Quite a few years ago, I and my wife were in a major car accident. My car was totaled but miraculously everyone in the accident had no more than a fewQuite a few years ago, I and my wife were in a major car accident. My car was totaled but miraculously everyone in the accident had no more than a few minor cuts and bruises. I remember having to squeeze myself out of the car wondering how so much twisted metal managed to miss hitting both of us. But since then I have been very alert to the fact that our lives can change instantly in a few seconds or be forever altered by a split second decision. It is something I knew intellectually before. But now it has a deeper more intuitive meaning and the knowledge has forever heighten my appreciation of what I have and for the fragility of life.
Dream of the Serpent by Alan Ryker is about that. Cody Miller is a successful young man who is in a horrible fire brought on by a second of forgetfulness as he texts his girl friend. For the next third of the novel and in first person narrative, we are witnesses to the devastating consequences of a burn victim. Each moment and action is described in torturous detail. It is not something that everyone will be able to read. Just as devastating are the descriptions of Cody's thoughts and emotions as he endlessly relive that one moment and thinks about what could have been "if". He is immersed in his own pain but also privy to the emotional pain of others around him. Cody's girlfriend lives with the thought that she may have been at least partly responsible and those feelings reignite her past drug addiction.
As you can see, this is pretty heavy stuff. If this was all, Dream of the Serpent would still be a very powerful book especially with Ryker's ability to bring alive the emotions and feelings of the characters. Yet this is a novel of the supernatural even though the story proceeds halfway through without any trace of the other-worldly. Cory is having dreams of what his life would be like if the accident did not happen. Soon he gets a phone call from his girl friend. "I think I found a way to fix everything."
At this point, things change. I won't say how but I sure it is the sort of the thing accident victims..no..all of us at some point in life have dreamed about. The author examines, in the unpredictable style of horror fantasy, the consequences of altering our life and the devastation our actions have on others. While the first half of the novel is steeped in the physical horrors of the natural world, the second half explores, in a just as horrific but more psychological way, the horror of our actions and the effect of them on the ones we love.
This is a superior horror novel; one that should be remembered for its power and relevance. I found myself looking back on my own experience while reading it and thinking about how different things could have been if I reacted a second later or that chunk of metal moved only one foot closer to me. I also wondered that if we could change something terrible in the past, would the sacrifice be worth it. There is always a sacrifice, in real life as well as fiction. It's that type of novel. The kind that makes you a little uncomfortable. The kind that makes you look at your own choices. And the kind that makes you glad you read it despite the horrific descriptions and uncomfortable feelings it evokes.
Back in 1986, a friend of mine, who was a Vietnam War veteran asked me to go see the movie Platoon with him. As we walked out of the theater, he was uBack in 1986, a friend of mine, who was a Vietnam War veteran asked me to go see the movie Platoon with him. As we walked out of the theater, he was unusually quiet but asked me what I thought of the film. I responded that I thought it was excellent but I also admitted that I thought parts were confusing for a war film. "Often I couldn't tell who was shooting at who." I said. He grabbed my arm and said excitedly."THAT IS WHAT IT WAS LIKE!"
Every war has its own uniqueness. It has its unique horrors but also share universal horrors with other wars, not just those of physical destruction but also mental and even spiritual destruction. Erich Maria Remarque's classic war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front has two great achievements. First, it takes us to World War I and allows us to see its unique horrors in the eyes of the combatants. It is an riveting almost documentary style accounting of the combat of war. Second, it addresses the universal horrors for the young men caught in its grip; the lost of innocence, the exploitation, and the suffering, physical, mental and existential. But it is also perhaps the first great ant-war novel. The author takes us into the war through the narration of a young student who, with his closest classmates, volunteer at the urgings of their patriotic and romantic professor. What he experiences is nothing like the visions of his elders and his nations' leaders. Remarque has an astoundingly powerful style that excels in both descriptive observations and the ability to make clear the most harrowing feelings. In one portion of the novel, the men have been bombarded with bombs for days, never seeing their attackers. Then they move forward and meet them face to face...
We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation. It is not against men that we fling our bombs, what do we know of men in this moment when Death is hunting us down, Now, for the first time in three days we can oppose him; we feel a mad anger. No longer do we lie helpless, waiting on the scaffold, we can destroy and kill, to save ourselves, to save ourselves and be avenged.
Remarque does not ignore the power of war in the most quiet moments...
To me the front is a mysterious whirlpool, Thought I am in still waters far away from its centre. I feel the whirl of the vortex sucking me slowly, irresistibly, inescapably into itself
And this may be the most powerful statement describing the lost of innocence during war I've ever read...
We are like forlorn children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial. I believe we are lost.
All Quiet of the Western Front should be required reading for all high school students. Its meaning and power is as strong as it was almost 80 years ago. It is the very definition of a enduring masterpiece.
Vonnegut wrote a galaxy of five star novels but Mother Night often falls between the cracks in any discussion. It's too bad because in many ways it maVonnegut wrote a galaxy of five star novels but Mother Night often falls between the cracks in any discussion. It's too bad because in many ways it may be his best book. It is perhaps his most straight forward in narration. It is also the only novel in which the author, whose themes are often hotly discussed in literary circles, places the moral on the first paragraph of the introduction...
This is the only story of mine whose moral I know. I don't think it is a marvelous moral; I simply happen to know what it is. We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
But it wouldn't be Vonnegut if it was that straight forward. Mother Night is a tale of identities; false ones, imagined one, mistaken ones...all except true ones. For Vonnegut, our identity makes us what we are but are not always freely chosen and easily taken away. Mother Night has a Philip K Dick quality without the sci-fi elements. The author chooses World War II as his arena and give us one of his saddest and most perplexing character; Howard W Campbell Jr, an American whose spreads pro-Nazi and anti-Semite poison for the Third Reich yet is also a double agent sending messages to the Allies by code through his rants. He is surprisingly passive about his role and this is a regular theme of Vonnegut's stories. His characters fall into roles not of their choosing and even when they make choices they are ambivalent about the goal. Does Campbell's evil deeds outweigh the good that he did through his espionage activities? If you think you will get an answer to this, you do not know Vonnegut. The one thing Campbell does that the strange cast of characters does not do is to question his role and what he is. And that is what makes him so vibrant and alive to the reader. Mother Night never lets you be comfortable or lets you think you figured our "hero" out. It is philosophical and pacifistic yet also cynical. It is an "easy read" but it can be so deceiving that one reading will probably not reveal all the exquisite nuances on the novel. I would rank this with Sirens of Titans and Cat Cradle as Vonnegut's masterpieces...more
Lansdale states this is his favorite of his novels. Just my luck that my favorite author would pick a book that has been out of print for a long time.Lansdale states this is his favorite of his novels. Just my luck that my favorite author would pick a book that has been out of print for a long time. Fortunately it is back in print and I finally got around to reading it. Is it better than The Bottoms, my favorite Lansdale novel? It's a photo finish and the judges aren't back from lunch yet.
The Magic Wagon is told through the narration of a 17 year old boy, having been abandoned and on his own, (Lansdale's favorite type of narrator) as he latches onto a traveling medicine show. He is welcomed by a kindly black man but the other half of the show, a cranky sharp-shooter who claims to be the son of Wild Bill Hickok, is not so welcoming. Lansdale's witty and colorful descriptions are abundant in this story and there is plenty of Wild West mythology and folklore for the writer to make his own. But what the author really is doing is writing about family; those we choose and those we do not choose. This is not a typical western at all. I don't think Lansdale has ever wrote a typical anything. But it is one of his most emotional tales and is certainly one of his best. ...more
Robert Bloch's first book and still one of his best. This has most of his Lovecraft influenced stories but you can see that the author is placing his Robert Bloch's first book and still one of his best. This has most of his Lovecraft influenced stories but you can see that the author is placing his more modern style into the mix. ...more
Allie Fox is a genius, a fool, a loving father, a madman, a dreamer, and a selfish SOB. He is sort of Don Quixote's evil twin. Both Don Quixote and AlAllie Fox is a genius, a fool, a loving father, a madman, a dreamer, and a selfish SOB. He is sort of Don Quixote's evil twin. Both Don Quixote and Allie Fox pursued noble dreams but Quizote didn't imperil his entire family in doing so. But it isn't just the character of Allie Fox that makes The Mosquito Coast such a riveting and brilliant novel. It is the interaction with his his family as they struggle to understand this brilliant but insane man. The book reads like an adventure; an adventure that you know will go wrong. I really enjoyed how Allie Fox mastered his environment in the jungle but could feel the dominoes falling for him and his family. This is one of those books that stays with you and deserves to be called a Twentieth Century classic....more
What else can be said about this masterpiece? Although overshadowed by the Hitchcock film, Bloch's original Psycho remains the granddaddy of all psychWhat else can be said about this masterpiece? Although overshadowed by the Hitchcock film, Bloch's original Psycho remains the granddaddy of all psycho killer stories. The novel remains tense and riveting throughout and even those who know the ending, which includes 99% of the world population, will get a kick in the head by the way Bloch approaches the ending. Easily, Bloch's finest novel and one of the greatest mystery-horror novels of all time....more
My favorite Silverberg novel...and that is saying a lot. Silverberg is one of the finest writers to come out of science fiction and fantasy. The Book My favorite Silverberg novel...and that is saying a lot. Silverberg is one of the finest writers to come out of science fiction and fantasy. The Book of Skulls is both one of his straighter fiction tales and, at the same time, the most esoteric. The plot concerns four college students on a journey to find a hidden monastery in Arizona. (There's more of those in Arizona than you would think!) They are motivated by a promise of immortality. However for two to gain this, one must die by his own hand and one must be murdered. The novel is told in first person with the alternating chapters taking the viewpoint of each of the four seekers. Aside from being great storytelling, the book is also a graduate class in the art of the character study. It is unfortunate that this book is so hard to find but it is definitely worth seeking out....more
You can tell my wife. I'm sure she understands. As a former instructor of world literature, she can understandI think I'm in love with another woman.
You can tell my wife. I'm sure she understands. As a former instructor of world literature, she can understand how a reader can become totally infatuated by a writer's virtuosity and their ability to transcend culture when they poke at the universal longings and fears in all of us. She will know that readers can immerse themselves in language and equate that wonderful turn of a phrase with the qualities of the author. She will definitely understand this having had a long-time infatuation with Tom Wolfe.
Of course, maybe I should be a little jealous since she once had a cup of coffee with Wolfe. I would be lucky to get even a peek at Banana Yoshimoto in a noodle shop.
Kitchen is exhibit A in how Ms. Yoshimoto can weave an enchanting spell over her reader. They don't call it "Banana-mania" for nothing. The book is actually two novellas; the title story and Moonlight Shadow. Both hinge on heavy subjects, death, mourning, and the transitory nature of relationships. Yet the author is no pessimist. There is a brilliancy in her characters, a strength that conquers any existential dread. Plus, the author is marvelous at giving us beautiful word images that haunt us long after reading her tale. Her stories are often called minimalist and even simplistic. Yet there is no denying that they are beautiful and easy to relate to. I highly recommend this book to anyone who breathes.
Did I mention the cute photo of Banana on the book's cover?
Murakami's new opus, 1Q84 is already being called his masterpiece by the professional reviewers. I think they may be on to something. Here's why.
MurakMurakami's new opus, 1Q84 is already being called his masterpiece by the professional reviewers. I think they may be on to something. Here's why.
Murakami's artistic vision continues to develop. In the past, his novels could be arguably divided into two areas: 1) The romance, usually in the natural world and usually headed for sorrow, and 2) The existential fantasy where the world is lop-sided in magical realism with the protagonist struggling to understand the surreal. In 1Q84 he finally manages to unite these two themes in a very coherence epic of 900+ pages. His usual suspects of strange women and confused men are here but they are infused with a new sense of wonder and humanity that surpasses his previous works. Also, this is easily the warmest and most romantic of his books. Romantic and warmth are not usually the first words to come to mind when describing Murakami.
The plot is quite complex and takes place in the year 1984. A fitness trainer with an interesting second job rushes to meet an appointment and takes a emergency staircase off of the freeway thoroughfare to get there. In doing so, she discovers that the world has changed in small but troubling ways. The most noticeable change in this world which she dubs 1Q84 is that it has two moons. In a parallel tale, a math teacher and would-be writer reluctantly takes a job rewriting the odd fantasy novel of a 17 year old girl. Murakami tells these two stories in alternating chapters, a ploy used that is similar what he uses in his novel Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of The World. The stories merge and this is where it become quite magical as small nuances become major plot twists. While the two main characters are marvelously written there are many minor characters that also become alive and are very essential to the story; a gay bodyguard, a dowager who has an unique answer to domestic violence, and a very persistent television fee collector, to mention only a few. Murakami takes his time slowly molding each incident and each personage into the tapestry.
Regular Murakami fans will not be disappointed and new readers to Murakami will enjoy this as long as they are not intimated by the length and have a little patience. To use a term from another Goodreads reviewer,the novel moves at a glacial pace. Yet it is the kind of glacial pace that has huge pieces of ice breaking off and startling the reader at unpredictable times. Almost all of the author's quirks and themes are here but there is an intimacy and involvement in this book that Murakami may have not reached in previous works. He seems to be saying, "Here I am, like my characters, with all the risks and emotions that we humans are afraid to show but must show.". He still leaves a lot to the reader to figure out and there are plenty of questions left at the end. However, I doubt you will leave this book feeling unsatisfied. You may also have the urge to check out the window to see how many moons are in the sky.
The Great Gatsby is amazing. It is easily a top contender for the great American novel and speaks to our generation as readily as it did to FitzgeraldThe Great Gatsby is amazing. It is easily a top contender for the great American novel and speaks to our generation as readily as it did to Fitzgerald's lost generation of the 20s. Gatsby is an incredible character whose dreams are as conflicted as his ambition in a world that encourages big dreams and delivers disappointment. Nick narrates as both an outside observer to the wealthy decadence of his neighbors but also one who relishes the same life. Tom Buchanan is a lifeless automation depicting the worst of the American Dream while beautiful Daisy struggles to find her place and sacrifices her dreams to an empty fantasy. F. Scott Fitzgerald captured the essence of the 1920s with both longing and cynicism but it is astounding how much of his novel still resonates into the 21st century.
I used to have the entire collection of Manly Wade Wellman's short stories and novels about Silver John, a traveling folk minstrel that knew more thanI used to have the entire collection of Manly Wade Wellman's short stories and novels about Silver John, a traveling folk minstrel that knew more than his fair share about battling evil magic and monsters. It was one of my great moving van tragedy that I lost these in a move from Bullhead City to Blythe. That move was in itself a folk tale of heroic proportions, but I digress. I do not know why these stories are not better known for Wellman manages to encompass everything memorable about American folk mythology into these stories about a shamanistic balladeer. Who Fears The Devil is the perfect place to start....more
OK, I'm going to make this brief. Mainly because I read this back in my college days. It was the required reading for my English class. It still remaiOK, I'm going to make this brief. Mainly because I read this back in my college days. It was the required reading for my English class. It still remains one of the most important books I've ever read and it has stayed with me. While it is clear that Ellison's invisible man is so because of race and bigotry, I believe the book goes beyond this. It speaks to alienation of every type. Read it!...more
There is nothing quite like the cold taste of gun oil on a stainless steel barrel to bring your life in focus.
From the first sentence of Beautiful, N
There is nothing quite like the cold taste of gun oil on a stainless steel barrel to bring your life in focus.
From the first sentence of Beautiful, Naked, and Dead, you know that Moses McGuire is not your average smart-ass crime noir anti-hero. Mo just might blast himself out of existence by the next few pages. He's the kind of guy that places "Find a reason to live" as number one task on his daily "to-do" list. He's out of luck, up Shit Creek, has only one friend, and that friend will resemble the title of this book before the first chapter is over.
Charlie Huston fans and Joe Lansdale aficionados should be rejoicing for Josh Stallings fits right into that category of dark, rough crime fiction with a sharp witted edge. BN&D is one hell of a debut novel and should open a lot of eyes to just how powerful this genre can be. Stallings' protagonist is unique because he is as reluctant as they come not just to his misadventure but to life in general. The death of his friend gives him his reason to live but everything is tenuous in this story and the reader is never quite sure who will end up on top. The author's powerful prose keeps things hopping and I especially love his real-life description of a Los Angeles that is hidden from the sight of most eyes. For pure visceral beauty and excitement, this shoots up to my number one pick for best novel of 2011.
How can I ever relay how powerful this book was when I first read it in the year it was published? I read Carrie shortly before and liked it but not oHow can I ever relay how powerful this book was when I first read it in the year it was published? I read Carrie shortly before and liked it but not overly impressed. I then picked this up at the library and I was blown over. This was no mild mannered horror tale. There was not a moral at the end. Things didn't end up happily ever after. King flooded my senses with evil and foreboding unknown before in the modern fiction world. This was a roller coaster ride put on print. I don't think you can under estimate the impact this novel had on all horror novels after it, particular those of the vampire type, and on the writers who followed. The greatest horror novel of the 20th century....more
This is the ultimate haunted house novel. King realized something that few writers understood; Ghosts are boring. It is not the house or the haunters This is the ultimate haunted house novel. King realized something that few writers understood; Ghosts are boring. It is not the house or the haunters that drive a good horror novel but the hauntees. Jack Torrance is the perfect foil for an evil house. He is troubled and unsure of himself. He is a time bomb waiting to go off with just the right push and the overlook Hotel knows it. King shows in this book that he is the master of the slow build. The Shining is not just a great supernatural novel. It is a great psychological thriller....more
I had one minor annoyance in reading this novel. I have seen the movie and I simply cannot get the voices of the actors out of my mind, especially thoI had one minor annoyance in reading this novel. I have seen the movie and I simply cannot get the voices of the actors out of my mind, especially those of Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Humphrey Bogart. It doesn't help that the dialogue of the film is almost totally out of the book. In spite of that, The Maltese Falcon is a hard-boiled delight from beginning to end. It doesn't matter that all the characters are louses, including the charismatic but hardened Sam Spade. It reeks of grittiness. It is the mother of all Crime Noir novels and never surpassed. Dashiell Hammett, you're good. You're very good....more
This is one of my all-time favorite paperbacks. A single binding of Frankenstein, Dracula, and Dr.Jekyll and Mr Hyde with an introduction by Stephen KThis is one of my all-time favorite paperbacks. A single binding of Frankenstein, Dracula, and Dr.Jekyll and Mr Hyde with an introduction by Stephen King. I have separately rated Frankenstein as four stars, Dracula as three stars, and I would rate Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde as a big time five stars. Yet the reason I would go a full five stars on this edition is two-fold...
1) The idea of placing these novels together is a stroke of genius. You have the three cornerstones of modern horror. Frankenstein is the precursor of all modern science fiction, Dracula is a cornerstone of Gothic fiction while also setting the tone for the modern vampire, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the beginning of the psychological horror tale. The stage for modern horror is set with these three novels.
2) King's introduction brings all this together and explains in wildly entertaining prose why these three novels are so important to understanding literary horror. It is a masterpiece in its own right.
If I taught a class in literary horror this would be my only required textbook....more
The author of Super Sad True Love Story takes us to a dystrophic alternate reality where The United States is in an unending war with Venezuela, its eThe author of Super Sad True Love Story takes us to a dystrophic alternate reality where The United States is in an unending war with Venezuela, its economy is in free fall having been tagged to the Chinese Yuan and is teetering on collapse. This is a capitalistic 1984 with Big Brother replaced by a cartoon otter. The citizens are monitored through their apparats, a form of super I-Phone where there is no privacy and their worth is determined by their credit points, personality ratings and hotness scale. Classes are divided between LNWI (Low Net Worth Individuals) and HNWI (High etc. etc.) While New York burns, people are more interested in their Facebook-like existence and utter acronyms like ROFLAARP (Rolling on Floor Looking at Addictive Rodent Pornography)or TIMATOV (Think I’m About To Openly Vomit).
Sound familar?
To borrow a phrase from a long gone sci-fi TV series, Shteyngart's universe is 20 minutes in the future. If this was all, SSTLS (Can't I use acronyms too?) would still be a clever socio-political satire. Yet Shteyngart tips the scale and throws in a poignant love story between two ill-matched persons: a 39 year old Jewish-Russian salesman with low self-esteem and family issues and a 24 year old Korean girl with only slightly better disguised low self-esteem and family issues. The merging of socio-political satire and dark romance is a balancing act deserving of the Flying Wallendas. I am reminded of Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being in the idea of two lovers trying to survive as their world collapses under them. This similarity is certainly not lost on Shteyngart as he directly references Kundera's great novel at a crucial point. I also think SSTLS (CIUAT?) can be read as a sort of a 21st century Portnoy's Complaint as Lennie explores his ethnic issues and deal with his own RAGness (Rapidly Aging Geezer). Yes, the author is clever but it is the kind of cleverness that forces us to look at our own social, political and personal issues in a world that may not be there for us very much longer....more
I already knew that Tony O'Neill had an amazing talent at capturing the essence of junkies and urban rejects from his autobiographical novel Down and I already knew that Tony O'Neill had an amazing talent at capturing the essence of junkies and urban rejects from his autobiographical novel Down and Out on Murder Mile but DAMN!. His first totally fictional novel Sick City is a whirlpool of drugs, sex, and badly planned schemes that sucks its protagonists deeper and deeper. It is hard to think of any writer who can write with so much feeling and empathy for the dregs of the city and his depictions of the darker neighborhoods of Hollywood and LA are dead on. None of his characters are likable but that is the point. They are pulled into a cruel hell of their own making. Yet O'Neill makes us feel for these people and even root for them while we know the we might as well hope for the moon to deliver us green cheese. O'Neill writes with the charm of Dylan Thomas and the poetic brutishness of a Charles Bukowski. The plot involves two hopeless drug addicts who get hold of a sex orgy tape featuring Sharon Tate made weeks before her murder. It's a killer plot but it is the author's prodigious writing skills and his grasp at human nature that drives this novel. One more thing. If you choose to read this novel, don't miss the acknowledgment pages. They are hilarious, especially the part where his wife discloses that the only thing O'Neill was writing when they met was phony prescriptions. ...more
