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New Years Reading Festival
Jan. 12th, 2008 08:35 amThe Absolutely True Diaries of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Summary: YA novel about an young Native American who chooses to attend a high school off his reservation.
Opinion: AWESOME. So much snarffle and awwww, usually at the same time. Junior is a plucky protagonist, surrounded by drunks, losers and grandma. He's inspired to get off the res, and get into a better school after opening his math book and finding his mothers' name in it. No learning from 30 y.o text books from him.
From then on, it's a struggle between fitting in and staying true to roots. What I liked best, was each side was shown to have valuable and hurtful traditions, and while all the usual suspects were there: alcholics on the res, racists in the white town, they were presented as people with problems rather than personification of social ills. And the way Junior solved the majority of his problems was through a blend of ideas learned from both places. I also loved that a lot of Junior's missteps stayed with him no matter where he was. Truancy rates were high in his Reservation School (Junior started the year off with a suspension), and his absence rate (due to a bunch of reasons) was high at the white high schoool too. I thought that was a cutting statement on social services--- there is no ONE magic cure-all for truancy, youth education, drop-out rates.
The book is hilarious. Laugh Out Loud funny and crude. Retard jokes a plenty, growing-up poor jokes, honkey jokes.
Murdaland by various (short story collection)
Summary: Crime Fiction for the 21st century
With any short collection, there's an element of crapshoot. The "okay" and "mediocre" and "wasn't for me" outweight the "Wow". This collection gave up a slightly higher "Wow" percentage, and most of the rest was "wasn't for me".
It was a primer on unlikeable characters. Only one story had me rooting for the protagionst. The rest were sort of Tarantino-esque, in the "you're a bad person, but I wan't to see what happens next, and where everyone ends up."
Also, I guess the key to writing about unlikable protagonists is to surround them with characters who are even more unlikable. Which is brilliant at the outset, dreary and a downer 6 stories in. Same thing with fucked-up characters. O.O at the start, gimmicky by the end.
Easily solved problem, though. Put the book aside, read something else. Return after the palate clensing. That's who I plan to read the next book in the series. They were good stories, most of them, afterall. High strung and dramatic, fresh, dazzling, and brutal.
Manhandled by various (short story collection)
Summary: gay PR0N
Opinion: See the first paragraph about Murdaland, except there wasn't as high a percentage of "Wow". A few stories were dynamite-- brill writing, interesting characters, believable sex, tension and arousal. A western-themed one had a molasses voice, the story flowed so sweet and dark. Yum. A few others either had decent writing or hit a kink of mine-- one was a wrestling fic that featured a character descripted like Matt. Too bad the writing was so dullsville.
Some were awful. One writer must have got paid by the adjective. Too many heaving, drooling, aching, hungry cocks. All cliched use of said adjectives too. Maybe the editor wanted in his pants.
One story started off awful-- recently dumped dude dragged to s/m club by his friends. I HATE THAT PREMISE. Makes the character seem like such a pussy. And it seems like a cop-out by the writer. Oh gee, I want Marty Sue to go to the S/M club and find tru luv, but he's certainly not nasty enough to think about sex alone. His friends have to make him. Ugh. Luckily, the sex scene played out vibrant and original and yummy, and if only that damn author would have put as much interest in getting his protag into the club, it would have been a "Wow" story rather than "okay"
Summary: YA novel about an young Native American who chooses to attend a high school off his reservation.
Opinion: AWESOME. So much snarffle and awwww, usually at the same time. Junior is a plucky protagonist, surrounded by drunks, losers and grandma. He's inspired to get off the res, and get into a better school after opening his math book and finding his mothers' name in it. No learning from 30 y.o text books from him.
From then on, it's a struggle between fitting in and staying true to roots. What I liked best, was each side was shown to have valuable and hurtful traditions, and while all the usual suspects were there: alcholics on the res, racists in the white town, they were presented as people with problems rather than personification of social ills. And the way Junior solved the majority of his problems was through a blend of ideas learned from both places. I also loved that a lot of Junior's missteps stayed with him no matter where he was. Truancy rates were high in his Reservation School (Junior started the year off with a suspension), and his absence rate (due to a bunch of reasons) was high at the white high schoool too. I thought that was a cutting statement on social services--- there is no ONE magic cure-all for truancy, youth education, drop-out rates.
The book is hilarious. Laugh Out Loud funny and crude. Retard jokes a plenty, growing-up poor jokes, honkey jokes.
Murdaland by various (short story collection)
Summary: Crime Fiction for the 21st century
With any short collection, there's an element of crapshoot. The "okay" and "mediocre" and "wasn't for me" outweight the "Wow". This collection gave up a slightly higher "Wow" percentage, and most of the rest was "wasn't for me".
It was a primer on unlikeable characters. Only one story had me rooting for the protagionst. The rest were sort of Tarantino-esque, in the "you're a bad person, but I wan't to see what happens next, and where everyone ends up."
Also, I guess the key to writing about unlikable protagonists is to surround them with characters who are even more unlikable. Which is brilliant at the outset, dreary and a downer 6 stories in. Same thing with fucked-up characters. O.O at the start, gimmicky by the end.
Easily solved problem, though. Put the book aside, read something else. Return after the palate clensing. That's who I plan to read the next book in the series. They were good stories, most of them, afterall. High strung and dramatic, fresh, dazzling, and brutal.
Manhandled by various (short story collection)
Summary: gay PR0N
Opinion: See the first paragraph about Murdaland, except there wasn't as high a percentage of "Wow". A few stories were dynamite-- brill writing, interesting characters, believable sex, tension and arousal. A western-themed one had a molasses voice, the story flowed so sweet and dark. Yum. A few others either had decent writing or hit a kink of mine-- one was a wrestling fic that featured a character descripted like Matt. Too bad the writing was so dullsville.
Some were awful. One writer must have got paid by the adjective. Too many heaving, drooling, aching, hungry cocks. All cliched use of said adjectives too. Maybe the editor wanted in his pants.
One story started off awful-- recently dumped dude dragged to s/m club by his friends. I HATE THAT PREMISE. Makes the character seem like such a pussy. And it seems like a cop-out by the writer. Oh gee, I want Marty Sue to go to the S/M club and find tru luv, but he's certainly not nasty enough to think about sex alone. His friends have to make him. Ugh. Luckily, the sex scene played out vibrant and original and yummy, and if only that damn author would have put as much interest in getting his protag into the club, it would have been a "Wow" story rather than "okay"
