DOUBLE FEATURE by Owen King - I didn't realize when I picked this book out at
the library that the author is Stephen King's son. Once discovered, I tried not to
let that influence my evaluation. It turned out to be relatively easy because although the literary gene certainly passed down the family tree, Owen has
his own unique voice that stands aparts from his dad's creepy one. I enjoyed
this novel, even if the pile up of coincidences at the end was a bit much.
Sam, the hero of Double Feature, is a well developed character who keeps
getting in the way of his own happiness. He feels short changed by his
parents divorce, a father he both sort of emulates and is unable to connect with, the
early death of his mother whose only sin was loving an unworthy man, and
the mutilation of his directorial debut. You want Sam to move on,
achieve some measure of closure, accept the imperfections of loved ones,
make another movie, get the girl. But for much of the story he
is determined to stick with the one thing he has mastered above all -
the art of brooding. Enough quirkiness and amusement is scattered
about the pages to prevent Sam's journey from feeling especially somber.
The narrative often feels directionless, which may bother some readers
but I don't find to be a negative trait in a book so long as the writing
is strong and engaging. When someone is trying to figure out who they
are and what they want to do with the life they've been given, a
certain amount of meandering about is inevitable. I was reminded of the
movie Garden State, which is a good thing as I'm quite fond of that
movie. Events of great impact have already taken place, an unknown future
of vague promise lies ahead, but the moment at hand seems to mostly
be about hanging around and waiting, no longer a child but perhaps
not quite an adult, probably stalling. I was also reminded in a
more superficial manner of one of my favorite movies, Cinema Paradiso.
Like that wonderful film, Double Feature is in large part on ode to
the movies. Whether it's an intellectual art house film or a campy
cult classic or a Hollywood blockbuster with dazzling special effects,
we accept the enjoyment that movies have to give us for a couple hours
in dark rooms and then we return to the real world. Loose ends tend to
be tied up by the time credits roll. Epiphanies have been reached. We walk
away satisfied that events came full circle and we return to our own lives
where things don't need to conform to rhyme or reason. They just are. I look
forward to Owen King's next book and to seeing what direction his literary
career will take. It's off to a fine start.
CANADA by Richard Ford - Richard Ford takes his sweet time building up to the
details of events that he reveals at the very beginning of this novel. The
leisurely trips to "the bank robbery" and then a much shorter one to "the
murders" are enjoyed because of Ford's masterly, non-pretentious use of
language. This book isn't about crime and/or punishment. Despite the title it
isn't even about Canada. It's simply a story about making due with what you
have, moving on from what takes place, looking back on what once was, ever
watchful for what may come to be. Canada is a chronicle of what happens to
every single one of us. Life.
FREEMAN by Leonard Pitts, Jr. - A fantastic book. Readers will empathize with the well developed characters. History buffs fascinated
by the Civil War time period will be enthralled. Those who take great
interest in this nation's troublesome history of race relations will be
deeply drawn in, and on numerous occasions will shake their head at the
realization that centuries old truths stubbornly remain valid to this day.
Those in eternal search for bittersweet love stories should immediately add
Freeman to their reading list. The only bone I had to pick with it is that in
order for certain events to go the way the author intended them to, there
were a couple instances of characters leaving incriminating evidence
lying conveniently around, allowing for trails that otherwise would have
gone cold to remain hot. I temporarily felt the presence of Leonard Pitts
Jr. directing the narrative when this happened. "No way she doesn't toss
that newspaper in the fire immediately" I may have said aloud at one point
near the end of this riveting story. This is the closest thing I found to a flaw in an otherwise wonderful novel. From
its first sentence to the last, it packs a powerful motional punch. Bravo to
a job well done.
SNUFF by Chuck Palahniuk - As with another of my favorite authors,
Tom Robbins, when you're reading a Chuck Palahniuk book you know you're
reading something that nobody else could have written. With a book like
Snuff, Palahniuk may be the only person who would ever want to write such a
thing. It's not for everybody, that's for sure. The stuff of genius never
is. Pornography itself is more socially acceptable than in depth examination
of it from outsider perspective. Palahniuk dives all the way in and the readers emerge from it covered in...insight about the underbelly of commonplace human desires. What did you think I was going to say? When all is said and done, Snuff probably
won't rank among my most favorite Palahniuk novels. I'm near the beginning of my journey through his catalog. But Snuff is most definitely riveting
and, even considering the immense popularity of Fight Club, this may end
up being the most memorable of his works.
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE by J.K. Rowling - As fascinated as my
daughter (who this book was read aloud to) is by all things wizard, Rowling
has a tendency to be wordy when incorporating a ton of
information along with drama into scenes. These passages turned off my 7-year
old. I found them a tad dry myself, but I'm a stubborn reader and refuse to
skip over anything. This wasn't the case so much with the first two Harry
Potter installments, but the end of #3 dragged somewhat with considerable
explaining dialogue. Still, it's one thing for a book to have an excessively
wordy ending, by which point you're fully committed to making it to the
finish line. It's another thing to start off in such a manner. Glancing at
other online reviews it seems my wife, my daughter and I are not the first ones to
find the World Cup scene in Goblet of Fire rather tedious. Eventually it
picks up steam. Things also start taking a turn for the dark & grown-up
in this installment of the series, so it will be the last one I read aloud
to my daughter. Perhaps she will return to it on her own some day. As for me,
I'll probably just watch the movies to see how it all turns out for Harry and
company. The onscreen adaptations do a pretty good job of leaving out
Rowling's explanatory rambling and cutting to the chase. I hear she's doing
some Hogwarts based screenplay writing now. I suppose she has a pretty good
idea by this point of what to include on paper to give readers the richest
experience, and what is best left on the editing room floor to keep fidgety
viewers on the edge of their seats.
THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER by Junot Diaz - A fine follow-up to Oscar Wao. Not nearly as ambitious, which is fine, because that might have meant waiting a decade or so for another book from Diaz. He's much too good a writer to make us wait that long again. This is How You Lose Her (love the title) is basically a series of scenes, collection of short stories on the same theme, rather than a novel. One might say it's Drown II, featuring a character from his Pulitzer Prize winning novel rather than his debut work. If you have the time you may devour this book in a single sitting. His prose goes down easy and resonates long after you've read the last page. No synopsis required because the title tells you all you need to know.
