CBR 13 # 5 Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

 

In this post-apocalyptic novel, there is not single earth shattering apocalyptic event.  Instead, there is just a gradual breakdown of society brought about by climate change, corporate greed and social inequality (all interrelated anyway).    Lauren Olamina is a relatively privileged teenager living in a small walled enclave.  She's privileged in that she has a home, her father still has a job with a salary, and she knows how to read and write.  This is not much, but compared to the thousands, or maybe millions of homeless poor outside a few walled enclaves, this is a lot.  Their community is small and there are some unlikeable characters, but they are close and have not yet succumbed to the barbarism, looting and killing outside the walls.  Lauren's father is a preacher, a professor and the leader of their community.  She has a stop mother and little brothers, a boyfriend, and friends.  But she has some ideas that go beyond the confines of their walls, and a debilitating condition that she keeps secret, and that makes her different.

The novel has a before and after.  Before is the setting up of the world, and the preparations leading up to the destruction of Lauren's community.  The after is Lauren's  and some other survivors' travels to find a safe haven.  A running theme towards the whole journey, from the before and the after, is Lauren's development of a religion that she hopes will guide them into making a life on the destroyed earth, and take their descendants to the stars.

It has been quite a while since I last read a book until 4AM.  Age and eye problems prevented me from doing that.  But this one, I could not put down.  There are a lot of ideas and events that seem to be applicable of prescient to American society these days.  There is certainly a lot of commentary on the black experience.  But not being from there, i don't feel I'm very qualified to talk about it.  I think I learned a lot, and it offered a good perspective.  On the other hand, the story also works purely as a post-apocalyptic adventure, a genre that I am very partial to.  It is very dark and there is a lot of death and some gore.   Considering how much of a post-apocalyptic, speculative fiction fan I am, I am ashamed to admit that this is my first Octavia Butler read. I am excited to read the sequel and all her other books.  Suggestions as to the next one?

CBR # 4 - The Heir Affair by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan (aks The Fug Girls)

I think I have mentioned in numerous comment diversions and facebook threads that I came to Pajiba by way of  GoFugYourself (by way of thefashionspot, by way fansofrealitytv by way of watching america's next top model on youtube).  Needless to say, I have  a soft spot for The Fug Girls.  I don't read the blog anymore because I can't with the interface, but I have read some of their books, which are breezy, light and fun (as far as I can remember them).

The Heir Affair is the sequel to their 2015 book The Royal We.  That book was a quite transparent Will and Kate fantasy with Kate as an American, and a lot more down to earth.  My problem when reading book two, was that I had read The Royal We 5 years ago, and my memory is not it.  So, I had forgotten the specifics of the ending and the side characters, which made it a bit frustrating for me at first.  But the book is not high literary fiction, so things do get explained and recaps are done so it wasn't really THAT confusing.  

This book starts with Will and Kate (not their book names, but whatever) running away from the Harry (the heir's younger brother)-Kate related scandal.  But the Queen is sick (or so they say), so they come back to face the music, and their royal duties. 

The book was long and kinda meandering, but not in a totally bad way.  There was no sense of urgency to the plot and it understandably focuses less on romance.  I think this is because they are already married and it has been established that they love each other and are in it for the long haul.  So the story is more about coming to terms with their life and dealing with frayed interpersonal relationships, especially between the couple and Harry.  Like I said, it's not a bad thing.  I find these long reads covering long periods of time strangely comforting.  But there are a few plot twists and choices that made me go WHAAAT.  There is definitely some soap opera stuff going on. Plus, I can't with Kate.  He's your husband's brother and you know he loves you, NO, you aren't allowed to have a "special" relationship with him!  I don't care if you love him as a friend.  All interactions should purely be within the sister-in-law realm.  Ugh.

Another struggle I have is that these characters are so obviously patterned after the real royals, at least in the initial book, that all the stuff going on with their real versions sort of intrude a little bit with my enjoyment of reading the book.  But, it is an enjoyable and soapy read.  Not world changing and a bit too wish fulfillment-y sometimes for my personal taste but overall worth your time if you're into this kinda thing.  

CBR 13 # 3 My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

From the first few paragraphs, the book instantly catches your attention.  I don't think it is a spoiler to say that our narrator's sister,is indeed a serial killer. The book opens with Ayoola calling Korede for help in cleaning up a mess -- a bloody mess.  They are sisters living in Lagos, Nigeria.  Our narrator is Korede, she is ordinary looking, fastidious and methodical. A hard worker.  She works as a nurse and is efficient but unfriendly.  In fact, her only confidante is a patient who is in a coma.  Ayoola, on the other hand, is beautiful, confident and manipulative.  She seemingly does nothing but collect boyfriends - and then eventually kill them.  Korede's bond with her sister leaves her with no choice but to clean up her messes, both literal and metaphorical.  Until Ayoola sets her sights on a doctor in Korede's hospital -- who Korede may be in love with.

It is a bit weird to say, since the subject is so dark, that the book was really quite enjoyable, and a quick read.  It is on the short side, page count wise, but aside from that, it is very readable and has its thrills.  This is not to say that it was all easy breezy.  There was an attempt to plumb the origins of Ayoola's (and Korede's lesser) dysfunctions, looking into their shared family trauma in particular, and Nigeria's patriarchal society in general.

I also enjoyed the opportunity to read about a setting that isn't usually used in fiction.  I have not had the opportunity to travel a whole lot outside my country and reading books set in far away (for me) places satiates that itch a bit for me.  It was rural Ireland in the last book I read ( The Searcher by Tana French) and now, Lagos, Nigeria.  

The ending was... a choice.  But I guess, that was the only choice that Korede thought she could make.

CBR 13 # 2 - The Searcher by Tana French

 In 2020, I was super excited to read a Tana French book I found in my (virtual) bookshelf that I thought I had not yet read.  To my disappointment, it was just one of her (in my opinion) lesser novels, that now, a mere one year later, I have forgotten the ending to again.  This time, I made sure that this wasn't a repeat.  EIther way, I'm sure that this would have been a memorable book because it is the most different from all other books I've read from her.

Instead of being set in the Dublin Murder Squad universe, this one is set in a far more rural place, and the main character is not Irish.  He is American.  Retired AMERICAN detective Cal Hooper moves to rural Ireland and spends his days repairing his dilapidated farmhouse, fishing, taking walks, and talking to his nosy neighbors.  Until he meets a kid (Trey) that would reel him back into a life, a calling that he was trying to leave behind. So Cal is one of those archetypal troubled detectives whose relationship was ruined because of work. He is a bit of boomer (though actually Gen X in age), but inherently kind with a strong moral code.  

I enjoyed the mystery itself, although it was not really that hard to figure it out.  The story moved slowly and I quite enjoyed that.  I enjoyed getting to know the side characters and the little town.  I particularly liked fierce little Trey and felt so sad for them by the end.  The book had some things to say about the poison that infects "charming" small towns where young people are leaving and moving up takes so much effort.  

All in all, this was an interesting and different sort of story from French's usual Murder Club mysteries.  I quite liked this one and I'm excited that I have one more stand-alone book by her that I haven't read yet. 

CBR 13 # 1 Piranesi

Piranesi lives in a house with many halls, with an Ocean trapped within. There are infinite statues, and birds and fish, and the remains of 13 people who had previously lived there. He lives in isolation save for the Other, who named him and spends one hour, twice a week with him, to talk of his scientific observations. The House is the only place Piransi knows, and he has lived there from the beginning of time. But the arrival of 16, as in the 16th person, would reveal that the Other, the House and even himself, are not what they seem.

The first few pages were a struggle for me. I have been in a years long reading funk (COVID anxiety and my stupid eyes) and I was reading the book trying to make and accurate map of the world in my mind, and it was tripping me up. Finally, I just let the peculiar language and descriptions wash over, to form a nebulous sense of the place, which, I found,  made itself clearer as I read further.

It would do a disservice to those who had not yet read the book to write more of the plot into this review, but that is not to say that the plot is the best thing about it. This book is so different from Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell (the author's first novel, which I also enjoyed immensely).  The first book was quite long, charming and wryly funny. Piranesi is slight, almost a novella.  It is narrated by Piranesi, through his detailed journals, and his writing is odd and formal but also dreamy, especially in the first part.  You will be taken in by his ingenuity, innocence and innate goodness.

I read the book as a meditation on isolation and loneliness, and the exquisite peace it sometimes brings.  But no matter the strength of the pull of isolation, the stronger need to connect with other people always wins out.  I really, really loved this book, and to be honest, I did not expect to be crying by the end, but I was.

CBR 12 #5 World War Z by Max Brooks (redux)

Is it weird that World War Z is one of my comfort reads?  I rarely reread books.  I get anxious when I'm rereading because I keep thinking that I should be reading something new.  I mean, my to be read list is not getting any shorter.  World War Z is one of the few books that I have reread more than once.  The others are The Drifters by James Michener, A Ring of Endless Light by L'Engle and Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Patterson.  I have not reread the other three yet so I might still be ok.  Well, maybe.  The year is still long.

It is a well known fact that the World War Z book so far from the movie that Brad Pitt should just basically be cancelled (this is a joke).  The book is an oral history of the Zombie War,tracing events from the initial outbreak in China until years later when the Zs have been all but defeated.  It features interviews from people from all over the world speaking of their experiences and stitched together to form a coherent record of the events.  There are many stories told.  Some are plot drive, meant to explain how things happened and the timeline.  Some stories are there for the texture, to show hoe different people in different parts of the world survived, or didn't.  

I loved the documentary feel of the book, since it is made up of "interviews".  I love the writing, I love the stories.  Some scary, some heartbreaking, some hopeful, some celebratory, and some, even prescient.  I don't know how to say again and again that I really really really love the concept of the book (it hits all my post apocalyptic and documentary spots), then he nails the execution.  I really think this should have been made as a TV series.  Even like a "mockumentary", but serious and with reenactments.  One can only hope, that like the Zs, this story will rise again, to be told in a visual medium, much better that the last time.

CBR 12 #4 - Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender

I read a review of this book somewhere on the internet, a long time ago.  Maybe on Pajiba, maybe on Cannonball read, I don't really remember.  But I did write the title and the author down in my little notebook, along with the dozens (maybe hundreds) of other books I plan on reading,  and movies and TV shows that I plan on seeing.  This year, before the world changed forever, a few friends came over to hang out and one of them brought the book and said that he feels like I might want to borrow it.  I had not told him that it was on my list, in fact, it totally escaped my mind until he handed me the book.  He just thought that I was the kind of person who would like Willful Creatures and he is not wrong.  So I read it during the first month of quarantine (we are already on our 5th month, the longest quarantine in the world, i think) when I could still focus and mull over and revel in the little morsels of weird that are Aimee Bender's short stories.

This book is a collection of 15 short stories.  Her stories are inhabited by willful creatures, some more melancholy, some more malevolent.  Her world is one in which the surreal just is.  Fantastical elements are not acknowledged as such and the narration is so matter of fact that you don't question it.  The world is just that way in her stories.  It is a world where somebody can purchase a tiny human as a pet, where a family of pumpkin heads can have a son with an iron head, or a boy can have fingers shaped like keys.  Some stories are more fantastical than others, but they are all written in way that makes them feel like fables or fairy tales, or myths.  There is a sort of detachment in the storytelling but at the same time, they feel very real.  Some stories are disturbing and violent which shocked me a little because she often tells the story from the "perpetrators" point of view but imbuing them with familiar emotions just taken to a grotesque level.  I don't know, they're better read than described, I think. 

So yes, my friend was not wrong.  I did want to read this book.  Some of the stories revealed themselves to me, like I get what it was trying to say beyond the weirdness.  Some stories, their meaning eludes me.  Either way, the stories stuck with me, bubbling up in my brain at random times.  I don't think I'll be returning this book.