(no subject)

[skygiants]

I ran out of library books the other day and was scanning the gigantic piles of books my room for something to read. These two won the lottery! (If you can count being dragged to New York, shoved into bags, tugged out on the subway, propped up in front of plates of food, and so on as 'winning' for a book. Perhaps it is more like losing! Someone clearly needs to make a 'Brave Little Toaster'-style movie about books to convince us all that what books really want is to be loved and take away our feelings about abusing them. Except without the traumatic junkyard scene.

. . . Anyways.)

Steven Millhauser's Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-195 by Jeffrey Cartwright (yes, that is all part of the title) was a book that my dad gave to me and told me to read when I was in my early teens. It made a major impact, and also freaked me the hell out - it's one of those books that, when rereading, I kept stumbling across passages that I knew, that stuck with me out of context. Now that I have reread it, I can safely say that yes, it still has the capacity to freak me the hell out, in the best of ways. As the title probably suggests, it's a fictional biography of a brilliant novelist who died at the age of eleven after completing his Life's Work, written by his constant companion Jeffrey, for whom the biography is his Life's Work. This is not a book about cute little precocious children. It's a book about obsession, and twisting real life to suit the tropes of fiction, and how kids can be scary. And also about cartoons. It's a funny book, also, and much of the humor verges on the black. Highly recommended; not, however, highly recommended to those who might be sensitive to the macabre deaths of several cute precocious children.

In the process of finishing that, I had in fact acquired some library books, but I decided to read Harry Kemelman's Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry anyways, because I had bought it about a year ago out of gleeful hilarity at the concept of a Rabbi Detective and it was languishing around my room unread. Sadly, despite the fun of the concept, I kind of thought Rabbi Small Examples:

PRESIDENT OF THE SYNAGOGUE: And so I want to build this chapel because I have faced prejudice, because I have never had a chance to build anything beautiful before, because it will be my contribution to the synagogue, because IT IS MY DREAM. What do you think?
RABBI DAVID SMALL: I think it kind of sucks.

CIVIL-RIGHTS-AFFILIATED PRIEST: Rabbi, you should think about coming down to march for the Civil Rights movement with us.
RABBI DAVID SMALL: Honestly I don't really care about the Civil Rights Movement. (Addendum: there is also a charming moment when Civil-Rights-Affiliated Priest comes to complain to the Chief of Police that his men just singled out two black guys to get beat up, and the Chief of Police is like, 'Ha, don't be silly! They just singled them out because they're out-of-towners, not because we're RACIST! There's no RACISM here!' Which would be fine . . . except from the way it's written I think the author thinks that's actually a good excuse, and is trying to characterize the priest as One Of Those Civil Rights Whackdoodles.)

and, of course:

RABBI DAVID SMALL: Oh yes, and I resigned from my job.
RABBI'S HEAVILY PREGNANT WIFE: . . . and you didn't tell me beforehand why?
RABBI DAVID SMALL: I didn't want to upset your little head with these things.
RABBI'S HEAVILY PREGNANT WIFE: I am just saying, when the baby is born, I would kind of like it to have FOOD TO EAT.

So, no more Rabbi Small for me, I think. What about you guys? Any books you've read recently that you've loved in concept but hated in practice?

Comments

[gramarye1971]

Middlesex and Brighton Rock both fell flat for me, as I wrote last week. I can think of a few other books I've read that would fall into that category, mostly some of the later Agatha Christies where it seemed like she just stopped caring. ^^;;

[skygiants]

Oh Agatha Christie. I can't blame her really; after writing as many mysteries as she did, putting Tab A (detective) into Slot B (crime) probably gets to feel pretty formulaic.

[sdelmonte]

I don't remember Rabbi Small being that much of a jerk. Then again, all I do recall is that his congregants were, by and large, a pack of idiots not unlike the worst shuls I've ever seen, and that I had to sympathize with the rabbi.

[skygiants]

Oh, the congregants weren't great either, by a long shot, but the rabbi's reaction did feel over-the-top to me a lot of the time. It's also definitely possible that I just picked a bad book for him - I'll admit the whole 'oh those silly Civil Rights people' thing got my back up a bit from the start, even allowing for the time differences between then and now.

[sdelmonte]

I wonder if that civil rights comment was a (rather stupid) reflection of a writer who thought that some rabbis were spending too much time getting political and not enough time seeing to their congregations.

[skygiants]

Yeah, I think you might be right on that - from what I remember, there was a whole discussion of how getting involved isn't part of a rabbi's function as a rabbi, it should be him as an individual getting involved if he wants to. Which is fine, except for the general air of 'this is not an important cause' that surrounds it.

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

Hah! Princess Shawl (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3782799.Princess_Shawl) by Malaysian-born poet Shirley Lim. Kids' book about a magical shawl which enables the Singaporean child protagonist to travel back into the past -- sort of in the style of Edith Nesbit's House of Arden -- but terribly disappointing. People shouldn't try to write kids' books unless they can bring themselves to actually, y'know, pretend they believe their audience has some intelligence. Also, woo unexpected racism.

Not that I'm bitter or anything. *g*

[skygiants]

Oh no! That is very justifiable of bitterness. Kids' books that talk down to their audience are the worst. Also disappointing! I know of Shirley Lim - a friend of mine actually wrote her thesis on Among the White Moon Faces - and she had been on my list of authors to try out at some point for that reason. D:

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

Oh, do try her out! We have a book of her poetry and what I've seen of it looks pretty good. But I suppose just 'cos you're a good poet doesn't mean you can write for children.

[skygiants]

Yes, truth. And vice versa - just because you can write (for children or otherwise) does not mean you are a good poet! (The vice versa is a rule many authors would do well to remember when they stick long songs or epic poems into their books . . .)

[ceitfianna]

I just got House of Many Ways from the library!

[skygiants]

THAT ONE I HOPE YOU WILL LOVE IN CONCEPT AND ALSO IN PRACTICE! \o/