Just read (2017)

[Fenril]

Reading challenge, April: Read only scripts (stage plays, screen plays, tele plays, etc.)



- Hedwig and the angry inch. John Cameron Mitchell & Stephen Trask. The lives and times of rocker Hedwig Schmidt, “internationally ignored song stylist”. Originally named Hansel, she flees her East German origins with the help of an American soldier. Living through a domineering mother, a botched sex-change operation and a string of bad lovers is only the beginning of her problems. Yet she won’t give up on her search for “The origin of love”, for her perfect other half. And that may well be closer than she thinks —not in the form of a person, but in a full understanding and embracing of all the conflicting aspects of herself.

A poignant, outrageously humorous rock musical with unforgettable characters and poignant reflections on the nature of identity. Capped off by a nice sublimation, too. Recommended.

[Fenril]

Reading challenge, April: Read only scripts (stage plays, screen plays, tele plays, etc.)



- Veronica’s room. Ira Levin. On their second date, young Susan and Larry are approached by the Mackeys, a charming old couple with a very unusual request for them. They used to be caretakers for the Brabissants, a once prestigious family now gone to ruin. And they would love for Susan to pretend to be the late Veronica Brabissant for the sake of Veronica’s surviving yet senile sister. Just for a moment. What the hell, Susan thinks, what harm can it do?
She is about to learn just how thin the line between reality and fantasy can be. So, too, the line between madness and murder…

Amazing thriller from horror master Levin, skilled both as playwright and as novelist. This expertly plotted story moves skillfully from a simple, light beginning to a truly horrific climax. And with a nicely ironic final note, too! Very recommended.

[Fenril]

Reading challenge, April: Read only scripts (stage plays, screen plays, tele plays, etc.)



- Deathtrap. Ira Levin. Once successful playwright Sidney Bruhl has had a series of flops that left him rather bitter with life. When he receives an excellent play from one of his students, a thought strikes him: Since nobody has heard of this student, what’s stopping Sidney from stealing this play? All it would take is this one little murder…
Well, that is what he told his wife, jokingly. Or not so jokingly. Well, he may also have neglected to mention that, actually, there is a far more complicated and far more sinister scheme going on here than just a case of murderous jealousy…

One of Levin’s most famous works. Like his iconic novels “Rosemary’s baby” and “The Stepford wives”, this is both a chilling horror tale and a dark comedy of manners. Special mention must be made of the hilarious yet genuinely shocking finale. Not to be missed.

[Fenril]

Reading challenge, April: Read only scripts (stage plays, screen plays, tele plays, etc.)



- Torch Song Trilogy. Harvey Fierstein. Seven years in the life of on-again off-again lovers Arnold (drag queen with a chip on his shoulder) and Ed (bisexual perpetually stuck in a transparent closet). As they navigate through life with and without each other, they experience the soaring heights and abismal depths of just about everything life can offer. Equally neurotic husbands and wives, conniving mothers, sarcastic adopted sons… In other words, life.

Encompasses the plays “The International Stud”, “Fugue in a Nursery” and “Widows and children first!”, all of which can be read and enjoyed either by themselves or in sequence. Very clever use of stage language and extraordinarily realistic characters. As author Fierstein expresses: “Perhaps you’ll see a little of yourself on the phone with Arnold’s “Why don’t you love me anymore?” call. Or maybe yourself in Laurel’s “Just because I said that’s what I want doesn’t mean that I’m ready for it” logic. Or it might be while reading Mrs. Beckoff you’ll stop and smile, “That’s my Mother”. Any little thing that makes you feel less alone is what and why these plays are.”

[Fenril]

Reading challenge, April: Read only scripts (stage plays, screenplays, teleplays, etc.)



- Angels in America. Tony Kushner. Subtitled “A gay fantasia on national themes” and comprised of two plays, “Millennium Approaches” and “Perestroika”. From the last months of 1985 to the beginning of 1986, young Prior Walter discovers that he is HIV-positive; as his condition worsens, he is abandoned by boyfriend Louis. And just in case all of that wasn’t earth-shattering enough, he is then visited by an angel, who has come to announce that Prior is a chosen prophet…
Meanwhile, the people around Prior are immersed in several dramas of their own. There is Louis, fleeing from any reminders of his own mortality, and who strikes a relationship with heavily-closeted Mormon Joe —a bittersweet relationship doomed by both men’s unwillingness to accept the many terrible things they have done and been accomplices to. There is Joe’s mentor, Roy Cohn (in fact a real life person), a lawyer with high influences but now succumbing to AIDS. There is Joe’s wife, Harper, lost in delusions that don’t quite substitute for the very real escape she needs. There is Roy’s nurse, Belize, a though-as-nails drag queen trying to make sense of Prior’s deranged revelations. There is Joe’s domineering mother, Hannah, who is starting to realize that her will may be no match for the realities of this harsh world. And then there is the Angel, desperately seeking her lost lover and father, God, who forsake her and her brethren in favor of humans…

A much laureated and praised stage-play. It’s very long and demanding, and that is exactly as author Kushner demands. It’s a genuine tour-the-force that leaves the audience (or the reader) shaken up, exhausted… and yet, rewarded. Essentially a meditation on human nature during dark and uncertain eras (with some nicely apocalyptic fantasy for reinforcement), sprinkled with complex, rapid-fire dialogue. Thought-provoking and moving by turns (if most of the characters are quite unsympathetic, they are very, VERY human indeed) and with a carefully constructed atmosphere of delirium. Quite recommended.

[Fenril]

Reading challenge, May: Read only short story collections.



- Fragile Things. Neil Gaiman. 2006 saw Gaiman’s second short fiction collection, after “Smoke & Mirrors” (1998). The style and themes are mostly consistent (which is not that common for good writers, particularly when there’s decades between each collection). Once again, there’s some horror (“Feeders and Eaters”), some science fiction (“How to talk to girls at parties”), some fantasy (most of the pieces included here), some humor (“Forbidden Brides(…)”), some mixing of existing fictions —or if you prefer, some of the best fan fiction you will ever read (“A study in Emerald”, “The problem of Susan”, “Inventing Alladin”), some hard-to-classify yarns (“Instructions”, “Harlequin Romance”)… there is even an extra story hidden in the introduction, once again!

While Gaiman’s best work remains his comic books and the transition to other genres (prose, film, illustrated books) has not always been good, it still contains several remarkable works, including some of this best. This collection feels overall much more confident than “Smoke & Mirrors” —the best entry of that previous collection, “Snow, Glass, Apples”, more or less became a template for this book. Not just in terms of the macabre, but also in the sense of showing a storyteller who is not afraid to openly embrace and to play with his favorite literary influences. And in so doing, create something new, wholly original.

Overall, a charming collection of fantasies. Quite recommended.

[Fenril]

Reading challenge, May: Read only short story collections.



- 20th century ghosts. Joe Hill. Hill’s first (and so far, only) short story collection, which covers a wide range of subjects and genres. There are, of course, horror stories, both of the expected kind and not. There are deranged murderers, killer mutants and ghost aplenty. There is dark fantasy, too. There is magic of the most dark, ambiguous kind. For that matter, there are people with magical (or supernatural?) gifts who don’t necessarily use them in a responsible way. There is the just plain weird. And, perhaps surprisingly, there is even love… of the most peculiar kind. Like that between an irascible baseball team manager and his troubled son. Or that between two schoolchildren, one of whom was born with a condition that makes him —inflatable.

It would be tempting to call this book a “mixed bag”, but that description doesn’t quite fit. It is true that the stories jump across a variety of genres, yes, but it is also true that none of them quite fit in just one. All the horror stories have a particular sensibility that settles it just a touch apart from the genre —a meta-textual reinvention here, a shift from the literal to the metaphorical to the literal again there, and so on. The dark fantasy stories skim just this close to plain horror. Even the “slice of life” stories have such an intentionally weird perspective, they never feel out of place in this book.
Hill often employs that particular literary technique of intentionally leaving out key components —not to wring cheap suspense, but to challenge the reader to figure out the puzzle. Kinda like what you might see in a Raymond Carver book, for example. Then there are quirky tricks, like placing a surprise in the Acknowledgments page. Hill is no Carver and no Neil Gaiman, but he still makes these techniques (tricks, if you prefer) work.

Any critiques? Well, I suppose just two: virtually all stories are essentially all about “young male angst” (in the US edition there is only one story with a female protagonist… and there, the story is really not about her but about her father). And immediately related to that: at his worst, Hill tends to sound like a slightly less angry Jack Ketchum, with whimsical visions often obscured by a relentlessly cynical view of human nature. They do say a pessimist is a disillusioned optimist, after all…

Comparisons to other writers aside, what we have here is an entertaining and sometimes very creative story collection. It is never quite what you expect, and that is something I personally am quite grateful for.

[Fenril]

Reading challenge, June: Read only novels.



- Horrorstör. Grady Hendrix. Orsk is a successful chain of furniture stores, profitable both nationally and internationally. Not bad for an Ikea knock-off! But of late, the Cuyahoga branch has been reporting some rather troublesome incidents. Like mysterious graffiti, water splotches and even cell phone text messages crying for help. And inexplicable stains on the furniture, complete with a nearly unbearable stench. And rats crawling out of the kitchen displays, even though those aren’t actually connected to any sewage system. To say nothing of ghostly presences…
Employee Amy Porter could not care less about these things, however. She only wants to finish her shifts as quickly as possible, until her request for a branch transference comes through. But then manager Basil offers her and coworker Ruth a rather juicy opportunity: Stay overnight with him to investigate just what is going on in Orsk at night before a Consultant Team arrives the next day. Whether they catch the culprit or not, Amy and Ruth will get a huge bonus, a promotion, and Amy will get the transference she wants. It sounds too good to be true.
And it is.
As the night goes on, the three Orsk “store partners” quickly come to realize they are anything but alone. There’s the pesky co-workers who snuck in to film a ghost documentary. And the homeless man who has been living in the store after hours. Oh, yeah, and the spirit of a cruel prison warden who still commands so many damned souls. And who has quite a few plans in store for the living…

Terrific debut novel from Hendrix (who is also an accomplished horror critic / essayist). Equal parts haunted house yarn (in this case, haunted store for the twenty-first century) and workplace satire. The tone successfully navigates that very thin line between dark humor and genuinely scary. The characters are remarkable, too. Lead Amy is rather unsympathetic at first, albeit in a realistic way: She is a world-weary twenty something struggling to make ends meet on a dead-end job. Judgmental, self-absorbed and just a touch casually racist. But she is also a woman determined to save herself. And eventually, her colleagues and friends. The rest of the cast have their quirks, too, and are best left for each reader to discover. Capped off with a satisfying (and subtly ambiguous) resolution. Quite recommended.

[Fenril]

(Out of program)



- Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Truman Capote. Collection including the novella “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and three short stories: “House of flowers”, “A diamond guitar” and “A Christmas memory”. Together they represent some of Capote’s most famous short works.

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s”: A writer recalls his early days in a New York brownstone and the call girl he befriended, one “Holly Golightly” (geddit?). Her free-spirited, opinionated manners sometimes shock even him (him, the nameless narrator whom we come to deduce is either in the closet or has heavily edited his memoirs). Rather dated, but the characters remain mostly as charming as ever. Adapted into an iconic Hollywood movie that really, really rips out the most interesting parts of the novel and replaces them with common Hollywood claptraps (improbable romantic ending under the rain, of course!).

“House of flowers”: A Haitian sex-worker girl (since this isn’t set in the US, she actually works in a bordello, whereas Holly is just “really popular with the gentlemen”, don’t ya know…), Ottillie, has it all: Fame, fortune, riches, and no shortage of lovers. But she’s never been in love herself —not until a charming man named Royal Bonaparte (yeah…) crosses her path…
A very solid love story with just a bit of folk tale flavor —it would be easy to accuse this story of exoticism, and truth be told there is a bit of that. It’s still pretty similar in tone and event to what very little actual Caribbean literature I have read, though. So, uh, I guess you’d have to decide that part by yourself.
Loosely adapted to a musical.

“A diamond guitar”: A love story in a prison farm. Since it’s between two inmates and this was a 50’s story, the narrator politely assures us that: “Except that they did not combine their bodies or think to do so, though such things were not unknown at the farm, they were as lovers”. There is plenty of merit in depicting platonic romances without sex, but this feels like one of many cases where potentially controversial issues are pared down so that the book can still be palatable for a mainstream audience.
Such considerations aside, the crux of the story is old Schaeffer’s fascination with a Cuban inmate, Tico Feo (I have no idea if Capote was aware that the name means “Ugly Costa Rican” or not. It is, however, interesting to know that Truman’s stepfather was himself Cuban, and that Truman took the name “Capote” (“Overcoat”) from him). Tico revitalizes youthful dreams in Schaeffer. But those dreams are no match for the physical reality of an attempted escape, and they end exactly as the instrument of the title —a guitar studded with glass pebbles that look like diamonds from a distance.

“A Christmas memory”. One of Capote’s somewhat autobiographical tales of a young boy and the elderly woman he spends his childhood with. The anecdote here is simple (the baking of pies in what is a special winter for reasons some readers might figure out before the ending), though the characters sheer innocence does have a slight charm to it. Often adapted for television and radio.

Read this collection out of the “reading challenge” program. To be entirely honest, I found most of these tales borderline milquetoast, except that they are very precisely written. While I enjoyed other works from Capote much more (“In cold blood”, the short story “Miriam”), this one is still work a look, both for itself and for it’s place as the root of a few particular pieces of US pop culture. As is often the case, the origin (ex., the book from which the movie came) is much more elaborate than people would think, if still very much a product of it’s time.

[Fenril]

(Out of program)



- 100 manga artists. Edited by Julius Wiedemann. A selection of one hundred manga artists (and writers), covering a wide selection —from international bestsellers to little-known cult authors, from G-rated to Adults-only content. Includes a brief (not always very helpful) bio of each autor, with a “Greatest hits and awards” selection and sampling of at least three of their major works (if possible —some of these had only one or two titles under their belt at the time of publication). Quite a few specialities are featured: Shonen (or boy’s manga), Shoujo (girl’s manga), Josei (for adult women), Seinen (for adult men), Geicomic (for gay men), EroGuro (erotic-grotesque), just plain Grotesque, experimental art comic and so, so much more…

As with any anthology, the selection will not entirely please most readers. There will be a few artists that make you go “Hey, why was this really bad one included?”. And everyone will have at least one artist that they feel should have been included instead.

But this is not a selection of the 100 best, nor a sampling of the most famous or representative authors. It is simply a vast selection that aims to show just how much variety Manga itself has to offer, both the most popular, commercially successful features and the more intimate, little-known efforts. While the bios often leave a lot to be desired, this is a great starting point for anybody interested in seeking out more variety in their reading material beyond what is immediately available at hand. Recommended overall.

[Fenril]

Reading challenge, September: Read only illustrated books.



- Stardust. Neil Gaiman (story), Charles Vess (illustrations). A young man promises the girl he loves to bring a fallen star for her. A simple-minded village boy is seduced by an alluring woman who is not entirely human. Three brothers search for a family heirloom that will assure their legacy. Three sisters seek a powerful talisman that will restore their long-lost youth. In the midst of all these seemingly disparate threads is Yvaine, a maiden desired by so many but who belongs to no one but herself…

A remarkable fairy tale / fantasy romp very much in the stile of certain literary traditions a la Lord Dunsany. Although, this being Gaiman, there are several rather modern takes on olden concepts and archetypes, sprinkled with the occasional bit of sardonic humor. Vess’ gorgeous illustrations take the story to yet another level, composing a fantasy world even beyond that of the prose. And all capped off by a suitably haunting conclusion. Quite recommended.

[Fenril]

Reading challenge, September: Read only illustrated books.



- The Katurran Odyssey. Terryl Whitlach (illustrations and concept) & David Michael Wieger (story). Once upon a time, there was Bo-hibba, land of the lemurs. When they were going through a harsh, long winter and the priest’s prayers to the god Fossah proved insufficient, a young lemur called Katook ventured into a forbidden zone and saw something he was not meant to. He was thus cast out to the shores, where nothing but the unknown stretched before him. Nothing but the unknown and his true destiny…

So begins a truly epic fantasy yarn for all ages. Partly an essential hero’s journey and partly a gorgeous catalogue of arresting landscapes peopled by talking animals of thousands of species, the result is an adventure story that belongs in the select canon of timeless fiction. With a distinctly African flavor (both animal species and cultures symbolized) and charming characters, this book is a delight to read and explore. Quite recommended.