Archive for July, 2009

The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst

ISBN: 0316778508
288 pages
published in 2003.

I had seen some favorable reviews for this book on other booklogs, and the plot sounded so interesting and unique that when I saw it at the library the other day I thought I should pick it up. It actually sucked me in rather fast and that’s mostly because the premise of the story was so promising that I was eager to find out how the beginning of the book tied into what I was told the book would ultimately be about.

It’s about a husband whose wife tragically dies one day after falling out of an apple tree in their backyard. He is left only with their dog, Lorelei, a Rhodesian Ridgeback that was his wife’s dog before it was his, and a trial of clues and secrets about his wife’s death that makes him question whether it was actually an accident. Fueled by a recent news story where a man was put into prison for operating on dogs to try and give them the power of speech, he tries to teach Lorelei how to communicate through a series of exercises and tests involving her sounds and specially made keyboards in an attempt to find out from her what actually happened that day in the apple tree. He eventually gets into correspondence with the man he saw in the news and falls into contact with a group of people that all follow the man’s influence and do operations on dogs to try and get them to speak. All of this is interspersed with recollections of their marriage and his wife, Lexy’s, outbursts and emotional issues.

In fact, although she was dead throughout the entire story, I intensely disliked Lexy’s character. Whether it was the author’s intention or not, she seemed to be the most whiny, needy, attention-craving person I’d ever heard of. All of her outbursts seemed contrived and ridiculous and her husband (the narrator) MUST have loved her, or else I can’t imagine how he would have put up with all of her bullshit.

In the end, although it was satisfying to have a conclusion to the story and a mystery solved, it was actually kind of a let-down. Parkhurst seemed to want to neatly wrap up a story that she herself had made wavy and confusing. I didn’t like the way she tried to resolve everything so nicely and I felt that her choices in how to direct the narrator’s behavior and actions were odd and almost counter-productive. It was an extremely unusual book with an extremely unusual plot. I think I understand the point she was trying to reach, but her attempts at being meaningful and poignant, I feel, have fallen a bit short.

More words!

Time for more words on Wednesday, as hosted by Bermuda Onion. I only have a few this week as I’ve been busy working on commissions, but I’ve been digging into my Australian lit books lately so I’ve been bumping into some interesting words lately. Here are a few I didn’t know:

Dirt Music by Tim Winton:

surreptitious
“Whether it was surreptitious or merely considerate, the whole procedure was extraordinary in its quiet and speed.”

Furtive: marked by quiet and caution and secrecy.

pilchards
“She felt the percussion of the dog hitting the water behind her and sturck out in her lazy schoolgirl freestyle until she was admist moored lobster boats with their fug of corrosion and birdshit and pilchards.”

Sardine: small fatty fish usually canned .

daubs
“But the word came so hot and wet and sudden, screamed into her face by a nine-year-old whose night terrors she’d soothed, whose body she’d bathed and held so often, whose grief-muddy daubs she’d clamped to the fridge, that she didn’t even hear the sentence it came wrapped in.”

Wattle & daub, commonly used building materials for colonial Australian houses. In this context, a childish painting.

What to do with Nancy Drew (and the Hardy Boys!)

So, I managed to acquire the first six Nancy Drew books over Bookmooch.com. I’m very excited about it, as throughout my childhood I would always see the very extensive series in my library but for some reason never actually got around to checking them out. I always admired their covers and the idea for the premise of the series, as something as simplistic as a girl detective appealed to me as a child.

I also managed to snag the first three Hardy Boys books. They all look very comfortable together on my bookshelf right now, and I can’t wait to get to them. But I was wondering – because this is such a very long series, should I bother making a post for each one, or should I stick them on my YA/Juvenile list as I am with a few other longrunning children’s series that I don’t feel are really worth reviewing at this time (maybe when I complete the series I can make an extensive post about the series as a whole?) In fact, what do you guys think of the books that are on there to begin with? I would really like to have all of them have their own separate post, but they were just clogging up on my blog and I wanted to make it seem clean and interesting to people that stopped by. Rather than seeing my reviews of books that were actually of some interest to them, instead they would see reviews of Goosebumps 7 through 40 or Animorphs 9 through 20 or something and I just don’t think it gave the right impression of this blog.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

The Giver by Lois Lowry

ISBN: 0440237688
192 pages
published in 1993.

I remember reading this book for the first time in elementary school. It was very striking, even back then, when I was maybe eight years old and not really capable of completely comprehending the message this book was trying to get across. And there are, certainly, many messages within it. Lowry manages to create a world within this book’s pages that is comforting while it is, at the same time, horrific and cold.

The book’s protagonist, Jonas, lives in a world free of hunger, suffering and pain. Everything in his community is monitored and chosen by a board of elders who studies each person throughout their life and matches them up with a partner and children (one boy and one girl), as well as their job and role within the community. Left with no choices of their own to make and a carefully constructed set of rules and etiquette to follow each day, the people of this community are left to lead very predictable, safe lives.

However, when Jonas turns 12 and, like every other child his age, receives his assignment – the task he will perform for his community until he is too old work – he is chosen to be the “Receiver Of Memories” – the person who is burdened with keeping all of the memories that the people in the community no longer experience – horrible things like pain and war and suffering and starvation – but other things, as well, that begin to make Jonas question the way his community works – such as love.

This book works on so many levels. While the characters are a bit weak (I was actually not that fond of Jonas and instead very much liked The Giver himself) it is easy to look past this and concentrate on the wonderful setting and plot. The book is frightening because, I think, of the almost shameful and embarrassing feeling that comes along with the idea of a community like this. While we are all forced to be outraged by the idea of a life like the ones these people lead, we are, at the same time, I think, hopelessly attracted to the idea. A life where all of our major decisions are made for us? Where there is no pain, no suffering, no war?

So, to anyone who reads this review, I think it’d be interesting to find out: if given the choice, would you live in a community like this? Be honest! I think most of us would want to and that is why this book works so well. While we are aware by the end of the book the terrible price people must pay to live in a world so carefree and safe, we still long for a place like this to exist.

Vampire Kisses by Ellen Schreiber

ISBN: 0060093366
253 pages
published in 2003.

I picked this one up at the library yesterday. Not sure what I expected, but I suppose it wasn’t much. At first, the book seemed to be sort of a let-down. The main character is stereotypical to the point of nausea and the plot line seems like nothing more than any 13-year-old girl’s dream. However, there was something redeeming about the book the farther into the story I got, and it’s adolescent charm is what ultimately won me over.

Raven has just turned 16 and entered a period of her life where a lot of changes are supposed to happen. However, Raven hasn’t changed much her entire life. She’s been an outcast since the day she entered school. Fueled by a vampire obsession she’s had since she was a little girl (and proudly proclaimed that she wanted to be a vampire when she grew up when asked in kindergarten one day), she decides to start investigating a new family that has moved into the large mansion down the street from her that has stood empty most of her life. Rumor has it that the family that moved in are vampires, and when Raven catches a glimpse of a young, attractive boy that seems to have moved in with them, it’s all she can do to keep from throwing herself into his arms. When they finally meet – and Raven discovers that beyond his strange appearance and antisocial habits – she realizes he is the kindest, most gentle person she has ever met. And she’s falling in love! But Trevor, the boy that’s tormented her in school all of her life, decides that he is going to target her and her new relationship with this new boy. What is Raven going to do? How will she keep Trevor away? And what is the deal with this new boy anyway? Is he really a vampire?

While I was able to predict every single thing that happened in this book down to the very end, I still enjoyed the twist at the end and actually found Raven to be not quite so annoying the further along I got in the story. The tedious band references sprinkled throughout were a bit irritating, as was the constant effort Schreiber seemed to put into proving to the readers just how ~unique~ Raven is. However, I will definitely read the following books in the series, if not to just find out what happens. It was nice, diversionary reading (I should be working on commissions, haha!) for a mid-summer afternoon.

« Older Entries