27 posts tagged “fiction”

This is my first stab at one of Carey's novels.  Maybe I started with the wrong one. The premise is intriguing - a

Weather Underground-type radical kidnaps a young boy from his wealthy grandmother and spirits him away to the Australian bush. How could this possibly be dull?  It probably isn't dull at all, perhaps I'm dull.  But I couldn't connect with this book. 

What is the aesthetic theory behind the current practice of omitting quotation marks in written dialog?  I know what the effect is.  It usually distances me from the characters and focuses my attention on the craftsman behind the words. The quotation marks signal my brain that people are talking, and it's time to jump in and play with my imaginary friends. It may be that writers of modern literary fiction do not want readers to make imaginary friends with their characters.  I wonder why.

Oddly, the lack of quotation marks in The Road bothered me not at all.

In The Road, an unnamed father and son are trying to survive in the aftermath of a worldwide catastrophe that leaves

the earth literally dying.  They are heading south in attempt to escape worst of winter, but the world is cloaked in winter.  Finding food is difficult, as all animals and plants are apparently dead by this time. There is danger from bands of survivors who have their own ideas where to find food.

We never know what caused the disaster, just as we never know the characters' names or the precise time and place.  It's not about geopolitics or man's evil nature.  It has interesting things to say about god or the absence of god, but it's not by any means a religious parable.

Bleak? Yes. Monotonous? Yes, at times, deliberately so.  But it is remarkably readable.  And the character of the little boy is brilliantly rendered.

Haunting doesn't begin to describe this work. Read it, please. 

Of all the books I've read about suicide attempts, A Long Way Down is the funniest.  Nick Hornby takes four disparate

characters, places them on a ledge on New Year's Eve, and lets them interact.  Fortunately, they don't jump - hence the title.  Having decided, temporarily, to live, they form an unstable and often hilarious alliance that helps each of them learn to survive.  Hornby is very conscious of not being hokey and inspirational, yet the book ends up being moving.  

I could have done with fewer pop culture references, but I'm told that's Hornby.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter has been languishing on my to-read list for a couple of years, and I finally picked it up.  The gimmick of the book is that the "hero" of the book is a serial killer, but we're supposed to sympathize with him because he only kills other serial killers. He's a blood-splatter analyst with the Miami police department.  In this book,

the first of the series, he gets involved with crime solving to help out his sister, who's trying to advance her career in the department.  I didn't care much for the book.  I saw the ending coming a mile away, the Miami setting didn't interest me, and amazingly enough, I didn't like the hero. Call me judgmental. Serial killers, I just have problems with them.

Harriet and Isabella is an absorbing historical novel about the Beecher family, whose most notable members were writer Harriet Beecher Stowe and clergyman Henry Ward Beecher.  The author describes the Beechers as the Kennedy Clan of the 19th century:  highly accomplished, close-knit,  and the object of intense (and gleeful)  public attention when they fall. 

In the early 1870s, Henry Ward Beecher, known for theological views that seem close to Universalism, is accused of sexual impropriety with the wife of a close friend.  The large Beecher family rally around him, except for sister Isabella, a suffragist in league with the scandalous Victoria Woodhull.  Isabella has the odd idea that truth trumps loyalty, and she believes her brother guilty of the charges against him.  Most of the family shuns her, including Harriet.

I enjoyed the period detail in the book, and I was struck by how much things haven't changed in terms of "liberal" attitudes toward feminism.  Equally striking, though, was the author's handling of family dynamics.  Anyone who has ever been the family oddball will relate to this book.

When the Emperor was Divine is a short and understated portrayal of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.  Events are viewed through the eyes of one family, never named.  We see the initial evacuation through the eyes of the mother, the ride to the camp through the eyes of the girl, and everyday life in the camps through the

eyes of the boy, who aches for his father, imprisoned in a camp for disloyals. 

What strikes me about the book is the author's superb control of tone: plain, not sensational, suggesting a superficial sense of resignation that masks a clear-eyed anger about the injustices these internees suffered.  My only criticism is that sometimes the technique of deliberate understatement serves to distance the reader from the characters.  I wish I knew more about the mother, in particular, who is the most fully drawn character in the book.  She comes off as pragmatic and tough as nails, and her descent into depression is very sad.

As a teenager, Sam Pulsifer accidentally burned down the Emily Dickinson's homestead and killed two people inside.

Once out of jail, he marries, settles down for a few years of typical suburban living until his wife kicks him out. He goes home to find his parents have turned into pathetic drunks, and then finds out that he is chief suspect in  a series of fires at writers' homes.  This odd book is part literary satire, part mystery and part dysfunctional family saga.  I enjoyed it, but I felt the author was sometimes working too hard, both on the plotting and the prose. Some of the asides that were intended to be witty and whimsical were just annoying.  That said, I cared about the poor schmuck and felt sorry for all the problems he brought on himself.

Falling Man is about Keith Neudeckor, a survivor of the World Trade Center attack, who flees the smoke and ash  to

make his way uptown to his estranged wife.  She takes him in, and the two of them cope with the aftermath in different ways.  Keith has a brief affair with a fellow survivor, and eventually turns all his attention to high-stakes poker. Lianne, his wife, is consumed by anger and anxiety to the point of physically assaulting a neighbor playing Middle Eastern music.  Their child searches the sky for returning planes and makes a game of talking only in monosyllables.

This is my first DeLillo novel and I found it difficult going. The main characters seem disconnected from each other; their most intense experiences occur alone. The writing is deceptively lean, using short sentences and disjointed phrases to convey complex ideas.  It took me about 100 pages to feel anything about these people at all; then I surrendered to the book's odd rhythm and got involved in spite of myself.  I need to think about this one some more.

I enjoy a scary book, but the good ones are few and far between.  This one is truly creepy, menacing, the kind of book

that made me afraid to walk out in the dark landing to go to the bathroom.  It's about Jude Coyne, an aging metal rock star who buys a ghost from an online auction - a nasty, relentless spirit with a personal vendetta against Jude.

This is not a highbrow read by any means, but what makes it a cut above are the rich characterizations and the attempts to say something a little substantive about human frailty, the awful mistakes we all make, and the possibility of redemption. The seams show in the plotting occasionally, but overall - wow.

Stewart O'Nan writes understated novels about the lives of working people.  This one concerns the general manager of a Red Lobster who is overseeing the last day and night before it is closed for good.  Many of the employees bail out, which is just as well because a blizzard keeps most customers away. The manager is determined to do the right thing and "lead by example" through to the bitter end, although he is preoccupied with the end of a love affair and the impending birth of his first child.   The book is short, and there's almost no plot here.  It's all about the characters, and it's quite affecting.