Continuing on with my reviews of Books and Authors That I Loved But Haven't Read in a While and Need to Revisit, I come to a book that I can't, for thContinuing on with my reviews of Books and Authors That I Loved But Haven't Read in a While and Need to Revisit, I come to a book that I can't, for the life of me, remember when I first read. My first time, I think, was in the mid- to late-80s, which doesn't make sense because I would have only been in middle school, and the book is far too mature in subject matter for a middle-schooler. Then again, I read Stephen King's "It" for the first time when in I was in 7th or 8th grade. I remember that.
Regardless, John Irving's "The World According to Garp" was an essential book in my reading development. First off, it introduced me to Irving, who set me on a path of wanting to read every single one of his books.
Written in 1978, "Garp" was an epic comedy-drama about the life of a young man named Garp , who is raised by a militant feminist mother. (Okay, "militant" for 1978 anyway.) The story follows the adventures and misadventures of Garp's social and sexual development.
If anything, this book was important for two reasons: shaping my own feminist ideology and creating a life-long pathological fear of blow jobs. (Those of you who have read this novel know exactly what I'm talking about...)
The 1982 film adaptation starring Robin Williams is a somewhat forgotten film gem, although as good as it was, it was definitely not as good as the book. To be fair, though, few if any movies are better than the books......more
When I want to be reminded of great writing, I just start reading a Pat Conroy book. His books are also reminders of the potential for evil and good iWhen I want to be reminded of great writing, I just start reading a Pat Conroy book. His books are also reminders of the potential for evil and good in all people, the importance of knowing where you're from, and the fact that they just don't write books the way they used to. (Apologies to all contemporary writers.)
The late Conroy (he died in 2016) was a true Son of the South, and, occasionally in his writing, he was proud of the fact. More than anything, a recurring theme in his books is making the best out of what you're given. He was all about making lemonade if given a pile of shit.
Starting with his iconic enigmatic yet beautiful first sentence: "My wound is geography.", Conroy's novel "The Prince of Tides" takes the reader on an emotional journey to the South Carolina lowcountry, where we meet the extremely dysfunctional Wingo family.
The novel actually opens in present day (well, 1986, anyway, when the book was published) when Tom Wingo hears news of his twin sister, Savannah's, latest suicide attempt in New York City. Tom, despite his hatred of NYC and the fact that his marriage is falling apart, leaves to travel north to find out if he can save his sister from herself and, in the process, maybe save himself.
The novel is told almost entirely in flashbacks. We see the three Wingo children---Luke, Tom, and Savannah---as they grow up in a tempestuous household with a physically abusive drunk father and an obtuse mother who seems to care more about her standing in the community than her own children. The harsh truth---and something that Tom realized early on---is that the Wingo family was nothing more than poor white trash. What made it seemingly worse was that they were poor white Southern trash, which was, apparently, worlds worse than regular poor white trash.
Despite this fact, Tom loves his family, even his asshole father. Tom is far more intelligent than he gives himself credit for, and he realizes that every member in his family are the way they are because that is all they were ever expected to be.
Savannah, the smartest and most rebellious member of the family, realized this too. Thinking that she broke away from her turbulent upbringing, she moved as far away from South Carolina as possible and became a reknowned poet. Unfortunately, she couldn't quite escape the mental trappings of her childhood and the horribly traumatic events that have plagued the Wingo family.
Something devastatingly horrible happened to the Wingo family; something that no one has talked about for decades. Indeed, they are forbidden to talk about it, for bullshit reasons that none of them fully understand. When Tom comes to NYC and meets Savannah's gorgeous psychiatrist, Dr. Lowenstein, he is forced to confront this past.
Don't be intimidated by both the subject matter and the length. It's 700+ pages, but it won't feel like it. And, even though the book deals with some triggering topics such as child abuse, suicide, and extreme violence, Conroy somehow keeps the book's tone hopeful and lighthearted. Much of it stems from Conroy's sense of humor and his amazing ability to create absolutely lovable characters.
It's an absolute travesty that Conroy never received a Pulitzer in his lifetime. Then again, even after nearly a decade after his death, his books are still being read (and re-read) and loved by millions of readers, which is probably more substantial to authors than a prize....more
Eddie "Fingers" Coyle is in trouble. He's a thief and a con man and a low-level mobster who was rounded up on a felony beef in New Hampshire. The DA cEddie "Fingers" Coyle is in trouble. He's a thief and a con man and a low-level mobster who was rounded up on a felony beef in New Hampshire. The DA copped him a deal that he could serve a lesser sentence if he just gives them a few names. You know: some of his friends. The problem: Eddie doesn't have friends. He has people he knows who work with him on occasional jobs, and he knows that if he squeals, and it gets back to them (and it will), having a lesser prison sentence will be a moot point anyway.
This is the basic premise of George V. Higgins's now-classic crime thriller "The Friends of Eddie Coyle", first published in 1971. It is considered to be one of the top ten best American crime novels of the 20th century, according to Dennis Lehane in the foreword, and Lehane knows his shit.
If you've ever read an Elmore Leonard novel or seen a Quentin Tarantino movie, then you've at least experienced the feel of a Higgins novel. Higgins was a huge influence on both Leonard and Tarantino, as well as anyone who writes in the crime genre. They are gritty and violent and they ring true.
They ring true, in large part, due to the fact that Higgins was, for a significant part of his life, a lawyer in Boston. On top of that, he was a lawyer for an anti-organized crime unit. He had conversations with some of the biggest mobsters in Boston and on the East Coast. He was privy to the ins and outs of mob crimes. If anybody could write accurately about Boston crime---outside of actual Boston criminals---it was Higgins.
A note on the book's format: "TFOEC" is written almost entirely in dialogue, with very few attributions. It gets confusing, sometimes, when you're not sure who is talking and to whom, but, after a while, you start to figure it out. Also, you won't be too upset because it is some of the best fucking dialogue ever written....more
Donald Trump, sad to say, isn't the first con man to sit in the seat of the U.S. presidency. He is, however, the first to be re-elected after being ouDonald Trump, sad to say, isn't the first con man to sit in the seat of the U.S. presidency. He is, however, the first to be re-elected after being outed as a con man. Oh, and he's the first to be a convicted felon.
That elected officials and their political lackies have been pulling fast ones and bilking millions out of their constituents for as long as there has been elected officials shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Aristotle warned about the dangers of oligarchies thousands of years ago, so this isn't a new problem.
Anyone with a decent dose of cynicism and smarts knows that politicians lie, cheat, and swindle their way to the top. The problem now is that the Republican party---once the party of Lincoln, with some semblance of respectability---has lost any sense of pretense and shame about it. That, and a good chunk of Republican voters seem to have two things in abundance that corrupt politicians love: gullibility and lots of money.
Joe Conason's "The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism" is a detailed and entertaining (albeit distressing) account of how gullible and generous a large percentage of Republican voters are, starting with the McCarthy Era to the Nixon years to the Moral Majority to January 6.
With crooks and con men like Roy Cohn, Dan Smoot, Richard Viguerie, Richard Nixon, Jerry Falwell, Jerry Falwell Jr., Ronald Reagan, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon, Timothy Shea, Andrew Badolato, Brian Kolfage, Jared Kushner, Eric Trump, Don Trump Jr., and Donald Trump (just to name a few) pulling the wool over voter's eyes, the party of Lincoln has become the party of Liars....more
During the height of the Cold War, a chunk of kryptonite landed in the Soviet Union. The Russkis didn't know what to do with it until...
1978. MetropolDuring the height of the Cold War, a chunk of kryptonite landed in the Soviet Union. The Russkis didn't know what to do with it until...
1978. Metropolis. Superman has made his presence known to the world. He's defending truth, justice, and the American way. You know, everything the Russkis hate. So, the Russkis create a kryptonite-powered supervillain named Metallo. His aim? Destroy Superman and the capitalist superpower for Mother Russia!
Robert Venditti's Superman '78 comic book series is great, and I'm not normally a Superman fan. I am, however, a huge fan of the Richard Donner film starring the late Christopher Reeve (the one and only Superman, imo), and this series is basically novelizations of the sequels that were never made. I hope they continue this series......more
Ever have one of those authors where every book you read by them is your new favorite? James Lee Burke is that author for me. Swear to God, the guy caEver have one of those authors where every book you read by them is your new favorite? James Lee Burke is that author for me. Swear to God, the guy can fucking write like an angel. Or a demon. Either way, he's brilliant.
"Lay Down My Sword and Shield" was originally published in 1971, and while it reads like a Burke novel, it definitely has the feel of an early Burke novel, where the author was definitely experimenting, stylistically, and before he found his niche in the "noir" crime thriller mode for which he's best known.
The first book to feature his character Hackberry Holland, "LDMSAS" introduces us to a younger, more care-free and naive Holland, long before he becomes a Texas sheriff and battles the forces of Texas evil.
Indeed, this novel doesn't follow the mold of the subsequent Holland novels. There is no mystery to solve. No Texas "noir" criminal element to deal with, other than perhaps Texas politics.
Holland, in this book, is representative of a particular kind of Texan, the kind that Burke obviously does not like: white, well-bred, rich, entitled, drunk. He's not so much racist as he is so clueless about racial strife due to his white privilege that he barely rcognizes racism when it stares him in the face.
A hot-shot attorney, Holland is also running for Congress with the backing of a family acquaintence who happens to be a Senator. He has a beautiful wife and a life that most Texans would envy, but it is all a sham.
Holland has no interest in politics. He can't stand his wife. All he wants to do is get drunk and take care of his horses, which he likes more than most of the people in his life.
When he takes on the defense of an old war buddy, Holland's life changes drastically. He is suddenly thrust into a migrant worker's strike and witnesses, first-hand, the violence and hatred of Texan racism. When he falls in love with a young Mexican woman, he must make a choice. (Ultimately, it's not a tough choice...)
More of a fascinating character study than a novel, "LDMSAS" is still vintage Burke, which means it's wonderful.
P.S. I read this as an audiobook. Like the Dave Robicheaux novels on audiobook, this was also narrated by the wonderful Will Patton....more
Originally written in 1972, Dean Koontz's novel "Demon Seed" was one of a handful of books and stories that dealt with the dangers of the rise of ArtiOriginally written in 1972, Dean Koontz's novel "Demon Seed" was one of a handful of books and stories that dealt with the dangers of the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), amazingly written in a time when home computers were still science fiction, long before the Internet.
I remember reading this, a dog-eared paperback found at a library book sale, and thinking it was pretty good. Granted, I was probably in middle school when I read it, so I knew nothing about computers. (My family didn't get a "home computer" until I was a senior in high school, and my sister and I were forbidden to use it.)
The book, according to Koontz, garnered mediocre sales. The fact that it was written early in Koontz's career seems to be less of a factor in its initial success than the fact that Koontz simply didn't know what he was talking about when it came to computer technology. At least, this is Koontz's own reasoning in an Afterword.
He decided to "update" the book in 1997, in which computer technology had advanced exponentially since the original date of publication. My problem with this is that some of his changes were so drastic as to result in almost a completely different novel. Better? Probably. But it's not the same novel.
So, my review of "Demon Seed" is based on the '97 updated re-write and not on my shoddy memory of a dog-eared paperback I read in middle school.
Definitely not Koontz's best, "Demon Seed" is still immensely readable, despite some major issues, most prominently the misogyny and sexism that runs rampant throughout. Now, it must be noted that Koontz is trying (unsuccessfully, in my opinion) to create a narrative voice that is not his own. The novel is told from the perspective of an AI named Proteus that escaped his lab and travelled via the Internet into a home security system. Proteus is, as Koontz describes, a sociopath with a perverted obsession with a woman. Koontz attempts to use humor to portray Proteus's twisted views of women. Sometimes it works. Most of the time, it doesn't. Especially considering how horribly Proteus treats the only human character, a woman named Susan that Proteus has fallen in love with and plans on impregnating her to birth a human-computer hybrid.
That said, the book is terrifyingly creepy in its examination of a computer that becomes self-aware and "learns" its behavior and worldviews by studying the world of men. The resultant misogyny is simply a by-product of his "unofficial" programming.
There are also, within its short pages, the embryonic ideas that would creep into Koontz's subsequent far-better novels, most notably the Jane Hawk novels starting with "The Silent Corner". Indeed, in many ways, that novel now almost reads like an apology for "Demon Seed". ...more
What Graham Masterton may lack in eloquence, he certainly makes up for in prolificacy. Author of over a hundred books---most of them horror novels---MWhat Graham Masterton may lack in eloquence, he certainly makes up for in prolificacy. Author of over a hundred books---most of them horror novels---Masterton loves to tell a scary story full of blood and guts. And lots of weird sex. (Masterton's other favorite subject besides horror is sexual instruction books, with titles like "Isn't It Time You Did Something Kinky?" or "How to Make Love Six Nights a Week".[I'm not making these titles up, btw. These are actual books.] He has published over a dozen of these books over his career.)
"Charnel House", published in 1978, wasn't his first novel or published work. That would be "The Manitou", published in 1976, which was made into a movie starring Tony Curtis and is a favorite late-night offering on some cable channels that nobody watches anymore.
"Charnel House" is the first Masterton novel I have ever read. If you can find a copy of the 1988 Tor reprint paperback, take a look at the cover. It shows a naked man crawling through a window, except that he has four arms, four legs, a skeleton for a head, and a weird human face attached to his stomach. Now, being a fan of '80s paperbacks, I know that a lot of cover artists took some liberties by making some pretty gruesome covers that had very little if anything to do with the story.
Not in this case. What you see on that pretty horrific cover is an exact description of what occurs in the story.
I could go into detail about the plot---something about a Native American legendary creature commonly known as Coyote, the trickster demon, who, long ago, battled and defeated another creature simply called Big Monster---but it would just sound ridiculous, because it is. It's also pretty damn awesome in its pure silliness.
If you're looking for something that is just pure entertainment for entertainment's sake, you probably can't go wrong with Masterton. Yes, some of his depictions of Native Americans are borderline racist, and, yes, his portrayals of women are borderline misogynistic, but if you can get past that, it's fine.
Plus, there is a kaiju-like climactic battle in the end between two giant Native American demon-monsters destroying the shit out of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. It's kind of worth reading just for that, honestly....more
As a kid growing up in the late-70s/early-80s, buying comic books was a rush. First of all, they were thirty cents. My parents would give me $5 to speAs a kid growing up in the late-70s/early-80s, buying comic books was a rush. First of all, they were thirty cents. My parents would give me $5 to spend at the town drug store, and I would run immediately to the magazine racks, where one whole section was devoted to comic books. I devoured anything: Wonder Woman, Thor, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Richie Rich, Archie, Jonah Hex, Hulk. Occasionally, just to scare the crap out of myself, I’d pick up a House of Mystery. (The drug store rarely carried this, mainly, I think, because the covers were lurid and always had buxom half-naked women running from a mummy or a vampire or a mer-man. The store was owned by a nice old lady who more than likely didn’t approve of those things.)
Star Wars comics were my favorite, but, for some reason, the store only carried them semi-regularly. Once every three months an issue would come in, and I would snatch it up. Never mind that the storyline didn’t make sense because I hadn’t read the previous issues. More than likely, it ended on a cliffhanger, one that would forever leave me hanging because I knew I would never get the conclusion issue. I didn’t care, though. It was Star Wars. I think I read and re-read every issue of these comics so many times that the covers fell off.
Fast forward roughly forty years: I still love comic books, but I rarely buy them anymore. (A “cheap� issue is $4.) Most of the time, I get the compilation volumes from the library. I can read five to six issues in one paperback edition, for free.
There are a few titles, though, that I will dish out money for. Recently, Marvel released their “Epic Collections� of the “Original Marvel Years�. I bought Volume 1, which included the first 23 issues of the original run that started in 1977, as well as the first 16 issues of a Marvel magazine called “Pizzazz� (which I had never heard of) that ran a 3-page serial of Star Wars.
The first six issues of the original run was an adaptation of the film, written by Roy Thomas (based on George Lucas’s screenplay) and illustrated by Howard Chaykin, plus a rotating stock of other artists. The subsequent issues were original stories, many of which are so far from canonical as to be their own Star Wars multiverse, but they are still fun. Keep in mind, Lucas hadn’t divulged any secrets about what he was planning in the sequel, or if there was even going to be a sequel. (The ridiculous mega-success of the first film almost guaranteed one.)
I would love to own all of these someday, but they can be pretty expensive. (Amazon lists the second volume at $32, and the third volume is, inexplicably, $65.)
The local library is looking better every day�
P.S. This edition is NOT the kindle edition, as it states in the format bar. It's the paperback edition, but Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, for some reason, doesn't have that as an option. Weird......more
Narcissism (noun): 1) excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one's physical appearance. 2)PSYCHOLOGY selfishness, involving a sense of entNarcissism (noun): 1) excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one's physical appearance. 2)PSYCHOLOGY selfishness, involving a sense of entitlement, a lack of empathy, and a need for admiration, as characterizing a personality type. 3)PSYCHOANALYSIS self-centeredness arising from failure to distinguish the self from external objects, either in very young babies or as a feature of mental disorder. â€�-¶Ù¾±³¦³Ù¾±´Ç²Ô²¹°ù²â.³¦´Ç³¾â€�
I’m guessing that Donald Trump has never been, and never will be, a pet person. One has to be able to think beyond one’s own narrow self-interest in order to take care of a dog or a cat or even a lizard. I’m pretty sure Trump’s initial thought upon seeing any domesticated animal is “Can I eat it?�
But why pick on just Trump? After all, even his biggest fans know that Trump’s narcissism is merely a symptom of a bigger problem within our society. They would say that we’ve become too lazy, too soft, too apathetic as a society. Our ridiculous self-love is the least of our problems. Or is it?
Despite its publication date of 1979, Christopher Lasch’s now-classic “The Culture of Narcissism� could just as easily be read and appreciated today. If it’s not already on required reading lists for college psychology courses, it probably should be.
Lasch, in �79, couldn’t have fathomed the level of self-indulgence in 2024. He couldn’t have foreseen the Internet and the subsequent generations of children addicted to an isolated virtual world. He couldn’t have foreseen the dangerous anonymity of social media where people can “speak� to millions of people but really only be speaking to themselves. He couldn’t foresee a political divisiveness that went beyond just a disagreement between Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, but a hyper-dangerous mentality of “My opinion is the correct one, and anyone that disagrees with it is evil.�
Whether it’s the epidemic of depression and anxiety of young girls so obsessed with smartphone selfies and trying to be as beautiful as those AI-generated supermodels or the sharp rise in white Christian nationalists or the uptick in violent incidents perpetrated by young men who dub themselves “involuntary celibates�, a.k.a. incels, or elected politicians who deny the values they supposedly hold so dear in order to align themselves with a megalomaniac that allegedly has the power to end their political careers if they don’t agree with him, narcissism is at the root of most problems. We all want to look good, get ahead, keep up with the Joneses, regardless of whether we are making a better world. That doesn’t matter anymore. Today, it’s all about making a better world for ourselves.
It’s really all about “optics�. You’ve heard the word, ad nauseam. It’s the buzzword in entertainment, sports, politics, law enforcement, business, education. It’s no longer “How can we fix this?� but rather “How can we spin this to make it look good?�
“For all his inner suffering, the narcissist has many traits that make for success in bureaucratic institutions, which put a premium on the manipulation of interpersonal relations, discourage the formation of deep personal attachments, and at the same time provide the narcissist with the approval he needs in order to validate his self-esteem. Although he may resort to therapies that promise to give meaning to life and to overcome his sense of emptiness, in his professional career the narcissist often enjoys considerable success. The management of personal impressions comes naturally to him, and his mastery of its intricacies serves him well in political and business organizations where performance now counts for less than “visibility�, “momentum,� and a winning record.� (p. 91-92)
Trump, as the archetypal narcissist, is all about “winning�. To his credit, Trump’s brilliance lies in his ability to convince a wide swath of Americans that he actually gives a shit about them, that he actually wants to help them. In truth�-and his own track record shows this�-Trump’s only out to help himself. For a narcissist, that is the end-all-be-all:
“The pursuit of self-interest, formerly identified with the rational pursuit of gain and the accumulation of wealth, has become a search for pleasure and psychic survival. Social conditions now approximate the vision of republican society conceived by the Marquis de Sade at the very outset of the republican epoch. In many ways the most far-sighted and certainly the most disturbing of the prophets of revolutionary individualism, Sade defended unlimited self-indulgence as the logical culmination of the revolution in property relations�-the only way to attain revolutionary brotherhood in its purest form. By regressing in his writings to the most primitive level of fantasy, Sade uncannily glimpsed the whole subsequent development of personal life under capitalism, ending not in revolutionary brotherhood but in a society of siblings that has outlived and repudiated its revolutionary origins.� (p. 131)
In a narcissistic society, all the trust-worthy institutions that we once turned to for help and security are no longer trust-worthy. The media is “fake news�. The government is “broken�. The family is “broken�. Our teachers and professors are “spreading liberal propaganda�. Businesses are “price-gouging�. Hospitals are “in bed with insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies�. Churches are either “too political� or “not political enough�.
“The superego can no longer ally itself, in its battle against impulse, with outside authorities. It has to rely almost entirely on its own resources, and these too have diminished in their effectiveness.� (p.342)
The end result? We’ve stopped caring. About our own families, about our friends, about our community, about our government, about our world.
“The narcissist feels consumed by his own appetites� He longs to free himself from his own hunger and rage, to achieve a calm detachment beyond emotion, and to outgrow his dependence on others. He longs for the indifference to human relationships and to life itself that would enable him to acknowledge its passing in Kurt Vonnegut’s laconic phrase, “So it goes,� which so aptly expresses the ultimate aspiration of the psychiatric seeker.� (p. 342-243)...more
Genetically altered super-rats are taking over the countryside, and government agents in biohazard suits are after them. While it certainly sounds likGenetically altered super-rats are taking over the countryside, and government agents in biohazard suits are after them. While it certainly sounds like James Herbert’s classic horror novel “The Rats�, it’s actually the plot of a beloved children’s classic.
Robert C. O’Brien’s “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH�, published in 1971, introduced the world to super-intelligent lab rats and mice that escaped the lab and found shelter on the Fitzgibbon farm, building an underground city beneath a rosebush, with rat-size chairs and tables and refrigerators and lamps and books.
It’s almost planting season, and Mrs. Frisby�-an industrious single mother mouse�-is in a pickle: her youngest son, Timothy, is sick and can’t be moved, but their cinderblock house is sure to be found by Mr. Fitzgibbon, so they must find alternative housing. An elderly mouse, Mr. Ages, tells her to recruit the help of the rats in the rosebush.
So, she goes off on an adventure to ask for help from the strange, reclusive rats, not realizing that she will be a part of a much bigger adventure.
I had never read this as a child, but I vaguely recall the �80s animated film “The Secret of NIMH� that was based on it. I may have to revisit that sometime. The book was wonderful, and I loved it.
This was a nightly bedtime book that I read with my daughter. While it didn’t have the excitement of the Harry Potter books (which she recently discovered; her favorite so far being the third book, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban�), she enjoyed it. It’s got talking mice and rats: what’s not to love?...more
James Baldwin is a national treasure. I have only read a handful of his books, but every one I have read has been a journey of heart-felt emotion and James Baldwin is a national treasure. I have only read a handful of his books, but every one I have read has been a journey of heart-felt emotion and a life-changing experience.
Baldwin, a civil rights activist, wrote primarily about the Black Experience, but in immersing one’s self in one of his books, one quickly realizes that the intersectionalities of a diversity of ethnicities, cultures, and experiences (Baldwin was also gay) made it clear that he was actually writing about the Human Experience.
“If Beale Street Could Talk�, written in 1974, is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read, and I’m berating myself for not discovering it until now, at age 51. I feel like I’ve wasted most of my life by not having Baldwin, and this book, in my life. At the same time, I feel better for having finally discovered it. This is the “life-changing� aspect of the book.
At the heart of the story is a young black couple, Fonny and Tish. Fonny is in jail, awaiting trial for a crime he didn’t commit. Tish, still in her teens, is pregnant with Fonny’s baby. They had planned on getting married right before the alleged crime occurred. Now, Tish has to be strong, and she has never felt strong. Petite and timid, Tish has to find her voice, not just for herself but for the man she loves and for her unborn child. Thankfully, she has a family to support her. But families are fragile things.
To say that this book is a tearjerker is a given. It is more than that, though. There is not a single fake or manipulative emotion in this novel. It is as if Baldwin opened up a vein and bled his sorrow and grief and anger and frustration out upon the page. This is the “heart-felt� aspect of the book.
I daresay that this is, quite simply, one of the best novels I have ever read....more
Lucas Pender hates rats. After rats killed and ate his entire family during the Rat Outbreak of London in �74, he has wanted nothing more than to eradLucas Pender hates rats. After rats killed and ate his entire family during the Rat Outbreak of London in �74, he has wanted nothing more than to eradicate rats from England, especially the large mutant black rats that left thousands dead. Now working for the government as an official ratcatcher, Pender strives to prevent the next mutant rat outbreak. Unfortunately, when it inevitably does happen, small-minded government officials and bureaucrats make the situation worse�
Thus begins James Herbert’s 1979 novel “Lair�, a sequel to his 1974 novel “The Rats�. Herbert, who clearly believes that it’s foolish to mess with a formula that works, basically wrote a redux of the first novel, changing only the size of the rats (they’re bigger), the amount (there’s more), and the body count (many more people die in far more gruesome detail), which�-unless you are expecting grandiloquence on the scale of Shakespeare�-is pretty damn perfect for a Herbert horror novel.
Seriously, this book is overflowing with blood and guts, so be forewarned if you have a squeamish stomach. Entire elementary schools, trailer parks, and army platoons are torn to bloody pieces by ravenous giant rats. If that sentence immediately turns you off or offends you in anyway, steer clear! If, however, 10-15 pages of gloriously graphic descriptions of people having their faces ripped off, their genitalia being eaten, and intestines being tossed around by rats like drunken frat-boys playing hackey-sack, then this is definitely the book you should be reading.
If Eli Roth is shopping around for more movie ideas, this series is just dying to be remade. (A 1982 American horror film “Deadly Eyes� has been the only film adaptation of “The Rats�.) A third book, “Domain�, exists but is, sadly, out of print and extremely hard to find. An even-rarer out-of-print fourth book, “The City�, also exists. ...more
Hunter S. Thompson's classic 1971 gonzo journalistic novel/memoir "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is proof that the shit you find hilarious and deep Hunter S. Thompson's classic 1971 gonzo journalistic novel/memoir "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is proof that the shit you find hilarious and deep when you are ridiculously high are almost always neither. Also, what may have been profound and shocking for a 1971 audience is, in 2024, dumb and cringe-worthy.
This is not to say that Thompson's book is without merit. It is, in fact, laudable as an excellent snapshot of a particular time and place, a perfect encapsulation of the zeitgeist of the early-'70s, an epitaph for the death of the '60s.
Plus, Thompson was just a fucking good writer, and he always seemed to be at his best when he was angry. And, in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", he is furious.
Much of his anger has to do with Vietnam, Nixon/Agnew, the police, capitalism, women, birds, and himself. There is also a lot of imbibing, ingesting, and injecting of a wide variety of drugs--- many of which I have never heard of---which contributes to his angry mindset. Mostly he seems to be angry that the American Dream---the hippy-dippy lovefest of the countercultural movement of the '60s---seems to have been replaced with a militant, money-hungry, apathetic suburban nightmare.
It's pointless to give a synopsis. The point of Thompson's particular brand of journalism---"gonzo" as he called it---was that it was virtually impossible to distinguish fact from fiction. One has no idea if what he is writing about actually happened. That's part of the fun, I guess.
It should be noted that the character of Raoul Duke, Thompson's sidekick/Samoan attorney in the book was based on Thompson's real-life friend Oscar Zeta Acosta, a Mexican-American attorney. Acosta and Thompson had a falling out over the book, Acosta claiming that Thompson misrepresented him. Considering that Thompson portrays Duke as a knife-wielding hothead and (in one extremely uncomfortable scene) a rapist of a drugged-out underage girl, I would hope that Thompson misrepresented him. Acosta disappeared, and was presumed dead, in 1974 after getting involved in the Sinaloa drug cartel.
While I'm a fan of Thompson's writing, I'll be the first to admit that he is far from a model citizen. Raging asshole is more like it. And what the fuck is up with his obsession with grapefruit?
Still, Thompson did manage to offer a strangely poignant and intelligent alternative to the mainstream media bullshit....more
The late James Herbert, perhaps Britain’s greatest horror novelist, did two things really well:
1) He had a gift for character development, even when wThe late James Herbert, perhaps Britain’s greatest horror novelist, did two things really well:
1) He had a gift for character development, even when writing minor characters. He seemed to have a preternatural instinct for getting into the hearts and minds of a wide range of characters�-young or old, male or female, gay or straight. He seemed to possess a very strong inclination for empathy. He treated his characters as human beings first and characters in a horror novel second. And he was also very good at
2) Killing those characters off in some of the most graphically gruesome and gory ways.
This coming year, Herbert’s novel “The Rats� celebrates its 50th anniversary. For a horror novel that was written during the mid-1970s, it still holds up as a page-turner.
The story is straightforward: giant mutated rats run rampant through the streets and sewers of London, eating and maiming any and all humans in their path. The ones who survive with bites die of a horrible disease within 24 hours. There’s no explanation for where they came from or how they mutated. (Well, actually, there is, but Herbert doesn’t go into great detail or any detail, really. He kind of gives the reader the impression that it doesn’t really matter, and, in truth, it really doesn’t.)
“The Rats� isn’t great literature, but it does what it’s meant to do: give one the heebie jeebies. If you already detest rats and other vermin, this is definitely not the book for you. If, however, you like good ol� fashioned man-v.-nature horror stuff�-“The Birds�, “Jaws�, “Piranha�, “Anaconda�, “Cujo�, to name a few�-this is definitely one of the better ones.
A film version (the only one, that I know of) was made in 1982 under the name “Deadly Eyes�. It is, by all accounts, a relatively forgettable affair, but the trailer looks fantastic. Herbert also wrote three sequels to this book....more
Genocide: (n) The deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or grGenocide: (n) The deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.
It is a sad irony that a nation-state built primarily for a group of people who suffered a near-successful genocidal campaign by a psychotic world leader in the 20th century has, in the 21st century, engaged in a similar genocidal campaign against another group of people, an almost-perfect textbook example of the oppressed becoming an oppressor.
Please don’t twist my words, either. I am not being Antisemitic in that statement. Criticizing the colonial policies of the Israeli government should not imply a hostility or hatred of the Jewish people. Unfortunately, the world being what it is, such a statement will inevitably be misinterpreted.
The truth, though, is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has used the Israeli-Hamas War that started on October 7, 2023 as the impetus to continue a deliberate ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip that began roughly more than a hundred years ago.
Rashid Khalidi’s 2020 book “The Hundred Year’s War on Palestine� is an immensely eye-opening history of the conflict that has turned an area of the Middle East that is considered sacred by three of the major world religions into a profane killing field.
Blaming Israel is disingenuous, of course, as British Imperialism is as much at fault as the popular Zionist movement at the turn of the last century for creating the Palestinian displacement. In what has now become known as the Balfour Declaration—a single sentence recorded in a November 1917 cabinet meeting by the secretary of state for foreign affairs, Arthur J. Balfour�-Britain essentially declared its support for the eventual creation of a Jewish state in what was the country of Palestine. Perhaps nothing more than a statement to appease the growing number of Jews supportive of the Zionist movement in Europe at that time, this statement threw open a door that led directly to the creation of Israel many years later, a prospect that many indigenous Palestinians feared.
Jewish settlements, with the support of Britain, began to appear in Palestine after the First World War, bringing an already-existing Jewish population of roughly 6% of the whole to roughly 18% by 1926.
In 1947, The United Nations General Assembly voted for the partition of Palestine. Known as resolution 181, the plan provided an area of the country (42%) for the Arab population, an area of the country (56%) for the Jewish population, and the remainder (2%)�-an area comprised of the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem and surrounds�-designated as an “international zone�.
It was only a year later that Israel officially became a country, under David Ben-Gurion, head of the Jewish Agency. Helping to establish legitimacy was U.S. President Harry Truman’s recognition of the state on the same day it became the State of Israel, May 14, 1948.
Almost immediately, the violent upheaval that resulted in roughly 750,000 Arab Palestinians expelled from their homes began in earnest by the new Israeli government. Called the “Nakba� (an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe�), this ethnic cleansing of Palestine ushered in a new era of violence on both sides.
The Israeli narrative of this event vastly deviates from the Palestinian perspective. The tendency by some Israelis even today to downplay, ignore, or completely refute the violence committed by its own government during this time period ironically earns it the expression “Nakba denial�.
Palestinian militancy grew stronger in the subsequent years, eventually culminating in the foundation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), initiated by the Arab League (comprised of the seven countries of Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, North Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Transjordan), in May 1964. This was the first organization to officially represent the Palestinian people.
The group Hamas was formed many year later, in 1987.
The late 1960s was the beginning of what Khalidi refers to as “the classical period of the Arab-Israeli conflict�, in which the United States and Israel became unofficial “partners� during the Cold War against Russia, which “unofficially� offered support to militant Palestinian groups.
Amidst the violence perpetrated by Israel and militant Palestinian groups, it is important to keep in mind the vast number of innocent Palestinian people�-children, especially�-caught in the crosshairs of this conflict. Just as it is wrong to lump all Israelis together as anti-Palestinian, it is equally wrong to lump all Palestinians as terrorists. Unfortunately, this is essentially what happened.
Over time, the PLO denounced many of its own militant tactics, such as suicide bombing, and became simply a political arm of the Palestinian people. Many times, the group came close to getting countries such as the U.S. and Israel to recognize the legitimacy of the Palestinian people as a nation-state without a nation. But a two-state solution has never been adequately devised.
If any progress was made with the countless talks and accords over the years (and, frankly, there hasn’t been much), President Donald Trump set the conflict back considerably with his proposed peace plan announced in 2020, a plan rejected almost unanimously by Palestinians.
Then, October 2023 happened, where Hamas launched a full-scale attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip. According to recent data, roughly 1,200 Israelis have been killed and 5,341 injured; roughly 35,091 Palestinians have been killed and 78,827 injured.
Khalidi’s book is a good start if you want to understand the situation overseas. He lays bare his own personal history, one that divulges some of his own potential biases, but his book manages to be as objective an account of the last hundred years as is possible....more
Here’s a legitimate question: Why are conservatives in this country losing their shit over pronouns? I don’t get it. I don’t understand how FOX News cHere’s a legitimate question: Why are conservatives in this country losing their shit over pronouns? I don’t get it. I don’t understand how FOX News can have hour-long “discussions� about how people who prefer to be called “they/them� are destroying America. As if there aren’t a hundred other more important things that they could be talking about, like how racist immigration policies and global climate change actually are destroying America. I don’t think they are having round-table discussions about those issues on FOX.
(In case I get called out on this, let me say that I actually witnessed an hour-long discussion about the “idiocy� of pronouns on FOX News. It was an episode of Gutfeld! that aired recently. Gutfeld!, in case you don’t know, is a late-night talk show on FOX News hosted by Greg Gutfeld, one of the few FOX News personalities that I kind of like, as he isn’t afraid to make fun of himself. That said, his comedic rants tend to lean hard to the right, despite his contention that he is a somewhat moderate libertarian. I cry bullshit on that, as I think he is a conservative in sheep’s clothing. While I do think he is, at times, humorous, I can’t say that I agree with a majority of his politics. I don’t watch his show with any regularity, mainly because it airs way past my bedtime, but I will occasionally catch episodes on-line. If you go on Youtube, you will find at least a half-dozen episodes of his show devoted to the issue of “pronoun abuse�, which seems like a ridiculous amount of time devoted to�-in my opinion�-a non-issue.)
People (and by “people� I generally mean conservatives and Republicans) are truly angry over this, going so far as to claim that being asked to call someone “they/them� is a violation of their First Amendment rights or, in some cases, against their religion. (???) And, again, in case you are about to call me out on this, I have had very awkward and confusing conversations with angry conservative co-workers on this subject, and they have used those very arguments.
My rebuttal is often a very simple question of how their rights are being violated. Nobody is holding a gun to their head and forcing them to call a co-worker “they/them� or forcing them to call Brad a “she� or Tabitha a “he�. It seems to me that they are simply asking for courtesy regarding their gender identity. To me, it’s no different than if a co-worker asks to be called “Michael� rather than “Mike� or Mikey�, or if a woman prefers to be referred to as "Ms." rather than "Miss" or "Mrs.". If that’s what they prefer, then it’s common courtesy to accommodate their wishes. It’s not violating your First Amendment rights or religion to do so.
Personally, I think a lot of this ridiculousness stems from a residual homophobia of conservatives who�-for want of anything else to bitch about, since same-sex marriage has been legalized�-still harbor a disgust and a deep mistrust of anyone within the LGBTQ+ community, mainly because they don’t understand “those people�. They claim that members of the LGBTQ+ community are forcing the issue of “gay pride� and “tolerance� and “acceptance� on them, when the only people I see forcing the issue are conservatives. Every gay person I know pretty much just wants to live their life. They aren’t pushing an agenda or forcing people to join in gay pride parades or even asking anyone to even like them. They just want to be treated like human beings. And if that means that Brad wants to be referred to as “she/her�, what’s the big deal?
Being a gay, transgendered, or non-binary person today is probably easier than being one twenty years ago, but a lot of the homo- and transphobia still lingers in society.
Merle Miller, in 1971, published an essay in the The New York Times Magazine entitled “What it Means to Be a Homosexual�. Revolutionary for its time, the essay was a response to a homophobic article in Harper’s Magazine. Miller was angry at the way homosexuals were still denigrated and ostracized in society, especially while so many other groups�-such as blacks, chicanos, women�-were seeing civil rights victories, and gay people were still being called “faggots� by so-called upstanding citizens. The essay would later be published in book form under the title “On Being Different�. It would also be personally significant for Miller, who publicly “came out� within the essay.
This short (all told, the book is only 42 pages long) but powerful book still resonates today, because while views on homosexuality (and the more recent accompanying issues of transgenderism, gender-fluidity, and non-binarianism) have progressed over the past several decades, there are still troglodytes who believe that homosexuality is a sin or a mental illness or a choice that can simply be “deprogrammed� out of a person. I like to believe these people are a minority that are dying off, but they unfortunately still manage to suck the oxygen out of the air and embarrass the shit out of rational-minded people when they blather idiotically on FOX News....more
Summer 1974. South Boston. A hotbed of rage, hostility, and racial hatred. The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, in response to nSummer 1974. South Boston. A hotbed of rage, hostility, and racial hatred. The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, in response to numerous cases of racial segregation within Boston Schools, mandated a policy of integration, most notably through forced busing of black students into predominantly white schools and vice versa. Southies were in an uproar.
Mary Pat Fennessy, a Southie single mom, is vehemently opposed to busing, but, as she often says, it’s not because she’s racist. She just feels that the white kids of Southie stick to their own and the black kids should, too. She doesn’t believe that the races should mix. That’s not racist, she thinks. That’s just common sense.
Weeks before the school year starts, Mary Pat’s 17-year-old daughter, Julie, doesn’t come home after a night out with friends. The next day, the news is all abuzz about a young black man killed on a train platform. At first, Mary Pat refuses to see a connection, but after a few hours of playing amateur detective, she begins to realize that something horrible happened on that platform, and her daughter was most likely involved.
Thus begins “Small Mercies�, Dennis Lehane’s recent novel and, in my opinion, his best. Within a career of writing phenomenal crime thrillers, “Small Mercies� is Lehane’s culmination of his brilliance and deep understanding of the human condition. It’s also one of the best books about South Boston I have ever read, and that includes Lehane’s previous novels “Mystic River� and “Gone Baby Gone�, both excellent novels in their own right.
What makes “Small Mercies� a great novel is the character of Mary Pat. She is as lovable as she is infuriating. Lehane doesn’t paint her as a soft, loving mother. On the contrary, she’s a rough, mean, racist bitch full of a lifetime of Southie hatred. Like many Southies, she’s borderline alcoholic, because living in South Boston drives one to drink. The only brightness in her life, which she sadly doesn’t appreciate until it’s too late, is her beautiful daughter.
Mary Pat, playing detective, uncovers some inconvenient truths about her community and herself. Like most Southies, she doesn’t question the violence that happens every day. “It is what it is�, as Southies say. But Mary Pat begins to question this tired mantra. Is it true? Is this really all that life is? Hatred and rage and violence and death? And we’re just supposed to be okay with it all?
She also begins to question her own views on Race. She begins to suspect that she really is racist, and her revelation of this fact is both heart-breaking and pathetic.
Indeed, “Small Mercies� is Lehane’s very dark commentary on Racism in the U.S., played out in the microcosm of South Boston. It is both eye-opening and rather obvious, if that’s possible.
It illustrates a racism in which the racist doesn’t see themselves as racist. It’s a racism that disguises itself as other things. The racists in “Small Mercies� justify their racist views by blaming the state and federal governments for “overreach�. They justify their racist views by blaming a “liberal agenda�.
Parts of this book are hard to read, emotionally. The liberal use of the “N-word� aside, Lehane is shining a light on an extremely racist period in American history, and, in doing so, illustrates how very little has actually changed.
I read this as an Audiobook, narrated wonderfully by Robin Miles. Her narration, it must be noted, elevates the audiobook narration, and Lehane’s writing, into beautiful performance art....more
Are you there, God? It’s me, Squeaky Fromme. I know you’re not there, anyway, because God ain’t real, but Charlie is, and Charlie is Jesus and the DevAre you there, God? It’s me, Squeaky Fromme. I know you’re not there, anyway, because God ain’t real, but Charlie is, and Charlie is Jesus and the Devil all rolled up in one. He’s so dreamy.
It’s okay being, like, the house-mother here on the Ranch with all these other girls, but sometimes it’s so boring. At least I get to stay in the Big House, with the old man, George. All I got to do is make him flapjacks in the mornings and watch “The Big Valley� and “F Troop� with him and occasionally give him a blow job.
It’s kinda lonely here in the Big House, though, which is why it’s kinda nice when the girls all come up here to hang sometimes. All they talk about is the fancy clothes they see being worn on those beautiful women walking down the sidewalks in L.A. and their hairstyles and makeup. They spend so much time comparing boob sizes and how big their butts are. I try not to encourage ‘em too much (Charlie don’t like it when the girls talk too much anyway), but deep down, I kinda wish I could join ‘em. Just once I’d like to go on a food run or a creepy crawl. Hell, I would a liked to have seen Charlie and the other guys kill that dumb ranch-hand and chop him up in little pieces and bury him down by the creekbed. That woulda been fun.
Anyway, God, I got to tell you about this new girl. Her name’s Emma, and I’m getting kinda a bad vibe about her. All the other girls�-especially Susan�-seem to like her. She’s young and pretty and looks like she should probably be going to one of them hoity-toity private schools where they wear pressed uniforms and shit.
She asks a lot of questions. Says she’s going to write a book one day about the Ranch and Charlie and all the girls and stuff they do. Charlie likes her, too, but I can’t see why. Then again, Charlie’s “liked� all of the girls here, at least once, if you know what I mean�
Anyway, God, I snuck into the new girl’s bunk one night, after she got knocked out from all that wine and weed, just snoring away. I scrounged through her book bag and found a notebook. It had “A Journal by Emma Cline� on the inside cover. It was filled with writing. I read some of it. Wasn’t bad, but I could tell: this girl didn’t have the heart or head for the kinda shit Charlie wanted us to do. She wasn’t like the other girls. Almost made me feel kinda sorry for her, but that thought passed quickly. Then I just wanted to take out my switchblade and gut the little pig right then and there, but Susan woke up, and I got the hell outta there.
In August, Charlie sent Susan, Linda, Patricia, and Tex to the house on Cielo Drive. Emma went with them, but I guess they dumped her out at a gas station before they made it to the house. You’ve probably heard about it, God. They made all the papers and the TV news about it. Charlie was so fucking proud of them.
Emma never did come back to the Ranch. But she ended up writing that book. It was called “The Girls�. I saw it in the prison library one day and checked it out. It was okay. She kinda told it like it was, the little bitch pig. Then I took a nice hot shit right on the book and shoved it down the toilet�...more
Quentin Tarantino wowed me with his book “Cinema Speculation�, a wonderful nonfiction book about the movies that made Tarantino the man and the directQuentin Tarantino wowed me with his book “Cinema Speculation�, a wonderful nonfiction book about the movies that made Tarantino the man and the director he is today. It was a gorgeous thought-provoking love-letter to cinema of a specific era, that era being the late-�60s and early-�70s.
I picked up his novelization of his film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywoodâ€�, but I honestly didn’t think I was going to like it, for two main reasons: 1) I honestly believed that Tarantino’s brilliance in “Cinema Speculationâ€� was a one-off, not necessarily because I didn’t think he could pull off another excellent book or that he couldn’t possibly be as talented of a novel-writer as he was a screenwriter or director, but simply because I thought that “Cinema Speculationâ€� was so good that it would be hard for him to replicate it. (Never mind, of course, that “OUATIHâ€� was published a year BEFORE “Cinema Speculationâ€�, but whateverâ€�) and 2) I had seen the movie “Once Upon a Time in Hollywoodâ€� and, while I enjoyed it (I’ll be honest: there hasn’t been a Tarantino movie I ³ó²¹±¹±ð²Ô’t enjoyed), I felt that it was his most flawed film to date and I had problems with the ending, that being the “fairy taleâ€� alternate reality ending in which the lovely Sharon Tate et al. at 10050 Cielo Drive, Los Angeles, CA were not brutally murdered by four brainwashed hippies under the insane orders of Charles Manson. Honestly, I shed a few tears at the end, knowing that Tarantino’s ending was bullshit but also knowing that I wish it had happened the way Tarantino envisioned it, which, I know, was most likely his point.
So, I read the novelization.
I need to say it: it’s excellent. Fucking brilliant. And it’s also not a novelization. It’s a novel, and a damn good one. It also has very little resemblance to the film. A few scenes from the film made it into the book, but there were a lot of scenes I don’t remember seeing. (I have a feeling some of these scenes show up on the DVD bonus features or in a “Director’s Cut� version that I have not seen yet.)
The book is so different from the film that they are almost two separate entities with only the barest of similarities. This is, in my opinion, a positive.
Tarantino has written a novel that tells a beautiful story about the death of Old Hollywood, the big-studio machine that essentially controlled and helped create the City of Angels. He tells it in the story of has-been actor Rick Dalton (played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film), stuck in the weird limbo period of the late-�60s when big-studio Hollywood was transitioning to the New Wave of the �70s, in which a slew of independent and European filmmakers would reshape the market and the entire film industry in less than a decade.
There’s little to no room for old-school actors like Dalton, condemned to playing guest appearances as villains on TV westerns and cop shows. His alcoholism doesn’t help. Thankfully, he has Cliff Booth, his former stunt man/current driver/best friend (played by Brad Pitt in the film). Cliff is a good guy, if one can forgive his past transgressions, which include murdering several people including his wife and getting away with it.
Both men represent a dying breed, struggling to hold on to the only world they know and pushing back against all the crazy changes they see in the world around them, changes that they secretly know that they need to embrace in order to keep going in Tinsel Town.
I’m not sure why Tarantino chose to downplay the violence and the emphasis on the Manson Family in the novel, but it was, in the end, the right decision. This book is not about Charles Manson or the murder of Sharon Tate. It’s about Rick and Cliff.
I don’t care what the fuck Tarantino writes about in his next book, but I sure as fuck look forward to reading it....more
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