11-10-09
When the Nines Roll Over by David Benioff 7.5 Stans
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Very clean and hip stories. Very litle pretention, except the story about shooting lions in New York, which I found sort of arty and tedious. The other stuff, particularly the first two stories, were really impressive. Controlled, funny, observant, knowing. |
11-5-09
City of Thieves by David Benioff 8.2 Stans
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I have to admit I pretty much wanted to dislike this book. Benioff's success seemed a bit easy to me, being young, having two NY Times bestsellers, moving seamlessly into the world of Hollywood screenwriting, having an actress wife, having his 25th Hour be made into the only Spike Lee movie I've truly enjoyed instead of half-admired, and that seemed like something more than Lee's usual clever but self-indulgent polemicism. On the other hand, Benioff did write the screenplay to Wolverine, which, I hear, sucked incredibly hard. But, no matter the background or backstory, City of Thieves is really pretty great, and he deserves the accolades he's gotten from it. It's the kind of writing that is both loved for it's easy and compelling style, but is also admired for its potent imagery and lack of authorial posturing. I ripped through it in two sittings and enjoyed it a great deal. I'm still not sure if he made it all up, or half made it up, or it really is word-for-word his grandfather's recollections. Made me want to visit Leningrad. Or at least see what used to be Leningrad. I just ordered his short story collection of the strength of the novel, which is about the highest praise you can give. |
11-3-09
Birds of America by Lorrie Moore 8.2 Stans
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Everyone seems to love Lorrie Moore. Why? Because she's an incredibly talented writer. And because she's one of those rare authors who, like Richard Russo, have such a clear empathy for their characters burning through the words but enough wit and intelligence to keep it from becoming cloying. These are great, perceptive, funny, clever and original stories. Actually, there was one I thought was tedious, but all of the rest of them were exceptional. I love Lorrie Moore too. I hate to join the crowd, but there you have it. |
10-18-09
This is Where I Leave You by Johnathan Tropper 7.5 Stans
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Some great lines and dysfunctional family set pieces in this sarcastic take on a family sitting shiva over a seven day period. It has a pretty worn feel, half way between Roth and Three's Company, but Tropper elevates the expected characterizations with a great deal of empathy and an admirably snide sense of humor. An easy read that also has numerous pointed observations that resonate with a good deal of caustic truth. |
10-12-09
The Right Hand of Sleep by John Wray 7.9 Stans
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Hard to believe this is a first novel given its knowing tone and highly original look at a particular historical time period, namely Austria just prior to the Nazi annexation. Beautifully rendered and gently probing, it only rarely slips into a certain repetitive self-indulgence. The characters are fascinating and under-reported bystanders to history, neither heroic nor evil, simply human and flawed. Wray is an extremely talented writer flexing his novelistic muscle in a way that makes him seem impossibly informed and intuitive. |
10-3-09
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris 6.0 Stans
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I wanted to see what the deal was with True Blood and where it came from, so I picked this up at a sidewalk sale. The show is amazingly true to the book, which meant that I was really bored since it was sort of like reading the script from the first season. It's pretty well written and has its own style. She's done a really good job at creating her own insulated world. But I definitely don't need to read any more. |
9-29-09
Jazz and Twelve O'clock Tales by Wanda Coleman 6.6 Stans
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Some nicely poetic touches round out what I found to be a fairly uninspired collection of shorts. One really good story, Jazz at Twelve, sorrounded by a lot of others that felt more like writing exercises than full-fledged stories. Still, there were numerous nice little moments of human experience caught in the more workmanlike structure. |
9-21-09
Under The Skin by Michael Faber 7.9 Stans
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A disturbing and original book-length metaphor for our societal blindness toward animal rights and corporate meat processing, this book pulls zero punches. What's most to like about it is the way it integrates the fantastic J.G. Ballard-esque sci fi with the mundane. Also, this can be read, enjoyed, and mediated upon no matter what your politics or eating habits are. Hey, I eat plenty of steak, chicken, and bacon, but I sort of wish I didn't. Or at least that I didn't crave it. If I had to spend one minute actually handling animals, or processing them instead of just wolfing them down, I'm almost certain I'd go to full time salads. It's always good to be reminded in a non-strident and clever way that our ethical assumptions about the feelings and possible intellect of the creatures we eat should be reguarly considered, if not outright challenged. |
9-10-09
The Hunter by Richard Stark 7.7 Stans
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Man, now this is noir. No apologies, no nice guys, no redemption, no anti-hero. Just low down mean revenge by a humorless and remorseless badass. Forty years ago this must have been incredibly cutting edge. There's nothing to root for here. Sparse prose that is dated now but must have been brutal then. Hey, I liked it a lot. I lean toward things that have the stones not to compromise, even when they're not pretty, and this book makes Ray Chandler seem like a weekend with the Gossip Girls. |
9-1-09
Caanan's Tongue by John Wray 8.1 Stans
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There's a definite brilliance to this. It's the kind of book you can only write if you already have it inside you, not something you can copy or approximate or just pound away at. It's a bizzare mix of Faulker, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, Mark Twain (who makes a brief appearance) and a whole lot of William Burroughs, especially Cities Of The Red Night. If I knew the bible better, I would probably have had a better idea at the ultimate message here, but at its core it is still about faith and the chicanary of belief. Oh, and also slavery, the civil war, and minor concepts like the nature of evil. Wray is a writer in the way not too many people are, no matter what you think of this book. |
