Stories of Your Life and Others (2002) by Ted Chiang

 Book Review

Stories of Your Life and Others (2002)

by Ted Chiang

    I am a big fan of the movie Arrival about the efforts by humanity to decode the language of aliens who arrive on Earth (in the story they are on ships in orbit, in the film they hover above the ground in giant ships).  Arrival was based on the title story of this collection of short-stories by American author Ted Chiang.   After finishing the book- the audiobook- I was surprised to learn that this collection was published way back in 2002.  Science fiction sometimes ages poorly, particularly short-stories which may become outdated with rapid changes in technology.  That was not the case here- all of these stories hold up, particularly Tower of Babylon, his first story, which is a take on the Biblical tale and Seventy-Two Letters, which draws on Victorian technology and Kabbalah.  Like many authors working in this genre, Chiang is strong on ideas and less strong on the mechanics of fiction, with stories that feature lengthy exposition, inner monologues and extremely limited casts of characters, but the ideas are so strong that they overcome any weaknesses.  Sad I didn't read this collection decades ago.

A Stone of the Heart (1990) by Tom Grimes

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

A Stone of the Heart (1990)

by Tom Grimes 

Queens, New York City

Brooklyn/Queens/Long Island/Staten Island: 14/28

New York: 90/105

  A theme that has emerged from the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America is the career's of the author's who have been selected.  I'm focusing on the lesser known folks, since I've read most of the canon-level or just under canon level picks that editor Susan Straight made, leaving me to actually read the lesser known books for each state and region.   One way I can identify the books at the bottom of the ladder is by publisher and the absence of either E-book or Audiobook or both versions when I go looking.  A Stone of the Heart is bottom of the barrel by those standards- published by an indie that I'm pretty sure is out of business and without an Ebook or Audiobook edition.

   And indeed I soon learned that author Tom Grimes most famous book is called Mentor, a memoir about how he flopped as a big time writer of literary fiction and mentee of Frank Conroy, who plucked Grimes from pre-fame obscurity into a role as the chosen one of the Iowa Writers Workshop, only to see his second novel, Season's End, get the most brutal review from Publishers Weekly I've ever seen in my life, reprinted in full below:

This schizophrenic second novel from Grimes ( A Stone of the Heart ) veers from sluggish philosophizing and ponderous verbosity to snappy repartee and crisp narrative. Mike Williams, a left fielder and singles hitter for an unnamed major league baseball team, chronicles the intermittently compelling stories of his marriage to his high school sweetheart and battles with his agent, manager and team owner in the seasons between 1975 and the players' strike of 1981. Proposing baseball as an anchor of sanity in the craziness of the business world around it, Grimes contrasts the sharp realities of life with ``the sweet illusions of the game.'' The first part of the novel, charting Williams's rise to stardom and its burdens, is smugly pretentious and nearly chokes the sly, sardonic humor that is its principal redeeming feature, although the rest of the book is better focused. Williams observes, ``We are ballplayers. We accept the ineffable and get on with the game.'' Grimes should have have followed suit from early on. (Apr.)

  

     I mean I can not believe Publishers Weekly did him like that.   A Stone of the Heart, meanwhile was his debut, a novella about an overweight, baseball loving teen who has an alcoholic father and out-of-touch-with-reality Mom, growing up in Queens.  Presumably it is the text which Frank Conroy plucked from the application pile and based his opinion upon.

    A Stone of the Heart is very on-brand for the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America, a short novella about a lower-middle class family which exists entirely in their own reality, where reality intruding from the outside world is represented by a Grandparent or parish priest.  No one goes anywhere, and the only thing that happens in the book is a trip to see the Yankees in the Bronx. Heart pounding stuff.  

The Sportswriter (1986) by Richard Ford

 Book Review

The Sportswriter (1986)

by Richard Ford

Haddam, New Jersey

New Jersey: 4/14

   Two things to know about Richard Ford:  He won the Pulitzer Prize for the next book in this career-long series about Frank Bascomb, Independence Day.  Second, he is a huge asshole, having 1) Sent Alice Hoffman a copy of HER newest novel with the middle shot out by his guy after he didn't like her NYT review of this book and; 2) SPAT on Colson Whitehead for a review of his collection of short stories that Ford didn't appreciate.  It seems like BOTH those things would get you cancelled or at least charged with a crime but neither seems to have happen.  Presumably Alice Hoffman and Colson Whitehead, who both turned out to be more succesful than Ford over the courses of their respective careers, were big enough to move past their affronts at Ford's hand and mouth.  Third, Ford is one of these white male writers in the grand tradition of the United States suburbanite, dissatisfied with the anomie of the American suburbs while seemingly at a loss to do anything about it.

  Bascomb, the narrator and protagonist (and really the only fully drawn character in the entire book- which refers to his ex wife only as "Mrs. X" and alludes to the premature death of his son with as little explanation as seems humanly possible.) has, at the age of 38:

1.  Been married, fathered two children, one of whom is dead and been fully divorced.

2.  Written a well regard book of short stories

3.  Given up on "serious" writing and found work as a sports writer for a New York Times type newspaper in Manhattan.

  This character, who is a decade younger than me, sounds like a senior citizen, the whole book through. Is what thirty eight year old men were like in the 1980's?  I guess so.  I checked out the Audiobook from the library which was a good pick because the entire book is just Frank Bascomb ruminating, and occasionally having portentous conversations with friends, lovers and strangers in various locales between New Jersey, Manhattan and Michigan. 

  

  

Good Material (2024) by Dolly Alderton

 Book Review

Good Material (2024)

by Dolly Alderton

  Good Material, the new novel by English writer Dolly Alderton, is our book club pick for tomorrow night.  While I'm not fundamentally opposed to a relationship/break-up novel it's not a genre I typically engage.  I've experienced by own relationships and break-ups over the years and it doesn't seem like a particularly interesting topic, categorically speaking.  But there are exceptions to every rule- just look at the rise of Sally Rooney, who became a literary icon based on little more then whimsical and witty banter between two young Irish people.  I really liked her first novel- or maybe it was her second- the one that catapulted her to global notoriety. 

  Based on some positive reviews I'd read and what I know about the author I had an inkling this might be a better than average example of this category- the mere fact that it got released in the United States by a big publisher is a clue, because if you go to London you will see they have their own domestic versions of the type of books that mirror ours but which never get released in the United States.  The ones that have made it across- Bridget Jones,  the Nick Hornsby oeuvre- are inevitably softened and transposed as they make their way up the American cultural stair case.   

  Fundamentally a break-up novel,  I found the first 80 percent of the book (I read it on my Kindle) extremely tedious and occasionally funny and the last 20 percent pretty gripping.  Specifically, we get the whole book from the perspective of the guy in the relationship- a balding, semi-failed stand-up comedian who supports himself picking up shifts at his friend's cheese stall and mc'ing and performing at third-tier corporate events and weddings, that for some reason, want to book a stand-up comedian.  Andy, as it turns out, is less interesting than Jen, but Alderton keeps us from her thoughts until the end of the book. 

  At various times as I made it through Andy's post-break travails, it occurred to me that Alderton might have constructed a male version of the manic pixie dream girl- a whimsical figure, typically sporting bangs and a very louche attitude to the necessities of adult life.  In fact, if I could ask the author one question about this book it would be to what degree she was aware of the trope/character and whether it influenced her writing of this male character.

   At the end I was gratified by the fact that Jen's observations about Andy matched my own assessment- maybe that is the point?  But certainly Good Material really pulls itself together with the third fact.

Lily's Crossing (2001) by Patricia Reilly Giff

1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Lily's Crossing (1997)

by Patricia Reilly Giff 

Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York

Brooklyn/Queens/Long Island/Staten Island: 13/28

New York: 89/105

  Lily's Crossing is a Newberry Medal Winner from 1998, about a young girl who befriends a Hungarian boy who was smuggled out from Nazi held Hungary and France to wait out the war in Rockaway Beach, Queens.  It's not the first book in the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America with that plot.  Beyond that, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash covers similar territory and goes on to do much more, since it is not a book for children.  But Children's Lit is what they hand out the Newberry Medal for being.  Who am I to take issue with their judgment.  Seems like Rockaway Beach deserves more than a kids book about World War II.

Sons of Darkness, Sons of Light (1969) by John A. Williams

 Book Review

Sons of Darkness, Sons of Light (1969)

by John A. Williams

  I would not have read the excellent Sons of Darkness, Sons of Light by John A. Williams if I had not already Night Songs, also by John A. Williams, as part of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America project.  Night Songs is about a drug-addicted jazz musician and his compatriots, while Sons of Darkness, Sons of Light is about the steps taken by a mild mannered college professor and civil rights activist to incite a race war by using a Israeli hit man to murder a NYC cop who himself murdered a black high school student.  It seems almost unfathomable to me that this book was published by a major publishing house, during the fall of 1969, and basically no one noticed or cared.   It certainly isn't popular today, despite being the earliest example I know of the post-World War II, post-Vietnam American Civil War scenario in literature.

  These days we associate a race based Civil War with the right, but Sons of Darkness, Sons of Light tells it from the other side, down to a group of militants in South Los Angeles who are depicted collaborating with the John Birch society for a common end.  It isn't a perfect novel, and it is a bummer that he cuts the narrative off right at the beginning of the race war itself, but still, shocking for its time and still shocking today, no wonder it's been "forgotten."