Friday, January 20, 2012

We're back with some new books!

I’m applying the defibrillators to this blog.

It’s been over a month since the last post. There are a few reasons for this, including a two-week vacation, a new semester to prepare for, a dearth of time to read for the vlog, and the sheer number of new books coming in.

So I offer this post up as an apology for my neglectful ways. It’s a return to tradition: New book cart!

Truthfully, they aren’t all that new, and I plan to only cover the three that have stuck in my mind the most. Here we go ...

11/22/63 by Stephen King
Stephen King is one of those writers who’s so much a part of our culture that each new book he produces is an Event-with-a-capital-E, regardless of how good it may or may not be. His output took a wrong turn sometime in the mid-1990s, but has since bounced back with new creepfests like Duma Key. This upturn continues with 11/22/63, which anyone over the age of 45 and history buffs knows is the date of the Kennedy assassination.

Actually, this book is interesting in a number of ways. It’s less horrific than the work he’s known for and seems to encompass a few new themes. A GED teacher finds out that a local friend who owns a diner has discovered a portal to 1958 in his storeroom. Together, they come up with a plan to avert the Kennedy assassination. Since the other side of the portal is anchored five years before then, it’s a long plan indeed. Fascinating idea, and a terrific execution (no pun intended). Bonus points for a significant librarian character!

Erasure by Percival Everett
An under-the-surface evaluation of exploitative publishing, this novel follows the story of a fairly-successful African-American author who’s spent a few years being rejected by publisher after publisher. The dissolution of his success and its fallout, including an elderly mother who needs care that he can no longer afford, is made all the worse by a best-selling novel by an African-American woman who rides the life out of every stereotype in the book.

In response to this injustice -- why is this minstrel show so successful when his own work can’t get published? -- he writes what he thinks is a scathing parody called My Pafology, but which a publisher and, eventually, the world, think is a hugely-popular bestseller. As our main character becomes wealthier and wealthier, he struggles with the ethics involved in exploiting prejudices without seeking to break them down, and the darker side of popular entertainment. This book manages to be wickedly funny, cringe-inducing, and above all, thought-provoking.

Mrs. Nixon: A novelist imagines a life by Ann Beattie
I suppose this book should come with a disclaimer: Don’t read it if you’re a history buff. Beattie writes what amounts to a fictionalized biography, which is to say it’s not actually a biography. It’s a story about Pat Nixon and the life Beattie imagines she may have led as Richard Nixon’s wife through every scandal and misdeed that plagued his administration and marriage.

In general, Beattie doesn’t worry too much about historical accuracy; she based most of the story on already-extant published sources instead of personal papers that would have revealed insights into the First Lady's interior world. She also doesn’t worry about writing a conventional novel; the book reads like a collection of short stories starring the same main character, interspersed with Beattie’s own examination of the craft of writing itself. The result is interesting because you come away with the sense that there are really three main characters in the book: both Nixons and Beattie herself.

That about covers it for the moment! More to come next week.