Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (Drama)

 

by Stephen Crane

Publisher : Independently published (March 19, 2020)

Softcover, 108 pages

Amazon Listing 

“The vast crowd had an air throughout of having just quitted labor. Men with calloused hands and attired in garments that showed the wear of an endless trudge for a living, smoked their pipes contentedly and spent five, ten, or perhaps fifteen cents for beer. There was a mere sprinkling of kid-gloved men who smoked cigars purchased elsewhere. The great body of the crowd was composed of people who showed that all day they strove with their hands. Quiet Germans, with maybe their wives and two or three children, sat listening to the music, with the expressions of happy cows. An occasional party of sailors from a war-ship, their faces pictures of sturdy health, spent the earlier hours of the evening at the small round tables. Very infrequent tipsy men, swollen with the value of their opinions, engaged their companions in earnest and confidential conversation. In the balcony, and here and there below, shone the impassive faces of women. The nationalities of the Bowery beamed upon the stage from all directions.”

This was originally a self-published novella by Stephen Crane from 1893. It flopped, but after his novel, The Red Badge of Courage, hit it big, Maggie was republished - (after significant changes were made) 1896 and became the semi-classic it is today. That is, a great story which no one has ever heard of. An amazing amount of material is covered in such a short span of work. In fact, the life of an entire girl from the Bowery.

Author Stephen Crane

For those who don't know the Bowery was a neighborhood in the south of Manhattan, well known for slums, vice, crippling poverty, violence, and crime- at least at the time of this writing. The protagonist grows up in a chaotic situation, surrounded by her violent and dangerously alcoholic family. Her parents routinely become drunk, beat on their children, and destroy their apartment. Attempting to escape this insanity, Maggie latches onto a local bartender, who she perceives as the knight in shining armor, while it is as plain as day to the reader he is nothing more than a dumb thug with a high opinion of himself.

While Crane’s characters speak in the vernacular of their society, similar to Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Walker’s The Color Purple, the book discusses underlying themes that pester every level of mankind. Substance abuse and hypocrisy being chief among them - most of the characters here are the dregs of society, thus they are constantly looking for someone else to look down upon, and if a victim doesn’t present himself then they manufacture one. But this novella also takes a large swipe at the naturalistic principle, a topic of much discussion at the time of first publication.

Naturalism is when “a character is set into a world where there is no escape from one's biological heredity. Additionally, the circumstances in which a person finds oneself will dominate one's behavior, depriving the individual of personal responsibility.” In this case, Maggie, both sheltered from any other life and abused by current situations, cannot get away from the lousy hand dealt her and must suffer accordingly.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.

Author Stephen Crane 1897

Torture Garden (Drama)

by Octave Mirbeau (Author), Michael Richardson (Translator), Brian Stableford (Introduction)

Publisher: Dedalus Ltd; new edition edition (July 15, 2019)

Softcover, 205 pages

Amazon Listing 

“Come, dear ones, come more quickly. Where you’re going there is even more pain, more torture, more blood flowing and dripping to the ground, more contorted and torn bodies at their last gasp on iron tables, more cut open flesh swaying from the gallow’s rope, more horror and more hell. Come, my loves, come, with lips together and hand in hand. Look among the leaves and the latticework, look at the infernal diorama as it unfolds and at the diabolical festival of death.”

This work has been compared to that of the Marquis De Sade, having read all of De Sade’s writings I can assure you that it is not. It is De Sade light and much better written than most of De Sade’s tales. However several of the themes of the Marquis’ work are present in this twisted tale. In the wake of the Dreyfus affair, much of French literature turned to discussing the hypocrisy of Western civilization. About how many decry acts which they themselves regularly perform. About how the worst always crawl to the top, but must maintain airs of absolute respectability.

However, while De Sade would be content with this simple statement and show constant horrific examples ad nauseam, the author goes beyond and shows the extreme opposite and shows the land of China (this would be the last few decades of Imperial China) as one who openly embraces sex and violence as a matter of course and a natural part of human behavior. The flip sides seems to be much worse than the stuffy European way of life.

Author Octave Mirabeau

 

The epitome of this is shown in the character of Clara, "fairy of mass graves, angel of decomposition and decay". She is an extreme example of a fin-de-siècle (femme fatale), an all-powerful near-necrophilia who treats men as puppets and enjoys their humiliation. Sadistic and morbid, she experiences an intense and ever growing sexual pleasure on viewing elaborate executions, whose art was perfected by China, as opposed to industrial and technological massacres, which were practiced on a large scale in Europe without any concern for art, i.e. the guillotine (something that De Sade laments as well). She is a monster allowed to give full flight to her perversions in this horrible place.

The plot is fairly simple. A French politician's dirty trickster is sent on a pseudo-scientific expedition to collect seaweed in order to discover the origin of life. In reality, he is being put out of the way as he has become a potential embarrassment to the politician. He quickly abandons his pursuits when he falls under the spell of Clara, an English woman, who wraps him around her little finger. For over two years, he goes back and forth, until finally she takes him to the Torture Gardens of China, where scenes of great floral beauty are displayed amongst the horrible death, torture, and humiliations of condemned prisoners.

 For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

 

 

The King in the Golden Mask (Historical Fiction)

by Marcel Schwob; Kit Schluter (translator, foreword)

Publisher: Wakefield Press; First Edition (May 23, 2017)

Softcover, 176 pages

Amazon Listing 

“At that time, the human race was close to perishing. The orb of the sun was as close as the moon. An endless winter caused the soil to crack. The mountains which had erupted, spewing the earth’s flaming entrails into the sky, were now grey with frozen lava. The lands were riveted by parallel or starry trenches; tremendous crevasses, suddenly yawning, engulfed the things above as they collapsed, and one could see, moving toward them in heavy sideslips, long queues of glacial erratics. The dark air was sequenced with transparent needles; a sinister whiteness hung over the land; the  universal silver glow seemed to sterilize the world.” 

-         The Death of Odjigh

Marcel Schwob is not a name well known in modern literary terms- I have no idea why- yet he is one of the most vivid writers of the later half of nineteenth century French writers. He has been called a "precursor of Surrealism", which I cannot disagree with.   

In addition to over a hundred short stories, he wrote articles, essays, biographies, literary analysis, and plays. He was extremely well known and respected during his life and notably befriended a great number of intellectuals and artists of the time. Yet, he is all but forgotten…. But not completely. 

Marcel Schwob

Luckily, much of his work is being “rediscovered” and translated into English. Once again this prompts me to learn French with a greater intensity, as I’m worried about how much great material I’m missing, because this is the first time this collection of short stories has been translated into English- and the book was originally published in 1892. The 21 stories in this collection are primarily dark, grim tales, with mostly unpleasant endings. They range from slight fantasy, to grim modern, to slightly sci-fi. 

The stories are a cruel, almost sadistic, telling of characters trapped in an unforgiving world. The narration is cold, matter-of-fact, or lusty in thick details (as we see above). What will happen to his characters is up in the air, with a fifty-fifty shot that the protagonists will survive. Each paragraph is charged with poetic energy, placing him on par with Ambrose Bierce or H. P. Lovecraft. I consider it almost a crime, he hasn’t been translated into English before. 

The style of the stories are a little odd. Most of the material in it build-up to an event which then happens quickly, leading to a hasty end. Let’s say for a ten page story, eight is mostly exposition. In fact, several of them almost seem to be completely background material for a larger story, which the author never wrote, or should have written. Still, it is so beautifully composed that I don’t care that much and simply enjoy the ride. 

The translator writes that Marcel Schowb didn’t believe in originality, and several of the stories are recycled plots from classical sources or historical events, but this worked in the author’s favor. Like Shakespeare, by not having to focus on plot, the author is free to focus all his creative energies on his style. And it works out for the best.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

The Bell Jar (Fiction) (Psychology)

by Sylvia Plath  

Publisher: Faber & Faber (January 1, 1968)

Softcover, 258 pages

Amazon Listing 

This is the classic (or near classic, or non-classic-but-everyone-knows-about-it; depending on who you talk to) book by suicidal poet Sylvia Plath. Her only novel in fact, the rest of her energies were devoted to poetry- and decent poems they are. If you haven’t read any of them, give it a try. They are dark and depressing, and reveal a lifelong depression as her primary personality characteristic. But her melancholy is your gain, as some great art was born from that sadness.

The crux of the novel is about a girl who is soon due to mature past the confines of university and enter independent life. A prospect which causes her great consternation, since up until now she has found her greatest success in the narrow confines of academia, doing as she was told and following the lines laid out for her by others. Now on her last hurrah, she is about to enter an unknown arena where all of the grants and scholarships and what-have-you mean almost nothing. Several factors add into her eventual need for her suicide attempt and incarceration into an asylum, which are events that dominate the second half of the book.

Author, Sylvia Plath - Pretty Hot

The parallels between this novel and Catcher in the Rye are obvious. Two young people on the cusp of becoming adults are having difficulty with the transition. Both wish to remain safe in the womb of adolescent society, with the lack of responsibilities that world has, but ultimately neither can, and the protagonist suffers as a result of their resistance. What make the difference for this novel are the obvious autobiographical details in The Bell Jar. So much so apparently that it caused a lot of fractures in the personal lives of the other real life people (very thinly disguised) mentioned in the novel.

Despite all the other claims, The Bell Jar is an obvious symbolic reference to chronic depression and mental illness. Suffering from chronic depression was like having a bell jar over her head. She could see the world, but was separate from it. It was a muted prison, where all that existed were her own thoughts in a suffocating atmosphere. People have made other claims as to symbolism, but none of them are very convincing so I won’t waste anyone time. Plus the author herself stuck her head in an oven six months after The Bell Jar’s UK publication. That, I think, should end any other discussion.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

Mazes and Monsters: A Novel (Humor) (Fiction)

by Rona Jaffe 

Publisher: Delacorte Press (September 1, 1981)

Hardcover, 329 pages

Amazon Listing 

“The days dragged by. The police were still looking in the caverns and questioning students. The Pequod newspaper picked up the story of the missing student, and of course The Grant Gazette did, and then the wire services got hold of it. Suddenly the press aws fascinated by the game. The idea that a game was supposed to be a fantasy could have taken on such reality as to cause the disappearance - and possible death- of a player was thrilling. Sales of mazes and Monsters soared. It was inevitable that someone would finally advance the theory that the game had caused Robbie to flip out. But it was all conjecture. The fact that Robbie had been so normal: an athlete, good grades, popular, friendly pleasant, attractive, made the story even more intriguing to the press. It seemed as if reporters were interviewing everyone on campus.”

This, of course, is the infamous supposed anti-RPG novel where college students playing a Dungeons and Dragons like game get too involved in the fantasy and one of them loses touch with reality. He adopts the persona of his character and drifts off looking for adventure, eventually stabbing a guy who mistakes him for a male prostitute.

Poster for the film version of this novel.

This came out just after the popularity of Dungeons and Dragons boomed in the late 1970s, and was based on an actual event where some college students got lost playing the game in some steam tunnels beneath their university. They essentially were the first LARPers. With typical journalistic zeal for exploitation, the story was seized upon and D&D was eventually roped in with the Satanic Panic which was beginning to pick up steam. The “activist” group B.A.D.D. (Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons) praised the novel and a cheap CBS Movie of the Week was produced starring a young Tom Hanks in one of his first roles. The entire film is embedded below. For bad films aficionados only.

I did research on the literature of the Satanic Panic for my upcoming novel, but I didn’t not include this book among them, due to the fact that this is listed as a work of fiction, while all of the others, Michelle Remembers, Turmoil in the Toybox, etc, claim to be real. Strange as this may sound out of all of them, Mazes and Monsters is the most grounded, down-to-earth, book of them all. The so-called “real” material spins off into ridiculous claims which no critical thinking person could believe.

In fact, one of the novel’s drawbacks it’s that it’s too real. So real that it’s actually kind of boring. We see the four protagonists with their various social dramas and brief romances and various backgrounds, most of which feels like padding. This book was published in 1980 so the stereotypical image of the social leper gamer had not been established. Back at that time, everyone was trying D&D, but most stopped after college. The action, such as it is, is crammed in the last forty pages and even that is thin. It’s mostly about people about to graduate college, worrying about their life and future. Almost a college version of The Breakfast Club or the gamer version of Diner.

Despite most of the fervent criticism against Mazes and Monsters by gamers over the last few decades, it doesn’t paint all gamers as mentally unstable loners. In fact, the book doesn’t really discusses the game much at all. It’s always present in the background, but there are entire chapters where it isn’t mentioned. Three of the four protagonists have no problem playing the game and find it a fun distraction, and the kid who does flip out is already shown to have a terrible home life and previous mental issues. The movie below did take things to more of an extreme in its depiction of the game and its “effects”. The reasons the one character does lapse into his character are pretty dubious. I don’t buy it, and it almost comes out of nowhere.

Essentially though, this novel is a character study of some mild and slightly troubled characters in a story in which almost nothing happens. A pretty boring piece of work.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

Full Film is Here 

Classics Illustrated: The Secret Agent (Crime) (Graphic Novel) (Fiction)

by Joseph Conrad (Author) & John K. Snyder (Adaptor)

Publisher: NBM (July 13, 2013)

Hardcover, 124 pages

Here we have a classic from yesteryear by one of the greatest writers in English literature, Joseph Conrad. Secret Agent, while far from his best work, is a classic in its own right and made infamous for being the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski’s, favorite book. Perhaps even inspiring him into his favorite pastime of blowing things up.

Joseph Conrad is the author of many deep classics that appeal mostly to males, Lord Jim, Nostromo, and Heart of Darkness- which was the inspiration for the seminal film Apocalypse Now. If you haven’t heard of any of these please get a library card and liberate yourself from illiteracy.

Author Joseph Conrad

Originally published in 1907, the story centers on Adolph Veloc, a leading member of an anarchist cell (the modern equivalent of this would be Antifa) and a paid agent provocateur of a foreign power. A rather indolent man, whose cover identity is selling pornographic items and other bric-a-brac out of a small shop, he is ordered to bomb a public building to stir the populace against the anarchist. Veloc is your typical anti-heroic Conrad protagonist forced into circumstances well beyond his ability to cope with.

There are no heroes in this novel. The police and other authority figures are mostly concerned with their own personal advancement and stab each other in the back with regularity, while the anarchists are even worse. Petty leeches, who complain about the system, but are unable to take care of themselves and live off of women that they dupe. They are seen as ineffectual big talkers who are incapable of anything except fraud and self-indulgence. Which is pretty accurate for your standard “activist”. I think Solzhenitsyn wrote it best when he said "activist" is just a synonym for “big mouthed loafer”.

The art is good, somewhat different, but meant to express emotions as much as action. I would characterize it as a sort of cubist art deco.

The problem I have with this book is that it really is geared for younger readers. As the presentation concentrates primarily on the dialogue between disparate figures, the action is muddled. Perhaps this wasn’t intended to be read by younger people as was the first incarnation of Classics Illustrated in the 1940s, but the confusion might reach out to older readers unfamiliar with the novel. Having read the original prose novel I understood what was happening, but the graphic novel has a habit of jumping character perspectives (as did the original) without any transitions and the semi-abstract illustrations would cause momentary confusion as to who was talking.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

Last Exit to Brooklyn (Crime)

by Hubert Selby Jr. 

Published: Grove Press (January 14, 1994) (original publication 1962).

Softcover, 320 pages.

“Tralala was 15 the first time she was laid. There was no real passion. Just diversion. She hungout in the Greeks with the other neighborhood kids. Nothin to do. Sit and talk. Listen to the jukebox. Dink coffee. Bum cigarettes. Everything was a drag. She said yes. In the park. 3 or 4 couples finding their own tree and grass. Actually she didn’t say yes. She said nothing. Tony or Vinnie or whoever it was just continued. They all met later at the exit. They grinned at each other. The guys felt real sharp. The girls walked in front and talked about it. They giggled and alluded. Tralala shrugged her shoulders. Getting laid was getting laid. Why all the bullshit?”

As you can see from the snippet above, the books’ style is idiosyncratic, for the most part ignoring the rules of grammar, and slams various phrases together to make new words which mean the same thing, such as ‘tahell” and so on. If this is not your cup of tea then considered yourself fairly warned. The author chose to write in this manner in order to convey a sense of a story being told at a bar by one drunk to another. And he certainly succeeded at that.

Author Hubert Selby, Jr. 

There was quite a scandal when the book emerged. Next to Naked Lunch and The Warriors it was one of the few books published that dealt frankly with urban decay, transgenderism, violence (both street and domestic) and homosexuality. One of its unspoken themes is on the hopelessness of poverty, yet also demonstrates how most of the population has no interest is bettering themselves, or in anything beyond basic survival and substance abuse. It paints quite a different picture of the 1950s than those left to us by The Donna Reed Show and Ozzie and Harriet (kudos to you who know those references).

The book is comprised of a series of interconnected short stories all revolving around a greasy spoon diner, called the Greeks, and a dive bar named Mary’s. Many of the protagonists of one story turn up as minor characters in another. As such there is no real beginning, middle, or end, or a series of character arcs where the protagonists grows and changes from his experiences. These are sleazy people living in a poor area, trying to get by, trying to grab an easy buck, trying to stay drunk to forget about the fact that this will be the whole of their lives. It is filled with violent, unlikable people and I couldn’t take my eyes off of it.

While the initial publishing drew a lot of criticism, it was the British printing that actually sparked an obscenity charge. It was initially condemned, but then that ruling was overturned on appeal- becoming a landmark case against censorship in English law. As we can see by what’s happening in England today, it hasn’t gone far enough.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

Disappointing film based on the book

Palookaville Twenty-Two (Fiction) (Graphic Novel)

by Seth

Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly (April 21, 2015)

Hardcover, 120 pages

This is the penultimate (maybe) issue of the independent series, Palookaville, published over twenty years by Canadian artist Seth. Much of what I have to say will be a bit repetitive from my last review of Palookaville Twenty, but I don’t anticipate this being a long review. So take your pick, read this or the last one, both or neither. C’est la vie.

Again, the reason I am covering a single issue is that the series moved from a bi-annual (more or less) standard comic format of 25 some odd pages and a glossy cover to an expanded hard backed semi-annual edition of over one hundred pages.

Those who actually pay attention will notice that I jumped from a review of issue 20 to one of issue 22. The reason is that I find most of my books in sales bins and discount racks. I found issues 20 & 22 in a half-off bin in Queen City Comics (the only decent comic shop in left in Buffalo, NY). Issue 21 wasn’t there, thus I did not buy it. Straightforward? Damn straight.

Seth is one of the best artists out there. He is capable of expressing the depth of human emotion with a few brush strokes, even though most people say he seems like an alien in person. Even if he is, Seth’s observations on the human condition are dead on.

There are three sections in this issue. The first is the penultimate chapter in the Clyde Fans series.  It is the ongoing story of two brothers (one an introvert, the other an extrovert) who must deal with their emotional problems after the collapse of their fan company due to the rise of the air conditioning industry.

The Crown Barber Shop

The second story, if you can call it that, is an expose (with a fold out comic in the middle) of the author’s wife's barber shop, The Crown Barber Shop. Seth apparently designed it after a fictional place in his Dominion City model city (Where the story of Clyde Fans takes place).

The third is part one of an autobiographical retrospective of his childhood, his extreme awkwardness, and his developing love of comic books. It is an interesting look at an isolated (but not lonely) child making sense of the world- and never quite managing it.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

 

A World I Never Made (Drama) (Fiction)

by James T. Farrell (Writer) Charles Fanning (Introduction) 

Publisher: University of Illinois Press; revised ed. edition (March, 2007)

Softcover, 440 pages. 



            “He watched the lady, swayed. Well, wasn’t that something to put in your pipe and smoke! What the hell was he, a bluebeard, or a Blackhand? Why, goddamn her. She was probably the wife of some rich dude and she named her kids Percy. It kind of made him wish that some guy would grab her, drag her across the street in the prairie and give her five or six inches of what her dude husband probably didn’t have to give her.”

This somewhat hyperbolic title ushers in the first novel in Farrell's quintilogy on the O'Neil - O'Flaherty families in Chicago. Specifically, it follows Danny O'Neil who rises up from the Irish slums to become a successful lawyer.

Some have criticized Farrell’s writing style, claiming that it's repetitive, and too dependent on dialogue, while being short in action. It's true most of the scenes are dialogues between characters and in their speech we discover what has happened in-between the previous speech. However, that doesn’t diminish the skill of the writing. It enhances it if anything. He keeps the drama in-house and demonstrates the world through the family's eyes.

As for repetitious, his style becomes lyrical and lilting as it continues on. The back-and-forth between characters becomes a lullaby that drifts the characters through life. The gift of gab was part of the lifeblood of the old Irish tradition and it flows deep here.

Author, James T. Farrell

Set in 1911, the story captures the feel and smell of the Irish families as they claw to survive and prosper. It's fascinating to read of their problems. Often they are the same problems we face today. Money, sex, properly raising children, etc. Even the political debates between Democrats and Republicans, while removing the specific names (Taft was in the White House at this time), could happen today. The Republicans are said to be in the pockets of big business and the Democrats are said to be idealistic talkers, incapable of getting things done, relying on symbolic gestures.

The two families represent the split of the Irish in the race’s journey through America. The O'Flaherty are the Lace Curtain Irish who use the resources of this new land to educate the next generation so they can be better off and rise above the poverty impressed on them by the English in their native land. While the O'Neils are Shanty Irish, poorly educated, too many children, slovenly in their ways, poor hygiene. They are incapable, or unwilling, to better themselves and will eventually become known as “white trash”.

Danny O'Neil, here seen only as a child, is a product of both worlds. Born into the poor family, he is taken in by his upwardly mobile relations due to his parent’s appalling poverty. Eventually, he will rise above it all. Danny O'Neil is the protagonist foil to the author's other great work, Studs Lonigan. Studs is a dumb Irish brute born to a decent middle class family, whose fortunes spin downwards into an eventual early grave.

Original cover of the 1st edition. 

Farrell wished this series of books to have a more upbeat end. His work (along with Jim Tully's) centralized the Irish-American Catholic experience in the forefront of the drama, rather than them being a minor part or just comic relief. It started a trend of Irish centered novels and films which proliferated the 40s and 50s.

But let me give those who are interested a warning. Farrell showed the ways of the old school Irish as he knew it, warts and all. There's plenty in here that might be considered politically incorrect. Racial slurs against all abound and the characters almost uniformly show a dislike for all who weren't Irish and Catholic. Well, that was the old ways. Entire countries run on a small town mentality.

For your general information, the term “dude” used above in the excerpt is an insult, rather than just a common type of expression like it is now. Back in the day it meant a man who spent an unmanly amount of time primping himself up, worrying about his clothes and so forth.  It originated in 1883 and used in reference to the devotees of the "aesthetic" craze. Later on it was applied to all city slickers, especially Easterners vacationing in the West.
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

City of God (Drama)

By E. L. Doctorow

Publisher: Abacus (2001)

Paperback 320 pages

          “Perhaps the first songs were lullabies. Perhaps mothers were the first singers. Perhaps they learned to soothe their squirming simian babes by imitating the sounds of moving water, the gurgles, cascades, plashes, puddlings, flows, floods, spurts, spills, gushes, laps, and sucks. Perhaps they knew their babies were born from water. And rhythm was the gentle rock of the water hammock slung between the pelvic trees. And melody was the sound the water made when the baby stirred its limbs.”

          A few have called this the author’s written mid-life crisis, which may be well deserved. But I don’t call such a description damning. This book is a reflexive look at the author’s world through a series of seemingly disconnected events, characters, and personal revelations that are interwoven together (at least thematically) in an examination of faith and God, and how the two connect together in the lives of many people. It focuses extensively on how one’s faith (or lack thereof) can powerfully affect people decades later for whom the original has no knowledge.

          A few people might have written off the similarity in names between this text and the 5th Century Christian philosophical work by St. Augustine of Hippo, but the parallels between the two works are very apparent. The Augustine text was written after the sack of Rome by the Visigoths and was meant to comfort and direct Christians who found their world crumbling about them. It is one of the cornerstone of Western thought giving written form to such key concepts as the suffering of the righteous, the existence of evil, the conflict between free will and divine omniscience, and the doctrine of original sin. Essentially these ideas boil down to a singular struggle between earthly delights and spiritual growth.

Author E. L. Doctorow

          St. Augustine places all of human history in this struggle, naming one the Earthly City and the spiritual side as the City of God. Thus all actions are a result between the forces of evil and good, interacting in ways that one might not realize. Taken through this lens, the novel begins to make much more sense.

          Now what this means (especially in the life of the character Pem, a fallen priest) is that, regardless of one’s personal faith, a person living in this world cannot help be affected by faith- whether for good or evil. And that, even if a person renounces all forms of society and religion, much the direction of their lives will be caught up in this struggle between the Earthly City and the City of God. It cannot be helped. This is the structure of life and will always be so.

          The writing in this novel is brilliant, inspired, a whirlwind of form and shape. Often I read passages aloud and just let the rhythm of the verbal constructs wash over me. Not to say that this is for everyone. If you want a tightly structured plot, where the protagonist goes through a five-act character arc, look elsewhere. These are vignettes tied through sub-text. Let the action wash over you, and the purpose beneath will reveal itself.

           For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

Out Stealing Horses (Drama)

by Per Petterson (translated by Anne Born)

Published: Picador (April 29th, 2008)

Paperback, 238 pages

       “In the course of one month they both died, and after they were gone I lost interest in talking to people. I really do not know what to talk to them about. That is one reason for living here. Another reason is being close to the forest. It was a part of my life many years ago in a way that nothing else has been, and then it was absent for a long, long time, and when everything around me suddenly turned silent, I realized how much I had missed it. Soon I thought of nothing else, and if I too were not to die, at precisely that point in time, I had to go to the forest. That’s how it felt, and that simple. It still is.”

          This is another rambling novel, almost pseudo-stream-of-consciousness, where the first person protagonist rambled on and on, with many divergent comments before getting to the point. As is usual with these types of novels, all grammar regulation is tossed out the window, as you can see in the paragraph above. While this sort of deconstructionist prose can be done well (see the works of Raymond Federman and Cormac McCarthy) this novel does not do it. It is a rather rambling and boring product.

It falls flat in that the novel simply does not go all the way, as it should. It is a half-assed approach to the style, which produces a mediocre concept between the two. If you’re going to deconstruct don’t just ramble, play with rules and forms and completely abandon any grammar. What we have here is a protagonist that is neither very interesting, nor generates any pathos. He is a simple dull person that something horrible happened to in his past and has retreated into the woods to deal with it. While it does have flashbacks inside of flashbacks, and plays expertly with time and space, the prose isn’t enough to keep the world interesting. The double meanings of the plot is well done, one of the book’s highlights, but the narrative takes too long to get interesting. A reader has to push on to nearly halfway through the book before the mystery really unfolds.

Author Per Petterson

 I always have a policy of finishing a book once started, I found myself rushing through the pages in order to get it over with. While some of the fault of the poor presentation of this book might fall onto the translator, I believe much of it has to do with the original prose.

          Many of the literary community have leapt on this book, heaping it with laurels and praises, but this seems to be part of the domino effect of the literary snob world, where one person says it's brilliant and everyone has to jump on the bandwagon lest they appear uncultured. Several of them are commenting that the novel employs a minimalist style. That is, a simple style and short words to demonstrate the protagonist’s state of mind- a simple man of the woods. This falls flat, as minimalist also means minimal description, which the novel does not do. It is riddled with dull description (sure they add to the protagonist's character, but there has to be a limit). In my mind, a good book has  generate interest either in the plot or the characters (hopefully both), Out Stealing Horses fails to do either.

           For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

Offshore (Drama)

By Penelope Fitzgerald

Publisher: Caroll & Graff Publishers, Inc. (1989)

Softcover, 141 pages

    “Dignity demanded that the dealer should hand the tiles back with a pitying smile. But he could not resist holding the bird up to his desk lamp, so that the light ran across the surface and seemed to flow over the edges in crimson flame. And now Martha and he were untied in a strange fellow feeling. Which nether of them had expected, and which they had to shake off with difficulty.”

          It’s a humorous book, but of the dry British wit variety, which may not be everyone’s cup of tea. It is essentially about a group of people who are trying to live on houseboats on the riverbanks near Chelsea. It is almost a Dickensian world where the characters must face a personal crisis and their lives are changed forevermore.

Author Penelope Fitzgerald

    The beginning is somewhat jumbled, the author doesn’t seem to know which character to begin with, so she jumps into the region, as Hawthorne did in The Scarlett Letter. This book, despite its short length, does take its time getting to the point and introducing its protagonists. It is almost postmodern in its execution (at least initially) and does have that flatness or lack of emotion most of the writers in that genre reflect. As such, most of the characters don’t have much personality and even less in the way of character growth. Many of the boats described in this story have more personality than most of the characters.

    There are snippets of well done parts here and there which demonstrate the talents of the author, unfortunately she did not follow through in the same vein throughout. This is a pity because I believe this truly could have been a great book rather than a mediocre one. I sold my copy the day I finished it, I have no desire to ever read it again.

           For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.