I'm reading King's MISERY on my Android Kindle app and am currently about 21% (or page 61 for those of you counting). Getting into the book was strange--the heavy prose was very un-King for me, and so far, I can't help but compare this book to GERALD'S GAME, which boasts the same amount of claustrophobia and inability for the protagonist to leave their surroundings, though granted we have a character as the antagonist this time.
It's been years since I saw the film version and I've forgotten a lot, but at this point, I'm a little weary about King's lack of suspense building when it comes to Annie Wilkes. She feels almost like a cartoon villain or a hallucinatory one (which might have been what King was going for), but in no way did I develop a connection to her through Paul. Instantly, we're shown just how crazy she is with not much build up. But this isn't ruining the book for me by any means; nevertheless, I do think I prefer the execution of GERALD'S GAME and the sophistication with which King wrote that to this one.
Despite my lack of connection to Annie, I can appreciate the unassuming psychotic behavior she has. Her refusal to swear, using childish curse words instead and scolding Paul for the language in his new book was deliciously unexpected for a villain; her strong faith in God to the point where she might believe she's doing His laundry (I am SO glad I don't go to her church), her casual, blue-collar interaction with people in town, which she relays to Paul... all of this is so... ordinary. This is 100% what I love about reading King: his next villain just might be your neighbour.
Going to get myself a big, tall glass of shiraz now and sit in my backyard on this beautiful Saturday afternoon to continue reading. Granted, the ambiance won't match the book, but I already have enough bad dreams about Space Cowboy. I don't need Kathy Bates, too.
By the way, to my esteemed colleague: I couldn't help myself. I watched THE SCENE on YouTube and I'm scared for our Skype date, but still determined to face my fear.
ONWARD!
2012 Reading List
- Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies
- Julie & Julia, by Julie Powell
- The Manticore, by Robertson Davies
- Misery, by Stephen King
- World of Wonders, by Robertson Davies
- Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk
- Waiting For Godot, by Samuel Beckett
- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith
- The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Misery loves company...
...and that's why we'll be reading it.
If you’ve been following our blog thus far then you know that I (Carla) have a slight obsession with Stephen King, and in order to stick to my bucket list goal of reading all of his novels, I stipulated an informal clause in Readers Guild for there to be at least one King novel on each year’s ‘to-read’ list. Hence, Misery.
The decision on which King book to read usually goes something like this:
Me: I’m good with any except for these [insert titles here], which I’ve already read.
Kat: I’ll read the one that sounds the least terrifying.
That’s a bit ad-libbed, but I am sure isn’t far off. I want to read Misery, well, because I want to read them all. Some King novels are better than others, in my opinion, but I am looking forward to this one because I watched the movie many years ago and don’t remember a lot about the story except for the basic premise and the craziness of Kathy Bates’ character. Yeee!
I’ll let me esteemed colleague fill you in on why she was okay with reading this King novel.
From Kat:
I love that last sentence.
Although not as big of a King fan as my esteemed colleague, I am growing to find fascinating themes and characters in his works. I've already seen the film (years ago); saw it when I was too young to read the book, but old enough to know how to sneak in two hours of a movie without my parents knowing. I have a terrible feeling I'll have Kathy Bates nightmares for the next few weeks, but I'm okay with that, especially since we're planning a movie date as well for this particular Skype date.
Oh, and I completely concur on the aforementioned, ad-libbed conversation. I still get scared when I see movements in the corners of my room at night, in case Space Cowboy were to find me. *shudders*
But that's the thing I appreciate about King: not only do I like his down-to-earth style, while elegant, but honest and true to their characters, his idea of what can be horrific is usually something real. While last year we were reading Gerald's Game, I was definitely creeped out by Space Cowboy, the possible alien taunting the protagonist at the most inopportune time, the realization that he was AN ACTUAL REAL PERSON WITH A SCARY VOICE was enough to make me rip my earbuds from my ears, take my mp3 player, and toss it across the sidewalk in fear. That is not an exaggeration.
Yeeee indeed.
Onward!
If you’ve been following our blog thus far then you know that I (Carla) have a slight obsession with Stephen King, and in order to stick to my bucket list goal of reading all of his novels, I stipulated an informal clause in Readers Guild for there to be at least one King novel on each year’s ‘to-read’ list. Hence, Misery.
The decision on which King book to read usually goes something like this:
Me: I’m good with any except for these [insert titles here], which I’ve already read.
Kat: I’ll read the one that sounds the least terrifying.
That’s a bit ad-libbed, but I am sure isn’t far off. I want to read Misery, well, because I want to read them all. Some King novels are better than others, in my opinion, but I am looking forward to this one because I watched the movie many years ago and don’t remember a lot about the story except for the basic premise and the craziness of Kathy Bates’ character. Yeee!
I’ll let me esteemed colleague fill you in on why she was okay with reading this King novel.
From Kat:
I love that last sentence.
Although not as big of a King fan as my esteemed colleague, I am growing to find fascinating themes and characters in his works. I've already seen the film (years ago); saw it when I was too young to read the book, but old enough to know how to sneak in two hours of a movie without my parents knowing. I have a terrible feeling I'll have Kathy Bates nightmares for the next few weeks, but I'm okay with that, especially since we're planning a movie date as well for this particular Skype date.
Oh, and I completely concur on the aforementioned, ad-libbed conversation. I still get scared when I see movements in the corners of my room at night, in case Space Cowboy were to find me. *shudders*
But that's the thing I appreciate about King: not only do I like his down-to-earth style, while elegant, but honest and true to their characters, his idea of what can be horrific is usually something real. While last year we were reading Gerald's Game, I was definitely creeped out by Space Cowboy, the possible alien taunting the protagonist at the most inopportune time, the realization that he was AN ACTUAL REAL PERSON WITH A SCARY VOICE was enough to make me rip my earbuds from my ears, take my mp3 player, and toss it across the sidewalk in fear. That is not an exaggeration.
Yeeee indeed.
Onward!
Monday, April 30, 2012
Who's leading the manticore?
Yesterday, my esteemed colleague and I met over Skype to discuss the second book in Robertson Davies's Deptford Trilogy, The Manticore. Since Los Angeles's supply of wines from Peterborough, Canada are low, we both turned to German wines since a lot of the book took place in Europe. I went with a Mozelle sweet red, which was atrociously sweet and didn't pair at all well with the book, but after two glasses, found it to work just as efficiently as a dryer red. My colleague had Black Tower Rivaner, which looked much more delicious than mine. (Carla: Based on your facial expressions, I would say that it was!)
Here are some thoughts that came from our discussion:
- We liked the idea of Dunny being Davey's dad and how it served almost as a red herring since Dunny could have left info out (especially information that might be shameful to reveal, or even too private to admit to or share). Had this been true, it could have completely changed the context of the relationships in the first novel and also how Davey approaches the idea of living in his father's shadow in the second.
- While we both enjoyed The Manticore more than Fifth Business, we agreed that Fifth Business had an important role in this trilogy, namely to lift The Manticore up, since so much in the second book was built up in the first. Fifth Business is good on its own, but The Manticore changes how you see that book. It's better as a trilogy so far than a standalone.
- Regarding the format of the book (and how Fifth Business's one-sided story is challenged in The Manticore by the character of Dr. von Haller): von Haller's role in the book is important because she frequently challenges Davey, whereas in Fifth Business, we never hear any questions from the Headmaster; only from Dunny. On a related note, this is a rare opportunity for Davies to give a female character a position of power in his books, as we'll later see that the majority of female characters are completely romanticized, or turned to whores. The only opportunity to know their minds is if they're de-sexualized (i.e. as with Liesl).
- The choppiness of the prose we both found to be distracting. And we didn't understand why Davey had to fall in love with Dr. von Haller. It was pointless, cliched, and a bit forced. Nevertheless, this isn't the first time one of Davies' characters falls in love with a woman who is superior to him (think Dunny and Mary). Maybe that's the reason for von Haller? Or, because he had issues relating to/with women and this was the first one who actually listened and seemed to care (even though it's her job). Not that Davey had daddy issues in that arena. O_o...
- We both found it interesting that Davey was able to find himself outside of Canada. We thought this symbolized how he was stepping out from his father's shadow, since Boy considered himself a Canadian patriot in all aspects of his life and fully disapproved of Davey going to Oxford. It's quite important for Davey's character to spend the majority of the story in Europe, in that sense.
- WTF with the scene in the bear cave? Yeah, 'cause we got nothing there.
- On the subject of women in this trilogy, so far, and to continue what was already alluded to above: the way Davies portrays women is incredibly unrealistic. Mary was angelic to Dunny in Fifth Business, but she was also a ruined woman whose liaison with the homeless person actually improved his life in a strange way. Compared to von Haller who was allegedly the woman in Davey's dream, unobtainable to him. Compared to Liesl, who was repeatedly described as being ugly and masculine, but in Fifth Business is the one of the few people Dunny can have a conversation with and turns out to be relatively intelligent. Except for the cave thing. I don't get that.
- We both found that the psychological aspects seemed forced and though they may have made sense to Davey they seem irrelevant to the rest of us. It might have been a topic in vogue at the time of this book's publication, but it, and the "manticore" itself, were both stretched metaphors for us. Although, we would like to see somehow Mary incorporated in that metaphor, possibly as the woman holding the leash to the manticore in Davey's dream. That would be incredible.
- This story builds on Fifth Business and the characters are inter-connected more than we know, and we both hope it only continues in World of Wonders (after Misery, of course).
- And finally, the stone found in Boy Staunton's mouth was disposed of. While it was symbolic that it was Paul himself who threw the stone that brought upon his early birth, it felt less than epic overall. At least it could have been done in the third book. But we'll see what World of Wonders holds for these inter-connected characters!
Onward, King!
Here are some thoughts that came from our discussion:
- We liked the idea of Dunny being Davey's dad and how it served almost as a red herring since Dunny could have left info out (especially information that might be shameful to reveal, or even too private to admit to or share). Had this been true, it could have completely changed the context of the relationships in the first novel and also how Davey approaches the idea of living in his father's shadow in the second.
- While we both enjoyed The Manticore more than Fifth Business, we agreed that Fifth Business had an important role in this trilogy, namely to lift The Manticore up, since so much in the second book was built up in the first. Fifth Business is good on its own, but The Manticore changes how you see that book. It's better as a trilogy so far than a standalone.
- Regarding the format of the book (and how Fifth Business's one-sided story is challenged in The Manticore by the character of Dr. von Haller): von Haller's role in the book is important because she frequently challenges Davey, whereas in Fifth Business, we never hear any questions from the Headmaster; only from Dunny. On a related note, this is a rare opportunity for Davies to give a female character a position of power in his books, as we'll later see that the majority of female characters are completely romanticized, or turned to whores. The only opportunity to know their minds is if they're de-sexualized (i.e. as with Liesl).
- The choppiness of the prose we both found to be distracting. And we didn't understand why Davey had to fall in love with Dr. von Haller. It was pointless, cliched, and a bit forced. Nevertheless, this isn't the first time one of Davies' characters falls in love with a woman who is superior to him (think Dunny and Mary). Maybe that's the reason for von Haller? Or, because he had issues relating to/with women and this was the first one who actually listened and seemed to care (even though it's her job). Not that Davey had daddy issues in that arena. O_o...
- We both found it interesting that Davey was able to find himself outside of Canada. We thought this symbolized how he was stepping out from his father's shadow, since Boy considered himself a Canadian patriot in all aspects of his life and fully disapproved of Davey going to Oxford. It's quite important for Davey's character to spend the majority of the story in Europe, in that sense.
- WTF with the scene in the bear cave? Yeah, 'cause we got nothing there.
- On the subject of women in this trilogy, so far, and to continue what was already alluded to above: the way Davies portrays women is incredibly unrealistic. Mary was angelic to Dunny in Fifth Business, but she was also a ruined woman whose liaison with the homeless person actually improved his life in a strange way. Compared to von Haller who was allegedly the woman in Davey's dream, unobtainable to him. Compared to Liesl, who was repeatedly described as being ugly and masculine, but in Fifth Business is the one of the few people Dunny can have a conversation with and turns out to be relatively intelligent. Except for the cave thing. I don't get that.
- We both found that the psychological aspects seemed forced and though they may have made sense to Davey they seem irrelevant to the rest of us. It might have been a topic in vogue at the time of this book's publication, but it, and the "manticore" itself, were both stretched metaphors for us. Although, we would like to see somehow Mary incorporated in that metaphor, possibly as the woman holding the leash to the manticore in Davey's dream. That would be incredible.
- This story builds on Fifth Business and the characters are inter-connected more than we know, and we both hope it only continues in World of Wonders (after Misery, of course).
- And finally, the stone found in Boy Staunton's mouth was disposed of. While it was symbolic that it was Paul himself who threw the stone that brought upon his early birth, it felt less than epic overall. At least it could have been done in the third book. But we'll see what World of Wonders holds for these inter-connected characters!
Onward, King!
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Mantic-Orn't you glad there's one more book?
Yesterday afternoon, enjoying a cabernet sauvignon in my back yard on my day off, I finished Robertson Davies's The Manticore. As my esteemed colleague's already posted her thoughts on the second book in The Deptford Trilogy series, I'll post mine as well before our scheduled Skype date next weekend, hopefully over a Peterborough Baco Noir, if I can find it in Los Angeles.
On a related note, I feel like reading The Deptford Trilogy will turn me to the drink, if for no other reason than the characters are ALWAYS drinking. I would argue as much as an Agatha Christie character is ALWAYS killing people. That and because of Davies extreme and in-depth use of symbolism, allegory, allusion, dramatic irony, and analogy in his multi-faceted story.
Having said that:
- I liked this book very much. Though Fifth Business has its place in the trilogy and is crucial to read before attempting The Manticore, I happened to enjoy the second book in the trilogy more than the first. I liked David Staunton's voice and the way he was able to interact with other characters while showing us those interactions. In Fifth Business, we got to read Dunstan's letter/speech to a colleague, but here, the lawyer Davey seems to prize the truth and offers any criticism Dr. von Haller gives him as well. I appreciate this. While The Manticore was not a perfect book and there were parts in it I felt to be forced (as did my colleague), I nevertheless gave it five stars on GoodReads for its incredible depth and the delightful use of dramatic irony (FTW). I also found the characters to be highly developed here which made them very much real.
- I think the overall theme of this book was Davey's pursuit to create himself. As we're shown constantly by Dr. von Haller Davey's Anima and Shadow (which was something I found interesting, but didn't know too much about, so it was kind of forced and pompous to me), Davey is trying to deal with Boy's death and walking in his father's footsteps, but even this seems to be a way of his father controlling Davey after his own death. Looking back (especially at the part where Davey outlines his first sexual experience, which his father orchestrated for him), even the most private of choices fell into Boy's hands to make. What kind of weirds me out is how I noticed the main character in this book has the same name (or root thereof) of Davies's surname. And whenever a character would call David "Davey" I couldn't help but wonder if there was a real-life connection to the character. In some cases, I hope not.
- I found it fascinating looking at some of the secrets or assumptions that came up in this book that one would argue should have arisen in the previous one. For example, in Fifth Business, we hear Dunny's account of his relationship with Leola until her death, but it's not until The Manticore that we wonder if Davey is Dunny's son. This is an incredible way to tell a story and to make Dunny's character seem all the more real after the fact: if it had turned out to be true, Dunny would have omitted information in Fifth Business, which we'd never think a character would do, but a human? Yes. A human would omit things he wasn't terribly proud of, or wanted to keep private.
- I also found a greater depth in Dunny in the scene at the end when he recalls how Leola asked him to make love to her, and he refused her. I never noticed this before in Fifth Business, but the way Dunny describes him brushing her off is the exact opposite thing that Mary, Paul's mother, did in Fifth Business to the homeless man. As Mary was very much a saint-like figure for Dunny, this felt like a way for Dunny to, in turn, be cruel to Leola. As a result, Leola soon dies afterward, but the homeless man Mary had given herself to ends up benefiting from her sacrifice.
- Of course, the use of dramatic irony is pushed to its limits, but I happen to enjoy that, so whenever Paul was in the picture (only at the end and at the very beginning, granted) I loved seeing their interaction. I also loved reading about how Davey thought Paul was a hack as a magician. I wonder if there's going to be any reason for Davey to steal the life of someone Paul loves as retribution for Boy's death. And so would continue the circle of death/revenge in Deptford...
I think those are all the thoughts I currently have right now. We'll have a lot to discuss next weekend. Off to get the wine--maybe a second bottle to test during the week.
Onward!
On a related note, I feel like reading The Deptford Trilogy will turn me to the drink, if for no other reason than the characters are ALWAYS drinking. I would argue as much as an Agatha Christie character is ALWAYS killing people. That and because of Davies extreme and in-depth use of symbolism, allegory, allusion, dramatic irony, and analogy in his multi-faceted story.
Having said that:
- I liked this book very much. Though Fifth Business has its place in the trilogy and is crucial to read before attempting The Manticore, I happened to enjoy the second book in the trilogy more than the first. I liked David Staunton's voice and the way he was able to interact with other characters while showing us those interactions. In Fifth Business, we got to read Dunstan's letter/speech to a colleague, but here, the lawyer Davey seems to prize the truth and offers any criticism Dr. von Haller gives him as well. I appreciate this. While The Manticore was not a perfect book and there were parts in it I felt to be forced (as did my colleague), I nevertheless gave it five stars on GoodReads for its incredible depth and the delightful use of dramatic irony (FTW). I also found the characters to be highly developed here which made them very much real.
- I think the overall theme of this book was Davey's pursuit to create himself. As we're shown constantly by Dr. von Haller Davey's Anima and Shadow (which was something I found interesting, but didn't know too much about, so it was kind of forced and pompous to me), Davey is trying to deal with Boy's death and walking in his father's footsteps, but even this seems to be a way of his father controlling Davey after his own death. Looking back (especially at the part where Davey outlines his first sexual experience, which his father orchestrated for him), even the most private of choices fell into Boy's hands to make. What kind of weirds me out is how I noticed the main character in this book has the same name (or root thereof) of Davies's surname. And whenever a character would call David "Davey" I couldn't help but wonder if there was a real-life connection to the character. In some cases, I hope not.
- I found it fascinating looking at some of the secrets or assumptions that came up in this book that one would argue should have arisen in the previous one. For example, in Fifth Business, we hear Dunny's account of his relationship with Leola until her death, but it's not until The Manticore that we wonder if Davey is Dunny's son. This is an incredible way to tell a story and to make Dunny's character seem all the more real after the fact: if it had turned out to be true, Dunny would have omitted information in Fifth Business, which we'd never think a character would do, but a human? Yes. A human would omit things he wasn't terribly proud of, or wanted to keep private.
- I also found a greater depth in Dunny in the scene at the end when he recalls how Leola asked him to make love to her, and he refused her. I never noticed this before in Fifth Business, but the way Dunny describes him brushing her off is the exact opposite thing that Mary, Paul's mother, did in Fifth Business to the homeless man. As Mary was very much a saint-like figure for Dunny, this felt like a way for Dunny to, in turn, be cruel to Leola. As a result, Leola soon dies afterward, but the homeless man Mary had given herself to ends up benefiting from her sacrifice.
- Of course, the use of dramatic irony is pushed to its limits, but I happen to enjoy that, so whenever Paul was in the picture (only at the end and at the very beginning, granted) I loved seeing their interaction. I also loved reading about how Davey thought Paul was a hack as a magician. I wonder if there's going to be any reason for Davey to steal the life of someone Paul loves as retribution for Boy's death. And so would continue the circle of death/revenge in Deptford...
I think those are all the thoughts I currently have right now. We'll have a lot to discuss next weekend. Off to get the wine--maybe a second bottle to test during the week.
Onward!
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