No comments about Hieronymus Bosch - Garten der Lüste..

No comments about Das Weltgerichtstriptychon von Hieronymus Bosch: Gemaldegalerie der Akademie der Bildenden Kunste in Wien (Rosenheimer Raritaten).

5 comments about City of Bones (Unabridged).

1. New Year's Day. Harry has just finished up with his second suicide call-out when he receives a "bone" call. A man on Wonderland had his dog out for a walk and she brought back a bone. At first skeptical, Bosch is told that the man is a retired doctor and knows a human bone when he sees one - the final nail in the coffin of Bosch's ennui is that the bone appears to be that of a child. Bosch heads for Laurel Canyon.
   
   What is discovered is heartbreaking. A mostly complete skeleton - about 60% complete - that is about the size of a 10-year-old boy. However, the bones indicate frequent physical abuse, starting when the boy was as young as 2 or 3, including broken bones and a neurosurgical procedure for a hard blow to the head, which means the boy was probably closer to 12. To make matters a bit more ... difficult - it appears that the skeleton has been in the ground about 20 years.
   
   Tracking down suspects and evidence - even learning who the boy was - on the cold case to end all cold cases is not easy; Harry nonetheless perseveres. What he discovers and uncovers is shocking.
   
   A very difficult but worthwhile read. Mention is made of Harry getting together with a rookie cop - I don't want to spoil anything, but I also don't want anyone getting their hopes up. All I'll say is that this is a very short romance. I feel for Harry - he's so alone and I think it would be good for him to have someone around, but at this time it's just not meant to be. He makes a life-changing decision at the very end of the book, so we'll see where this leads. Don't miss it!



2. The Harry Bosch series has a dual purpose: entertain us with crime and detection stories while portraying the depravity of our culture. In City of Bones, Michael Connelly expresses the kind of world-weary despair that causes many to lose faith in God . . . and humanity.
   
   As the story opens, it's the end of the year . . . a sad time for depressed people and two taxpayers take the quick way out. A call to Laurel Canyon reveals a bone that proves to be human, which also leads to a horrifying case of abuse. In searching for the rest of the skeleton, Harry is repulsed by the coroner's fixation on fame and glitter. He is refreshed to meet a mid-thirties rookie cop, Julia Brasher, who likes his style.
   
   The investigation is quickly compromised by someone wanting to curry favor with a television journalist, with dreadful consequences. Harry is, as usual, annoying the downtown people who care more about their image than justice. More mistakes occur, and more harm is done. Clearly, the lesson is that it's dangerous to turn the police loose on crime.
   
   If I could re-title the book, I would call it "People are never what they seem." You'll get more than your share of surprises in the book which is best appreciated as a deep character study.
   
   For those who like action, linear progress, and a taut plot, City of Bones will be frustrating: This book is more like the sort of "why do I bother?" soliloquy that most of us conduct in our heads from time to time.
   
   The investigating mistakes that Harry makes can be seen clearly if you read carefully: He's clearly not in a lucid state of mind. Exploring the sources and consequences of that displaced perception is the core of this novel.
   
   The noir parts of the story are well wrought. I especially liked the theme of peoples' bones being picked clean by the denizens of Hollywood. The reference to piranhas was quite effective.



3. This is another excellent Michael Connelly/Harry Bosch detective tale. Having been intrigued by the title for some time, I finally picked it up last Friday. I finished it on Saturday.
   
   Starting with a report of a dog finding a human bone on New Year's Day, the story covers a period of about two weeks as it tries to solve a twenty year old crime. It has most of the elements that make Connelly a great writer and Bosch a great character--fast paced and well written action, multiple plot twists, appearances of old characters and former love interests, a new love interest and several viable perpetrators who come into and out of focus. It also revisits some of Harry's personal demons while probably creating a couple of more.
   
   I have now read five Connelly books, and I have enjoyed all of them. "Lincoln Lawyer" remains my favorite, but this one just moved into a close second place. Highly recommended.



4. This reflects the highest rating for Connelly's brilliant plotting, deft characterizations, and fine writing, and unfortunately, the lowest rating for the reader, Len Cariou. I have read and listened to many Connelly books featuring Harry Bosch. Up til now, I have heard Dick Hill as the narrator, and he is matchless in his interpretation of Harry Bosch and all other characters on Connelly's books. I'm sure Cariou is a fine actor, but with the voice of Harry Bosch so firmly entrenched with Dick Hill, I was distracted while listening to this audio. Cariou doesn't even seem to realize that both of Harry's partners (Kiz and Edgar) are African American and instead made Edgar sound like a nasal voiced whiner. I see that most of the rest of the series (I'm following them in order) feature Cariou's voice - so I will have to think hard about continuing to listen. Very, very disappointing!



5. CITY OF BONES by Michael Connelly is one in a series of books about LAPD detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch. I'm new to the series, so I can't compare it to previous works, but this is an exceptional introduction. The protagonist is named after a Dutch painter from the 15th century who created landscapes of Hell, which is a metaphor for the cases that Harry investigates. In this case, he is investigating the death of a young boy in Laurel Canyon during the early '80s off the infamous Wonderland Avenue. The bones were found by a golden labrador running through the forest.
   
   I liked the analogy to the 9,000 year old bones of a woman that bubbled to the surface of the La Brea tar pits in 1914. With the cracked skull that was found, she is said to be the first murder victim in the area, and the young boy is a continuation of the City of Bones rising to the surface.
   
   Connelly is adept at keeping the story moving, and throws in several twists to make it interesting. One gets a feel for the difficulty of resolving homicides, particulary when many years have passed to confuse the clues. It also touches upon the hellish secrets that are hidden just below the surface, just waiting to be dug up.
   
   Another novel that I enjoyed by this author is The Lincoln Lawyer : A Novel, about a lawyer who works out of the back of his Lincoln town car.
   
   
   Charlie Maze
   August 18, 2008

No comments about Jerome Bosch et l'etoile des mages (Un certain regard).

No comments about Jheronimus Bosch,.

No comments about Der Garten der Luste: Unsere Welt in den modernen Malereien des Hieronymus Bosch..

No comments about Heronimüs Bosch.

No comments about Hieronymus Bosch.

No comments about HIERONYMUS BOSCH.

2 comments about Bosch (Every painting).

1. We may never know much about him, as there are so few histories written about him. This is a great book for those who've never heard of him and for art enthusiasts wanting to expand their shelves on books about artists, but there's not much new and different biographical information about Bosch's like in it. The explanations of his works are phenomenal, however.



2. An excellent intro for the newbie to Bosch as well as a nice pickup for the experienced Bosch connoisseur. This 143 page paperback with color plates has color-coded edges corresponding to three overarching sections in the painter's oeuvre: Background, Life and Works, and Masterpieces. The book's cover indicates a "life in paintings" yet the real biographical information is interspersed with the presentation of the pieces, and the details of Bosch's life are themselves sparse. However for a quick overview and summary of this amazing artist's career, the book is second to none. There are certainly other books which provide a larger quantity of information and interpretation about the paintings as well as enlarged details of the paintings themselves, but what is here is impressive. The book will whet the appetite of any starting Bosch student through the discussion of Bosch's motives and possible meanings in scenes from his work, with elucidative lines of text nearby the selected detail. Particularly useful are the paragraphs setting up the historical context for all of this mystifying imagery. Overall a solid book, the only possible drawback the brevity of the text itself. Contains an index of people and places.