I’M READING AS FAST AS I CAN: MARCH 2010 EDITION

[defrog]

By popular demand, more book reports. Because I want to make sure you get yr money's worth from this blog.

JUST FINISHED

The Quiet American by Graham Greene
I’ve never read Greene before, but I may have to do so again. This story of the Saigon love triangle between Fowler the cynical aging British journalist and Pyle the young naive American economic attache is pretty gripping stuff. Fowler and Pyle are very well defined characters, and it’s hard not to read the political aspects of the book – the First Indochina War between France and the Viet Minh and the first dabblings of American involvement to resolve it with a ‘Third Force’ championing democracy – without thinking of the full-fledged war that followed, and much of America’s ideologically fueled foreign policy failures since then. Recommended if yr not a card-carrying member of the Tea Party or the John Birch Society, cos otherwise yr going to hate it just for suggesting that America did more harm than good in Indochina.

JUST STARTED

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Finally, after years of everyone telling me how hilarious David Sedaris is – and eleven years after my best friend recommended this specific book (which I took seriously since she doesn’t read a whole lot of books) – I’ve taken the plunge. And I have to say, a couple of essays into it, I’m starting to see what all the fuss has been about. Let’s see if he can sustain that for the rest of the book.

RECENT TITLES

The Toyminator by Robert Rankin
Sequel to The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies Of The Apocalypse, in which private eye Eddie Bear and his comedy sidekick Jack are down and out in Toy City despite having saved it in the previous book. This time the plot involves spontaneous combustion, evil chickens and 1950s Hollywood, and Rankin finally writes the Terminator tribute he’s been hinting at since the mid-90s. Good fun as usual, though if Rankin’s humor didn’t appeal before, this will not change yr mind.

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
In which Goldacre expands on his regular Guardian column exposing dodgy science claims, most of them related to homeopathy, New Age treatments and media scares over flu jabs. There’s a lot of good information on how people pass off bad research for science as a way to make them look like experts. The main downside is Goldacre, who injects himself into the story way too often to the point where he looks like he’s settling old scores, which gets annoying to the point of distraction.

The Sign Of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The second Sherlock Holmes novel, featuring Holmes’ cocaine habit, a locked-room mystery and a treasure hunt. Better than the first in that Doyle gives you a few clues to try and piece together the mystery, but still flawed in that it relies on the criminal to unrealistically cop to the whole plot. Also, the side story of Watson and Mary Morstan seems like tacked-on Victorian romantic guff. Still a good read, though.

The Spider: Robot Titans Of Gotham by Norvell Page
Classic pulp action from The Spider, who was Batman before there was Batman, with millionaire Richard Wentworth leading a double life as the vigilante The Spider, heroically fighting giant killer robots and vampire kings. This book collects two Spider novels plus one novel featuring the Skull Killer, another pulp hero that only lasted for two stories. It’s not hard to see why – the characters are half-assed and the writing is sloppy. The Spider novels are much better – heroically cheesy melodramatic stuff, and very silly in retrospect, but credit to Page, who knew his way around an action scene.

Modesty Blaise: Dragon’s Claw by Peter O’Donnell
I’m a fan of the comics, and I read a number of the novels ages ago, but not all of them. This is one of the later novels, in which Modesty and Willie Garvin, now semi-retired, are pitted against three eccentric killers on a secret island base. It’s a bit weak on plotting, and shows that eccentricities alone (as well as tons of gratuitous sex) don’t make for compelling villains, but once the real showdown starts and Modesty/Willie kick into action, it’s good stuff. Too bad you have to wait until the final third of the book for it.

No lack of Modesty,

This is dF

Comments

[bedsitter23.livejournal.com]

I have tried Greene once, the dark and Morrissey-quoted Brighton Rock. I had a tough time with it. I always thought about trying him again (as he is generally hailed and is referenced by so many people- Steve Earle is a huge fan). We'll see.