Thirteen ways of looking, by Colum McCann

A novella and three short stories.  The title novella takes as its frame the well-known Wallace Stevens poem, Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird, and each of its thirteen sections has a stanza at the head of the chapter.  I must admit that the Stevens poem had always been a little opaque to me, and I actually understood it better after reading the novella.  Judge Mendelsohn is 82 and suffering the ravages and indignities of aging.  His wife has died and his longtime assistant, Sally James, cares for him in his Manhattan apartment.  The action of the book takes place on the single day when he will die, victim of a blow from an unknown assailant while trying to walk home in a snowstorm after a disturbing lunch with his son, Elliot.  Elliot is successful, but is on wife number three and still has a wandering eye, which has gotten him in difficulties with his fired secretary, with whom he had a dalliance.  It’s a murder mystery, a meditation on the Judge’s life, and is seen from several different angles, many of which are recorded on the ubiquitous cameras on the street, in the restaurant, and even in his home.  But even with all this observation, the motive and identity of the killer are obscured.  Sparely written without a wasted word, much like the poem.  The three stories also involve cameras and observation in some way, and the impossibility of exactly knowing anything for certain.  One of the better books I've read this year and very different his well-known Let the great world spin, which I also enjoyed.  256 pp.