Week 26: American Skin, by Don DeGrazia

American Skin is a novel loosely based on the life of its author, Don DeGrazia. It’s the story of Alex Verdi, a teenager who finds his life completely uprooted when his hippie parents get busted for dealing pot. In a single day, finds the family farm ransacked and one of their dogs shot, and his parents and little sister are nowhere to be found and presumably in police custody. He makes a split decision to run away from the bucolic Illinois town he lives in and head for Chicago. Alex is a smart, savvy kid, and he quickly gets a factory job and moves into the Y. Just as quickly, he is indoctrinated to city life by way of multiple muggings. He manages to learn from them and becomes incrementally more street-smart. One day on the subway, he is on the verge of a tussle with a few thugs when a group of skinheads come to his aid. Alex spends a night hanging out with them and they take him under his wing. He befriends Timmy, who helps manage a local music venue/club that provides a living space for many of the skins. Later on, when Alex loses his job, he takes Timmy up on his offer to move in. And so begins Alex’s initiation into skinhead culture – not Nazi skinheads, but the skinheads who listen to punk and ska music and are proponents of racial equality. These “good” skins are constantly fighting with the “bad” skins (the ones that are more into white power and all that). A brief history of skinhead/punk history ensues, and it’s pretty entertaining to read about it all playing out at the club with its cast of colorful characters. Alex’s current adventures are subtly shaped by his upbringing, as the reader sees how snippets from his past influence him in different ways. His longing for his family, or any family, is touching at many points. He silently carries around his past, never sharing the whole truth with any of his new friends. As life circuitously brings him from the club to the Army (enlisted by force after breaking the law) to Northwestern University (pretending to be a student to impress a girl), one finds his evolution from boy to man half inspiring and half sad. The reader will undoubtedly be rooting for Alex’s sweet yet tough persona, as well as all of the other hysterical, realistic characters. The book is slightly campy, but always entertaining; a great summer read.

Week 25: Lord of the Flies, by Wiliam Golding

OK, as mentioned in my previous post, I need to hustle through this review because it's the Friday before the Fourth of July, and I'm running late. But in an attempt to not fall behind on the blog too badly, I thought I would squeeze this post in. There's a lot of things to say about this book. And I think the first thing is: "WTF? Thanks, Golding, I'm totally creeped out now and terrified." I mean, look at this book cover! Could it get more disturbing? Plus, I took this book to a camping trip ON AN ISLAND. Ooh, how fitting and perfect for my island camping trip! Well, I sure was singing a different tune lying in my tent at night thinking about a gang of little boys chanting "kill the pig spill her blood", etc. For some reason, I had not read this book growing up like most adults nowadays. It was interesting to observe elements of the book that have been borrowed in pop culture today. For instance, everything about the show Lost?! For those unfamiliar with the plot, it revolves around a group of little boys who were in a plane crash and end up on a deserted island. Their attempts to fend for themselves and create order are successful until suddenly, they aren't. The deterioration of their society is pretty harrowing. The various personalities of the boys play out in ways that might initially be predicted, but hoped against. It's incredibly sharp commentary on what it means to be part of a community, and how that distills down into simple survival mode, as the boys revert back to a more primal nature. It's never maudlin or overly done; it's understated in a way that makes it more compelling. An important, thought-provoking book.

Week 24: AM/PM, by Amelia Gray

It’s almost time to leave work before the holiday weekend, so I will keep this brief. Very brief. And perhaps this is fitting, considering the nature of this book. AM/PM is a collection of short stories that are loosely connected to each other. At times, the stories are no more than a few sentences. Other times, they are a little longer, but not by much. No matter the length of them, they are all concentrated down into potent little vignettes. They can be moving, or abstract, and they are filled with interesting characters. For example, one vein of stories concerns itself with a personified John Mayer concert t-shirt. Another involves two people who are stuck inside a box. It was really fun to read about this quirky cast, and it was a reminder that sometimes less is more. Like this review.

Week 23: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This is one of those books that many people read in high school, but for whatever reason, I had never read it. Part of my motivation for taking on this reading challenge was to make time for these sorts of books and cross them off of my “to-read” list. I’m a big fan of Fitzgerald. Prior to The Great Gatsby, I had read Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and Damned, and I really enjoyed it. The two books are similar in that they both tell the stories of people in America’s cosmopolitan upper class. They both feature the same snarky, decadent undertones that I find delightful and highly entertaining. The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway, a young man who lives in a wealthy are of Long Island called West Egg. His cousin, Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom, live in nearby East Egg, which is equally wealthy but more glamorous. Through them, Nick meets Jordan Baker, a friend of Daisy. The four of them become friends and partake in an indulgent lifestyle that consists primarily of drinking, lounging around, and occasionally venturing into Manhattan. It’s not long before Jordan tells Nick about Jay Gatsby, an enigmatic man who turns out to be Nick’s neighbor in West Egg. Nick has seen lavish parties taking place at Gatsby’s mansion across from his house. He soon finds himself at one of these parties and is swept up in the grandeur of the event, not to mention the stylish and beautiful partygoers in attendance. He meets Gatsby, and they become friends. As their friendship grows, Nick finds himself becoming intrigued by Gatsby’s enigmatic life. He is unable to really discern exactly what Gatsby does, or what his origins are. In the midst of all this, we learn of Tom’s extramarital affair, and Nick and Jordan become more than just friends. As Gatsby’s story emerges, we learn more about his true history and his deeper connection to Daisy. It’s like the book version of the show Gossip Girl – all these fabulous, beautiful, rich people and the petty dramas that infiltrate their lives. One could make the observation that their lives are devoid of any real moral substance, but that’s part of the appeal of reading about them.

Week 22: Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem

Looking for my next book to read, I plucked Motherless Brooklyn off of our bookshelf, and squinted at the author’s name. Jonathan Lethem. I knew I had heard that name before. Flipping through the first few pages, I looked at the author’s list of works. Aha! Lethem wrote Amnesia Moon, a book that I read in my book club a while back, a book that I loathed. A book that I considered to be one of the worst I’ve ever read. I nearly put Motherless Brooklyn down immediately, but Jamie, the book’s owner, assured me that it was decent. So I had a go at it. The story revolves around Lionel Essrog, a man in his thirties in New York City, who is part of a mafia-esque organization. Frank Minna, the leader of this – for lack of a better word – gang, took several Brooklyn orphans under his wing back in the day. Minna became a father figure to these errant kids and introduced them into the gang, allowing them to make some money under the table by helping him out with various “projects”. One of these orphans was Lionel, who differed from the rest because he has Tourette’s syndrome. Despite Lionel’s frequent and often embarrassing outbursts, Minna cares about Lionel and believes in him. As the years pass, the orphans grow up and become known as the “Minna Men”, and the orphans find themselves in a pieced-together family at last. However, their lives are changed when Minna is murdered and the men are left without their leader. Lionel takes it upon himself to find Minna’s killer, shirking the order of the gang and flouting the authority of the higher-ups. He becomes a makeshift detective and vows to figure out what happened to the man who was the only father he had ever known. The book is thoroughly entertaining and endearing, and the reader gets a real sense of the love between these men. Add to that Lionel’s Tourette’s syndrome, and the book takes on a whole new level of ambition. Lethem is incredibly successful in portraying Tourette’s via the printed word. At times, it’s uncomfortable to read, because it’s so realistic. You can almost hear the stammering and shrieking, almost see Lionel tapping someone’s shoulder six times during one of his tics. Where the book falters is in its caricature-like depiction of “mob life”. Most of the time, it’s merely mediocre; sometimes, it’s just plain silly. Some of the other characters, as well (most notably a young woman with the unfortunate name of “Kimmery”), are one-dimensional and not believable. There are also a couple of chapters that throw in a few abstract, weirdly formatted sentences on a page – how edgy! It’s a shame, because Motherless Brooklyn has flashes of subtle beauty and truly touching moments. The book accurately conveys the acute loneliness of both growing up without a family and living with a mental illness. But overall, the impact of the story is diluted by gimmicks. After reading this book and Amnesia Moon, I think Lethem still needs to mature a bit as a writer. Motherless Brooklyn is definitely a step up, though, and overall, I enjoyed it.

Week 21: The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore

The Walking Dead comics series is apparently what the popular television show is based on. I had never seen it before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. This book is the collection of the first six comics in the series. It opens with a gunfight in which Rick Grimes, a police officer, is shot by a criminal while his friend and partner Shane looks on. Rick awakens in a hospital several weeks later, emerging from a coma that he had slipped into as a result of his injuries. He is unable to find a doctor and he quickly realizes that there is no one else in the hospital besides him. Stumbling upon a boarded-up door to the cafeteria, he opens it to find a throng of half-dead zombies. They are horrifyingly gory and immediately attempt to grab Rick and feast on his flesh. He manages to escape and sets out on a mission to figure out what’s going on. Outside of the hospital, he encounters more zombies, but no other human beings. After taking an abandoned bike, he returns to his home to find his wife and son missing. A neighbor helps get him to the police station where he suits up, takes one of the cruisers, and embarks on a trip to try to find his family. The story follows him as he learns how to navigate this new world and starts to get the hang of how to deal with zombies. What happened to the world while Rick lay in a coma is never explicitly explained, but the reader starts to understand more and more as the story progresses. Like any post-apocalyptic tale, there is a certain innate fear that is triggered by the thought of a scenario like this. It’s impossible not to think what one’s own self would do if the world suddenly fell apart. Perhaps a story like this can even serve to make us appreciate our lives a little more, even if zombies probably aren’t knocking down our door anytime soon. The humanity of the story really shines through to make this story rather moving and engaging.

Week 20: Bike Snob: Systematically & Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling

This book was written by the Bike Snob, a New York City-based anonymous writer whose blog is a delightful buffet of snark directed at all types of bike riders. He is a former bike messenger who also races, and has built up many years of experience in the saddle. Since riding a bike has garnered a certain trendiness as of late, he comments mostly on bike culture, and does not hesitate to poke fun at any sort of foofy cyclist. He doesn’t discriminate, whether it be hipsters on fixies or spandex clownsuits on expensive road bikes. He has coined several awesome bike terms, such as “bike salmon” (riders who ride the wrong way down streets) and he has whipped up profiles of common types of riders. His observations on urban cycling ring true for anyone who bikes around town, making his blog pretty successful amongst riders. This book is a primer of sorts, and introduction to some basic Bike Snob tenets that will definitely make any cyclist laugh. Here’s an example of his thoughts on “Contraption Captains” – people who ride recumbent bikes.

“The recumbent strikes fear into the hearts of nearly every non-recumbent-riding cyclist. If you've ever seen a dog growl at a plastic bag caught in a shrub because the dog thinks it might be some kind of weird animal, then you understand the reaction. Cyclists all notice one another, so when we see something that looks somewhat like a bicycle yet places the rider in an odd position with his feet kicking at the air as if he's defending himself from an attacking eagle, we become confused and disoriented.”

In addition to acquainting the reader with various types of riders, the Bike Snob also summarizes the basic components of the bicycle, why it’s important to learn some easy repairs, and how to bike in traffic. His attitude about biking is pretty simple. He advocates simply riding your bike and not thinking too much about it or getting too caught up in the aesthetics of it all. He’s lax on wearing helmets or following traffic rules, which I take issue with, but he never fails to stress common sense when riding. He also includes some photos of very silly bikes and picks them apart mercilessly. The book is wicked funny and worth reading if you are into bikes even a tiny bit. I finished it with a smile, feeling excited to hop on my bike again.