book post written in post-finishing-book consternation
The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
A baby arrives at a graveyard. Mrs. Owens, one of the graveyard's inhabitants, sees the ghost of the baby's mother, and promises to take care of the dead woman's son. He is assigned to the guardianship of a graveyard denizen with the ability to step into the outside world, and spends his days learning from ghosts and generally growing into a sharp and probably very attractive young man, while also wondering, in the back of his mind, who killed his parents.
All of this is presented in a very matter-of-fact way, as British authors are wont to present things, but as it is Neil Gaiman it is also beautiful. It's last year's Newberry winner, and I do believe it perfectly fits the bill for what a Newberry should be: a coming-of-age tale for children which yet has layers upon layers meant to be read and reread at all stages in life. Also it is creepy and involves lots of death without being ridiculously depressing about it--most of the main characters are dead. That's life.
It's been probably about a month since I finished it, so I'm a little rusty on how to talk about it--and having another book on the brain that I want to talk about isn't helping. So let's see, what are my criteria for judging a book that I made up last time? Plot: It's really a series of connected short stories with an overarching plot that I found a bit unsatisfying--more on that in the spoilers section--but the general Bod-grows-up was just so beautiful. And there's suspense and mystery and fun too. Characters: Very quietly drawn, and I really really liked Bod and how he turned out, and Liza is fantastic. Setting: GENIUS. GAH. GENIUS. SO GOOD. SO GOOD. Sentences: It's Neil Gaiman. He presents the reader with information and trusts the reader to do their job with it; he's subtle, and fun, and quietly wise, and also I love hearing him say the word "book," which has nothing to do with his sentences but sort of does because you have to have an appreciation for the way words sound in order to write well.
ANYWAY, GO READ IT, IT'S EXCELLENT.
I WANT A SILAS SPIN-OFF LIKE BURNING and POOR MRS. LUPESCU and like seriously, can we get an adult novel about the two of them? PLEASE NEIL PLEASE. PREQUEL. IT'S ALL I'M ASKING FOR.
That would also help with my one quibble with the novel: the whole Jack "prophecy from way back when made us kill your family" thing--I felt like...not quite that hints needed to be dropped, per se, but the whole "ancient prophecy" thing didn't quite mesh with everything else going on in the story? Like, even the whole Jack of All Trades thing (YOU WOULD, GAIMAN, YOU WOULD) was totally awesome, but something about the prophecy...I felt like we were being given a glimpse of a larger story that had very little to do with Bod in such a way that it sort of overtook Bod's story in importance--it felt like the last episode in that plot had more to do with defeating a big bad he barely knew existed than it did with him, even though it also read as a sort of basic power-up "you've maxed out your experience points so now go and beat the game" thing--which I guess is sort of the problem--it's like he took everything he'd learned and applied it, but to something that he hadn't even known he was fighting for most of the book. The book wasn't about the Jack of All Trades thing, and so having that be the climax was a little...eh. LOVED THE IDEA, DISLIKED THE EXECUTION.
so anyway clearly a novel about Silas and Mrs. Lupescu falling in love while kicking butt with the Honor Guard should be in the works. ANY DAY NOW. (It would be an understated love OOH like Sasha Nine and what's-her-face in Psychonauts, you know the one you have to unlock? Except more somber.)
And of course the grown-up in me was horrified that Bod was 15 and considered "all grown up." I mean, compared to most fifteen-year-olds, certainly, and it's a very classic age in terms of storytelling, but man, I think about my sophomores, and THEY'RE SO LITTLE. Even the mature ones. They're little.
BUT REALLY, I LOVED THIS BOOK. I need to purchase it. It would be good to have around.
All's Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque
Paul and some of his classmates are in the German army towards the end of World War I. They have PTSD and severe detachment issues, although this was before people knew how to diagnose such things, let alone help people heal from them. There are lots of bombs and viscera and bullets and bayonets and some French girls and lice and war sucks and I hate it.
So this book is fabulous but I don't understand why they're giving it to the sophomores to read because they're right smack dab in the middle of the infallibility phase of adolescence, without the catch of being close in age to the protagonist of the story, like seniors or second-semester juniors. Also I am mildly concerned about whether or not the students will get adequate background before jumping into this novel. Like, it is not enough to say Germany lost WWI (although I certainly hope that gets said). I think you need to at least provide a general sense of the devastation of WWI...which, yes, is the point of the novel, but idk.
Anyway this novel was very depressing. I threw it on the floor when I reached the last page. There are two types of novels that get this treatment: Twilight/Eragon, and Of Mice and Men. AQonWF belongs to the latter category of "Classic Novels of Literature Meant to Make You Feel Bad About Everything," although it gets many more points for being about WWI and being from the POV of the loser and for being about real war in real places (not that Of Mice and Men is about fake things, but seriously, that novel exists to make you feel bad).
So I didn't...like it? I mean I deeply respected it and appreciated it and think people ought to read it, but jeeze, you guys. Although a tiny book it is not to be taken lightly. (Also, it satisfied my Gross and Violent quota for the year. Rather like dystopian works, I can do one, maybe two a year, but I have to space them out a lot because I do not enjoy them much at all, and I try to read only the good ones so at least there's something salvageable when I'm done.)
"Okay," I said, when I finished it, "I could go without reading about intestines and stomachs outside of people's bodies and blood for like the next year now."
Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
Ha.
So this book tells the story of Piscine Molitor Patel, who goes by Pi, who is living life grandly with his family in India while his father is a zookeeper until such time they make the decision to move to Canada, and the boat they're on sinks, and Pi get stuck on a lifeboat with a tiger. And then he has to survive.
Lots of animals die in the reading of this story, and their guts are discussed at great length. What did I do wrong in a past life.
Seriously, though, um, I don't really have a review of it that doesn't involve spoilers, and I'm kind of hoping to find someone to discuss me out of my rage, and to convince me that there was a point to reading this book and that it is not simply yet another example of "Classic Novels of Literature Meant to Make You Feel Bad About Everything." So onto the spoilers!
WHAT THE EFF WAS THAT ENDING. WHAT THE FUCK. OH, RIGHT, THIS IS ~*~SERIOUS LITERATURE~*~, WE CAN'T JUST HAVE A STORY ABOUT A BOY STUCK ON A TIGER ON A BOAT, IT HAS TO BE AN ALLEGORY OR IS IT EVEN IF IT'S NOT (IT TOTALLY IS) YOU'VE STILL PUT THE IDEA OF THE STUPID ALLEGORY IN OUR HEADS AND NOW I JUST HATE EVERYTHING.
I just. I put up with the viscera and the weird religious stuff (more on that later) and the extra at least fifty pages that didn't even need to be there (could this book have dragged on any more?), only at the end for it to be AN ENTIRE FUCKING METAPHOR FOR CANNIBALISM. I appreciate the scientific clarity with which all the animals-are-dangerous-and-eat-people stuff was addressed--I made it through sentences about sucking stuff out of vertebrae--I got to the end, I MADE IT, and then he started telling his other story, and I was like "oh this'll just be some ridiculous spur-of-the-oh fuck the sailor broke his leg just like the zebra did you have got to be kidding me" and then his mother's head was ripped off and I was like I AM DONE. I AM DONE.
was this supposed to be spiritually enlightening? was I supposed to feel good about things? was I supposed to be moved or something? what was the intended effect of this novel? there was no catharsis. I would say there was anti-catharsis.
ANYWAY MAYBE THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH WILL OFFEND PEOPLE, I APOLOGIZE, THESE ARE MY THINKY THOUGHTS ON SENSITIVE THINKY THINGS, I AM NOT INFALLIBLE OR PERFECT.
And re: the spiritual stuff: yes, it is admirable for a young boy to want to love God, and I can appreciate the beauty in other religions and their methods of worship, and maybe I'm being close-minded here or something but I just feel like, sometimes, you have to take it or leave it. You can't pick and choose what you like. There was a book I saw on The Colbert Report that I really want to pick up and read, about how Judaism and Islam and Christianity and Hinduism and...Sikh, I think? all have some things about them that are fundamentally different from all the others (Jews don't have original sin the way Christians do, try explaining the concept of sin in an Eastern context and it starts getting really fuzzy, at the very least). Like, if you say, "Jesus Christ is the Son of God," and then you turn around and say, "I'm a Muslim," well, no, you're not, because to a Muslim the idea of the Son of God is blasphemous. It changes things in fundamental and crucial ways, to say God is One but also to start breaking him down into Hindu gods. I just--I didn't buy that part of the book at all. It felt very...well, kind of like his complaint with agnosticism (which I agreed with--give me an atheist any day), with the wishy-washy doubtness. And it feels strangely disrespectful? To everyone involved? Idk.
ANYWAY, back to how this book sucked. Please, feel free to convince me otherwise.
OKAY I HAVE TO CLEAN MY KITCHEN NOW. <3<3<3<3
ETA: IT IS SNOWING LOVIE WILL NEVER MAKE IT HOME ONOEZ DAUGHTER OF EVE EDIT: LOVIE MADE IT HOME YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
OUR OVEN IS DYING PLEASE PRAY FOR IT
ALSO PRAY FOR SNOW DAY TOMORROW? SON OF ADAM EDIT: SNOW DAY TOMORROW WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
but most importantly
today I stopped by the library and picked up the two books that were on hold for me. Granted, they're going to the bottom of my TBR pile, but they are
The Blood Confession by Alisa Libby
and
The Bone Key by Sarah Monette
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FINALLY BOOTH YOU ARE IN MY HANDS AND MINE, ALL MINE.
*does a dance*
A baby arrives at a graveyard. Mrs. Owens, one of the graveyard's inhabitants, sees the ghost of the baby's mother, and promises to take care of the dead woman's son. He is assigned to the guardianship of a graveyard denizen with the ability to step into the outside world, and spends his days learning from ghosts and generally growing into a sharp and probably very attractive young man, while also wondering, in the back of his mind, who killed his parents.
All of this is presented in a very matter-of-fact way, as British authors are wont to present things, but as it is Neil Gaiman it is also beautiful. It's last year's Newberry winner, and I do believe it perfectly fits the bill for what a Newberry should be: a coming-of-age tale for children which yet has layers upon layers meant to be read and reread at all stages in life. Also it is creepy and involves lots of death without being ridiculously depressing about it--most of the main characters are dead. That's life.
It's been probably about a month since I finished it, so I'm a little rusty on how to talk about it--and having another book on the brain that I want to talk about isn't helping. So let's see, what are my criteria for judging a book that I made up last time? Plot: It's really a series of connected short stories with an overarching plot that I found a bit unsatisfying--more on that in the spoilers section--but the general Bod-grows-up was just so beautiful. And there's suspense and mystery and fun too. Characters: Very quietly drawn, and I really really liked Bod and how he turned out, and Liza is fantastic. Setting: GENIUS. GAH. GENIUS. SO GOOD. SO GOOD. Sentences: It's Neil Gaiman. He presents the reader with information and trusts the reader to do their job with it; he's subtle, and fun, and quietly wise, and also I love hearing him say the word "book," which has nothing to do with his sentences but sort of does because you have to have an appreciation for the way words sound in order to write well.
ANYWAY, GO READ IT, IT'S EXCELLENT.
I WANT A SILAS SPIN-OFF LIKE BURNING and POOR MRS. LUPESCU and like seriously, can we get an adult novel about the two of them? PLEASE NEIL PLEASE. PREQUEL. IT'S ALL I'M ASKING FOR.
That would also help with my one quibble with the novel: the whole Jack "prophecy from way back when made us kill your family" thing--I felt like...not quite that hints needed to be dropped, per se, but the whole "ancient prophecy" thing didn't quite mesh with everything else going on in the story? Like, even the whole Jack of All Trades thing (YOU WOULD, GAIMAN, YOU WOULD) was totally awesome, but something about the prophecy...I felt like we were being given a glimpse of a larger story that had very little to do with Bod in such a way that it sort of overtook Bod's story in importance--it felt like the last episode in that plot had more to do with defeating a big bad he barely knew existed than it did with him, even though it also read as a sort of basic power-up "you've maxed out your experience points so now go and beat the game" thing--which I guess is sort of the problem--it's like he took everything he'd learned and applied it, but to something that he hadn't even known he was fighting for most of the book. The book wasn't about the Jack of All Trades thing, and so having that be the climax was a little...eh. LOVED THE IDEA, DISLIKED THE EXECUTION.
so anyway clearly a novel about Silas and Mrs. Lupescu falling in love while kicking butt with the Honor Guard should be in the works. ANY DAY NOW. (It would be an understated love OOH like Sasha Nine and what's-her-face in Psychonauts, you know the one you have to unlock? Except more somber.)
And of course the grown-up in me was horrified that Bod was 15 and considered "all grown up." I mean, compared to most fifteen-year-olds, certainly, and it's a very classic age in terms of storytelling, but man, I think about my sophomores, and THEY'RE SO LITTLE. Even the mature ones. They're little.
BUT REALLY, I LOVED THIS BOOK. I need to purchase it. It would be good to have around.
All's Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque
Paul and some of his classmates are in the German army towards the end of World War I. They have PTSD and severe detachment issues, although this was before people knew how to diagnose such things, let alone help people heal from them. There are lots of bombs and viscera and bullets and bayonets and some French girls and lice and war sucks and I hate it.
So this book is fabulous but I don't understand why they're giving it to the sophomores to read because they're right smack dab in the middle of the infallibility phase of adolescence, without the catch of being close in age to the protagonist of the story, like seniors or second-semester juniors. Also I am mildly concerned about whether or not the students will get adequate background before jumping into this novel. Like, it is not enough to say Germany lost WWI (although I certainly hope that gets said). I think you need to at least provide a general sense of the devastation of WWI...which, yes, is the point of the novel, but idk.
Anyway this novel was very depressing. I threw it on the floor when I reached the last page. There are two types of novels that get this treatment: Twilight/Eragon, and Of Mice and Men. AQonWF belongs to the latter category of "Classic Novels of Literature Meant to Make You Feel Bad About Everything," although it gets many more points for being about WWI and being from the POV of the loser and for being about real war in real places (not that Of Mice and Men is about fake things, but seriously, that novel exists to make you feel bad).
So I didn't...like it? I mean I deeply respected it and appreciated it and think people ought to read it, but jeeze, you guys. Although a tiny book it is not to be taken lightly. (Also, it satisfied my Gross and Violent quota for the year. Rather like dystopian works, I can do one, maybe two a year, but I have to space them out a lot because I do not enjoy them much at all, and I try to read only the good ones so at least there's something salvageable when I'm done.)
"Okay," I said, when I finished it, "I could go without reading about intestines and stomachs outside of people's bodies and blood for like the next year now."
Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
Ha.
So this book tells the story of Piscine Molitor Patel, who goes by Pi, who is living life grandly with his family in India while his father is a zookeeper until such time they make the decision to move to Canada, and the boat they're on sinks, and Pi get stuck on a lifeboat with a tiger. And then he has to survive.
Lots of animals die in the reading of this story, and their guts are discussed at great length. What did I do wrong in a past life.
Seriously, though, um, I don't really have a review of it that doesn't involve spoilers, and I'm kind of hoping to find someone to discuss me out of my rage, and to convince me that there was a point to reading this book and that it is not simply yet another example of "Classic Novels of Literature Meant to Make You Feel Bad About Everything." So onto the spoilers!
WHAT THE EFF WAS THAT ENDING. WHAT THE FUCK. OH, RIGHT, THIS IS ~*~SERIOUS LITERATURE~*~, WE CAN'T JUST HAVE A STORY ABOUT A BOY STUCK ON A TIGER ON A BOAT, IT HAS TO BE AN ALLEGORY OR IS IT EVEN IF IT'S NOT (IT TOTALLY IS) YOU'VE STILL PUT THE IDEA OF THE STUPID ALLEGORY IN OUR HEADS AND NOW I JUST HATE EVERYTHING.
I just. I put up with the viscera and the weird religious stuff (more on that later) and the extra at least fifty pages that didn't even need to be there (could this book have dragged on any more?), only at the end for it to be AN ENTIRE FUCKING METAPHOR FOR CANNIBALISM. I appreciate the scientific clarity with which all the animals-are-dangerous-and-eat-people stuff was addressed--I made it through sentences about sucking stuff out of vertebrae--I got to the end, I MADE IT, and then he started telling his other story, and I was like "oh this'll just be some ridiculous spur-of-the-oh fuck the sailor broke his leg just like the zebra did you have got to be kidding me" and then his mother's head was ripped off and I was like I AM DONE. I AM DONE.
was this supposed to be spiritually enlightening? was I supposed to feel good about things? was I supposed to be moved or something? what was the intended effect of this novel? there was no catharsis. I would say there was anti-catharsis.
ANYWAY MAYBE THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH WILL OFFEND PEOPLE, I APOLOGIZE, THESE ARE MY THINKY THOUGHTS ON SENSITIVE THINKY THINGS, I AM NOT INFALLIBLE OR PERFECT.
And re: the spiritual stuff: yes, it is admirable for a young boy to want to love God, and I can appreciate the beauty in other religions and their methods of worship, and maybe I'm being close-minded here or something but I just feel like, sometimes, you have to take it or leave it. You can't pick and choose what you like. There was a book I saw on The Colbert Report that I really want to pick up and read, about how Judaism and Islam and Christianity and Hinduism and...Sikh, I think? all have some things about them that are fundamentally different from all the others (Jews don't have original sin the way Christians do, try explaining the concept of sin in an Eastern context and it starts getting really fuzzy, at the very least). Like, if you say, "Jesus Christ is the Son of God," and then you turn around and say, "I'm a Muslim," well, no, you're not, because to a Muslim the idea of the Son of God is blasphemous. It changes things in fundamental and crucial ways, to say God is One but also to start breaking him down into Hindu gods. I just--I didn't buy that part of the book at all. It felt very...well, kind of like his complaint with agnosticism (which I agreed with--give me an atheist any day), with the wishy-washy doubtness. And it feels strangely disrespectful? To everyone involved? Idk.
ANYWAY, back to how this book sucked. Please, feel free to convince me otherwise.
OKAY I HAVE TO CLEAN MY KITCHEN NOW. <3<3<3<3
ETA: IT IS SNOWING LOVIE WILL NEVER MAKE IT HOME ONOEZ DAUGHTER OF EVE EDIT: LOVIE MADE IT HOME YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
OUR OVEN IS DYING PLEASE PRAY FOR IT
ALSO PRAY FOR SNOW DAY TOMORROW? SON OF ADAM EDIT: SNOW DAY TOMORROW WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
but most importantly
today I stopped by the library and picked up the two books that were on hold for me. Granted, they're going to the bottom of my TBR pile, but they are
The Blood Confession by Alisa Libby
and
The Bone Key by Sarah Monette
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FINALLY BOOTH YOU ARE IN MY HANDS AND MINE, ALL MINE.
*does a dance*