Karen Kondazian gave three of the most exciting performances I’ve seen in decades of LA theatre-going. Her Serafina in THE ROSE TATTOO revealed that play for me. Her Alexandra del Lago in SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH was terrifying, for her portraying of the ruthless hunger of Williams’ movie star for fame, youth, and beauty. And her Maria Callas in MASTER CLASS let me see that it was a great play; her earthiness and operatic grief trumped Zoe Caldwell’s, at least for me. Stars. Multi-layered magic –“The Whip” surprised me – beyond fine prose, you have the opportunity to delve into hearts and minds you would never expect to think of. I can't say enough about this book. It's not so much a western or a historical romance as it is a study in the human condition, running the full gamut of emotions.

Emma’s granny lives in a small cottage on a farm and works there as if she is a indentured slave. Life on the Yorkless Farm is unbearable at most times. But though Emma is a bit timid she works hard and she makes a few friends. One who initially gives her a ride to her new home, the new Pastor Henry Granger.This is an authentic old west tale, complete with a lynching, stagecoach chases, gun fights, and more. It’s the story of a woman who is so successful at being a man, not only is she allowed to vote (oh, the horror – LOL!), but she successfully takes her secret to the grave – or so close that it doesn’t really matter. There are, admittedly, some liberties taken with her story, but more to flesh out the grey areas than to significantly alter or misrepresent anything about her. That’s an important distinction to make, because she is most definitely not your typical heroine. In fact, at times, she is downright nasty.

They called him Whip because that was the way he handled a plane. Small, wiry, always ready for action, Captain Whip Russel was a terror in the air...and the pilots of his Brigade of B-25 bombers were the best outfit in the Pacific in 1942. As a woman in the Old West, it was impossible to live your dreams – unless you were happy to be a wife, teacher (only if you could read) or prostitute. Knowing your own personal dreams—could you have survived as some women did, living part or all of your life as a man in exchange for the freedom that men had then? Could you have kept that secret and handled the loneliness and emotional isolation that that kind of life engendered? Kondazian leaves the complexities of Charley Parkhurst’s life of adventure and secrecy to the reader’s imagination. There is an openness about her writing that encourages the reader to expand on these complexities, rather than diminishing them with answers. Kondazian’s deft hand and sophisticated touch invites these complexities to live in the imagination…. While the setting of “The Whip” takes place over a century ago, the questions raised about the choices we make and their consequences on our lives remain pressing and relevant today….Kondazian weaves fiction and fact together seamlessly into a poignant and profound read. The ‘whip being removed’ means that the MP ceases to represent their party and sits as an independent MP. Twenty-one Conservative MPs had the whip removed in 2019 after voting against the government to allow MPs to take control of the Commons timetable to pass the Benn Act, which was designed to remove the possibility of a no-deal Brexit. As of March 2022, there are eight MPs sitting as Independents, having had the whip removed. These include former leader of the Labour party Jeremy Corbyn, who was suspended from the Labour Party after refusing to accept all of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s findings on antisemitism in the party.

The Whip” can be more than any usual book club meeting. Why not cook up some chili or bake a rum cake? Uncork some wine, sip some whiskey or sarsaparilla. Grab you r whip, put on your Cowboy hat and wear your favorite button down shirt and vest. Be creative and have fun! And now she’s written a book! THE WHIP has to be described as a “Western” novel, which is a marketing tool that is or isn’t useful to attract readers. It’s actually just a novel, and a fine one, told with the urgency and intensity Kondazian found in her stage work. It’s based on the true story of Charley Parkhurst; a story I didn’t know but am happy to know now. Parkhurst was a quasi-legendary stagecoach driver who was not, actually, a man. She was a Charlotte, an orphan, a person whose subsequent life seems to have been invented and captured by an American Robert Louis Stevenson. Whips, vigilantes, cross-dressing, revenge …. all my favorite hobbies! The Whip whips by in a blur of narrative, expertly managed by the driver of the stage, the novelist, herself. Highly recommended. She is a lifetime member of the Actors Studio and a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Charley Parkhurst makes for a compelling main character. The Whip is very well researched (I loved all the historical tid-bits about piano legs, cat-hauling, and the stagecoach business itself), and Kondazian’s novel unfolds cinematically; you can almost feel the sun’s rays and smell the horse sweat. A truly fascinating novel of one woman’s determination and grit in the heart of the Old West. Martin Caidin was a prolific and controversial writer. Most of his work centered around the adventures of pilots and astronauts. A number of his books were notable for their reasonable, realistic predictions of then-futuristic technology. If you find yourself reading this novel believing that you can easily predict what will happen next, watch out – you are in for a big surprise. Caidin's body of work was prolific and varied, ranging from additional speculative/SF novels such as Marooned, which was made into an acclaimed film and considered a harbinger of the Apollo 13 accident, to a novel based upon the character Indiana Jones. He also wrote many non-fiction books about science, aviation and warfare.Her quest for money, and Rex's determination to have her, leads them into a tangled international plot, replete with spies from all the major powers who alternately try to help Rex, or kill him, or both. Rex pretends to throw in with all of them for the money, of course only being loyal to the British spies who warn him they will only go so far to protect him because the job is more important than people - which is exactly what they do. It is not always clear if an MP has disobeyed the whip, as voting instructions are not publicly available. However, sanctions for breaching the whip can include reduced prospects of promotion within the party, or selection for unpopular parliamentary duties, such as membership of delegated legislation committees. Repeatedly disobeying the whip may also affect a MP’s chance of re-selection by their constituency party, or re-election at a general election. THE WHIP is set in Tyneside, a region in northern England where the rugged country and rough weather once made life little more than a battle for survival. Amazing how visually stimulating the audible presentation of a book can be, especially a book as evocative and superbly written as The Whip by Karen Kondazian when professionally narrated by the skillful and impressive Robin Weigert. Both Ms. Kondazian and Ms. Weigert excel magnificently at bringing into vivid presence the historical reality of a truly amazing woman.

How the British react to "different" is a source of interest that it is in Cookson or in Agatha Christie's Poirot stories... So when tragedy comes to the farm donning white sheets and masks, and fueled by racism and a personal anger that is definitely not brotherly, Charlotte heads out West to California, where she hopes she will find the master of her misery and exact well-deserved and long-overdue revenge. Instead what Charlotte finds is a new life as Charley Parkhurst, stagecoach driver and Sacramento resident. Although small and slim, Charley manages to pass as a man, although the parts of the narrative told from Charley’s point of view continue to use female pronouns, suggesting that Charley never thought of herself as male. Whether this was the case in real life is not clear, but for the purpose of the book, Charley’s dual identity is necessary because of the various relationships she has during the second half of her life, one of which is as a woman with a local gambler she periodically trysts with in San Francisco, and another as a man with an actress and her daughter who live with Charley as caretakers of a sort. I will not describe this section of the book in much more detail, because it is difficult not to venture into serious spoiler territory, but I will say that this was the most problematic part of the book for me. Karen Kondazian's career as an actor, author, journalist and producer, started early in life... At the age of eight, Karen was chosen to be one of the infamous children on Art Linkletter's famous “Kids Say the Darndest Things.” The opportunity to miss school during tapings was all it took for Karen to abandon her life's goal of becoming a CIA spy and focus on acting.She is also sensitive to the issue of women in a world that was definitely at the time a world ruled by white men. They write the rules, they pass the laws, they own the places, and they also think they own the body of women and that they can grab them and use them whenever they want in whatever way they want... This was one of the best books I have read this year. Everything came together in a wonderful way; that is to say, the writing is wonderful and Ms. Kondazian has joined my favourite author list. The research into the character was tremendous. The audio is wonderful and what a talent Robin Weigert has to make me truly believe that I was listening to men, women and children.