John Osborne is a writer totally unknown to me. This drama was a very weird, and not very admirable, example of his work. It begins with the character...moreJohn Osborne is a writer totally unknown to me. This drama was a very weird, and not very admirable, example of his work. It begins with the characters talking to the audience, Pirandello-like. They have nothing but contempt for the play, the audience, and each other. There are two plants in the audience who help ridicule the cast, and the cast note that the plants are "tired plot devices." The second part takes off: while the Grandmother reads very graphic descriptions of porn films from a brochure, the rest of the characters recite eloquent and dated love poetry. Then the Chap and the Girl, both denying love and falling in love, embrace each other. That's about it. I'm sure the play would be better visually, as there are very specific notes as to what is to be played on the screen behind the players and what music is to be played. It's interesting that the stage notes, in mentioning the audience, say twice "if there are any left." Well, it's a different play, if not that original, which this kind of thing really should be.(less)
Bernie Rhodenbarr, the debonair and non-violent burglar, is back, again implicated in a murder that takes place in the very domicile he is stealing fr...moreBernie Rhodenbarr, the debonair and non-violent burglar, is back, again implicated in a murder that takes place in the very domicile he is stealing from. Bernie’s dentist knows he’s a burglar, and convinces him to rob the dentist’s ex-wife’s apartment, where she keeps a lot of jewelry. She returns unexpectedly, and hiding in a closet, Bernie hears her death, but does not see her killer. The dentist is not a likely suspect, since Bernie hit the place on a different day than the one agreed upon, but that leaves a list of possible lovers and acquaintances Bernie needs to look at to take the heat off himself. It’s another charming, witty mystery; with his self-effacing yet urbane burglar, Block is as masterful at the comic caper as he is at the rough noir of Matthew Scudder’s world. Bernie’s narration is highly entertaining, with zany plot turns and some offbeat characters to add to the lighthearted tone. The main “reveal” of the killer’s name is less than ingenious, but on the whole it’s a clever book; it gets by on wit and charm.(less)
The edition I read also had a lengthy afterword by Robert P. Creed. The poem itself was great stuff, epic in the Homeric sense, full of lengthy monolo...moreThe edition I read also had a lengthy afterword by Robert P. Creed. The poem itself was great stuff, epic in the Homeric sense, full of lengthy monologues and side stories in the midst of bloody action. It was also surprisingly subtle (for instance, the contrast of Beowulf's personality from the Grendel stage to the dragon-slaying, elderly stage). Raffel's intro was basically an ad for the poem, while Creed's essay was first an ad for Raffel's translation (and he made a great case for its quality), and in its second part an interesting description of the style, intent and ability of the historical poem-singers of sixth century England.(less)
This unusual story is a great piece of work – absurd, somewhat satirical, rather mocking in tone, but with an affectionate tinge to it. Commentary tha...moreThis unusual story is a great piece of work – absurd, somewhat satirical, rather mocking in tone, but with an affectionate tinge to it. Commentary that I have read suggests that there is no reason to Gogol’s surrealism, but I think it could hardly be possible Freudian symbolism was not in his mind. Kovaloyov’s social “impotence” at his loss and his haughty machismo upon reattachment could hardly signify anything else. A very funny and sharp-witted story.(less)
A screenplay about an old man who walks across the length of England. It was fairly funny in the way screenplays can be, through description of visual...moreA screenplay about an old man who walks across the length of England. It was fairly funny in the way screenplays can be, through description of visual humor. It was also kind of touching, although I think it attempted too much psycho-drama for its length.(less)
In this sequel to the first book, the children Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance are meant to be reunited with their mentor Mr. Benedict, only to di...moreIn this sequel to the first book, the children Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance are meant to be reunited with their mentor Mr. Benedict, only to discover that he and his assistant Number Two have been kidnapped by his evil twin brother Mr. Curtain. Luckily, Mr. Benedict had previously planned a series of clues to his location, which is a key to the mysterious powerful plant known as duskwort, which, depending on whose hands it is in, can cure his narcolepsy or put a whole city to sleep.
I enjoyed this installment of the gifted children, though perhaps just a bit less than the first. The frenetic pace and thrilling adventure are all here, and a few interesting puzzles (I kicked myself for not getting one clever riddle at the beginning of their journey). I especially liked the one powerful scene near the end, in which Kate chooses a path of nobility over revenge. I was slightly disappointed by the final escape, which flew in the face of the atmosphere Stewart had until then carefully built up (Mr. Curtain would not be so stupid as to let his doltish assistant be the prisoners’ only guard, for a start). Even so, this is a toweringly impressive children’s book, one I wish I had written myself.(less)
The boy genius, son of the police chief of Idaville, solves crimes and various puzzles for a quarter. I loved this series as a boy about Encyclopedia...moreThe boy genius, son of the police chief of Idaville, solves crimes and various puzzles for a quarter. I loved this series as a boy about Encyclopedia Brown's age. I don’t know why I read this again – it’s not especially notable or very high quality; simple nostalgia, I suppose. But the puzzles were fun (clever adult me solved them all, except two which I feel didn’t quite close the case with facts presented), and I admire Sobol for putting a strong girl character in this 1963 kids’ book. Good times.
Isak, a strong silent barge of a man, blazes a trail through Norwegian wilderness and sets up a small holding through the sweat of his brow. He meets...moreIsak, a strong silent barge of a man, blazes a trail through Norwegian wilderness and sets up a small holding through the sweat of his brow. He meets Inger, a shy woman with a harelip, who becomes his wife. They have a child, and she kills it because it also has a harelip. This goes unremarked on for a time, then she is sent to prison, regretfully. Isak keeps building. Neighbors start to build near his land, but his stead keeps growing. A mine opens to the north. Inger comes back with a baby girl. They have two sons. One is a man of the land like his father, one a sensitive soul more suited to being a clerk. Inger has a bit of restlessness in her soul from being “in town.” Everything is taken in stride. Life goes on.
This book, which appears to have clinched Hamsun’s Nobel prize, also apparently sometimes has Nazi-leaning or at least eugenics-leaning message ascribed to it by readers. I didn’t get any of that from reading it (although Lapps as a whole are rather unfortunately portrayed as lazy beggars), just the plain, day to day struggle of strong pioneers, unaccustomed to dealing with feelings or consequences, working to live and to make their families strong. It’s spare and sparse prose, about spare and sparse people who do what they can because they know nothing else. I’m not sure I would call it a great work of literature – perhaps there’s a time, language, or culture barrier here – but it’s an admirable portrait of one kind of human condition. (less)
In the early 17th century, two Portuguese missionaries make a dangerous trip to Japan, where feudal lords want to drive Christianity out of Japan, and...moreIn the early 17th century, two Portuguese missionaries make a dangerous trip to Japan, where feudal lords want to drive Christianity out of Japan, and try to do so by torturing priests and peasants alike. Father Sebastian Rodrigues in particular wishes to discover the truth about a supposed apostate priest, Ferreira. Through several narrative approaches – third person omniscient at the beginning and ending, in epistolary form from Rodrigues’ point of view in the middle – Endo explores how Rodrigues must deal with the validity of his faith, the propriety of the Christian mission in Japan, the suffering of Japanese converts, and, most troubling of all to him, the silence of God in the midst of so much hardship. Very much like Christ, Rodrigues is informed on to the authorities by a supposed Christian, Kichijiro, who even after the father’s imprisonment continues to beg his forgiveness and understanding for the betrayal.
It’s a powerful novel, but for me it was ultimately, sadly, empty, because there was no answer to Rodrigues’ anguish over God’s silence in the face of cruelty and death. Indeed, it doesn’t seem to me to be a Christian novel at all; there’s no sense of God’s grace here, just a tremendous amount of futile pain.(less)
Newly obsessed train buff and maniacal killer Serge A. Storms and his druggie pal, Lenny, chase a briefcase containing five million dollars (a plot st...moreNewly obsessed train buff and maniacal killer Serge A. Storms and his druggie pal, Lenny, chase a briefcase containing five million dollars (a plot strand leftover from Florida Roadkill). Others trailing it include Russian hoodlums posing as Latinos, in the employ of the incompetent head of the world's only bankrupt drug cartel, and Jethro and Paul, a Hemingway look-alike and a passive-aggressive private eye, respectively. Serge, a book club of jilted ladies, and the mobsters all end up on the NY-Miami supertrain, the Stingray Shuffle. Along the way we also see old favorites like Johnny Vegas, and meet new nuts like Mr. Granda, leader of the down-and-out drug cartel, who is looking to buy a submarine, and Ralph Krunkleton, a tongue-in-cheek parody of Dorsey himself – his books feature all of Dorsey’s plot points and characters.
It’s another brilliantly constructed romp that is part thriller, part farce, and entirely, gloriously, deliriously wacky. And of course, it’s the setting and historical vignettes that really set this apart, giving it a flavor and a madness all its own. The hysterical standalone first chapter about the quest to create the first efficient mechanical orange harvester is worth the price of admission alone.(less)
Bernie Rhodenbarr, a dapper and skilled burglar with a taste for fine things and no propensity for violence, is found by the police in a Manhattan apa...moreBernie Rhodenbarr, a dapper and skilled burglar with a taste for fine things and no propensity for violence, is found by the police in a Manhattan apartment which is not his own, with the legal occupant in the next room bludgeoned to death. He flees the scene and hides out in a friend’s building, where he meets a suspiciously helpful girl who urges him to find the real killer. Tracking down the man who apparently framed him, Bernie gets caught up in a scheme involving blackmail, kinky sex, and lots of money.
This is Lawrence’s more light-hearted series, the flip side of Matt Scudder’s gritty rough justice, and it’s an enjoyable “noir lite” leavened with wit and humor, courtesy of Bernie’s wry, self-effacing narration. The mystery is clever, and although one of the twists requires a rather far-fetched coincidence (of all the apartment buildings in all of New York, she had to walk into mine…), but the solution to the main whodunit was a pleasant surprise. Bernie is a sympathetic character because he’s intelligent and benevolently self-serving, so I’m not surprised Block went on to write a number of sequels.(less)
The famous tale of the titular orphan, born to a mother of uncertain origin but assumed to be low-born, who grows up mistreated and half-starved in th...moreThe famous tale of the titular orphan, born to a mother of uncertain origin but assumed to be low-born, who grows up mistreated and half-starved in the workhouses of the time. He is apprenticed out to a coffin-maker, where the contempt and bullying he undergoes impels him to flee to London. There, he is taken in by master criminal Fagin, who trains streets urchins to be pickpockets to enrich his own coffers. Fleeing Fagin and the harsh, brutal house-breaker Sikes, he is taken in by a gentleman and then a young lady in succession, where his lot improves, but the mystery of his parentage, and how he figures into the nefarious plans of Fagin, Sikes, and the mysterious man Monks, remain to be realized.
This novel is of course widely regarded as a classic, and though I don’t believe it to be of the same quality as Great Expectations, it’s not hard to see why it has endured: the villains of the story are vivid, fully realized, horrifying at times, and almost noble in their way at others. Dickens set out to present an honest account of vice with this novel, and he certainly succeeded: his willingness to give motives, fears, and conscience to the villains, rather than simply making them cartoonishly evil, is fairly modern. (Fagin is an absurd anti-Semitic stereotype, but I overlook that as a reflection of Dickens' time and place.) The novel also succeeds as social satire; especially at the beginning, with its descriptions of 19th century England’s treatment of the poor, he comes off as sharp, angry, and as full of black, biting wit as Twain or Swift. The book has its flaws, however. Despite his upbringing, young Twist himself is nearly a cipher, cartoonishly beatific and good; his personality borders on mawkishness, even sanctimoniousness. The same can be said for Miss Rose, the lady who takes him in, which makes them uninteresting as well as unrealistic. It’s no accident that Fagin and the Artful Dodger are as well-known to the general public as the titular hero himself. Finally, Dickens’ social satire is rather cut off at the knees due to his decision to make Twist the son of a gentleman, as if actual lower-class paupers don’t deserve happy endings and decent treatment. It’s a terrific story in its essence, though, with rich characters, suspense, and broad humor, as well as a righteous social satire and invective against hypocritical power mongers.(less)
The third Blanco Country mystery. In this episode of game warden John Marlin’s adventures in law enforcement, a corrupt hunting guide named Duke Waldr...moreThe third Blanco Country mystery. In this episode of game warden John Marlin’s adventures in law enforcement, a corrupt hunting guide named Duke Waldrip kills an angry client who demands a refund after discovering his mounted head was faked; the country goes loco after a chupacabra sighting makes national news thanks to a less-than-dignified gossip show’s attention; loveable redneck crooks Billy Don and Red try to catch the goat-sucker with typically amateurish planning; a man specializing in Asian midget porn procures some deer antlers as an aphrodisiac for an unconfident star; and someone has been illegally shipping in and shooting exotic animals (which just might explain the chupacabra sightings).
It’s another strong entry in Rehder’s series – not actually a mystery, since the murderer is known from the beginning (except for a small twist at the end) and it’s pretty clear what the chupacabra actually is – but it’s a great amount of fun. The criminal is both dumb and devious; the hillbillies are self-centered, goofy and endearing; Marlin is an everyman, unlucky in love but optimistic, who doesn’t want to solve homicides but deep down enjoys the thrill. As Rehder brings the disparate plot lines together and apart and together again in brief, staccato flashes of drama and chaos (the porn plot thread impacts the case only tangentially but quite viscerally), the madcap energy keeps the pages turning. Comic madness plus suspense equals enthralling.(less)
The winner of the first Booker Prize, this novel takes place during the 1956 Suez Canal crisis and centers on Jack Townrow, a British man who makes hi...moreThe winner of the first Booker Prize, this novel takes place during the 1956 Suez Canal crisis and centers on Jack Townrow, a British man who makes his living as a corrupt Fund Distributor. With nothing holding him to home, when he is asked to come to Egypt (called the UAR in the novel though that seems to be chronologically off) by Mrs. Khoury, the widow of a man he met ten years earlier in Cairo, he goes. On the way, during a stopover in Rome, Townrow gets into an argument with two men over Britain’s knowledge or lack thereof of the Final Solution in 1942. Townrow is incensed that anyone would believe the British government to be capable of colluding in genocide, while the Israeli and Greek are more cynical. In Port Said, on the Canal, he goes to a bar he used to frequent, whose Greek proprietor spins him a yarn about Mrs K’s taking Elie’s body, along with a fortune in coins, to Lebanon though the Canal, which directly led to Nasser’s decision to nationalize it, precipitating the looming French and British invasion. Townrow drinks until he blacks out – it seems likely to the reader that the bar owner drugged him – and awakens naked and bleeding in the desert, and is attacked by a startled camel driver, causing his head and eye to be bandaged for most of the rest of the novel. After this incident, the novel becomes much more dream-like in its narrative, with Townrow a very unreliable narrator who gives false names, who cannot remember his nationality (though he asserts that he is Irish as part of a scam he tries to run on Mrs K), nor his age, nor whether his mother is alive. He imagines that Elie is still alive, or that he is watching the burial at sea. He meets an Egyptian Jew, Leah Strauss, who is married to an American locked in an asylum back home. She repels his attentions, though apparently she later becomes his lover, and she an obsession for him. Townrow walks though scenes of mob unrest (and kills a man, though apparently nothing comes of it), is arrested as a spy, and watches bloody gunfights between Egyptian and British troops with detachment. At the end of the novel, Townrow comes to believe that a citizen is not responsible for the morality of his government and has only himself and his own actions to answer for.
I don’t usually write such a detailed plot summary in a review, but this book, with its scenes that seemed to go nowhere but had huge influence on what came after, seemed to call for it. This is a somewhat bewildering novel, as it is difficult to tell how much of what was related actually took place or how much was a fever or drunken dream. Did Townrow really dig up the body, or watch a burial? Did he really kill a rioter accidentally? The book is very much Graham Greene – efficient British man gets in way over his head in a post-colonial foreign country because he doesn’t understand the history and culture the way he thinks he does – but a Greene novel as co-directed by Christopher Nolan and David Lynch. I understand that this is a story of self-discovery, and it’s written with skill and erudition, and its message that a person is responsible for his or her own morality is welcome enough, but there’s always a part of me that resents books which make no distinction between internal and external processes. How can the reader judge whether Townrow’s choices are apt and his journey worth taking when we can’t even know what’s happened to him?(less)
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this novel set during the end of Tsarist Russia concerns the titular handyman, Yakov Bok, an agnostic Jew who leaves his...moreWinner of the Pulitzer Prize, this novel set during the end of Tsarist Russia concerns the titular handyman, Yakov Bok, an agnostic Jew who leaves his village where he’s had nothing but personal and financial failure and tries his luck in Kiev. There in the big anti-Semitic city, Yakov poses as a goy Russian and becomes a brickyard foreman, not through deliberate machinations but a series of events and lies of omission which make this the easiest and safest course for him. But after a young boy is brutally murdered in the region, the authorities seize on Yakov, a Jew living illegally under false pretenses, as their scapegoat and charge him with killing the boy for magical Jewish blood rituals. He sits imprisoned with little hope, though one or two fair-minded officials sympathize with the injustice of his arrest.
This is a powerful novel, and it is compelling reading because the eventual plight of Yakov is of such interest. In Malamud’s setting, the system and its drivers are not clever or all-seeing, merely thuggish, ignorant, and hypocritical. Though there are bits of circumstantial evidence that hurt Yakov’s credibility (he had previously chased the boy out of the brickyard for vandalism, he took in an old Jew who had been beaten and stanched his bloody head with his own shirt), basically the case against him is made up of whole cloth, invented baseless lies about him personally and the Jewish religion in general. This is particularly ironic and brutal for Yakov because, as noted, he doesn’t consider himself a religious Jew: “From birth a black horse had followed him, a Jewish nightmare. What was being a Jew but an everlasting curse? He was sick of their history, destiny, blood guilt.” One of the book’s most powerful and moving scenes is when Yakov is visited by his humble, God-fearing father-in-law, whom Yakov sends away, saying God is an invention and that he hates him in any case for killing Job’s children, “not to mention ten thousand pogroms.” The book’s purpose, I believe is to expose injustice and to exhort all fair-minded people, especially Jews, to work against it: “there’s no such thing as an unpolitical man, especially a Jew,” Yakov thinks to himself near the end of the book. “You can’t sit still and see yourself destroyed.” And yet, because Malamud has shown that the system is not just weighted against the oppressed but completely unrestrained by any duty to truth or even credibility, that it can manufacture and disseminate inventions, I wonder whether this moral works. What is there to fight, if facts don’t matter and lone voices are silenced? The novel ends on an ambiguous note, but where this scintilla of hope may come from seems unfounded given the rest of Yakov’s experiences. (less)
Translated by Margaret Jull Costa. The fifth Captain Alatriste novel. The Captain and his young (but now rather handy with a blade) ward Inigo are in...moreTranslated by Margaret Jull Costa. The fifth Captain Alatriste novel. The Captain and his young (but now rather handy with a blade) ward Inigo are in Madrid, walking a tightrope between their strict standards of honor and their rather lowly status among the pomp, poetry, and provocation of that city’s many cavaliers and officials. Alatriste begins an affair with a famous and beautiful actress, María Castro (whose husband serves as some sort of half-jocular, half-bitter pimp), but is warned to stay away, as her favors are being enjoyed by none other than the king himself. The Captain, of course, cannot be told what to do, and alienates friends and enemies alike by continuing to see the actress. This, unfortunately, makes him the perfect patsy for a plot against the royal wastrel – and when Alatriste’s old enemy, the Italian mercenary Malatesta, pops up, they both know one of them must die at the hands of the other.
This is a superb historical novel, perhaps the best in the series. The vanity of the swordsmen for a decaying empire, duels over one wrong glance, strict adherence to considerations of honor, pageantry, assignations, plays, poets whose stars rise and fall at the whims of the court: this is Perez-Reverte’s 17th century Madrid, in all its gritty cinematic glory. The suspense is masterful, with Alatriste and Inigo both independently betrayed by their foolish pride or love, and racing, swords in hand, against a very short deadline separately but toward the same goal. Alatriste is not at all what the modern reader would think a hero – he’s a tired cynical old killer with no fear of death and his every action is mandated by his sense of pride and honor, not fairness or magnanimity – but he has a shred of sympathy for those over their heads and a few sparks of love in him, and that makes him a complex, fascinating figure. He’s the perfect centerpiece for these thrilling, swashbuckling adventures of a grittier, prouder time.(less)
The second Blanco Country mystery. Game warden John Marlin is again drawn reluctantly into a homicide investigation. It starts quirkily enough and in...moreThe second Blanco Country mystery. Game warden John Marlin is again drawn reluctantly into a homicide investigation. It starts quirkily enough and in his wheelhouse: a drought has made two prominent local men, Emmett Slayton, crusty old rancher (with loveable bumbling would-be crook hillbillies Billy Don and Red from the previous book working for him), and Sal Mameli, an ex-mafioso in the witness protection program, compete for the suddenly in-demand cedar brush-cutting business; Mameli and his nasty son are willing to turn violent to get the monopoly. Meanwhile, there are reports of a beautiful blonde anti-hunting activist pretending to seduce hunters and then vandalizing their gear. But when a hunter ends up shot to death, with one of John’s hunting buddies the prime suspect, things turn grim. John is forced to take a hand when the suspect grabs a hostage and demands that the game warden help clear his name; with the sexy activist now on his side, he digs for a motive while trying to forget Beth, his separated girlfriend.
This is a briskly paced, amusing, silly, and quite over-the-top ride, with a rather crowded cast of dozens, more than a few plots burning at once, and a handful of twists. Some of the characters are unfortunate caricatures (Sal’s dialogue, peppered with “dis” and “dat” and references to New Jersey, is poorly rendered and gets tiring, Inga the activist is a one-note fun sexy hippie chick type), but a core group of fleshed-out principals are sympathetic and multi-faceted. The mystery, hidden beneath all the mayhem and blundering, is solid and Rehder adds a twist that had me smiling admiringly at the end of the book.(less)
It should be noted that this book is not by Susan Mettaugh as listed, but rather “based on the characters created by" Susan Mettaugh, an "adaptation"...moreIt should be noted that this book is not by Susan Mettaugh as listed, but rather “based on the characters created by" Susan Mettaugh, an "adaptation" by Jamie White, based on a TV script by Dietrich Smith. It is a book written by a committee in pieces, for the purposes of extending a brand, in this case a television show – not to tell a story. In this episode, Martha calls the White House to opine that the new president should adopt a shelter dog. Then the president hears that Martha can talk and hires her to solve a problem with his new dog. He then puts her on a temporary committee to interview dogs to find out what they’re thinking. None of this leads to any resolution. It’s not particularly funny or charming. Scenes that are descriptions of TV moments that require visuals for humor or interest don’t translate to the printed page. Bonus points for pushing the shelter dog message, and shoehorning in quick facts and definitions in a well-intentioned if stilted effort to be educational. (less)
I suppose it should be noted that this book is not by Susan Meddaugh, but "based on the characters created by" her, an "adaptation" by Jamie White, ba...moreI suppose it should be noted that this book is not by Susan Meddaugh, but "based on the characters created by" her, an "adaptation" by Jamie White, based on a TV script by Matt Steinglass. A book written by a committee in pieces, for the purposes of extending a brand – not to tell a story.
Martha is a talking dog who loses her collar and gets snatched up by the dogcatcher. Once at the pound, she leads an escape, gets caught again, and then organizes the other dogs to help showcase their plight and get them adopted. I read this to my class. It was received with interest, but none of the fervor that they have for, say, Stink, Flat Stanley, or the incomparable Mercy Watson books (which read religiously but I don't list here because in my mind they are too short to count). This lack of fervor is understandable, as the Martha books seem not to have any of the kind of madcap humor aimed at adults as well as children or truly memorable eccentric characters that those series have. As you might think about a book written to promote a show, it's simply too careful for such things; in other words, it's rather boring.(less)
Stink writes a letter to a candy company and receives ten pounds of free samples, which sets him off on a letter-writing spree in search of more freeb...moreStink writes a letter to a candy company and receives ten pounds of free samples, which sets him off on a letter-writing spree in search of more freebies. His parents disapprove, but Stink has more on his mind, such as which pajamas to wear on pajama day at school, why his friend Webster is acting grumpy with him, and what exactly an idiom is. It’s more goofy fun – the second-grade version of madcap – enhanced by Stink’s hilariously silly cartoons (drawn by illustrator Peter Reynolds). I enjoyed this one more than the first, as all the plot points come together in the end to let Stink show everyone he can change his spots by being generous with what he has.(less)
Stink, Judy Moody’s short second-grade brother, worries that he is shrinking when he is appears shorter at night than he had the previous morning. Wit...moreStink, Judy Moody’s short second-grade brother, worries that he is shrinking when he is appears shorter at night than he had the previous morning. With this on his brain, he deals with his hair being dyed orange by his sister, losing the school pet, and starting a campaign to get James Madison (the shortest president) on a state quarter. Stink is a delightful character – geeky, silly, totally earnest about his obscure interests; and McDonald’s zippy, silly, funny prose is fun. I read this to my class, and while I’m not totally sold on some parts (as with Junie B. Jones, there don’t seem to be any consequences for outrageous behavior), they and I found it quite entertaining. (less)
The nameless narrator, having walked out on his rocky and three-days-old marriage in New York, stays at his brother-in-law James’ Cape Cod house that...moreThe nameless narrator, having walked out on his rocky and three-days-old marriage in New York, stays at his brother-in-law James’ Cape Cod house that stands empty following James’ own impending divorce from the narrator’s sister. Looking after his baby nephew to make ends meet, tooling around Cape Cod on a rusty, undersize bicycle his sister rode as child, he thinks back to how he and his wife met and the course their relationship took, while in the present he meets a fragile young woman who wants him to help her make a home movie about her dead son. The narrator was in a band that went nowhere, and Pernice, a hip indie singer-songwriter himself, seeps the book in media cool: earnest appreciation of good music in all its forms, from Doris Day and Mel Tormé to the Chills and the Frogs; name-dropping Tom T. Hall, Teenage Fanclub, Todd Rundgren, Ross McElwee, Mudhoney, Errol Morris, Nick Drake. Lou Barlow even appears briefly to meet the protagonist after a show. The narrator’s internal monologue is a peppered with self-deprecating one-liners (“Everything I knew about how fucked up the music business was came from a story about Fugazi I’d skimmed in ‘Magnet’”) and cynical observations (“I poked at the food like I was examining a pet’s stool for an ingested coin”).
I’m probably the exact target audience for this sort of prose, and I found it to be an engaging, if ultimately lightweight, novel. The narrator’s meandering musings on how little he’s done with his life and whether he’s permanently damaged his relationship with his wife are bittersweet and amusing. It’s not exactly the final word on the human condition, but moving in its way.(less)
Blue-eyed, blond student athlete Swede Levov, son of a Jewish glove maker in Newark, has built his life around the virtues of hard work and assimilati...moreBlue-eyed, blond student athlete Swede Levov, son of a Jewish glove maker in Newark, has built his life around the virtues of hard work and assimilation. Without expressly repudiating his father’s culture (he inherits and excels at the elder Levov’s trade), he marries a Catholic former Miss New Jersey who raises cows, moves to a grand home in the countryside, and lives in a manner that upsets the natural order of things as little as possible; he placates Catholic and Jewish fears alike; he gives off-putting people the benefit of the doubt; he relies on the quiet strength acquired by not using one’s physical strength. He and his wife Dawn have a stuttering daughter, Merry, who is doted upon and who at adolescence becomes enraged at America’s involvement in Vietnam and falls into the grossest ignorant, maniacal anti-Capitalist vitriol at every turn. She throws the Swede’s life into bitter, recriminating chaos when she bombs a post office in town and becomes a fugitive; he spends most of the book wondering how such a thing could have happened, poring over minor incidents in Merry’s childhood and how much he is to blame. His wife takes refuge in a sanitarium; he is tortured, psychically, by a vicious young woman who may or may not be an ally of Merry’s; he wonders about the health of his marriage and what his father thinks.
Over 423 pages, this overly verbose novel alternates between flashes of genius – musings on how we can ever really know another human, or what the consequences may be of the actions we take, to which we ascribe no particular importance but which may redound heavily on others’ lives and psyches – and numbing, indulgent repetition – the Swede scours the shards of his life, over and over, asking the same unanswerable questions, to no effect. The book begins with a first-person narrator who knew the Swede as a child, and who attends his forty-fifth high school reunion, meets up with some old crushes, and fades utterly from the narrative shortly afterwards; his existence, I suppose, was merely so Roth could tackle the subject of going home again, and to exorcise some thoughts on his Boomer cohorts. Who knows. There is some very high drama in a dinner party at the end of the book, in which emotions run high – the guilt, the resentments of spouses and neighbors, the accusations and confessions of adultery, jealously, class and culture resentment, panic, and secrets all roil in the Swede as he considers some new information about his daughter – and it would have made a very powerful novella, but this tome is just too much. It’s exhausting, not galvanizing.(less)
Hot-headed private detective R. J. Decker is hired to prove that TV host Dickie Lockhart cheats to win fortunes in Florida bass-fishing tournaments. D...moreHot-headed private detective R. J. Decker is hired to prove that TV host Dickie Lockhart cheats to win fortunes in Florida bass-fishing tournaments. Decker soon finds out that the stakes are so high people are willing to kill to keep secrets, but he finds an ally in an apparently deranged, roadkill-eating hermit who calls himself Skink, as well as a couple of honest cops. Adding to the cast are a trio of moron hillbillies, an amoral hottie who seduces Decker and helps frame him for murder, and the good Reverend Weeb, Lockhart's sponsor on the Outdoor Christian Network, whose hobbies include prostitutes, fake faith healing, and land-grabbing.
It’s just as madcap as the summary sounds, with colorful heroes and villains (such as the killer who spends the final scenes of the novel with a decapitated, rotting bulldog’s head clamped on his gangrenous arm). This is the second Hiaasen novel I’ve read, and it’s seems much of a piece with Tourist Season: the same crazed pace and surreal satire, as well as the same dubious plot points (I’m not sure how the gruesome death of Decker’s client, after the death of Lockhart, helps Decker fight the charge of blackmail and murder). It’s not worth dissecting, of course; it’s just manic zany fun.(less)
The sequel to Uncivil Seasons. This time, it is Cuddy Mangum, now police chief in Hillston, who is the narrator, and the eccentric scion of North Caro...moreThe sequel to Uncivil Seasons. This time, it is Cuddy Mangum, now police chief in Hillston, who is the narrator, and the eccentric scion of North Carolina aristocracy Justin Savile, now married and an expectant father, is relegated to a minor role. In this novel, George Hall, a black man on Death Row for the murder seven years previously of an off-duty white cop in a bar in the black side of town, is given an unexpected reprieve by the governor. The governor is running for reelection against war hero Andrew Brookside, whose heiress wife, Lee, just happens to be an old flame of Cuddy’s and whom he still loves desperately. When Hall’s brother, a vocal activist, is shot and killed, Cuddy starts to uncover a vast web of conspiracy and crime, from gun smuggling out of a rich paper magnate’s factory, to political intrigues by white power militia yahoos, to attempted blackmail of the philandering Brookside, to underhanded brinksmanship by the governor. After Cuddy’s friend, larger-than-life attorney Isaac Rosethorn, gets George Hall a new trial, some of these secrets threaten to come into the light, and Cuddy is targeted by the now-fugitive rogue cops.
Over 535 pages with a cast of dozens, this opus evokes not just the south, or the American justice system, but all of life’s rich pageant: the tattered glory of very old, very rich families who believe their money grants them superiority; the casual racism of the populace; the institutionalized racism of the death penalty, especially in the south; the dizzying highs and crushing lows of love won and lost. There are no “good guys,” and characters who come into conflict with Cuddy are not straw men but fully realized characters who have their own ideals and morals. Characters get married, have children, die; Cuddy tries to maintain his equilibrium as he walks a fine line between his affair with Lee, providing protection to Brookside, who has been getting death threats, and uncovering possible malfeasance in his lover’s husband’s campaign. Malone is a fine writer, capable of pathos, Wodehousian wit (“Fattie’s whole body, of which there was an unbridled glut, relaxed with a shiver…”), action, suspense, romance, and deep perspicacity. Malone doesn’t shy away from any issues; the novel culminates in a searing courtroom speech at Hall’s retrial, then quietly notes that about a month after this sensationalist event, another black man was executed without fanfare. This may not be the Great American Novel, but it’s a contender for the Great American Novel About Justice.(less)
In a galaxy far, far away, a group of ensigns and other junior officers aboard the “Intrepid” (flagship of the Universal Union, their mission to boldl...moreIn a galaxy far, far away, a group of ensigns and other junior officers aboard the “Intrepid” (flagship of the Universal Union, their mission to boldly go…) notice that strange things are afoot on this ship. Everything seems off, from the bizarre over-dramatic way their captain and commander act, to the ridiculously high fatality rate of junior officers on away missions, to the flat-out illogical events that seem to occur on a weekly basis (why do they always send the navigator out on away missions? Why do only decks six through twelve sustain damage during fights? Why do electrical components on the bridge sustain visible damage when the ship’s hull is hit with a torpedo?). With the help of an eremitic engineer who has spent his entire career hidden in the cargo tunnels to escape the captain’s notice, the crew realizes to their horror that, as real as their pasts and their experiences are to themselves, they are actually figures on a weekly television show (“and not a very good one”) produced in Hollywood, 2012. The crew concocts a ludicrous plot to go back in time and across the galaxy to confront their writer, and the actors that play them, to stop the show, and thus the carnage that impacts their own very real lives.
This is a pretty fun, but flawed, book that doesn’t take itself too seriously – though that might be a point against it, really. I felt that Scalzi used the meta-Narrative trope a bit too liberally, serving to excuse rather clunky chunks of exposition at times, especially at the beginning. Though the idea and the execution is quite good, Scalzi’s prose is unimpressive; he seems firmly in the camp of “tell don’t show” when it comes to character interaction. He constantly uses shorthand for emotion rather than description, using bland phrases such as “Duvall sat down, pissed,” or “’Thanks,’ Dahl said, irritated” or “he gave her a ‘what?’ look.” Scalzi also seems to think he has to explain jokes that would better off remaining subtle, as when an officer and the actor that plays him do a “freckle check” to ensure their exact match; this seems to me to be obvious, with no explanation needed, but Scalzi explains it anyway. He does this a lot: “’You met Lou at Pomona,’ Samantha says, mentioning her sister’s alma mater.” That last phrase is so unnecessary it’s distracting: clearly if one says you met your spouse at college, it’s understood that you attended that college with him, not that, say, you drove by one day and picked him up there. Finally, I felt that Scalzi didn’t think through the finer points of his universe. For example, the writer makes a decision to not televise the final show, hoping that it will affect the Universal Union universe “anyway;” since an enormous amount of life and happiness depends on this final show, it seems absurd that he would so recklessly gamble that such a change (never tested, unrepeatable, and unobservable) wouldn’t scuttle everything. I did enjoy the four final endings, which wrapped up a lot of the minor plot points. I felt that Scalzi was at his best here, putting a human face on the tragedies, loves, and challenges of the various people (once unnamed characters who became real people with entire lives and dreams) who were affected by the show’s universe-altering properties. So, nitpicking aside, this was a good read, and quite clever overall.(less)
The 1987 Newbery Winner, this fanciful tale is set in a quasi-medieval kingdom, and tells of the arrogant Prince Brat (as everyone calls him; his real...moreThe 1987 Newbery Winner, this fanciful tale is set in a quasi-medieval kingdom, and tells of the arrogant Prince Brat (as everyone calls him; his real name is Horace) and the titular Whipping Boy who has been impressed into service as the stand-in for all the punishments the Prince would get for his behavior, were he not of royal blood. When the clever whipping boy, Jemmy, decides to run away, the sullen, lonely prince insists on accompanying him. They are immediately captured and held for ransom by two doltish outlaws, then manage to escape, but remain only a few steps ahead of the pair.
This is a fun, lightweight adventure, full of memorable period characters such as the illiterate outlaw Hold-Your-Nose Billy (so named for his garlicky breath), Captain Nips the hot-potato seller, and Betsy who displays a trained bear for cash. It’s a good mixture of silliness and suspense in tone. Fleischman skillfully shows not only a gradual change in the prince, as he is shamed by being mistaken for the whipping boy, since he is lazy and illiterate himself, then saddened to learn what people think of him; but he also manipulates the readers’ expectations by showing that the prince’s life, in its own way, has been oppressive and unfair to him. When Jemmy learns that he is wanted for “abducting” the prince, he hopes that he and Horace have actually become friends during their adventure. A very enjoyably, witty tale.(less)
This 1991 Newbery winner tells of Jeffrey Magee, an orphan boy who runs from his unloving aunt and uncle’s house and keeps on running. Possessed of a...moreThis 1991 Newbery winner tells of Jeffrey Magee, an orphan boy who runs from his unloving aunt and uncle’s house and keeps on running. Possessed of a preternatural athletic talent, he passes, throws and catches his way across the playgrounds and fields of working-class and racially divided town Two Mills, dubbed “Maniac” for his skill. Eschewing school but loving books, he sleeps in a band shell, someone’s shed, even a zoo, when he isn’t being adopted by any family that will take him in. Magee is unusual in not just his athleticism, fearlessness and nomadic life, but also in his ignorance of race relations and his near-inability to see why anyone should care about skin color. So he trots from the east end of the town to the west, making friends equally, but also making enemies because of his blithe acceptance of everyone, and their acceptance of him.
Despite such heady themes, this is a fun, rollicking story, equal parts modern legend (told as if looking back long after the facts have become lost, in the language of legend, starting with “They say Maniac Magee was born in a dump…”) and morality tale. Over a series of vignettes, Spinelli shows how Maniac becomes known, then respected, until finally… Well, the climax is a bit of an anti-climax, in that Magee inspires change rather than trailblazing it himself, but perhaps that’s a point in its favor. Maniac is a hero, certainly, but he’s a product of his fears and the losses in his life as well as his persistence and friendliness; his speed and physical skill may be fictional, but his character is real.(less)
A collection of short fiction pieces – parodies, flights of fancy bordering on the absurd, and the blackest of black-humor riffs on dysfunctional fami...moreA collection of short fiction pieces – parodies, flights of fancy bordering on the absurd, and the blackest of black-humor riffs on dysfunctional families – followed by Sedaris’ debut and best-known memoir, “SantaLand Diaries,” and a few other humorous essays.
As a great fan of Sedaris, I’ve read all of his work, and enjoyed this book the least. As a fiction writer, Sedaris makes a damn fine essayist; I found his stories to be either too fantastic to be meaningful (“Don’s Story,” in which an obnoxious unemployed man is fawned over by Hollywood, and everyone else, for no reason at all; “Parade,” in which an obnoxious man has a series of unlikely lovers, from Charleton Heston to Mike Tyson), or simply too grim to be funny (“The Last You’ll Hear From Me,” in which a woman plans to incite violence at her funeral, “Season’s Greetings,” a truly repulsive story in which a psychotic woman kills a baby by putting it in the dryer and tries to blame it on her husband’s Vietnamese war child; “Barrel Fever,” in which a man recalls his mother’s passive-aggressive nastiness, and defends his own obnoxious behavior when drinking).
Of course there’s humor to be found in dysfunction – it’s what Sedaris made his career out of – but in fiction, Sedaris treats his demons not as things to be deflated through observation, but as therapy. “SantaLand Diaries,” which I’ve heard before, was fantastic, and the other essays, about smoking, being an apartment cleaner in New York, and writing for a kink magazine, were good as well, but they did not make up for the sour taste the stories left. (less)
Ray Smith (a stand-in for Kerouac himself), an itinerant poet, and his friend Japhy Ryder (Gary Snyder) search for an affirmative way of life in the m...moreRay Smith (a stand-in for Kerouac himself), an itinerant poet, and his friend Japhy Ryder (Gary Snyder) search for an affirmative way of life in the mindless bustle of the modern era. Preferring cabins and hiking to cities and desk jobs, the two live a Bohemian existence, getting drunk, bedding willing girls, and reciting haikus when inspiration strikes. Parties that last days and involve casual nudity and sex (though Ray seems to be eschewing sex, or simply can’t get lucky), hitch-hiking, poetry readings, and hikes to Desolation Peak are funded by the occasional job as a fire watcher up in the mountains. Along with other poets who live similar lives (every character is a pastiche of one of the figures in the Beat movement), they try to live a western version of Buddhism; they have differing ideas on how to live the dharma way, but call themselves equally bhikkhus (monks) and have good intentions. What they have in common is an inability to abide, or intense distaste for, the middle-class way of life in 1950s America. Ray stays on his mother’s property and spends his nights meditating, derided as a bum by his brother-in-law; Japhy sets out for a lengthy retreat in Japan.
Primary to this soulful novel is an honest, exuberant search for a life full of meaning – not necessarily a stoic life or even one beyond material concerns, but a meaningful one. Reading this novel at past forty, with my own insignificant flirtations with Buddhism, Zen, hitch-hiking and so on behind me, I’m not sure it has the power to move me. It probably retains the power to inspire even this modern generation of starry-eyed college students, however, if they could get past the sometimes primitive attitudes toward women Kerouac seems to have had. The novel is a little goofy and a bit slipshod in places (he accidentally calls Zaphy “Gary” once), but Ray is a charming, guileless character, and maintains a quiet assurance in the ability for a clear-eyed person to make his own truth.(less)
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