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| 1640090444
| 9781640090446
| 1640090444
| 3.75
| 833
| 1978
| Jun 12, 2018
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really liked it
| The unblinking eyes met the stares of the passersby and tourists who poured into the square from all directions. The tourists’ own gaze, like that The unblinking eyes met the stares of the passersby and tourists who poured into the square from all directions. The tourists’ own gaze, like that of all moving crowds, was mild and unfocused, but people’s eyes suddenly froze as soon as they encountered this sight, as if their astonished pupils struggled to sink back into the depths of their skulls, and only the impossibility of doing this compelled them to stand still and face what they saw. Most went pale, some wanted to vomit. Only a few looked on calmly. The eyes were indifferent, of a color you could not call bluish or even gray, and which it was hard to name, because it was less of a color than the distant reflection of a void.Ooh, ooh, can I get a selfie? Here’s a heads up for you. Ismail Kadare is an author of note. He was the first recipient of the International Man Booker prize in 2005, and is frequently mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel. There is always a bit of a downside in understanding when one enters a considerable literary oeuvre anywhere but at the beginning. Odds are the name Kadare is as new to you as it was to me. He has been at it since the 1960s. A native, he studied in Communist Albania’s University of Tirana, and later at an institute in Moscow, returning home when the Soviet Union and Albania parted ways in 1960, but not before publishing a collection of poems in Russian and writing his first novel, which was daring in his world, as it was a stark contrast to the social realism literary form preached by Communist leadership. His work was banned by Albanian officials, and he was blocked from publishing for three years. He had a breakthrough in 1970 when a 1963 novel of his was translated into French, gaining him international notice. [image] Ismail Kadare - image from his FB page Kadare is both a political/historical satirist and a champion of the Albanian language, doing what he can to keep it alive, and even doing some promotional housekeeping by restoring the use of Albanian words where foreign words have found their way into the language. It is a dodgy enterprise, of course, writing criticism of one’s autocratic political leadership. Tends to leave one with prolonged periods of barred isolation or, in extreme situations, can result in a bad case of dead. Kadare did what he could to keep his body parts attached and keep himself free to move about. This entailed some compromise, which earned him the antipathy of many. Nevertheless, he has managed to produce a large volume of work over the decades. Born in 1936, he is now (2018) 82 years old. The Traitor’s Niche was released in 1978. You can check here for a list of his considerable published work. So how does one continue to call out one’s government for their crimes, and somehow manage to stay alive? By never going after them overtly. Kadare’s forte is allusion, suggestion, implication. Thus deniability. Of course, it is entirely possible to look at his work in multiple dimensions. Well, keep in mind that I have read only this one, so am making an educated guess here. [image] 1870s Constantinople- image from wikipedia First is the story itself. Does it move forward? Are the characters interesting? I must say that while I found the story (or really the sub-stories within) interesting at times, it was clearly not the thing, overall. Even knowing nothing about the author it was clear that this was about something other than the specifics of this-then-that. The story is a multi-narrator description of a time when a capital city, Istanbul, formerly Byzantium, Augusta Antonina, New Rome, Constantinople, and a few besides, included in one of the gates to the city a special niche. It was a small stage on which would be displayed the severed head of an enemy of the state, an attempt to discourage thoughts of breaking away from the Ottoman super power empire. Abdulla, the third Keeper of the Niche (don’t ask about the first two), is in charge of the head, which he inspects twice a day. Even jobs of this sort are fraught with peril, as one keeper of a particular statue was transported for life for the high crime of allowing a rust stain to appear on its western face. Abdulla has issues of his own outside work. While his larger head is willing, his little head is not, at least when it comes to his bride. He even dreams of discarding his body and being reduced solely to a head, so expectations of him would be reduced. [image] Ahmet Fountain – image from Turkish Culture Portal Hurshid Pasha, commander of Ottoman troops, has been sent to Albania to retrieve the head of a rebellious leader, Black Ali, aka Ali Pasha Teplena. The mission quickly completed, off-screen, he hands the prize over to a courier, Tundj Hata. Tundj has made a bit of a business for himself out of this job, as people in towns along his route back to the capital are willing to pay to see a severed head, particularly of someone so important. Tundj Hata laid the bag on the wooden bench and announced in a resounding voice:Not exactly a rabbit out of a hat, but Abracadabra, indeed. Tundj has a rather troubling relationship with the heads he transports, almost ghoulish, almost sexual. He talks to them way too much. Guy is definitely a creepazoid. There is one hilarious scene with Tundj, when he needs to dry out one of his passengers and takes it out in an unlikely place. [image] Istanbul, 1850s - image from Ottoman Imperial Archive Ali Pasha’s beautiful 22-year-old widow, Vasiliqia, considers her options. She recalls for us her late hubby’s plan for Albanian independence. The old guy (82) had thought to rally the nation around him to pull away from the empire, neglecting to consider that he had treated the Albanian people shabbily for the entirety of his tenure, so was left with no allies, no public support, and no…well, you know. Others are brought in to fill us in on how the empire goes about destroying those who would oppose it. The partial or full erasure of the national identity of peoples, which was the main task of the Central Archive, was carried out according to the old secret doctrine of Caw-caw and passed through five principal stages: first, the physical crushing of rebellion; second, the extirpation of any idea of rebellion; third, the destruction of culture, art, and tradition; fourth the eradication or impoverishment of the language; and fifth, the extinction or enfeeblement of the national memory. The briefest of all these stages was the physical crushing of rebellion, which merely meant war, but the longest phase was the reduction of the language into Nonspeak, as it was called for short.[image] Istanbul in 1858 – image from AGWallace.wordpress.com Was this how things were done in the days of the Ottomans? No idea. Maybe, maybe not. But one would expect that the barbs being inserted here were intended for the Yugoslavs who were bent on absorbing Albania into their nation, and the hide of the Albanian Communist leaders of his time, a brutal Stalinist dictatorship that switched allegiance to Mao’s China when relations with the Soviet Union went south, local leadership insisting, despite Nikita Khrushchev’s declarations, that Stalin was really an ok guy. Tens of thousands were executed during the brutal dictatorship (of the proletariat, of course) of Enver Hoxha. There are perils for sure, as no head appears to be securely attached, whether because of harboring dreams of independence, being in the way of someone else’s rise through the ranks, or maybe pissing off the wrong politician. While horrific, those might be at least understandable reasons. One might also come to a bad end because of some idiot’s interpretation of a prisoner’s dreams. The actual Palace of Dreams is given a literal interpretation here. This may be the 19th century, but it is a very dark age indeed. [image] Edirne, 19th Century - image from Ottoman Imperial Archives While Kadare’s character portraits are far from compelling, they do offer meaningful perspectives. How might a lowly bureaucrat react to a whimsical government? How to cope when the logic of leadership is inexplicable? I imagine one can find an example of that sort of stress very close to home. But Kadare is not solely writing about the Ottoman rule, and its attempt to erase the Albanian nation and culture from human memory. He is also writing about the 20th century attempt by Yugoslavia to absorb Albania, and the Soviet attempt to control it. The pushing and pulling of Albania by diverse powers finds a concrete manifestation here. the distant sound of wheels reached Hurshid Pasha’s ears. He’s gone, he thought. Wrapping his shoulders in a woolen blanket, he closed his eyes for the tenth time, but still he couldn’t sleep. He felt a constant pressure in his temples. The hissing wind, racing low over the surface of the land, seemed to penetrate his skull. The head has set off for Asia, he thought, but the body remains in Europe. His imagination conjured up some sticky, ectoplasmic creature, pulled by both continents, endlessly lengthening and becoming thinner and more transparent, as if at any moment it might turn into some ethereal substance, something between a cloud and the tail of a cometI found the bit about posting a head marginally effective. Nations do display a strong inclination toward cohering around a perceived (or fluffed up) common enemy, so it does make sense. And this sort of thing has been used as a warning in many cultures. FYI, while I did not turn up a Traitor’s Niche in my slight research into Ottoman public spaces in Istanbul I did come across mention of the Edirne Palace, which was a sometime capitol. It included a Justice Pavilion with two stone columns in front of it. One of those was named the “Warning Stone” and was used for displaying the heads of criminals. So much more permanent than an apology tour. [image] Hagia Sophia - image from picturesforwalls.com The writer whose work most popped to mind while reading this was Kafka, for the wide gulf between cause and effect and the paranoia that seems both extreme and justified, something Kadare is certainly familiar with, living as he did under an oppressive autocratic regime, well, until he left the country, anyway. This is not a gripping, action-adventure read. Things do happen, and characters do move from here to there, but this is much more an intellectual than a visceral book. It helps to know who Kadare is, and it helps to have at least a surface familiarity with the history of Albania. Both are easily taken care of with a visit to wikipedia. If you enjoy Kafka, and his take on the madness of the world, you will probably enjoy The Traitor’s Niche. There is dark humor here that made me smile on occasion, an appreciation for human folly, present in all times, and among all nationalities. What I found more engaging was the look, in the latter third of the book, on how conquerors go about erasing the culture and identity of the conquered. Many echoes there of today’s world. This was the strongest element of the book for me. The translation was one step removed, as John Hodgson translated this to English from the French translation. Who knows what nuances from the original Albanian were lost in the two subsequent trips through the word-grinder? [image] Istanbul, 1800s - image from Ottoman Imperial Archive Although Kadare is a well-regarded, world renowned author, I was not blown away by The Traitor’s Gate. While I do respect the craft on display here, and while I was very impressed with his description of how nations disappear other nations, it was not a gripping read. If this particular form of literature is your cuppa, it is a five-star read, for sure, but if you require more visceral engagement you will find it disappointing. Kadare, of course, deserves all the credit and attention he can get for having produced serious works of art under such perilous conditions, however many stars you might assign. My gut wants to give this book three stars. My brain wants to give it five for the author’s daring and inventiveness. So, four it is. Head and heart working together, well, until they take me away. Publication -----June 12, 2018 – English translation in the USA -----1978 in original Albanian Review – directly in American English – July 20, 2018 =============================EXTRA STUFF The author’s FB page A Nice piece on Kadare in Britannica John Hodgon article on Kadare - What is Ismail Kadare like in Albanian? Interesting wiki on George Castriot, aka Skanderbeg, a seminal figure in Albanian history, who comes in for significant mention in the novel ...more |
Notes are private!
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2
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Jun 04, 2018
not set
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Jun 18, 2018
not set
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Jun 18, 2018
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Hardcover
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| 0316204277
| 9780316204279
| 0316204277
| 3.88
| 577,065
| Aug 14, 2012
| Aug 14, 2012
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really liked it
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What happens when the creative urge is stifled, by others, one’s own mishugas, or both? Phil Stutz, my guy. And when I say my guy, I mean, the guy whoWhat happens when the creative urge is stifled, by others, one’s own mishugas, or both? Phil Stutz, my guy. And when I say my guy, I mean, the guy who gave me the idea for WHERE'D YOU GO, BERNADETTE. He's the one who told me, after whining on the phone to him for an hour about how much I hated my new city of Seattle, "Maria, you're a writer. Writers must write. If you don't write you'll be a menace to society." - from Semple’s FB pagesBernadette is anti-social, somewhat agoraphobic. Instead of going out to shop, she has an Indian on-line concierge, Manjula, whom she asks to take care of all sorts of things, adding in to her orders diatribes about diverse things, most particularly the unspeakableness of The Emerald City and of the locals. She refers to them as gnats, seeing them as annoying but not worth the effort of swatting. She has had her name and her husband’s taken off the e-mail list for the private school their daughter attends. The other parents are not amused. Her anti-Seattle rants, however, are hilarious. [image] Maria Semple - image from her Twitter page The house in which the family lives, which Bernadette selected, is the former Strait Gate School for Girls, a reform school. About nine thousand square feet of decrepitude, which once-world-famous-architect, Bernadette Fox, has allowed to fester. The roof has a lot in common with Notre Dame after the fire. Confessionals are excellent places in which, say, a dog might get trapped. Sadly, no revelations occur there. (“Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I discarded a totally excellent metaphorical opportunity.”) Blackberry vines, which abound on the considerable hilltop property, are doing an excellent job of intruding into the structure, giving some of the floors a nifty wave-like form. Used dishes are left in drawers for the help to find and clean. No Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval here. And if you think the house makes a lovely metaphor for the state of Bernadette’s life, you get an extra bowl of blackberries. When her unspeakable downhill neighbor, Audrey, demands that she remove the blackberry vines, as they are undermining her retaining wall, Bernadette waves her away with a “fine, whatever,” and agrees to pay for the work, using tech and personnel recommended by said neighbor. It ends badly. [image] Cate Blanchett is Bernadette - image from Yahoo News Marriage is not much solace for Bernadette. Hubs, Elgin (aka Elgie) is a top-tier product developer at Microsoft, with a desktop cluttered with patents. He makes a sweet income, loves his work, and loves his wife, but works mad hours and is hardly around. Her primary human connection is Bee, not only her beloved adolescent daughter, but her bff. The plot gets started when Bee wants to cash in a promise made when she was put into her middle school. If she got straight A’s, or whatever it is they give at that school, she could have anything she wants. Kid got ‘er done, and the ask? Ta-da, a family trip to Antarctica. Just the thing for an agoraphobic mother, but a promise is a promise. Bee won’t accept in substitution the pony she had hoped for several years back. Bernadette supplements her terrors by doing a bit of research and learns that to get to Antarctica one must endure the joys of the aqueous hell known as the Drake Passage (although Dark Passage might be a pretty good fit as well), an oceanic stretch apparently designed on a dare. [image] Emma Nelson as Bee - image from Film Threat Speaking of perils to life and limb, Elgin’s new assistant, Soo-Lin, not only has goo-goo eyes for him, but is in league with the chief gnat, Audrey, she of the blackberry removal demand. As the title of the book suggests, Bernadette, after another insult to her dignity, does a runner. It is not much of a mystery where she went, but there is some concern about whether she has actually survived her absconding. [image] Kristin Wiig as Audrey This is an epistolary novel. Everything is told in communications between sundry characters. The wrap-around frame is Bee as narrator putting it all together in sequence, and offering her commentary. The form works quite well, getting us the intel we need to follow the plot progress, and offering back-story looks through believable devices. I laughed out loud quite a bit for a good chunk of the novel. Bernadette is a very flawed and damaged, but appealing character. Given what we learn, it is understandable that she is through dealing with people, and thus with any opportunity to do what it is she absolutely must do, create. She does keep knitting, though. I know, I know. One could say that she or Elgie should have figuratively shaken her out of this extreme, probably clinical malaise a long time ago, with therapy, an intervention, or whatever methods are thought to work these days to help lost souls get themselves back on track. And I don’t disagree. Very few of us would be able to retreat back into ourselves for such a prolonged stretch without resorting to some form of criminal activity or institutionalization to keep the meals coming. Nevertheless, this is the Bernadette we are presented with, complete with a host of quirks, a scary collection of prescription meds, and epic sleep disorders. It is also the Bernadette who is world-class smart, talented, and professional-level funny when ranting. Whatever is wrong with her, and there is plenty, Bernadette is very engaging. [image] Billy Crudup as Elgin - image from UPROXX Bernadette’s ongoing diatribe was the product of Semple’s 2008 move (like Bernadette’s) from LA to Seattle, with her partner, George Meyer, and daughter, Poppy Valentina. I imagine dinnertime repartee to be side-splitting. But it could just be variations on pass the potatoes, and how was your day? Fine. I always get inspiration from my own life and just from the emotions and the microtransactions of my life. The books of my life are very much snapshots of my person I was at the time. I remember when I was writing Where’d You Go, Bernadette, I really hated Seattle and I was just like trashing Seattle, and I was letting out all this fire about I’m gonna put the hurt on these people who don’t like me. I’ll show them. And it was all just really toxic and horrible. But at the same time I knew it was funny and I was making a comedy. But in the course of writing the book, I started to like Seattle, and I was like, wait, wait. I need to hate you for the purposes of the book. I can hate you later. And so now I love Seattle. – from the BEA interviewIt may be that it manifested in the book. I found that the LOL rate declined as one went along. [image] For The Strait Gate, the family residence, film-makers used a building in Pittsburgh. In fact, much of the film was shot there. You may want to bring along some extra strong cables for suspending your disbelief on some elements. The FBI puts in an appearance, then disposes of a problem, which seemed rather dubious (not the core of the problem, only its late manifestation) in the first place, off-screen. Seemed very kludgy to me. During Bernadette’s disappearance (which is pared down to almost nothing in the film, but which is of significant duration in the book) an unfortunate event takes place that kills off some of the humor. It seemed unnecessary. (The film dispenses with this pretty much) I suppose one might see it as bringing the early bad behavior back to a reality base. Maybe give the story a bit more serious edge. The family pooch puts in an emergency-generating appearance early on and is then pretty much discarded. [image] Zoe Chao as Soo-Lin - image from Metro USA Bottom line is that I enjoyed reading Bernadette, looked forward to my daily encounters, and made (for me) relatively quick work of it. Anything that can make me laugh out loud gets extra points. Which is why I put this at four instead of three stars. The charm of Bernadette and her relationship with her daughter, combined with her uproarious hatred of Seattle (I have my own, different gripes) weighed more than the plot holes and deus ex machina of having enough money to smooth over most material miseries. (Yes, I know it can be argued that Semple is showing that money cannot buy you happiness, and that a less well-off Bernadette might have been forced to face her demons sooner in the absence of such. But as used here, money seemed an easy way to patch over a series of challenges.) So, once your critical faculties are properly adjusted, be prepared to laugh and enjoy. Anything I write I ask myself: Is it true, is it entertaining? My way of looking at the world is that if it is true, it is funny and it is dark. No matter how dark it is, I just think it is funny. I can’t help it. I’ll see something awful on the street and I’ll come home and say to my boyfriend, “I just saw the funniest thing on the street.” It’s a stance. It’s the way I was born, or the way I was damaged. You pick one. (Laughs.) – from USA interview Book published – August 14, 2012 Review firstposted – August 23, 2019 Film released – August 16, 2019 =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter, Instagram and FB pages Interviews -----USA Today - Maria Semple is back with more laughs, and more Seattle - Jocelyn McClurg, USA TODAY Published 8:01 a.m. ET Sept. 4, 2016 ----Video from the Book Expo of America (BEA) in Chicago Items of Interest -----The building used for Strait Gate is actually inPittsburgh, where much of the film was shot - Historic Harden Place in Munhall a stand-in for 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette' film - by Maria Scullo -----Film Threat - Emma Nelson On Her Debut Role In Where’d You Go, Bernadette? - by Lorry Kikta ----- Drake Passage Sea Sickness ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 12, 2019
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Aug 19, 2019
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Jun 13, 2016
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Hardcover
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| 4.22
| 31,787
| Aug 15, 2009
| Aug 15, 2009
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it was amazing
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Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 18, 2020
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Jul 18, 2020
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May 25, 2016
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ebook
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| 0062351427
| 9780062351425
| 0062351427
| 3.83
| 41,555
| Oct 20, 2015
| Oct 20, 2015
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really liked it
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I will be writing, have been writing, or have already written (depending on when you see this. Time is strange here on GR) a review of Welcome to Nigh
I will be writing, have been writing, or have already written (depending on when you see this. Time is strange here on GR) a review of Welcome to Night Vale. But until/when/after I do (or until you return from whatever time stream you are in to read this, or move ahead into another one) I can offer one definite bit of advice. Listen to a few of the Night Vale podcasts. If they float your boat, or, lacking water, elevate you at least several inches off the ground for a period of about twenty minutes, you will love this book. Proceed directly to the beginning of the actual review. [image] ==========================NOT ENCHANTED? If you find the podcasts uninteresting, really, did you touch one of the pink flamingos? Something is wrong. OK, Ok, I know there are some folks who will not be enchanted by the Night Vale podcasts. This book is probably not for you. But if you go to the local library, you are sure to find something more to your liking. Hurry, go now. You might want to stop by and visit the dog park on your way. Be sure to say hi to the friendly figures in the hoods. Y’all take care now, and return directly to the section titled “Not Enchanted?” =============================ACTUAL REVIEW It is a friendly desert community, where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep.Whew! I’m so glad we got rid of those people. [image] A Cecil Baldwin sandwich with the authors in the role of bread In July, 2013, Welcome to Night Vale became the most downloaded podcast on iTunes. It all began in 2012, a twice-a-month podcast that is Lake Wobegon by way of David Lynch, Lovecraft, told in the form of a community radio newscast. It was started completely as a hobby,” Fink begins, when asked about how the podcast has gotten to this point. “Y’know, my friends and I, it was just something we enjoyed doing. Our entire goal, when we started it, was that maybe someday there’d be a few people who weren’t friends or family listening to it. We certainly had no goals beyond that, other than to enjoy making it.” - from interview in The ArcadeIt is read by Cecil Baldwin who shares a first name with his fictional manifestation, Cecil Palmer, the radio broadcaster. The podcast is weird, creepy fun, rich with non-sequiturs and reasons to be afraid, many reasons. Cecil’s steady tones make it seem practically normal. I've always been fascinated by conspiracy theories. And also, to a lesser extent fascinated by the Southwest desert. Fascinating things probably happen there on a regular basis. So I came up with this idea of a town in that desert where all conspiracy theories were real. - From Jackie Lyden’s 2013 NPR interview with the authorsAnd whether it was a result of a desire for expression in a new medium, an action taken in compliance with an order from one of the hooded figures in the dog park, or an angel in old woman Josie’s house, Fink and Craynor have committed their world to print. [image] We, as readers, seem to have a soft spot for this genre. I don’t know if there is a name for the type that this fits into, storytelling-wise, but if there is a short term for “A small town where something is…off,” this book would fit in there quite nicely. (I know it is far from wonderful, but I hereby nominate the word “Oddsville” for the genre, capital of the great state of Unease. All in favor?) There is a rich tradition of such writing. Rod Serling was a fan of this trope in his Twilight Zone writing (Where is Everybody? , Monsters are Due on Maple Street, People Are Alike All Over). Stephen King has made a career in them, Derry, Castle Rock, Jerusalem’s Lot…ad infinitum. TV has mined this heavy lode as well. In addition to Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, X-files, and god-knows how many more, there are some more recent shows that indulge, including Wayward Pines, the town of Hope in The Leftovers, Haven, Eureka, Royston Vasey from The League of Gentlemen. Small towns, it would appear, are in our literary, and certainly in our entertainment DNA. So the something-off-small-town of Night Vale should feel familiar. Of course this one is a bit more unusual than your typical Oddsville offering, being rather flamboyant in its strangeness, to the point of silliness at times. [image] As for the story, Jackie Fierro has been 19 for many, many years (like some of us?). She runs the town pawn shop, and will accept pretty much anything. A mysterious man in a tan jacket, gives her a slip of paper with “KING CITY” written on it. Every time she tries to get rid of the thing, or even to put it down, it keeps coming back to her, which, as you might imagine, is alarming. So she goes in search of tan-jacket man but no one in town can seem to recall seeing him. Hmmm. Diane Crayton is a single mom to a shape-shifting fifteen-year-old son (what parent of a teenager cannot relate?). Of late she has been seeing Josh’s long absent Y-chromosome source all over town. Josh has been showing an interest in tracking down his father, despite Diane’s attempts to dissuade him. Diane and Jackie’s quests, and Josh’s too, lead them in a direction that is as obvious as an MC Escher roadmap. Does an endpoint even exist? Diane and Jackie are certainly likeable sorts, and their tale is intriguing, with plenty of challenges to face and mysteries to solve, but the real deal with Welcome to Night Vale consists of three things, location, location, location. Fink and Cranor are trying to re-create in book form the delightfully weird experience of their podcast world. The story seems secondary. The atmosphere is rich with intense strangeness. I found most of it delightful, a dry delivery masking outrageousness. Sometimes they try too hard, generating eye-rolling that has been made mandatory by the City Council. You really, really do not want to fight city hall here, particularly on days when human sacrifice is on the calendar. But it is good, weird fun most of the time. The authors must have had some bad experiences with librarians in their youth. Literary comeuppance is had. [image] The locale includes, among other things, roads that lead nowhere, mysterious lights floating above the town, black helicopters, yes those black helicopters, a faceless old woman who lives, unseen, in someone’s house, a sentient house, a diner waitress who struggles with fruit bearing tree branches growing from her body, car salesmen who offer howlingly good deals, a woman who keeps reliving her life in a perpetual loop, a sentient patch of haze, angels named Erika, people who exist but when you try to recall them, you can’t. Wait, what was I talking about? I just bet that if someone opens a nightclub in NV, they name it Studio 51. The list goes on, plenty to keep your brain engaged and your funny bone tickled. When you partake of the Night Vale Kool Aid, you will be joining a horde that has sprung up in impressive numbers. There are fan sites galore, with artwork, fan fiction, and a host of ways in which what remains of your consciousness can be further shaved and fed to the glow-cloud. I have included some links to those in the usual place. You have never read anything like this before. Unless, of course you are in a time loop and are living your life over and over and over. This means you, Sheila. Yes, I know you have read this book many times, all for the first time. OK, happy? But for the rest of us… Fink and Cranor’s sense of humor is definitely not for everyone. But if you check your kitchen cabinets and find that your supply of weird is running a little low, I suggest heading over to Night Vale. They are running a special and you won’t want to miss out. PS – more volumes are planned. Be sure to keep up with your local community newscast for further details. Review Posted – 11/6/15 Published – 10/20/15 =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s, well to Night Vale’s main, Twitter and FB pages You can download individual podcasts here Interviews -----Early Influences - The Arcade ------Stephen Colbert appearance, including a reading of the Community Calendar -----Jackie Lyden’s NPR interview with the authors - Welcome to Night Vale: Watch out for the tarantulas Some fan sites -----The Shape from Grove Park -----Fuck Yeah Night Vale -----A Softer Night Vale A Night Vale Wiki The actual Wikipedia entry for Night Vale A fun vid from the Idea Channel that links Night Vale to HP Lovecraft - How Does Night Vale Confront Us With the Unknown? ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 23, 2015
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Oct 26, 2015
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Oct 23, 2015
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1625579217
| 9781625579218
| 1625579217
| 4.05
| 78
| Sep 13, 2014
| Sep 13, 2014
|
really liked it
| People believe anything that’s in writingA word to the wise to scoundrels everywhere. And there are plenty on display in Betsy Robinson’s satiric People believe anything that’s in writingA word to the wise to scoundrels everywhere. And there are plenty on display in Betsy Robinson’s satiric whirlwind. So you think you’ve got it bad? You might consider the case of one Zelda McFigg. She had a pretty tough go of it at school. The hand she was dealt must have been delivered from the bottom of the deck by a particularly hostile card sharp. Despite having a pretty decent brain, Zelda got stuck with short, fat, and malodorous when stressed. She is also given to bouts of dramatic blushing. Her classmates made matters worse by labeling her Stinky Pinky. Doesn't make for an educational venue conducive to learning, or anything for that matter except exceeding anyone's RDA for misery. Not that home was any great shakes either. Mom was an alcoholic, as likely to drown in her own vomit as she was to burn down their abode with a feckless cohabitation of Marlboros and painting materials. Dad was pretty much out of the scene anyway. Needing to make at least some use of her hooky day, fourteen-year-old Zelda decides to take a chance and goes to Manhattan to visit a beat poet-musician (Mike the poet) whose work she admires. Turns out he could use some help. Turns out she is just the girl for the job. Turns out, when she never quite makes it home, that this is the beginning of a thirty-five year odyssey for Zelda. [image] Betsy Robinson - from her Twitter page It is not a particularly easy road she travels. There are hazards aplenty and it seems that she has provided more than her share of them. She carries with her the twin DNA of schlemiel and schlemazel. Oy! Her journey takes to her such exotic experiences as a free-the-test-animals raid on a hospital lab, a less than stellar audition for Annie, working props in a New England summer theater, and burning down her landlady’s house in an ill-fated attempt to rescue her pet. She does settle down after her initial wanderings, in the lovely tundra of Vermont, having left a trail of carnage in her wake. Part-time hall monitor at the Moose Country Middle School, she is pulled into action when a ninety-year-old English teacher catches a bad case of dead and an immediate fill-in is needed. It looks like she has gotten off the road this time. She continues with teaching The Call of the Wild, and picks a pet, the overweight, smelly, and socially tormented Donny Sherman, a local Native American kid. It looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship There are some uncomfortable elements here and some wonderful ones. The apparent fondness of New England teachers for their under-age students is hardly unique, but feels dodgy nonetheless. Zelda’s regard for the law is like that of a passenger on a bus noting a billboard. It might be worth some consideration, but not for too long. On the other hand, there are some seriously LOL nuggets in Zelda’s path I soon found myself doing props for a small summer theatre in New England run by a man who, had he not been a Jewish homosexual hippie named Rainbow, I might have mistaken for Adolph Hitler.She also comes across a pet parrot that speaks in the voice of its owner’s late husband, to raucous effect. Satirical objects whiz past with satisfying frequency, as Robinson goes not only for some low-hanging fruit like shamanism, Tony Robbins, Hollywood faddism and Oprah, but also directs some attention to the darker elements of life, things like police overreaction to a school hostage situation that isn’t, being back-stabbed by those you thought were close to you, being kicked out of your home by the rich and feckless, and the scandal ridden hell that is small town life in Vermont. I did cackle out loud from time to time while reading this on the subway, causing some fellow riders to glance furtively, wondering whether I was receiving instructions from the dog god in my head, as they tried to shift their bodies and belongings out of potential harm’s way. The writing life comes under scrutiny, and it is not a pretty image, heavily laden as it is with ghosts, plagiarists, thieves, absurd expectations, lifetimes of labor for non-existent rewards, familiar features for most who put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboards. Teaching life is also a subject clearly close to Ms Robinson’s heart. The details of the school experience she skewers will seem familiar to most, and are, at times, darkly hilarious. The peripatetic Ms McFigg seems reasonably pure of heart, a road worrier more than a road warrior, although she does engage in righteous battle from time to time, and is easy to root for as she stumbles through her trials. There is plenty of emotion in this life, both joy at this or that success, and sadness at this or that betrayal. We can certainly all relate when Zelda goes looking for help in getting from point A to point B, and finds the proffered assistance less than helpful. Most of us can probably relate to her inability to lose weight, but can admire her insistence on carrying on as best she can. I was most reminded of John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces, another saga of a square peg in a round world. Betsy Robinson has had an interesting career sojourn herself. In her site, she notes that she was raised an atheist and went on to make her living as a writer and editor of spiritual subject matter: as managing editor of Spirituality & Health magazine for six and a half years and as an editor of spiritual psychology and books about shamans and traditional healersso she certainly brings an appreciation of irony to her writing. She has worked as an actress in nearly-on-Broadway, somewhat-close-to-Broadway and just-down-the-block-from Broadway, had scripts produced in Iowa, Amherst, LA, and darkest cable TV, and has authored many article and several books, so brings that experience to bear when writing of the publishing and theater worlds through which Zelda stumbles. Betsy Robinson has written an entertaining romp, both raucous and endearing, rich with wit and observation. It is funny and foul, dark, but lightly, a bit disturbing, but only slightly. There’s much to enjoy in this book (it’s not big), The Last Will and Testament of Zelda McFigg. It’s all written down. You can believe it. Review first posted – 9/25/15 Publication date – 9/13/14 P.S. - The book was provided by the author in return for an honest review. And I plan to return it real soon. It is impressive how good I have become at removing cat vomit from paper, (soooo much experience) and the singe marks, well, they’re not all that obvious, the downside of reading while standing and preparing supper, then putting the book the tiniest bit too close to the burner. The watermarks may be a bit dodgier. We do enjoy reading while on the throne and parking the book du jour on the sink edge while getting up. Problem is that our large tabby, Scout, is the founding, and so far as we can tell, only member of the Occupy Sink movement, and has been known, on rare occasions, to lay claim to her territory by Divine Right, by removing from said territory any invading objects. Thankfully the volume was spared a watery grave in the nick of time, but not before taking on just a few wee drops. I am sure there are useful instructions on the internet that will allow me to remove the offending stain and…um…fragrance. But don’t worry. I guarantee I will be getting that volume back to the author any day now. =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages April 27, 2020 - Betsy posted a vid with some background to her writing - The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg book video ...more |
Notes are private!
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not set
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Aug 19, 2015
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Aug 11, 2015
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Paperback
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| 0062302140
| 9780062302144
| 3.23
| 3,491
| Feb 17, 2015
| Feb 17, 2015
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it was amazing
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WtB named to the Washington Post top ten list for 2015
…nothing was as it seemedOn learning that the southern member of their group hails fro WtB named to the Washington Post top ten list for 2015 …nothing was as it seemedOn learning that the southern member of their group hails from a place that stages an annual Civil War re-enactment, one with a heavy Confederate tilt, four UC Berkeley sophomores decide to engage in a bit of political theater and protest the event by staging a mock lynching. What could possibly go wrong? A boy from the deep South who opts to pass on taking up shooting is likely to feel just a bit like an outsider in his small hometown. …when young he had admired their sarcasm and sharp wit, his older female cousins—the misanthrope, the pyromaniac, and the exhibitionist—all obviously hated their lives, lives that would never recover the hope of their youth, lives now defined by their status as old maids, though barely thirty. They were stuck here, and the finality of that sentence pained him. It was impossible to have a conversation with one of them and not feel like he was addressing a ghost.What’s in a name? D’Aron Davenport has them by the bushel. Not just the ones he was tagged with at birth, but the stream of names that attached to him through his brief life. Some of them celebrate achievement, some mark him as an outcast, some poke fun, and some offer respect. Some tell his history, and some hold a promise for the future. Many of these names will find their way back to D’Aron over the course of the story as he struggles to define himself in places where others seem intent on doing that for him. He would like to make a name for himself someplace other than Braggsville, Georgia. On graduating from high school, he gets as far away as he can. [image] T. Geronimo Johnson There are some pretty funny scenes in Welcome to Braggsville. A symbol of the cluelessness of the place he desperately wants to leave behind, a classmate, after D’Aron delivers his valedictory, misunderstanding a Latin phrase from D’Aron’s speech, congratulates him on his engagement. In his second semester at UC Berkeley, or Berzerkeley, (Johnson teaches there, and knows of what he writes) as it is actually known, he attends a dot party (wear a dot where you want to be touched). Apparently the location he selects for his dot is deemed politically incorrect and he is shown the door by self-righteous alphas. He is not alone in his choice of dot location. The insight-free hosts have made three other attendees feel as welcome as Larry Kroger and Kent Dorfman at Omega Theta Pi, and a bond is forged. They call themselves “The 4 Little Indians.” Charlie, a black from Chicago, has the physique of an athlete. Candice is a naïve, over-confident Iowa blonde, who professes Native American heritage. I couldn’t help picturing young Gwyneth Paltrow. Louis Chang, a Californian who exudes comedy and thinks of himself as a “kung fu comedian” will make you laugh. What kind of southern white boy can D’Aron be that he feels so drawn to the scary Gully, (the wrong side of the tracks at home) and did not see all the darkness around him in the safe side of town? How is it that D’Aron finds that he feels quite comfortable with black people, while feeling more and more alienated from his lighter complexioned peers in B-ville? At Berkeley, he has a stunningly beautiful bonding experience with a black counselor. Where does he fit in? Charlie has issues of a different sort that keep him from feeling too close to his peers as well. A class called “American History X, Y, and Z: Alternative Perspectives” sparks the crew to action. After a failed attempt at making a political statement of outrage about the University’s treatment of Ishi, presumably the last wild Indian in America, at a Six Flags Amusement Park, a hilarious failure, the group settles on their larger, and more provocative project. There is a lot more going on here than comedy. An outsider theme applies not only to these four as students at Berzerkely, but for them in other venues as well. Louis is not exactly heading in a career direction his family would sanction. Charlie is not exactly what he appears. And Candice may not exactly be in a comfort zone with her family either. she’d once admitted that her family wasn’t close; that her father expressed a greater affinity for moths and fruit liqueurs and her mother a keen interest in civil rights. She dubbed them emotionally abusive.Johnson extends the outsider notion to larger structures as well. D’Aron may be a fish out of water in Braggsville, but what of the residents of the Gully? An entire community that is not allowed much opportunity to get near the water, let alone jump in. You can guess the complexion involved. Johnson has a bit of fun with how the media and political opportunists take advantage of the uproar in Braggsville. You will recognize the types of players involved, and appreciate the deft hand used in painting them in their true colors. He also takes liberties with form. The introduction of D’Aron and all his names is inspired. He also includes a sort-of term paper as it might have been written by the four in which barbecue stands in for racism, (ok, the author may or may not have intended this, sometimes barbecue is just barbecue, but I think it works as a racism metaphor even if it was not intended) an extended footnote that comprises Louis’s take on things, and other literary liberties as well. There is a freedom in this approach that is surprising in a good way and invigorating, reminding one of the creativity shown in A Visit from the Goon Squad. Johnson is focusing his literary microscope on preconceptions, left and right, and then looking past the visual to what lies beneath. The political correctness of liberal mecca UC Berkeley comes in for some sharp edges. As does the yahoo-ism of back-water Georgia. What Johnson brings to this impressive novel is his ability to look past that outer layer of knee-jerk satire. What one sees here is not uni-colored. There is also sensitivity to what compromises good people must make to survive in an alien environment, and there is nuance, even to the awfulness. In a large way this is a coming of age story for the group of friends, D’Aron most of all, and as such it works quite well, as D’Aron sees so much more than he had known was right in front of him. He gets to see how the real world operates and it changes him. Johnson uses some interludes to offer a bit of history on slavery in Georgia. I was surprised at some of this. I expect you will be as well. An observation of race is one of the many strong seams in this marbled look at America today. Parenting, whether by parents or other adults figures large as well. Even concepts like what constitutes tragedy are given a look. There are astute observations on a host of things. Here are a couple of samples: Every organization, every single one, Daron worries himself, orchestrates a silent competition with the church; they want not employees but practitioners, apostles, acolytes—not workers, but worshippers. Between this observation and his reflections on school, he concludes that everyone advertises for the mind but expects you to bring the soul.or Did his parents also look at each other with resentment born of intimacy; did they want more than anything else to reach out to each other, to close cold space; did they say things to hurt each other first intentionally and then again, accidentally, even without meaning to, in the midst of apologizing? Did they inventory their intimacies? How did you look at someone and care so much for them and hate them at the same time, be so angry that you didn’t even trust yourself to have a valid emotion, so angry it couldn’t be real?Links are drawn between the treatment of Native Americans and interned Japanese during World War II, between lynching of the traditional sort and a later day electronic equivalent, between anchors that ground one and those that keep you from moving, between being in one’s social bubble, and being in the world. Welcome to Braggsville is a stunning achievement. I was reminded not only of last year’s wonderful Billy Lynn’s Long Half-Time Walk for its brilliant and sensitive social observation, but also of Skippy Dies, one of my all-time favorite books, for its humor and warmth. It applies a sharp, satiric scalpel to diverse targets, but also peels back surfaces to reveal complication and humanity. D’Aron is a wonderfully realized lead, thoughtful, decent, engaging, struggling to find his place in various hostile universes. Eager to do right. This is a book that has at its core a racial tension, but there is so much more going on here. Head on over to Braggsville, pull up a chair, load a plate up with some barbecue, pop a cold one, and set a spell. Maybe talk to someone who is nothing at all like you. You will find your visit very filling indeed. Review first Posted – 10/3/14 Publication Date – 2/17/14 This review has been cross-posted on CootsReviews =============================EXTRA STUFF September 17, 2015 - Braggsville is named to the longlist for the National Book Award September 21, 2015 - Braggsville is named to the Carnegie Awards long list Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages While the above links were live at the time I posted this, they are not all that current. I would expect that as publication date approaches Johnson will do some updating. Johnson wrote a wonderful Behind the Book essay for Braggsville. It is definitely worth checking out. An interesting interview with the author on the site of the publisher of his first book, Coffee House Press Another fascinating interview, from a couple of years ago, on ZingMagazine.com And yet another interview, this one at Late Night Library For a jaw-dropping review, check out Ron Charles's in the Washington Post For another, try David Ulin's review in the LA Times NPR chimes in Cynthia Wu is an associate Prof at the University of Buffalo Transnational Studies Department. In her review, WELCOME, NOW KEEP OUT, she offers unique insight into B'ville. Check it out. ...more |
Notes are private!
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Sep 15, 2014
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Sep 24, 2014
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Jul 02, 2014
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ebook
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| 0062092847
| 9780062092847
| 0062092847
| 3.80
| 2,984
| Oct 25, 2011
| Oct 25, 2011
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liked it
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It was May 2014, and we just had our first day in the mid-eighties here in NYC this week. There would be plenty more before much longer. Nothing makes
It was May 2014, and we just had our first day in the mid-eighties here in NYC this week. There would be plenty more before much longer. Nothing makes one pine for winter more than sweating incessantly and enjoying the enhanced fragrance of garbage and sewage that graces city air when things start to cook. So, a perfect time to jump into a Christmas book. Tim Dorsey delights in sending up his home state of Florida. In When Elves Attack, the 14th tale in the series, he takes on the winter holiday season in that most unwintry of American states, Florida. (Yeah, Hawaii, I know, I mean the continental USA, jeez) We rejoin Serge Storms, cheerful psycho-killer, proud host to several extreme forms of mental illness, defender of the weak and/or righteous against the cruel, mindless and taste-challenged, and his opposite, Coleman, a laid back sort who is all you could want in a drugged out wing man. Both are, of course, well prepared for the holiday season, in full elf gear. Dorsey was asked by his publisher to write a Christmas book, and while he had some trepidations, he managed to turn his homicidal attention to some of the wonderful features of Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is definitely an extra in the series, at under 200 pps. There are some things to be learned here, from what might happen to a frozen turkey that is popped into a deep fryer, (I had the pleasure of actual deep-fried turkey many years back, with some erstwhile pals in Louisiana, and it was amazing. This one comes out a bit differently.) to how an opening rush at a big box store can be transformed into a weapon of ass destruction, to a heads up for some security concerns to look for in mall parking lots. It is filled with delightful hints on how you might add some spice to your holiday celebrations, and find creative uses for legos. Serge, of course, gives and gives, but those on the receiving end might not appreciate his particular form of holiday cheer. The core story, to the extent there actually is one, is Serge's determination that he wants to settle down and live a sort of Ozzie and Harriet life, like a couple of his favorite non-psychotics, Jim and Martha, on the sedate (until now) Triggerfish Lane. More specifically, the intent was to gather together for a large Christmas dinner characters from sundry other Serge books. Visitors from prior volumes popping by for weed, nog, and mayhem, include the aforementioned Jim and Martha, of course, the lovely Country and City, or whatever their names really are, fleeing the law, per usual, and a pack of seniors, the G-unit, eager to kick ass and party hearty. [image] The author - from Sarasota Herald Tribune Excessive holiday lighting comes in for a look and an unusual application or two, and yes, there will be yule logs. There will also be caroling, and tree decorations, and dare we hope for a White Christmas? There is also room made for another holiday tradition, the layoff. In fact, Jim is the guy who is brought in to lay people off for no good reason at the behest of misguided management looking to save a few bucks and outsource the rage of the newly unemployed onto a third party. What could possibly go wrong? Another side-tale concerns a lovely feature of Florida law that prevents the state from seizing a person's home to pay debts. Some awful, financial vampire sorts have taken advantage of this to shield their assets from the courts and their creditors. Serge finds an interesting partial solution to the problem One knows what to expect when picking up a Tim Dorsey book, a love of his home state, a significant body count and the application of extreme creativity in finding new ways to fill those large plastic bags with the deserving. No one picks these books up for their literary quality, or even, mostly, a particularly coherent story. This is grand guignol. The joke is in pointing out the awful and beating the crap out of it, or worse, and doing it in ever more creative ways, while sustaining a buzz. If you are looking for more than that, you have come to the wrong asylum. We will not make the silly mistake of looking at this book for anything other than what it is. The question then is whether it succeeds within the confines of the genre. While there are moments that are definitely satisfying, with creative punishments dealt out to those who desperately need them, I found much of the book forced and unfunny. Well, forced may be drifting a bit into that area of not accepting it for what it is. So, forget that. Of course it is forced. It does offer some interesting and even useful information, and does present several doses of real creativity. I have read a couple of Dorsey's Serge books, and rather enjoyed them, so there is no question here of prudish feathers being ruffled. I enjoy comedic carnage as much as the next maximum-security escapee. But this one just did not quite do it for me. No real laugh-out-loud moments. So, while I will toss out three stars (at least one stolen from another review after I slipped it a mickey) to encourage a continuation of the madness and to reward the creativity on display, if Santa were rating this one, he might say "No No No." Here are the other two Serge books I have stumbled through: Florida Roadkill (Serge Storms Mystery, #1) and Gator A-Go-Go (Serge Storms Mystery, #12) Review first posted – May 30, 2014 Publication date – January 1, 2011 [image] [image] [image] [image] [image] =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages, and Serge’s Florida Experience (fake) blog There is plenty of extra stuff on Dorsey’s site. Interview by Marc Bernier at the Miami Book Fair Some fun Christmas items from National Geographic: -----11/29/2017 - Saint Nicholas to Santa: The Surprising Origins of Mr. Claus - by Brian Handwerk -----12/13/2017 - Who Is Krampus? Explaining the Horrific Christmas Devil - by Tanya Basu -----12/21/2017 - Vintage Map Shows Santa's Journey Around the World - By Greg Miller – a kitschy 50’s Santa Map -----12/19/2017 - One Town's Fight to Save Their 40-Foot Yule Goat - by Sarah Gibbens – Yes, really, a Christmas goat 12/21/2017 - This NY Times video by Matthew Salton is a trip - Santa is a Psychedelic Mushroom ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 28, 2014
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May 28, 2014
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May 28, 2014
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Hardcover
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| 0393081575
| 9780393081572
| 0393081575
| 3.93
| 48,904
| Jan 04, 2013
| Apr 01, 2013
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it was amazing
| When it comes to literature about eating, science has been a little hard to hear amid the clamor of cuisine. Just as we adorn sex with the fancy g When it comes to literature about eating, science has been a little hard to hear amid the clamor of cuisine. Just as we adorn sex with the fancy gold-leaf filigree of love, so we dress the need for sustenance in the finery of cooking and connoisseurship…Yes, men and women eat meals. But they also ingest nutrients. They grind and sculpt them into a moistened bolus that is delivered via a stadium wave of sequential contractions, into a self-kneading sack of hydrochloric acid and then dumped into a tubular leach field, where is it converted into the most powerful taboo in human history. [no, not wearing white after Labor Day]If I had my own university I would see to it that Mary Roach received an honorary doctorate in Scatology. She does seem to have a predilection for investigating elements of human functions that would be considered indelicate in polite company. Of course, to my not-so-inner-Beavis, this is mother’s milk. (Oh, god, no. Is she going to look into that next?) So far, Ms. Roach, a science writer, has managed to process information and squeeze out books on dead bodies (Stiff), the afterlife (Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife ), some of the more personal elements of space travel (Packing for Mars) and sex (Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex). In Gulp, Ms. Roach looks into the details of how, during our corporal existence, we fuel the engines that allow us to scoot between planets or partners, and which make it possible to contemplate what should be done with our remains. [image] Mary Roach - image from The Reading Lists Mary takes us on a lively cruise down the alimentary canal, which lies somewhere between Love Canal and Root Canal, but with more jokes. Really though, a canal is what we are. Stuff in, stuff out, and an increasingly complex control mechanism to make sure it keep flowing. Philosophy? Religion? Civilization? Whatever. Feed me. Let me poop and pee and the rest is gravy. Because, you know, if you can’t or don’t eat, everything else is moot. (Insert anorexic model joke here) If you can’t get rid of the final product, everything else is really nastily moot. So, while our trip with Captain Mary may lack the derring do of the good ship Proteus, (and the wooden leg of that other well-known cruise) it is a fantastic journey from here to there, and most definitely not back again. As with any sightseeing outing, your tour guide will point out the structures along the way that are considered to be of interest. All ahead full and pay no attention to those white particles dangling from the tree roots along the side. We begin our look inside by examining how smell affects the way things taste to us. If you smell a rat, it might be because of its diet, of which more later. Our first stop is the nose, along with our sense of smell, which functions as the body’s TSA, with its own list of items that may not be brought aboard. [image] Hold on for a bit as the captain steers the boat into an unexpected cul-de-sac. While there, you will pick up some info on the food you get for your cats and dogs. Ok, backing out and here we are, looking at the appetite for organ meat in various places and cultures, what is good about it and how many of us consider it nasty. It is in this chapter that we discover that Narwhal skin turns out to be rather tasty. Around the bend and down the hatch, Ms. Roach spends some time pondering the question of whether, like one jaw-weary fellow in 1903, we might believe that by chewing one’s food very, very thoroughly, one can gain greater nutrition from it than someone could by chewing it a more typical number of times. And while you are mulling that over, Roach goes poking into the strange case of Dr. William Beaumont, the researcher, and Alexis St Martin, his personal guinea pig, the proud possessor of an ill-healed and surprisingly non-fatal gunshot wound to the torso. It scarred up oddly and left the enterprising Doctor Beaumont direct access to Mister St Martin’s stomach. Let the testing begin, and go on and go on. Hey, come back here. I’m not done. For a feature length look at this, up that tributary on the left, you might poke your nose into Open Wound: The Tragic Obsession of Dr. William Beaumont by Jason Karlawish. Next, Captain Mary points out the surprising relationship between spit and laundry detergent, actually between spit (there are two kinds, neither of which is called warm) and a lot of things, and why we like our foods to be crispy and crunchy. And if you were wondering if this little excursion included the risk of being devoured by large living creatures, Roach can fill you in on the odds of surviving inside a leviathan’s stomach. [image] From Heidelblog.net There are plenty more sights to be seen on this journey, subjects like ways of eating oneself to death, the explosive danger of intestinal gas, (“I know a case, this was fifteen years ago, where the man ate a huge meal and then took an inordinate amount of Alka-Seltzer.” [Dyspepsia expert Mike] Jones made an exploding sound into the telephone. It was like that Monty Python sketch, the Wafer-Thin Mint, where the guy is gorging himself and finally he goes, “I’ll just have this one wafer-thin mint…’”) [image] From GIPHY.COM and the booming field of flatulence. [image] From Flixter.com (I bet you thought I was gonna go with the infamous bean scene from Blazing Saddles. I am much too classy for that. You will have to go there on your own. Just click this.) And did you know that it was not only possible to ignite farts, but that there are some people who have flammable belches? I won't have what he's having. Roach gets to the bottom of the practice known as keistering, and hooping. Prison is a likely lab for such research into the use of the rectum as a cargo hold. The storage capacity is impressive, to the point that one inmate was referred to as OD, as in Office Depot, for his hooping capacity, actually used for keistering office supplies. I’m not using that stapler. And you will be amazed at how much of a rat’s diet consists of material that…um…emerged from the rat. So on spotting a certain rodent in Orlando, try to stop yourself from asking what it is in that taco he is toting. And you do not want to be downwind of that breath. The colon comes in for considerable examination, and figures in a surprising theory for the cause of death of a king. She comes clean in a look at the history, reasons for and abuses of enemas. And, of course Mary lets loose when she gets the scoop on pooping. She even notes a chart that delineates the seven different types. You know you want to see it. [image] Bristol Stool Chart Ok. Time to squeeze yourself off the boat. Be sure to tip the guide. Roach always delights in reporting on names that are particularly apt. my gastroenterologist is Dr. Terdiman, and the author of the journal article “Gastrointestinal Gas” is J. Fardy, and the headquarters of the International Academy of Proctology was Flushing, New York.I suppose the academy might be better off in Richmond, VA, in the neighborhood called Shockoe Bottom, or maybe in Proberta, CA. A couple of minor gripes. This book could really have used an index. And the chapter on feeding Spot and Fluffy, while interesting, seemed a bit of a digression from the main journey. That said, reading Mary Roach is akin to the pure joy one experiences from things like Ripley’s Believe It or Not, with the benefit of knowing that there is no smoke and mirror involvement. Reality is soooooo weird. And we have Mary Roach to thank for refilling our occasionally dwindling mental storehouse of disturbing images, (You will never think of Elvis quite the same way after reading this book) and fascinating scientific facts, like the possible origin for the belief in fire-breathing dragons or the medical efficacy of fecal transplants. There is never a doubt that Mary Roach will make you laugh and teach you things you never knew before. What could be better? Ok, I mean aside from the Blazing Saddles clip. ==============================EXTRA STUFF Here is the full vid of the wafer thin mint bit, aka Mr. Creosote. Don’t even try watching this if you get queasy easily. It requires a very strong stomach or a very weak mind. The May 2013 issue of Smithsonian Magazine features an article by Roach, The-Gut-Wrenching-Science Behind the World’s Hottest Peppers and there is another piece in that issue that may be of interest, Why You Like What You Like by Tom Vanderbilt. BTW, the articles are named differently in the magazine and on the web site. Town Hall Seattle has an excellent audio presentation by Roach Mary is interviewed on NPR And in the New York Times There is a wonderful interview with Mary on The Daily Show, a two parter. Here is Part 1 and here Part 2 Janet Maslin’s NY Times review Although it shows a pub date of April 2016, this one appeared in my feed on July 19, 2018 - From Greatist.com - Poop Health: Is Your Poop Normal? Here's the No. 1 Reason to Check Your No. 2 - by Maria Hart - gotta love their take on the Bristol Chart, and no, it is not an image of a balanced daily diet. [image] Other Mary Roach books we have enjoyed -----2021 - Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law -----2016 - Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War -----2010 - Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void -----2006 - Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife -----2004 - Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Finally, inspired by the Bristol Chart, which is not at all related to The Bristol Stomp, and visits to US National Parks, I composed my own bit of classic literary poetry to express a grave concern among travelers. Hiking Boot Maintenance Be careful where you step When you go walking in the dark Because of all the people Pooping pellets in the park. [image] Thank you, thank you very much. ...more |
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May 23, 2013
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Jun 30, 2013
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May 23, 2013
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Hardcover
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| 0812993683
| 9780812993684
| 0812993683
| 3.84
| 354
| Jan 01, 2012
| Nov 20, 2012
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liked it
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Dogfight is a tale in verse of twenty twelve's election Barry O and Mittens' race to make a strong connection with voters all across the land especially Dogfight is a tale in verse of twenty twelve's election Barry O and Mittens' race to make a strong connection with voters all across the land especially the swinger who liked to play the field all day to make attention linger He offers up a host of rhymes about the aspiration Of those who burned to try to earn the red-crew nomination So many clowns, so little car the up and down campaigns The polls that changed the daily star The paucity of brains We have to thank the man who cranks out poems by the week The Nation magazine's his venue should you care to seek a steady dose of witty verse and comments politique For though it's so that there are many poets who are willin' The one who always gets it done the author, Calvin Trillin. ...more |
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Feb 04, 2013
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Feb 07, 2013
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Feb 04, 2013
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Hardcover
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| 1439173052
| 9781439173053
| 3.81
| 13,257
| 2006
| Oct 06, 2009
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really liked it
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The Gates is a hell of a funny book, yes laugh out loud funny. A foursome of dark dabblers attempt a summoning. Somewhere near Geneva, the Large Hadron The Gates is a hell of a funny book, yes laugh out loud funny. A foursome of dark dabblers attempt a summoning. Somewhere near Geneva, the Large Hadron Collider is whirring about attempting to divine the “god particle.” What could possibly go wrong? Before you can say “oopsy” a small portal to you-know-where has been opened, and nasty slithery sorts begin arriving, like unwanted relations, for an extended stay. [image] John Connolly - image from his site Samuel Johnson, this one sans Tourette and any inclination to pen a new dictionary, is a precocious eleven-year-old. He is trying to get a jump on Halloween a few days early. He and his dog, Boswell, (go ahead and snicker) happen upon the unlucky coven just as they are absorbed by large things with tentacles and issues with personal hygiene. One local in particular, Mrs Abernathy, or what has taken her over, takes charge and the game is on. How will Sam convince the people? I mean really. Would you believe it if someone told you that your town had been invaded by beings from hell? Of course I do remember the Republican convention here in NYC, but none of them actually displayed physical tentacles. The cast grows to include a conflicted demon named Nurd, a pair of game clerics, a very evil dead bishop who would prefer not to remain beneath the ground, dark creatures of all sorts, and a town population determined to defend their blessed plot, their earth, their realm, their England. Connolly has a lot of fun with names. A teacher is named Hume, the Renfields comprise half the summoners, Dr. Planck and Professor Hilbert work at CERN. It seems like a cast list for an episode of LOST. You will laugh and you may cry, but if the latter, it will be from laughing so hard. The Gates is a madcap romp that offers engaging characters, scary monsters, silly monsters, walking dead and some good old common sense. Ok, some of the evil-doers were maybe not so new, but there are plenty of new ones to go around. I was very much reminded of Christopher Moore’s work and of the tone of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. You won’t have to conjure a good feeling while reading Connolly’s sweet-sulfurous offering. It will arrive uninvited. P.S - I cannot imagine that when (really, it must be when and not if) this is made into a film, there would not be roles for Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson and Mike Watt. P.P.S. – the scatological twelve-year-old hiding under my gnarled hide leaped for joy when a hapless demon arrived and commented on his unfortunate landing, “I appear to be covered in poo.” Review first posted in 2011 Published - January 1, 2006 =============================EXTRA STUFF The Author's personal, FB, Twitter, and GR pages ...more |
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1
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Jun 20, 2011
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Jun 22, 2011
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Jun 20, 2011
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ebook
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| 0316056863
| 9780316056861
| 0316056863
| 3.96
| 1,013,824
| Apr 05, 2011
| Apr 05, 2011
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liked it
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Big Tina Fey fan here. I have always enjoyed her work on SNL and have seen almost every episode of 30 Rock. I have seen some of her movies, not all. S
Big Tina Fey fan here. I have always enjoyed her work on SNL and have seen almost every episode of 30 Rock. I have seen some of her movies, not all. She is very definitely funny and smart. Her Sarah Palin kills. So what might one expect from a Tina Fey book? One of two things, either a straight ahead comedic book with plenty of anecdotes, jokes and maybe a bit of behind-the-scenes info, or a personal memoir, with detail about her background. I felt that Fey committed to neither fully and wound up producing half of both in a book that was inconsistent and at times very thin. After reading this book, do you feel that you know Fey any better than you did before? Sure there are some details about this and that, and she does address internal conflicts around work-vs-family, but my take is that this was all very surfacy material and did not really get much, if at all, below the skin. As a memoir I found it very unrevealing. There is the matter of the scar. She tells us nothing. And tunes out those who ask. Doesn’t it make you think there is something there? A little kid is harmed so violently and she has nothing to say about it? Really? Had no effect on her growing up? Another sore point was the minimal info offered on her relationship with her father, Don Fey, who was clearly a very powerful figure in her life. Colin Quinn, having just met the guy, was impressed. “Your father doesn’t fucking play games. You would never come home with a shamrock tattoo in that house.” Yet TF offers us very little about him and virtually nothing about how his personality affected her growing up. There was definitely some fun behind-the-scenes material here, most especially in her chapter on staff urination practices. I felt that her portrait of life in Second City was thin. Re 30 Rock, nothing on Alec Baldwin, really? We assume that they got to know each other when he hosted SNL, but how did it come to be that she wanted to write a sit-com that he starred in? Nada. Thin. But plenty of respect and admiration for Lorne Michaels and several of her workmates. That offered at least a hint of heft. Some chapters function mostly as short comedic bits. In one she responds to hostile e-mails that certainly could have been real, although one wonders. But real or written it was rather low-hanging fruit. She does allow some warts to dot the portrait. Basically stealing a job from a lifer at the Y was a pretty crappy thing to do in her early years. It makes one see TF as someone who gets what she wants no matter who she hurts. And she certainly seems to have had a remarkable run of success. One wonders if there are more wounded and dying left on the field of battle. How much has luck played a part in her achievements? In terms of how she functions in the world as a competitive person I felt that we got only the very tip of the TF iceberg. She points out more than a few of the gender-bias barricades she and other female writers and comedians have had to hurdle. That was one of the strengths of the book, as was her conflicted feelings about parenting versus work. Many years ago I knew a fellow who worked at one of the main New York comedy clubs. He made it pretty clear that, as a group, comedians were “not nice people.” Tina Fey may or may not be a nice person. I did not get a strong enough sense to overcome my predisposition. She is certainly very smart, talented and funny. I would like to know more about her, but this book is not the goto source for that. My sense is that TF is not gonna let anyone too close, not show too much, other than to her best buds and family, and who knows, maybe not even them. In a way, I felt the book resembled SNL. In pretty much every production of the show, there are some good bits and some that fall flat. I expect there are more publications ahead for Fey. Hopefully the next one will offer a better overall product, with heftier content. PS - One quote I particularly enjoyed: When I was a kid there was a TV interstitial during Saturday morning cartoons with a song that went like this: “The most important person in the whole wide world is you, and you hardly even know you." You’re the most important person! Is this not the absolute worst thing you could instill in a child? They’re the most important person? In the world? That’s what they already think. You need to teach them the opposite. They need to be a little afraid of what will happen.I'm with you on this one, sister. [image] [image] [image] [image] [image] [image] ...more |
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Jun 22, 2011
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Jun 24, 2011
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May 16, 2011
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Hardcover
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| 0307279464
| 9780307279460
| 0307279464
| 4.06
| 413,697
| May 05, 1998
| Dec 26, 2006
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really liked it
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None
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not set
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not set
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Dec 25, 2010
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 0393068471
| 9780393068474
| 0393068471
| 3.95
| 58,043
| Aug 02, 2010
| Aug 02, 2010
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really liked it
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Maybe she could have titled the book The Right Stiff. I needed to have tissues handy while reading Mary Roach’s latest. No, it is not because it made Maybe she could have titled the book The Right Stiff. I needed to have tissues handy while reading Mary Roach’s latest. No, it is not because it made me sad, but because I was laughing so hard my eyes were gushing. Mary Roach has had that effect on me before. I have read two of her books. Stiff and Spook are greatly entertaining. She has a sense of humor that encompasses a pre-adolescent affinity for the scatological. OK, she likes fart jokes. Blast off, Mary. She has an appreciation for the absurd and an impressive capacity for finding it. This sign says REDUCED GRAVITY OFFICE. I know what is in there, but even so, I have to stand for a moment and indulge my imagination, through which coffee pots are floating and secretaries drift here and there like paper airplanes. Or better still, an organization devoted to the taking of absolutely nothing seriously.She seems to write with actual glee when reporting on the frequently vomitous results of weightlessness, and her tales of head-case astronauts playing gruesome practical jokes while in orbit had me weeping with laughter. Yet through all the laughter there is considerable payload to be had in Roach’s books. One can gain here, among other things, an appreciation for just how little was known about the effect of space flight on humans (or chimps) before we followed the Soviets into orbit. There is info on the design of spacecraft seating, and scary details about how the human body reacts to high-G acceleration, and scarier, deceleration, also why it is better to be on rather than below deck when confronting seasickness. Your eyes will widen and you will find yourself saying “really? Who knew?” Apparently Mary Roach did, or at least does now, and shares her acquired knowledge with the rest of us. If this book does not deter you from your lifelong desire to become an astronaut (an early career fantasy of mine), there is no hope for you at all, and you should seek counseling. You may not leak bodily products, tears or worse, while reading Packing For Mars but be sure to keep a hankie or some tissues handy, just in case. =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal and Twitter pages Other Mary Roach books we have enjoyed -----2021 - Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law -----2016 - Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War -----2013 - Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal -----2006 - Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife -----2004 - Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers August 21, 2016 - A recommendation from the intrepid Henry B. Planning any long trips, HB? - How to Win Friends and Influence People (on Fake Mars) by Katie Rogers - New York Times September 17, 2017 - Washington Post re-printing an AP story - Mars Research Crew Emerges After 8 Months of Isolation - Caleb Jones ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 20, 2010
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Sep 2010
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Aug 20, 2010
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0060590319
| 9780060590314
| 0060590319
| 3.97
| 56,003
| Feb 10, 2009
| Feb 10, 2009
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it was ok
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[image] Christopher Moore - image from Lit reactor Pocket is a diminutive Jester in the court of King Lear. Hijinks ensue. In this darkly comedic retel [image] Christopher Moore - image from Lit reactor Pocket is a diminutive Jester in the court of King Lear. Hijinks ensue. In this darkly comedic retelling, Moore has some fun with Willy the Shake and walks us through a maze of betrayal and downright cussedness in the Britain of a (thankfully) long-gone age. There are times when it is laugh-out-loud funny, particularly if (like me) you tend to guffaw at humor of a low sort. But while I am a fan of Moore, and have enjoyed A Dirty Job, You Suck and Lamb, I found that this one wanting. It was funny, but—and maybe I am missing something here—just not funny enough. [image] [image] [image] [image] ...more |
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not set
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Feb 13, 2009
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Feb 12, 2009
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Hardcover
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| 0380813815
| 9780380813810
| 0380813815
| 4.23
| 175,000
| Mar 01, 2002
| May 25, 2004
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liked it
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[image] Christopher Moore - image from SFGate Jesus, the missing years, as told by his best buddy, Biff. This a very entertaining, laugh-out-loud funn [image] Christopher Moore - image from SFGate Jesus, the missing years, as told by his best buddy, Biff. This a very entertaining, laugh-out-loud funny book, at times. It is clear that there is real content under the yucks. Where did JC go between the time he dazzled the intellectuals at the temple at twelve and when he returned at thirty to do his messiah thing. Asia figures prominently, Buddhism, an Asian aesthetic. You might want to dust off your Lao Tzu, Kama Sutra, Bhagavad Gita, and sundry others. It is actually quite interesting, as is the author’s characterization of Mary Magdalene (Maggie), John the Baptist and the disciples. I found at times that I was getting bored, but stuck with it. Recommended. =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages ...more |
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not set
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Jul 2005
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Nov 01, 2008
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Paperback
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| 0393324826
| 9780393324822
| B07D1FY27M
| 4.06
| 222,150
| Apr 17, 2003
| May 17, 2004
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really liked it
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[image] Mary Roach - Image from Stanford Medicine - photo by Timothy Archibald Laugh out loud funny is the way to go if you want to learn more than yo [image] Mary Roach - Image from Stanford Medicine - photo by Timothy Archibald Laugh out loud funny is the way to go if you want to learn more than you realized might be worth knowing about dead bodies. It made me greatly disposed to finding out what else Roach has written, before I become a subject for studies like this one. As you can see below, in EXTRA STUFF, I managed to do just that. Roach is now one of my favorite all time authors. =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal and Twitter pages Interview -----Stanford Medicine - Winter 2018 - Exploring our miraculous icky parts by Paul Costello - The interview, which is a fabulous intro to Roach, covers several books, but Stiff features prominently Here is a fun piece from the NY Times in which Mary is asked about books she didn't write. Gotta love her last line. : Mary Roach: By the Book Other Mary Roach books we have enjoyed -----2021 - Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law -----2016 - Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War -----2013 - Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal -----2010 - Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void -----2006 - Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife ...more |
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not set
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Nov 2004
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Oct 29, 2008
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Paperback
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| 0393329127
| 9780393329124
| 0393329127
| 3.60
| 39,333
| 2005
| Sep 26, 2006
|
really liked it
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Roach is the author of Stiff, a raucous romp through the wonderful land of death. It is only natural that she might continue that escapade with a look
Roach is the author of Stiff, a raucous romp through the wonderful land of death. It is only natural that she might continue that escapade with a look past the curtain. Are there ghosts? Is there life after death? She examines a host of topics under her conceptual umbrella, looking at reincarnation, the hunt for the seat of the soul, the notion that the soul weighs 21 grams, ectoplasm, the effectiveness of mediums, including her stint in medium school, (she outgrew small but was not yet advanced enough for large school?) EVP, and more. As with Stiff, it is a bit hazardous reading this in public as one is apt to burst out into laughter every now and then, victimized by the snide commentary that makes this book great fun to read. I particularly enjoyed the section on the possibility that infrasound, that is, sound at or about 18-20 decibels, might account for a wide range of supposedly psychic experience. Spook has enough payload to justify the trip and the humor makes it a very spirited ride. Other Mary Roach books we have enjoyed -----2021 - Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law -----2016 - Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War -----2013 - Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal -----2010 - Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void -----2004 - Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers ...more |
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1
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not set
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Dec 2006
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Oct 24, 2008
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Paperback
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| 0060590270
| 9780060590277
| 0060590270
| 4.03
| 119,576
| Mar 21, 2006
| Mar 21, 2006
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really liked it
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[image] Christopher Moore - image from the Portland Mercury Charlie Asher is a pretty regular guy having a regular life, until he sees death hovering [image] Christopher Moore - image from the Portland Mercury Charlie Asher is a pretty regular guy having a regular life, until he sees death hovering over his wife following the birth of their first child. Strange things begin to happen and it takes a while before Charlie learns that he has been selected as a Death Merchant, a collector of the souls of those nearly or recently deceased. The job comes with a rulebook which, like most instructional manuals is of limited value. It gets even weirder when he learns that his baby girl has a bit of power all her own. Moore’s cast of quirky characters includes dueling babysitters, middle aged ladies from China and Russia, a goth 16-year-old assistant and an ex-cop who works for him in his second hand shop. His lesbian sister is quite sympathetic even if she does keep stealing suits from his closet. And oh, yeah, he is pursued by creatures from below, sewer-harpies who long to return to the land above for a little bloodletting, with Charlie and his baby topping their menus. This is literally laugh-out-loud funny. He goes a bit too dark I thought in describing details of the harpies’ endeavors, but this is a wonderful, fun read. [image] [image] [image] [image] =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages, plus his stand-alone blog ...more |
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not set
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Jun 2007
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Oct 05, 2008
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0060590297
| 9780060590291
| 0060590297
| 3.84
| 49,994
| 2007
| Jan 16, 2007
|
really liked it
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This is a laugh-out-loud novel in which vampirism meets slacker youth in San Francisco. The opening line is a classic “You bitch, you killed me! You s
This is a laugh-out-loud novel in which vampirism meets slacker youth in San Francisco. The opening line is a classic “You bitch, you killed me! You suck!” Young Tommy Flood awakes to find that his girlfriend, Jodi, has killed him, with her bite transforming him into a creature of the night. She wanted company and the old guy who turned her only a few months back was not to her liking. He had not been able to do much about it, having been attacked, robbed and ultimately bronzed by Tommy and his buddies, a Greek chorus of comedic mayhem known as the Animals. The learning curve is a steep one and Tommy is faced with learning the ins and out of his new self. It is particularly important figuring out how to get some coffee as the vampire body is highly resistant to anything resembling normal human fare. The cast of characters is a rich one, with The Emperor, a homeless guy who runs things on the street, William, a homeless derelict and owner of a very large cat, a 16-year-old wannabe who attaches herself to Tommy and Jodi, a Vegas hooker who had made herself blue to keep business alive, and who the Animals had acquired while running through the several hundred grand they’d gotten from the old bloodsucker. A memorable line here was “Admit it. Didn’t you always want to bone a Smurf?” Neither the plot nor the outcome matters much here. The joy of this book is the journey and the characters. Maybe not an appropriate read for the stuffy, but for those with a sense of humor, and who can tolerate being stared at by other subway passengers for out loud guffawing, it is a delicious read. ...more |
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1
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not set
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Jan 2007
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Oct 04, 2008
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Hardcover
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