Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

It's been six years since the 9/11 attacks and many writers have attempted to use art to make sense of both 9/11 and its aftermath. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the story of Oskar, a young boy whose father died in the World Trade Center and a parallel story about his grandfather surviving the bombing of Dresden. If I hadn't look at the Amazon review, the story about the grandfather would not have come back to me, because Oskar is far more memorable.
A highly intelligent but extremely weird kid, he travels all over New York trying to piece together the meaning behind the key his father left behind in and envelope marked "black" and to come to terms with the loss of his father. Brilliant and a little post-modern, this is a fine beginning toward an understand of the effects of 9/11 on our country and our culture.

Replay

Jeff Winston is 43 when he suffers a fatal heart attack while on the phone with his wife. He wakes up in his college dorm, a freshman at Emory again, in an 18 year old body, with all of the knowledge of the last 25 years intact. So begins a series of "replays" in which he lives his life in any way he chooses, usually getting rich off of sports betting and the stock market due to his knowledge of the future. Each life ends in the same heart attack, no matter what steps he takes to prevent it. Jeff experiments with all kinds of lifestyles, from the ultra straight laced to complete hedonism. His "replays" grow progressively less meaningful until he meets a woman in the same predicament and they try to discover the meaning behind what is happening to them. I was a bit horrified at his blowing off class upon his return to college and found it interesting he never seemed interested in friendships, only romantic relationships. A fast read with some interesting thoughts on what gives life meaning.

Other book blogs

Nina's Reading Blog
Conversational Reading
AbeBooks' Reading Copy
Reading the Past
Becky's Book Reviews
Comics Worth Reading
Fausti's Book Quest

Bad Monkeys

We meet Bad Monkeys' protagonist Jane Charlotte in the "nut wing" of a Vegas jail where she is being held for murder. Through interviews with her prison shrink, we learn about Jane's colorful past and her involvement with the Organization, an all-encompassing secret society devoted to fighting evil in its many forms. The Organization, which uses a variety of methods to fight evil, has Jane working in The Department for the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons, or the Bad Monkeys division as it is informally known. Bad Monkeys' particular solution to evil involves ray-guns that shoot heart attacks.

Or not. Jane may simply be insane and making it all up.

The book is a very fast read, but it manages takes us through multiple twists by the time we finish. It was very enjoyable it and I was disappointed only that we didn't learn more about the Organization and its opponents before it wrapped up. Highly recommended.

Primary Colors

This book was originally published anonymously but Joe Klein has since admitted authorship. The story of a Southern governor and his steely wife’s ride through the campaign system not so subtly parallels that of the Clintons. The book (and movie of the same name) were hyped by this fact, especially since the presidential candidate is accused of fathering the baby of a black teenage girl. For me, however, the book works better as a look inside the day to day operations of a campaign on the road, the machinations and mercenary nature of the staff, and the truly strange ways we go about picking our nation’s leaders. The book was entertaining, though I wish some of the characters, especially Susan, the wife of the candidate, were more fleshed out.

Blog news!

Faithful readers, we have a change in our line up! John is now going to take over Wednesday posts and Mike will be joining us on Sundays. Yay!! (picture me waiving my hands in the air like Kermit the Frog announcing the guests on the Muppet Show)

Learning to Bow

This book is an account of Bruce Feiler first year as teacher in rural Japan. He signs on to teach English to Junior High students as part of Japan's (then) new Living English program- to teach students true conversational English, rather than just memorization. Feiler writes about Japanese culture both in and out of school-- from daily mandatory school cleaning by students and teachers alike, to the transition away from arranged marriages and toward love matches. A lot has undoubtedly changed in Japan since this book came out in the early 1990s, given the shake up in their economy, but the book is still an interesting comparison of cultures and a fast read.