The Minireviews (Books 4-6)

Finally had a chance to catch up with the latest batch of books I've finished so far in 2006.  Of course, in the time it took me to get around to completing these minireviews, I've polished off a couple more.  But those will have to wait until next week.  In case you missed it, the minireviews for books 1-3 can be found here.

*****

Book Four

Tooth and Claw
by T.C. Boyle
Viking
Story Collection; 284 pp.
Finished 1/6/06

I'm not sure why I begin a reading of any story collection with the expectation that I will like every story.  It just doesn't happen that often.  Such was the case with Boyle's latest collection, Tooth and Claw.  I've been a Boyle fan for a number of years now, since first reading Tortilla Curtain in one of those can't-put-it-down fervors after it was recommended by a co-worker.  Since then, I've picked up everything the man has written that I can get my hands on.  In fact, many of the stories in this collection were rereads.  That said, I can't honestly claim that I'm a fan of all of Boyle's work.  While Tortilla Curtain and Drop City blew me away, I had a hard time with World's End and The Inner Circle.  Everything else falls somewhere in the middle, including this collection.  To be fair, some of these pieces are among the best I've read by Boyle, especially the title story, about a hardluck man named Junior who somehow manages to win a cerval in a bar bet.  Junior thinks the big cat will help him win the love of a waitress he's had his eye on and it seems to work for a while, but then the reality of the situation--having a wild, fierce, bloodthirsty cat in his apartment's bedroom--sets in.  The rest is classic Boyle, and pretty typical of the stories in Tooth and Claw: we're sure we know what the outcome will be and Boyle gets us right up to that point but he's content to let us figure out the rest.  Sometimes this works; other times it can be frustrating.  Also not to be missed in the collection is "The Kind Assassin," about a radio DJ attempting to set the record for most hours without sleep.  It turns into something else altogether.

*****

Book Five

Big Lonesome
by Jim Ruland
Gorsky Press
Story Collection; 189 pp.
Finished 1/8/06

If I were a betting man, I would wager the remaining bucks on my Borders gift certificate that Jim Ruland was a kid who didn't just play with G.I. Joes--the big ones, the size of your standard Barbie, with the actual fuzz for hair and a chord in back that you could pull to make him say things like "All for one, one for all."  He liked to autopsy them but only after he'd stuffed them with M80s to experience the explosive aftermath of a real life mortar on good old Joe.  You know the type.  I say that because many of the stories in Ruland's collection, Big Lonesome, have a little of that destructive quality about them.  Example: in "The Previous Adventures of Popeye the Sailor," Popeye isn't the hero fighting Brutus for the love of Olive Oil; there's something a little more sinister, more felonious about him.  In another story, Dick Tracy ain't quite right.  He's an overweight, out-of-style detective who can't seem to solve his most pressing case.  But it's not just legendary characters who get the Ruland treatment.  The old Western fugitive chase of the title story comes complete with a Frankenstein-esque Indian-robot.  Even a story about a kid trying to impress his way into the mafia--a story that could have been weighed down by cliches and stereotypes--transforms into an otherworldly piece before the final, explosive conclusion.  Based on this effort, I would like to say that I'm eager to see what Ruland has in store for us with his next book, but I'm not sure I'm ready for what might happen to Starsky & Hutch or some other idols of my childhood.

{You can check out Ruland's blog for Big Lonesome here.}

*****

Book Six

God Lives in St. Petersburg
by Tom Bissell
Pantheon
Story Collection; 212 pp.

I'm trying to become a more patient reader.  Time was I would give a book about ten pages (or one story in the case of a collection) and if it didn't grab me by the reading strings it would be tossed aside for the next book in my pile.  I'm sure I've missed out on some pretty good books this way.  In the case of Tom Bissell's collection, God Lives in St. Petersburg, I had to hold my book-tossing hand.  I found myself a good twenty pages in and I had yet to find anything engaging about the first story.  Sure, you have the makings of a good plot: an American photojournalist who along with a pompous British reporter suffering from a severe case of malaria finds himself stranded in the middle of nowhere Afghanistan after they were in a car wreck while trying to escape a shootout.  Sounds interesting, right?  Well, it could be that I wasn't in the mood for a war tale or to be transported to Southeast Asia, which is the setting for all of the stories in the collection (or so I'd read in a couple of reviews).  But the book came with such high recommendations that I convinced myself that the effort would be rewarded.  It took a matter of pages before something happened.  Can't put my finger on what, but the story grew on me and I found myself involved and curious as to how Donk's situation would be resolved.  And I ended up enjoying not just the first story, but all of them.  My favorite and in my opinion the strongest of the collection is "The Ambassador's Son," about an overprivileged son of a diplomat in an unnamed Southeast Asian city referred to only as the Capital.  The kid enjoys a certain type of diplomatic license which allows him access to prostitutes, drugs, you name it, but it all catches up with him.  Of course, he survives to tell the story, but others aren't as lucky.  All of these stories have the Ugly American in a strange land theme, but some of the Americans are much uglier than others.  Anyway, I'm glad I stuck this one out.  Would have been a shame otherwise.

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