Two Across by Jeff Bartsch: book review

Two Across (2015) is set in the 1960s on the east coast of America. At 15 years of age in 1960, Stanley Owens and Vera Baxter tie for first place at the National Spelling Bee in Washington DC. Stanley is from DC – he lives with his mother, Martha, in Suite 512 at the Hawthorne Hotel. Martha is anthropophobic – afraid of people. Vera is from New York – she lives with her mother, Vivian, in various hotels around the country due to her mother’s job as secretary to a sales executive.

Stanley and Vera meet again two years later in DC, when Stanley’s mother is pressuring him to apply for university courses in politics in order to become a senator. He wants to be a crossword puzzle designer. Vera loves mathematics and French literature – her mother wants her to become a mathematics professor.

On August 1, 1963, they marry, not for love, but for money. It is Stanley’s idea to have a fake wedding to get ‘sizable cash gifts’ from their wedding guests. They say goodbye to each straight after the wedding, and meet a month later in Cambridge, where Vera attends university on scholarship. Stanley is there only because his mother thinks he was accepted into Harvard, but he didn’t even apply.

Stanley takes tutoring jobs and creates crosswords to submit to newspapers, especially the New York Times. He gives Vera some tips on how to create crosswords, and they even design a few together.

But Vera lives on campus and Stanley lives in a studio apartment. ‘She was with Stanley, but also not with him, not the way she wanted.’ They don’t even spend term vacation together.

Stanley writes term papers for other students for payment and the cheating scandal is discovered. In 1967 Vera is disillusioned by this sham wedding and disappears from his life. Stanley goes home to confess his lies and secrets to his mother. She has secrets of her own – about his father Nick.

At the age of 29, in 1973, Stanley can’t get Vera out of his mind and continues to look for her. By now he is living in New York, working as the crossword editor for the New York Times. Can he find her through crossword clues? He gets a tip from an unlikely source – but can it be trusted?

This is Young Adult fiction and commences in a believable way – at the National Spelling Bee competition. I think the concept is interesting, and I like the idea of Vera’s ‘magic’ pen and the crossword themes. However, Stanley’s trickery becomes difficult to believe at times, and I’m not convinced about the TV show. The 10-year-gap period is long, drawn out, and forgettable. Although the story gathers momentum again, it ends too abruptly – and rather strangely. Young readers may like this novel, but it’s a bit of a rollercoaster ride.

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

The acacia thorn trees of Kenya

There are nearly 800 species of acacia trees in the world, and most don’t have thorns. The famous "whistling thorn tree" and the Umbrella Thorn tree of Kenya are species of acacia that do have thorns, or spines. Giraffes and other herbivores normally eat thorny acacia foliage, but leave the whistling thorn alone. Usually spines are no deterrent to giraffes. Their long tongues are adapted to strip the leaves from the branches despite the thorns. The thorny acacia like dry and hot conditions. The thorns typically occur in pairs and are 5-8 centimetres (2-3 inches) long. Spines can be straight or curved depending on the species. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Suda...

Hop on hop off bus tourism comes to Tbilisi, Georgia

City Sightseeing buses have arrived in Tbilisi. The iconic red double-decker buses, a feature of many cities around the world since the company was established in Seville, Spain in 1999, is now in six continents and almost 100 cities. The company established its Tbilisi business in November 2013, with its operations commencing in February 2014. The 90-minute tour stops at 11 major locations in Tbilisi (with 2 to 5 minute waiting times at each location): the Old City (where it commences), Freedom Square, Rose Revolution Square, Marjanishvili Square, the Dry Bridge, Konka, Avlabari, Metekhi, Akhundov Museum, the Sulfur Baths, and European Square. Passengers can hop off at any stop and see the sights, hopping back onto the next bus at any time. Alternatively, passengers can remain on the bus for the whole tour and take photographs when the bus stops at each location. There are one day (24-hour) passes (for 35 lari – about $20) and 48-hour passes for 55 lari, with family d...

The Knight in the Panther Skin by Shota Rustaveli (2015 translation): book review

The Knight in the Panther Skin (12th century, this edition 2015) is a recent translation by American poet and author, Lyn Coffin. The author, Shota Rustaveli, is Georgia’s most loved poet. This poem is mammoth, a magnum opus – it is 1,656 verses long, separated by chapters. But readers, don’t give up, because every verse is worth reading. It is akin to 1001 Arabian Knights, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, or Shakespearean poetry. King Rostevan of Arabia has a daughter, Tinatin. She loves the knight Avtandil and he loves her. Verse 368 from Avtandil: ‘The doctor’s could do nothing. A dark twilight on my heart now pressed, I was on fire because of love, but nobody knew or guessed. They blamed my blood. The king decided bleeding my arm would be best; I let it be done to hide the suffering I had not confessed.’ But a knight in panther skin is seen weeping, and subsequently kills the king’s soldiers, sparing the king. Before Tinatin weds Avtandil she r...

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