Dec 09 2015

The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad #2) by Tana French

Tana French writes some really terrific, atmospheric fiction. She’s good at untangling complicated emotions and relationships and presenting them to the reader in a sympathetic fashion. But oh my God, this was the most ludicrous mystery setup I’ve ever read. It was so bad that I’m confident not even post-Meloni Law & Order: SVU would touch the premise. To wit: a former undercover cop assumes an old identity that has been stolen by a woman who shows up murdered. Fine… until you realize that she’s infiltrating not a drug ring or other form of organized crime, but a close-knit group of four other post-graduate students. None of whom, she believes for the longest time, could possibly be responsible for the murder. I mean, what in the hell kind of cop has instincts this terrible?! I get that she’s sublimating her own identity in becoming a member of their idealized “family” (and yes, the process is akin to entering a cult) due to having been orphaned herself as a child, and yes it’s an interesting mental conundrum, but the gross lack of professionalism had me seriously doubting that any superior officer in his right mind would sign off on this convoluted bullshit.

And then, to add to my outraged disbelief, the goddamned book cribs straight off Donna Tartt’s The Secret History only with cops. Why even fucking bother?! As a reader, or even as a writer? When I got to the climax of the story all I felt was “been there, and enjoyed the other version miles better.”

You know what else I couldn’t handle? How I was supposed to sympathize with “Lexie” at the end in Cassie’s imaginings. I mean, I get it, it’s a seductive lifestyle, but Lexie was a very hurtful human being, and romanticizing her shit was far too adolescent for me to stomach.

I’m at the point in this series where I still really want this to be good but am seriously side eyeing all the glowing reviews because this just isn’t as amazing as others, readers and critics I respect, would have me believe. I mean, I really did like Cassie when she got her head together and remembered that she was working, and I did like seeing how her relationship with Sam and even Rob evolved. But I’m still mad about issues unresolved in/from In The Woods, so… I dunno, one more book? I think three is enough of a series for me to really decide whether it’s worthwhile or no.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/12/09/the-likeness-dublin-murder-squad-2-by-tana-french/

Dec 05 2015

Rogues edited by George R R Martin and Gardner Dozois

A solid collection of stories, some better than others, but none, if I’m being quite honest, really a groundbreaker. My favorites were likely The Inn Of The Seven Blessings by Matthew Hughes (whom I’d never heard of before) and Tawny Petticoats by Michael Swanwick (whose Mongolian Wizard series I adore!) The non-fantastic entries were, I felt, weaker than the others, tho I really enjoyed Connie Willis’ extrapolation of modern-day society and pop culture with Now Showing. Patrick Rothfuss gave us a really strong story set in the universe of the Kingkiller Chronicles, but I felt that George R R Martin’s own contribution here, The Rogue Prince, wasn’t much more than a rather salacious he-said/she-said popular, if fictional, history. Overall, an entertaining collection of easily readable stories, even if some of them hew only loosely to the theme.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/12/05/rogues-edited-by-george-r-r-martin-and-gardner-dozois/

Nov 29 2015

Disclaimer by Renee Knight

About halfway through this book, I hated everyone involved (with the great exception of Catherine,) including, and this is saying something, the author. But I’m glad I gritted my teeth and got to the end, because it was well worth it. In Disclaimer, people are awful to each other because they seek to assuage their inner pain, and make up their own truths because they can neither face nor understand reality. I thought what happened to Catherine in the middle incredibly unfair (hence why I was so angry with the author) so was thoroughly pleased with the denouement and, especially, the decision she made (because fuck Robert.) I did think what happened to Stephen rather harsh (and frankly melodramatic;) the poor man had already suffered enough. But quite a clever novel, overall.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/11/29/disclaimer-by-renee-knight/

Nov 27 2015

A Brief History Of Seven Killings by Marlon James

I haven’t been so relieved to finish a book in a very long time. Not that it’s badly written, or even that it’s dull, just that it’s so unrelentingly violent and dismal that I could not, in any of my other entertainments, even approach anything destructive (so, goodbye, playing Witcher 3 or watching True Detective for the duration.) There are things I enjoyed about A Brief History Of Seven Killings (to which also, “brief” my ass.) Nina’s storyline was painfully familiar to me both as an elder sibling and as an immigrant in self-imposed exile. The patois was a lot of fun to read: haven’t enjoyed that kind of immersive conversational writing since, jeez, probably a Roddy Doyle novel. And I learned a lot more about Bob Marley and Jamaica’s history in the late 20th century than I’d known before. But I will never read this book again, and hesitate to recommend it even, Booker win notwithstanding. I’ll excerpt from my conversation with the bff why:

“Yeah, the book I’m reading is tiresomely violent: there are mass shootings, assassinations, drug deaths, beatings, very un-sexy sex. Which is all realistic but unrelentingly ugly, and I am fortunate that my everyday life has more room for happiness and beauty in it than the world depicted in the book. I’m going to be glad to finish it (hopefully today) then will likely take a break from books to read a fashion magazine before plunging back in to other’s, hopefully less depressing, imaginations. Idk, does that sound callous? I mean, I don’t want to dismiss the lived experiences of others but this book highlights the most brutal and sordid chapters of these people’s lives and it’s hard to digest all at once without cutting back on other sources of violence in order to retain some form of mental-emotional balance. I sympathize but would just as soon work towards no one having to live in that world rather than wallow in its filth and details.”

On an even more Doreen-is-a-bad-reader note, I freely admit that a lot of the voices tended to blend into each other for me. I had a hard time differentiating between the expendable shooters, as well as between the American officials/conspirators for too-long stretches of the book. ABHO7K is a challenging novel, and if that’s what you’re into, more power to you. But there were only so many permutations of violence, drugs and cheerless sex I could handle.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/11/27/a-brief-history-of-seven-killings-by-marlon-james/

Nov 21 2015

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

I really loved Mindy Kaling on The Office, and quite enjoyed the first season of The Mindy Project. Alas, I stopped watching the latter when the levels of self-absorption stopped being entertaining, so I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy reading this book, especially since excerpts veered over into unfairly judgmental territory. But that, I suppose, is why one shouldn’t judge a book by its excerpts. On the whole, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) is a charming, funny and honest, if hardly exhaustive, autobiography of a young woman who’s found success in comedy. It’s a great book for anyone interested in her life and how she did it, and a quick, light read for anyone wanting something humorous.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/11/21/is-everyone-hanging-out-without-me-and-other-concerns-by-mindy-kaling/

Nov 20 2015

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

It took me two days to finish the last 5%, mostly because damn you, Ingress double ap, but also because I was neither ready for nor okay with the idea of a cliffhanger, which was where I thought the book was going. Instead, it goes one better and, while I still really, really want to know wtf Mellissa is (a genius loci in her own right?) I was, overall, very pleased with the way this book put the series back on track after it faltered, I felt, with Broken Homes.

Anyway, Peter Grant goes off into the countryside to see whether a hedge wizard was involved in the disappearance of two young girls, then sticks around, ostensibly to be of service in an all-hands-on-deck sort of way, but really to get his mind off of the events of Broken Homes. Then he finds that magic might be involved after all, and Beverly decidedly shows back up in his life, yay! I was pleased with the way the book balanced the case at hand with the overarching story, and dead pleased at more possible info on Molly. I kinda want to go turn up at Ben Aaronovitch’s doorstep and beg him to keep writing, which I know would be entirely unhelpful to both him and to my aim of having him write more faster, but that’s the place Foxglove Summer left me. More more more please!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/11/20/foxglove-summer-by-ben-aaronovitch/

Nov 17 2015

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch

This was prolly the first book in the series where the case itself felt a little too convoluted (I mean, Isengard, really?) tho I really loved how the overarching series continues to develop with the Faceless Man and argh argh argh the ending! I didn’t expect that to happen and I should have: props to Ben Aaronovitch for the masterful handling.

Still, tho, I felt the book got a bit too wanky in the details. I love learning about architecture, but had a really hard time visualizing Skygarden, which I felt slowed down my processing of the new magical elements introduced in the book, as well. I’ll admit that I’ve never had the firmest grasp on them in any of the preceding books either, but this was the one where I finally felt as if I was struggling to keep up. Anyway, Broken Homes would never work as a standalone, so is recommended only for people who’ve already read and loved the first three.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/11/17/broken-homes-by-ben-aaronovitch/

Nov 13 2015

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

You guys, I wanted to love this book (despite even the vapid recommendation from Gwyneth freaking Paltrow that came with my copy) and there were certain parts where I’m like “yes, I understand that” and “yes, I lived that” but… I think the most egregious example of my problem with it is that I only understood the drama of the ending when I read the excerpt of the sequel. Why wasn’t the importance of the damn shoes made more clear in this book? If the promise had been explicitly stated in the book, the ending would have had a much different, better impact; as it is, it just felt abrupt. I dunno, maybe I just missed the part where he said it? Then clearly Elena Ferrante is too subtle an author for me.

And maybe it’s the fact that I had my own similar childhood attachment that’s working against me in appreciating this novel. I kept comparing my friendship with B to the heroines’ relationship and wondering which of us was the Lenu or the Lila, in turn. But none of the book was new territory, none of it told me stuff I didn’t already know. None of it had any resonance with the many strands of my emotional history. I also didn’t find any of the events at all startling, tho once I read the excerpt of the second novel, I was, first, greatly impressed at Ms Ferrante’s orchestration of events, but then disappointed that I needed a whole other book to understand the first. I did really like how Lila and her fiance aspired to make something better of their community, which is a large part of why I’m going to read that second book. There’s a great setup here, and I’m hoping the sequel (and I suppose the rest of the series) makes good on it.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/11/13/my-brilliant-friend-by-elena-ferrante/

Nov 06 2015

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

So you get to the one part in the book (and anyone who’s read it will know what I’m talking about) and you stop, stunned. And you go back and you read the last part over again. And if you’re me, and essentially a British schoolgirl at your core, like Maddy you burst into uncontrollable tears.

This book, about two young women working for the British during World War II, is a sensational depiction of gender and friendship in wartime. Both incredibly clever and deeply moving, it pulls no punches as our narrators describe the horror of warfare and living under Nazi rule. Code Name Verity balances out the grimness with sly humor, moments of beauty and, above all, an abiding faith in the bond between the two women. I am always partial to books about best friends, and this novel was far and away one of the best, if almost unbearably gallant, visions of such.

My only complaint about this book is that there isn’t that much difference between the women’s narrative voices, but given that the social background of “British schoolgirl” extends to them both, it’s forgivable. Regardless, it will take me quite a while to recover from this intense, amazing book.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/11/06/code-name-verity-by-elizabeth-wein/

Nov 03 2015

Modern Romance: An Investigation by Aziz Ansari

Honestly, this is just a superlative book on what it’s like to date and be in a relationship in the present day. Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg conduct studies and review data to bring a comprehensive but still accessible (in large part due to Mr Ansari’s humor and personal anecdotes) overview of modern romance. They compare present standards with historical trends, and also look at mores in Doha, Tokyo, Buenos Aires and Paris, in addition to small-town and big-city America. Modern Romance: An Investigation sets out to demystify a lot of the challenges faced by those looking for love today, and succeeds with panache. I haven’t been this impressed with a popular sociology book since Andrei S Markovits’ Offside, and am even more so given that MR:AI never flags or dries out, and deals with a much larger and more universal concept than football.

Also, Mr Ansari is hilarious. Definitely looking forward to reading more of his stuff. Hopefully, a food book next? The chapter on Tokyo had me running to make ramen with chicken, spinach and egg. His enthusiasm is infectious! Which also made the last chapter, where he gives his advice on how to cope with modern romance, that much more effective, backed up as it was with reams of fascinating data. Terrific book.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/11/03/modern-romance-an-investigation-by-aziz-ansari/