The Brief History of the Dead

by Kevin Brockmeier

The story takes place in a city where people go after they die and start their lives anew until one day they disappear again. The place is somewhere between life and whatever comes after the limbo they are in for different stretches of time.

One day large numbers of the city's inhabitants start disappearing and the city's edges slowly start to curl in on themselves. As the living that still remembered their deceased friends, family members, neighbors succumb to a virus that wipes out the entire population of the earth, the inhabitants leave the city never to be seen or hurt from again.

The considerably smaller group of inhabitants still left in the diminishing city are connected through one Laura Byrd, who seems to be the only survivor of the deadly virus. The reason she is not infected is her utter isolation in a small camp in the Antarctic, where she was for research purposes. But when her fellow researches fail to return from a trip to another camp they needed to make because they had lost radio contact, she eventually sets off in search of them.

Her death, then, is inevitable, as one is only able to survive in the Antarctic by oneself for so long. As she dies, the city collapses towards its center.

They were passing out their days in a place somewhere between life and death in that drifting stage after the lights went out but before sleep came over them.

The book is at its best when it is simply telling the story. Towards the end, when Mr. Brockmeier starts to philosophize and wanders off into metaphors, it feels slightly strained and weakens the story immensely.

5/10

Words of Wisdom

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all."

Oscar Wilde

Room

by Emma Donoghue

Yet another one of those books that seemingly everyone is raving about because it is so "imaginative" and "brave" and "<insert-superlative-of-choice-here>". Experience has taught me that a book heaped in that much praise cannot be nearly as good as they say. See The Lovely Bones, see The Time Traveler's Wife. So really, I should have known better.

Also, I was warned that I would not like it, due to the language it uses. See, I have this pet peeve. I don't like texts written in anything other than proper language, be it slang (my literary affair with Christopher Brookmyre was a rather short one) or - like here - something written in an attempt of childish language.

But I also strongly believe in making up your own mind about books/films/etc. So, when I found a copy of this among my mum's books (and why my cousin would think that this is a fitting gift for my mother is beyond me), I picked it up.

The language bugged me right away, but I initially wrote this off to bad translation (I don't normally read translations from languages I understand, but that was what was at hand). After reading some of the comments on Goodreads I have decided that this cannot be the reason. The shortcomings are rooted in the source material, it seems.

As many reviewers before me (those that did not like the book) I don't hear a 5-year-old in the story. On the one hand, the child is too precocious for his age but on the other he has yet to learn some of the very basic words one would assume a mother so engaged in giving her child the best possible care and education under difficult circumstances would have taught him properly, or would at least bother to correct him from time to time.

For all the confinement and the limits that were all little Jack knew about life, never having been on the outside himself, the doubts over his mother's stories of what really lies beyond Room were barely even there. This is a 5-year-old child whose world is suddenly thrown out of its very hinges and his period of doubt is all of, what?, two days?

Also, the plotting of the escape went by in no time flat. They talk about it one evening and then just go for it the next day? After years and years of imprisonment your plan is made, revised, changed and set in stone all in the course of one afternoon? Ri-ight.

Once on the outside the mother's behavior gets weirder, still. Now, this book is based on real cases of kidnapping/imprisonment/rape/children born in captivity. Two of the most prominent cases happened here in my country.

One was of course the case of Natascha Kampusch, who was kidnapped at the age of 8 and spent half of her life in a cellar before managing to escape. She chose to tell her story (on TV, in interviews, in talk shows, and, yes, in writing). She put herself out there and tries to help others by doing so. I respect that.

The other case was that of Elisabeth Fritzl. She was imprisoned by her own father for 24 years, getting raped repeatedly and bearing him 7 children. She and her children escaped when they saw the chance to and have been out of the public eye ever since. I also respect that.

But for a mother to survive with and for her son, who is her undisputed everything, to go in front of TV cameras WITH the boy in the room and later trying to kill herself, and thusly putting her own feelings/wellbeing (or lack thereof) before her son's did not fit the overall relationship that was told throughout the book, at least in my opinion.

I don't want to ramble on about this forever, I just had to get some stuff that annoyed me off my chest. Yes, there is more, like the lack of information about 'Old Nick', which could have easily been omitted by the simple fact that this story is being told by a child that would not know these things. Easy escape, that one.

And that is probably my biggest beef about the perspective of the storytelling. It just gives you an easy way out of so many details that would have given the story actual depth. The way it is, nobody needed to get much of a backstory or profile because little Jack would not know. "Brave"? Really?

I found nothing worthy of the accolades the book has been getting.

1/10

In the Desert

by Stephen Crane

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial
Who, squatting upon the ground
Held his heart in his hands
And ate of it. I said, 'Is it good, friend?'
'It is bitter - bitter,' he answered:
'But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.'


I am not a fan of poetry, usually. However, this poem has always fascinated me. The first time I encountered it may have been in a Stephen King novel, but I am not entirely sure anymore.

Lincoln, Argo, Capote and the Intricacies of Weaving Fact Into Fiction

The Guardian discusses fictional alterations to 'true' stories in books and film:
Lincoln, Argo, Capote and the intricacies of weaving fact into fiction

Ophelia

by Lisa Klein

This is the story of Hamlet as told by his lover Ophelia. In this version, Ophelia is not dead but merely used a poison that would make her appear dead (how very Juliet!). Trusted friend Horatio digs her up again and she first hides and then flees to a convent in France, dressed as a man. What's more, Ophelia, secretly married to Hamlet, is with child. She does remain undiscovered for the entirety of the book and is thought dead back in Denmark, but a rumor of an heir that might threaten the thron...moreThis is the story of Hamlet as told by his lover Ophelia. In this version, Ophelia is not dead but merely used a poison that would make her appear dead (how very Juliet!). Trusted friend Horatio digs her up again and she first hides and then flees to a convent in France, dressed as a man. What's more, Ophelia, secretly married to Hamlet, is with child. She does remain undiscovered for the entirety of the book and is thought dead back in Denmark, but a rumor of an heir that might threaten the throne, now held by Norwegian Fortinbras, is persistant. The story ends with Horatio coming to see Ophelia at the convent and the possibility of a future together. Need I mention, this borrows heavily from the original text (and any other Shakespeare text, as well)? 5/10

Quote. Kurt Vonnegut

Little Kago himself died long before the planet did. He was attempting to lecture on the evils of the automobile in a bar in Detroit. But he was so tiny that nobody paid any attention to him. He lay down to rest for a moment, and a drunk automobile worker mistook him for a kitchen match. He killed Kago by trying to strike him repeatedly on the underside of the bar.

from Breakfast of Champions

Beatrice and Virgil

by Yann Martel

I read this book in one sitting.

This is about Henry, a moderately successful writer, who - after having his latest effort rejected - moves to a new (unnamed) town with his wife. Having enjoyed some success previously, he receives letters from readers. One day he gets a parcel containing a copy of a Flaubert short story (with some parts about animal cruelty highlighted), a scene from a play and a note asking for his help.

He seeks out the sender, who happens to live in the same city. He turns out to be a taxidermist, incidentally also named Henry, that appears to be very distant and generally not too likable. Actually, none of his neighbors like him at all.

Henry (the writer, the other Henry referred to as "the taxidermist" for the rest of the book) understands that the help required pertains to a play about a donkey named Beatrice and howler monkey, Virgil. The play does not appear to have much of a story and consists only of the two animals talking, walking, starving. The have endured terrible suffering, that remains undefined for quite some time during the play (and the book).

One reference to it is this:

BEATRICE:
Even better: the Horrors, plural but used in a singular construction, the curve of the s like a ladle in a soup from hell, serving up the unthinkable and the unimaginable, the catastrophe and the searing, the terror and the tohu-bohu.

As the frequent readings by the taxidermist progress, Henry concludes that the play refers to the Holocaust. Through some research he finds connections to the Warsaw ghetto. However, it is not clear for the longest time what the taxidermist's role in WWII was. Victim or villain?

Towards the later parts of the book, the emerging story of what happened to Beatrice and Virgil become more descriptive and brutal, with torture described in detail. It also becomes clear that the taxidermist was not a victim. When Henry realizes this and makes it clear that he wants nothing more to do with the play or the writer, the situation escalates.

I may love this book even more than Life of Pi by the same author, which I didn't expect.

My story has no story.
It rests on the fact of murder.

9/10

Ten Sorry Tales

by Mick Jackson

This is a collection of short stories that are described as 'macabre' and 'scary'. Not sure I agree with the second part, but macabre they certainly are - in a light, kid-friendly way. The drawings have a hint of Edward Gorey and the writing is none to deep.

The characters are eccentric and - at times - evil, but most are children with their own set of problems...an unhappy family life, a desire to resurrect butterflies pinned to a wall, a rumor about a spaceship that has landed in a nearby park and abducted the beloved music teacher.

Actually, the alien abduction story is probably my favorite of the bunch.

Quirky.

5/10

Sweet and Low

by Rich Cohen

This is the unauthorized biography of the Eisenstadt family, founder of the Cumberland company, that to this day produces Sweet'n Low sweetener.

While telling the family history - colorful people, medical issues and disinheritance included - it also gives a historical outline of factories in Brooklyn, Murder Incorporated, depositions and sugar substitutes. 

All this it tries to do in less than 300 pages, and that is not the only problem. The book was written by Cumberland founder Ben Eisenstadt's grandson, Rich Cohen, the youngest son of the disinherited daughter, Ellen. 

He has no chance but be biased. Everything in the book comes from second hand information and incidences retold by different family members (the way they remember it). Several footnotes address refusals for interviews. So, it all has to be taken with a grain of salt, I think.

Just why were Ellen and her issue disinherited? Because Ellen brought Ben to the doctors at New York Hospital and those doctors killed Ben, because Ellen flew off to Paris when Ben was in a coma and he had only a few days to live, because Ellen did not visit often enough after Ben died, because Ellen did not sign the waiver regarding Ben's will, because Ellen married too young, because Morris wanted to buy Herbie into the business, because Ellen left Flatbush for Bensonhurst and Bensonhurst for the world, because Ellen's son wrote about Herbert's family but not about Uncle Abie, because, in his book, Herbert acknowledged Frank Sinatra but not Ben and Betty, because if Ben loved Ellen how could Ben love Betty, because Ellen tried to steal Ben away from Betty, because Gladys was there and Ellen was not, because Sherry moved in and Gladys doled out the pills and threw cold coffee on Betty? It's like infinity. If you think about it too deeply, you go crazy.

It is still an intriguing story and the writing is smooth and simple, but we will probably never know how things actually went down.

6/10