{"id":14032,"date":"2017-05-17T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T16:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=14032"},"modified":"2017-09-21T14:08:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-21T21:08:18","slug":"speakeasy-mixed-bag-of-emotions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2017\/05\/17\/speakeasy-mixed-bag-of-emotions\/","title":{"rendered":"Speakeasy<\/em> mixed bag of emotions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Vancouver-based author and journalist Alisa Smith\u2019s debut novel, Speakeasy<\/i>, deals with the Great Depression and World War II in a fresh and intriguing way.<\/p>\n

From the cold-hearted code-breaker arrested because of the events of her past to the real-life cocaine-fuelled gangster Bill Bagley\u2014a walking paradox who donates a portion of his stolen funds to charity\u2014all of Smith\u2019s characters have some unique elements to them, and they grow an admirable, enticing amount throughout this book. They were a pleasure to get to know, and the plot kept me eagerly turning each page of this gangster novel.<\/p>\n

However, one of the narrators\u2014Byron\u2014is far too much of a passive pushover to be liked in the beginning of this book. He says little and does even less. As the book progresses, this changes, but he felt like a waste of page space at the beginning. There are far more interesting characters around him whose heads I would have rather had a glimpse into.<\/p>\n

The local, old-fashioned, west-coast touch paints a good picture, and Smith writes moment-to-moment, appealing to the senses and, in the latter half of the book, the heart.<\/p>\n

Looping back to World War II at the Esquimalt base is a nice touch to change things up, because if I were stuck in Byron\u2019s head throughout the whole book, I probably would have thrown Speakeasy<\/i> across the room. The other narrator, Lena Stillman, is a fascinating, broken, empathetic person for whom my heart jumped onto the page.<\/p>\n

Speakeasy<\/i> is recommended for lovers of \u201930s gangster stories and esoteric war novels, although one big critique is that the tone of the book changes arbitrarily; for example, characters suddenly start dropping f-bombs partway through the book.<\/p>\n

This book is a mixed bag, with its pros just slightly outweighing its cons, but there are as many pleasures as there are subtle annoyances in Speakeasy<\/i>. It may be a mixed bag, but it\u2019s one I would recommend, with only a few red cocaine- and booze-covered flags hiding in the pages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vancouver-based author and journalist Alisa Smith\u2019s debut novel, Speakeasy, deals with the Great Depression and World War II in a fresh and intriguing way. From the cold-hearted code-breaker arrested because of the events of her past to the real-life cocaine-fuelled gangster Bill Bagley\u2014a walking paradox who donates a portion of his stolen funds to charity\u2014all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-may-17-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t