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067) Monte Cristo by Jordan Mechner and Mario Alberti, finished August 20
I'm by no means as expert but this strikes me as a very good comics modernization of The Count of Monte Cristo.
If that sounds like your thing, that's all you need to know.
maybe four days
068) What We Don't Talk About by Charlot Kristensen, finished August 21
This is some of the worst writing I've read in a while. Even at a mere 108 pages (comics pages!) it was difficult to finish. The main character and her boyfriend are supposedly two years into a relationship but they talk like they're on week two. I mean—he sucks from first appearance. We're supposed to believe she hasn't noticed / he's been able to disguise his suckiness for two whole years? And his racist parents are strange. The father barely says or does anything. When he even appears he's difficult to distinguish from the boyfriend. The mother's face is the embodiment of an internet troll. You can't look at that face and believe for a moment that she's a real person. And their nonstop racism is so grotesque as to turn into self-parody.
There are occasional pages where there's narration about how to deal with racist people but it's usually thrice-chewed pablum and sometimes not even internally consistent. For instance, one page reads, "People will Only [sic] see racism when it's at its most extreme... / But racism is more than just slurs and violent acts. | I think it's important to be true to yourself. | If something feels wrong you should speak up."
What?
I mean, those are fine sentiments, but how do they connect together? How do they build into a coherent argument?
The colors were good.
two days
069) The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy (translated by Lynn Solotaroff), finished August 23
Knowing Ikiru was based on this novella, I expected more of the same, but really they're quite different. They have similar attitudes, similar tones. The main character works for the government and has a terminal illness. He has some sort of redemptive arc. That's about it, though. Ilyich's arc begins and ends in the final paragraphs while Watanabe's are the bulk of the film. Ilyich's story takes place, at first, in his social situation, then moves inside his body. We barely deal with Watanabe's death so directly.
And yet—
They both tell us to do something different with our life. Even if the world inside the story looks the other way.
If you'd asked me to make a Japanese connection to Death of and I hadn't known Ikiru was inspired-by, I would have gone to Silence. Like that novel, some of the most important moments occur when a mystical conversation breaks through God's silence.
Anyway, even though Ivan dies four years before my current age, I didn't quite have the flooring experience I was promised. I'll have to try again when I have the flu or something. Because I certainly see how, at the right moment, this novella could really beat you up.
two days
070) The Village Beyond the Mist by Sachiko Kashiwaba (translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa), finished August 23
It's funny to have read this over the same two days I read Ivan Ilyich—both of them are so different from the classic movies based on them! This one "inspired" Spirited Away but it's hard to argue Spirited Away was any more inspired by this story than by Alice in Wonderland—they are, all three, about young girls who end up in strange places and cope marvelously.
(Also, I'm not at all sure Miyazaki would agree that his movie was, ultimately, based on the novel: "There is a book for children, Kirino Mukouno Fushigina Machi [A Mysterious Town Over the Mist]. It was published in 1980 [actually 1975], and I wondered if I could make a movie based on it. This was before we started work on Mononoke Hime. There is a staff member who loved this book when s/he was in fifth grade, and s/he read it many times. But I couldn't understand why it was so interesting; I was mortified, and I really wanted to know why. So, I wrote a project proposal [based on the book], but it was rejected in the end.")
Regardless, it should be judged on its own merits.
And it's okay. Not surprised to learn it's her first novel. It has a great ending but it's just sort of a minipicaresque for kids as the hero helps out in one store after another in a little town peopled by the descendants of sorcerers.
It's actually a great deal like the of novel for English-speaking kids published in the decades before and after. It's very much of its time.
I can see loving this book as a child. I got my 8yrold started on it. Maybe she'll be one who does.
(Oh: the new illustrations by Miho Satake are clearly inspired by Spirited Away, I assume to emphasize the tentative connection.)
two days
071) Meritocracy Mingled with Scripture by Justin Pack, finished August 24
One of my favorite titles of the last few years. The cover's pretty good too.
This is a very short book, just over a hundred pages, but it took me a long time to read. Every page seemed vitally important and I would often put it down to think and not be ready to pick it up again for a long time. But in the days after reading, it wouldn't be unusually for me to throw a couple bombs in stake council or to reinterpret important aspects of Pride and Prejudice for my students.
Pack takes meritocracy to task, utterly dismantling it for the blasphemous heresy it is. In doing to, he forces me to reconsider such words as self-reliance, dependence and independence, and even work. No question we as a society are wresting scripture to our destruction, but it's startling to see it laid so bare.
I also learned a great deal about early Christian cultures, relevant rabbinical teachings, ancient gift cultures—some of this stuff sent me on paths of thought that, for instance, rather rewired by thoughts about the Garden of Eden. There's good soil here and you can plant a lot of seeds you already have in its ground.
To tell you all my thoughts I'd have to quote half the book and then write twice as much on top of it. And I'm not writing my own book.
I certainly need to keep studying this topic. I have another book I started then mislaid then never went back to, and another that just came in the mail this week. The Book of Mormon was written for our day and these are the issues it is most concerned with: being rich at the expense of the poor, becoming Zion, accepting Christ.
Not popular ideas in our cultural moment.
Incidentally, I just went through the book five times and couldn't find the part where he talks about it, but the Church's self-reliance manual begins with these three sentences:
The purpose of becoming spiritually and temporally self-reliant is to better serve the Lord and care for others. The Savior invites us all to act, to stand independent, and to become as He is. He will help us. He has promised: “It is my purpose to provide for my saints, for all things are mine. But it must needs be done in mine own way.”
The wild thing is, if you read that scripture in context, that is, without ending it mid-sentence, it actually says this:
And it is my purpose to provide for my saints, for all things are mine. But it must needs be done in mine own way; and behold this is the way that I, the Lord, have decreed to provide for my saints, that the poor shall be exalted, in that the rich are made low.
Heh.
Let's burn it all down.
almost a year and a half
072) God's Man: A Novel in Woodcuts by Lynd Ward, finished August 27
It kind of reminds me of Buster Keaton's Cops if it were a work of German Expressionism with a lot more sex, a lot fewer jokes, and a strong aroma of religious allegory.
one day
073) He Done Her Wrong: The Great American Novel and Not a Word in It—No Music, Too by Milt Gross, finished August 27
I read this was a parody of God's Man but it would be more accurate to say it's a parody of the wordless-novel genre writ large. Although one of the bigger laughs was when his female lead suddenly appeared in full Lynd Ward–style glory:
And speaking of silent, films, I have to believe that Hundreds of Beavers was influenced at least a tad by the early scenes of this book. The middle scenes seems equal parts Chaplin and the parodied novels. The last act is parody of parodies of melodramas, down to the villain ties people to logs and feeding them to the sawmill. The ending provides a happy-ending coincidence of Dickensian proportions and all is well.
Although it may not be a direct commentary on God's Man, reading them back to back was kind of wonderful.
(Although it may be worth noting that the race-humor bits in He Done Her Wrong have, shall we say, aged less gracefully than the book as a whole.)
one sit
074) The City: A Vision in Woodcuts by Frans Masereel, finished August 27
I'm reading through all my old woodcut novels because I'm on the hunt for one that can be read quickly and several times profitably by15yrolds.
This one is non-narrative, which is disqualifying on its own. But it's also about the city—largely how awful the city is. There are a couple mystical moments, some lovely moments, and it ends on a bit of grace, but the bulk is death and violence and abuse.
I need to find a nonparody sans nipples. Still looking!
before bed
075) The Invention of Sound by Chuck Palahniuk, finished August 28
So if I'm counting correctly, this is my fourth Palahniuk novel. I read Invisible Monsters and Lullaby (such a good cover) in my post-BYU Utah years (2002–04) and listened to Survivor in 2017 while driving solo to Scout Camp. I also read or listened to most or all of his collection Stranger than Fiction (probably) during the 2005–06 school year. That's it. I own a copy of Choke I haven't read. I think I'd call myself a fan, but perhaps it's more that I appreciate what he's good at.
And while he likes playing with language and his tales are rich in meaning, part of what he is good at is grotesquerie. What I remember most clearly from Lullaby, for instance, is the description of three-bean salad and the sex with dead people.
I picked up The Invention of Sound because I love foley—I hope some version of me out there in the multiverse has discovered that walking on popcorn while my feet are wrapped in prosciutto is exactly what some cinematic monster's breathing sounds like. I hope so.
Anyway, this is a book about a foley artist and everything from here on out is spoilers, so walk away if this 2020 novel is currently on your nightstand.
There are two primary threads. The first is the foley artist who specializes in exquisite screams that she, as per the family business's long tradition, obtains through torture and murder. The second is a fellow whose daughter was once murdered by the family business. These two threads will slowly come together. In the meantime, we get some of the most disturbing sex I've read in a while (perhaps since my last Palahniuk novel?), some nice jabs at elites, a wild conspiracy that's hard to piece together let alone believe, a decent look at madness, some very good side characters and couple less good ones, and elements of the weird: a doctor who can channel the dead, for instance.
Palahniuk is a good writer. He's messing with sentences a bit much here, but he's looking for things that work and he's using his status as a bestseller to try things. Let him fail, I say. It's good for all of us.
Meanwhile, on the thematic level, he's firing on all cylinders. While I don't always agree with his choices, no question they work and they build. He wields violence and the unpleasant like a size 2/0 sable brush—exquisite detail revealing large truths.
It is important that we see the ugly so that we can appreciate the beautiful.
Perhaps, after you wipe the blood out of your eyes, that is what will happen here.
perhaps a week
076) Destiny: A Novel in Pictures by Otto Nückel, finished August 28
Based on the image they selected for the cover
I was expecting that the silent-movie comparison would be Sunrise. And it's not bad, but it's ultimately not right either. That image is from the center of the book and a misleading detail. This story has it not-terrible moments but they are few. To call this novel Destiny probably hurt Destiny's feelings.
Anyway, we pass through a house of ill-repute and thus my no-nipple quest remains unfulfilled. Plus, it's too long and a bit hard to follow. The quest continues.
before bed
077) The Piano Lesson by August Wilson, finished August 29
I've read Fences probably twenty times. Seen the movie half a dozen times. Seen it live once. Yet, somehow, nothing else of August Wilson's. I've had this copy of The Piano Lesson for ages but I finally picked it up because I bought tickets to Two Tickets Running. Which we saw tonight. So I've tripled my Wilson today.
The Cycle plays, I have a lot to go. The Lower Bottom Playaz are also doing King Hedley II later this year. I should go again.
Anyway, having now read The Piano Lesson and seen Two Trains Running, I can see some things Wilson likes doing. There are lines almost repeated between Fences and Two Trains Running. There are similar disabled characters in Fences and Trains. In all three plays (!) there is an off-stage white man whose name starts with St–. I could go on, but you get the point.
This isn't a knock on Wilson. He's showing one place change over a hundred years. There should be echos. And, I mean come on, Shakespeare didn't rely on stock characters and situations? These things are not crimes of any sort.
(Though it does make me wonder if my own work may feel more repetitious than I realize.)
Anyway, The Piano Lesson set up what seemed like an intractable conflict between a brother and a sister. It seemed it could only end in tragedy. But the strange and supernatural elements combine into some escape that somehow—magically—works.
I am left with the sense that Fences is the best of the three, but no wonder I would think that, given my intimacy with the text. Who am I to say they all don't stand up to that kind of scrutiny?
saturday and friday
078) Passionate Journey: A Vision in Woodcuts by Frans Masereel, finished August 30
Well, this was the most nipplous yet. Perhaps this quest is hopeless. Anyway, this is the penultimate in my collection. I'll give the wordless novels one last chance to enter my classroom.
I know Thomas Mann loved this one, but in a way it feels almost like a parody of realist fiction.
Our hero cannot be restrained. He loves, he travels, he carouses. He feels delight and amazement. He has his heart broken. Then, towards the end, realism it left behind. He's a hundred stories tall and peeing on the city. He is weeping at the feet of the crucified Christ. He is walking through a forest of towering flowers. And then he is dead. He goes from eternally twenty-something to dead. But even death cannot restrain him. He carries on.
I mean—I like it well enough. But I wouldn't want to spend a month here.
like ten minutes
079) Madman's Drum by Lynd Ward, finished August 30
I think I like Ward's intricate art style better than his European counterparts. But you know whose opinion I'd really love on Ward? Edgar Allen Poe's. I really think Poe would have dug this one in particular.
It begins with an evil slaver. Between panels he murders and African man and steals his drum. He then steals his relatives and takes them over the ocean where the sale of their living flesh makes him a wealthy man.
His son takes down the drum at some point to play, but his father beats him and pushes him toward books. That seems to go well but then . . . I mean, it's hard to say. It's not always easy to keep characters straight in these books. But we get three generations of men who, each in his own special way, fails to escape evil.
But, oh the art.
I have to say, even though I don't always find it easy to know what's going on, I am impressed by the confidence of these artists. They never add little captions saying something like Mr Johnson's wife is also some sort of lunatic. They trust us to puzzle our way through. I like this.
But if you were hoping this means I found a book without nipples, think again.
another brief jaunt
080) Murder Mystery Mystery Murder by Ben Abbott, finished September 3
In the spring I saw Ben's new play Shut Up, Sherlock (which was terrific) and that led to a series of conversations that ended up with me having a pdf of this play.
I remember reading an interview with Neil Gaiman once around the time MirrorMask came out. If you don't remember, MirrorMask was written by Gaimain and crafted visually by his frequent collaborator Dave McKean. Anyway, in the interview, Gaiman said that he was writing scenes and taking them to McKean to see if they could afford them and that what could be afforded was not always intuitive to Gaiman. One simple scene set in a classroom would be too costly because kids are expensive, but a scene where a whole opens in the universe and all of time and space drain away can be done on the cheap because it's just cg.
Anyway, I mention this because Murder Mystery Mystery Murder is kind of the opposite. It has TWENTY-ONE speaking parts, an insane number hardly any modern company working on a budget would ever touch. But this was written for a high-school troupe and the one thing they had in abundance was cheap actors. Otherwise, this is a pretty simple one-set production, but the piles of chaos from having so many characters interacting with each other gives MMMM a unique charm. It's like Clue somehow cranked even higher and madder. But also, in the end, friendlier. It's great.
as my students took some dumb standardized test
earlier this year..........
Bro! Tell me we still know how to speak of kings!
001) Beowulf translated by Maria Dahvana Headley, finished January 1
002) Cthulhu Is Hard to Spell: Volume Three, finished January 1
003) Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (translated by Megan McDowell), finished January 8
004) My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris, finished January 11
005) You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown, finished January 12
005) Into the Headwinds: Why Belief Has Always Been Hard—and Still Is by Terryl Givens and Nathaniel Givens, finished January 24
006) My Favorite Thing Is Monsters: Book Two by Emil Ferris, finished January 25
Maybe we should just pretend this set begins and ends with Wednesday Addams
007) Chas. Addams Half-Baked Cookbook, finished January 29
008) Monica by Daniel Clowes, finished February 3
009) The Unexpurgated French Edition of Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland, finished February 19
010) Peach and the Isle of Monsters by Franco Aureliani and Agnes Garbowska, finished February 20
011) Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, finished February 28
012) Comic Poems edited by Peter Washington, finished March 7
Love, Beauty, and a complete lack of sasquatch
013) Love that Dog by Sharon Creech, finished March 11
014) Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper, finished March 21
015) Antelope Spring by John Bennion, finished March 24
016) Shelley Frankenstein by Colleen Madden, finished March 28
017) Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew #21: Double Take, finished April 5
018) The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clark, finshed April 8
019) Rave by Jessica Campbell, finished April 13
020) The Creeps: A Deep Dark Fears Collection by Fran Krause, finished April 14
Do not ask what she does with the babies.
027) Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito, finished April 21
028) Somna: A Bedtime Story by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay, finished April 23
029) Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu, finished April 24
030&031) The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, finished April 25
032) Raised by Ghosts by Briana Loewinsohn, finished April 26
033) Ephemera by Briana Loewinsohn, finished April 26
Brighter and brighter until we all get our heads lopped off
034) Brighter and Brighter until the Perfect Day by Sharlee Mullins Glenn, finished April 27
035) Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett, finished May 3
036) The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, finished May 5
037) Equus by Peter Shaffer
038) Travesties by Tom Stoppard, finished May 8
039) The Art of Intimacy: The Space Between by Stacey D'Erasmo, finished May 10
040) A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt, finished May 16
Criticism & Comics
041) Arts and Inspiration: Mormon Perspectives, edited by Steven P. Sondrup, finished May 18
042) The Waiting by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, finished May 19
043) Odessa by Jonathan Hill, finished May 22
044) Barnstormers: A Ballad of Love and Murder by Tula Lotay and Scott Snyder, finished May 22
045) Bingo Baby, finished May 26
Books on the Fourth of July
046) Final Cut by Charles Burns, finished May 28
047) Fever Beach by Carol Hiassen, finished June 12
048) How to Talk to Your Succulent by Zoe Persico, finished June 17
049) Poetry Comics from the Book of Hours by Bianca Stone, June 24
050) Night of Camp David by Fletcher Knebel, finished June 25
051) The Serial Killer's Son Takes a Wife by Michael Libling, finished July 3
An old friend makes some introductions (and more)
052) The 5th Generation by Dale Jay Dennis, finished July 7
053) To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, finished July 10
054) Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout, finished July 25
055) Meet Monster: The First Big Monster Book by Ellen Blanca and Ann Cook, illustrated by Quentin Blake, finished July 26
056) Last Pick by Jason Walz, finished July 29
057) Death Comes to Eastrepps by Francis Beeding, finished August 2
A lot of comics and then not Twain
058) Gilt Frame by Matt Kindt and Margie Kraft Kindt, finished August 2
059) Monkey Meat: The First Batch by Juni Ba, finished August 3
060) Abbott by Saladin Ahmed and Sami Kivelä and Jason Wordie, finished August 4
061) Mendel the Mess-Up by Terry LaBan, finished August 9
062) Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath, finished August 9
063) James by Percival Everett, finished August 13
The last books read before school starts
064) Stranger Planet by Nathan W Pyle, finished August 13
065) Jumping Jenny by Anthony Berkeley, finished August 13
066) Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, finished August 18
PREVIOUS OTHER YEARS IN BOOKS
2007 = 2008 = 2009 = 2010 = 2011 = 2012 = 2013 = 2014 = 2015
2016 = 2017 = 2018 = 2019 = 2020 = 2021 = 2022 = 2023 = 2024
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