Horror Book # 9 - The Dunwich Horror and Others by H. P. Lovecraft

After reading The Dunwich Horror and Others, the first thing I have to say is that I should have been reading H.P. Lovecraft a long time ago. I'd always seen mentions of Lovecraft as being influential to horror/sci-fi writers and I should have checked him out earlier. I had bought a giant edition of all of his works shortly before we started this reading project and I only read a couple of his Poe inspired earlier works that didn't seem anything special and figured that someday I'd get around to reading some more... So since there are a couple of Lovecraft short story collections on the Horror list, I decided to read the stories that make up on of the more popular collections to really get a sense of what Lovecraft was about. And I was totally absorbed for a few days while I read these stories.

The first few stories were good (In the Vault, Pickman's Model) but then as I got to some of his longer more famous stories I was totally blown away. These include : The Rats in the Walls - about a man restoring the haunted home of his ancestors - was totally scary. The Colour Out of Space - about a meteorite that slowly poisons a farmer's land - was terrific and even scarier. The Whisperer in Darkness - about weird alien beings that terrorize a man in his farm.- had a terrific ending. The Thing on the Doorstep - in which a man's wife uses magic to slowly switch bodies with him for evil purposes- had a great twist ending.  The Shadow Over Innsmouth - where a man visits a town taken over by a cult that worships alien beings - was very suspenseful. And then there are probably his two most famous stories  - The Dunwich Horror and The Call of Cthulu - both of which are famous for good reason.

The Dunwich Horror fits quite a bit of story into just 50 pages or so and is kind of hard to sum up;  but it has magic, weird alien beings and  a scary half man half monster. The Call of Cthulu is about someone piecing together a couple of different stories to discover the existence of the monster Cthulu.

I greatly enjoyed all of these stories. I liked how Lovecraft could fit a novel's worth of story into just 20-60 quick moving pages. There is also some interconnection between the stories which ties everything together into the same "universe" and allows a greater picture of Lovecraft's world to emerge slowly bit by bit. Highly recommended for people wanting some scary weird stories. A+

Book # 112 Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

While in New York we visited the gift shop at the New York Public Library and I used that occasion as an excuse to buy a new book. I picked out Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis because it was on the extended 101-200 portion of the list. I had no idea what it was about.

Lucky Jim is about a young medieval history professor at an English college that is nearing the end of his first year on the job. He's worried that he's going to be fired at the end of the year because he is always making bad impressions with everyone important on campus. It doesn't help that he is a bit of a lazy drunkard that likes to play childish jokes on people. The novel follows him around while he has to try and make a final good impression on an important professor... and during this time he meets the professor's son (whom he hates) and the son's girlfriend (whom he finds perfect in every way). There is also another professor that he sort of liked, but she is recovering from a failed suicide attempt. He is also asked to give a presentation that could have a large impact on whether or not he gets fired.

The novel is very funny and even though Jim has many faults and does some mean stuff, I was always rooting for him. The situations he gets himself in are very comical and all of the characters are well written and unique. I found the scene when he must take the bus to the train station to meet a girl before her train leaves laugh out loud funny. Here's a sample :

"Just then the bus rounded a corner and slowed abruptly, then stopped. Making a lot of noise a farm tractor was laboriously pulling, at right angles across the road, something that looked like the springs of a giant's bed... Dixon thought that he really would have to run downstairs and knife the drivers of both vehicles; what next? what next? What actually would be next: a masked hold-up, a smash, floods, a burst tyre, an electric storm with falling trees and meteorites, a diversion, a low-level attack by Communist aircraft, sheep, the driver stung by hornets? He'd choose the last of these if consulted."

I'll give it an A.

Book # 62 The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials Book 2 of 3) by Philip Pullman

The Subtle Knife continues the story that began in The Golden Compass and really starts to show what the overall story is actually about. Whereas the first book took place in a world similar but different from our own ,The Subtle Knife takes place in several worlds that all occupy the same physical space. In our own world we are introduced to Will, a boy that is on the run and in many ways is just a male counterpart to Lyra. He finds himself in one of these other realms where he meets Lyra and they team up to try and find Will's father. Their adventures lead Will to obtain 'the subtle knife' which allows the bearer to cut a hole between worlds. They also learn Lord Asriel's plan is to try and take down God or at least a being pretending to be God. And a bunch of other stuff happens.

I feel like I enjoyed this book more the first time I read it, maybe because I know where it is all heading. Plus I wanted to know more about the computer program that one of the characters created that acts the same way as the alethiometer. How it was created raises a lot of questions and I want answers! And I thought it was weird how in the first book none of the characters can travel between worlds but all of a sudden Mrs. Coulter now has ways of travelling to our realm and back. Still I liked the book and give it an A-.

Book # 200 - The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster

The original point of this blog was to read the top 100 books that appeared on http://thegreatestnovels.com/top100.htm. And while that is still my goal, I slowly added other reading lists to the project to add some variety to my reading... so now I need to point out that the website that provided the initial 100 list actually has a second list with the 101-200 "greatest novels". Now I'm not going to say that I'm going to read all of the second hundred but I will be reading some of them from time to time.

So, I just back from a vacation to New York and I was trying to find something New York related to read while traveling and The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster sounded like the perfect thing. The New York Trilogy consists of three mostly unrelated sort of detective mystery stories. The first story, City of Glass, is about a writer that receives a phone call intended for someone else and ends up becoming involved in a weird mystery. Next is Ghosts, in which a man is hired to follow another man and tries to figure out why he is tailing this other man. And last is The Locked Room in which a man finds out that an old friend has disappeared and has left him a stack of great unpublished novels.

I enjoyed all three stories quite a bit. Each one starts out like a typical detective story but slowly they become stranger and stranger until the main character has a mental breakdown and begins to question their own identity. The interior cover pages label each story as "A Penguin Existential Mystery" which does seem very accurate. All three stories share similar themes and aren't really about solving the mysteries they present but rather asking questions about identity, obsession and the connection between the person solving a mystery and the person who created it.

I'd recommend the book if you like mysteries and don't mind if they don't get solved in the end in a traditional way. An A.

Oh yeah... the novel name checks Moby Dick a few times and includes a whole discussion about Don Quixote and the framing device used within it that questions who the "actual" author is supposed to be and how the answer to that informs the reader on possible motives of the characters within Don Quixote. That whole sequence left be glad that I'd already read Don Quixote.

Morrissey - Autobiography

One of my favorite highly specific sub-genre categories is British rock star autobiographies. Last year I read Pete Townshend's and the year before Keith Richards'... so now I've tackled Morrissey's retelling of his life story.

Like most British rock star autobiographies, we start in a poor working class British town (in this case Manchester) and learn about the parents and how difficult they had it. Right away Morrissey shows that he has real skill in writing about his hometown and gives us a good bit of vivid imagery such as "... we live in forgotten Victorian knife-plunging Manchester, where everything lies wherever it was left over one hundred years ago. The safe streets are dimly lit, the others not lit at all, but both represent a danger that you're asking for should you find yourself out there once curtains have closed for tea." But after a few pages of this Morrissey starts cataloging all of his favorite childhood movies, tv shows, songs, etc. It starts out interesting but after awhile it just becomes too much information about pop culture that I've never heard of before. Then he goes on and on about how badly he was treated in school (mostly by teachers) and how he only found comfort in the band The New York Dolls and whatever bands came through Manchester. It seems that once Morrissey is a fan of something he is quite passionate about it and once he gains fame he tries to bring these artists new fans (such as his quest to reform the New York Dolls and making sure Jobriath finally gets a CD release).

Finally after 150 pages or so, he finally meets Johnny Marr and the Smiths are quickly formed. At this point he just complains about how horrible the management of the Rough Trade label was and how they took advantage of him, Still he seems unhappy about everything even though they sell out most of their US concert tour. Then all too quickly the Smiths break up and it is never really clear why this happens, maybe Morrissey himself doesn't really know, it would be interesting to hear Marr's version of events on this.Morrissey then starts out on a pretty good solo career and finds himself selling out huge concert venues yet he still feels alone, grumpy and upset at his label and the British print media.

Then he tells the story of why the Smiths will never ever reform... when Mike Joyce (the drummer) sued Morrissey and Marr for a higher percentage of Smiths royalties. He goes on and on about this for about fifty pages and it still seems like a very sore spot for him. After this he moves to Los Angeles and seems relatively happy (for him) and continues with his successful solo career... though he seems oddly obsessed with where his singles land on the music charts as is always disappointed when they don't chart higher.

It was an interesting read and Morrissey does reveal that he is at heart a fan of music/movies/poetry and that he feels the need to refute everything that isn't true that is said about him in the press. Also, he seems really sensitive and does get his feelings hurt my small comments that he still remembers after all of these years. Plus he does seem to have a good bit of self doubt even after he gains a huge following. The book reveals a lot about his character (but nothing that isn't really surprising if you are familiar with his music) but still leaves a lot out about his personal life... as if he still wants to remain a bit of a mystery and preserve the "character" of the miserable lonely rock star that he has cultivated. I'm sure most fans aren't that interested in reading pages and pages of how teachers were mean to him growing up or how stupid the judge in the lawsuit against him was... but would like to know more about his relationships and if he's actually ever been in love or not. And we don't really find that out here. I'll give it a B+.

Book # 41 A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

Lucinda and I occasionally discuss whether or not it is better to see the movie version of something before or after reading the book. She seems to always prefer seeing the film first. I however am the opposite. My thinking is that reading the book is more time consuming than watching a film version (except for maybe The Hobbit), so I want to keep the excitement of having the plot unfold for the reading experience. Also, seeing a film version first makes you imagine certain actors while reading the book and takes away some of the imagination one uses while reading. So, I bring all this up because a month before reading A Passage to India we watched the David Lean film version. And I really enjoyed the movie because I really knew nothing at all about the story.

The story is set in British ruled India where Miss Quested is visiting Ronny Heaslop to determine if she should marry him. While there Miss Quested,  Ronny's mother Mrs. Moore and a British headmaster Mr. Fielding befriend an Indian doctor named Aziz. He invites them to visit some caves and *SPOILER* while alone in a cave Miss Quested mistakenly believes that Aziz tried to assault her. Then there's a big trial and everyone gets upset and stuff happens.

So having just seen the movie I couldn't help but imagine the actors while reading the book and knew exactly what was coming in the plot (and the film is fairly faithful to the book except for maybe placing a bit more emphasis on Miss Quested by showing her actually travelling to India and a pretty quick resolution to the misunderstanding between Aziz and Mr. Fielding that ends the story). All that being said I still enjoyed the book and liked the way Forster writes. The only drawbacks to me were that I wasn't familiar with all the Indian terms used throughout the book (and I'll admit laziness to not looking them up) and Forster would frequently make sweeping stereotypical statements about the differences between Indians and the British such as "Suspicion in the Oriental is a sort of malignant tumour, a mental malady, that makes him self-conscious and unfriendly suddenly; he trusts and mistrusts at the same time in a way the Westerner cannot comprehend."

I'd recommend the book and give it an A-. I'm curious though if my opinion would be any different if I hadn't seen the film first.

Mystery Book # 16 and Horror Book # 26 - The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

While I was reading The Silence of the Lambs I realized that I really don't remember all that much from the movie. I'll have to watch it again to see how close it is to the book. But what I remembered as the basic story outline from the movie is the same as in the book: FBI agent in training, Clarice Starling, tries to get information out of captured serial killer Hannibal Lecter that could help in the search for another serial killer, Buffalo Bill.

Just like the book that precedes it, Red Dragon, I really enjoyed it and felt that Harris moved the story along at a nice quick pace and gave us enough of a peek into the minds of the characters to know all of their motivations and feelings. Unlike in Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs gives us more time with Hannibal and not the actual serial killer that is being chased. I guess I'll eventually have to read the next book in the series even though I've heard it isn't that great.

I can see how the book ranked so high on both the Mystery and Horror lists. It is very readable and every once in a while Harris throws in a nice little poetic sentence to describe a characters feelings or past history. It is also thrilling and scary. I'll have to give it an A.