| Thursday, February 01, 2007 |
| Opinions are like a-holes... everyone has one |
A few weeks ago, the moderator of my book group was choosing the selections for the current session. Usually, she comes up with something thematic -- books set in the art world, award nominees or winners, books featuring antiheroes, etc. This time, however, she decided to ask us to name some of our favorites, and that would be our assigned reading. I named two books: Bill Pronzini's Shackles, one of my all-time faves; and Ellen Hart's The Iron Girl, which was one of the best books I read in 2006. (I mentioned it back on Sept. 1.) I thought The Iron Girl was a moving and engaging mystery about a woman coming to terms with her lover's death; to me, it was a real "can't put it down" kind of book. I didn't realize it would prove to be one of the most controversial titles we've ever discussed in my group.
The protagonist of Hart's series is a lesbian restaurateur. The books aren't the least bit sexually explicit; Jane's sexuality is treated matter-of-factly. However, the fact that she had started dating a woman who lives on a ranch sent one member of my group into a sputtering rage -- couldn't we all tell that her cowboy boots and love of horses were deeply Freudian symbols! Jane's best friend Cordelia was considered supremely annoying by some (I think she's a hoot). A couple people liked the book, but I was amazed at the vitriol that was spewed by those who didn't -- it was poorly written! Jane was dumb as a box of rocks! etc. It was all rather upsetting. It's not like I'm alone in enjoying The Iron Girl; Publisher's Weekly called it "shrewd and consistently entertaining," and it won the 2006 Minnesota Book Award for Best Popular Fiction. Anyway, next time we're called upon to recommend something to the group, I'm either going to keep my big mouth shut or go with a book that is so universally beloved that no one can possibly pan it. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, maybe.
Anyway, I managed to finish four novels during NaJuReMoNoMo, plus a nonfiction title I inadvertently started before being reminded that January is NaJuReMoNoMo.
Books bought:
Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu by Lee Goldberg
Books read:
Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops by James Robert Parish
Shackles by Bill Pronzini
The Ruins by Scott Smith
Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu by Lee Goldberg
Night Vision by Ellen Hart
I'm feeling a little gun-shy about recommending anything at this point but I will state again that Lee Goldberg's Monk books are really fun if you're a fan of the show -- he's written several episodes of the series, along with a number of well-regarded mystery novels that are not based on TV characters. The books have sold so well that the next Monk novel is going to be published in hardcover. Good for Lee, not so good for those of us who enjoy picking up the Monks as light (in both senses of the word) vacation reading. I hope that my local library will find it worthy of inclusion in its collection.
I generally don't read the horror genre but The Ruins showed up on a couple of best-of-2006 lists (the San Francisco Chronicle and Entertainment Weekly), so I thought I'd give it a try. I think I'll stick with mysteries, thanks. The book is creepy and scary, if that's what you're looking for. It's also extremely nihilistic. The thing that really annoyed me about The Ruins was the ending. If you plan on reading it, don't go any further!
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The Ruins is about a group of 20-somethings who are vacationing in Cancun and wind up in the middle of the jungle, held hostage by a group of Mayan villagers and some supremely menacing vines. What kept me reading the book was my curiosity about how they would get out of a seemingly impossible situation. I mean, at least one of them has to outsmart the Mayans and the greenery, right? Nope -- they all wind up dead at the end. Where's the fun in that? |
posted by 125records @ 6:45 PM  |
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| 4 Comments: |
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I had heard about the ending somewhere else. I think a good book, like a good movie, has to work even if you know the ending.
Congrats on the four novels.
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Ouch. That brings back memories...years ago, Rose and I were in a book club (this was back before, for some reason, "book club" was coded almost entirely female...one of my friends is writing a dissertation on that notion btw...). Things were generally fine...but then this one guy joined up, and he was one of these folks who both lacked imagination and was entirely certain of his opinions. He's the kind of person who'd criticize a press release that began, "The White House today announced..." by scornfully pointing out that a building can't speak. (Hey fella - I've got a synecdoche in Schenectady I'd like to sell ya...) Anyway, he was so bullheaded in his opinions, and so intolerant of anyone else's point of view, that the whole book club sort of disintegrated after a few months of his being there. Hope that doesn't happen to yours...
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Hmmm...maybe the situation I described is why book clubs became primarily female...to avoid pigheaded guys like the one I describe...
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We have one male in our book club and he is definitely the most outspoken. There's quite a different vibe in the group when he's not there. I argue with him a lot when we're talking books, but outside of that, he's really a delightful, compassionate individual. So despite everything, I'm glad he's in the group.
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I had heard about the ending somewhere else. I think a good book, like a good movie, has to work even if you know the ending.
Congrats on the four novels.