After the Fall

by Tom Bissell and Morgan Meis
from The Best American Travel Writing

There were some amazing lines in this piece. Morgan: "The night that lay upon this massive, malfunctioning, astonishing city was vast, starless, as warm and secret as an embryo." Tom: "We walked through a near-noon heat so overwhelming it had a sort of oceanic weight." The city these two vivid sentences are describing is Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam and our two adventurers are there to observe the 30th anniversary of the day South Vietnam formally surrendered to the North Vietnamese army.

Besides being educational and my learning that the communist Republic of Vietnam is just as crazy as that of North Korea, "After the Fall" was also, given the circumstances in which they find themselves, surprisingly funny. Why some the funniest moments in TBATW should involve bowel movements I don't know. I'm not sure it that says something about the editors of TBATW or about me. What I do know is that I found Bissell's description of his debilitating diarrhea laugh out loud hilarious. "My stomach burbled out some many-syllabled sound that was loud enough for Morgan to hear, my eyes filled with stunned tears, and I began walking toward the bathroom around the mausoleum's corner...'Is it your stomach?' 'Right now it's my whole body.'"

And of course, as Bissell and Meis somewhat haplessly interview government dissidents, they are promptly followed and watched by government agents - a development that they don't find at all discouraging and, in fact, take some pleasure - and Meis, along with their photographer, are eventually taken in for questioning, then kicked out of the country on the grounds that they didn't enter on journalist visas. Meanwhile, Bissell experiences shock-induced recovery from his fever and wanders the streets of Vietnam alone. Well, not technically alone since he's being followed. "I...decided that if I indeed I had a tail, then this tail of mine was going to get a fucking workout. He would walk around Hanoi's Lake of the Returned Sword again and again and again." Eventually tiring of the game, the tail approaches Bissell and wishes him a quick and safe journey out of the country.

I admit that though it was obvious that Bissell and Meis were both alive and well enough to write this piece, I was scared for them much of the time. I have no idea how seasoned, well-traveled writers such as these two managed to seem so clueless and lost but they did. But then that was the charm of "After the Fall." As for Vietnam and the impression it left on me, I'll quote Bissell and say that it is either "beautiful or insane." Of course, what country isn't, if isn't both at the same time?

BookForum

DEC/JAN 2007 Issue

Strange though it may seem, I have only just started researching and reading book review magazines. I'm not in a place in which I could explain why that is, especially given what I'm doing now and that, second only to reading books myself, my favorite pastime is reading about people's opinions on other reading. In any case, I decided to start my overdue research with "The New York Review of Books." Who could argue that what's written between the pages of the NYBR is anything but great writing? Certainly not I. What I could argue is that, much in the same way that "New Yorker" articles have a tendency to run on too long, those in the NYRB also tend to stay way past their welcome. I appreciate great writing as much as the next person - what kind of obsessive reader would I be if I didn't - but I also think that if there is a word limit imposed upon the critics who write for the NYRB, it is much too high. However, I shall persevere, even if it does take me a month to finish a biweekly magazine.

And then just two weeks ago, I came across a wonderful magazine called "BookForum." It looked more colorful and definitely thinner than NYRB so I decided, what the heck, couldn't hurt right? As it turns out, I was right and I have found a new favorite magazine. For one, the articles are only one, maybe two pages long. I sound like one of the horrible readers who have the attention span of a fly don't I? I'm not really. I simply appreciate clear and concise writing. But besides concise pieces, "BookForum" also features some great writing. In this issue there were pieces written by Andrea Walker, a member of the editorial staff for the "New Yorker", Francine Prose, author of How to Read Like a Writer, and Rob Spillman, editor of the much-esteemed "Tin House" literary magazine.

Reading "BookForum" was not just enjoyable - though it was that, and reason enough for why I finished it in one day, unheard of for me - but it was also educational. So this, I thought as I reading, is how a criticism should look, how it should sound. So this is to what I should aspire. The difference between reading the NYRB and "BookForum" is the difference between listening to a lecture and having a conversation. The former can be educational, no doubt, but the latter is more engaging. I felt engaged as a reader as I breezed from one article to another in BookForum and it is the same feeling that I would like my readers to have.

It seems this will be a year of education and improvement for me. But I suppose, if we're lucky, that's what every day of every year should be.

Valley of Silence

by Nora Roberts
Book 3 of the Circle Trilogy

It's never a good idea to stay up late reading a book when you've just started a new job. You run the risk of waking up late the next morning with horrible black bags under your eyes, hair sticking up at odd angles, and the title of a book creased into your cheek. It was worth it though. It's safe to say that Valley of Silence was the best book of the trilogy.

Cian and Moira's story was a much more compelling read than the other two; the love story more moving; the danger more urgent. It still suffered from the problems of the other two books: i.e. too much dialogue and not enough action. There were more conversations on why Moira and Cian couldn't be together than was needed. But because the love story between Cian and Moira was so great, those problems were less annoying than in the other two. I enjoyed reading of their struggle to love each other, knowing that it could go nowhere and would end in pain. I also enjoyed reading a story in which the characters were emotionally honest with each other and with themselves. Those are the type of characters, the kind of people, I can respect.

I also respect, Roberts' willingness to show the gray area that lies between good and evil. Roberts, as so few popular authors do, has the courage and the wits to show that what we would call evil can have sympathetic facets. "Evil" can love, it can know pain, it can know fear, it can feel the need for family. I appreciate Roberts including the sincere affection between Lilith, the Vampire Queen, and Lora, her companion.

What I didn't appreciate, however, was the detail that Lilith sleeps with the five year-old vampire "son" Davy. I didn't see the point in including such a nasty detail. In particular I could have done without this sentence: "In the moonlight he [Davy] saw the battlefield, and the beauty of it made him shake as he did when his mother let him put himself into her and ride as if she were a pony."

I had to read that sentence at least twice over to make sure I'd read it right. When I was sure I had, I wished I hadn't. I mean really Nora, was that necessary? I can handle uncomfortable plot lines but that little detail just wasn't needed. I'd gathered that Lilith and Davy were "lovers" already, I didn't need it thrown in my face. And it just seemed incongruous with the style of the rest of the story. In many ways, this trilogy is a way for Roberts to push the envelope but I think she pushed it a little too far with Davy's storyline.

In any case, I suppose I should also add that the conclusion of the book, and the trilogy was satisfactory but predictable. But then what popular romance story isn't predictable? They all mostly end one way, happily ever after, which is why I read them when I just want to feel good. After all, I saw the resolution to Cian and Moira's love story coming a mile away. But it was great romance reading nonetheless and one I'll return to again. I wish the other books had been as good as this one, I wish this trilogy had been as good as the Three Sisters Island Trilogy or the Key Trilogy, and I wish there was time enough to stay up reading all night and still get a good night's sleep. On a completely unrelated topic Cian says, "But the hours mattered, every minute of them." Damn right they do. Now, I'm off to get some sleep.

Dance of the Gods, pt. 2

by Nora Roberts
pgs. 125-316 (End)
Book 2 of the Circle Trilogy

Still a lot of talk...Yadda, yadda, yadda. Blah, blah, blah. I don't have a problem with dialogue at all. What I do have a problem with is with dialogue that is repeated over and over again for - I don't know - space? How many conversations must the members of the circle have about how they need to stick together and tell each other everything? It was a concept I grasped quite well in the first book; why do the characters need to be reminded of it every other page? Why do I have to read about it every other page?

And Blair's repetitive inner dialogues grew, well, monotonous. I appreciate getting a glimpse into a character's head. It's one of the things that makes Roberts' characters come alive and something at which she usually excels. I can't figure out exactly what happened here. It could be that, because Roberts had to spread the action out over three books, there was less action in each and more dialogue than was needed or wanted. Yet, that argument becomes difficult to make when one considers that this isn't Roberts' first trilogy. She's done several, most of which are much more compelling reads than the Circle Trilogy thus far.

It's interesting too that, despite all the dialogue - inner and otherwise - I didn't understand the characters all that well at the end of the day. As characters in a book, I liked Blair and Larkin perfectly well. As people I could imagine actually existing, they fell fairly flat. And, I said it before, Blair is simply too much of an Eve Dallas rip-off for me to really appreciate her as a separate character. There were some differences, i.e. Blair doesn't mind doing typical girly things; Eve doesn't even have an idea what that is. But those differences weren't substantial enough to make me feel as if wasn't reading the story of a poor and uninteresting descendent of Eve.

Despite all of that, I do look forward to reading Valley of Silence. I can't wait to read Cian and Moira's story. It is my sincere hope that it turns out to be worth mostly uninteresting reading I've had to put up with so far.

Collapse, pt. 1

by Jared Diamond
pgs. 1-156

I'm trying really hard to get through this book - I really am. The premise - a study of collapsed societies and the factors that led to their downfall - is right up my alley. And, though it was slow going in the beginning, I loved Guns, Germs, and Steel. Granted, there were some parts that I thought were eye-crossingly boring, especially that parts in which Diamond discusses the pollinization and fertilization process of plants. It was enlightening but it wasn't the most exciting reading I've ever done. And anyway those parts were few and far in between. So I made the mistake of assuming that just because I enjoyed one Diamond book, I would enjoy another. Thus far, that just isn't so.

I keep pushing myself to make it to just one more chapter, hoping that the next one will be better than the last. I can't say it isn't interesting reading; like I said, the premise is right up my alley. I absolutely love reading about the history and collapse of Easter Island and the Pitcairn Islands. What I don't care to read about, in detail, is the scientific methods archeologists used to come to their conclusions. I don't need a two page explanation on how dendrochronology (tree ring dating) works. A short, simple, one-paragraph summary would work just fine for me. Anything longer and my eyes begin to roll into the back of my head with boredom.

There's a lot of method detail in this book which leads me to wonder if this book is really meant for a layman reader like me. I think it is, but I also think that, by including the scientific methods and terminology, Diamond is attempting to attract the experts and scientists as well. So then maybe I shouldn't feel bad about skipping the methodology parts. Then again, maybe I feel guilty because I'm not too long out of college and Collapse reads so much like a text book, I feel as if I'll be quizzed on the parts I skip. Of Collapse, "BusinessWeek" wrote, "It's [also] the deal of the year - the equivalent of a year's college course by an engaging, brilliant professor, all for the price of a book." Now it all makes sense, so that's the reason why I'm determined to finish this book - if I don't, I'll have failed my first history course. Because at this moment "BusinessWeek" and I disagree on whether Diamond is an "engaging" professor, I'll just do what I've always done with a long class and a boring professor: buckle down, stick it out, and pray for the end.

The Innocents

by Gipi
from The Best American Nonrequired Reading

I'm indifferent about this graphic story. It's not bad but it isn't particularly moving either, though I think it tries to be. My largest problem is I didn't connect at all with any of these characters. I didn't understand the little boy. Just how old is he anyway? Why does he look like he's twelve and act as if he's five? And what's up with the uncle? Does he even like his nephew? Are the insulting comments simple joking around or am I supposed to take him seriously? I thought the point of graphics was to illustrate and answer some of these questions but guess I was wrong. If the uncle is joking, he definitely isn't showing it in any of the graphic frames.

And what I am supposed to feel for Valerio the friend? Should I empathize with him? It certainly would have made the graphic story more interesting if I had. Yet, how can I, when the reason for his anger and fear is never clearly explained? Given that the uncle is telling this story to his nephew, it's understandable that he didn't explain the gory details, but couldn't he have given them to me, the reader, in a thought bubble or something? As far as I can tell, Valerio is just a scared boy who went to prison for attacking abusive police and came out a psychopathic man. That's a bad deal but I don't really care.

Nor did I care for the art. It was a tad too bleak and full of angles for me. Perhaps, it works to fit the dour story but it didn't work to appeal to my eye. I found myself speeding through the frames to get to the end, rather than studying them for hidden, revealing secrets. If "Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea" is the reason why I should read more comics, then "The Innocents" is the reason why I wouldn't.