The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 29, 2003, Page 8, Image 8
g THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, January 29, 2003
THEY SAID IT
CONTACT US BENJAMIN DISRAEL': “Individuals may
form communities, but it is institutions
Story ideas? Questions? Comments? alone that can create a nation.”
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idelsohn
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PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK
Author Paul Mendelsohn sits proudly by his first-ever novel, “Where Do Flies Go In Winter?” which chronicles his cross-country experiences with the military.
A former Army National Guardsman and ’93 USC graduate makes writing debut with Gulf-War spy novel
BY COREY GARRIOTT
THE GAMECOCK
“So far, I’ve sold eight copies,”
said Paul Mendelsohn, whose re
sume spans the globe. The former
naval officer and Army National
Guardsman has traveled through
out Europe.
After graduating from USC in
1993 as an electrical engineering
student, Mendelsohn spent the
next seven years of his life writ
ing a Gulf-War thriller.
Now, 700 pages later, he can add
“novelist” to the list.
Mendelsohn, a soldier during
the ’70s and ’80s, has had years to
gather memories for his novel. His
book, “Where Do Flies Go in
Winter,” incorporates Amsterdam,
the Netherlands, Berlin and his
study of Middle-Eastern maps dur
ing the Gulf Invasion for an inter
national plot.
The title itself is as enigmatic
as the climactic desert locale.
“It’s integral to one of the char
acter’s lives in the story,” he said.
Beginning with an innocent
question, the phrase repeats
throughout the book to eventually
reveal a bond between the two
main characters.
They’re brothers, adopted iden
tical twins. Matthew, the first
twin, is separated from his brother
Sean by a freak kidnapping early
in the novel.
Fast-forward three decades, and
“Matthew’s just an ordinary guy
with a house and a wife in
Washington, D.C.,” he said. “But
in the intervening 26 years, Sean
went through a harrowing life.”
Sean’s youth was sold into slav
ery. Sexual abuse and murder
beat out his humanity, and he
now works as a weapons dealer
for none other than Saddam
Hussein.
Matthew, of course, is coerced
by the government into switch- It is instead about the mettle of
ing roles with his identical broth- an ordinary guy in extraordinary
er. circumstances, he said. Rather
The idea is to penetrate than piling on the gadgetry,
Hussein’s weapons network. He “Where do Flies Go in Winter”
cigieea, uui
issues the
CIA a
caveat:
He’ll play
the role and
infiltrate
the
weapons
ring only if
the govern
ment
“It is not a James Bond
would-be. I think the
modern spy novel has
had its time.”
PAUL MENDELSOHN
AUTHOR OF “WHERE DO FLIES GO IN WINTER?"
waicnca wuai nay
pens inside
Matthew as he los
es control of his
fate.
“The human sto
ry,” Mendelsohn
said, “is that
Matthew wants to
reconnect with his
long-lost brother;
what he doesn’t
promises to extradite his broth
er and bring him back.
It is not a run-of-the-mill, high
tech political spy novel.
Mendelsohn takes a different ap
proach.
“It’s not a James Bond would
be,” he said. “I think the modem
spy novel has had its time.”
know is that his brother is now a
cold-blooded killer.”
The outcome of focusing on psy
chology is a gruesome novel, with
explicit sex scenes and slow mur
ders.
Mendelsohn’s knowledge of
the military machine flavors the
plot, adding a second stress on
Matthew.
“The book has a military fla
vor,” he said. “Matthew is a
means to the government’s ends,
dangerously in the middle be
tween his brother’s murderous
ness and the CIA.”
When the CIA has an agent
that goes wayward, he said, it
sends someone to take the agent
out. It’s a cruel but realistic sys
tem.
This, of course, “doesn’t mean
a whole lot to Matthew,” he said,
who is more concerned with his
brother than his mission.
“It’s a story for anyone who
would be interested in what some
body would do in unusual cir
cumstances,” he said.
It’s almost a psychological
thriller. “In the end, Matthew
comes out damaged,” he said, as
anyone must who is forced to
kill.
But the promotion is a task as
epic as Matthew’s.
“It’s a lot of work and a lot of
time,” Mendelsohn said. “It’s dif
ficult to get a book off the ground
— there are thousands of books
out there.”
“What I’m doing right now is
just contacting media, like
Barnes and Noble, Books-a
Million, and local bookstores,
wholesalers, newspapers, and on
line book review editors,” he
said.
Though book sales are tough —
a fiction writer must compete on
a national level — there’s a bright
side.
“I’m expecting a royalty check
of about $8.48 sometime this
spring,” Mendelsohn said.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com
-
TOP 10
These were the most requested
songs on USC’s student radio
station from Jan. 20-26.
1. “A DEMONSTRATION OF
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY”
Mellowdrone
2. “BOOMSLANG!”
Johnny Marr and the Healers
3. “BACKROADS FOR
TOMORROW”
Backroads for Tomorrow
4T“BIGGER cages, longer
CHAINS”
International Noise Conspiracy
5. “COLE”
■Emily Easterly
6. “NINE TIMES”
American Chills
7. “LET MY BURDEN BE”
Golden Shoulders
8. “RED DEVIL DAWN”
Crooked Fingers
9. “LIVING AND FORGETTING”
Glasstown
10. “TWELVE IMAGINARY
INCHES”
Stitches
t
Pseudo-Italian eatery
worth the wait
MICHAEL LAFORGIA
THE GAMECOCK
Carolina Dining’s new tratto
ria features restaurant-style seat
ing and lighting, Italian renais
sance art, as well as many pas
tels and neon oranges, purples
and greens.
Though the waiting area was
cramped on opening day (people
were lined up along the walls,
arms crossed, receipts in hand),
the dining area accommodated
the large crowd adequately.
However, the place got noisy
with patrons, cooks and a blar
ing loudspeaker that drowned
out the Italian music — music
that might have been quite loud
in any other situation.
A restaurant-cafeteria hybrid,
Pandinis operates through sep
arate food stations, much like
the Grand Market Place. Unlike
the GMP, however, orders are
placed at one centralized loca
tion and picked up at another.
The menu is modest, if not a
little disappointing, and only of
fers four kinds of pizza, a strom
boli, a calzone, two different
types of sandwiches, a salad and
one type of pasta.
The pasta penne, prepared
with roasted sausage, onions,
and peppers in marinara sauce,
was promptly prepared, gener
ously portioned, and served with
breadsticks. The sauce was too
sweet and included large slices
of onions and green peppers,
which made it more akin to a
ragout than a marinara. The
sausage was very thinly sliced
but acceptably seasoned.
The pizzas were good, reason
ably sized for one person and al
most worth the 35-minute wait.
It was, after all, opening night.
The calzones, on the other hand,
were too small and took just as
long to prepare.
As for ambience, one won’t
find any troubadours singing for
tips, but listening to the strained
frantic shouts of the cooks (one
yelled out something like, “I
need those pizzas in the oven,
like, yesterday”) makes for de
cent entertainment, provided
you’ve already got your food.
Pandinis serves lunch and din
ner Mondays through Thursdays
from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Fridays
from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and
Sundays from 12 noon to 10 p.m.
It is closed Saturdays. Entrees
are priced from $3.79 to $4.99.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecockm ixeditor@hotmail. com
Students
endure
long lines
just to
taste the
new
cuisine and
enjoy the
stylish
ambience
at
Pandlnis.
PHOTO BY JULIA ■
knetzer/theB
gamecockH
BOOK REVIEW
‘Oyster9full of life,
but lacks surprises
“OYSTER”
Janette Turner Hospital
★★★ out of ☆☆☆☆☆
BY GRAHAM CULBERTSON
THE GAMECOCK
Janette Turner Hospital’s
apocalyptic novel, “Oyster,” is
a formidable work. The isolated
Australian town Outer Maroo is
enamoured in great catastrophe,
at the center of which is the mys
terious cult leader Oyster.
Oyster’s actions and character
are only slowly revealed as the
novel progresses — but jerkily,
with a nonlinear structure.
Phrases, sentences, passages
and even entire chapters make
sense and exhibit a fantastic
craftsmanship; Hospital leaves
no doubt that she can write Veil.
Her words often seem to have a
frightening, illuminating life of
their very own. But these brief
glimpses of genius overcome
neither the confused and con
fusing structure of the book, nor
the conventional postmod
ernism of her characterization.
Told in flashbacks and flash
forwards, Hospital’s novel leaps
from narrator to narrator, from
its more-or-less protagonist
Mercy Givens, to an assortment
of other characters around
Outer Maroo. As we follow
Mercy in her search for truth
and slowly learn more about the
novel’s central truths as well as
about Oyster and the tragedy
that accompanied him, the nov
el makes certain things relent
lessly clear.
Early in the book, Mercy, in
an attempt to make sense of the
events going on around her, tells
us, “Things happened, but it was
difficult to fix them in a se
quence.” Mercy’s hardship
stems out of Hospital’s unwill
ingness to tell the story straight.
The reader feels as trapped as
the little girl, unable to make
sense of the story or truly relate
to the shifting realities which
are Hospital’s characters.
Like the works of Faulkner
and Eco before it, among oth
ers, “Oyster” is essentially a
♦ ‘OYSTER’, SEE PAGE 9