In Books: JKR's new literary offering & The Family Fang
J.K. Rowling's new book, The Casual Vacancy, comes out today to much speculation and to some incredibly snide reviews. The reviews are so vitriolic/fawning that I still have no idea whether or not I actually want to read the book, only wonder at the hatred some people apparently harbor for Rowling. (Socialist rant? What?) I mean, really, some of these quotes are written as if Rowling and the critic got into a catfight at a bar the night before. This only further supports my wish that she had published this work under a pseudonym; I suspect that the reviews would read a lot differently if the expectations from her famous series weren't hovering this new book's reputation.
In the department of books that I have actually read recently, there's The Family Fang, by Kevin Wilson, which tackles the thorny question of, "Do kids kill art, or does art kill kids?" The parents of the Fang family, Caleb and Camille, are famous performance artists who have incorporated their children into their work for years; their children, Annie and Buster, have become adults who are barely able to function in the real world. All of these characters are profoundly selfish and self-absorbed people, yet I couldn't bring myself to hate Annie and Buster, mostly due to the fact that they'd found the courage to survive their parents' art installations and the determination to break ties when it was necessary to do so. As for the assertion that kids kill art (or the opportunity to make it)... well, I can say from immediate personal experience that this is true. On the other hand, when you make the decision to have those children, you have to revise your expectations. I think my dislike of the parents in this story was the fact that they refused to revise their expectations and continued behaving just as selfishly as they had before. The answer to this, that art kills kids, is proven in spades by the rest of the book, as the depth of Annie and Buster's troubles becomes clearer and clearer. The final twist of the plot is so preposterous that ordinarily, I would have quit reading, but by that point in the story, I really expected nothing less from the people involved. There are some very funny moments in this book, and Wilson has a very deft touch with dialogue and scene setting. If you're a fan of dysfunctional families and people getting past their childhood issues, this book is written for you; if you don't like stories about children being utterly and completely on their own, I'd urge you to avoid this story. I'm glad that I read this, and it was definitely funny in places, but overall, I'm left with a wariness for stories like this, and I'm unable to pinpoint just why.
In the department of books that I have actually read recently, there's The Family Fang, by Kevin Wilson, which tackles the thorny question of, "Do kids kill art, or does art kill kids?" The parents of the Fang family, Caleb and Camille, are famous performance artists who have incorporated their children into their work for years; their children, Annie and Buster, have become adults who are barely able to function in the real world. All of these characters are profoundly selfish and self-absorbed people, yet I couldn't bring myself to hate Annie and Buster, mostly due to the fact that they'd found the courage to survive their parents' art installations and the determination to break ties when it was necessary to do so. As for the assertion that kids kill art (or the opportunity to make it)... well, I can say from immediate personal experience that this is true. On the other hand, when you make the decision to have those children, you have to revise your expectations. I think my dislike of the parents in this story was the fact that they refused to revise their expectations and continued behaving just as selfishly as they had before. The answer to this, that art kills kids, is proven in spades by the rest of the book, as the depth of Annie and Buster's troubles becomes clearer and clearer. The final twist of the plot is so preposterous that ordinarily, I would have quit reading, but by that point in the story, I really expected nothing less from the people involved. There are some very funny moments in this book, and Wilson has a very deft touch with dialogue and scene setting. If you're a fan of dysfunctional families and people getting past their childhood issues, this book is written for you; if you don't like stories about children being utterly and completely on their own, I'd urge you to avoid this story. I'm glad that I read this, and it was definitely funny in places, but overall, I'm left with a wariness for stories like this, and I'm unable to pinpoint just why.