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The Believer-May 2011 Issue

Posted on June 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

My new favorite thing to do is to drop by Barnes & Noble downtown and examine their magazine collection. I often buy or one two things I don’t typically read, and then read them while the magazines I subscribe to pile up in my mailbox unread.

I can’t help it if I’m an impulse-buyer when it comes to books and magazines. This time I picked up the recent issue of The Believer, which is an interesting publication consisting of mostly essays, some comics, a sprinkle of interviews, and a dash of fiction/poetry.

Reading The Believer reminded me of that Monty Python movie “And Now For Something Completely Different.” There was an essay about Bulgarian “necrologues,” a poem about Manhattan, a brief piece about friendly visits, an article about what Daniel Handler is reading, and a fantastic article about a very strange race.

Leslie Jamison’s “The Immortal Horizon” was the highlight of this issue for me. It describes a race called the “Barkley Marathons,” a treacherous, painful race through horrors unknown in northern Tennessee. The first “race,” the author tells us, happened in 1977 when the man who shot Martin Luther King, Jr. made a prison break. He ran for it, but didn’t get very far through the mud, barbs, and rough terrain. Years later, a man named Gary Cantrell started what he calls the “Barkley Marathons”- a race of ridiculous difficulty and few rules. I’m not going to regurgitate the entire article here for you, but it’s an incredibly interesting story about the race and the crazy people who run it.

The Believer also gave a book and poetry award, one to a book called Next by James Hynes and another to a collection of poetry by Atsuro Riley. Neither of which I have much desire to read based on their summaries. The Believer also publishes book, music, and bureaucratic document reviews, which is pretty interesting. A book they reviewed called Spurious by Lars Iyer struck my attention and I might add it to my already lengthy to-read list.

The Believer definitely has a little bit of something for everyone, and it’s a fun read to flip through, though admittedly I skipped a few of the items and might not pick up another issue for a while.

 

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You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon

Posted on April 19, 2010 | 1 Comment

Dan Chaon won me over with his collection of short fiction, Among the Missing, so I decided to see if he was as good at novels as he was short stories. My journey into his book You Remind Me of Me was rather disappointing. It held the same realistic elements he had in his short stories, but in bulk reads as dragging and overdone. I often found myself wishing the book would just end already.

You Remind Me of Me is told through multiple characters’ perspectives. Jonah, a socially awkward young man looking for a brother his mother gave up for adoption before he was born, Troy, the brother who has lost his son due to a drug arrest, Nora, the mother of both, and Judy Keene, the grandmother of Troy’s son who seeks to keep the child away from Troy’s bad influence and redeem herself as a mother figure after her daughter’s decline into drug addiction.

It’s pretty heavy stuff.

Mostly, this is a story about four people who feel they have made too many mistakes in their lives, they all fantasize about what their lives might have been like had they made different choices, been born to different families, had better luck.

The concepts, the search for identity and the constant introspection of his characters is very beautiful and intriguing at first, but grows tedious and dull about halfway through. A lot of it ended up reading like filler, and I longed for some action between the long passages of inner thoughts.

It’s a deeply sad story, with little to no happy moments. By the end a lot of questions have yet to be answered and only Troy seems to have redeemed himself.

I also found it difficult to feel any empathy towards the characters. Troy was a deplorable drug dealer, Jonah was on the overly self-pitying psychotic side, Nora was legitimately insane and grotesquely self-centered, and Judy was harsh and kept Troy’s son from him.

It was amazing, however, the distinct differences between Troy and Jonah’s muddled and self-pitying voices  and Nora’s clear, albeit crazy, voice. I often found myself wanting more chapters from Nora’s point of view, as her insights and feelings rang more interesting to me than Troy and Jonah’s.

I am not entirely turned off to Chaon’s novels and will probably try out his newer novel, Await Your Reply at some point in the future, but I would not recommend this book as your first taste of Chaon’s work.

Here is an interview with Chaon about his collections Fitting Ends and Among the Missing and his novel You Remind Me of Me.

I notice whole passages of “You Remind Me of Me” that were strongly affected by some of the stuff I was listening to as I wrote, bands like Sparklehorse, Red House Painters, The Innocence Mission, Julie Doiron, Yo La Tengo, Idaho, The Eels. My kids call it “suicide music,” but I find it very inspiring.

                                      -Dan Chaon from interview in The Believer

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Review: Push (Precious) by Sapphire

Posted on April 12, 2010 | Leave a comment

This book was originally published under the title “Push”, but has been re-released under the title “Precious” so as not to be confused. 

Grade: B-

I am constantly surprised by how many depressing, horrifying, stories are advertised as “uplifting” and “a human triumph”. This particular one was announced as “hope-filled” and “redemptive”, although it does throw in “horrific” and “brutal” which describes the story in a more honest way. 

If I were to write a few word blurb for the cover of this book I think it would look something like this:

“A truly horrifying tale…of a girl who is fucked over by life.”

“Tragic…heartbreaking…proof that life sucks.”

Something along those lines.

“Push” is the novel that the film “Precious” is based upon. I have not seen the film, nor would I have chosen to read this book if it hadn’t been pushed into my hands by my step-mother. 

For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, this is a story of a young black teenager living in Harlem. She has been repeatedly raped by her father since she can remember (there is a particularly graphic portion where her mother jokes about Precious’s father taking her Pampers off in order to rape the small child). She is made pregnant twice by her father, both times she keeps the babies.

Because of her parent’s abuse and neglect, Precious can’t read or write and must go to a special school. The novel follows her advancement through the school and how she fights back against her abusive parents. 

The book is written in vernacular which takes some getting use to but not much. It’s an extremely tragic story of how Precious’ life is so irreparably damaged by her parents. Other girls’ stories are told as well, most just as horrifying. 

This story is not based on any “real” people, although it could be argued that the incest, abuse,  and poverty can be seen all across America. 

However. I find this book to be filled with all the best examples of shock value. INCEST! RAPE! AIDS! GAY BASHING! Yup. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what attracted Hollywood to this novel. 

It was a quick read, one that is difficult to put down due to the above reasons. It’s impossible to look away from a car crash this horrific. This book would be nothing without the horror- and it’s difficult for me to respect it for that reason. 

Some good parts- it’s nice to read a book from the point of view of a new type of narrator. It’s not often you hear the story of an overweight, decidedly unattractive (she speaks heavily on this issue throughout the book) woman who has gone through so much trauma and speaks of it so honestly. She is crass and blunt, and it is refreshing. 

Again, don’t read this book if you’re looking for warm fuzzy feelings and happy endings- you will be very disappointed.

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Review: Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Posted on April 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

About the author: Chris Cleave is the author of three novels, Little Bee, The Other Hand, and Incendiary. He also wrote a column for The Guardian for two years. His website includes comments from the author himself, information on his novels, and a place for readers’ comments. 

Grade: B-

This novel, formerly published under the title The Other Hand, is a perfect example of false advertising. On the cover the New York Times Book Review clearly announces it as a “affecting story of human triumph” while the back cover tells little of what the actual story is about, and instead attempts to hook potential readers with vague promises of magical storytelling:

“Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don’t tell them what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds.”

Luckily you have me to tell you what this novel is really about.

This novel is told in a split narrative between a bored English woman and a refugee from Africa. Little Bee, a 16 year old refugee, escapes from Africa on a boat from men who murdered her sister and destroyed her entire village for the sake of oil. Once in England, she is kept in a detention center for two years where she learns English.

The woman, Sarah, is dealing with the suicide of a husband she ceased to love years ago while ruminating on her career, young son, and lover.

What do the two women have in common? Sarah saved Little Bee’s life once in Africa by cutting off her middle finger for some unnamed bad guys. Once Little Bee is mistakenly released from the detention center she finds her way to Sarah’s house (by using her husband’s driver’s license he left on the beach that fateful day).

The novel is a collection of memories and thoughts from both women with very little timely action. Little Bee reconnects with Sarah, and they spend a few nice days together before Little Bee is deported back to Africa.

This story does not have a happy ending, and I would argue is far from a “story of human triumph”.

The writing is decent, though the chapters in which Sarah takes the narrative sound trite and false, when it seems that we are suppose to care about Sarah and probably even respect her. Her character, except for the finger incident, is weak and very naïve, which left me annoyed with her most of the time. Her dialogue also never sounds very natural.

Little Bee’s chapters are what carries the book, largely due to the horrific nature of her experiences and the constant question, will she make it?

The answer, (spoiler alert) is no.

What is so affecting about this story is that it is set in modern times and based in fact. No, there is no Little Bee, but there are many refugees, warfare, and prison-like detention centers all over the world. I suggest reading this book if you’ve already decided on suicide and need just a little push in that direction.

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