David G. Cookson's Blog, page 6

The Plot

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Oh, we writers are such a sad lot of self-flagellating artists. Our work is never appreciated. There is the sense that anyone can do it. There’s no money in it, it’s insanely hard to get anyone to read anything. And everything under the sun has been done.

So goes the way of Jacob ‘Finch’ Bonner, the protagonist of The Plot. For Jake once published a small and promising book that landed him on the New York Times ‘New and Noteworthy’ list tagging him with the label/curse of promising up and coming artist.

But that was a long time ago. Jake struggles to write his new novel, working as a writing instructor at a small college which has rebranded itself as a haven for other hopeful writers. And it is during this time that he runs into the arrogant young Evan Peters who brags of his ‘can’t miss’ wholly original plot, which he shares in a private session behind closed doors. Peters is the worst kind of student in that he believes there is nothing that anyone can teach him because his novel is already perfect. Jake has seen these types come and go. But Evan is different. His assurance that his novel is going to be a best seller stays with Jake even as he forgets most of his other students.

Cut to many years later, when Jake has taken a step further down the path of writing obscurity at a resort in upstate New York. He fully expected by this time that Evan Peters’ novel would be out there in the world in some form…but when he checks it out, he is shocked to realize that he died not long after the meeting in Jake’s office.

Pressured to make some money and come up with a new idea, he takes advantage of an idea once told to him in private…and he steals the plot to his next book.

The book, Called The Crib, becomes a smash hit and gains Jake his first taste of real success and the accompanying fame…which leads to a sudden rash of unwanted messages..

“YOU ARE A THIEF.”

Suddenly, Jake’s success is in jeopardy as he tries to discover the sender of the messages and whether he can withstand the threat to his livelihood, all the while hiding it from his publisher and his readers.

What results is a hell of a lot of fun. The setup is near perfect (man, writers are so annoying!) and the follow through pays off big time.

Thoroughly enjoyable, a thriller that dives deep into the insecurities of writers and asks the philosophical questions about responsibility to the story and how far one is willing to go to protect their stories.





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Mr. Wilder and Me

Mr. Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Billy Wilder (real life director of Some like it Hot, Double Indemnity, and my favorite: The Apartment) appears as a fictionalized but possibly accurate version of himself in a novel that masterfully synthesizes fact with fiction. For purposes of this review, I’m just going to assume that the facts about Billy Wilder are accurate (Apparently he wanted to direct the adaptation that would ultimately wind up in the hands Steven Spielberg as Schindler’s List, a fact I did not know.)
In the summer of 1977, a woman named Calista crosses paths with the aging director, who is at work on a Greek island doing his latest project, which is an adaptation of a story called Fedora. It is through the eyes of this naïve woman that we experience Famous Director Billy Wilder. She knows nothing about him, other than he is important and famous somehow, but she does not understand why.

What follows is a love story of a sort. But it is not romantic or sexual. It is a love of the cinema and an exploration of what changed between the old days and the onset of the summer blockbuster and movies made by “men with beards,” a la Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.
The book is at its best in the parts where Wilder is just allowed to talk, to pontificate…through Coe’s synthesizing of his research of Billy Wilder, he is able to approximate what a night out with him might have been like, or what having a drink or sharing some cheese with Billy Wilder might have been like.

Having only seen The Apartment, I can say that it is complicated…not quite a comedy, with an overtone of self harm, death and suicide. It is a love story and an indictment of corporate culture and the good old boy network…but it is also one of the sweetest movies you could ever see.

This book is delightful. It doesn’t really move forward from plot point to plot point. It stops and stays awhile and lets you enjoy the characters. And the result is a love story about a film director whose kind of films just don’t get made anymore.




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Tracy Flick Can't Win

Tracy Flick Can't Win by Tom Perrotta

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Fans of Tom Perrotta will surely recognize this as a sequel to the wonderfully amoral and mildly subversive novel Election which was made into a movie with Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick back in the 90’s. Tracy Flick Can’t Win takes place 20 years after the events of that novel (in which a high school election is rigged by a teacher with the intention of knocking Tracy Flick down a peg.) Here, Tracy is the assistant Principal at a suburban New Jersey High School, treading water, career ambitions sidetracked by some bad luck and a toxic culture that is more focused on sports victories than education. But fate intervenes and it looks like she will finally get the break she needs when the long-serving Principal steps down and she is first in line to be his replacement. But things are never easy for her, as other factors rear their ugly head, including a late addition to the race to become the new headmaster…

TFCW is at times infuriating, because it hits so close to the truth. At one point the thinly veiled comparison to Hillary Clinton cannot be missed (it was there in the original novel, only at that time she was not a 2-time candidate for President.) Tracy is capable, ready to step into to any job at any time, yet…she is inherently unlovable. Or at least, that’s how people see her. She is not a bad person; she is a sympathetic character. But given an alternative, many of her peers would be more than willing to pass her over for a warm and friendly MAN. That’s what makes this infuriating: because it’s real, and it’s true in the real world.

Like Election TFCW is told via multiple narrators, and it breezes along. It is a pretty short book that I tore through. I have read almost every one of Perrotta’s books and many of the same themes hit over and over. It’s usually some frustrated main character and usually features multiple infidelities. If you like it, you like it. If not…oh well.

Tracy Flick Can’t Win is not in the top tier of Perrotta’s books but it’s close enough.



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Paradise Falls

Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe by Keith O'Brien

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really believe that the best part of this whole story is when one of the activists at the heart of this sordid tale of out-of-control corporate irresponsibility takes EPA agents “hostage” as a quasi-publicity stunt and feeds them Oatmeal Raisin cookies…

In the late 70’s, on the east side of Niagara Falls residents began noticing the scent of fumes…that the houses built on top of the old Love Canal were not safe…and that this neighborhood was located on top of a toxic waste dump.

Hooker Chemical had been filling the old Love Canal with their waste since the 40’s and ‘50’s and then arranging to clear themselves of any future legal liability. By the time this information came to light, the homeowners were stuck with houses that were toxic and unsellable. Anyone living around the dumping site was vulnerable. Stories of children whose health issues are caused by living by a toxic waste dump are both enraging and heartbreaking. And in a playbook that has been repeated many times by big polluters, no one is truly held responsible yet the finger pointing is ever-present. The problem was left to cities and local government but the weight was borne by the residents, whose stories are weaved together in this tapestry of a preventable environmental disaster.

This is a story of activists, politicians, corporate interests and regular citizens which goes all the way up to the President of the United States and has had a deep impact on environmental law. It sounds remarkably familiar to an environmental tragedy in my own home town, where PCBs from the local General Electric were found in soil that they had donated to schools and playgrounds and ultimately became a source of sickness among the residents of that small town.

Paradise Falls is a terrific real-life thriller that will sound familiar to anyone who has ever found themselves steamrolled by a faceless corporation.



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The Nineties

The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I was tearing through this book and it probably took me a few days to realize the joke in the very title of the book, identifying itself as a book. And then reflecting on how funny it was that this would have to be identified as such. And then realizing how deliberate this must have been, because after all…we are talking about an ironic, self-deprecating, coming of age of the Gen X generation (the over-educated-working-beneath our potential just-to-keep-up generation to which I belong) and it is only right that we identify the fact that we are reading a serious BOOK about the history of a decade that seems so recent yet began 30 years ago.

Klosterman does a masterful job synthesizing politics, pop culture, news, music, opinions, theory and history in telling a cohesive story that roughly begins when the Berlin Wall fell and (spoiler alert!) ends with the Twin Towers falling in 2001. The very 90’s phenomenon of acting like nothing matters, the resistance toward success which leads to success which you can’t define; the career of Garth Brooks—a man I had never really thought of as a product of the 90’s…the rise of hip hop, the rise and fall and flattening of Bill Clinton and clear Pepsi…all of this and more are part of the tapestry of The Nineties.

For me, this book alternates between saying “well duh” and “oh yeah, I remember that.” The 90’s might have been the last tine you could agree to disagree with a person of a different political party. It might have been the last time some of us actually answered the phone. Or the last time we had to be home at a certain time to watch a TV program…but if we missed it, it wasn’t the end of the world.

It would be easy to say that I enjoyed this for the nostalgia, but I think it goes beyond that. Klosterman doesn’t just hold something up and go “remember the swing craze!” He examines what it meant and where it fit into the greater context of this ridiculous decade (I once caught the Cherry Poppin Daddies because I thought they were a ska band…which is about as 90’s as I could get).

The Nineties also examines the progression of a society that went from basically functional to almost completely falling apart dysfunctional as it is now. The greatest hits are there and when it’s over, you know it.

Excellent book. But you know. Whatever.





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My Dark Vanessa

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The first thing I said when I finished this was WOW.

In an age where there has been a reckoning for all kinds of terrible behavior by men, it’s easy to see the issue in the black and white/us vs them binary that serves as “discussion” both online and in person. It’s difficult to face all the terrible things that men are capable of and not feel shame as a man---though many find it very easy to feel no shame at all. But it is ever harder to see a gray area, if there is indeed a gray area when it comes to sexual assault.

It starts off innocently enough…that’s what we’d like to think…At a private school in Maine fifteen-year-old Vanessa and forty-two year old teacher Jacob Strane share a moment…it all starts when he brushes her knee. But soon it leads to much more. Soon the little visits after class become a scandal, whispered about in the hallways lead to potential fallout for everyone involved.

Cut to the adult Vanessa laying out what she believes was a consensual affair between two people. And indeed, contact with Strane continues well into her adulthood. The reality is that Vanessa’s abuse at the hands of a man who would turn out to be a serial abuser of young girls is both as obvious to others as it is subtle to her. And My Dark Vanessa is a brutal psychological profile that does not shy from the complications of agency and age of consent. Vanessa never believes she is a victim. But was she too young to realize it? Was she actually in love with Strane? Was he in love with her? At one point she muses that she has given over a third of her life to this man. At what point was this abuse? It is not an easy question. (for what it’s worth, it’s pretty cut and dry: Strane was an adult and Vanessa was a child. I am not at all advocating anything else.)

In a story that alternates between 2001 and 2017, the story of one man’s manipulation of a younger student is told. The effect of this manipulation extends well into Vanessa’s adulthood, and ultimately is on the fringes of the 2018 “Me Too” Movement. But it is much more complicated than that. And My Dark Vanessa does a great job of exploring all the angles of this abusive relationship, while also noting the harm that is inherent in forcing people to do anything, including speaking out and reliving trauma.
According to the acknowledgments page, Russell spent 18 years on this book. And the result is an amazing book. I marveled how well organized and plotted it was; how things mentioned in the “present” were later brought up in the “past.” Seeds were planted that grew later. And the scene where two of the victims compare notes in the coffee shop had to be the best part of the book: just when you think one thing is going to happen, it splits off into something else.

This was excellent, a thriller of a sort. Lolita is referenced quite a bit. I hope I've given this a decent review, the topic is out of my comfort zone.




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Even Greater Mistakes

Even Greater Mistakes: Stories by Charlie Jane Anders

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In this collection, Charlie Jane Anders has assembled 19 (I think, I counted fast) sci-fi stories that in some cases defy easy classification. Smart, thoughtful truly thought-provoking issues of gender and bigotry and the loss of free will or ability to see this world in unusual ways characterize this collection. On the cover she is compared to Ursula K. LeGuin and I can’t argue with that.

For my money, the best story is “Six Months, Three Days”: a man who can see the future falls in love with a woman who can see many possible futures. But “The Time Travel Club” about a fun group of wishful thinkers who end up running into an actual time traveler is another cool story, as is “Ghost Champagne” about a woman who is followed/haunted by her own ghost. I also enjoyed “Power Couple” about a couple who elect to take turns cryogenically freezing themselves for a time when they will have more time for each other. More challenging are trigger warning tales such as “Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue” about how childhood friends wind up on other sides of an ideological divide.

I appreciate the explanations at the beginning of all the stories, offering backstory and introductions, and in at least one case giving a spoiler alert as it is a sequel to one of Anders’ novels (I didn’t read that one because of that—I may want to read it later). As she points out in the intro, in the short story format, it forces a punchier type of storytelling. Anders gets to the point.

Very cool, very enjoyable.




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Go Home, Ricky!

Go Home, Ricky! by Gene Kwak

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Richard Powell, aka Ricky Twohatchet. A semi-professional wrestler working on the smaller circuits and about to hit the big time after this one last match. He also happens to believe he is at least one half Native American, which factors into his wrestling persona. In love with the woman of his dreams whom he met in an improv class and working at a school as a beloved custodian, Ricky is no one-dimensional troglodyte. Ricky is a renaissance man, who reads books and thinks about things. And his wrestling career is on the cusp of a breakout. Everything is looking up.

Until disaster strikes at the wrestling match, and suddenly Ricky’s life is thrown into turmoil. Thus begins a road trip to find his long-lost father…with his mother riding along. But Go Home Ricky is not just about the trip he takes, but the people he meets and the discoveries he makes about himself.

“Go Home” in wrestling terminology means to finish the match. And Go Home Ricky is about a man who needs to come to terms with who he is and where he’s going.

This is a delightful book. I don’t think I’m doing it justice with this review. It’s funny and heart-felt and I only wish there had been a tiny bit more about wrestling. I liked the resolution of the story, which I will not spoil here. So good.





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Family Trust

Family Trust by Kathy Wang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The story of the Huang family and their dying patriarch, Stanley Huang. Family Trust follows the machinations and maneuvers that occur as a result of many years of backbiting and mistrust and second marriages in a family. There is Stanley, who is dying but may have been exaggerating his net worth. There is his son, Fred, who is a frustrated minor investor in a corporate firm. His daughter Kate is outwardly successful with a career and a husband and two children…but just what is her husband doing in the attic all day? Then there’s Mary, the second wife, possibly the most misunderstood character in the whole novel. And then there is Linda, the first wife, who sees through Stanley in a way that few others do.

This flips from character to character, showing the effect that a terminal diagnosis has on the people who stand to inherit Stanley’s millions. And it is not pretty. There are few heroes. And then there are a series of shocking twists that shake the Huang family.

Family Trust is delightful. It unfolds and resolves in a satisfying way. This is the second book I’ve read from Kathy Wang. Excellent. 5 Stars.





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The Future of Another Timeline

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Time travel is possible, though it is not an invention but a discovery. Through geology, a series of portals have been discovered throughout the world and have led to a series of regulations governing them, with rules and norms. And there are those that chose to bend the rues and rewrite history.

These rewrites are known as “edits” and unlike other time travel sci-fi where one things happens that changes everything (a la Back to the Future) , it is not as sensitive or cut and dried. Big changes are not possible, but little changes are. Ideological schools supporting either a Great Man theory of history compete with the Collective Action theory of history. And it is within this framework of “edits” that this truly unique and wild novel takes place.

In 1992, 17-year-old Beth gets into a confrontation at a riot grrl concert…in 2022 Tess uses the technology to change the past for the betterment of women. And the rights of women are stripped away by a series of targeted edits by a group known as Comstockers, after the preening moral crusader Anthony Comstock (a real life person) .

What results is a thoroughly engaging tale that hops around several sensitive points in history, sometimes eliminating people and sometimes bringing them back…with the ultimate goal of Comstockers being the complete repression of women and then destruction of a key portal in time to lock in a terrible future for all of humankind. The war across time will occur on many fronts, with results that resemble but not completely resemble the world we live in now. And at the same time, the social commentary is prevalent and a warning to the people of earth about the dark age we may yet soon enter.

The Future of Another Timeline is a terrific read.




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