Lazy Sunday - Graphic Novels

Apparently yesterday was such a lazy Sunday, I never even blogged what I meant to blog!  I needed something distracting but not intense, so I finally got to the box of graphic novels sent to me by one of my SFF Audio cohorts.  Later that day, I e-mailed a GoodReads friend about the dilemma I find in reviewing graphic novels.  I worry I don't rate them equally with books to begin with, like I'm treating them unfairly (yes, I fret about these things, call me crazy).  I think some of what I don't "like" is more of a question of familiarity with the genre, and I might like it more as I read more.  However, I might be second-guessing myself.  At this point I've read all of the Sandman, The Watchmen, Persepolis, and a few scattered random volumes.  I'm not a complete newb.  Also, I'm not convinced I care that much about superheros.

What do you read, if you read graphic novels or comics? 

Yesterday, I read the following titles:



What I liked:

• Humor.  I enjoyed the humor in Scott Pilgrim and Wormwood very much, whether it comes from awkward kids or talking rabbits.
• Learning about the real lives of superheroes, like Batwoman.  
• The art, of course.  Every style fitting the story, amazing use of color (except Scott, who is black and white), and creative use of space.

What I wasn't a fan of:

• Superheroes superhero lives.  I can't help it.  Daring feats?  Boring to me.
• Overly preachy.  Several of these titles were.  Not that I disagreed with what they were preaching, but I don't need a didactic comic.

See... I wonder if the elements I'm not a huge fan of are just graphic novel elements, and it could be that I just don't care for graphic novels!  If the story is good, I usually enjoy it, no matter the format.

Other graphic novels I have enjoyed:

The Unlimited Dream Company by JG Ballard

Unlimited Dream Company by J.G. Ballard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I find it difficult to know how to talk about this book. I loved the vibrant writing and surreal story, but could not recommend this to 95% of the readers I know.

Why? Well, you see... Blake is a bit of a loser. He steals a plane and crashes it into the Thames at Shepperton, and that's when everything goes a bit strange. He develops strong desires for everyone and everything in the town (see 95% comment earlier). Just like in dreams, relationships have no consequences, people can fly and commune with the sea and forest creatures. Blake becomes like a pagan dream god - even spreading his semen around grows a tropical rainforest.

And yes, I said the word semen. Trust me, if you can't take it the two times in this review, this is not the book for you.

But maybe you are a reader who can push aside all of your senses of moral violation to enjoy the writing, the description, the dreamy world of this book. If you can, you should. I couldn't put it down. The aerial wedding scene is particularly memorable.

"When they had gone, I walked alone through the late afternoon, my damp suit covered with a coat of rainbows, a confetti of petals, celebrating my marriage with the meadow."

Other authors this reminds me of: Michel Houellebecq is the first one to come to mind.  A little squeeze of the little Thomas Pynchon I've read.  Maybe a little bit of the visceral imagery of Catherynne Valente - that squirmy edge between disturbing and beautiful.

Other things in general: The Birds, the story by Daphne du Maurier and made into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock.  There are multiple scenes in this filled by birds, and even if Ballard hasn't written it to be foreboding, I kept picturing that setting intertwined.  And in this one scene where the birds are dropping from the sky or popping out of his body - wow.


It also reminds me of the movie Pleasantville, only to an extreme. 

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was longlisted for the Booker prize in 2010, but I just now finished listening to the audiobook. The audio is done by six voice actors and one narrator, and they do a spectacular job (except for the guy whose Italian student Mario sounds more like the Looney Tunes Speedy Gonzales). Irish accents galore!

This is a portrayal of kids at a boarding school in Ireland, so you should expect all the usual - boys with weird issues, bad family relationships, sexual discovery (add that to teenage boys and there are some... awkward moments), drugs, apathy, the usual. What I appreciated is that while you know that Skippy Dies, it isn't as if the book is trying to explain it. It still manages to, but that isn't the point.

I also liked how some of the chapters were more from the teachers' perspectives, with their own struggles and awkwardness. Howard the Coward was definitely a favorite!

I'm not sure how memorable any one moment is, but I definitely laughed out loud at some parts. I think listening to the audio solidified my enjoyment of the text. This won't be for everyone, as some may not be able to stomach the portrayals of... let's call it reality. 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I read this back in 2005, I remember being annoyed by Christopher. I think I didn't really get it, then. This time around (2011), I listened to the audio, and enjoyed it a lot more. The main character, being autistic, does not always make the connections that the reader can make about his world, and I enjoyed that dichotomy very much. It must take an amazing amount of energy to raise such a complicated child - let's hope all families have a Siobhan in their lives!

Other fun bits for list-making-lovers like me include charts and graphs, math problems, and an intertwined mystery story along with Christopher's life.  

I participated in the SFF Audio readalong for this book, and you can listen here, if you have about 2 hours.

Prize Winners Reflection

I got the Giller Prize wrong, but I never got to read the winner, so what can you do.  Congratulations to Esi Edugyan and her win for Half-Blood Blues!

The one category I read everything for the National Book Award, poetry, I picked right!  Nikki Finney gave an emotional and powerful acceptance speech last night, and everyone seemed very moved.  You should definitely check out the volume that won the award, Head Off & Split.  Some are funny, and some speak to the historical experience of African Americans. She has a great ability to convey authentic emotion.  To me, this is what poetry should be!

Not having read any of the other nominees for the National Book Award other than the previews for fiction, I was still interested to see who the winners were.  Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward won for fiction, and I'll probably read the book at some point - I think the judges were won over by the visceral portrayal of poverty in the rural south.

The winner for non-fiction had the best title (it matters, don't you think?) - The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt.

Congratulations to all the winners and happy reading!

My Picks for the National Book Award in Fiction

As promised in my last entry, I have read the Kindle previews for all  National Book Award candidates and ranked them in the order of my preference.  Can you really pick a book from its preview?  We shall see....

The preview for Binocular Vision had three complete stories, and I was impressed.  My favorite of the three was called Inbound, and is about a family trying to give their daughter a cultural experience while struggling with a child with Down Syndrome.  It had an amazing balance of people trying to do what they'd always planned in the face of a situation they had never anticipated.  As a result, the older daughter has more challenges as well. 

Phew, well.

This book is definitely rural in tone, I'm thinking Mississippi or Louisiana since they are preparing for a hurricane.  The description of the puppy births reminds me of John Steinbeck in the Red Pony.  It felt very visceral with potential to be depressing, as the family in the preview section is clearly living in poverty.

I am thrown off by this book because I keep expecting it to be set somewhere where tigers live, maybe India, but the tiger in the preview is at the zoo, and the landscape seems to be the former Yugoslavia.  A woman's grandfather has died in a bit of a mystery, as he never told anyone he was dying except her.  I want to read more of this because it seemed to have the potential for an interesting story, but at the same time the language was simpler than I really like.  

I would say I wasn't wrong about my "book club light" guesstimate.  The book starts with a boat of Japanese brides being sent off to America.  They come from all over Japan, and are being married off all over America.  This is a pretty typical cultural clash novel, I'd guess, and is bound to be interesting because of that conflict.  The author gives everything a color, and it really jumped out because it got a little ridiculous even in the preview.  I probably wouldn't finish this one.

Full disclosure - I fell asleep reading this preview on Sunday evening.  I mean, it is at most 30 pages, and I couldn't make it through.  I have to be tricked into reading historical fiction, and this novel was too obvious.  I'm ranking it last because of my own tastes, but don't let it scare you away from trying it.

National Book Award - Cover Art for Fiction Finalists

Time has gotten away from me!  When the finalists for the National Book Award were first announced, I read and ruminated on the poetry category, but then promptly forgot that the Award was coming up so soon in my rush to read the Giller Prize nominees, to re-read everything remotely related to Neuromancer before I did the SFF Audio podcast Sunday (will post in another week), and finish Brideshead Revisited before tomorrow night's book club.  Phew, I've been a busy reader!  I need to write posts about some of these things as well, and hope to this week.

I'm not going to have time to track down copies of the fiction finalists for the NBA before Wednesday.  What I pledge to you is that I will read the previews provided by Amazon.com, and try to make guesses from those limited encounters.  For tonight, I will make completely uneducated guesses as to the success of these books based entirely on the cover designs.

This cover is pretty drab, really, and I wouldn't even pick this one up to take a look if I was gazing at a display of books at a store.  The dust makes me think historical novel, which is not usually my favorite.  It also brings to mind last year's winner, which was my least favorite of the set.  So in that thought pattern - high likelihood of a win, low likelihood that I'll like it.  I just read the publisher blurb, and more than just dust, this is a war book.  Just not my thing.  Okay, not so much reading envy for this title, although I still plan to read the preview.

This is eye-catching. It has that kind of trendy instagram feeling while also looking nostalgic. I note from the cover that these are short stories, rare for a National Book Award finalist. That sets it apart, and would read as a breath of fresh air. Something about it feels depressing and historic, probably urban, and I'm thinking dear god not another war story.   The nice thing about short stories is that they don't tend to all be about the same things.  This will also mean that my preview is bound to be less representative than it will be for the novels.

Dog on the cover... dog on the cover... what does that remind me of? Oh yeah, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime which I just re-read for SFF Audio. That makes me expect this to be more of a modern story, probably not so broad in spectrum, maybe a family drama instead of something historically based. The word salvage is a clue, and maybe bones too - probably not a cheery tune.  Prediction - I will like it!  I guess we shall see!

Tea Obrecht was recently signing books at Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, SC. It was on a night I just couldn't make it over in time because of a meeting I couldn't miss, but I remember this book's description grabbing me when the list was just posted. Since I won't read it in time for the award anyway, I'm going to save it to read during my Around the World reading challenge next year. Since the author was born in Belgrade, it even fits my criteria.I'm not sure the cover is what draws me in - but the name is definitely memorable.  If I had to guess, I'd expect this to win the prize just based on my gut reaction.  Don't trust it!  I was completely wrong in 2010. 

This looks the least like a typical nominee to me. Just from the cover, I'd expect it to be making the "book club light" circuit, where books like the Jane Austen Book Club or The Help end up. Nothing against those books, they just aren't the same "literary" circuit. Wow, I could really make some people mad. I hope you understand what I'm saying. This is from the cover alone. I don't know if this book actually has an attic at all.  My prediction is that it has the potential not to be memorable.  I will be happy for it to prove me wrong!