POPULATION: 485 -- Michael Perry

Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren At A Time
HarperCollins -- hc
New York -- ©2002 -- 234pp
ISBN: 0-06-019852

After twelve years away, a man returns to his home town (a small, rural town) and joins the fire department, and writes about his experiences.

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A memoir, with distracted focus between life in rural America, working on a small town's volunteer fire department, bachelorhood, and death.

The book lacks a focus. Even a memoir has some kind of focus but this tried to do too much. The humor was strained. Things that I thought ought to be laugh-out-loud funny were only slightly amusing. He didn't seem to know how to set up his jokes efficiently and humorously.

Mostly I found this a bit depressing. So many of the experiences that he writes about seemed to end in death. It sure makes me want to steer clear of New Avalon, Wisconsin.

There are some nice reflections on small town life and death and volunteer work, but it was work. It was not an effortless read. I am not impressed with Michael Perry's writing and won't seek out his other work based on this.

THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2005 -- Susan Orlean, editor

Houghton Mifflin Company -- tpb
Boston -- ©2005 -- 278pp
ISBN-10:0-618-35713-0
series editor: Robert Atwan

A collection of essays gathered from the previous year's magazines.

Forward -- Robert Atwan
Introduction -- Susan Orlean
"La Vie en Rose" -- Roger Angell
"The Sea of Information" -- Andrea Barrett
"Storm Country" -- Paul Crenshaw
"Joyas Voladoras" -- Brian Doyle
"Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog" -- Kitty Burns Florey
"The Comfort Zone" -- Jonathan Franzen
"If Memory Doesn't Serve" -- Ian Frazier
"Against Exercise" -- Mark Greif
"Small Silences" -- Edward Hoagland
"Small Rooms in Time" -- Ted Kooser
"Speak, Hoyt-Schermerhorn" -- Jonathan Lethem
"Mastering the Art of French Cooking" -- E.J. Levy
"Contributor's Note" -- Michael Martone
"My Friend Lodovico" -- David Masello
"Living Will" -- Danielle Ofri
"Dog Days" -- Sam Pickering
"Speed" -- Oliver Sacks
"Dog Trouble" -- Cathleen Schine
"Old Faithful" -- David Sedaris
"Six Seconds" -- Paula Speck
"Skill Display in Birding Groups" -- Bert O. States
"The Prince of Possibility" -- Robert Stone
"Dining With Robots" -- Ellen Ullman
"Consider the Lobster" -- David Foster Wallace
"Satin Worship" -- Holly Welker
Biographical Notes
Notable Essays of 2004

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Once again I find that I enjoy these collections of essays much more than I have the collections of short fiction.

Of the collection, only a couple essays were skim-worthy. Most were quite enjoyable, and a few stood out as quite captivating. Notable were: "If Memory Doesn't Serve" (which had me grinning from ear to ear in familiarity); "Contributor's Note" (which I greatly enjoyed as being particularly clever); "My Friend Lodovico" (for it's passion for an inanimate object); "Speed" (which rang so true to me, having had my own forrays into this phenomenon); and "Satin Worship" (this didn't strike me, based on its subject, but it spoke well to a person's passion for something, and it was that passion to which I identified).

This series is, so far, highly recommended.

RED THUNDER -- John Varley

Ace Books -- pb
New York -- ©2003 -- 411pp
ISBN: 0-441-01162-4

An alcoholic ex-astronaut and four kids put together a rocket and using new technology discovered by the astronauts "idiot" nephew, they attempt to become the first humans to walk on Mars, beating the Chinese (who've been in space for weeks and are already in a Mars braking-orbiting pattern) by a matter or days.

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Shortly before starting this book, I had looked through my Book Journal Blog here and wondered when, exactly was the last time i read a really good book that was really engaging and fun to read. The answer is that it has been much, much too long. I have read many good books, but nothing that has drawn me back so strongly that we consider it a book that you "can't put down."

This is one of those books.

John Varley has long been a favorite of mine, ever since I read his Ophiuchi Hotline when I was in high school. I often rate my favorite writers as those whose books I will buy in hardcover as soon as they are available. Varley narrowly missed the cut. I think that this was a result, not so much of his writing, but his lack of production for a time. Especially after having such a rollicking good time with this novel, I will eagerly look forward to any new Varley book.

Part of what makes a Varley book so good is that the science is believeable, and accessible to a non-science-type such as myself. (Perhaps, as a non-science-type, I'm wrong about the "believable" part to those who know more sceince.)

He also manages to create characters who are very believable -- humans full of flaws who overcome obstacles to be heroic in spite of their circumstances.

This novel engaged me from beginning to end. A weak moment here and there only had me reading faster to get to "the good stuff."

Highly recommended.

THIS IMMORTAL -- Roger Zelazny

The Easton Press -- leather bound
Norwalk, CT -- ©1966,2000 -- 220pp
illustrations by Vincent DiFate
introduction by Robert Silverberg

"Conrad," who has a history that goes back further than anyone can trace, is currently the Commissioner of Arts, Monuments, and Archives for a planet Earth that isn't quite what it used to be. He plays bodyguard, as well as host, to a Vegan who has plans for the planet.

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This book seemed new to me again, it had been so long since I last read it.

Zelazny most definitely has a distinctive "style," though I'm hard-pressed to define just what that is. In part, his descriptions are short, and concise. He uses dry wit to get some points across. his characters are always fallible -- even the infallible ones.

Here, "Conrad" has a history that goes back further than anyone can really trace. He has the strength that others can only imagine, and he is very subtle about all of this. He is assigned to guide and protect a Vegan who wants to visit the historical sites of Earth. A friend/acquaintance of Conrad's, Hasan, is assigned to assasinate the Vegan to protect Earth's interests. Conrad also wants to protect Eearth's interests, and believes that the Vegan must be protected to do so.

This sounds rather simplistic, and the truth is, Zelazny weaves a tale full of sub-plots better than most. He also isn't afraid to dump you into a story without giving you and history, letting the reader discover the history by reading what's current. It's masterful!

I highly recommend this book, and nearly all books by Roger Zelazny.

GENERATION KILL -- Evan Wright

GENERATION KILL: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the new face of American war
G.P. Putnam's Sons -- hc
New York -- ©2004 -- 354pp
ISBN: 0-399-15193-1

A reporter imbedded with the Marine First Recon team, is among the first American's into Iraq at the outset of the Iraq war.

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I'm not quite sure why I picked this book up in the first place, and am not sure what to make of it.

it is well written, making it a quick read. i did lose track of who some of the people were. So many names of soldiers and officers, I had trouble keeping them straight, and a reference list of who's who and their rank, and their charge 9which division, which command, etc) would have been incredibly useful.

The book is billed as a look at the new generation of soldiers and their attitude toward killing. I was expecting more of an association with the violent video games and movies and so forth, but I didn't get any of that. There was a brief mention in the beginning about how many of the soldiers who died during the Invasion of Normandy hadn't even fired their guns, but that in the battles in Iraq, that was not a question or concern. But there the association seemed to end.

What I got from the book was that the ranking officers in charge of the invasion of Iraq were mostly incompetent. Poor decisions were constantly being made (when made at all) -- starting with the fact that the first team into Iraq was the Marine First Recon team. First Recon is a highly trained marine group, akin to the Navy Seals. They are trained for MANY kinds of battle situations. What they are NOT trained for is riding in humvees in open territory. What they were asked to do was ride in humvees in open areas. Oddly enough, there IS a group of military personnel trained for riding in humvees inopen territory -- a division of the Rangers. They did NOT do this in Iraq. And of course it goes downhill from there.

Humorously (sadly) the driver of the lead humvee doesn't even have a license for driving a humvee, and during a battle jokes about whether or not he's got enough driving hours now to get his license.

This book simply pointed out to me, in a finer detail, how ill-prepared we were to start this ill-advised war.

THE ROAD -- Cormac McCarthy

Alfred A. Knopf -- hc
New York -- ©2006 -- 241pp
ISBN: 0-307-26543-9

A man and his son wander along the road in search of ... anything ... in a bleak apocalyptic world.

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This was an incredibly depressing novel.

Set in the not-too-distant future, with the earth (as far as we know) covered by a cloud of ash (presumably from destructive nuclear bombs), a man and his son wander, seeking merely to exist.

Cannibalism among the few survivors we meet, is rampant, with people eating their newly born children.

The boy .. about eight to ten years old ... is constantly seeking reminder that they are the good people, in search of other good people. His father assures him that is the case, but by the end of the book, the boy begins to see that his father's own distrust of anyone and everyone around has put them in a position somewhere between the good and the bad people.

The boy never loses hope or his identity of being good, and that is the ONLY aspect of this novel that offers any sense of goodness or promise. Unfortunately, it is not enough, and it comes too late. My sense of unease and disgust had already taken over.

The storytelling itself was crisp and sharp and kept me reading, even when I felt filthy and disgusted at what I was reading.

Perhaps it's because I am a father, with boys that age, that I could put myself there. I could understand everything the father said and did. And although the father comes off, finally, as perhaps too distrustful, he was acting the only way a father could act in that situation.

And just what the hell is up with books that seem to bear "literary merit" (let's not get me started on that discussion again) that they don't feel the need to follow the rules of punctuation anymore?! More and more I find that books are often considered to have "literary" merit when they break convention. Frankly, I think it's bullshit. Capitalize the first letters at the beginnings of sentences! Use quotation marks when someone is speaking! It's the right thing to do!

I could not read this book at night because it left me feeling so uncomfortable. Certainly the author's ability to move me so thoroughly speaks highly of his talent, but I did not enjoy being moved in this way.

I just can't recommend this novel.

THE FACTS BEHIND THE HELSINKI ROCCAMATIOS -- Yann Martel

Harcourt, Inc. -- ©1993 -- tpb
Orlando, FL -- 208pp
ISBN: 0-7394-5531-1

A collection of four short stories.

Author's Note
"The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios"
"The Time I Heard the Private Donald J. Rankin String Concerto with One Discordant Violin, by the American Composer John Morton"
"Manners of Dying"
"The Vita Aeterna Mirror Company: Mirrors to Last till Kingdom Come"

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I wasn't particularly crazy about Life of Pi, but I really enjoyed the works in this book. Each was very different from any of the others, and very different from the novel I'd read.

"...Helsinki..." might be my least favorite of these four offerings, though I enjoyed the writing "game" that the main characters were engaged in.

"...String Concerto..." was the most "typical" piece of fiction, but it struck me as the sort of work that I might write myself. I really liked everything about it.

"Manners of Dying" was an interesting work and I didn't quite appreciate it. It lacked purpose other than to reflect on the manners of dying (hence title), but the way it reflected was more than confusing. Were we to choose? Was the warden trying to choose? Are they stock letters? Just didn't click. However, the writing of each manner had me reading carefully.

"...Mirror..." started off losing me and my attention -- as it was supposed to! I got caught off guard, just as the main character did.

A fun collection. Worth reading.

CATALYST -- Laurie Halse Anderson

Speak, an Imprint of Penguin Group -- ©2002 -- tpb
New York -- 233pp
ISBN: 0-14-240001-7

A graduating high schooler anxiously awaits news from her college of choice, MIT, while the female school bully moves into her home after a fire decimates the bully's residence.

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This is very typical "Young Adult" fare, with every emotion and act being handled with high drama. Everything could lead to the end of the world in this girl's mind.

I don't enjoy this kind of book, but I understand its place in juvenile literature. It feeds a certain kind of reader.

That aside, I didn't care for much of this book. The premise was slippery at best. A girl smart enough to think she can get in to MIT but doesn't apply to any other schools. A girl that smart, but who lies about applying to other schools. A girl that smart, athletic, and strong enough of nerve to mouth off to a bully who takes on the entire football team, but doesn't apply to more than one college ... and lies about it. Hmm. Doesn't fit for me.

The aspect of the girl being a runner and one who often runs as a way to spend time thinking, was never explored properly or used efficiently.

I liked being surprised that the little boy was actually the son (not the brother that we expected) of the female bully. And the son by the bully's father! A great twist and character defining opportunity.

Having the boy die seemed totally unnecessary, even to create high drama for a YA book.

I wouldn't recommned this, even to those who like YA books.

GHOST LIGHT -- Frank Rich

Random House -- ©2000 -- hc
New York -- 315pp
ISBN: 0-679-45299-0

A memoir by New York Times theatre critic.

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This was well written (one would expect no less from a New York Times writer) but I constantly asked myself, "Who cares?"

And that would be the one problem with this memoir. Why is anyone interested in the memoir of a theatre critic? Has he made a name for himself in any other way?

I did find the development of his theatre interest quite interesting, but his family life less so. He managed to know many of the important figures of Broadway during his early days, but the book NEVER tells us how he went on to become a theatre critic. Why not a playwright? An actor? A stage manager? A theatre manager? How was it that he became a reviewer? This memoir leaves us wondering, and instead, knowing a little too much about his interest in girls as a teenaged boy (does he think he's different than 90% of male youth?).

An interesting read, but not really worth the trip.

SAGA OF THE VOLSUNGS: THE NORSE EPIC OF SIGURD THE DRAGON SLAYER -- Jesse L. Byock, translator

University of California Press -- ©1990 -- tpb
Berkeley, CA -- 145pp
ISBN: 0-520-23285-2

A translation of the ancient Norse legend of Sigurd, the Dragon Slayer.

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This was a fairly simple retelling of this Norse epic. The translation was easy to read. I did find some of the narrative rather annoying (often the text TOLD what would happen next and then skipped to the next part of the saga).

I was not familiar with the legends, though the similarities to such as the King Arthur stories and Wagner's Ring stories, are obvious to see.

Worth reading.

ECOTOPIA -- Ernest Callenbach

Bantam Books -- pb
Toronto -- ©1975 -- 213pp
ISBN: 0-553-23471-4

In the future, after the Pacific Northwest of the United States has seceded from the US, a reporter from Washington imbeds himself with the Ecotopians to learn what life is really like in the new country.

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I first learned of this book through something I had read by Kim Stanley Robinson, who refered to this as science fiction with a "green" theme. It piqued my interest and I was delighted when I could find this.

The book is written in two sections -- first, the reporter's actual reports that he has submitted to his newspaper, and then his private journals. At first, I really enjoyed the book. The ways and means of carrying out an eco-friendly lifestyle seemed very well thought-out and I often found myself nodding and grinning at the ideas.

Some aspects of the Ecotopian lifestyle seemed to be hold-overs from the 1960's lifestyle. Specifically, the free-love aspects. That the citizens of Ecotopia would often leave gatherings to have sex and then return, or that they had multiple partners, and that many places were clothing optional, seems a look back to the past rather than a view of the future. That this was written before the pestilence of AIDS is obvious. Even a nurse in an Ecotopian hospital adds sex to her healing methods.

By the end of the book I no longer felt as if this was a great look at how we could possibly live in an environmentally friendly way, but rather a 60's manifesto disguised as a sci-fi book. It becomes obvious, early on, that the plot is so thin that the only thing going for it is it's cleverness and uniqueness, but this becomes too flimsy to enjoy.

Of interest, from a plot stand-point were the hints of a war with the U.S. that destroyed thousands of U.S. helicopters and took many soldiers' lives, but which the U.S. never acknowledged. The imbedded reporter considers this, believes it's true (the reporter was a personal associate of the U.S. President), but lets the matter rest until another time. This doesn't sound like any reporter that I know. And it takes us right away from what could possibly have been the most interesting part of the book.

Unfortunately I don't recommend the book, as a book, but would suggest reading the first half of it for some thought-provoking suggestions on an environmentally friendly way of life.

THE IDES OF TOMORROW: ORIGINAL SCIENCE FICTION TALES OF HORROR -- Terry Carr, editor

Little, Brown and Company -- hc
Boston -- ©1976 -- 229pp
ISBN: 0-316-12970-4

A collection of short stories.

Introduction -- Terry Carr
"Seeing" -- Harlan Ellison
"The Dark Soul of the Night" -- Brian W. Aldiss
"In the House of the Worm" -- George R.R. Martin
"When I Was Ming the Merciless" -- Gene Wolf
"Predators" -- Steven Utley
"The Remittance Man" -- Cherry Wilder
"The Head" -- Robert Bloch
"Jamie's Smile" -- Alan Brennert
"The Eeriest Ruined Dawn World" -- Fritz Leiber

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This was a completely forgettable collection of stories by people who should write a heck of a lot better than this. None of these stories stood out, with the exception of Gene Wolf's, and even that wasn't particularly good. just well written, though I knew what was coming after about the first paragraph.

Don't bother seeking this collection out.

BOOTS AND THE SEVEN LEAGUERS: A ROCK-AND-TROLL NOVEL -- Jane Yolen

Magic Carpet Books -- tpb
Orlando, FL -- ©2000 -- 159pp
ISBN: 0-15-205083-3

A couple of teenage trolls want to attend a rock concert. Using magic beyond their means, they find themselves in a great deal of trouble.

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This was a very disappointing read from an author whose reputation suggests that this would be a top-notch book.

It is hard to describe just what the book is about, which is the main problem ... the book lacks focus. The story seems to try too hard to relate the fantsy world of trolls to the human world, showing that teenagers all have problems no matter what kind of creature that teenager is. It doesn't work, however, when one adds the element of magic. Rather than drawing the reader in by trying to point out similarities, the story puts up a wall to the reader, letting us view the story from the outside.

Not recommended.

RANDOLPH CALDECOTT: AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE -- Claudette Hegel

Avisson Press -- tpb
Greensboro, NC -- ©2004 -- 176pp
ISBN: 1-888105-68-2
personalized autograph by Claudette Hegel

A biography of artist/illustrator Randolph Caldecott, with a fair number of his drawings.

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I know Claudette, which is why I have this book. I might have picked this up at a library, or used even if I didn't know the author because I have been interested in knowing more about the man for whom a popular children's book award is named.

I definitely learned a few things about Caldecott, but I was not impressed with the book itself.

At first I had the feeling that the author was talking down to me. It did occur to me that perhaps this book was written for a young reader, but I wasn't certain then, and still am not.

I was also not particularly pleased with the set-up for this book. The chapters were not sequential with his life, but rather chapters touched on a particular aspect of the artists life/career (ie, one chapter about his health, one about his work life before he illustrated full time, one about his hobbies and interests, etc). The result of this kind of set up was that when one chapter ended i was expecting the next one to pick up there, but instead it would back-track, sometimes a great deal. I never quitre got used to this, and in some cases I felt that I heard about a particular incident more than once.

Probably not a lot of books available about this artist, and for that it's worth the read, but it probably holds interest to a very limited number of readers.

WHICH BRINGS ME TO YOU: A NOVEL IN CONFESSIONS -- Steve Almond and Julianna Baggott

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill -- hc
Chapel Hill, NC -- ©2006 -- 300pp
ISBN-13: 978-1-56512-443-1
Autographed by Steve Almond and Julianna Baggott

Meeting at a wedding and nearly completing a sexual encounter in a coat-check room, a man and a woman decide to correspond by mail and confess their loves and sexual past to each other before they make love.

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I'm a tremendous fan of Almond's writing and really looked forward to this new book ... bumping it up my reading list just so I could devour it, but I found it sadly lacking. It is the fault, I believe, of the format of this book.

A series of letters detailing one biased perspective of a lost love and/or sexual encounter, is hard to build excitement and climactic moments.

In the beginning, I felt that it was nothing more than some short stories that were loosely converted for the book, and by the end, I felt that there was nothing new in any of them, and quite frankly, I didn't care if these two people ever got together. (And if you don't care about your "heroes" then what's the point of reading about them?)

This could slip Steve Almond's popularity back a notch a two and he's really going to have to come up with some great short works to over-come this.

Go read My Life in Heavy Metal instead.