Book Review: The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier

Paperback Writer here.

I saw this book while browsing through the shelves of Joseph-Beth Books over at the South Side Works. I didn't pick it up because one, it's in hard back and two, I can just pick it up from the library. I'm thinking about going back and getting it to add to the library at Douglas Manor.

I mean, come on. Look at the cover of the book! Isn't that neat? I should be so luck as to figure out how to do something like that without Photoshop.

Anway, the book starts off with a quote from James Loewen from Lies My Teacher Told Me, which goes:

Many African societies divide humans into three categories: those still alive on the earth, the sasha, and the zamani. The recently departed whose time on earth overlapped with people still here are the sasha, the living-dead. They are not wholly dead, for they still live in the memories of the living, who can call them to min, create their likeness in art, and bring them to life in anecdote. When the last person to know an ancestor dies, that ancestor leaves the sasha for the zamani, the dead. As generalized ancestors, the zamani are not forgotten but revered. Many...can be recalled by name. But they are not living-dead. There is a difference.

Beautiful quote, I think.

Anyway, the book is actually about the city of the dead and about a stranded woman named Laura Byrd. The two only seem separate from each other functioning independent, until an unnamed virus is released into the living world and annihilates almost everyone in the world. The dead then end up in the city while Laura, stuck in a living limbo, tries desperately to survive.

The book is set in the present day and alludes to several current events. Laura is a scientist for Coca-Cola sent to Antartica to study the icecaps. When the virus is released, she and her two fellow scientists are relatively safe, until they cannot make contact with the outside world.

In the city of the dead, which remains unnamed and is just called "The City," has one lone newspaper run by a man named Luka. He eventually meets a blind man and a woman named Minny. Together they try to solve the mystery of the city and more importantly of the "heartbeat."

The book deals with questions of what happens in the afterlife? Is there an afterlife? It also deals with the issue of not to take your life or loved ones for granted because everything can change very dramatically.

So, go ahead. Pick it up. It's an easy read; barely 250 pages.

Movie Review: American Dreamz

I didn't really expect to like this movie much. Hugh Grant is okay, but I'm not really into him. Don't care about Mandy Moore. Don't watch American Idols. However, this clever send-up of AI with it's funny, twisty subplots entertained me and even got a few out-loud laughs.

Hugh Grant does a fine job as "Tweedy", an egomaniacal producer/host/judge with more than a hint of Simon Cowell. Mandy Moore plays the smalltown girl who wants to make it big no matter what, and does it in a way more charming than you'd expect. Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans will recognize Adam Busch in a secondary role, but at least he gets to sing. I'd have to say the best acting in the movie is done by Dennis Quaid, as the confused and broken-down President of the US.

The story is much better than just a fictionalized version of our popular game show (yes, AI is a game show, NOT reality TV, but that's a discussion for another day). There are a few deeper moments, which might even lead you to ask some important questions.

I enjoyed this one and we will probably get it on sale previously viewed, when it's cheap enough. I don't need to run out and buy it, but I definitely will watch it again.

The DVD has a ton of extras, most of which I found boring.

Three and a half out of Five Stars.

Book Review: The Stand by Stephen King

Paperback Writer here.

So, I feel like I'm the only person who has never read Stephen King's The Stand and when Loki found out that I was reading it, he got very excited and told me that he was jealous that I was reading The Stand for the first time.

I shrugged and grinned at him, not knowing what I was in for.

I already knew the basic premise of the novel from reading his On Writing; good vs evil in the aftermath of a devestating "superflu." But I did not know that a.) it clocks in at nearly 1200 pages and b.)that it would be so f'ing good. I am so jealous that I did not write this book.

Seriously.

And yes, it is comprised of multiple characters and even divided up into three books, but I cared about each and every character. I wanted to know who would live and who would die. So much so that I forced myself not to skip to the end to see who did die and if they actually defeat King's uber-villian, Randall Flagg.

I know that they just made a mini-series out of this book (and when I say "just made" I really mean in the past fifteen years. Hey, that's recent enough for me! Loki and I will have to rent it just to see if it is anything like the book.

Okay, so anyway, a big bad supervirus kills 99.99 percent of the Earth's population. The good guys are drawn to Mother Abigail in Nebraska while the bad guys are drawn to Randall Flagg in (wait for it) Las Vegas. People die (which ones? I won't tell), alliance are made and broken, communities are set up and then there is the final showdown where the hand of god comes down to...read the book. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

It's easy to read (not in it has a lot of easy words) but it's easy to fall into and I can tell you that reading 400 pages in a weekend won't phase you.

So, go on. Go get it - I recommend it in paperback and getting the complete and uncut edition.

Book Review: Can't Wait to Get to Heaven

The latest by Fannie Flagg, Can't Wait to Get to Heaven returns to Elmwood Springs (featured in Standing in the Rainbow and Welcome to the World, Baby Girl). I love Flagg's style of writing, her warm, southern-y, gossiping stories. While I still say that none of her other books can compare to Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, I think this one may be the closest. BTW - I've bought about 4 copies of that one, since anytime I lend it to someone, it never comes back. If you haven't read it, go get it now.

This novel, set in the present day, contains a bit more fantasy than any of the previous novels. One character's death sets off a chain of reaction which changes the lives of many people in interesting and amusing ways. Written from the view points of several of the characters (including the cat), the story feels rich and full.

Flagg's writing always grasps higher, reaching and hoping, as it draws you in. In this novel especially, you bring away a sense of hope and of the joy of just living your life. Not that her characters never experience tragedy or heartache, but when they do, they survive and grow. The people in Elmwood Springs "feel" real, and that makes the reading more like visiting an old friend.

I especially enjoyed how this book concluded, with all the stories intertwining and people finding a way, big or small, to honor the deceased by improving their own lives.