Interview with Dave Eggers / on Stephen King's Essay on Gun Control

Again, links to the Guardian book page where today you have articles involving two of my favorites:

an interview with Dave Eggers

whose A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is one of my all-time favorite books and a story on Stephen King's new essay on gun control.

Quote. Julian Barnes

My brother remembers a ritual - never witnessed by me - which he called the Reading of the Diaries. Grandma and Grandpa each kept separate diaries, and of an evening would sometimes entertain themselves by reading out loud to one another what they had recorded on that very week several years previously. The entries were apparently of considerable banality but frequent disagreement. Grandpa: 'Friday. Worked in garden. Planted potatoes.' Grandma: 'Nonsense. "Rained all day. Too wet to work in garden."'

from Nothing to Be Frightened Of

Brooklyn

by Colm Tóibín

This is the story of young Eilis from a small town in Ireland. Her father has just recently died, all her brothers are working in England and she lives with her sister Rose and their mother. Job options are few, but at least Eilis is offered to work on Sundays in a shop run by stuck-up Mrs. Kelly.

But a better future lies in the New World - or so people tell her. The people in question are her sister and one Father Flood, an Irish priest with a parish in Brooklyn, New York. The arrange for her to go to Brooklyn. And when I say "arrange" I mean they make sure she has lodging, new clothes, some money and a job waiting for her once she arrives.

The journey itself is rather unpleasant, but she has a whole new life once she steps foot off the boat. A church patron is even made to pay for her night classes to become a bookkeeper. Eilis barely had to lift a finger in all of this. She just lets everything fall into her lap without thinking about it too much.

The people she works for are very business oriented and keep a close watch on their shop assistants' behavior, but, really, they are very nice and considerate. She lodges with a group of other young women in a boarding house run by a Mrs. Kehoe, who likes her well enough to give her the nicest room in the house when someone else moves out. Again, barely a finger lifted.

Then she meets Tony at a dance (that someone had to bring her to, because god forbid she do anything of her own account) and the relationship just takes off. When she gets word that her sister died unexpectedly and she plans to go back to Ireland to be with her mother for a few weeks, she marries Tony before she leaves. She gets time off work and everyone is very considerate.

Back home she spends time with her about-to-be-married friend and Jim, whom she knows from years before and who runs a pub with his parents. See, she never mentioned to anyone that she is actually married and her mother - now alone without Rose - rather have her stay home. So, why not match her up with Jim. Eilis, of course, just plays along with everything and everyone, even extending her stay to come to her friends wedding. Jim obviously thinks that this may be his future wife. And Eilis is actually considering divorce and mulls over the necessary conversation with Jim in her head a few times.

But then the shopkeeper, Mrs. Kelly, tells her that she knows about this man she is seeing in Brooklyn and basically bullies her into returning.

You know what, that Eilis? I don't like her.

The writing is great, the book practically reads itself, but if you don't care for the main character it loses a bit of its charm. And from a book named Brooklyn, I would have liked something more about Brooklyn.

6/10

Swarming a Book Online

I strongly believe that one needs to form their own opinion on, well, everything - including books. You should probably take any reader review with a grain of salt.

Case in point: Swarming a Book Online (New York Times).

On a personal note: if you write a review on a book, please consider sharing why you liked/didn't like the book in question. "I hated it" or "I loved it" is not all that helpful to others.

Stephen King Is My Hero (And So Is James Smythe)

James Smythe of The Guardian is re-reading all of Stephen King's work in chronological order - and writing about it. To me, this is heroical and inspiring.

I love Stephen King. Unconditionally. (Just an FYI, you may want to be careful about dissing the man in my presence.)

Must. Do. This.

The Ground Beneath Her Feet

by Salman Rushdie

This is the story of the great love and musical success of Ormus and Vina, as told by their childhood friend Rai, who himself moves in and out of the weird relationship Ormus and Vina have.

Ormus, a musical genius, was born rather unexpected. His twin brother is stillborn and Ormus himself was not expected. On the very same day, his father wants to hit a cricket ball towards a group of hecklers, but hits one of his other sons, also a twin, instead. Family life is - as is to be expected - difficult. One son is forever damaged by the blow to the head and his twin (who later becomes a serial killer) tries to choke Ormus with a pillow because he can't stand to hear him sing. It is only years later that Ormus turns back to music after this.

Vina has a difficult childhood of her own. She lives for a few years in Chickaboom, NY (which is as bad as it sounds), with her mother, step father and her sisters. Her birth father one day up and left the family for another man. Vina's mother kills the entire family and herself, save from Vina. The girl gets passed on to other families and after a short stint with her father ends up in Bombay.

Ormus and Vina meet and fall in love. Unfortunately, their paths lead them in different directions - Vina to New York, Ormus to England. He ends up in a coma after a car accident and it is Vina's voice that gets him out of it. From New York they start their run of success with the band VTO.

The world the entire story takes place in is similar to ours, but not quite the same. There is another world (with is very much like the 'real' world we know), that Ormus can see into ever since losing the eyesight in his left eye in the aforementioned car accident. There is a tear in the fabric between the two worlds and he can be in both, depending on whether or not he wears his eye patch.

He himself describes the slight differences between 'ourworld' and 'otherworld' like this:

I told you, he answers, feeling the onset of the weary blues. The same only different. John Kennedy got shot eight years ago. Don't laugh, Nixon's President. East Pakistan recently seceded from the union. Refugees, guerrillas, genocide, all of that. And the British aren't in Indochina, imagine that but the war's there all right even if the places have different names. I don't know how many universes there are but probably that damn war's in every one. And Dow Chemicals and napalm bombs. Two, four, six eight, no more naphthene palmitate - they've got another name for that too, but it burns little girls' skins the same way. Naptate.

His encounters with this otherworld and his otherworldly lover Maria influence his musical genius and his way of life.

VTO eventually disband and the private relationship with Vina has been a difficult one from the start. She tries to make it as a solo artist. To start her new career, she goes on a small tour to South America. The world is plagued with a series of earthquakes at the time and one of them claims her life. The Ground Beneath Her Feet literally swallows her up.

Her death leads to spontaneous gatherings of VTO's fans in venues they played in and forces countries to declare official days of mourning. Ormus himself falls apart after her death. He starts taking drugs and stalking impersonators until he finds Mira, who sounds like Vina and dresses up like her, as well. With her, he starts a new - if shortlived - version of VTO.

He seems old beyond his years and secludes himself from the world. Eventually, he gets shot by a mysterious perpetrator (Vina? an impersonator? someone else entirely?) while outside for a strall.

In my lifetime, the love of Ormus and Vina is as close as I've come to a knowledge of the mythic, the overweening, the divine. Now that they've gone, the high drama's over. What remains is ordinary human life.

 

8/10



God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian

by Kurt Vonnegut

This is a book of (very) short, fictional interviews with dead people. Vonnegut (the interviewer) is assisted by Dr. Jack Kevorkian. During his near-death experiences, Vonnegut interviews the likes of Adolf Hitler, James Earl Ray, Isaac Asimov near the Pearly Gates.

Short read. Nice.

6/10

Quote. Salman Rushdie

Begin, today, with an animal sacrifice. (Or, at least, an account of same.)
O twice-born Dionysus, O madness-strengthened bull, inexhaustible fount of life energy, divine drunkard, conqueror of India, god of women, master of the snake-changing maenads, the chewers of laurels! In lieu of burnt offerings, accept from us, ere we proceed with our humble entertainments, a bloody tale of slaughtered milk-givers; and, being pleased, bestow upon our poor efforts the benison of your crazy, lethal grin!

from The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Fifty Shades of Grey - Chapter 26

This is it! The last chapter (of part one, but let's not think about that)!

Ana wakes up alone and finds Grey at the piano, all mournful and brooding and vulnerable. *sad face*

After some conversation about the contract and obedience and shit, they teasingly start to run after each other with Grey threatening to 'punish' her for running away. Then they get totally serious again and Ana says that she feels about punishment as he does about being touched.

His entire demeanor changes in a nanosecond. Gone is playful Christian, and he stands staring at me as if I'd slapped him. He's ashen.

And, no, we don't get an explanation for why he hates to be touched. After all, there are more books to be written and money to be made off of desperate, undersexed middle aged women.

So Ana offers him a go at really punishing her, to see if she can actually stand it and they do indeed have a (dysfunctional) future together. She worries that she cannot give him what he needs.

This is a man in need. His fear is naked and obvious, but he's lost...somewhere in his darkness. His eyes wide and bleak and tortured. I can soothe him. Join him briefly in the darkness and bring him into the light.

He announces that he will hit her six times (with a belt, no less) and she is supposed to count the strikes.

Holy fuck this is going to hurt...I know. My subconscious has passed out, and my inner goddess is endeavoring to look brave.

After - with the pain and all - she finally goes off on him, yelling that he is 'one fucked-up son of a bitch' before leaving and curling up on the bed. She decides that this is not for her and she will leave.

My subconscious is shaking her head sadly, and my inner goddess is nowhere to be seen.

He joins her and they hug and have a really deep conversation. ("I don't think I can be everything you want me to be." - "You're right. I should let you go. I am no good for you." - "I don't want to go." - "I don't want you to go either." - "I've fallen in love with you, Christian." - "You can't love me, Ana. No...that's wrong.").

When it is time to go, she leaves the stuff he bought for her (and doesn't call the Mac 'The Mean Machine' for a change).

To no-one's surprise, she falls apart as soon as she is in the car taking her home. In her apartment she curls up on the bed (again). And one last time (in this part), the inner goddess rears her stupid head.

Deep down, a nasty, unbidden thought comes from my inner goddess, her lip curled in a snarl...the physical pain from the bite of a belt is nothing, nothing compared to this devastation. I curl up, desperately clutching the flat balloon and Taylor's handkerchief, and surrender myself to my grief.

And then...my very favorite part in this piece of shit of a book:

End of Part One

My review:

Fifty Shades of Grey - Chapter 25

The home stretch! I can see the end from here!

If you want detailed descriptions of bondage sex, this is the chapter for you. I am serious, it is almost tedious in its detail. But first, some kitch:

What does Christian know of love? Seems he didn't get the undonditional love he was entitled to during his very early years.

Yeah, yeah. The poor guy.

Ana arrives back in Seattle all worried about Grey being worked up about the 'situation' (and no, we don't know what is going on - and, really, who cares?).

Why am I so nervous? And I know it's because I have no idea what kind of mood Christian's going to be in when I arrive. My inner goddess is hopeful for one type of mood, my subconcious, like me, is fraught with nerves.

Grey is delighted to see her again and immediately orders her to shower with him. Obviously, they have sex first against the bathroom wall. And then again in the shower, after he washed her. There ends the romantic part. Next he tells her to be ready and waiting in his playroom in fifteen minutes.

In the 'Red Room of Pain', Ana encounters yet another inner voice while waiting on her knees.

Closing my eyes, I try to calm myself down, to connect with my inner sub. She's there somewhere, hiding behind the inner goddess.

Then the extended sex scene - tied to bed, blindfolded, listening to music (Jeez. I hope it's not rap.) so she can't hear him and pure extasy. Obviously.

Fifty Shades of Grey - Chapter 24

The end is in sight! Only three more chapters to go.

Gery wakes up Ana very, very early because he has a surprise for her. Oooooh! Exciting! But first, breakfast, which she talks her way out of - even though he totally remembered she likes Twinings tea (as if that weren't the obvious brand). They speed off in a sports car and she is allowed to pick a song from his iPod. Woohoo! So, she changes it from something out of La Traviata she picks....'Toxic' by Britney Spears and is totally exited that she has found something semi-embarassing in his playlist.

He turns the music down a little more, and inside I am hugging myself. My inner goddess is standing on the podium awaiting her gold medal. He turned the music down. Victory!

Her excitement gets a damper whe he tells her that an ex put the song on his iPod. This leads to a discussion about his exes and why it didn't work out. Turns out, some of them 'wanted more'.

"I've never wanted more, until I met you."
I gasp, reeling. Oh my. Isn't this what I want? He wants more. He wants it, too! My inner goddess has back flipped off the podium and is doing cartwheels around the stadium.

The big surprise: they are going gliding!

Where did this ridiculous grin come from? Actually, part of me is terrified. My inner goddess - she's under a blanket behind the sofa.

Have I ever expressed my hatred for this inner goddess of hers? I have. Well, it bears repeating. I loath the inner goddess. With gusto.

After, they have breakfast for real....at IHOP, where the waitress is so thrown by 'Mr. Beautiful', she can barely get a sentence out.

Grey then has to take a rain check on dinner, because he has to return to Seattle to take care of a 'situation'.

"Toto's Africa" by Ernest Hemingway

I love McSweeney's Internet Tendency. It is always good for a chuckle. The featured text today is:

"Toto's 'Africa'" by Ernest Hemingway
by Anthony Sams

Read it here.

As a bonus service (because that's just the kind of nice gal I am), here is the original video for the classic song (which will now be stuck in your head for the rest of the day, even if you chose not to listen to it, but you just know it so well).

Fifty Shades of Grey - Chapter 23

He's really here - for me. My inner goddess leaps up cheering from her chaise longue.

Ana's first and foremost worry is that he could be mad at her. Because flying across country to keep taps on a person is not creepy at all. The mother, of course, is totally smitten with this epitome of beauty and asks him to join them for a drink and invites him for dinner the next day.

While the mother goes to powder her nose or something, they start hissing at each other because he went to have dinner with 'Mrs. Robinson'. Ana needs to know everything about this relationship.

Did he love her? I think if he did, I will lose it, big time.

After the mother returns and Christian retires to his room, mom urges Ana to Go to him! and talk. She follows him to the room, where the conversation about 'Mrs. R.' continues before passion totally overcomes them and Grey stirs the talk back to the stuff that really interests him: "Are you bleeding?" - "Do you have cramps?" - "Did you take your pill?" - "Let's go have a bath." Once in the bathroom, they get all touchy-feely until...

He reaches between my legs and pulls on the blue string...what! And...gently pulls my tampon out and tosses it into the nearby toilet.

Ewwwww! Who wants to read this?!?!? Women get turned on by this?!?!?

Then sex, of course, and after

He's standing there, naked, gloriously naked, with my blood on him...

I reapeat myself, but: Ewwwww!

In the bath than they have a moment when Ana leans back against him.

He tenses and eyes me warily, as if I might bite. Well that's a turn-around. My inner goddess gazes at him in quiet, surprised speculation.

Some more deep, deep conversation including that one time Grey was shocked about Ana wearing his underwear (as if!).

"Did that shock you?"
"Yes." My inner goddess pole-vaults over the fifteen-foot bar.

More sex, then all snuggly and luvvy-duvvy in bed.

Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone

by Nadine Cohodas

Nadine Cohodas is an exellent researcher that really takes her subject matter seriously. She must have ploughed through thousands of pages to strip them down to this condensed biography. She is also a decent enough writer.

However, there are quite a few issues I take with the text.

Firstly, it is void of any emotion - almost clinically so. Ms. Cohodas is obviously ambivalent towards Nina Simone's music. She does not overly judge her but does not really care about her. In the acknowledgement she thanks a couple of people for suggesting the topic to her. So, really, she didn't write this because Ms. Simone's life and carreer was something she wanted to learn and share. This shows on every page.

The notes start with the statement "All of the interviews are my own unless a specific publication is cited as the source" followed by a list of sources a mile long. Throughout the book I never had the feeling that she actually conducted any interviews herself. And no mention is made of any, either.

Topically, I missed information on Nina Simone's songwriting. It was mentioned on occasion that she did "her own songs" on certain records and refused to sing other people's tunes because they would get royalties. What we never learn is when she started writing her own songs and what those first song attempts may have been.

Also, Nina Simone was mentally ill. This doesn't come up until very late in the book. Some medical issues are mentioned on occasion but Ms. Simone is never given a pass for her erratic behaviour for most of the book, as if the mental illness only set in toward the end of her life. This makes her look mean, when really it is very tragic.

The bad and/or unfortunate performances get a lot of room but really good concerts are more or less skipped over. This is probably a bit unfair. I believe that if the scales of the quality of performances had really tipped so much to one side, Nina Simone would never have become the audience magnet she was. There must - at least initially - have been some stellar concerts to have that effect on people, no? If there were any, we hardly hear about them here.

On the whole informative, void of any emotion and not a single color photo (at least in my hardcover edition) of the sometimes extravagant stage outfits.

3/10

Charles Dance reads Fifty Shades of Grey