Reviews and More

I inevitably start feeling a bit guilty whenever I stray from classic literature for too long. I have spent the better part of the last year reading Agatha Christie, Nicholas Sparks, and Anita Shreve while listening to Michael Connelly audiobooks, so it’s no wonder that I just had to put those authors aside for a couple of weeks in order to knock out another title from the Observer’s list of the 100 greatest novels of all time. I’ve had The Black Sheep by Honoré de Balzac sitting on my shelf for several months now, so it was high time I read it. Here’s what I thought of the No.12 book on the list.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The Black Sheep tells the story of two brothers who are polar opposites of each other. On the one hand, we have Phillipe Bridau, a dashing soldier who was an aide-de-camp of Napoleon’s before the Emperor was banished into exile. When Phillipe refused to swear allegiance to the new rulers, he was left to a life of idleness and dissipation. He lost his commission, had no money, and spent every night gambling and drinking until he passed out. He financed his debauchery by stealing from family members and friends.

On the other hand, we have Joseph, an up-and-coming artist who is every bit as ugly as Phillipe is handsome. Joseph has all the sense and work ethic that Phillipe lacks, and he is the one who ensures that their widowed mother Agathe has a roof over her head and food to eat.

Despite all of Phillipes shortcomings and transgressions, he remains the apple of Agathe’s eye. She makes excuses for him, even when he goes so far as to cause the death of her aunt. Then, when Phillipe is arrested for taking part in a conspiracy against the crown, Agathe does her utmost to raise money for his freedom. This entails traveling to a town called Issoudun to try to convince her estranged brother Jean-Jacques Rouget to give her a fair share of the vast inheritance she was cheated out of years ago.

Joseph and Agathe soon see that Rouget is completely under the thumb of a woman named Flore who has been his live-in lover for more than a decade. It’s clear that Flore is just after the old man’s money, but Rouget is so head over heels for her that he gives in to her every demand — even when it comes to letting her real lover, Maxence Gilet, move into the house as well.

Joseph and Agathe are basically run out of town by Maxence and his band of troublemakers. They don’t get their hands on any of the money, but it turns out that Maxence’s problems are just beginning. That’s because Phillipe gets released from prison and is assigned to serve probation in Issoudun. Phillipe then sets his mind on outsmarting both Max and Flore in order to get the money for himself.

Phillipe actually succeeds in his attempts, and in a few years finds himself the master of the entire Rouget fortune. But he is such a cold-hearted monster that he doesn’t give his mother or brother a sou, even when Agathe appeals directly to him for help because they are starving and in debt.

Phillipe gets his just desserts in the end, however, as he’s beheaded on the battlefield. Having left no heir or wife behind, Joseph ends up with the remaining fortune.

My Reaction: I thought the early part of the novel (actually, the first two-thirds) was a bit dry and boring, particularly when Balzac took his sweet time in providing lengthy background information regarding the Rouget fortune and the town of Issoudun. It took me forever to get through those two parts, and while I completely understand the need to supply this type of backstory, I just wish Balzac had done so more concisely.

But fortunately Joseph, Phillipe, Agathe, and Maxence were such richly drawn characters that I was able to push on and make it to the most interesting part of the novel, which was when Phillipe arrived at Issoudun. The way he and Maxence sized each other up and engaged in their cat-and-mouse game was masterfully presented, and made for compelling reading.

I loved the way Agathe found it in her heart to admit to Joseph that she should have loved him more, but only wish she had a chance to renounce Phillipe to his face before she died. I can’t believe what a heartless son and brother he was, and throughout the entire novel, I kept thinking to myself, “My god, I hope my boy doesn’t turn out this way!”

Overall, I found The Black Sheep to be an excellent novel. I liked it much more than I thought I would, and definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good read. I don’t know that I’d go so far as to call it the 12th-best book ever written, but what do I know! I give it 7.5 stars out of 10.

I occasionally do consulting work for a friend of mine who operates a small business related to the education industry. He has eight branch offices scattered throughout the Western suburbs, all within about a 100-mile radius of each other. You’d think that this proximity would allow him to save money on certain services, such as calling plans, but that’s not the case at all. I guess because the offices are in different area codes or something he doesn’t get as many perks as he expected.

So it’s really no surprise that he’s looking to find a more affordable small business phone system that takes into account the specific needs of his business. Although I’m not signed on as a consultant for this particular project, I decided to weigh in with my opinion anyway.

I think that my friend’s best option would be to get set up with a VoIP (Voice over IP) system from a telecommunications company that understands the unique ways small businesses operate. Packet8 is one such company, so I spent some time reviewing the various small business VoIP equipment and service plans they currently offer.

First of all, the complete broadband phone system would definitely be in order. This system comes with a feature-packed business class telephone and a broadband phone adapter — which is all that’s necessary to get started with IP telephony. We’d need to get a system for each branch and would probably want to pay extra to have it professionally installed.

Choosing a service plan is more difficult since I’m not privy to the company’s monthly call volume or anything like that. I do know that there’s a lot of phone work and faxing involved, so I took that into consideration when looking over the different plans. I think the Business 2000 plan, along with the Fax Metered Extension service ought to cover calls and faxes to a sufficient degree.

But really, Packet8 has so many great options to choose from that I had a tough time making that decision. For example, they offer everything from multiple location overhead paging to a complete contact center, and numerous plans in between. All of Packet8’s plans come with top-of-the-line feature, are backed by unparalleled support, and best of all, are priced for small businesses.

I’m going to forward these findings to my friend to see if he wants to take advantage of any of these deals. If you’re looking for affordable VoIP solutions for your small business, I recommend checking out the Packet8 website today!

I mentioned last week when I wrote my recap of Burn Notice 1×10 that I somehow completely skipped over 1×09. Luckily, my TiVo was programmed to record it as usual, so I was able to catch up over the weekend. I was kinda disappointed that I didn’t learn anything new from this episode, which was called Hard Bargain. That just means the ep was filler and that it wasn’t even necessary to watch it at all.

Odd Job of the Week: The OJotW comes courtesy of Sam, whose girlfriend knew someone who knew someone who needed help (or something like that). The person in trouble is a young man named Nick Lam (played by Kelvin Yu) who is a surfer/house-sitter for rich folks who don’t live in Miami year round. Nick has access to mansions and $100,000 cars, and couldn’t resist passing those things off as his own. This act scored him a beautiful fiancée named Dawn (Rachel Yeager) — but also is the reason he now has a major problem. Dawn has been kidnapped by a man named Reyes (Steven Bauer), and there’s a $5 million ransom demand on the table.

Obviously, Nick has no way to pay that kind of money, so he turns to Michael for help. Michael then poses as a hostage negotiator hired by Nick’s family to handle the ransom and exchange. He basically ends up outsmarting Reyes to buy time while Fiona and Sam break into the holding facility to extricate Dawn.

Burn Notice Progress: Some bureaucrat from the CSS named Perry Clark (Arye Gross)wanted to meet with Michael to discuss the details of the burn notice. Michael doesn’t trust Clark at first, so he puts him through various tests. Once Michael feels Clark is legit, they have a meeting in Michael’s apartment — where Clark promptly tries to strangle Michael the moment his back is turned. Luckily Michael had “home court advantage” and was able to use a hidden gun to shoot Clark just in time.

Character Development: We learned a few tidbits this week, such as the fact that Michael wears Armani suits and doesn’t think much of bureaucrats. We also learned that Michael gave Fiona a Makarov PM handgun for her birthday.

My Reaction: Overall, I thought this was a pretty entertaining episode. The OJotW was a bit different from the things Michael had been doing, and it held my interest throughout. I loved how Michael proved he wasn’t a cop by, among other things, showing the label on his suit. I can’t tell an Armani suit apart from any other designer, but I definitely can see that Michael wears expensive clothes. His suits and shirts are not from Wal-Mart, that’s for sure!

I’m still not all that into the supporting cast yet. Fiona hasn’t been grating on my nerves as much as she did at the beginning of the season, but I haven’t quite accepted her yet either. Sam is just okay — not bad, but not great either. I wish there was some logical way for the writers to incorporate Madeline into the weekly storylines more. Sharon Gless is a wonderful actress and is one of the main reasons I decided to tune into Burn Notice in the first place.

Well, this will probably be my last Burn Notice recap for a while. Like I said before, with the new fall TV season starting up, I won’t have time to watch on Thursdays anymore. I’ll still TiVo it, but I likely won’t post recaps unless CSI and Grey’s Anatomy are showing reruns.