Peter Rock's My Abandonment is the first book read in my Book Club by Proxy project. That's the one where I read other people's book club books for them. AmyH told me about this book. I probably wouldn't have bothered except the book was only 225 pages long and the blurb on the back sounded interesting.
My Abandonment is the story of a thirteen year-old girl named Caroline who lives in the woods outside of Portland with her father. Caroline and her father get by pretty well when you consider that they live in a hobbit hole. Their lives are shattered when a jogger stumbles upon their home and reports them to the authorities.
I must admit that this book took me by surprise. I read it as a joke and wasn't expecting much, but My Abandonment was an exciting, well-written story that was a pleasure to read. It was a damn good book. It's actually one of the highlights of my literary year. I would highly recommend this book to you, AmyH, or anyone else with a few hours to spare and an interest in quality reading.
What follows is the portion of the post dealing with cheating at book club. It starts out with my in-depth synopsis of My Abandonment's eight chapters and then ends with a couple talking points that should convince others that you've read the book. The thing to remember here is that what follows will absolutely ruin the book for you. Do not proceed if you have any interest in reading the book for yourself.
The Happy Days in the Forest Park (p. 1 - 48): Caroline and her father live in the woods outside of Portland. Caroline is thirteen; her father is a veteran who has bad dreams about helicopters. They've got an underground dwelling full of sleeping bags, a chess board, and Caroline's toy horse, Randy. They keep to themselves, but once a week they put on their city clothes and go into town. They go to the library, the Safeway, and stop by the post office for the father's government check. One day a jogger accidentally stumbles upon their camp while Caroline is lounging in a tree. The jogger tries to talk to Caroline, but she stays in her tree and hides. The jogger returns a few days later with the police, a canine unit, and a man named Jim Harris. Caroline's father is arrested and Mr. Harris takes Caroline.
Getting Caught and Put in the Building (p. 49 - 76): Mr. Harris drives Caroline into the city. During the drive, she makes reference to a foster family and a younger sister. Mr. Harris turns Caroline over to a woman named Jean Bauer at some sort of detention center. This woman cleans the girl up and gives her some new clothes. Then she subjects Caroline to a series of physical and psychological exams. She determines that Caroline is is good shape for a girl who has been living in the woods for years. Miss Bauer eventually returns Randy the Toy Horse and gives Caroline her own room...one that looks out on her forest.
Living on the Farm (p. 77 - 110): After a chapter apart, Caroline and her father are reunited outside the detention center. The police drive them out to a horse farm owned by a man named Mr. Walters. He's agreed to employ Caroline's father on his farm. In addition to the job, Mr. Walters is allowing Caroline and her father to stay in the bunkhouse on his property. Things are looking up. Caroline meets some neighbor boys and thinks they might turn out to be friends. She gets her first bicycle. She's excited about starting real school in the fall. Her father isn't doing as well, though. He starts to get paranoid and begins to imagine people spying on them from behind hay bales. He tells Caroline to pack her old backpack. As the chapter ends, the two sneak out to the bus stop in the middle of the night.
Living on the Streets of the City (p. 111 - 134): Caroline and her father head back to the woods, but that turns out to be a bad idea. They then decide to hide out in public...where they walk on opposite sides of the road and communicate with umbrella signals. Caroline gets a haircut and dye-job. She and her father set up camp in an abandoned hotel. Caroline's father starts doing "deliveries" for a mysterious man named Vincent. You can tell he's a villain because he has a pointy beard. Guys with pointy beards are always bad. Caroline gets recognized by Taffy, a girl she met at the detention center in Part Two.
Escaping Down Through the Snow (p. 135 - 160): Caroline's father is getting even more paranoid, and he decides they need to hop a train out of town. The only thing is that he's never done it before and he falls off the train as he tries to board. They opt for a bus. Caroline's father gets angry at her when she talks with a woman on the bus. He forces the bus driver to let them off in the middle of nowhere on a snowy night. They sleep outdoors and try to keep warm at a thermal spring. The next day they break into a cabin. Caroline recognizes all the books in one of the rooms. She used to have the same books when she lived with her foster family. They spend the night in the cabin and then use snowshoes and a sled to travel to the nearby town of Sisters, a town that Caroline's father seems to know.
Losing Father in the Cave (p. 161 - 192): Caroline and her father hike out of town, but are soon lost in a sudden snowstorm. They stumble upon a yurt and join a woman and very weird boy inside. The four of them spend the night in the yurt. In the morning Caroline and the very weird boy go out for a sled ride and the two adults stay inside to talk things over. The woman eventually comes out wearing a wig and Caroline's father's backpack. She gives Caroline's snowshoes to the very weird boy and the two of them head off. Caroline goes back into the yurt to find out what's going on. Her father is dead. It appears that he has been electrocuted or burned by the yurt's heating mechanism. Not knowing what to do, she puts her father's body on the sled and wanders around in the snow. She stumbles upon a keg party taking place in a cave. She hides her father's body and joins the party. She waits until the party breaks up and then brings her father's body into the cave. Sitting by the fire, Caroline thinks back and remembers when she first met her father. She remembers how he took her from her foster parents' backyard in Boise. She remembers how he handcuffed her in a hole while he joined the search party to look for her. She remembers how he changed her named to Caroline. She remembers how she used to see her picture on missing posters.
Boise (p. 193 - 210): Having left the man's body in the cave, Caroline heads for Boise. She walks around freely, knowing that nobody will recognize her now that's she's grown and looks different. She walks by her old house and then goes to her former elementary school where she sees her sister Della. She follows Della for awhile and then goes over to a cemetery. She can't find the headstones she's looking for. She takes the bus to the mall where a couple girls follow her into the bathroom and try to talk with her. They run for their mother when they notice that Caroline's foot is bleeding all over the place from frostbite. Caroline runs out the emergency exit.
There is Not Much to Say (p. 211 - 225): Time has gone by. Caroline has left Boise and returned to the town of Sisters. She gets her GED and studies at the community college. She becomes a part-time librarian. She also gets a job as caretaker at a rich man's house. He's rarely there and doesn't mind that Caroline lives in a yurt on his property. She compiles her thoughts and journals into eight sections and types them up at the library. She finds out that Randy the Toy Horse is actually a Chinese acupuncture model.
Something to Discuss in Your Book Club: Perhaps the book's most important sentence takes place on page 222 when Caroline writes about the book she's writing about her experiences with her father. She says, "I remember the conversations as best as I can. If I make up words he says at least they're close or taken from his notebook. I stitch it together and I only add what I have to. If I don't remember something I skip over it and leave it out." Is Caroline a reliable narrator? Do these sentences change your thoughts on what you've read in the earlier chapters? What do you think Caroline added to her book? What do you think she skipped over or left out?
Smart-Sounding Thing to Memorize and Regurgitate at Your Book Club: Did anyone else here find this book reminiscent of the work of independent film director, Kelly Reichardt? I certainly did. Rock's Portland-area setting combined with his protagonist's fascination with canines, brought to mind Reichardt's 2008 film, Wendy & Lucy. Should a film adaptation of My Abandonment be in the works, I think she should definitely be in the running to direct. I can already see Will Oldham in the role of "Nameless". I love the irony of a man with so many nicknames portraying a nameless character. Hah hah!
Did you join a book club because you thought it was the cool thing to do? Now that you've joined, do you have difficulty finding the time to read your club's book selection? Well, you can stop worrying about it. I've decided to offer my reading services to those of you who are either too tired, lazy, or busy to read your own book club books. Just let me know the title and author of your book and then sit back as I read the book for you. Once I've finished, I will provide you with a detailed synopsis and an in-depth analysis of the book. If you'd like, I'll even give you some insightful questions and talking points that you can use to impress and amaze your fellow book clubbers.
My first client is AmyH, who was worried about finding time to read Peter Rock's My Abandonment. This is going to be good for both of us. She'll be able to enjoy the social aspect of her book club without the additional time commitment of actually reading the book. What do I get in return? Well, I get a chance to redeem myself after my miserable showing in the Anna Karenina Book Club of 2002. I finished that book before the others and blurted out the ending. I ruined it for everyone, so now I feel I need to do something good for a different book club.
I picked up a copy of My Abandonment at the library a couple days ago. I'm about halfway through it.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood--Charles Dickens
Edwin Drood is a young orphan engaged to be married to another young orphan named Rosa Bud (saddled with the unfortunate nickname of "Pussy"). They live in Cloisterham, an ancient English cathedral town littered with tombs, a lime pit, and a series of spooky underground vaults. Edwin goes missing. He is last seen with his rival, the hot-headed Neville Landless. Edwin's watch and shirt pin are soon found in the nearby river and suspicion is thrown upon Neville. Most boisterous in his accusations against Neville is a man named John Jasper. In addition to being Edwin's guardian, John Jasper is also Rosa Bud's music teacher and something of secret opium fiend. Isn't that always the case?
Did Neville kill Edwin Drood or was he set up by John Jasper? Did Jasper kill his own ward so he could have Pussy all for himself? Did he toss Edwin's body in the lime pit and then throw his possessions in the river? And who the heck is Dick Datchery, the mysterious white-haired gentleman with the gigantic head who shows up shortly after Edwin's disappearance? Dickens hints that Datchery might be one of the other characters in disguise. Is it Edwin? Is it Neville? Is it Neville's cross-dressing twin sister, Helena? Could it be Bazzard, Tartar, Grewgious, or any of the book's other strangely-named characters who never appear at the same time as Datchery?
We'll never know. Charles Dickens died before he could finish The Mystery of Edwin Drood. He didn't leave any notes and he didn't tell anyone how he intended to finish the book. The story is told that he offered to let Queen Victoria in on the ending (during a private reading), but she turned him down.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies--Jane Austen
The problem I had with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
isn't the fact that some hack added zombies into a classic; my problem
is one of logic and storytelling. According to the book, the zombie
uprising began over 50 years ago. And yet, hordes of fresh zombies are
still rising from their graves on a daily basis. The description of
these zombies leads me to believe these aren't old corpses who have
just now come back to life after years beneath the ground. These are
people who died and were recently buried. Which poses the question: why
the hell are the people of zombie-infested England still burying their
dead? Why don't they chop off their heads and burn the bodies like any
halfway-decent zombie fighter would do? Fifty years have gone by.
Shouldn't they have figured that one out by now?
On the positive side, P&P&Z was a fun book and piqued my interest in the real Pride and Prejudice. I'm currently in the middle of the BBC miniseries starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. I've also acquired a non-zombie edition of the book which I intend to read sometime soon.
The Professional--Robert B. Parker
Chasing the Bear--Robert B. Parker
The Professional
is Robert B. Parker's 37th Spenser novel. I've read them all and
always look forward to the next release. This one was decent, but
Spenser is turning into a bit of a wuss in his old age. He catches his
perp about halfway through The Professional, but instead of
beating him up or having Hawk shoot him like he used to do, Spenser
takes the guy out for drinks. Then Spenser gets together with his
always annoying psychologist girlfriend, Susan Silverman. The two of
them try to figure out why the perp behaves the way he does. Who
cares? Just break his arm and be done with it.
I somehow missed the release of Chasing the Bear earlier this year. It's the first "Young Spenser" novel. It sounds like a horrible idea, but it actually made for a much better read than The Professional. A fourteen-year old Spenser is still under the heavy influence of his father and two uncles and hasn't yet been wussified by Susan Silverman and her Harvard PhD. Surprisingly good stuff.
The Fugitive--Marcel Proust
Finding Time Again--Marcel Proust
These are the sixth and seventh volumes in Proust's In Search of Lost Time. The seven books have all blurred together in my mind, and I honestly can't remember what happens in The Fugitive. I think it has something to do with Marcel's reaction to Albertine's death. I remember the final volume, though. In Finding Time Again,
Marcel goes to a party and notices that all his friends have grown
old. This causes him to realize that he must be aging, too. He comes
to the conclusion that if he's ever going to write a really, really long novel
about his life, he'd better hurry up and start now or else he'll end up
dying before he has a chance to finish.
It Feels So Good When I Stop--Joe Pernice
I
still don't know what to make of Joe Pernice's novel. I'm glad I read
the book, but there were large portions of it that I didn't enjoy
reading. There was far too much Gen-X blathering for my tastes,
particularly in the flashback portions dealing with the unnamed
narrator's roommate and ex-wife. And some of the writing was just bad. I never would've imagined that Joe Pernice could write
a sentence that would rub me as wrong as this
one did:
As she shifted her weight, I could see the musculature of her peasant calves at work beneath her animated skin.
In Joe's defense, it wasn't all bad. I particularly enjoyed the portions of the book that dealt with the narrator's relationships with his young nephew and the filmmaker from down the street. I'm also happy to say that there were occasional glimpses at the skill with words that has made Joe Pernice one of the best songwriters of the last decade. I specifically liked the part where the narrator realizes he'll have to ride his sister's childhood bicycle into town:
On the far side of the clothes-dryer vent, against the toolshed, leaned the forlorn Huffy Sweet Thunder bicycle Pamela had gotten for her tenth birthday. I sized it up, encouraged by the legend of the great George Jones piloting a ride-on mower miles into town to score booze. George Jones is a genius, and I am not. It was only fitting that I should have to pedal a child's dilapidated toy.
As far as I'm concerned, that right there is good stuff. Sure, the novel as a whole was hit or miss, but there were enough good parts to make it worth my time. There are a lot of books that I would recommend to people before this one, but I would highly recommend the all-covers soundtrack album Joe recorded to accompany his novel. It's far better than the book itself.
Skeleton Crew--Stephen King
I
find that Stephen King's stories are scary until he shows his
monsters. Take the first story in this collection, for instance. "The
Mist" is downright spooky as a terrific storm knocks out the power in a
small Maine community. A man and his son find themselves trapped in
the supermarket as a strange mist rolls into town. But then a bunch of
pterodactyls start flying around and the whole story falls apart.
Despite the occasional unnecessary glimpses behind the curtain, a lot of the stories in Skeleton Crew were up there with King's best short work. My personal favorites were "Word Processor of the Gods", "Survivor Type", and "The Reach".
Manhood for Amateurs--M-----l Chabon
The full title of this essay collection is Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son.
I think this book was designed to be given to men for Christmas and
Father's Day. I'm not usually into essays, but I bought this anyway
because Joseph-Beth Booksellers had a signed copy for 30% off. Now
that I've read it, I'm probably going to give it (yes, the same copy)
to my dad for Christmas. I was very careful to avoid banging it up or
crinkling the pages. I'm going to remove the 30% off sticker, though.
He'll never know. Hah hah!
Where the Wild Things Are--Maurice Sendak
The Wild Things--Dave Eggers
According to the inscription written inside the cover, I got my copy of Where the Wild Things Are
for my third birthday. It was one of my favorites as a kid. My copy
smells a bit of mold from living in the basement for too many years,
but it's still a great story. I dug it out and gave it a quick read
before diving into the recent furry novelization by Dave Eggers.
The original book consisted of a mere 338 words (yes, I counted) and Dave Eggers expanded that source material into 285 pages. He keeps with the spirit of the original, but expands on everything and adds entirely new characters and settings. The wild things themselves each have individual names and personalities. The one I always liked as a kid is now named Carol. He's pretty cool, but like the rest of the wild things in the novel, he appears to have some major mental issues. It's kind of weird. It's a good book, though. I read it on my front porch on a surprise one-day Indian summer. It was one of my most pleasant reading experiences of the year. And the book was covered in fur! Did I mention that?
CURRENTLY READING:
The Mystery of Edwin Drood--Charles Dickens
As a result of a recent security breach, I have decided to sever ties with my Yahoo e-mail account. A Yahoo e-mail address is a requirement for a Flickr account, so I have decided to shut that down, too. It's not a great loss, though. I never did anything arty over there. All I ever did was post pictures of my latest music acquisitions all laid out on the floor. Sound familiar? That's pretty much what I do here, too.
But anyway, here are all the music pictures I posted over there that I never bothered to do anything with over here. These cover the time period from January 26th to August 4th, 2009.
Will you be giving out candy to trick-or-treaters this year? If so, what goodies can the ghosts and goblins expect to bring home?
Blah, blah, blah. I answered this question two years ago. What I wrote back then was much better than what I'd come up with today, so I think I'll just throw some links at you and call it a post. Go read the first part, but substitute the phrase "you little shits" for the word "kiddies", as the children of 2009 are even more annoying than the children of 2007*.
If that doesn't do it for you, maybe you should try the second part which featured a handwritten sign (in black ink?!) that outlined how many pieces of candy the various costumes were worth. I sat the sign next to a bowl of candy out on my porch because I was too lazy to open the door each time the kids knocked. This year I'm too lazy to buy the candy. I'm going to spend this Saturday night barricaded in my house with the lights out. I might play with these guys. Most of them glow in the dark, so it should work out well.
My parents and I drove up to Columbus on Tuesday to see Leonard Cohen's performance at the Palace Theatre. I still have no idea why we went. My parents know "Suzanne" and "Hallelujah", but little else. My Leonard Cohen fandom peaked in 1998 and I pretty much swore off the man and his works after a reading of Beautiful Losers caused me to go into a season-long depression. But time went by. I eventually got over the novel; I hardly ever shudder when I get in an elevator. Hardly ever.
It occurs to me now that only about two people out there will have any idea what I'm talking about, so let's try a different approach, shall we? My parents and I went to a Leonard Cohen concert because it was either that or staying in our respective homes and watching NBC's smash-hit comedy, The Biggest Loser. We could either go see a legendary author, poet, and musician perform or watch overweight contestants go to the gym. When those are your options, Leonard Cohen should win every single time.
[This is the paragraph where I would normally use words and phrases like "good" or "really good" or "best" or "really the best" or "really good at being the best", but I find that I'm a bit off this morning. My usual junior high newspaper quality "reviews" just won't cut it this time. Leonard Cohen was absolutely amazing, but I don't feel like writing about him or his fedora or any of it. We definitely made the right choice in going to the concert, but just thinking about Beautiful Losers again has sapped me of my motivation. I wish I hadn't read that book. I think I'm going to wear the same clothes as yesterday. It's awfully dreary out.]
As always, here's the setlist:
First set: Dance Me to the End of Love/The Future/Ain't No Cure For Love/Bird on the Wire/Everybody Knows/In My Secret Life/Instrumental-->Who By Fire/Chelsea Hotel #2/Waiting For the Miracle/Anthem (recitation)-->Anthem (w/intros)
Second set: Tower of Song/Suzanne/Sisters of Mercy/The Gypsy's Wife/The Partisan/Boogie Street (sung by Sharon Robinson)/Hallelujah/I'm Your Man/A Thousand Kisses Deep (recitation)/Take This Waltz (w/intros)
Encore set: So Long, Marianne/First We Take Manhattan/Famous Blue Raincoat/If It Be Your Will (recitation)/If It Be Your Will (performed by the Webb Sisters)/Closing Time
One last song: I Tried to Leave You
And here's my usual concert-related ephemera. I threw in a couple pictures taken on a trail up by my parents' house just because I didn't know what else to do with them.
I got two packages in the mail today. How many packages did you get? I'm not trying to brag here, but two packages is a lot of packages to get in the mail. Usually I don't get any packages. Sometimes I get a stupid mailer from a stupid politician who wants me to vote for him, but most of the time my mailbox is completely empty.
What did my packages contain? Hmm, let's see.
The first one was from Amazon and contained a copy of The Wild Things by Dave Eggers. He wrote a novel based on the children's book...or maybe he wrote a novel based on the movie that was based on the children's book...or maybe the movie version was based on the novel that was based on the children's book. I'm not really sure. The important thing to remember here isn't what was based on what or who was inspired by whom. The important thing is that my copy of The Wild Things is completely encased in fur.
Yes, fur.
The other thing I got from Amazon was Patrick Alexander's guide to reading Proust. It's called Marcel Proust's Search For Lost Time. Unfortunately, this book is just a regular book. It is not encased in fur. This comes as a huge let down after The Wild Things. From now on, I want all my books to be furry books. I will collect my beards and glue them to books if I have to. That is something I would do.
The other package contained one of the rarest Joe Pernice-related items. It's the Cowboys and Injuns split 7" with Cheticamp (also featuring Joe Pernice). Joe's song is an early version of "The Two of You Sleep", a song that later appeared on the greatest album of 1999, Chappaquiddick Skyline's Chappaquiddick Skyline.
Once again, the record is not covered in fur. I'm fine with that, though, as I'm pretty sure fur would get in the way of the needle. A furry record would be unplayable. It's a special record, though. It is, in fact, the ugliest record I've ever seen in my life. Just have a look. It's a blue label on mottled brown vinyl. Ohh, hideous.
I'm currently juggling two books. The first is a short story collection by Stephen King called Skeleton Crew. The second is a novel by Joe Pernice called It Feels So Good When I Stop. Late last night I read one of King's stories called "The Man Who Wouldn't Shake Hands". In it, the titular man petted a three-legged stray that had been scrounging for food. Then, just minutes ago, I read a line in Pernice's book that also made reference to a three-legged canine.
I definitely thought it was weird that three-legged dogs popped up in both my books within about 20 pages of each other. In all the books I've ever read, I can't remember a single one that mentioned a three-legged dog.
Today was so beautiful that I went outside and worked out in my front yard. I did a bunch of walking lunges up and down my driveway and did a lot of sit-ups, too. I'm sure my neighbors will want to be friends with me now that they know I have perfect walking lunge form. I'm expecting a knock at the door any minute now.
After that I was feeling so good that I went up to Everybody's Records and threw $80 on the counter in exchange for a whole bunch of new music. My logic was: It's a lovely day out. I should buy some music to celebrate. Of course, next week when it's nasty again my logic will be: Ooh, it's icky out. I should buy some music to make up for it. Either way, it costs me.
But anyway, here's everything I've purchased recently neatly arranged on the floor and photographed:
- the Clientele - Bonfires on the Heath - The Clientele is my favorite music to listen to while walking to the library in the rain.
- Rufus Wainwright - Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall - I didn't know Rufus Wainwright was gay until I saw him in concert and realized I was the only guy there who didn't have another guy with him.
- Matt Sweeney & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Superwolf - I can't think of anything to say about this one. It was only $3.99.
- Bangles - Different Light - It has recently come to my attention that the Bangles are awesome. I had to rush out and make up for the fact that I only owned five of their songs.
- Leonard Cohen - The Essential Leonard Cohen - My dad called and asked if I wanted to go see Leonard Cohen with him up in Columbus next week. I have no idea where this came from. I didn't even know my dad knew who Leonard Cohen was. I'm not one to turn down a concert when someone else is footing the bill, so I said yes. I bought this collection the next day to make up for the fact that I only have his first four records.
- Bangles - The Essential Bangles - Once again, it has recently come to my attention that the Bangles are awesome.
- Kingsbury Manx - Ascenseur Ouvert! - I used to follow these guys pretty closely, but they fell off my radar a couple years back. Their song "Piss Diary" (off their self-titled debut) remains one of my all-time favorites.
- Kings of Convenience - Declaration of Dependence - Quiet is the New Loud was an important record to me when it came out. It was so important, in fact, that I've felt obligated to buy everything these guys have released since.
- the Smiths - The Name of Our Band is The Smiths: May We Have a Record Contract, Please? - I bought this at Half Price Books yesterday just because it looked mysterious.
- Múm - Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know - I bought the first Múm CD in Iceland in 2002. It didn't do much for me, but I recently heard Homebody playing this one and liked it a lot.
