Flynn’s World by Gregory McDonald

Flynn, a spinoff character from the Fletch novels is back in a heavy-handed thinly-veiled dissertation of the author’s philosophical beliefs, full of straw men and deus ex machina.

I’m not saying I disagree with what he’s trying to say but I almost want to with the way this light mystery novel shoves it down my throat.

Best I can figure, McDonald wanted to add an extra bedroom on his ranch or something, so he whipped this sucker out. By far the weakest of any novel he’s ever written.

But also… short.

The Magic Labyrinth, book 5 4 of the Riverworld Series, by Philip Jose Farmer

Well, that’s over with. Actually, no it’s not.

So, spoilers here, because I’m going to complain.

spoilers

The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights) By Philip Pullman

“I’d hire myself an armored bear.” – Sam Elliot

I saw the trailer for the upcoming The Golden Compass adaptation (opens Dec 7), and decided this looked like an interesting story. Reviews compared if favorably with the The Chronicles of Narnia and a small buzz has been created about this trilogy being an atheist’s answer to the 9-part Narnia series.

The original British title was Northern Lights, but for some reason was released as The Golden Compass in the U.S. Honestly, I think Compass is the more intriguing title.

The first book has a nice texture to it that should lend well to the film, a little bit fantasy and a little bit steampunk. The writing is engaging and the universe of the Compass is believable.

One of the fundamental premises is that the “souls” of people in this world are actually instantiated in a physical animal known as a daemon. The daemons travel with you and act as confidant and “soulmate”. A person’s character is reflected in the form the daemon takes. (Servants usually have dogs as their daemon). Children’s daemons shape shift constantly as their personalities are in development.

I was talking with terracinque about this first book, and we both agreed that if Mr. Pullman did anything well (and he did many things well) he communicated the relationship of person and daemon very clearly and made us care about it.

The only downside to this book is that is very clearly only part of a story. Whereas The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, for example, could comfortably stand on its own, we are not through with the story of Compass at the end and many things are left unexplained.

As for the reported anti-Christian rhetoric, the first book has little. There is a Science vs. The Church theme which will undoubtedly develop further in the coming books. My impression is this is less anti-religion and more anti-dogma.

Good read. I look forward to the film.

First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde

The fifth Thursday Next novel.

Fforde turns self-reference up to 11 as Thursday Next is training innacurately-written fictional Thursday Nexts from the first five books (including the non-existent The Samuel Pepys Fiasco) to become Jurisfiction Agents, with a subplot about time travel.

Enjoyable mind candy.

Comedy By The Numbers: The 169 Secrets of Humor and Popularity by Prof. Eric Hoffman & Dr. Gary Rudoren

Bleh.

I ordered this when McSweeney’s had their big “we’re going to go out of business” half-price sale. So, the nicest thing I can say is that I did my part to help keep McSweeney’s going.

The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith and illustrated by Weedon Grossmith

I mentioned in a previous Book Log that these authors were listed by Nick Hornby alongside P.G. Wodehouse as comic greats. The only book I found that they collaborated on was Diary of a Nobody, though George wrote others. I downloaded this book onto my Palm via Project Gutenberg¹.

First published as a magazine series in 1888, I have to quote Homer Simpson to describe it: “It’s just a bunch of stuff that happened.”

In essence, I don’t get it. There’s a website of commentary and critique, in some places calling it a work of genius. All I see is a not particularly witty account of a life of no consequence. Admittedly, one could not claim false advertising considering the title. But from a narrative point of view, there doesn’t seem to be a point.

Perhaps that’s the joke.

Though it is reportedly the only work by the authors that live on with any popularity, the brothers never commented on it publicly. Early reviews are pretty much in line with my opinion (not very funny, not very interesting) and that may explain why they didn’t talk much about it.

Of note, though, is that Diary is thought to have coined several terms in popular usage and adjusted the meaning of the word “posh” (after the character Murray Posh, a rich and successful person) to its present day definition. ‘blithering idiot,’ ‘bread-pills,’ ‘bussing,’ ‘cert’ and ‘chuck’ have references to Diary in the OED. “Pooter” and “Pooterish”, meaning taking oneself excessively seriously, comes from the main character (the nobody), Charles Pooter. I’ve never heard the term, but I guess it’s all the rage at the OED.

I am sometimes disturbed when I don’t appreciate a “classic”, believing for a moment that I must be missing something. And then I remember Lord of the Rings and realize that no, everyone else can get it wrong.

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¹ I have just noticed that there is a fair number of P.G. Wodehouse stories on that site. a-HA!

The Dark Design by Philip Jose Farmer (third book in the Riverworld Series)

I’ve already documented the possible familial ties I have to Mr. Farmer.

In the Riverworld, a planet of one long river valley with sides so high they cannot be climbed, everyone who ever lived is reincarnated at age 25 with no disease or aging, and all needs taken care of. The throughline story is: why? and, how? And, by whom?

In the second book, Samuel Clemens built a Fabulous Riverboat to get to the head of the River, had it stolen by King John, then built another one. Then everyone said, hey, wait a minute… how about a blimp?

In this book, they built a blimp or two. And drove it to the mysterious tower at the pole of the world. And we’re still not completely sure what’s going on. We have rumors.

Book 4, on it’s way via PaperBackSwap.com, promises to provide all the answers.

We shall see.

The Adrian Mole Diaries by Sue Townsend
(Compilation of the first two Adrian Mole novels, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 and The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole.)

I have no idea why I ended up reading this book.

Well, some. But I can’t reconstruct the process completely.

It started with this line from Housekeeping Vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby:

I haven’t read James Wood’s collection of essays The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel, but I’m counting on Woody to provide a useful counterbalance to that sort of high moral seriousness. So I’m presuming that all of the comic greats– P.G. Wodehouse, the Molesworth books, George and Weedon Grossmith, and so on– are present and correct between its covers.

So, here Nick Hornby, who holds Wodehouse in as high esteem as I do (if not more), has listed some other authors in the same list of comic greats. So, I investigated.

Researching today, the Molesworth books appear to be a series of classic illustrated children’s books. J.K. Rowling got the name of “Hogwarts” from these books.

The Grossmiths worked together on a novel in the late 1800s called The Diary of a Nobody. The main character is Charles Pooter, his son’s name is Lupin. Another J.K. Rowling reference?

Somehow, though, in my original research, I ended up requesting a copy of The Adrian Mole Diaries from PaperBackSwap.com. I’m not sure how that happened, but regardless, it was a good read, though intended for young adults. Another J.K. Rowling thing.

Written in diary format, (a popular British style, to be sure) it tells the story of a young obsessive-compulsive would-be-intellectual boy’s experiences in a dysfunctional family. My favorite excerpt:

SUNDAY MAY 9TH
FOURTH AFTER EASTER, MOTHER’S DAY (USA AND CANADA)
I have just realized that I have never seen a dead body or a real female nipple. This is what comes of living in a culs-de-sac.

Very witty, and true. I grew up in a culs-de-sac, and had seen neither of those things by age 13 3/4 either.

There are later books documenting Adrian’s life at various stages:

# The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole (more teenage years)
# Adrian Mole and the Small Amphibians (more teenage years)
# Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years (aged 23 3/4 years)
# Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (aged 30 years)
# Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction (aged 33 3/4 years)

The last book is set in 2002, so Adrian is roughly my age. Though, in British years, he may be older. I’m not sure of the conversion rate.