Shot In The Dark

Title: The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower I)
Author: Stephen King
Illustrator: Michael Whelan
Published: 1982 (revised edition in 2003)
Pages: 300

Reading Time: December 13-December 17, 2009.

Plot Teaser:
This heroic fantasy is set in a world of ominous landscape and macabre menace that is a dark mirror of our own. A spellbinding tale of good versus evil, it features one of Stephen King's most powerful creations - the gunslinger, a haunting figure who embodies the qualities of the lone hero through the ages, from ancient myth to frontier Western legend. The gunslinger's quest involves the pursuit of the man in black, a liaison with the sexually ravenous Alice, and a friendship with the boy from New York called Jake. Both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, The Gunslinger is stunning proof of Stephen King's storytelling sorcery.

How I Got It:
This was a 2008 Christmas gift from a friend in Hamilton, Ontario who swore by this series and by King himself. I had never read any Stephen King before this book, not because of a dislike for anything that is remotely popular - although that did prick my mind a bit - but because I was never too interested in horror fiction. The Gunslinger was supposed to be different, and its Western fantasy setting admittedly piqued my interest.

The Review:
In his introduction to this revised and expanded edition of the 1982 novel, Stephen King writes that one of his goals for The Gunslinger was to create a world that blended The Lord of the Rings with The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Say what you will, but that idea is pretty darned cool and ambitious, and I believe he has succeeded in achieving this goal to a degree. Hyperbole and high concepts aside, it is the characters and the world that surrounds them that take centre stage in this book. King does an excellent job of revealing the protagonist's history in a patient way, and Roland's confrontation at the end of the narrative brings together and simultaneously explodes what King had been building up to that point.

In essence, this is a book about the journey; the quest; the mythological hero who stands outside of time. As Roland travels across barren landscapes in an inexplicable hunt for the mysterious Man in Black, King's craftsmanship takes centre stage, as he succeeds in having his writing style mirror the narrative substance. Time is a very nebulous concept throughout the book, as Roland and other characters are constantly waking up without a sense of how many hours, days, or weeks may have passed them by. A recurring phrase in the story is "the world had moved on." These narrative touches give clues to what is hiding under the veneer of a simple chase novel, and the importance of these phrases and how King handles time throughout the book are illuminated in the climax. Credit must be given to the author for this use of perpetual forshadowing and overarching themes that actually amount to something by the end.

In addition to the explicit time language mentioned above, the structure of the book also seems to exist in a massive vacuum. The author jumps from action in the present, to flashbacks, to dreams, and back to the present again. Everything seamlessly blends together, and it never becomes confusing, as each scene is part of the greater tapestry that King is constantly building on here. And yet, we follow Roland through deserts, decrepit towns and their dirty taverns, mountains, and farms, without ever missing a beat. There is a consistent rhythm that pushes the book forward, and despite it being split into five marked sections, each noted by a clean page and an illustration, there is a strong sense of continuity.

While the book is about one man hunting another on the outside, there are plot points that keep pushing the book into the realm of the weird, and that keep the reader guessing as to what is actually going on. For instance, just when I thought I had a handle of the book's universe, Roland meets Jake, who seems to be from New York, and a world of cars and industry. Up to that point in the novel, the reader is getting comfortable in an Old West setting, and all that comes with it. Elements like this keep things interesting, and King carefully introduces them to keep the reader hooked just enough, never fully exposing his hand until the end. Even then, things are just getting started. By the final page, I had learned much about Roland, the Man in Black, the world they inhabit, and I got a hint of the much bigger storyline of the Dark Tower. King hooked me and had me ready to pick up the second book in the series, and that is the sign of a writer who knows just how much to tell and when to tell it.

If I had to point out a problem with the book, I personally did not like the blanket portrayal of women as being either horny, submissive, or crazy. I could not find a single positive female role model in the story, as they largely served to...well, serve. Or to tempt with their bodies, or to react with rage if Roland denied them his services. I have a feeling that Mr. King may have been scorned by more than one female during the time of writing this novel. Either way, there is a decidedly macho and patriarchal vibe that runs through much of the story, and when a woman is actually in power, it is because of her body and what she can do with it.

The above criticism aside, The Gunslinger is an engrossing adventure. It might seem slow and dry to some, but the observant and patient reader is rewarded by the end, and is left hungry for more. What more can one ask for from the first book in a series of seven?

The Verdict:
If you enjoy quest narratives and heroic mythology, you will likely enjoy this. I really like the way the story is paced, and the themes it hints at in the final encounter suggest an adventure on a truly epic scale. Once I get through my current backlog, I will likely continue the journey towards the Dark Tower.

4/5

Next Up:
Girl in a Red River Coat by Mary Peate.

Quarterly Update 1 - Slightly Behind the Pace

Well, it has officially been three months since I started my backlog challenge. I will be giving an update every three months on how I am progressing, and include thoughts and musings about the books I have read, the challenges I have encountered, and the state of myself in general. Essentially, these updates will act as personal markers to look back on where I have been so far, and how much further I have to go. I hope they will be motivational tools.

So far, I have read eight out of forty books in my backlog. This puts me off the pace by two books at this stage in the road. As you may have noticed, there was a giant gap between Neuromancer and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This is because Neuromancer was literally one of the most difficult and tiresome books I have ever read. My motivation to read it was sapped almost every time I cracked its covers; I would read five or ten pages at a time before putting it back down again. As mentioned in my review, I just did not get it and came to the conclusion that it was not for me.

To make up for the massive gap, and seeing that I was almost a quarter of the way through the backlog year, I decided to take on some of the smaller books in my pile. Within a week, I ate through four children's books, and just finished up a graphic novel last night. Call it cheating, but I needed to do it if I was to feel like I had any chance of catching up to my goal.

In terms of my favourite books that I have read up to this point, the latest, Blankets, sits neatly at the top of the list, alongside The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The past week and a half has actually been great to getting my motivation up again, and I feel fully in the swing of things and like I can still catch up and then try to maintain the original pace of one book every nine days.

Life has been busy for me, but the holidays have been kind in granting me some extra time here and there, and I have been disciplined with myself. Overall, things are looking up!

Here is the first quarter stats sheet. My desired pace is 1 book, approximately every 9 days.

Books Read: 8/40 (20%)
Time Passed (In Months): 3/12 (25%)
Current Pace: 1 book per 11.375 days
Required Pace To Finish By September 13, 2010: 1 book every 8.5625 days

Time to get back at it.

Pulling Back the Covers

Title: Blankets
Author and Illustrator: Craig Thompson
Published: 2003
Pages: 582

Reading Time: December 11-December 12, 2009.

Plot Teaser:
An autobiographical graphic novel, Blankets tracks the life of its author by exploring his relationships with family, friends, God, and first love. Drawn in exquisite detail and told in a loving and romantic way, the book was voted one of the Top 10 Graphic Novels of All-Time by Time magazine.

How I Got It:
I love and have loved comics and graphic novels since I started to follow them seriously in my late teens and early twenties. Though my devotion to the medium has slowed down as a result of channeling my finances towards other things like food and clothing, I have always returned to this misunderstood format. I received Blankets as a Christmas gift in either 2005 or 2006 from my sister. It was perfect, because I had wanted to pick up the mammoth title for a while, but kept putting it off for whatever reason. I held off reading it for various reasons, including it being too near a breakup; the book was noted for its romance and nostalgia, and I just did not feel like experiencing anything related to those two feelings at the time. As time went by, the book simply sat on my book shelf in Hamilton, Ontario, before being transplanted to Etobicoke to become a part of this personal challenge.

The Review:
First love is tough. There is enthusiasm, a sense of discovery, laughter, passion, grace, and for most, the eventual shattering of personal ideals. Craig Thompson captures all of these feelings and more in Blankets, by using his own experiences as a template for his illustrated autobiography. He wrote, drew, and inked every page of this ambitious work, and the amount of labour put into it shows in the complex finished product. Blankets is an intimate and passionate purging of personal demons, and a beautiful encapsulation of teenage innocence and growth. By using his own life as the basis for the book, Craig Thompson ensures a closeness and honesty with his work and his audience. Regardless of how much he may have embellished or idealized some of these scenes, the end result is still an affective work of literature.

There are numerous parts to this graphic novel. It begins in a small town in Wisconsin, where a grade 3 Craig and his kindergarten brother Phil sleep in the same bed, using the wonderful imaginations that boys have to enact various action-packed scenarios. This innocence is portrayed beautifully by Thompson, who uses his talents and his medium to their fullest potential. For example, he will begin with the boys on the bed, but then do a full-page spread of them lost at sea, with sharks circling their boat. The result is joyful, rambunctious, and lively. He does this throughout, not only to show his relationship with his brother, but to depict his relationship with his family, his first love, and his faith.
Craig's personal struggles with himself and his faith permeate every scene of the book, and his relationship with his Evangelical upbringing and God in general inform much of his guilt and perceived personal failings. He is ashamed to touch a girl, or to even lay alone in her bed; he attempts to be a picture of moral purity. What is interesting is how his faith journey begins as a commitment based on the desire to escape his mortal shell. Since he is not the most popular kid in school at any age, Craig envelops himself in the belief that he is only a shadow passing through and that he has heaven to look forward to as a reward for his piety and mortal suffering. Thompson uses Bible passages throughout to emphasize the weight of faith in his journey, sometimes depicting the Bible stories themselves with charming mastery.

Thompson could have been very blunt with this book. Instead, he takes his time developing his characters, and there is a long cumulative effect to how Craig comes to certain realizations in his life. Yes, there are obvious touchstones throughout the story, but they generally come after a long period of personal discovery. It is this patience that gives the book an honesty and a very human feeling. The most mundane things are depicted, but never without reason, and always with meaning. How the author is able to fill each panel and page with something new and wonderful is a testament to his artistic commitment.

When Craig does want to emphasize something, he does it with style, grace, and a romantic purity that is difficult to criticize. Yes, he romanticizes certain scenes, but the emotional staying power of these images and their implications can never be denied; this is a book whose scenes and images stay with you long after you put it down. The graphic novel format, more than any other, has the power to entrench its messages in the reader's mind, as it begs for re-reading and re-seeing. The reader is able to stop at any time and admire an image, in all its subtlety, for as long as he or she wishes. All the better when the artwork has such full, sharp, and flowing lines like it does in Blankets. Sometimes, the pictures are all you need to tell the story.












So, why call the book Blankets? Aside from Craig and his brother having to share the same bed, and Raina making a homemade quilt for Craig, there does not seem to be much meaning behind the title. But just as the rest of the book has a cumulative structure, so does the title: it becomes the common bond between each of Craig's storylines. If you really wanted to analyze the book, you can say that the blankets represent warmth and comfort, just like Craig's memories and his faith serve the same function. However, the opposite effect is that blankets can also coddle and overprotect us, closing us off from the real world. Eventually, we need to step outside and engage the world ourselves, allowing it to scar us, while gradually gaining the confidence to make our own footprints in the snow. I will not spoil the ending, but I will say its sentiment is a perfect closing to everything that has come before. It gives purpose to Craig's journey and offers a simple yet profound idea, while bringing everything full circle. Yes, there are still some questions and minor frustrations at the end, but the dominant emotion I was left with was one of admiration.
The Verdict:
This book is an achievement in autobiographical fiction. There are a few loose ends, such as an early sexual abuse experience that is never fully reconciled or talked about between Craig and his brother, but this is forgiven when every other aspect of the book is considered. I fully recommend this to graphic novel aficionados and the uninitiated alike; it is simultaneously microscopic and massive in scope.

4.5/5

Next Up:
The Gunslinger by Stephen King.

Not Your Grandma's Christmas Pageant

Title: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Author: Barbara Robinson
Published: 1971
Pages: 108

Reading Time: December 11, 2009.

Plot Teaser:
The Herdmans are the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, steal, smoke cigars, swear, and hit little kids. So no one is prepared when this outlaw family invades church one Sunday and decides to take over the annual Christmas Pageant. None of the Herdmans has ever heard the Christmas story before. Their interpretation of the tale - the Wise Men are a bunch of dirty spies and Herod needs a good beating - has a lot of people up in arms. But it will make this year's pageant the most unusual anyone has seen and, just possibly, the best one ever.

How I Got It:
This was a 2008 Christmas present from my youngest sister. It was a really thoughtful gift because I had read this book back in elementary school. I think we all had to read it as a class. I can not readily recall which grade we read it in, but it could not have been anywhere past grade five or so. Maybe even earlier. Anyway, I had some faint impression of the book in my memory before reading it again as an adult.

The Review:
This book is a riot, plain and simple. Yes, it is meant for children. Yes, the writing is quite simple. Neither one of these things changes the fact that the story is incredibly entertaining, funny, and surprisingly ponderous for a book of its type. As a children's book, it asks the child in all of us to ask questions about the things adults tell us and expect us to take at face value. It is about challenging paradigms, as much as it is a fantastic Christmas story.

Essentially, everyone at school is terrified of the Herdman family - a group of six brothers and sisters who are models for bad behaviour, come from a broken home, wear dirty clothes, and live out of a garage at the edge of town. While the focus is on the family as a whole, Imogene Herdman gets the most attention in the book, since she is the one who decides to play Mary in the pageant. By the way, the only reason the Herdmans get mixed up in the school's Christmas pageant is because they heard there were free refreshments and cake given out at Sunday school. These are the kids who beat you up in school, but likely did it as a defense mechanism to shut out their own feelings.

What makes this book such a hoot is the way it plays with social stereotypes. There is Mrs. Armstrong, the head of every committee at the school, and the one who feels that things can not function normally if she is not around. This is put to the test when she injures herself and the nameless narrator's mother is forced to take over the Christmas pageant. There is also Alice, who is the model of perfect childhood behaviour and morality. She normally plays Mary each and every year, but is threatened by Imogene, so she is forced to back out. Throughout the story, she can not help but display her bitterness and goody two-shoes personality, as she criticizes everything that is now surrounding the Christmas pageant. Barbara Robinson creates these characters to oppose the terrifying Herdmans, but ultimately sides with the so-called bad apples; and for good reason.

As someone who grew up with Christmas pageants, and who had the (mis)fortune of being in one, this book was particularly fascinating. Yes, it is certainly more targeted towards a Christian audience who have some familiarity with the story of Jesus' birth, but the way it questions everything associated with the story itself makes it possible for non-Christians to jump on board and enjoy the pop culture criticism as well. Imogene is the voice of reason, as she wonders out loud why Mary did not get to name her own child, why Herod was allowed to live, why the three wise men would bring such useless gifts for a child, and why an inn keeper would make a pregnant woman sleep in a barn. These types of questions permeate the book and bring some real life to a story many of us have taken for granted. It would likely serve many adults well to read this with their own children, and to take it to heart as well.

In the end, the book is about hope and redemption. Hope that the bad apples in our society can have some good in them. That they can even be redeemed and in turn show the rest of us the true meaning of virtues like love and charity. It is a book that an adult can read in about an hour's time, and one that is deceptively simple. Beyond the humorous surface, there are real questions posed about the danger of making assumptions, about our social systems and authoritative structures, and our numbed attitude towards others and ourselves. Despite my own feelings about faith and religion, it is incredibly hard not to be touched by the conviction of a book like this. Sometimes, you do need someone loud and blunt to remind you of why you are here, and why you are going to all the trouble of pleasing people around you this time of the year.

Hey! Unto you a child is born!

The Verdict:
This is a personal Christmas classic. I love how it is fueled by the energy and enthusiasm of its characters, how it asks questions, and how it aims to educate as well as entertain. A book like this shows that children's books do not only have things to teach children, but adults too. It also shows that children's books can be subversive and respectful towards their subject matter at the same time.

4.5/5

Next Up:
Blankets by Craig Thompson.

A Fantastic Creation

Title: The Dreamfighter and Other Creation Tales
Author: Ted Hughes
Published: 1995
Pages: 150

Reading Time: December 8-December 11, 2009.

Plot Teaser:
In these new creation stories by Ted Hughes, God is still hard at work fashioning his creatures, breathing life into his clay. He has some triumphant successes but as always there are mistakes and he has to keep his wits about him when the more tiresome inventions need conning into being something else. He is a brilliant, mischievous and wily God, brought to life himself in these mesmerizing tales by a master storyteller. Here is a collection that will enthrall Hughes's adult audience as well as younger readers.

How I Got It:
A friend of mine was looking to unload her own overstuffed book collection in 2008, and asked me to rifle through a hodgepodge box of stories. This was one of the books in that box, and I picked it up because I have always been interested in myth and fantasy, not to mention inventive stories involving God and creation.

The Review:
Apparently, this Ted Hughes fellow was a big deal in the United Kingdom. In 1984, he held the post of British Poet Laureate, which basically means he was the country's representative wordsmith. No pressure. He held this post and title until his death in 1998, having written numerous collections of poetry and children's books. Oh, he was also married to a woman named Sylvia Plath, but let us try to focus on his own works and accomplishments. Ahem.

To be frank, I had never heard of Ted Hughes before opening the covers of this short story collection. However, after going through this charming assortment of creation tales, I can certainly respect and understand why he has been held in such high esteem by the writing world. He has a very biting and wry style that make the stories in The Dreamfighter and Other Creation Tales a twisted pleasure to read. There is indeed mischief, misbehaviour, and plenty of misunderstandings that shed a light on the headaches that God likely would have encountered at the dawn of time. The collection I read has eleven stories in total; there is another edition of the book that has 360 pages, so I am assuming that one has a greater number of tales to be told. Regardless of which one you read, I am confident you will enjoy the playful theatrics housed therein.

As mentioned, these are meant to be children's stories, but they are written in such a matter-of-fact way and are so interesting that they are also appropriate for an adult audience. One can take the stories as straight forward entertainment, or he or she can find little nuggets of social and cultural insight as well. It is in this way the book transcends age boundaries.

The stories in this collection generally begin with a problem of some sort, and end with a resolution that is usually humourous. The endings also enlighten the reader about how a certain creature came to be, and how its habits were formed. For example, the ant on the cover of this book was originally a giant that grew larger and larger, as he took the job of being God's bodyguard; someone who would protect Him from His nightmares. As the nightmares eventually go away, the giant has no purpose, and becomes a really angry and unpleasant thing. To solve this problem, God creates a Snow Bride that melts into the crannies of the Earth. The giant is so eager to please and be useful to God, that he asks to be made small, so that he can search the earth to find God's Snow Bride. God turns the giant into the first ant, and this is why ants are scouring the Earth today and hiding in little dirt caves; they are looking for God's lost Snow Bride.

It is stories like the one above that brought a smile to my face throughout Ted Hughes' collection. There are demons, there is a trickster frog who invents gambling, a camel who feels like he is one of God's rejects, and God's mother even makes an appearance. The tales are highly imaginative, speculative, and there is hardly a dull moment in any of them. I can see myself reading these to my own children some day, and discussing the moral choices and implications of the decisions made by God's creations in these stories. Or just enjoying the humour.

The Verdict:
There is not much to complain about here. Hughes writes like someone who has been reading and telling stories his entire life, and regardless of whether or not you believe in an all-encompassing God or not, there is a good deal of charm and even some poking fun at the All Mighty, so that anyone can pick this up and enjoy it. While there does seem to be a favouring of the Abrahamic understanding of God in these stories, people of any faith should be able to appreciate the bite-sized-but-grander-than-grand stories of this collection.

4/5

Next Up:
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson.

Better Left Forgotten

Title: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
Author: Roald Dahl
Illustrator: Quentin Blake
Published: 1972
Pages: 159

Reading Time: December 5-December 7, 2009.

Plot Teaser:
Mr. Willy Wonka might be a genius with chocolate, but Charlie's family doesn't trust his flying skills one bit. And right now, he's at the helm of a giant glass elevator that's picking up speed and hurtling through space - with Charlie and the entire Bucket family stuck inside. As the elevator zips and zooms through the stratosphere, its passengers visit the world's first space hotel, battle the dreaded Vermicious Knids, discover reverse-aging pills, and - whether they know it or not - save the world. In this uproarious sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl whisks his beloved characters along a remarkable, intergalactic joyride - and another magical fantasy adventure.

How I Got It:
As mentioned before, this is a borrowed set from Brossard, Quebec, and it belongs to my girlfriend. Now that I have finished it, it will likely be making its way back to the poutine province. I will say that it really is an impressive looking set, though!


The Review:
One of the things I enjoyed about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was its sense of pacing; it had a natural flow and order to it. Not only that, but the events were not entirely predictable and they were always entertaining. However, in this direct sequel to Dahl's much-loved story, I am sad to say that while Dahl tries really hard to maintain a sense of fun and fantasy, there is very little guiding this whole storyline, and it honestly feels like an afterthought. Reading this after Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is like eating a really good meal, and then being offered seconds despite being completely full. All of the flavours from the start of the meal, while similar, just do not have the same impact on your taste buds and you feel like you are just stuffing yourself for the sake of it. You also end up regretting it afterwards.

So, what went wrong with this book? As mentioned, I think the biggest culprit of its mediocrity is its lack of focus. Allow me to explain. It literally picks up right where the first book left off, and has the entire Bucket family floating through space in Willy Wonka's Great Glass Elevator. They end up inside a space hotel, which is about to be docked by American astronauts. Inside the hotel they meet up with some unsavory alien characters, the Vermicious Knids, who proceed to scare them out. There is a chase scene in which the Knids are burned up in Earth's atmosphere. Back on Earth, and now in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, Mr. Wonka offers the elder Buckets a chance to be younger. There is a long, drawn out sequence of Charlie's grandparents taking too much of an anti-aging pill, and then having to find the pill that will bring them back up to their original ages. One of the grandparents ends up taking too much of that pill, and must take the original anti-aging pill again to end up back where she started. If this sounds needless and like a waste of space, that is because it is. It was predictable and did not serve much of a purpose.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had purpose; it had a reason for its events. This book has paperthin reasons for the actions of its characters, and it feels like a bunch of stuff happening for the sake of a bunch of stuff happening. Now, I am not displeased with the book because it is not like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. No. I am displeased with the book because even as a standalone adventure, it is weak and unfocused, and not very fun or entertaining. Sure, there are a couple of songs and rhymes, and the Oompa-Loompas even make a return appearance, but the end result is still one of needless excess.

In addition to its lack of focus, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator chooses to centre around the least interesting characters in this literary universe: the Bucket grandparents. None of them have any characteristics that truly distinguish them from one another, and the majority of the time they are nuisances and they act like bratty children. The final third of the book in particular is frustrating because of the back-and-forth quest aspect of the anti-aging and aging medications. Never mind that this feels like two different stories mashed into one, and I am left with a feeling of "so what," which is never good for any book.

Finally, I did not come away with anything to really think about when I finished Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Most children's books have some moral choices for the characters to make, or a greater lesson to be learned. This book has very little of either, and it feels futile as a consequence.

So, is there anything good at all about this story? Well, I suppose it is nice to see Charlie Bucket, Grandpa Joe, and Willy Wonka back in action. Quentin Blake's art is also incredibly charming and whimsical. Aside from these two things, I found this book to be a major downgrade after such a memorable predecessor. Perhaps its greatest crime is that it takes such a perfect ending in the first book, and turns it into such a miscalculated mess.

The Verdict:
While it is nice to read about these characters again, and to admire Quentin Blake's artwork, the final product feels unpolished, unfocused, and completely forgettable. By choosing to focus on uninteresting characters and providing a plot that is a giant mishmash of half ideas, Dahl sadly provides a tale that slightly tarnishes the preceding work, and one that would have been better left in a private notebook somewhere.

1.5/5

Next Up:
The Dreamfighter and Other Creation Tales by Ted Hughes.

A Reward For Good Behaviour

Title: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Author: Roald Dahl
Illustrator: Quentin Blake
Published: 1964
Pages: 155

Reading Time: December 3-December 5, 2009.

Plot Teaser:
Augustus Gloop eats himself sick. Veruca Salt is a spoiled-rotten brat. Violet Beauregarde chews gum day and night. Mike Teavee is a television fiend. Charlie Bucket, Our Hero, is brave and true and very, very hungry. What do these five have in common? Why, they're the luckiest children in the entire world: they've each won the chance to enter Willy Wonka's famous, mysterious chocolate factory. What happens when the big doors swing open to reveal Mr. Wonka's secrets? What happens when they come upon the tiny factory workers who sing in rhyme? What happens when, one by one, the children disobey Mr. Wonka's orders? In Roald Dahl's most popular story for children, the nasty are punished and the good are deliciously, sumptuously rewarded.

How I Got It:
This is not my book. I do not remember how the conversation started exactly, but I had mentioned to my girlfriend that I had never read a Roald Dahl book. I think it might have come up in a discussion of the 2005 Tim Burton film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This was in 2008. Regardless of where or how it happened, a discussion related to Roald Dahl and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory came up, and a collection of two Roald Dahl titles, this one and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, made their way from Brossard, Quebec to Toronto, Ontario. I have put both of these books on my backlog because they were carted over for the purpose of me reading them, and I have felt bad letting them just sit there, neatly tucked into their slipcase.

The Review:
Like many people of my generation, and the generation or two before it, I was first exposed to the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory through the 1971 film directed by Mel Stuart, which bore the title Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The title was a natural choice because as much as the story was about Charlie Bucket's rise from poverty to abundance, it was Gene Wilder's intriguing portrayal of the chocolate factory owner that gave the film its playful-yet-creepy centre. Now, having had the opportunity to read the book that has inspired two major films, I must say that it is indeed Wonka's captivating presence that is the heartbeat of the story. Along with Roald Dahl's wonderful prose and Quentin Blake's childlike illustrations, Willy Wonka's ubiquity as a decorous guide gives the book a sense of devilish fun and wicked morality.

If you have read the plot teaser above, you know most of what you need to know about the plot. Centrally, the story follows five children who have discovered five golden tickets in one of Willy Wonka's candy bars, and who now have an opportunity to visit the mysterious factory of the master chocolatier. The children are each given a definining character trait that makes them easy to identify, and even easier to dislike; all aside from Charlie Bucket of course, who is a poor but honest boy. As the children and their parents make their way through the factory, each child is undone by their own flaws, and is punished by karma for their lifestyle choices up to that point. The moral of the tale seems to be that proper behaviour and honesty are eventually rewarded, while obnoxiousness, gluttony, and other despicable traits such as chewing gum or watching TV all day long, are ironically and horrifically punished. Not only is each child punished, but they are then immediately eulogized in song by Oompa-Loompas, the tiny aboriginal workers of the factory, who have a gift for rhyme and mischief.

What makes this book so delightful is that Dahl has a real talent for keeping things moving, and keeping things interesting, while not simply smashing together a load of events for the sake of action. No. Each hilarious consequence and plot point has a purpose, and Dahl keeps the ball of complete engagement rolling for the entire 157 pages of the adventure. He simply knows what children, or adults for that matter, need in a work of fiction. He gets the reader completely caught up in the action, and makes you care about what is happening. For example, when discussing the feverish atmosphere that has taken hold of the world because of Wonka's golden tickets campaign, he moves from scene to scene with a rambunctious and joyful energy.

"And now the whole country, indeed, the whole world, seemed suddenly to be caught up in a mad candy-buying spree, everybody searching frantically for those precious remaining tickets. Fully grown women were seen going into sweetshops and buying ten Wonka candy bars at a time, then tearing off the wrappers on the spot and peering eagerly underneath for a glint of golden paper. Children were taking hammers and smashing their piggy banks and running out to the shops with handfuls of money. In one city, a famous gangster robbed a bank of five thousand dollars and spent the whole lot on candy bars that same afternoon. And when the police entered his house to arrest him, they found him sitting on the floor amidst mountains of candy, ripping off the wrappers with the blade of a long dagger."

Dahl understands the importance of rhythm and verb choice in creating a story that continuously moves along. "Searching," "tearing," "peering," "smashing"; while it seems simple, Dahl's use of animated and spirited verbs shows off exactly why he was such a beloved children's author.
Alongside Dahl's lively words, the artwork of Quentin Blake is a perfect complement. He has a thin and wavery style of drawing, which makes his creations feel like they can literally burst at the seams at any moment; it is only the tenuous lines that keep the details inside the characters. His lines also are not perfect, and sometimes cut through their otherwise natural stopping points. This imperfection in his artwork adds to the sense of childlike energy and playfulness. The art feels as genuine, real, and full of life, as does the actual storyline.

So, what is the purpose of this story? It can be seen as a moral tale that is meant to scare children straight, so that they behave well and listen to their parents. Willy Wonka's non-committal responses and untamed personality make him a rascally moral guide throughout, and his "they deserved it" attitude give the book a surprising edge. However, it is interesting to note that unlike the movie, Charlie Bucket is almost invisible once the children enter the factory, and barely makes any moral decisions at all. Is the reader to take from this that kids should mind their own business and simply float on the outskirts of society, without ever really getting involved, and they will eventually be rewarded for not meddling? Nevertheless, whatever lessons are meant to be taken from the book, it is an achievement that Dahl has crafted a deceptively simple book that can be interpreted in more than a couple of ways.

The Verdict:
As a Dahl virgin, I was charmed and delighted throughout Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Its gaiety, whimsy, and wicked sense of humour give it a deserving place in the realm of childhood classics. The book will also make you crave chocolate once you are finished, and that is hardly a bad thing.

4.5/5

Next Up:
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl.

I Don't Belong Here

Title: Neuromancer
Author: William Gibson
Published: 1984
Pages: 271

Reading Time: September 24-December 3, 2009.

Plot Teaser:
Case was the sharpest data thief in the Matrix, until an ex-employer crippled his nervous system. Now a new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run against an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a mirror-eyed girl street-samurai riding shotgun, he's ready for the silicon-quick, bleakly prophetic adventure that upped the ante of an entire genre of fiction.

How I Got It:
I initially purchased a brand new copy of Neuromancer from Chapters in Ancaster, Ontario, at some point between 2007 and 2008. I was aware of its place in the field of science fiction as a trend setter, particularly in the cyberpunk subgenre. Then, in December 2008, I got another copy of the book as a Secret Santa gift in Montreal, Quebec. I was rather excited to read this revered book.

The Review:
There are some books that are always mentioned in genre discussions as being the pinnacles of the genre in question. Neuromancer is such a book, as you can not escape it in any discussion related to science fiction, and cyberpunk in particular. It was the book that The Matrix hocked a lot of its ideas from, with Gibson being considered a prophet and visionary for being one of the first authors to write about virtual reality, megacorporations, genetic engineering, and artificial intelligence before they became common topics in popular culture. Whether these claims reek of hyperbole or are planted in truth is irrelevant: the myths of books like Neuromancer often transcend the works themselves.

With these things in mind, I dove into the book and was left with one predominant feeling by the end: stupefied. Now, I am not the most intellectual individual on the face of the planet, nor do I claim to have magical decoding powers when it comes to any work of literature. However, I like to think that I can sink my teeth into just about anything and come out with a decent understanding of the author's aims, or at least an understanding of the plot. Even if I am unable to fully express my ideas on the work, I can still attach my own interpretation to the events and come out with something worth ruminating on, or discussing with friends. Books are not simply more cerebral forms of entertainment; they are vehicles for individual, social, and cultural analysis. As such, I was incredibly frustrated to discover that I was simply lost for almost the entire duration of Neuromancer, and I could not pull out anything worth thinking about.

The plot setup seems simple enough, and if you read a synopsis of it anywhere online or even on its back cover, you are led to believe that this is a desolate world with a parallel virtual reality. While I got a basic sense of that through Gibson's prose, his reluctance to explain just about anything left me feeling stranded by the author. Slang is meant to be deciphered on your own. Names of people, places, constructs, and other things are introduced at such a rapid pace at times, that once you feel you have a grasp of at least some of the central players, something else is thrown in to confuse you further. This sense of disorientation does not aid any desire to invest yourself in the novel, as it feels like a fever dream. Gibson's switching between realities and his prose in general feel so choppy to the point of being incomprehensible at times, or so reaching for cybercool that they sound amateur and childish. Here are some examples:

"Archipelago. The islands. Torus, spindle, cluster. Human DNA spreading out from gravity's steep well like an oilslick."

"The bartender's smile widened. His ugliness was the stuff of legend. In an age of affordable beauty, there was something heraldic about his lack of it."

"But the chrome stars held his gaze. They were mounted against scarlet ultrasuede with nearly invisible loops of nylon fishline, their centers stamped with dragons or yingyang symbols. They caught the street's neon and twisted it, and it came to Case that these were the stars under which he voyaged, his destiny spelled out in a constellation of cheap chrome."

"Raw edge of vomit in his throat."

Again, I am not a wordsmith myself and I have never published a novel, but I have read enough to cringe at some of his word choices and phrases. I have no doubt that William Gibson is a talented writer and that his mind is full of brilliant and piercing ideas about the virtual age, but I simply could not muster enough care for the characters or the events to compel me to trudge on ahead. And that is one of the biggest problems I personally had with this book: I didn't care about anything that was happening, nor did I find any of the characters terribly interesting. Compounded with the difficulty I had in understanding what was actually happening because of Gibson's "figure it out yourself" writing style (which I haven't minded in other novels), the paperthin characterization and spit-quick events made this one of the greatest literary chores I have ever had the displeasure of forcing myself to finish.

I honestly really wanted to like and even love this book. Maybe it was just not meant for me; maybe I am simply not smart enough to get it. Or maybe it really is as big of a confusing quagmire as I have indicated here. I think the answer likely lies somewhere in between. For all of the negativity I have heaped on the book here, I recognize its cultural significance, and what it means to the science fiction genre, and what it means to millions of readers. Maybe they are seeing something I am not, or they have been better acclimated to Gibson's style of writing. Whatever the reason, I cannot discourage anyone from liking what they like, but I cannot jump on this wagon.

The Verdict:
This is not a book for everybody, and I seem to fall into the category of people who it's not for. If you are a science fiction completist, go nuts; maybe you will get more out of the experience than I did. As is, I found Neuromancer to be confusing, dated, and an utter chore to get through. A 271 page book should not take a month and a half to finish. At least the punishment is over for me. Next!

2/5

Next up:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. (I need something much lighter after such a personally punishing read)