Posts Tagged fiction
In the Forest
In the Forest: A Novel by Edna O’Brien
rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars
I’ve read quite a few Irish novels lately. In the Forest is my most recent read that falls into that category. This novel is based on a true story and is a creepy look into the mind of a killer. The killer in question is Michen O’Kane who we first meet as a young 10-year old boy in a small Irish town. Michen had a troubled home life full of domestic abuse and neglect. Michen becomes known as The Kinderschreck after he steals a gun and shoots it in the general direction of two men.
The Kinderschreck. That’s what the German man called him when he stole the gun. Before that he was Michen, after a saint, and then Mich, his mother’s pet, and then Boy, when he went to the place, and then Child, when Father Damien had him helping with the flowers and the cruets in the sacristy, and then K, short for O’Kane, when his hoodlum times began.
Michen is sent to a juvenile detention center where he is tormented by the older boys and abused by a priest. He spends the next several years in and out of various detention centers and jails. Over time, Michen becomes a very troubled and mentally unstable young man. The residents of his small Irish village try to tolerate him at first but soon enough start to feel terrified of him.
The novel is told with alternating perspectives in each chapter. Some chapters are told from Michen’s point of view, some from his victims and other chapters from the various villagers whose paths Michen crosses. The prose was lyrical and the Michen chapters could be very difficult and disturbing reads at times. His mind became so twisted it was hard to tell what was real and what was dementia.
I recommend this book to those who enjoyed other books that let the reader delve into mind of a killer such as Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood or Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman. In the Forest was included on the original list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I am slowly working my way through that list (I can’t resist tackling to-do lists) At this rate I hope I don’t die until I am 120. Must.finish.all.1001.books… 
1 comment May 16, 2009
Slow Man
rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sixty-something Paul Rayment is a photographer who is hit by a car one day while out riding his bicycle. The collision shatters his leg and the doctors amputate it near the knee. Paul refuses a prosthesis. He finds himself feeling hopeless and isolated.
A circumscribed life. What would Socrates say about that? May a life become so circumscribed that it is no longer worth living? Men come out of prison, out of years of staring at the same blank wall, without gloom taking possession of their souls. What is so special about losing a limb? A giraffe that loses a leg will surely perish; but giraffes do not have the agencies of the modern state, embodied in Mrs. Putts, watching over their welfare. Why should he not settle for a modestly circumscribed life in a city that is not inhospitable to the frail aged.
Paul who used to pride himself on his independence now finds himself having to depend on others. Two people he develops relationships with are Marijana, his Croatian nurse, and Elizabeth Costello, an author who mysteriously shows up at his door one day. Paul proclaims his love for Marijana and Elizabeth tries to push him to take a hold of his life and do something.
Slow Man is the third Coetzee novel that I have read…and that man can write! All of his novels cause you to think about their central themes long after you put the book down. Slow Man, like his other novels. has a darker set of themes: loneliness, isolation from others (both emotional and physical), and hopelessness. Paul is a stubborn man who refuses to try to rebuild his life…instead he just wallows in his own loneliness and laments over his fate. Paul’s plight caused me to think about making each day count and developping deep meaningful relationships with people. The book also has hints of meta-fiction, which is almost always a plus as far as I am concerned.
2 comments May 11, 2009
In the Country of Last Things
In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster
rating: 4 of 5 stars
Originally published back in the mid-1980’s, Paul Auster’s In the Country of Last Things is a dystopian/post-apocalyptic novel along the same lines of The Road and Blindness (both of which I loved). Like those two books, In The Country of Last Things drops the reader into the middle of a “situation” in that isn’t explicitly explained. We don’t know how things get to be how they are…we join the ride once society as we know it has disappeared.
Anna Blume is in an unnamed city trying to find out what happened to her brother William who was a journalist that was sent to the city to send back dispatches as to what was going on. He was never heard from again. The city is in ruins, its building and its government have collapsed. Anna makes references to how life outside the city is different and better, but we can’t get a clear picture of how different that life is from the one we know. In the city, things are definitey bad. There are suicide cults and everyone is scrounging for food and a place to live.
It is even worse for the ones who fight their hunger. Thinking about food too much can only lead to trouble. These are the ones who are obsessed, who refuse to give in to the facts. They prowl the streets at all hours, scavenging for morsels, taking enourmous risks for even the smallest crumb. No matter how much they are able to find, it will never be enough. they eat without ever filling themselves, tearing into their food with animal haste, their bony fingers picking, their quivering jaws never shut. Most of it dribbles down their chins, and what they manage to swallow, they usually throw up again in a few minutes. It is a slow death, as if food were a fire, a madness, burning them up from within. They think they are eating to stay alive, but in the end they are the ones who are eaten.
In The Country of Last Thingswas a short and engrossing novel. The tale was character driven as we follow Anna’s descent into hell. She tries to survive and make a life for herself in this horrid city. Her tale is dark and lonely. I’ve read a handful of books by Auster and enjoyed them all but this one now ranks amongst my favorites. Like many of his other works this novel leaves lots of unanswered questions. It is still haunting me several weeks after finishing it.
I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoyed Blindness or The Road.
1 comment April 27, 2009
The Third Policeman
The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien
rating: 4 of 5 stars
Bizarre, wacky, mind-trip of a novel. I am still thinking about The Third Policemanseveral weeks later and am only now making an attempt to put my thoughts into words. For those of you are are extremely irritated by the usage of footnotes in works of fiction (a la Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao), Third Policeman contains clever footnotes on the numerous theories and philosophies of de Selby…so you may not want to pick up this novel.
The Third Policeman is set in Ireland and is narrated by an unnamed man who grew up as an orphan and while at school becomes fascinated with the works of de Selby. He ends up committing a murder while robbing a man. After this event, the plot of the book takes a turn for the weird. The book is riddled with characters with bizarre theories about time, life and bicycles.
I really enjoyed this book but I do tend to enjoy books with a touch of the surreal and a smidge of meta. I can see how this book could be one that some people I know would throw against the wall…but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love reading books that surprise you page after page. The book was clever and original.
The Third Policemanwas featured in the LOST episode “Orientation”. Desmond was reading it when the Losties first broke into his HomeSweetHatch.
1 comment April 21, 2009
Mister Pip
I love reading novels where books play an important part in the story. Mister Pip is one such book. As you may guess from the title, the book in question in this tale is Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. I had to read Great Expectations for a high school literature class and adored it (thank you Mrs. Johnson!). In fact, I often compare people to Miss Havisham. (so watch out if you wear a ratty old wedding dress because you may be my next victim!).
Mister Pip is narrated by 13-year old Mathilda, who lives on a tropical island that is caught up in a war. The teacher and most of the male villagers have left. The sole remaining white man, Mr. Watts, takes it upon himself to provide the village’s children with an eduction and so begins reading to them from a copy of Great Expectations. Mathilda quickly becomes utterly fascinated with the novel.
I had never been read to in English before. Nor had the others. We didn’t have books in our homes, and before the blockade our only books had come from Moresby, and those were written in pidgin. When Mr. Watts read to us we fell quiet. It was a new sound in the world. He read slowly so we heard the shape of each word.
Mister Pip is about the power of literature and stories and how they can help us escape the issues we face in our everyday life and how they can influence the way we interact with the world. The very fact that Mr. Watts reads Great Expectations to the villagers ends up having a profound impact on their lives.
This was the first book by Lloyd Jones that I have read. I found it engaging and charming. It wasn’t as much of a light-hearted read as I had initially thought it would be based on the synopsis I read, but I enjoyed the take on how a work of literature could so strongly influence the main character Mathilda’s life. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed The Book Thief or The Shadow of the Wind, both of which are also novels about how books had an effect on a young person’s life during times of war and unrest.
Mister Pip was awarded the 2007 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
2 comments April 19, 2009
Reads: Fieldwork
Fieldwork: A Novel by Mischa Berlinski
rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sometimes I feel as if my job is taking over my life. After reading Fieldwork,a debut novel by Mischa Berlinski, I just have to say that thankfully my job isn’t taking over my life as much as it could.
In Fieldwork the fictional protagonist, who just so happens to have the same exact name as the author, is an American free-lance journalist who lives with his girlfriend in Thailand. He finds out about Martiya van de Leun, an American anthropologist who has recently committed suicide in a Thai prison. She had been serving a 50 year sentence for murdering a member of a local missionary family. Berlinski becomes fascinated with her story and begins to research how she ended up where she did. She had spent many years living in a Dyalo village in northern Thailand to study their culture. Martiya’s fieldwork becomes her life. She becomes so wrapped up in her work in the Dyalo village that she forgets how to live her previous life.
Fieldwork read like a mix of a mystery novel and literary fiction. At its heart the book is about storytelling…the story our lives tell. Berlinski works to uncover as many facts about Martiya’s life as possible in order to construct her story. the narrative jumps back and forth through time to give the details of the different characters lives. The resultant novel is powerful, gripping, and tragic. As we learn more about Martiya we begin to wish her life would turn out better even though we know that it ends with her killing herself in prison.
Add comment April 11, 2009
Man in the Dark
Man in the Dark: A Novel by Paul Auster
rating: 4 of 5 stars
With Man in the Dark, Auster has delivered a quiet and surreal novel. The protaganist in this tale is August Brill, a 70-something retired literary critic who is recovering from a car accident. During his recovery he is staying with his daughter and granddaughter who each have their own troubles.
I am alone in the dark, turning the world around in my head as I struggle through another bout of insomnia, another white night in the great American wilderness. Upstairs my daughter and granddaughter are asleep in their bedrooms, each one alone as well, the forty-seven-year-old Miriam, my only child, who has slept alone for the past five years, and the twenty-three-year-old Katya, Miriam’s only child, who used tosleep with a young man Titus Small, but Titus is dead now, and Katya sleeps alone with her broken heart.
To keep himself entertained during his bouts of insomnia, Brill starts telling himself a story about a man who is living in an America with an alternate history. In this other America, the US is not at war with itself but is instead engaged in a civil war. It seems that in this alternate America some of the blue states were so upset that the Supreme Court ruled that George W. Bush won the 2000 election that they secede from the United States and a civil war erupts. As the night goes on, the story that Brill creates becomes more and more intense. Part of this intensity is brought about as Brill reflects on his own life.
The book had touches of meta-fiction with the story within the story and the parallels between both. The book was very readable and I read it in pretty much one sitting (okay, I reluctantly had to set it aside to do some work). I love books with non-traditional narratives, and Man in the Dark is definitely one of those. Auster is definitely offering up an opinion about the state of politics in the U.S. with regards to the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. But, it happens to be an opinion that I agree with. I could see how someone might enjoy the book less if these aren’t their political views.
And props to Auster for including the city of Worcester, MA in this tale.
1 comment March 29, 2009
Sag Harbor
Sag Harbor: A Novel by Colson Whitehead
rating: 4 of 5 stars
Colson Whitehead refers to Sag Harboras his “autobiographical fourth novel”. In this coming of age tale, Whitehead tells us about Benji, an upper middle class African American teenager who lives in New York with his family. His parents are a doctor and a lawyer. It’s 1985 and Benji can’t help comparing his family to the Huxtibles on the Cosby Show. Benji and his younger brother Reggie spend the entire summer of 1985 at their family’s summer house in Sag Harbor. Most of the time the boys are left on their own in Sag Harbor as their parents remain in the city working. Sag Harbor is a summertime conclave of upper middle class African American families. Benji and Reggie spend their days and evenings working and hanging around with other boys who spend every summer at Sag Harbor.
In the novel Benji tries to discover exactly who he is. He doesn’t fit in with his mostly white prep school classmates and he also doesn’t exactly fit in with the black kids at Sag Harbor. He is trying to reinvent himself as a cool kid (he wants to be called Ben, not Benji) but can’t quite get there, either due to the messed up haircut his dad gave him or his enjoyment of Dungeons & Dragons. We feel Benji’s awkwardness and anxiousness. Somehow, he isn’t quite into what the other kids are into.
Everybody had their brands, black kids, white kids. Sperry, Girbaud, and Bennetton. Lee jeans and Le Tigre polos, according to the plumage theory of social commerce. If the correct things belonged to you, perhaps you might belong. I was more survival-oriented. The brands I worshipped lived in the soup aisle, in the freezer section behind glass, I’m talking frozen food here. Swanson, of course, was the standard, the elegant marriage of form and function. The four food groups (meat, veg, starch, apple cobbler) lay pristine in their separate foil compartments, which were in fact, presto, a serving dish. Meal and plate in one slim rectangle–this was American ingenuity at its best and most sustaining.
Whitehead mixes in lots of pop culture references to songs, movies, TV shows and slang from the era. This helps to more deeply evoke the time and the place of Sag Harbor in summer of ‘85. Most of the chapters could stand on their own as short stories. Each one explores a different aspect of Benji’s summer, whether its his crush on a girl he works with or reminiscing about the summers of his childhood. Even thought the novel is laced with some more serious topics and themes, the writing is full of sharp wit. Sag Harbor would make a good book club selection and I recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys coming of age stories.
Add comment March 21, 2009
The Monsters of Templeton
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
I know that I have many books that fit into the “oh, I just have to read that!” category, and Monsters of Templeton was definitely one of those. So, I was super excited when it was selected for the monthly pick for one of my book clubs. It turned out to be a big hit with everyone in the book club.
The Monsters of Templeton was a very unique book that is kind of hard to describe. At its heart, it was the story of a young woman trying to uncover who her father is. Willie Upton is a 28 year old archeology PhD student who returns home to Templeton, NY after having an affair with one of her professors.
Templeton was to me like a less-important limb, something inherently mine, something I took for granted. My own tiny, lovely village with a great old mansions and a glorious lake, my own grand little hamlet where everyone know your name, but with elaborate little frills that made it unlike anywhere else: the baseball museum, the Opera, the hospital that had vast arms extending into the rest of upstate, an odd mix of Podunk and cosmopolitan. I came back when I had to, to feel safe, to recharge; I just hadn’t had to in so long.
Shortly after Willie arrives home 2 things happen: 1) a huge, dead lake monster floats to the surface of the lake in the center of town and 2) Willie’s mother, Vi, confesses that Willie’s father wasn’t a random free love hippie in San Francisco but was in fact someone from Templeton. Vi refuses to tell Willie her father’s name but does tell her that her father is someone who is also connected to the town’s founder. Willie starts researching her family tree and the town’s history to try to determine who her father could be. As she conducts her research she uncovers scandals, ghosts and more. The chapters alternate between present day told from Willie’s point of view and the past told from Willie’s various ancestors’ points of view.
I really enjoyed this book. It was quirky and filled with whimsy and subtle humor. There were lots of interesting characters uncovered during Willie’s research. It was a combination of historical fiction, mystery, and contemporary fiction. Overall the book was a very engaging read that I found extremely difficult to put down.
Add comment March 5, 2009
Drop City
Drop City by T.C. Boyle
rating: 3.5 out of 5
In T.C. Boyle’s novel, the Drop City referred to in the title is a free love hippie commune in the 1970’s. The commune starts out in California where the hippies lounge about enjoying their lifestyle. After a run-in with the local law enforcement, they decide to move north to Alaska to start Drop City North on land that belongs to one of their uncles.
The book also follows the story of Sess and Pam Harder, two newlywed homesteaders living in the wilds of remote Alaska. The work together to make a home out of Sess’scabin. Pam & Sess were much more interesting than the hippies. I wish that Boyle had spent more of the book developing their characters.
Drop City offers up a sardonic social commentary about communal living. Is free love really all that free? Are the hippies sure they really want to be one with nature?
The start of the book really dragged for me. It took those hippies WAY too long to uproot their lives and move to Alaska. Things got much more interesting once they were in Alaska. Plus, in my opinion there were too many hippies whose stories Boyle was trying to relay. He could have picked just 2 or 3 to focus on instead of the 8 or 10 he did. Some of them just blended together in my mind.
Drop City was a National Book Award finalist and was included on the list of books in the original edition of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.
1 comment March 3, 2009
