Book Review: Full Throttle

Full Trottle, by Joe Hill

Let me start by saying the introduction to the book, in which Hill talks about having a famous father, is wonderful. Also, I liked two of the stories -- Late Returns, and You Are Released. The former is based on the idea of not wanting to die in the middle of reading a book, and involves a curious display of time travel. The latter is set on an airplane when a nuclear war breaks out. It's told from the variety of perspectives of the people on the plane, and it works well.

The rest, well -- let's just say they are the bad and the ugly of Sergio Leone's trilogy.

Usually, I enjoy Hill's writing, especially his  novels. A couple of tales in this short story collection might have been better had they been given more room to grow. And the title story, which he wrote with his father, Stephen King, has been published before.

Some of the others, though, are bad. Meandering, pointless, and, quite frankly, boring.

Take By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain, for instance. It's a tale about two children finding a dinorsaur body along the waters of the lake between Vermont and New York, whih takes on the legend of Champy, the lake's resident "monster." But the tale is dull, and it focuses more on the children and their siblings arguing with each other. The ending is confusing.

In the Tall Grass, which also credits King as a co-author, seems to be little more than a grotesque version of King's 1977 short story, Children of the Corn. Thumbprint had some interesting characters, but a weak story to bring them together. Mums, about a fanatical right-wing family and their son, is  more a rant against the alt-right movement to overthrow the government than anything else.

 The Devil on the Staircase pages

I liked that Hill took liberties with style and structure in two stories. One, The Devil on the Staircase, was written in a typography that resembles flights of stairs. A second, Twittering From the Circus of the Dead, is what the story implies -- a young girl's tweets from a mysterious circus in a small, isolated town. In both cases, the experimental typography and format worked better than the story.

Book Review: Day of the Locust

The Day of the Locust, by Nathanael West

This short novel, written in 1939, portrays Hollywood as it was seen at the time -- insular, bigoted, contrived, full of ego and fury. Which, likewise, is pretty much how it is seen now.

The book was made into an Oscar-nominated film in 1975, long after its author was dead. Since then, it's been pretty much forgotten, but a friend and movie buff recommended I read it. It seemed like a short and easy read, so I did.

Short it was; easy not so much. Its writing is good -- tight but descriptive. But its story is meandering and vague, and sometimes seems like a series of random vignettes. More than halfway through, I wondered where the tale was going, and whether it had a point.

In the end, it got someplace with a vengence. And, oh my, it certainly has a point. It wasn't pretty, but is was a conclusion.

The tale centers around Tod Hackett, an artist and designer who moves to California with a goal of striking it big in the movie industry. There, he meets a series of chracters, each who seems to personify a Hollwood character, a stereotype, perhaps even a trope. There's the savage and angry midget, the starlet whom everyone lusts after, the losers, and the clowns. Tod is the guy who wants to be part of the surreal scene, and fit in with the Hollywood upper crust. 

Did I say surreal? Listen to a part of the description as Tod wanders around a Hollywood lot, looking for some of his friends: 

"He left the road and climbed across the spine of the hill to look down on the other side. From there he could see a ten-acre field of cockleburrs spouted with clumps of sunflowers and wild gum. In the center of the field was a gigantic pile of sets, flats, and props, While he watched, a ten-ton truck added another load to it. ... When he saw a red glare in the sky and heard the rumble of cannon, he knew it must be Waterloo. From around a bend in the road trotted several cavalry regiments. They wore capes and chest armor of black cardbord and carried long horse pistols in their saddle holsters."

Then there is Homer Simpson, who represents us -- the smiling yet vacant fan, who knows he will never be part of  the elite, but is content to linger around the edges and be exploited. Listen to how Tod describes him: "(Homer) was grateful and increased his smile. Tod couldn't help seeing all its annoying attributes, resignation, kindliness, and humility."

Book Review: The Sealed Letter

The Sealed Letter, by Emma Donoghue

Like the time period in which it is set, this novel takes a while to unwind and reveal itself, patiently narrating the daily comings and goings of its various characters.

Based on Codrington v. Condrington & Anderson, one of the earliest divorce trials in British history, Donoghue's novel shows she is at her best writing historical fiction with its roots in real life. This is one of her earlier novels, published in 2008, and focuses on two women at the center of the mid-19th Century British drama

Helen Codrington is the unhappy wife of Admiral Harry Codrington, part of an upper-crust family living well in a fashionable part of London after an assignment in Malta. The admiral also is unhappy and wants out. But according to British law at the time, his only recourse is to accuse his wife of the crime of adultery. Because she wants to continue to mother her two daughters -- and otherwise keep her good name and her station in life -- Mrs. Codrington denies the charge and must defend herself in court.

The second main character is Emily "Fido" Faithfull, an unmarried businesswoman and leader of The Cause, which is capitalized in the book. The Cause is women's equality -- such as it is seen in the 1860s -- and one of the issues is marriage and divorce equity. She is also Mrs. Codrington's close friend and confidant.

But as much as Donoghue is a feminist herself, the two female characters are portrayed as not very likable. (There are a few male characters -- the admiral, Mrs. Codrington's alleged paramours, lawyers, the investigator, and the judge -- but they are relatively minor and for the most part are not well described.) Admiral Codrington is mostly a stuffed shirt longing for glory he will never achieve.

Miss Faithfull is shown to be smarmy, repressed, prudish, and judgmental. At one point, she refers to her friend as "a demimonde." Mrs. Codrington is devious, flighty, untrustworthy, and selfish. 

The narrative plays out like an episode of Law & Order -- the characters are introduced, a hinting at some wrongdoing is alleged and investigated, the charges are brought and trial begins. It's quite a linear tale, crossing back and forth between characters, and giving some insight into their lives beyond the trial. But the main story is the trial as it played out, which becomes the focus in the second half of the tale.

And don't skip the author's note at the end. It gives some insight into the actual trial and what happened afterward -- and into the author's mindset in bringing the characters to life.

Book Review: The Lola Quartet

The Lola Quartet, by Emily St. John Mandel

The thing about this novel is that none of the characters is likable.

There is no one to root for. The main character, Gavin Sasaki, is deluded, melancholy, and irresponsible. The others are not good people, or are not fleshed out enough to determine.

The plot involves a teenage pregnancy, a runaway, stolen money, a fired reporter's desire to track down his possible connections to the mother and the child, and the backstories on the high school times and musical interests of most of those involved.

Some of the details are overstated. Coincidences abound. For instance, Sasaki is fired from his newspaper job for what is made out to be a major scandal, but in reality is a mundane transgression. 

Frankly, I was disappointed. I have read several of Mandel's other works, and found them to be unique, thoughtful, and consequential. This one did not measure up.

Still, the book is well written, with lines such as, "She moved like a ghost through the caffeinated hours." Mandel's literary style of alternating tales of various characters is intriguing, if sometimes jumbled. The stories come together at the end, though, and most everything makes sense. 

This Year in Books: 2019 Edition

My Best Books of 2019

I like to begin the year reading a favorite story about one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Roberto Clemente died New Year's Eve 1972 when he boarded a plane to take supplies to Nicaragua, which had been recently devastated by an earthquake. The plane crashed, killing the 38-year-old Clemente, the pilot, and three others.

Fifteen years later, writer W.P. Kinsella, working off the idea that Clemente's body had never been found, wrote "Searching for January," in which a tourist sees Clemente coming ashore in 1987. In a touch of magical realism, they discuss what happened and what might have been.

Ready for breakfast and the yearly reading of Kinsella's work.

OK, that's a long intro/aside to my first Year in Review blog post, featuring the best books I have read this year. According to my Goodreads profile, I read a book a week, which, according to one estimate I have seen, means I read about 50 pages a day. Sounds about right.

Anyway, of those, I have selected eight as my books of the year. Why eight, you ask? Why not, I respond.

So here were go.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Robinson. This novel, about a WPA project that paid women to ride mules into the hollers of Eastern Kentucky, became one of my favorite of all time. The writing is extraordinary, vivid, and sensitive. Richardson reaches perfection in her use of dialect -- just the right amount to give flavor to the speech of the people, but never too much. In addition to her keen ear, Richardson has a keen heart and mind in creating and letting her characters live their lives. Full review.

The Bees, by Laline Paull. Paull gives us a hive of honeybees that are feminist, pro-labor, and loyal, and presents them to tell a story of love, hope, and commitment. It's a book not about bees, but about us. It's about how we are locked into a caste at birth and struggle mightily to escape. Full review.

Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan. With powerful and explosive writing, Edugyan tells the tale of George Washington Black, who begins life as a field slave on a plantation in Barbados in the 19th Century. From that beginning, she follows Wash through the United States, Canada, and England, as he tries to escape slavery and live the life of a freeman. But melancholy and a haunted, hunted existence follows him. Full review.

The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood. This is today's story of what happens in the years of The Handmaid's Tale and its government of Gilead. It is told in various voices, from a top aunt in the organization to members of the resistance. They include children, who only know Gilead after the revolution, as they are taught little about the previous life. It's an inspiring tale from a top-notch writer. Full review.

Elevation, by Stephen King. This is an unusually short Stephen King book, but it's also the ultimate Stephen King book. It has great characters in a great story that's well written, with a little supernatural sprinkled in. It's a short novel packed with intensity and issues. Full review.

Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver. Kingsolver melds past and present into a sentimental yet unsparing tale, exploring how our present determines our future and influences interpretations of the past. In her literate prose, with a gift for the narrative of empathy and understanding, Kingsolver touches on what moves us all -- our family, our homes, our beliefs, and our hopes for the futures. Full review

Night Boat to Tangier, by Kevin Barry. In the long, extraordinary history of great Irish writers, Barry is finding himself among the elite. Night Boat tells about  two old Irish drug dealers and wanderers, who have made it good, then lost most of it. As they wait in a Spanish port for one character's daughter, Barry tells their story in writing that is ravishingly beautiful. He makes every word count, and causes you to use your five senses to take it all in. Full review.

Music Love Drugs War, by Geraldine Quigley. Quigley introduces us to a group of young friends and acquaintances in Derry, Northern Ireland, at the start of the 1980s. Most of them are in their late teens and on the cusp of adulthood, but unsure of their futures. They live in a city where jobs are scarce, the violence can be thick, and the hope can be slim. Their pleasures lie in drugs, music, and each other. Their fears and realities lie in the violent struggle that has engulfed Ireland for 400 years. Full review.