Player Piano

Player Piano
by Kurt Vonnegut
(4/5 stars)

The best science fiction is the kind that still manages to be relevant even after almost 60 years. Such is the case with Vonnegut's "Player Piano," which explores our conflicted relationship with the machines we create, how they can be both liberating and dehumanizing.

The book takes place after a great war, presumably World War III, which America won by designing high-tech (at the time) thinking machines. Years later, these thinking machines handle pretty much everything from making products to running the government. This has created a sort of caste system where people are judged from a young age by certain tests. Those who pass become part of the "haves"--engineers and managers--while the rest become the "have nots" known as reek and recs.

Dr. Paul Proteus is the son of the man who first introduced the thinking machines and over time has become disillusioned with them and the caste system. When he goes across the bridge to the poor side of town he sees how the other half lives and becomes determined to quit his high-paying job and become a simple farmer. But soon Paul gets swept up into a revolution against the machines.

What I like is how Vonnegut creates this world dominated by a sort of benign fascism. In this system people aren't killed or sent to concentration camps or even forced to wear yellow stars; instead they're given modest homes and televisions so they have something to occupy them. So the greatest horror isn't storm troopers or secret police but boredom and a lack of dignity that comes from having no purpose.

The mention of things like vacuum tubes give the book a little dated feel and yet the core concept is still highly relevant. Instead of giant thinking machines using vacuum tubes we have tiny machines using microchips and robots and now 3D printing. As automation becomes more prevalent it forces more people either out of work or into menial minimum wage jobs. Barring a global catastrophe, this automation is only going to become more prevalent and more advanced until like in Vonnegut's world, we have billions of people who have been rendered obsolete and no longer serve any useful function.

In the "Star Trek" universe people turn all this automation into something good by pursuing other life goals. Sadly I tend to think Vonnegut's outlook is more realistic. But then I work in Detroit, where you can see the effects of societal change with every abandoned house and store front.

This was Vonnegut's first novel and it lacks some of the playfulness of his later books. You don't have the author's pithy "So it goes" or "Hi-Ho" or any of that. The narrative feels a little long at times, especially concerning the shah of some country visiting America. That subplot is included largely to give readers a look at America beyond upstate New York, but it really doesn't add that much. Plus it involves a lot of casual racism that was commonplace in the 50s but would create quite a stir today.

Still for a first novel it is a fascinating read I would highly recommend.

That is all.

Canada

Canada
by Richard Ford
(3/5 stars)

This is one of those literary novels that mostly makes you think the author's done better work in the past.  Like some of the later John Irving novels I've read it's not completely awful, but there isn't much impact to it.  It certainly doesn't surpass Ford's Pulitzer-winning "Independence Day."

Basically in 1960 Dell Parson's parents rob a bank in North Dakota to pay off some Native Americans.  The most implausible part is that no one takes the kids when the parents are arrested; they're just left there to fend for themselves even though they're 15.  I don't think that would happen even in 1960 in a small Montana town.  Most likely they'd have gone to the police station until a social worker could take them to an orphanage.  But anyway, the book is called Canada because Dell ends up in Saskatchewan, in an even worse town than the one in Montana.

The idea of fleeing to Canada to start a new life would have had a lot more impact back in 1968 or so with the Vietnam War in full swing and people going to Canada to avoid the draft.  In 2013 it comes off as quaint.

It's one of those novels too where the author uses a narrator who is probably the least interesting character in the book.  This only works when the characters around that character are far more interesting, which is just not the case here. (It's the case in Where You Belong by me.)

Anyway, for what it is the book is well written, but it really felt to me like a book out of time.  I suspect the only reason the book takes place so long in the past is that's the time period the author is familiar with as a teenager.  I think we're about at the point where a book taking place in 1960 would be considered "historical fiction" akin to a book about Henry VIII.  Sorry, septuagenarian authors but your golden days of yore are ancient history.

That is all.

Ronald Rabbit is a Dirty Old Man

Ronald Rabbit is a Dirty Old Man
by Lawrence Block
(5/5 Stars)

This is a good read for fans of "50 Shades of Grey." If you thought that book was groundbreaking, Block's novel came out in 1971. Do the math there. It's a huge departure from the crime novels of Block's I've read recently like "The Girl with the Long Green Heart," "Grifter's Game," and "Hit Man."

The story takes place through a series of letters, most written by one Laurence Clarke. On the same day Laurence's wife leaves him for his best friend, his bosses at his publisher finally figure out he's been "stowing away" in their company for the better part of a year, doing nothing but reading in his office all that time. It's like in "Office Space" where he was supposed to be fired but no one got around to telling him, so he just kept coming in and getting paid.

These devastating events turn out to be Laurence's liberation. While on a bender he meets a group of teenage girls who've snuck out of their Catholic school. What they end up doing would break a number of laws. Eventually he finds a new woman and woos her with some kinky sex. His greatest triumphs are at the end when he manages to play matchmaker for his ex-wives and best friend and in the process solve several dilemmas at once.

If you're prudish or squeamish it's easy to hate this novel. It's pretty graphic and descriptive about things like anal and oral sex. At the same time, Laurence is so delightfully cunning and "evil" that I enjoyed rooting for the "bad guy." And hey, if your sex life is lacking, there might be some good tips in there.

That is all.        

Passion Blue

Passion Blue
by Victoria Strauss
(3/5 stars)

I think the biggest problem with this book is that the author sets up a no-win scenario. Our main character can either give up all semblance of a "normal" life to stay in the convent where she can at least paint or she can give up painting to have a "normal" life with a guy we soon realize is a jerk. So when it gets to the end, neither option could really have been satisfying.

Which didn't bother me extremely much because she doesn't really deserve a happy ending. This is someone so dumb she spends her life savings to buy a "magic" talisman she thinks is guaranteed to find her a man to take care of her. And then even when it should be obvious the guy is a jerk, she still convinces herself he's not right up until the end.

As for the convent it seems more like summer camp or boarding school than an actual convent. The end also takes too long after we get to the foregone unsatisfying conclusion.

Overall it was competent but unsatisfying.

That is all.        

Toons Pt 1 - Bad Toon Rising

Toons Pt 1 - Bad Toon Rising
by Nigel Mitchell
(5/5 stars)

This is a hilarious spoof of Looney Tunes and other cartoons that's perfect for fans of those or Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I'm anxious to find out who the Masked Executive is and just how Krafty Wolf can stop him--if he can.

That is all.        

Cypress Lake

Cypress Lake
by Joe Basara
(4/5 stars)

I had this book on my To Read list for a while on Goodreads thanks to Ethan Cooper's marvelous review. Finally I decimated the virtual To Be Read pile on my Kindle enough that I decided to buy this. In part because it's less than a dollar and most big publisher books are eight to twelve times that much. I can at least say I got my dollar's worth.

Since the author likes to reference old TV shows, I find it appropriate to reference an old TV show, in this case "Scrubs" which ended only a couple years ago, so it isn't that old. Like that show this book takes place largely in a hospital and features a twentysomething main character who likes to daydream a lot and lust after his coworkers. Only Basara's book is a lot less wacky and sadly does not feature anyone as hilariously grumpy as Dr. Cox.

Though since this book takes place in 1977 a M*A*S*H reference might have been more appropriate. Actually I think that's one series the author doesn't manage to directly reference in the book. Anyway, Owen Cloud moves back to his old stomping grounds in rural Florida to work as an orderly at a hospital. He almost right away falls head over heels for one of his coworkers, but eventually moves on to another and then to what I'd call the "consolation prize" girl, the one who's been there all along but only at the end does Owen realize is available. (This is incidentally a trope I've used a number of times. Like this book for example: Virgin Territory)

Along the way Owen spends a lot of time daydreaming and philosophizing. The almost constant bombardment of literary quotes and TV/song references from the 50s-70s become irritating after a little while. They give the narrative an ADHD feel, as if the author can't focus on one scene so he keeps jumping from one tangent to another.

If you look past those there's a well-written book about small town life, coming of age, and finding love. Since it's apparently a debut effort it's not bad. If a little more focus were devoted to developing the story and characters and less to quotes and references, it would have the gritty small-town feel of a Richard Russo novel like Empire Falls.

Still for a buck you can do a lot worse.

That is all.        

Up So Down

Up So Down
by Briane Pagel
(5/5 stars)

I remember when I read "Breathing Lessons" by Anne Tyler what impressed me was that while the story didn't have much of a PLOT--a couple is on their way to a funeral--the author captured the normalcy of their lives so brilliantly that I was never bored with it. That's something Briane Pagel does so well in his previous book "The After" and in his latest "Up So Down." While the book doesn't have much of a PLOT, the author does such a great job to create real characters that it's still a great read.

The story focuses on two siblings. Sarah is a nurse in Madison, Wisconsin, whose fiance Peyton drowned before they could get marry. Her brother Dylan, aka Bumpy, has recently moved to Las Vegas where he starts a shop to sell photographs of the Vegas scenery while he works on a pilot for a television series.

That's really all there is to it. The rest of the book is more or less getting to know these characters and their histories. The book is told in a seemingly random fashion that jumps around over the course of a year or so to add pieces to the great big jigsaw puzzle that is the story. Although at the end it feels like there are still a couple of pieces missing to the puzzle. Maybe that will get resolved in a sequel. I hope so.

That is all.