Books

Cloud Atlas

Posted on January 19, 2016January 19, 2016 by albrooke

David Mitchell, it seems to me, has a gift for conjuring a story-illusion, seducing the reader into the narrative, and then dropping the reader out of the dream abruptly. I find myself initially frustrated (” . . . but I wanted to know what was going to happen to that character! I liked her and I want to . . . .”). Then within 2-3 pages, he has drawn me into the next dream. He is very, very skilled at this.

Cloud Atlas (2004) wraps back on itself in a chiastic structure which is fun to sketch:

Cloud Atlas

The structures of Ghostwritten, The Bone Clocks, and Slade House are unique, but Mitchell displays his maddening, enthralling, wonderful gift in each of them.

Thank you, Mr. Mitchell.

Dark Corners

Posted on January 13, 2016January 15, 2016 by albrooke

Dark Corners Definitely dark, this little book is well-crafted, if (honestly) ultimately unfulfilling.

Stephen King apparently said “No one surpasses Ruth Rendell when it comes to stories of obsession, instability, and malignant coincidence,” and indeed all the characters (but one) are either obsessive, unstable or malignant (or a combination of all three). Whereas it is common in certain types of fiction to be frustrated with a character’s bad choices, that only happens if we have established some sympathy for the characters. I’m not sure that happened in this multithreaded plot.

But you may have a different opinion. Ruth Rendell, Dark Corners (2015). [amazon link]

The same God?

Posted on December 18, 2015January 23, 2016 by albrooke

ScreenShot003 Much has already been written about the Wheaton professor who — perhaps trying to make a mainly human rather than mainly theological point — prompted a furor when she asserted that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. The question is complex, and has been discussed profitably many times in the past.

Here is an excerpt from a thoughtful (and irenic) article by Timothy George, published in the aftermath of 9/11:

Is the Father of Jesus the God of Muhammad? The answer is surely Yes and No. Yes, in the sense that the Father of Jesus is the only God there is. He is the Creator and Sovereign Lord of Muhammad, Buddha, Confucius, of every person who has ever lived. He is the one before whom all shall one day bow (Phil. 2:5-11). Christians and Muslims can together affirm many important truths about this great God—his oneness, eternity, power, majesty. As the Qur’an puts it, he is “the Living, the Everlasting, the All-High, the All-Glorious” (2:256).

But the answer is also No, for Muslim theology rejects the divinity of Christ and the personhood of the Holy Spirit—both essential components of the Christian understanding of God. No devout Muslim can call the God of Muhammad “Father,” for this, to their mind, would compromise divine transcendence. But no faithful Christian can refuse to confess, with joy and confidence, “I believe in God the Father. … Almighty!” Apart from the Incarnation and the Trinity, it is possible to know that God is, but not who God is.

Timothy George, “Is the God of Muhammad the Father of Jesus? Christianity Today (February 4, 2002) (link).

Neil Gaiman, Trigger Warning

Posted on October 29, 2015 by albrooke

I just finished Neil Gaiman’s Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances (2015), and although I am not usually a fan of short fiction, I was intrigued to read a Gaiman Sherlock Holmes story (“A Case of Death and Honey”), a Gaiman Dr. Who story (“Nothing O’Clock”) and (best of all!) a new Shadow story (“Black Dog”).

Shadow is the main character in American Gods (2001), so it was good to remember that very original book a decade and a half later. Anansi Boys (2005) was the sequel and both were great fun, though Neverwhere (1996) is still my favorite Gaiman novel.

As usual with Gaiman, there is much to populate your dreams or nightmares (note the subtitle), so caveat lector.

Reflection on a Year’s Reading

Posted on October 25, 2015October 25, 2015 by albrooke

One nice thing about this site is that it gives me a place to keep track of the books I am reading. It has allowed me to be a little more introspective about what I read. (I seem to require a couple of books a week to maintain my sanity.) About a third of my reading is re-reading, which makes sense to me, anyhow. Wouldn’t you want to go back and visit old friends in addition to meeting new ones?*

My favorite newly-discovered author of the last year is probably Emily St. John Mandel. I read Station Eleven, then picked up Last Night in Montreal, and The Lola Quartet, and enjoyed all three. Yes, they are quirky and have some repetitive elements, but I liked Ms. Mandel’s writing and will continue to follow her.

The best new** fiction I read this year includes (in no particular order) Andy Weir, The Martian (2014), Stephen L. Carter, Back Channel (2014), Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven (2014), William Gibson, The Peripheral (2014), Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See (2014), David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks (2014), and Neal Stephenson, seveneves (2015). All were well-crafted and enjoyable, but I will let you look elsewhere for reviews. I usually pre-order anything by Gibson, Carter and Stevenson, and will probably add Mandel and Weir to that list.

I read two excellent new** nonfiction books: Margaret Lazarus Dean, Leaving Orbit (2015); and Jeff Smith, Mr. Smith Goes to Prison (2015). Mr. Smith was the most horrifying book I read recently,*** as it was an account of a politician who was sent to prison for a year for lying about a fairly minor campaign violation.

Eric Metaxas’ Miracles (2014) was strikingly different from C.S. Lewis’ book of the same name. Tim Keller’s Every Good Endeavor (2014) was an encouragement about the significance of work. Roger Kahn’s Rickey and Robinson (2014) was a great story about baseball and society by someone who lived through those important years when baseball was being integrated.

And how did I miss this one when it first came out: Cheryl Strayed, Wild (2012), a fascinating account of a troubled woman who walks the Pacific Crest Trail? Rick Atkinson’s The Guns at Last Light (2013) (last part of WWII in Europe) was well worth the 900-page investment.

Caveat Lector. It should go without saying that some of these will be uninteresting, unedifying, or even upsetting for some readers. What I think I can assure you is that none of these books are poorly written. Let me know if you have any thoughts about these or others on my sidebar.

—

*My favorite old friend this year was probably Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow (1996), though I did love (again) the Sword of Honor Trilogy, Pattern Recognition, LoTR, and That Hideous Strength.

**Published since January 2014.

***This is saying a lot since I also read Michael Faber, Under the Skin (2000) and Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale (1998), two astoundingly creepy books.

Uneasy reader

Posted on October 19, 2015October 19, 2015 by albrooke

Thus the value of great fiction, we begin to suspect, is not just that it entertains us or distracts us from our troubles, not just that it broadens our knowledge of people and places, but also that it helps us know what we believe, reinforces those qualities that are noblest in us, leads us to feel uneasy about our faults and limitations.

John Gardner, The Art of Fiction 31 (1983).

Of course Gardner does not hold this thought without reservation (notice the “we begin to suspect”), but he reasonably prompts us to add this to our internal lists of what fiction is for. I had forgotten how enjoyable this book is.

Leaving Orbit

Posted on July 25, 2015July 25, 2015 by albrooke

“Only when an era ends do you get to figure out what it means.” Margaret Lazerus Dean, Leaving Orbit: Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight 69 (2015).

An enjoyable read, covering the end of the shuttle era of American Spaceflight. I wish this book had been out when I was teaching my Beyond Fiction class, because it would have formed a perfect inclusio with Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff. MLD has a comfortable competence as a writer and observer, so it is as though the reader is listening to the experiences of a good friend.

Television and books

Posted on July 25, 2015 by albrooke

This may not be original, but it occurred to me today that “television” is very different than the television I grew up with. It used to be that if you wanted to “follow” a show, you had to make yourself available at the same time every week. You had to be “in the mood” for Cheers or MASH or All in the Family (dating myself, of course) when it was on. (Perhaps this kept me from being much of a connoisseur of television.)

Eventually, there was potential for videotaping, and time-shifting the shows you were interested in.

Now, though, you can pretty much “pick up” any series you want on Netflix or Amazon Instant Video or iTunes or one of the other video-streaming services. Watch whenever you want and go quickly through an old series if you wish.

That was the way I always read books. As a kid, I would read a string of old Hardy Boys or Tom Swifts or Nero Wolfes or Perry Masons or . . . .

And I have to say, this is a better way of consuming television. It probably encourages better television, since it permits longer narrative arcs and more complex character development.

I’d still rather read a good novel.*

*And then read everything else the author wrote.

“Jesus never talked to two people in the same way.”

Posted on July 25, 2015July 25, 2015 by albrooke

The Christian consensus has collapsed, and much of the rise of the so-called religious Nones is really the falling away of people who were only loosely attached to a church tradition. So there is a grand moment of clarification, and among the many things we need to clarify is our ability to communicate. Much of our witnessing, on the one hand, assumes that people are open and needy. It also assumes a whole series of formulae or recipes. I would argue that Jesus never talked to two people in the same way, and neither should we. So as part of the grand clarification of our generation, this is a time to reexamine our communication and see if it is as biblical as it should be.

from Tim Stafford, An Interview with Os Guinness, Christianity Today (July 23, 2015).

The Book of Strange New Things

Posted on July 17, 2015July 17, 2015 by albrooke

Honestly?

A decidedly odd book which reminds me more of The Sparrow than anything else, in that it is about a minister to alien people who finds that his understanding of God is stirred. A different, more dystopian vision, but beautifully written.