Firmin by Sam Savage

"Sometimes the books were arranged under signs, but sometimes they were just anywhere and everywhere. After I understood people better, I realized that this incredible disorder was one of the things that they loved about Pembroke Books. They did not come there just to buy a book, plunk down some cash and scram. They hung around. They called it browsing, but it was more like excavation or mining. I was surprised they didn't come in with shovels. They dug for treasures with bare hands, up to their armpits sometimes, and when they hauled some literary nugget from a mound of dross, they were much happier than if they had just walked in and bought it. In that way, shopping at Pembroke was like reading: you never knew what you might encounter on the next page -- the next shelf, stack, or box --and that was part of the pleasure of it."

I just finished reading "Firmin," from which this passage was taken.

I first heard about the book thanks to the Lit-Blog Co-op (you can read what they have to say about it here.) I read a couple of the posts about the book and went on to other things. It was only a few weeks ago, when I saw the book at Barnes & Noble in the staff recommendations with a 10% discount sticker on it that I thought: well this might be worth a try.

The book is the story of a rat, Firmin, born in the basement of a used book store in Boston's Scollay Square. The square is only a short time from being bulldozed and covered in concrete. In the short time he has, Firmin discovers books and writes his own in his head (he can't speak or write, so this is the only way he can do it.) He desperately wants to reach out to humans, he wants to communicate. His efforts to cross that gap make up the majority of the book.

The story is all about the love of books and how it can both make one feel more in touch with the world while, at the same time, increasing one's alienation.

I knew I would love the book when I got to the paragraph above. It reflects some of my same feelings about used books stores. (I imagine it's a pretty common feeling among book lovers.)

This was Sam Savage's first novel. He's got to be in his late 40s, at least, which makes me selfishly happy. You can hear an interview with Savage from The Bat Segundo Show. He sounds like an interesting man. You can also check out his Web site, The Old Rat, which includes some poetry and other writings.

The Call of the Weird by Louis Theroux

I hadn't heard of Louis Theroux when I was sent this book. Subtitled "Travels in American Subcultures," the book is actually a followup to Theroux's work on documentaries and TV series like "Louis' Weird Weekends" and "When Louis Met..." I've since found a few things on YouTube. Theroux is charismatic and funny. In his shows, he seems to let the people he meets just be their odd selves without trying to force funny into the situation.

And apparently, Theroux likes a lot of the people he meets. That is the inspiration behind the book. He decides to take a "Reunion Tour" of people he met on his documentaries. He travels around the country trying to find the people he once talked to and see where they are now. He looks for Thor Templar, the UFO believer who claims he's killed 20 aliens. He looks for porn star J.J. Michaels. He talks to Ike Turner and pimp/rapper Mello T.

In many cases, these people have moved on. J.J. Michaels is working for Boeing and no longer does movies, though he still keeps a box of his films in the basement and says he'd like to do it again. Thor Templar has changed his name, dropped UFO business and is now selling items for "technoshamans." Theroux reunites with an Aryan Nations member he had bonded with over "Are You Being Served." The racist had been kicked out of the club for some obscure reasons. He meets with a former prostitute who's now found god, but still considers going back to the business.

In all his stories, there seems to be a theme of fantasy meeting reality. People seek out a fantasy, or follow the fantasies in their head, and later find out that the world is not always accepting or tolerant of their views. Many of these people find their worldviews don't hold up to the test, yet they blithely continue believing.

In the foreword to the American edition, Theroux says his aim is different from those authors who seek to follow, in Garrison Keillor's words, "the classic Freaks, Fatties, Fanatics & Faux Culture Excursion beloved of European journalists." He hopes to go more in depth, to see how people's lives turned out. I'm afraid he didn't entirely succeed. The book still seems like a tourist's view of typical American crazies and loudmouths. But what does save it is Theroux's actual interest in these people. He might think they are funny or crazy, but from his words you can see that he actually feels for them. He wants them to do well, to make a little corner of the world for themselves.

The book is a charming travelogue of unusual people encountering a more bland world. It doesn't offer profound insights, but it does offer a good time.

A great film about fungus

ScifiJapan takes a close look at Matango (aka Attack of the Mushroom People). As they point out, the film can be looked at as an allegory for drugs or capitalism, but it's much more than that. It's a good movie that cares about its characters, even though most of them are unlikeable, and makes the situation feel real, despite the rubber mushroom suits.

It's one of my favorite movies. With this film and Gojira, one can see that Ishiro Honda is a great, and criminally underrated, director.

Also at the link is the full text of William Hope Hodgson's "The Voice in the Night," which was the inspiration for the film. I would also recommend picking up the Matango DVD, which has some great extras including a story read by the screenwriter.

The Scent of Shadows by Vicki Pettersson

I was one of 20 lucky people to get advanced reader copies of this book, the first of a new series. Pettersson says the book belongs to the dark urban fantasy genre on her Web site. I didn't know much about that genre by name, but it seems to be linked with writers like Kim Harrison, Laurel Hamilton, Charlaine Harris and others (none of whom have I read or know much about). It's a blending of horror, fantasy and romance elements. "The Scent of Shadows" has a little of all of that, as well as mystery, but I don't think the book would be misplaced if you called it simply fantasy or horror.

The book is the story of Joanna Archer, a young heiress of a casino fortune living in Las Vegas. She has a past marred by extreme violence. The book begins with probably the worst blind date in history. From there, the book moves at a rapid pace, introducing the reader to Joanna's life and then quickly destroying it as Joanna finds out who she really is.

She's a superhero, of sorts. She belongs to a group known as the Zodiac that participates in a war between Light and Shadow. She falls in with the Light side, but in the process loses much that is important to her. (I'm trying to stay vague here, because there are plenty of plot twists and turns that I would rather not spoil.) The new life she is faced with, after the one she has known for 25 years is destroyed, is a great choice on Pettersson's part. Trapped in another lifestyle outside her own experience causes Joanna to know herself better, and the reader right along with her.

The book is at its best when navigating the twists and turns of the plot. Pettersson writes action scenes that could be transcribed directly into a movie with martial arts choreography by Yuen Wo Ping (though Joanna's fighting style of choice is Krav Maga). She keeps those scenes moving quickly without ever losing the reader.

But Pettersson also takes plenty of time to explore Joanna's psyche. In particular, she explores the nature of violence, how it changed Joanna's life and how Joanna has used it since. In fact, for a book about superheros who can't be hurt, the book delves deeply into the effects of violence. Almost every main character in the book has been traumatized by violence in their past, and each of them reacts in their own way.

Pettersson's prose is typical commercial fiction. It hits high points when Joanna unleashes her sharp tongue:

Ajax's reptilian features had rearranged themselves as I spoke, and he now looked like a glowering python. "Thanks for the psychoanalysis, babe," he spat, "but all I really wanted from this weekend were a couple of easy lays."
This, I assumed was where I was supposed to throw my wine in his face. I didn't, though. I like Chateau Le Pin, and took a long, considering slip of the vintage '82 I'd made him buy. "And what? Your mother wasn't available?"

The prose hits low points when Pettersson gives into cliches such as "the hunter becomes the hunted" and probably the most sappy two paragraphs I've read in a long long time:

I stared past him and outside the window, where dawn waited impatiently. "I guess that's how you knew to leave the door open for me."
"Oh, Jo-Jo," he said, sighing sleepily as he gathered me tight to his body. "It was never closed."

Those low points, though, are few and much of the time I was too caught up in the plot to care.

Despite this being the first part of a series (the second book "The Taste of Night" will be out in April), the book manages to come to a satisfying conclusion, while leaving many mysteries and plot threads waiting to be resolved in future books.

If you're looking for a smart, action-packed novel that's not afraid of emotion, you won't go wrong with "The Scent of Shadows."

New review added

I've just added a review of the new "Gojira" DVD coming out from Classic Media. Go over to my Giant Monster Blog and check it out.

"Hallucigenia," by Laird Barron

I just finished this story in the June issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It's absolutely terrific. I've enjoyed most of Barron's stories (you can read Bulldozer, and Parallax online, and you should) but the concluding pages of this story knocked me out.

When I started the story, I didn't have such high hopes for it. The story is told from the perspective of a tough guy rich boy who has travelled the world, mastered hunting and faced down many a problem. He is surrounded by other tough guys. This is so much like Barron's other stories -- all of them feature some kind of hard boiled protagonist -- that I figured I was in for a repeat. And to some extent, I was. The story includes many of the same horrific and pulp ideas as his others, and even includes some references to his last F&SF story, "The Imago Sequence."

But this one tops the others.

I'm not sure I can explain why, either. There's a wealth of detail about the horrific background of the story, but you never quite see the whole picture. There's terrific scenes of horror -- including the one illustrated on the magazine's front cover. And in the climax, Barron brings it all together in one spectacular fright scene. Then, he goes one step better with a coda that adds just a touch of humor.

I'm just rambling on here, but I really enjoyed this story and wanted to share that with others. If you aren't already subscribed to F&SF, go out and pick up this issue. This one novella is easily worth the $3.99 cover price.

You can read a review of the issue at Tangent Online. And you can discuss the story at the magazine's message board.

The Kappa Child by Hiromi Goto

I just read the last pages of The Kappa Child. The book is beautiful, heartwarming and enlightening. I loved it.
The book won the James Tiptree Jr. Award in 2001. That's what got me to buy the novel, thinking it would be a fantasy novel. The kappa and the UFO abductions in the story are all used more metaphorically. They are possibly psychological in origin, but all the fantastic happenings have physical manifestations. The book is really more literary fiction, and has its best moments describing the interactions between people.
The book is about a woman trying to come to terms with her family history and her present life. The writing is beautiful, the characters seem so real and the story is great. Find the book and read it. It's terrific.
The Tiptree judges had many good things to say about the novel. Here's one judge:

This captivating magic realist novel is, from start to finish, a pure delight to read. Although clearly fantastic it is written with a "mainstream" sensibility so that emphasis is placed on the protagonists, their growth and their inner worlds rather than on an action-driven plot with which genre readers are more familiar. This book pulls no emotional punches yet remains both a loving and a positive work.

Goto's warm, delicate and humorous touch had me, a straight and sometime conservative male, effortlessly identifying with the alienation felt by four Japanese-Canadian sisters, one of them queer, growing up within the confines of a strict, paternalistic family on the Canadian prairie. Quite a feat, that.

Add an immaculate conception, alien abductions and a kappa to the blend and you have an irresistible charmer of a book. PH

Hiromi Goto has a Web site with a movie clip and some other information. Here's a very short excerpt from the novel.
Here's some reviews: Strange Horizons; Canadian Literature; Herizons; and Emerald City. There's an interview with Goto at BookSense.
UPDATE: The word heartwarming above worries me. I think it gives the wrong impression. The book is very dark in places, much of it is about a family with an abusive father. In fact, some of the most powerful writing in the novel is the way Goto makes you feel the "explosive silences" of the household. The father's punishments were random and out of proportion. This is not simply a feel-good book, nor is it a Lifetime Channel movie. It's tough and it's intelligent. The heartwarming part comes at the end, when you've followed the main character through all her problems and seen her emerge from it.

"Zen" and the art of reviewing

This Salon article about "Zen Arcade" pisses me off. I have no problem with people praising the Husker Du album, it is great. But this article is a little much. There's a lot of pointless noise and stretched out nonsense in the album. I'm sure it marks a particularly important moment in hardcore music, but 20 years later, it can be a little boring to listen to. It does have its classic moments (I'm not sure Husker Du wrote a better song than "Turn on the News"), but the reviewer should ease off on the hyperbole.
Also there's this:

This is the album Nirvana and Pearl Jam only wish they could have made: intelligent, clamorous, and hashing out more torment and passion in four sides than all the grungers and headbangers since -- all without a hint of heavy-metal pretension.

Why is it that everytime someone wants to praise something as a classic, they have to shoot down the latecomers? Nirvana made two great albums, both of which I think are better than "Zen Arcade." (I'm not going to defend Pearl Jam, let their fans do that.)
And then, what's this about "heavy metal pretension"? As if there is no pretension in a double album that goes on about spiritual seeking and includes a song called "Hare Krishna." Believe me, "Zen Arcade" has pretensions all its own.
Can somebody please write an appraisal of "Zen Arcade" that's realistic and doesn't take cheap shots at later bands or heavy metal? I would appreciate it.

Old 28 Days Later review (new headline)

Well, at my old diary, The Experiment, I put up a review of "28 Days Later." Go there, check it out, come back and comment on it. If it pleases you...

UPDATE 11/23/2005: Since my old blog no longer exists, here's the review pulled from my personal files. My files include two drafts of it, so you get them both. I've resisted the urge to revise either one:

I just saw "28 Days Later." It was a good, solid horror/action film.
It looked beautiful, great dark shadows and powerful images. And there were some scenes with real scares. The first half of the film was particularly brilliant. I don't know how they managed to get all the shots of empty London, but it looked amazing.
The second half of the film is where problems begin. Now, I should note, the problems are not evident while sitting in the theater. They only bother you after sitting back and thinking about the movie.
Mostly it's the portrayal of the soldiers. We're treated to the old movie cliche of soldiers being people totally led by their impulses and animal urges, who glory in death. These trained-to-kill soldiers are then beaten by the clever trickery of our hero (with the help of zombies, of course.) It should also be noted that our hero is a bike messenger who has only killed one zombie in his life. He just seems to have a powerful dark side.
The cliche keeps the film moving, but cheapens the experience.
The second half of the movie is also one big riff off of "Day of the Dead," including a chained up zombie who exacts his own revenge.
I should also note that the prologue to the film (the part before "28 days later..." comes up on screen) seemed silly and unnecessary. I would have rather had the whole zombie problem go unexplained. (They never use the term zombie, by the by.)
The movie doesn't hold a candle to the George Romero zombie series, but what zombie movie ever has? The movie seems to have a respect for horror (although, it doesn't indulge in gore at all, except for the brutality of it) and treats its themes seriously. The characters are well drawn and I think Serena's change in philosophy is handled well.
Over all, I thought it was an excellent film. Check it out for yourself and tell me what you think.


That being said, here are the caveats. First of all, George Romero has nothing to worry about. His films remain the zombie films. In fact, this film takes a lot from "Day of the Dead." The whole second half in fact. That's not a killer for a zombie movie though, it's not like anyone else has done anything original with zombies either. Watch any Lucio Fulci films lately?
The film was made on digital camera, from what I know. I'm not sure if it's that or the filmmakers choice, but it does give the film a strong, grainy feel. Documentary-style some would say (although when was the last time you saw a documentary with less than perfect camera work?) TV news style might be a better way to describe it.
They use the digital camera to create a few effects -- Manchester burning off in the distance -- but the most notable is the fast-moving, enraged zombies. I think it works, you never get a completely clear view of these people-turned-monsters.
Zombie fans may be upset that there is not a lot of gore. In fact, the zombies (which are never called that in the film) don't seem to eat people. They puke on people a lot and do a lot of crazed punching and things, but not a lot of eating. It didn't bother me. You still see people get killed and you still get an idea of the brutality of it.
I didn't think there was much need for the beginning of the film, the few minutes before "28 days later..." comes up on the screen. It just seemed to overexplain things. I like the "Night of the Living Dead" style where things are hinted at, but we have no idea if that is really what is behind the zombies.
The ending of the film worked for me while I was sitting there getting into it. Upon further reflection, it has its problems. They're even worse because this is a film that has billed itself (intentionally or otherwise) as an "intelligent zombie film."
First off, do we need to repeat the cliche of Army men out of control. There seems to be this common perception of military as people who are consumed with their animal urges. While I have no doubt the military attracts some of these people, I don't think it represents the real depth of military men. Not to mention, it's a straight rip from "Day of the Dead."
Second, if you're going to have a guy going up against military men, he'd better be damn clever. These are guys are trained not only to fight and take orders, but also to strategize. One bike messenger shouldn't be able to take 10 of them out.
Well, the movie does show him using clever strategies and siccing the zombies on these guys, but still. How do all these plans always work out in the movies? I don't know anybody who could make something like that work in real life. (Unlike "Day of the Dead" where the Army guys' own foolishness does them in.)
But all this is really not necessary. It is a good flick. Characters are well drawn. The action is exciting. The horror is scary. The first half works very well. Over all, it was one of the better horror movies I've seen recently.