Damn. I have SUCH a bad book hangover from The Power. It is well-written, thoughtful, bitter, cynical, raw, honWHY ARE THERE NOT MORE STARS AVAILABLE?
Damn. I have SUCH a bad book hangover from The Power. It is well-written, thoughtful, bitter, cynical, raw, honest (oh baby G... SO honest), and has the best last line I've read... maybe ever.
The Power is about a time in the near-future when women develop the ability to generate electrical power with a set of ... glands? organs? organized structures? just below their collarbones. Yeah, like electric eels. Get over that. If that's all you can think about, you are missing a stunning book.
Hopefully you'll either read this book thinking, "What a great story!" or "The feminism! My god, the feminism!" If you pay attention, you'll get them both.
The message, in case you miss it, is that the problem isn't "men" or "women." It's people. We are all deeply flawed, and divisiveness isn't getting us anywhere good. As usual, humanity spoils the party. ...more
I'd like to have a teenager read this and ask him or her an opinion about the book. The story is told from two points of view - a mother and a son. I I'd like to have a teenager read this and ask him or her an opinion about the book. The story is told from two points of view - a mother and a son. I can't really tell why they were the ones who told the story, though. The divergence between the two styles establishes character, and I understand that, but I don't understand why these two characters are the ones chosen to tell the story. The mother mostly talks about other people, so it might have been more useful to have some of the other characters speak, as well. I attempt to hesitate to be judgemental, but I feel comfortable saying that the mother character and her mother are bonkers. In small spurts, that's OK. Over the course of an entire book, though, it was annoying. I've read a lot of literary books (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, for examply) that used discontinuous thinking. I'm OK with that, even. However, long-term bonkerosity (yes, it's a word; I refer you to Terry Pratchett) becomes tiresome. If you choose to read this book, look for Ezra's voice. He has a voice a lot like Augusten Burroughs, but not as amusing. There's some sex, some drugs, and a strange portrayal of gay men....more
This book is about triumph. It's main character, a middle-school girl, doesn't read as young as the author intends, but her age is immaterial to the sThis book is about triumph. It's main character, a middle-school girl, doesn't read as young as the author intends, but her age is immaterial to the story. Basically, she has to become her own parent when her bipolar mother repeatedly goes off the deep end. Instead of having a "poor me" attitude, though, she holds onto her pride and her intelligence and goes on to triumph. I like the way the author structures the story so that there's always as much to gain as there is to lose, and everyone in the story - including the adults - is flawed in a very real and believable way. You forgive them, though, because they are all doing their best. We all do that in real life, too, and I love to read characters whose lives unfold in such a way that they feel inevitable and true. This one is well worth a read....more
If you have a teenager, know a teenager, or are a teenager, you should read this book. It's written entirely in teenspeak, including the egregious useIf you have a teenager, know a teenager, or are a teenager, you should read this book. It's written entirely in teenspeak, including the egregious use of "like," a liberal sprinkling of cursewords, and the strange sideways bumps in thought that seem to happen so much to those for whom the world is newer than it is to me. The story - a young man confronts death in the person of his girlfriend and the world - is pretty powerful, if a little grim. My daughter read the book and was deeply touched by both the quality of the writing and the thinking behind the plot. The world presented in Feed is grim, but at the same time eerily familiar. It made me reconsider advertising of all kinds, and the pollution of both our world and our souls that we Americans cause with our constant acquisitiveness. Feed may not be for the average reader, as it's futuristic and dark and told in first person, with the jumps that come naturally in the attention span of the main character. Try it out, though. It's definitely got something to say, and it says it well....more
I wish I'd read this excellent book a year ago! Beast has lots to offer those boys who just WON'T read. There's a lot of action, powerful description I wish I'd read this excellent book a year ago! Beast has lots to offer those boys who just WON'T read. There's a lot of action, powerful description of really weird, gross situations (within the first couple of chapters, the main character cuts up a pig and is discovered with the partially dismembered corpse and a saw in his hands...), and a feeling of isolation and loneliness that I believe is common to the experience of many young people today. Stephen, the main character, starts the book with a list of the worst things he's done in his life. Many of them aren't just reprehensible, they're criminal, but he tops the list with a murder he intends to commit. You can hardly get a better opening than that. Stephen's crippled relationships with everyone around him, his lack of enthusiasm about everything in his life except things he can't talk to anyone else about, and his essential GOODNESS as a person, a son, and a human being, are fascinating to read. Kennan takes an unrealistic situation and makes it not only realistic, but rather wonderful and hopeful. ...more
As usual, Hiassen is one of the weirdest kids on the block. I find his ecological messages less intrusive in Sick Puppy than in his other books. This As usual, Hiassen is one of the weirdest kids on the block. I find his ecological messages less intrusive in Sick Puppy than in his other books. This is the second time I've read the book, and Twilly Spree is much more sympathetic than he was ten years ago. I, too, want to jump all of the messy, ignorant, pushy fools who drive Hummers and live in McMansions and give them the option of seeing the light or getting off the planet. Twilly is a way for me to live out that impulse without carrying it out in real life. I hope Hiassen is using Twilly for the same purposes... There's the usual Hiassen real/unreal feel to everything that happens in Sick Puppy, and the same fascinating, train-wreck quality to all of the characters' lives. I like that out-of-control, falling-down-stairs quality to Hiassen's plots, and I like the dialogue that results from it. ...more
Sorry to put this book into so many categories, but it's a book of short works (poetry, stories, descriptions, and other word-based oddness). Some of Sorry to put this book into so many categories, but it's a book of short works (poetry, stories, descriptions, and other word-based oddness). Some of the stories are brilliant... there's a truly creepy 100-word riff on Santa Claus that has just about forced me to embrace the Jewish side of my faith, and a 10-page story on that danged creepy Snow White, and a Swiftian story about eating babies that's tight and strong as a punch in the face. Unfortunately, there are also a couple of stories that, though I read them twice, I just didn't think they felt finished. I could be missing the point, and there could be some British references that I don't understand, but it could just be that some of the stories are better than others. Definitely worth a read, though, and I will be using several of the stories in my teaching!...more
If you read this book as a story about a kid who's possessed, you'll miss the point. It's not that you can't read it for that. The Fallen One (becauseIf you read this book as a story about a kid who's possessed, you'll miss the point. It's not that you can't read it for that. The Fallen One (because the beings who run Hell are fallen from Heaven... it's in the Bible) who runs the kid has interesting goals, and he goes about them in a truly unique way. The real point of the book, however, is a meditation on what it means to be human. What divides us from animals? What divides us from anything that exists? There are passages about noticing things (a bowl of Fruit Loops, the texture of a little boy's hair, an old woman's skin), about the general loveliness that is life, and what it takes for something to be beautiful. Basically, the book puts a whole new spin on what it means to be alive vs. ALIVE - a riff on existence vs. living, but not beaten to death. Those of you who are offended by a frank and purposeful discussion of the meaning and purpose of god should steer clear, as well as those of you who don't like honest appraisals of the effect and enjoyment of a healthy sex drive. Overall, it's an interesting book, and you can read it for either the philosophy or the story....more
Oh, my good lord in heaven. Cut your line, land your boat and go to McDonald's! Just as in the case of The Great Gatsby, I understand the book. Yes, IOh, my good lord in heaven. Cut your line, land your boat and go to McDonald's! Just as in the case of The Great Gatsby, I understand the book. Yes, I know it changed the way American writers write. I also understand that it celebrates the ridiculous American idea that you're only a REAL man if you've done something entirely purposeless, but really dangerous, in pursuit of making yourself look like the bull with the biggest sexual equipment. Get over it, already! Go home and clean out the refrigerator, or wash the curtains, or vacuum under the furniture. Pick your kids up from school or take your daughter bra shopping. THAT would impress me. Being too dumb to cut your fishing line? Not the mate I would pick... The only bright spot about the book is if you think of it on a metaphorical level: there is a point at which ALL of us must grit our teeth and hold on in the face of despair. That is the definition of life. However, if that's the point, then the plot situation needs to be one of necessity (like the shipwreck in Life of Pi), instead of stubbornness. ************ It's been a while since I wrote this review, and there's a lot of amusing speculation in the comments people have attached. I have to say, they crack me up. Here's my final word on reviewing on Goodreads (or anywhere); One of the most important elements of reading is that it allows each of us to react in the way we need to react, without judgment, as we experience the book. This is how I reacted to The Old Man and the Sea. Hemingway is dead, or I wouldn't have been so up-front with my opinion. He's not insulted, I understand that we all need goals in life, and I've been happily married for a LONG time. Now take a deep breath and smile. Life is too short to be anxious about picayune stuff like this. ...more
Yes, I understand that this is supposed to be one of the Great American Books. I understand all of the metaphors and the commentary on life and blah, Yes, I understand that this is supposed to be one of the Great American Books. I understand all of the metaphors and the commentary on life and blah, blah, blah. I ADORE PG Wodehouse, so you can't say that the style is beyond me. Circuitous and tangential suit me when they're well-written. Brace yourself if you love this book: I HATE GATSBY. The plot is fine, and even occasionally interesting, but the style bores me to tears. Like Willa Cather and Kate Chopin, I just want to shake Fitzgerald and tell him to take a Prozac and get on with life! *********************************************************************** I read Gatsby again, just to be certain why I don't like it, and here are two solid reasons: 1. Every single character is fundamentally ineffectual, and just as I loathe people with floppy character in real life, I loathe them on the page, and 2. The nearly-snide, nearly-sly, nearly-intellectual voice of the narrator drives me crazy.
This isn't a personal attack on you if you like the book. I don't. We can agree to disagree!...more
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