Sunday, August 03, 2014

Summer Reading

I don't feel like working on my thesis this afternoon so I thought I'd share brief reviews of some of the books that I've picked up over the past few months. I borrowed all of these title as Kindle books from my local library.

Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig. A modern horror/detective novel, I originally selected this for the welcome absence of vampires and werewolves. The main character can see, or rather, mentally lives out in full detail, the last moments of the life of any person that she touches. She also has regular visions that may or may not be conversations with Death himself. An accidental touch reveals that a serial killer will begin stalking girls at risk so the main character decides that she needs to stop him before he starts. Three problems with this book made me put it down well before the halfway point. First, the main character is so unbalanced, violent, and psychotic in her own behavior that no normal person would even stay on the same side of the street that she is on, yet she improbably manages to convince people to help her, let her stay in their apartments, and so forth. Second, the violence is unspeakably graphic and I don't like reading that kind of thing. And third, her sometimes-boyfriend began to have similar visions, a weak plot device that could be smelled like a rotten fish from a mile away. I later learned this is the second book in a set (I hesitate to call this mess a series) of three. Ghastly writing, ghastly characters.

The Republic of Wine by Mo Yan. I picked this book up as an antidote to the spartan, tense writing style and pacing of Wendig's novel. This book is also a sort of modern horror/detective novel. It was originally written in Chinese and is a hefty tome. The translation must have been quite a labor of love. However, after the millionth use of fruit to describe color or serve as a metaphor for something, all before the 30th page or so, I gave up. Who cares about the plot. There was hardly any narrative, just a bunch of description, mostly involving fruit colors. This book is too existential for my current state of mind and I might return to it later but I think I'd have to be pretty desperate.

The Epicure's Lament by Kate Christensen. The narrator is an odd curmudgeon who lives as a hermit and is deliberately trying to smoke and drink himself to death. The book is written as a series of journals kept by him over a period of a few months. Of course, messy, noisy life intrudes and changes his plans. That plot is a bit trite but the events are absurd enough and the narrator is just spiteful and cynical enough to be funny most of the time. The narrator is supposed to be some sort of erudite, knowing far more about literature and fine cuisine than the philistines he is surrounded by. However, a true epicure would know that there is no such thing as "cooking wine." If you wouldn't drink it, you shouldn't cook with it. I was not sure if the author was poking fun at the narrator by exposing him as a bit of a fraud at these instances or if she herself doesn't know the difference. And that is in fact part of the fun of the book. Recommended.

The Purchase by Linda Spalding. The book takes place on the midwestern frontier in the decades before the Civil War. A Quaker man is ejected from his community for daring to keep a young female maid in his home after his wife dies to help look after his children. He ultimately takes her as his wife although it wasn't clear if he legally marries her. In the dead of winter, they travel to a remote location, losing food, clothing, horses, and other goods along the way. He leaves this young girl and his children under a tarp in the snow and heads into the nearest town to buy implements such as an axe and plow so he can build a house and establish a homestead. Instead, this man inexplicably raises his hand at a slave auction and spends all of his money on a slave, a young black boy. And that is where I stopped reading. There was nothing in the prior 30 pages or so to give any clue as to why the man would do any of this. I simply couldn't suspend disbelief and just go along with it. It was too improbable. The beginning was too weak to serve as a foundation for anything further. This book should never had made it past an editor.

After the Quake: Stories by Haruki Murakami. I also read Kafka on the Shore by this author. He reminds me a little of Gabriel Garcia Marquez with an odd, stream-of-consciousness pacing and commonplace "magical realism". I think his short stories are far more accessible than his novels because his style works well with the shorter form. These stories can be perplexing but there are bits and pieces of wondrous prose scattered through them. Recommended, especially if you want an introduction to this author.

The Kept by James Scott. Another midwestern frontier novel that takes place in the last century. A mother with secrets and an odd, withdrawn son with secrets of his own, who were not close before, are thrown together on a long quest by an act of terrible violence. I haven't read enough to say how the quest will end. The prose is a bit flowery for the somewhat grim sequence of events so far but I'm pretending it's similar to the world that Charles Portis envisioned for True Grit. I really like science fiction and this book reminds me of "world building" books from that genre. It presents us with interesting characters in a complex world that doesn't feel at all like our own.

The Dinner by Herman Koch. One of the best books I've read in many months. Written in Dutch and translated into English. The story unfolds as two couples meet for dinner, ostensibly to discuss what to do about their sons. Details of the relationships between these people, their sons, and the specific events that precipitated the dinner are exposed in alternating flashbacks and events at the dinner itself as if the story is being told in separate courses like a fancy meal. There is something nasty and black at the heart of this story but it is so masterfully told that you never see the rotten core until the very end. Horrifying and mesmerizing at the same time. Highly recommended.

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