Follow-Up to The Accidental

Last night I finally got around to finishing The Accidental. Aside from the fact that it was heavily inconclusive and that the last chapter was excessively disjointed from the remainder of the novel (except for the first chapter which matched the theme and substance of the last), I liked the book. I am certainly a fan of Smith's style. The twelve-year-old girl Astrid was certainly the most likable character. And despite how repulsive Amber was, she really was the center of the novel who provided the way for each individual character's personal crisis to come to the surface. In Magnus' case, she may have even helped him work through a crisis, in a certain sense. A few of the characters were ill-realized, namely Eve. Her midlife crisis was obvious from the outset, but she was depicted so free of moorings that it was impossible to judge the breadth of the crisis. Michael was painted as a weak individual, and this characteristic was essentially the strength of his character.

The Accidental by Ali Smith

I have a weakness for unusual language, and this book certainly satisfies this soft spot I have for seemingly mixed up syntax and points of view verging on strange. Like Hotel World, The Accidental is told through multiple voices. Each member of the family the story centers around gets a chance to narrate. This provides a veritable collage. It is a fascinating, quilt-like story, pieced together in a very careful and beautiful way. While many of the characters are quite annoying, they couldn't be this way with a less well-crafted story. Amber, who at this point in the story appears to be "The Accidental," is the worst of all. She is crazy in that charming way so as to avoid being pinned down as such by the other characters in the story who aren't particularly well-adjusted themselves. The mother has writer's block. The father, an English professor, has compulsive affairs with students. The 17-year-old boy is seriously disturbed. And the 12-year-old girl, who also happens to be a focus-point of the story, is just blatantly innocent, adolescent and a perfect character for someone (Amber, with her non-conformist, oddly adolescent ideas, perhaps) to take painful advantage of.

At about half-way through the story, I am hooked. I remember when this book was released a bit over a year ago, it was certainly talked about enough for me to hear about Smith and acquire a few of her other books. But until now, I never happened upon this particular book myself. I definitely look forward to the rest.

The Delta of Venus by Anais Nin

After reading this book, I officially rescind a previous statement I have made that erotica is usually a bit boring owing to lack of character development. Anais Nin proved me wrong. This past Saturday, I went to a library book sale and found many books I didn't even know that I wanted, and some that had been hoping to come across for some time. One of these books was Anais Nin's The Delta of Venus. The name itself betrays something of its content which is worthy, for some, of a serious reddening of the cheeks even to mention. I spent at least a few hours with the book last night. The other books I have read that claim to be anthologies of erotic fiction pale in comparison. Nin wrote the book for a dollar a page for a collector of manuscripts. I have read in a few places, I suppose it's a famous piece of information, that he told her to cut out the poetry, though it can still be found in its pages. I was disappointed that I missed acquiring this particular book from a box in the hallway that my downstairs neighbors were throwing out a few months ago, and am definitely happy that I came across it a second time. I would never have remembered that it was something I wanted to read otherwise.

Literary Old Ladies--Alice Munro

I received a few book recommendations yesterday from a connoisseur of literature penned by old ladies of a particular generation. She expressed the fact that these authors all write in a style indicative of their age, and gender. There is something quaint, subtle, and richly complex about stories written, in this case, by Alice Munro, which I discovered upon checking her book Open Secrets out of the local library.

At first, I was unaccustomed to the style that reminded me of some of the short stories I read in a college English class dedicated to the literary form. These days, I usually read fiction that is more contemporary or more experimental or avant-garde. But oftentimes, these stories, if they are not focused on language in a way that transcends plot, fall short of my expectations. The characterizations are often shallow and lacking in complexity. But Alice Munro stories come from a hand versed in the literature of a different time, when plot mattered and simple realism was placed on a pedestal.

My friend was right. Alice Munro writes beautifully about normal country folk with complex personalities.

The Ten Minute Activist by The Mission Collective

The Ten Minute Activist is the project of a group of writers and activists based in San Francisco who call themselves The Mission Collective. More specifically, it is a book filled with oodles of information and world-saving tips--everything from how to power your house with greener energy to greener waste disposal and better gardening tips. The best thing about the book is that it is not just a how-to guide. It is also filled with facts galore, some of which you could rattle off at cocktail parties to shock new acquaintances like the following: 170,000 tampon applicators make their way onto the U.S. coastline each year.

Self Storage by Gayle Brandeis

Self Storage is post-chick lit trying to be just smart enough to garner an audience beyond those who read little more than the Shopaholic series. But invoking Walt Whitman in a chick lit novel might be even more dangerous than invoking Charlotte Bronte (e.g. The Bronte Project), who after all is one of the grandmothers of the genre. The author of Self Storage invokes Walt Whitman and Jean Baudrillard. But I have to give Gayle Brandeis credit for penning this tale of a self-storage auction obsessed twenty-seven-year-old mother of two who likes reading Whitman and is married to a lazy postmodern academic. This is not your ordinary chick lit.

Ben Greenman Picks Up Literate Boys

I am almost certain that Ben Greenman is straight, so he isn't the one who actually picks up literate boys. It is the act of reading his stories that enables a certain degree more flirtation with boys with literary proclivities than might otherwise take place. Yesterday, I took his forthcoming book of short stories, A Circle is A Compass and a Balloon Both down to the local hipster coffee haunt for the afternoon. The man sitting across from me on the coffee shop's couch reading On The Road was intrigued by the plain, flourescent green cover on my galley copy of the book. He didn't seem to take much interest in the adorable girl sewing stuffed, felt creatures who was sitting in the chair next to mine. He wanted to know about the title of my book. "I was curious," he let on, "about your book." I humored him. I humored him for much longer than I am used to doing when a stranger approaches me. "Is it good?" he asked. "It's weird," I responded. I told him a little bit about the stories. "One story is about a time when everyone is a pop singer. But everyone is only allowed to record one song." He thought that would be a good thing, not being much of a pop-music man himself. Then he told me about his job. Since I had interviewed for a job at his company, we talked about that for a little while. After some time, he asked for the inevitable: my phone number. I am not accustomed to giving my number to boys. So when I receive a request like this, I freeze enough to provide the digits to my pursuer. But this is a passive agressive way to go about the whole situation which can be thought of as follows: boy meets girl in coffee shop. She is pretty; therefore, she must like boys. Boy talks to girl and asks her many questions, beginning with one regarding the title of the book she is holding firmly in front of her face. Girl talks to boy; therefore, she must be interested in him. Boy asks girl for her number. Girl gives number to boy. Boy leaves. Girl knows she won't return boy's call. What I have determined is that to be open to other people's conversation, and to broadcast a certain level of social or romantic availability is to broadcast it to everyone. Unfortunately, one cannot be particularly discriminating. Attention is attention. And sometimes all it takes is an obscure book to get some.

Vendela Vida Promotes her New Novel

This week in San Francisco, The Believer editor Vendela Vida will be talking up her latest book, Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name. The novel details one woman's quest, prompted by her father's death, to shed light on her own past, reconnecting with those she lost and ultimately shedding this past for a new life. While the bulk of this short novel was enthralling, the end was a disappointment. It was almost as if Vida decided to tack on an ending in an attempt at resolution. But the ending she decided upon reached to far into the territory of a new story altogether. But regardless, it's difficult to resist a book with such an enchanting title, apparently drawn from a line by a famous Sami poet.

Vendela Vida will be speaking at Book Passage in Corte Madera this Sunday, January 7 at 4pm; at Books Inc. on Van Ness on Monday the 8th at 7 pm; and at Cody's in Berkeley on Thursday the 11th also at 7 pm.

A Circle is a Balloon and Compass Both by Ben Greenman

I anticipate that this book is going to contain a plethora of very odd stories. The flourescent green galley is sitting on my desk. I read one of the stories. It was about a spy/assassin doing a job in an airport. I thought the stories were supposed to be about "human love" so I was quite perplexed when I happened upon this particular story. But drawing upon the fact that the introduction is written somewhat sarcastically by the author's second grade art teacher, I wasn't about to take my first reading of the book particularly seriously.

Twin Study by Stacey Richter

I never thought I would be sitting at my kitchen table on New Year's day reading story after weird story just to pass the time. It was a beautiful day, but crankiness had descended over me like a cliche cloud, so I picked up the book on top of the pile in my living room and began to read over a cup of coffee. The book was called Twin Study (Perseus, 2007), the title story of which detailed a weekend in the life of two adult indentical twins who were participating in scientific research about twins. The twins hated the fact that they were so alike yet so different, and this became clear over the course of the story. One of the highlights is when the "bad twin" claims a "found pug" dog that doesn't belong to her. The most amusing story had to be "The Cavemen in the Hedges," a story about a couple who are faced with an invasion of proto-humans in their suburb. The cavemen in the story are fond of shiny objects and anything pink or girly. For some reason, the woman in the story needs a caveman in her life in order to loosen up a bit. The story about the rock-star teenage girl named Shane was also great. There were a few stories that I chose to skip owing to the fact that the seemed slightly disturbing. The book, that officially comes out sometime this spring (April, I believe) made for an amusing day of reading, after all.

-->More information at Library Thing.