56 posts tagged “stuff i've been reading”
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
The Prisoner--Marcel Proust
Five books into In Search of Lost Time
and the narrator is finally given a name. Surprise, it's "Marcel". In
this one, Marcel spends all his time and energy making sure his
girlfriend doesn't have sex with women. I've been enjoying my slow journey through In Search of Lost Time, but about halfway through The Prisoner,
I wanted to write myself into the story, show up at Marcel's front
door, and give him a swift kick in the ass. His jealous nature and
overall wussiness are starting to get annoying. Fortunately, I only
have 682 more pages.
Nobody Move--Denis Johnson
Nobody Move is a novella originally published in a literary journal (I'm not familiar with) called Playboy.
The book is a modern-day western full of gun fights, double-dealings,
and the occasional bit of cannibalism. Although it doesn't come close
to Johnson's Already Dead or Tree of Smoke, it was a fun read and definitely worthwhile for a fan like me.
Stone's Fall--Iain Pears
Stone's Fall
is divided into three parts. The first takes place in London in 1909.
A small-time journalist named Matthew Braddock is hired by Elizabeth,
Lady Ravenscliff to find the identity of her recently deceased
husband's illegitimate child. Her husband, John Stone, was a
successful financier and arms dealer who died after falling out of a
window. While investigating, Braddock discovers that large quantities
of money have been disappearing from Stone's companies. The financier
also appears to have had connections with anarchists, spiritualists,
and an enigmatic character named Henry Cort, who may or may not be the
most dangerous man in the British Empire.
The second part of the book takes place in Paris in 1890. It deals with Henry Cort's backstory, introduces a prostitute named Virginie, and looks into the various relationships of John Stone...all while a complicated international banking conspiracy looks to destroy the Bank of England.
The final section of the book takes place in Venice in 1867 and deals with John Stone's early career, his affair with a woman in Italy, and the truth about the mysterious illegitimate child that got the entire story started in the first place.
Stone's Fall is on my shortlist for best book of the year. Although I'd read all ten of Iain Pears' other works of fiction, I wasn't sure I'd enjoy Stone's Fall as it takes place in the world of international finance and arms dealings. That sounds dull, but the book turned out to be one of the best-written historical mysteries I've ever read. As soon as I finished it, I turned back to page one and started over.
Nightmares & Dreamscapes--Stephen King
This
is Stephen King's third collection of short stories. It wasn't as good
as his first, but it was still worth the $2 I paid for it.
I could've done without King's lengthy ode to Little League baseball, but most
of the other stories made for good late night reading. My only complaint is that a lot of them were 40-50 pages long, which is
about twice as long as I'd like from the "story before bed" genre. I
had to spread some of the stories out over two nights.
The highlights for me were "Dolan's Cadillac" (revenge), "The Moving Finger" (something's in the sink), "Home Delivery" (zombies are taking over), and "Crouch End" (London is scary). I also liked the first half of "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band", but thought the story fell apart when Buddy Holly started bleeding out his eyeballs. The low points of the collection were "It Grows on You" and "My Pretty Pony". I still don't know what he was going for with those two.
Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape--Sarah Manguso
How the Water Feels to the Fishes--Dave Eggers
Minor Robberies--Deb Olin Unferth
These three volumes came in a slipcase entitled One Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box.
That pretty much sums it up right there. The stories enclosed represent the sub-genre known as the "short-short story". I
read a book each day for three days. Sarah Manguso's book was the
best, but my favorite individual story was "No One Knows" by Dave Eggers. It solves, once and for all, the mystery of how a record
player works.
Damnation Alley--Roger Zelazny
In
this book, a criminal named Hell Tanner is hired by the Nation of
California to drive a car across the post-apocalyptic wasteland that
once was the United States. His mission is to deliver plague serum to
the people of Boston. His car is tricked out with armor, missiles,
machine guns, flame throwers, and a coffee maker. The cross-country drive brings him into contact with a whole bunch of
crazy-ass shit, most of which he blows up with the aforementioned
arsenal.
Damnation Alley is a 250 page book printed in the largest font I've seen since elementary school. I read it in a couple hours without getting up from the couch. File this one under "stupid but fun".
Fusion: An Inspiration--Bill Cranfield (editor)
I
don't know if I should include this book as it only featured one
page of actual writing. All the other pages were full of graffiti art,
strange advertisements, fancypants toys from Japan, etc. It was pretty
cool to look through. Making it even better, the book came with a strange vinyl
figurine with sunglasses and a monkey on his shirt.
CURRENTLY READING:
The Fugitive--Marcel Proust
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies--Jane Austen
Savage Night--Jim Thompson
The Killer Inside Me--Jim Thompson
Jim Thompson was an author of mean, hard-boiled crime novels, many of which were eventually adapted for the big screen. Savage Night and The Killer Inside Me
are two of his more famous efforts. The former is about a very short
hit man assigned to knock-off a Mob associate. The latter is about a
small town Texas sheriff who murders people in his spare time. Both
were exciting and fun to read, but neither of them had good endings.
Both books fell apart in the last few pages. The endings might've been
impressive and shocking when they were originally published in the
early 50s, but they both seemed kind of laughable to me.
When I'm Old and Other Stories--Gabrielle Bell
I
read a borrowed copy of Gabrielle Bell's first collection of comics
back in the spring. I liked it enough then that I decided to get my
own copy. I got it for my birthday and promptly reread it. I think my
favorite story is "Graveyard Shift", which features a giant waitress
who stomps around the streets of San Francisco eating hipsters.
Night Shift--Stephen King
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon--Stephen King
I read The Shining
as a teenager, but didn't bother to read any more Stephen King until
McSweeney's published his brilliant novella, "A Very Tight Place", in Issue #27. That story got me interested in the author again. I read The Stand,
but decided soon after finishing the 1,000+ page book that my time
would be better spent if I switched over to King's shorter works. Night Shift
was Stephen King's first collection of short stories, so I decided to
start there. I was very impressed. With the exception of a
ridiculously stupid story called "The Lawnmower Man", all of the
stories in Night Shift were worth reading. My favorites were "Jerusalem's Lot", "The Ledge", and "Children of the Corn".
I got the pop-up version of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon just because I thought it was fun to see a paper version of the pitcher peek out from behind a bush in the section called "Sixth Inning". The book was a good, quick read and featured some very impressive, complicated pop-ups. The story was edited down from King's original 200+ pages, but there was enough left to spook me a tiny bit. If I ever see a cheap copy of the original book, I'll probably buy it.
A Canticle For Leibowitz--Walter M. Miller
I
was really enjoying this post-apocalyptic classic until the main
character got shot in the head with an arrow and eaten by hillbilly
mutants about a third of the way through. I must say I was very
surprised by this unexpected plot twist. I found out a couple pages
later that A Canticle For Leibowitz is actually a collection of
three interrelated novellas. I had just reached the end of the first
when the surprise attack and devouring took place. Once I figured out
what I was reading (three novellas vs. a novel), I was able to put the
shock behind me and complete the other two sections of the story.
Overall, A Canticle For Leibowitz was a good, thought-provoking book and one I'm glad I took the time to read. I got bogged down in places with all the Latin passages and religious mumble-jumble, but I guess that's to be expected in a book about monks. Despite the boring religious parts, I think A Canticle For Leibowitz is the only science fiction classic I've read that actually lives up to its reputation. Pardon me, but Robert Heinlein can suck it.
CURRENTLY READING:
Nightmares & Dreamscapes--Stephen King
Stone's Fall--Iain Pears
BOOKS READ:
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows--J.K. Rowling (reread)
I already wrote about my sudden and unexpected fascination with all things Harry Potter, so I'm not going to say anything else except that I don't understand why Voldemort went to all the trouble in The Goblet of Fire.
If all he wanted to do was get Harry to touch a portkey, couldn't he
have chosen one made from something simple like Harry's glasses or shoes? Why the year-long rigmarole with the Triwizard
Tournament?
How to Make Books--Esther K. Smith
I also already wrote about how I folded, cut, and stitched my way to a one-of-a-kind book,
so I'm not going to go into much detail on this one either. The book
got very complicated about halfway through, but the instructions for
the first few books were easy to follow. Ever since I
read this one, I've been folding museum maps, postcards, and junkmail
into tiny books. I've got a box full of them and it's been a lot of fun.
The Beekeeper's Apprentice--Laurie R. King
Let's
just imagine for a second that Sherlock Holmes was a real person and
the stories that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about him were fictionalized
versions of real events. Then let's imagine that the real Sherlock
Holmes retired from detection and became a beekeeper. That's the basic
premise for Laurie R. King's The Beekeeper's Apprentice. Holmes is out on the fields examining his bees when he's almost stepped on by a girl with a book. The girl is Mary Russell, an American orphan. She's not your typical teenager, though. She has deductive powers that (almost) equal those of Holmes himself. They become friends. They have adventures. They are involved in an incredibly confusing gun battle that I didn't fully understand even after reading it six times and reenacting it with a partner.
Although I enjoyed The Beekeeper's Apprentice, I don't think I'll continue with this series (now on its ninth book). By the end of the book, I had the feeling that the author was paving the way for Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes to begin a sexual relationship. I have no interest in reading such things.
The New Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Stories--Bob Callahan (editor)
I
bought this one at a Friends of the Library book sale. I couldn't
believe they were selling it for $8 until I started reading it and got
to "Part Two: Silver Age of Superheroes". Oh, man, that was 78 pages
of crap. I'm also sick of R. Crumb, Gary Panter, Neil Gaiman, and both
of the Hernandez brothers. And I have no interest in reading excerpts
from Watchmen in black, white, and grey. Give it to me in color, you cheap Smithsonian bastards.
On the plus side, it was cool to read another chapter of Art Spiegelman's Maus. I really should just buy myself a copy of that book. I've read about half of it in anthologies.
B is for Beer--Tom Robbins
This
book is subtitled "A Children's Book for Grown-ups/A Grown-up Book for
Children". Tom Robbins is so clever. He also hasn't published a
really good book since 1990's Skinny Legs and All. I keep
buying them, though. I keep reading them. This one's about a girl
named Gracie who gets drunk on her sixth birthday and learns about beer
from the Beer Fairy. Then she dances with a monkey.
CURRENTLY READING:
The Killer Inside Me--Jim Thompson
When I'm Old and Other Stories--Gabrielle Bell (reread)
I read a lot of books in June. For awhile there I was reading over a hundred pages each day. I started off with Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and then joined a three-person bookclub to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was strange as I'd never read any Harry Potter books before. You can read my thoughts on the Bulgakov and Rowling books here. This post is dedicated to what I read during the rest of the month. It includes coverage of a couple surprise favorites and the most disappointing issue of McSweeney's in the entire history of the publication.
Remainder--Tom McCarthy
A man gets knocked on the head
by a mysterious object that falls from the sky. Although he's brain
damaged and has lost some of his memory, he knows enough to sue the
company responsible for the mysterious object. He wins millions.
Instead of living like a rock star or saving Africans, the protagonist
uses the money to help recreate his fuzzy memories. For example, he remembers
looking at a crack in a bathroom wall while the smells of liver cooking
and the sounds of piano playing waft up from below, so he goes
out and buys an apartment building, recreates the cracked wall, and
hires a woman to fry liver and a man to play piano. He then uses even
more money to re-enact his recreations. This goes on and on until
he decides to re-enact things that haven't happened yet. That's when things get weird.
I bought Remainder a couple weeks ago when I was shopping at Half Price Books with my cousin. He'd read and enjoyed it and recommended the book to me. I'd never read a recommendation from him before, so I thought I'd give it a try and then judge him based upon how much I liked the book. Remainder had a bit of Chuck Palahniuk-ish ending, but the rest of the book was so well-written and impressive that I was willing to overlook it. It was definitely an odd book, but I look forward to reading whatever else McCarthy has written. I also need to ask my cousin for some more recommendations.
Northline--Willy Vlautin
Willy Vlautin is best known
as the primary singer and songwriter in Richmond Fontaine. Well, he's
also published two novels. The author's second novel is about a young
woman who leaves Las Vegas and moves up to Reno to escape her abusive
boyfriend. She gets a couple jobs and tries her best to get on the
right track. It's hard, though, as she drinks too much, is prone to
passing out, and is haunted by her past mistakes.
I picked up Northline and read the first two pages in the bathroom. I was hooked. I went downstairs, sat on the couch, and proceeded to read the remaining 189 pages without taking a break. It was non-stop reading. I probably could've put the book down and done something else, but I really didn't want to. I wanted to read Northline more than I wanted to do anything else I could think of. My copy of the book came with an instrumental soundtrack CD performed by the author and one of his bandmates. I don't usually find background music to be conducive to reading, but this CD was absolutely perfect for this book. I listened to it seven times in a row. There's nothing I enjoy more than good music and good reading.
McSweeney's #31--Dave Eggers (editor)
This issue is
designed to look like a high school yearbook. Instead of being full of
forgotten people I no longer care about, it's dedicated to archaic
literary forms I never cared about. McSweeney's #31 is full of
nivolas, biji, pantoums, and consuetudinaries as written by modern day
authors. It sounds like a fun idea, but the results are incredibly
boring. Douglas Coupland did alright with his biji, but the rest of
the stories and poems included weren't worth the time it took to read
them. This issue is, by far, the worst issue of McSweeney's ever. It
was a chore to get through and I would highly recommend avoiding it at
all costs. Dave Eggers, please stop letting your interns publish pet
issues.
Death in a Strange Country--Donna Leon
This is Donna Leon's second book in her popular Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery
series. The case involves the death of a young man found floating in
the canals of Venice. Commissario Brunetti gets called in and quickly
realizes that the case is much more than the simple mugging it appears
to be. Further investigation ensues. He never does get around to
actually solving the case, but he was in way over his head on this
one. I'm sure he'll solve the case in the third book, Dressed for Death. I plan on reading it as soon as I find it in mass market paperback.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
was good enough to make me consider going back to read the "prequels".
I probably would've forgotten all about it except that I found an
unread boxset of the first four books for only $9.98. At a price like
that, I just couldn't say no.
After the gigantic Deathly Hallows, the 300 page Sorcerer's Stone was a quick and easy read. It took me about two days to get through it. It was a lot of fun to find out more about the characters I met at the end of the series. I now know what happened to Harry's parents, how he ended up with the Dursleys, and how he met Hagrid, Draco, Ron, Hermione, etc. I've already begun The Chamber of Secrets.
Cloud Atlas--David Mitchell
Okay, let's get this straight. Cloud Atlas
is made up of six stories of approximately 80 pages each. Five of the
six are divided in half. The first half of each of these stories are
printed in order. Then the sixth story is printed in its entirety.
Then the second half of the first five stories are printed in reverse
order to round out
the book. The first story you begin is actually the last story
you finish. But there's more. The
characters in the second story read the first story. The characters in
the third story read the second, etc. It's enough to rattle your brain
if
you think too hard on it. Here, look at this...it'll make sense of
everything:
How to Make Books--Esther K. Smith
The New Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Stories--Bob Callahan (editor)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows--J.K. Rowling
Homebody and Hotrod
and I decided to read the seventh and final Harry Potter book
together. We followed each other's progress in a comment thread over
on Homebody's Vox. Those two had each read The Deathly Hallows
before, but the book was a new one for me. In fact, the entire series
was new for me; although I'd seen the first couple movies, this was my
first experience with the Harry Potter books. I'd always avoided them
because I am something of a book snob, but thought it would be a fun
reading experiment to jump in at the very end. Would I get anything
out of the book without any real knowledge of what took place in the
first six volumes? How much back story did I need to follow along?
What the hell is a Muggle?
Well, I can honestly say that I didn't have any problem starting at the end and going from there. I'm sure Homebody and Hotrod had more rewarding reading experiences due to their familiarity with the series as a whole, but there was more than enough there to make the book worthwhile for a reader new to the series. There were a couple things I didn't immediately understand (Horcruxes, Harry's connection with Voldemort, etc.), but I was able to get them cleared up by my fellow book club members...although Hotrod's input often added to my confusion.
But anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was surprisingly literate and mature for a book I thought had been written for kids. J.K. Rowling even used a few words I had to look up in the dictionary. I'm not sure I'm going to pick up the first book and start the series from the beginning, but if I ever see a cheap, used copy in good condition, I wouldn't be surprised if I bought it. Even a book snob can change his ways.
The Master and Margarita--Mikhail Bulgakov
This is my
favorite book read so far in 2009. In it, the Devil and his entourage
(including a talking cat that walks upright) show up in 1930's Moscow
and wreck havoc on Russia's literary scene. The Devil holds a magic
show where he decapitates the emcee and gives away loads of free money
and clothing to the audience. Of course, his gifts eventually
disappear and the members of Moscow's high society are left naked trying to pay their cab fares with bits of
ruble-shaped
newspaper. The Devil offers Margarita a chance to be the queen of his
grand ball. She accepts and gladly turns into a witch by stripping
down and rubbing cream all over her body. She flies around
town naked and then goes to entertain the Devil's guests at the party.
Then the Devil helps Margarita bust her boyfriend out of the insane
asylum. The boyfriend, the Master of the title, is an author
devastated by the failure of his novel about Pontius Pilate. Bits of
that novel are interspersed between the scenes of 1930's Moscow. Some
more stuff happens. People go nuts. People get killed by trolley
cars. A man gets turned into a flying pig. Buildings burn (but
manuscripts don't). I don't want to spoil it.
CURRENTLY READING:
Cloud Atlas--David Mitchell
I already wrote the Stuff I've Been Reading post for May, but then I accidentally went and read three more books before the month ended. There are still a couple days left before June begins--and I suppose I could read another book over the weekend--but I've seen into the future and I know that I'm not going to get any reading done in the next couple days. I'm going to watch the entire second season of The Doctor House Show. I'm also going to drink a lot of iced coffees and maybe go to the record store. But anyway, here are three more books for the month of May:
In Persuasion Nation--George Saunders
In Persuasion Nation is the third short story collection by real life genius, George Saunders. All three of his collections make for fantastic, enjoyable reading, but In Persuasion Nation didn't impress me as much as Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline did. I actually found one of the stories to be a bit on the boring side. "Commcomm" was still better than most short stories written by other authors, but it definitely stood out as one of Saunders' weakest efforts. The fact that it was the last story in the collection sort of colored my opinion of the book as a whole.
Of course, I am willing to admit that I might've just missed the point of "Commcomm". George Saunders is, after all, a real life genius. I am not. I was supposed to be one, but it turns out that I was misdiagnosed.
Breaking & Entering--Joy Williams
Breaking & Entering had an intriguing synopsis and sounded like an interesting book. Who wouldn't want to read about a young married couple who drift around Florida breaking into vacation homes? Willie and Liberty live in the homes for a few days and then move on. That sounds like fun, right? That sounds like a worthwhile read.
Nah, the couple only broke into two homes and the rest of the book was downright snoozy. Most of the time they just sat around with their freaky white dog and thought about their depressing lives. Willie was pompous and everything he said sounded like it came out of a fortune cookie. Liberty couldn't get over the fact that her parents abandoned her when she was a kid. There was some stuff about retardation, animal mutilation, abortion, and suicide. Depressing. And then they broke into a house and met a 75 year-old female bodybuilder. Willie disappeared near the end of the book and I have no idea what happened to him. Then a minor character got stabbed and that was it.
I found Breaking & Entering on the $2 shelf. Now I know why.
Serious Drawings--Marc Johns
Marc Johns is a Canadian artist who used to be on Vox as Draw. He dumped his Vox blog earlier this year in favor of his own fancypants website. (It's worth a look, and unlike Vox, you don't have to wade through tons of smut and spam to get to the good stuff.) I bought a couple of Marc's ink & watercolors back in the Vox days, so I had to buy a copy of his new book to see if either of my purchases made the cut. I'm happy to say that "Shoot the Rabbit" is on page 59 of Serious Drawings. Of course, that's just a printed representation of the original. The real one is sitting on a shelf in my room. I feel like such a hip art collector now. I think I'm going to start smoking a pipe. Or maybe I'll get some of those big hoops and stick them in my earlobes. Maybe I'll do both.
But anyway, Marc Johns is great and his book is definitely worth picking up. It's super cheap on Amazon, but if you buy a copy directly from the artist, he might scribble something arty on the front page.
The Stand--Stephen King
I read the complete and uncut version of The Stand
which featured an additional 400 pages not included when the book was
first published in 1978. I've never read the original version, so I'm
not sure which parts of the book were added when it was republished. I
will, however, say that the version I read contained at least 200
unnecessary pages.
The first part of the book, "Captain Trips", was about a man-made strain of influenza that kills over 99% of the population. It follows the flu's accidental release and devastating spread. "Captain Trips" was fantastic and featured some of the most exciting, thrilling writing I've ever read.
Things really slowed down in the bloated second section, "On the Border". In that section, the survivors of the flu divide up into good and evil factions and make their way to Boulder, CO or Las Vegas, respectively. The do-gooders form a fledgling government and King spends far too much time describing boring meetings where the leaders try to set up their new society. They must've voted on 25 different issues. Like I care if they take a census. The Las Vegas faction had a leader named Randall Flagg. I think he was supposed to be the embodiment of evil, but he was really kind of lame. His big power was the ability to control crows. Oooh, scary.
Things livened up again in the third and final section, "The Stand", which saw the confrontation between the Vegas and Boulder societies. This section of the book managed to recapture some of the brilliance of "Captain Trips", but the ultimate ending of the novel was so silly that I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of disappointment in the entire book. I read 1,150 pages to get to a blue ball of fire and the Hand of God? C'mon.
Constance, Or Solitary Practices--Lawrence Durrell
Constance is the third book in Lawrence Durrell's Avignon Quintet
(or quincunx, the term the author preferred). It takes place in France
during World War II. The parts that dealt specifically with the war
and its immediate aftermath were interesting. Unfortunately, Durrell
often had his characters get together to talk about Freud and sex and
stuff like that. Here's a typical quote from one of those sections:
It's a sign of our intellectual abjectness that psychology with its miserly physical categories and positivist bias should prove liberating and enriching as it does; it proves that the psyche is seriously ankylosed by the rigour of our moeurs. The real seed of the neurosis is the belief in the discrete ego; as fast as you cure 'em the contemporary metaphysic which is Judeo-Christianity manufactures more I's to become sick Me's. On my word as a Professor!
I don't think I'll bother with the next book in the series. I've decided that seven Lawrence Durrell novels--I also read his Alexandria Quartet--is enough for me. Some books are out-of-print for a reason.
Train Dreams--Denis Johnson
Train Dreams is a 52 page short story/novella originally published in the Paris Review in 2002. It was the only major work by Denis Johnson that I hadn't read, so I tracked it down in a copy of The O. Henry Prize Stories.
It was a quick read about a man named Grainier who lost his wife and
daughter in a forest fire. Of course, it's a Denis Johnson story, so
that summary barely begins to scratch the surface.
Summer Blonde--Adrian Tomine
The four stories in Summer Blonde
were all worth reading, but I had the uncanny feeling that I'd read
them before. They were all new to me, but I've read so much Adrian
Tomine this year that he's starting to get repetitive. He's starting
to get repetitive. He's starting to get repetitive.
Penny Marshall & Cindy Williams--Connie Berman
I sat this book on the cistern in my bathroom. Every time I stepped
out of the shower or used the facilities, it looked like Laverne &
Shirley were laughing at me from the cover. I know it was only a
picture, but I started to feel self-conscious after awhile.
You Shall Know Our Velocity--Dave Eggers
Although Dave Eggers is a highly respected author, I've always known him primarily for his work editing McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. You Shall Know Our Velocity
is the first of his books that I've actually read. It's about two
friends, Will and Hand, who go on a whirlwind trip around the world for
the sole purpose of giving away $38,000 (that Will inadvertently earned
as a lightbulb packaging model). They go to Dakar, Morocco, Estonia,
Latvia, etc., but find that it's more difficult to give away money than
they'd initially thought. They are reduced to burying some of it,
overpaying for directions and keychains, and throwing wads onto the
side of the road. They also jump from trees and moving cars for no
apparent reason. Somehow, all of this is supposed to make up for the
fact that their mutual friend got run over by a truck a few months
earlier.
Will and Hand are essentially self-righteous idiots, but I still enjoyed reading their misadventures. You Shall Know Our Velocity was frustrating in places and featured a lot of copy errors, but there were still enough brilliant sentences to make it a worthwhile read. Here's my favorite sentence. It took place at the beginning while Will was packing for the trip:
I threw in a Churchill biography I was reading, but after swinging the pack over my shoulders and feeling the weight of the 1,200 pages, I unpacked the book, ripped out the first 200 and last 300, and shoved it back in.
I don't usually condone the destruction of books, but I like that idea a lot.
McSweeney's #30--Dave Eggers (editor)
One of the highlights of McSweeney's #30 is a story by Wells Tower called "Retreat". It's basically a rewrite of a story McSweeney's originally published in #23.
Although I hope they don't get into the habit of letting their authors
revise and republish old stories, it was interesting to read the two
versions of "Retreat" back-to-back. The main difference in the stories
is that the younger brother narrates the first, while the older brother
narrates the second. Both narrators make the other brother the asshole character. There's something to that, I think.
I enjoyed the new version of "Retreat", but I'm not sure it really needed to be rewritten. A little revising would've worked out any issues in the original story. Now that he's written the same story twice, Wells Tower needs to put "Retreat" to bed and maybe have a go at the other moose-hunting anecdote he mentions on #30's copywrite page. It has the makings of a story far better than either of the "Retreats".
Other than the second version of "Retreat", the other #30 highlights were Kevin Moffett's "Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events" and M-----l Cera's "Pinecone". The low point of the issue was Nick Ekkozogloy's "Stowaways". It wasn't a bad story, but it aped Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son so closely that it was kind of annoying. Why read a copy when I have the original sitting on a shelf in the other room?
Maps and Legends--M-----l Chabon
Maps and Legends
is the first collection of essays from M-----l Chabon. It's worth
owning just for Jordan Crane's magnificent cover art, but there's more
to it than that. Although there are a couple snoozy essays included,
there are also a few that rank with Chabon's best work. I was
particularly fond of the autobiographical ones about writing. "My Back
Pages", "Diving Into the Wreck", and "Imaginary Homelands" all come to
mind. I also enjoyed "On Daemons & Dust", an essay about Philip
Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.
Babe the Gallant Pig--Dick King-Smith
I found this book in my basement. It smelled a bit musty, but I
decided to read it instead of throwing it in the garbage or donating
it. My mom bought the book for me many years ago back when the movie
was popular. I don't exactly remember why, though. It's a children's
book about a pig who learns to wrangle sheep by politely asking them to
do what he wants. It's kind of cute, but I still can't quite figure
out why my mom gave it to me. Was she telling me I needed to be more
polite? Gallant? I have no idea.
Cecil and Jordan in New York--Gabrielle Bell
I decided to read this collection of stories a second time. My original review can be found here.
The Stand--Stephen King - All the recent talk of killer influenza makes me think it's time to finally tackle this book.
