El Violi d’Auschwitz (The Auschwitz Violin)

by Maria Àngels Anglada

Many books have been written about concentration camps and the suffering of those imprisoned in them. Within the multitude of the stories told, some find slightly different angels to this, the probably biggest tragedy of humanity.

The Auschwitz Violin tells of Daniel, a young violin builder, who has a moment of bravery and speaks up on behalf of a violinist, who gets punished for making unpleasant music. Daniel knows that the musician was not to blame but the violin he was playing had a small tear in its body that caused the sound to be off.

After fixing the instrument he is then commissioned (or rather, ordered to) build a violin for a camp commandant. It is through this new/old job that he finds the courage and strength to carry on. It is also a way to find moments of peace and beauty in the everyday horrors.

This is a rather slender volume and quickly read. Nonetheless, very interesting.

7/10

The Fault in Our Stars

by John Green

However quick this read may have been, I cannot say that I actually really liked reading it. I was ready to give up, actually, when I was about a third into reading. Mostly, I continued because it was only another 200 pages or so and I just wanted to get it out of the way. I have been to dismissive of book lately, putting away a few after barely starting them, so I needed to finish one I found merely mediocre, for once.

I did not like Augustus. He just seemed so pretentious. That was my main issue with it. Hazel was fine. Sure, she was cynical and a bit of a smart ass, but at least she felt like a real person. Gus, however, I just wanted to smack over the head every time he would call her Hazel Grace (which was, like, every time except for that final confused message). There was a lot of eye rolling on my part. I only warmed toward him when he was dying, because the character started to get more like a real person, somehow.

Overall, a decent enough read. Surely head and shoulders above most other YA novels.

5/10

Night Shift (2)

by Stephen King

I always get through Stephen King's books very, very quickly because I can hardly make myself stop reading, so here is the continued review of the stories in Night Shift.

Trucks

The Deus Ex Machina is a recurring theme in Stephen King's (and indeed, many horror writers') stories. Here they take the shape of trucks and utility vehicles. It is quite a terrifying idea until everyone involved realizes that they run on gas and diesel and need humans to fill them up. Then it becomes an interesting possibility for a much bigger story. So much could be spun from this!
7/10

Sometimes They Come Back
The dead return! Here a trio of high school students torments a teacher until he rids himself of them through black magic. The boys are the ones that a long time ago killed the teacher's brother, when he himself was a little boy scared out of his wits.
7/10

Strawberry Spring
I love this story. I remember this being my favorite of the collection when I first read it. The reality of who goes around killing young people is devastating for the narrator of the story. So, so glad this held up that many years after first reading it.
9/10

The Ledge
This one was an obviously choice to be made into a film. And it was as one of the episodes in Cat's Eye.
8/10

The Lawnmower Man
Incredibly gross.
7/10

Quitters, Inc.
Smoking is bad for you. Stephen King would revisit the smokers again much later in the short story The Ten O'Clock People. Here, the subject was approached much more effectively, I feel.
8/10

I Know What You Need
A creepy stalker long before creepy stalkers were an everyday occurrence. Includes VooDoo, a seldom used theme in King's writing.
7/10

Children of the Corn
Another favorite, somewhat watered down by the subsequent film series. How could this have possibly spawned, what, four (?) films. That said, it could probably do with a remake, but could there ever be a creepier Isaac than in the first film?
8/10

The Last Rung on the Ladder
This is not quite a horror story. It is simply very sad.
7/10

The Man Who Loved Flowers
Not my favorite. Yes, blood is spilled but the lead up is more of a character study that seems to be going nowhere for the longest time. I guess they can't all be great, right?
5/10

One for the Road
In this we visit Jerusalem's Lot once again. As ever, there are a brave few men that try to do right by the desperate stranger from New Jersey, against their better judgment. Bonus: creepy kid.
7/10

The Woman in the Room
So sad. Possibly autobiographical?
7/10

Gabriel García Márquez, 1927-2014

Gabriel García Márquez, Nobel laureate writer, dies aged 87

Night Shift (1)

by Stephen King

I am 200 pages into reading Stephen King's first collection of short stories, Night Shift, and would like to go through the stories I have read so far.

But first....

Let's talk, you and I. Let's talk about fear.

The foreword to the collection was probably the first piece Mr. King has written that felt to be talking to me on a personal level. This is, actually, one of my favorite pieces of writing of his. Because it makes so much sense in its reasoning about why horror fiction works on us and why it is okay to love it, too. The fears we have appear to be universal and there is something very soothing in that.

The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn't real. I know that, and I also know that if I'm careful to keep my foot under the covers, it will never be able to grab my ankle.

Jerusalem's Lot
This is something of a prequel to 'Salem's Lot. It goes way back in the timeline and calls out the thing/worm/Satan (?) that has lured in generations of one family and is only talked about in whispers by the townsfolk, who make sure to avoid the place. Would have worked nicely as an intro to King's second novel, but works just fine as a stand-alone story.
6/10

Graveyard Shift
The particular terror in this story is one shared by many - that of rats. Vast numbers of rats and even one of dimensions we would rather try not to think about. Satisfyingly, the anti-hero (one we do not care for even though we may cheer for him when taking one the foreman) gets his just dessert.
7/10

Night Surf
This never worked for me. The evil is much to subtle and only a very distant backdrop to the story. A type of flu wipes out most of earth's population (a motive King revisits much more effectively in The Stand) but we are left with a group of sullen teenagers on a beach.
3/10

I Am the Doorway
Written in a time when space was still much more of a mystery than it is today, when we don't even have to actually go there to learn of distant planets. The belated effect space travel has on the principal character, a former astronaut from a Venus mission, is very creepy and does not quite fit the type of alien invasion we all imagine to happen any day now.
8/10

The Mangler
Nope, not buying it. Gross it is but even for King standards this is way out there.
3/10

The Boogeyman
Here the other classic monster (beside the one hiding under the bed) is the one hiding in the closet. Nice twist.
7/10

Grey Matter
Oh, gross. The dangers of slightly off beer. Or maybe the dangers of alcohol in general. Or maybe no underlying message at all.
7/10

Battleground
Goliath (the hit man) is taken down by an entire (toy) army of Davids. The horror!
7/10

The Ice Storm

by Rick Moody

One thing I do very rarely is read a book after I have seen a film based on it. I read The Ice Storm mostly because of the film, though. Because I really, really liked the film and - even though tragedy strikes at one point - the story does not live off of surprising twist and turns.

It is about two families, more or less neighbors, in the affluent town of New Canaan, set in the early years of the 1970's. The people living their are really to upper class to really have participated in the hippie revolutions on the 60's but still fancy some sort of sexual adventure. Here, this manifests itself in a key party, set on the night of very low temperatures. But not all participants in exchange of partners are as open as they initially fancy themselves to be. The encounters described are not happy and/or exciting ones, in the end.

With the parents preoccupied with their very hip parties, their children are off to chase their own adventures, some even sexual ones. With all the relationship problems finally breaking open for the Hood and Williams family, the ultimate devastation comes when Mike, one of the Williams' sons, dies of electrocution while resting on a guardrail that is struck by a live wire that has been downed by the storm.

This captures the 70's feeling wonderfully and effortlessly, it is something of a pleasant surprise for me. I have once before read Rick Moody, his short story collection Demonology, that left me somewhat underwhelmed.

Do watch the film, as well, if you get a chance.

They were transfixed, the Hoods and the Williamses, by the spectacle of a lost future. It brought them together and it drove them apart but maybe this parting was inevitable, anyway.

8/10