Michael
Halfhill, author of Bought and Paid For
(see page 6, this issue)
reviews
The Phoenix
by Ruth Sims
Michael Halfhill was born in the 1940's isolation of rural Appalachia. Michael now lives in northern Delaware with his companion where he continues writing. Michael's first novel, Bought and Paid For, made its debut in 2004. Portions of the novel can be read at the publisher: iUniverse
Contact: michael@michaelhalfhill.com
By Ruth Sims
Paperback: 343 pages
Publisher: Writers' Collective (September 1, 2004)
ISBN: 1932133402
$16.95 US
$22.95 Canada
Available at Amazon.com
B&N
Giovanni’s Room Philadelphia
www.giovannisroom.com
Lambda Rising
www.lambdarising.com
The Open Book, Sacramento, CA
http://www.openbookltd.com
A Different Light Bookstore
http://www.adlbooks.com/index.cfm?
Giovanni’s Room Philadelphia
www.giovannisroom.com
Lambda Rising
www.lambdarising.com
The Open Book, Sacramento, CA
http://www.openbookltd.com
A Different Light Bookstore
http://www.adlbooks.com/index.cfm?
Ruth Sims has written a book. I read a sample of Ruth’s work elsewhere. That’s why I drove into Philadelphia to buy it; $18.14, tax included. I put the book by my reading chair. I eyed the book for several days. I looked at the rich cover and admired the details featured on each beginning chapter page. I studied Ruth’s photograph on the back. Her confident smile teased me.
“You know something I don’t,” I murmured to her.
Fifty pages into The Phoenix, I found out what. Ruth Sims is a consummate artist.
Now I know traditional reviews are replete with paragraphs full of character descriptions and plot analysis. I’m not a traditional reviewer. I’m not a reviewer at all. I’m a writer and so there will be none of that here.
What I want to tell you about is a talent. A talent that takes you, the reader, by the hand and says, “Come, walk, run, eat, sleep, bathe, laugh, cry, be brave and fearful, succeed, fail, mature and make love in a time and place you’ve only glimpsed in grainy films and stiff photographs. The story opens in the London of 1882 and closes as Le Belle Epoch tumbles into the age of automation.
The remarkable thing, for me at least, is the economy of words Sims uses.
I will offer only one example. Kit, the hero of the story, is in the home of a New York judge. “…Here the statues and pictures were no different than one would see in any grand home on the Avenue. Such neutered and strangulating respectability.”
Such neutered and strangulating respectability; with just five words you know that the nude statues and paintings in the judge’s library have been altered. Fig leaves and added drapery cover the subjects; no genitals are seen, no hint of sexuality—all in five words. Time and again Ruth Sims tells you what is, by telling you what is not.
Don’t get me wrong. There are 343 pages in THE PHOENIX. Ruth Sims is not stingy in her storytelling.
Want a book you’ll urge others to read? Then run, do not walk, and get a copy of The Phoenix.
Oh by the way, the most important word to remember in this little report is talent—there is no substitute!
Michael Halfhill
Author of BOUGHT AND PAID FOR
www.michalehalfhill.com