I absolutely love Jo Walton’s Among Others, a wonderful, heartwarming novel, with the added bonus of being a love letter of sorts for the sci-fi/fantI absolutely love Jo Walton’s Among Others, a wonderful, heartwarming novel, with the added bonus of being a love letter of sorts for the sci-fi/fantasy genre. I would have read many more of Ms. Walton’s books if not for the synopses of them which do not seem so appealing to me. Still, I thought it was about time I read something else by her having declared to be a fan after reading just one book. My Real Children is one of her highly-rated novels and the synopsis seemed interesting.
As it turned out My Real Children is oddly sci-fi* (or fantasy) that does not read like sci-fi most of the time. The novel is more concerned with character study and human drama than futuristic tech and aliens (of which there are none). The premise of the book, in sci-fi term, is like a parallel worlds story, except there is no mention of parallel worlds in the narrative or any explanation of how such a situation came to be. The life of the protagonist Patricia suddenly bifurcates into two timelines or paths. This occurs when she makes a momentous decision to marry a man called Mark / and also not to marry him.
The narrative then alternately depicts her life and times of Pat in each reality. Initially, it seems that one reality is much happier than the other, which reminds me of this quote: [image] This sounds quite fantastical but in execution, this book reads very much like a mainstream novel. Mark turns out to be a terrible, callous, selfish, unloving man. In this “married life reality” Pat comes to be called “Trish” by her friends (no significant reason, just for easy identification purposes for the reader I imagine). Trish leads a miserable oppressive life with Mark for years but gradually develops the fortitude to counter his abuses and eventually manages to turn her life into a happier one, also helped along by having several mostly good, intelligent, and successful children, including a rock, and star scientist. In the alternate Pat is only called Pat, having wisely decided not to marry Mark she lives a much happier life, if rather unconventional life, with a female partner. This narrative strand explores the life of a gay couple, the acceptances and rejections they encounter for their domestic arrangement. However, Pat wants children and manages to have several, with the help of a very kind male friend. Pat becomes a successful author of travel guides, her children also grow up to be successful and talented. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes which makes her “married life” very difficult but in this reality she also has considerable fortitude and manages well against all odds.
I am both disappointed and satisfied with this book. As a sci-fi nerd looking for some mind-blowing flight of fancy I am disappointed. The two realities are mostly grounded in our real world’s mundanity, except for a few details like wars that never happened, research stations on the moon, and some strange geopolitical structures. However, these are mostly background details in a mostly grounded narrative. Fortunately, I am not a total philistine and I can recognize a good work of fiction when I read it. The book is beautifully written and the characters are extremely well developed. I came to care about Pat in both plotlines and felt quite moved by the end of the book. However, recommending this book is not a straightforward matter. I can't even say that if you love Jo Walton’s Hugo & Nebula award-winning Among Others you will love this because perhaps you won't. It depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking awesome sci-fi you should look elsewhere. However, if you are simply looking for a good book with believable characters, something you can emotionally connect with, and perhaps even ponder the meaning of life with, this may be just the thing. [image] * Wikipedia classifies My Real Children as fantasy, I’ll just go with sci-fi if you don’t mind.
[image] The premise of this book is very similar to the 1998 movie Sliding Doors. Actually one of my favorites, the best Gwyneth Paltrow’s performance IMO. [image] Quotes: “She remembered Kennedy being assassinated and she remembered him declining to run again after the Cuban missile exchange. They couldn’t both have happened, yet she remembered them both happening.”
“And they all kept asking me if I’d met Prince Charles and Princess Camilla—for Republicans they’re awfully keen on hearing about our royalty!”...more
“This is the only story of mine whose moral I know. I don’t think it’s a marvelous moral; I simply happen to know what it is: We are what we pretend t“This is the only story of mine whose moral I know. I don’t think it’s a marvelous moral; I simply happen to know what it is: We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
Before I started writing this review I quickly scanned other reviews of this book on Goodreads just to see if many of them start off with the above iconic quote. I did not find one so I went ahead with putting in the quote. Probably not that great an idea, that is why nobody want to do it! I had no idea what Mother Night is about, it appears to be one of Vonnegut's top five most popular titles according to the ranking on GR’s Kurt Vonnegut page. So it goes?
Mother Night is about Howard W. Campbell Jr., American author, and playwright working in Germany during World War II. He is married to a beautiful actress called Helga. The Nazi employed him to make propaganda broadcasts for them, his broadcasts were very popular among the Third Reich, and very effective in fueling the anti-Semitic feelings among the population. However, Campbell only took the broadcasting job to work for the US as a spy. He uses the broadcasts to relay the American secret messages, coded through coughs, pauses and other verbal tics. At the end of the war, the US intelligence pretty much disowns him and he is living a secretive and lonely life in New York, his wife having been captured by the Russian army. Nobody knows Campbell was a US spy during the war, and he is wanted for war crimes for the hatred he instigated through his broadcasts. [image] Credit Englishmajeure.com
Mother Night is different from the five other Vonnegut books* I have read. All the others feature an element of sci-fi, or sci-fi spoof, and includes the character Kilgore Trout, an obscure sci-fi author. Mother Night feels more serious and melancholy than all of them. Yes, even more than Slaughterhouse-Five. This is not to say that Mother Night is not humorous, it is often very funny but there is something melancholic behind most of the jokes. For example:
“Generally speaking, espionage offers each spy an opportunity to go crazy in a way he finds irresistible.”
Funny and sad. I suppose Campbell is not meant to be a likable protagonist, I like him anyway, he is very pitiful and his biggest mistake is that he is too good at his job, both as a spy and a Nazi propagandist. Both sides made good use of him, and in the end, nobody appreciates him, except eccentric fascists. Mother Night is, as I said, melancholy, yet it also made me laugh and smile from time to time. The chief moral of the story seems to be that if you pretend to be someone evil and despicable and you do too good a job of it, you will eventually become that character you pretend to be. Being an actually good person inside will not rescue you from that, and you will have to live with the consequences of what you have done while you were playing that role. From my past experience with his works, I was expecting some element of sci-fi madness and Tralfamadorians cameos, being a sci-fi nerd I enjoy Vonnegut’s unique brand of sci-fi parody. However, I would not change a thing about Mother Night, it is a funny, sad, romantic, touching, thought-provoking story. It is both passionate and compassionate, and it does not need any kind of special effects. I certainly look forward to reading lots more Vonneguts.
Quotes: “Here lies Howard Campbell’s essence, Freed from his body’s noisome nuisance. His body, empty, prowls the earth, Earning what a body’s worth. If his body and his essence remain apart, Burn his body, but spare this, his heart.”
“Life’s been too hard for me ever to afford much guilt. A really bad conscience is as much out of my reach as a mink coat.”
“In order to contrast with myself a race-baiter who is ignorant and insane. I am neither ignorant nor insane. Those whose orders I carried out in Germany were as ignorant and insane as Dr. Jones. I knew it. God help me, I carried out their instructions anyway.”...more
“Ashe's first impression of Beach, the butler, was one of tension. Other people, confronted for the first time with Beach, had felt the same. He had t“Ashe's first impression of Beach, the butler, was one of tension. Other people, confronted for the first time with Beach, had felt the same. He had that strained air of being on the very point of bursting that one sees in bullfrogs and toy balloons. Nervous and imaginative men, meeting Beach, braced themselves involuntarily, stiffening their muscles for the explosion. Those who had the pleasure of more intimate acquaintance with him soon passed this stage, just as people whose homes are on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius become immune to fear of eruptions.”
Old Beach is alright but—dash it!—he’s not Jeeves you know. A chappie feels like an ass looking for Jeeves in a Blandings book, but I say—dash it!—you know, and all that rot, some fellows just can’t be replaced, don't you know.
Actually, in attempting to channel Wodehouse in his “Freddie Threepwood” mode I suddenly miss Bertie Wooster too; they have a very similar manner of speaking, though Bertie seems to possess a few more brain cells than poor Freddie; probably more fish in his diet. The Blandings series is Wodehouse’s second most popular series. I don’t love it as much as his Jeeves & Wooster stuff but—in the absence of more J&W audiobooks on Librivox—it does brighten up commutes to work very pleasantly. Topping stuff!
Something New is the original title of what later became Something Fresh (US edition) with minor modifications. The story is set in the sprawling Blandings castle where the semi-senile Lord Emsworth lives with his family, with his secretary The Efficient Baxter running the place. The story takes place during a house party and features what seems to be Wodehouse’s favorite plot device of somebody trying to steal something that was taken by mistake but the rightful owner—for whatever reason—is too embarrassed to ask for the item back. It this case, it is an ancient Egyptian scarab that was unintentionally purloined by Lord Emsworth during one of his many absent-minded moments. The rightful owner American, millionaire J. Preston Peters, does not want to ask for its return because his daughter is engaged to, Lord Emswort’s vapid son, Freddie. This being the case Mr. Peters hires a young man, Ashe Marson, to steal the precious item back. A lot of skulking in the night, collisions, injuries and food spillage ensue.
[image]
While not as funny as the Jeeves books I have read, Something New did make me chuckle from time to time, causing my fellow bus passengers to give me funny looks and surreptitiously shift their backsides away. The characters are either charming or wonderfully ridiculous, Wodehouse’s prose and dialogue are the stuff of magic.
There is no real substance to the plot, which is the norm for Wodehouse books but does not leave me with much to put in the review. The pottering Lord Emsworth, the idiotic “Honourable Frederick Threepwood”, the always suspicious Baxter and the butler Beach, with his endless health complaints, and others are brilliant comic creations and I highly recommend that you acquaint yourself with them at your earliest convenience. ______________ Notes: • Audiobook credit: Nicely read by Ms. Debra Lynn for Librivox (free audiobooks). She is an American lady and does not attempt any kind of British accent but she reads everything clearly with reasonable nuances. Imagine a nice American lady coming to read to you while you are ill, you are not going to insist that she does accents, are you?
Quotes: “Nothing is a greater breach of etiquette and worse form than to tap people unexpectedly on the shoulder. That, it was felt, should be left to those who are paid by the government to do it.”
“Whenever he really thought of it the prospect of getting married rather appalled him. A chappie looked such an ass getting married!”
“The heart does not stand still. Whatever the emotions of its owner, it goes on beating. It would be more accurate to say that Baxter felt like a man taking his first ride in an express elevator, who has outstripped his vital organs by several floors and sees no immediate prospect of their ever catching up with him again. There was a great cold void where the more intimate parts of his body should have been.”
“It was all very well to say that George Emerson had known Aline Peters since she was a child. If that was so, then in the opinion of the Efficient Baxter he had known her quite long enough and ought to start making the acquaintance of somebody else.”...more
Listen: What the hell was that? I finished reading Breakfast of Champions, closed the book, went to Goodreads, stared at that big empty review box, ate Listen: What the hell was that? I finished reading Breakfast of Champions, closed the book, went to Goodreads, stared at that big empty review box, ate a cookie, stared at the screen some more, hands hovering over the keyboard, not moving. And so on.
Now, if you are thinking “what is that stupid paragraph above?” Don’t worry about it.
My Achilles heel as a reader of modern fiction is that I don’t cope well with unconventional narrative styles. Streams of consciousness, omitted quotation marks, massive infodumps, pages of philosophical ramblings etc. I can not cope with such artistry, and I usually give up by page 50 or so.
Breakfast of Champions is certainly an unconventional narrative. While the main story arc moves forward in a linear fashion, Kurt Vonnegut makes so many tangential subplots, flashbacks, and anecdotes that I often forget where I was in the storyline; not to mention those lovely cartoonish drawings of his that appear every few pages. It is a chaotic mess of a narrative. The strangest thing is, I don’t mind, it never occurred to me to give up on the book. Only Vonnegut can get away with this kind of thing.
The main story arc is to do with a very successful businessman called Dwayne Hoover slowly losing his mind and eventually runs amok after reading a sci-fi book by Kilgore Trout called “Now It Can Be Told”. Trout is an obscure* sci-fi author who shows up in many Vonnegut books. The plotline is mostly unpredictable in spite of a “climax” which is clearly telegraphed from the beginning of the book, but the side stories, vignettes, and those wonderful drawings all come out of the left field.
Breakfast of Champions is completely bonkers, though. While it is decidedly not sci-fi it includes quite a few wacky synopses of Kilgore Trout’s sci-fi stories and novels. The most important one is, of course, “Now It Can Be Told”, which is about a man who is the only real person in the world while everybody else is a robot. This book pushed the already unstable Dwayne Hoover over the edge, Breakfast of Champions nearly had the same effect on me (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).
When Vonnegut is not describing weird sci-fi plots, he would give you measurements of various characters’ penis, wacky factoid about alcohol (“yeast excrement”), and show you his drawing of a cow [image] , or underpants [image] , a bucket of KFC’s fried chicken etc; often with the refrain of “and so on” at the end of passages. If your mind starts to wander he will cleverly bring you back with “Listen:”. Not content with stuffing the book with eccentric characters, Vonnegut also wrote himself into the novel, doing some very surreal things as the creator of the book’s universe.
Breakfast of Champions is a beautiful mess of a novel, even Vonnegut acknowledges it in his preface: “I think I am trying to clear my head of all the junk in there— the assholes, the flags, the underpants. Yes— there is a picture in this book of underpants. I’m throwing out characters from my other books, too. I’m not going to put on any more puppet shows.”
There is a method to his madness, of course, the book is sharply satirical of life in the US (or the world in general), the destruction of the environment, poverty, social inequality etc. There are also surprisingly grim vignettes that come out of nowhere (well, almost everything comes out of nowhere in this book).
Breakfast of Champions is often very funny and always eccentric. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I liked this mess of a book until after I finished it, then I thought “yeah, it’s pretty cool”. And so on....more
AC/DC do not appear in this book, nor do they get any kind of shoutout, more is the pity. The massive presence of Rosie in this "A Whole Lotta Rosie!"
AC/DC do not appear in this book, nor do they get any kind of shoutout, more is the pity. The massive presence of Rosie in this book just reminds me of this headbanging classic.
I really shouldn't read Goodreads reviews before reading a book because some of them just give me false expectations. One reviewer called it "Dumbo for adults" fercrissake! What was he smoking? Beside having an elephant that is more capable than she initially seems this book has nothing in common with Dumbo in the details or themes.
The focus of the book is almost entirely on the protagonist Jacob Jankowski. The first person narrative is from his point of view but switches back and forth between two timelines, that of the 20 something Jacob and the “90 or 93” version of the same character.
Young Jacob jumps on a circus train and soon finds himself joining them in the capacity of a veterinarian, meet some colorful characters, falling in love with a married performer and much wackiness ensues from there. In the alternate (not alternative) timeline old Jacob is a cantankerous old man in a nursing home who thinks he is either 90 or 93. For most of the book he just mopes around being a pain.
Personally, I prefer the Young Jacob timeline, the old Jacob is a little too miserable for my liking. There is a lovely passage about ageing at the beginning of the old man’s first chapter, though.
“When you’re five, you know your age down to the month. Even in your twenties you know how old you are. I’m twenty-three, you say, or maybe twenty-seven. But then in your thirties something strange starts to happen. It’s a mere hiccup at first, an instant of hesitation. How old are you? Oh, I’m— you start confidently, but then you stop. You were going to say thirty-three, but you’re not. You’re thirty-five. And then you’re bothered, because you wonder if this is the beginning of the end. It is, of course, but it’s decades before you admit it.”
Young Jacob has the recklessness of youth on his side, he never seems to pause for thought very much before doing something drastic. Consequently, his life in the circus moves at a breakneck speed and is very entertaining to read. The supporting characters in this timeline are very well developed, the story does become a little too melodramatic for my taste at times, but the pacing never drags.
This is a very pleasant, breezy read. If there is a subtext to this story I must have missed it entirely, I don’t think there is an earth shattering insight to be found here. This is not a life changing book, but then what is wrong with your life that you would want a 350 pages novel to change it?
I would recommend it to anyone on Goodreads looking for a good read....more
This book has been in my TBR pile for about a year, the recently released trailer of the movie adaptation finally galvanized me to get on with it. ThThis book has been in my TBR pile for about a year, the recently released trailer of the movie adaptation finally galvanized me to get on with it. The trailer actually looks quite good and having read the book I think it serves quite well as a book trailer also. Like a lot of readers, I tend to stick to reading within my comfort zone which in my case is science fiction / fantasy, the problem with that is I tend to miss out on the ideas and perspectives that other genres and the mainstream has to offer. Fortunately, sometime I chance upon genre busting books like Cloud Atlas that remind me to widen the scope of my reading to get the most out of this favorite pastime.
Cloud Atlas is comprised of six interconnected novella-length stories spanning hundreds - possibly thousands - of years (some of the dates are not explicitly indicated). The unusual structure of the book has been described as "like a Russian doll" or "nested", sort of 1-2-3-4-5 -6- 5-4-3-2-1, Stories #1 to 5 are split in halves, #6 the middle story is narrated in its entirety. The best thing about this narrative structure is that it is unusual, yet not confusing, and kind of fun. You meet several new friends on your way to the middle of the book, then on your way back home you meet them again. I find it very pleasant, a little like passing through towns on a road trip and going back the same route.
David Mitchell's versatility is awe inspiring, the range of genres, styles, moods and tones in Cloud Atlas is a virtuoso performance. The six different prose styles cleverly represent the evolution and devolution of language as civilization rises and falls. However, the complexity of the book makes it quite hard for me to review so I will just cop out and briefly comment on the stories:
1) The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing - a high seas adventure which tackles the theme of racism more directly than the other stories. A good start (and end) to the book, though not really my pigeon, as it were. I have yet to finish Moby Dick.
2) Letters from Zedelghem - the story of a young composer and his struggle to write a lasting piece of music while assisting a sick and elderly famous composer. This story is written in a flippant prose style somewhat reminiscent of P.G. Wodehouse though the plot is not nearly so farcical and takes a dark turn later on. Of all the six protagonists Robert Frobisher is the least sympathetic, he is, however, witty and charming, which makes the story more readable than it would otherwise be.
3) Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery - This story is a nuclear conspiracy thriller, with a plucky journalist at the centre. Some critics have dismissed this story as cliche or somehow "beneath" what the author is capable of, damn literati. Plebeian that I am I find it a riveting read with sympathetic characters, it seems like one of the more brightly colored components of the book.
4) The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish - A lighthearted romp about a dishonest publisher jumping from the frying pan into the fire. I enjoyed this story tremendously, it is narrated by a curmudgeonly old man in our times (21st century)
5) An Orison of Sonmi~451 - A dystopian sci-fi story set in Korea in an unspecified far future year, very much my usual cup of tea. The story is narrated in a William Gibson-ish prose style. This story reminds me of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? a little. Wonderful characterization of the clone Sonmi 451 (a little shout-out to Ray Bradbury there), man's inhumanity to clones remind me of Greg Egan's "dust theory" in Permutation City which basically posits that ill treatment of man-made sentient beings is cruel and unethical.
6) Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After - A post-apocalyptic sci-fi story set in Hawaii, the prose style reads as if it could have been written by Forrest Gump, it takes a little getting used to but the power and passion of the story are undeniable. The narrator is more of a Watsonian supporting character I think.
The little links between the stories are a little tenuous but together they form a chain of stories with some common themes, the one theme that is present in all the stories is the individual's struggle against authority, be they the government, the corporation, the hospital staff, the captain and crew of a ship etc. All the protagonist eventually manage to "stick it to the Man" against all odds. Other themes repeated from time to time include social injustice, racism, friendship, and loyalty. At the end of the day, though I believe the author's intent is to create a work of art in fiction form, the themes and messages are secondary to the art. A truly unforgettable book....more
“It's the Final Countdown do do do doo do do dododo!”
I've always wanted to start an Agatha Christie review with a bit of cheesy Swedish hair metal. An“It's the Final Countdown do do do doo do do dododo!”
I've always wanted to start an Agatha Christie review with a bit of cheesy Swedish hair metal. And Then There Were None has been declared the world's favourite Agatha Christie novel, not to mention the bestselling crime novel of all time (same Guardian source). Considering she wrote hundreds of books, including iconic titles like Murder on the Orient Express and Murder at the Vicarage, this is clearly the definitive Christie. Her ace detective Hercules Poirot is not even in this one.
The story is based on a morbid nursery rhyme which I have quoted after the review in case you want to refer to it (and can be conveniently ignored if you don't, positioning is everything). The setup is simple yet ingenious. Ten people from all walks of life (including a couple of service staff) receive an invitation from a mysterious U.N. Owen who claims to be a friend of a friend (or relative), to visit an Indian Island for a nice, all expenses paid holiday, or to do a job. The island is very pleasant but isolated. Just when a good time is about to be had by all, one of the guests drops dead, apparently a suicide. “OK…” they think, “that's weird, what's for dinner?” Then the next morning the butler's wife snuffs it. Something (besides the smoke salmon) is beginning to develop a piscine odor. Soon the guests are offed one by one, and their dwindling number is represented by the similarly dwindling number of figurines on the dining table. It's the Final Countdown! do do do doo (sorry) [image]
To make matters worse—or better, for the readers—there is nowhere to hide on the island so the murderer must be one of them! With this realization the remaining guests begin to give each other funny looks: “And all of them, suddenly, looked less like human beings. They were reverting to more bestial types.” [image] (from the recent BBC adaptation)
I tell you I almost guessed the identity of the murderer (a serial killer really, but the term hasn’t yet been coined during Christie’s time), but the lady’s sleight of hand threw me off the scent and led me up the garden path (to bark up the wrong tree). While there is no supernatural agency at work in And Then There Were None, the murderer does seem as if he/she has some unearthly abilities, teleporting especially.
I have not read any Agatha Christie for decades, but I suspect most Goodreadsters, like myself, must have read a few during our formative years as readers. Her writing is always clear, smooth and elegant, also extremely accessible, I think I first read one of her books while I was around 13 or 14. Like in a lot of her books, characterization is somewhat perfunctory, while the plot reigns supreme. In the context of her books, this is quite understandable as they tend to be quite short and there are many plot twists and turns to navigate. With this book, it is better not to know too much about these characters, it makes the reveals at the end of all the more effective.
If you think Agatha Christie is now old hat and too light weight you may want to consider this quote from Mathew Prichard, Ms. Christie's grandson: “It's just entertainment. There are so many things these days aiming to educate, provide a message. She is just aiming to give you a good time. It becomes its own little world.”
The Indian Island is even more “its own little world” than most of her books. A world well worth visiting, as long as you are not in danger of pushing up the daisies....more
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