This is the second book by Carl Hiaasen that I’ve read, and I certainly enjoy his work so far. The writing is absorbing, and I find that once I start one of his books, I want to keep reading until I finish it. I’ll certainly keep buying his books when I encounter them, and I know that he has quite the library that I’ll be able to collect.
So far, I find that there are similar elements to the books of his I’ve read; they’re based in Miami, and there is one main character that feels that the people and the tourists who are in the area are ruining it. In the first book that I read (Tourist Season), there was a character that was actively trying to harm people; in this second one, he was isolating his attention to one particular character.
Hiaasen also has the entertaining habit of introducing characters, giving us a quick background on them and how they’re bad people (usually), then either harming them or killing them off. It’s fairly entertaining, and there are little moments of justice to carry you over until the main villain(s) receive their brand of justice.
It’s difficult to classify his books, although so far the bookstores appear to be resorting to “fiction”; there are elements of romance, of intrigue/suspense, of humour… they’re rather well-rounded, but perhaps a bit on the pulpy side. At the same time, I’m not reading his books expecting great literary insights, so the beach-read style of it satisfies me. They’re well-written beach reads, and that’s not a common thing to find.
Faking It, by Jennifer Crusie
I’m a great fan of Jennifer Crusie’s work, and wait with baited breath to read each new novel she puts out. I first was exposed to her writing when she wrote for Harlequin Romance, and followed her into the fiction genre when she left the corporation.
Her books involve real people – women who are flawed, who are frequently a bit older than the standard romance novel heroine, men who are interested in women in general, the heroine in particular, often because of her flaws and foibles, her quirks and the unusual aspects of her character – and they consistently involve dogs. Each book, to the best of my recollection, involves a character that either finds a dog (at least with regards to the fiction novels), or already has a dog (more the Harlequins). The dogs are generally not the focal point of the story (except for Crazy for you), but play an important role for the heroines. Sex isn’t always perfect, especially the first time, but something that the characters can improve upon and enjoy.
The dogs are traditionally mutts of indiscriminate breed, and are frequently ugly by traditional standards, but loved and appreciated nonetheless, and this is something I really love to read about in books. I don’t go looking for books that specifically feature this, but it’s always a pleasant surprise when it’s encountered.
The protagonists in the books are not angels, nor are they devils; they’re merely real people who have lived real lives and taken their knocks. Her books usually have a crime of some sort in it; either murder, stalking, forgery (as in this book), with a great deal of cover-up involved. Both the men and the women work to improve the situation – the women aren’t helpless or useless, but often do require the assistance of the man in order to solve the crime. This isn’t to say they wouldn’t be able to manage it on their own, just that it’s aided by the man… when he has all of the facts, which isn’t always the case.
The one minor complaint that I do have is that Crusie often simply dumps a whole bunch of names into her books, and sometimes takes some time to explain how the characters are related to one another; at least, that was somewhat evident in this book in particular. On the whole, however, I found it a real page-turner, as I do with all of her books, and would heartily recommend it, and the rest of her library, to anyone interested in the genre. Her works are another type that is difficult to classify: they incorporate romance, mystery, intrigue, and suspense. However, I’d likely put the romance around the top of list; it’s usually more of a focal point than with other fiction authors, but closely intertwined with the mystery and suspense. If you’re looking for another high-quality type of beach read, by all means, explore Jennifer Crusie’s works.
posted by Jen on 4:42 PM
Friday, January 24, 2003
The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins
I recently had to read Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone for a course on mystery novels. This is recognized as the first British detective novel, and Collins wrote several other novels around this time, but few of them were as popular or as well-known as The Moonstone, with the exception, perhaps, of The Woman in White.
Nonetheless, I finished off The Moonstone at the beginning of the week, and for the most part, I would have to say I enjoyed it. Admittedly, it had some tedious points, and it was frustrating at times to slog through the Victorians mores and speech patterns, but overall it was an interesting read.
The story revolves around the acquisition of and subsequent theft of an Indian sacred diamond known as the Moonstone. It was passed through many hands as a result of a war in India, and becomes the property of one Herncastle, who later wills it to his sister’s daughter Rachel (his niece, of course), as either a gift or a punishment; the characters debate which it must be, but none can seem to come to a resolution.
The novel is told as a series of journal entries or memoirs from a number of characters in the novel itself; differing views and voices are presented as a result of this style of writing. One character in particular, Miss Clack, has a brief but memorable entry, and the reader is given the opportunity to read how she perceives other characters and discern for him or herself how she herself is perceived and treated. Miss Clack is a rather odious character, with a habit of impressing upon people the need for religion and reform through religious tracts; one feels rather triumphant when other characters do not warm up to or embrace her views for themselves, due to her overbearing nature.
All of the characters who write their memoirs of the event contribute, even if in some small way, to both muddying the waters and clearing them up – or at least small elements of the mystery itself. There are red herrings, of course, as well as secrets, drugs, lies, and cover-ups, all of which contribute to the overall feeling of confusion.
I am not a fan of Victorian literature in general; I find it so frustrating to wade through paragraphs of apologies and cumbersome language and social roles, but I am aware that this was the way at the time; it really was considered inappropriate for a young woman to be alone in the presence of a man or a group of men, and it really was thought that men couldn’t hold their hormones in check… such that the sight of a piano leg might be enough to light their fancies. With that in mind, I was able to dismiss much of the fluttering and frippery from the novel and focus on the crime and the characters, and in doing so I enjoyed my readings.
The one comment that I had to make about the novel was that I found it greatly ironic that the “crime” on which one was meant to focus was that of the diamond being stolen from Rachel, as opposed to the diamond being stolen from the Indians long before. Perhaps another telling point about the society at the time (or speaking honestly, even now, perhaps)?
posted by Jen on 2:44 PM
Friday, January 10, 2003
The Big U, by Neal Stephenson
Well, I just finished reading this today, and I was discussing it a bit with Ben (who recommended it to me) last night, so I'll try to post some coherent thoughts on here.
Random thoughts:
Boy, am I ever glad I didn't live in residence.
I've had profs like the English prof it seems, who marked that arbitrarily, or so it felt.
With no prior knowledge on the author or the book itself, I enjoyed it. There are parts that I didn't necessarily relate to too closely -- the physics calculations, some of the philosophical discussions, or the computer specifics, for example -- but there were other parts that I did find rather ... striking in their similarity to people or situations I've known in real life.
Case in point, the Airheads and the Terrorists (in particular the ones in the E-tower). I have known girls like those, who were so absolutely clueless, and could not comprehend a mental path aside from their own, who felt that those guys who were destroying, raping or terrorizing, were harmless and fun. I got the impression that even a firm bitch-slapping would not have brought the girls around, and I felt sympathetic towards Sarah for having to deal with that.
Fred Fine, a.k.a. Chris the Systems Programmer, a.k.a Klystron was a character I liked up until the line where he's thinking about how women are prone to changing their minds, and he makes a comment to that effect and then checks to see if she’s caught the little dig. That was the only real sign of chauvinism in his character; otherwise he was simply a guy who was incredibly enmeshed in his role-play character, and it really reminded me in many ways of my MUDding days. I didn’t know anyone that bad, thankfully, but I could see how it could happen to people.
I loved the parodies on the campus clubs – things like the Yoga, Solar Power and Multiple Orgasm Support Group and the Nonsocietal Assemblage of Noncoercively Systematized Libertarian Individuals – just made me laugh. This book was published in 1984, nearly twenty years ago, yet I could see how specialized and specific groups like these could exist now.
I felt a great deal of sympathy towards Casimir, one of the main characters. I liked his character, but didn’t feel that he was the thirty-year old that the back cover of the book said. Of course, in the book it does say that he’s the same age as Bud, the professor who (sometimes) provides the narrator’s voice, but it just didn’t seem the right age for him. As Ben and I said, he didn’t seem to be socially inept, too awkward or uncomfortable as we might expect a thirty-year old virgin to be; he’s also incredibly intelligent and more or less an oddity to have in the book, which I imagine is the point.
Speaking of Bud, the only problem I had with the character is that the narrative voice is somewhat inconsistent. His character comes and goes, almost as if Neal Stephenson would get lost in what was going on with the assorted other characters, then remember, “Oh yeah, I’m using a professor as a first person narrator,” and throw him back in again. According to Ben, that’s pretty much how it happened. It did work, but it could be almost jarring at times; as a reader, I was finding I was getting lost in the omniscient voice, and then all of a sudden having to once again relate to an “I” and a particular point of view.
To give a brief synopsis of plot, for those who’ve been waiting for me to do so… Casimir goes to Megaversity and discovers that everyone there is insane, for lack of a better descriptor. Students think that various appliances are speaking to them (which becomes a pivotal point in the book), there is rampant destruction and death with little to no repercussion (watch for a professor that more or less disappears from the novel after an early encounter with a piano), and the university itself is the home of every horror story you’ve heard about post-secondary institutions taken to the nth degree.
It’s funny, it’s scary, it’s interesting, and it’s a bit confusing (at least to me), which is why I’m going to give it a second read a little later down the line. But I’d certainly recommend it as an absorbing read – I made short work of it in a few days, partly because I did enjoy it – and it’s particularly relevant to anyone who’s been to college or university, especially if you’ve encountered some craziness there. Reading The Big U at least gives you a sense of relief that you didn’t have it that bad – and if you did, I’d love to hear from you.
Next book: The Moonstone, by Wilke Collins, an 1860s detective story; in fact, the first British detective story. I’m reading it for my mystery novel class, but it seems to be somewhat interesting on its own, as well. I’m hoping to keep a book or two of my own interest going on the side, but we’ll see how it pans out. There’s a lot of reading to do this semester, but it doesn’t appear to be too painful. *knocks wood* Famous last words, eh?
posted by Jen on 11:45 PM
Thursday, January 09, 2003
I am currently reading, among many other books, "The Big U," by Neal Stephenson. This is my first grand exposure to Stephenson's work, and it was recommended to me by my friend Ben. I will post my complete thoughts on it once I have finished reading it.
posted by Jen on 1:48 AM
