Retrato do autor

Theodore Wheeler

Autor(a) de Kings of Broken Things

5 Works 96 Membros 5 Críticas

Obras por Theodore Wheeler

Kings of Broken Things (2017) 65 exemplares
The War Begins in Paris: A Novel (2023) 16 exemplares
In Our Other Lives: A Novel (2020) 8 exemplares
Bad Faith (2016) 6 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Data de nascimento
late 20th century
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
USA
Local de nascimento
Omaha, Nebraska, USA

Membros

Críticas

Kings of Broken Things is an expansive story which constructs 1910's Omaha with great care. It explodes with moments of action and probes readers with questions of justice. There's so much going on in this story, and that is probably its greatest flaw. There are a few too many characters and plotlines with no apparent purpose.

I enjoyed how Wheeler took the events of Will Brown's lynching in 1919 and crafted a story about the city. I appreciate stories where a place becomes a character. Wheeler definitely pulls that off with this story. This is a story about Jake and Karel and Evie... it's a story about a lynching and injustice and corruption... but more than anything else, it's a story about the environment that brewed such a terrible storm.… (mais)
 
Assinalado
chrisblocker | 2 outras críticas | Oct 4, 2020 |
This book is a remarkable telling of the race riots in 1918 Omaha, Nebraska, but reads more like an action-packed fiction novel. The characters are lively and flawed, descriptions of their lifestyles are raw and realistic, and the compelling facts of the politics and moralistic mood of Omaha makes the events—even the squalor—come alive on the page. Using the Great War and the influenza pandemic as a backdrop, the author, paints an authentic picture of life in 1918. At this time in our history, with Prohibition and the Great Depression on the horizon, jobs are scarce, women are not safe on the streets alone, and African-Americans are still the closest target for hatred and violence.

By following the trials of Karel Miihlstein—a teenager and immigrant from Germany, Jake Strauss—a young man on the run from Jackson County, Evie Chambers—a woman of questionable morals and ethnic background, and Tom Dennison—a ruthless crime boss that runs the town, a stunning portrayal of rural America is explored. I was fascinated to learn that school and health authorities removed children suffering from rickets and malnutrition from their homes and placed them in sanitariums where they were not only healed but educated—bravo. I was also dismayed to find that politics in the eighteen century were perhaps more corrupt than they are today. This one is very informative and a great read.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
PaulaGalvan | 2 outras críticas | Jul 16, 2020 |
FBI Special Agent Frank Schwaller arrives in Omaha, Nebraska, to investigate the family of Tyler Ahls, a young man who disappeared in Pakistan but has now shown up in a terrorist propaganda video. Schwaller’s task is to determine if Tyler is a hostage or a traitor who poses a threat to American people.

Much of the investigation focuses on Elisabeth Holland, Tyler’s sister. We learn of her marriage to Nick Holland. Nick abandoned the marriage soon after the birth of their son Caleb who then died shortly after Nick’s disappearance. Elisabeth then decided to leave Chicago and pursue a nursing career in Omaha. She claims not to know where either her brother or husband is or what their reasons for disappearing were.

The novel consists of twelve files detailing information gathered through surveillance and interviews: “Everything that happened could be recorded and coded. Everything that could be known and filed was known and filed.” The book emphasizes how all Americans are under surveillance: “In . . . any big city, that’s millions of people . . . and nearly every minute of their lives was recorded, their phone calls, any digital activity, all metadata, their stories. Even someone like Elisabeth Holland, who was off the radar . . . before her brother’s activities made everyone in her family a person of interest, she still wandered in front of surveilling eyes hundreds of times. Her file built frame by frame, byte by byte.” Schwaller’s case is considered counterterrorism and he admits “That loosens the rules of what we can do” so he can do virtually whatever he likes and “Worst case, I’m caught poking where I’m not supposed to: throw the Patriot Act in their face.”

Elisabeth is a foil for Frank. Her way of coping is simply to stoically move on because trying to understand others or God’s plan (if there is one) isn’t always possible and doesn’t help: “’Some families fall apart and some stay together, and it doesn’t always make sense why one is one and another the other.’” Frank, on the other hand, wants to understand everything: “Was there any point in tracking the every gesture and disgrace of these people? Sure there was.” He becomes frustrated when people are not co-operative: “These people, they couldn’t just answer his questions, they always wanted to take something from him instead.” Even after the investigation is over, Frank “kept tabs on them, from time to time because he came to see them as his people. That’s the way it went after an investigation.”

The theme of the novel seems to be that despite all the surveillance and information gathering, there are mysteries that cannot be solved. People often remain mysteries even to those who love them and should know them best. Elisabeth and her parents do not know what Tyler’s motivation was in travelling to Pakistan. Likewise, she does not know why Nick left her without any explanation. A man dies and investigators cannot determine whether his death was an accident or suicide. Why would a man abandon nine children?

The style of the book, especially its long sentences, is sometimes annoying: “It would have been suspicious that Tyler went missing, given what Nick knew – that Tyler was aware of the geopolitical danger of moving to Peshawar and hiking the Hindu Khush, that Tyler’s emails were increasingly erratic, made frequent references to David Koresh and John the Baptist, and how Tyler wanted to be part of their tradition, his own destiny as a missionary, a revolutionary (as he saw it), though Tyler had trouble explaining how three trips to Pakistan fit in his vision – or how hiking foothills there made him either insurgent or evangelist.” Yikes! Meaning is lost in such verbiage.

This book is very much American, so it is sometimes confusing to this Canadian reader. References to things like the Patriot Act, and FISA mandates and warrants mean little to me: “There’s FISA, you know what that is? There’s mandate. Before, if I wasn’t sure it was okay to access a file here or there, I had to get permission from a prosecutor, then they talk to a judge. Each time! Now there’s no prosecutor involved. There’s hardly a judge, just a signature to request and then I get carte blanche for ninety days.” How many people, even Americans, are going to be familiar with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, its amendments and its constitutionality?

The book was in some ways an uncomfortable read. I kept looking over my shoulder wondering who was recording my activities and whether they would be considered “normal” or not.

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
Schatje | Mar 3, 2020 |
This books reminds me of Rilla Askew's 'Fire in Beulah.' The historical events in both books are eerily similar and the fictional stories surrounding these events are heartbreaking. This is an excellent novel, and I look forward to reading more from Wheeler!
 
Assinalado
tntbeckyford | 2 outras críticas | Feb 16, 2019 |

Estatísticas

Obras
5
Membros
96
Popularidade
#196,089
Avaliação
½ 3.6
Críticas
5
ISBN
13

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