I have no confirmed reservation, and I must scream

[rezendi]

trapped in Auckland airport an unexpected 75 minutes (at least) due to wonky fan belt on one of the 747's engines. I didn't even know jet engines had fan belts.

to kill time, brief reviews of books read so far this trip:

ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Mark Twain - magical, wonderful, superb, up to the last 50 pages where Tom Sawyer shows up and the whole thing falls apart.

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE, JK Rowling - mmm. mind candy.

STARDUST, Neil Gaiman - excellent. miles better than NEVERWHERE.

THE BONE PEOPLE, Keri Hulme - was suspicious at first due to wish-fulfillment protagonist (name almost identical to author's; fabulously wealthy, genius painter and musician and seawoman and hunter and cook, expert martial artist who can dispatch six simultaneous attackers without breaking a sweat, whose Tragic Flaw is that she drinks because her family misunderstands her. I mean, really.) but warmed to it eventually, because the story and characters are mostly compelling and it's really beautifully written.

THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT, Oliver Sacks - absolutely fascinating, as much for where he seems obtuse as where he seems perceptive.

FROM A BUICK 8, Stephen King - starts off great, and ends OK. At his best - for me, IT, SALEM'S LOT, BAG OF BONES, EYE OF THE DRAGON, and a bunch of short stories - King is as good a writer as you can find. At his worst, say DREAMCATCHER or CHRISTINE, he's still readable. This is a mid-tier fast-food book; tastes great going down, but leaves you feeling curiously hollow. Gets bonus points for not being set in Maine.

THE LOSERS, David Edding - mainstream, not fantasy. picked it up for a buck. A weirdly fascinating train-wreck of a book. Shows quite clearly why sixtysomething writers shouldn't have protagonists in their early twenties unless they're better at inhabiting other skins than Eddings. Pissed me off repeatedly - it's basically an anti-welfare state novel, which is fine, but in a vicious, narrow-minded, mean-spirited, bad-pop-psychology way. Intensely anti-sex to the point I got a little weirded out by it. Good enough to infuriate, I suppose, which is something; I read it (just a few hours ago) in one sitting.

up next: THE MERCHANTS' WAR (sequel to THE SPACE MERCHANTS, arguably the most incredibly foresighted science fiction novel of all time; I expect disaster but love TSM so passionately that I couldn't turn it down) and then FALL ON YOUR KNEES, by Anne-Marie McDonald.

update: flight delay is now 3 hours, and counting...

Comments

[papersky.livejournal.com]

While everything you say about THE BONE PEOPLE is true, her tragic flaw is actually that she's lost her muse -- oh, and she is asexual, and she has something that may be cancer. So I think she has all that other stuff at the beginning quite specifically to show that it doesn't matter how much other stuff you have if you can't write. Well, OK, draw in her case.

The first time I read it I was in my early 20s, it had just won the Booker, I read it on a train, and it just poleaxed me, beautiful writing and very difficult themes and the three of them as characters. I identified with Simon. I've re-read it a number of times and got more out of it every time, it's now got to the point where if there weren't bits of it that are so distressing it would almost be a comfort book.

[rezendi.livejournal.com]

You identified with Simon? Wow. I mean, you're, like, all wordy and stuff. (Granted, Simon is arguably the most expressive mute character in the history of the written word.)

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

OK, people have been telling me for years how wonderful The Bone People is. You two have been the final straw; I have just succumbed and ordered it from Amazon.

[agntprovocateur.livejournal.com]

up to the last 50 pages where Tom Sawyer shows up and the whole thing falls apart.- just the the movie version of league of extraordinary gentlemen, heh

the kiddie and i are in the middle of "order of the Phoenix". the third book, prisoner of azkabhan is even better. we watched the League OEG together and now she *really* wants me to read Picture of Dorian Gray and Dracula to her. not sure if i'm ready to do that ..... but, i admire her tenacity.

[karma-salmon.livejournal.com]

STARDUST, Neil Gaiman - excellent. miles better than NEVERWHERE.

You're the first person I've known to think that... usually I hear the reverse.

Condolences on the flight delay.

[m4dh4tt3r.livejournal.com]

absolutely fascinating

these words always remind me of air america (http://www.air-america.org/) because of this quote: "Doole's pilots, who flew in and out of tiny jungle fields in abysmal weather and sometimes under enemy fire, were a raffish lot. They referred to the CIA as 'the customer,' the ammunition they dropped as 'hard rice' and being under heavy fire as 'sporty.' Brushes with death were described as 'fascinating.' To be 'absolutely fascinated' meant scared witless."

some good stories on the web site.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

There are better Sacks books, I think, but I am a huge Oliver Sacks junkie. Of course, I have a personal interest, and honestly don't know what someone with a perfectly normal brain and no junkie interest in neurology might want from such a book.