I was so disappointed to read about the new release of one of my favorite authors, Justin Cronin. His books The Summer Guest and Mary and O'Neil are lovely, just lovely. The Summer Guest is definitely great American novel material and Blue Gal highly recommended.
Now he's come out with an 800 page dystopian novel about...vampires. Sigh. Also before it was a novel it was the subject of a movie rights bidding war. Well of course it was. I'm delighted that the author of two lovely little books gets almost two million bucks out of his career, but at that cost it makes me weep.
I kept The Passage on my radar. Several reviews said,"if you read the first chapter you will not want to put it down."
Today I read the first chapter. The reviews are right. Damn he's a good writer.
So I know what I'm going to be reading for...the rest of the summer. Son of a bitch weighs a ton, too. (and no I'm not reading it on a fucking Kindle. I don't need a meth delivery system for my book addiction, which is what those things are, plain and simple.)
It's the best first chapter I've read in a very long time. Heartbreaking and real and compelling. And I fucking hate that this LITERARY novel has a fucking iPhone App.
Silver Lining: Beach readers will be reading more than a bestseller, they will be reading something by an actual good writer, which still exists in the U S of A, amen.
Oh BG that is funny as hell photoshopping!
ReplyDeleteI've heard nothing but good stuff about this book. I wonder how long the hold line for it is at the library.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'd better break down and buy this one.
Ha! I'm reading the very funny Christopher Moore Vampire books this summer - mos def not lit, but laugh out loud funny:
ReplyDeleteBloodsucking Fiends
You Suck!
Bite Me!
(Last summer I read his book Fool, and it is one of the best and funny takes on Shakespeare; his work is absolutely wonderful vacation reading.)
Regards,
Tengrain
PS - don't go hatin' on Apple, they don't make the apps. It came from Justin Cronin's publisher. It would be like hating your bookstore for selling the book, it doesn't make any sense.
I'll take that part out Tengrain but you know MY post-apocalyptic novel is going to be how the world ends but no one notices because they're too busy playing solo Scrabble on their handheld touchscreen telephones.
ReplyDeleteI eat dystopian stuff up with a spoon anyway, but I really loved the Passage. It took me a week to read it, but I take the bus and use bus time as my chance to read actual books. (I'm anti-electronic reader, too--what do you do in a blackout, if that's where all your books are?)
ReplyDeleteThe "vampire" thing is deceptive--it's certainly not Anne Rice's old stuff, True Blood, or Twilight. I'm going to track down Justin Cronin's earlier novels. He really applied a lot of sensitivity and intelligence to this material.
(I'm @greeneyedlilo at Twitter, BTW.)
My local library system has 16 copies and 156 hold requests. Maybe that's a clue to head for a bookstore.
ReplyDeleteBG -
ReplyDeleteNow THAT is a great reason to hate Apple and the other makers of so many hand-held devices.
Everytime I ride on Muni in SF, I get body slammed by some zombie too busy playing freakin' Farmville to watch where they are going.
Cause and effect, baby. Cause and effect.
Regards,
TG
Duly noted: adding all of these to my library queue.
ReplyDeleteme too library go. I'm reading 'Our Gang' -Roth -funny
ReplyDelete