Wednesday, May 30, 2012

What Should Kester Read? (June)

This month's What Should Kester Read? looks a few selections too long, but with good reason. When my friend and co-worker, Jenn, made her picks for June, she asked if she might have two collections of poetry, given how short each collection was. I was happy to make this concession. She also assigned me Joan Didion, but left it to me to decide which work I would read. I narrowed it down to two and decided that I would begin both and finish one (maybe both). And so...
What Should Kester Read?
  • Averno by Louise Gluck
  • The City In Which I Love You by Li-Young Lee
  • The Oresteia by Aeschylus
  • Underworld by Don DeLillo
  • The White Album by Joan Didion
  • Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson
  • The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
What else is Kester reading?
  • The Daily Bible: NIV Version (daily devotional)
  • Moby Dick by Herman Melville (Required Reading Revisited book club)

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

5-23-12

What's Kester reading?
  • Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
  • The Daily Bible: NIV Version (daily devotional)

Look Homeward, Angel

    "Wherever you go, there you are," so the old proverb goes. In a way, that's what Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel is about. In another way, it's not about much of anything and in another way, I'm not sure what it's about. Not about much of anything in the sense that Angel is driven more by the characters and their conversations and connections than it is driven by plot. Not sure what it's about in that this is a book that I'm going to have to sit with for awhile and quite possibly re-read before I can get any kind of handle on it.
    But let's get back to that first one. This is a story about the places we're from and the people that bore us and how getting away isn't the same as being free. It's about how we're shaped and what by and what for. It's about so much more than that. It's about something too big and beautiful for me to explain without some more time spent, but the month quickly draws to a close and you were promised a review.
    Let's do this. Let me give you an excerpt from just over halfway through the book and see if it doesn't help. This is my expurgated version of a conversation that takes place between the main character's brother, Ben, and the family physician, Doctor Coker.
    "In Christ's name, Coker," he said, "what's it all about? Are you able to tell me? What in heaven's name are we here for? You're a doctor--you ought to know something."
    "Why?" he said deliberately. "Why should I know anything?"
    "Where do we come from? Where do we go to? What are we here for? What the hell is it all about?" Ben cried out furiously in a rising voice.
    "What do you want me to say?" said Coker. "What am I? A mind reader? A spiritualist? I'm your physician, not your priest. I've seen them born, and I've seen them die. What happens to them before or after, I couldn't say."
    "Damn that!" said Ben. "What happens to them in between?"
    The conversation that continues is, in many ways, Angel's ongoing conversation, but it's Ben's question about the "in between" that is the linchpin. It's not a question that Wolfe gives a definitive answer to, as the job of fiction is to ask the question, not to answer it. It is our job, dear reader, to wrestle with that question and to answer it with our lives. 
    Later in the book, we get a glimpse into Wolfe's thoughts on the subject when Ben asserts that "There is no happy land. There is no end to hunger." It's not an answer that I'm satisfied with, but it is one that explains the despair that hangs over big brother Ben Gant and the main character, Eugene Gant, and the entire Gant family. They are folks without a reason to get out of bed in the morning, and yet they keep getting up and out of bed. This is a story of strivers, not seekers, and it may be that man was born to seek more than strive. But that's me beginning to provide my own answers before you've even had a chance to read the questions yourself. Get the book. Read the story. Wrestle with the questions. Search for answers. Live them out. Do the work that books like this challenge us to do.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

5-20-12

What Should Kester Read?
  • Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe
What else is Kester reading?
  • Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
  • The Daily Bible: NIV Version (daily devotional)
  • The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (Required Reading Revisited book club)
  • We Only Know So Much by Elizabeth Crane

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

5-15-12

What Should Kester Read?
  • Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe
What else is Kester reading?
  • Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
  • The Daily Bible: NIV Version (daily devotional)
  • Five Novels of the 1960s and 70s by Philip K. Dick
  • We Only Know So Much by Elizabeth Crane

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

5-8-12

What Should Kester Read?
  • Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe
What else is Kester reading?
  • Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
  • The Daily Bible: NIV Version (daily devotional)
  • Five Novels of the 1960s and 70s by Philip K. Dick
  • Giving Up The Ghost by Eric Nuzum
  • My Life With The Saints by James Martin
  • Runaways, Vol. 3: The Good Die Young by Brian K. Vaughan
  • We Only Know So Much by Elizabeth Crane

Sunday, May 6, 2012

5-6-12

What Should Kester Read?
  • Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe
What else is Kester reading?
  • Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
  • The Daily Bible: NIV Version (daily devotional)
  • Five Novels of the 1960s and 70s by Philip K. Dick
  • My Life With The Saints by James Martin
  • This Will End In Tears by Adam Houghtaling
  • We Only Know So Much by Elizabeth Crane

Positively 5th Street

    I grew up in a gaming family, cards and dice mostly, though board games and charades weren't unheard of and chess came early, as well. Still, the shake, rattle, and roll of dice, the snap, crackle, pop of the cards; these were the sounds that brought me to the gaming table the quickest. Hearts and Spades especially were my specialty.
    I came late to poker and, as a result, have never excelled in it the way I do in other games of chance and skill. Which is not to say that I don't enjoy poker, simply that I have a lot to learn. Everything I have learned, of the game, its players, and its history have only made me love poker more.
    James McManus learned poker early and learned to love it just as quickly. So, when he was commissioned by Harper's magazine to go to Vegas to cover the World Series of Poker tournament in 2000, he readily and happily agreed. Not only that, but he was also to write about the ongoing trial of Sandra Murphy and Rick Tabish, accused of murdering Vegas casino executive Ted Binion. 
    What follows is McManus caught up in the story as well as the game, not content to sit the sidelines or report from a safe distance, he finds himself turning down (reluctantly) lap dances in the club where Murphy worked as well as gambling in the WSOP tournament that he was sent to Vegas to cover. What this means is that, as readers, we're right where the action is and get a front row seat to all the sorrow and seediness and hope of salvation that Vegas and its clubs and casinos promise.
    McManus' is a hell of a ride, though I was glad that he was the one taking it. I get the sense that I would enjoy sitting at the same table, but that being his wife or kid might be more of a mixed bag. He is certainly a man as driven by his impulses as he is his commitments and it can be both as sad a thing to witness as it is hilarious, like if Hunter Thompson were a little more of a family man. And (SOILER ALERT!), in the end, he goes back for that lap dance. As a story of poker as profession and obsession, this is a defining work, set alongside of such classics as A. Alvarez's The Biggest Game In Town. As a picture of the glories and pitfalls of professional poker and excesses of the Vegas strip, it is as much cautionary tale and confession as anything. Still, for a full picture of the ups and downs of Vegas, you can't do much better James McManus' Positively 5th Street.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

5-5-12

What Should Kester Read?
  • Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe
  • Positively 5th Street by James McManus
What else is Kester reading?
  • Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
  • The Daily Bible: NIV Version (daily devotional)
  • Just Kids by Patti Smith (New & Noteworthy book club)
  • Runaways, Vol. 2: Teenage Wasteland by Brian K. Vaughan

Men & Cartoons

    Jonathan Lethem's work is hit or miss. When he hits, it's a home run; Fortress of Solitude, Motherless Brooklyn, and back to Gun, With Occasional Music. When he misses, it tends to be a mixed back of admirable effort (As She Climbed Across The Table), half-hearted attempt (Chronic City) and better if he'd sat the bench (You Don't Love Me Yet). So, it's no surprise that a collection of Lethem's short stories would feature the entire spectrum. Which means that I loved it, I liked it, and I hated it.
    For those keeping score at home or trying to decide if it's worth picking up, I'll break down the numbers. Out of 11 stories, including the novella This Shape We're In, I loved 5 (including the novella This Shape We're In), liked 2, thought 2 were ok, and hated 2. For my money, the 5 I loved were worth the price of admission.
    When Lethem hits, it's because he takes a quirky concept (a school chum who used to dress up like Marvel superhero Vision, a tier-two hero turned activist turned professor named Super Goat Man, and some sort of gathering of some sort of somethings that I still don't understand, but still very much enjoyed) and uses it to get to the heart of what makes us human; hopes, fears, triumphs, defeats, headiness and pettiness. The deeper story is a richer story than the quirkier story on the surface, but the latter makes the former possible. Deftly weaving myth and metaphor, Lethem creates the unreal and then makes it real.
    When he misses, it's because he thinks quirky is enough and he is almost always wrong. Occasionally, if the story is short enough, quirky is good for a laugh, that's cute, move on. But after more than a couple of pages, the joke wears thin, the rant grows tired. At least twice, I wished I had just trusted my instincts and skipped ahead.
    Still, if the only parts you read are The Vision, Super Goat Man, and This Shape We're In, it will be well worth your time and well worth the trip to the library or the local bookstore. I recommend the bookstore. I can already tell that I'm going to want to visit these stories again.

Friday, May 4, 2012

5-4-12

What Should Kester Read?
  • Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe
  • Men and Cartoons by Jonathan Lethem
  • Positively 5th Street by James McManus
What else is Kester reading?
  • Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
  • The Daily Bible: NIV Version (daily devotional)
  • Just Kids by Patti Smith (New & Noteworthy book club)
  • Runaways, Vol. 1: Pride & Joy by Brian K. Vaughan
  • Walden by Henry David Thoreau (Required Reading Revisited book club)

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

5-2-12

What Should Kester Read?
  • Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe
  • Men and Cartoons by Jonathan Lethem
  • Positively 5th Street by James McManus
What else is Kester reading?
  • The Daily Bible: NIV Version (daily devotional)
  • Just Kids by Patti Smith (New & Noteworthy book club)
  • Walden by Henry David Thoreau (Required Reading Revisited book club)

The Escapists

    There's far more to my love for Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay then the simple fact that I love comic books. Chabon is a master at crafting complex characters and equally adept at action, atmosphere, and dialogue. The worlds he creates are sweeping in scope and yet meticulously detailed. Kavalier & Clay could have been insurance salesmen and I'd have been taken with them.
    But Chabon didn't make them insurance salesmen, he made them the creators of a comic book hero, The Escapist. And so, as a lover of comic books, I couldn't help wishing that The Escapist was real (an actual comic book, I mean) and that I could go and buy a copy. I was then delighted to discovered that Chabon had imagined a meeting between his creation, Sam Clay, and the all-too-real comic book writer Brian K. Vaughan.
    Vaughan is best known for his Y: The Last Man series, but he has done much other memorable work as well, including Runaways and Ex Machina. But somehow I had missed his spinoff of Chabon. What Chabon sets up is the preface to the graphic novel The Escapists, the story of a man, Maxwell Roth, who inhabits the same world in which Kavalier & Clay created The Escapist and then grew up loving the comic as did his father, who died when Max was young. Years later, Max's mother has also died and left him an inheritance of $150,000. With it, Max purchases the rights to The Escapist and, with the help of his friends Case and Denny, decide to bring him into the 21st century.
    So, Chabon (who exists) creates Clay (who does not) who helps create The Escapist (who also does not). Chabon then imagines that Clay (who still does not exist) gives his blessing to Vaughan (who most certainly does) to create a comic book about The Escapist (which he does). The comic book that he creates is about a comic book artist, Max (who does not exist), that takes The Escapist (who exists more for Max than he has for any of us readers) and recreates him with a comic book update (which is featured in the comic book that Vaughan has created, The Escapists, which allows all of us to read The Escapist comic book as well). These thing is very meta.
    It is also wildly entertaining and funny and sad and engaging. Chabon and Vaughan are well matched, and the team of artists that Vaughan assembles play to both his and each other's strengths. The result is nothing short of spectacular, placing it easily among my favorite work by Vaughan. 
    So, whether you love Michael Chabon, loved Kavalier & Clay, love Brian K. Vaughan, or just love a great comic book adventure, you should be sure to pick up The Escapists. You will not be disappointed.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

5-1-12

What Should Kester Read?
  • The Escapists by Brian K. Vaughan
  • Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe
  • Men and Cartoons by Jonathan Lethem
  • Positively 5th Street by James McManus
What else is Kester reading?
  • The Daily Bible: NIV Version (daily devotional)
  • Just Kids by Patti Smith (New & Noteworthy book club)
  • Walden by Henry David Thoreau (Required Reading Revisited book club)

Black Hole

    I have a scar on the ring finger of my left hand, just along the knuckle. It's a souvenir that I carry with me from middle school, a reminder of the time that Jason Metzger decided to use the slats on my locker as a sort of cheese grater and my fingers as the cheese. If that scar could talk, it would say, "middle school is horrifying." But then, a talking scar is horrifying too.
    Charles Burns' graphic novel, Black Hole, features horrors like a talking scar (literally, there's a kid with a scar on his neck that is, in fact, a tiny mouth that talks) as a way to tell about the horrors of adolescence. The time is the 1970s, the place is Washington state. The kids are caught in the in-between of hippies and glam. There's sex, but it isn't sexy, and so there's drugs to numb the pain. It's confusing and lonely and anxious and eerie. It's high school. There's an infection making the rounds among the sexually active teens. Some are calling it "the bug" and some a "plague," whatever it is, it's scary.
    Which gets us back to the tiny talking mouth scar. It sounds silly and it seemed so at first, but the further in the story went the less silly the scar seemed. That's because the scar is just one way in which "the bug" manifests itself. Some kids get boils and bumps. Some shed their skin. One girl has webbed fingers while another grows a tail. And while these are all symptoms of the "plague," they are also metaphors for the repulsion teens often feel towards themselves and others and the rejection that comes as a result. And so, the book works on two levels, as an 70s style creepfest chiller as well as a picture of the alienation of adolescence and emerging adulthood. It's tough to say which is more frightening.
    The style sets the tone and the tone is dark. That style stays consistent throughout the book and that consistency is stunning, given that the book was originally a 12 issue series of comic books written and released over ten years time. You would expect something to shift in that period, but it feels as if it were put together in one sitting. However, one look at the meticulousness of Burns' drawing and you know that simply couldn't be possible, even if I hadn't just told you. The detailed drawing is intense, the black and white contrasts act as a perfect juxtaposition to the all too grey areas that weave within the plot. Sometimes it almost feels like too much and you find yourself wishing you could shut your eyes and stop up your ears. It's hard to hear these stories of pain and angst, especially when they're coming out of some kid's neck scar.
    Which is the one beef I have with Burns' book; the metaphor can be a bit overwrought and overdone. A scar is never just a scar, a joint a joint, or a cigar a...well, you get the idea. Freud would have loved Black Hole.  
    Still, overwrought and overdone is how we experience adolescence, nothing's ever subtle, no suffering seems small. It's only years after the scars heal that you can look at your knuckles and not feel the shame.