Firestarter by Stephen King
I used to read a lot of Stephen King in high school and college - while some of his novels would occasionally go off the deep end, I could also count on being entertained by them. Obviously, some were much better than others. Especially if I'd been reading a lot of dry nonfiction or classics, I would always see his books as a relaxing break.
I've read most of his novels at this point, except for some of the very early ones. I read Carrie earlier this year, and some of the ideas are rather similar to Firestarter. It's actually kind of interesting to compare some of his earlier work to later novels. My dad is not a huge Stephen King fan but he liked The Dead Zone and The Stand and therefore, is actually the person that introduced me to Stephen King. It seems like in his early work, King starts out with a much smaller idea that is just a little bit out there, but still very believable. I know sometimes when I've read his later work, I'll enjoy it quite a bit, and then there will be a twist or a turn that just seems like a bit too much. For example, I vaguely remember Rose Madder - it begins as a novel about a woman escaping her abusive husband and starting her life over, and ends with her running from him in some magical picture. The husband also turns into a bull, possibly.
By comparison, Firestarter is rather tame. King takes the question he asked in Carrie, "What if people really had telekinetic abilities?" and approaches it from a slightly different angle. In this one, there are more powers than simply telekinesis - Charlie's father has the ability to mentally persuade as well as occasional intuitive hunches, her mother had the occasional moments of telekinesis, and Charlie can start fires with her mind. Unlike Carrie, Charlie is loved as a child, so the novel isn't about what could go wrong when a teenager that has been picked on her whole life suddenly has powers. Instead, the question is what would happen if the government knew about these abilities? In fact, Charlie's parents only have theirs as a result of rather unethical experiment funded by the Shop, a mysterious government agency.
When the government agents are discussing Charlie's powers, they wonder how much more powerful she might be once she hits puberty. Of course, this was also when Carrie's powers started really showing themselves. It's interesting how some of King's most famous characters are young girls with extraordinary abilities. I might not be remembering everything here, but it seems like in most of his other novels, he tends to focus more on young boys when he uses children than girls (I almost forgot about The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, but I've never read it). For example, The Dark Tower obviously has Jake, The Shining had a young boy, etc.
Overall, I liked it - he had improved upon the parts of his writing style that I disliked in Carrie, but didn't have any crazy plot twists. Maybe not the great novel I'd wanted to end with but at least it didn't make me want to rip my hair out and kill all the main characters (except for the ones that are villains, of course).
Monday, August 31, 2009
Book 99: The Big Sleep
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
I hadn't been planning on reading this until after the Cannonball Read was over, but the book I'd originally started reading was boring me - after three days I was only 150 pages in, and the characters were irritating the hell out of me, so I decided to cut my losses and pick up this novel of a little over 200 pages. I was trying to make it to 100, dammit (also, it didn't help that the last weekend of the challenge I had to drive all over Bavaria and visit people - I had literally no reading time at all).
I guess noir isn't really my genre. The overall plot twists and development were interesting and all and could have made for a very good novel, but honestly, I just didn't like the way Chandler portrayed his characters that much. I of course knew that the genre can be a little sexist, with the femme fatales and all, but I still wasn't expecting this. I guess I figured the femme fatales wold be a lot more fun, instead of having a different tough dame tossed in every few pages.
Philip Marlowe is hired by an aging millionaire to look into a man that is trying to blackmail him and his daughter. He also mentions that his son-in-law is missing. While investigating the blackmail, Marlowe quickly becomes involved in a murder investigation. All this actually clears itself and explains itself very quickly, and Marlowe closes the case to everyone's satisfaction. However, Marlowe just can't let go - the missing son-in-law angle interests him and he keeps digging around.
In addition to the sexism, there was also some homophobia in the novel - I guess I shouldn't expect much else from a novel written in the '30s. I might have been in too much of a hurry to finish this one, but it just didn't quite get me. However, Dennis Lehane's Sacred has been described as a modern updating of The Big Sleep, so I'm definitely excited to see what Lehane did with this plotline.
I hadn't been planning on reading this until after the Cannonball Read was over, but the book I'd originally started reading was boring me - after three days I was only 150 pages in, and the characters were irritating the hell out of me, so I decided to cut my losses and pick up this novel of a little over 200 pages. I was trying to make it to 100, dammit (also, it didn't help that the last weekend of the challenge I had to drive all over Bavaria and visit people - I had literally no reading time at all).
I guess noir isn't really my genre. The overall plot twists and development were interesting and all and could have made for a very good novel, but honestly, I just didn't like the way Chandler portrayed his characters that much. I of course knew that the genre can be a little sexist, with the femme fatales and all, but I still wasn't expecting this. I guess I figured the femme fatales wold be a lot more fun, instead of having a different tough dame tossed in every few pages.
Philip Marlowe is hired by an aging millionaire to look into a man that is trying to blackmail him and his daughter. He also mentions that his son-in-law is missing. While investigating the blackmail, Marlowe quickly becomes involved in a murder investigation. All this actually clears itself and explains itself very quickly, and Marlowe closes the case to everyone's satisfaction. However, Marlowe just can't let go - the missing son-in-law angle interests him and he keeps digging around.
In addition to the sexism, there was also some homophobia in the novel - I guess I shouldn't expect much else from a novel written in the '30s. I might have been in too much of a hurry to finish this one, but it just didn't quite get me. However, Dennis Lehane's Sacred has been described as a modern updating of The Big Sleep, so I'm definitely excited to see what Lehane did with this plotline.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Book 98: Edinburgh
I ordered this based on a recommendation from a book blog (can't remember which one). It took me a little while to adjust to the style since especially in the beginning, the narrator has a tendency to talk around things. The first two sections are narrated by Fee, a man that was part of an all boys choir as a child and was sexually molested along with a large number of other boys in the choir. He was in love with one of the boys, who ended up killing himself sometime after the choir leader was imprisoned for his actions. This part of the novel follows Fee through the time of the abuse, and his college years during which he is still dealing with a lot of the issues. He blames himself for what happened, partially because he feels like he should have warned Peter. He has quite a bit of self-loathing at this point.
The third section switches to Warden's perspective. I felt like his voice was much clearer and more linearly written, and also preferred this section. At this point, we see Fee from Warden's perspective since Fee is at his school as the temporary swim coach and art teacher. The reader also knows very early that Warden is a nickname, and the boy is actually the son of the man that molested Fee. The final section is once again told from Fee's perspective and he talks about his life between college and getting to the school, and then moves on to his perspective of things. Fee has somehow moved on from his past, and at first, I was happy with how his life had turned out after everything. Except then he started doing things to screw everything up, which pissed me off.
I admit part of the reason I was excited about this novel was the title - Edinburgh. For some reason, I assumed it might be set in Edinburgh or that parts of the novel would occur since when I read the back cover, it did say that Fee was half Korean, half American and the choir was states-side. Unfortunately, the novel was mainly set in Maine. No Scotland. The title comes from a part time job that Fee takes for a man who is writing book about Edinburgh during the plague. Part of that book involves a piece on tunnels, and the idea of tunnels appeals to Fee (okay, it was a little deeper than that, and he built himself his own tunnel, but I managed to accidentally leave my copy of the book on the plane).
A few places have talked about how beautiful the writing in this novel is - while I enjoy beautifully written pieces and passages, I also sometimes get bored or irritated with things that are too descriptive or spiritual seeming. In this case, the writing didn't really do that much for me, but it's been a major selling point for others, so perhaps it would appeal more to others than it did to me.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Book 97: First Darling of the Morning
First Darling of the Morning: Selected Memories of an Indian Childhood by Thrity Umrigar
I actually really enjoyed this memoir by Umrigar. When I first started reading Allende's memoir Paula, in the beginning, I felt like I was rereading one of her novels. With Umrigar, it is easy to see how certain people may have influenced her portrayals and her writing, but it didn't feel like her novels were simply fictionalizations of her life.
In fact, given some of her family history, I was actually surprised about how it hasn't influenced her novels more - her mother and her seemed to have a very difficult relationship unlike the easy ones Umrigar had with her father and her spinster aunt Mehroo (actually, after reading for a while, I could definitely see how her father was partially reflected in one of her characters in Bombay Times). Despite this, her novels don't tend to focus on mother-daughter relationships too much, and when they do, they do not villify the mothers. Occasionally, there might be a difficult mother in law in the picture. Obviously her large extended family and her neighborhood have also influenced her writing and the locale she chooses for her novels.
Umrigar grew up in a middle class family that occasionally struggled to make a go of their business. Her father and his two siblings were always incredibly close, and lived together so that Umrigar basically had two father figures in her life, and three mothers, though the focus is mainly on Mehroo, her aunt. She loved to read as a child, and was somewhat of a dreamer. She was also a bit of a performer. She went through the usual rebellious stage as well as a political stage in college, and eventually decided to leave for the States to get away from the tension in her family since she didn't have the option of moving out in India since it was still old-fashioned in some ways (this part always reminded me slightly of a character in Bombay Times - actually a character's daughter since she never makes an actual appearance in the novel).
She addresses some of the issues about class and poverty that have influenced her novels, and also talks about how very Western her education was. When challenged to write a story about Indians rather than white blue eyed children in a class, she can't even come up with names for her characters. She read all kinds of Western authors but didn't really know too many Indian ones. She describes discovering and reading Midnight's Children shortly before leaving for the States and how it opened her eyes to a whole new side of her own city.
Umrigar has a good sense of pacing and character development. This book was a nice way to get to know her and her background a little bit more, and while her other novels may have suggested much of this, it was still nice to see the first hand, nonfictional account.
I actually really enjoyed this memoir by Umrigar. When I first started reading Allende's memoir Paula, in the beginning, I felt like I was rereading one of her novels. With Umrigar, it is easy to see how certain people may have influenced her portrayals and her writing, but it didn't feel like her novels were simply fictionalizations of her life.
In fact, given some of her family history, I was actually surprised about how it hasn't influenced her novels more - her mother and her seemed to have a very difficult relationship unlike the easy ones Umrigar had with her father and her spinster aunt Mehroo (actually, after reading for a while, I could definitely see how her father was partially reflected in one of her characters in Bombay Times). Despite this, her novels don't tend to focus on mother-daughter relationships too much, and when they do, they do not villify the mothers. Occasionally, there might be a difficult mother in law in the picture. Obviously her large extended family and her neighborhood have also influenced her writing and the locale she chooses for her novels.
Umrigar grew up in a middle class family that occasionally struggled to make a go of their business. Her father and his two siblings were always incredibly close, and lived together so that Umrigar basically had two father figures in her life, and three mothers, though the focus is mainly on Mehroo, her aunt. She loved to read as a child, and was somewhat of a dreamer. She was also a bit of a performer. She went through the usual rebellious stage as well as a political stage in college, and eventually decided to leave for the States to get away from the tension in her family since she didn't have the option of moving out in India since it was still old-fashioned in some ways (this part always reminded me slightly of a character in Bombay Times - actually a character's daughter since she never makes an actual appearance in the novel).
She addresses some of the issues about class and poverty that have influenced her novels, and also talks about how very Western her education was. When challenged to write a story about Indians rather than white blue eyed children in a class, she can't even come up with names for her characters. She read all kinds of Western authors but didn't really know too many Indian ones. She describes discovering and reading Midnight's Children shortly before leaving for the States and how it opened her eyes to a whole new side of her own city.
Umrigar has a good sense of pacing and character development. This book was a nice way to get to know her and her background a little bit more, and while her other novels may have suggested much of this, it was still nice to see the first hand, nonfictional account.
Book 96: All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown
This was another recommendation over at Pandagon. This book could easily be described as chick lit - it's light, it's about three different women (a mother and two daughters, though the daughters are far enough spaced to be in completely different places in their lives and basically two separate generations), and it's about them trying to change certain situations in their lives. However, the term chick lit is incredibly generic and seems to pretty much apply to any fiction with young female protagonists - within the genre, there are some authors that take serious issues and deal with them in a rather realistic but funny way, thus taking some of the bite out of it, while others write basic fluff. Actually, that kind of reminds me of women's literature class I had in college - the professor argued that in earlier decades, women often used humor to vent some of their frustrations and anger with the world, citing novels such Life Among the Savages, while in later works women tended to internalize their anger against themselves, leading to several memoirs about anorexia and cutting. Perhaps, chick lit is a sign of improvement in that case.
Anyway, while it is a fun and light read, All We Ever Wanted doesn't take the traditional chick lit ending - not everyone gets their dream job and ends up with the right guy. The three women have faced certain things about themselves, and the novel is hopeful but there is still a long way to go and a lot of work to be done. The women are also more complicated then the stereotypes they embody and could so easily be treated as.
The novel starts on the day that Janice's husband Paul's company goes public. After years of living the good life in California, they are about to hit the really good life that all their neighbors enjoy. That evening, her husband sends her a letter, telling her their marriage is over and he's leaving her for her best friend. Her oldest daughter, Margaret, meanwhile, is in LA, and on the verge of bankruptcy - she is in debt, her magazine is failing, and she just lost the one potential investor she had. Her boyfriend broke up with her a few months ago, although no one in her family knows. When she hears about her mom's problems, she decides to go home to "help out" when in fact it's an opportunity to hide from creditors, avoid eviction and continue to enjoy life with gas and electricity. Lizzie, the youngest daughter and the miracle baby, is fourteen, and a freshmen in high school. After being chubby much of her life, dieting and swim team have helped her lose weight. After the weight loss, she started getting male attention which she wasn't used to, and misunderstood their interest in sex as interest in her - basically, as the book puts it, "she's become the school slut."
The three women all try different approaches to their problems, none of which involve confiding in each other or talking to each other - they basically live as three strangers in the house, not wanting to start fights or ruin anyone's expectations. Lizzie finds religion, Margaret sleeps and drinks her days away, and Janice uses crystal meth to help her keep it all together until even her dealer is trying to tell her she might have a problem.
I really enjoyed this book - it was a fun read but actually developed three dimensional characters that weren't just fluff. There was some hilarious scenes. One of the problems with some chick lit tends to be how unrealistic it is - "oh, the poor twenty something that can't afford her rent or Prada bag as a publicist" etc. Obviously, these women's lives are a little beyond anything I can relate to but it was still portrayed in a way that was rather relatable.
This was another recommendation over at Pandagon. This book could easily be described as chick lit - it's light, it's about three different women (a mother and two daughters, though the daughters are far enough spaced to be in completely different places in their lives and basically two separate generations), and it's about them trying to change certain situations in their lives. However, the term chick lit is incredibly generic and seems to pretty much apply to any fiction with young female protagonists - within the genre, there are some authors that take serious issues and deal with them in a rather realistic but funny way, thus taking some of the bite out of it, while others write basic fluff. Actually, that kind of reminds me of women's literature class I had in college - the professor argued that in earlier decades, women often used humor to vent some of their frustrations and anger with the world, citing novels such Life Among the Savages, while in later works women tended to internalize their anger against themselves, leading to several memoirs about anorexia and cutting. Perhaps, chick lit is a sign of improvement in that case.
Anyway, while it is a fun and light read, All We Ever Wanted doesn't take the traditional chick lit ending - not everyone gets their dream job and ends up with the right guy. The three women have faced certain things about themselves, and the novel is hopeful but there is still a long way to go and a lot of work to be done. The women are also more complicated then the stereotypes they embody and could so easily be treated as.
The novel starts on the day that Janice's husband Paul's company goes public. After years of living the good life in California, they are about to hit the really good life that all their neighbors enjoy. That evening, her husband sends her a letter, telling her their marriage is over and he's leaving her for her best friend. Her oldest daughter, Margaret, meanwhile, is in LA, and on the verge of bankruptcy - she is in debt, her magazine is failing, and she just lost the one potential investor she had. Her boyfriend broke up with her a few months ago, although no one in her family knows. When she hears about her mom's problems, she decides to go home to "help out" when in fact it's an opportunity to hide from creditors, avoid eviction and continue to enjoy life with gas and electricity. Lizzie, the youngest daughter and the miracle baby, is fourteen, and a freshmen in high school. After being chubby much of her life, dieting and swim team have helped her lose weight. After the weight loss, she started getting male attention which she wasn't used to, and misunderstood their interest in sex as interest in her - basically, as the book puts it, "she's become the school slut."
The three women all try different approaches to their problems, none of which involve confiding in each other or talking to each other - they basically live as three strangers in the house, not wanting to start fights or ruin anyone's expectations. Lizzie finds religion, Margaret sleeps and drinks her days away, and Janice uses crystal meth to help her keep it all together until even her dealer is trying to tell her she might have a problem.
I really enjoyed this book - it was a fun read but actually developed three dimensional characters that weren't just fluff. There was some hilarious scenes. One of the problems with some chick lit tends to be how unrealistic it is - "oh, the poor twenty something that can't afford her rent or Prada bag as a publicist" etc. Obviously, these women's lives are a little beyond anything I can relate to but it was still portrayed in a way that was rather relatable.
Book 95: Caramelo
Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros
I've stumbled across The House on Mango Street a few times while browsing through Amazon, but never actually ordered it. Still, I was kind of interested in the author, so after seeing Sophia's review of the novel Caramelo, I decided to read it.
As she said, it is a slow read at times. I think part of it may have just been that I was a little busy when I started reading this anyway so it felt like I wasn't making much progress until I finally just brought it on the plane with me on my way to Budapest. The first section serves as an introduction to Celaya's extended family with their trip to Mexico for the summer. This was the first and only time that her family traveled down to Mexico as a caravan though they all visited annually and after all the fights, it definitely did not become a family tradition. Lala and her cousins are all afraid of her grandmother, who has a very distinct preference for her oldest son, Lala's father. This means she isn't always that nice to her other children, and she has problems with her daughter-in-law, who took away her son, and even is jealous of her grandchildren.
The second section describes Soledad, her grandmother, and all the hardships she endured in her life. Her first son, Inocencio, was the first stable and permanent love she had, so it is perhaps understandable how her life became so focused on him - her mother died, her father shipped her off to relatives, her husband cheated on her - a series of losses and disappointments.
After this, we move into Inocencio's life, and that of his children. Inocencio and his brothers all ended up in Chicago in business together, but the dream of owning property drives him to Texas, where four of his children have to make some adjustments (the other three were old enough to refuse to go).
Overall, it was a slow novel but a very well drawn picture of a family. I especially enjoyed the parts in the grandmother's sections in which the grandmother and granddaughter are talking to each other, the grandmother telling her she is adding too much to the story or leaving too much out (she kept begging for a love scene between herself and her husband but Lala brushed her off, choosing to go the more tragic route of unrequited love). Some of the parts are very reminiscent of other coming of age stories - the crazy, wild friends, but it all worked well together, and I enjoyed the twists and turns.
I've stumbled across The House on Mango Street a few times while browsing through Amazon, but never actually ordered it. Still, I was kind of interested in the author, so after seeing Sophia's review of the novel Caramelo, I decided to read it.
As she said, it is a slow read at times. I think part of it may have just been that I was a little busy when I started reading this anyway so it felt like I wasn't making much progress until I finally just brought it on the plane with me on my way to Budapest. The first section serves as an introduction to Celaya's extended family with their trip to Mexico for the summer. This was the first and only time that her family traveled down to Mexico as a caravan though they all visited annually and after all the fights, it definitely did not become a family tradition. Lala and her cousins are all afraid of her grandmother, who has a very distinct preference for her oldest son, Lala's father. This means she isn't always that nice to her other children, and she has problems with her daughter-in-law, who took away her son, and even is jealous of her grandchildren.
The second section describes Soledad, her grandmother, and all the hardships she endured in her life. Her first son, Inocencio, was the first stable and permanent love she had, so it is perhaps understandable how her life became so focused on him - her mother died, her father shipped her off to relatives, her husband cheated on her - a series of losses and disappointments.
After this, we move into Inocencio's life, and that of his children. Inocencio and his brothers all ended up in Chicago in business together, but the dream of owning property drives him to Texas, where four of his children have to make some adjustments (the other three were old enough to refuse to go).
Overall, it was a slow novel but a very well drawn picture of a family. I especially enjoyed the parts in the grandmother's sections in which the grandmother and granddaughter are talking to each other, the grandmother telling her she is adding too much to the story or leaving too much out (she kept begging for a love scene between herself and her husband but Lala brushed her off, choosing to go the more tragic route of unrequited love). Some of the parts are very reminiscent of other coming of age stories - the crazy, wild friends, but it all worked well together, and I enjoyed the twists and turns.
Book 94: Wonder Boys
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
I loved The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and was disappointed with The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. I remembered enjoying the film Wonderboys so I figured if I was going to give Chabon another try, that was probably the novel to go with.
The physical description of the main character and narrator sounds nothing like Michael Douglas, although I remember liking his role in the film. Same with Hannah and Katie Holmes. Overall, I liked the book - I couldn't believe how much pot Grady smoked, though.
Grady is an author, working at a college in New England. He has been working on his new novel for seven years, and is nowhere near finishing it, despite being at over 2000 pages. His third marriage is ending, he is having an affair with the chancellor who is also the head of the English department's wife, and she has just told him that she is pregnant. Instead of dealing with all these issues, Grady starts hanging out with an odd and slightly depressed student, which leads to a few dead pets (never leave an animal anywhere near Grady would be the lesson in this one) and really bad road trip moments.
It's actually funny, although Grady is just ridiculous at times - at 41, he has somehow avoided growing up. It really starts sinking in how much of a disappointment he has become as he deals with his editor and best friend, his third wife, his girlfriend and his admiring students, such as James and Hannah, who become slightly disillusioned with him.
I loved The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and was disappointed with The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. I remembered enjoying the film Wonderboys so I figured if I was going to give Chabon another try, that was probably the novel to go with.
The physical description of the main character and narrator sounds nothing like Michael Douglas, although I remember liking his role in the film. Same with Hannah and Katie Holmes. Overall, I liked the book - I couldn't believe how much pot Grady smoked, though.
Grady is an author, working at a college in New England. He has been working on his new novel for seven years, and is nowhere near finishing it, despite being at over 2000 pages. His third marriage is ending, he is having an affair with the chancellor who is also the head of the English department's wife, and she has just told him that she is pregnant. Instead of dealing with all these issues, Grady starts hanging out with an odd and slightly depressed student, which leads to a few dead pets (never leave an animal anywhere near Grady would be the lesson in this one) and really bad road trip moments.
It's actually funny, although Grady is just ridiculous at times - at 41, he has somehow avoided growing up. It really starts sinking in how much of a disappointment he has become as he deals with his editor and best friend, his third wife, his girlfriend and his admiring students, such as James and Hannah, who become slightly disillusioned with him.
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