Charisma, or historical fiction done cleverly

I have begun to think that the historical novel is a difficult genre to pull off. It requires much research on the part of the writer, especially when the novel deals with real people. If you have a character sitting on a couch with his wife on a sunny day, you need to make damn sure that 1. your charcter had a wife 2. couches existed during that time period 3. your character was of the correct socioeconomic bracket to have a couch and 4. it wasn't one of those freak years when there wasn't much of a summer.

Then, you have to make the people involved come to life. Your audience could go to any number of nonfiction books for a simple accounting a famous person's life. But those often leave out the big question of why, since it's something that can mostly only be speculated on. The Rag And Bone Shop, by Jeff Rackham, does a good job of making the characters sing. The book is about Charles Dickens, but he is almost more of a force in the lives of the three tellers of the story than a full-fledged character.

The plot is simple enough. The book is about Charles Dickens' affair with actress Ellen Ternan. Few hard facts are known about it, as they took such great care to keep it quiet. We hear the story from Dickens' friend, fellow writer Wilkie Collins; Dickens' devoted sister-in-law Georgina Hogarth; and Ellen herself. Fascinating, gothic characters lurk around the edges of the tale. There's Dickens' wife Catherine, who shuts herself up in her bedroom for days on end. There's Collins' girlfriend Caroline, with many names, many pasts, and a daughter she introduces as her niece. There's the creepy Joseph Clow, who lives among hundreds of guinea pigs and leaves poorly spelled poems (and one on occasion, a dead guinea pig) on Caroline's doorstep.

The three tellers of the tale are interesting in their own right. All three are very different from one another, in social standing and temperment, but their interests in the tale are the same. Each believes that they alone know the true Dickens who was at that point adored by an entire nation. Each believes themselves to be special to one who society venerates as being special. In this book about his life, Charles Dickens is not so much a character as a force, and as the the lens through which each views their own life. Yet, it provides enough detail that Dickens fans will enjoy it too. This one was worth the late fines!

An Artist's Life

I'd checked out a novel on Peter Bruegel, As Above, So Below, once before and nearly got a perma-ban because I kept it so long, without reading the thing. I had better luck this time.

The book uses Bruegel's works to talk about his life, and each one makes up a heading for a chapter. I had done my aborted colonial reading thing around this time last year, so a look at Holland before that era began was interesting to me. The author (who I don't remember, and I already returned the book) did use a Cheap Animal Trick not once, but twice, to illustrate imperial oppression, but it was effective. I didn't know much about Bruegel as an artist, so I did learn a lot from the book. If any of you are considering this one, I'd suggest taking a book of Bruegel's paintings out of the library as well -- the plates in this one are in black and white, and suck anyway.

I've put off writing about this one simply because it's one of those that I don't have much to say about. It simply is what it is, no more or less than what you'd expect, neither terribly emotionally moving nor a total wasteland; neither incredibly informative nor devoid of detail. I wouldn't steer anyone towards this, nor would I warn against reading it. If it interests you, go for it. If not, well, I doubt that reading it will change your mind.

When magic misses the mark

I recently picked up The Alchemyst at Central. It piqued my curiosity because it was all about Nicholas Flamel and his wife Perenelle, who made an off-stage appearance in the first Harry Potter book. I had no idea they were real people or even established mythological figures, so I checked out the book partially to find out which.

My disappointment is probably evident from the title of the post. The story centers around teenaged twins Sophie and Josh Newman, who get sucked into the centuries-old battle between the Flamels and a man named John Dee. Josh works for Nick and Perry (as they've styled themselves in the 21st century) at the bookstore they own; Sophie works at the coffee shop across the street. The battle (briefly) is over control of the Codex of Abraham the Mage, which is a copper-bound book that is part instructional and part prophetic. The Witch of Endor, Bastet, Heckate and the Morrigan all have their roles to play in the tale, as do some less familiar figures, such as the mythological female warrior Scathach.

By all rights, it should've been a compelling tale, but it just didn't have that X-factor. I finished it while I was riding home from a wedding across the state, so I've had plenty of time to ruminate on its shortcomings, and I think it lies with the characters. The Harry Potter books can trace much of their success to its character development. True, there are a few cardboard cutouts in there, but at least they're archetypes. You look at Draco Malfoy and you see the snotty rich kids who used to make fun of your Payless sneakers. You see in Fred and George the class clown that you would've had somewhat of a crush on but could never quite take seriously. Cho Chang was the one you desired without really even knowing anything about. But you just can't warm up to Josh and Sophie, or even to Nick, Perry, Scathach or the others, in any way, shape or form.

The book teems with emotions, but they're shown, not described. You know Josh is hurt and angry because the text says "Josh felt hurt and angry," when showing him slamming the door or kicking a pebble would've conveyed the message. The twins are so passive it's hard to feel anything for them. They get caught up in the saga and continue to essentially do as they're told without questioning it. They're so slow to cotton on to some things that it angers the reader (quick, tell me what you think of an island known as Danu Talis that sunk beneath the ocean in ancient times? ever hear a story like that anywhere else bfore?). You get a bit bored waiting for them to play catch-up, and you've read enough similar books to know how it will all turn out anyway.

Actually, there was one surprise waiting for me at the end. It turns out that the author intends to make this a franchise, and apparently has part of the next book already written. No doubt, the author is seeing dollar signs and a movie deal in his future. Whenever anything new becomes popular, it always spawns a variety of imitators. Nirvana and Pearl Jam had their Candlebox and Stone Temple Pilots, and so the renewed interest in J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the success of J.K Rowling and Phillip Pullman have spawned much new work in the fantasy genre. But if you're in search of the next Harry Potter, you can cross The Alchemyst off your list of hopefuls.

Promised and Delivered

Nearly every book you encounter comes with gushy blurbs on the back cover, the first few pages, the book jacket, or in all three places. "The best book this year!" "Wildly inventive!" "An astonishing new voice!" Most readers learn to take these with a grain of salt before they leave the primary grades. However, Jonathan Barnes' The Somnambulist actually lives up to its hype, and then some. It really is "inventive and often witty" (Observer, U.K) and it truly does "make the familiar daringly unfamiliar" (Jeff VanderMeer). And yeah, you should "remember the name Jonathan Barnes," as the book jacket itself advises.

The book was terrific, every reader's dream. It is a sort of fantasy/thriller/detective novel set in Victorian London. At the start of the novel, we have our protagonist, Edward Moon, preparing to take the stage for his nightly performance. Edward Moon is a detective and magician, quite past his prime, who performs his nightly show with his partner, The Somnambulist of the title (a mute giant who does not bleed when stabbed). But he longs for the glory days, when he was a fixture of society and a well-known detective. The wish for one last great case has nearly passed into pure fantasy when the last great case explodes into his life with a vengeance. Along the way, there are such jewels as the Freak Brothel and the man who lived backwards. I highly reccommend this one. It's original, inventive and entertaining, with many amazing elements and no small dose of humor. Check it out, if you can find it.

Booking through...err...Saturday

Before the panel this week:

Quick! It’s an emergency! You just got an urgent call about a family emergency and had to rush to the airport with barely time to grab your wallet and your passport. But now, you’re stuck at the airport with nothing to read. What do you do??

And, no, you did NOT have time to grab your bookbag, or the book next to your bed. You were . . . grocery shopping when you got the call and have nothing with you but your wallet and your passport (which you fortuitously brought with you in case they asked for ID in the ethnic food aisle). This is hypothetical, remember….

I kind of don't get this question...wouldn't nearly everyone just go to the airport bookstore and pick something up? Hell, I've done that even when I'm packing a perfectly adequate selection. I'm hoping to never have to face this, at any rate, as I plan to pick a book fairly soon and designate it my "emergency book" to keep in my car. You know, in case I plant my car in a ditch and have to wait for Triple A to winch me out (happened!), or wind up with a long wait for an appointment somewhere (happened too), or wind up staying over somewhere when I didn't plan to (also happened, although that night turned out to be pretty interesting without a book, but anyway). The only hang-up is which book to designate. I'm leaning towards
On the Road by Kerouac, as I'm not terribly likely anymore to need it inside, but still like it a lot. Do any of you have an emergency book, and what is it?

A TBR Vanquished and a decision made

The decision in question? I do like Tom Perrotta. I had found his previous books to be uneven at best. While I had absoultely loved Little Children, Joe College didn't do much of anything for me.

His newest book, The Abstinence Teacher, was terrific. It's smart and funny, and a good critique of the evangelistic movement without being too judgemental or preachy. The central figures in the book are both abstaining from sex, although neither really by choice. Ruth is the Abstinence Teacher in question, and has been divorced (and celibate) for two years. She landed in hot water with the administration after a student baited her about oral sex in class and she was amoral enough to admit that "some people like it." The student was a member of an evangelical church in town and used the comment to cause a huge uproar, resulting in the institution of an abstinence-only sex-ed "curriculum."

Tim is not actually her adversary in all of this, but represents another side of the story. He is, himself, a member of this evangelical church. He's also a former addict who struggles daily with the desire to drink and do drugs again. He misses the wild times, the women, the rock bands he used to play in, the card games, all that stuff. He also misses his ex-wife, who's moved on, and their daughter, who he only gets to see once a week. He married a younger Christian woman who doesn't turn him on the way his ex-wife used to, causing real problems throughout the relationship. A bright spot in his life is coaching his daughter's soccer team. Ruth's daughter plays for the same team, and their lives collide when Ruth catches him leading the girls in prayer after a particularly emotional game.

Unlike the other three Perrotta books I read, this one ends on a hopeful note. There's plenty of sorrow throughout the book: Ruth's palpable loneliness, Tim's feeling of being lost, the pain he causes others, the life that's slipping away from Ruth. There's also some very funny moments. I particularly liked the part where Ruth got sent for a "refresher" in the Wise Choices For Teens program. I definitely recommend this one, especially if you feel the way I do about things like abstinence-only "education" (seriously, remember how well the "Just Say No" campaign worked for drug addiction? see how no one does drugs anymore?) and the way the Christian Right has taken over this country. Get it if you can: it took me several tries at Central before I found it in.

The Unluckiest Man in Upstate New York

The last time I went to the library, I was on a nonfiction tear. After the haul of lackluster novels, I thought I'd try some nonfiction. Then I didn't. I got about a quarter of the way into a book on the Black Dahlia murder and never picked it back up, or any of the other books. While my library sends me increasingly angry emails ("Please return the following at once!") I've been reading an old favorite, Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo.

I first read this book in graduate school and have since come to believe that I've located all of the inspirations in Upstate New York for the fictional upstate New York town of Bath, where this book is set. The geographic location of it -- about a half hour north of Albany near the Northway, in proximity to a wealthier town -- would put it where Ballston Spa is located, its wealthy, tourist-destination sister city being Saratoga Springs. Yet, I think the idea of the economically depressed former tourist magnate came from the haunting town of Sharon Springs further west, with its large, palatial, abandoned mineral bath hotels (I also think some of the inspiration for Disney's Tower of Terror came from here, too). Finally, I think the inspiration for the subplot about the proposed amuseument park came from the expansion and rebranding of the Great Escape in Lake George.

Knowing all of these places fairly well makes me feel an intimate connection with the story, but Russo's characters are so terrific that you can't help but feel that anyway. He has a knack for making them feel both ordinary and extraordinary. They're not "colorful" in a manufactured way, but they seem like real people with complexities, eccentricities, pasts, hopes and dreams. This is a holiday story, starting on the day before Thanksgiving and wrapping up around New Year's. It chronicles the life of Sully -- Don Sullivan, mid-50s, long-divorced, in a long-term affair, renting a flat from his eighth-grade English teacher and working under the table for a local construction magnate and tomcat.

Sully is, at heart, a lone wolf, who's drifted through life largely without strings. That's his own position, and the surface evidence seems to support it. He owns nothing but a beat-up pickup truck. He has no profession. He's been having an affair with the same woman for twenty years, but she's not really his. He has a son from his marriage, but he's not close to him. Yet, the more you read, the more you see how connected he is to everyone in town, and even to the poeple in his own life. By the end of the book, he begins to see this too. You also get glimpses into his past that explain his aggressive avoidance of ties.

This is really Sully's story, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the other principal in this story. Sully's landlady, Miss Beryl, was Jessica Tandy's last role in the film version and a moving character in the book. She's probably in her late eighties, and few fiction writers seem to want to take on writing from the point of view of an elderly character (this book is written from an omniscient point of view). Russo handles it deftly. Miss Beryl struggles with her own mortality and her increasing physical limitations. She struggles with her feelings about her grown son, and whether they represent more of an accurate assessment or are a harbinger of failing faculties. She struggles with her conflicting desires to remain a part of society and her disgust with that same society after having seen a lifetime of it. Empire Falls gets more attention, but this is far and away my favorite Richard Russo book.