Book Review: The Test, by Sylvain Neuvel

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Book, Book Review, Fiction, Politics, Reading, Sylvain Neuvel

And here we go with my first book review of 2020!  Checking in at 254 pages, this February 2019 release is also my first foray into focusing shorter works this year.

Set in near-future England, we meet a man named Idir who who is preparing to take a citizenship exam.  In the first chapter we experience the test from his point of view, reading along with the questions and learning through his internal monologue about how he and his wife Tidir came to the country some years prior from Iran after no longer feeling safe there.  Things are going great after the first few questions until suddenly armed men storm the room and Idir finds himself tested in an entirely different manner; for every fifteen minutes that go by without their demands being met, the terrorist leader will force him to assess two hostages and determine which will die.

Talk about starting the year off strong!  This was an intense read that I could not put down.  The author did an excellent job making Idir an immensely likeable and sympathetic character before the absolutely jarring introduction of the terrorists.  To say he inspired in the reader some of Idir’s feelings of shock and helplessness is perhaps an understatement. Moving beyond the raw emotion and the abrupt surprise, there was a lot to unpack with this one.  It raised a lot of questions, not just about immigration policy, but also about professional ethics and how certain forces within a society (de)humanize some individuals at the expense of others.

There were a few other twists and turns to this story that I won’t mention here, but suffice to say I really enjoyed this work.  It was smart, it was gripping, and it was powerful. My relatively short amount of time in this world was an intense, emotional roller coaster so I am calling this book an incredible success for the author.  It is most definitely a read that I recommend checking out.

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13 Days of Halloween – Day Seven: Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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13 Days of Halloween, Book, Book Review, Horror, Massachusetts, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Reading

Stepping away from the brews for a bit, the next item on my Halloween countdown is a short story from the famed American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne published in 1835.  I want to send a major thank you out to my wife on this for not only helping me through a writer’s block, but for also remembering that she had this story in an anthology she saved from our college days.

Set in the Puritan town of Salem, MA this is the story of a young man named Goodman Brown and his wife Faith.  One evening, Goodman Brown meets with a mysterious traveler with a serpentine walking stick. They then proceed to walk through a dark, foreboding forest on an errand our protagonist fearfully describes as evil.  He eventually arrives at the scene of a dark ritual in which many of his fellow townsfolk, known sinners and esteemed church officials alike, are participating. Shaken by what he sees, Goodman returns a changed and bitter man.

This was solid recommendation from my wife and a very interesting read.  Despite being only 10 pages long, there was a lot packed into this tale. The dark imagery is established early and often to cast a particularly eerie and ominous feeling over the story.  Also, as with any tale of Puritanism, confrontation with sin runs explicitly rampant throughout and is the motivating force and concern of all involved and makes the experiences of Goodman seem very internalized and personal despite the seemingly external nature of the threat.  I imagine much has been much discussion and analysis of this work over the years so I’ll skip all that and just close my two big questions:

• Where did Goodman meet the Traveler and what was he expecting to happen when they met in the woods?  It seemed early on that it was to be some sort of scandalous rendezvous than admission to a dark communion.
• How much of this “really” happened and how much was just a dream/hallucination fueled by hyper religious society?

If you’ve read this, please feel free to comment on these below!

(Image Source: https://images.app.goo.gl/ZQoxShyE3RHiDRct6)

Book Review: Circe, by Madeline Miller

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Book, Book Review, Circe, Feminism, Madeline Miller, Mythology, Reading

I know I’m well past fashionably late in posting about this popular 2018 release, but after months and months of seeing a steady stream of glowing reviews how could I stay away?  Combine that with my general interest in Greek mythology and I felt very confident I had a winner here.

This book tells the story of the nymph Circe, in her own words and from her own point of view.  Daughter of the Titan Helios and the ocean nymph Perse, she is perhaps best known as the sorceress in Homer’s Odessey who transformed several of Odysseus’ men into pigs before eventually playing host to the travellers.  Her mythological presence, however, goes far beyond this appearance, crossing paths with other famed notables such as Daedalus, Jason and Madea, and the Minotaur, just to name a few.  Over the course of this story, the reader is treated to the tragic story of Circe’s life and her unique view of many popular mythological figures and events.

I was absolutely blown away by this book.  The mythology was as interesting as ever (although I would definitely recommend some familiarity with the source material going into this read), but it was Circe’s unique perspective and modern tone of voice that really made this story into something truly special.  By showing a side of the ancient myths that looks beyond the exploits and struggles of their often idealized male protagonists, this novel brought them to life in an entirely new way for me. Although there are many familiar people and places that appear in this tale, this is without a doubt Circe’s story and it focuses on the life of a woman wronged and her determination to carry on as best she can, despite what others may do to her or spread gossip about.  As Circe opines of Homer specifically other ancient poets in general:

Humbling women seems to me a chief past time of poets.  As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep.

Circe, however, is definitely not one to be humble, no matter what comes her way.  I knew enough about the myths to not expect easy times for her, but that didn’t quite prepare me for how heavy and occasionally depressing this book got in places (indeed, I found the scenes in which she expounds upon her parenting fears particularly moving).  Deeply personal, the story details how she was shaped by the emotional abuse she was subjected to in her father’s court by her mother and siblings on account of her less than Olympian presence and her feelings of isolation following her exile to the island of Aeaea for practicing magic.  As such, there was a lot of raw emotion fueling this story, alternating between Circe’s profound loneliness to her unshakeable determination to exist on her own terms.  Armed with the knowledge that nymphs like her are dismissed as a punchline by the other gods – “an endless feast laid out upon a table, beautiful and renewing.  And so very bad at getting away” – and a strength of character she learned from a chance encounter with Prometheus, she gradually comes to master her skills and find occasional happiness even as events of the mythological world more and more begin forcing themselves upon both her island and herself.  It’s a journey that I found both profoundly sad and empowering, as well as one that I could not turn away from.

Despite all that heavy content, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and give it my highest recommendation.  It more than lived up to all the praise I’ve seen for it, no small feat at this point, and offered a gripping story with an incredible leading lady.  I’ve seen that the author has also written some other books inspired by Greek mythology and I am definitely going to be adding those to my reading pile.  I think I just need a little bit of time to read some lighter fare before jumping in.

 

Book Review: How Long ‘Til Black Future Month, by N.K. Jemisin

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Afrofuturism, Book, Book Review, Fantasy, Magical Realism, N.K. Jemisin, Reading, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Short Story

Published in November 2018, this collection of short stories from three-time Hugo award winner N.K. Jemisin was something I had been looking forward to since it first starting appearing on lists of upcoming releases early last year.  In her introduction to the collection, Jemisin sets the tone by talking a bit about her experiences getting started as writer and “how hard it’s been for me to love science fiction and fantasy as a black woman” given the genre’s historical issues with representation.  She goes on, however, to express her cautious excitement that enough people in the community are now willing to engage in open and earnest conversations about its flaws and what can be done better going forward. It was in this spirit that the stories in this compilation came to life as a part of Jemisin’s ongoing journey to “finally accept myself and begin spinning the futures I want to see.”

As for my own experience with book, I absolutely loved it!  With only a couple of exceptions, I highly enjoyed everything that these 22 short stories had to offer.  They comprised a variety of genres, alternating between magical realism, Lovecraftian horror, medieval fantasy, post-apocalyptic earthes, and space adventures.  What each story had in common were excellent characters, settings, and ideas that gave the reader a tantalizing glimpse into each of the worlds created. Jemisin’s ability to give vibrant life to the people, and often even the places, she writes about really drew me in and immersed me into each and every story.

Going into the book my plan was to feature a top five in this space, but by the time I got to the end I found that I had flagged over half of the stories as potential favorites!  It was definitely a joyous problem to have, but after some serious deliberation I finally narrowed my list down to the following six, presented in the order they appeared:

The Effluent Engine (2011): Set in the early 1800s, this steampunk-inspired tale tells the story of a Haitian secret agent named Jessline.  We meet her in New Orleans where she is trying to recruit to a famed Creole scientist to help the newly independent nation of Haiti develop methane-propelled airships defend its borders.  Though she initially fails to get his attention, she may perhaps have found a more receptive partner in his sister.

Brides of Heaven (2007): After an accident in transit, a group of Muslim women find that they are the sole survivors of colony ship sent to a distant planet.  While they have been able to establish a secure settlement on their new home, the odds of long-term survival of the colony seem non-existent.  That outlook may have been changed, however, after one woman’s unapproved expedition into the wilderness leads her to encounter a seemingly sentient pool of liquid.

Cuisine Des Memoires (2018): Two friends dine in an ultra-exclusive restaurant that purports to be able to recreate any meal from the past, be it of historical or personal significance.  When the skeptic among them is finally convinced of the restaurant’s authenticity, he begins a desperate search for answers that may lead him to places best left alone.  In addition to making me really hungry, I really liked this story’s warning about living excessively in the past.

The Narcomancer (2007): Set in a roughly medieval African society where mages wield the power of sleep magic, this story follows the quest of a particularly adept Gatherer named Cet who accepts a mission to relieve a nearby settlement beingpreyed upon by a rival magician.  Although more than capable of carrying out the task, he finds his focus tested by an alluring woman named Namsut, the scorned secondwife of the village’s deceased leader.

On the Banks of the River Lex (2010): On a post-apocalyptic Earth, humans have died off and their old Gods and ideas are slowly wasting away in the ruins of their abandoned cities.  Death, however, has been particularly restless of late and finds that a chance encounter with a family octopi may give his existence a new purpose.  Just good, bizarre fun in this one.

Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters (2010): Set in New Orleans, a man named Tookie chooses to stay in his house even as Hurricane Katrina approaches the city.  On the eve of the storm he is befriended by a winged lizard who helps our hero navigate the flooded streets and confront a malevolent creature lurking in the depths.

Halloween Double Feature: The Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham, by Nick Mamatas and Brian Keene

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Blogoween, Blogtober, Book, Book Review, Brian Keene, Cthulhu, Fear and Loathing, H.P. Lovecraft, Halloween, Horror, Hunter S. Thompson, Nick Mamatas, Politics, Reading

Welcome to my second annual BeerRantsAndBooks Halloween Double Feature!  I had so much fun with this last year that I decided to do it again. Just like last time, my first post of the day is a book review and later on this evening I’ll share a beer with you.  I don’t recall exactly how I came across this title, but once I saw it I knew I found my Halloween book. Written by Nick Mamatas and Brian Keene, described in-world as an “avowed communist” and “vicious libertarian,” respectively, the story is an occult homage to Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that drops everyone’s favorite Doctor of Journalism into the universe of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Set in the early months of 1972, the book opens with our fictional Hunter Thompson holed up in his Colorado compound furiously typing away into the night and cursing the fame and attention drawn to him by that “Las Vegas book” and “comic strip” (Doonesbury) that borrowed his likeness.  Inspired by strange noises outside his door and the realization that the American Dream has died, he assumes the alias Uncle Lono and sets off on a new journey in search of the great American Nightmare.  Among the forces standing in his way are nothing less the the cults of Moloch and Cthulhu, the Nixon youth, mutant townies, J. Edgar Hoover, the Deep Ones themselves, and some really powerful hallucinogenic mushrooms from Yuggoth.  And then things get weird.

I had a fantastic time reading this!  A big part of this experience was surely based on the authors doing an excellent job channeling Hunter’s voice and running monologue.  They were clearly familiar with his works and heavily referenced a wide range of things he had written by the time the story takes place.  My one criticism here is that they were maybe a bit over reliant on a few of his sayings throughout the book, but on the whole I’d say they nailed it.  The book was packed full of amazing quotes and rants, almost all of which were unfortunately too long to suitably excerpt here. Another highlight of this story for me was seeing Lono’s infamous attorney burst into the scene right as the Lovecraftian references started to really pick up.  He brought with him an entirely other level of energy and intensity to a book that, despite some really dark and bizarre moments, was a hilariously wild ride that more successfully merged these two worlds than one might think possible.

Again, I can’t say enough just what an incredibly entertaining read this was and don’t think I could have asked for a better book to review on Halloween!  I would definitely recommend it to any Hunter Thompson fan looking for a bit of a twist.

Book Review: A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising, by Raymond A. Villareal

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Blogoween, Book, Book Review, Fiction, Halloween, Horror, Raymond A. Villareal, Vampire

The moment I saw this book in someone’s ARC pile earlier in the year I made a mental note to get my hands on it for my Halloween reviews.  With a name like that how could I not? Officially released in June 2018, this is the debut novel of author Raymond A. Villareal.

The book opens as a young Center for Disease Control agent is sent to investigate a pair of unusual deaths in an Arizona border town, only to learn upon arrival that the corpses seem to have walked away.  The agent and her team soon realize they are at ground zero for the outbreak of a disease they call the NOBI virus, an affliction of the blood that effectively turns those affected into vampires. Dubbed “Gloamings,” this new group of people begin their struggle to win over the hearts and minds (not to mention blood) of humanity.  Extraordinarily well-funded and highly selective about expanding their ranks, the Gloamings work quickly to exert their influence in human society. Using a combination of social influencers and political bribes, their ambitions rapidly move away from mundane goals like access to basic services and protections under the American Disability Act into more nefarious criminal and world domination schemes.  The book tracks the progression of these endeavors through a series of POV chapters told from the perspective of the CDC agent who discovered the outbreak, the head of a FBI task force formed to investigate Gloaming criminal activity, and a Jesuit priest working to combat the Gloaming infiltration of the Catholic Church.

While I thought this book had an interesting premise and some amusing social satire, I ultimately found it falling a bit short of my expectations.  Although the characters and overall story were interesting enough, the flow of the book was a bit choppy. There was a sufficient amount of action and intrigue to keep things interesting, but the story as a whole lacked a cohesive context in which to place the events of each chapter.  With chapters skipping months at a time and only loosely connected to each other I was often left thinking “so what?” when seemingly major developments where either glossed over or abandoned shortly thereafter. Unfortunately that sentiment stuck with me upon finishing the book as well since it did not offer much in the way of resolution to the any of the main conflicts presented and stopped rather abruptly.  At the end of its 400+ pages, I was left feeling that story just kind of rambled on without really going anywhere.

Similarly, the questions raised regarding civil rights for Gloamings, a key advertising point and a central theme of the earlier chapters, were non-starters for me as well.  The reader is never given a clear view of the social dynamics at play in this world and most of the insights into the causes being taken up were presented through dry court documents that were far too easy to skip over.  Since we were never introduced to any even remotely sympathetic or everyday Gloaming characters, the issues they were pushing for seemed inconsistent with what we were told about their secretive and elitist population.

Despite my misgivings, I did stick through with this to the end since more often than not the chapters were intriguing enough as standalone adventures and I was stubbornly holding out hope for some sort of big payoff or revelation.  I don’t know if perhaps my expectations were out of line for what the book was, but I ultimately felt neutral/bordering on disappointed about this one. I can’t say that I’d recommend it, but if you’re intrigued I wouldn’t warn you off it either.

Book Review: A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, by Jill Twiss and Marlon Bundo (Illustrated by E.G. Keller)

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Book, Book Review, BOTUS, Childrens Book, Jill Twiss, LGBTQ, Marlon Bundo, Politics, Reading

As the father of a soon to be two-year old, I read a whole lot of children’s books on a daily basis.  While I have never felt the compelling need to review any of these, this one was different and as soon as I found out that it was making the rounds at my son’s playgroup I knew what I had to do.  I’m guessing most of you are aware that this story was written in response to a children’s book published by members of Michael Pence’s family about their pet bunny.  Looking to call out the Vice President on his homophobic beliefs, the creators of this particular story have imagined said pet falling in love with another male bunny.  This book has been featured prominently on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and all proceeds from it benefit AIDS United and the Trevor Project, which provides suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth.

This is the story of an exceptional day in the life BOTUS (Bunny of the United States) Marlon Bundo, beloved family pet of Vice President Pence.  Marlon’s day starts out like any other by watching the morning news with Bunderson Cooper, ignoring his boring grandfather, and hopping about the White House premises.  Everything changes, however, when he spots a dashingly handsome boy bunny named Wesley and the two fall in love at first sight.  Standing in the way of their happiness is President Stink Bug, an abrasive, boorish creature with a bad toupee that does not approve of their relationship.  Fortunately, with the help of their animal friends and a timely civics lesson, Marlon and Wesley learn that it is okay to be different and are able to live happily ever after.

I thought this was a cute, fun read that delivered an important and positive age appropriate message to children about embracing each other’s differences and the importance of our right to vote.  Given the specific nature in which it parodies both Donald Trump and Michael Pence I don’t think this will age well enough to go down as an all-time classic children’s story, but it will put a smile on your face and I highly encourage giving it a read.  So long as you’re predisposed to its political leanings you’ll enjoy it whether you have kids to read it with or not.

 

 

 

Book Review: Frankenstein in Baghdad, by Ahmed Saadawi

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Ahmed Saadawi, Baghdad, Book, Book Review, Fantasy, Fiction, Frankenstein, Horror, Iraq, Reading

I was so eager to get started on this next novel that I made it my first non-Kindle read in quite some time.  Written by Iraqi author Ahmed Saadawi, it was originally published in 2013 and went on to win the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.  The English translation came out in January of this year and was released to a good amount of critical acclaim.

Set a few years after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and told from the overlapping perspectives of its diverse cast of characters, this is the story of how a truck bomb exploding in Baghdad’s Tarayan Square begins an extraordinary chain of events in these people’s lives.  It is from this tragedy that Hadi, a nearly impoverished junk trader, finds what he needs to complete his prized project: a human nose. For the past several months he has been covertly collecting body parts from bomb scenes and sewing them together in the hope that he can assemble a complete corpse that can get buried with dignity.  His plan, however, takes an unexpected turn when the newly completed corpse goes missing and a wave of brutal murders begin occurring in the surrounding neighborhoods.

I found this book to be thoroughly enchanting and a real joy to read.  The creature was a fascinating character that offered both a window into the hopes and fears of the Iraqi people and a statement on the madness of country’s internal conflicts.  More than anything this was a book about the average person’s struggle to find stability, and perhaps even some measure of success, amidst the constant violence and disorder of their everyday lives.  As such, it was the human characters who were the real stars here. People of particular note beyond Hadi include Elishva, an elderly Assyrian Christian widow longing for her missing son; Aziz the Egyptian, the owner of a local coffee shop and resident gossip; and Mahmoud al-Sawadi, an ambitious young journalist and rising star at al-Haqiqa magazine.  They collectively provide a gripping charisma and energy that brought the book to life and engulfed me in a world that combined the magical realism and ambiance of a Murakami novel with the grit of a war story.

This is probably my favorite book of the year so far and one that I highly to recommend to fans of all genres (with disclaimers about gore and violence).  Mysterious and thought-provoking throughout, this story was a captivating read that put a very human face on a country a lot of people may not think about much beyond the violence that makes the news.

Book Review: The Last Days of New Paris, by China Mieville

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Book, Book Review, China Mieville, Fiction, Horror, Reading, Surrealism

And now for things to get a bit weird.  This 2016 novel is my second reading from author China Mieville and probably one of the strangest books I’ve read for the blog so far.  

The story takes place in 1950 in an alternate version of Paris.  In this world not only is the war-torn city still occupied by Nazi Germany, but certain events that occured in 1941 have also made it an epicenter of supernatural activity.  Demons, in loose alliance with the Nazis, prowl the streets, while bizarre apparitions called manifs, manifestations of Surrealist art, are springing to life throughout the city with motivations known only to themselves.  The novel follows a young French resistance fighter named Thibaut who has decided to try escaping the city after seeing his resistance cell wiped out.  As he makes his way through the distorted remains of Paris, he teams up with a mysterious American photographer and a massive exquisite corpse, both of whom seem drawn to him as part of some higher purpose.

This was a strange one, but I enjoyed it immensely.  I’ll admit that the concept might sound a bit out there, but the Mieville pulled the story off quite well by maintaining a tight focus on Thibaut’s wanderings.  He didn’t really spend a whole lot of time justifying or explaining the weirdness, opting instead to just throw the reader in and let it flow. Haunting and engaging from the start, I found it very easy to get caught up in the bizarre and often grotesque imagery of this world.  Not knowing a whole lot about the Surrealist movement, I occasionally found myself going on tangents to look up a particular person, concept, or work of art that got referenced and quickly came to enjoy these efforts in their own right. Although the ending was a bit rushed in how quickly it wrapped up the conflicts that emerged, this book was definitely more about the journey than getting sort of resolution, and in that regard it most certainly delivered.

If you’re on the lookout to read something unique and a bit weird, I highly recommend picking this up.  I certainly had a good time with this book and consequently will be adding more from this author to my reading list.

 

Book Review: Men Without Women, by Haruki Murakami

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Book Review, Books, Fiction, Haruki Murakami, Reading

I’ve been a pretty avid reader of Murakami for some time now and as such made sure this new release got on my list as soon as possible.  As luck would have it, my hold came through only a few days after finding myself in-between books for the first time in several months.

Men Without Women is a collection of short stories featuring male protagonists and their complex, often troubled, relationships with women in their lives.  Rather dark in tone, issues of death, separation, and personal/societal estrangement are common features throughout all the stories in this volume.  Each character is lost in some way and have either resigned themselves to their situation or spend their days searching for something within themselves that may or may not be within their power to find.

On the whole I found this collection to be something of a mixed bag.  There were a few stories that I liked, but aside from those none of the others appealed to me as much as I had hoped they would.  The overall feel of the book was generally very bleak and it didn’t seem to have that same sense of magical realism that usually draws me into Murakami’s work.  While each story was without a doubt well-written, Murakami does an excellent job setting a scene and building characters throughout, these just wasn’t really what I was looking for.  None of the characters captured my interest all that much and as such I couldn’t get fully invested in their stories.  Appropriately enough, I didn’t make it through the one from which the collection took its name.

That said, there were two stories that I was particularly taken by.  Kino, my favorite of the group, is the story of a recently divorced man trying to open a new chapter in his life by converting his aunt’s tea house into a bar.  When something happens to drive away his two most reliable guests, a mysterious book-reading man and a stray cat, Kino is advised to get out of town for a while and lay low.  This was the one story that really left me wanting more and also the one that best captured the otherworldly mysticism that usually draws me into Murakami’s books.  The other note-worthy story for me was Samsa in Love, a tale far creepier and horror-like than anything I’ve read from Murakami to date.  It’s protagonist, a man named Samsa, regains consciousness in a boarded up room.  Disoriented and in a great deal of pain, he gradually comes to his senses and begins exploring his surroundings, taking step by excruciating step through an unfamiliar house.  As he does so, the reader slowly gets the impression that something is very wrong.  Samsa doesn’t seem fully comfortable inside his body and certain thoughts suggest that he may not have always been human.  His awkward interactions with a hunchbacked young woman he encounters adds to the sense of foreboding and gives the story a very eerie vibe that for better or worse goes unresolved.

Overall though, I surprised to say that I consider this book a miss for me, a rarity from this author.  After reading a number of other reviews I realize that I am in an extreme minority in my opinion here, so I’ll say that dedicated Murakami fans would probably find this worth checking out (I wouldn’t fault someone else for being more into these stories than I was).  That said, for someone new to the author I would personally recommend they start elsewhere.