book comments 21

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
--story of how a man and his son fight to survive in a post-apocalyptic world
--SO vivid
--excellent characterization in minimalist style
--Each sentence draws your attention, your thoughts, your heart on to the next sentence.
--McCarthy has a broad, elegant, lovely vocabulary; I loved the challenge of looking up some of his words:
chary, intestate, shrunken, ensepulchred, davits, sludge, swag, excelsior, loess, torsional, vermiculate
--also the word "illucid," which I think he made up; and crozzled, which seems to be a term from northeastern dialects
--McCarthy is one of my new favorites, if for no other reason than vocabulary. ;o)
--UPDA
--highly recommend

"House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski
--literally the WEIRDEST book I've ever read
--structured something like this:

[[[the story of Johnny (told mostly in footnotes), who reads Zampano's book and starts going crazy as a result <<<the non-fiction book written by crazy (?) old man Zampano (who is blind) *about* Will's movie and house {{{the "home movie" shot by professional photographer Will, whose house is larger on the inside than on the outside; the more he explores, the larger and more labyrinthine it gets--and there's something lurking in it}}} the non-fiction book written by crazy (?) old man Zampano (who is blind) *about* Will's movie and house>>> the story of Johnny (told mostly in footnotes), who reads Zampano's book and starts going crazy as a result]]]

And if you followed that synopsis, you have a pretty good idea of what it was like to read this novel.
--parts of it are in color
--parts of it are missing
--parts of it are written backwards
--parts of it are upside down, so you have to turn the whole book upside down to read it
--The book is structured like the house itself.
--This was a hard, challenging read.
--vulgar language
--recommend, but read at your own risk

"Mister B. Gone" by Clive Barker
--story of Jakabok Botch, a demon from the Ninth Circle of Hell, who tells about his (mis)adventures on Earth
--guest starring Johannes Gutenberg
--fun, fast read, seemingly light-hearted but with darker undertones
--not for the faint of stomach
--reminiscent of C.S. Lewis's "Screwtape Letters"; difference is that the demon addresses the reader
--My second Barker read; the first was 12 years ago. I think I'm ready for more.
--UPDA
--recommend

2009 Book Count To-Date: 42. Ahhh....The Answer. ;oD