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.