Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

I can hardly presume to write a review about such an obvious classic. This was certainly a good one, although seemed a bit long - but there was ultimately a positive resolution, so that made it worthwhile. Of course Amelia is a sweet lady and deserves her happy ending (as does patient, faithful Dobbin)... but Becky is so much more entertaining! so I'm glad she made it to the end as well. I need to see the recent movie version, but I'm glad I did read the book first... I don't see how any movie could effectively work in all the unspoken elements, like the characters' feelings and thoughts, and the author's funny little digressions. I thought Thackeray had excellent (and amusing) insights about human nature. Really, it's not the story itself, but the way that it's told that makes it a great work of literature.

His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman (re-read)

I've just re-read Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and, as always, cried at the end. I felt compelled to pick up The Golden Compass the day I came home from seeing the third Pirates of the Caribbean installment, in order to purge that disappointing trash from my mind. (It didn't work! Come on, they KILLED ORLANDO BLOOM! I don't care if he's still technically alive, since Will's gory heart is in that stinky old wooden chest with Elizabeth on that island... THEY KILLED THE MAIN LOVE INTEREST IN THE TRILOGY! What a horrible idea! Not to mention that they also killed off Norrington! WAY TO GO, DISNEY!!)

Anyway... The film version of Compass is due out at the end of this year, and I'm hopeful that this wonderful story will come across well on the big screen. I think many of the elements would be difficult to convey visually - like the mental process by which Lyra reads the alethiometer, the way the children's daemons transform, the difference between severed and normal humans, and the way humans communicate with their daemons through shared feelings. And in the next book, the whole part about the subtle knife, and the things that Lyra and Will are thinking about, and then the third book, with the angels and the mulefa... I hope the movie found a convincing way to show all of these elements, because such an inventive, epic, and heartbreaking story deserves a really spectacular film adaptation. Could be as good as Lord of the Rings... should be at least as good as the Harry Potters! (Speaking of... I can't wait to see the Order of the Phoenix movie - just a month from today!)

Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

One day at work I was looking for something to read on my lunchbreak, and I went ahead and bought Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. It'd been on my to-read list for... oh, forever. (Somehow that list only seems to get longer, never shorter!) Now that it's been made into a movie, I figured I'd better read it before I accidentally learn too much about its plot.

Memoirs tells the story of a successful Toyko geisha in the 1930s and 40s - from her surprising origins, through her career setbacks and personal frustrations, to the achievement of her goals. A colorful array of friends, rivals, mentors, clients, and lovers captivate the reader as the narrator relates her transformation from small-town Chiyo to sophisticated Sayuri. I was left with a fascinating impression of another place and time, which is what I particularly prefer in a book. (I already know what it's like here and now!)

Near the beginning of the book, Sayuri reveals that she has a lot of water in her personality, enabling her to flow around obstacles that might stop others - maybe this accounts for the smooth flow of her tale, too. I particularly noticed some beautiful and thought-provoking metaphors, and the vivid descriptions of the expensive, gorgeously decorated kimono worn by Sayuri and her elegant colleagues. Extensive details about a geisha's everyday life and routines brought the district of Gion to life in my imagination, while fitting in unobtrusively with Sayuri's clear, personable narrative.

A great read, a worthwhile purchase, and an instant favorite. I'm eager to see the movie sometime soon, and to explore other material by Arthur Golden.

(Not a Book) Fountains of Wayne's new CD: Traffic & Weather

Fountains of Wayne is one of the few bands that I have always been able to count on to consistently combine brilliant sound and clever lyrics. They first came to my attention when they opened for my then-favorite band, the Smashing Pumpkins, at my first-ever concert, way back in my mid-teens (okay, it was only 10 years ago). I enjoyed their first album, but then they dropped off my radar for several years, resurfacing in 2003 with their excellent third release, Welcome Interstate Managers. I caught up with their second album, Utopia Parkway (not my favorite, but it has some gems) and their B-sides collection, Out of State Plates. But it'd been three years since Plates came out and I was excited to hear about a new album coming...

I have not been let down. Traffic and Weather is just as good as Interstate Managers, and could end up being my favorite of their albums so far. I rarely like every song on an album, no matter who the artist is, but I have a pretty good success rate with the Fountains - about 90% play-throughs (as opposed to the ones where I press 'skip' ). The cover artwork is cute - a collage of graphic shapes in bright colors, and the CD booklet continues in the same vein. The art reflects the bright, shiny, catchy songs on the CD - perfectly put together, as usual. The Fountains manage to cover a wide range of musical styles as well - if I were more fluent in rock musical history, I'd be able to tell you which classic artists clearly influenced this or that song, but I can say that the songs sound strangely familiar, yet completely fresh.

As far as the lyrics, aside from their clever wordplay, quirky turns of phrase, and words fitted faultlessly to the music's rhythms, Fountains of Wayne has always had a special knack for adding just the right details to make their characters seem very real and relatable. They seem to have a special insight into the monotony of living in the nondescript suburbs, the daily grind of going to work at less-than-thrilling jobs, and the hassles of traveling for business (or pleasure). Specific cultural and regional references make the songs even more real. Fountains of Wayne gently reveal the vanity and illusion - as well as the poignancy - of the average person's hopes and dreams, with a little humor and empathy. The lonely twentysomething magazine staffer in "Someone to Love" takes her contacts out of her eyes and watches lame sitcoms instead of being out on the town, a tired waitress sips a diet soda after work, a weary couple try to recover their lost luggage, a delusional dude has big plans for his new used car, and a lazy but creative man fends off his impatient creditors... somehow the Fountains songsmiths make compelling stories out of these everyday people.

Currently, my favorite song is "New Routine," in which frustrated single people move around the globe trying to break out of the tired rut of their daily lives. They're missing something, though - in the song, the folks who seem the most content are the two old friends who meet every day in a diner, shooting the breeze, telling each other jokes "that they both know that they both know."

Other standouts (on a disc full of above-average tracks) include "Strapped for Cash," a humorous look at a terminally broke sleazeball (it reminded me of Heywood Banks, and I think it's the most musically interesting track on the album); "Fire in the Canyon," a beautiful, rolling, country-ish song with pretty harmonies woven together; "Hotel Majestic," about a band (wonder who?) on tour, complete with majestic hooks and perfectly placed hey heys; and "Yolanda Hayes," an ode to a mysteriously alluring DMV employee that starts out catchily enough, but builds to a horn-filled crescendo, asking "Who can you trust with your love these days?"

More glowing reviews at http://www.fountainsofwayne.com/press.asp

Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood

(Read early July 2006)

I wasn't planning to read this - I was looking for The Penelopiad (which I later did find), but I didn't find it at the Whetstone branch library when I was there, and I did find this one.

Oryx & Crake takes place in a truly frightening world about 100 years in the future. Gene splicing technology has run amok, and society's elite are the scientists and their families, who live in heavily guarded complexes, sheltered from the desperate and dangerous lower classes. It's not merely crime that keeps the elites in their gated cities - fearsome, incurable viruses that have mutated out of control melt people's bodies like "gumdrops" in a matter of hours. A protective suit - or a vaccine - is needed in order to venture out into the "pleeblands." Scientists are able to create new skins for the reluctantly aging, customize babies for picky parents, and grow specially adapted convenience foods.

In the story's present, a man we know as Snowman, but who was once called Jimmy, is the last human alive after a terrible manmade plague wiped out the entire species in a matter of weeks. Snowman spends most of his time searching for edible food, staying out of the scorching sun, and fending off some of the genetically spliced feral animals that threaten his survival: creatures like rakunks (a cross between a skunk and a raccoon, with fun fur patterns but no odor), pigoons (pigs modified to grow multiple extra human organs, for transplant), and wolvogs (fierce dog/wolf crosses).

Jimmy/Snowman is in charge of the curious new race of humans created by his best friend, genius Crake - also the creator of the plague with which he purposely wiped out the rest of humanity. Jimmy was spared to look after the new race of people, whom he calls Crakers. They are genetically modified with special features that improve upon the regular human design - such as a natural scent that functions as an insect repellent, and body parts that change color at appropriate times for mating, eliminating any jealousy or spurned love.

And who is Oryx? She is a mysterious woman involved with both Crake and Jimmy, forming a love triangle of sorts. She is chosen by Crake to educate the new-style people he has created, who live in a sealed-off area where they never see any other regular humans. Jimmy particularly pines for her, never achieving the intimacy he longs for, and in the blasted post-plague world he imagines or dreams that he still hears her talking with him, or that she visits him in spirit.

Although he has taken up Oryx's task, Jimmy doesn't have quite he same ability to teach, and often simply relies on the new beings' view of him as a god - an idea that goes against Crake's original intent. But what will happen to the Crakers if the 'god' dies? While scouting for some increasingly difficult-to-find food - and answers - Jimmy becomes seriously wounded, and the Crakers' unique healing methods don't help him at all. Will mankind as we know it die with Snowman, or is there still hope? Even if I wanted to ruin the story for you, I couldn't, because it's left open at the end.

I think I will never be able to eat a "bucket of chicken" again, after reading the description of the "ChickieNobs" food product created in one of the labs... basically a living creature modified from a chicken, but with a round body that grew many meaty "knobs" (I picture something like that 1990s children's toy, the Bumble Ball) - headless, but with a small slot in the top to insert nutrients... a lab might grow hundreds of them, the new version of a chicken farm... Although he is disgusted when he first sees them in development, Jimmy comes to enjoy the ChickieNobs as his favorite fast food, and remarks that if you can forget everything you know about their provenance, they aren't so bad. I think that is the image that stuck with me the most... because although the bigger premise of the book is easier to dismiss, those little details seem frighteningly achievable.