http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/1098113 en-US Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:30:38 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 27386835 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:30:38 -0700
Goldsworthy does a really stunning job of painting the intersection of two very different lives. It's all about exile and adolescence. Coming of age and the crucible of experience. It's a mystery and a study in character.

Well worth the read.]]>
author: Peter Goldsworthy
name: kurr
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/15/08
shelves:
review:
I know nothing of music or pianos. But for the brief 149 pages of this novel, I felt for a moment, as if I was part of that secret society that only musicians get to join.

Goldsworthy does a really stunning job of painting the intersection of two very different lives. It's all about exile and adolescence. Coming of age and the crucible of experience. It's a mystery and a study in character.

Well worth the read.
]]> 27362872 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:03:41 -0700
I'm reading the gritty yet dream-like Wolves Eat Dogs. It's unlike other crime fiction on the market. Too many books in this genre fall prey to "galloping gore". Thrillers that provide a series of ever-escalating shocks all the while ratcheting up the pace. So much rush-rush designed to obscure the truly bad writing. I mostly avoid those shelves at the bookshop.

But I was stuck for several hours in Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport and the lone kiosk appeared to have a boatload of crap for sale. Then I saw, on the bottom shelf, this little gem. Amazon in the US has the cover seen at left. Meh. The UK cover is much better. All dark-grey destroyed-forest realism with a howling wolf at centre stage. Very appropriate to the tale.

Cruz Smith approaches the story slowly. He's more concerned about the characters than is customary. Renko isn't a compilation of over-used stereotypes. The story doesn't unfold so much as slowly unwind. A spiral of revisted scenes, revisited lives. You care as much about the secondary characters as you do about the crime.

He writes economically, smoothly. Nothing grandiose. Nothing over the top. He shocks you with a throw way image. An unexpected revelation that resonates with sensory truths:

"He lifted his ear to the muffled flight of an owl and the soft explosion that marked the likely demise of a mouse. Leaves swirled around the bike. All Chernobyl was reverting to nature. Sometimes it crept in while he watched."

or

"You're sure you latched the cow's stall? She could have been eaten by wolves. The wolves could have gotten her."
Roman acted deaf, while Lydia, the cow, peeked through an open slat of her stall; the two put Arkady in mind of a pair of drunks who remembered nothing.

It's rich and delicious and worth reading slowly.

Take my word for it.]]>
author: Martin Cruz Smith
name: kurr
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/15/08
shelves:
review:
Cruz Smith has a way with words. A very heady, intoxicating way. As a matter of fact he's having his way with me right now.

I'm reading the gritty yet dream-like Wolves Eat Dogs. It's unlike other crime fiction on the market. Too many books in this genre fall prey to "galloping gore". Thrillers that provide a series of ever-escalating shocks all the while ratcheting up the pace. So much rush-rush designed to obscure the truly bad writing. I mostly avoid those shelves at the bookshop.

But I was stuck for several hours in Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport and the lone kiosk appeared to have a boatload of crap for sale. Then I saw, on the bottom shelf, this little gem. Amazon in the US has the cover seen at left. Meh. The UK cover is much better. All dark-grey destroyed-forest realism with a howling wolf at centre stage. Very appropriate to the tale.

Cruz Smith approaches the story slowly. He's more concerned about the characters than is customary. Renko isn't a compilation of over-used stereotypes. The story doesn't unfold so much as slowly unwind. A spiral of revisted scenes, revisited lives. You care as much about the secondary characters as you do about the crime.

He writes economically, smoothly. Nothing grandiose. Nothing over the top. He shocks you with a throw way image. An unexpected revelation that resonates with sensory truths:

"He lifted his ear to the muffled flight of an owl and the soft explosion that marked the likely demise of a mouse. Leaves swirled around the bike. All Chernobyl was reverting to nature. Sometimes it crept in while he watched."

or

"You're sure you latched the cow's stall? She could have been eaten by wolves. The wolves could have gotten her."
Roman acted deaf, while Lydia, the cow, peeked through an open slat of her stall; the two put Arkady in mind of a pair of drunks who remembered nothing.

It's rich and delicious and worth reading slowly.

Take my word for it.
]]> 27362594 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:00:39 -0700
So, let's start with the good. Jonathan Carroll is a competent writer. His words flow. There's coherency. There's consistency.

*taps fingers trying to think of more good stuff*

He evokes an expat view of Italy that I found authentic.

*continues tapping*

The parts of this tale that take place in the real world are OK.

*taps for a very long while and gives up*

Everything else I have to say about this book is profoundly negative and spoiler-laden. Beware!

I buy books by rummaging around the store shelves, collecting an ever-growing armful of possibilities. Then, if it's a decent shop, I sink into a chair and proceed to read the first few pages of each selection. Those first pages make-it or break-it. Bones of the Moon slipped through this first test.

The main character, Cullen, a woman who had broken up with a most unsuitable man, has an abortion and then hooks up with a supremely decent guy and moves to Italy.

That all seemed cool... So I was taken in.

Plus Cullen has dreams. Wild and vivid dreams. Ones that seem more real than reality. Dreams she can pick up and continue night after night.

The capper was the endorsements. It seemed everyone and his dog was raving about Carroll's previous novel The Land of Laughs. They were convincing. I bought it. Hook, line and sinker.

Sinker was the operative word. The story is half dream-fantasy/half real-world=shit. With links between them. Things in her dreams influence her life and vice-versa. She dreams she has special powers and voila, in real life she can zap a overzealous guy across a room.

The dreams are over the top. Out there, in a I-can't-belive-this-crap kind of way. Like a kids book depicting boring things in too-bright colours. As if Carroll tried for simplicity and stumbled into simple instead.

The dream characters are cut outs with an agenda that you quickly discern, and if you're me, detest. Turns out Mr. Carroll really wanted to write a book bashing abortion. Maybe telling a straight anti-choice tale wouldn't sell. Who knows?

All I know is I hate books with a mission. Particularly ones that go out of their way to appear like something they're not. I expected well written speculative fiction. Instead I got a moralistic story cloaked in a poorly developed fantasy/horror shell. Perhaps Carroll hoped to thereby make it more palatable.

I gagged. You might, too.

Consider yourself forewarned.]]>
author: Jonathan Carroll
name: kurr
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1988
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 07/15/08
shelves:
review:
This is not an endorsement. Let's just get that clear. Cause I'd hate for anyone to buy this book thinking I recommended it's twisted little narrative...

So, let's start with the good. Jonathan Carroll is a competent writer. His words flow. There's coherency. There's consistency.

*taps fingers trying to think of more good stuff*

He evokes an expat view of Italy that I found authentic.

*continues tapping*

The parts of this tale that take place in the real world are OK.

*taps for a very long while and gives up*

Everything else I have to say about this book is profoundly negative and spoiler-laden. Beware!

I buy books by rummaging around the store shelves, collecting an ever-growing armful of possibilities. Then, if it's a decent shop, I sink into a chair and proceed to read the first few pages of each selection. Those first pages make-it or break-it. Bones of the Moon slipped through this first test.

The main character, Cullen, a woman who had broken up with a most unsuitable man, has an abortion and then hooks up with a supremely decent guy and moves to Italy.

That all seemed cool... So I was taken in.

Plus Cullen has dreams. Wild and vivid dreams. Ones that seem more real than reality. Dreams she can pick up and continue night after night.

The capper was the endorsements. It seemed everyone and his dog was raving about Carroll's previous novel The Land of Laughs. They were convincing. I bought it. Hook, line and sinker.

Sinker was the operative word. The story is half dream-fantasy/half real-world=shit. With links between them. Things in her dreams influence her life and vice-versa. She dreams she has special powers and voila, in real life she can zap a overzealous guy across a room.

The dreams are over the top. Out there, in a I-can't-belive-this-crap kind of way. Like a kids book depicting boring things in too-bright colours. As if Carroll tried for simplicity and stumbled into simple instead.

The dream characters are cut outs with an agenda that you quickly discern, and if you're me, detest. Turns out Mr. Carroll really wanted to write a book bashing abortion. Maybe telling a straight anti-choice tale wouldn't sell. Who knows?

All I know is I hate books with a mission. Particularly ones that go out of their way to appear like something they're not. I expected well written speculative fiction. Instead I got a moralistic story cloaked in a poorly developed fantasy/horror shell. Perhaps Carroll hoped to thereby make it more palatable.

I gagged. You might, too.

Consider yourself forewarned.
]]> 27362349 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:57:18 -0700
I picked up Takami's Battle Royale mainly because the guy in the bookshop opened his mouth and said 'cult novel'. Just two little words and I was immediately consumed with the need to know why.

Wikipedia gives the following plot outline:

"The novel and manga Battle Royale takes place in an alternate timeline, according to the book's prologue, where Japan is a police state, known as the Republic of Greater East Asia. Once a year, randomly selected classes of middle-school students are forced to take arms against one another until only one student in each class remains. The program was created, supposedly, as a form of military research, though the outcome of each battle is publicized on local television. The first battle in the series took place in 1947, and the novel follows a battle that takes place in May 1997.

Under the guise of a 'study trip', the students are corralled onto a bus and gassed, only to awaken on an evacuated island or isolated area with metal collars around their necks. After being briefed about their role in the program, the students are issued bags that carry bread, water, a map, a compass, a flashlight, a watchguns and knives, some students acquire useless items like boomerangs, some common dartboard darts, or a fork. In some cases, instead of a weapon, the student receives a tool; Hiroki SugimuraToshinori Oda receives a bulletproof vest.
To make sure the students obey the rules and kill each other, the metal collars around their necks track their positions, and will explode if they linger in a 'Forbidden Zone' or attempt to remove the collars. The Forbidden Zones are randomly chosen areas of the map that increase in number from hour to hour, re-sculpting and shrinking the battlefield and forcing the students to move around. The collars secretly transmit sound back to the organizers of the game, allowing them to hear the students' conversations, root out escape plans, and log their activities.

The students are also given a time limit. If twenty-four hours pass without someone killing someone, then all of the collars will be detonated simultaneously and there will be no winner."

And as plot intros go, that's a pretty decent one. The scenario is set up in the first 30 pages. The remaining 570 pages are devoted to the "battle".

Let's just say it was a looooonnngggg 570 pages.

Problems?

1. The book is not well written. It feels like a lumbering engine. Doing what it has to do mechanically but without any real finesse. Now maybe that's caused by a less than gifted translation from the original Japanese. I'll give it the benefit of the the doubt...

2. While I was expecting somewhat stereotypical characters, these just seemed soooo tired. So predictable. The dialogue at times had me wincing from the melodrama. Yes, teenagers can be melodramatic. Yes, ninth grade is filled with "roles" that students fill: the loner, the spoiled rich kid, the class clown, etc. But this book did nothing to elevate those truths. It's been a long while since I read Lord of the Flies. Maybe it was equally simplistic. But my gut says, no.

3. The love story that evolved between X and Y. *slaps hand to forehead* Could you get a more traditional piece of dreck? He's the protector, the "strong" one. She's the weak female, needing his protection. Yadda. Yadda. This may be every ninth grade girl's (or hell, every middle aged women's) dream. But I found it tired. I've seen traditional done soooooo much better elsewhere.

4. The "plot twists" were obvious well in advance. There were no shocks. I didn't cling to the book wanting to know what happend next. The ending while perhaps crazy-thrilling and oh-so-amazing to the cultees, seemed painfully apparant by about page 150.

When I compare the truly shocking texts found in Naked Lunch or Fight Club, to the truly sad tale that is Battle Royale, I see no basis for comparison. Battle Royale may be a cult novel but it doesn't measure up in any of the complex ways I expect cult novels to challenge, shock and engage me.

I suspect Battle Royale got its "cult" moniker purely due to two things: it's protagonists are young and it contains plenty of violence. Sadly these two factors do not make it good!

I'm putting my copy in the book recycling.

Yes, it's that bad.]]>
author: Koushun Takami
name: kurr
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1999
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 07/15/08
shelves:
review:
Cult novels are hard to resist. Lord of the Flies. Naked Lunch. A Clockwork Orange. Fight Club. Startling. Brutal. Original. Compelling. They frighten me to death, yet I love them. It's that kind of complicated.

I picked up Takami's Battle Royale mainly because the guy in the bookshop opened his mouth and said 'cult novel'. Just two little words and I was immediately consumed with the need to know why.

Wikipedia gives the following plot outline:

"The novel and manga Battle Royale takes place in an alternate timeline, according to the book's prologue, where Japan is a police state, known as the Republic of Greater East Asia. Once a year, randomly selected classes of middle-school students are forced to take arms against one another until only one student in each class remains. The program was created, supposedly, as a form of military research, though the outcome of each battle is publicized on local television. The first battle in the series took place in 1947, and the novel follows a battle that takes place in May 1997.

Under the guise of a 'study trip', the students are corralled onto a bus and gassed, only to awaken on an evacuated island or isolated area with metal collars around their necks. After being briefed about their role in the program, the students are issued bags that carry bread, water, a map, a compass, a flashlight, a watchguns and knives, some students acquire useless items like boomerangs, some common dartboard darts, or a fork. In some cases, instead of a weapon, the student receives a tool; Hiroki SugimuraToshinori Oda receives a bulletproof vest.
To make sure the students obey the rules and kill each other, the metal collars around their necks track their positions, and will explode if they linger in a 'Forbidden Zone' or attempt to remove the collars. The Forbidden Zones are randomly chosen areas of the map that increase in number from hour to hour, re-sculpting and shrinking the battlefield and forcing the students to move around. The collars secretly transmit sound back to the organizers of the game, allowing them to hear the students' conversations, root out escape plans, and log their activities.

The students are also given a time limit. If twenty-four hours pass without someone killing someone, then all of the collars will be detonated simultaneously and there will be no winner."

And as plot intros go, that's a pretty decent one. The scenario is set up in the first 30 pages. The remaining 570 pages are devoted to the "battle".

Let's just say it was a looooonnngggg 570 pages.

Problems?

1. The book is not well written. It feels like a lumbering engine. Doing what it has to do mechanically but without any real finesse. Now maybe that's caused by a less than gifted translation from the original Japanese. I'll give it the benefit of the the doubt...

2. While I was expecting somewhat stereotypical characters, these just seemed soooo tired. So predictable. The dialogue at times had me wincing from the melodrama. Yes, teenagers can be melodramatic. Yes, ninth grade is filled with "roles" that students fill: the loner, the spoiled rich kid, the class clown, etc. But this book did nothing to elevate those truths. It's been a long while since I read Lord of the Flies. Maybe it was equally simplistic. But my gut says, no.

3. The love story that evolved between X and Y. *slaps hand to forehead* Could you get a more traditional piece of dreck? He's the protector, the "strong" one. She's the weak female, needing his protection. Yadda. Yadda. This may be every ninth grade girl's (or hell, every middle aged women's) dream. But I found it tired. I've seen traditional done soooooo much better elsewhere.

4. The "plot twists" were obvious well in advance. There were no shocks. I didn't cling to the book wanting to know what happend next. The ending while perhaps crazy-thrilling and oh-so-amazing to the cultees, seemed painfully apparant by about page 150.

When I compare the truly shocking texts found in Naked Lunch or Fight Club, to the truly sad tale that is Battle Royale, I see no basis for comparison. Battle Royale may be a cult novel but it doesn't measure up in any of the complex ways I expect cult novels to challenge, shock and engage me.

I suspect Battle Royale got its "cult" moniker purely due to two things: it's protagonists are young and it contains plenty of violence. Sadly these two factors do not make it good!

I'm putting my copy in the book recycling.

Yes, it's that bad.
]]> 27362138 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:54:35 -0700
Ever since I discovered Michel Faber a few months ago, I've been chewing my way through his backlist. First The Courage Consort - very intellectual, very amusing, very resonant. Then The Crimson Petal and the White - which was so very different from The Courage Consort that I had to check twice that it was indeed written by the same author. Finally midway through The Crimson Petal and the White, I picked up Under the Skin. It went off like a camo bomb, leaving me bloody and mentally reeling.

What drew me to it? Even before I saw that it was a Faber book, I slipped it off the shelf because of its black cover. The silvery highway winding through the darkness was a powerful image. (See the Harper-Collins Canada cover version at left) It looked like a crime novel. Perhaps a creepy crime novel. I almost put it back, creepy true-crime-possibly-serial-killer stories are a dime a dozen. But this was Faber. I knew he'd do something interesting with it. At least I hoped he would!

I started reading it and true to form it was well written. Descriptive. Visceral. It wasn't until page 50 or so that I started to realize this was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Literally.

From then on it just spiraled out of all expectation into a realm I was unprepared to visit. It conjured up so many images and questions. I found myself dreaming about it at night and waking up creeped totally out.

So, what's it about exactly? Can't say. Any words I utter would spoil its uniquely disturbing spell. It's got to come out of nowhere and ambush you. All I can say is that it sets out to unsettle and does a remarkable job of achieving its goal.

Let me close by saying that this book made me seriously re-assess my eating habits. Bravo, Faber!

You tried damn hard, but I'm still an omnivore.

Barely.]]>
author: Michel Faber
name: kurr
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 07/15/08
shelves:
review:
Maybe this little gem is on its way to being a cult novel. Hell, maybe it already is and I'm just out of the loop. Whatever the cult status, this book did all those creepy, shocking, eye-opening, frission-y things that cult novels are supposed to do. There was even one point where I sat wavering between burning the text in my then blazing fire or diving back in to finish reading with relish.

Ever since I discovered Michel Faber a few months ago, I've been chewing my way through his backlist. First The Courage Consort - very intellectual, very amusing, very resonant. Then The Crimson Petal and the White - which was so very different from The Courage Consort that I had to check twice that it was indeed written by the same author. Finally midway through The Crimson Petal and the White, I picked up Under the Skin. It went off like a camo bomb, leaving me bloody and mentally reeling.

What drew me to it? Even before I saw that it was a Faber book, I slipped it off the shelf because of its black cover. The silvery highway winding through the darkness was a powerful image. (See the Harper-Collins Canada cover version at left) It looked like a crime novel. Perhaps a creepy crime novel. I almost put it back, creepy true-crime-possibly-serial-killer stories are a dime a dozen. But this was Faber. I knew he'd do something interesting with it. At least I hoped he would!

I started reading it and true to form it was well written. Descriptive. Visceral. It wasn't until page 50 or so that I started to realize this was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Literally.

From then on it just spiraled out of all expectation into a realm I was unprepared to visit. It conjured up so many images and questions. I found myself dreaming about it at night and waking up creeped totally out.

So, what's it about exactly? Can't say. Any words I utter would spoil its uniquely disturbing spell. It's got to come out of nowhere and ambush you. All I can say is that it sets out to unsettle and does a remarkable job of achieving its goal.

Let me close by saying that this book made me seriously re-assess my eating habits. Bravo, Faber!

You tried damn hard, but I'm still an omnivore.

Barely.
]]> 27361902 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:51:46 -0700
The backdrop of the story, the frame on which it's set, is the Spanish Civil war, but the story is one of memory, motivation, truth and chance. It's a story within a story within a story. The Civil war tale as told publicly. The Civil war tale as revealed privately. And the journalist's tale in separating the public from the true.

Even if you aren't obsessed enough to sleep in doorways, as I have, you might still enjoy these books for all the ways they aren't saying the same old thing in the same old way.]]>
author: Javier Cercas
name: kurr
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 07/15/08
shelves:
review:
(I read this in it's English translation - but the only book entry here on GoodReads was the Spanish original!)

The backdrop of the story, the frame on which it's set, is the Spanish Civil war, but the story is one of memory, motivation, truth and chance. It's a story within a story within a story. The Civil war tale as told publicly. The Civil war tale as revealed privately. And the journalist's tale in separating the public from the true.

Even if you aren't obsessed enough to sleep in doorways, as I have, you might still enjoy these books for all the ways they aren't saying the same old thing in the same old way.
]]> 27361730 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:49:44 -0700 Vernon God Little on a train. I really found it annoying for the first 50 pages. The southern-white-trash dialect, the over-used coming-of-age approach. But then (since I was trapped on that train for 8 hours) my brain suddenly flip-flopped and I found myself loving Veron God Little. Didn't want it to end. Found myself recommending it to strangers. It was a roller-coaster-esque experience that no one plans for but everybody (who is like me) loves!]]>
author: DBC Pierre
name: kurr
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/15/08
shelves:
review:
I started reading DBC Pierre's Booker Prize winning novel Vernon God Little on a train. I really found it annoying for the first 50 pages. The southern-white-trash dialect, the over-used coming-of-age approach. But then (since I was trapped on that train for 8 hours) my brain suddenly flip-flopped and I found myself loving Veron God Little. Didn't want it to end. Found myself recommending it to strangers. It was a roller-coaster-esque experience that no one plans for but everybody (who is like me) loves!
]]> 27361569 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:47:55 -0700
The tricky thing about hype is, it inflates the expectations of readers. Takes what may be good and creates desires for greatness. Not only that it sometimes draws in readers for whom the book was never intended.

Luckily, I was exactly the person for whom Toews was writing. I got the humour. I enjoyed the daisy-chain of thoughts that the protagonist expressed. I could relate to teen-aged Nomi, whose family imploded, not on the mean streets of some inner city but on the quiet lanes of a Mennonite town.

And when it comes to "coming of age" novels, that's relatively rare for me. I have yet to be able to finish Catcher in the Rye. I only made my way through Vernon God Little because I was trapped on an 8-hour train.

Nomi is a girl experiencing the world as many religiously-raised girls do. Perhaps I have too have felt that disconnect between what those around me believe and my own gut feelings about the way the universe works. Perhaps she resonated more with me than Holden or Vernon because she is a she.

Whatever the cause, I liked the book. It made me smile and it didn't unduly tax my brain at a time when my brain was taxed-to-the-relocating-limit.

It's not a keeper. but then again, for me, nothing is. *laughs* Take that as you will.]]>
author: Miriam Toews
name: kurr
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/15/08
shelves:
review:
I've read many reviews of this book. Some rave. Others pan. I gather that in Canada this book got some press -- It won the Governor General's Award and was nominated for the Giller Prize. There was hype. No doubt about it.

The tricky thing about hype is, it inflates the expectations of readers. Takes what may be good and creates desires for greatness. Not only that it sometimes draws in readers for whom the book was never intended.

Luckily, I was exactly the person for whom Toews was writing. I got the humour. I enjoyed the daisy-chain of thoughts that the protagonist expressed. I could relate to teen-aged Nomi, whose family imploded, not on the mean streets of some inner city but on the quiet lanes of a Mennonite town.

And when it comes to "coming of age" novels, that's relatively rare for me. I have yet to be able to finish Catcher in the Rye. I only made my way through Vernon God Little because I was trapped on an 8-hour train.

Nomi is a girl experiencing the world as many religiously-raised girls do. Perhaps I have too have felt that disconnect between what those around me believe and my own gut feelings about the way the universe works. Perhaps she resonated more with me than Holden or Vernon because she is a she.

Whatever the cause, I liked the book. It made me smile and it didn't unduly tax my brain at a time when my brain was taxed-to-the-relocating-limit.

It's not a keeper. but then again, for me, nothing is. *laughs* Take that as you will.
]]> 27361399 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:46:15 -0700
There's East Germany post-Stalin. With all it's recursive layers of surveillance.

There's the protagonist, Stefan Vogel. So explanatory. So lacking intent. So very quick to do the unthinkable for reasons warped-ly almost-understandable.

There's Stefan's brother and father and mother. Each grabbing control when they can and slinking away when they must.

There's Katje and Kitty and Inge.

There's America shining in the distance.

And of course the glass of wine. *splash*

Let's just say it's starts out ending badly and you read on because you have to know why...]]>
author: James Lasdun
name: kurr
average rating: 3.13
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 07/15/08
shelves:
review:
Not in a horror-flick-gone-wild kind of way, rather in a chilling, squicky fashion. The story is like a particularly horrible, yet riveting car crash. Something verging on obscene, yet radiating a twisted human essence.

There's East Germany post-Stalin. With all it's recursive layers of surveillance.

There's the protagonist, Stefan Vogel. So explanatory. So lacking intent. So very quick to do the unthinkable for reasons warped-ly almost-understandable.

There's Stefan's brother and father and mother. Each grabbing control when they can and slinking away when they must.

There's Katje and Kitty and Inge.

There's America shining in the distance.

And of course the glass of wine. *splash*

Let's just say it's starts out ending badly and you read on because you have to know why...
]]> 27361128 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:43:28 -0700
Devisive. Brassy. Contrary. She's a writer after my own heart.

She made Viginia Woolf jealous. And prompted DH Lawrence to call her a "loathesome reptile".

Her biographer quotes her at 16 saying:
‘I’m so keen upon all women having a definite future – are not you? The idea of sitting and waiting for a husband is absolutely revolting and it really is the attitude of a great many girls . . . It rather made me smile to read of your wishing you could create your fate—O how many times I have felt just the same. I just long for power over circumstances.’


Her headmistress said Katherine was:
‘imaginative to the point of untruth’.


She embraced risk and died at thirty-four with only 3 books under her belt. Before her death, she spent time at a Bavarian health spa. Even though it provided no cure it did furnish a conucopia of material for writing. She produced a set of short, sharp, comic stories. Each satirizing the cultural clash between English and German patrons of a German pension. She takes risks and mostly succeeds. The pieces she writes take place before WWI and are littered with offensive, incisive, nationalistic slights and threats.

It amused me to no end.

Katherin Mansfield re-invented the short story and I am eternally grateful!]]>
author: Katherine Mansfield
name: kurr
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 07/15/08
shelves:
review:
Ah, Katherine Mansfield!

Devisive. Brassy. Contrary. She's a writer after my own heart.

She made Viginia Woolf jealous. And prompted DH Lawrence to call her a "loathesome reptile".

Her biographer quotes her at 16 saying:
‘I’m so keen upon all women having a definite future – are not you? The idea of sitting and waiting for a husband is absolutely revolting and it really is the attitude of a great many girls . . . It rather made me smile to read of your wishing you could create your fate—O how many times I have felt just the same. I just long for power over circumstances.’


Her headmistress said Katherine was:
‘imaginative to the point of untruth’.


She embraced risk and died at thirty-four with only 3 books under her belt. Before her death, she spent time at a Bavarian health spa. Even though it provided no cure it did furnish a conucopia of material for writing. She produced a set of short, sharp, comic stories. Each satirizing the cultural clash between English and German patrons of a German pension. She takes risks and mostly succeeds. The pieces she writes take place before WWI and are littered with offensive, incisive, nationalistic slights and threats.

It amused me to no end.

Katherin Mansfield re-invented the short story and I am eternally grateful!
]]> 20532097 Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:57:28 -0700
The protagonist is a drug-dealing thief. He steals goods, partly to cover the cost of living, but mostly because he can. He's someone on the fringe of everything. No stranger to violence. No fan of propriety. His story is told in pieces, forward and backward. Slices of the present cut with the unforgettable past.

The things he does. The way he acts. It should be repellent. I'm sure that for some folks it is. But for me? I loved it. Every gritty scene. Every wrenching moment. Every poetic description of Saskatchewan's rural no man's land.

Annette Lapointe crawled inside this character's skin and as you read you are pulled under, too. Her words feel authentic. Her framing of scenes is acutely astute. Her dialogue conjures up real voices. The pace of the story is slow but relentless. The juxtaposition of cold action and achingly deep emotion. It tore my heart out.

I never keep books. I never re-read books. Ever. So the fact that this book still sits on my physical bookshelf is a testament to the impact it had on me. I can't bear to give it away because I'm 100% certain I will want to read it again.

Eventually - when I can bear to part with it - I'll be donating this one to the library. I want everyone to taste the richness of Lapointe's prose.

]]>
author: Annette LaPointe
name: kurr
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/20/08
shelves:
review:
Something tells me that a big chunk of the reading public will probably not enjoy this book.

The protagonist is a drug-dealing thief. He steals goods, partly to cover the cost of living, but mostly because he can. He's someone on the fringe of everything. No stranger to violence. No fan of propriety. His story is told in pieces, forward and backward. Slices of the present cut with the unforgettable past.

The things he does. The way he acts. It should be repellent. I'm sure that for some folks it is. But for me? I loved it. Every gritty scene. Every wrenching moment. Every poetic description of Saskatchewan's rural no man's land.

Annette Lapointe crawled inside this character's skin and as you read you are pulled under, too. Her words feel authentic. Her framing of scenes is acutely astute. Her dialogue conjures up real voices. The pace of the story is slow but relentless. The juxtaposition of cold action and achingly deep emotion. It tore my heart out.

I never keep books. I never re-read books. Ever. So the fact that this book still sits on my physical bookshelf is a testament to the impact it had on me. I can't bear to give it away because I'm 100% certain I will want to read it again.

Eventually - when I can bear to part with it - I'll be donating this one to the library. I want everyone to taste the richness of Lapointe's prose.


]]> 20533811 Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:50:26 -0700
I liked it. ]]>
author: Matthew Carnahan
name: kurr
average rating: 2.96
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/20/08
shelves:
review:
I like this kind of book. You know? Freaky and gritty and maybe a little uncomfortable and startling. I like it when things are said concisely and there's appropriate use of slang. I like my protagonists dirty and morally ambiguous.

I liked it.
]]> 20533683 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:04:42 -0700
author: Charlie Huston
name: kurr
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/19/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 20532344 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:35:16 -0700
Most people can immediately choose. Probably based on some first clown encounter during early childhood. For me, I always found clowns a bit scary. Never funny. My only exposure to them was the Santa Claus parade -- Clowns bundled up in parkas with painted faces and mitts. Lurching about. Ill-trained. I never had the opportunity to see professionals at work, folks like Barnum and Bailey under their big top doing their well-oiled gags.

So I picked up Clown Girl with mixed feelings. I admit I was drawn to the rubber chicken cover but repelled by the thought of clowns. A whole book about clowns. Clown life. Paragraph after paragraph of clown-isms and clown cliches. The ups and downs of clowndom. I almost put it directly back on the shelf

Luckily, I have a book selection process: I wander about the shop randomly picking up books whose titles, authors or covers interest me. Then armed with the stack of books I find a space, preferably a sitting space, and I read the first 10 pages of each book. The author's words either make or break it.

For 80% of my picks, I jetison them after the 10 pages. They bore me or are badly written or are just ill suited to my mood.

I knew I had to buy Clown Girl after only half a page. Two paragraphs to be exact:

Balloon tying for Christ was the cheapest balloon manual I could find. The day I bought it, it was hidden on the lowest rung of a dusty spinner rack down at Callan's Novelties, snuggled alongside shopworn how-to guides: Travel Europe by Clown Circuit!, Rubber VomitSkits for Beginners, and Latex: The Beauty of Cuts, Bruises, Scars, and Contusions.

Want to tie the Virgin Mary? Start with a light blue balloon.For Jesus, use easter green. There are tips on tying a crucifix, a lamb, even a Sacred Heart in two sizes, big or small. Ooo la la! These tricks are simple but smart. The grand finale is the pieta,Mary with a grown Jesus sprawled across her lap in a four balloon extraveganza like a tangled link of sausages, or a Japanese bondage trick. The pieta or bondage, sacred or profane; in balloon art the two are that close together, one thin twist.

You either love that or you hate it. It either makes you want to read more of what Monica Drake's crazy imagination can dream up, or it leaves you cold and disinterested.

I loved it. Clown Girl took me places I never dreamed one could go. That is my kind of book.]]>
author: Monica Drake
name: kurr
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/19/08
shelves:
review:
Here's a question for you: Clowns -- Funny or Scary?

Most people can immediately choose. Probably based on some first clown encounter during early childhood. For me, I always found clowns a bit scary. Never funny. My only exposure to them was the Santa Claus parade -- Clowns bundled up in parkas with painted faces and mitts. Lurching about. Ill-trained. I never had the opportunity to see professionals at work, folks like Barnum and Bailey under their big top doing their well-oiled gags.

So I picked up Clown Girl with mixed feelings. I admit I was drawn to the rubber chicken cover but repelled by the thought of clowns. A whole book about clowns. Clown life. Paragraph after paragraph of clown-isms and clown cliches. The ups and downs of clowndom. I almost put it directly back on the shelf

Luckily, I have a book selection process: I wander about the shop randomly picking up books whose titles, authors or covers interest me. Then armed with the stack of books I find a space, preferably a sitting space, and I read the first 10 pages of each book. The author's words either make or break it.

For 80% of my picks, I jetison them after the 10 pages. They bore me or are badly written or are just ill suited to my mood.

I knew I had to buy Clown Girl after only half a page. Two paragraphs to be exact:

Balloon tying for Christ was the cheapest balloon manual I could find. The day I bought it, it was hidden on the lowest rung of a dusty spinner rack down at Callan's Novelties, snuggled alongside shopworn how-to guides: Travel Europe by Clown Circuit!, Rubber VomitSkits for Beginners, and Latex: The Beauty of Cuts, Bruises, Scars, and Contusions.

Want to tie the Virgin Mary? Start with a light blue balloon.For Jesus, use easter green. There are tips on tying a crucifix, a lamb, even a Sacred Heart in two sizes, big or small. Ooo la la! These tricks are simple but smart. The grand finale is the pieta,Mary with a grown Jesus sprawled across her lap in a four balloon extraveganza like a tangled link of sausages, or a Japanese bondage trick. The pieta or bondage, sacred or profane; in balloon art the two are that close together, one thin twist.

You either love that or you hate it. It either makes you want to read more of what Monica Drake's crazy imagination can dream up, or it leaves you cold and disinterested.

I loved it. Clown Girl took me places I never dreamed one could go. That is my kind of book.
]]> 20532236 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:33:38 -0700
author: Gillian Flynn
name: kurr
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/19/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 20532185 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:33:03 -0700
author: Charlie Huston
name: kurr
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/19/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 20532026 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:29:27 -0700
* Short, sharp scenes
* Bank robbery gone wrong
* Brutes of all stripes: Russian, Italian, Irish
* Scary violence nicely sandwiched between grim humor
* Mutes who aren't mute until they're really mute
* Scary tubes which are prone to re-visitation
* People named Bling and Mikal and Mothers
* Gritty-noir-decomposing-Philly

*smiles as head spins*

It's dark and blood-spattered and running on jet fuel.

Read it. Just read it.]]>
author: Duane Swierczynski
name: kurr
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/19/08
shelves:
review:
Swierczynski's book has it all:

* Short, sharp scenes
* Bank robbery gone wrong
* Brutes of all stripes: Russian, Italian, Irish
* Scary violence nicely sandwiched between grim humor
* Mutes who aren't mute until they're really mute
* Scary tubes which are prone to re-visitation
* People named Bling and Mikal and Mothers
* Gritty-noir-decomposing-Philly

*smiles as head spins*

It's dark and blood-spattered and running on jet fuel.

Read it. Just read it.
]]>