The Great Snape Debate

#47Title: The Great Snape DebateAuthors: Orson Scott Card, Joyce Millman, & Amy Berner
Publisher: BenBella (for Borders)
Year: 2007
Genre: Literary Criticism
175 pages (plus 9 inexplicable blank pages in the middle--surely in this day and age we're not still stuck with the number of pages in a signature, are we?)

Note that this is a Borders exclusive, so buy your copy now if you're at all interested. It's enjoyable enough, but not a work for the ages. There's a snappy tone throughout that's meant to be hip but is quite off-putting. This includes numerous transient pop-culture references and little boxed riffs that don't contribute to the discussion and seem very out of place.

Like all Harry Potter exegesis, it's fun, particularly since the authors use many of the same data to support both Snape's innocence and his evil. However, their hearts aren't really on the side of "evil," which is a shorter section with more unsupported generalizations. Orson Scott Card's section is the best written and most interesting, and addresses the Snape question by appealing to literary conventions.

Two nitpicks:
1. This is not, as it claims, a "flipbook." A flipbook uses a series of similar static images to provide the illusion of motion hen flipped. This is a "double" or "double title," a format used by ACE and other publishers to offer two novellas in the same binding in the heyday of science fiction.

2. If you're going to quote and cite, give a reference page or at least footnotes.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

#46Title: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Author: Max Brooks
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Year: 2006
Genre: Speculative Fiction
342 pages

Studs Terkel meets Dies the Fire. I was pleasantly surprised to find this a better example of fake sociology than horror. Perhaps its emotional impact is mitigated by the fact that everything is in indirect discourse--the storytellers are mediated by the narrator's presence, creating a one-step-removed framework. I kept waiting for a gut-wrenching story from a parent who had to stave in the skull of his/her reanimated child, but none was forthcoming. There was also little about zombie psychology to offer a reflection on non-zombie psychology, though there is some nod toward this notion near the end. There are some amusing self-references to the author's The Zombie Survival Guide, no subplots to speak of, and a woeful under-representation of female voices.

That said, I enjoyed the book and read it quickly. It would be good beach reading, especially if you are a little suggestable and would experience a pleasant frisson at night knowing that zombies tend to walk (or drag themselves) out of the surf when the sense the presence of humans.

Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why

#45Title: Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2005
Genre: New Testament history and criticism
242 pages (book club edition)

Clear, straightforward, and easy to follow. The premise (that the New Testament contains both deliberate and accidental textual changes) is not very radical if the reader accepts the assertion that the New Testament is rendered by humans, even if divinely inspired. Judging from the reviews available on the web, for some this premise is more outrageous than for others. Ehrman uses interesting examples, such as looking at the form of a section of text to determine which elements are likely to be intrusions. (Those readers who have become familiar with chiasmus through the structure of the Harry Potter series will appreciate the example from Luke.)

Ehrman assumes that the reader has some knowledge of New Testament criticism--he doesn't talk much about the history of the writing of the Gospels, for example). This may be confusing for people who are not familiar with the writing and redaction of the New Testament. In addition, the "bible" of the title is misleading. Ehrman is only addressing the New Testament, not the Torah/Old Testament.

I'd have wished for Ehrman's recommendation for the best contemporary New Testament available, since I won't be reading it in Greek any time soon.

In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made

#44Title: In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made
Author: Norman Cantor
Publisher: Perennial
Year: 2002 
Genre: Medical history
245 pages

I really enjoy books about the rise and spread of diseases and their effects on politics and culture. I read Hans Zinsser's Rats, Lice, and History at a young age; even as a child I recognized the skillfulness and clarity of his writing. Alas, Cantor's In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made is disorganized, repetitive, tangential, and unskillful. If a student handed it in as a manuscript, I'd hand it back with the request that s/he outline her work first. I am not exaggerating when I say that putting each paragraph on an index card, throwing the cards in the air, stacking them and recompiling the book in that order without adding transitions might be an organizational improvement. Topics are touched upon and discarded; paragraphs only peripherally related to the topic festoon the chapters like cobwebs; assertions are not backed up with evidence; ideas and statements are repeated. Why this was a New York Times bestseller I don't know, but I think less of us all that it was.

Cantor's rambling and disjointed text is neither a good introduction to the plague nor, as the title promises, an examination of its aftermath. Theories of the plague's constituents (Yersina pestis? Anthrax? Cosmic dust?) are raised and dropped at random. Some historical and economic information does address the purported topic, but is poorly written and appears in desultory fashion. The text is internally contradictory. Some sentences make no sense. It reads like a rambling professor's last lecture before retirement.

Odd ad hominem arguments and strange attributive statements mar the text further. Is it really that important to identify Richard II's homosexuality multiple times? To apparently blame people who had not yet invented empiricism for not understanding about germs? To somehow hold the Jews accountable for the misperception that they caused the plague? To criticize women for choosing chastity and the cloister when their rate of death in childbirth was so high? (Male clergy are not criticized for their chastity at all.) Lucy (the early human discovered by the Leakeys) is referred to as "the black mother of us all," a phrase in which the inclusion of "black" is superfluous and strange, and which occurs in the context of a several-page disquisition that has very little to do with the plague (and certainly nothing to do with its wake).

Do yourself a favor and avoid this like the... well, you know. Many books of much higher quality address the topic. As for this one, though I am a book packrat of problematic proportions, I'm tempted to throw it in my paper recycling bin lest it fall into the hands of someone who can't critically evaluate it.

The Stolen Child

#43Title: The Stolen Child
Author: Keith Donohue
Publisher: Anchor
Year: 2006
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy
336 pages

A beautiful first novel about identity, identification, belonging, memory, personal history, and orientation in time and cultural history. Donohue elaborates on fairy/hobgoblin mythology through the voices of two boys, one a human boy stolen from his life, one the changeling who replaces him and, in attempting to regain his humanity, struggles to recall his previous boyhood before he, too, was stolen. Both narrators feel authentic and their experiences and preoccupations parallel each other organically rather than mechanistically.

The only points where I was drawn out of the narrative were times when I wasn't sure whether a narrator was confused or an editing problem had occurred. These were all related to small temporal considerations; since confusion about time and experience is one of the tropes, I've decided in retrospect that I was probably noticing the narrators' confusion.

I picked this up in the airport in Atlanta and read it straight through by my Phoenix plane change. The last time I chose reading over sleep on a flight this long was in 1987 when I read Keri Hulme's The Bone People on a Tel Aviv-Paris-US flight.

The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye

#42

Title: The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye
Author: Jonathan Lethem
Publisher: Tor
Year: 1997
Genre: Science fiction
304 pages

An early short story collection from Lethem. As is usually true of his work, some stories are more postmodern with science fiction conceits, while others are the reverse. At times I'm content with the elusiveness, and at others I'd like more fleshed-out world-building. I enjoyed "The Happy Man" (though I anticipated the ending very quickly) and "The Hardened Criminals." "Forever, Said the Duck" was the weakest piece because the least original. I'm a huge Lethem fan and I enjoyed this collection, but I do have a strong preference for his novels.

Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories

#41

Title: Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other StoriesAuthor: Garth Nix
Publisher: Eos
Year: 2006
Genre: Young adult fantasy
415 pages

An all right but somewhat disappointing collection from the author of the Abhorsen trilogy. The title is misleading; the novella to which it refers is about Nicholas Sayre and the Abhorsen is not in evidence. It's a fine novella if you've read the triology; without that background, it would be mystifying.

Since plot is Nix's strong point as a writer, his short stories seem especially thin and not particularly noteworthy.  The stories vary in skillfulness and interest. I enjoye

You Can't Get There from Here: A Year on the Fringes of a Shrinking World

#40
Title: You Can't Get There from Here: A Year on the Fringes of a Shrinking World
Author: Gayle Forman
Publisher: Rodale
Year: 2005
Genre: Travel narrative
325 pages

Socioeconomically, this travelogue is about midway between Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun and Rita Golden Gelman's Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World. It's interesting enough as a travel narrative, though as when I read Mayes, I become more interested in how the authors financed their trips than in the trips themselves. The lack of discussion about money becomes an elephant in the room and intrudes on my engagement with the narrative. Forman foregrounds her marital tensions and interweaves them with her travelogues, but then drops the topic without a clear account of how those tensions were resolved. This is not only not well integrated but actively distracting. Did someone have an affair? A drinking problem? What is unsaid, and why was it included in the first place?

Forman does interesting things as a traveler. I admire her without wanting to spend time with her.

Knock Yourself Up: No Man? No Problem. A Tell-all Guide to Becoming a Single Mom

#39
Title: Knock Yourself Up: No Man? No Problem. A Tell-all Guide to Becoming a Single Mom
Author: Louise Sloan
Publisher:
Year: NYP
Genre: Sociology/self-help
350 pages in manuscript

I'm not going to review this manuscript until the book is in print, but will merely note here that I read it in manuscript form. More details as they are available.
10/19/07 Edit:
It's published!



Title: Knock Yourself Up: No Man? No Problem: A Tell-All Guide to Becoming a Single Mom 
Author: Louise Sloan
Publisher: Avery
Year: 2007
Genre: Sociology/self-help
304 pages

Sloan has done something difficult--she's written a breezy book about artificial insemination and single parenthood. Part self-help, part popular sociology, this book covers both the general how-to as well as the why; the latter (as well as the angst, the celebration, the what-will-my-mother-think?) is conveyed through Sloan's first-person account of her own attempts at single pregnancy and those of a number of other women.

The book is enjoyable even for those readers not interested in engaging in this process. How many of us know that much about how semen is delivered to your doorstep, for example? This is fun to discuss at parties. The target reader receives information that she is probably not getting from a more factual "how to" book, particularly about other women's decision making and experiences along the way. Sloan nicely balances "what is it?" with "what does it feel like?" Wisely, she does not make general pronouncements, but rather invites women with a range of experiences to say what it was for each of them.

Possible Side Effects

#38
Title: Possible Side Effects
Author: Augusten Burroughs
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Year: 2006
Genre: Essay/memoir
291 pages

An enjoyable enough collection of essays by the author of Running with Scissors and Dry. None of these pieces appears to have been published in a magazine before this anthology, and editing may have helped some of them. The quality varies, with many pieces relying on a sort of weak rim-shot punchline. Some pieces read like out-takes from Running with Scissors. As compared to both Dry andMagical Thinking, the "Augusten" narrator is not as snippy and cruel in this collection. His own vulnerability and anxiety are more on display, and though the constant reitterations of "I'm an alcoholic" are wearing, they are at least accurate and about Augusten's appraisal of himself, not about the failings of others.

Pendragon: The Merchant of Death

#36
Title: Pendragon: The Merchant of Death
Author: D. J. McHale
Publisher: Aladdin
Year: 2002
Genre: Young adult fantasy
375 pages

I'm sure that there is a way to re-sequence LiveJournal entries but I'm going to waste my time on other things. This book was #36.

There are a number of books entitled "Pendragon" out there, including Lawland's Pendragon Cycle. You'd do best to search for this series by the name of each installment.

The Merchant of Death is the first in the series and sets the grounds for the rest of the series: Bobby Pendragon appears to be a typical popular young teenager, but discovers in a Gaiman-esque scene in an abandoned subway station that he is a Traveler, a sort of interworld, intertemporal good-guy who has a role in the battle between good and evil. This premise is okay and generally well-executed. The device of having Bobby writing to his friends on magical parchment also works reasonably well.

The major problems with this first volume are the overuse of artificial-sounding teenager language in the narration, the formulaic feel of the plot, and implausible worldbuilding that decreases suspension of disbelief. To give two examples of the latter problem, one more throwaway and one more crucial: One of Bobby's earliest observations of Denduron is that it has three suns, which set simultaneously in three quadrants of the sky. Other than a chance convergence I don't see how this is possible. It has no relevance to the plot, so its only actual function is to irritate the reader. More critically, Bobby and his Uncle Press endure a dangerous and harmful journey from the subway to Denduron via a flume that deposits them atop a snowy mountain surrounded by evil creatures called quigs. Later it is revealed that there is a second flume, much more convenient to the village and with no mention of quigs. Apparently Uncle Press didn't choose this flume solely because the author needed Bobby and Press to be separated. This is poor plotting and not compelling.

I don't mean to be overly critical. This series is clearly beach reading, not enduring literature. It's entertaining enough, and judging by the reviews online, children enjoy it even when critics don't. The next few volumes should show whether this is a picaresque series in which a world is saved per volume, or whether a larger plot unfolds.