Book Review: Grendel

Grendel, By John Gardner

This is the story of Beowulf, as told from the monster's perspective. It's an interesting take on a old, old poem, and one that is fun to read. It also is making me want to re-read Beowulf.

Grendel is an intelligent, introspective being who explains why he does what he does. Sometimes, he just feels like eating people, other times he manages to suppress his instincts. He is careful not to be seen or heard when he spies at the goings on in the meadhall, though he often has to remind himself not to laugh or sigh at people's actions.

It's a witty book, at times funny and sarcastic. It delves into philosophy, questioning mankind's reliance on war, and its views on politics, religion, and governance. It also delves into the mysteries of time and space, with an acute amount of self-awareness -- for a monster.

"Not only ancient history ... but my own history one second ago, has vanished utterly, dropped out of existence," Grendel muses at one point. "King Scyld's great deeds do not exist 'back there' in time. 'Back there in time' is an allusion of language. They do not exist at all. My wickedness five years ago, or six, or 12, has no existence except as now, mumbling, mumbling, sacrificing the slain world to the omnipotence of words, I strain my menory to regain it."

Grendel, as depicted by artist J.R. Skelton (Image from Wikipedia)

Yes, this is an old book. With a copyright of 1971, it's some 46 years old. But hey, it still more recent by some thousand years than the Old English poem it's based on.

Book Review: The Rain Before it Falls

The Rain Before it Falls, by Jonathan Coe

Coe writes incredible short novels that pack detail, sadness, and hope into a few pages.

This book is a great example. A mere 240 pages, it includes several lifetimes into its chapters, and tells the story of a family that is both more and less than what it seems on the outside.

By the way, the great title comes from a child in the novel, who tells her aunts she likes "the rain before it falls." When others tell her that isn't rain, she replies that is why she likes it.

Coe tells the story from the point of view of Rosamond, a dying, elderly woman who is searching for a young, distant cousin she doesn't know all that well, because she had met her only a few times. But Imogen had made a great impact, and Rosamond knows the young girl's history and wants to pass it along. To do so, she leaves her niece and heir a package asking that she find and deliver it to Imogen. Because Gill cannot find Imogen after a few months, she takes the second option: to listen to the tapes herself.

Rosamond has recorded the girl's history through the use of 20 photographs, which she describes and then tells the stories behind them. Together, they relate a family tale that grows from disturbing to devastating.

It's an interesting narrative device, letting the story be told in a mostly chronological order, but opening up new avenues with anecdotes about those in the pictures. As we learn more and more, the pieces begin to tie together, consistently letting us in on the family's struggles and seeing the effects of the decisions they made.

Manchester bombing

I suppose this terrorist bombing across the ocean hit closest to home when I read and heard stories about parents coming to pick up their kids as the concert was letting out.

I've been there. Many, many times.

A Black 47 concert in Ireland many years ago

During the years my daughters were concert-going teen-agers, I must have either dropped them off, picked them up, or gone along with them to a hundred concerts or festivals in at least a half-dozen states. I have seen their tired but estactic faces afterward, knowing the anticipation was worthwhile. I have experienced the waits outside the venues for the concerts to end, and then scanning the thousands of joyous smiles for ones that looked familiar.

It sent shivers across my back when I heard a father speaking on NPR about the terror of standing outside the bombed arena in Manchester with hundreds of other parents, frantically searching for his two daughters. I swear I wasn't crying when I learned he found them together, holding on to each other, looking anxious, then breaking into a run and pushing through the crowd when they spotted him.

I know this post isn't book-related. But it's something I had to say

Book Review: The Mermaid's Secret

The Mermaid's Secret, by Katie Schickel

In which we meet Jess, a sullen, slightly embittered young woman on her 23rd birthday who grew up and lives on a island off the coast of Maine. She's depressed because two years ago, her older sister -- then 23 -- died in a boating accident. The death sent her mother on a "spirit journey," and no one knows when, or if, she will return.

It rended Jess's relationship with her father -- the island's sheriff -- because she knows she cannot please him and blames him for not avenging her sister's death. It plunged Jess into a depression, with no plans for her future and no desire to work on something other than a fishing boat.

Her one relief is surfing. And on the day she catches a perfect wave, she magically turns into a mermaid. It's an interesting twist, and not as silly as it sounds. Her temporarily becoming one with the sea gives her a new perspective, and changes her -- not always for the better -- both mentally and physically.

The book explores those changes -- her abilty to become a mermaid, and her return to being human -- and shows how she reacts to a changing summer in a tourist town. The book explores how she learns that she is following an ancient fable, and how she is going to determine a resolution to her changes.

Jess is a great character -- vividly written, nuanced, familiar, and strong enough to carry the book. Other characters are there, but their point is to add another aspect to Jess, or give her someone to play off.

I must say, I am not sure about the book's ending. I found it uninspiring and unsatisfying. But I don't know if any ending could have been satisfactory. The author sets up a good tale and tells it well, but the story's end, like life, cannot be pleasing for everybody

And ... where we buy more books

My daughter came home from college last night to spend a few days with us before starting her summer internship. She asked me when we were going to that bookstore I had spoken about.

The newest stack

That bookstore is run by the Cincinnati Public Library, and it sells used books -- including the books of plays she deepy adores -- at a deep discount. I told her I needed to check when it was open, because it keeps irregular hours. She then announced plans to go to Half Price Books, and asked if I wanted to tag along.

What a stupid question. Of course, I did. Let's go.

So it was another day of adding to the stack. I didn't really plan to buy much, and decided if I did buy anything, it would be short novels or collections of short stories. I needed a break from my current reading on physics -- interesting, but difficult -- and wanted something light and short.

Well, I kind of stuck to my plan. All of the books are 300 pages or fewer. And some of them are light reading.

But perhaps not The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. I hear tell it's about a depressing future. But I'm looking forward to it. I'm not sure what to make of The Rain Before it Falls, by Jonathan Coe, a British author whose previous works I have enjoyed. It's labeled a "psychological thriller" that reveals "a heart-stopping family saga" in the voice of an elderly woman. Hmmm. And Grendel, by John Gardner, is the story of Beowulf as told from the monster's perspective.

I think Sandra Cisneros' Woman Hollering Creek looks like an interesting read. It's a collection of short stories, and I really liked The House on Mango Street, another book of hers I have read. And The Mermaid's Secret, by Katie Schickel, is classified as a "beach read." I've already started it, and while the story is set in a beach community on the Maine coast, it's not what I would consider a typical breezy summer read.

But we shall see.

Book Review (and more purchases)

The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros.

In which a young Latina writes of her days growing up in Chicago.

It's a fine, if too-short, book -- less than 100 pages -- that's deceptively well written, and introduces you to a way of life perhaps seen but seldom understood by many in America. It talks of poverty, and of getting by and living in a culture different from the majority.

It's not really a novel but a series of vignettes the author uses to introduce us to her characters. In tight but evocative writing, with some of the most compelling metaphors I have seen, Cisneros explains their motivations and desires. She is sympathetic, realistic, and non-judgmental about their actions and their decisions.

She writes like she has lived their stories. Because she has.

This book is one of two I bought this past weekend at my local half-price bookstore. The other is also about people struggling as they grow up and live in poverty.

Carolyn Chute writes about rural poverty in Maine. I've read three of her novels, The Beans of Egypt, Maine, LeTourneau's Used Auto Parts, and The School on Heart's Content Road. All three were excellent. So I am looking forward to delving into Treat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves.

Heck, even if I weren't a fan, I would have bought the latter book for its title alone.

Running to read

One of my local bookstores is making me quite happy.

Yippee to Joseph-Beth and its Cincinnati-area locations.

The store is teaming up with my local marathon, The Flying Pig -- generally considered one of the tops in the country -- to award running readers with a 25 percent off coupon.

The Pig is this Sunday, May 7, and, yes, I plan to arise in the wee hours of the morning and proceed to run the half-marathon, which for the uninitiated, is 13.1 miles. Now, I'll have something to do the rest of Sunday afternoon in between naps and eating.

Runners like to read. Think about it: The same commitment that one needs to train for and run a marathon -- long periods of time dedicated to focusing on one thing -- is similar to reading a novel or a science book. So, after the races this weekend, we can head on out to the bookstore, take advantage of a bargain, and spend our recovery periods curled up on the couch with book.

Is this like the best ever tie-in between reading and running? Now, if a tea store will join in the celebration, I'll be in racing heaven.