the thirst

Norwegian writer Jo Nesbø has penned another Harry Hole novel in the series, called The Thirst. Harry Hole (pronounced HO-leh, apparently; and Harry is pretty much pronounced like Harry) is a detective working for the police department in Oslo, and this is number 11 in the Harry Hole series. I've read a few others, but only one is listed here on the blog. When I wrote about that one, I commented that I was sure I read another but didn't write about it here. This one, like the other I've linked above, was translated into English by Neil Smith.

Hole is a murder detective, and at this point in his life he's actually retired from the police department and is teaching at the police college, but he is called back to work a case that appears to be perpetrated by a serial killer that got away from Hole years ago, and seems to gone to ground, at least until now. Hole reluctantly returns to police work to catch this deranged killer as the victims fall by the day.

Nesbø writes a good story, and the differences between Norwegian crime fiction and American crime fiction is not all that is different, altho that is a treat. Nesbø weaves a complex tale, and when you think the twists and turns are all uncovered, there are more to come. This was a good one, and I'll keep my eye out for more of Nesbø's writing, whether its a Harry Hole story or something else Nesbø has written.

reality is not what it seems

Carlo Rovelli picked a great title when he chose Reality is Not What it Seems for this follow up to his Seven Brief Lessons on Physics,* which started out a pamphlet and became an international best seller. Rovelli talks a little bit about this in the introduction; how this book came to be; how people had been asking him to explain the theories of quantum gravity in layman's terms, which he was reluctant to try and do. He did try when pressed, and the result was a small book, but because of its popularity, he was pressed further to expand on that work and the result, he explains, is this book.

I will go ahead and tell you now, that I was quoting phrases, and reading passages out loud to anyone who would listen. my apologies to my family When I finished, I gave the book to my wife and recommended that she read it.

In the first few chapters, Rovelli traces the history of where we are in physics, and our understanding of how the universe works. How scientists and philosophers built upon the work of their predecessors to unlock the secrets of the universe as we know it. Because I am interested in this kind of thing, I had a pretty good idea about where we are and how we got there, but the story that Rovelli tells both provided missing links in the trail of information, extended what I understood and how different theories relate to one another, and in a way that was both succinct, and mesmerizing. Two chapters in and I was hooked.

Rovelli then goes on to describe quantum physics, and what we know about it, building upon what we've learned in the past, until he gets to the point where the theories aren't proven yet, and its still conjecture and competing theses. He points out that there are two main branches of theories, the one he is working on and believes in, and the other, which is string theory. You got me about which is correct, or more correct, but he makes a passionate argument.

Read this Book--I enjoyed it thoroughly--but maybe only if you are interested in this kind of stuff. Its good, but I'm not sure how much general appeal it will have for the less geekily inclined.

* You can download a copy of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by clicking here.

 

 

the overstory

The Overstory by Richard Powers is organized unlike any other book I can recall. Its like a series of short stories, that kind of grow together, around and among the trees. Its a series of related fables? Ovid's Metamorphoses is mentioned in here somewhere, and its at least part of the inspiration for this story, as much as global warming and deforestation is the implied warning or moral.

I don't recall reading anything by Richard Powers before, so I took a quick look, and this book apparently won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, so go figure. I enjoyed this book, but I'm not going to put it in my 'read this book'* category only because it was a little slow and disjointed for me. Its my guess that this won the Pulitzer because it is so different from other things I've read, and the structure of this book's story arc is like nothing else I've read. For me personally, being different as not the same as being entertaining, and that's why I read fiction. 

Lets be clear, was entertained, and I did enjoy this book, I'm just not weeping because I finished it, rapt with longing for more, and kicking down doors to find the next book by this author. Now, also to be clear, I don't feel that way about every book that makes it to the 'read this...' group, that's a high bar indeed, I just reserve that for books I'm recommending without reservation.

Powers writes fiction about science and technology, and it seems as though he is pretty well known for it. I'll keep my eye out and if I run into another that looks good I'll probably pick it up.

 

* The link to my 'read this book' tagged books can be found anytime by clicking on the appropriate tag on the tag cloud on the right-hand column on this page. Its under the heading: 'what i'm talking about'. You can use any of the other tags in the same way. They also show up at the bottom of every post, so if you're looking for something similar, I may have labeled it that way

 

started but...

I started these two books a few months ago, and just couldn't get through them. 

One of the reasons I keep this blog is because I pick up used books so often that its always a mixed bag; the books I find can be current or 50 years old, or whatever. Prior to keeping this blog I have found myself sitting down to read a newly acquired book only to discover that I've read it at some point in the past. The blog helps me with that in two ways: I can just look them up on my phone when I'm out and about, 'The Books' tab at the top of this page is a summary by author and title, and its really there for me, altho it is a handy way to find things, and there are links that take you to the reviews, if you need them. Second, I've found that writing about them helps me to remember them better. maybe that's why we had to do book reports in school... hmm

Recording books here that I didn't finish, is therefore especially important. I do NOT want to find myself re-purchasing and re-reading something I put down. 

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara seemed like it was going to be similar to some other time malleable stories I've read recently, such as The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, or Sea of Tranquility. It sort of was, but it just didn't measure up. Yanagihara has created an alternative universe for our world in which the history of the United States took a very different turn more than 100 years ago, and things that we still now argue about as too liberal became widely accepted in some placed, making the lives of those that have lived on the edged for society for so long, more welcome. Utopia, right! Nope. 

The story does take place over a number of.. generations? Eras? And we follow some of the same people? Generations? its not really clear, so... Any who, the past that could have been liberating and free, wasn't. The recent past, which could have been amazing, and non-stop party, wasn't so the future, right? That must be bright and sunny; a warm glow at the end of a long, hard slog.

Nope. Maybe it ended great, I'll never know. Too depressing, to inward looking, too caught up in itself. It almost seems that the author asked themselves, what if I had a chance to do it all over, in a world where thinsg were different, and then just convinced themselves that things will never get better, because no matter where you run, you always bring yourself with you. 

Welp. Go on ahead without me.

 

I've got a couple of Bill Bryson books in my list of recommendations on the right side of this page. These are the books that folks tell me about, and I put them here so I can find them if I'm out book hunting somewheres. Made in America is not one of the two Bryson titles in my list, but I figured it was worth a shot. I've read some similar books like Damp Squid, and some by Richard Lederer. 

Made in America reminded me of those works, and other books, but after I got about halfway through, it was just more of the same. This wasn't so much a story about the American breed of English, as it was an annotated list of words and phrases and how they differ from the English spoken in other countries. It was like Bryson just had his notes typed up, gave them the once over, and went to print. 

I want you to tell me a story, and if you think I just wasn't looking hard enough, I read half of it! You had your chance bro.

 

Q: Where are the links Phil? 

A: Why?

 

book of illusions

The Book of Illusions is a novel Paul Auster, published in 2002, and was apparently pretty well received at the time. I don't really follow things like that, but they show up when I do a little searching to put together my review, and lots of book descriptions say it was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award in 2004. His work is generally lauded, I've come to understand. Go Paul Auster.

I picked this one up at the book sale at the Moses Greeley Parker Memorial Library in Dracut, Massachusetts. Library books sales are one of my favorite ways to find books. Lost of times the library will stock up on new books that are very popular so they can meet the demand. Often times it is the Friends of the Library group, who helps to funds these additional copies so that patrons aren't disappointed by not being able to secure a copy of the latest popular book by being put on a wait list. Once the rush is over, the library may begin to sell off additional copies to make room for the new popular title.

I enjoyed this false history* story very much. David Zimmer is a professor who stumbles upon some thought to be lost silent movies by a less than well known actor from the 1920s, and contemporary of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Zimmer takes advantage of the discovery to create a project to help help cope with recent tragedy that has also left him with more time on his hands than he wants, and extra spending money to follow this pursuit. He takes it upon himself to find out all he can, and write the definitive book on this unknown champion of the silent film genre.

What he eventually finds changes his life more than he expected, and some of those experiences tilt into the surreal. I have read anything by Auster in the past that I recall, but I really like his writing style. Its direct, pared down, clean and easy to read. Like all the best writers, Auster is invisible, and the story just feels like its being absorbed rather than read and interpreted. Auster's first person story telling seamless slipped between Zimmer's story, the silent movies plots he was watching, and the book he was writing. All of which seem to inform, reflect, and in some cases foreshadow one another. Art evincing art, evincing art.

I'll keep my eye out for Paul Auster. Auster died last April at 77. Read this book. 

 

*In 2010, Duke Special recorded an album in tribute to the 12 fictional lost movies of the fictional silent film star, Hector Mann, in Auster's book. The 12 tracks on the album have the same names as the 12 silent films described in The Book of Illusions. Wild.

hail mary

Andy Weir, of The Martian fame, has revisited those roots for Project Hail Mary. The protagonist, Ryland Grace, has many of the same traits as the astronaut, Mark Watney in The Martian: he's a scientist at heart, and because of his love of science, he believes in the scientific method and its ability to solve problems. And man, are there problems. Weir's infectious love of science is clearly the seed planted in both of these characters, and his ability to use it to drive a story is what makes his stories stand out. 

What I read years ago, is that hard science fiction, relied on the futuristic technologies to support the story line, whereas soft sci-fi are more character driven stories, and the future and its technologies are more of a setting, which may help to enable the character stories in ways that may not be possible with our current understanding of science and technology. Weir is, by contrast, writing science fiction built on known science and technologies. Not as much in this book, as The Martian, however. Things get pretty wild in this one, but Weir's Ryland Grace uses the scientific method to understand and adapt these newer technologies and materials to solve problems.

What these two stories have in common then, are that they are both like complicated puzzle rooms, that if not solved will kill you. In The Martian, the astronaut had to continuously solve problems, using science and logic, to prevent his instant death. If only to increase the chances that he might ultimately survive. Project Hail Mary steps it up a notch. Not only does Ryland Grace have to work to stay alive, he simultaneously needs to solve a larger puzzle, which has all of humanity on the line. So this one steps further into that hard sci-fi sub-genre.

Weir uses an interesting plot structure that relies on flashbacks which Ryland Grace can't make sense of at first, as he recovers from memory loss. Memory loss which also hampers his ability to problem solve in some ways, at a time when its obviously critically needed.

According to the interwebs buzz, this book has been optioned for a movie, and we may actually see that in the next year or two. Based on my reading, its seems like a good candidate for a movie. This is Weir's third novel (that I'm aware of.) His second, Artemis was good too. You can read my review of that book here.

Read this book. Especially if you liked his other novels.

This review is for a book I read a while ago, and I'm trying to catch-up on the pile of books I read in 2024 that I didn't write about. You can see that hole in my blog entries listed on The Books tab at the top of the page.

aednan: an epic

 

Aednan: An Epic is a long form poetry saga by Linnea Axelsson, translated into English by Saskia Vogel. We're going to stick with the theme of exploitation and subjugation of natives that we started in Typee, although I didn't know that when I picked up this book at my local library. When I picked it up, what I thought was: Epic poetry? Hell yeah!

Its always great to read books written in other cultures, and from different perspectives. If I had all the time in the world I would learn multiple languages, so that I could read in different languages. That would be grand, but for now, I will continue to rely upon translators.

The story follows the lives, and is told from the points of view, of multiple generations of a Sami * family, from the 1910s until the present. At the beginning of this story, the protagonists and their tribal families, raised reindeer and followed their herds across all of their native land, Sapmi, * which stretched across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and into a part of Russia. At the the time they moved freely across their land, with little thought given to the national borders which had grown up around them. In a word, they were nomadic.

In time, the governments of these countries began to rope the Sami in, excluding them from areas where the various governments determined was off limits to their ranging due to things the Sami didn't recognize, such as private property, public works project, and other developments and exclusions they needed to learn to live with. Eventually, the Sami in this family were isolated in a part of Sweden, and their ranging was completely cut off. This was hard for the Sami, because their culture had grown up around following the natural ranging of the reindeer herds. But that was now curtailed, and hemmed in as well. Think Native American reservation. They even went through the a forced assimilation process that many aboriginal peoples were forced to endure.

Its clear that the assimilation process worked in many ways, and many Sami became the neighbors of other ordinary Swedes, but what Axelsson shows us is that there are many, that still suffer from that process, and others who fight for reparations for what was done to their people. 

An an epic, it was a little slow, and in some cases, a little hard to tell who was narrating. Its epic in its scope, but this isn't Beowulf or The Iliad, nor is it trying to be. This is an epic of suffering and injustice, which should be read, lest we let it happen again. The Sami have begun to regain and rebuild their cultural heritage and have won recognition from the Swedish government.

* The words Sami and Sapmi are both properly spelled with an acute accent mark over the A, ( a straight line pointing at 2:00 o'clock, rather than a grave accent mark, which points at 10:00) but in my experience, those things don't always render properly on Blogger, so I've left them off rather than taking the chance that you'll see question marks or gray boxes in their place.

utopia avenue

I'm a fan of David Mitchell and his surrealistic, fantastical worlds--which in some ways, all seem to be related to one another--that flow beneath our own world, occasionally rising to the surface, to turn and twist into our reality. Cloud Atlas is what turned me, and probably many others, on to Mitchell's writing. Cloud Atlas is a series of stories strung out on a very long timeline, but nevertheless are woven together. In Cloud Atlas, we see inklings of how not just these stories, but perhaps all stories are connected, often by much less than seven degrees of separation.*

Utopia Avenue takes its title from a fictional 1960s psychedelic rock band from England, that makes a small splash in the rock world of the time, releasing just two albums, and rubbing elbows with a whole cast of rock legends, who are written in as supporting characters, that interact with, and in some cases support and advise, members of the band and their manager, during their short tour of the United States. 

Mitchell has gone out of his way to create a rock band and a manager that defies the typical rock genre novel; all of the band members seem to get a long, and their manager isn't trying to screw them. Its amazing to a read a story about a rock band without these tropes, if only that in their absence, the writer needs something else to build narrative tension with. Mitchell does that by giving us a story about the very human interactions between the band members, their manager, and those they encounter in their initial struggles, rise to fame, and somewhat abrupt exit from fame and renown, which Mitchell uses cleverly to give us the impression that Utopia Avenue was so short lived, and with just a few hit songs, that they could have actually been there, and we just missed them or perhaps forgotten them in the decades since.

This one was probably more based in reality, with less dips below the surface, than some of Mitchell's other works, which some have compared to Black Swan Green, on the reality to fantastical scale. There were clear references to other stories however, including the connection between the tour de force lead guitarist Jasper de Zoet and his ancestor Jacob de Zoet, from The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. But that isn't all, there were a few other things I noticed that I won't get into here.** If you are interested in these connections (which may contain spoilers) the supergeeks over at Wikipedia have a whole list of interconnections to other stories identified. †

This is a review of a book I read earlier in 2024 when I wasn't doing a great job keeping up with the blog. These impressions are from early in January 2025, so its been some time since I've read this book, but I wanted to get it down before I forgot. You can see a list of the books I read, including those from last year that I haven't written about in The Books tab at the top of the page.

* When I originally read Cloud Atlas, I hadn't seen the movie, and looking back at my review of the book, I couldn't imagine how you'd make a movie given the story's complexity, but they pulled it off. The movie, which I eventually saw was pretty good, but not nearly as complex as the book.

** Some of the things I noticed while reading were not conscience connections. Just niggling feelings that there is something there that relates to something else I've read or encountered before. That, in my opinion, can be even more fun; knowing that something you've just read is somehow tied to something else, but without know exactly what it is. It could be another Mitchell book, or perhaps something else...

† The other thing you'll find on the wiki page is a list of Mitchell's short stories, published in various periodicals, and some of them include links. I just read "Muggins Here" on the Guardian website, and that too, has connections to Mitchell's other works. Those connections were put down in this Reddit thread by someone with the handle FormalDinner7.

typee

Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life was Herman Melville's first book. The paperback version I read, is from Penguin Classics, printed in 1996. I borrowed this copy from my office lending library.

This version looks like it may have been prepared with the school market in mind. There is an introduction (about 20 pages) by Professor John Bryant, who also prepared other commentary on the text, and an extensive appendixes. Bryant's introduction helps to place Typee within Melville's life, as well is within the larger context of the world in which it was written. Bryant, according to the bio in the front matter, is a professor at Hofstra University and an author and/or editor of all things Melville, basically. yeah, Melville nerd 

It was interesting to learn that Typee was published in Britain, and then in America, but editors in each took offense to differing things, and so Melville modified or removed items to suit the local tastes, actually, more than once, which means there are two authorized versions--British and American--each with its own various editions, as ther edits and corrections were made. That, of course, makes it difficult to know what the original, unmodified author's intent was. Bryant has edited this version as a hybrid between the two, to try and get at the most complete and accurate interpretation of the author's original story. To that end he has also made 'corrections' to the manuscript for typos and in some case words that Melville may have selected in error. These edits and corrections, along with explanatory notes are included in the appendixes.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Melville was essentially stranded on this island for months,* living with the natives, and essentially shacked up with a local young woman. That, along with the fact that the women went around topless--when they weren't completely naked whilst swimming, bathing, or just hanging out on a canoe--was one of the things Melville needed to edit out or tone down, in order to keep from stunning British and/or American readers.

What was maybe most problematic, however, is that Melville had a real problem with what so call 'modern society' had brought to the natives of the South Pacific at the hands of missionaries. Its was Melville's believe that way the natives lived, in harmony with nature, and at ease in their tribal societies, was not improved by the introduction of modern society. He was heartbroken that in an attempt to improve the lives of the natives, the missionaries brought structure and religion to a place where Melville that it wasn't required to improve either the people or their lives. The introduction of structure and religion also meant rules, governance, and money. In reality, from Melville's point of view, at least, that meant the white men came to exploit what the islands had to offer, and what the native used to take for free from the forest they now had to work for, and quickly came under the thumb of westerners. It was apparently too much for his readers, worried his editors, that men of god could be making the lives of those they were trying to 'save' so much worse. Melville uses the colonization of the Hawaiian Islands as an example of the corruption, poverty, and exploitation that westernization had brought at the hands of missionaries. He also didn't believe that all missionaries were innocent of the tragedy they wrought. On the contrary, it was his believe that even some who came with good intentions were swayed by the luxuries that exploitation brought and were soon become exploiters themselves.

Its clear then, that Melville isn't interested in a purely maritime adventure story, based on his escapades. Melville's ability to fatten up his stories appears to have been born here in Typee. From what was essentially a tale he told at parties, Melville, at the urging of his listeners, put down his adventures, and then added in a bunch of other information that he had researched or heard about, along with his personal thoughts about colonization and evangelism, in order to flesh it out to a novel. Whole chapters on how harpoons are made and used in Moby Dick, I'm looking at you.

Is this nonfiction? A journal of actual events with some additional researched information (which may or may not be completely accurate) thrown in? Or is it a fictionalized account, inspired by the true events witnessed by Melville while he was stranded on the island for those few months and some other information that Melville used to support his social commentary conclusions about western interference in native cultures and the societal damage caused by religious indoctrination? To be honest, I'm sympathetic to Melville's thoughts about western exploitation of native cultures. Not just here, but everywhere. 

I called this Melville's first novel, multiple times during this entry, but perhaps that's unfair. Lets just say this is Melville's first book and leave it at that. This was is worth a read if you haven't already.

* Depending on what you read (or believe) Melville may have been in captivity, albeit a very relaxed captivity, for multiple months, as the story indicates, or maybe just a month.

metropolis

Metropolis by Philip Kerr.

I'm trying to play catch up, so I'm working in reverse to gets some notes down, or a review, I guess you could say, of the recent books I've read. I tried to list them all in 'the books' tab above, and I did my best to put them in rough order. I fell down on the job of keeping track for most of this year, but I was able to cobble the list together based on the stack of books I have here, quick lists of books I jotted down in a draft posts here on the blog, and some photos I took of the book covers to help me remember, whenever it occurred to me that I wasn't getting the job done.

At some point, the books I've read will have been completed far enough in the past that I may not remember enough about them to be worth it to actually write about them. My guess is that it may depend on whether I still have the book and can flip through it, how much I liked it when I read it, etc. Metropolis is just a few books back, and while I don't recall the names of the characters, I do recall them, and the story.

As you can see in the Amazon link for the paperback version, linked above, Metropolis is a Bernie Gunther novel. Gunther is a recurring character in Kerr's books, altho I think this is the first one I've read. There is one other Kerr book included here on the blog,* but its not a crime story. Gunther is a detective (newly minted in this book) on the Berlin police force, between world wars I and II. Its the late 20s I think, and Nazism is on the rise. The murders Gunter is looking into appear to be hate related, and targeted at specific groups of people--prostitutes and disabled WWI veterans. Gunther is following leads, that no one else he works with thinks are worth his time, but he's young, and once he gets an idea in his head...

The story follows Gunther's rise into the Berlin Murder Squad, or whatever that group is called, and his investigation into these two groups of murders. His investigations take him to some of the seedier parts of Berlin, and his adventures (or misadventures) in that secret layer of Berlin society is what provides the colorful backdrop to this story, which was at times horrifying, disgusting, and sad, but was also, in some cases, sensual, and occasionally sexy.

Kerr has woven quite a tapestry upon which he has set these Bernie Gunther novels it seems, so I can see why folks keep reading. I'll keep my eyes out for more, but I won't be jumping in the car to get them today.

 

* in the link to the other Kerr story on the blog, you find a link to a third Philip Kerr book I read, called Dark Matter, which was pretty good.

ex-libris

Ex-Libris is from 1998, so its been kicking around for a while. I borrowed this copy from my small lending library we have at my office. It pre-dates this blog so I wasn't sure if I had read it or not, but I do recall reading Ross King's Brunelleschi's Dome years ago, and it was very good--you can find it in the right-hand column in my 'great' list--so I thought I may have. But no, I don't think I did, or at least I don't remember reading it, tho the first part did seem familiar. After looking back at the blog, I did find two others Domino (which I didn't finish) and Leonardo and the Last Supper, which I did finish. In that review, I noted a few other books from Ross King that I had read, but this isn't one of them.

So if I was looking for a pattern in my reactions to Ross King's writing, I would say that I tend to like his novelized historical books, versus his historical novels. It seems like when his work is based more on a single historical work and how it came to be, he does better than straight fictional stories, even if those stories do include a fair amount of historical research and content. I would put Ex-Libris in the latter category, but that said, I liked this one better than some of the others. I may have read this one, I guessed that I did in my review of Domino (linked above) but I didn't remember then either. Forgettable is probably not a great attribute for a book, but perhaps its apt here.

If this one had a draw back, its that it has so much research and history, that it was, at times, a little hard to follow. There were so many interlacing facts, spread out over a hundred or so years, that it would take a college history class to untangle them, never mind understand them in context. So I did what I assume most readers who aren't 17th century historian would do, I ignored most of it, tried to remember the high points, and assumed that King would help fill in the blanks as we went along, which he obligingly did.

This story is about the power of knowledge, the concentrated power of libraries as fonts of learning, and the various historical powers that struggled to control, ban, censor, and contain that knowledge and keep its power for themselves. It was also a powerful reminder, for me, of why public libraries are the great democratizers, as they have taken that power from the rich and wealthy few that used to hoard it for themselves, and delivered it into the hands of the people.

If you enjoyed King's books on the duomo in Florence, and the frescoes by DaVinci and Michelangelo, you'll enjoy this one too, just not as much.

bear over the mountain

I picked up William Kotzwinkle's The Bear Went Over the Mountain * at a library book sale on the South Shore. I don't recall reading any of Kotzwinkle's work in the past, but it looked like it might be fun and the price was right. and, we get to help out the public library, right?

Kotzwinkle has written a bunch of children's stories and novels, he has also written a couple of screen plays, and has also written novels based on movie scripts. I wouldn't put this book in the realm of hilarious books I've read, but it was amusing. He certainly seems to have nailed down some of your typical New England archetypes. The suspension of disbelief on this one requires are fair amount of work, and probably tips this book from humor to outrageous.

I don't think I'm giving much away if I tell you that the bear put on a suit and went to the city--it shows as much on the book cover--what I had trouble with is that apparently, no one noticed. Maybe that's an editorial on forced ignorance, political correctness, or perhaps even the narcissistic self-absorption of city dwellers. Maybe its just zany. Who knows. We've all seen crazy things in the city, but come on, you're asking a lot from your readers. 

Perhaps this started out as a children's book, and only became an adult book when the bear's animal allure eventually leads to women not being able to resist him. And then, yeah, banging. Nope, not a guy in a bear suit; ** its all Sodom and Gomorrah up in here. I assume the intent was humor. Again, just outrageousness. Sometimes outrageous is funny, but like an SNL skit with an outrageous shtick isn't funny if it goes one minute too long, this novel is the full English breakfast version of that skit.

Myeh. Not for me.

* You may recognize the title, which is taken from a children's nursery rhyme of the same name.

** Yes, I know the character in The Hotel New Hampshire is a woman. I haven't read a ton of books with people in bear suits. Sue me.

impossible lives of great wells

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells is a 2014 book by Andrew Sean Greer, the author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli, 10 years prior. I liked that earlier, book and I liked this one too, altho perhaps not quite as much. There are some similar themes Greer is exploring here, and the premise of the story is also fantastical.

Greer is again examining love, loss, and longing. And because this also has historical fiction aspects, he is also looking at a woman's place and standing in American society in the various time periods in which the story takes place.

This was a fun ride and Greer has constructed some pretty complex characters, and developed their personalities and interactions in ways that really help us understand how these people feel about each other, and how society, from differing time periods, influence those personalities and interactions.

Suspension of disbelieve is again required for this one, and if you enjoyed Max Tivoli then you'll probably enjoy this one.

on-the-fringe

Sweeney On-the-Fringe is a short, sweet little novel by Dave Robinson, which states on the cover that it is "Based on the notes of Owen Kivlin" <--you can see it right there * who is the narrator of the book, and the 'compiler' of the various stories about Sweeney, and poems written by Sweeney, which were either either left around, or more often mailed to the narrator by Sweeney, from some exotic local where Sweeney was invariably surfing and relaxing. The motivation behind the telling, is that no one has seen or heard from Sweeney at the time Owen Kivlin begins to try and figure out both where Sweeney may have gone, and why he left. He attempts to figure out the mystery of Sweeney by trying to discover more about him; a folk tale of their fictional Massachusetts, seaside town of Seawell, located at the mouth of the Merrimack River. 

The small town, we soon find out, is actually a small city, and the name, its location--and the author's home town--all point to Seawell being inspired by Lowell, Massachusetts, combined with some other small, New Englandy towns. The Merrimack River actually meets the Atlantic between Newburyport and Salisbury, Massachusetts. Neither of which is a city, nor has a university, and I don't think either has an airport [nope, hold it, looks like Plum Island has a small airport.] Plum Island is a pretty big island that runs north-south along the coast of Newburyport, and apparently, you can surf there, as well as north of the river's mouth, at Salisbury Beach.

Sweeney is the story of a local legend. That guy from a few years ago, who always seemed to be able to do whatever he wanted, and no one could figure out how, and most couldn't figure out why. The story is told through a series of transcribed interviews with, and letters from, people who knew Sweeney; interspersed with Sweeney's own poems. The interesting part is that Sweeney knew a lot of people, from different generations and walks of life, and they all knew different parts of his story, but none knew his whole story. And even by the end of the novel, Owen Kivlin still doesn't know all there is to know about this enigmatic man who touched all of their lives, in profound and subtle ways.

In the 'About the Author' blurb in the backmatter, the author indicates that this 2007 novel is the first in a trilogy. A quick look around the interwebs turns up only this: Sweeney In Effable, which is a single volume containing five books, one of which is Sweeney On-the-Fringe. The description of Effable on it's Amazon page includes this line:

"This contemporary protagonist is based on the ancient Irish legend from Trevor Joyce's translation, Sweeny Peregrine, with a nod to Seamus Heaney's Sweeney Astray." 

So there is a tradition for this slippery, Loki-esque or Pan-like character. This one was a fun ride.

Read this Book.

* Another thing you can see on the cover, is the horrible font they used for the title, which unfortunately, follows us throughout the book. I was thinking, what does on-the-Frince even mean?

space between worlds

I'm pretty sure this book came from the book sale at my local library. It didn't seem like anyone had even opened it when I picked it up (for a dollar or two!) so I assume it was a gift or something. you missed out, bro! Micaiah Johnson is a young author from the desert west, and The Space Between Worlds is her first book, from 2020. She has a new one out now, which is called Those Beyond the Wall.

Sci Fi is one of my go-tos but I don't often get the chance to read something new and great, and this was both. Johnson has created an alternative world, which may be in our future, or it may be in an alternate universe, very similar to ours. And we aren't alone. Johnson's protagonist, Cara, is a bridge between the world of poverty and oppression she was born into, and the shining white city on a hill where she is currently employed. She is also the bridge between the infinite worlds of the multiverse, playing the various versions of people and places that exist in each, but only tuned to a different frequency, Cara finds that she can learn from, borrow from, and interact with different versions of the people she knows, weaving their frequencies together in a song only she can hear, discordant though it may be.

There is also conflict within Cara, between the two parts of herself that struggle with wanting to be true to her roots in poverty, while striving to become accepted in the city she works in. To complicate her struggle, their are people she loves in both worlds, people she both wants to be with, and not disappoint.

The interplay and layers of realities and relationships, and how Cara finds her way between and around them, is what makes this story work so well. Classicism and prejudice are more ingrained, more ineradicable, in this world. And because that is so, its all the more grating and ruinous. The peoples that populate this world take it for granted; its a given, and that starkness is both an unflattering mirror of our own world, and heartbreaking in its despair. 

Johnson has created a world that is both hard to look at, and too beautiful to ignore, peopled by characters with similar qualities. I enjoyed this all the way through. Good for you Micaiah Johnson. 

Read this book.

persepolis

I haven't read a ton of graphic novels, but some.* This book was a loan from my oldest; not too long ago I commented that I had read a bunch of books written by authors sympathetic to the Israeli point of view in its continuing quarrels with its Middle Eastern neighbors, and I was hoping to read something that took a different view. Marjane Satrapi was born in Iran, was raised there as a child, and moved to Austria for her education--what ended up as essentially a boarding school, with her parents stuck in Iran--not long after the fundamentalist revolution or uprising in Iran.  

Persepolis ** is her telling, in two parts, of her life as a child in Iran,  her teens in Austria as a student and newly birthed innocent into the ways of the West, and her eventual return (at least for a while) to her home and family. One assumes this is strictly autobiographical, but I don't know that I actually read that anywhere... let's check. Random House lists it as Biography/Memoir, so I guess so.

The illustrations/cartooning in the graphic novel are bold, black and white. When I did an image search for Marjane Satrapi a lot of her photos are also black and white, which made me wonder if that is so because that is what she wanted, or if the photographer or publisher of the photo used black and white because of the novel's imagery. hmmm

The story of Satrapi is one of conflict; between her and her family and the oppression the are forced to live under, as well as the conflict of her innocent early years in contrast to the modernism of Vienna where she attended school. She rebelled against the regime as a child, and rebelled against xenophobia and elitism in Vienna, and after her return to Tehran, she rebels again as an adult, and eventually leaves again to live in France and find the freedom she tasted as a teen.

As you would expect there are scenes of sweetness, and sickening oppression, stress, anger, prejudice, love, and healing, but none of these ideas and feelings overwhelms the story. In the end I felt for the author, and had the feeling that she did the best she could with what she had. Maybe not as good as some in similar circumstances, but better than most. 

While confirming for this blog entry, I discovered that there is another book, Persepolis 2, that presumably continues the story, so I'll need to look for that. There was also an animated movie of the same name, with a limited US release, in 2007.

* Watchmen, and one or two others.

** The title Persepolis, I presume, comes from the capital City of the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire, of the same name, founded by Darius I, about 2500 years ago, which sits in current south-west Iran. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

biblio tech

The full title of this book is BiblioTech: why libraries matter more than ever in the age of google. This book is from 2015, and when I got a fair way into it, I thought that maybe I had just waited too long to read it, given that what John Palfrey is discussing here is how libraries stand against cutting edge technology. So perhaps its was because the technology he was analyzing is from 2015, and that's what made his arguments a little weak.

Nope.

Its because the majority of of what John Palfrey says in this book is included in the book reviews. Here an example from Goodreads, which I assume is written by... who, the moderators? crowd sourced like a wiki? Who knows, its not attributed:

"... John Palfrey argues that anyone seeking to participate in the 21st century needs to understand how to find and use the vast stores of information available online. And libraries, which play a crucial role in making these skills and information available, are at risk. In order to survive our rapidly modernizing world and dwindling government funding, libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possible -- by digitizing print material and ensuring that born-digital material is publicly available online."

He also says it will be difficult, and it will cost money, and therefore we as readers and library supporters need to support libraries so they can take on this task, collectively.

That's it. Its an 8 minute speech, tops.* Its a pamphlet. In BiblioTech, he just repeats this nine times, in chapters 1 through 9, and the repeats it again in chapter 10, which he helpfully titles "Conclusion." Each chapter focuses on a different point such as how preservation, cloud computing, or networking tie into the problem and the solution he's suggesting, but each of these points is included in nearly all of the chapters. "hey john, how can we spin this crimson article up into a book?"

By the time I was three-quarters through, I was pretty sure that each chapter was written as an stand alone essay in support of the main message. And probably with enough time between them, that he wasn't exactly clear on what he'd written in the others.

Here was the clincher for me: Each chapter has a quote taken from history or literature that one assumes is designed to set the tone for the chapter. The quote at the beginning of Chapter 9: Law, is from an 1813 letter from Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson. It reads:

"He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me."

Ah, learnin' I get it. We share what we know, and it helps others without harming us. Sharing knowledge should therefore be freely undertaken. Gotcha, good one. Inspiring, actually. Pretty sure I've heard it before though... where was it? Oh, yeah, 9 PAGES EARLIER, in Chapter 8: Education, word for word, same quote. 

That's just sloppy. you come on up here and write we must support libraries on the blackboard three-hundred times, smartypants.

All good ideas. Make a bullet list and print them on a bookmark. Don't waste my time.

* It is a speech, you can find it on YouTube and other places. Its over an hour! Criminy! I'm sure you can find it yourself.

operation shylock

Philip Roth is not called a modern American master for nothin'. At least, I assume folks call him that. 

I've read just a few of his books, and its always a fun ride. In the last one I read,* he wrote about himself in the first person as well, using his own name, but in what I could only assume was a fictional way. This story includes the same technique, and its not at all clear that the Philip Roth that inhabits the universe of this novel, Operation Shylock: a confession, is the same as the Philip Roth who inhabited that novel, whether fictional or semi-fictional.

In general terms Philip Roth talks about growing up in the New York area, and mentions the name Claire as someone he is connected to, which is the name of a character from the last novel of his I read (I'm almost sure.) But...

Keeping the reader guessing seems to be one of his delights, as well as his dry humor and honesty. And the surprises he slides in between the lines, or in a single line; so subtle. I found myself second guessing, did he just say that that happened?

Roth is talking about big ideas, with thoughtfulness and well formed characters. They struggle with and against one another is ways that make them seem real. His writing is so believable, that at times it can be as slow and uneventful and your every day, and then we turn a corner and step into the jaws of another reality, one just as real, but often far outside our day-to-day.

 

I finished this a while ago, but just haven't gotten around to writing my thoughts about it. I have one or two more to catch up on.

* It wasn't the last one, this was the last one. And it was great. I think I confused the two books, given how close together I read them.

path of vengeance

Star Wars: The High Republic: Path of Vengeance is a novel published by Disney Lucasfilm Press, so is is a novel or is it film related merchandise? I'm not sure, but it does seem clear that the author is likely working for the publisher, or is (was) under contract to produce this novel. Why do I say that? Well, if this author decided to write this on their own and just submitted it to Disney in hopes that they'd publish it, then this is fan fiction, and if this was an assignment that Disney gave to them then its merchandise, right? At least it is first and foremost; in my mind anyway.

Why is that important? For the same reason that when you pick up a book in the bookstore that has Tom Clancy or James Patterson's name on it. Those people aren't writing the stories, someone else is. Who? Somebody, but you'll probably have to dig a little to find their name. you can find your own links, I'm not going there

So what is the difference between an author who has been published in their own right, and an author who works for a corporation like Disney or James Patterson? Well, I don't think these companies are author mills, but the focus does appear to be more on cranking out the material (merch) rather than publishing the highest quality novels they can.

Long introduction (rant?) concluded. That said, here's where I am on Path of Vengeance and its author, Cavan Scott: The story was interesting, the writing isn't that great. 

I looked up Cavan Scott, who seems to be a good comic artist, and many comic artists are talented story tellers. Scott seems to have come up with a pretty good story, and it also seems like he originally started with Disney doing comics for them, and then started writing for them more recently. When you take a look at his work, it seems mostly to be comics. The writing isn't awful, its just a little flat, and has way too many clichés and idioms. Clichés aren't the worse things, but when you're writing about people living in a galaxy far, far away, its just unlikely that they are going to say things like we do, and that takes us out of the narrative. It lifts the veil. see what I did there? It disturbs our need to suspend disbelief while reading fiction. Here are some examples from the first few pages:

"the skin of her... teeth" p. 4 

"his nose had... been put out of joint" p. 8

They're pretty regular all the way through, and even the similes pull the reader out of the galaxy where the story takes place. Like the slur about Evereni being "sharks" or describing a creature that "ran on four legs like a lion." I assume they don't have sharks and lions in their galaxy. Its just the easy way out.

One cliché I couldn't find when writing this entry was something like 'lit up like a Light Festival bough.' That's just a lit up like a Christmas tree, with a few words changed. Try harder, bro.

Am I a snob? Maybe, but I probably won't go looking for more of these books. This one was a gift, and I'm very grateful. The story was fun, and it was interesting to look back at the Star Wars universe at a time when the republic was at peace, and things were good. This era seems ripe for stories, shows and movies, as well as books and comics. I just think the production value should be there regardless of the medium.

Here's an interview with Cavan Scott and 4 other authors working for Disney on these books and comics.

punch the future in the dick

Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick* is the second novel in the Zoey Ashe series by Jason "David Wong" Pargin. The first installment was good; I bragged about it to people like I wrote it myself, and at least one person went out and got a copy, and they enjoyed it too. The second installment was good, but perhaps not as good at the first. A lot of what was new in the first one, things I hadn't read about before, and what made the future that Zoey Ashe inhabits so interesting, are repeated in volume two. Mostly by necessity. 

I don't mind that so much, its what we expect when we read a sequel, but what the first one had in adventure, and character development, was lacking here. There are some new characters, but we don't learn too much new about the character's we met in book one, except a few scraps. So I guess this was a sequel, but it felt a little it like a Zoey Ashe adventure, rather than a stand alone novel. It was good, it just wasn't great.

This book, like the first, was published under Jason Pargin's pen name, 'David Wong.' Why? I don't know, but a lot of his previous books were published using the David Wong name as well. More recently, he's been using hi real name. When doing a little research for this blog entry, I found that he has written another book in the Zoey Ashe series, called Zoey is Too Drunk for This Dystopia, which just came out this year, and also has his real name on the cover. Not only that, but newer printings of his older books have revised cover art featuring Pargin's real name as well.

I thought this book was good, as I said, and will probably pick up book three at the library at some point. If and when I do, I'll try and write about it here. I will also say, as I did in my review of the first book, these stories have movie potential.

* I don't think its a spoiler to report that the future's reproductive organs we not actually harmed at any point in this novel; for those of you who may have been worried.