September 2016 – 29chapters.com

Review: The Devil All the Time

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Review for “The Devil All the Time” by Donald Ray Pollock (2011)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Even though this is only my second time reading Donald Ray Pollock, he’s quickly becoming one of my favorite writers. He continues to create such interesting casts of characters, and this one’s is no exception. This book is very much in the same vein as his first volume of short stories, Knockemstiff–poor, rural people in desperate situations. This book’s got a little bit of everything: a man who sacrifices animals and other roadkill to rid his wife of cancer, along with his morally conflicted son, who’s willing to sacrifice everything for a sense of peace. There’s a spider-eating preacher and his guitar-playing sidekick who are convinced they can raise people from the dead, and a murderous husband and wife duo that pick up male hitchhikers, torture and photograph them, and kill them.

The beginning of this novel starts off strong, but I had to admit that by the middle of the book I was a little hesitant to continue because wasn’t sure where this book was going. The characters don’t appear connected, other than their desolate settings. I am glad I was patient, because everything came together so spectacularly by the end that I couldn’t believe I was looking at the last page. The way the plot twists and tangles together is reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, with characters on separate paths who manage to meet together dynamically by the book’s end.

I’m anxious to read more of Donald Ray Pollock’s writing. Four and a half stars, no complaints at all.

Review: The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures

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Review for “The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures” by Phoebe Gloeckner (originally published in 2002, reissued in 2015)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

It’s hard to quantify this book. When I first started it, the nature of its content threw me for such a loop that I didn’t think that I was going to finish it. Then I found myself drawn in, so I think I’ll go half and half here–3.5 stars.

Minnie Goetze is a complicated teenager growing up in San Francisco with her single mom and younger sister in the 1970’s. She’s smart, she’s artistic, she loves to draw. Much of the book is composed of her black and white drawings, which I have to admit, are pretty impressive and beautiful to look at. Minnie is also extremely unhappy and insecure, and within the first couple of pages she begins having really creepy ‘sex’ with her mom’s boyfriend (I put ‘sex’ in quotations because it bears mention that at the time she’s 15, and he’s in his 30’s). The sexual relationship between Minnie and her mom’s boyfriend is presented in a stark, almost ‘favorable’ way, from her perspective as a willing participant. From there she moves on to having sex with a rich guy at her school, who treats her like utter trash. There’s sex with strange boys, more sex with older men. Honestly, after a while, I lost track. There’s also LOTS of drugs and booze in this book, not only with Minnie but also with her mom, who you come to discover isn’t all that angry when she finds out about Minnie’s relationship with her boyfriend. It’s a strange family saga, and it was equal parts disturbing and painful to read about.

Minnie was a complicated character for me. It’s obvious that the character is somewhat based, in part, on the real life of the author of this book, Phoebe Gloeckner. Minnie fluctuates so much between childish naivete (“By golly, wait a minute, I’m getting taken advantage of!”) when dealing with the sleazy-ass adults around her and very sharp perceptions about life in general. It was hard to read the troubling content of this book and keep in mind that the protagonist is, after all, just 15 years old. There was also a fine thread of racism that ran through this book that I didn’t like either. The conclusion of the book brought no Hollywood ending, Minnie just kinda ‘grows’ up in the last few pages and moves on, deciding that she doesn’t want to keep another diary.

What I can say that I did appreciate about this book is the entire point of it: the fact that it presented a teenage girl’s sexual life in a way that is actually rare and kinda unique. After thousands of years on earth, there are still really only two sexual roles for girls: a virgin or a slut, and we’re forced to play one and reject the other. Minnie is sexually active, unapologetic, and expresses her desires openly. There’s no moralizing, no finger-wagging from characters on the sidelines. The story simply was what it was. As much as possible, I suspended my judgement of Minnie’s actions and just let her story speak to me how it wanted to. My discomfort, I think, comes from my own hang-ups about what I consider to be morally acceptable behavior from a teenage girl.

True art, I figure, is supposed to challenge you and provoke thought, which I can say that this most definitely did. With that, I say proceed with caution if you do decide to read this, because it’s not the book for everyone.

Review: Another Brooklyn

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Review for “Another Brooklyn” by Jacqueline Woodson (2016)

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This is not just a novel. It’s poetry, it’s memory. It’s a testament to Black girlhood.

With events written in non-linear, prose style, Another Brooklyn is the story of August, a young academic who travels to her Brooklyn home to attend her father’s funeral. She runs into an old friend on a train and from there, you are transported back to specific memories of August’s childhood in the 1970’s. Brooklyn, we learn, was a place where she found the friendship of three other Black girls, each from a different home situation. There are memories of growing up without a mother, of DJ parties, of first love, and so many other things that to describe them all is to give this book away and not let you experience this great novel for yourself. My only complaint was that this book was not long enough. It’s a short (less than 200 pages), but I could have read Woodson’s gorgeous prose for another 200 pages, that’s how great this book is.

Another Brooklyn deserves all of the Top Ten lists and press it’s getting. A must read!

Review: How to Set a Fire and Why

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Review for “How to Set a Fire and Why” by Jesse Ball (2016)

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Hey. It’s been a while. The fall semester has started. I’ve been reading, but for those who follow this site, I only give you my best reviews. That means if I read a book and can’t find anything to say about it or write a decent review, you’ll see nothing here.

Anywho, I think I’ve broken my dry spell with this one. This is such a nice, dark little read. I was definitely impressed.

Immediately the first thing you note about this book is that teenager Lucia Stanton has been dealt a really shitty hand in life. Her father is dead, the only memento she has of him is his Zippo lighter, which she clutches onto for dear life. Her mother is in a mental hospital with an unspecified mental illness in which she doesn’t recognize her own daughter. When the story opens, she has been expelled from her current high school for stabbing a boy with a pencil. The bright spot of this book is the relationship Lucia has with her aunt, with whom she finds acceptance, and together they squat in a tiny garage with one bed. Her aunt finds her another high school where she falls into favor with a group of kids who set fires for anarchist purposes.

The brilliance of this book is in the characterization of Lucia. She is a bundle of contradictions. She is cynical, whip smart, angry, and completely authentic. I normally don’t go for quirky, “philosophical” teen narrators (I’m probably one of the few people in the world that doesn’t find anything special about Holden Caulfield) but I LOVED Lucia’s voice. She rewrites her club’s arsonist manifesto, she plans big fires–and all of it makes perfect sense because her aunt is a proud anarchist, as was her mother. Hell-raising is one of the few things in which Lucia has as a family legacy. Lucia is self destructive, yet her unapologetic brand of self-destructiveness never grated on me or made me want to put the book down.

I feel like I can’t write enough to do this book justice. It’s engaging and smart. It’s written for adults, but I can definitely see its appeal as a YA novel.