The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman

I wore a black suit and a white shirt, a black tie and black shoes, all polished and shiny: clothes that normally would make me feel uncomfortable, as if I were in a stolen uniform, or pretending to be an adult. Today they gave me comfort of a kind. I was wearing the right clothes for a hard day.

"Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy. Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what. A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark." 

God, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was beautiful. It is a fairy tale of the best kind, as Erin Morgenstern says, "soaked in myth and memory and salt water." Neil Gaiman is a master, and this one was in some respects better than Stardust which I loved too. I loved Stardust for its fairy tale elements and the battle of Good and Evil and the writing. All of these things were present and better in The Ocean at the End of the Lane. It's well worth $26 even though it's a slim book. 

All of the events that the nameless narrator recalls are told through the eyes of a younger child; he sees everything simply and clearly at the age of seven. So many strange things are happening, but they don't seem at all odd to him. Gradually the memories come flooding back as the middle-aged man sits by the duck pond which Lettie called the ocean. 

I certainly wasn't expecting The Ocean at the End of the Lane to be so brilliant, but it was. It was also, of course, really disturbing, particularly the very first nightmare that the main character has, choking on coins. It was quite scary, and I actually had to put the book down for a second before I continued on. Ursula Monkton was also the scariest and most evil creation ever; I loathed her, although I didn't really understand what she was doing as the housekeeper. 

The two Hempstocks were very fascinating. The older one can even see electrons, not a power witches in traditional fairy tales normally have. But I suppose traditionally, witches can see things normal people can't, and make predictions; in this case, Gaiman just takes it a bit farther. The character of Lettie was really interesting too; she's eleven, and yet she's clearly so much older than that. She knows so much about everything. 

Gaiman's writing is, as usual, utterly gorgeous. There's lush description, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, despite being short, is a very rich novel. I read it in maybe two sittings all in one day. 

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is marketed for adults, but it could just as easily be young adult; however, adults are probably in more of a position to enjoy it, so I'm not really the best person to appreciate this novel. However, I still really, really loved it. Probably later I'll love it more.

My only criticism of the book was this: that parts of it didn't actually make much sense. Why was the thing that called itself Ursula Monkton in the world in the first place? It was explained a little bit, but not enough for my tastes. There could have been more background information. It was still marvelous though.

Some favorite quotes: "'That's the trouble with living things. Don't last very long. Kittens one day, old cats the next. And then just memories. And the memories fade and blend and smudge together...'" (pg. 45).

"I liked myths. They weren't adult stories and they weren't children's stories. They were better than that. They just were." (pg. 53). This reminded me of Erin Morgenstern's blurb of the book: "I read The Ocean at the End of the Lane in one sitting. It is soaked in myth and memory and salt water and it is so, so lovely. It feels as if it was always there, somewhere in the story-stuff of the universe." It just is, according to her, just like the myths that the narrator is referring to.

Like Erin Morgenstern, I read the book in basically one sitting and was thoroughly immersed in the world. That doesn't happen that often. There are more quotes that I could include, but I would recommend that you just read this excellent dark fantasy novel if it sounds interesting. 

You can read other reviews here and here.

178 pages.

Rating: *****

Rereading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.

Here's what I said in my original review: "I can understand the fascination with burning, but why books? I read Fahrenheit 451 for class, and I enjoyed it, though it's somewhat disturbing. In a futuristic world, firemen don't put out fires, they set fires, and burn books. Guy Montag is a fireman, who has always been satisfied with his job, until he meets Clarisse, a seventeen year old who changes how he thinks about everything...

Ray Bradbury has a very distinctive writing style, which I noticed in Dandelion Wine, which I read a while ago. I would say Fahrenheit 451 is a much better book; the writing is better and the subject matter more interesting. The society depicted in the book is really scary. Mildred, Montag's wife, is always watching her three-wall television (she wants a four wall). It's interactive too, so she can take part in the shows. She's almost always watching it or listening to her Seashell (earphones).

Clarisse and Faber are both really interesting characters. I think I would probably get along with Clarisse. Now, books being really important to me, I found this book super disturbing, and not altogether unrealistic. Though written in the 50's, it bears a certain resemblance to the increasing consumerism of today. Bradbury builds suspense and dread with his foreshadowing (for example, the Hound not liking Montag).

I've been planning to read The Martian Chronicles for a while now, and Fahrenheit 451 motivated me to do so. I would highly recommend this excellent Ray Bradbury novel."

The educational world certainly loves this book a lot. I read it in middle school, and now in my first year of high school, what's on the summer reading list? You guessed it. I think F-451 is kind of overrated. It is certainly a good book, but this is my third time reading it (I read it for fun once too), and I'm kind of sick of it. I will say that every time I read it, I like it a bit better. The writing, although sometimes overly dramatic, is really good, and the story has a lot of bearing on modern times. The thing is, it's almost like Bradbury wrote the novel to be over-analyzed in a high school class; everything means something other than what it is. 

I would say that Bradbury sometimes uses metaphors too much. Every page is filled with metaphors and similes, personification and hyperboles. The images themselves are all very interesting, but sometimes it's just sensory overload. Sometimes being sparse with your metaphors isn't such a bad thing. 

I read Fahrenheit 451 in a different fashion than I have the previous two times. For school, I had to annotate the novel, and while that style is kind of tedious, I did definitely notice things that I hadn't before. For example, the over-abundance of metaphors. I also noticed just how many times Bradbury equates books with birds. I'd been aware of it before, but actually underlining the passages reinforces it. It still feels sacrilegious to write on books though, especially my brand new copy of Fahrenheit 451.  

Reading slow and being constantly aware of everything is not the most enjoyable way to read, but it can be illuminating. It certainly was in this case, and I enjoyed the novel more the third time. It has its points, although I really do think that it's overused. 

I definitely prefer the older cover to the new 60th anniversary one. A box of matches inside of a book is just not as compelling as a man made of print lit on fire. I'm pretty sure that was the original cover too. 

F-451 is most definitely a very good novel, which I would recommend. It's certainly worth reading at least once, if by some miracle you escaped reading it for school.

158 pages. 

Rating: ****

Tisha, Robert Specht

Even though it was barely eight o'clock and the sun had just come up, practically the whole town of Eagle had turned out to see the pack train off. 

"Alaska was as remote as the moon, as roistering and lawless as the Gold Rush. And a pretty young schoolteacher from Colorado like Anne Hobbs was even rarer than nuggets." This is the story of her journey into the Alaska wilderness to become a teacher in the small gold-mining town of Chicken. In 1927, she courageously braved both the elements and the disapproval of many after she tries to treat the Native Americans as equals. It's a good old fashioned yarn, full of catastrophes and hiss-worthy villains. (Paraphrased from a blurb by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt). Tisha is also based upon a true story that was told to Robert Specht. The name "Tisha" comes from a small child's mispronounciation of "teacher" early on in the book.

A friend of mine really liked this one, but I thought it was out of print, so I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw it at a bookstore. It's a book that's really, really entertaining, somewhat disturbing, and interesting.  The writing is spare, but not too spare, and there's just enough description of the Alaskan landscape.

I really loved the main character. She's spunky and determined to survive and do right. Even in a strange and sometimes frightening new land, she never gives up hope. That's something I really admired about her, and it made all the other characters admire her too. I loved the rest of the characters as well; none of them are perfect, and some of them are downright evil, but they're all striving to do what they believe is right, even if it what they believe is right is bigoted and racist.

Tisha is not a very suspenseful novel, and although it's certainly not overwritten, it's a book that takes a while to get through. Nevertheless, it's really, really compelling and interesting. I loved that Tisha was an entertaining story but it also talked about a lot of real issues faced in the country at that time and still (sadly) to some extent today. Just because they're Native Americans, many of the whites in Alaska want to prevent them from having the same rights afforded to whites. Anne can clearly see how blind they are, and she's horrified by it. However, she doesn't realize how deeply rooted the prejudices of the people are. It's going to take a lot to change their minds, but who better to do so than her?

Tisha is one of those books that are really infuriating because of the racism and blindness of many of the characters. The children in the town are being brainwashed to believe that Indians are less intelligent, and the adults are determined that no Indians be allowed to attend Tisha's school. It's ridiculous. It does make for an engrossing story though. I found myself rooting for Tisha and yes, hissing at the villains. Or more like wanting to slap some sense into them.

Tisha reminded me of True Grit in some respects, even though the premise is entirely different. In both novels, we have a spunky, determined, young girl venturing out into a wild, male-dominated frontier and challenging the authority. No one believes they can succeed. Mattie just wants to revenge her father's murder; Anne wants to make things right for the local population. Both are excellent books, and both are among my all-time favorites.

I definitely wasn't expecting Tisha to be as good as it was. It was amazing in so many respects: plot, description, characters, insightfulness, and of course entertainment. Tisha also had a really sweet and conflicted romance. It's a book that should be more widely read; it's superbly written and very thought-provoking. I would highly, highly recommend Tisha.

342 pages.

Rating: *****

Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer

Straddling the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet.

Into Thin Air is Jon Krakuer's account of the Mt. Everest disaster that took place in May 1996. He begins when he reaches the top of the summit, and then goes back to the very beginnings of the journey. "He takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. He also avoids blasting easy targets such as Sandy Pittman, the wealthy socialite who brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. Krakauer's highly personal inquiry into the catastrophe provides a great deal of insight into what went wrong. But for Krakauer himself, further interviews and investigations only lead him to the conclusion that his perceived failures were directly responsible for a fellow climber's death. Clearly, Krakauer remains haunted by the disaster, and although he relates a number of incidents in which he acted selflessly and even heroically, he seems unable to view those instances objectively. In the end, despite his evenhanded and even generous assessment of others' actions, he reserves a full measure of vitriol for himself."

I'd read and enjoyed Above All Things, so I wanted to read another story about Mt. Everest and its perils, this time one that purported to be nonfiction (although I'm sure some facts were stretched). The writing wasn't very good, and the story, while interesting, just was told poorly. It still wasn't quite as gripping as I thought it would be. The story moves at a pretty slow pace. It kind of couldn't keep me interested for very long. There was a lot of dry history, and Krakeuer just couldn't make it compelling, even though he is a novelist. 

With so many review copies flooding in, I didn't finish Into Thin Air. I'll probably return to it some other time. I've kind of been not finishing a lot of books lately. 

374 pages. 

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

It was a queer, sultry, summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.

"The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under--maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic."

Stupid Blogger deleted my review of The Bell Jar from a couple of weeks ago, so I now I have to type up my thoughts without having this excellent book fresh in my mind. Ah, Blogger, how I hate you. I'm considering switching to Wordpress entirely, but that's another story. 

Anyway, I was reading The Bell Jar while on a trip to Costa Rica, and it was really, really good. The writing was very strange, but there was some beautiful language, and Esther's narrative was so cool and detached from all of it, from her slow descent into madness. 

Oh, look, I wrote my original review down in a notebook. That's handy. Here it is: The Bell Jar was a good but really depressing book, as I knew it would be. I didn't love the writing with all of its fanciful descriptions, but I do think Plath's portrayal of the descent into madness is very compelling. It did seem a bit sudden though; at the beginning of the book Esther is fine, although there is some foreshadowing. Then all of a sudden she can't do anything, focus on anything, write anything. 

Her main problem is that she sees all these different paths she could take, and the indecision drives her mad. The description of the fig tree was really chilling, of all the different branches one could take, and being stuck unable to take any of them. 

And yet, I still didn't really understand her unraveling. After all, one doesn't have to commit to one career choice; If Esther didn't like one thing, she could try something else. She doesn't seem to have thought of that. But I think it's more than that, more than what career to take; she just doesn't know what to do with her life in general. 

Esther annoyed me sometimes, but she was also so sad. At the beginning of the book she's rational, and in the middle she's contemplating suicide. And the end...I wasn't sure what to make of the end. I was expecting a different ending based on what actually happened to Sylvia Plath. I liked its ambivalence though. 

The Bell Jar was intense and really good, although very depressing. Here's a quote that was really interesting, towards the beginning, which shows the reader that Esther definitely has mental problems. "I saw avocado pear after avocado pear being stuffed with crabmeat and mayonnaise and photographed under bright lights. I saw the delicate, pink-mottled claw meat poking seductively through its blanket of mayonnaise and the bland yellow pear cup with its rim of alligator green cradling the whole mess." (pg. 48). It's certainly a very disturbing description. Here's another funny quote: "I'd adored him from a distance for five years before he even looked at me, and then there was a beautiful time when I still adored him and he started looking at me, and then just as he was looking at me more and more I discovered quite by accident what an awful hypocrite he was, and now he wanted me to marry him and I hated his guts." (pg. 52). That was an amusing one. Anyway, I really liked The Bell Jar, and would recommend it. 

213 pages. 

Rating: ****

Rereading An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

The morning after noted child prodigy Colin Singleton graduated from high school and got dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, he took a bath. 

From my original review: "I enjoyed Paper Towns and The Fault in Our Stars a lot, but I didn't like An Abundance of Katherines nearly as much. The book is about this boy named Colin Singleton, who has dated 19 girls named Katherine, all of which have dumped him. So he goes on a road trip with his Judge-Judy obsessed friend Hassan, and meets a girl who is miraculously not named Katherine. He's also working on a highly complicated formula that will predict the future of any relationship. I thought An Abundance of Katherines had an interesting premise, to say the least, but it never really panned out. I just wasn't engaged by it. The characters were OK, and there were some funny parts, but it wasn't like I was eager to see what happened next. I did like the design of the hardcover edition though. 

'All of John Green's books seem to feature trips of some kind, which is definitely a good starting point, but this one just never got off the ground. I would definitely recommend Paper Towns and The Fault in Our Stars, but not this one. And I am looking forward to reading Looking For Alaska."

I've read Looking For Alaska twice since then, and loved it the second time around. I started to reread An Abundance of Katherines with some trepidation, considering that I didn't like it much at all the first time around. It is still in my opinion the weakest of John Green's novels, but I definitely enjoyed it more than I did the first time, just like with Looking For Alaska. It can be annoying, but it also has a certain charm to it, one that I failed to see the first time I read it.

The premise itself is similar to the premises of John Green's other books, but there are unique aspects to it. For example, the footnotes, and the mathematical equation that Colin works on. I also liked reading about the different Katherine's.

An Abundance of Katherines is definitely one of John Green's weirder novels. There are a lot of pretty strange aspects about it; all the "fug"'s in the book, for one. Colin's friend Hassan is also kind of strange; I don't like him as a character that much. He's not at all compelling.

All of John Green's books except for his later two novels (TFiOS and Will Grayson, Will Grayson) are set in the South, and I think he writes about the South very convincingly, having lived there for much of his life. The characters and the landscape are an interesting mix of contradictions; I really find the South very interesting, both today and historically.

There are definitely many funny aspects of An Abundance of Katherines, such as the fact that Colin is trying to come up with a mathematical formula for the curve of a relationship. I didn't understand all of the math, but there is an appendix by Daniel Biss which explains it, and I definitely got it more than I did the first time around. Most of it I could actually understand by reading the appendix. Although of course John Green understands that it's ridiculous to think that you can graph the course of a romantic relationship. That's why it's funny.

I also do like the character of Lindsay, who is most definitely not a Katherine but intrigues Colin's everywhere. Just like in Will Grayson, Will Grayson, there are two characters with the same name in this novel.

I purchased the box set of John Green's books, with a hardcover edition of the new cover designed by a nerdfighter on right. I'm very glad that I got the box set; Looking For Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars are signed, and the case has a lot of amazing stuff on it. Definitely worth it. It can be bought here.

Anyway, An Abundance of Katherines is certainly not a phenomenal novel, and it shouldn't be one's first foray into John Green's work, but I did like it more this time. The writing and the story are both really good, and I'm certainly glad I reread the book.

215 pages.

Rating: ****

Rereading Looking For Alaska by John Green

This week before I left my family and Florida and the rest of my minor life to go to boarding school in Alabama, my mother insisted on throwing me a going-away party.

From my original review: "Finally, Looking For Alaska showed up at the school library, and was immediately snapped up by me. It's the story of Miles Halter shows up at a boarding school in Alabama to seek what Rabelais called 'the Great Perhaps'. You see, he's fascinated with last words; he memorizes them. At the Culver Creek, he meets Alaska Young, a crazy and attractive girl, as well as some other very strange people. They do some pretty odd things. 

That's John Green for you. I liked this one a bit better than An Abundance of Katherines, but I still think Paper Towns and The Fault in Our Stars were both much better books; more thoughtful, though obviously this one attempts to be. Looking for Alaska is kind of funny, though, and certainly I did want to know what would happen. Also the 'x number of days before' was very dramatic. It's a very John Greenish book, if you know what I mean. There's a lot of smoking and drinking.

Alaska is seriously disturbed. All of them are, actually. I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't get into the first half of  the book, "the before" Somehow, it wasn't really engaging or gripping or any of those things that make you love a book. But then the big thing happened. And then the book was amazing. It feels like all of the other stuff is just a build-up to what happens after. It's pretty easy to guess, but without spoiling anything, Miles is kind of grappling with his grief and also his overwhelming feeling of guilt. And there are some really nice thoughts and there is some really great writing here. The first half was a bit boring, but the second made up for it a lot. Stick with this one. And yes, the last three pages are amazing." 

For whatever reason, I liked Looking For Alaska a lot more the second time around. I was pulled into the story and I just kept reading. Although John Green's plot-lines tend to be generic (nerdy/quirky/outsider boy named Miles/Colin/Quentin is fascinated by an unattainable girl named Alaska/Katherine/Lindsay/Margo), I really like that plot-line, and each of John Green's first three books explores different facets of it. And TFiOS  is different.

While all the smoking and drinking that occurs in the book does make me a little uneasy, I think it's interesting to read about teenagers who both do all sorts of "forbidden" things and also talk about literature, last words, and the Great Perhaps. The characters are all contradictions; they're smart people, but they do really stupid things sometimes just for the heck of it. 

The two main criticisms of Looking For Alaska and John Green's books in general is that the writing is pretentious and the characters are unrealistic for their age in terms of how they speak and what they do. I would agree with both of those statements for the most part, but they're not necessarily bad things. I don't find John Green's writing all that pretentious, but I do think that the way the characters talk is not how most teenager (even intellectual ones) talk. That doesn't really take away from my enjoying his books; it's just something that I notice. I would also definitely agree that the characters in this novel (especially Alaska) are over the top, but Miles just sees her that way. Most of his books, but Paper Towns especially, deal in some way or other with how we see people as opposed to who they actually are. In Paper Towns, all the characters see a different version of Margo; Miles also has his own vision of who Alaska is. She's a loud, brash, funny, smart, and attractive person. 

I find it funny that this one was banned from the curriculum at several schools. There is a very physical scene, but it contrasts sharply with the following scene which is not physical at all but much more rewarding; Miles feels a much deeper connection there.

I didn't find the first section to be boring as I did when I first read the book. I enjoyed reacquainting myself with the characters and reading about their antics. Of course, things do get much more exciting (and heartbreaking) in the "after" sections, which I'm not going to reveal anything about. It is really compelling though. 

Looking For Alaska is still not my favorite of John Green's novels, but it has definitely approved in my estimation of it. It's an excellent, excellent book which I would highly recommend. My love for it increased as I read. I think it's definitely one of John Green's more meaningful novels, and it is one of my favorite books.

221 pages. 

Rating: *****