book reviews

welcome to my modest section of book reviews, associated with amazon.com! new reviews will always appear at the top, for easier repeat viewing. you can buy any book reviewed from amazon just by following the link. or, to browse amazon for something not reviewed here, use this search box:

lolita by vladimir nabokov

this is another book that's come back into vogue thanks to the controversy surrounding the new film edition (in case you hadn't heard, the new movie was unable to find a distributor for a couple years). the controversy isn't surprising considering the subject matter: a man who has an extended affair with his young stepdaughter (she's 12 or 13 when the story begins).

judging solely from that one-sentence synopsis, you might think this book is something suited to the pages of hustler's barely legal magazine, but that is far from the truth. this is an awesome book, almost as far from pornography as a disney film. as it said on the cover of my very old copy (the link is to the much newer, nicer, & more attractive vintage paperback edition), lolita is not about sex. that's merely a part of it. lolita is about relationships, love, & much more.

stylistically, this book features the most beautful prose i'd read in some time. what makes it all the more amazing is that nabokov wrote it in english, which is not even his first language. i would have trouble writing a short story in spanish (the only other language i can speak at all), let alone a novel as incredible as this one. all that, plus a bunch of french thrown in to boot! truly a literary masterpiece, i recommend this classic to anyone openminded enough to try it.

humbert humbert, the humble european narrator, has a thing for young girls. not all young girls, but only a select subset he refers to as "nymphets": young girls in the age bracket of 8-16 who can't help but have their subtle sexuality seep through. & this taste for the young gets him in quite a bit of trouble when he becomes the boarder of the haze family, consisting of young dolores (known affectionately as lo) & her widowed mother. & naturally, as with any other well-developed 3-dimensional character, this is not his only flaw. yet despite these quirks, regardless of whether of you approve of his actions, you can't help but like poor humbert & feel sorry for him in an odd way.

sorry, but i feel it would be a crime to give away any more about this book or its story. if you want to know more, you'll just have to follow the link, buy it, & read it for yourself. you won't be disappointed.

valis by philip k dick

i've read several books by philip k dick, & thoroughly enjoyed all of them. however, valis transcends far beyond any dick novel i'd read before.

valis is the tale of horselover fat, a california native who is contacted by god (or zebra, or valis) via a uniquely-pink laser beam straight to the brain. this communique gives fat a sense of purpose: he begins writing his exegesis to help prepare the way for the coming of st sophia, the 5th messiah.

but did god really contact horselover fat? his friends sure don't think so. they think he's absolutely crazy. & perhaps he is. even horselover fat isn't so sure. after all, his personal life is a shambles; his wife left him with their son, & he's attempted suicide twice. but if god didn't contact fat, then how come immediately after the experience fat was able to diagnose a rare medical condition afflicting his son that the doctor's hadn't even noticed?

all the dick novels i'd read before were wild & crazy science fiction, with all kinds of fancy gimmicks such as telepathic slime molds, eidetic hallucinogens, & manifest destiny targeting the entire galaxy. however, for valis dick didn't even need such trifles. valis is set in california in the 1970s (which wasn't even the future; he wrote it in about 1980). instead valis is a much more introspective work, probing the line between insanity & reality, as well as the nature of the divine, more thoroughly than he'd ever done before. all that, with a completely innovative 1st/3rd-person narrator trick that really impressed me (but only after leaving me baffled for most of the book). i adamantly recommend valis, the first in a trilogy of transcendental novels including the divine invasion & the transmigration of timothy archer. i can only imagine how incredible philip k dick's books might have become if he hadn't been tragically taken from us in 1982.

fear & loathing in las vegas by hunter s thompson

following the early summer release of the criminally underrated film version of fear & loathing by terry gilliam, there has been a slight resurgence of interest in this book. probably not much, though, because the movie didn't do nearly as well as it should've (thanks to idiot critics).

i do have to admit that i didn't get around to reading the book until after i'd seen the movie. but i wanted to read it long before i even knew there'd be a movie, which makes it all right.

anyway, this is a great book. if you dislike it, it'll probably be for the same reason so many fool critics whined about the movie: the rampant (& i meant rampant!) drug use. these guys' drug comsumption would have to be measured on the burroughs scale.

now this isn't just some novel about drugged-out whackos on a search for the american dream. this is journalism, & thompson... er, i mean raoul duke delivers some fine-tuned insight within these pages. & although this was written way back in the nixon years, much of what duke says is still quite valid today. hunter s thompson actually found the american dream, in las vegas no less! (frightening, eh?)

rushing to paradise by jg ballard

save the albatross!

that's the rallying cry of dr barbara, feminist & environmentalist, after she learns that french soldiers have been killing the poor birds while making room for a new runway on saint-esprit, an island which was once planned to be a nuclear testing ground... & might be again.

dr barbara collects a crew of followers, including 16-year-old endurance swimmer neil, & makes way to the island. there they eventually manage set up camp under the glare of cameras & declare a sanctuary.

of course, it's a ballard novel, so everything goes to hell. in the end the camp on saint-esprit is anything but a sanctuary for albatross, or for anything else.

this novel is a bold satire of extremism. for those who might've read my review of the atrocity exhibition, i must note that this book is actually linear & not difficult to follow. on the other hand, i didn't feel it was as good as either of the other ballard novels i've read so far, atrocity exhibition or high-rise (which is apparently out of print, so i can't really link to it in good faith)

clans of the alphane moon by philip k. dick

perhaps not the best of dick's pioneering work (i haven't read it all & will eventually have dozens of dick reviews on this page), but nonetheless an interesting & worthwhile read.

by far the best thing about philip k dick is his ideas. they just burst out at you, millions of fresh, insightful & truly twisted concepts, unlike most other sf writers who at best can come up with a new twist on an old subject. this book is no exception. this book has a sentient slime mold, a remote-control cia simulacrum & a famous variety show host just in the supporting cast. & that doesn't even touch on the overall premise.

an experiment was undertaken. a human mental hospital was established on one moon in the alphane system many years ago. then all contact with the moon was lost in war with the alphane system. that was over 50 years ago. since then, the former inmates have built their own tribal society based on their respective illnesses. & now the earth government wants that moon back.

great fun with philip k dick. in a world where most science fiction is scorned as often being subliterary, here is an author who could truly make his work stand out as novels, not just genre fiction.

et tu, babe by mark leyner

after the publishing of his semi-novel my cousin, my gastroenterologist, which was lauded as the "cult author of the '90s!" & heaped with all sorts of critical praise, mark leyner followed it up with this book, et tu, babe. so what's et tu, babe about? well, it's about a cult author named mark leyner whose last book, my cousin, my gastroenterologist was a great critical success.

unfortunately for the mark leyner in this astonishing comic novel, all that success was a bit much, & it sent him completely over the edge into megalomania. this mark leyner knows he's not only the best writer that ever there was, he's the most evolved human being in history, & is sufficiently vain. he gets tattoos on his inner organs, done with radioactive ink to impress people giving him x-rays. his muscles are enormous. he steals lincoln's morning breath. & he assembles a crack writing ensemble, "team leyner", to help him put out even more of his literary masterpieces, such as the one he's working on, a novel called: (you guessed it) et tu, babe.

this novel is absolute mach10 satire. how do you parody our add-rattled mtv-addicted society? mark leyner knows: with a new joke every sentence or so, each one seemingly out of left field. & leyner satirizes everything, & that's no hyperbole. you really must read it just to imagine how hard-core funny this book is. this is the ultimate pop-culture satire. i actually read this book a couple years ago, but it stuck in my mind so thoroughly that here i am reviewing it.

this is also the most coherent leyner book i've read (& i've read all but the tetherballs of bourganville, which i'm eager to get to), & thus the ideal jumping-on point for anyone interested in the leyner phenomenon. if you have a sense of humor, you must read this book. end of story.

the information by martin amis

this is a brilliant novel about jealousy, rivalry, backhandedness, deceit & the media blitz... in the literary world. it might occur to some that such seemingly childish pursuits & motivations should be more suited to the hollywood film industry or the music biz than to novelists, but after reading this novel, those naysayers will likely have changed their minds.

the information is the tale of richard tull, a failed novelist turned book-reviewer who also works for tantalus press, one of those "publisher desperately seeking writers" publishers who will print anything at all (except you pay them.) tull's first 2 novels were published to little note or acclaim, & every novel he's written since has been utterly ignored & has gone unpublished.

enter gwyn barry, tull's friend since their days rooming together at oxford, whose career was on similar lines a few years ago. then gwyn got his first novel published. then his second, a work of pure trex called amelior, a utopian novel with no sex, no violence (therefore, nothing interesting). tull knows the book is garbage. so do some other reviewers. but try telling that to the public, who inexplicably send amelior to the top of the bestseller lists.

this is all just set-up; the novel actually begins with the sequel to amelior, curiously titled amelior regained (how? the place was never even lost!), prepped for release. at the same time, tull is nearing completion of his own latest novel (not expecting it to be published, since the last few weren't), untitled. then gwyn is suddenly in the running for a brand new literary award called the profundity requital, & the money is just ridiculous, & they give it to you every year. that's when tull realizes what his next mission must be: to fuck gwyn up.

this is the novel about novelists, pitting poor unappreciated, unreadable, impotent richard tull against the incomprehensibly-loved & lauded gwyn barry. & of course, there's the supporting cast: tull's wife gina, his twin sons, gwyn's wife lady demeter, scozzy (porn enthusiast & master street thug), 13 (scozzy's young black accomplice), crash (driving instructor extraordinaire, with a thorough knowledge of the ways of the road) & more.

if you're an aspiring writer like me, or are simply interested in writers, or are just an anglophile, you need to read this book.

the atrocity exhibition by j.g. ballard

when this novel was originally printed by doubleday press in 1970, nelson doubleday happened to see a copy & ordered the entire press run shredded. apparently the furor was specifically over the brilliant chapter 14, which is entitled, "why i want to fuck ronald reagan" (reagan, i shouldn't need to point out, was far from the presidency at this time, 10 years before he was elected to the oval office). needless to say, this is not a book for everyone.

but for those who enjoy highly experimental fiction, & are not so easily offended, i can't recommend this book highly enough. this extremely nonlinear work is a bold examination of such themes as sex, automobile crashes, fractal-like geometrical landscapes, the kennedy assassination, insanity, media frenzy/celebrity & the hard sciences, all juxtaposed on top of each other in such a way that they almost seem to be the same subject.

the main character, travis/traven/travers/trabert, is slowly undergoing a psychotic breakdown (yes, he goes by many different names throughout the book, seemingly gaining a new name every chapter in a symbolic representation of his growing schizophrenia). to this end, he assembles the atrocity exhibition, a sort of art gallery composed of alternate sex deaths and other atrocity films compiled by mental patients. he subsequently has an extramarital affair with karen novotny (who dies multiple times, a sort of literary proto-kenny) & goes on a harrowing journey across the u.s with 3 mysterious riders. that's the story, anyway.

but don't worry that i spoiled anything by giving away the story, because this book isn't really about the story. it's about all the themes mentioned above & more. in fact, the farther you get into the book, the more abstracted it becomes from this travis/talbot/traven/tallis/trabert/talbert/travers narrative. & the farther the book diverges from the "story", the more seemingly lucid the actual text of the book becomes. in the beginning, each paragraph seems to leap erratically to the next, with connection between them. but the later chapters become cohesive works in their own right.

this specific edition of the book is especially impressive. released a few years ago in extra-sized format by re/search, this edition contains tons of annotations & commentary by the author which add an extra level of depth (& help make it quite a bit more comprehensible). also here are some beautifully maddening illustrations & photos. when this book first came to my mailbox, i leafed through it & upon seeing some of the illustrations, thought "what the hell?!" although quite striking & artistically rendered, the actual images of the illustrations simply didn't seem sane, & i wondered how anyone could draw such things. but as i read the book, i came to realize that the drawings made perfect sense in the context of the book, & were in fact incredibly appropriate.

by now you should know whether you want to read this book. if this review sounded appealing, then the atrocity exhibition is definitely for you. if it sounded like no more than a chaotic mess, then maybe you should just go pick up some grisham or the celestine prophecy or other drivel.

Good Omens by neil gaiman & terry pratchett

as everyone should already know, neil gaiman was the brilliant writer of vertigo's award-winning comic the sandman, as well as many other quality works. i don't know who this terry pratchett guy is, but he didn't mess anything up.

good omens is a novel about armageddon, as predicted in "the nice and accurate prophecies of agnes nutter", and those who try to prevent it. this book has everything: angels, demons, witches, the lost city of atlantis, & all sorts of other portents.

two of the most prominent characters are the angel aziraphale & the demon crowley (i spent the whole book wondering if this was supposed to be a reference to the famous aleister crowley, but never found out for sure), who both live on earth & have begun to like it here. then comes the day when crowley is assigned to begin the apocalypse by delivering the antichrist to earth.

then, in what was supposed to be a routine baby-switch, a scatterbrained nun delivers the infant antichrist to the wrong family. & that's all just the beginning.

the reviews on the cover frequently compare this book to the hitchhiker's guide trilogy, & with good reason. this book definitely follows in that tradition of storytelling & humor. however, it strikes me that this book was better than hitchhiker's guide. the story, while being just as epic, is confined to earth instead of being free to flail around the universe as the hitchhiker's guide books do. plus, the tension is much stronger; although the earth was destroyed in hitchhiker's guide, nobody really cared because the rest of the universe was still there. the apocalypse coming, though, is much more important.

this book is full of great little touches, right down to the footnotes (which often contain some of the book's funniest material. i recommend this book to anyone who is literate.

Great Apes by will self

recently i finished great apes by will self (regulars of dempster might have seen me reading it; it has the scary neanderthal man on the cover).

needless to say (it was written by will self, after all) this was a great book. the theme of the book was: what if chimpanzees had evolved as the dominant lifeform instead of humans? self builds a complex, convincing society of chimpanzee behavior, all the way down to the modified vocabulary they use.

the overall story is about artist simon dykes, a human who one day awakes in this chimp world, still convinced that he is human. of course, he suffers a mental breakdown & comes under the care of anti-psychiatrist zack busner, who takes it upon himself to cure dykes of this deulsion & bring him to terms with his chimpunity.

busner & dykes are both regular self characters, having been explored in many of the short stories from quantity theory of insanity & grey area. having read these books is not necessary to enjoy _great apes_, which stands alone wonderfully. however, some of the events of previous stories ("inclusion" especially) are mentioned in _apes_ & being familiar with those events is helpful.

i would not recommend this book to the prudish (you know who you are). many of the reversals of chimp society, especially mating behaviors & the chimpane reverence for each others' ischial scrags, might unsettle those readers who are overly sensitive. nonetheless, for those who can handle it, i highly recommend _great apes_ & any other books by will self.