Author Archives: bookdwarf

Is the Booker Prize going the way of the Oscars?

The longlist for the Booker prize was announced yesterday and already some people are in a tizzy over authors left off the list. The favorites so far are David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (yay!) and Allan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty. Frankly, I am not sure if the Booker carries as much weight as it once did. There are so many literary prizes out there and last year’s winner DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little was sort of shocking. Are they turning into the Oscar’s, where it is less the movie movie, more of who the actor is and have they won before or been slighted in previous years, i.e. Ron Howard or Denzel Washington? We shall see I guess when the shortlist is announced on the September 21st and the winner on October 19th.
(Thanks to Bookslut for the links!)

Random boring thoughts

Rather than bore you with info on books (I am still reading the same two books, if you can believe it. They are very good, but very long. And I am distracted by the Olympics each night, so I am not reading as much.) I will tell you about the great afternoon I had yesterday. I don’t know if many people know what the weather is like in New England, except those of you who live here. Generally, we seem to get a lot of extremes. Hot and humid summers and cold as hell winters with nice mild springs and falls. but this week has been particularly delightful—-70’s and sunny. Yesterday was so fucking nice that I couldn’t concentrate on work. Indeed, sitting outside for lunch gave me a taste of what I was missing sitting in my dark office hunched over the computer. Okay, I wasn’t really hunched, but casually perched in my chair in front of the computer and the office is fairly bright. Regardless, I decided to escape early and walk home. On the way, I decided to get some ice cream. Now, another thing you may not know is that Bostonians love, I mean love, ice cream. This may seem antithetical to our natures, what with the 5 months of hard cold dank winter we deal with here. You think Chicago is windy? They got nothing on us. We still regard ice cream as the best dessert ever. So I trotted over to Herrell’s on the way home. And had a scoop of the most delicious ice cream ever—Peanut Butter Swirl with Cookie Dough. A scrimptious vanilla with peanut butter swirled in and chunks of cookie dough. So I ate that and walked in the beautiful sunshine home. I didn’t even mind when the bus almost ran me over.

TMI

This will probably be too much info for most folks (all 2 of you who visit here), but for lack of anything new and exciting to relate to you, I will just tell you anyway. First, one thing you must know about me is my dislike of the color pink. I don’t care for it. I am a girl who does not like pink. Last night, my dear boyfriend included a red shirt in our laundry. Thank god mostly his clothes were ruined. His underwear and t-shirts came out an evenly colored bright pink. I am talking cotton candy pink. Hahahah. And a few of my things did as well. Everytime I have gone into the bathroom today, it still shocks me. Pink! Argh!

You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon

The first thing I have to say about Dan Chaon’s book is wow. I finished reading this on the subway last night and I almost missed my stop as I was in a sort of stupor having just finished it. The most prevalent themes in the book are identity and fate and how they all come about and this is probably what hit me the most. The final paragraph alone sent me into a tailspin (it reveals nothing to print it here):

She just wants a second chance, she thinks. She just wants to be able to think a moment before she takes another step into her life, to pause and trace along the edges of the people that she might become, but already they are putting a plastic mask over her face, already they are talking to her about breathing and bearing down, and she doesn’t know what she wants yet. She doesn’t know.

Chaon’s story follows 3 characters bound through blood, chance and their search for something more. Nora, spiraling into mental illness, deals with the pain of giving away her illegitimate baby. Her second son Jonah instead receives both his mother’s love and bitterness. After the family dog attacks him, Jonah is scarred forever with wounds on the outside and inside. When his mother commits suicide, he leaves in search of his half-brother. The older sibling Troy Timmens, a bartender and sometime drug dealer, has a son of his own, Loomis. Troy means well and always seems to be contemplating another life. Alas, he lacks the will to change his fate. His brother’s sudden appearance in his life will however change things.
Chaon tells the story through flashbacks and flashforwards, raising the tension as you puzzle through the various relationships. He has a real gift for creating characters searching for something else, though what the ‘else’ is never seems tangible.

Listen to me bitch for a sec

Reading about Tingle Alley’s most recent trip to the local bookstore, I couldn’t help but be jealous. Why you ask? Well, as much as I love my job working at a bookstore, it takes the fun out of browsing. I can’t remember the last time I browsed in a bookstore! If I go down to the floor of my own store, I get asked questions by pesky customers or booksellers. But I feel like a traitor going to other stores. My only solace sometimes is to go into the Used department which is luckily in the basement. I shouldn’t complain I realize. I get free books and can borrow books from the store. But one of the joys I used to take part in years ago was spending long hours on hot summer afternoons perusing books in the store. Okay, everyone feel sorry for me. Boohoo.

Yes, I wear shoes.

Two of the things you get used to when you tell people you are from the South are the stupid questions and the automatic assumptions. From the age of 9 until I graduated high school at 18, I lived in the Deep South—Alabama to be more precise. I moved there from a small town in Connecticut in 1984, when my father was out of work. The only job he could find was in Alabama. So my whole family packed up. I can’t say I loved all of it, but it is where I lived. At least I have the perspective of having lived in two completely different areas of the U.S. At least they seem different on the surface. Sure, the people talk a little more slowly and they seem more friendly. But to use the cliché People are people. No matter where you go, people are basically the same. That’s why when I read Maud’s post yesterday I felt I had to put in my two cents as well.

Maud takes umbrage with Charles Simic’s article in the most recent New York Review of Books, an essay titled ‘Down There on a Visit‘. And she was not the only one. The Morning News’s Clay Risen, from Nashville, wrote a great response to Simic’s article. And I just found Jeff of Syntax of Things response, which is eloquently written. We (and whomever else has read Simic’s article and hails from the South I suspect) feel like Simic already had his mind made up about the South even before he went on his two week trip through Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.

I agree that the South is not perfect. Changes still need to be made. But so don’t things elsewhere. The South is not the only area of the country where racism exists unfortunately. Simic talks about the mostly white enclave Fairhope, Alabama, a wealthy artists’ community. It was founded in 1884 as a model community where land was a cooperative and free from private monopolies. Now it is an upscale resort, writes Simic, where the citizens do not notice the growing disparity between rich and poor. Honestly, you can name a hundred towns like that all over the U.S. that sound just like that. Nantucket isn’t exactly a social paradise, where everyone is treated equally rich or poor.

It is not that I disagree with what Simic sees on his trip. It is just the paint he uses to make his picture, to use a poor metaphor. He talks as if nothing has changed down South, while the rest of the country has evolbed into some sort of utopia. He does acknowledge that New Hampshire has it’s share of heartless politicians. But he is also quick to say that the New Hampshire politicians don’t “invoke God as they go about ensuring that the poor stay poor”. And he mentions that Americans as of late have been voting against their own self interests, caring more about ‘family values’, guns, and the teaching of evolution. “They squabble, as they did on Alabama recently, over whether the Ten Commandments ought to be posted in a courthouse while the education of their children continues to be underfunded and their overcrowded public schools are violent and dangerous places.” See only in Alabama do they the ignorant parents fight over religion when there are more pressing issues at hand. Only in the South are people so obsessed with religion and guns. Yeah. Only in the South.

I am sure if I not been white, my experience would have been different. But the South tries. And I don’t find things much better up here in New England either. Boston is segregated still too. There is much racism in this city. And in other cities across the U.S. Why then does Simic and other authors continue to portray the South as this backwards region populated with ignorant but friendly folk (they are always friendly they make sure to say)? Why do people I know talk about being scared of the South? Scared of getting harassed or something? They are bad assumptions that continue to endure because people like Simic continue to write articles like ‘Down there on a Visit’. Risen is correct when he says the most of the readers of Simic’s article won’t be shocked. Rather, it will be affirming what most of them believe already, what they have been taught.

I doubt anything I say here will make much of a dent in the South’s poor reputation. I suppose I just want people to know that its not that bad. And why Southerners always seem to be on the defensive. We just get so much crap from everyone. Take a look at where you grew up. Is that much different? I didn’t think so.

A kid who watches the O’Reilly factor is just sad.

Publishers Weekly has an article on kids’ books written by the political pundits. And of course The O’Reilly Factor for Kids was mentioned. Apparently, Bill feels that American adults “have failed their children abysmally”. The content was determined by kids themselves. “We made a one-time request on the air, asking kids to send us an e-mail about what is really bothering them.”

Another rave review

Adam Begley gives Cloud Atlas a thorough review a the NY Observer. Thanks to CAAF for the link.
I love this book. I can’t wait to reread it as soon as I get my copy back. It is one of the best books that I have read in a long time. People will say it is difficult or that David Mitchell uses too much verbal trickery. Some will claim that Mitchell too badly wants to tell an interesting story in a different and interesting way and he relies too heavily on hijinks and textual play (for an interesting discussion on this see here). I say this is nonsense. Mitchell has written 6 short stories that connect. If you have the ability to start reading a short story, put it down ,and go back to it sometime later, then Cloud Atlas shouldn’t pose too much of a problem. Yes, he creates two different dialects, but they are not hard to follow. Perhaps this book is not for everyone. But don’t let people saying it is a ‘difficult’ book discourage you. It is rich in many genres of literature and also has several good plots and characters. So everyone run out and read it.

Stupid Plum Sykes and her stupid book

The LNR Books Diary has a great post about Plum Syke’s horrid book Bergdorf Blondes that everyone should read. They say it is so bad that everyone should read it. Please don’t. Or at least don’t buy the book. If everyone buys it, Plum Sykes will get another book deal and no one wants that.

LNR also points out the Amazon UK reviews, which are priceless. Here is a sample:

“The nearest I came to laughing was when I accidentally dropped it in the bath; the nearest I came to caring was when I fished it out and realised I wouldn’t be able to get my money back. I feel like Plum Sykes mugged me for a tenner. I’ll never buy a book written by someone named after a fruit again.”

“I think the author maybe thinks she’s Oscar Wilde or something, only without the witty clever interesting bits. One huge problem is that there’s no description of what it’s like- maybe the writer is terrified fo losing friends so describes everyone as lovely in the most one dimensional way. This is pisspoor writing in a nice jacket.”

“This is hands-down the worst book that I have ever had the misfortune of reading. It is absolutely agonizing. I kept reading expecting, no, hoping that it would improve, but I found it to be completely inane. It is devoid of well, everything you might ever look for in a book. I would rather read my refrigerator manual than have to read this book again.”

I decided to check the regular ol’ Amazon to see if there were great bad reviews, but you know what? Most of the reviews are good ones. Grrr. This makes me wonder if the US has bad taste? Or if only people with bad taste review at Amazon? Yes, I am making broad sweeping generalizations. So sue me (please don’t).
On a side note, in the inventory record at my store a helpful bookseller has added ‘apocalypse now!’ to the comments field. Snicker.