William Petrick

The Five Lost Days
By William Petrick

This book was received from the LibraryThing Member Giveaway program in exchange for a review.

In The Five Lost Days by William Petrick, a documentary film crew lead by Michael Burns from the United States is assigned a project to get the story of a Mayan village healer who might have knowledge of ancient plants that could be new medicines.

Trouble is he is allowed only five days to travel to the Belize jungle, film and return. We find out this all takes place during with Wayeb’ (called Uayeb), or the five unnamed days on the Mayan calendar…hence the title of the book.

Right from the beginning, the author, draws us into the mystery and suspense of the unknown through frightening canoe rides, lost supplies, intense heat, strange attractions and gruesome murder. The story line is fast paced and very compelling; the characters are familiar but also secretive. The book’s ending is very thought provoking and did not bother me at all.

This is the William Petrick debut novel and after reading it I look forward to his next novel. I recommend this book to those people who like a good thriller.… (meer)

Video Verite is a selection of short stories that explores our connection to the media. Our lives are filled with images, but not all of them are real. In a culture overrun with advertising, reality shows and celebrities famous for getting their faces on tv, how do we know what is truth and what is fiction?

William Petrick’s stories touch on various aspects of media culture, although the connection was not always clear to me. In “Turn Around,” a couple in the midst of splitting up head to the airport, while in “Perfect View,” a little vacation rock-climbing has the potential for tragedy. Others are more clearly connected — in “Video Verite,” “Sins of the Father” and “Shooting Harlem” there are definite connections to television and video and the truth of what we see on the screen.

Some of the stories are quite interesting. ”The Captain” is the story of a military man trying to do the right thing. ”Perfect View” has Paul stomping off to prove a point (and nearly get himself killed in the process), while poor, clueless Amy sits idly by, sketching. These were quick reads, short enough to finish the book on the flight between Cleveland and Newark (1 hour, 20 minutes – I know that flight well).

The trend these days seems to be to smaller books – this one is less than 140 pages. The stories themselves are very short, some only 3 or 4 pages long. It all lends to the feeling that the book is somehow incomplete. Many of the stories felt unfinished to me. For example, in “Shooting Harlem,” a producer is sent to film the story of a young black girl who has received an important scholarship. The news team is looking for a particular kind of story – poverty, depression, an escape from the ghetto. When they don’t get that story, when they find a nice, middle-class family, they’re at a loss to know what to do. That’s interesting, so far. But then the producer just walks away, goes back to his newsroom. What did he learn? Did he confront his prejudice? Was it shared by his colleagues? No answers to those questions, and those were the ones that interested me.

The book also paints an unattractive portrait of women. There is only one story told from a female point of view (and that woman is more than a bit nuts), and it ends with everyone in handcuffs. There are bitter ex-wives, women nagging men to talk about their feelings, resentful girlfriends who don’t want their fellas to go out with the boys. A pretty tired stereotype, in my opinion.… (meer)

In The Five Lost Days by William Petrick, a documentary film crew travels to a Mayan village to record video footage for a documentary in the United States. However, they are only allocated five days, which also happens to coincide with Wayeb’ (called Uayeb), or the five unnamed days on the Mayan calendar.

Their mission is wrought with failure, losing their tapes, having run-ins with irate Guatemalan soldiers, being scrutinized by the paranoid husband of one of their subjects. And with each step forward, they are pushed two or three steps back.

In this story, worlds collide: the street smart New Yorkers mix with former hippie activists (now researching native pharmaceuticals) who mix with traditional Mayans who mix with peaceful Latin Americans who mix with bellicose teenage soldiers. This dynamism comes through in the text, giving the reader a notion of unease and edge-of-your-seat-ocity, as well as realistic blending the real world with the Mayan spiritual world, giving credence to a character’s belief that the real world is merely a reflection of the spiritual.

While I typically don’t read thrillers and felt that the book could have gone a bit longer (though I’m sure there are good reasons why it ended where it did), I must say that The Five Lost Days was very readable, and had a plot that kept your attention up to the very end.

Some parts of the book are grim, and may not be suitable for the light-hearted or the queasy, but for people who can handle that, and enjoy a good thriller with an atypical protagonist, then The Five Lost Days might be something you can read without considering that time to be wasted.… (meer)