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Over Easter weekend I picked up “Breathers a Zombie’s Lament” by S.G. Browne. I wouldn’t say I’m a hardcore zombie genere lover/hater; I’m pretty impartial. What totally hooked me onto this book though was the blurb on the back. Sounded hilarious and I know it’s probably something my husband will read in the future. If not I will bother him ’til he does.
The basic storyline is this: man wakes up after a car crash to discover he’s a zombie (technically he’s been spontaneously resurrected). There’s been a strange influx of this and support groups have even been formed to help zombies through this transition. Our main character comes back to a life where zombies are treated with disgust and animosity and he’s dealing with the fact that he isn’t just dead like normal dead people.
I’m just starting Chapter 4 but the previous 3 chapters are funny as hell and I hope that continues throughout the rest of it.
Over the Easter weekend I finished reading “Choke” by Chuck Palahniuk. While the plot was meh in my opinion, the writing itself kept me interested enough to at least finish the book.
I despised the mom throughout the whole book. Understandably she’s crazy, but the depth of her craziness is astounding. Victor seems to have had it drilled into his head that he never deserved the kind of happiness he probably found/had in his foster homes and that’s why he always ran off to be with ‘the mommy’. The way he’s described as a little boy disturbed me as well. Constantly calling him a little stupid shit and pathetic boy just bothered me. Like he knew any different.
The amount of fake choking incidents actually presented in the book were few and far between. I got a feel for how he’s perfected the art of ‘choking’ and making sure he didn’t get stabbed in the neck to make room for a tube. But other than that, it seemed that the whole background was missing. The entire story just seemed full of holes and gave teasers on bits of his life but never fleshed them out. They were just small insights into his life that didn’t really help me understand why he was the way he was. How was it that after paige tells him that he allegedly came from the flesh of Christ that he bought into the fact that he was the Second Coming?
Needless to say I hated the book and much prefer “Diary” or “Lullaby”.
For my book club we started reading “Choke” this week. I’m on chapter 8 and I absolutely loathe this book. While after the first couple of chapters the story kind of picked up, I have zero sympathy for any of the characters. The main character, Victor, doesn’t seem to know what he wants truly out of the pathetic existence he calls a life and instead has come to rely on conning people in restaurants. I’m not even all that impressed about the reason why he’s doing this; to keep his unstable mother in a fancy home for the dying? His mother only speaks to him when he visits her under false pretenses; when he comes as himself she barely gives him the time of day before turning back to her soap operas; in disguise she’ll talk for hours and then complain about how Victor never comes to visit her, or when he does he doesn’t pay attention to her.
The latest (and most tangible) thing that I’ve noticed that drives me insane about this book is the incessant use of the phrase ” (insert any word here) isn’t the right word, but it’s the first word that comes to mind.” This phrase always seems to hang in the air and completely randomly. Once or twice it probably wouldn’t have bothered me; but I feel as if I’ve read it way too often in just eight chapters.
I’d heard from a friend that this isn’t one of his better books and I have to agree. Having read “Lullaby” and “Diary” I was expecting something….better and much more engrossing. But I will persevere and see what happens. Good thing I didn’t buy the book is all I can say at this point though.
Even though Yackle isn’t impressed with the arrival of the dwarf and his troupe, a part of her is irrevocably excited about the presence of the Time Clock. She knows that this strange machine has the ability to tell her what she needs to know; it and only it is her salvation. The dwarf isn’t super keen about giving Yackle what she wants, but the Dragon insists otherwise. Through a series of puppet shows it reveals the origins of both Brr and Yackle, the spy who had a hand in Fiyero’s death, and lastly, perhaps most shockingly, the location and brief history of the Grimmerie.
As far as the history goes, a wizard (not the fake Ozian kind, but a real wizard) brought the book into Oz and specifically to Kiamo Ko for safekeeping. This begs the question of who exactly this wizard is and why he believed that Oz would be a good place to keep such a powerful book in safekeeping. Is it because it takes very special and specific talent to read the book? In the play Elphaba seemed to be the only one who could translate a good portion of the book easily; although someone (was it Madame Morrible?) was intelligent enough to translate the winged monkeys spell; if I remember correctly in the book version, Elphaba was just starting to understand the book and its contents. Interesting things to consider.
Before I give away too much more, I’ll just wrap up saying that I really enjoyed this third installment. I breezed through the book in a few days and was enraptured the entire time. It’s inspired me to reread “Son of a Witch” and I’m hoping that having read the first and third book I’ll gain something new from it. I’m also hoping that a second read through will make me like it more than originally.
Not only that but tomorrow I start reading “Choke” by Chuck Palahniuk for my book club. I’ve been interested in reading it for some time but other things have always come up. 
Someone said that it isn’t his best book, but we’ll see.
This is the second time that wordpress has cut me off on my writing and didn’t bother letting me know ’til after I published. More paragraphs completely gone and now I have to rethink of everything I just wrote. *argh* And what’s weird is the first time I got up to 2000 some words before it cut me off; this time I was at a measly 1200 words and it cut me off. *sigh* Alright, I’ll begin again with the ending paragraphs of my review.
I just finished reading “A Lion Among Men” and am sincerely starved for more. There’s a whole ‘nother story begging to be told and I’m anxious to find out if it ever will be.
This third installment in the “Wicked” series focuses its attentions on Brr, the lion who was first introduced as a frightened little cub in Doctor Nikdik’s classroom. No longer a cub, but a year or two old, he wanders about The Great Gillikin Forest. It is here that he first encounters language and humans and death. Religious sects (notably Lurlinists) stole away to the heart of the woods to sing their songs and praise their heathen god. When the hunters came in, the Lion took in accounts of stalking a prey and a kind of kinship.
Blundering about, Brr steps on a fallen hunter. He’s been caught in his own trap and is waiting to die; despite his cries and pleas for help, no one has come back or even noticed his disappearance. This young man begs the Lion to help him and even tries to entice him with the gift of books and a bag. Slow-witted the Lion does not adhere to the human’s requests but does what he judges to be right; which is to simply lay by the dying man and make a promise. Here the Lion’s road to his cowardly namesake begins.
A series of mishaps and misunderstandings (mostly on the Lion’s view of the world and how to handle it) ousts Brr from any social circle, be it human or animal/Animal. His fumbling grasp of conversation structure (for instance the overuse of the word very) and lack of sustainable knowledge keeps him from fully integrating anywhere. It is for these very reasons that Brr now finds himself in the employ of Oz. His job is to track down any and all information about the magical book The Grimmerie and bring it back to Oz. His initial search brings up the single name of Yackle, a now elderly maunt at the Cloister of St. Glinda’s. Between the two, a most engaging story emerges.
For the most part Yackle plays the unwilling witness. It serves no purpose for her to answer Brr’s questions or to become involved in some Ozian quest for knowledge. She barters for what she knows, and even then the bargain is imbalanced. Yackle only delivers when she’s been satisfied; and for the most part, she appears quite insatiable for the Lion’s backstory. He admits to her all the shames of his youth that, while having been on public record, had been put there by his persecutors. “Guilt by association-or hero by popular clamor, depending on which political hack was retailing the events” (pg. 157; also sounds like a line from the song “Wonderful” in the musical). After feeling as if he’s let on more than he remembered saying aloud, Brr demands some retribution from the alleged oracle. He’s here for information and he’s going to get it one way or the other.
Seemingly amused, and knowing she has the power to say as much as she feels like, Yackle lets on a few juicy tidbits. Her earliest memory was of awakening on a bed naked, old and seemingly arthritic. No past to dwell upon or childhood to ponder upon, she slowly slipped into the outskirts of society. Much like the Lion she clung to the edges of life and simply observed ’til she caught on enough of the ways of life to begin integrating herself in a different way. She stole her name off of a printed picture that featured the mythologies of the Kumbric Witch and Lurlina herself. A few years into her business as an accalimed ’seer/orcale’, Cattery Spunge (aka Nanny) pays her a visit. At the mention of Elphaba and the presentation of the green elixir bottle, something happens in Yackle’s consciousness. Whether it was a combination of this and her sip of the elixir itself that caused her vision, we’ll never know; but Yackle’s very first vision happened at this moment. Several decades later, Yackle has no answers as to what it all meant. Here she breaks for ‘evening prayers’ and leaves the Lion to ruminate.
When Brr thinks back to his short time spent with Dorothy, I found a few things interesting. I know that in the original “Wonderful Wizard of Oz” Dorothy describes her life in Kansas as dull and bleak and mostly gray. Very depressing to think about. In Gregory Maguire’s book, Dorothy describes herself as not even kin of Auntie Em and Uncle Henry, but as a child sent by an orphanage to help with the farm. I’m not sure which one is more depressing. According to the original, the lion, the tin woodman, the scarecrow, and Dorothy all saw the Wizard in various forms. While the tin woodman’s and scarecrow’s visions are not mentioned here, it was curious to read that Dorothy (same as always) saw a big head while the Lion saw pure shining light emanating from the ceiling. Almost glibly the voice asks if he’s come to request courage; about as glibly back the Lion replies that he’s actually looking for a job. Now that the foursome have been asked to kill the Wicked Witch of the West, Dorothy adamantly says she’ll do anything as long as it gets her back to Kansas. The Tin Woodman ironically calls her heartless for being willing to do so ugly of a job.
In a sidestory, the Clock of the Time Dragon makes another reappearance. Its main leader is a dwarf who is accompanied by 7 other little men (I don’t think they are ever called dwarves/munchkins/trolls outright) and by a newcomer, a girl. Complete mystery shrouds her and little things cause you to question if she is/isn’t someone you remember from a previous story. I won’t give anything away, but of the puzzling tidbits about her is her self-mutilation of her genitals and her espionage work. And, just as a silly tidbit, I thought her reference to Snow White and the 7 Dwarves funny. “She thought, not for the first time, This little man, these seven boys; It sounds like a story I might have made up back when I was writing down such fancies” pg. 223.
After Yackle comes back from her evening prayers, she deems the interview postponed ’til morning. Brr tosses and turns from dreams, visions and memories. When he arises, he is more determined than before to get the full story and get the hell out before the cloister is bothered by the ongoing battle surrounding them. At this moment though, a person from Yackle’s past arrives with the biggest threat to the Unionist faith. While there is no love lost between the old lady and the dwarf, it decides Yackle’s mind about her interview with the Emerald City lackey. “I’m not going to trust any dwarf with this matter; his allegiance is already pledged” p. 250. During this round of questioning with the Lion, Yackle gives a bit more although still holding back certain bits and pieces ’til he begins to press the matter. She reveals the secret of Candle and Liir’s love child and also that she has no more of an idea where The Grimmerie is than he does.
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