Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino

Grotesque -- 3.5 Stars

This is the first novel by this author that I have read and I was left feeling unsure about the book as a whole. Written in Japanese surrealist style, the novel follows one woman through her life and how she reacts to a world where she is merely average yet her younger sister is a monstrous beauty. The focus is on the time spent in high school and then middle age.

When her sister and a school mate are both murdered, the unnamed protagonist goes back through her memory and explores the past they all shared. There are two journals and one confession that we are given to read to gain further insight into this world of prostitution, murder and money. Spanning well over thirty years, this book has a lot of detail but it doesn't really go anywhere.

I do enjoy Japanese surrealism, but not this book. It was average in almost every way. The way the story kept flipping from one view to the next was uninspired. The protagonist is a malicious whiner, not a character I attach to or care about.

This is book number one in my list of novels left on my shelf for longer then one year.

A Year In Books

I made a goal to read forty books in a year. Well I missed it by four books. It was an interesting adventure, reading so many books with such a varying array of titles. This has motivated me to try this goal again. In 2012, I want to read forty books. Mixing with that goal are three others. Goal One: To read twelve books that have been on my shelves for at least a year. This is to be completed in 2012. Goal Two: To read all books available in English by Haruki Murakami, this is an on going goal. Goal Three: To read all books listed in 1001 Books To Read Before You Die, also an on going goal.

I will continue to add my reviews for books I read and I'm looking forward to yet another year in books. I am pleased to share my journey with any and all who want to join me. Until next time...

Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto

Lizard -- 4 Stars

This is a collection of short stories, though calling them novellas would be a better description. The stories are strange and surreal in a way that I have only seen from Japanese authors. Its hard to describe them in a way that anyone could understand, but I can try.

There are four stories and they vary on topics from love to dreams, the past and the present. I enjoyed the shorts and will indeed pick up more novels of this author. I wish I could write more by way of review but there is just no way to put into words how lovely these stories were!

Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs

Break No Bones -- Four Stars

This is the ninth book featuring the character Temperance Brennan, now a lead character in the Fox show Bones. I love crime thrillers, its my weakness. Give me a good murder and a decent plot twist and I will be a pathetic reader, begging for more. Yes, I have found all that in this novel.

Tempe is on an archeological dig in South Carolina when she finds a body that is not like the others, Much too young to be Pre-Colombian, still intact as well. This sends Tempe on a modern investigation that leads her down a road she never thought she'd be on when she agreed to go to the sea-side in the first place.

Full of technical jargon that is blessedly dumbed down for we poor regular folks, the story is one twist after another. Between the bodies that keep turning up and the boy friend/ex-husband in her life, Dr Brennan has no time to relax. I rather enjoyed the book and look forward to the next Brennan novel patiently waiting on my shelves.

Drood by Dan Simmons

Drood -- Four Stars

I picked this up at Borders when they were having their final farewell. I do enjoy reading Dickens' novels, like most literary people, so I was attracted to this book because of that aspect. I was not prepared for a book that was such an in depth telling.

The story starts with the Staplehurst accident on 9 of June 1865. Charles Dickens was a passenger along with his pretty, young mistress when the train derailed and fell into a ravine. When Dickens starts to help the wounded and dying, he sees a fantastic man in a theatre cape. His name is Drood and he haunts the rest of the story.

The book is written in a fashion of a memoir, the narrator being a friend and contemporary of Dickens, one Wilkie Collins. He starts as a side character to entire Drood affair, but all too soon finds himself wrapped in the centre of a world of mesmerism (hypnosis) and  opium. The novel covers several years, from 1865 to Dickens' death in 1870. While we watch Dickens' age we also watch the narrator, Mr Collins, fall into his own madness.

I have to give Dan Simmons applause. He wrote a novel in the modern age using language that was common to the Victorian English age. No mean feat, let me assure you. Drood is also the first Simmons novel I have ever read and was notably impressed. I was also pleased by the level of research that went into the novel. Wilkie Collins had his share of success in the 1800's, but I had never heard of him and thought the character pure fiction. Imagine my surprise when I happened upon his most famous novel, The Moonstone, in a book shop the other day.

While a mammoth novel of over nine-hundred pages, it was well worth the read. I am so glad I picked it up that day.

The Chicago Way by Michael Harvey

The Chiago Way
4 Stars-

This was a happy accident sort of purchase. I bought it in a major book sale for a few dollars and figured why not. What a wonderful "why not"!

Michael Kelly is a private investigator in Chicago. His old partner shows up one day with a cold case for him, the next he finds himself dead. Kelly isn't simply investigating a murder, he's thrown into a case that had its origin twenty years ago and the bodies just keep dropping. Kelly now has to question everything. Is someone a friend, lover, enemy? All three?

The novel has a great feel to it, like reading something from Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler. The "hard boiled" detective had its hey-day in the 1930's and 1940's and it is a delight to have a modern equivalent. I'm a fan of the masters and have the entire "Philip Marlowe" series (that's by Chandler, so you know). Michael Kelly has the same sort of attitude and tone as Marlowe. This is the mystery novel I have been waiting for! Now I have to go and find book two in the series. I'd grumble, really I would, but I enjoyed the story and lead character far too much. 

Someplace To Be Flying by Charles DeLint

Someplace To Be Flying
5 Stars-

All right, so I'm partial, but who can blame me? I love DeLint's work and must say that his mixture of urban fantasy and traditional folklore has burrowed its way into my heart with no intent of leaving anytime soon.

In this story, we don't really see any of the usual characters. They are mentioned, but never introduced. Instead there is a focus on a lesser known pair of characters, Lilly and Hank. When she goes in search of the animal people from Jack's stories, Lilly finds more then she bargained for. One of these people try to kill her, but Hank turns up just in time to lend a hand with some serious help from the Crow Girls. This first encounter with a world neither of them understand bring downtown Hank and uptown Lilly together, in ways that neither of them would have ever expected.

I think the great take away from this novel is family. Sometimes we make mistakes with our kin and we have to atone for them, sometimes our family resembles a pack of wolves out for blood and there is no atonement. Sometimes when we introduce a member of the family we add that they are the ones we chose, not the ones we born into. Hank had a rough life, his family is odd and a little damaged, but good.

I could  not put this story down, I am always ready to dive headlong into a DeLint novel and only coming up for coffee.