The Golden Compass. Philip Pullman.

The Golden Compass.
Philip Pullman.
Del Rey: 1997.

A celebrated book and rightly so.  The writing is simple enough for young adults yet good enough for adults, the plot is relatively coherent and complex, the characters are excellent, and the setting is superb without the author having to write long, encyclopedic paragraphs about his alternate universe.

The first part of a trilogy, this is the coming of age story of an orphan girl being raised by University dons.  Mysterious things are afoot, including an assassination attempt on her uncle, and strange scientific discoveries are at hand, and so off she goes with some gypsies to the North Pole.  The plot & setting mirror some of the boy adventure novels of "the good old days."  Very good book, appropriate for anyone old enough to read it, and a good one to find in hardcover.

The only drawback is that I have never found the plot device of a prophecy to be very fulfilling, if you'll forgive the pun.  It's more hokey than coincidence, unless done in a new & interesting way, which this novel does not.

The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi. Friedrich Durrenmatt.

The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi.
Friedrich Durrenmatt.
Grove Press: 1964.

Durrenmatt, a playwright by profession, wrote one of my favorite books: Traps.  Mr. Mississippi, a play, is more his standard work.  One funny thing about plays is that characters often spout off didactic monologues--this is allowed in a dramatic situation, but not in the (usually) more realistic prose work.  This play is full of mini-monologues as instructive & thought-provoking for the audience as they are revelatory of the characters' inner beings.

The play centers around the theme of justice--who decides what is just? a mass or a man, and in what situations?  Dare we follow a dream of ideal justice or settle for practical justice? Are there any truly just men?  In the midst is a love quadrangle between a married couple (who have killer their former spouses and have married each other for penance), a political aspirant, and a failed professional--and the lady, of course.  Very good.

The Nun and the Bandit. E.L. Grant Watson.

The Nun & the Bandit.
E.L. Grant Watson.
Albatross: 1935

Another good book from Grant Watson. This one revolves around the changing relationship between a desparate man and the nun he accidentally kidnaps (she was with the girl he intended to kidnap.) The nun, Lucy, is of course beautiful, but it is not love which drives Michael; rather a combination of animal lust and revenge--revenge against God for the rotten hand he has been dealt.

Michael's tale is one of an everlasting search for meaning and escape. Lucy's tale is again a search for meaning (as, I suppose, it is for us all) and a complex one of acceptance and forgiveness. For she allows Michael to take her (in exchange for sparing the child) and she stays with him--not quite willingly, but at least passively, obediently, and even companionably.

The setting is the Australian outback, and Grant Watson once again evokes the horror close beneath it and the feeling of insignificance one feels amongst it.

An Unkindness of Ravens. Ruth Rendell

An Unkindness of Ravens.
Ruth Rendell

Yet another modern female British mystery novelist who needs to have weird sex and/or a severely troubled childhood thrown into the plot. In this case, at least, the detective seems to be as normal as the rest of us. As it turns out, the semi-pedophile bigamist who was murdered did not rape his own daughter, but she had half-convinced herself that he had. Or something like that. The killer is fairly obvious, but when, for no real reason, Rendell evaporates the motive to a mere vapor of a motive, it leaves me wondering why.

Wicked. Gregory Maguire

Wicked.
Gregory Maguire.

An awful and tedious perversion of the Oz story. I can think of nothing to recommend it: the writing is ostentations, the characters are ridiculously unbelievable, the plot is both boring but also beyond belief and contradictory to Oz.

The whole idea is telling the story of the Wicked Witch of the West. However, if one is going to write a book using the characters, setting, AND plot from another novel, one ought to follow the rules set by the previous author. Wicked takes the wonderful world of Oz and its rich characters, and turns it/them into a soap opera complete with useless drama, pointless sex & perversions, cardboard characters who don't act like normal--or even abnormal--humans, sophomoric moralizing, etc. etc.

This is a best-seller, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. There can't be that many people who hate the Oz books so much they'd like to see them destroyed like this.

The Mainland. E. L. Grant Watson

The Mainland.
E. L. Grant Watson
Alfred A. Knopf: 1917

The first half of this book is excellent. Grant Watson excels at a few things: intense psychological suspense, interesting nature writing, and mysticism. All of these are present and strong in the beginning of the book, and I had high hopes of a book as good as Lost Man.

After John's heartbreak, however, the book turns into a sort of epic, rather than a detailed description of his attempts to get Mrs. Cray back &/or is utter annihilation. Instead, as John grows and matures (he was raised on an island with only his parents), the intensity of both his emotions & Watson's writing lessens, and the detailed descriptions become more generalized (as John himself is learning to generalize.) Stylistically, this is successful, and it is still a very good novel, but I miss the intensity, the mystical response to nature, and the suspense, that was present in the first half. Grant Watson needed to have John be that intense as a youth in order to show his mellowing and maturing as an adult--perhaps I just miss my own intense youth...?

Island of the Sequined Love Nun. Christopher Moore.

Island of the Sequined Love Nun.
Christopher Moore.

Avon: 1997.

Although I'm surprised that this 3rd printing had as many typos as it does, this is nonetheless a funny and enjoyable trip to the tropics with Moore.

The underlying plot is actually rather gruesome: a missionary doctor and his stripper/nurse/wife use religion to harvest organs from a primitive tribe on a remote tropical island. The organs, of course, are sold for enormous profit.

The spirit of the man (a WWII fighter pilot) who is worshipped as a savior on this island helps a luckless and gutless modern-day pilot to save the day. The characters are generally good, the plot bizarre but believable (unlike Fluke), the humor is great for the first half, but sort of peters out as the plot gets moving. Still, an enjoyable book, though it may not be a keeper.

Car. Harry Crews

Car
Harry Crews
William Morrow, 1972.

A shockingly good story. Herman, the son of a junkyard owner, decides he is going to make his claim for fame by eating a car. The short novel follows the repurcussions within and out of their small family.

The writing is intense, the strange psychology of all characters is at once absurd and utterly believable. Crews is successfully able to tie together a devotion and obsession with pop culture, an expose of crass commercialism, and a wholly believable look at some strange sexuality, in a way which is riveting, disturbing, and fun.

I must get my hands on more of his books, but they are apparently all highly sought-after...

The Tango Briefing. Adam Hall.

The Tango Briefing.
Adam Hall

Pretty bad adventure/spy novel. This has two appealing aspects. First, Hall is not obsessed with either technology or violence, so one does not become bored or aggrieved. Second, the main character, Quiller, is funny: he has an addicts' attitude toward his job & a very weird attitude towards himself in that his body is always referred to as "the organism" and his mind (he thinks) is totally separate from it.

Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Caged Whale Sings. Christopher Moore.

Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Caged Whale Sings Christopher Moore.
William Morrow: 2003

A big disappointment after Lamb, this is still a good book. Whale scientist Nate Quinn discovers the ultimate conspiracy: at first you think it's local scientists, then the government, then aliens, the . . . it's the original organism that evolved on Earth. This thing--Goo--can create and control life via DNA (or something like that. It kind of makes sense when you are reading it, but only kind of.)

Moor is off on his humor on this one. Yes, there are some funny parts, but nothing hilarious, and there are no consistently funny characters. Moore seems a bit too concerned about making the far-fetched storyline work than becoming engaged with any of his characters or developing any themes beyond a preachy save-the-whales moral. Still entertaining, but not up to his others.

Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Robert Pirsig.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
by Robert Pirsig.

A frustrating book to read because the whole time I was wondering: "But why is this book so popular?" A novel about a vain, egotistical and uncaring technical writer on a trip with his son. He (the narrator) used to be a vain, egotistical studing and teacher who perhaps cared a little for others. He then reinvents the philosophical wheel (or at least thinks he does) and becomes obsessed with the notion of quality. At last he has a moment of spiritual insight where it all makes sense. Instead of inspiring him--as such moments do for the rest of us--it drives him crazy and he goes to the psych ward where he undergoes electric shock therapy.

He re-emerges, feigning ignorance of his past life (but really he hasn't lost a single memory), discounts his previous obsession to a practical motorcycle-maintenance level and tries to live a 'normal' life. At the end, his old self comes back.

Boring. Author talks to you like you're an idiot. He is unaware of ridiculous logic and covers it up with long history lessons. Strange book, not to be read again.

The Princess and the Goblin. George MacDonald.

The Princess and the Goblin.
George MacDonald.

MacDonald is well-known for being an idol of C.S. Lewis and, to a lesser degree, of J.R.R. Tolkien. This is the second story of his I have read and it is quite wonderful.

As before, I came away a little confused by the imagery of this "Christian" (as he is packaged today) author. The main image in this book is that of the Princess Irene's great-grandmother who can only be seen by those who believe in her, or whose light can be seen by those she wishes to save. These are concepts clearly familiar to Christianity, and yet this magical person is a woman: unusual. Compare this to Lewis' Aslan, who -- although a lion -- is both male and masculine.

Another note of interest is MacDonald's acceptance of and use of evolution. Although approached from a fantasic storyteller's point of view rather than a scientific one, MacDonald makes liberal use of the theory which is now fought against by so many Christians. These two extended metaphors (among others) make me belive that MacDonald's faith is more personal than the over-politicized faith of some today. It would be interesting to read his original romance novels and compare them to the modern 'reprints' edited for a specifically Christian audience. I wonder what exactly needed to be "edited" out of or into these novels? Surely MacDonald is a superior writer to his editor!

In an interesting twist on the Genesis account of the Flood, the goblins in this story wanted to mate with the "higher species" (princess) and were punished for that desire. In Genesis, fallen man had become even worse by the nephilim who had taken the women as mates.

Fun story, well told. Highlight of ridiculous writing: foot-stomping fights.

The Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code.
Dan Brown.
2003

The writing is mediocre. The characters are utterly unbelievable. The plot is ridiculous. Yet the book is the best-selling adult novel in years: why? It is a decent chase/treasure novel with little puzzles to solve, but that can't possibly be the point of interest for so many millions of people.

The "sacred feminine" is brought up repeatedly in the novel, and yet no one I talk with who has read the book seems to care. Indeed, it is just the conspiracy of the Catholic Church that people talk about (ironic in this case, because the Church is pointedly exonerated by Brown from any involvement in his plot, and indeed is portrayed as a source of inspiration and comfort.)

Grail legends, lost treasures, and vast conspiracies will always be popular, but I don't think they are enough to make this a runaway bestseller, especially considering the bad writing. It is beyond me.