Season of the Snake: A Novel

by Claire Davis

This novel had a sinuous way about it similar to its eponymous creature. Quick to slip away from scrutiny too intense or a light too bright being cast upon it, it still made for an enjoyable read.

The prologue of this book may be its very best bit: haunting, beautiful as a reflection on the transitory miraculous nature of love. That being said, there is plenty more worth coming across in the rest of the novel.

Nancy is our main character and a biologist by training. She makes her way through the canyons pursuing snakes and cataloging their behavior: a task that would send most people screaming into the night, but perhaps unsurprisingly to anyone who has one, many times she prefers a nest of serpents to her own family.

There is a strange and ineffable dynamic between Nancy and her younger sister Meredith that develops as a thread of narrative focus. Though their interactions seem authentic and resonant, I think the story would have been better served by a deeper exploration of the sibling relationship between these sisters.

Apart from Nancy’s sister, there is also Ned, her husband. Blythe and harmless on his face, there is still something vaguely disturbing about his apparent lack of depth. When we begin riding around in Ned’s mind rather than observing him externally, stray thoughts begin to confirm something is amiss. Ned’s behavior devolves over the course of the tale and many of those niggling doubts about him we feel initially are justified.

I find it a little difficult to quantify what it is I think this novel is “about”; it seems part never-to-be-solved-mystery, part character study, part portrait of family dynamics. All of these elements appear, but none takes a dominant place as the clear theme of the tale. Despite this diffuse plot tendency, I still found the writing to be engaging and enjoyable to read.  Bonus points for vivid descriptions of Hells Canyon and environs.

St. Martin’s Press (2005), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 288 pages

 

The Tenderness of Wolves

by Stef Penney

picked this novel up off a table piled high over at the costco. as i am well aware, the origins of a book are not always indicative of  their quality, in this case, i will say i was happily surprised.

set at the twilight of the 19th century in a remote Canadian village, the tale follows the murder mystery that unfolds in the tiny community. a local trapper is found dead and shockingly scalped and the village is rocked by the evidence of this violence in their midst.

perspective in this novel switches from first person in the entity of Mrs. Ross who discovers the body initially, to a third person voice following various other important players in the drama. the inner life of this trapper is inexorably revealed during the course of the investigation, and everyone in the community is touched in some way by his life or eventually, his death.

to my mind the most compelling character in the novel is our Mrs. Ross and feel the story suffers somewhat from leaving her behind. it seems, in what i interpret as an attempt to keep the book from being typified as a frontier murder mystery cum romance, the author might have sacrificed some measure of consistency. chapters which give us an eye into the minds of the other characters are interesting and absorbing to varying degrees, but the way we go from being inside Ross’ mind to merely observing these others seems a strange choice which interferes with the flow of the tale.

gripping vignettes describing the ruthless Canadian winter and the effect the elements have on the action makes the environment its own character. depictions of landscape and weather have a remarkable immediacy. language is used effectively and deftly throughout the novel.

some minor complaints about a tendency to stray and leave some points raised but answered persist, but since this is a first novel, i think on the whole, they are easily overlooked within the context of an otherwise starkly satisfying story.

recommended.

Simon & Schuster (2007), Hardcover, 384 pages

 

Special Topics in Calamity Physics

by Marisha Pessl

I can bestow on this book the highest compliment I have: I want to own it so I can write all over it. I borrowed it from friend Lyza after reading her review and inhaled it. At 500 pages, it was well under 24 hours in my hands.

Written from the perspective of a precocious book-wise teenager, I found her voice resonant and familiar (though in possession of an infinitely better education). Her narrative is self-aware and liberally dosed with quotations and references from books, magazine articles, and movies. And any child this scholarly and still relatively sane and down to earth has my admiration, if not, perhaps, my unmitigated credulity.

Our narrator Blue VanMeer clearly and unabashedly orbits her brilliant and eccentric father both intellectually and emotionally. Gareth VanMeer, who seems to have no compunction about carting his young daughter all over the landscape, still never fails to see to her instruction during countless hours of auto rides and semi-ritualized moments in places scattered from coast to coast. Having decided to finally settle in North Carolina so Blue can complete her senior year at the exclusive St Gallway, the VanMeers begin to feel the gravity of other bodies in the wider universe. Blue is drawn into a clique of privileged students who seat themselves as acolytes to one Hannah Schneider, the film studies teacher at the school. Though they seem initially resistant to her inclusion in the select group, eventually these people begin to influence Blue in ways both subtle and overt: her frame of reference widens in tandem with her wardrobe.

But the appearance of normalcy in this group is fleeting indeed. Ultimately a custom of secrecy and deception begins to reveal itself from beneath the veneer of benign mentorship in Blue’s relationship with Hannah and the others. Inexplicable and bizarre stories swirl between the students about their teacher, as well as tales told by Hannah about her disciples. And disciples are just how these adolescents are portrayed: dazzled by Hannah’s allure and deeply possessive of the intimacy she has afforded them despite the misgivings they frequently recount to one other in her absence. The conflicting stories, coincidences, bizarre behavior, spying and conflict that brews within the group creates a sense of mounting tension and a deepening mystery as the novel progresses. And to Blue’s increasing confusion and dismay there seem to be strange concordances even from within her own unorthodox life that make some elements of these mysteries seem to mean something more to her than to the other teens in the circle.

Eventually a schismatic event completely dismantles any relationship between Blue and her compatriots. When she discovers Hannah’s lifeless corpse, the momentum built in the novel to that point is unleashed in pursuit of answers that become increasingly personal for Blue as the truth begins to out.

Though there were some mechanisms in the story I found a little too pat for complete conviction, overall I found this a compelling and enjoyable read. I found the rhythm of the narrative woven with the citation of sources from classic literature to pop culture rich and satisfying, even if many of said references flew right over my wee little head.

Recommended.
Penguin (Non-Classics) (2007), Paperback, 528 pages

 

Fraud

By david rakoff.

This collection of essays are the offering of a compatriot of the laudable “this American life” crew. After hearing him read on the show a few weeks ago I felt it likely worth my while to grab his book if he was anywhere near as thoughtful and entertaining as his fellows david Sedaris & Sarah vowell; lucky me, he is.

Unabashedly intellectual and fiercely opinionated, this author has a facility of language somewhat rare in the ranks of the modern humorist. Not since twain and wilde has such a fierce wit been paired with such keen nuance of the written communique. Highly educated and ruthlessly self deprecating rakoff leads us into a series of fascinating excursions to places no less far flung than Tokyo, reykjavik, & new jersey,

narrating with his distinctly wicked but undeniably compelling perspective. While not more than occasionally laugh out loud funny, this book felt somehow less trivial than most of the humor reading I do. Peppered with words and phrases I had to look up (she admits to her chagrin) I walked away from this one feeling edified; not just because I felt safer armed with my dictionary, but because of the amusing yet nonetheless consistently thought provoking observations of this transparently erudite author. Well worth it, recommended.

 

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

By Mark Twain

generally a fan of Twain, i didn’t really enjoy this one as much as i expected to. i had read selected excerpts of this book as a child in a book of short stories and remembered enjoying them, but as an adult i have a vantage that makes the hyjinx of this child less than amusing.

i attribute it somewhat to the cultural divide between myself and the post-civil war south. the behavior seen as customary or appropriate for a pre-adolescent boy at that time and place seems appallingly bad to my mind. what’s more, the tolerant attitude displayed toward Tom by his aunt serves to reinforce the behavior she rails against. self-assured and cocky, i fail to sympathize with this child on almost any level. the callous way he regards (or fails to regard) the feelings of others is not charming in the least. and when i cannot identify with my hero, i’m left fairly cold.

i also felt certain elements of the plot were not only fantastic, but repetitive. a child can only disappear so many times and muster the panic of the town, yet it seems Tom can go missing again and again and warrant the despair of all around him every time anew. as far as it goes, i enjoyed the casual language and the cadence of the story shows the deftness of Twain in his element, but i simply failed to find anything endearing about his portrayal of a child he meant to paint as a scamp but whom i can only see as a wretched brat.

Penguin Classics (2006), Paperback, 272 pages
tags: middle reader, literature, southern culture

 

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

by Jeff Lindsay

Well,

I must say I was really looking forward to this one. I was intrigued by the premise; serial killer who kills only other serial killers. Hm, tasty!

The opening sequence of the book did not fail to deliver. In language both haunting and lyrical, we are introduced to Dexter and his “dark passenger” as they stalk their prey. Dexter presents a face alternately appealing and appalling.

Dexter works as a blood spatter technician for the Miami-Dade police department. This gives him a particularly useful vantage from which to seek his candidates. It also allows him to be especially helpful to his foster-sister Deborah a police officer, the only person to whom he feels any human attachment.

However, to my mind Deborah fails to warrant the glimmer of feeling Dexter harbors for her. Ambitious, she is not especially intelligent, instead relying utterly upon Dexter for answers and direction. She seems to have no instincts or methodology of her own and seems ill suited to the detective role she covets.

In fact it is in the interactions between characters I feel this story begin to break down. On the trail of a killer who’s murders Dexter finds particularly compelling, the way in which he processes information internally seems believable enough, but in all his interpersonal encounters there is a fundamental lack of authenticity that I cannot attribute to a literary mechanism, but rather to a failure of skill on the part of the author.

Without giving too much away, I found the climax of this book to be utterly absurd. Every hero needs a nemesis, but the way we are provided with one is such a tremendous cliché I was gobsmacked the author had the cajones to employ it.
Much promise and an underlying feeling for language exist in this book, but the outcome was pretty disappointing. Cannot recommend it without strong a strong caveat; you must have a high tolerance for soap-opera style plot twists to really enjoy this one.

Vintage (2006), Paperback, 304 pages
tags: murder, mystery

 

Tuesday Thingers

lyza and i have a book disease. i am shocked and sort of shamed to admit; she has it worse than i do. i have never known anyone else in my entire life who read more than me. it’s nice to have a hero…

she’s got me reeled into a website called librarything where you can catalog your books, rate them, write reviews, and basically wallow in all things booky til you are smeary with literature all over the place. it’s pretty much totally awesome.

as a result i’ve started writing reviews, posting them here on my blog, and joined an “Early Reviewers” group in the hope of being sent books to read and review… well, early. a group of these folks have started a group which poses a book review/blog question every Tuesday. and so,

this week’s offering:

What’s the most popular book in your library? Have you read it? What did you think? How many users have it? What’s the most popular book you don’t have? How does a book’s popularity figure into your decisions about what to read?

Sorcerers Stone, natch. i was a relative latecomer to the harry potter franchise. i actually read Chamber of Secrets first and then backtracked. i was in an airport, desperate times…  i did enjoy the book, all things considered. i am a great fan of the middle reader genre, and this particular offering left me impressed with Rowling’s imaginative gifts and ability to create a compelling alternate reality while managing a fairly complex superstructure of characters and events. 32,500 people have it in their library.

the most popular book i don’t ‘have is The DaVinci Code. it’s not so much the sort of virulent popularity the book has enjoyed (although i do find that aversive: part of the reason i avoided HP was the ridiculous line-around-the-block mania) but also the pseudo-scholarly demi-theolgical bent the novel takes. as a person who is actually pretty profoundly interested in religious history i find the whole premise of the story vile.

and this is not to say that i never read popular books; i do. i just find a particular brand of Banes-and-Noble-i-feel-intellectually-superior-for-having-read-four-books-all-year-all-of-which-Oprah-told-me-to mentality offensive and off-putting.

as an aside, there a whole lot of dashes in this post. far more than is customary.

 

Dinner at Mr. Jefferson’s: Three Men, Five Great Wines, and the Evening that Changed America…

while i scooped this off the shelf with some enthusiasm when i saw it at the library, i must say it left me cold.

it took me no less than three tries to even get started (never a good sign) and once i did manage to pick it up i had to fight the urge to put it back down again.

this book was based on following the course of a dinner between Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton where much political maneuvering did ensue. yet the author takes this potentially interesting premise and makes historic porridge out of it.

these friends and rivals were all in orbit to the Washington presidency and though opposed on many issues, saw the necessity of cooperating at this juncture. this book follows the ways in which these men came to submit to this need despite their vast personal and political differences.

to my mind the tone the author adopts is too conversational for my and seems not only partisan but to assume the reader knows contextual elements of the time and political climate i feel would be better made explicit.

not having read a great deal of early american history, i still suspect there are more thorough and enjoyable efforts to be had. ( )

 

when you are engulfed in flames

typical hilarious Sedaris. essays about various and sundry, most notably his journey to be “finished” smoking, which takes him to (of all places) Japan.

laugh out loud funny in many places, his voice is so distinct i literally hear him speaking inside my head as i read along. i heard a few of these stories at a reading i attended back in October, but there were plenty of new elements to keep them fresh and funny nevertheless.

tore through this one in less than a day, but it left me satisfied.

recommended ( )

 

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

(Modern Library Paperbacks) by Edmund Morris

this book was truly an effort. usually i can snork up an 800 page book in a matter of days, but this one took me a full three weeks to consume. i found myself enjoying it, but needing to take breaks so as to not feel overwhelmed by the scope of the material. which is perhaps fitting for the subject in question. “Teedie” was an overwhelming kind of guy. well educated, worldly, overbearing, enthusiastic, headlong in all his pursuits, i sort of imagine reading this book to be a little like meeting him: interesting in the extreme but leaving one with the feeling of needing a breather. personal details contrast nicely with the political and social machinations of this legendary man. approachable language and a wealth of research come together in this text to make for one of the finest biographies i have ever read. recommended.
Modern Library (2001), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 920 pages
tags: biography, America, Europe, history, politics