Book #204: Shout Her Lovely Name

Book #204: Shout Her Lovely Name by Natalie Serber

July 29, 2015

This collection of short stories is tied together by the common theme of mothers and their children. Most of the stories revolve around Ruby and her daughter Nora, though there are three unrelated short stories about modern mothers. The title story was one of these, a second-person narrative about a mother coping with her teenage daughter's eating disorder. 

All of the stories were good, but I wanted more of Ruby and Nora. Ruby got pregnant while in college in the early 1960s. The father bails, and most of the stories are about her and Nora as the years go by, leading up to Nora at the age that her mother got pregnant, struggling between having a stable older boyfriend and wanting to be 20-years-old, being irresponsible sometimes. We never know if she takes an interesting job offer, though I'd assume yes.

It doesn't surprise me that the blurb at the front of this book is from a review in Oprah's magazine. The target audience is definitely women, as the stories show the complex relationships between mothers and daughters. I won't get into any details, but I'll just say that I envy women of my generation who are friends with their mothers. Though Ruby and Nora had a close relationship, they definitely butted heads. I would read more by Serber (this seems to be her only book so far), but I would specifically read more about Ruby and Nora.

Book #203: Wolves of the Calla

Book #203: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King

July 28, 2015

I got my hands on a copy of Song of Susannah more easily than this book, which is a good thing because I'll be eager to start it. The events of this one lead directly into the next. We have an important connection established between our heroes and the men that Jake spoke to in the bookstore in the third book, and the events of Susannah's child labor will unfold.

Let's put it this way: Susannah was, indeed, pregnant, but Eddie isn't exactly the father. Poor Susannah has developed another personality, Mia. Mia, I need answers about. Is she the reason why Susannah had vague recollections about Lud, about Roland's world before it moved on? And of course, what the beast inside her, which Mia wants to have, turns out to be. Susannah is such a complex character; she's so tough and brave, and she's actually about to resist and communicate with Mia in a way that Odetta and Detta never could. She at least got Mia to hold off until after the battle with the Wolves before Mia took over and fled.

It's a bit hard to keep track of the ways that our heroes have discovered of traveling between worlds. I'll leave it to this: another piece of the "Wizard's Rainbow" is now in the mix, and this powerful orb, along with a door in a cave near Calla Bryn Sturgis, allows them to control the where and when that they travel to. Their dealings in New York add further dimensions to the issue of saving the Dark Tower.

After this book, I finally have a decent grasp on what the Dark Tower is. It's the ultimate quest for good for the gunslingers, and this book (as well as The Wind Through the Keyhole) gave me a clear definition of what a gunslinger is. So that puts the situation in the Calla into perspective. They had to fight the Wolves; it is their ka as gunslingers.

I found the whole situation with the Wolves to be mostly predictable, but still compelling. But the events with the door and Black Thirteen, the addition of Father Callahan to the mix (note to self: read 'Salem's Lot in the near future), and Susannah's situation were really the driving points in this book. So, on I go into the next volume...only two more to go!

Book #202: We The Animals

Book #202: We The Animals by Justin Torres

July 21, 2015

It's been awhile since I've had a double-entry day. Since only half of The Dark Tower series was available through the ebook service that my library uses, I'll need to have other ebooks going for my gym reading. Torres's autobiographical story was a very quick read. It's about his family, especially the shenanigans that he and his brothers got up to as kids in upstate New York while his parents struggled as young, working class parents.

Ma and Paps are certainly not bad parents. They really love their three boys, and want a better life for them. Paps is mostly around, though there is a period when he's gone and their mother slips into a deep depression, leaving the young boys to fend for themselves. Almost any boy with too much freedom or not enough supervision will get up to lots of hijinks. Even when Paps is there, the boys run wild. 

Torres shows his parents as very human, flaws and all. Ma is described as fragile, and has some emotional issues. Paps drinks too much and can't hold a steady job, and often uses violence for discipline. The three brothers, Justin and his older brothers Manny and Joel, are very tight as young boys. They love their parents, and are protective of their mother, but they know their folks can be self-absorbed and it makes them angry.

The end of the book is jarring. Joel and Manny go the way of many wild young men: they drop out of school, drink, work in manual labor jobs. The author is different from his brothers. The least of it is that he's academically inclined. He's also confused about his sexuality, and develops the dangerous and unhealthy habit of looking for strange men to hook up with in the bus station bathroom. When his family learns of this, they have him institutionalized. The text says that after this, the five of them are never together again. Did Torres fall out with his brothers for good? Did one of the parents die or leave? Did he never go home again? The text does not say.

I feel for the child that the author was, that his "sexual awakening" was watching a perverted porn tape of a "Daddy" spanking a naked teenage boy. I imagine now that Torres has healthy relationships with men, though I doubt that his time being institutionalized helped with that. I'd want to know if he has a good relationship with anybody in his family now. 

This was a brutally honest autobiographical work. I would read more by Torres in the future. I believe that this is his only full-length text to date, though he has had short works featured in major publications. 

Book #201: The Wind Through the Keyhole

Book #201: The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

July 21, 2015

It's become a thing for series authors to write supplementary texts, to give their readers a little more or to provide the perspective of another character or something. King did that with this book, sort of; while it's the most recently published book in The Dark Tower series, it takes place between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla, so I read it as King intended. It's more stories from Roland, as the ka-tet is riding out a windy, super-freezing storm in the town hall of an abandoned village. I wonder what those who'd already read all of the series made of this one; while it doesn't include much about the ka-tet's continuing journey, it does give more details about Roland's life, and provides closure for what was revealed about him at the end of Wizard and Glass.

"The Wind Through the Keyhole" is a story within a story within a story. It's a childhood favorite of Roland's, told to him by his mother, whose death he's still reeling from when he and his friend Jamie are sent to the mining town Debaria on a real gunslinger mission: to hunt down a man who can change into animals, who is murdering people in the area. Roland tells the story to comfort Bill, a boy who saw his father and others mauled by the "skin-man" in bear form. Over and over again through the series, Roland has referred to himself as being cold and detached, but he's lacking some self awareness. He is actually a caring person with a soft spot for children, as his interactions with Jake and Bill have shown.

It's no surprise that the story of Tim, a young boy who is tricked by a wizard (of sorts) and ventures into a dangerous forest to help his ailing mother and avenge his father's death, would appeal to young Roland. Tim proves his bravery and becomes a gunslinger himself, in spite of the traps set for him by the wizard-guy/tax collector. There are more examples of how King incorporates other fantasy stories into his own; the boy Tim encounters Maerlyn (Merlin), and he learns that the Guardian of the Beam on which he finds him is Aslan (yes, that Aslan), who is currently in a land of eternal snow (that'd be Narnia, y'all). Those references are fun, and I wish Jake and the others had commented on them, as they did about the Wizard of Oz scenario.

This book was a breeze-through compared to most of the others in the series. I found it to be enjoyable, though again, I'd be interested in knowing the perspective of readers who read this one last. I've got a hard copy of Wolves of the Calla from the library waiting for me, and I'm excited to continue the adventures of the ka-tet, but this was a delightful detour.

Book #200: Wizard and Glass

Book #200: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King

July 19, 2015

The fourth book in The Dark Tower series. This hefty volume revolved mainly around Roland's past, as he tells his ka-tet the story of Susan. We already know, from a brief description in The Gunslinger, that she was burned to death. The story of their young, passionate love and the events leading to her murder help Roland's friends to understand how he became so sad and serious. It also shows how he first became fixated with the Dark Tower itself.

I wish the book had given us more of the ka-tet and their adventures, as they only really factor in at the beginning and the end. When Eddie defeats Blaine, they end up in...Topeka, Kansas??? But they realize that this world, so like the "real" one, is different. The population has been wiped out by a virus called "Captain Trips." This was in a story in King's Night Shift collection; a group of college-aged kids, who have managed to survive but know their time is running out, are at a beach just passing the rest of their lives away. Anyway, they start down the interstate, and on the way they stop and Roland tells the story that has been burning him up for so long.

We get to know Cuthbert and Alain, Roland's two best boyhood friends. It's clear why Eddie reminds Roland so much of Bert. They've all been sent to a small village called Hambry. Officially it's to get Riland away from Marten; Marten, the wizard, tried to trick Roland into getting killed by facing off with Cort. But Roland won his guns, of course, and the young gunslinger's life is in danger. But I think there's more going on here. Why did the boys have to use false names in Mejis? And if Hambry was supposed to be this sheltered place, why did Roland's father happen to warn them about the pink glass? I feel like Steven knew a lot more than he let on, just as he sort of "allowed" Roland to later kill his own mother. 

Anyway, the boys get a lot more than they bargain for in Mejis. Through their uncovering of the conspiracy with the goods and the oil, we learn quite a bit more about why Roland's world fell apart. Roland and his pals stop the plot to aid Farson, but that doesn't stop him from taking over his world and destroying it. 

I felt like some parts of the story dragged a bit, but I was mostly into the story of Roland and Susan. I was, however, glad to get back with the ka-tet as they continue to try to find the Path of the Beam again. The wizard sets up a wizard of Oz-inspired scenario to draw them to him, but they thwart him and finally kill that disgusting Tick-Tock man. They haven't seen the last of the wizard, but they've found the Path again and are continuing in their way.

Although I didn't like this one quite as much as the last two, I'm still really excited to continue with the series. Plus, it was good to have more things from the first book clarified. I almost want to read the original version to see what King added or changed to make it fit; I feel like the first book, the revised version that I read, fits really well with this one. But for now, I'll continue on.

Book #199: The Waste Lands

Book #199: The Waste Lands by Stephen King

July 9, 2015

As of yesterday, I was a little more than halfway through this book, the third in the Dark Tower series. I was reading it at the same time as One Hundred Years of Solitude, and once I finished it I intended to spend a bit more time on this book, maybe wrapping it up this weekend. But I happened to check my library's ebook site this morning, and saw that I only had nine hours left in my checkout...and no option to renew. So I buckled down and plowed through it today. Not too difficult; it was so good that reading it quickly did not diminish my enjoyment.

I was really happy to see Jake back in the mix. When Roland prevented Jack Mort from pushing him into traffic in the last book, both he and Jake experienced a kind of split in their memory; both felt that they were going insane. Eddie helped them both, enabling Jake to return to Roland's world and quieting the voices in their heads. 

From there, our motley crew was off, following the path of an invisible by powerful "beam" towards the Dark Tower. Susannah has some vague memories or visions of what life was like in the town of Rivers Crossing and the city of Lud before the world moved on. Was she there in another life or something? My questions so far have been satisfactorily answered, so I have zero doubt that we'll learn more about Susannah and the others' connection to Roland's world eventually.

I've been assuming that Roland lives in the very distant future, but some details in this book are causing me to doubt that theory. The characters discuss this at one point; Eddie suggests that the infamous Bermuda Triangle, for example, is a portal to Roland's plane of existence. Again, I'm hoping that the nature of his world, and its tentative connection to the "real" one, are explained further. 

Eddie and Jake both seem to have the ability to envision the tools that they need to face dangerous obstacles. Eddie envisioned the key before he knew it would be needed to draw Jake; Jake predicted Blaine the train (what a pain) and the importance of riddles before he'd even left New York again. Roland's internal observations about his companions indicates that they have these powerful abilities...this knowing why without knowing how...that he lacks, and he quickly trusts the instincts of his companions. 

After several dangerous run-ins in Lud, the gang boards Blaine to take them through the Waste Lands, a hellscape of fire and desolation and scary birds. But Blaine, a very old and very intelligent train, has intentions of his own. When he reveals this, the book ends. The cliffhanger was no big deal for me, since I've already started the next book and know how that whole situation comes out. But those who got into the series as it was released had to wait six years to find out the fate of Roland and crew. You have to admit, that was a dick move on King's part.

Oh, and I loved the addition of Oy to the gang. Oy is a small, intelligent little furry creature (called a billy-bumbler) that becomes a pet for Jake, and helps Roland rescue him in Lud. It was indicated at one point that Oy would die in this rescue mission, and I was pissed. But the little bugger came out all right. Roland believes that Oy's presence is part of their mission, that he is a proper part of this ka-tet, and he's already proving his worth. There may be another addition to the group yet, as Susannah thinks she might be pregnant. 

In addition to the Blaine situation, there's another danger lurking. Alex Quick, aka Tick-Tock, the leader of the gang who captured Jake, is still alive, and is in cahoots with a wizard (a "reincarnation" of Walter?) to hunt down the gang and thwart their plan to reach the tower. So that's another element to look forward to learning more about.

I am absolutely loving this series so far. I plan to focus on them exclusively for a little while. I may not read all day like I did today to finish this one, but if the rest of the series is as good as these last two books, I may not be able to resist.

Book #198: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Book #198: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (translated by Gregory Rabassa)

July 7, 2015

This is the second book by Márquez that I've read. It is very surreal, and I found myself wishing that I were an artist as I read it, because I would want to paint a series of beautiful and strange scenes from this book. When the people of Macondo, in the end, questioned the truth of these events and even the existence of the once-prominent Buendía clan, I got that. Their story, as predicted by an old gypsy 100 years in advance, is pretty unbelievable.

The Buendías were part of the group that founded Macondo, a cloud cuckoo land of a remote village in Colombia. The story follows them through a century, seven generations total. Incest was already  part of their family history, and Úrsula's prediction that more inbreeding would result in a child with a tail came true in the end. Though not all family members engaged in incest, there was quite a bit of sexual immorality: infidelity, statutory, the Colonel fathering seventeen sons with all different mothers. The offspring from these encounters, or from "legitimate" marriages, were all killed in some miserable or horrific way.

Since the book spans a hundred years, no one at the beginning is still living at the end. Yet the family names are recycled again and again: all of the males are some combination of Aureliano, Arcadio, and José, and there are like three Remedioses. Even with the aid of the family tree at the beginning of the book, I had a hard time keeping track of characters and their relationships to one another. Perhaps Márquez did this on purpose, to reinforce the idea of history repeating itself. But the fate of the Buendía family is like a wheel that finally comes to a stop at the end.

The narrative repeated refers to the solitude of each Buendía. They always stick together, or those who leave eventually come back, and yet they are alone. Multiple generations of men, in their turn, stay isolated in the silversmithing room built by the family patriarch. Rebeca stays alone in her falling apart house after the death of her husband, her adopted brother. Meme never speaks again after being forced into a convent. Although the twins are born and die at the same time as each other, they are not immune to the solitude. Is solitude, in this case, synonymous with loneliness? For all of them (besides the last Aureliano in his early years), the solitude is self-imposed.

This complex book has likely been the subject of much dissection and many writings. I should probably look into some interpretations, because I'm not totally sure what message I was supposed to get from the story of this doomed family. I guess I've always believed that everyone is alone in this world, to some extent. We live and die alone, and I don't know if that's tragedy, just reality. This is definitely a book that I will come back to and read again in the future. I'm glad that I own a hard copy of it; I wish I'd given in to the temptation to mark or highlight certain lines and passages. This book is beautifully written and dense, and I'm glad that I took on this particular challenge.