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Review: I Was Told There’d Be Cake

September 24, 2008 in book reviews, books, entertainment | Permalink

Is there a better title? I don’t think so. Love it.

I really enjoyed this collection of essays by the (way too young!) Sloane Crosley. Crosley has a delicious style that comes off as both likeable and totally self-depricating without putting the reader off. You’re left with the intense desire to hang out with her, and maybe end up in one of her tales (hopefully as an ally).

Overall I Was Told There’d Be Cake is a strong read, but I did find some of the stories towards the end to be less powerful and fleshed out than some of her earlier stories. “The Pony Problem”, an awesome story about a quirk Crosley has that is siezed upon by boyfriends resulting in a horrifying collection of plastic ponies is hilarious and well told. It reads as completely realistic, despite the fact that it is a truly bizarre tale. But in the end you just know it has to be true – it’s too bizarre and funny and ridiculous to be made up. Excellent. “You On A Stick” is Crosley’s tale of being a bridesmaid (actually the maid of honor!) for a friend she hasn’t seen or spoken to in years. It is a hilarious and perhaps painful look at herself as she straddles who she used to be and who her friend used to be and who they each are now (Mr. & Mrs. Universe in the friend’s case) it’s too painful and accurate not to be true, which makes it all the more fun. “The Ursula Cookie” a brilliant little piece about her job an assistant at a publishing house is brittle and sad, but in the best and funniest ways. Those three stories to me were the A+ stories – the rest were somewhere below that – but still wonderfully enjoyable as a whole and I burned through the book in just a couple days, which is always a great sign.

I would say that Crosley’s book is not laugh out loud funny, but rather smile constantly and occasionally chuckle to yourself funny. And I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets to laugh out loud funny very quickly. She will soon prove herself to be among the best of the humorous essayists – David Sedaris, David Rackoff, etc. She’s already well on her way.

3.0 stars

Book Reviews Galore!

September 16, 2008 in book reviews, books, entertainment, jeffrey brown | 4 comments

So I have been incredibly delinquent in posting reviews of books read this year. Apparently since I decided not to read 52 books and track them again this year as I did in 2007, my whole reviewing system fell apart entirely. So I’m going to do a whole chunk right here, but I’ll try to keep it short (you know that won’t happen because I’ll get all ranty and then that will be the end of things being short…) These are in no particular order:

ON BEAUTY by Zadie Smith – Fiction

A wonderful wonderful book. This is my first Zadie Smith book and based on this there will be many many more. She has an absolutely beautiful writing style and her characters are all fantastic. They’re full of flaws and annoying character traits (some more than others) elegantly coupled with beautiful gestures. They are somehow like tragic epic heroes and villians, but dragged down to a realistic middle/upper middle class day to day level. These are people you would really know, probably do know, and they are rendered so beautifully by Smith, who is unafraid to see them as they are and show them to us, stripped naked, and full of vulnerability.

The story itself was fascinating, about two rival professors (one liberal, one conservative), whose personal rivalry has turned their families into rivals over the years. How those rivalries have an incredible ripple effect both within the families, and even out into the world is a wonderful and horrifying thing to watch and it kept the story at an edge of your seat pitch for the entire book. Smith also started the book with a gimmicky little trick of showing the emails from the eldest son of one the families to his father. In the hands of a lesser author this could have been a huge mistake, but instead was a clever opening to all these flawed beings running around trying to both destroy and save the world and themselves. There’s also an excellent Romeo & Juliet element early on in the book that works as a great hook, getting you enmeshed in the brutal reality of these two educated and “civilized” families early on and an excellent foreshadowing of what this rivalry may end up costing everyone. A really brilliant work overall.

My one minor complaint is that the ending is rather abrupt. Smith takes such time with both her characters and plot lines, that you are often left wondering where the hell the story is actually going, but you don’t really care because you’re having such a wonderful time just experiencing it, but in the end Smith cuts everything abruptly short. It seemed just a little bit like taking the easy road with some very hard decisions she and her characters had made. That said, it was still a wonderful read. Perhaps there is actually nothing wrong with the ending at all and I just didn’t want to leave Smith’s world…and so what you’re reading is just my sour grapes at being denied a few extra pages…4 Stars.

BABYLON & OTHER STORIES by Alix Olin – Short Fiction Collection

I took Babylon & Other Stories on vacation with me (always a risky process choosing a perfect book – or four – for vacation) and I could not have been happier with my choice. The entire collection was beautiful and cohesive. The stories were masterfully told tales from characters from all different walks of life and speaking from both male and female point of views with equal authenticity.

I don’t think I have a single complaint about Olin’s collection except to say that as with all collections, certain stories were stronger than others and so as always there is a certain uneven aspect to the collection as a whole, however Olin’s voice is powerful and clear throughout. The King of Kohlrabi, Simple Exercises For The Beginning Student, You Are Here, A Theory of Entropy, Edgewater, Wonders Never Cease, Meeting Uncle Bob, Local News, The Swanger Blood, In Trouble With The Dutchman, and An Analysis of Some Troublesome Recent Behavior are some of (many of?) the standouts in Olin’s collection.

A must for anyone interested in short fiction. Olin is one of the powerful female short fiction writers to watch. 4.5 stars.

DO THE WINDOWS OPEN by Julie Hecht – Short Fiction Collection

My experience with Do The Windows Open was love hate from the very first story to the last. I first became interested in Julie Hecht more out of masochistic curiosity than anything else as I read an interview with her in a recent issue of The Believer and I found her to be an incredibly prickly and difficult subject in the interview and she borderline offended me (and I’m sure scores of others) in the interview, despite the interviewers attempts (frequent and valiant) to make it a pleasant and rewarding experience for her (and readers). However, I had ignorantly never really heard of her, and found out from the interview that she was quite prolific. Hecht writes short fiction exclusively, which is rare to make a successful career out of, and every piece of hers that she has ever submitted (I could be slightly misquoting here) has been published in The New Yorker (I make a habit of reading every fiction piece in every New Yorker – at least since I stared reading it) and so I found this particularly intriguing.

I liked that Hecht’s book was actually a bunch of short fiction stories about the same character. I liked that the central character was horribly flawed, it made her seem real. I was not that fond of the central character however, which sometimes made it hard to live in her world for every story. I also had trouble separating Hecht from her character, perhaps because from reading The Believer article she seemed a lot like the character. I guess in the end I have to say that I’m not a fan of Julie Hecht, but I’m slowly becoming a fan of her work. And judging from her Believer interview…that may be how she wants it. 3 stars.

GIRL ON THE FRIDGE by Etgar Keret – Short Fiction Collection

Reading Etgar Keret is like eating a huge spicy meal and then going straight to bed and having the craziest most insane, but beautiful and haunting dreams that you think you want to wake up from, but once you do you just wish you could crawl back into them.

A lot of people don’t “get” Keret, and I can understand why. His stories are complicated and bizarre, but extremely short and they often feel unfinished, like tiny vignette slices of various lives, but by focusing on those things, they are missing the point. He is a beautiful writer, with sometimes elegant and sometimes aggressive stories that just grab you and shake you. They stay with you long after finishing his book.

I was introduced to Keret with his collection The Nimrod Flipout, which I do slightly prefer to this newest collection, but both are excellent works. And for those of us (me!) who like to write very short pieces, he’s a real inspiration of how it can be done well. 3.5 stars

DIVORCED BEHEADED SURVIVED: A FEMINIST REINTERPRETATION OF THE WIVES OF HENRY VIII by Karen Lindsey – Non-Fiction

If I hadn’t read The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Wier, I might have looked more fondly upon this book, but it really suffered in comparison. The writing was not as strong, and for a subject that has been researched to death, presentation, organization, and strong writing really can make the difference. I found the chapter on Anne of Cleves to be by far the best, most interesting, and well written section of the book, and also the most thoroughly researched, as many researchers seem to gloss over Anne of Cleves. I’m not sure how accurate Lindsey’s research on Cleves was, but I found the Cleves chapter to be the only chapter that really was a “feminist reinterpretation” as the book title suggested. Had Lindsey treated all of the wives of Henry the eighth with the same strong feminist hand she gave Cleves the book would have soared to great heights, unfortunately it ends up being mediocre at best in comparison to the deluge of material already available. 2 stars

THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII by Alison Wier – Non-Fiction

So I went through this Anne Boleyn phase, and part of that included reading some actual Non-Fiction (rare for me these days) and the second book I read about Boleyn was Alison Wier’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII. It’s an excellent and comprehensive (nearly 600 pages) account of the six wives unfortunate enough to be married to Henry VIII. I thought Wier’s book was well written and informative, but I did wish a little more for her voice within the book, rather than just the facts. The book itself was fascinating, if only because these women were fascinating, and Wier does an excellent job of relaying the information, but it could have used a little more passion…a little more soul. 3.5 stars

WHITEOUT by Greg Rucka (writer) and Steve Lieber (illustrator) – Graphic Novel/Comic Book

I’ve long wanted to read Whiteout by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber, and Adam helped me achieve that dream by bringing it home for me from the bookstore one random day (he’s so good at tiny surprises). It was a great read. I enjoyed the characters and the illustration was beautiful – a real challenge for anyone drawing a story set in Antarctica. Lots of white, you gotta get creative and run with it – and Lieber is incredibly successful. The plot is the weakest element as it is a murder mystery and it is obvious from very early on in the story who the culprit is, but the story is well told, the dialog sharp, and the action furious and so it’s not too upsetting that you can guess the final resolution before you actually get there. Keep your eyes peeled for a film based on Whiteout coming out in 2009 and starring Kate Beckinsale – judging from the poster (see below) it looks awesome, but I’ve been fooled by posters before. Many, many times. 3.5 stars

WHITEOUT: MELT by Greg Rucka (writer) and Steve Lieber (illustrator) – Graphic Novel/Comic Book

Whiteout: Melt is good, but unfortunately pales in comparison to Whiteout. The art (still by Lieber) remains interesting and of the same high caliber, but the story, while the dialog is still good and the action still interesting, is lacking. The “mystery” is still easily solvable, and more importantly the mystery is just less interesting and the stakes, though they should be higher (they seem more epic) are just not that well handled. In the end I was disappointed, if only because Whiteout was so good. 2.5 stars

TOO COOL TO BE FORGOTTEN by Alex Robinson (writer & illustrator) – Graphic Novel/Comic Book

I was disappointed in this book, if only because my expectations of Alex Robinson are far too high. I am a huge fan of Box Office Poison, his massive graphic novel of 2001 and also the supplemental BOP. This book had a great hook – middle aged man is “hypnotized” and ends up back in high school. Great premise. I figured with Robinson’s talent for honest story telling and his great sense of humor that this would be a slam dunk. Instead I was disappointed to find a lot of exposition (too much show not tell is especially dangerous in a graphic novel – where there are actual pictures), too much heavy handed “life lessons drama”, and I personally found it unrealistic (but perhaps I harbor more high school regrets than Robinson).

Of note is the fact that Adam found the book to be quite good, and didn’t agree with most of my criticisms. I trust Adam implicitly as a critic of film, books, music, and especially comic books, and so I am torn and can only say that you should check it out and decide for yourself. This one wasn’t for me, but it might be perfect for you. 2.5 stars.

LITTLE THINGS by Jeffrey Brown (writer & illustrator) – Graphic Novel/Comic Book

I am a HUGE fan of Jeffrey Brown, I read absolutely everything of his I can get my hands on. His Unlikely is one of my favorite works of all time – graphic or otherwise.

I am probably not a very balanced reviewer when it comes to Jeffrey Brown, but so be it. I liked Little Things. It started off a little roughly for me, but really picked up speed. It was nice to see Brown working with slightly different material – he usually writes about his past relationships – and he’s a genius at tapping into that sorrow and happiness and bittersweet something that happens to all of us at some point in our lives – but here there is hardly a relationship to be seen.

Little Things is more of a slice of life collection, stories about life and music and people and work, with tiny relationship tidbits sprinkled throughout. I really enjoyed it and found his sense of humor as engaging as ever, and actually slightly more upbeat and less sad-ish than his more relationship focused pieces, but I still think his poignant relationship stories are his best work. It seems impossible for him not to throw his whole heart and soul into those pieces, and it shows. But this was lighter and more fun and so still a solid 4.0 stars

CIRCLING THE DRAIN: STORIES by Amanda Davis – Short Fiction Collection

I am fairly new to Amanda Davis‘ work, and it is a real tragedy that she passed away in 2003 and will not be able to continue to share her wonderful words with the world. This collection really blew me away. It was honest and heartbreaking and beautiful, and particularly as a writer I found it inspiring as she is not afraid to think outside the box. Her stories Fat Ladies Floated In The Sky Like Ballons, Prints, Red Lights Like Laughter, Ending Things, and The Visit I found particularly creative and moving and now think of them as some of the absolute best examples of modern short fiction available to readers (and writers). The title story, Circling The Drain is maybe the best piece I’ve ever read about surviving (or not surviving) an affair. I recommend this collection to anyone that enjoys short fiction, and particularly to anyone looking for something different and groundbreaking to inspire them without being too “experimental and weird”…Davis never delves far enough into experimental that you lose the emotional connection so critical in short fiction. 4.5 stars.

WONDER WHEN YOU’LL MISS ME by Amanda Davis – Fiction

It’s a wonderful discovery to read a short fiction collection that you love and then realize that a full length novel is out there. And even more wonderful for the novel to turn out to be excellent as well. I think novels and short fiction are very different animals and not all people that are brilliant at one can be brilliant at the other, but Amanda Davis certainly nailed it. Wonder When You’ll Miss Me is a heartbreaking and sometimes gruesome look at a teenage girl with a tragedy in her past, one that she spends the entire book trying to escape and overcome. I won’t spoil the details for you, but suffice to say it is a hard look at life and love and youth and beauty and tragedy. Davis has a unique perspective and a way with words that makes her a delight to read. If only we had the opportunity to watch her grow even more as a writer. Rest in peace Amanda Davis. 4 stars

Also read this year and previously reviewed: Superfolks; The Other Boleyn Girl; and Interpreter of Maladies

#186 ~ Rabid Lamb Comics

August 6, 2008 in book reviews, books, boyfriends, cartoons, comic of the day, comics, entertainment, relationships | 3 comments

That’s right, and not only did I get an awesome “Tuesday present for no reason whatsover” but Adam remains the Michael Jordan of gift buying (are we still using Michael Jordan as an example of awesome things? I so need to catch up on my pop culture – sigh) – as he got me a book by an author I love that I didn’t even know was out. Yay! The book, for the record, is The Girl On The Fridge by Etgar Keret. It’s a collection of short fiction and if it’s half as awesome as the first collection of his short fiction that I read (The Nimrod Flipout) then it will blow my mind (again).

Here’s a picture – since the cover is also awesome.

Boleyn Obsession

March 10, 2008 in book reviews, books, competition, entertainment, the other boleyn girl | 3 comments

I have no idea how to review the book I just read, The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory.

I don’t really read historical fiction, I think the last historical fiction I read when I was about 15, and this book, though very engaging, is not really in the same league with the stuff I generally read these days, much of it award winning literary fiction and short fiction. Yet, I cannot deny that I was totally obsessed with this book while I read it, and the proof is in how quickly I devoured it. The book is about 660 pages, and I began reading it Tuesday night after work and was finished late Thursday night after work. Three days. 660 Pages. Clearly, I was smitten.

Let’s start by talking about why I even picked this up since it’s so outside my normal reading range. I am pretty fascinated by the whole Anne Boleyn thing, I think a lot of women are, it’s such an interesting time in the history of women, where they literally had no power and were traded as commodities by their fathers, brothers, uncles, and husbands on a daily basis without a thought as to their own desires. Yet a woman could also become a Queen, as Anne Boleyn did…which held great power (maybe, if you were brilliant like Elizabeth I and didn’t marry a guy who could/would take it all away). Anyway, it is a very interesting and horrible time for women and I’ve always been fascinated by it and have thought often of picking up a biography of Anne Boleyn or a good history of that time period. Instead I went for some historical fiction. At least I didn’t see the movie. I was actually afraid I was going to see the movie, and I was afraid it was going to be terrible and put me off of the whole idea entirely, so while at the bookstore I decided to pick up Gregory’s fictionalized interpretation of the Boleyns with the idea that I would also research getting a great biography as well. This is still my plan, I just didn’t think I’d finish Gregory’s book in three days. So, prologue aside, onto my attempt to rate this monster…

The Good: It was completely compelling. The high-stakes narrative drove the story forward so feverishly that I didn’t care that the beautiful literary writing I have come to expect in things I read was absent. I just needed to know what was going to happen to these characters and how it was going to unfold (even though I knew the true end for Anne, Mary Boleyn’s story is largely unknown or unwritten).

The story is told from the point of view of Mary Boleyn, which is quite a brilliant decision because it allowed Gregory to speak from a point of view largely ignored or unknown in the history of the Boleyns and the court of King Henry VIII. It also allowed me to hate Anne with a fiery freaking passion, which I did for about 450 pages. Like any good story though, Anne reaps what she sows, and Gregory successfully turns her around in the last 150 or so pages so that I could feel the requisite horror and sympathy for her ultimate fate.

I feared that the romance factor would be gag inducing and put me off the book immediately, but I was pleased to find there was very little, if any of this. In fact, because Mary and Anne are never really allowed to be in love (except Mary in the end) there was almost no romantic swooning at all, for which I was very very grateful. When Mary finally does swoon in the end, you don’t mind so much because she’s had such a miserable lot of luck most of the time, she’s earned a good swoon.

Gregory also did an excellent job of getting my feminist ideals all twisted up within this web. There is an excellent point in the story, when Anne is becoming successful in her bid for winning the King’s affections (pushing her sister quite roughly to the side without a thought by the way) and she makes an impassioned argument to Mary that basically the world will never be the same for women, because she (Anne) is proving that even women, who are perceived to have no power, can accomplish great things (becoming Queen out of sheer will) by being clever and intelligent and not giving up or letting others set her path.

It’s a good argument, and you almost feel with her for a moment, until you hear Mary’s perspective, which though milder, is equally as feminist and powerful in its own way. Mary sees Anne’s pushing aside of a legitimate Queen (Queen Katherine) who has literally done nothing wrong except for get older and not bear any male heirs, as setting the standard for wives to be removed and tossed aside as soon as a king, or man, tires of them.

And the wonderful thing is that they are both right – which is when feminist perspectives get so interesting. Anne is right to push her way forward and not be bound by the men in her life (father, uncle, brother, and even her King) and though it is ultimately her undoing her daughter eventually becomes Queen Elizabeth, a powerful, brilliant, and eternally clever woman, like her mother was, who is arguably one of the greatest Queens in history. But Mary is proven right as well, in that when the King tires of Anne she is quite quickly beheaded (he has already learned it is quite fine to get rid of a wife, even if she is a Queen) and he goes on to divorce (“annul”) two more wives and behead a third before he dies (not in this text). Setting the stage for men with wandering eyes and lustful hearts everywhere to get bored and move on at the slightest whim. And that has worked out SO well for women.

The Bad: I did hate Anne with a venomous passion. Perhaps that was what Gregory intended, or perhaps she didn’t care and just wanted to present the characters as accurately as she could, but it was a flaw in the book I thought. Despite my drive forward with the book I sometimes wanted to put it down simply because I hated Anne so much. I also think this could have been a real problem if I had not pushed through the book so quickly. If I had been reading more slowly and had left off on a bit about Anne, I might have been more hesitant to pick it back up immediately.

Though Gregory’s book is historical fiction and makes no claim to historical accuracy, it’s not that far off. A lot of what is in the book as fact (executions, religious and political moves, movements of the royal family, affairs, children, miscarriages, mistresses, marriages, coronations) is largely accurate. However. while this book is a mere one or two (maybe three?) steps away from being accurate (and makes clear that it is), it has spawned a Hollywood film that is about 100 steps away from this partial accuracy, and from what I can tell, about 100 steps away from the fictionalized though historically based account that Gregory told. While this is premature since I have not yet seen the movie, I can pretty well tell from the trailers, previews, synopsis, and rants from other fans of Gregory that the movie takes incredible liberties with Gregory’s material and the actual history. I’m sure I’ll see the film eventually (though I don’t want to pay so it may be a long time) and I’ll post an update here if I’m not right in my assumptions.

I implore you Hollywood…why? Why spend the money to buy Gregory’s or anyone’s material if you just want to tell your own horrible inaccurate piece of crap story anyway? I’ll never understand you Hollywood…but you sure are pretty and shiny. Good for you. Impressive.

The Ugly: Nothing really. It’s been a very long time since I read something with a historical basis, and a while since I read something with such a strong and direct narrative. I find no major faults with this book, and for what it is, it is extremely effective. I missed my beautiful literary language though. I do wonder if I will feel the same way about this book after I read a couple biographies – my appetite has totally been whet for it – so I’m going to pick some up immediately (anyone have any great recommendations?)

The Rating: Ugh. Here we go. I’m going to dock it one star for just not being in the “upper echelon” of material that I read (god, how snobby did that sound?) and then a half star because it’s not a perfect book. So 3.5 stars.

Beautiful Interpretation

March 9, 2008 in book reviews, books, entertainment, short fiction, writing | Permalink

I finished a couple weeks ago, Interpreter Of Maladies by Jhump Lahiri, the author of The Namesake (now also a motion picture – which looks quite good).

This is an unbelievably beautiful collection of short fiction. I had not read anything of Lahiri’s, except for her piece in a December 2007 issue of The New Yorker, Year’s End, which was equally as stunning.

Interpreter of Maladies seduced me immediately as Lahiri has an eloquent and sparse way with perfect words. Her stories are haunting and complex. I was left with sorrow in almost all of them, yet the book was strangely uplifting. Lahiri does something interesting in Interpreter in that she is not beholden to just one voice, which is somewhat strange for collections like this, usually the author seems to be looking for things to hold the collection together, and point of view is often an easy way to do that, Lahiri switches point of view between stories masterfully, moving from first to third person with ease, and yet her stories link together beautifully, because they are all filled with the same kind of happy melancholy, a private and perfect loneliness, a desperate sadness that still holds mysterious pockets of hope. They also all involve Indian characters in some way or another, which kept things together nicely.

As for best stories, they were all so evenly perfect that it is difficult for me to pick favorites. Because I tend to relate heavily to romantic relationship stories I would have to say that A Temporary Matter, Sexy, This Blessed House, and Interpreter of Maladies were some of my favorites. But that is not to say that When Mr. Pirzada Came To Dine, A Real Durwan, Mrs. Sen’s, The Treatment of Bibi Haldar, and The Third And Final Continent were any less powerful or stunning.

It is really quite an amazing feat in any collection, to make each story not only lovely and strong, but also so haunting. I give Interpreter of Maladies 4.5 stars and cannot wait to read more of Jhumpa Lahiri’s work.

Super Old-Fashioned You Mean?

March 8, 2008 in book reviews, books, cheating, feminist rage, misogynistic bullshit, new york city, superheroes | 3 comments

So this is my first book review of 2008. The year in which I am not torturing myself to read a book a week, and I have to say, I’m really enjoying reading again, mostly because I don’t feel so pressured, it’s also of note that I’m getting a lot more done that isn’t reading – so it’s good on all sides.

Adam lent me this book, Superfolks by Robert Mayer (which he has not read) thinking I might find it interesting, both because I love me some superheroes, and also because my novel (and my in-progress second and third novels – part of a trilogy) are basically about a superhero. I think he thought it would be helpful and constructive to read, and that I also might enjoy it. He’s not wrong. I did enjoy it. But it also totally enraged me, and in the end, despite the fact that I concede my rating may be a bit unfair considering that it was originally published in 1977, it only gets 2.0 stars. Here’s why.

The Good: It was enjoyable in a fluffy way. I can appreciate that Mayer was doing something innovative with superheroes for his time. It reads easily and the hero/superhero David Brinkley is likable enough (despite the misogynistic aspects) but he’s also not too sticky sweet and perfect, he seems very three-dimensional.

One of my favorite parts of the book was a little detail that if Brinkley used his powers of ex-ray vision for non-superhero reasons, like looking at an interns boobs through her tight sweater, then he became instantly clumsy, and that despite the consequences, he often abuses the power and as such is often running into things and falling down. It was a funny bit and an element that would make Superman as Clark Kent more believable in his civilian disguise.

I was very interested in the idea, that was unfortunately only touched on, of Brinkley’s inability to perform sexually as his superhero persona, and the other more psychological ideas about the realities of being a superhero that were explored, it was all very interesting, but unfortunately not really fleshed out thouroughly.

There was a brilliant (also pretty unexplored) idea about villains (powered or not) that all went to the same boarding school (The Winthrop School For Boys) to be trained to be villains – Lee Harvey Oswald being a current (though deceased) alumni and martyr – it was funny and creative and I wish it had tied more into the overall plot, rather than just being a wonderful little side note. The overall conspiracy/plot was also quite clever, though it made for the most dull reading in the book.

The Bad: The title is terrible. Who came up with this title? The title really does not pertain at all to the story. David Brinkley lives in a world with superheroes and supervillians, yes, but the story does not focus on other heroes at all – there are vague mentions of them – mostly in an effort to create a sense of the world that Brinkley lives in, and I think two super villains and one superhero (retired) make fairly brief appearances. The book is also not really about people with super powers in general or as a comment on society, or science, or the future, or anything, so I can’t figure out the reason for the title choice. The Incredibles, with its five minute newsreel footage at the beginning, which brilliantly sets the political and social stage for that world is more about “superfolks” and how that effects them and the world, than this entire 240 page book.

We never know our “hero’s” superhero name. It’s annoying. He is often referred to as Indigo, but later it is suggested that this is just a code name for him by respective governments. You never know for sure. I’m certain Mayer had a reason for doing this, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out the reason. It only served to frustrate me.

There are little tricks that Mayer uses, which I’m sure many readers like, but which left me a bit cold. Tricks such as using famous names for normal people and normal people names for famous people, for example, Jane Doe is a famous movie star and Gloria Steinem (one of our most powerful women in reality – so of course she must be “brought low”) is described as married with children and wearing a smelly housedress and an extra 30 distasteful pounds. There are a lot of name drops like this and initially I thought it was a bit clever, but it gets old fast.

It’s also not clear what stage he has really set for his world, it’s not the real world, or any other pre-established comic book world (i.e. Wonder Woman exists, as do Batman and Superman, but so does Snoopy the Flying Ace and The Lone Ranger), so but I can’t get a sense of what it’s supposed to be like with any accuracy.

People in Mayer’s book also behave in ways pretty contrary to the way we do in 2008, and I suspect contrary to the way people behaved in 1977, and QUITE often in a borderline pornographic way, but there is no set up for why that is acceptable in this society…did something go horribly wrong…or right…to make people act this way? It came up too often to be ignored but not often enough that I accepted it without reservations…especially with no “historical” explanation. The little in-jokes may have been inventive and inspiring or chuckle inducing in 1977, but in 2008 it left me kind of bored, and without a clear sense of the world in which the in-jokes existed I was left frustrated.

The Ugly: The 1977 publication date is hugely at issue in this review because there are many 2008 socially unacceptable things in the book that were probably the norm in 1977. The same way I bristled at the N-word being used occasionally in Matheson’s I Am Legend (fitting that Will Smith got the lead in 2007 – it’s nice when things come around like that) I bristled at the black/white separation here and the way it was handled. I know I cannot expect things like that not to exist in what is essentially a period piece but it’s also hard to just accept it. And this brings us to my major issue with the book, especially in the final pages…

Spoiler Alert

Women are without a doubt second class citizens in this book.

They are sex objects and wives and mothers and that’s about it. They are certainly not superheroes, the best they can do, apparently, is be a hollow version of Superman’s ‘Lois Lane crack reporter’, in the form of Peggy Poole, who is really not as much a reporter as a vehicle for Brinkley to remember his youth and past sexual desire for her. Women can also be whores, as evidenced in the form of Brinkley’s ex-high school sweetheart Lorna Doone, who also operates simply as a vehicle for Brinkley to remember his youth and past sexual desire for her, though as a whore she is now sad looking and unappealing. Boy we women cannot win. What time period is this set in – the 1500’s? Jesus.

I understand it’s 1977, but really? I mean, Charlie’s Angels was on the air then (1976 – 1981)…I’m not saying that it was a groundbreaking show and the angels certainly used their looks to their advantage in every single frame and they were ultimately taking orders from not one, but two men (one of who lived inside a speaker phone no less) but at least they were the stars. They weren’t sidelined reporters and whores, and little housewives, they were private investigators, and spies, and models, and athletes, and they were smart. You know what else was out in 1977…a little show called Wonder Woman…oh yeah, and this show you may have heard of…it’s not like women weren’t on the rise…they were stepping up and were showing, especially during the late 1970’s, that they were NOT just the little wifey, the powerless sidekick, the whore, the sex object. And these shows weren’t even particularly innovative and revolutionary, but rather mainstream, so I have to say that ultimately Mayer’s book is buried in the opposite of innovation and forward thinking. It’s like he decided to do a superhero novel, which was super innovative for the time, and then decided that that was quite enough innovation and quit.

As if to add insult to injury, the end of the book is like a giant punch in the vagina of all women.

Seriously. In literally the last pages of the book, our “hero” allows his old flame Peggy to give him a blow job…he justifies the fact that he allows this to happen while his wife is literally in labor with their third child, by saying that “he didn’t ask for it or instigate it” and that he “deserves it” for saving the world (yet again). Whoo. What a hero. Someone hold me back from this awesome specimen…this golden example of man. Blech. It turns out that it is actually his apparently gay sort-of-one-time sidekick that is blowing him (his eyes were closed) and so he chases him out of the room when he realizes the mistake, and ‘hyuck-hyuck-hyuck’ we can all feel okay that he didn’t actually cheat on Pamela (his wife) with Peggy (his old flame) because it was really Peter (what’s up with the P names?) and he of course didn’t want that. So we are supposed to overlook the fact that our hero wanted it to happen and that he thought it was happening and allowed it to go on, but since it technically didn’t happen the way he wanted with the person he wanted then it doesn’t matter and all is well. Hahahaha! Isn’t life grand? Totally annoying.

And that’s not all – the WORST offense by far is that at the very end of the book Brinkley is basically losing his super powers (as he was in the beginning) and is lamenting the loss of them and of his lost heritage, but his wife has a baby BOY in the end, and SURPRISE, there are very strong hints (i.e. ridiculous hard to deny proof) that the son will have his father’s power. I guess those two little girls of his didn’t get anything. I mean what a surprise, why would they? Girls should pretty much be drowned like unwanted kittens at birth, or farmed out as strippers and whores, or maybe sold into the slavery of marriage, or oh, I know, they can be “crack reporters” that get captured all the time, so that heroes can have someone helpless to rescue.

BLAH! ANGER!

I’m disappointed in my man Grant Morrison for writing the intro to this and praising this book so much. I’m angry at Stan Lee for saying, “You’ll never look at superheroes the same way again” – he’s right, I can’t. And I’m more disappointed than ever.

Best of 2007, Part Three of Four ~ Books

February 14, 2008 in adrian tomine, book reviews, books, dave eggers, junot diaz, mcsweeney's, the road, the walking dead, x-men | 10 comments

Best Books READ of 2007 (fiction)

It turns out that 5 of my 10 best books of 2007 were in fact published in 2007, and an additional 2 were paperbacks which were released in 2007…so this list has more validity than I expected. Yay for me!…

You can also read Part One and Part Two if you’re feeling left out.

10. Lady Into Fox, By David Garnett. Originally published in 1922, Reprinted by McSweeney’s in 2004.

I’m hesitant to write complicated reviews of each of these books, since I’ve already done that in review format over the year, so I’m just going to link to them here and add a sentence or two if I feel so moved…okay? Great. So Lady Into Fox really surprised the hell out of me. It’s never a book I would have expected to make a top for the year list for me, but I really ended up loving this bizarre story of love and loss…it’s a great creative metaphor for a lot of other things in life. Read more about Lady Into Fox here.

09. Water For Elephants, By Sara Gruen. Published in 2006 (the softcover – which I read – 2007).

Water For Elephants surprised me as well, if only because I don’t consider myself a NY Times Bestseller reader in general, but this book was really beautiful and well conceived. I finished it quickly, which is always a great compliment. Read more about Water For Elephants here.

08. Midnight At the Dragon Cafe, By Judy Fong Bates. Published in 2004 (the softcover – which I read – 2005).

I adored China Dog, Bates book of short fiction, and didn’t figure Midnight At The Dragon Cafe could live up, but I loved this as well. Bates has a brilliant way of turning a story on its ear, just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, read more about Dragon Cafe here.

07. Astonishing X-Men #1 – #22, By Joss Whedon & John Cassaday. Published in issues 2006 – 2007.

I can’t say enough good things about this collection, and my only complaint is that it’s ending soon. The last issue of this arc is due to come out soon, and it will signal the end of the Whedon/Cassaday team up. I’m very sad about it, although maybe it means Planetary will someday get finished? One can only hope. Read more here.

06. St. Lucy’s Home For Girl’s Raised By Wolves, By Karen Russel. Published in 2006 (the softcover – which I read – 2007).

This was a great and really creative collection. The title really beautifully summarized what I should expect and it totally delivered. Read more about St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised By Wolves here.

05. Shortcomings, By Adrian Tomine. Published in collected hardcover format, in 2007.

I’m a huge Tomine fan and Shortcomings is just a beautiful beautiful work. Read more here.

04. One Hundred And Forty-Five Stories In A Small Box, By Dave Eggers, Sarah Manguso, and Deb Olin Unferth. Published in 2007.

I knew this was going to be great, with the creative format and the brilliant ideas that McSweeney’s is always swinging around, but I was unprepared for how much I was going to love both Eggers and Manguso’s books. Manguso’s collection stands out particularly as wildly creative and heartbreaking, although Eggers has my favorite piece overall. Read more here.

03. Famous Father’s Other Stories, By Pia Z. Ehrhardt. Published in 2007.

Ehrhardt was a new author for me and I was incredibly impressed. A wonderful collection. Read more about Famous Fathers & Other Stories here.

02. The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, By Junot Diaz. Published in 2007.

I freaking LOVED this book. It blew me away, and was an excellent way to end the year. I had been anxiously awaiting Diaz’s follow up novel (like everyone else) after I was shocked by his wonderful first book Drown, a collection of short stories. This far surpasses Drown in so many ways. I don’t care how long I have to wait for the next one, so long as it is as good. Read more about The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao here.

01. The Road, By Cormac McCarthy. Published in 2006.

What can I say? You don’t win the Pulitzer for writing a mediocre book. I haven’t ready any of McCarthy’s other works, and I’m very intrigued as I love his style, but I suspect he won’t ever be able to hit closer to home for me than he did with this book. Reading The Road was a singular experience that I will always cherish, and sadly, probably never duplicate…but I’ll spend my life trying. Read more about The Road here.

Honorable Mentions: You Are A Little Bit Happier Than I Am – Tao Lin (Poetry); Tell Me Why – Clare Jacobsen (Non-Fiction); Superbad – Ben Greenman (Short Fiction); No One Belongs Here More Than You – Miranda July (Short Fiction); Transparency – Frances Hwang (Short Fiction); and The Walking Dead – Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard (Graphic Fiction/Comic Book Series).

Worst Book Of The Year: I’m not going to say. I know that’s a cop out, but it’s easier than explaining why it is the worst book I read this year. And words like “bitter” would surely be tossed around in the comments section and y’know what? I don’t need that. :0

#52…Which Means Book A Week for 2007 Success!

January 2, 2008 in book reviews, books, entertainment, junot diaz | 4 comments

Whooo-hooo!

I just finished the other day a completely magnificent book, that also happens to be my 52nd book for the year 2007…happily (and barely) meeting my 2007 goal to read a book a week. Okay, so I cheated a bit here, and here, and maybe even here, but you’ve got to admit it’s pretty awesome. I feel good about this accomplishment, that said, I’m not going to do it again for 2008 and here is why…

1. I found that having such a stringent book reading goal kept me away from some more challenging (or just more lengthy) books that I’ve long been wanting to read (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, The Children’s Hospital, Watership Down, The Tropic of Cancer to name a few). Multiple times this year I picked up books (often those books) and was forced to put them down for fear that they would prevent me from making my goal. A good alternative would perhaps be to set a page number goal, rather than a book number goal…that might be something I try in the future, but not this year.

2. I sometimes found myself frustrated or rushing through a book that was dragging or was simply a slower book to read because I was getting (or as of April had become) so far behind. This was not a fun feeling. It took an activity that I enjoy immensely (yes, reading) and turned it, kind of, into a task. It was sometimes unpleasant and the reality is there are enough unpleasant things in my life currently without needlessly adding to the stack.

3. I need to be more focused this year on writing and submitting and yes, the dreaded elliptical trainer (blah!) than happily and selfishly and yes, somewhat detrimentally reading. I’m sure I’ll still read a hell of a lot, but a shift of focus is definitely necessary.

So onto a review of book #52. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Junot Diaz. Fiction. 4.5 Stars.

This was, I think the second best book I had the pleasure of reading this year, second only to McCarthy’s The Road, which was not only wonderful, but I also had the pleasure of blasting through in about three and a half hours in the middle of the night…which is always an awesome experience. Wao is a much more layered, complex, and quite frankly longer work, so it took me a few days to get through, but I enjoyed every second of it.

I was given Diaz’s short fiction collection Drown a few years ago by a wonderful friend and loved it right away. It was a welcome change from much of the short fiction out there…beautifully crafted stories that were just fascinating. Wao is no different as it is rich and amazing in its history and yet it is told with a casual believable voice that was EXACTLY what I wanted…and that was pitch perfect for the book. Even the footnotes were fascinating – while historical and there to be “footnotes” they were all written in the same voice as the book…and with a definitive perspective. I definitely came away sharing all the author’s views of the Dominican Republic.

Diaz has some truly beautiful believable characters, even if they come from a world I cannot even begin to imagine, and it’s the kind of epic book that I fear I will never have in me to write because of my boring boring life and super super boring experiences. Oh Woe Is Me. I never know with Diaz how much is fiction and how much is autobiography that has been recrafted into fiction, and that I suppose is one of the marks of a great writer…that I believe him SO much that I cannot stop fathoming at the truth he has put down on the page, and have to keep reminding myself that much of it must be fiction…must be…it is too fascinating and rich and beautiful and horrible to be really true. Right?

I can only think of two reasons not to give it 5 stars, 1) I did not give The Road 5 stars and this is an admittedly close second on that book and 2) it is told from the perspectives of a couple different characters and is told almost in short story format in the form of chapters – which I love – but occasionally found confusing or maybe distracting. Anytime you switch character focus you run the risk of losing your reader as he/she can become bored with a new character that is not as interesting as one they were so invested in – this was not a major problem as Diaz’s book was pretty well balanced, but a few times I felt like I was getting a frustrating history lesson when all I wanted to do was get back to the point…to the characters I was pining for. It is a minor complaint, but a complain nonetheless I suppose.

Anyway, a brilliant book. If you’re looking for something to blow you away, this is it. 4.5 stars.

#51 McSweeney’s Quarterly #25

January 2, 2008 in book reviews, books, entertainment, mcsweeney's | Permalink

Hard review to write…and I’m going to hold off on both the full review…and the number of stars because about 50 pages into one of the longer pieces there was a misprint in my book which caused the story to be cut off mid-sentence and then about 12 pages of duplication in the next story. Hope that my book was one of few botched copies, but I don’t feel good about reviewing a book without having been able to complete all stories within…but I’ll be damned if it’s not counting towards my 52 books this year…!

#50. I’m An Idiot

December 24, 2007 in book reviews, books, entertainment | Permalink

#50. The Session. Aaron Petrovich. Fiction Novella. 2.5 Stars

I’m too stupid to read this book. It’s partly my fault, and I partly blame the back cover.

The reality is that the book is written in a kind of stage play type style like Beckett’s Waiting For Godot (although there are no character names followed by a colon, so you have to pay even closer attention to know who is speaking). I have read and enjoyed Godot, but can’t claim to be a super-fan. It’s just not accessible enough to me. I cannot connect to the characters and, for me, that is always the most important thing when I’m reading. That is obviously not Beckett’s goal in Godot and that’s not Petrovich’s goal in Session, but in the case of Session, I was seriously lead astray by the back cover (which is why I usually do not read them and will now go back to my promise to never read them again). Here’s what the back cover says,

“Funny, frantic, and with a subversive intelligence, Aaron Petrovich’s Keaton-esque heroes, Detectives Smith and Smith, stumble upon a bizarre new religion while following the trail of a murdered mathematician’s missing organs. Their investigation to discover the truth – about the mathematician, the men and women who may have eaten him, and ultimately the nature of truth, sanity, and identity – leads them into a lunatic asylum they may never leave”.

AWESOME right? Yeah, no. I got maybe a tenth of that from reading the book. Really, I’m lucky if I got a tenth of that. If I had not read the back cover I would have had no idea that was what this was supposed to be about. This book was almost entirely inaccessible to me. I could connect to nothing and I could follow little. I was expecting a narrative of some sort due to the back cover and found no narrative at all.

I agree with part of the back cover, as below the synopsis is says that “Petrovich elevates rapid fire banter to a hysterical musical litany that carries the detectives, and the reader, right along with it”. The writing was kind of brilliant, and I did feel compelled forward, driven by the two characters dialogue with eachother. It was fascinating, and if I was smarter perhaps I would have gotten the point as well, but I’m afraid in the end I’m just not smart enough for it.

I’m giving it 2.5 stars because I suspect it is quite brilliant, and there is no doubt it is compelling and well written, and I can’t penalize it too heavily just because I’m not intelligent enough to “get it”. So I’m going to give it 2.5 stars for now, and plan to re-read it someday, preferable when I’ve become a more intelligent and enlightened being (that’s for sure gonna happen right?).

2.5 stars.

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