Witty "Shorts"

Goodreads turned me towards a couple collections of short stories by Gary Lutz: Partial List of People to Bleach and Stories in the Worst Way. Both *books had me thinking why don't we hear more of Mr. Lutz? I am reviewing these books together, because they are the pretty much the same... plus Partial List of People to Bleach is only 56 pages long, so it doesn't really meet my "legal" standards for a book!

I honestly have to say the stories are really about nothing. I know that must come of as... okay, why would I want to read this, but what I mean is that the stories are just about simple life events or encounters. They're easy to relate. Though I was never a professor, or fired from a job, or married three times, each story is elegantly detailed, you become the story.

All of the stories have a similar tone and voice, even when the point of view switches sexes. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. It helped cohesively carry one story to the next, but it was a little startling when half-way through a story I realize the point of view was actually a woman the whole time. It's kind of a startling and unexpected. It makes me think "oh wait... did I miss something?"

The writing is amazing - authentic/genuine; not at all thesaurus-groping, as I was expecting, but I'm sure there are readers who think just the opposite. Also I think some people may be rubbed with the word "pretentious", so no... maybe not for everyone. But you have to admit, the man has a way with text! 4/5 Stars.

*I should say "books" because Partial List of People to Bleach is classified as a pamphlet, since it's a 56 page collection of indie-published stories. Except for the official ISBN, it comes off as a home-printed, home-staple bound paper draft. The Graphic Designer in me is really impressed by the 56 page single signature! I refuse to fold & staple bind more than 8/16 pages together, for fear of making the book edges and margins awkward. 

I thought time travel would be exciting....

We'll I guess it was kind of exciting... a naked guy showing up all over time. Sure. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger seems to be either LOVED or HATED by the readers, but all agree the time traveling itself was a great starting point. It sold me anyway. That and it was highly recommended by my sister claiming "it's super fast! It's all dialog!" For me, it was neither.

I wasn't as impressed as she had been; I was bored. Even pretended to check a watch while reading through 3 rounds of pool (in which everyone played well of course). The novel is full of a lot of unnecessary detail about what's going on in and around a scene, but then there's little to no detail about the characters themselves, other than how they were clothed or wore their hair.

Backstory details such as family history and sexual encounters were brought up as they seemed to be very important to the plot in some way, but no solid picture was painted. Examples include Clare's history with her mother... uh, I guess her mother suffered from depression. We meet her at Clare's family Christmas party where she makes a "scene" while the family gossips behind her back, but yeah that's the last of ma'. And Henry was supposed to be a completely different person before Clare - he was a heavy drinker and man-whore, but neither of these traits are concretely developed for the reader. We just have to accept that he was a bad-bad boy before *sigh* Clare!

There were other little details that bugged me, but nothing more than the novel's (excessive) length. Now that I reflect back on the book, that's probably the point since the story is about transcending time. According to my borrowed copy's reading group guide, there was a heavy theme of "waiting". Yes... I was waiting for the book to just end. I was waiting for something to happen. Neither of the protagonists needed to wait for anything: Clare had a pre-determined list of the couple's future encounters and Henry was just off doing his own thing, acting as a human fortune cookie. I think the better word for this book's theme would be "slow." How does Henry keep the the story running around in a loop? How does Clare "patiently" wait for Henry, knowing all too well that she will one day commit herself to this person?

Not to frighten anyone with a spoiler-alert, (in case you could guess from the title,) there is no "Wife" until half way through the novel! The book is almost 600 pages... yeah that's a whole lot of not-much-going-on. The second half of the novel does read a bit faster because there is some more exciting activity Based on that fact, I felt that the book didn't need to be more than 300 pages. I think it took me a month to get through this. I know there are a bunch of readers out there that just PLOWED through, but like my sister they either: A. have a true love-story relative to the plot, or B. saw the movie before reading. I recommend the latter - skip the book for the film, then read the book if the plot really interests you.

I was bored, but the writing is okay, so Niffenegger gets some credit for that: 2/5 Stars.

A Curious Something

I actually picked up The Curious Incident in the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon a couple weeks ago and quickly finished it. I highly recommend this novel if you need help relating to someone with autism. What I found so curious was that the voice was that of a teenager, but Christopher is so emotionally skewed, he reads as an incredibly smart 8-10 year old! I have to admit I don't know a whole lot about autism, but I couldn't help but sympathize; the story is very touching.

I think some readers may find the writing frustrating. I can't think of anyone who's going to want to be trapped in the mind of a child with behavioral issues, but it's cool to see how he follows logic. There are some issues addressed which have some obvious consequences to the reader, but it's really about watching how Christopher's mind works to come to these conclusions himself. Also, it's easy to ignore the prime-numbered chapters! Just go ahead and read it - it's a quickie and it's colorful. 4/5 Stars.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Movie)

I have my eyes pegged on reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. While I was in New York City, my room mates and I just felt the need to go see the film since we were in town and we were in that mode, plus we were all dying to go to the memorial. We were all feeling a close bond to the city, especially after reciting our own 9-11 stories (which is only a common reaction to being within the city walls, I suppose!) Though I got to see this film, due to time restraints, I never made it to see the memorial.

The movie is well done, but I am saving my full reaction for when I finally get to sit down and read the book. There in a incredibly long wait period for this novel at all the local libraries (as all books in film become,) so I actually bought it off Amazon in hopes I'll be able to read it some time this spring, instead of late fall. Tree of Codes is also on my short list of books to read and I've been hankering to watch the film version of Everything is Illuminated since finishing the novel. 4/5 Stars.

Missed Connections

Sort of treading on the previous book reviewed, The Facts of Winter, by Paul Poissel, Missed Connections: Love, Lost and Found by Sophie Blackall actually went so far as to illustrate the passion of love lost, love found, and love missed. The messages are (or were) real, to which Sophie went ahead and illustrated prose for the Missed Connection notes which really stuck out to her.

I really have to say I feel a close connection to this book. Not only had it been one that I've had signed by the author/illustrator herself, but the day after I collected this book, I happened to encounter a missed connection of my own. I can't say I had a great connection to the guy, but we kept making strong eye contact on my train ride back from NYC to Boston. I do feel the slight sting of guilt thinking, I really wish we could have chatted rather than smirked at one another and kept to ourselves. Of course I have to wonder, did he think the same?

Of course NOW you will find me scouring the Missed Connections pages for stories of regret and prayers for second chances. The excerpts from this book can also be found on Sophie's blog space: Missed Connections Blog. 4/5 Stars

The Facts Of Winter

This was a highly appropriate book for me to read... this time of year. The Facts of Winter by Paul Poissel is a lovely (although not always so pretty) collection of dreams recorded during January, February and March of 1881. Each dream is a quick little blurb, but sometimes you've really got to read them more than once to really get the message.

What I liked most about this book was as I was reading, all I could think of was what great illustrations would come from these! They're very visual and some seem to tread of deeper meanings. They are mostly melancholic, however, but I think this is to be expected from dreams about this time of year. 4/5 Stars.

Because Time's a Goon....

I had high expectations for A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. I have several Goodreads recommendations for other books by Jennifer Egan, plus there were several other readers I follow with great reviews for the book, so I figured "Meh! Why NOT?" Plus I was standing in the recent publications section of the library and it was looking at me - begging me to take it home.

I think the red flag to start out with is that people are either criticizing or raving about the chapter that's made up of a "Power Point" presentation. It's a bunch of slides with diagrams and charts. Actually, the content of that chapter was the most interesting from the whole book. To me, it felt like a flow chart for Egan to diagram a new novel (like an outlining tool,) so it doesn't quite sit right with me. What was in that chapter I feel has the makings of a really great book. I'm just certain now she's started an odd trend which is a bit too gimmicky to put into any other books. So if you've writing a novel, please STOP and THINK before copying her method!

I think what really threw me out of balance was the clutter of point of views. It didn't bother me so much that there were multiple point of views, but that they just felt thrown together. I noticed at the start of the book their were remarks about bits and chapters here and there actually appeared as magazine articles and stories, which I think adds to the cut and paste feeling to the book. It probably would have flowed together cleaner if it had read in chronological order. I'm sure others would argue that that's the point... blah, blah, blah! Sorry, it was just harder to digest (for me), and it made the book feel really "clippy" to run back and forth in time AND change the voice of the story.

I can't say that I HATED the novel. Music means a lot to me, but books about music or musicians (failures or not,) just turn me off. I really thought this book would be different, since it was so highly regarded from 2010. The basic subject matter of the book is just plain not-my-thing, so it was a struggle for me to keep attention throughout. Now, I can't shake the image of Iggy Pop out of my head. Plus I really hated the klepto and she was kinda a prominent figure in the story. From the get-go we weren't off to a great start!

I'm not going to shy away from Jennifer Egan's other books. Her writing IS good and her there are still a couple of her other works which were listed as highly recommended. But for the Goon Squad, sorry Egan: 2/5 Stars.