The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Book Review: Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland by Dave Barry

Book #23 of 2021:

Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland by Dave Barry

Humorist Dave Barry seems more hit-or-miss for me the older we each get, and this 2016 title has some definite issues with Baby Boomer sexism, transphobic implications, lazy jokes about Native American place names, and so on. But the book is also laugh-out-loud funny in other passages as the author alternately roasts and speaks up for the weird and wild state of Florida. I was born and raised there myself, and it’s a rush of nostalgic fun to see this travelogue of some of its greatest hits and distinctive oddities, all presented with the Pulitzer Prize winner’s flair for comedic phrasing and pointed observation. I suspect isolated quotes may work better than the overall text, however, especially for those of us tired with humor that punches down at the expense of the marginalized.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff

Book #22 of 2021:

Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff (The Red Abbey Chronicles #1)

Interesting fantasy worldbuilding, but the characters can seem a bit simplistic at times and the plot doesn’t really kick in until midway through, when a raiding ship attacks the island refuge where the heroine lives as an abbey novice. It gets pretty dark for the otherwise middle-grade feel too — content warning for domestic abuse, rape, and sexual slavery, including of children — although perhaps my surprise there stems from a cultural difference between reading this in translation and author Maria Turtschaninoff’s Finnish original. I don’t quite mind the slower pace, especially for how short of a novel this is, and I do appreciate the focus on female friendships and empowerment. Still, I haven’t decided yet whether I like the overall story enough to seek out its prequel or sequel.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis

Book #21 of 2021:

The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia #1)

I always think that I like this prequel more than I actually do, because in my memory, only the strong parts stand out. The devious uncle, the rings that take you to the Wood Between the Worlds from which you can travel on to anywhere, the dead realm of Charn, the waking of Queen Jadis and her escape to our plane — these are all deeply cool elements that are strikingly distinctive even by the loose standards of this series. Unfortunately, however, they represent the first half of the novel alone.

Once the child protagonists arrive in Narnia proper, the action slows down into a generic fetch quest and a tiresome Genesis allegory. Author C. S. Lewis is too focused on explaining minutiae like the lamppost that really need no justification at all, and his efforts at setting up the later volumes are curiously full of contradictions and details that just spark further questions which will never be answered. It’s supremely unsatisfying, and a particular letdown after that terrific beginning establishing and exploring the wider multiverse of the setting.

Fans continue to debate what order to best read these books; on my current approach, I’ve opted to go by original publication date rather than internal chronology. That has the benefit of reaching this title and picking up its references to the wardrobe and Archenland and so on immediately, but it also tends to highlight the weakness of the inconsistencies. I’m not sure there’s an ideal solution here.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Book #20 of 2021:

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

This tale of a lonely old man in author Fredrik Backman’s native Sweden is first heartbreaking and then heartwarming, as he slowly begins to form unwanted connections with the neighborhood community around him. It’s a novel that dares us to love Ove despite all his faults, and it’s largely successful on that front — although I do feel that the protagonist’s sexism, fatphobia, and general xenophobia make that task substantially harder and less pleasant than the simple misanthropic grumpiness which could have sufficed.

Also, while the book takes its time in revealing this part of the premise, its title figure is attempting to find a good way and an opportune moment to commit suicide, due to the recent loss of his wife and the long-ago miscarriage that ended their only chance for children. That’s a bit of a spoiler, and the strongest aspects of the narrative tend to be those which explore the contours of this grief and the aching absence in the widower’s life, but it’s a sensitive enough issue that it seems appropriate to mention for prospective readers in this review.

The story isn’t all doom and gloom, and there are some truly hilarious exchanges with the ornery hero, especially when gruffly delivered by audiobook reader J. K. Simmons. I’m surprisingly moved by the affair, even if I don’t think I’d particularly care for a man like Ove in reality.

[Content warning for homophobia and cruelty to animals.]

★★★★☆

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Book Review: A Promised Land by Barack Obama

Book #19 of 2021:

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

This memoir is a solid but not spectacular inside look at Barack Obama’s political career, from his earliest run for Illinois State Senate through his ordering of the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound midway into his first presidential term. (That’s a fairly arbitrary cutoff point, but it will reportedly be followed by at least one further volume yet to come.) The former commander-in-chief is less guarded in writing than he was while in office, and he is particularly critical about the partisan Republican obstructionism that hampered his agenda. At the same time, however, he is not as reflective as one might hope regarding his failures — from targeted drone strikes against civilians to breaking his campaign promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay — or the ways in which his administration helped pave the way for his disastrous successor. The blame game in this text is interesting, especially for those backroom details which hadn’t been made public before, but too little of it lands at the author’s own feet.

Some of my dissatisfaction here originates from my own politics; although I didn’t always pay the closest attention during the Obama years, I’ve drifted to the left since then, and it’s frustrating to realize that the candidate I proudly supported in 2008 and 2012 doesn’t seem to have undergone a similar growth. Even with the benefit of hindsight, he is dismissive of progressive activists and their concerns, and too focused on complaining how his shining vision for America was forced to compromise with special interests on both sides of the aisle. As a process story for how something like the Affordable Care Act gradually took shape, it’s an informative read. As an actual argument defending the president’s intentions and achievements, it’s substantially weaker.

I write this review as a new era is dawning for the nation, with Joe Biden swearing his oath of office just today (an event as yet undetermined when the book was written). This historical moment offers a great opportunity to closely examine what has and hasn’t worked in previous administrations, but I’m frankly not sure this title gets there in the end.

[Content warning for racism and homophobia including slurs.]

★★★☆☆

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TV Review: Killing Eve, season 1

TV #6 of 2021:

Killing Eve, season 1

I have a lot of open questions about this show, some of which might fall under the category of plot holes, but are perhaps more charitably labeled as simply ‘details the writers aren’t interested in.’ At a minimum, this first season seems to revel in ambiguity, throwing out potential explanations and character motivations at times but seldom following through to confirm or reject exactly why anything is happening. As a result, much of the weight of the program rests on its performances rather than its scripts, tasking the actors with the daunting responsibility of ensuring their penciled-in reality feels remotely credible.

Luckily, those performances are generally rather good, and Jodie Comer is an absolute revelation, making choices in literally every scene which surprise and delight me. She’s hilarious in a way that keeps the spy thriller shenanigans just shy of camp, and it’s all in her line readings and not the dialogue itself, which doesn’t seem quite so sparkling when you try writing it down. Her role as the remorselessly chaotic serial killer could so quickly turn dour or empty in someone else’s hands, yet the actress instead maintains an effervescent ease throughout that’s near impossible to resist.

Speaking of which: the murderess’s cat-and-mouse game with Sandra Oh’s intelligence agent who’s tracking her is one of those complicated and unclear dynamics I mentioned above, but I have to give the series credit for — spoiler alert — turning it into an explicitly queer romance by the end of this initial year. The allure of the criminal mind often carries that subtext of sexual attraction in a story like this, but even NBC’s Hannibal shied away from unequivocally confirming that its own monster was the protagonist’s canonical love interest. Although the star-crossed Eve and Villanelle appear unlikely to find a happily-ever-after, they’ve now shared a kiss and forged an intimate connection that’s a pretty exciting setup for what comes next — even if I’ll probably still have a few logistical problems with the execution.

[Content warning for graphic violence and child endangerment.]

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

Book #18 of 2021:

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children #6)

I still like this series of novellas about children who temporarily stumble into various fantasy worlds and later yearn to return there, but the past few volumes have been a little underwhelming. I think the format tends to work best in the aftermath of those journeys, and this story ends with the protagonist finding her way home, before any such misgivings can set in. That also means that all of the conflicts with her classmates established in the first quarter of the text remain unresolved, which is somewhat unsatisfying from a narrative perspective. The Hooflands doesn’t feel as richly-drawn or wonderfully dangerous as some of author Seanan McGuire’s previous creations either, which makes our time in that other realm more tedious than enchanting — although readers who had a ‘horse phase’ may get more out of the resident centaurs and unicorns than I have.

Furthermore, while I appreciate the representation of an intersex heroine experiencing delayed puberty, I have concerns over how that’s echoed in her spending years consciously resisting the call to adventure once she arrives through the portal, and I’d love to hear how relevant audiences are or are not seeing themselves reflected in this character. (To me, it seems strange to suggest a thematic tie between something so outside and inside a person’s control, as though they are equivalent acts of holding onto childhood.) It’s always great to see the writer use these books to showcase this sort of diversity that’s largely absent in the genre, and I know she employed a sensitivity reader for this particular title, but I’m curious to learn whether the portrayal reads as problematic to anyone more directly affected by it, or if I’m just overthinking things as usual.

Regardless, as a whole I don’t especially care for this tale, but since it’s a flawed segment in a wider project that I continue to find engaging, I expect I’ll go on in the hopes that further sequels can recapture the magic for me.

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

Book #17 of 2021:

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (The Singing Hills Cycle #1)

A quiet but captivating #ownvoices fantasy novella, rich in feminist character work and immersive East Asian-inspired worldbuilding. I’m always so interested in stories like this that can compel the reader’s attention despite a complete lack of traditional narrative stakes. Here, Cleric Chih [they/them] has arrived at the former home of the empress in exile sometime after her holiness has passed, seeking to gather reference materials for their order’s archives. The only other person around is an old handmaiden, who begins to share firsthand anecdotes that alternately illumine and undermine the official histories of that complicated monarch. The result is a dazzling tale of studied rebellion that feels far deeper than the scant page count should allow, and indeed, my sole complaint beyond a slight wish for more details on the protagonist’s own life is a yearning to see what debut author Nghi Vo could have accomplished at greater length.

Luckily, although this 2020 book reads like a self-contained / standalone plot, it already has a sequel out detailing another of Chih’s research expeditions. I’m now on my library’s waiting list for that volume, and eagerly anticipating the writer’s forthcoming (though unrelated) novel The Chosen and the Beautiful, which looks to be a queer Asian fantasy retelling of The Great Gatsby. If those titles are anything like this one, they will truly herald the arrival of a bold new talent for the genre.

★★★★★

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TV Review: Kim’s Convenience, season 3

TV #5 of 2021:

Kim’s Convenience, season 3

This sitcom has always had a fairly stable status quo, so I was excited by the genuine potential for change in last season’s finale, when Jung quits his job and finally kisses his long-term love interest, who at first reciprocates but then pulls away when she remembers her boyfriend. (It’s honestly a lot like how the second year of The Office ends, now that I think about it. Huh.) Unfortunately, this stretch of the show walks back those developments almost immediately, with Jung going back to work at Handy — albeit as a junior employee and not assistant manager — and he and Shannon agreeing to pretend nothing has happened between them. It’s a bit of a letdown, even for a viewer like me who’s not particularly invested in that relationship.

The other main characters are equally static; the biggest update in their lives this time is probably Janet getting a new roommate and dealing with some minor romantic drama. And even after Mr. Kim’s big reconciliation with his son, those story engines still aren’t intersecting very much, with the convenience store business and the car rental agency tending to occupy separate spheres of the writers’ attention. I still enjoy this series just fine, but it remains a placid comfort-watch when it feels like it could easily be made exceptional with just a little more focus on pushing the protagonists through a dynamic plot with stakes that linger beyond each individual episode.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo

Book #16 of 2021:

The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo

A short collection of dark fables from author Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse, some of which have been referenced before in the main novels and others that merely add further texture to the local cultures of the setting. It’s an interesting addition to series canon, especially as an in-universe religious document, but the individual entries tend to be quick and not particularly memorable. Although a later book may cast this volume in a different light, for now I wouldn’t say it’s anything most fans need to read. It’s essentially this writer’s version of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a fun side-project that will remind you of why you like the larger franchise without necessarily bringing its usual strengths of character and plot to bear.

[Content warning for cannibalism, infanticide, and claustrophobia.]

★★★☆☆

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