, more lyrical prose. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to the sequels for a full reexamination of the themes that Stowe did not have the perspective to face.

My review for KBR of Per-Bast: A Tale of Cats in Ancient Egypt by Lara-Dawn Stiegler

ltpatridge's avatar June 25, 2014

NOTE: The Kindle Book Review received a free copy of this book for an independent, fair, and honest review. We are not associated with the author or Amazon.

As someone who loves historical fiction about ancient Egypt, I was quickly and easily drawn in, but this is Egyptian high fantasy, a little something different. It is a mythological tale, full of gods and monsters. I have to admit that I initially judged this book by its concept, because: cats. Talking cats. It did not sound promising. However, the strength of the prose and the solidity of the setting won me over. Besides, if you have ever known a “supervisor cat,” the kind of cat who watches everything you do, it is not hard to believe they are well up on human and divine affairs. I was also interested in the use of the actual drama between Ramesses III and Queen Tiye – a true story that did not end well. In sum, I recommend this book as a real departure from the run of ancient Egyptian novels.

– L.T. Patridge (The Kindle Book Review)

My review for KBR of St. Bartholomew’s Man by Mary Delorme

ltpatridge's avatar June 20, 2014

NOTE: The Kindle Book Review received a free copy of this book for an independent, fair, and honest review. We are not associated with the author or Amazon.

This book reminded me of the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy in its constant examination of faith as the cornerstone of daily medieval life. It does not examine faith as deeply and bitterly as those books, however. Rahere is almost too good of a protagonist, but he was very much a real person, and it is amazing what he achieved in the days before people had careers, or could choose very much how they governed their lives after they began.
I wish we had seen more of how difficult it was to master early medieval instruments, how rudimentary and difficult they were, the callouses on the fingertips, etc. But overall I was impressed with the firm grasp of contemporary history. The reign of William Rufus and the following years must have been rough on the peasantry, and Delorme depicts that unflinchingly, especially in the case of William Rufus. I am definitely interested in checking out more of the works of Mary Delorme.

My KBR Review of From Hell With Love (The Forsaken Comedy Book 1) by Kevin Kauffmann

ltpatridge's avatar June 17, 2014

NOTE: The Kindle Book Review received a free copy of this book for an independent, fair, and honest review. We are not associated with the author or Amazon.

Niccolo, the Horseman of Pestilence, was once himself a human, but now finds himself in Hell, scrambling to protect Lucifer himself from an assassination attempt sure to bring on the Apocalypse.
The book‘s saving grace is in Niccolo himself as a character, in how he suffered in his life in Renaissance-era Florence. The chapters flashing back to his fall from grace as a merchant prince, due entirely to accident, are what give the book its – well – its humanity. The many ultra-violent demon battles and bickering between fallen hideous creatures are all very well, but without Niccolo and his relationship with Cadmus, another deceased warrior, this book would lack the strength to stand. But it does, and there is a hel – I mean quite a cliffhanger in store. The ending promises a fascinating sequel.

Cosmos 2014: Unafraid of the Dark

ltpatridge's avatar June 9, 2014

I have fallen down on reviewing every episode of Cosmos, as I said I would.  This is not only because, by and large, I was impressed by them, but because I realized that they were not made for me.  They were made for a different audience than Carl Sagan faced in the 1980s – a people simultaneously more aware and more besieged by lies and superstition than ever before.  There was no need to analyze anew my reaction to this every week.  I felt a wistful fondness for what Sagan had been able to do, blended with a respect for what Tyson had to do, and managed to do, with the power of such unlikely money behind him.  

It came to an end with an excerpt of Sagan’s own voice, of his words on what he called the “pale blue dot,” Earth from afar.