Tag: General Fiction

this isn’t the review the book deserves, but it’s all I can come up with at the moment…

Twentysomething Doug Parker, after two years of marriage to a woman with a teenage son, becomes a widower who can’t let go of his grief (and doesn’t want to anyway). He withdraws from life, from work, from family, and from the angry stepson who lost as much as he did.

Events–and overly-amorous neighbors–conspire to drag him, kicking, screaming and swearing, back to the land of the living (with all its attendant glories and problems).

I’m fairly certain this isn’t Tropper’s best novel, but it’s probably his most effective–he can bring you from the verge of tears (or over the verge) to laughing out loud and back again in less than 5 pages. That’s true even on a re-read like this was for me. I love this book.

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5 Stars

A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins

By HCNewton

On September 20, 2013

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins
My rating: 1.5 of 5 stars

What is there to say about this disappointing mess? Well, I guess there’s that. Hutchins had aspirations, clearly, there was a lot of ambition behind the various storylines surrounding Neill Bassett here, and I really don’t think he lived up to them.

To really get into my problems with the book would take 1. Spoilers, and I really hate giving those kind of reviews. 2. Effort, and I simply cannot bring myself to care enough to put in the effort.

I couldn’t care about any of these characters — they just weren’t that interesting, developed or sympathetic. There were a couple I was tempted to care about, but he just didn’t give anyone enough depth to be invested in. A lot of plot issues could’ve been overcome with a couple of characters I could give a rip about.

The family storyline had the most promise, and fell the furthest short — well, at least the mother storyline. I don’t believe his mother, and everything seemed too pat at the end of the book regarding her story.

None of the romance stories worked for me — even the resolution Neill came to at the end seemed more like something imposed on the character by the author than anything that came naturally from the novel. The only evidence we really have to support any feelings Neill has for any of the women here comes from his narration — and doesn’t ring true. The evidence isn’t to be found in the story, or his action.

The A.I. test story is the most interesting — for the “father”-son interaction. Not for any of the philosophical questions it tries to raise about the nature of humanity, or love, etc. But it’s not enough to save this novel.

Not funny, not moving, not terribly interesting. Spare yourself, you have better things to do with your time.

YOU by Austin Grossman

By HCNewton

On September 13, 2013

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

You by Austin Grossman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Let’s admit something about video games. They are boring. They induce a state of focus that is totally absorbing but useless — like the ghost of work or creative play, but without engaging the world in any way. They are designed to focus attention but don’t train you to overcome the obstacles to being focused. They are fun but don’t tend to make a person more interesting. The rewards are false coin — they are rarely satisfying or moving. More often, the offer something like a hunger for the next game, promising a revelation or catharsis that they never quit fulfill, that they don’t even know how to fulfill. They work in a single small corner of the emotional world, stirring feelings of anger or fear or a sense of accomplishment; they don’t reach for any kind of fuller experience of humanity.

But when I thought about story, I felt I couldn’t really be wrong.

Because when I lay awake at night I wanted to be in a story; I wanted it so badly it was an ache in my bones. Anything story but the story I was in, of early disappointment and premature world-weariness. I wanted to feel like I was at the start of a story worth being in, instead of being twenty-eight and feeling like my story was already over, like it was the most boring, botched story imaginable.

I used to love books in which somebody from our reality got to go to another world. The Narnia books, the Fionavar books. Isn’t that what we could do, take people into another world? If not, why not? Why couldn’t that be what we did?

There’s the central focus of YOU: A Novel. Can someone — genius programmer or rookie game designer — take this difficult-to-vocalize aim for video games and run with it? What stands in the way — technology or human ability or maybe human frailty?

If you take the love of video games and late 20^th Century American pop culture from Cline’s Ready Player One; the ability of Michael Chabon in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay to tell a compelling story while also giving a history of a creation of a medium; and mix them with Lev Grossman’s Magician series’ sense of disillusionment that comes from childhood loves and obsessions meeting with the real world — you might get something like this.

One word kept popping up in my notes: bittersweet. And in checking around on the Internet a bit, I saw that I’m not the only one who thought that way — on the one hand, nice to see that I got the same read on the book as many/most. On the other hand, it would’ve been nice to have an insight all to myself. Whether it was in the flashbacks, or the contemporary plot — none of the successes where wholly positive, there was always something wistful about it. Very few of the losses were without some measure of victory, either, it should be said. But the measures were typically small. There’s a lot of missed opportunities — years’ worth — a lot of regret and sadness over them, especially the ones that can’t be recreated.

The other novels I mentioned earlier all share a thread with YOU about friendship — particularly that kind of friendship that develops early in life, the kind that continues through the years, and really shapes your future: your personality, loyalties, loves — for good or ill. How in many cases your adult life is a reaction to, or development of, these friendships. And that’s where Grossman is his sweetest, and probably his woeful.

That’s not to say this is a depressing book — there’s a lot of fun, there’s a challenge, there’s personal growth, and an element of hope throughout. The protagonist, Russell, finds his roots, finds comfort and a place to grow. Other characters do, too. There’s a sense of history being made here, looking at the rise of FPS games, the early days of E3, remembering the first computers introduced in public schools and the general lack of ability of the faculty to know what to do with them. The nostalgia factor, for even people like me that were on the fringes of this culture is high. I’m not much of a gamer (though I’d like to be — just don’t have the time), but the game — or the series of games — is as incredible as it is impossible (especially given the technology available at the time, but I think even if the first installment came out now, it’d be impossible.) I’d play this — or I’d watch my 15 year-old son play it/obsess over it.

There are little observations and asides sprinkled throughout the text that add so much personality and flavor to the narrative — like this in the middle of this paragraph:

After ten weeks of work, we could play out an altercation between an eighteenth-century French mercenary with a short sword and buckler (a saucer-size shield with a pointed spike — as Eskimo language is to snow, so archaic English is to “metal objects designed to cause harm”) and a Roman legionnaire from the age of Marius, with his gladius, Vae victis!

That made me chuckle aloud, showed me a lot about these characters and the game. Passages like this are what elevate this book.

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

By HCNewton

On September 6, 2013

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

because what else are you going to post on the same day as a review of an installment electronic serialized novel about Fairy Tales invading the Real World?

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The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With the possible exception of The Torrents of Spring (I’ve pretty much repressed most of my memories of this one), there’s been at least one scene in every Hemingway novel I’ve read this year where someone recounts (or has) a man against nature or man against animal experience. Frequently, this is the best part of the book. So it’s not surprising that the time he threw out all the rest — war, love, dissipated living, etc. — and just focused on that element, man vs. the natural world, that he wins The Pulitzer. Here he’s really at his strongest.

I’ve read a lot of theories/takes on what Hemingway was really trying to say here, what/who the Old Man symbolized, who/what the giant marlin symbolized, who/what the Sea symbolized, and so on. Or that this is a minimalistic Moby Dick (if so, great, it’s needed!). And some of these might be right, a lot of them are full of more hokum than the typical literary criticism. I think it ‘s equally valid to go more surface-y on this one. Looking at how Hemingway lived his life, I tend to want to go for this being a straight-forward story of a regular guy, down on his luck that runs into the challenge of his life and comes out on top — momentarily, at least — and then has to fight for survival and the chance to do it again.

And as such, it succeeds. I really was gripped throughout (something I can’t say I’ve experienced with Papa before), after a slow (but necessary) introductory few pages, this story takes off and you just can’t help but feel for this Old Man and his last-ditch effort to eke out a living. I know it annoys some readers, but I enjoyed his talk of “the great DiMaggio,” his fisherman father, and the rest of MLB. I’m guessing these readers haven’t worked long hours alone — you have to do something to keep your wits about you, and you tend to get a little more eccentric than you otherwise would’ve. That part rang utterly true, and was amusing anyway.

A strong, deceptively-quick, compelling read. If nothing else, you get a feisty, elderly Cuban laying a beat-down on some sharks. That’s enough, right?

Across the River and into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway

By HCNewton

On August 3, 2013

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

Across the River and into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It’s like a December-May version of the movie Before Sunrise. Except instead of Ethan Hawke, you have a bitter ex-General (now Colonel) in the US Army with some sort of terminal cardiac condition. And instead of Julie Delpy, you have a young, selfish, stupid/naive girl (or at least one who acts stupid and naive). The relationship between the two is so skeevy that you can imagine that some reviewer came up with the word just to describe this. Okay, so it’s actually nothing like Before Sunrise in that it’s very talky and the couple spends the time bouncing around a European city.

There’s practically nothing redeeming about this novel — there are flashes of Hemingway’s brilliance. Occasionally — very occasionally — the couple’s dialogue is dynamite. The conversations the Colonel has with a portrait of the girl are almost completely superior and more interesting. You have sentences like

The Colonel breakfasted with the leisure of a fighter who has been clipped badly, hears four, and knows how to relax truly for five seconds more.

You can’t hate a book that contains things like that — as much as you might want to.

It’s books like this that make me wonder if I’m just not as savvy a reader as I think, that all the literature courses I took were a waste. This was just pointless — and not in an artistic, or even Seinfeld-esque manner. The conclusion was typical for Hemingway, and broadcast for about 90% of the book. And then you get the infuriating last line, which I’ll be honest, I don’t get. Was it supposed to be funny? Nihilistic? Something else? By this point, I couldn’t bring myself to care enough to get it.

Flashes of brilliance like I said, but not enough to warrant the time or effort involved. Spare yourself.

Farewell, Dorothy Parker by Ellen Meister

By HCNewton

On August 1, 2013

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

Farewell, Dorothy Parker by Ellen Meister
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The main character of this novel, Violet Epps,a movie critic, begins a review stating:

There’s nothing I like better than a cheesy story done well. Then when it’s over I can cheer for the triumphant protagonist free of embarrassment

I hope it’s not too back-handed of a compliment to say that in many ways Violet described my take on this book.

That said, Ellen Meister was a whole lot more successful telling her story in my eyes, than the director of A Foundling’s Story was in Violet’s estimation. This was “[semi-]cheesy story done well.”

It’s pretty clear right away (if I couldn’t tell from the book jacket’s description or design) that this book isn’t my normal cup of tea — but you stick “Dorothy Parker” in the title of anything, and I’m going to give it a second (and probably a third and fourth) look. I’m not an expert on Parker, can’t even say I’ve read half of her extant material — but I really enjoy her poems, and what stories I’ve read are among the better short stories I’ve bothered with. And anyone who’s flipped through a collection of her best quips has to see the sharper mind behind that sharp tongue. This book was clearly as much a tribute to Parker as it was the story of Violet Epps, so I had to give it a try.

I enjoyed Meister’s version Parker — both in her more somber, reflective moments as well as her more humorous/witty moments. The relationship between Violet and her niece — the heart of the book — is great, and I’d really liked to see more of it. The romance was . . . well, that’s where the cheesy really came into things.

You don’t have to read too much of this book before you know exactly how it’s going to turn out (there’s a strong chance you’d be close after reading the book description alone). But that’s okay, because Meister’s execution and characters are strong enough to carry you along.

I laughed, I cheered (inwardly) at the moments of triumph at the end of the book, I enjoyed my time with Violet, her niece and the ghost of Dorothy Parker. I was also inspired to track down some of the resources Meister recommended about her muse — as well as to re-read some of Parker’s own work. I was entertained enough that even though she doesn’t seem to work in a genre I frequent, I’m inclined to track down more by Meister herself.

The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

By HCNewton

On July 30, 2013

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

At some point (probably later than I should have) I realized 1. where the plot was leading; and 2. this was a novel with An Agenda, which the novel (and likely — but not necessarily — the author) wanted to you agree with. My reactions were: 1. Didn’t make me happy, and really wasn’t something I wanted to read, although I saw that it absolutely what the characters would do; and 2. Never gonna happen. So I had to make a decision: do I finish this or move on?

I went ahead and finished it (which, by the way, confirmed 1 & 2), and I think it was a worthwhile use of my reading time.

Alex Woods is a socially awkward child/teen, an epileptic who’d been struck by a meteor as a child (and achieved a degree of notoriety because of this). He’s figuring out his way in this world the best he can, with little guidance from his fortune-teller mother (and even then, it’s dubious guidance at best), he mostly relies on the scientist who helped him understand the meteor that struck him and his neurologist.

That is, until, he meets Mr. Peterson — an American widower, who moved to England following his service in the Vietnam War and now that he’s widowed has no intention of sticking around. From the moment he’s introduced, it’s clear that Mr. Peterson will become a fixture in Alex’s life. That the two will form an unlikely bond, and this will form the emotional core of the book. (this would be clear even if the book didn’t open with Alex entering the country with Mr. Peterson’s ashes on the car seat next to him)

One of the things Mr. Peterson does is introduce Alex to the works of Kurt Vonnegut. They discuss the books as Alex works his way through them, Mr. Peterson explaining things — both in the books and in life — for Alex’s overly literalistic way of looking at life.

The strength of this book is Alex’s voice and personality. You’re drawn to Alex, you want to understand the way he looks at life, you want to hear how he ends up in the dicey legal situation he finds himself in at the beginning of the novel. If not for his charm, his naiveté, his humor, this book would’ve ended up on my abandoned pile pretty quickly.

Obviously, this is evident throughout. The strongest example that I think of at this moment is Alex’s description of (and reaction to) being bullied is so close to the Platonic ideal, that it alone justifies at least half the time spent reading. The bullying characters, and the reactions on the part of the faculty/students of Alex’s school to his encounters with them were so spot-on, that if Extence wasn’t borrowing from his own life, his imagination is scarily correct.

The only two characters that didn’t quite work for me were Alex’s mother and his female friend from school*. Now, this is either because Alex is a teenage male and has a strange relationship with these two women (because they’re strange, he’s an adolescent male, and they’re women) or because Extence didn’t quite have the handle on them as characters as he did with the rest. I could go with either explanation — the latter seems unlikely, but it’s possible. In the long run, while I couldn’t understand either character as I wanted to, this didn’t detract enough from the book to spend much more time on the point than this. I do wish things had resulted in a clearer resolution between Alex and the schoolmate — if not a definite “they were X forever”, at least a trajectory suggesting something.

In the end, it was a pleasure to spend time in Alex’s company and hearing his take on how he grew up and started in his adult life, whatever my issues with the plot. It’s not the best book I’ve read in awhile, but I’ll keep my eye out for whatever Extence does next.

* Sorry, I’ve forgotten her name and returned the book to the library — and google’s not helping at all.

Dusted Off: How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely

By HCNewton

On July 22, 2013

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

As I dust this one off, I can’t help but be disappointed in how brief this review was. It’s been too many years so I can’t augment this review much, but I remember laughing a lot and scribbling down quotations like crazy (don’t ask me where they are now, tho’).

—–

How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

hilarious, over the top (yet probably really tamer than reality) satire about the publishing industry and the selling/making of books. Not literature, but the stuff that people read (or at least by). Best satire I’ve read in a long while

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

By HCNewton

On June 7, 2013

In Authors, Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, P-U, Rainbow Rowel, YA/MG/Children's Books

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another win for Rowell — this time, she charms with a story of a high school couple’s first love. Utterly charming, you effortlessly fall under the spell of these two, while from page one you know this isn’t going to end the way you want it to.

Park’s a pretty standard good kid — nice family, father’s a bit overbearing, into comics, Tae Kwon Do, punk and new wave music (hey, it’s 1986, don’t hold it against him). He doesn’t fit in as well as he should socially (his half-Korean-ness in a heavily white school doesn’t help), but overall he seems pretty well-adjusted.

Eleanor, on the other hand, isn’t. It takes most of the book to figure out just how messed up she is and why, but from early on, you get the picture of someone from a very damaged home just trying to be as normal as she can be (answer: not very).

These two meet on the school bus and eventually fall head-over-heels, and watching them figure out how to be in love, how to accept affection and differences . . . it just melts your heart.

Not as good as Rowell’s Attachments, but a winner nonetheless. Can’t wait for whatever she brings to the table next.

Dusted Off: Secrets to Happiness by Sarah Dunn

By HCNewton

On June 3, 2013

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

no time today for a new review, so let’s continue with the dusting off and posting of the archives…

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Secrets to Happiness by Sarah Dunn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As it’s not my typical genre, I’m not positive that this is chick lit–but I’m pretty sure it’s at least close enough to the border to keep me from being the target demographic. That said, I thought this look at the messy nature of relationships (and the need/want for one) was hilarious and touching.