D.G Myers has a list of American novels who won major literary awards. You won’t want to read through this list, a “flapping, gobbling, squawking turkey” of books.
The sound of a click
Photo credit: Andy Dingley
I don’t know why I imagine anyone wants to know what I think. And yet I send out these posts, like a man throwing small stones into the ocean. Perhaps it’s just for the sake of the mental discipline it takes to put my thoughts in organized form.
Anyway, in case you’ve been waiting for my opinion of the recent Supreme Court rulings on same sex marriage, here it is. I hear the sound of a “click.”
That click is the noise of a ratchet. The metaphor of the ratchet, not at all original to me, is a very good one, I think, for understanding social change.
A ratchet does not move smoothly. Sometimes it stops, and every now and then it goes backwards for just a moment. But the main movement of a ratchet is always in one direction.
The Supreme Court decisions on same sex marriage were a ratcheting up of the mechanism. We lost another half inch or so that we’re not likely to get back. Continue reading The sound of a click
Five Myths About Reading
Robert Bruce talks about five complaints he has heard about reading over the years, complaints like you can’t learn from fiction, reading certain genres aren’t really reading, no time to read, and others.
The Melting Clocks, by Stuart M. Kaminsky
The late great Stuart M. Kaminsky’s series of comic mysteries starring small-time private eye Toby Peters have pleased me for some time. Toby makes a marginal living solving problems for a cast of clients who tend to be the greatest celebrities of the thirties and forties, yet he can’t afford a better office than a converted closet inside the offices of Dr. Sheldon Mink, the world’s most unsanitary dentist. Their building is owned by a former professional wrestler who writes poetry. Toby lives in a small apartment in a boarding house owned by the elderly Mrs. Plaut, who is convinced he’s either an exterminator or a book editor. His neighbor and best friend is Gunther Wherthman, a Swiss-born former munchkin who works as a translator. He has a brother who’s a Los Angeles police detective, and generally has to be physically restrained from punching him.
In other words, Toby Peter’s world is surreal. So who could be a more perfect client for him than the artist Salvadore Dali, who has had three paintings and three antique clocks stolen from him, and hires Toby to decipher the thieves’ cryptic clues in order to recover the property?
What’s hilarious about The Melting Clocks is that Dali fits into Toby’s world more easily than Toby himself does. Through the eyes of Dali, Toby discovers things about his own friends he never realized before.
Don’t look for fresh scandals in a Toby Peters novel. The celebrities in these stories are generally treated as decent folks with flaws like you and me. Pure entertainment here. Recommended.
Maidenhood May Be a Good Fit for You
Gina Dalfonzo, editor of BreakPoint.org and Dickensblog, explains how Joss Weldon’s Much Ado About Nothing undermines itself in the opening scenes by depicting Benedick and Beatrice having a one-night stand before the play begins. This is a play about a betrayal plot to ruin a man’s life by ruining his finance’s virtue. She is a maiden, that is, a virgin, and her friends vehemently defend her.
“Hero’s father hints at one point that an already-engaged couple yielding to temptation wouldn’t be such a grave offense. But a drunken one-night stand–that would have gone against everything that Beatrice had ever been taught.”
This may be a good example of many retellings of old stories, Shakespearean and non. The plot is established and relatively unchanged, but when modern writers attempt to add modern backstory to the characters, they do so within their own moral framework, not recognizing the contrast between their world and the original writer’s.
Cop to Corpse, by Peter Lovesey
I’ve read some Peter Lovesey novels in the past that I liked very much, particularly Rough Cider, which was troubling but unforgettable. He’s had a very successful career, and among his detective series is the Peter Diamond mysteries, about a police inspector in the city of Bath. So I tried Cop to Corpse.
Three policeman walking beats have been sniper victims in the Bath and Wells area in a short time. Someone is lying in wait for them with an assault rifle. At the third scene, a detective who discovered the shooter’s hiding place is knocked unconscious while waiting for forensic technicians.
Detective Peter Diamond has to pick his way carefully through puzzling and sometimes contradictory clues while trying to cooperate with competitive fellow cops and rival squads, as he tries to discover the murderer – or murderers – before another policeman is killed.
It is often complained of police procedurals that they fail to convey the full tedium of police work. I think the Peter Diamond books must be more realistic than most, because to be honest I found this one kind of dreary reading. The puzzle was interesting enough, and some opinions were expressed that didn’t entirely offend me. But Peter Diamond is not a charismatic guy, and I didn’t finish the book eager to read more about him.
I’m not saying it’s a bad book. As I mentioned, the low key might just be a touch of realism. You may like it better than I did. Cautions for the usual.
Baker on Odd
Our friend Hunter Baker praises Dean Koontz’ Odd Thomas books over at Touchstone Magazine:
Years of major market success gain an author freedom to do what he wants. In the last decade, Koontz has invested his considerable artistic capital in becoming a more intentional instructor of the soul. His device for moral and spiritual teaching is a young man named Odd. Odd, like Koontz, is a Catholic. He is bright, handsome, and athletic. His parents are divorced and both highly dysfunctional. Odd’s inattentive, playboy father comes from a family with a lot of money. His mother doesn’t deserve the name. Given his upbringing, Odd is a miracle. He is God’s child more than he is the child of two people who refuse to grow up.
Avoiding Message Movies
Writer Bill Kauffman and director Ron Maxwell both hate heavy-handed message movies, so they worked together to give us a Civil War story that doesn’t paint in primary colors. Christian Toto writes, “Copperhead… examines an aspect of history Kauffman says is often ignored—the side of the argument told by those who lost the war.
“‘We tend to sweep the losers down the memory hole as though there was only one side in any debate,’ he says. ‘The guys who lost … we paint Snidely Whiplash mustaches upon them.'”
Cover Versions of Shakespeare's Play
Author Jeanette Winterson, who loves cover versions of established stories, is writing a prose version of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale as part of Random House’s effort to rewrite all of the bard’s plays for his 400th anniversary.
“The Shakespeare purists,” she says, “miss the point about his exuberant ragbag of borrowings thrown into the alchemical furnace of his mind and lifted out transformed. He sums up the creative process, which is not concerned with originality of source but originality of re-making.”
I understand retelling stories, but while West Side Story may be based on Romeo and Juliet, it isn’t the same story. Play it cool, boy. And we all know you can retell essential stories again and again. People like cliches, but they will love one story over another because of the details around the essentials. When contemporary writers retell Shakespearean tales, it’s usually like telling a good joke wrong.
Unsuitable for Children
Just overheard: a reviewer complaining that Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs