Going the Distance II

Oddly, all of the books in this book review post are about beaches/warm tropical locations, and/or they are about journeys that are more often than not difficult and life-changing. Funny, that was totally unintentional.

I actually also read two graphic novels that I would kind of like to review, but I'm either going to let them go or save them for later. I'm not going to put them in here because it's just nuts to review more than five books at once. And anyway, they don't fit in with this miraculously developed theme.

Here are the contenders, in reverse chronological order that I read them.

Sag Harbor
By Colson Whitehead

"There are natural laws. The Third Law of Thermodynamics says that as temperature approaches absolute zero, the entropy of a system approaches a constant. Sir Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion holds that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The entity on my head was proof of another fundamental law: a fucked-up Afro tends towards complete fuckedupedness at an exponetial rate over time, as expressed by the equation,

AN=F * t

where AN is Absolute Nappiness, F is fuckedupedness, and t is time."

Sag Harbor is the story of 15 year-old Benji, a kid from a "Cosby Family" who lives in New York city during the year, but spends his summers in Sag Harbor, a legacy of the black community there. The story is set in the 1980's--and watching what happens when the 80's hip hop, new wave and preppy scenes all collide in one teenager is, oh my god I'm going to say it, delightful.
I bought the book because after reading about it nerd blogs for a few months, I had heard Colson Whitehead read and demonstrate his insult chart (a real crowd pleaser) and I knew the book was funny. What I didn't yet know was that the book is also incredibly intelligent (not just witty intelligent but like, see-this-world? intelligent), poetic, heartbreaking, and let's face it, I'm white: informative about parts of black culture I just didn't know about. It almost sparkles.

I would recommend this book to: Tim and Elsa, and anyone with a sense of humor and love of pop culture and a good metaphor.

Robinson Crusoe
By Daniel DeFoe

Right. So. I bought this book because it's Robinson friggin' Crusoe, the "first novel in English." I finally picked it up to read it because LOST was over and I felt lonely for castaways. Did you know that Robinson lands on his Island of Despair on the 30th of September and Flight 815 crashed on the 22nd of September? Anyhoo.

You already know that Robinson Crusoe is about a guy who shipwrecks on an island and befriends a cannibal named Friday, etc. But did you know that Robinson shipwrecks because he's a selfish, godless heathen? That before shipwrecking, he takes a turn as a Turkish slave? And that he owns a plantation in Brazil? That Friday doesn't appear until 30 years into the book?

Robinson Crusoe is a surprising book. The narrative arc is really nothing like what you might expect--it's much fuller (though I really could have done without the 20 pages of the book before the last 20 pages of the book, good lord). But what is most surprising is Robinson's character, the way he treats other people, the way he looks at the world, the way he thinks about religion--for someone who spends all of his time thinking, he's so... unthinking. But I think it's sort of great that he's such a doof... he's like Jack, he's a man of science (or money) who becomes a man of faith. But he's still an idiot.

I would recommend this book to: someone with a pool who doesn't mind reading about lots of animals getting killed.

The Time Traveler's Wife
By Audrey Niffenegger

I have a general rule which I call "The Metro Threshold". Once I see more than 25 people reading a book on the metro, I generally refuse to read it unless I read something extremely convincing about the book or someone intelligent recommends it to me. The Time Traveler's Wife met the The Metro Threshold, THEN crossed the Rachel McAdams Threshold in utter no-man's land. BUT: then Omnivoracious shockingly stated that rather than being fluff, this was science fiction (oh noes!) and then Amber wailed, "read it now! What is wrong with you!" When Amber said that after she put it down she suffered from separation anxiety, that was a fairly convincing argument.

Oh, you want to know what it's about? It's about a man who has a chromosomal disorder that causes him to time-travel uncontrollably, and unpredictably. He can't take anything with him that is not part of his body, including clothes, the food in his stomach, or the fillings in his teeth. Or his wife. Though it's advertised as a romance, this book is full of difficulty and violence. Tearing, is a good word. And Niffenegger is like a crow, scavenging little bits and pieces from other literature (she is a creative writing professor, after all) so the book itself is like some sort of time traveling artifact.

I would recommend this book to: Kacie, the end is good, I promise.

Brother, I'm Dying
By Edwidge Danticat

Two seemingly unrelated events occur within months: Haiti is reduced to rubble by an earthquake and Arizona passes immigration law sb-1070. For Haitians seeking asylum in the US either from Acts of God or for political reasons, a law that passes in one state is symptomatic of an issue that has spread throughout the entire country. Danticat, who is more commonly a fiction writer, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for this memoir, published before these events in 2007. This is one of, if not the best book I have read so far this year.

It's the story of Edwidge's two "fathers," her Uncle Joseph in Haiti and her father who immigrates to United States. Growing up with both remarkable men, she is able to tell the story of both Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Danticat is an unbelievably talented story-teller. I dare you not to fall in love with these people.

I don't want to scare you away from the book by telling you I think it's important. Maybe it will help if I say that only the end is important, and the rest is merely excellent.

I would recommend this book to: everyone. Literally. I'm on a soapbox here.
A Handbook to Luck
By Christina Garcia

Multiple lives intertwine, people are connected in unforeseeable ways. Stage magic (that old chestnut again!), birds, drowning, home. A Handbook to Luck is one of those delicious short-ish novels where that follow four main characters whose lives are seperate but they grow together like vines, and where all of the symbolism is juicy and ripe and apparent, but not so easy that you hate it for sitting right in your face. The cast are Iranian, Cuban, El Salvadorian, Panamanian, and Korean... and they come together on American soil in a way that is classically and perfectly American: with sweat and grit and determination (and runaway monkeys). I love it.

Most readers are familiar with Garcia's first novel, Dreaming in Cuban, but I actually think this one was much better.

I would recommend this book to: my dad, or anyone who needs summer reading that's sexy but not smutty.