Rating: 
Summary: Tedious.
Review: I saw the critics praise this one and gave it a shot. Yech! I had nothing else to do at an airport but tossed it in the trash anyway.
Rating: 
Summary: a most unlikely hero
Review: I think men are by nature either Mont-Saint Michelians [the Cathedral] or, if you will, Virginians [the Virgin Mary]. ... Either they see the protection of the collectivity as absolutely crucial or they see the collectivity as being justified only because it serves the development of individual moral excellence. So you have the basic question: What is one's social duty? The survival of the group or individual moral integrity? Reason of state or personal honor? -Henry Adams, Panama I suppose you have to admire Eric Zencey's courage in making Henry Adams the hero of a thriller. Adams was, after all, an intellectual, best known for not becoming President of the United States--as his grandfather and great-grandfather had--and for his autobiography, which mainly dwells on the lack of great truths for his generation to believe in. These elements and the fact that the story occurs while Adams is still recovering from the suicide of his wife, Clover, combine to make him a most unlikely protagonist for a mystery. The story places Adams in Paris in 1892, the period during which he was working on his great Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres A Study of Thirteenth Century Unity. On a visit to Chartres he meets and is captivated by Miriam Talbott, a young American painter. When her body purportedly washes up near the quai de Valmy, Adams is called on to identify the corpse, but it is not the woman that he met. He subsequently becomes involved in the scandal surrounding the failure of the French Panama Canal Company, which threatens to destroy the reputations of men like Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal, and Gustave Eiffel, and even to bring down the French government. Meanwhile, Adams's friend John Hay may or may not be mixed up in the whole mess, though it is certain that he wants the United States to take over the building of the canal. Zencey does a fine job of evoking the time and the place of the mystery. The blend of fiction and history does not seem forced, and some other interesting historical characters crop up, including Georges Clemenceau and Alphonse Bertillon, who helped popularize the use of fingerprints, which play a key role in the story. But the very ambivalence--about himself, his times, the truth, etc.--for which Adams is famous, finally makes him an unsatisfactory hero. Even the most psychically damaged detectives in fiction have typically been driven either, like Sherlock Holmes, by a certainty that mystery will yield to reason, or, like Sam Spade, by a personal code of honor, or, like Batman, by a burning desire to see justice done. Adams does not have sufficient faith in reason, honor, or justice to be motivated by any of them, he just seems to want to know what happened to the girl with whom he has become irrationally infatuated. Because we do not share this emotional attachment, the mystery is not as involving as it should be. Instead, the pleasures of the book lie mostly in Zencey's development of Adams's ideas and the portrait of his character. Adams knew. But how could he answer? To a mind as evenly divided as his--a mind, his brother Brooks had warned him, that would never find a place in politics, where simplicity of vision was required; a mind to which evil never seemed unmixed with good, nor good unalloyed with evil; one to which no object appeared important enough to call our strength of action, nor absolutely necessary enough not to allow that its absence just might be possible to accommodate--to such a mind, the only accurate answer to bluntness was contradiction: yes and no. This description of Adams's mind is similar to that offered by Louis Menand of some of the other key figures from that generation--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr; William James, etc.--in his book The Metaphysical Club (see Orrin's review). One can't help but be saddened that this scion of the family that led the fight for American Independence (John Adams) and against Slavery (John Quincy Adams) succumbed to this kind of banal moral relativism. GRADE : C+
Rating:
Summary: a most unlikely hero
Review: I think men are by nature either Mont-Saint Michelians [the Cathedral] or, if you will, Virginians [the Virgin Mary]. ... Either they see the protection of the collectivity as absolutely crucial or they see the collectivity as being justified only because it serves the development of individual moral excellence. So you have the basic question: What is one's social duty? The survival of the group or individual moral integrity? Reason of state or personal honor? -Henry Adams, Panama I suppose you have to admire Eric Zencey's courage in making Henry Adams the hero of a thriller. Adams was, after all, an intellectual, best known for not becoming President of the United States--as his grandfather and great-grandfather had--and for his autobiography, which mainly dwells on the lack of great truths for his generation to believe in. These elements and the fact that the story occurs while Adams is still recovering from the suicide of his wife, Clover, combine to make him a most unlikely protagonist for a mystery. The story places Adams in Paris in 1892, the period during which he was working on his great Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres A Study of Thirteenth Century Unity. On a visit to Chartres he meets and is captivated by Miriam Talbott, a young American painter. When her body purportedly washes up near the quai de Valmy, Adams is called on to identify the corpse, but it is not the woman that he met. He subsequently becomes involved in the scandal surrounding the failure of the French Panama Canal Company, which threatens to destroy the reputations of men like Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal, and Gustave Eiffel, and even to bring down the French government. Meanwhile, Adams's friend John Hay may or may not be mixed up in the whole mess, though it is certain that he wants the United States to take over the building of the canal. Zencey does a fine job of evoking the time and the place of the mystery. The blend of fiction and history does not seem forced, and some other interesting historical characters crop up, including Georges Clemenceau and Alphonse Bertillon, who helped popularize the use of fingerprints, which play a key role in the story. But the very ambivalence--about himself, his times, the truth, etc.--for which Adams is famous, finally makes him an unsatisfactory hero. Even the most psychically damaged detectives in fiction have typically been driven either, like Sherlock Holmes, by a certainty that mystery will yield to reason, or, like Sam Spade, by a personal code of honor, or, like Batman, by a burning desire to see justice done. Adams does not have sufficient faith in reason, honor, or justice to be motivated by any of them, he just seems to want to know what happened to the girl with whom he has become irrationally infatuated. Because we do not share this emotional attachment, the mystery is not as involving as it should be. Instead, the pleasures of the book lie mostly in Zencey's development of Adams's ideas and the portrait of his character. Adams knew. But how could he answer? To a mind as evenly divided as his--a mind, his brother Brooks had warned him, that would never find a place in politics, where simplicity of vision was required; a mind to which evil never seemed unmixed with good, nor good unalloyed with evil; one to which no object appeared important enough to call our strength of action, nor absolutely necessary enough not to allow that its absence just might be possible to accommodate--to such a mind, the only accurate answer to bluntness was contradiction: yes and no. This description of Adams's mind is similar to that offered by Louis Menand of some of the other key figures from that generation--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr; William James, etc.--in his book The Metaphysical Club (see Orrin's review). One can't help but be saddened that this scion of the family that led the fight for American Independence (John Adams) and against Slavery (John Quincy Adams) succumbed to this kind of banal moral relativism. GRADE : C+
Rating: 
Summary: Not a comic book, a true literary novel.
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. So what if it's slow, should every "historic mystery novel" be a comic book like The Alienist? Contrary to what others have said, I couldn't put it down.
Rating: 
Summary: Panama Misses All Objectives
Review: Panama tries to be both a thriller and a social commentary. It is neither. Too slow for a thriller, the author bypasses all opportunities to make this book interesting. The social
commentary is only barely relevant, and bored me except for a few interesting spots. We are destined to see a lot of this book in used book stores. Definitely not a keeper.
Rating:
Summary: Introspective, interesting, unending
Review: Still have a hard time with a book named "Panama" that takes place 98% in Paris. But, nonetheless, a thoughtful, introspective book about a historian-detective who does more complex thinking and wandering about churches than making "blood flow to Panama." Not for action-seekers or beach readers, but not bad for a cold northeastern winter night
Rating:
Summary: Autumn leaves
Review: This book took me back to my student days in Paris. Funny though, I thought the book would be more about Panama: the jungles and malaria. Still, I loved it and only wished it had been longer. I especially enjoyed the scientific analogies, as I think any scientist would. I don't know what those who gave it a one-star review expected: Something on the order of Terry McMillan? This book was thoroughly engaging.
Rating:
Summary: Panama? Wrong
Review: This book was a big disappointment, first in that it barely takes place in Panama and has very little to do with the Panama Canal (as its title implies), and second in that it was a very boring read. Other reviewers have done an excellent job of capturing the lack of enjoyment I had in reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Top Ten most overrated books I have read
Review: This was a N.Y. Times notable book, and it was reviewed favorably by a score of other "literary critics". I love a good period piece but this book feels like it was written with a nineteenth century reference book and some contrived crime scenes. Read "Sacred Hunger" by Barry Unger for a taste of how a historical mood is created.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating Historical Novel
Review: Thoroughly exciting historical novel delivering multi-level suspense by the bushelful. Set in 1880's Paris, Zencey vividly portrays the failings of the political system and the accompanying corruption in the French attempt to build the Panama Canal. Zencey's background as a historian adds to the qult of detail in this novel. I only wish that he will become prolific in his writings
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