Exploring Neverland

Blankets

2012-02-14T16:22:00.000-08:00

by Craig Thompson

This was my first experience reading a graphic novel and I absolutely loved it. The entire thing was so beautiful. The story it told was beautiful and I found the ending to be incredibly satisfying. I also thought the artwork was beautiful but I am not a dependable art critic, given that I can't draw to save my life, so I tend to think that anything more than stick figures is beautiful. But, more than the talent of the artist, I appreciated the way many of the drawings were used to convey metaphors (an early scene where Craig is vomiting up his drawings is a good example). I also enjoyed the way in which blankets were a recurring theme throughout the book, not just in the blanket Raina made for Craig but, from the very beginning, when Craig was sharing a bed with his little brother. The word takes on several different meanings in the course of the book and I really enjoyed that.

SPOILER ALERT!!!
I know I said in an earlier post that I wanted to avoid spoilers on this blog but I have since changed my mind. I have decided that I prefer using this blog to talk as in-depth about the books I read as I like. That being said, while the love story in this book made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and I thoroughly enjoyed it, it wasn't hard to tell where it was going. Craig's extremely reverential view of Raina was incredibly romantic but not terribly realistic and not actually a healthy basis for a relationship. I predicted her feeling intimidated by his overwhelming feelings almost as soon as they met. However, I was still sad when she broke up with him but I was pleasantly surprised at the way Craig dealt with it. I was expecting him to crumble and crawl inside of himself and never come out again but instead he dealt with it like a grown up. I was so proud of him when he called to tell her good-bye and I cheered for him when he burned all of her things but I was also glad he didn't burn the blanket (I can't imagine how long that must have taken her to make).

I also thoroughly enjoyed the religious aspect. I won't lie about being concerned for young Craig. I was glad that he was able to find solace in religion from the bullying he endured but it worried me that he took every single thing he did wrong so seriously - that can do a lot of damage to a kid. So I was glad when he started questioning aspects of the Christianity he was being taught and I was ultimately thrilled with his conclusion to continue believing in God and the teachings of Jesus but not in churches. I personally think that's the best way to go and it particularly made sense for him. I absolutely loved the last few pages of the book because they were beautiful and I hated that, for the rest of the book, there were characters trying to tell me that nothing I do matters.

DISCLAIMER:
I am in NO WAY anti-Christian! Nor do I think that Christianity is damaging to children! While I don't practice myself, I fully believe that if going to church works for you then, by all means, go to church - whatever church that may be. Please don't come and murder me in my sleep.

The Monstrumologist

2012-02-12T15:48:00.000-08:00

by Rick Yancey

Ugh, this book is gross! Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed it, but it's definitely not for those of the weak stomach. I usually like to read while on my lunch break at work but quickly discovered that was not such a good idea in this case.

The premise of the book is that someone today (or very recently) has come into possession of these journals written by a man who was claiming to be some 120 years old. The journals (i.e. the book) are the old man's recounting of his days as a 12-year old assistant to a monstrumologist (someone who studies monsters). It takes place in New England in the 1880's and, when a nest of headless, man-eating monsters is discovered in their very cemetery, the monstrumologist and his assistant have no choice but to hunt down and exterminate every last one of these monsters.

The book is very well-written with extensive use of the English language and detailed descriptions and it is these detailed descriptions which make the book so disgusting. However, I do not think the gore exists simply for it's own sake. I think it adds to the suspense. Personally, I don't want a character to relate to me how they witnessed their buddy get disemboweled, but when they tell me about it anyway, it forces me to realize just how dire their situation is. These monsters are horrific and reading about the things they do to their prey (humans) helps to build the suspense in every scene in which these monsters are featured.

Shalimar the Clown

2012-02-03T16:20:00.001-08:00

by Salman Rushdie

OH MY GOD I LOVE SALMAN RUSHDIE! Worship him, really. His writing style is just so beautiful and profound I can't ever get over it. I particularly liked this work of art. It's less fantastical than many of his other works but his unique writing style remains as excellent as ever. The story is written in the epic form in that it starts with the event around which the story revolves, goes way back, works its way up to the event, and then goes past the event to the end. I also thought that the end was perfection although many people may disagree with that.

Not only is Rushdie a master of words, he is also a master story-teller and I think that is particularly apparent in this book. He weaves together the lives of people who are extremely different from each other and yet he draws parallels between them which the reader would never expect. For instance, the battle between India and Pakistan and the results which Kashmir suffers for it is likened to WWII Europe. And it works. It works beautifully and the ways in which Rushdie weaves together all of these different stories and lives is simply perfection. I highly, highly recommend this book.

2012-01-20T15:33:00.000-08:00

The Wind Done Gone
Alice Randall

I think everyone should read this book.

First of all, I want to say that I loved "Gone With the Wind". I couldn't put it down. I blew through all 900 pages of it in about a week. Scarlett is a fascinating character living in one of the most exciting times in our country's history so of course the book makes for an excellent read. But let's be honest with ourselves, the book is extremely racist and to call Mitchell's view of the pre-Civl War South idealized is putting it mildly.

Randall gives us a very different view of Scarlett and her world through the diary of Cynara, a slave born on Tara who moves to Atlanta and, eventually, Washington D.C. I accepted unequivocally Cynara's parentage, knowing how often things like that happened in the South, but Randall chooses to mess with Scarlett's history in certain other ways which I won't talk about due to my desire not to give away too many spoilers. All I'll say is, after awhile, it seems as though Randall has gotten a little too intent on destroying Mitchell's version of Scarlett simply for the sake of destroying her.

Randall also messes with the reader's perception of Scarlett and Rhett's relationship so if all of your hopes and dreams of love are bound by the belief that Rhett and Scarlett are meant for each other, then I don't recommend this book because it will ruin your life. Personally, I never understood what Rhett saw in Scarlett and he says himself, as he's leaving her, that his love for her was not of the undying variety. Not to mention that Mitchell herself has Rhett staying at a whore house after the death of his daughter. Randall did not have to stretch far from that into the love story she gives us in her own novel. I also feel that one can enjoy this book and still enjoy "Gone With the Wind". I have admitted that I loved reading "Gone With the Wind" and reading "The Wind Done Gone" has not changed that. I enjoy both books in the way that I enjoy "Wicked" the book and "Wicked" the musical: as two separate entities and, while I recognize that they are related, I choose to see them more as distant cousins than siblings.

That's enough about "Gone With the Wind." "The Wind Done Gone" is a beautifully written novel about a woman's struggle with her identity and with discovering what she really wants out of life. It's about love and loss and longing and lack of love (or, at least, perceived lack of love) and grieving and learning to come into one's own in a world which has only very recently allowed her to do so. When Cynara learns to let go of her resentment of Scarlett is when she really comes into her own and I think the same can be said of Randall: when her novel lets go of the Scarlett-bashing and focuses on developing its own characters is when it really shines.

2012-01-16T19:40:00.000-08:00

The Mists of Avalon
I really enjoyed this book and its take on the King Arthur legend. It incorporates both the legend of the sword in the stone and Excalibur begin given to him from the Lady of the Lake but it definitely has its own ideas on what "really" happened. I also enjoyed the new take on both the Lady of the Lake and the Merlin as titles of positions rather than names of individual people.

As a book about one of the first (if not the first) Christian kings of England, it discusses Christianity but also religion in general. Avalon has its own religion, very different from Christianity but with some definite similarities. The book is centered around not only the dispute between these two religions but whether or not there should be a dispute and I enjoyed this dispute not less because it's relevant to all religious disputes. It posits that there is only one god and that no religion is wrong, they're merely worshiping God in their own way and that's a message of which I highly approve. Related to this is the very different take on the story of the Grail, which I also really liked.

The cast of the novel is made up of good, well-developed characters but I didn't like most of them. I did not like Gwenhwyfar, Lancelet was too much of a pansy for me to be able to respect him, and I didn't get to see enough of Arthur to learn to feel much about him one way or the other. I largely liked Morgaine, but she also did some things I didn't like. Some of my favorite characters were actually the side characters such as Igraine, Arthur's mother, Morgause, Arthur's aunt, and the two Merlin's, Taliesin and Kevin.

I do recommend this book but be forewarned that it's 876 large pages and could have been at least 100 pages shorter. I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning and the vast majority of the middle of the book but the end definitely dragged. Bradley apparently felt the need to give us a conclusion on each and every one of her characters and, while I respect that, I didn't feel that it was entirely necessary. (Of course that could be because of my aforementioned dislike of some of the characters). It detracts from my enjoyment of a book when it begins to feel like a project and this book definitely began to feel like a project toward the end.