Month in Review

Lots and lots of reading this month, but as you may have noticed, very little reviewing.  I've been lazy in that regard; sorry.  I got through nine books which may be a record.  It could have been more.  I'd read a few short story collections and I have a few waiting to be read that the library will want back sooner than later, but instead of knocking a couple of those out I really wanted something big and meaty and awesome so I started reading The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault a bit earlier than I had planned.  It's big and fat and dense in the best of ways.  I'll have somethings to say on that when it's over and done.  

The list of books read this month which were not my favorite stories committed to paper are Among Others by Jo Walton, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, and The Line Between, by Peter S Beagle.  Gaiman and Beagle are amazing, but I don't feel these are anywhere near their best work.  You can check out the full review for my thoughts on Walton.

The Prophet by Kahil Gibran and Social Studies by Fran Lebowitz were an interesting pair of books to read back to back.  Gibran is a pan-genre inspirational, spiritual, self help, prose poetry, awkward narrative kinda thing full of paradoxes and lofty thoughts that may--or may not--be worth thinking about.  And Lebowitz's hysterical social commentary is dated but still relevant.  Add me to the legions that wonder how it is that she hasn't published anything in decades.   

Oh yeah that's right.  I even threw in some non-fiction this month because I'm awesome like that.

The really really good stuff I read this month were Crow by Ted Hughes, The Wizard of Earthsea and Changing Planes by Ursula K Le Guin, and Four Quartets by TS Eliot.  To this I owe a large measure of thanks to Jo Walton as every one of these books or authors came to my attention by way of reading Among Others.  She provided some excellent recommendations and I'm further encouraged to try other books she mentioned in Among Others.  Good thing I took notes!  

I can't say I understood all the poems in Crow, but if that is a style of poetry I need to know what that style is, because I loved each and every one.  Visceral, bloody and immediate would be a some words used to describe that collection.  Eliot contrast nicely with Hughes though it was harder for me to follow.  I'm the last person alive over thirty to read The Wizard of Earthsea so I won't talk about it, but Changing Planes was just plain old cool.  It's a collection of related-ish short stories.  The premise is, while killing time at an airport while waiting for your connecting flight why not visit a new plane of existence, new people, culture, society for a few days and be brought right back to your airport terminal when it's time to board your flight?  There's some real social commentary in this collection, some faux, hypothetical social commentary, and some all around great writing.  In many ways, Changing Planes felt like non-fiction.  This would be the one book I regret not leaving commentary for this month, but oh well…   

            

That's a lot of reading for me in one month but I honestly think I'm leaving something out.  In August, I had to actively work to not re-read Perfect Escape.    

The Decatur book festival happened this month, and it will happen for two days next month as well.  I go every year as there is always someone I want to hear speak, meet, or hangout with, but I never go to go see and do all the stuff.  I did so this year and capped the day off with a talk by Austin and Lev Grossman.  They are the most down to earth, regular ass guys you could ever expect to meet.  They're funny and approachable, and they like the same books I like; in addition to their own.  To be identical twins it's amazing how after an hour of hearing them talk I don't feel I'd ever get them confused.    

Lev has personally assured me that The Magician's Land will be out early to mid next year…'or something like that'…  'as long as I finish it.'  And while I didn't go to his reading at DragonCon (how is he reading from a book he hasn't finished, you ask) he kinda maybe probably inferred that at least one chapter is done and even being published in some form in the coming months.  Random side notes on Lev Grossman: he had to force himself to read and finish "that book by Tolkien with the rings…" because it was long and boring (we are kindred spirits), he feels Kelly Link is a secret the publishing industry has kept too well for far too long, he's a huge fan of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (who isn't?) and The Once and Future King (blah to really good…), he's not too hot on Mevryn Peake and has far more praise than I for Jonathan Franzen's fiction.   

I didn't know Austin Grossman existed until the book festival.  He is awesome.  I tried to buy his book but the seller had run out of copies.  (A mammoth oversight in my mind… come on now independent book sellers…)  In addition to needing to track down copies of his currently available You, and Soon I will be Invincible, please please please keep your eyes peeled for his current work in progress which will feature a throw down for the title 'biggest and baddest villain of all time': Cthulhu versus Richard Nixon.  Did I mention Austin is awesome?

Because that is the greatest idea ever.  

I also went to a poetry reading where I had fun laughing at a woman poet from out of town who was invited to read from her new book of poems.  For reasons unknown to herself or anyone else, she wore long corduroy pants and a sweater and looked very nice.  She remarked on the heat was and thought it prudent to only bring shorts and tee shirts should she come back to the festival in the future.  (Some of today's poets earn their rep for 'loopy.')  I also had the pleasure of hearing Thomas Lux read.  He is amazing and I'll shortly be tracking down everything he has published.  I'm not a poetry critic but I know what I like: his work is accessible, disturbing, and poignant.  

I can't say enough how much I wish I had a written copy of the poems they were reading while they were reading.  To me, poetry on the page is especially dead, with it's oft time esoteric or outright unexplainable punctuation and presentation, but when it's read by the author it amazed me how much of a narrative story was being told.  Go check out Lux; now.     

David Levithan, and more Grossman tomorrow in some very interesting panels.  And who knows who else I'll bump into?  Note to self: when rich, move to downtown Decatur.    

Apropos of red shells, I've discovered Knights and Dragons and that is how I waste all my free time.  It shouldn't be as much fun as it is.  It shouldn't be as addictive as it is.  It shouldn't crash as much as it does, but I can't stop playing.  It's like reading Graceling...   You can friend me if you like, or better yet hit me up and I'll send you an invite then you can friend me after the tutorial so can get the extra goodies.  Then we can be best of friends.  Guild coming soon.  If you have a smart phone or ipad, start playing; you'll never have another free five minutes.  XBD-WPF-VYV  Tutorial, then friend me, and you're awesome.  

Finally, the most impressive thing that happened in my life this month was the discovery by Maria and I that I am in fact, a unicorn!  (This has nothing to do with DragonCon going on in town this week either.)  While this may seem chimera (I myself thought that I would be more dragon-ish, cthulhunic, or winged Balrog type menace) it was through rather exhaustive discussion that Maria proved beyond all argument I could care to offer (which was little) that I am in fact, gorgeous, awesome, single (at the time of writing), male, and one who reads slightly more than most.  

Unicorns for the win!     

The Magician King by Lev Grossman

Things pick up in this sequel to Grossman's 2009 The Magicians more or less where we would expect them to.  We find our once Earthbound Fillorian royalty rather well adjusted, fatter and even lazier, and though it may be hard to believe, they are just as bored with being a master magician in Fillory as they were on Earth.  

Quentin, the main character of both The Magicians and The Magician King is still somewhat plagued by his inability to be happy.  It's not that the life of luxury isn't for him, rather he feels there should be something more to his existence.  Oddly, he declines the first adventure that presents itself to him organically in favor or one of his own making.  His own quest eventually leads him to find the seven golden keys that wind up the world.  

In many regards, I found The Magician King to be stronger than it's predecessor.  The purpose was stated much soon even if it isn't until much later that reasons why are given.  Quentin has also grown up… kinda.  Much of the emo angsty stuff that caused me to roll my eyes in the first book is gone, and with it, I can admit, many of the engaging and fun relationship drama that characters became wrapped up in.  The only real character development of interest comes from Julia, the book's co-star.

After events in Fillory get underway the book's structure alternates between current events and filling in the gaps of Julia's life while the other magicians Kings and Queen were at Brakebills.  We learn how she got her education, the seedy magical underworld, it's members, organization and purpose.  I have to be honest and say I grew to dread these sections.  They were always very interesting and helped establish Julia to the same extent the others were established in the previous book.  However, these sections also had nothing to do with the story at hand until the closing pages.  As we had already seen the structured magical education one can receive in the first book I thought the idea of showing the polar opposite was great.  Furthermore, I think there is more room to develop what Grossman has already laid down.  I do wish he would have explored and developed this idea elsewhere.  As in another book or series.

Grossman is still funny though it comes at a cost.  There is the free flowing dialogue that sounds like my friends and I talking as we do at a bar only the subject matter isn't about the Braves and beer rather a magical world and dragons.  The books speech felt real and organic to me.  Much of the prose is also jammed full of pop culture references and good and bad jokes alike (and more fantasy fiction literary allusions than even the author is probably aware of).  The prose is also humorous but to me it felt a bit more force and unnatural; like a comic working too hard for a joke that was never that funny to begin with.  

Grossman is relentless in his mocking praise of fantasy fiction.  My favorite comment came at the expense--or is it homage?--of the Eru Ilúvatar, the creator of all things in Tolkien's world.  While he twist and contorts fantasy troupes he has in each of his books embraced one that makes me want to roll my eyes or throw up my lunch.  After certain events in The Magicians when Quentin's hair turns white I almost put the book down.  I'll give nothing away as to what fantasy troupe Grossman welcomes in The Magician King but beware the comments (should there be any).  I will say not only does this particular fantasy troupe need to die, but I was shocked at the jokes being made only seconds after it happened.  I know it's only a book and Julia isn't the most likable person to begin with but damn… 

The ending will be bittersweet for many, if not an outright point of contention.  It put me into a rage.  Days after having finished the book I can appreciate the disturbing logicality of the conclusion and applaud the author's efforts.  His characters are just as compelling and unlikable as before.  And the knockoff Narnia elements can't get any higher.  The Magicians and The Magician King are still my favorite two books to hate.  I can't wait for the next one.  

What I'm reading and not writing about

There are strong chances that August 2011 will go down as my best month in reading ever; and the month isn't even done yet.  That said, I've been having a hard time telling people why what I've been reading is so amazing.  I've tried and fail to write commentary for Great House by Nicole Krauss three times.  I've since given up; I'm determined that it will be easier to do upon re-reading.  Weeks after finishing Great House I am still learning new things.  It's tough making concise quasi-intelligent remarks about a book where so little happens, and no, I don't mean that in a bad way.  I will say, regardless of what the author may think (I'll ask her in November at a signing), I roll my eyes every time I see a review for the book that says, "It's about a desk..."  

With Krauss, my main problem in not being able to write a half-decent commentary was how much I enjoyed the book.  I wasn't ever, for a second, thinking of stopping to take notes.  Her truly spellbinding way with prose held me awe.  Bathroom breaks were planned before or after reading.  The phone was turned off, not merely put on silent.  I recall at least two skipped meals while reading Great House.  Horrible I know...

I also enjoyed The Magician King a great deal.  Unlike Great House, lack of commentary for Lev Grossman's latest can only be blamed on me being a lazy ass.  It happens... I will get around to it before his author event in town next week, or at least that is my goal.  As with The Magicians, I have a lot to say.

Call me by your name might just be the most beautiful thing committed to paper.  When I finish I'll have more to say on this gorgeous book by Andre Aciman.   For now, suffice it to say: Go.  Read.  It.  Now.

I've also yet to finish Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey.  I'm about a third of the way in thus far and more than anything else read this month, boy do I ever have some things to say about this one.  It's massive and books this size, 900+ pages, always present problems for me.

I may get to and through The Tiger's Wife as well which would probably be in lieu of plowing through more pages of Carey.  We'll see.

So fear not; I've fallen off the blogging horse but things in my most interesting life of reading are still happening.  More to come soon (-ish).  

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

I think it appropriate to begin my commentary of The Magicians the same way I'll end it: by telling you that it's a whole lot of fun, and definitely worth your reading time. Flaws abound, but get over it; if your reading extends past Harry Potter and genre epic fantasy you'll read The Magician's, laugh, enjoy, and on some level (albeit a very superficial one) be moved to some degree.

Quentin Coldwater is a high school overachiever with his sights set on Ivy League enrollment. His education takes a twist as he winds up at Brakesbills, a school for aspiring magicians. In addition to becoming a magician, he hopes to find that the fictional realm of Fillory from his childhood reading is as real as magic. At Brakebills he becomes what he was in high school: a great but still not standout student. He possesses neither the innate ease that his friend Eliot can perform magic with, nor the fey, god-like power of Alice, a fellow student of his class.

The language used in telling this story is perfect. Grossman employs a contemporary vernacular that is perhaps too intelligent and trending for the nerdy kids using it, but one that feels right to the reader. More than any other aspect it is the speech, both dialogue and monologue that makes the work feel real; as if it is all plausible and really happening in our world. The prose feels kitschy, yet there is an art to what is written; Grossman scores major style points with his prose.

We learn what it is like to train to be a magician in today’s world and the horror that there is nothing to do with your magical abilities of any remote interest to anyone (least of all the magician) once you have completed your studies. The elaborate exposition focuses on Quentin and his magical fraternity of friends as they stumble into adulthood. The plot seems to hinge on a point where entrance to Fillory, a magical secondary world as laid down by C.S. Lewis verbatim in Chronicles of Narnia, becomes a real opportunity. But before we go to Fillory ( "We! Are! Going! To! Fill! O! Reeeeeee!" If you’ve read the book you smiled there too...) lets get back to that stumbling…

The book unrelentingly harps on virtually all the characters alcoholism. Drinking is indeed a culture in many American educational institutions but the kids at Brakebills could possible give the University of Georgia a run for their money. The theme is repetitive and over-indulged to the point where we think these kids can’t do much anything until they had a sip of something. Further more, all the students are winos… I found this point not only incongruous with collegiate drinking (admittedly taking into account only my own experience due to a higher-than-beer-or-cheap-booze-price, weaker overall effect, and sophistication of taste) but wholly unbelievable as at some point it felt like the school was in fact sponsoring these benders. To think what they accomplished by being hammer 24/7 it does make you wonder what they could have done, should they ever be sober. By the time Quentin and Eliot upgrade to illicit drugs I was only surprised they hadn’t gotten there sooner. The collegiate experience felt real—as if I know what magical college should feel like—except that no one got kicked out or put on probation for chronic alcoholism and the social problems that arise from such an affliction. Cause you get kicked out of school for that kinda thing…

In addition to campus wide drinking bouts that would awe Andre the Giant and Ernest Hemingway, all the students at Brakebills sleep with all the other students (and at least one case, a teacher too). The small group of primary characters eventually felt like the cast of a white-washed TV sitcom, where all players are attractive, live on the same street, party at the same bars, and then have drunken indiscriminate sex with anyone else on their street; regardless of gender it would seem… At least with sex, as opposed to drinking, there are consequences to deal with that yield emotional maturity and character growth; the drinking only beget hangovers that were promptly cured with three more glasses of wine.

Drinking to excess and sexual promiscuity are certainly standard college fair, but damn… apparently I was a prude in undergrad and grad school.

With a quarter of the book remaining events do take an odd twist and the novel becomes a genuine epic fantasy quest book as we finally get to enter Fillory. This change of direction isn’t necessarily bad, but to me this last portion either felt rushed or the previous three-quarters were prolonged. The time spent in Fillory is as clichéd and generic as any other genre fiction, albeit infused with a modern attitude and Grossman’s ever-present smart ass sense of humor.

The cast is awesome: a bunch of kids who can out drink Jackie Gleason and W.C. Fields back-to-back and whose sexual exploits make Ramses II look virginal. Life lessons, love, loss and enough tween-age angst abound to the point that these emo kids might call bullshit, and yet all I can say overall is, it's a whole lot of fun, and definitely worth your reading time. Consider this a glowing recommendation.