Author: George Saunders
Genre: fiction, young reader (?)
Publication info: Villard Books, 2000
Pages: 82
Sounds like a Dr. Seuss title, doesn't it? I wish it were. Not to say this is an awful book—it's actually fairly interesting and creative, but it doesn't quite have the magic of Dr. Seuss.
This is another book I just sort of came across. At 82 pages and with lots of illustrations (by the popular Lane Smith), it didn't take very long to read. Good thing, too. I'm not as angry as I sound, but the book just didn't turn out to be what I was hoping for.
It's the story of a seaside village named Frip, which consists of three families. The people of the village make their living by selling goat's milk. Once in a while, however, these little burr-like creatures called Gappers come out of the sea and latch onto the goats, frightening them and rendering them unable to provide any milk. It's the children's job to remove the Gappers from the goats. One of these children is a girl named Capable, and one day, the Gappers decide to focus exclusively on her goats. When they do so, she inexplicably loses the respect and sympathy of everyone else in the village.
This little book has its moments. Saunders's style is entertaining once in a while. And the illustrations are, of course, top notch. But the book's quality is overshadowed by an irritating didacticism. The whole thing feels allegorical (for example, the main character's name), although I couldn't tell you what each element represents, and it all seems geared toward teaching a moral to the reader. All of this is fine to some degree, but when you pick up a book expecting to be entertained, but instead the entertainment takes the backseat to teaching a lesson, it's hard not to be annoyed. If I thought the book was funnier, maybe I wouldn't be so bothered.
One more annoyance: Judging by the style of publication, I assume this to be a children's book. But the reason I put a question mark in the heading is I found some of the language a little shocking. I've read plenty of profanity in literature before, and sometimes I'm able to tolerate it or at least ignore it, but in a book of this nature I find it entirely inappropriate. Parents, take note.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Gathering Blue
Author: Lois Lowry
Genre: fiction, young adult
Publication info: Houghton Mifflin, 2000
Pages: 215
Remember The Giver, that Newberry-winner from the 90s? That book that everyone told you to read while you were growing up but you never got around to it until years later? Okay, maybe that's not how it happened for you, but the book somehow got past me until just recently. It's a young-adult book, but it wasn't until my young adulthood that I got around to reading it. (Makes you wonder why they use that label.)
Anyway, Gathering Blue is the sort-of sequel to that captivating book. I say "sort of" because it never refers specifically to anything or anyone in The Giver; only the mood is similar. Like The Giver, it depicts a society very different from our own (or is it?), but while the first book is a kind of dystopian story, this one is more of a post-apocalyptic tale. I hope Lowry doesn't mind that I pigeonhole her novels this way.
Kira, the protagonist of the book, has just bid farewell to her mother, who died of a mysterious illness. Now an orphan, and with a crippled leg that makes her essentially useless in her primitive society, Kira is in danger of being cast out and left for dead. But when she is put on trial before the Council of Guardians, she learns that they have other plans for her. Plans that make use of her remarkable talent for working with thread. Life seems secure from her now, but, as she soon learns, things aren't as good as they seem.
That's the basic idea, anyway. It's a pretty interesting book. Lowry has set up an intriguing, far-from-perfect society with a strange set of mannerisms. Children are routinely called "tykes," husbands "hubbies." And the only indication of a person's age is how many syllables there are in his or her name. Overall, it's perhaps not as interesting as the society in The Giver, but it's still pretty creative.
The ending, I have to say, leaves something to be desired. Many things are solved, many secrets revealed, but still the ending is somehow not completely satisfying. I suppose one reason for this is that at this point Lowry knew she would be writing a third book to tie the other two together. But the book should also be able to stand on its own. For the most part it does, I guess, but some things still leave me wondering. Is it just a trick to get me to read the third book?
The thing is that I probably will.
Genre: fiction, young adult
Publication info: Houghton Mifflin, 2000
Pages: 215
Remember The Giver, that Newberry-winner from the 90s? That book that everyone told you to read while you were growing up but you never got around to it until years later? Okay, maybe that's not how it happened for you, but the book somehow got past me until just recently. It's a young-adult book, but it wasn't until my young adulthood that I got around to reading it. (Makes you wonder why they use that label.)
Anyway, Gathering Blue is the sort-of sequel to that captivating book. I say "sort of" because it never refers specifically to anything or anyone in The Giver; only the mood is similar. Like The Giver, it depicts a society very different from our own (or is it?), but while the first book is a kind of dystopian story, this one is more of a post-apocalyptic tale. I hope Lowry doesn't mind that I pigeonhole her novels this way.
Kira, the protagonist of the book, has just bid farewell to her mother, who died of a mysterious illness. Now an orphan, and with a crippled leg that makes her essentially useless in her primitive society, Kira is in danger of being cast out and left for dead. But when she is put on trial before the Council of Guardians, she learns that they have other plans for her. Plans that make use of her remarkable talent for working with thread. Life seems secure from her now, but, as she soon learns, things aren't as good as they seem.
That's the basic idea, anyway. It's a pretty interesting book. Lowry has set up an intriguing, far-from-perfect society with a strange set of mannerisms. Children are routinely called "tykes," husbands "hubbies." And the only indication of a person's age is how many syllables there are in his or her name. Overall, it's perhaps not as interesting as the society in The Giver, but it's still pretty creative.
The ending, I have to say, leaves something to be desired. Many things are solved, many secrets revealed, but still the ending is somehow not completely satisfying. I suppose one reason for this is that at this point Lowry knew she would be writing a third book to tie the other two together. But the book should also be able to stand on its own. For the most part it does, I guess, but some things still leave me wondering. Is it just a trick to get me to read the third book?
The thing is that I probably will.
Friday, January 9, 2009
The Narnian
The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis
Author: Alan Jacobs
Genre: nonfiction, biography
Publication info: HarperCollins, 2006 (hardcover in 2005)
Pages: 342 (including notes and index)
C. S. Lewis has long been one of my literary heroes. As a child I enjoyed the Narnia series, a little later I read Out of the Silent Planet, and more recently I devoured some of his famous Christian writings such as The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, and The Great Divorce. Throughout all this reading, I've been fascinated by Lewis's deep thinking and vivid imagination.
But I didn't know very much about him as a person—his life. Enter The Narnian. I picked this book up from a bargain book sale (it ranks among the best five bucks I've ever spent). Finally, around Christmas I got around to reading it.
I have never found a biography so gripping.
True, I haven't read many biographies, but this one had me hooked as I had no idea a biography could. I suppose this is partly due to my already keen fascination with Lewis, but I also must give credit to Alan Jacobs for doing such a stunning job. He admits in the preface that the book is "almost a biography," leaving out "certain details that a responsible biographer would be obliged to include" (what modesty!). Instead, the purpose of this book is to record "the life a mind, the story of an imagination."
It turns out that Lewis's mind and imagination make quite a story. Before reading the book, I knew the guy was smart, but I didn't know that he was actually brilliant until reading it. I can't begin to recount some of the ideas I learned about in this book—they are too deep, and Lewis and Jacobs both put them much better than I could—but I will say that this book made me think. It made me think deeply, about a lot of things. It inspired me. It turned me to introspection. It changed me.
I can't promise that this book will have the same effect on everyone who reads it. But if you have an interest in the works of C. S. Lewis, particularly in the Narnia series, than you would do well to read this book. As the back cover invites, "enter the world of a creative genius."
Author: Alan Jacobs
Genre: nonfiction, biography
Publication info: HarperCollins, 2006 (hardcover in 2005)
Pages: 342 (including notes and index)
C. S. Lewis has long been one of my literary heroes. As a child I enjoyed the Narnia series, a little later I read Out of the Silent Planet, and more recently I devoured some of his famous Christian writings such as The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, and The Great Divorce. Throughout all this reading, I've been fascinated by Lewis's deep thinking and vivid imagination.
But I didn't know very much about him as a person—his life. Enter The Narnian. I picked this book up from a bargain book sale (it ranks among the best five bucks I've ever spent). Finally, around Christmas I got around to reading it.
I have never found a biography so gripping.
True, I haven't read many biographies, but this one had me hooked as I had no idea a biography could. I suppose this is partly due to my already keen fascination with Lewis, but I also must give credit to Alan Jacobs for doing such a stunning job. He admits in the preface that the book is "almost a biography," leaving out "certain details that a responsible biographer would be obliged to include" (what modesty!). Instead, the purpose of this book is to record "the life a mind, the story of an imagination."
It turns out that Lewis's mind and imagination make quite a story. Before reading the book, I knew the guy was smart, but I didn't know that he was actually brilliant until reading it. I can't begin to recount some of the ideas I learned about in this book—they are too deep, and Lewis and Jacobs both put them much better than I could—but I will say that this book made me think. It made me think deeply, about a lot of things. It inspired me. It turned me to introspection. It changed me.
I can't promise that this book will have the same effect on everyone who reads it. But if you have an interest in the works of C. S. Lewis, particularly in the Narnia series, than you would do well to read this book. As the back cover invites, "enter the world of a creative genius."
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