The Madness of Crowds

The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny (2021), 432 pgs. 

Bodies packed into an old gym, murmuring in anticipation. Sweltering heat in the middle of an unforgiving Quebecois winter. Tensions and temperatures rising in this claustrophobic room. One shove could lead to total chaos. Violence erupted at this speaker's previous events, and Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is here to make sure it does not happen again--despite his personal feelings about the speaker and the event itself. With the pandemic still fresh in the minds of everyone involved, there are many factors that make this situation feel so dangerous, but the main one is the harmful rhetoric about disabled people spewed by the speaker. Gamache knows that no matter what happens at this event, harm has already been done, as the speaker's ideas are becoming more widely discussed. The pandemic lockdown was a pressure-cooker for fear and loneliness, and while reuniting has largely been a salve, the madness of crowds could also now be society's undoing. 

This seventeenth novel in the Three Pines series is a hard read. From the very beginning of this book, I was angry. I was angry that Louise Penny would even have characters debate the repulsive ideas shared by the speaker and her followers. I was angry about the pandemic, and I was angry about the world. As I read on, though, I began to think about my anger and about what Louise Penny was actually trying to say. I worried that the very discussion and debate of the speaker's ideas could legitimize them, and that scared me, but the fact is that those ideas (sadly) are ones that already exist, and perhaps it is important to confront and dispute them before they whip up a mad crowd behind them. Themes of justice, political killings and martyrdom, mercy, and crowd mentality all bring up very real, very relevant fears relating to public health policy and societal discussion post-pandemic. While far from perfect, ultimately, I believe this is one of the best books in the series due to how much it makes you think about important ethical topics. To be clear Louise Penny, Gamache, and I are against eugenics. This one is more than just a murder mystery; it is a mirror. It is a hard read, but a good one. 

Enchantment

Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May, 212 pages.

Jan wrote about this cozy nonfiction book here a couple of months ago. May writes about trying to recapture not just a sense of normalcy, but something better after the long stress period of a global pandemic. The book is mostly part memoir and part meditation on nature and life, one which encourages the reader to do the same kind of thinking.

I had a hard time getting into this book, but I'm pretty sure it is a perfectly fine book that would be very impactful if it spoke to you. I liked that the book was structured around the four classical elements, which felt like an effective organizational method. Overall, it wasn't for me, but I think it could be a very could choice for someone who enjoys an introspective memoir.
 

The Madness of Crowds

The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny (2021) 432 pages

The novel begins with Chief Inspector Gamache and his officers securing a university venue for a visiting professor's lecture. Scheduled at the last minute, during the winter holidays, expectations were that the event would be sparsely attended, but because the professor, Abigail Robinson, has gone viral for her lectures on the Internet, there is a restless mob trying to squeeze into the building. Dr. Robinson's premise is that euthanasia is the right solution for those whom society can't afford to care for. It looks like half the crowd accept her softly voiced opinion, while half the crowd are outraged. When a gunshot during the lecture almost hits the professor, Gamache is put in the uncomfortable position of having to figure out how a weapon got into the venue when everyone was being checked prior to entry.

A few days later, although the gunman has been caught, someone close to the lecturer is murdered, and it isn't clear whether the murder was a case of mistaken identity or happened as intended.

The novel has a slow start, giving an extended discussion of how the Covid lockdowns affected the people in Three Pines (and elsewhere in Canada), how the vaccine's availability allowed people to joyfully gather again, and finally, description of the intense crowd gathering for this lecture. There is also discussion of the training of police to manage crowds without getting violent themselves. Only once this section is past, and the action gets underway, did I finally relax and know that the Penny I relish is back at the wheel. There are a couple times in this novel when Gamache has a somewhat short fuse, but perhaps that's reasonable, given that he has to protect a professor whose views he finds despicable.