Review of Jimmy Olsen's "Scuba"

Legal Disclosure: I was given a free copy in order to write this review. I was not paid.

Jimmy Olsen, Scuba (Hoffman House Press, 2017) 387 pages, fiction, $24.95 USD.



"Scuba": the title and the cover suggest this book is an epic ride. The truth is, it's a bit phrenetic.

This book reads like an action movie. Events move quickly and the characters are not particularly likable (women, in particular, are not treated well).  This book is a wheel that spins faster and faster until it comes off the axel. Its plot is not entirely believable; it feels exaggerated. It is interesting but overstuffed. There are shipwreck discoveries, political riots, unresolved relationships, and the specter of childhood trauma. Anyone one of those would have made a fascinating read if fully developed, but this book has them all - and the climax is over the top. All of these faults are actually positives in the medium of film. However, books are usually expected to be more meditative, descriptive, and delving.

That being said, Olsen excels when his characters are underwater. Everything slows down and the descriptions become sharp, clear, sublime, and inviting. The reader can feel him/herself rocked in the power of underwater surges, see the otherworldly beauty of coral, and interact with various sea creatures. This is where the book achieves that magic of language one expects to find and when one feels anchored to poetic reality.

If you're looking for a leisurely read for a day at the beach or a cross-country flight, this is your book. It is light, easy to read, and a page-turner with plenty of action. While it is not deep, it is entertaining.

Book Review: "Things in Ditches"

Jimmy Olsen, Things in Ditches, (North Star Press, 2000), 312 pages, mystery fiction, $14.95 U.S.

Jimmy Olsen is a thought-provoking writer. His love of the sea and of scuba diving shine through in his work like flashlights on a dark, quiet night. But Things in Ditches comes from an opposite place. It draws from his background in the mid-west by being set in frigid Minnesota in the midst of a blizzard. That's right, folks, read this one with something warm to drink; you'll be cold the entire time.

Things in Ditches turns the mystery novel on its head. How? How about knowing who the murderer is from the opening sentence. (Or do you?) This book is less about solving a twisted puzzle and more about delving into the darker aspects of human nature. It explores such questions as: why are men more likely to commit murder than women? What drives women who seem to have no moral compass? How exactly do the dynamics of small towns play out in such scenarios? Why do some women tend to forgive and forgive past all common sense? What causes certain crimes to become sensationalised in the media and popular culture? Can justice be served when it does? How are innocents hurt - or (perversely) benefited - by that? How do people live with those things?

It took me quite a while to get into it. There are a lot of characters, connected by a large and complicated web, introduced in the first half. Often, I found myself flipping back a few chapters to remind myself who a person was. There are some grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. Also, like a bad soap opera with an inexperienced editing crew, there are tiny continuity glitches in a handful of scenes. But if you can stick it out, the action gets rolling in the second half and it becomes difficult to put down.

I can't say whether you'll be satisfied with the answers that Olsen ultimately offers to all the social studies questions this book asks, but I can say you just might be disturbed by his conclusions. And maybe that's the point. Maybe we're not meant to be comfortable with the honest glare of human nature we're left with. You decide.

(For full disclosure: I received a review copy from the author for this review.)

The Paradox of "Other"

The Hero of Blind Pig Island by Jimmy Olsen starts with a party and ends with a drowning, but don't let that sober fact discourage you.

Jimmy Olsen spent some months in the Dominican Republic and this collection of short stories has a strong autobiographical feel. Almost all of the wifely characters in the various stories are named Patricia, which greatly contributes to this feeling. The recurring theme of scuba diving does as well.

Some of the diving passages get rather technical in language and this slows down the narrative. I was reminded of Moby Dick in this regard, although the effect in Olsen's stories is nowhere near that extreme.

The beguiling aspect of this collection is its attempt to present third world life through the eyes of first world - but fully immersed - sojourners. This book tastes of salt and sweat. One literally feels the heat of the tropical city streets and feels the thirst caused by sea water. We visit teachers' parties, restaurants, rural villages, islands. We find ourselves caught up in the paradoxes of city squalor and yachts. We experience a hurricane that blows away McDonalds' golden arches and having to swim for miles in the open ocean hoping to survive to walk on land again. We also experience violence surrounding opportunities for promotion at a school and have an interesting encounter with two elderly Lutheran missionaries. When we close the book we feel sunburnt and bleached, thirsty, and ashamed of our abundance.

Olsen tries to give us all viewpoints. The underlying current of  these stories seems to be how humanity views "others". Sometimes we look at the privileged vacationers through the eyes of the natives; sometimes we are the foreigners contemplating the exotic. This book is opening a dialogue between the two, sometimes with greater success and sometimes with less. The dialog is always engaging and doesn't shy from a few hard questions. Olsen is at his best when he asks these questions and requires a response, but does so subtly.

The Hero of Blind Pig Island is entertaining, but wise enough not leave it at just that.

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