Read Pages

~ Room: I Am Jack's Complete Lack Of Surprise

Room has been receiving a lot of attention from the media and from book bloggers and from people who long and shortlist full-length English novels for literary awards and other stuff. So, I decided it was time to read what all this fuss has been about.

Summary:

 

Room is told from Jack's perspective and it's rife with 5-year-old kid-English. You will find this frustrating and off-putting OR your brain will adapt and it'll become almost unnoticeable. I, like many others, found this story strangely compelling. There were even a few "What Happens Next?" moments that drove me to Read On WAY past my bedtime. But, I can't say that I loved this book. Yes, Donoghue does have some very interesting things to say about Freedom, Parenting and Child Development. And yes, she does tackle difficult subject matter in a very unique manner. However, a rotting cork-lined dungeon is still a rotting cork-lined dungeon. And a rape-shed is simply not a happy fun time.

I recommend this book to: Philosopher-kings who dig Plato's Republic (specifically the allegory of the cave)

~ Lullabies for Little Criminals: Here comes Baby, apples and all.

After I mentioned to Brutus (friend/co-worker/faithful blog reader) that I was going to make a real effort to become a more patriotic reader, she told me I just had to read Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill. So, I did. I was also afraid that she might punch me in my good ovary if I didn't. She has a black belt. The threat is real. 

Summary: 12-year-old girl child, unfortunately named Baby, is (un)raised by her negligent, "chocolate milk" (*heroin*) loving, man-child of a father in Montreal's red-light district. Bad things happen.

O'Neill on Lullabies: "I wanted to capture what I remembered of the drunken babbling of unfortunate twelve-year-olds: their illusions: their ludicrously bad choices, their lack of morality and utter disbelief in cause and effect."

Mission accomplished. I really liked O'Neill's writing style. She never lets The Reader forget that Baby is still very much a child. Baby often uses Outrageous Orange and Tickle Me Pink to color over her grim reality and to idolize the grown-ups (whores, pimps, addicts and dealers) who pay attention to her. Baby is essentially looking for Motherly Love in all the wrong places which leaves The Reader with a "life on the streets" survival story that is as beautiful as it is disturbing.

Out of the Mouth of Baby:

"People gave you a hard time about being a kid at twelve. They didn't want to give you Halloween candy anymore. They said things like, "If this were the Middle Ages, you'd be married and you'd own a farm with about a million chickens on it." They were trying to kick you out of childhood. Once you were gone, there was no going back, so you had to hold on as long as you could" (page 17).

"I don't know why I was upset about not being an adult. It was right around the corner. Becoming a child again is what is impossible. That's what you have legitimate reason to be upset over. Childhood is the most valuable thing that's taken away from you in life, if you think about it" (page 77).

"Every good pimp is a mother" (page 186).

Rating: four hugs for Baby (from me) and one boot to the head (courtesy of Juan) 

~ A Complicated Kindness: You'll Laugh. You'll Cry. You'll Hate The Mouth.

Recently, I inadvertently chose to read a series of Canadian novels about tragic childhoods. I added A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews to my to-read list because it won Canada Reads in 2006 and because it was championed by John K. Samson. Samson is the lead singer of, one of my favorite Canadian bands, The Weakerthans. 

Summary: Nomi Nickel, 16-year-old Manitoba Menno(nite) girl, waxes nostalgic over the missing "better-looking half" of her fambly (her mother Trudie and her sister Tash) while yearning to live in NYC.

Overall, I didn't have any problem with the train of thought disjointedness of Toews' prose. She really captures the boringness of growing up in a small town and manages to offset the inherit sadness of the novel with humor. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll hate The Mouth (Nomi's uncle). And given ACK's open-endedness, I also think that it makes for some excellent book club fodder. 

Nomi: "I've got a problem with endings. Mr. Quiring has told me that essays and stories generally come, organically, to a preordained ending that is quite out of the writer's control. He says we will know it when it happens, the ending. I don't know about that. I feel that there are so many to choose from" (page 1). Toews also appears to have some difficulties with endings so she leaves it up to the reader to decide which one they like best. Personally, I chose the ending with the highest body count. It just seemed like the Canadian thing to do. Maybe, I'll choose differently in the future. 

I recommend this book to: fans of bald teenage heroines, choose your own adventure types and coming-of-age aficionados. 

I wanted to leave you with "Diagnosis" by The Weakerthans but I couldn't find a decent version that was embeddable. This will have to do. It's more fitting given Toews' poetic "indictment of religious fundamentalism." Plus, Nomi thinks that if ever there was an album named for the Mennonite people it would be The Stones' Exile on Main Street (page 137).

 

SIMPSONS TRIVIA: Matt Groening's father Homer was born in Canada and raised as a Mennonite. 

~ Canada House

Last month while watching Canada's annual "Battle of the Books" aka Canada Reads, I began to review and then call into question my personal reading practice. Sadly, only 8 of the 64 books on my "read" shelf were made in Canada. I concluded that it was high time to let my Canadian freak flag fly. In an attempt to rectify this pathetic imbalance and to show Canada some love, I became both a joiner and a creator. 

Canadian Book Challenge 4

I decided to join John Mutford, who for the last few years has been hosting a Reading Challenge on his blog. Participants have one year (from Canada Day to Canada Day) to read and review (somewhere online) 13 Canadian books of their choosing. He personally likes to read his way across the country (10 provinces + 3 territories). My plan, because I am already unfashionably late to this party, is to just try and show up in good form. 

Canada House

I also created a literary version of Coupland's Canada House on Goodreads. "Canada House" was an art installation that Coupland constructed within a slated-for-demolition, CMHC-inspired house in November of 2003. The house was gutted and then furnished with assorted kitschy souvenirs of Canada. (Think NHL-Logo Drapes, Canada Goose Decoys, Stubbies, Nanaimo Bar Mix, Hockey Sticks and a Hub Cap Quilt.) To learn more about Coupland/Canada House, take off your toque and watch Souvenir of Canada.

  

Game On! Eh?