A Hero Aint Nothing But a Sandwich (1973) by Alice Childress

 Book Review

A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich (1973)

by Alice Childress

Harlem, New York

New York: 49/105

Harlem: 13/14

   A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich is a 1973 YA classic about a 13 year old Harlem boy addicted to Heroin.  Certainly it represents some kind of nadir for the depiction of addiction in YA fiction.  Speaking as someone who has been exposed to drugs in various capacities over most of my forty plus years, I found this character hard to imagine.  A thirteen year old who is shooting heroin.  It's insane.  And the whole tone of the book is so blase about it!  I mean, sure college students, heroin, of course, and maybe even high school age student, I mean, ok, it must have happened.  But a thirteen year old?  Why would a thirteen year old even want to do heroin in the first place- speaking as someone who was using drugs at that age- the whole idea of injecting oneself with a needle was abhorrent- still is!

  The tale is told from a kaleidoscope of perspectives but the main players are the junkie teen and his step dad.  There are also some interesting school teachers- one black, one white, who both provide a more complicated portrait of inner city school teachers in a few pages than the other books do in dozens.   The early 1970's were a real nadir for the social fabric in New York City.

The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave Breeding Industry (2017) by Ned and Constance Sublette

 Book Review

The American Slave Coast: 

A History of the Slave Breeding Industry (2017)

 by Ned and Constance Sublette

  I listened to the 30 hour Audiobook of this title over the last several months- took me a few check outs from the library and then waiting in between check-outs to finish it.  I checked it out because I've been reading about early American capitalism- cued by a recent trip to the Fairmont Copley Plaza (Boston) where I mused over the genesis of American fortune over Espresso martinis in their absurdly rococo hotel lobby bar/restaurant.    "Where does the money come from?" I mused to myself.   

   It comes from the exploitation of natural resources- lumber, stone, later oil and coal.  It came from shipping, where America quickly established itself in the farthest ports as a neutral trading partner.  And, as this book amply demonstrates, it came from the production and sale of human beings, slaves.  Not just in the south, slave BREEDING was close to being a raison d'etre for the original rebellion and a key facet of what kept the union together after the Civil War. 

   I won't recount the argument in full, which is NOT that there was some kind of breeding farm system in place- the authors investigate that allegation and find nothing but a few mentions and letters.  Indeed, slave breeding was both casual and highly complex and integrated with American (and global capitalism) but the key to understanding the narrative here is that the US acted early to band the FOREIGN IMPORTATION of slaves at the behest of the Virginia political class (slave owners) who made money selling their excess bodies to the cotton growing regions in Mississippi and Louisiana.

  They were facilitated by a class of middle men who operated in the north- cotton factories, factors for cotton production and shippers as well as those who operated in the middle- Maryland and Washington DC were the site of "slave jails" where run away slaves (and occasionally kidnapped free men) were sent back to the south.

  The main thesis here is that slavery was not some outlier in America, but rather an economic activity that helped provide the economic basis for the rapid expansion of the American economy- all of it.

   

Solar Bones (2016) by Mike McCormack

 Boo Review

Solar Bones (2016)

by Mike McCormack

   Solar Bones written by Irish author Mike McCormack only contains a single sentence.  It does contain many paragraph breaks, but no periods.  It takes the form of a reminisce by Marcus Conway, who is (I learned from Wikipedia after finishing the book), a spirit who has returned to his kitchen table on All Souls Day.   Something that Wikipedia does not mention is that Conway likely died as a result of a global pandemic that claims his wife during the recollections of the book.   There are just hints of the impending apocalypse- his wife sweating and vomiting her way to death in the bedroom as Conway talks to his alarmist children in different parts of the world.

   McCormack won the 2016 Goldsmith's award for this book and he made the 2017 International Booker longlist, but again, the fact that is a formally challenging, modernist-technique influenced book really dampens the recommendation appeal.  Based on what I know, books like Solar Bones have a zero percent casual readership a month after the New York Times writes its rave review.  People just don't want to be really challenged in their reading comprehension by their literary fiction.  They don't seek it out.

What I'd Rather Not Think About (2024) by Jente Posthuma

 Book Review

What I'd Rather Not Think About (2024)

by Jente Posthuma

Translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey

   The Dutch have been doing all right in the Booker International Prize this past decade. Lucas Rijneveld won back in 2020 for The Discomfort of Evening which was... dark.   Now we've got another Dutch author on this years longlist- I realize by the time this post publishes we will know about the short list, but I'm writing this before that list is announced.  What I'd Rather Not Think About is a work about a pair of fraternal twins- "One" is the older twin, a gay man.  "Two" is the younger, and the narrator, a cis, straight woman. 

   Basically, One commits suicide by riding his bike directly into a canal and drowning (he leaves a note so we know it's suicide).  Such a Dutch way to kill yourself!  Two spends the rest of the book recounting her memories and trying to make sense of what, even by the standards of literary suicide, seems like a random act of self-violence.  Despite the recounting of the off-hand type of comments everyone makes at one point or another ("I wish I was dead." level stuff), there is nothing in the rest of What I'd Rather Not Think About that explains this central act- viewed, rightfully, as an act of abandonment and betrayal, by the narrator.

  Despite the dark subject matter, What I'd Rather Not Think About is a breezy read, easily tackled in an afternoon.  Doesn't seem like a Booker International Shortlist title to me.

And Now You Can Go (1993) by Vendela Vida

 1,001 Novels:  A Library of America

And Now You Can Go (1993)

by Vendela Vida

Riverside Park, Manhattan New York

New York: 48/105

Manhattan: 6/34

This debut novel by the woman who married Dave Eggers (and co-founded The Believer), didn't do much for me.  Also, I question the placement in Riverside Park- where the narrator is mugged(?) at the beginning of the book by one of those criminals who only appears in the pages of literary fiction- yes, he points a gun at her, but he also cries and seems to be crying out for human contact.  Oh, the whimsy of authors of literary fiction.

This event happens in the first five pages of the book, after that Ellis- the 21 year old graduate student- spends the following 200 odd pages not getting over it.  And Now You Can Go was one of those novels that illustrates my complaints about much of American literary fiction- a young character, more or less privileged, who suffers a mild trauma and then absolutely can not get over it for the rest of the book.  It also embodies a frequent trope of American literary fiction, which is a whole cast of characters who behave like they've never worked a day in their life and can't actually understand how that happens.

  Getting back to the placement of this book in New York City- much of it takes places in San Francisco and the Philippines. Vida, the author, is a Bay Area gal through and through. A puzzling choice for such a rich geographic area for literature.

Daddy Was a Number Runner (1970) by Louise Merriweather

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Daddy Was a Number Runner (1970)

by Louis Merriweather

Harlem, New York City

New York: 47/105

Harlem: 12/14

   Daddy Was a Number Runner is another classic from the Harlem canon- the Audiobook wasn't published until 2022, so make that a bit of an underground classic.  It came complete with a scholarly afternote that placed the book in context and mentioned most of the other titles and authors that Susan Straight picked for this portion of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America list.   I've been really satisfied with her Harlem picks- it's been a who's who of Harlem lit and I've been surprised at how few of these books I've read.  This book is another bleak slice of life novel written from the perspective of Francine Coffin, a twelve year old girl living with her Mom, Dad and two older brothers in Harlem during the depression.   

   The Depression-era timeline is given as the reason for the father being unable to find work, forcing him into a job as a "numbers-runner" an early 20th century predecessor of the state lottery that was run by the mob... Dutch Schulz, to be exact.  A numbers runner was the person who collected the bets and money and ferried both to the mobsters who ran the game.  In this book, gambling is portrayed as pernicious a vice as drugs would be later- Francine's father not only works as a numbers runner, he spends all of this money and more on the game, hoping for "the big hit."

  Francine meanwhile has to dodge the day-to-day reality of being constantly molested by white men who come to Harlem for that purpose, and the wives of Jewish shopkeepers who want to exploit her for her labor by making her clean the outside of a window on the 10th floor of an apartment building.  White people, as represented by Jewish people, do not come off well in this book.

   It has been many Harlem Audiobooks.  Taxing! I've implemented a new guidelines which is no more 12/13 hour Audiobooks- 10 hours is the limit going forward.  I'd rather just read the book if the Audiobook is over 10 hours, unless it is super long, in which case I'd rather listen to the Audiobook (say over 30 hours). 

The Swan Book (2018) by Alexis Wright

 Book Review

The Swan Book (2018)

by Alexis Wright

  I was pretty impressed by Praiseworthy, by indigenous-Australian author Alexis Wright, and published this year.  I didn't love reading Praiseworthy, but I was still impressed because how often does a 672 page stream-of-consciouses'(multiple viewpoints) by an indigenous-Australian writer get picked up for American publication.  Just about never I'm thinking.  The ambition of an author writing in the 2020's who has the fucking balls to write a 670 page novel and hand it in.   It's just impressive and worthy of note.

  I've adopted a specific reading technique for technically challenging/lengthy works of literary fiction:  I don't really start paying close attention until I'm at least 10% through the Ebook/audiobook or 100 pages into a physical copy.  Maybe I don't entirely get what's going on, but with longer books that is often because there is some kind of preamble that doesn't tie to the main text and with technically challenging titles it's the lack of guideposts that create the confusion, so paying more attention isn't necessarily the answer. 

   That was an approach that really paid off in Praiseworthy and I also put it to use for The Swan Book, which is similarly challenging but not as long and is also about climate dystopia and child marriage.  I didn't get too upset about the fact that I had little idea what was going on for most of the book. There is a guy- and he is indigenous, but he is also like, the head of the Australian government, and there is like, a reservation-prison-nation for the indigenous people in Australia and there is a girl who lives in a polluted lake, and he goes there- the politician- and basically kidnaps her and forces her to marry him and then they go on a road trip into the Australian outback, and he destroys the indigenous reservation-prison-nation for some reason and then he gets murdered and his child-bride has to figure out what to do with herself. 

  At some point you get enough context so that the beginning of the book makes sense. Ive a great admiration for novels that use the complicating techniques of literary modernism in contemporary literary fiction but in the context of a blog its hard to recommend to a member of the general reading public, "Yeah, go out and read this book that hardly makes sense." Of course, it DOES make sense, but you have to read the whole book to figure it all out.

The Understory (2014) by Pamela Erens

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

The Understory (2014)

by Pamela Erens

The Ramble, Central Park, Manhattan

New York: 46/105

Manhattan: 5/34

   I'm moving north to south across the city of New York and within Manhattan I'm usually going east to west across whatever line of city blocks I happen to be reading at that point in time.  The divide between Harlem and Manhattan runs at the Jackie O Reservoir in Central Park with a gap of approximately 20 blocks, north to south, where there are no titles from the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America list.   The Understory is a quirky, little (200 pages), novel about Jack Gorse, an ex-lawyer with some kind of mental illness that prevents him from working, who gets evicted from his rent controlled New York City apartment because he illegally assumed the least from his deceased namesake, an Uncle. As a former lawyer, he drags out the process as long as possible, through not one but two suspicious fires.

   Gorse is that familiar figure of the New York City eccentric who has enough money (family trust where he only gets 500 a month in interest and can't touch the principle) to avoid abject destitution but not enough to say, survive getting evicted from his rent controlled New York City apartment.  Not to spoil the ending, such as it is, but it doesn't end well.  New York City is obsessed with rent. half-way through this chapter of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America and at least half of these books from New York City have rent involved in the plot somehow.  

Glorious Exploits (2024) by Ferdia Lennon

 Book Review

Glorious Exploits (2024)

by Ferdia Lennon

  Glorious Exploits was an Audiobook I checked out from the library (narrated by the author!) after I saw a couple of positive reviews and read the logline, "Athenian prisoners of war perform greek drama in Syracuse quarry pit."  Like Sparrow by James Hyne, Glorious Exploits is an attempt to tell a story shaped by contemporary literary fiction in a historic time period, here ancient Greece, (Well, Sicily anyway.) in Sparrow, it was ancient Rome.  It's a slight variation on the other recent trend in this area- retelling ancient myths from a new perspective, usually that of a female character.  Here, the narrator is a Syracusan citizen- proud but poor, who is just hanging out after the defeat of the invading Athenian army at the hands of the locals.  Instead of killing, ransoming or selling the Athenians into slavery, the Syracusans decide to dump the Athenians in a pit and slowly starve them to death.

   Lampo, the narrator, and Gelon are determined to carry this off for reasons that remain opaque but are somehow related to the death of Gelon's son at some point. Their fellow Syracusans reactions range from supportive to violent, and that generates much of the plot outside of the "We're putting on a show" bits.  I found Lampo engaging and quite enjoyed the voice of author Ferdia Lennon- it was like listening to a cheeky brit tell a compelling story about ancient Greece.  Glorious Exploits certainly was not "historical fiction" in the genre sense- there is talk or war, but only in the recent past, and there is some adventuring but it is limited to a late, third-act trip to the northern tip of Sicily.  It really was a refreshing change from the vast majority of literary fiction and I actually enjoyed the listening experience, often not true for literary fiction.

A New Name: Septology VI - VII (2021) by Jon Fosse

 Book Review

A New Name: Septology VI- VII (2021)

by Jon Fosse

   Great, great idea for an Audiobook since the whole series- I think- is a single sentence.  The hypnotic/mesmeric quality really comes through and I positively raced through this last, seven hour installment.   Having listened to all seven volumes I would support readers who say that it is really just a single, long book.  Although Fosse uses flashbacks, all seven books essentially detail a week or so in the life (maybe as short as three days?) of Norwegian painter Asle.  Asle is old, living alone on the southwest coast of Norway.  He is lost in his memories, even as he deals with the alcohol related hospitalization of his neighbor and only friend, Asleik.  In the flashback segments, much of his musings revolve around another Asle, also a painter, and also an alcoholic.  Narrator Asle is a non-drinker and Catholic convert and he talks about both those subjects:  Alcohol and religions, over and over again. 

    Besides telling this parallel story of the other Asle- or is he another Asle? a reader may well be asking themselves by the end of the Septology,  narrator Asle narrates his bildungsroman- which basically involves being recognized as a talented painter while still in primary school and then the work it takes to get narrator Asle to his current, long-term position as a nationally recognized painter.   So all seven books of the Septology construct this single, coherent narrative about narrator Asle and other Asle, with enough indeterminacy to raise the question in the mind of the reader whether they aren't one and the same, with narrator Asle using other Asle to segment out the more traumatic circumstances of his adult life- including the abandonment of his infant son and wife while still a student.

  I actually Googled that question- whether the "other Asle" is real or not, and I'll stand by my interpretation- I think narrator Asle has carved off this other Asle to handle his more personally painful memories/regrets and then constructed this master persona- narrator Asle. 

  That is it for me and 2023 Nobel Prize Winner Jon Fosse- no way I am going to be looking to read more books by him.  I don't have any other Nobel winners in mind at the moment, I just scrolled through the past two decades of winners and didn't see anyone who jumped out.  Maybe just wait for this years winner?