Murder at Olympiad Book Reviews
"A thought-provoking and well-paced murder mystery set in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico...I recommend Murder at the Olympiad to any reader who likes a well-plotted murder mystery." Robyn-Lee Samuels, INDEPENDENT BOOK REVIEW, 2021
"If you are looking for a well-written murder mystery to lose yourself in, Murder at the Olympiad is the book for you."
"Murder at the Olympiad is a murder mystery that embraces social, political, and psychological tensions between two nations, creating a multifaceted read that is enlightening and gripping on more than one level." D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW, 2021
"Haunting characterizations and complex moral questions elevate this richly told border-crossing mystery." Booklife Reviews, Feb, 2022
"A deftly plotted mystery with a sympathetic amateur detective." Kirkus Reviews
"Author Gilbert is a writer skilled at exploring internal angst and postulating potential suspects and motives.... As in most good mysteries, readers are left to determine just how much of the information being conveyed is of significance or mere subterfuge." Joe Kilgore, THE US REVIEW OF BOOKS, 2021
"Haunting characterizations and complex moral questions elevate this richly told border-crossing mystery." - Booklife Reviews, Feb, 2022
"REVIEWS OF REUNION BY THE LAKE"
MDiane Donovan, Midwest Book Reviews
Reunion by the Lake is the novel of a family patriarch’s impending death and his desire to affect and direct his family posthumously, through a special will. His role while alive is to be sure his loved ones understand the nature of this direction. His personal mandate forms the crux of a story as gripping in its personalities as it is in father Richard’s drive to foster a legacy that will live long after he’s gone.
The trouble with trying to control people is that they don’t react in anticipated or even desirable manners. Thus, Richard’s gathering of the clan at a lakeside retreat to outline his choices results in turmoil and angst among three sons who hold different ideas about the impact of Richard’s legacy.
These ideas are explored in passages that delve into much more than heritage, exploring the changed connections and perceptions that illness and end-of-life brings: She sighed, folded her hands in her lap, and made a vague sound as if she were agreeing with herself—the way she always did when she was exasperated or troubled by the severity of her husband—by his inflexibility and evasions. She was surprised that she had spoken so abruptly to him: was it his weakness, she wondered? Did that demand some sudden shift in the balance between them?
Readers seeking to understand these shifting nuances in response to impending death will find plenty of food for thought in Reunion by the Lake.
James Gilbert goes beyond addressing Richard and Grace’s concerns. He spends time exploring the perspectives of all involved: Recently, he had been trying to understand the reasons for his reluctance to face his parents alone. If he was honest with himself, it had always made him uneasy to visit them. But more so lately, and he had now taken to bringing along a companion to the house on the lake—at least since his father had retired. He was certain that his parents’ constant intimacy, and living mostly by themselves, had changed them and made them strangers to him. He wondered what it would be like to be isolated and aging: how it might trap them in an envelope of unthinking rituals and words and ideas expressed in a language of their own loneliness.
Such passages reinforce the separate lives that come together during this time, giving readers insights and contrasts that will prove especially intriguing for book club and reader discussion groups.
Libraries that choose and recommend this novel to patrons will find Reunion by the Lake attractive to a wide audience, from leisure readers seeking family sagas to psychology groups interested in family dynamics, end-of-life challenges, and the types of patriarchal distance typical of too many male heads of household:…if it came down to it, what he really felt about them. Had fatherhood always been an obligation without much passion? And she had to ask herself if he had ever experienced the almost painful swell of pride in his sons that she always felt when she looked at them.
Evocative, thought-provoking, and emotionally turbulent and revealing, Reunion by the Lake juxtaposes lives and the impact of death in such a manner that readers will leave this story thinking heavily about family connections, disconnections, and how impending death changes everything.
Kirkus Reviews
An ailing, embittered man finds himself dependent on his long-suffering wife in Gilbert’s family drama.
Facing imminent death, Richard Collins invites his three adult sons—Seth, Dexter (“Deck”), and Nick—to join him and their mother at their southern Illinois lake house. It’s anything but a cozy family reunion, as Richard plans to reveal the shocking details of his will—he seems to be anticipating the devastating impact with almost spiteful satisfaction. Richard, an overbearing retired lawyer, snaps at Grace as she tends to his meals, refills his whiskey, and physically assists him; the division of his wealth will be the patriarch’s last chance to really throw his weight around. While tension between the couple is palpable, it’s Richard’s final wishes that force Grace to re-evaluate their life together. On the surface, Grace is a dithering, doting wife, but secretly she questions whether she ever truly loved Richard: Was his unkindness and harsh judgment of their children emotional abuse? Nick, a professional cellist who keeps his boyfriend private, constantly disappoints his father; commitment-phobe Deck has arrived with yet another new woman in tow; and Seth, the adopted misfit, has found a sense of belonging in religion and with his wife, but he earns little selling roadside flowers. As the family gathers, festering issues surface, evoking a feeling of intense claustrophobia. Through carefully crafted interiority and multiple points of view, Gilbert captures the complexities of damaged relationships in a way that feels unnerving and real. (Reflecting on marriage, Richard bleakly considers the “androgyny of two sexless bodies bound together in greying frailty.”) The story’s pacing lags due to excessive backstory and repetition; however, the lake-house scenes are so intimate and immersive it’s like being a fly on the wall witnessing a family in crisis. Although some wounds are never completely mended, there is healing, and each of the characters undergoes varying degrees of transformation. An intense and despairing portrait of an ordinary, dysfunctional family harboring deep-seated resentments.
REVIEWS OF THE LEGACY
Kirkus Reviews
THE LEGACY is an engrossing legal mystery...James Gilbert is a master storyteller
Prepare to be captivated by James Gilbert’s enthralling tale...THE LEGACY offers an intriguing mystery that keeps you guessing with numerous twists and turns
“This is a marvelous novella, piercingly intelligent.... An absorbing legal thriller that’s both powerful and delightfully nuanced”
Jeremy Shaban - INDEPENDENT BOOK REVIEW
A quick, accessible read with memorable characters who use their grit and cunning to ensure that a dead man’s final wishes are respected.
The BookTrib
"James Gilbert’s latest novel, THE LEGACY, “is a riveting story that is part mystery, part romance, part social commentary--and completely addictive”
MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
"The Legacy is a captivating novel that blends elements of mystery, romance, and legal drama into a thrilling page-turner ”
Online Book Club
"THE LEGACY is an engrossing legal mystery...James Gilbert is a master storyteller"
Literary Titan
"Prepare to be captivated by James Gilbert’s enthralling tale...THE LEGACY offers an intriguing mystery that keeps you guessing with numerous twists and turns"
REVIEW OF ZONA ROMANTICA
D. Donovan Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Reviews
Zona Romantica winds through all kinds of connections and clues as it crafts a satisfying, engaging mystery designed to keep readers moving through Mexico with Amanda, discovering clues embedded in cultural revelations and special challenges. The dash of romance added to the intrigue and historical references keeps Zona Romantica a thoroughly inviting read, juxtaposing personal and political observations right up to an unexpected conclusion.
Kirkus Reviews
"Gilbert is an experienced and capable writer and Amanda is a well-drawn and intriguing character. Readers will get a keen sense of the daily (and nightly) life in the Zona Romantica (a real area in Puerto Vallarta) and of the undercurrents of Mexican politics, especially the uneasy and unequal relationship between the local police and the arrogant federales.... An entertaining mystery with a vibrant setting."
REVIEW OF TALES OF EGYPT
INDEPENDENT BOOK REVIEW
“From the very beginning TALES OF LITTLE EGYPT prepares us for an emotional journey. From a battle- side death bed to the truths of small-town America, this collection of historical short fiction weaves between tales that are at times endearing, at times tragic, but always insightful. A rich collection of short stories offering insight into the collective American past and present”
BOOKLIFE REVIEW
“Gilbert’s prose style is detailed, voice-driven, and refined. The author quickly establishes a sense of place that becomes increasingly vivid as Gilbert introduces its many distinctive residents. [He] excels at creating memorable characters whose individual stories coalesce to tell a broader literary and historical narrative. In the tradition of Winesburg, Ohio, Gilbert’s Tales of Little Egypt brings small town America to full life”
HISTORY BOOKS
REVIEW OF CYCLE OF OUTRAGE
William M. Tuttle, Jr., University of Kansas
“A marvelous exploration of the connections between culture and behavior in modern America...Gilbert's deeply illuminates our understanding of the contemporary US.”
The New York Times Book Review
“[A] fascinating book...An enthralling exploration of reactions against popular culture...Raises valuable questions about whether the mass media should initiate or merely reinforce the fantasies they depict.”
REVIEW OF PERFECT CITIES
Alan Trachtenberg, New York Times
“Mr. Gilbert’s splendid book opens the door on a conflicted past, and provides an indispensable perspective on the troubled and troubling struggle we face today between old and new, unity and diversity.”
Adria Bernardi, Chicago Tribune
“Perfect Cities is a remarkable account of a struggle for cultural definition. Chronicling the byplay between cultural homogeneity and heterogeneity, unity and diversity, James Gilbert not only throws light on Chicago’s past but also provides insight that can be applied to the cultural debates of our own time.”
Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times
“What Gilbert has done is to enable the reader to experience the grand utopian visions of the times, yet at the same time see the cantankerous reality that made the visions impossible”
Review of Redeeming Culture
Redeeming Culture: The Science-Religion Debate
Peter J. Causton, Boston Book Review, noted, “Anyone seriously interested in the history of current controversies involving religion and science will find Gilbert’s book invaluable.”
Redeeming Culture: The Science-Religion Debate
George Marsden, Nature, remarked, “Redeeming Culture provides some fascinating background for understanding the interactions of science and religion in the United States. . . . Intriguing pictures of some of the highlights in this cultural exchange.”
Redeeming Culture: The Science-Religion Debate
Catholic News Service praised it as “A solid and entertaining account of the obstacles to mutual understanding that science and religion are now warily overcoming.”
Redeeming Culture: The Science-Religion Debate
Publishers Weekly described it as “An always fascinating look at the conversation between religion and science in America.”
Review of Redeeming Culture
Whose Fair?: St. Louis World Fair
Carl Smith, Franklyn Bliss Snyder Professor of English & American Studies, Northwestern University, wrote, “This is an informative, intriguing, wise, and notably well-written book by a master historian. Whose Fair? is full of important insights and information, lucidly framed and brilliantly analyzed, on what happened at the fair, how it was presented, and how it has been remembered and analyzed.”
Whose Fair?: St. Louis World Fair
Gary Gerstle, James G. Stahlman Professor of History, Vanderbilt University, said, “Once again James Gilbert has combined imaginative archival work with a keen and probing intellect to produce an exemplary piece of cultural history. Whose Fair? offers unexpected research discoveries, acute interpretations of what the St. Louis World Fair meant to its diverse groups of visitors, and, finally, a profound meditation on the intersection of experience, memory, and history. A gem of a book.”
Whose Fair?: St. Louis World Fair
Choice remarked, “Gilbert builds on Michel de Certeau’s theoretical work on mass culture, seeking to learn what we can about the lived experience of fairgoers by comparing historical accounts, artifacts, and individual and collective memories... As Gilbert correctly points out, ‘The enduring difference between history and memory is a major challenge to our understanding of the past.’ This book helps meet that challenge.”
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“Informative, entertaining, and overdue, Jim Gilbert’s study of masculinity in the 1950s provides an important counterweight to our limited picture of cold war gender roles. Women may have been trapped in Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique, but Gilbert returns us to The Lonely Crowd and 1950s fears that men, caught between John Wayne, Ozzie Nelson, and James Dean, faced their own definitional conundrums. In this carefully drawn study of the many masculine icons available to men in the 1950s, he quietly reminds us that most people get along and do just fine—and that stories of crises often make better copy than historical truth.”
D. Donovan Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Reviews
“Focusing on several iconic, yet under-appreciated, 50s-era figures, James Gilbert provides a timely corrective to the nostalgia-tainted stereotypes of mid-century masculinity. As confused as they were conformist, as restive as they were resigned to a bland suburban life, they were truly men in the middle. Something was happening, as Dylan would sing, and many of these Mr. Joneses knew just what it was.”
Michael Kimmel ― Michael Kimmel Published On: 2005-02-24
“There is much to appreciate here, including a thoughtful analysis of the literature on the ‘crisis’ of masculinity in American history and some rich details about the debates over postwar conformity and mass culture."