In the last few weeks, I read a few books – mainly mysteries, mainly recent material. I followed some serials that I already knew, and I started a new series. I tried to write a review of each one for Blogcritics. I don’t want to turn this blog into a book review blog, and Blogcritics wants the text so that’s where the reviews have gone.
Category: Words
The Enemy
Resistance
I wrote a review of “Resistance” by Barry Lopez for the Winnipeg Free Press, which was published on Sunday July 4, 2004. This post is a longer version of the same review.
Barry Lopez was honoured for his nature writing with an American National Book Award for “Arctic Dreams” in 1986 and a nomination for “Of Wolves and Men”. His talent and power are undisputable. He captures nature scenes with visual and sensory precision, and sheer beauty. His essays, collected in books like “About This Life,” explore the beauty and complexity of living in the natural world.
American Gods
Until “American Gods” swept up most of the significant SF and horror writing awards in 2002, Neil Gaiman was known for his work on the DC comic series “Sandman”. He was writing for print all along. His online biography provides details for the curious.
The premise of “American Gods” is that the gods of all the peoples and cultures who came to America are still around, and that new gods like Media and Technology are rising. The story is that Mr. Wednesday – the Norse god Wotan – enlists recently released convict Shadow as his aide. Wednesday travels across America, meeting several old gods and trying to enlist them in a battle against the new gods.
The premise that the old gods are still active was explored by other SF writers, like Roger Zelazny, to whom the novel is dedicated. Zelazny explored the mythic gods of India in some of his fiction.
Because Gaiman is a good writer, he devotes himself to the story, and avoids the temptation of displaying his erudition through lecturing characters. He does however demonstrate considerable research into myth and folklore, and acute understanding of the importance of myth in culture.
He carries the story at a decent pace, although his continuing effort to get a dark and brooding atmosphere often carry the story into eddies and backwaters. His characters are unusual, bizarre, grandiose, larger than life. Even the human characters live on surface of the deep pools of an implied collective unconscious. The gods have many human attributes, but their needs and motives are mythic and their actions are wildly unpredictable.
The plot becomes cluttered with too many characters and too many subplots, which interferes with a clean climax and conclusion. Gaiman ends up having to keep writing past the natural end of the story to resolve loose ends.
This book deserved the genre awards it earned. It explores ideas – in this case cultural, sociological, psychological ideas – in an engaged and entertaining way.
Jennifer Government
Australian writer Max Barry’s second book, “Jennifer Government” is a well-crafted light satire. It could be called speculative fiction or science fiction. It’s set in a dystopian near-future in which governments have been downsized and government functions privatized. People take the name of their employer as their surname – Hack Nike, John Nike, Billy NRA, Jennifer Government. Profits rule. Employees are dehumanized and brutalized. There is no respect for quality in work and art – it’s a bottom line world, catering to whims of the consumer.
The story starts when Hack Nike, a low level Merchandising agent, is hired by John Nike, the Vice-President of Guerilla Marketing to kill 10 teenagers to give a new product street credibility. He goes to the police who offer to subcontract for him. The story takes off from there. Kids are killed, and Jennifer Government investigates the case. There is a heartbreaking scene early in the book in which she has to ask parents of a victim to fund the investigation. It becomes personal when she discovers the link to John Nike, whom she knew before her career in government.
The dialogue is snappy, the plot lines are tight and well connected. There are moments of ironic dialogue, some absurd comical scenes and a budding romance to carry the story over its dark premises. It’s worth reading for enjoyment, and for the satirical commentary on where modern neo-conservatives might take us if they had their way with government and the economy.
It’s not great literature. The characters are basic and act for simple motives. Character development is largely eschewed in favour of plot movement.
Barry has links on his web page to a number of reviews and news stories about Jennifer Government. In reading his page, we can see posts and newsletters going back well before the book was released. He used the Web to promote himself and the book before it was released. One of his strategies was creating the Nation States on-line game.
It’s hard to say if this book has staying power. It fits into the anti-globalization, anti-corporate movement, and it appeals to people who reject right-wing American politicians. For the time being, it’s topical, enjoyable and mildly provocative.
White Teeth
“White Teeth” was British writer Zadie Smith’s first novel. It was critically acclaimed, it won awards and it was turned into a mini-series on British television. We saw it last winter on PBS – Masterpiece Theater. My daughter Claire was caught by the story and bought the book. In looking up Smith on Google, I found a variety of fan sites, literary sites, and book trade sites which mention her work (see selected links at the end of this post). Some of the sites indicate that she sold the book and got a good advance on the strength of the outline and first 80 pages.
Smith writes very well. Her characters are well drawn, distinctive, complex people with interesting impulses, feelings and ideas. The characters carry the novel and tell the story. The social and political themes are presented through the stories of the characters.