The Crying of Lot 49

Read from Sunday, November 6th to Tuesday, November 8th.

The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon.  My first novel by Pynchon, it was discussed heavily in How to Read Literature like a Professor.  It is a very original satire written in the mid-60's.  The main character, Oedipa Maas, is tapped to be the executor of her old boyfriend's massive California estate.  She leaves her DJ husband, Mucho, to spend time on the estate and figure out what this guy, Pierce Inverarity, owned and all his real estate holdings as well.  However, for Oedipa it is a descent into near madness as she is thrust into a giant, world-wide conspiracy, or so she believes.  Tristero is an old postal service that operated in Europe in the middle ages, and it was opposed by Thurn and Taxis.  Tristero was crushed in the 18th century, but now Oedipa begins seeing all sorts of references to the organization throughout the estate and town of this man.  She is led to believe that Tristero is still conducting an underground mailing operation, using secret symbols and the acronym W.A.S.T.E.

Oedipa cannot seem to find any sort of hard facts on the organization, but she tries to hunt down information.  She meets many interesting characters, like scientists working on perpetual motion, a Beatles-like band of emo hippies, a lawyer she has an affair with, her psychiatrist (and ex-Nazi) who prescribes LSD, and a professor at a college.  However, people start disappearing mysteriously as Oedipa discovers more and more references.  Oedipa does not have any solid evidence, and she is constantly doubting whether or not she is just hallucinating everything, but every time she doubts herself, something new happens.  The term 'crying of lot 49' refers to the auctioning of a stamp collection held by Pierce, which may or not contain Tristero stamps.

It is a wonderful novel of conspiracy theories and a hidden side of history of the Old West and Europe.  It is a quick read, and I read most of it one sunny afternoon lying on the grass in Meridian Hill Park.  Thinking of using some of the conspiracy theories and strange symbols in my own work, since it is very light-hearted and upbeat.  I will have to check out more Pynchon as well; Gravity's Rainbow is still sitting on my shelf.   Four out of five stars.

Zipper Mouth

Read from Monday, October 17th to Friday, October 21st.

Zipper Mouth, by Laurie Weeks, is the second of the books for my monthly book club from the Rumpus.  I enjoyed Zipper Mouth much more than Show Up, Look Good, even though they were both about similar subjects; a girl trying to make it in New York City. She is a deeply interesting protagonist.  Heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol, she works in various temp jobs while she struggles with a strong infatuation with a straight woman (she is a lesbian).  Late nights in clubs, letters to dead celebrities as if they were her best friends, apology letters to her real friends, a homeless woman spending the night on her couch, these are some of the adventures she goes through. 

There is not a traditional plot structure, and the sequences of time often are blurred.  She does not end up with her straight friend, although she often leads her on into thinking that she might.  The prose is beautiful, and it reads like one long high, and the sentences flow naturally into one another. 

The protagonist is a complete mess, but she is very sympathetic and human, someone we all wish we were friends with, although from a slight distance.  I did not get a chance to participate in the online discussion unfortunately because of work.  I would have liked to talk with Laurie Weeks.  It is a quick, brief review, because it has been awhile since I read the book.  Unfortunately I have been busy with other projects so my time for reading has suffered dramatically.  However, I highly recommend checking out the book.  Four out of five stars.

Infinite Jest

Read from Tuesday, September 20th to Tuesday, October 11th.

Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace, is hands down the most ambitious book I have ever read.  Wallace is a pure genius, and he manages to create an entire futuristic, dystopian world so thoroughly convincing, that it is hard to think I am not still living in it.  It took me about three weeks or so to finish this book, and I really rushed through it, but it was about 1000 pages, but a couple hundred of tiny footnotes that you have to keep checking in the back of the book.  And once I finished the book, I started working on my own writing project, so I haven't had much free time to read new books or update the blog.

Where to begin?  Infinite Jest's main theme is about the importance of entertainment to a society.  It is comical, but dark comedy, and often very strange.  All the characters are dysfunctional in some way, and need something as a crutch.  For many characters, it is drugs and alcohol.  But it could also be a tennis academy and the rigid structure.  Another stays entertained by seducing women, and another by creating mind-bending movies.  The story centers around the Incandenza family.  Hal, arguably the main character, is a 17 year old star at Enfield Tennis Academy, which his father, James (or Himself), founded.  His brother Mario is autistic and deformed, brother Orin a professional football punter in Arizona, and Mother April currently the headmistress of the Academy.  James killed himself with his head in a microwave a few years before the action takes place.  He was an avant garde filmmaker who had just completed "The Entertainment" or "Infinite Jest," a movie so compelling and entertaining, that anyone who gets caught watching it will go into a trance and only be satisfied while watching the movie on repeat, never eating or drinking or sleeping, until they soon die.  The movie becomes a weapon of mass destruction, that a Quebec Terrorist group, the ATF, tries to find in order to force the U.S. government to allow their separation.

The story takes place in the near future, in which the U.S., Canada and Mexico merged into one country, O.N.A.N.  To earn money, each year is leased to a company to advertise, like the Year of the Depends Adult Undergarment.  Also, due to a pollution problem, most of Northern New England  was turned into a giant garbage dump, called the Concavity or the Convexity.  Quebec, after trying to separate from Canada, now aims to separate from O.N.A.N, so the ATF, which is made up of men in wheelchairs that lost their legs jumping away from trains, resort to terrorist actions.

At the bottom of the hill from ETA is the Ennet Halfway House, where Don Gately is a counselor.  Don is a reformed Demerol addict who counsels other addicts, sometimes unsuccessfully.  Towards the end, he is shot trying to protect his residents, and he struggles in the hospital to resist the urges to take the morphine for the pain.  He is visited by the ghost of Himself.  Gately also develops a relationship with Joelle Van Dyne, Orin's former girlfriend and the star of Infinite Jest the movie.  She wears a veil so no one can see her perfect face.

Much of the action takes place at ETA and the Ennet House.  There are short passages that sometimes skip around chronologically and follow different characters at a time.  It was tricky to follow at first, since it was tough to figure out how the years related to one another, but eventually the storyline emerged.  An ATF Remy Marafe infiltrates the Ennet House looking for the tape, but he is really a double agent, working for the U.S. government.  Hal struggles to break his addiction from marijuana after he and other teammates are threatened with urine testing, so he seeks help at the halfway house.  There are many other students at the school and residents at the halfway house, and nearly all of them are painstakingly detailed.

There is no discernible ending to the story, which is frustrating, but also fits in with the theme.  It is unclear whether or not the ATF gets ahold of the Infinite Jest, but the next year Hal is applying to college in Arizona, and he cannot seem to speak coherently, an ending that is difficult to interpret.  Wallace has fun playing with all the characters, as well our concept of a traditional story and novel structure.  It is really enjoyable if you just decide to go along with all the strange side-trips and backstories that he throws at you.  I also highly recommend reading all the endnotes as soon as they are presented.  It is a break in the action, but also a continuation of the story.  Some endnotes go on for many pages.  There is also a complete filmography of all the movies made by James Incandenza.

Infinite Jest is an amazing book, and I regret I cannot delve into the depths of the story any deeper.  I expect I will take another read of this book at some point in my life, expecting that there are many things I missed the first time through.  As I said, I am working on my own writing project now, and I am trying to incorporate some of the style of Wallace in my own work, like the fantastic stories and character details and the humor, (although right now it sounds similar to A Confederacy of Dunces).  Go take a month and read Infinite Jest, you will not regret it.  Four and a half out of five stars.

ONE YEAR!

The beginning of October marks about a year I've been keeping this journal/blog.  I have read 78 books in that time frame!  I hope I can get another hundred by this time next year!

Let's go back and pick out the best book of each month:

October 2010:  Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr.
November 2010: You Shall Know Our Velocity! by Dave Eggers
December 2010: The War of the End of the World, by Mario Vargas Llosa
January 2011: The Street of Crocodiles, by Bruno Schulz
February 2011: Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer
March 2011: 2666, by Roberto Bolano
April 2011: Moon Palace, by Paul Auster
May 2011: Don Quixote, by Cervantes
June 2011: A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
July 2011: Going after Cacciato, by Tim O'Brien
August 2011: Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov
September 2011: The Instructions, by Adam Levin (although Infinite Jest is in progress, and would probably make the list for October 2011)

Book of the Year?  Very tough decision, although I would have to base it off which book has stayed with me the most, and affected me the most. 

First Place : 2666, by Roberto Bolano
Honorable Mentions: The War of the End of the World, Going after Cacciato, The Instructions, and You Shall Know Our Velocity!

Show Up, Look Good

Read from Wednesday, September 28th to Thursday, September 29th.

I read Show Up, Look Good, by Mark Wisniewski, while at the same time reading Infinite Jest. However, there is an interesting story behind the reading of this novel.  Last week or so, I joined the Rumpus Book Club, an online group that sends you a book each month that has yet to be released.  You read the book, and at the end of the month, get to participate in an online discussion with the author.  Last night was the discussion, so I hurriedly read the book I had just received in the mail.  Luckily, it was a quick read and less than 200 pages, so I finished in plenty of time.  The discussion was very interesting, and offered Mark's point of view on the events that transpired, and I realized some things I missed, some themes that were overlooked.  Mark was very defensive of his work, as any author might be, and he came out responding to criticism about the structure of the story, and claimed that many reviewers didn't get it, or couldn't understand the subtext.  At that point, things became uncomfortable in the discussion, as it was unclear whether or not Mark was including us in that group.

Anyway, SULG is the story about an unreliable narrator Michelle, who runs away to NYC in the late 90's after she caught her boyfriend in a plastic vagina.  In the very opening paragraph, Michelle says she witnessed a secret murder, and the events of the book lead up to that moment.  However, the tone is very light-hearted at first, as Michelle navigates the many eccentrics of New York.  One by one, bad things happen to Michelle, as she learns more and more about herself, and you can recognize (or at least Mark hopes you can) the clouds building on the horizon.  Michelle finds an apartment with an old woman, and her one requirement for the deal on the rent is that Michelle bathe her each night before bed.  Michelle struggles with money, and she scalps Letterman tickets on the street to get by.  However, that apartment burns down right after Michelle befriends Ernest, a retired Yankee who can't talk cause of cancer.  She finds a place with a snobby MFA at NYU wannabe writer Sarah, who has writing workshops that boil down to mean-spirited gossip.  Michelle gets busted by the Letterman crew, then meets an old couple from Queens, Frank and Francine, but they offend Sarah and Michelle gets kicked out again. 

She stays with Frank and Francine for a night, but they imply they want a threesome with her, so she gets freaked out and finds her own run-down studio apartment.  Michelle tries to get a painting/drawing career on track, but it is doomed from the start, so she works in a supermarket under a sadistic, greedy boss.  Once she gets caught stealing old coins from the drawer, Michelle is fired, and ready to move back to Illinois, when she runs into Ernest on the street.  Ernest offers Michelle an apartment for free, all she has to do is leave for a few hours each afternoon so johns can bring prostitutes back.  Michelle is uncomfortable, but she allows it to happen, in order to live in New York.  At this point, things get dark, as she witnesses a girl being dragged away rolled up in a comforter by Ernest.  This coincides with the events of 9/11.  This is also where things get tricky to follow, as it turns out Michelle had been working at the same seedy nightclub as the murdered girl, a fact that she initially hid from the reader.  In order to escape from the mob, she must finally leave New York.

A city that initially seemed so promising and full of hope eventually became the home of all her nightmares.  She wanted to keep staying to prove to the people of her hometown that she could make it, but at what cost?  The issue/theme Mark wanted to highlight was Michelle's denial, which became more apparent as things progressed.  Her mother died in childbirth, and her father always secretly resented her for that, and Michelle gradually came to acceptance of this toward the end of the novel.  However, the mother isn't brought up as a theme until the supermarket chapter, close to the end.  9/11 coincides with the murder because both events people should have seen coming.  There were clues throughout, according to Mark (although many readers disagree), and Michelle knowingly withholds certain information until the very end.  There the issue of an unreliable narrator comes up.  Does the unreliability work if the narrator simply does not share things with the reader?  How is the reader supposed to know?

SULG is a very funny novel for the first three quarters, and then the end is dark and does keep you thinking.  The funnier parts remind me of The Extra Man, which I recently read.  Mark does a good job at parts describing the artistic process, a fact I mentioned to him in the conversation.  The ending is and will be difficult for many readers when it is released next month, and I can see how it works, especially after the conversation I was privileged to attend.  Three out of five stars.

(By the way, I hope you can tell how giddy I am to be able to post a review before the book is released, it makes me feel like a real critic!  Like I actually get to do this for a living!)

Nazi Literature in the Americas

Read from Saturday, September 17th to Monday, September 19th.

Nazi Literature in the Americas, by Roberto Bolano.  This is an interesting collection of stories by one of my favorite authors.  Each short story is set up like an encyclopedia article about a fictitious right wing author living in the Americas during the past century.  Bolano gives a biography of each author, and a catalog and description of all their major work.  In this fictional world, the authors in each chapter sometimes interact with one another, and sometimes they interact with real-life characters as well.

It is fiction dressed up in a non-fiction format, which is very interesting.  And it is also misleading to say that all the authors are Nazis.  They are all right-leaning, and some fought for the Nazis or for Franco in Spain.  But some are just conspiracy theorists railing against the communist governments.  Their writing is all influenced by their political beliefs though, which is an overriding connection.  The genre of writing is different as well.  Some are novelists, some poets, some write crazy science fiction, and some write essays on philosophers.  One of my favorites was an author who wrote poetry in the sky using the smoke from a plane. 

An interesting, quick read by Bolano, something completely different from his massive 2666.  I enjoyed it, and felt a little empathy for some of these outrageous authors, which shows how good his writing can be.  The narrator sees things from an impartial omniscient third person, but Bolano throws in tender moments that offer tremendous insight into each character.  Three out of five stars.

Blood Meridian

Read from Tuesday, September 13th to Friday, September 16th.

Coming off of the violent student uprising in The Instructions, I took on Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, which many critics argue is his finest work.  I agree to an extent, but most of the book was very unsettling and disturbing, as it deals with an entirely different and almost incomprehensible level of violence.  In the familiar setting of the Border Trilogy, the action in this book takes place in 1849 and 1850.  Texas has become a state, and America just defeated Mexico, and savage Indians still roam the deserts of this region.  The scariest aspect of this book is that it is in fact meticulously researched and based on historical facts.

The story follows the unnamed Kid, a 14 year old Tennessean who runs away from home to Texas.  The narrative is in the third person, and we do not know the inner thoughts of the kid, and parts of the story do not follow him at all.  However, he is the main protagonist, and he gets in bar fights in various towns, until he is recruited by an ex-Captain for an expedition into Mexico to reclaim territory for the U.S.  That expedition, while traveling into Mexico, is attacked and brutally massacred by a band of Apache warriors.  The kid and few others survive, and he staggers around the desert until he is picked up and imprisoned by Mexican police (since he was part of an invading army).  In the prison, he befriends Toadvine, a fellow American, and Toadvine convinces the officials to release them because they are experienced Indian hunters.  The kid and Toadvine are released and join Captain Glanton's gang, who have been commissioned by the governor to hunt Apaches, and are paid based on the number of scalps they bring back.

Glanton is a brutal man, an ex-officer and outlaw from the U.S.  Also in the gang is the judge, Holden.  This incredibly interesting character eventually emerges as the antagonist, but not until the end.  The judge is a self-taught genius naturalist, and often described in mythical ways.  He is a giant, and hairless, and with an easy predilection for violence.  He is smart, and enjoys teaching the other riders about geology, astronomy and other subjects.  The gang follows the trail of the Indians across northern Mexico, and eventually slaughters an entire village in the night.  They collect dozens of scalps, and return as heroes to the city.  However, they soon wear out their welcome, by partying too hard and destroying things and hurting the townsfolk.  Back out on the trail, the gang has trouble finding Indians, so they kill peaceful Indians and even entire towns of Mexicans in order to increase their profit.  Of course, they become outlaws in Mexico, and the army is sent after them. 

While being hunted by both Indians and the Mexican army, Glanton's gang manages to make it across Mexico and into Arizona.  They brutally take over a ferry crossing on the Yuma River, and rob settlers trying to cross.  This operation lasts for a few months, until the local Yuma Indians surprise attack, and kill most of the gang.  The kid, Toadvine, the judge, and an ex-priest escape, but the judge turns on the kid, by trying to get the lone gun off him.  The kid is hunted by the judge all the way to San Diego, where the kid is imprisoned.  After confessing everything to the authorities, he is released.  Many decades pass, where the kid wanders around the American West, going from odd job to job, never able to shake the memory of the judge.  Finally, in 1878 in Texas, the kid runs into the judge in a saloon.  The judge claims that violence is everywhere, and it is what man was made to do.  The judge claims he can never die, since he is able to master violence, he is able to control the world.  The kid resists, but in the end the judge finds him in an outhouse.  It is unclear if the kid is murdered, only that other patrons gasp and are speechless when coming upon the outhouse.  The judge is finally seen dancing on the stage, claiming he can never die.

The ending is definitely open-ended for interpretation, (some suggest rape and then murder).  However, the one theme of violence is ever-present, to the point where it is mindless and dull.  It loses shock value, and the only point in the book where someone is astounded by an act of violence is the final scene in the outhouse.  It is also interesting to view the evolution of a gang of criminals.  At the onset, these guys were just hired soldiers, but the power they possessed allowed them to run wild and become greedy, finally becoming an (almost) unstoppable force of evil.  We do not get into the head of the kid, but we can see from his actions that he never initiates violence, only follows along with the others.  He is one of the only ones that shows any weakness or humanity, depending on your point of view.  Highly recommended, but not for the faint of heart.  I also heard a rumor that James Franco was interested in a movie adaptation, which sounds amazing.  Four and a half out of five stars.

The Instructions

Read from Monday, September 5th to Tuesday, September 13th.

In a little over a week, I finished The Instructions, by Adam Levin.  1030 pages chronicling  four days in the life of Gurion ben-Judah Maccabee. It is hard to know where to start with this one.  So much action, dialogue, and philosophical opining is packed into those four days, and in spite of the weight of the book, it was very difficult to put down.  The best place to start is with the protagonist himself, Gurion.  He is ten years old, and in his fourth school, Aptakisic Middle School outside Chicago.  He is incredibly brilliant, a self-described 'scholar' of the Jewish faith.  Other kids and some teachers are naturally attracted to him, they become his followers and fellow scholars.  However, he has been kicked out of other schools due to violence, and inciting other students to violence, through building 'penny guns.'  Throughout the book, Gurion considers he might be the Jewish Messiah, which influences his actions later in the story.  The Instructions is Gurion's story told by Gurion himself, and it is his scripture, written in 2013 while he is in hiding, but the events take place in November 2006.

In Aptakisic, Gurion is placed in the Cage, a special classroom where kids are kept in cubicles, locked in, and not allowed to talk or ask questions.  They are caged off from the rest of the student population because of their violent tendencies.  This system, and the administrators in it, are referred to as The Arrangement.  There is the cage monitor, Victor Botha; the perverted gym teacher, Ron Desormie; Principal Brodsky; the popular basketball team, led by Captain Bam Slokum; the Main Hall Shovers, a basketball fan club (characterized by their stylish scarves) that behaves more like English hooligans; and finally Boystar, a huge new pop star that all the girls go crazy for.  In the Cage, Gurion befriends Benji Nakamook, the best fighter in the school, but also a confirmed arsonist and pyschopath, Vincie Portite, as well as Main Man Scott Mookus and many of the others, as they look to him for protection.  On the first day of the book, after a fight in the locker room, Gurion meets and falls madly in love with Eliza June Watermark, and they begin a relationship the next day in detention.  

In the cage that first day, Gurion says, in response to a question from one of his peers, "We must be on the Side of Damage."  Almost immediately, other cage students start vandalizing the school with We Damage We (putting We on the side of Damage).  Gradually, Gurion realizes that he is the leader of the Side of Damage, a movement among the cage students, and more and more students from the school at large, against the Arrangement.  They start organized protests and non-violent simultaneous acts in order to provoke Victor Botha.  The story starts on a Tuesday, and leads up to a pep-rally on Friday for the basketball team, in which Boystar is going to perform and shoot a music video, along with Scott Mookus, who is mentally handicapped.

Outside of school, Gurion writes scripture and argues with his parents.  His strong willed mom, an ex-Israeli super soldier, and his dad, an infamous lawyer who defends the free-speech rights of Nazis, which conflicts Gurion.  He initiates contact with all his former friends at the schools he used to attend, and gets them to march on Aptakisic on Friday in order to hear his Scripture.  Originally, Gurion planned to just sneak out of school and speak with his former classmates, but on the morning of the pep-rally, Botha held them in the cage, and rescinded on his promise to allow them to attend.  This was the breaking point, and Gurion called the Side of Damage into action.  Here the violence starts becoming quite brutal.  The students beat Botha into unconsciousness and steal his keys.  They break out of the cage, and arm themselves with penny guns, which are made from soda bottles and balloons, and can shoot pennies and bolts.  They attack the pep-rally while Boystar is performing, and a bloody battle ensues.

The Side of Damage attacks the basketball players, the school administrators, and the Shovers.  Other students in the audience join in the carnage, and many people on both sides get bloodied up.  Each of the Side of Damage has a personal vendetta against other people, and they pursue their own fights.  Gurion is attacked by Ron Desormie, but a well-placed shot from Eliza hits his carotid artery, and he is killed.  Eventually, the students take over the gym, and lock down the school.  Boystar is held hostage, and a police standoff ensues outside the school.  The Side of Damage, along with other 'Israelites' and Jewish ex-Shovers, try to buy time before the hundreds of 'Scholars' arrive.  At this point, this becomes a major news story, and the ex-Shovers get nervous and start an uprising against the Side.  Benji Nakamook is brutally beaten to death, but Gurion and the Scholars manage to quell the rebellion.  In their final move, Gurion and the Side and the Scholars march out of the school and through the police line, all the way to the shores of the lake.  There, Gurion gives his Scripture, and then the Miracle happens.  The water of the lake parts like it did for Moses, and the Scholars start walking through it.  Gurion hesitates though, and he claims that he will not run away, but will instead stay.  The scholars return and the lake returns to normal. 

The rest of Gurion's life is told by him only through various speculation.  He is hiding out in Israel under protection of the Mossad, who believe him to be a Messiah.  His devoted followers teach his word throughout the world, but he is still waiting for his moment to start a general uprising, but in what form it will take remains unknown. 

This was a wild trip of a book, and it was very unique in many aspects.  There are many diagrams drawn by Gurion that explain set ups of rooms and the final battle.  Gurion includes email exchanges and other homework assignments and essays that he completed that help to explain past incidents and the development of his mind.  And the language is also wholly unique.  There are many words the kids use in the dialogue, like suck as a noun, bancer, dentist, and many of the nicknames that take a while to get used to, but in the end you really feel like you can speak their language. 

The book raises many interesting questions.  Gurion believes himself to be the Messiah and leader of the Israelites, which alienates many of his Christian and non-Jewish friends at Aptakisic.  But while Gurion is very intelligent and just, (he vehemently protects his friends and the picked-on), he is also incredibly prone to violence.  Perhaps that is because of the injustice in his Cage program, but it seems he lashes out to an extreme degree.  Which makes the reader conflicted:  At one point you identify with Gurion and cheer for him, but while he is brutally punching in the face of another kid.  The school is obviously a fictionalized world, but while some characters are extremely well-developed, others seem to be stereotypical (the Jennys and Ashleys, Shovers, Band Kids).

The novel is incredibly grand and intelligent, and I flew through it.  It was also very funny in many parts, while dark in others.  Gurion is one of the most intriguing characters in literature, and he made me want to follow him into battle at times.  Four and a half out of five stars.

Memories of my Melancholy Whores

Read from Saturday, September 3rd to Monday, September 5th.

Memories of My Melancholy Whores, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  In this short novella, his most recent work, Marquez tells the simple story of a man who, on his 90th birthday, falls in love with a young, fourteen year old virgin, Delgadina.  The man, a lifelong reporter, has been with hundreds of prostitutes over the course of his long life, and he has never fallen in love.  An average man, he sticks with the newspaper out of loyalty.

On his 90th birthday, he asks the local madam for a virgin, and that is no easy task for her.  She finds Delgadina though, a young factory worker looking to help out her family.  On that first night, she is given drugs to make her sleep, and the man simply watches her while she sleeps.  He falls quickly and madly in love for the first time in his life, and he constructs an elaborate relationship out of those many nights they spend in the exact same fashion.  He reads to her while she sleeps, he gently caresses her, he imagines her in his house and out on the street.  She is everything to him that he can imagine, and then he imagines the worst.  He flies into a jealous rage when she and the madam disappear for a few weeks after a murder at the brothel.  He believes she is out with other men, but finally they return, and are reunited, for Delgadina has grown in love with the old man as well.

Marquez uses the relationship with the young girl as a chance for the man to reflect upon his own life.  All the mistakes he made, the women he had been with (all of them he had to pay in one way or another), and the nature of old age in general.  It is a quick story, without too much plot development, and unfortunately not much character development either.  The old man is often left unexplained and flat.  It was a light, quick read, but not one of my favorites by Marquez.  Three out of five stars.

Norwegian Wood

Read from Tuesday, August 30th to Saturday, September 3rd.

Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami came highly recommended, and it did not disappoint.   This book was a huge success in Japan when it was originally published in 1987, much to Murakami's dismay apparently.  He was one of the authors featured in The Secret Miracle, and there are a few other books of his that I am going to check out soon.

The story takes place in 1969 in Japan, but it is told as a memoir from the present-day voice of Toru Watanabe, remembering his college days and the loves of his life at the time.  It is a sad book, with moments of passion and humor, but mostly it is a self-reflection, always haunted by the spectre of death.  In high school, Toru was best friends with Kizuki, who was in a relationship with Naoko, who had been his girlfriend since practically when they were born.  Toru was happy to be third wheel, and things seemed great, until Kizuki killed himself on his 17th birthday.  This death had a profound impact on both Toru and Naoko.  A year later, in college, the story picks up, and Toru and Naoko begin a friendship characterized by their long walks around the city.  The story is set against the backdrop of student demonstrations in the 1960's, and it is interesting to see what things were like during that decade around the world, not just in America.  However, the protests don't factor into the plot that much.  Anyways, Toru realizes he loves the emotionally fragile Naoko, and on her 20th birthday, they sleep together.  However, Naoko is too unstable for this, and afterwards she leaves school and checks into a sanatorium out in the country. 

While Naoko's response is to dive deeper into herself, Toru seeks solace in one-night stands, influenced by his friend Nagasawa.  He is a quiet, average, uninterested student, but when connected with Nagasawa, Toru seeks to lose himself in sex.  Finally, Naoko contacts him through a letter, and explains where she is, and how fragile she is, and how she would like him to visit.  Toru visits the sanatorium, (while reading Mann's The Magic Mountain, soon to come!), and learns more about Naoko.  Her sister committed suicide as well, and combined with Kizuki, it was all too much for her.  Naoko's roommate is Reiko, an older musician, who broke down many years ago when confronted with accusations about her sexuality.  Reiko tries to help the relationship between Toru and Naoko, and advises Toru to take it very slow in order to let her heal.

Back in Tokyo though, Toru meets Midori, a fellow student, who is very outgoing and spontaneous.  She helps run a family bookstore, although her father is sick with a tumor, and he dies shortly after the two meet.  Midori has a boyfriend, but after hanging out with Toru, she leaves him.  Toru, meanwhile, is torn between the two women.  He loves Midori, but cannot get over Naoko.  He visits her again at the sanatorium, but she has apparently gotten worse mentally.  Naoko cuts off their communication through letters, because she is unable to write.  Toru consults with Reiko about what to do, and she advises him to go after Midori, while he has a chance for happiness.  However, by ignoring Midori, he is losing his chance day by day.

Finally, Toru gets a letter from Reiko saying that Naoko killed herself.  She hung herself in the forest near the sanatorium.  He is completely devastated, and spends a month wandering homeless around Japan being depressed.  When he does return to Tokyo, Reiko gets in touch with him, and tells him she is leaving the sanatorium to visit him.  When she arrives, they have an impromptu funeral for Naoko, singing songs late into the night, and finally they sleep together.  It is done in the sense of two friends celebrating the memory of a third, and the night convinces Toru to go after Midori while he still has a chance.  He calls her, and she answers, but the rest is left to the reader's imagination since that is the end.

The title of the book refers to the Beatles' song of the same name.  It is a favorite of Naoko's, and she says it makes her feel as if she is lost in a deep forest, which is significant since that is how she seems to live life, and it is where she took hers.  There was a movie made about the book last year in Japan, and I've seen a trailer.  The book has also caused a lot of controversy lately, as it has been banned at many schools because some parents have complained about the sexuality.  The only criticism I would have is through the translation.  Some of the phrases, while maybe remaining true, do not sound good in English.  They are chunky and awkward, and you can tell it is from Japan.  But other than that, I liked the book a lot.  It is easy to read, and the imagery and language is beautiful.  There are many memorable lines of dialogue as well.  It is a terrible tragedy, but there is hope in the end.  Four out of five stars.

Pale Fire

Read from Monday, August 22nd to Tuesday, August 30th.

Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov is one of the most unique novels I have ever read. The plot structure is completely genre-defying. The story revolves around two characters, the poet John Shade and the ex-king Charles Kinbote, although the ending of the novel leaves you wondering what actually happened, whether or not it was the figment of one of the other's imagination.

Charles and John are neighbors and professors at an Appalachian college. Charles idolizes Shade, a well-respected poet, to the point of creepiness and stalking. Charles is, in actuality, the disposed former king of Zembla, a fictional northern European country, and he loves discussing all the majestic beauty that was his country, and his daring escape from the palace, over the mountains and across the ocean by boat to America. In early July, Shade begins work on his most ambitious work, a 999 line poem called Pale Fire. Charles mistakenly believes it is an ode to Zembla, but in reality it is about his youth, his daughter's suicide, and his own search for meaning in life after death. He finishes the last line of the poem on the day he dies,in late July. The poem then falls into Kinbote's hands to be the editor and publisher.

The novel is set up into three parts. The first is an introduction by Kinbote, giving some of the background, and the second is the 999 line poem in its entirety. The third part, and the bulk of the novel, is the commentary that Kinbote gives on many of the lines in the poem. This commentary varied from a simple explanation of a term or animal, to a lengthy discussion on his family history in Zembla, to the revolution of the communists, to his escape to America. Finally, there is the story of Gradus, a bumbling and inept assassin sent from the communists in Zembla in order to kill the former king. This story, which Kinbote so desperately wanted to tell, is what he really thinks Shade's poem is about subliminally.

The image of Gradus as death advances throughout the commentary to the very end, which we know already is the end of Shade's life. Finally, in the commentary on the last line and the 1000th line, which was also the first, (I was the shadow of the waxwing slain), Gradus meets the two men on the step of Kinbote's house. Mistakenly, Gradus murders Shade, and is sent to a mental institution. Kinbote then proceeds to posthumously publish Pale FIre, along with his extensive commentary.

The ending and set-up of the entire poem/novel leaves things open for the readers. Some maintain that Shade created the character of Kinbote, and others say the opposite. Some think that Kinbote was mentally insane himself, and that Zembla was just his illusion and fantasy, and Gradus really was an escaped mental patient who intended to kill Shade, who looked like a judge.

This book took me a few days to get into, and it was a slow start, but once I got going, I finished quickly. I really enjoyed the structure, and it definitely left me thinking after the ending. Four out of five stars.

World War Z

Read from Thursday, August 18th to Sunday, August 21st.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, by Max Brooks.  This was a really original, creative zombie novel that I enjoyed immensely.  And I am excited to learn that it is being made into a legitimate movie starring Brad Pitt, coming out in 2012.  Although it is not the kind of literary fiction I tend to read, this book was exciting, and very thought-provoking, especially about the end of the world and what kind of survival tactics you, or your country would take.  It had an international focus, as well as an American one (so you could get that nationalistic pride going.  USA! USA!).

The story takes the form of an oral history; a series of interviews with survivors of the decade-long Zombie War, that the humans ultimately won.  The interviewer, Max, works for the UN, but they ignored most of his interviews for their official report, wanting only facts and figures.  But Max wanted to portray the emotional, human aspect of the war, so he put it into a book.  Each interview lasts a few pages, and they are arranged mostly chronologically, so the whole story of the war is told through each person's perspective.  They range from low-level soldiers, to spies, to housewives, to the leaders of countries.

The outbreak started in China, where a boy went swimming down to the bottom of a lake created by a new damn, and he was bitten.  He infected some of his fellow villagers.  This story was told by the first doctor on the scene.  China sent in government troops in order to contain the spread of the virus, and they manufactured a war with Taiwan in order to hide the outbreak from the rest of the world.  However, the virus does spread of course, through black market organ trafficking and infected human refugees smuggled out of the country.  This story was told through one of the smugglers, and one of the doctors performing a heart transplant in Brazil.

The rest of the world, while hearing reports of the virus, refuses to believe it is a threat, and the U.S. government downplays the situation.  A ruthless businessman made a vaccine that he sold to most of the American public, but it worked only against rabies, and not against the Zombie virus.  He tells his story from his ice-fortress in Antarctica.   Finally, after an outbreak in South Africa, the world came to grips with its problem, and that began a period called "The Great Panic."  Millions of people ran, most of them north to colder climates, because Zombies froze in winter.  The U.S. government sent the army to Yonkers, NY in order to crush the zombie horde, but the army was routed instead.  They used old, Cold War tactics, used up all their ammo quickly, and did not anticipate the unending relentlessness of their enemy.

Around the world, other countries struggled as well.  Iceland became completely infected, Israel was the only country to completely self-quarantine, and Iran and Pakistan destroyed each with nukes over a refugee dispute.  India safely retreated behind the Himalayas, while Russia ruthlessly gassed their own population in order to identify the zombies among them.  This was the darkest period for humanity, and the mass migrations and confusion provided easy fodder for the zombies.  Finally, a plan was developed in South Africa in order to control the spread.  It was the Redecker plan, and it was named after the controversial founder, originally intended as a plan for the whites should the blacks take over the country.  Essentially, important survivors needed to make it to a safe zone in the country, one that could be easily defended using natural barriers.  Other groups would need to act as a diversion for the zombie horde, and that would pretty much be a suicide mission.  But it was the only hope for the country.

The U.S. created their own safe zone west of the Rockies, and many parts of the East were left abandoned by the army.  It was important that the safe zone be clean, and could be defended long enough for the war machine economy to get back up and running.  For years this stalemate lasted around the world, while everyone regrouped.  Finally, the U.S. president made an inspiring speech to the rest of the world leaders that humans needed to go on the offensive, and not just wait it out.  It would be important not only physically, but also psychologically.  This part of the story was told from the point of view of one of the new soldiers trained to fight the zombies.  The army redeveloped their fighting techniques: pacing their shooting, and only at the head; taking turns on the front line; and forming a complete line from north to south, and eliminating everything in its path.  The first battle in New Mexico was described by the soldier, as they shot for days at the enemy horde, and created a wall of zombie corpses hundreds of feet high.  Slowly but surely, the country was reclaimed.  There were some human pockets of resistance that had to be retaken, and zombies still had to be completely eradicated, especially from the sea floor, where they sometimes emerged onto beaches.  However, life was able to return to a sense of normalcy, even though the vast majority of the human population had been eliminated (the most populous city was Llhasa, Tibet) and the economy had to be rebuilt from scratch (the economic powerhouse is now Cuba).

It was a fun, and interesting thought exercise.  I really enjoyed the strategy aspect of the novel; the troop movements, what countries did and how they reacted, where the pockets of resistance were based out of.    It was great that it had an international focus.  Each perspective was a small story in itself, so the plot had to be pieced together disjointedly, but all in all, it worked out well.  I am excited to see the movie.  Four out of five stars.

House of Holes

Read from Wednesday, August 17th to Sunday, August 21st.

House of Holes, by Nicholson Baker.  I'm not going to review this book too in-depth, since it is pretty much a pornographic, erotic novel.  It is essentially the story of the House of Holes, an imaginary, fantasy sex resort, where people get sucked into, and they can live out their every fantasy.  It is all pretty magical, like genital switching, loss of limbs, magical body part lakes, halls of men, line-ups of women, and other stuff too graphic to mention.  There are many different stories about as many different characters, and here's a hint, each story and chapter ends up in sex.  It was an easy read, and if there was anything meaningful to get out of it, it is the importance to love yourself in order to have others love you, and to be confident and open-minded.  I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it, although I would definitely put it into a class of its own.  I also learned many new terms for all these parts of our body haha.  Two and a half out of five stars. 

The Extra Man

Read from Monday, August 15th to Wednesday, August 17th

The Extra Man, by Jonathan Ames.  This novel, the same one discussed in Wake Up, Sir, is the second I've read by Ames, the writer of HBO's Bored to Death.  It is a very funny, witty and dry, coming of age story in New York City in the early 1990's.  Louis Ives is a strange young man, an orphan, who fancies that he is a 'young gentleman' from the Victorian era, wearing jackets and reading classics.  He was a teacher in New Jersey until one day he saw a co-worker's bra and put it on and danced around the room.  His boss walked in on him, and he was let go.  Louis decided to try out New York City, and the only place he found to live was with an old eccentric, Henry Harrison.  

The story revolves around the relationship between these two men.  Henry is old, but fit, and he makes his living being 'the extra man' for old widows, who need a date to important events.  He does not get paid, just gets free meals.  Louis and Henry live in a squalid apartment, always dealing with money issues, car problems, and the strange habits of both men.  Louis gets a job as a salesman, but he also starts exploring his transvestite fetish: going to a specialty bar and taking "women" to their apartments on dates for money.  However, this is highly secretive for Louis, because Henry is very conservative and Catholic and highly disapproving of any of this behavior. 

Louis and Henry do develop a very strong friendship however, at times even potentially more than just friendship.  Louis misses Henry when he is not around, and is depressed when Henry goes to Florida for a few months in the winter.  Henry introduces Louis to the world of extra men, and they form a good team.  Eventually though, Louis gets reckless and goes to a woman whom he pays to dress him up completely as a woman, with makeup and everything.  He sees himself as a woman in the mirror, and the fetish suddenly evaporates.  He no longer has the compulsion to look like a woman anymore.  But still, he takes home one of these "women" to his apartment, since he believed Henry was out of town.  But Henry returns early, sees the two of them, and the two penises, and freaks out.  Louis sleeps on a bench, believing that he has been kicked out.  However, Henry reconciles with Louis the next morning, and the two of them resume their friendship in New York.

It is a funny story, and there is no real rising action or a major climax.  Much of the book is different stories about Louis and Henry, and the many eccentric things he says.  Henry is comparable to Don Quixote in his self-righteous madness, and Louis goes along with his master just like a good Sancho Panza.  The book has been made into a movie that I intend to watch soon.  Three and a half out of four stars.

The Brothers Karamazov

Read from Monday, August 1st to Monday, August 15th.

After the whirlwind of books in the month of July, I decided to slow it down a bit in August and tackle The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, a book I've had on my shelf for awhile now.  It is my first foray into the world of Russian literature classics.  Though it took a few days to get into it, I really enjoyed it in the end.  It is both a crime/courtroom drama as well as a spiritual/philosophical debate amongst the characters.  Each main character is unique in their own way and represent a different segment of society and belief system.

Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is the father figure in the family, but he is a boorish, selfish, brute, and had two wives who died young after producing three brothers: Dmitri, Ivan, and Alexei.  He also, allegedly, fathered a fourth, illegitimate son, Smerdyakov, who was raised by Fyodor's housekeepers.  Dmitri, the eldest, is a hot-headed, passionate young man who joined the army.  Ivan is an academic, influenced solely by reason, and an atheist as well.  He is gaming fame for articles he wrote recently about ecclesiastical courts.  Alexei, the youngest, is just 20 at the time of the action, and he is described as the hero of the story.  He is a people-person, someone that everyone likes.  He is shy, especially around girls, and he joined the local monastery, and studied under the famous Elder Zosima. 

The plot is highly intricate, but the basic set-up is this; Dmitri returns home, along with his fiance Katerina, in order to get the rest of his inheritance, what he feels he is owed, from his father.  Fyodor refuses to pay, and Ivan comes back home as well, and they all agree to see Zosima and Alexei in order to work out the problem.  However, Zosima is old, and he dies soon after the meeting without anything being resolved, and he sends Alexei out into the world in order to help people and his family.  There is another wrench thrown into the domestic dispute; Dmitri and Fyodor both fell in love with the same woman, a local harlot named Grushenka.  Ivan shows interest in Katerina, Dmitri's fiance, and Dmitri is only too happy to let her go, since he is now madly in love with Grushenka.  Fyodor is attempting to bribe Grushenka to come to his house, and Dmitri, being passionate and hot-headed, spies on the house to make sure she doesn't come.  Smerdyakov is Fyodor's guard to keep a look out for Grushenka. 

Dmitri also needs money badly, because he wants to repay a debt to Katerina and clear his conscience to her, as well as provide for Grushenka and take her away.  He goes all over town trying to sell and pawn his possessions.  Meanwhile, Alexei is going around town talking to all the parties involved.  Tension is mounting, and Dmitri beat up a retired captain that worked with Fyodor, and the captain's son bit Alexei for being related to him.  Also one night, Dmitri stormed into Fyodor's house, suspecting Grushenka was there, and also hit his father and knocked him down.  Ivan also leaves town, after having an argument with Smerdyakov, and a philosophical discussion with Alexei about reason vs. faith.

All these events set up the crucial August night.  Dmitri returns to town after pawning his possessions and looks for Grushenka, but after not finding her at home, he runs to Fyodor's house.  He spies in the window, but does not find her there, and so he runs away.  The servant Grigory sees him running in the garden however, and in a frenzy, Dmitri hits him on the head and knocks him out.  Dmitri goes into town, suddenly with a lot of money, and finds out that Grushenka is a few towns over with an old love.  He buys dozens of bottles of champagne and food, and travels to that town, and proceeds to wine and dine her and eventually wins her over that night.  In the morning, however, the police arrive and arrest Dmitri because Fyodor was found murdered that night.

The evidence is stacked up against Dmitri.  Grigory survived and testified that Dmitri was running away in the garden at the same time Fyodor was murdered.  Dmitri also suddenly had lots of money, and Fyodor was found robbed.  He had also expressed on many occasions his desire to murder his father.  In reality it was Smerdyakov who murdered Fyodor, in order to please Ivan, who he thought wanted that to happen.  Smerdyakov faked an epileptic fit during that night in order to have an alibi.  The trial is a major spectacle, and a lawyer comes in from Petersburg in order to defend Dmitri.

Leading up to the trial, Ivan is majorly conflicted.  His reason tells him to think his brother killed his father, but after talking with Smerdyakov, he is shaken. Finally, on his third visit to him, Smerdyakov confesses to the crime, and admits that he did it because of Ivan.  Ivan feels as if he is the true murderer.  Smerdyakov kills himself the night before the trial, and Ivan has a hallucination that he is speaking with the devil.  At the trial the next day, Ivan has a nervous breakdown and outburst, and in the end Dmitri is convicted.  The novel ends with Ivan still very sick, and Dmitri making plans to escape to America with Grushenka.  Alexei has moved onto the same path as the elder Zosima, and it has become evidenced by his involvement with a group of schoolboys after the death of the boy who bit him, Ilyuschenka. 

Of course there are many subplots, and they all serve the main theme of the power of faith over doubt.  It is a difficult read at times, but there are also moments of hilarity, as well as times of sadness.  The characters are fascinating, each one a foil to each other.  The narrator is flawed, someone supposedly in the village that knew all the events and thoughts of the characters.  He also described Alexei as the hero, even though the action centers around Dmitri and later climaxes with Ivan's doubts and the scene with the Devil.    Alexei is the connection between everyone, and someone that people just want to talk to.  It was a good read, and I'd like to check out some more Russian classics, maybe Anna Karenina next.  Four out of five stars.

The Secret Miracle

Read from Thursday, July 28th to Saturday, July 30th.

The Secret Miracle; The Novelist's Handbook, edited by Daniel Alarcon, but written by many different authors.  I picked up this book the first time I went into the Museum of Unnatural History and 826DC, and it is a book put together by 826National.  It is simply a set of many different questions about the writing process that was composed by Daniel Alarcon and sent to many authors, some of whom I know and some of whom I haven't read yet.  Paul Auster, Michael Chabon, Jennifer Egan, Stephen King, Mario Vargas Llosa, Colm Toibin, and others participated.  It is arranged so that after each question, you can see the variety of responses by all the authors and their (sometimes vastly different) opinions on the topic.

The questions go through the writing process sequentially.  There are questions on reading, how many books a month, what are your favorite authors, influences.  There are questions on how you get started on writing, things like brainstorming, first drafts, opinions on structure and plot, character development, scene structure.  There are questions on how the authors like to write, in what type of setting, and if they base characters on people they know.  Then there are questions on the revision process, and how they know when a piece they are working on is done.

It was definitely interesting to see how some of my favorite authors responded to these questions, but I did do a lot of skimming.  There is a lot of repetition, both in the questions and in the responses by the authors.  Although on almost every topic, you can find the full spectrum of opinions.  Three out of five stars.

Eleven books in the month of July.

Tree of Codes

Read from Thursday, July 28th to Thursday, July 28th.

I have finally read Tree of Codes, by Jonathan Safran Foer.  I ordered it online in December, and it did not arrive until May, and I finally read it this afternoon in an hour and a half in a coffee shop.  It is a short read, just really a long poem, with a different die cut on each page.  The brilliance of this book rests completely on the unique form, descriptions of which by me will not do it justice.  It is a sculpture and a work of art.

Each die-cut shows a different series of words, and you read the page as it appears before you.  This can be very tricky, as some words and phrases are partially blocked.  I kind of got into a rhythm after awhile though, and only read the complete words and phrases.  Of course, some words were removed each time you turned the page, and some were uncovered each time as well.  There were some strings of connections that stayed for many pages at a time, and were modified each page turn slowly but methodically.  It also helps to think of it all as a poem, and so it is not supposed to be grammatically correct, and since the language is beautiful to begin with, the reader cannot go wrong by adding in a phrase that they read on the page. 

Thematically, it is difficult to get a full picture of the plot.  It is the story of a father on his last day alive, and the peace he makes with his son as he withers away, but also the resentment the son feels for his mother.  As the father dies, the entire world feels the pain and erupts mournfully.  Of course, that is just my interpretation of the book, and I am sure it can be read many different ways.  As I've mentioned before, the book is taken from Street of Crocodiles, by Bruno Schulz, which I reviewed back in November.  The language is still so beautiful, and I could recognize certain phrases from when I read the book, and I remember certain plot points that came out in Tree of Codes, things like the map of the city, and the comet at the end of the novel. 

I highly recommend checking out this book.  Even if it is difficult to read and comprehend, there are some wonderful phrases that are pieced together.  "The world to lose some of its whispering, like boats waiting," is an example of three different phrases strung together, and it was one of my favorites.  Four and a half out of five stars.

P.S. This marks 10 books for the month of July!  I reached my goal with a few days to spare!  Working on number 11 now, I think I might be able to make it.

Bird by Bird

Read from Sunday, July 24th to Tuesday, July 26th.

Bird by Bird, Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamont.  I picked up this book about a year ago at the National Book Festival on the Mall.  I started reading it once, but stopped a few chapters in.  It is a classic (written in the early 90's) about the approach Anne uses in writing her novels, and how that might help any aspiring writers.  It is a mix between a memoir and instruction guide, as Anne's voice definitely comes through, and the reader knows all about her personal quirks, battles and emotions.

As Anne is writing this, she is a teacher of a writing class, and this book is designed to be her class in portable, book form.  She describes her upbringing in California, the daughter of a somewhat famous writer in their hometown.  Her father passed away from cancer when she was a young woman, and Anne wrote stories about his death and its effect on her family, and that was her first published book.  She published a few more books after that, and she claimed that by her fourth book, she was self-sufficient as an author.

Anne describes typical writing subjects, such as characterization, plot, voice and dialogue.  But she also has advice on how to get started.  She advises you write about your childhood, and focus on one subject, such as school lunches, and from there, characters emerge that you want to get to know more, and stories develop from there.  Small writing assignments eventually emerge into shitty first drafts, and then lots of revision and plot treatment.  She describes her somewhat nervous breakdown after an editor did not like a novel she submitted, so she spent months reworking the plot in order to get it acceptable.

Anne also discusses the not-so-glorious life of a writer.  There are tremendous bouts of jealousy when things go well for others, and not yourself, and there are constant voices inside her head saying how untalented she is.  You need to find people you trust to read over your work, and you should start writing groups for support.  And publication isn't all that it is cracked up to be.  There are no glamorous parties, and it is not financially rewarding, and it is a tremendously long process.  However, there are other reasons to write.  You can write something as a gift for others, as Lamont did for her father, and other friends who died or lost loved ones.   Most importantly, you write for yourself, as writing is the most rewarding thing spiritually a person can do (for those of us who love to do it in the first place.)

I enjoyed this simple book, and it makes me want to get back and start writing again, even if its just for myself.  At some points I got annoyed with how neurotic and crazy Lamont could make herself out to be, and she does not seem like someone I would like to hang around with.  However, she is honest, and interesting, and she teaches a good class.  The title refers to advice her father once gave to her brother, who was struggling to write a report on local birds.  "Just take it bird by bird, that's all you have to do."  Three and a half out of five stars.

The Convalescent

Read from Thursday, July 21st to Saturday, July 23rd.

The Convalescent, by Jessica Anthony.  Book 8 of my 10 books in July goal, and I am a day ahead of my pace.  As you can see, I've been so busy reading I haven't had time to write reviews, which is why they are all coming on this one day.  This is a book I picked up off the shelf in the Museum of Unnatural History in DC, an 826 nonprofit created by Dave Eggers, and a place where I volunteer.  It is published by McSweeney's.  It is definitely a unique story, and something outside of many reader's comfort zones.  It is funny, and beautiful, and a bit dark, especially toward the climax.

The Convalescent is the story of Rovar Pfliegman.  He is a small, troll-like man who sells meat out of an old bus in a field in rural Virginia.  He is a fascinating and revolting character.  The meat he sells is quality cuts at low prices, so he gets some customers, but he hasn't spoken since early childhood.  He gets the meat, we later find out, not by butchering animals, but by stealing from the local supermarket.  He has a horrible skin condition, and a bent, broken leg so that he hobbles around.  He is not someone you would like to associate with.  Rovar has a pet beetle in his bus home, and he has a collection of books that he accumulated.  There is a book on water polo, a french dictionary, a Carly Simon cassette, Darwin's Origin of Species, and a book on the history of the universe.  These characters come to life for Rovar throughout the book at moments of high-stress and they talk to him, although no one else can see them. 

Rovar is the last of his legendary Hungarian clan, the Pfliegmans.  I say legendary because he describes the family history and origins throughout the novel.  Rovar's parents were killed in a car crash when he was young, and based on his appearance, Rovar is unlikely to reproduce, to put it kindly.  He is a hermit and outsider to society, but he has a few friends, including a Hindu grocery owner, Mr. Bis, and local pediatrician Dr. Monica.  Rovar visits the doctor's office every Tuesday, and she is very nice and accommodating to the creature, even though he scares the children and the receptionist is very uncomfortable with his presence.  Of course, Rovar is in love with Dr. Monica.  Along with the problem of his deteriorating health, there are the Subdivisionists, nameless suits from a company that wants Rovar's fields and needs him to move. 

A parallel story to the present day Rovar is the history of the Pfliegman clan.  History tells of ten tribes of Hungarians moving to the Carpathian Basin in the 10th century.  However, the Pfliegmans were the 11th tribe, and they were a bunch of trolls living on the outskirts of society.  One day, they made a sacrifice to their god of a noble Hungarian, and they butchered him.  From then on, they became the butchers of Hungary, although they all resembled Rovar.  One day, a Pfliegman woman gave birth to Szeretlek, and when her water broke, it flowed so much that it created the Danube and the Black Sea.  The woman died in childbirth, and Szeretlek (which means I Love You) grew up a giant.  One day, he leg wrestled a woman named Lili, and lost the match but fell in love.  Lili was mistress to the Hungarian king Arpad, but she left him for Szeretlek, even though he was a Pfliegman.  When Arpad discovered this, he exiled Szeretlek, who wandered the forest until he found a monastery where he lived for years.  While he was away, he yearned to return to Lili, to whom it was revealed by a witch that she was also a Pfliegman, and she was actually born after Szeretlek but was almost lost in the flood.  They were twins, but they were in love and Lili actually got impregnated before he was exiled.  Many years later, the giant proved his worth to Arpad by saving the Hungarians in battle, and Szeretlek was transformed into his true, beautiful form by flying up to mount his horse and saving the day.  He was allowed to return, and he searched long for Lili and the Pfliegmans, and when he finally found them, he was so weak that the tribe decided to sacrifice him.  Lili found him, and died with him, and their son lived on.  The Pliegmans existed on the margins of society for the next ten centuries, staying on the outside of power struggles and wars, but slowly dwindling, until there was only Rovar and his parents.

While that history was being revealed, so was the history of Rovar.  He was beaten by his parents, and made to hang on a butcher's hook and locked in a CO2 refrigerator meant to kill pigs.  His parents were drunk and abandoning Rovar the day they stole a rental car and crashed and died.  Rovar had been standing in the middle of the road, and that caused the crash.  The car knicked his leg, which caused his limp. 

Now, in the present day, Rovar has lost his home to a flood, and the police are waiting to arrest him for both stealing meat and supposedly drawing dirty pictures to the kids in the pediatrician's waiting room.  He finally tries to explain his story to Dr. Monica, but his skin is completely shedding, and back is killing him.  She puts him in for an X-Ray, and finally the metamorphosis occurs.  His wings pop out, and body turns into the body of a butterfly.  Rovar has finally transformed into something beautiful.

All three of these stories (present day Rovar, the history of Rovar and his parents, and the Pfliegman clan in pre-medieval Hungary) unfold simultaneously, so that the three climaxes happen around the end, which makes for a powerful ending to the novel.  It also ends a little darker than the rest of the story had been.  The reader ends up really feeling for Rovar and rooting for him to make it.  It is tragic, but also hopeful, that someone's inner beauty can finally shine through.  Some of the dialogue was awkward, specifically in the pre-medieval Hungary scenes, and kind of took me out of the story a bit.  But it was a funny story, with moments of magical realism (my favorite!).  Four out of five stars.

The Things They Carried

Read from Tuesday, July 19th to Thursday, July 21st.

As a follow-up to Going After Cacciato, I decided to read The Things They Carried, also by Tim O'Brien.  This is a brilliant collection of vignettes, essays and short stories about the Vietnam War.  Although it is classified as fiction, O'Brien claimed he drew on a lot of personal experiences, similar to Cacciato.  There are both short war stories about Tim and his group, but then there are commentaries on those stories by Tim himself.  He writes about the power of stories, he writes about death of friends in combat, and some by suicide, and life after the war, and returning to Vietnam many years later with his daughter.  She is young, and has trouble understanding why he is so interested in a low field, but then again, how could anyone really understand unless they were there?

The Things They Carried is the title story and also the lead story.  O'Brien details all the different equipment a soldier was expected to carry.  But it was more than physical.  There was also the mental burden each soldier had to carry.  There were the personal trinkets and talismans that made each soldier unique.  A stone sent by a lost high school crush, an illustrated Bible, stockings wrapped around like a scarf.  There are all the guns and explosives each soldier is required to have and to use when necessary. 

There is no specific plot, just memories and stories.  The unit loses a few men.  One steps on a mine and is blown into a tree.  Another is sniped while coming back from taking a piss.  The medic slowly loses his cool and shoots himself in the foot and is shipped off to Japan.  One night they camp in a field near a river.  But it is monsoon season, and the field floods, and it is the field where the nearby village goes the bathroom, so they are covered in a pool of shit.  Then they get mortared, and one soldier is sucked into a crater full of shit and dies.  The soldiers tell each other stories too.  There is the story of a group of soldiers in an isolated medic outpost.  One of them decides to fly his girlfriend over to keep him company.  Because there are no officers, she arrives and stays with them for weeks.  Slowly, she becomes accustomed to military life, and she shoots guns, and eventually she starts going on ambushes with a local green beret unit.  The soldier who flew her over loses his girlfriend to the jungle, as she melts into the landscape.

One of the most memorable scenes is actually something I first read in high school in English class, Junior year I believe.  Frustrated over the sniping of the soldier who got shot after taking a piss, another soldier finds a baby water buffalo.  He shoots it first in each knee, then blows off the nose, the ears, the jaw, slowly killing the beast, which just stands there taking the punishment.

What is real and what is fiction?  It is never completely clear.  O'Brien frequently says out in front that it is all made up, although it is written so realistically.  He discusses the power of war stories and what makes them important.  They reveal the brutal honesty of human existence, not the crazy heroics, but the simple moments of clarity.  Mesmerizing, fascinating and beautiful.  Four and a half out of five stars.

The Book of Imaginary Beings

Read from Monday, July 18th to Tuesday, July 19th.

The Book of Imaginary Beings, by Jorge Luis Borges.  I loved this simple anthology of all the imaginary, mythical creatures that the world has thought up in its history.  It spans all cultures and races, from Hindu, to Chinese, to Native American, Medieval, South American and even Wisconsin Logger.  The creatures come from Greek and Roman myths, from folklore, from religious books, and even from other contemporary writers like Kafka, C.S. Lewis and Edgar Allen Poe.  Over 140 creatures were listed with a page or two of description, both of what the creature looks like, how it acts, and how it is placed in the cultural history of mankind.

Of course it is always interesting to read about the creatures that you knew growing up.  There are dwarves, dragons, unicorns, faeries, elves and the Cheshire cat.  But some of my favorite creatures were the darker ones I had not heard of in detail before.  Creatures that could turn you to stone if you look at it, dogs that guard the gates of hell and devour those trying to escape.  Fish that hold the entire world on their back.  Banshees that scream at night, salamanders that live in fire, and Angels seen by a man who supposedly died for a short time.  The A Bao A Qu is a creature that lives in a tower, and as it follows the traveler up the steps of the tower, it slowly regains its true form and magnificence, only to disappear again when the traveler descends. 

I love Borges' writing style.  How he makes myths and fantasy (though I hate to use that word) come to life and sound realistic and enthralling.  These creatures, though just a compendium meant to browse through, fit in easily with this style.  I thoroughly enjoyed this read, and I want to encourage young readers to get lost in the world of these imaginary beings.  Four out of five stars.

The Trial

Read from Wednesday July 13th to Monday, July 18th.

The Trial, by Franz Kafka.  One of his most famous pieces, it was unfortunately left unfinished before his untimely death.  Kafka was not recognized for his genius during his life, and only became famous posthumously.  The Trial was an interesting story about the perversity of the law.  It is frustrating to read, and not much actually happens during the course of the short novel, and much of it is redundant, but that was the point that Kafka was trying to make.

It is the story about a young banker named Josef K.  K., who lives alone and is moderately successful, one day wakes up to find two police officers in his apartment.  They have to come to arrest him.  K. does not believe it at first, thinking that it might be a joke.  However, the officers and their supervisor process K. in a neighbor's apartment, and then he is released to go about his day.  What crime did he commit? He is not told, and it is never revealed.

K. returns to his job, flummoxed of course, and he has conversations with his landlady and a neighbor.  They both act as if it is no big deal.  A shame of course, but something that happens often to people for no particular reason.  Then K. is summoned for his first examination.  Seeing nothing else to do, he goes searching for the court, and finds it in an old apartment building.  There is a large courtroom with many old men arguing amongst themselves.  K. enters, interrupts the examining judge, and makes his case for himself that he is wrongly accused and is in fact a model citizen.

Pleased with himself, unfortunately the trial still goes on against him.  K. visits court offices in the attic of the building, and he is visited by his uncle from the country.  The uncle forces K. to get a lawyer, and he brings him to an old friend, Mr. Huld.  He is pretentious and full of talk and bluster, and he claims that he is the best at these types of cases.  But it is going to take a long time, and lots of documents, and even then the best hope that you have is just having your case postponed for a later date.  K. also meets Leni, the maid servant of Huld, and they have an affair, but later he learns that she is only attracted to the accused, desperate men who visit the lawyer.

K. is very frustrated by now with the whole process.  He is impatient, and stressed, and he is falling behind his competitors at the bank.  K. has conversations with the court painter, who explains some of the court processes, and the different types of lawyers.  He also talks with a dilapidated businessman who has been in trial for five years, and has subsequently lost his business trying to defend himself.  He has five lawyers, and none of them know about the others.  K. resolves to ditch his own lawyer, Huld, and find a new one, but when he goes to do that, Huld shows off the power he has over another client, in an effort to impress K. apparently (this chapter is left unfinished). 

Finally, K. thinks he is going to a cathedral to meet a bank client, but instead he has a long conversation with the priest.  The priest tells the following fable : "A man from the country seeks the law and wishes to gain entry to the law through a doorway. The doorkeeper tells the man that he cannot go through at the present time. The man asks if he can ever go through, and the doorkeeper says that is possible. The man waits by the door for years, bribing the doorkeeper with everything he has. The doorkeeper accepts the bribes, but tells the man that he accepts them "so that you do not think you have failed to do anything." The man waits at the door until he is about to die. Right before his death, he asks the doorkeeper why even though everyone seeks the law, no one else has come in all the years. The doorkeeper answers "No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was made only for you. I am now going to shut it."

K. is confused from the fable, as it implies that his situation is hopeless.  And the fable prepares the reader for an unfortunate ending.  On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, K. is summoned by two men, led through the streets on their arms and into a field, where he is beheaded, "like a dog."  K. goes peacefully and knowingly to his death, because finally the trial has finished.  A powerful ending, it is appropriate for the existential absurdity of the entire story.  We are helpless before the Law, selected at random, and a meaningless cog in the system.  Three and a half out of five stars

Cities of the Plain

Read from Friday, July 8th to Wednesday, July 13th.

Cities of the Plain, the final installment in the Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy.  In this novel, John Grady Cole, from All the Pretty Horses, and Billy Parnham, from The Crossing are united.  Both fresh from their respective journeys in and out of Mexico, they now work as ranch hands on a ranch near El Paso in Texas.  Much of the beginning part of the book is spent depicting life on the ranch.  They are both good friends even though John is only 19 and Billy is in his upper twenties.  There are a few other workers, and the boss is nice, but the ranching industry is dying in that area because the government wants to take it over.  They comfort themselves with stories about the Old West, and they sometimes go to town for whiskey and beer.

The story begins, as with the others, when they cross the border into Mexico.  This time, the boys from the ranch go to a whorehouse in Juarez, just across the border.  There, John Grady sees a beautiful, young prostitute named Magdalena.  He doesn't 'meet her' that night, but goes back many times by himself.  He is captivated by her, and falls madly in love.  She is shy, and fragile, and has epilepsy and seizures that she keeps hidden from John Grady, but she loves him back.  Of course, she is a prostitute, and also someone else's property.  That man is Eduardo.  He refuses to sell Magdalena, mainly because he loves her as well, even though he beats her.

The novel progresses with John Grady wondering what to do.  Billy tries to talk sense into him; tells him that he is being unrealistic and no girl is worth that much trouble.  But John Grady follows his heart and he makes plans for their marriage.  He fixes up an old run-down cabin on the ranch and he sells his horse and possessions to pay for everything.  At one point, there are wild dogs picking off cattle on the ranch, and so the boys set off one night and hunt down the pack and kill most of them.  John Grady and Billy know that since one the dead dogs had been breast-feeding, there must be a litter of puppies, so they set out in search of them.  They find the litter, and John Grady keeps one of the dogs for himself and Magdalena.

Finally, the day arrives when Magdalena is supposed to leave and run away to the U.S. with John Grady.  Their plan is to meet at a diner near the border.  Magdalena sneaks out, and she is terrified, and makes it to the diner, where a man picks her up after awhile claiming to be a friend of John Grady.  He isn't, of course, and one of Eduardo's henchman kills her by the river.  John Grady is enraged and heartbroken when he finds out later that day by visiting the morgue.  He is a suspect in the murder because Eduardo reported him, so he has to stay hidden.  When Billy finds out, he goes to Juarez and confronts Eduardo and knocks out one of his henchmen, but Eduardo says there is nothing he can do.  Billy talks with the police and accuses Eduardo of the murder.

John Grady eventually emerges and confronts Eduardo in the alley behind the whorehouse.  They have a knife fight, but Eduardo is a skilled cuchillero and he slashes up John Grady.  In the same style as the prison fight in ATPH, John Grady lets himself get slashed up in order to strike a fatal blow to Eduardo when he gets in close enough.  He stabs him right up through the jaw.  John Grady staggers away to a small hovel, where he pays a boy to call the ranch, and Billy comes to find him.  He is able to comfort John Grady in his last moments of life, but he is too wounded to survive, and he dies.

Billy is distraught, and in a long epilogue, McCarthy tells the story of the rest of his life.  He wanders the southwest for years and years, always alone and always being chased by droughts.  Finally, as an old man in the present, he is travelling across highways as a bum.  He meets another man, and at first Billy believes he is Death come for him.  But this strange man is not, he is just another traveller, and he tells the story of a dream he had.  In the dream, he dreamt of another traveller in the ruins of an ancient civilization, and this person himself had a dream where he was to be sacrificed in that very spot.  It is a very interesting conversation they have about the meaning of life and death, the things you can know and not know, and the universality of those themes.

Once again, McCarthy writes a brilliant, gripping story about the journeys around the Mexican border.  More and more, the border stands for more things in these character's lives.  It is the border of life and death, from which there is no going back.  There is a lot of religious imagery and symbolism in the work as well.  Of course, it is a difficult book, as you are thrown right into the middle of the characters lives, and there is no backstory, and most of the plot is advanced through dialogue that is not always attached to a character.  Much of the dialogue is in Spanish as well, so if you do not have a background in Spanish you will have a lot of trouble.  It was a slow start as well, and took me awhile to figure out what was happening, who was who, and what relation people had to one another.  However, everything soon clicked and the story got really enthralling, and I finished the book with a long reading session in which I couldn't put the book down for hours on end.  Really great book and really great series overall.  Four and a half out of five stars.