"The Magicians" takes all your favourite fantasy tropes and strips them naked for a prolonged and well-deserved hazing ritual. There's the lonely chil"The Magicians" takes all your favourite fantasy tropes and strips them naked for a prolonged and well-deserved hazing ritual. There's the lonely child, the magical school, the fantasy world, the star-crossed love, the obsession with divinity and divine right...it's all there, and it all gets shot down without mercy or apology. I adored it. If you want a bildungsroman that takes apart every cliche you've ever read and exposes the deep unfairness undergirding it, this is the book for you. It's a bit long, a bit uneven, but it is fearlessly real and painfully honest about the culture of overachievers in America and the futility of achievement in a world where everything comes too easy. Go read it....more
While this book didn't surprise me as much as either Pattern Recognition or Spook Country, it was a very satisfying conclusion to the series. More of While this book didn't surprise me as much as either Pattern Recognition or Spook Country, it was a very satisfying conclusion to the series. More of the world has been explored, all of the characters have a sensible and relatable arc, and the plot moves at an effortless pace. This book, like many of Gibson's others, suffers from a rather rushed ending, but you scarcely notice -- you know that he and the characters he's playing with are so capable and so talented that everything will turn out satisfactorily, if not happily.
I know I'm probably "supposed" to like Gibson's earlier, more classic works, but these three are the ones that really made me sit up and realize what a wonderful writer he is. The prose is divine. The characters are real. If you read any of Gibson's works, read these....more
I've been thinking about "Out" a lot, lately. I found it far more interesting than her followup, "Grotesque," despite its being a far more straightforI've been thinking about "Out" a lot, lately. I found it far more interesting than her followup, "Grotesque," despite its being a far more straightforward story. The story is about four women who work the night shift at a bento factory, preparing lunches for sale in convenience stores. (Anyone who has spent any time in Japan will remember these lunches.) The night shift is hard, but all of these women are doing it to make ends meet because the other members of their family can't make it happen, either through shiftlessness or disability. Things go awry when the youngest and cutest of their number kills her husband. Guided by the eldest in the group, the "Skipper," the four women butcher the man and hide him in pieces all over town.
That is the beginning of the story.
What follows is an exploration of Japan as it was in 1998 (three years after the Kobe quake and the Aum cult attack on the Tokyo subway system), including compensated dating, the position of the yakuza, and marginalized immigrants to Japan. It dips into the perspectives of each woman, the tensions keeping them in place, and how each of them wants...out. ...more
My mother (who very much needs a Goodreads account) referred this to us. It's compulsively readable, sexy, and intelligent. I carried it with me everyMy mother (who very much needs a Goodreads account) referred this to us. It's compulsively readable, sexy, and intelligent. I carried it with me everywhere until I finished it.
As a mystery novel, Stardust is almost perfect. It does everything that a good Elizabeth George or James Ellroy novel does, but in shorter time and with more grace. It revolves around the protagonist's search for his brother's killer, and his simultaneous attempts to find financing for a documentary on the Holocaust and to reconcile his politicized childhood in Germany. Like any good mystery novel there are several other puzzles to solve surrounding the primary one, and these are clouded by memory, nostalgia, hurt, and arousal. The story is set in Hollywood, and all the characters are too used to playing a part to be genuine with each other or with themselves.
That said, don't expect a jaded, cynical story. There are wonderful moments of true emotion, here. That's what sets the story apart from the majority of mysteries you could read this year. This isn't a story about Sam Spade or Mike Hammer or any of the other noir anti-heroes who have had all feeling beaten out of them by life. Ben Collier has survived the war and bears the scars of it, but still confronts his future with a relatively open heart and mind. It's refreshing, and it keeps you rooting for him throughout, even when he makes the occasional misstep. It also makes the end all the more satisfying -- not only has the mystery been solved, but Ben has grown and is better prepared to face post-war life....more
I try to read a Murakami novel each summer. But with IQ84 coming out this October, I knew I should save my energies for scaling that long-awaited peakI try to read a Murakami novel each summer. But with IQ84 coming out this October, I knew I should save my energies for scaling that long-awaited peak. So I chose to re-read this collection, which I had given to a friend once upon a time and had (absurdly) gone unread. I rescued it from the depths of shelf obscurity, and took another look at the classics. There are some novel chapters here, from "Norwegian Wood" and "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle." But this time around, I really noticed the skill Murakami has with short stories. I was delighted to find "Honey Pie" included, as it's basically my favourite story from his "After the Quake" collection. ("After the Quake" is my mainstream companion to King's "Night Shift" or Bradbury's "The Illustrated Man." It will teach you everything you need to know about writing a short story. I just happened to get to Murakami before I got to Carver, for those lessons.)
The collection is also far more chilling than I remembered. Perhaps I read it too quickly the first time around, or perhaps Murakami simply has such a light touch that you don't notice the implications of the plot until years later. But this time, reading "Barnburner" and "The Ice Man" left me shivering. That almost never happens, so I highly recommend this collection to anyone who likes that perturbation to occur only moments after reading the story. ...more
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