Static Control
Reviewed by Joan E. Cadham

"The truth. That is your greatest weapon. Just be careful how you use it."

Universal truth, universal warning. Perhaps it came too early - or too
late - for Nova, the snake-haired girl with the gun in her pocket.
Perhaps it came before she fully grasped her truth.

Nova wanders through the Mediterranean, looking for the truth of her
dead mother and the father she intends to find, to meet, and to kill.
Her story, /Static Control/, unfolds through the points of view,
experiences, and narrative voices of the girl herself; her father
Dietrich Sol, a fading rocking star; Dietrich's second ex-wife, Martine;
his fiancιe Angela; and Ralph Shore, entrepreneur and president of
Static Control, who is bent on selling his product to a Middle East
dictator. The setting, for the most part, is the island of Xeros.

What is Static Control? The answer depends on the emotional and
financial needs of the tellers. To Ralph, it is something "that stops
things from sticking to you." For Mamoud, Ralph's Middle East partner,
it is "a technology for eliminating the sins of the past." For Angela it
is "something to do with astronauts and spacecraft." For Nova, who is
responsible for orchestrating the probability of activating the device,
it "has something to do with bombs." For a world on the cusp of
destruction, it is a powerful tool for good or for evil.

But the good and evil in Diamond's story ranges far beyond technology
and politics: "Women have always fascinated me. Ready to sacrifice
themselves and their self-respect to the goal of holding onto a man.
Frittering away all that energy on a guy like me." Really. How much evil
can there be in a man who says that? But for some of the women involved
with Dietrich, there is more at stake than self-respect.

A novelist who chooses self-publishing, as Diamond has done here, should
have a sure sense of purpose as well as style, a sensitivity for
editing, and a feel for the final product. Diamond, a former winner of
the QWF Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, has succeeded. The rapid
shifts from character to character could, in lesser hands, have
distracted and confused. Instead they propel the story.

"At the Hotel Artimus, they keep a notebook in a glass case, all the
words blurred by sea water, and legible only if you know the story."
Nova experiences the truth of her mother and finds her father. Whether
she finds herself in the process is left for the reader to discern.
Perhaps the answer lies more in her solution for the Static Control
device entrusted to her keeping than in how she handles the truth of her
own story.

Joan E. Cadham is a writer and journalist in Foam Lake, Saskatchewan.




*mRb*
*AELAQ*

©2001-2006 AELAQ
All rights reserved

by Deborah Thomas on Thursday 29 of December, 2005 [06:36:24 UTC]
Ann Diamond is a brilliant author who captivates the reader and brings him into her world. Her new novel, Static Control, will take hold of your emotions and transform you into a world of love, revenge, and suspense. Follow the characters as Ann paints vivid pictures of their world. Read Static Control and be transformed into another place and time. Great book, filled with suspense, mystery, and excitement.

Deborah Thomas