Book Reviews: Stiff, Roach; King John, Shakespeare; Monstress Vol 2, Liu and Takeda, The Party, Day

Title: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Author: Mary Roach
Narrator: Shelly Frasier
Published: Tantor Media, 2003
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 305
Total Page Count: 256,375
Text Number: 826
Read Because: interest in the subject matter, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: An overview of the various uses—and fates—of human bodies after death. Roach's trademark morbid, self-deprecatory humor is lost on me; it's unobtrusive, but certainly doesn't sell me on her voice (which I think it does for most readers). The compassion and human element are more successful. My favorite parts of this book are about the evolution of dissection and, with it, science's changing relationship with corpses: the disrespect, respect, depersonalization, and thanks with which individuals and institutions treat corpses are all tools for coping with death and mortality; and they're flawed tools, but changing ones. I wish she had applied this insight to mortuary practices, to analyse why certain methods make us squeamish and critique the depersonalization within those in the mainstream; here, as nowhere else, she feels limited by convention and squeamishness. But this isn't my first book on this subject, and I feel like Stiff makes a better beginning to the conversation than a middle; it covers a decent breadth of subjects, but none in any particular depth.


Title: King John
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: 1623
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 100
Total Page Count: 256,475
Text Number: 827
Read Because: co-read with my mother
Review: This feels like a throwback to the earlier histories (specifically the Henry VI plays): it spends so much time summarizing and condensing events that characterization and theme fall by the wayside, left inconsistent or piecemeal, or simply unremarkable; King John himself suffers most in this, a vaguely unlikable character. The Bastard emerges as a more interesting candidate for protagonist, both because of his immediate connection to the audience in his asides and speeches, and because of his evolving characterization. The women are also intriguing; Constance and Eleanor between them have a confrontational, impassioned vibrancy that much of the play lacks. This is one of the plays I appreciate reading in the context of this project but wouldn't recommend in its own right.

Didn't love this play; did love reading about it after the fact! Historical critical reaction to it is fascinating & also gross. I wrote about this on tumblr; copied below for safekeeping.

( Read more... )

Title: Monstress Volume 2: The Blood
Author: Marjorie M. Liu
Illustrator: Sana Takeda
Published: Image Comics, 2017
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 155
Total Page Count: 256,630
Text Number: 828
Read Because: continuing the series, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: I like this more than volume one—the routine developments in worldbuilding are out of the way; what progresses is more plotty and more personal to the cast. That said, Maika feels less distinct here; her early characterization is vivid, emotive, distant, angry; her mother issues reiterate that, and the resolution is trite. It's the god which saves things. While perhaps not as vast or strange as I'd like, it's vast enough, strange enough, which improves the tone and keeps that strange central relationship with Maika dynamic and intense. Again, the art is profoundly beautiful—and, perhaps because there's more supernatural/inhuman figures in this volume, it feels less gratuitous. This is an apt continuation, and while I still haven't fallen in love as most readers have, the series is well worth reading.


Title: The Party
Author: Elizabeth Day
Published: Little, Brown and Company, 2017
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 310
Total Page Count: 256,940
Text Number: 829
Read Because: reviewed as similar to The Secret History, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Events at an elaborate birthday party mark the unraveling point of an unlikely friendship between two men divided by their economic backgrounds and united by a shared secret. This namedrops Donna Tartt early on, but feels more like Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley (and its questionable elision of queer attraction and sociopathy) or Hughes's In a Lonely Place (with an antihero PoV manipulating the reader's sympathy and disdain) than it does The Secret History, while possessing the atmosphere of none of these. There is no fragile idealization to balance out the unlikable characters and events; it becomes tedious, and the revelations aren't substantial enough to justify the tortured pacing. The only saving grace is the complexity of the characterization, specifically the way they change in interior and exterior views. But it isn't enough; I considered giving up halfway through, and honestly I should have.

Book Reviews: The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare; Adaptation, Lo; The Ballad of Black Tom, LaValle

Title: The Merchant of Venice
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: 1600
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 100
Total Page Count: 257,040
Text Number: 830
Read Because: co-read with my mother
Review: The way that this engages/critiques/reinforces anti-Semitisim is markedly similar to the way that other plays (like The Taming of the Shrew) do sexism, but I found it significantly more difficult to countenance. The uneasy space that "if you prick us, do we not bleed?" shares with a forced conversion, that multidimensional characterization shares with explicit anti-Semitism, not just from the characters but from the playwright, including the stereotypes that Shylock is built upon, is impossible for me to resolve; if nothing else, it's a reminder to carry these reservations into other plays. Otherwise: good; not as obtrusively clever in language as some of the previous plays, but the movement between the dual plot lines is fluid and assured.

Reading this play was An Experience and one I regret on an emotional level but not on a in-context-of-this-project level; I wrote about it on tumblr, copied below for safekeeping.

( Read more... )

Title: Adaptation (Adaptation Book 1)
Author: Malinda Lo
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2012
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 385
Total Page Count: 257,425
Text Number: 831
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A national crisis sparks a series of strange events which alter a teenage girl. This opens with dystopic elements; it then backburners its big speculative twist (which is spoiled on my version of the cover! why!) for conspiracy theories and a sexual awakening slash bisexual love triangle which I'm under the impression resolves with polyamory. It's certainly not boring—if anything, it's cluttered—and Lo operates firmly within the YA genre but in conversation, and often argument, with its conventions. I bounce off of most YA, but the audacity and willingness to play against type held me here. It's not exceptional—in particular, I rarely had a grasp on the protagonist's personality (perhaps because she's still figuring it out herself). But I'm sufficiently engaged to read the sequel.


Title: The Ballad of Black Tom
Author: Victor LaValle
Narrator Kevin R. Free
Published: Macmillan Audio, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 150
Total Page Count: 257,575
Text Number: 832
Read Because: personal enjoyment, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A Black hustler is hired by a rich man obsessed with the arcane. This isn't precisely subtle—it gets multiple direct thesis statements at the end—but I appreciate it: the anger, legitimate and productive but not uncomplicated, cathartic and self-advocating, is a worthy theme—especially so as direct confrontation to Lovecraft's racism. I'm not entirely impressed with the —the dialog is unrefined (which is exacerbated in audio) and the second PoV is lifeless; the historical setting and distinct atmosphere plays beautifully against the vivid, evocative imagery, but the obtrusive Cthulhu namedropping doesn't benefit it. But I liked this more than not; I should look for more by LaValle.