BEST REVIEW CONTEST (Fall 2012)

[Dlmrose, Moderator Emeritus]

This is thread where you can submit reviews for the Best Review contest. The thread is open for submissions and will close at Midnight EST on November 17, 2012. Voting will start the next day and run until the end of the day on November 30th. The person whose review gets the most votes will get to design a 20 point task for the Winter Challenge.

Just a reminder that each person can only submit one review - but you can make edits to your review up until the end. The review does not have to be any particular length and doesn't have to be a positive one (i.e. you can choose to review a book you didn't like).

PLEASE DO NOT comment on people's reviews in this thread - this is for submissions only - you will be able to comment when voting begins.

SPOILER ALERT!- These reviews may include spoilers.

[Chris]

Review of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

submitted by Chris MD

This is a very hard book for me to review because while I can appreciate the cleverness--even the audacity--of the idea, I didn't like the book. Maybe I just don't like the idea of taking a national icon and turning him into an axe murderer of the undead, maybe I don't like visiting more tragedy on a man whose life was already full of it, maybe I just don't like horror stories. Most likely it is a combination of all three, plus a couple of serious flaws in the story.

As Grahame-Smith explains in an author interview at the end of the audiobook version, the idea came from seeing an abundance of books about Lincoln and a lot of novels that involved vampires. Why not join the two? So he devised a plot in which Lincoln discovers his beloved mother, Nancy Hanks, did not die from tainted milk but was instead killed by vampires. He vows to become the greatest vampire hunter of all time, redoubling his efforts when he realizes the institution of slavery is controlled by vampires as a way of assuring a steady supply of helpless victims. Grahame-Smith does an excellent job of weaving this story into the real threads of Lincoln's life: his ability with an axe, his early jobs, his first loves, marriage, children, legal career, debates with Stephen Douglas, and rise to the White House.

Where the story falls apart for me is in the vampire world the author creates and the human reaction to it. There are way too many vampires. If there were that many bloodsuckers in early 19th century America, they would have drunk the entire population dry in no time. Lincoln can't seem to swing an axe without hitting a vampire. Yet despite their numbers and apparent intelligence, they do an amazingly poor job of trying to kill their most troublesome hunter. The presence of vampires is supposed to be a big secret, and yet it seems like just about everyone knows about them (except for Mary Todd Lincoln, which makes no sense given other details revealed in the book). Finally, the character of Henry Sturgis, the vampire who befriends Lincoln and whose role in the story is troublesome as best, remains an enigma.

There is a lot of blood and gore--it is a horror story after all--but in many places it seems almost cartoonish. As squeamish as I tend to be, the book never really spooked me. The author does a better job portraying Lincoln's grief at his numerous losses.

I listened to the audiobook read by Scott Holst, who gave a very workman-like performance. He never seemed to get out of second gear. I would have at least thought he would have tried to add a southern accent to the appropriate characters. I'll have to be honest, Abe, I like you better without the bloodlust.

[Bucket]

Below is my review of The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. 5 stars!

In the 1930s Mexico of Graham Greene’s classic novel, God and religion have been outlawed and any priest who hasn’t escaped or relinquished his faith has been hunted down and killed. The last surviving priest who still practices religious rites is not only running for his life, but self-destructing under the weight of both his outlaw situation and his past.

I was fascinated by this unnamed main character, a ‘whiskey priest’ who drinks endlessly and is struggling to come to terms with the mortal sin he has committed and feels he can never be absolved of. Even as he runs and hides and does all he can to avoid capture and be able to continue serving his faith, he is buried deep in his own emotional upheaval and the heavy judgment his faith imposes.

The whiskey priest has many fascinating musings during his journey, but the most profound to me is this:

"That was another mystery: it sometimes seemed to him that venial sins -- impatience, an unimportant lie, pride, a neglected opportunity -- cut you off from grace more completely than the worst sins of all…in his innocence, he had felt no love for anyone; now in his corruption he had learnt."

Before he committed his mortal sin, the whiskey priest had no empathy for anyone. His faith was a pulpit to stand on. Now, “in his corruption,” he sees what the grace of God and Catholic piety really mean, and his faith becomes a rock to cling to.

Though Greene’s novel was widely criticized by members of the Catholic clergy when it was first published for being ‘anti-Catholic’ and offensive. For me, though, and many others, including Pope Paul VI who met Greene in 1965, the novel celebrates piety and faith in their pure and empathetic forms.

Greene's novel is full of gorgeous description of the decaying Mexican towns and the cold and mountainous countryside. Greene wrote his novel in short and very powerful scenes that pack a psychological punch. They are uncomfortable and beautiful at once. When the priest helplessly watches the policemen drink down his wife, I was livid with anger on his behalf. When he meets an elderly man in prison who takes comfort in being near him, I was moved by the connection they quickly formed.

The end of the whiskey priest’s story is both triumphant and tragic and verifies the power and the glory of the whisky priest’s Catholic faith. This is a short novel and a quick read, but it is profoundly affecting. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who has struggled to understand their own identity and sense of purpose: namely, everyone. Greene’s explorations of humanity and emotion are not often matched in their impact.