So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish
(Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy #4)
by Douglas Adams
(4/5 stars)

I just spent a long weekend catching up on this series by reading books 2-4. I have to say I enjoyed "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" far more than I enjoyed the previous two books in the "increasingly inaccurate trilogy." The difference for me is that with this fourth novel Adams seems to take a far more focused approach to the story instead of running around like a kid in the toy aisle as he did in the second and third books. (And really I thought the end of the third novel was a huge cop-out that I could see coming from 93 million miles away.)

In the first book of the series, Earth was destroyed by the bureaucratic Vogons to make room for a hyperspace bypass, subsequently displacing Arthur Dent. Eight years later (for Arthur, not for anyone else) Arthur hitchhikes back to find Earth is back and the whole Vogon demolition chalked up to a mass hallucination caused by the CIA. The only difference is that the dolphins that disappeared before Earth's demise in the first book are still missing. When he comes back, Arthur gets a ride from a man who has a beautiful (albeit crazy) sister in the backseat whom Arthur is instantly smitten with, if only he can find her.

So what we have in this book is actually a sort of romance as Arthur tracks down the woman named Fenchurch for where she was conceived--that's one of those things that's probably funnier if you're British and have been to Fenchurch Station--and they fall in love. Then in the very rushed last couple chapters of the book they go off to visit Wonko the Sane, an expert on dolphins, and in search of God's Last Message to the Universe with the help of Ford Prefect and a giant robot who invades Earth to talk to our "lizards."

Overall, as I said in the beginning, I liked that with this book Adams focused almost exclusively on Arthur and thus we actually have a little bit of character development, which was sorely lacking in parts two and three. I only wish Adams would have taken a little more time with the ending as they get from Earth to this other place far too quickly. Maybe he could have broken it up into two books. But still it's the best in the series since the first one in my mind--others will disagree I'm sure.

On a final note, it doesn't sound like I want to read the fifth one as it sounds like Fenny is written off with little fanfare, thus rendering most of this book moot. What a shame that is.

That is all.

A Million Little Pieces

A Million Little Pieces

by James Frey

(3/5 stars)

I finally decided to read this long after the Oprah controversy died out. Unless you've been under the proverbial rock there's no need to explain all that, except to mention that while it was originally published as nonfiction, we've since found out it is to some (if not most) extent fiction. As some kind of compromise, my library reshelved it in the substance abuse section, but you can still see the sticker from when it was in the biography section.

My take on the controversy is I never cared if he did lie or not. The validity of opinions aren't whether they happen or not. As a great fiction writer taught me, it's not whether the book is true as in it happened, so much as if it's true in spirit. The problem then with Frey's fictitious biography is its increasing phoniness as he falls in love and becomes the Chosen One with the power of resisting addiction without the Twelve Steps or any of that AA noise.

The story (how much is real or not depends on what Web sites you visit, I'm sure) is that after going on a monster bender in the wake of being dumped--and in the process badly mangling his face--his family gets him into a world-renowned treatment center. His first days are especially brutal as he undergoes drug therapy and then has two root canals with no anesthetic. (If you've have a root canal WITH anesthetic then you have to get the chills thinking about that.) Frey never goes along with the AA program or Twelve Steps because he doesn't believe in God. Instead he relies on the Chinese Tao, intestinal fortitude, and love with another patient named Lilly. Since dating between patients is forbidden they have to see each other in The Clearing on the QT. I doubt I'm spoiling anything by saying he survives the rehab and eventually gets out--how else could he have gone on Oprah 15 years later?

I was really interested in the opening third or so of the book as he begins recovery and his body starts to heal. For me things began to go downhill when Leonard the mobster (who is prominently featured in the even more preposterous-sounding sequel) convinces Frey to stay in treatment in a scene right out of Hollywood. That Frey worked as a screenwriter makes sense with the mobster cliche and especially the cute hooker with a heart of gold cliche in Lilly. Say what you want, but I didn't believe either of them existed, at least not in that way.

The whole secret love affair struck me as especially false, the kind of thing a Hollywood screenwriter would put in to make the story more attractive to women. By the time he rescues her from a crack house I was shaking my head with disbelief. And when one of the treatment center workers tells him afterwards that "he shouldn't have been able to do that" I snorted with derision. "What is he, Neo or Blade or Ghost Rider or something?" I was thinking to myself--not in those exact words, of course. Then we have to suffer through the predictable farewells and the final scene in the bar.

No one in this book, not even James Frey himself, seemed like a real person to me. They all seemed like characters and that's where the book fails. Whether it's fiction or nonfiction, a story like this has to have people who seem real or it doesn't work. As for the overall message, in the end it seems as simple as "Just Say No," which I'm sure most people battling some form of addiction seems too simplistic.

I walk away from this disappointed not that Frey didn't tell the truth about what actually happened, but that he didn't tell the truth in spirit.

That is all.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

by Dave Eggers

(5/5 stars)

When I recently read Kerouac's "On the Road" I lamented that I read it too late in life for it to really change my life. "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" on the other hand I read at the exact right time. If I'd read it five years earlier or five years later I would have been out of touch with the material.

The book opens (after the preface, which you can read or not--I skipped it) with Dave Eggers's mother dying of cancer. At the same time his father also has some kind of cancer, though this was a little less clear. After both parents succumb to their illness, the Eggers clan moves from their dull little Chicago suburb--the kind of place immortalized in John Hughes movies where the most exciting event was Mr. T moving in--to the Left Coast. Older brother Bill moves to LA where Dave, his sister Beth, and younger brother Christopher (called Toph) go to San Francisco. Because Bill is busy with work and Beth has school, Dave ends up caring for Toph.

In a Hollywood version it would probably end up like "Mr. Mom" or "Mrs. Doubtfire" at this point with lots of slapstick as a slacker twentysomething has to care for a 10-year-old boy. In reality (or what's more or less reality) they live like college roommates in semi-squalor, constantly running late to various appointments. In general Toph is a good kid who doesn't create much trouble for Dave--doesn't start running with a gang or shooting drugs or torturing small animals. Not that it's all a breeze; most of the trouble is caused by trying to convince various private schools and such that Dave is Toph's guardian.

Dave does temp jobs in graphic design while also working for "Might Magazine," an upstart youth culture magazine that like all of Gen X in the early-mid-'90s launches a futile rebellion for no real reason. (Come on, what the heck were we rebelling against with the grunge and Nirvana? I have no idea, really.) They pull stunts like try to audition for the "Real World" (when reality TV was a new concept) and fake the death of the kid from "Eight is Enough." From all appearances the magazine is never really that successful. I have a slight bit of knowledge in this area and know how tough it is, especially in this age where everyone can have a blog or website.

What I think really resonates at this point is the experience of not just growing up, but your family growing up and growing apart. As a kid, most of us don't put too much thought into our parents always being there, but as we get older we realize our parents are all too human and prone to the same weaknesses as anyone else. At the same time, the siblings you used to spend so much time with eventually move away and develop lives of their own that you no longer are much of a part of and in time can become almost like strangers. But the good thing about "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" is that Eggers never gets too weepy or maudlin to make the experience dreary or dull. Instead, his almost surreal descriptions tinge even the darkest moments like a friend in a coma and another who attempts suicide with dark humor. Dave's neurotic inner-life reminds me of a less-sexual "Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth, only it's more or less real, which is more amazing.

It might be interesting to read this book in five years and see how much it still resonates with me, or if by then this book and I grow apart as well. Wait and see.

That is all.

A Dirty Job

A Dirty Job

by Christopher Moore

(3/5 stars)

I think there's a reason the more humorous books I've read like "Slaughterhouse-Five" or "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" are around 200 pages. If it goes on much longer than that, the plot becomes too ridiculous and the bit overdone like an SNL sketch that goes on for fifteen minutes. So maybe if "A Dirty Job" would have wrapped about 200 pages earlier I would have enjoyed it more.

The book is about Charlie Asher, Beta Male (Betas are the nerds to the Alpha Male jocks in "Revenge of the Nerds"), whose wife dies after giving birth. Charlie sees someone in the room, someone no one else can see and because of this and perhaps other reasons, he becomes a Death Merchant. If you only skim the book jacket and Amazon descriptions you might think this is about Charlie Asher becoming the Grim Reaper and having to perform the functions of Death--the sort of thing that's been done before recently on "Family Guy" and "The Simpsons" for popular culture examples. That's not what a Death Merchant does; what exactly a Death Merchant does is a little unclear. They go to the houses of those who are dead or dying and take glowing objects that contain the person's soul. Then they wait to sell the object to someone else and perhaps the soul will transfer to that person. (Don't ask me to get into the logical and philosophical dynamics of this. The less said, the better.)

Complicating things are the Forces of Darkness, who are shadowy raven-women called the Morrigan. (What Celtic spirits of the underworld are doing in San Francisco is another matter best not contemplated. You'd think they'd be in New York or Boston or somewhere with a higher percentage of Irish descendants, but maybe they wanted to retire somewhere warmer?) The Morrigan want to steal the souls and use them to gain all their old powers and take over the world. Charlie, together with a Goth girl who works for him at his second-hand store, a huge black man named Minty Fresh, and an army of critters pieced together from animal carcasses must do battle with the Underworld to save humanity! (You see what I mean about this getting ridiculous yet?)

The book does at least retain its sense of humor throughout, with some snappy banter between the characters. Though, really, the Goth girl, the lesbian sister dressing in Charlie's clothes, and Asian neighbor who wants to eat all of Charlie's pets are a little stale. And the Arab who starts screaming "Death to the infidel!" when he finds out one of Charlie's dogs is named Mohammad might be racially offensive.

The absolute worst thing about this book is that it employs a phenomenon often seen on TV and movies. (I remember reading about it last year but can't remember the exact term. I think it even has a Wikipedia page.) That is, the plot depends on our hero being an idiot and overlooking the obvious for about 300 pages and five years. You can figure out the big plot twist on who is the book's Neo, The Chosen One, by the first third of the novel. If you can't stare long and hard at the cover and maybe the answer will come to you. But Charlie, because the plot depends on it, can't figure this out, nor can any of his friends. There's not much worse when you get to the dramatic conclusion and already know how it's going to turn out, so that even as Charlie is battling the Forces of Darkness in an epic struggle and you're thinking, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, just get to it already."

There are one or two serious thoughts on death that are interesting. Nothing too sappy or morose to drag down the book's light tone. The book just goes on for too long with our hero being unaware of the obvious, so while it's entertaining enough, it wears out its welcome.

That is all.

Housekeeping

Housekeeping

by Marilynne Robinson

(2/5 stars)

Having already read books like "A Thousand Acres," "The Blind Assassin," and "The Stone Diaries" I thought I'd be well-equipped to handle this book. I was wrong. I hadn't prepared myself for a book this dull with characters this bland and opaque.

The story takes place in a western town called Fingerbone and is told by Ruthie. Ruthie's grandfather brought his family to Fingerbone in the search for adventure, solitude, and serenity in the mountains. Instead, the grandfather winds up dying in a train accident so that his three daughters are raised alone by his wife in their house. The daughters sit around braiding each other's hair and baking cookies and reading. (The excitement is killing me!) The oldest daughter Molly goes off to China as a missionary and never returns. The middle daughter Helen marries a man and has two daughters--Ruthie and Lucille--in Seattle. The youngest girl Sylvie marries a man as well but soon disappears and generally lives like a hobo.

Then one day Helen returns with her daughters to Fingerbone. After leaving Ruthie and Lucille with the grandma, Helen drives the car she borrowed from a cliff--does the owner's insurance cover that? Since the other sisters have vanished, the grandma takes over raising Ruthie and Lucille for a few years, where they braid hair, bake cookies, and read. When the grandmother dies, two nervous aunts take over the braiding, baking, and reading until the excitement of small town life and raising these two handfuls (please take note of the sarcasm) becomes too much for them. Fortunately by this time they've gotten word to Sylvie, who shows up to care for Ruthie and Sylvie.

Now things really shift into overdrive where the braiding and baking is replaced by fishing and ice skating and camping out at the lake. Sylvie remains mysterious and is prone to some hobo ways like saving tin cans and old magazines and sometimes sleeping on a park bench. Lucille, though the younger child, matures faster and wants a more normal life. This creates a rift between her and the less-mature Ruthie as well as Sylvie.

I think you can tell from my sarcastic plot summary that I really didn't find much entertainment value here. The writing is pretty enough, but there's not much happening in the story of interest. At the end I was left trying to find the "why" in this story, as in why Sylvie was the way she was and why she'd left her husband and so forth. I never think it's good when I have more questions AFTER reading the book than before.

Anyway, I didn't think any of the books I mentioned at the beginning were all that exciting either, though "Blind Assassin" at least had more mysterious elements to keep my interest. "Housekeeping" is just another bland coming-of-age family saga that's as dull and dreary as the fog-shrouded railroad tracks on the cover--and they say you can't judge a book by its cover, ha!

That is all.

Fight Club

Fight Club

by Chuck Palahniuk

(4/5 stars)

This is one of those books I read solely out of that sick curiosity that makes people crane their necks in the car to see an accident on the highway. I'm not sure entirely what I thought I would find, except a lot of guys whaling on each other. What I found is a modern Marxian fairy tale of alienation and the class struggle in America.

The unnamed narrator is just your Average Joe with a boring, menial office job of calculating via a sick formula whether his car manufacturing company should issue recalls or not--this formula does not take ethics or morals into account. He lives in a generic high-rise condo with lots of generic IKEA furniture. And he increasingly cannot sleep. As a way to combat his loneliness and despair, Average Joe goes to various support groups and fakes having whatever disease, whether it's blood parasites or testicular cancer. It's at one of these meetings that he meets Marla Singer, whom he reviles for horning in on his action.

Then one day on the beach he meets Tyler Durden. They become fast friends and then one day at a bar Tyler asks Average Joe to punch him as hard as he can. This leads to the founding of "fight club." The first rule of fight club is you don't talk about fight club, which is also the second rule. Anyway, in fight club two guys beat each other up until one yields or is knocked unconscious. (Surprisingly no one ever dies.) This changes Average Joe's whole perspective of the world, so that he starts coming into work with black eyes and a hole in his cheek and so forth. But just fighting is not enough for Tyler, who soon begins grooming the men of fight club into a terrorist organization to carry out Project Mayhem. This leads to the ultimate confrontation between Tyler and Average Joe--if you've watched or even heard about the movie then you probably already know the big plot twist.

I seem to recall a lot of people in the media going on about how fight club was about regaining lost masculinity in the modern world and so forth. Pshaw! That may be a part of it, but as I said in the beginning, this is a Marxian fairy tale about the proletariat discovering the strength to rise up against the bourgeois to level out the playing field. If you disagree, you need only to think about who's in fight club. Men, certainly, but what kind of men? Waiters, mechanics, bus drivers, office drones, beat cops, and others slaving away at boring, dead-end, low-paying jobs. The targets of Project Mayhem are high-rise buildings, expensive hotels, ATMs, and other symbols of wealth and class in modern civilization.

This book is written in a jumbled, schizophrenic style that can make this a difficult read at times. There is some blood and gore, but perhaps not as much fighting as I would have expected. There's also some perhaps stomach-turning descriptions about how to render human fat into soap and some descriptions of various genitalia that Tyler splices into movies, so this is not for the faint of heart! At just about 200 pages it shouldn't take you much longer to read the book than to watch the movie, which I still haven't done.

If you like your Marxism with a little blood and gore, then this book's for you.

That is all...

Bonfire of the Vanities

Bonfire of the Vanities
by Tom Wolfe
(4/5 stars)

In all 31 flavors of "Law and Order on TV, the NYPD and DA's office disposes of a case from the incident to the trial in an hour—sometimes two if it's a two-part episode. In"Bonfire of the Vanities" Tom Wolfe does the same thing in about 700pages. That's because Wolfe brings to bear all the complexities of trying a case in the real world.

In the mid-1980s, Sherman McCoy is a bond salesman at Pierce& Pierce, a self-described "Master of the Universe" with a three million-dollar apartment on Park Avenue, a wife who spends thousands on decorating it, a six-year-old daughter who attends a pricey private school, and a mistress named Maria Ruskin, who herself is wealthy from marrying a much-older man. One night Sherman goes to pick Maria up at the airport and their Mercedes Benz becomes lost on the seedy streets of the Bronx. They're approached by two black kids, and from there the "Master of the Universe"becomes an unwitting pawn of a black "reverend" hungry for publicity, a drunken British reporter hungry for a story, and a Bronx DA hungry for re-election. Because in the real world,cases aren't solved in an hour and "justice" is a game won or lost based on who can cheat the most and get away with it.

Like an ancient Greek tragedy, McCoy has to pay for his hubris. So do some of the other characters, although others are seemingly rewarded for their bad behavior. This is certainly not a novel of white hats and black hats where the good guys triumph and the bad guys get their just reward. If you want that, you'd better stick to the TV.

What Wolfe does so well with this book is to paint the "big picture" of New York City in the 1980s with its melting pot of Irish, Italians,Jews, blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Wasps. All of these rival factions collide with the McCoy case to depict not just the justice system, but society as a whole. It's an unflattering image to say the least, even viewed through the prism of satire. More importantly,the image of black against white and rich against poor is still applicable today in America's major cities. That makes Wolfe's book as relevant today as it was back in the '80s.

Wolfe's writing itself can get a little tedious and long-winded at times. There are so manynuances and complexities and tangents going on throughout the book. While these provide richness and depth, at some point it becomes overkill. The stuff about the mayor and the Episcopal Church was interesting, but not really necessary. As well there are…so many ellipses…and exclamation points! It can be a little irritating after 700 pages.

Still, it's a relatively minor flaw in what is a great book that even at 700 pages shouldn't take too long to read because it's so funny and clever that it's hard to put down. I had previously read Wolfe's "Man in Full" that came out ten years after "Bonfire of the Vanities" and has many of the similar themes of race,class, and a rich man in legal peril, though it takes place in Atlanta instead of New York. I'd recommend that book as well.

As for the 1990 movie of "Bonfire of the Vanities" it pretty much makes every critic's worst list, so I wouldn't recommend that. The movie does stick to at least most of the book's main points. In its defense, it would be impossible to depict all the subtleties and nuances of Wolfe's novel on the big screen. Trying to adapt it really was an impossible mission.

That is all…