Here in the Northwest we are finally having real summer weather. It’s hot and sunny and I for one am ready to take a break from reading and writing about books, and get out there to play! Here’s wishing you and yours a happy and safe summer vacation season. I will return after Labor Day with more great books.
It’s been more than twenty years since I read Stephen McCauley’s first novel The Object Of My Affection. When I lived in Boston I had the pleasure of meeting McCauley at a reading he gave at the Boston Public Library. I later read and enjoyed McCauley’s second and third novels The Easy Way Out and The Man Of The House. And then, as with John Irving I lost track of Mr. McCauley for a bit. I recall seeing his fifth novel Alternatives To Sex at the circulation desk when I worked for the library, but alas the copy I handled was due to be shipped somewhere else for a hold and I never did get around to following up on it.
That’s a shame since Insignificant Others makes clear that Mr. McCauley continues to be a master of the comic novel. As seems to be McCauley’s pattern the narrator is again a gay man, in this instance Richard Rossi–a 50-ish psychologist who works in human resources at a young, hip software company in Cambridge, Massachusetts who lives with his slightly younger huzband, Conrad in an historical apartment in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. The “affairs” that each of these two men have with their “insignificant others” play out in McCauley’s usual comedy of manners which, joyfully, continues to be very appealing.
I particularly liked the many short and cleverly named chapters. (No chapter numbers and no chapters longer than a couple of pages.) McCauley has a real gift for capturing New Englanders in all their beguiling complexity and it was a joy to once again spend a few hours in McCauley’s Boston. If you enjoy light comic novels or have an interest in gay New Englanders, Insignificant Others is Highly Recommended.
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The title, Precycle, called to me across the library the moment I first spotted it. And truly, I had expected to and wanted to be able to wholeheartedly Recommend it. Sadly, I can’t. I really was most intrigued by the prospect of eliminating a lot of our recycling by making things at home instead of buying them at the store. Unfortunately, far from saving money folks who follow Paul Peacock’s Precycle (ing) advice will have to spend considerably more than it would cost to buy the “convenience” item in a supermarket. It would also help if I lived in the UK: the units of measurement used in recipes and instructions appear to be UK standard, and Peacock is quite hit or miss about specifying equivalents in US units of measurement, making it a bit more difficult to readily understand the instructions. IF you have large surpluses of both time and money, Precycle is Mildly Recommended to guide you through making your own pickles, relishes, ketchup and mayonnaise as well as canning and freezing fruits and vegetables, curing your own bacon, baking your own cakes and even concocting your own household cleaning supplies. But if like most of us you work f0r a living and have limited time and money, Don’t Bother with this one.
I have something of a mixed history with novelist John Irving. In this 2007 post, I raved about three of his earlier novels. Since that time I found myself quite unable to get into his later works A Widow For One Year or Until I Find You. Though I brought both of these books home several times I was never able to get past the first few pages of either. Then I kind of lost track of Mr. Irving for a time and missed a couple of other books he wrote. Then last week I happened upon Last Night In Twisted River and consumed the 554 page novel at a rapid clip. Last Night In Twisted River is the story of Dominic Baciagalupo, a widower with a young son who is the cook for a logging camp in Coos county New Hampshire.
While this novel touches on several broad themes from Irving’s earlier works, notably abortion, the Vietnam War and the life of a writer, Last Night In Twisted River is primarily a tale of fathers and sons spanning the years between 1954 to 2005 and taking place in New England and Canada. As was the case with Irving’s earlier novels A Prayer For Owen Meany and The Cider House Rules I am thrilled and impressed with Irving’s depth of characterization and highly intricate plotting. In that 2007 review I noted that Irving can rightly be compared to great novelists like Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. The cover blurbs on Last Night In Twisted River compare him to Balzac, Byron and Shakespeare and in all sincerity these comparisons seem entirely apt to me.
I honestly don’t know why I was never able to get into A Widow For One Year or Until I Find You, but Last Night In Twisted River is an exceptional and deeply moving novel that makes me believe again that Irving is one of the most gifted living novelists in the English language. Last Night In Twisted River– Very Highly Recommended.
The first really striking thing about Chuck Palahniuk’s 2009 novel Pygmy is that it isn’t really written in English so much as in a sort of pidgin language that is spoken, or rather written by a young teenager whose first language is never specified, a young man who is one of a small group of junior high school-aged, highly indoctrinated and well-trained espionage agents from a never named third world country. The kids have a well-rehearsed plan to take first place in the science fair in order to win a trip to Washington, DC where the narrator, who comes to be called Pygmy in his complex and multi-layered life as the “adopted son” of the Cedar family in an un-named Mid-Western United States suburb will discharge a biological weapon. * (All of these places get un-named by appearing with a block of solid black ink over a single proper noun.)
I need to make clear that the language is a very big issue. I believe that some, perhaps many readers will find it just too frustrating to try to follow narrator Pygmy’s use of rather a lot of English words, but with a lack of understanding of the rules of grammar to paint pictures which at times reflect great shrewdness and a world view that most first world citizens** will find both disturbing and quite challenging at times. That the “global South”* has legitimate complaints about the way they are treated by the global North is something that many Americans simply don’t know about. I believe that there are some readers out there who could see past the language, past the rather stereotypical third world extremists (who are working to kill a huge number of Americans in what they intend as a huge international terrorism event) and after 241 pages come away with an appreciation for what is ultimately a coming of age story that seems to go out of its way to shock and offend the reader. I honestly have no idea whom exactly this book would appeal to– though I know that there are folks who will enjoy it.
Pygmy– Cautiously Recommended to those prepared to deal with the language and world view issues noted above.
*Please let that serve as my 2010 entry in the contest for the Longest Run-on, Compound, Complex Sentence category at the Tortured Phrase Awards.
**If you are not well familiar with the terms first world, second world, third world and fourth world or the concept of the global North and the global South, a concise and most useful explanation is provided by Edward Hasbrouck in his book The Practical Nomad (my Review)
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