Literary Lollapalooza, July Edition

This month I attempt to slum it, then get delightfully literary, and then finish things off with an uber-violent summer popcorn action flick…but wait, it’s a book! With reading this fun, it must be summer.

This is Literary Lollapalooza, July Edition.

Books Acquired:

Fiction: The Damnation Game by Clive Barker, The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder, Spooner by Pete Dexter, Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain, The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry, A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe, Music for the Off-Key by Courttia Newland

Non-Fiction: A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, My First Movie: Take Two edited by Stephen Lowenstein, At the Center of the Storm by George Tenet

Books Borrowed: Why We Suck by Dr. Denis Leary, The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares

Books Read:

Burning Chrome by William Gibson

If you have seen any of the hundreds of science fiction films made in the last twenty-some-odd years then you are familiar with William Gibson. Not that he wrote any of those movies, or even the novels upon which those movies are based. No, William Gibson’s influence goes much deeper into the overall thematic breadth and scope of modern science fiction. Like Asimov and Bradbury did for earlier generations, Gibson provides the visionary framework with which we as post Gen-Xers understand the realm of probable and possible science; by reaching into the cultural zeitgeist of the burgeoning 1980’s computer culture, in a sense he fashioned us into who we are today. The man after all coined the term Cyberspace.
Long before there was an internet, or even accessible wireless communication Gibson was dreaming it and writing it down. When he burst onto the sci-fi scene with his now classic Neuromancer he managed to tap into our mass unconscious, creating a world not too far removed from the one we now find ourselves inhabiting.
Burning Chrome is a collection of short stories written and co-written by William Gibson and reading it is like reliving every modern classic of science fiction all over again. From Bladerunner to The Matrix, and seemingly every step of the way Gibson was there first, laying the groundwork. Most of the stories are brief and highly visual glimpses into a world so jacked into its technology, that it’s lost its soul. Among the stories is “Johnny Mnemonic” the original source material for the egregiously bad Keanu Reeves movie of the same title. Trust me, this is better. My favorite of the collection is The Belonging Kind co-written with John Shirley. It’s about a lonely guy named Coretti who while drinking in various late-night dives notices an odd breed of bar denizen and becomes obsessed. The beauty of this as with all his short stories is that he paints a lasting image without filling in all the holes. He is a master of ambiguity, and often the reader is left uncertain of what to believe. Reality in these works is as elusive and slippery as it often is in life, depending on interpretation and perspective for definition.
The future that Gibson paints is not a bright one, and these stories are often cold, gritty, and mournful, but the eloquence of his voice and the power of his images make him a must-read for anyone. Plus sometimes the cold empty void of space is just what is needed in the heat of the summer doldrums.


Candy Girl by Diablo Cody

Candy Girl is the autobiographical story of how author Cody became an unlikely Minneapolis stripper. Ms. Cody is best known for winning an Oscar for the screenplay of last year’s indie darling Juno. She has several other screenplays in production including Jennifer’s Body with Megan Fox coming out this Fall, and is a contributing columnist for Entertainment Weekly. Ms. Cody is a funny and often offensive writer. And this book is a whole lot of fun.
In what is ultimately an outsiders’ perspective Cody delves into the bright lights and dingy back rooms of the stripper’s life, laying bare (literally) all the nasty truths and often surprising realities of the sex trade.
Told in her self-deprecating voice Candy Girl is a fast and frothy read. It is comical, sick, endearing, educational, and often gross. But it is light and good-hearted fun. For those of you who always wanted to know what goes on in those little video booths but were afraid to ask, this is for you.


Why We Suck by Dr. Denis Leary

Denis Leary is also a funny sonovabitch. His wit is at its sharpest on his phenomenal FX series Rescue Me. But his stand-up shows are also quite funny, if not a little repetitive and immature. Why We Suck is like Leary’s stand-up act. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing.
A full-blown treatise on all the things that make Denis crazy about fat, whiny, self-important Americans, it is a bit one-note. If you are even a little cynical most of the good Doctor’s rants are far from novel. Americans are fat? Shocking! Americans have a bloated legal system weighed down by frivolous law suits? I protest!
But seriously, Leary is very funny and there are moments of brilliant social satire to be found here. Unfortunately I think much of the material falls flat without Leary’s caustic delivery. I would’ve rather seen this material live on stage, or at the very least listened to it on audio so that Leary’s personal wit and charisma could fill some of those flat moments.

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Tower Wells

Some people just seem to have an innate ability to string words together in such a way that reading them is a pleasure in and of itself.
Tower Wells is one of those people. This, his first collection of short fiction, is a testament of his uncanny ability. A collection of stories that (mostly) highlight the ordinary and everyday moments of an average life, the stories rise above the average on Wells’ well-constructed prose, subtly building its own momentum on pure lyricism.
From a story about a middle-aged man (literally) rebuilding his life after his job and marriage have tanked on the North Carolina coast, to one (Insert Story) Tower Wells announces his arrival on the literary scene like a modern Raymond Carver, creating a sense of purpose and beauty out of the banality of average human life.
The only weak story in the bunch is ironically the one which shares the collection’s title. A tale of Vikings pillaging and plundering seems blatantly out of step with the rest of the collection, and brings me to think that Wells must have been meaning to draw some sort of parallel between these very different stories. Perhaps it is something about how modern man ravages and burns his own village rather than those of his neighbors, etc. I don’t know; I don’t get it.
Despite this misstep Ravaged/Burned is without a doubt one of the very best books I have read this year. This is a collection of short fiction that sings, an absolute glorious way to spend a warm summer afternoon with a glass of wine. I can’t offer higher praise than that.


The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares

My friend Josh brought this book to me unsolicited, and said I should read it. I had never read anything by Casares before, or indeed had ever even heard of him. I was, to say the least, intrigued. It’s not often that a book gets placed into my hands.
A contemporary of Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares was an Argentinean author who, inspired by his Buenos Aires landscape and the influx of poets and intellectuals from Spain, North America and Asia, sought to create a “fantastical literature” that rebelled against what he felt were the artifices of nineteenth century realism.
The Invention of Morel is part adventure story and mystery, part Kafkaesque absurd drama, and a metaphysical and philosophical exploration of reality and our perceptions of reality. The story of an escaped political prisoner, our hero finds himself living on a deserted island and witnessing the most unusual of comings and goings. Thinking himself mad, he seeks to uncover the secret behind the mysterious group of people that seem to come and go at a moment’s notice. To make matters worse, he finds himself falling in love with a beautiful dark-haired girl in the group. But why does she pretend not to see him? Is she torturing him or setting him up for capture? As he digs deeper, the clear distinctions between reality and perception starts to thin, raising the question “how can he be with one he loves when she doesn’t and truly can’t ever know him?”
This is a fast read and an amazingly athletic and dexterous one at that. With what seems like little or no effort Casares manages to weave incredibly deep strands of thought into what comes across as a simple adventure story. It isn’t until you’ve finished the thing and let it really sink in that you marvel at the author’s ability to get under your psychic skin without ever letting you know he was there.

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

It should be no surprise that Beat the Reaper coming in paperback September 14 from Back Bay Books has already been optioned for film rights by New Regency Productions.
Josh Bazell’s frenetic break-neck paced debut thriller is pure cinematic fun. It weaves and bobs and slashes and bashes like a Tarantino film about doctors and mafia dons. Think the visual style of Lucky Number Slevin mixed with the comic sensibilities of Pulp Fiction. It ain’t pretty, but is sure is fun.
Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan’s worst hospital. He’s keeping himself awake for his shift by chewing down whatever medications he can cop off nurses or patients, and to make matters worse some guy just tried to mug him on his way into work. Dr. Brown has patients he’s struggling to keep alive, and a secret he’s desperately trying to keep hidden: he’s an ex-Mafia hit man with a knack for violence. And as if things weren’t bad enough he was just recognized by his new patient, Nicholas LoBrutto. Now he’s got hit men and government agents closing in and Dr. Peter Brown must find a way to keep himself and his patients alive until end of his shift.
A hard-boiled uber-violent mix of medical mayhem and mafia shenanigans Beat the Reaper is pure blood-soaked fun. It’s a summer popcorn flick without the film. You won’t find anything resembling a message here. There are no deeper meanings, no symbolism, no thematic structures; this is fluff. But hey, if you like your comedy black and your violence bloody and your good guys just a little bit bad, this just might be your cup of tea.


Whew! July was a busy month. I have a feeling things are going to slow down in August. Join me next month here at Literary Lollapalooza and read about what I’ve been reading.