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Review List III

Monday, January 14, 2008  |  Permalink  |  Comments [1]

“Sharing is caring,” they say. And I believe that I have been unkind to you, the interweb, by posting so infrequently to this notebook. Please know that my head hangs in shame and that, truly, it wasn’t you, it was me.

I have been busy on a variety of projects — including pre-production for an animated short film (that’s fancy talk for doodling) — slogging my way through a masters degree and teaching. Amidst all of that, I have still found ways to fritter away the short amount of time allotted to me on this planet by gluttonously immersing myself in the fictitious worlds churned out by our popular arts. Those that have been the most successful at distracting me from pursuing any meaningful purpose with my life are mentioned below.

I highly recommend Michael Chabon’s newest novel, Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure. Reviews on Amazon draw comparisons to Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard but, having read neither of those two authors, I must instead point to Fritz Leiber’s stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, to which Chabon’s Zelikman and Amram, the heroes of Gentlemen of the Road, compare favorably. The working title for this novel was apparently “Jews With Swords,” but I think that, while accurate, such a title would have been misleading. This book is not religious in any significant way, but simply an adventure story whose main characters happen to be Jewish. If there is a subtext, it is cultural. No doubt Jews will find it refreshing to have a couple of swashbuckling adventurers with whom to identify (Mandy Patinkin notwithstanding), but I can attest that the book is equally accessible to gentiles as well.

Chabon is a marvelous writer and Gentlemen of the Road is clearly carefully crafted. While it may have been inspired by “dime novels” and serial fiction, Chabon’s complex and inventive use of language and his careful construction of the narrative create a novel that is not only a joy to read, but thoroughly engaging. A quarter of the way through the book, a minor character by the name of Hanukkah is introduced and, within pages, Chabon manages to not only emotionally invest the reader in Hanukkah’s continued well-being, but also uses the opportunity to strengthen the reader’s bond with the two main protagonists. It’s masterful storytelling.

There are moments when, perhaps, Chabon reaches too far. In the opening paragraph of each chapter, Chabon really pushes the English language to its limits, the reader required to wrestle meaning from the densely packed layers of preposition and metaphor. As exhibit A, I present to you one of the more egregious offenders, the opening sentence to chapter seven:

Hanukkah had been kicked awake by worse men, among them his own father, and so the curses he muttered, with his eyes shut and the honeyed hand of a dream still caressing his thigh, extended no further into history than the African’s great-grandmother and confined themselves to envisioning her use by scabby Pecheneg stallions, making only glancing reference to the attentions of Bactrian camels.

A sentence that, no doubt, grows funnier with repeated readings.

I should shut-up and move on, but the art direction on this book is also worth noting. From the dimensions of the novel to the paper stock to the use of a second color to the illustrated end papers, no detail is overlooked. And the book also includes some knock-out illustrations from Prince Valiant illustrator, Gary Gianni. Clearly, no expense was spared.

I suppose you could say that I have been on a bit of a Chabon kick lately, as I have also read The Yiddish Policemen’s Union: A Novel and The Final Solution: A Story of Detection. These too I found quite enjoyable. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, in particular, is well worth the time if one is interested in crime fiction that follows in the footsteps of Hammett and Chandler. Here again, Chabon seems to be reclaiming a genre that is filled with Jewish writers but devoid of Jewish heroes. A fan of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay should find these titles to be worthy successors.

I have read arguments against the practice of “world building” in fiction writing but, if there is a counter to such thinking, it is Susanna Clarke’s masterpiece,
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel. I picked this book up on a whim, despite the intimidating heft of the volume, and found myself unable to put it down. Again, like Chabon, there is a love for language here. Whereas Chabon cribs from pulp novels, Clarke’s prose evokes the overly-verbose and floral wordplay of Victorian novelists but still manages to tow a line that keeps the writing fresh and accessible to a reader more comfortable with modern writing conventions (such as myself). The book is riddled with footnotes — often with word counts that rival the chapters themselves — that diverge wildly from the main story to flesh out minute details about the historical figures and events that are mentioned in passing as the story progress. The reader could, I suppose, skip these tangents, but to do so would be to miss the point entirely. Clarke is so relentless in her presentation of world in which Strange and Norrell live that the reader has no choice but to eventually give in and agree to its existence. And to do so is a joy.

A few months back, I happened on a teaser trailer for the movie Jumper. I can’t say enough good things about this trailer — whether or not the movie is any good, the editor behind this trailer did a fantastic job. I was so taken with the trailer that I ended up plowing my way through all three of the “Jumperverse” books by the author Steven Gould: Jumper, Reflex and Jumper: Griffin’s Story. Even though the first and third books are geared towards a teenage audience, they are each a joy to read and worth one’s time.

If I have become smitten by any story in the last eighteen months, however, it is with that of Walt and Skeezix, the father and son protagonists of the long-running newspaper comic strip, Gasoline Alley by Frank King. I picked up volume one with some trepidation. Even with comic book legends such as Chris Ware and Seth praising the work of King, I know that sometimes that the work that is inspirational to the artists one admires isn’t itself always as interesting to the artists’ admirers. However, in this instance, I fell in love. King’s strip is a joy to read and beautiful to behold. I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy of the book of Sunday strips.

I’m not sure where to even start with movies. There are many I could mention that have been mentioned frequently elsewhere, from Superbad to Hot Fuzz to The Departed, but one that I haven’t seen much mention of is After The Wedding, a small, beautiful Dutch film that is not at all what it appears to be. I was also pleasantly surprised by Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a hard-boiled crime story starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Val Kilmer that proves to be a joyous homage to the genre.

Previously in the notebook:

• Review List II
• Review List I

Tags: book, fiction, leisure, movie, review