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I've always been a fan of zombie epics and this is certainly one of them, and among them, the best. I won't go into a whole lot of detail in hopes not to spoil anything for anyone, but if you were to take the kind of drama-between-survivors kind of scenario like LOST, put it in the South and add zombies, well, that's exactly what The Walking Dead is. It's less about WHAT the individuals are surviving, but more about THAT they are surviving. Entire sections of the novel ignore the talk of zombies altogether, focusing on the characters, their back stories, their lives and loved ones than how much "buck shot shell it took to kill the sum'bitch."
Rick Grimes is the main chracter, a small town cop, and he's immediately likeable with his plucky attitude and believable humane side (he cries more than once within the first few chapters of the first graphic novel.) He's a family man, focused on getting to his family and protecting them. He is someone we are supposed to like, see ourselves as and relate to. Even though in later novels his choices are questionable, but all the while, he is a man who thinks about the group's benefit over his own every time.
The art style is modestly manga-like, everyone is kind of exaggerated looking and it lends itself well to the story, giving it a kind of alternate reality vibe. Tony Moore does the art on just this one graphic novel, the art style shifting to a darker, more realistic style from the second novel on.
Robert Kirkman has worked with Image comics for quite some time and has done some tremendous work, I'm told, that is--if you can excuse the tongue in cheek farse BATTLE POPE, that is. But, still, this is a masterwork here. Truly engaging story, great art, honest and believable characters.
True escapism and a totally addicting read. I suggest picking up two at a time so that you have a lot of content to read since one graphic novel can be zipped through in a matter of hours. Despite the short reading time on each novel, it's worth taking your time and savoring the details and really enveloping yourself in the art. Soon to be a TV series on AMC, these books are fantastic for not just horror fans! ]]>
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Bukowski's alter ego, Hank Chinaski makes his first appearence in Post Office, a semi autobiographical novel taking place of the course of 12 years of his life in servitude of the United States Postal Service.
Bukowski is really love it or leave it. With his writing, there is no time for metaphors and frilly turns of phrase. Everything is very cut and dry and many sentences are ten words or shorter, Hank Chinaski coming off as very clipped and to the point. While Bukowski's work is known for meandering and many times diverting off into wildly (possibly imagined) sexual encounters with hard luck women, there is often a nugget of insight or wisdom in human nature within all of the "fucking" and "giving it to her."
I like Bukowski because his work is very much a time capsule into yesteryear, when men worked hard, drinking was a normal occurance and being a general shit was recieved with a certain harshness and a pointed-finger accusatory, "You're a god damned WINO!" instead of today, where alcoholism is a disease meant to be taken very seriously.
Among the women beating, drunken nights, racism and general assholiness that is Hank Chinaski's life, there is no silver lining. You get what you get. Life sucks, then you die. Starting off with "this book is a work of fiction and is dedicated to nobody," you know what you're in for. And while reading Bukowski's work, you get an understanding that a hard luck life is right outside the door, one lay-off, one divorce, one drunken night away. Bukowski often argued with the rich, cigar-smoking types about "what about worrying about the poor? Don't we deserve some concern?" And how bad off he had it, always looking for a quick buck and a class broad to take home. But in the end, we'll all like Chuck Bukowski, a little lost, a little hungry, a little weary and just a little hard lucked.
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"So far, this book is hilarious. Pure raw and scathing humor from the Dirty Old Man himself. "
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There's no doubt in my mind that Chabon is an amazing talent that can really weave a complex and deep story and give you oodles of detail without it ever dipping into boredom. But, I am beginning to see his career edging in the direction that Spielburg's did. Spielburg started with fun romps of movies, the Indiana Jones and Jaws and ET, movies that people love. And slowly, he began to become too serious and got too far from what initially got him famous, basically rejecting his early work in favor of "challenging himself" as an artist.
Chabon started with Mysteries of Pittsburgh (awesome) and Wonder Boys (doubly-awesome) but he began to edge toward the 3rd person narrative and focused less on telling a fun story and packing in more personal hatred of nazis and becoming drawn to the things that originally made him want to write in the first place (comic books, swashbucklers, Sherlock Holmes) but all given a "I Hate Nazis" spin to them, much like Spielburg's later works (Saving Private Ryan, etc. etc.)
And just as much I wish that Spielburg would return to his more jovial works (except Indiana Jones), I also wish that Chabon would do the same. As muched as I adored Kavalier & Clay, I loved Grady Tripp even more. But, I can't really judge -- he won the Pulitzer for Kavalier & Clay, when he hadn't even been nominated for any book prior to that, so that must say that he's headed in the right direction.
Either way, The Yiddish Policeman's Union is another third person narrative tale, this time in the fictional city of Sitka, Alaska and populated by Jews that have been brought there in order to avoid the concentration camps and the further-expanding jaws of the Nazis. But all of that was forty years ago, as Yiddish Policeman's takes place in modern day. The main character is a dejected detective on the prowl for a stiff drink and a reason to not get involved in anyone's businss but his own. He has given up on God, on religion, and pretty much everything else, causing those around him, his so-called love ones to treat him with disdain and tongue-in-cheek hostility. He discovers a dead body in the hotel that he lives in and there starts the investigation into Mendel, the chess prodigy and quite possibly the Messiah of their generation.
The story is well told, with Landsman searching for the murderer, the pieces of himself that he lost along the way and all set against the ticking clock of the Jews having to leave the city of Sitka in a few short months. This is a alternate history novel, so there are references to things that never really happened but help expand upon the world, such as Marilyn Monroe become the next Mrs.JFK since in that world, it was Jackie-O that got hit, not her hubby. Those little touches made me smile, and it made the world more fun and made me wonder, would would happen if little things like that did happen? And I guess that's what makes Jewish authors so compelling to me, because their entire population was nearly eradicated and it wasn't even that long ago, but yet they have seemed to be the ones that have adjusted the most to it since. The best comedians are typically Jewish and it's beginning to become clear that the best raggae singers and authors as well as also Jewish.
I'd recommend this book to fans of mysteries, alternate histories, those who are fans of Chabon and those who want to learn some Yiddish slang in the process! I just wouldn't want to make anyone think that this was as good as Kavalier & Clay, nor is it even as good as Wonder Boys, but still fun none the less. It'd be a good book to read during the winter time, so the feeling of the cold outside could bring the frosty world of Stika alive even more so.
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Andrew
read and liked
Katie's
review of Crooked Little Vein:
"The more I think about this book, the more I hate it.
The back of the book promised that our hero would be traveling through "America's underbelly" to restore "God, civility, and Mom's apple pie". A back like that promi...more "
"The more I think about this book, the more I hate it.
The back of the book promised that our hero would be traveling through "America's underbelly" to restore "God, civility, and Mom's apple pie". A back like that promi...more "
Probably the worst book I have ever read.
Written purely for shock, Warren Ellis (first time as a novelist here instead of his usual role of comic book and graphic novel writer) has weaved a tale that covers the spectrum of all things disgusting and wrong sexually in the modern United States. Normally, authors like Chuck Palahniuk and Will Christopher Baer can comment on the country in such a way because they themselves are American, but when someone from England comments on the country, it almost seems like he is looking down his nose at the US or just trying to make a joke. Don't get me wrong, this place is full of weirdos and I am by no means one of those assholes that has an American flag sticker on the back of his enormous pickup truck. But, little things like this kind of make the author seem bias in a way and trying to stir up shit with the US in a way. Anyway, I'm not sure if that was intention, just something I noticed.
I was just going to leave my review as just "probably the worst book I have ever read," and I'm not going to waste my time writing an awfully lengthy review for something I hated every second of reading. So, I'll give you the Cliffnotes version.
-Poor characters, not fully developed or interesting
-A lazy writing style that is almost devoid of detail
-Stupid plot stolen from The Evil Dead series.
+Occasionally funny if a little over the top to the point of silliness
+Good satirization of fat, stupid Americans and their steakhouses
+Good cover art?
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