Book Review: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Book #238 of 2018:

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

This subversive Soviet satire, written in secret and only published after author Mikhail Bulgakov’s death, is wickedly funny and very creative, but it’s all a bit chaotic for my tastes. Given the sarcastic gun-wielding cat, the black magic of the literal devil, the gratuitous female nudity, and all the decapitations and other grotesqueries, I really need more of a coherent plot or even just a single character to root for.

I’m sure there are plenty of nuances that I’m missing due to my distance from the original context of Bulgakov’s allegories, but the surreal burlesque circus that unfolds across the novel generally leaves me a bit cold. I like the historical flashbacks featuring Pontius Pilate and other biblical figures better than anything set in the present, yet they too wear out their welcome for me before the end.

This is the weirdest book I’ve picked up in quite some time, and although I don’t love it myself, I can see why so many people do. It’s worth reading for sheer peculiarity, if nothing else.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Book #237 of 2018:

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

This sprawling novel spans most of the twentieth century, following several generations of a family throughout their lives in Korea and Japan. The characters are very well-drawn in grounded detail, although as usual for this sort of saga, they tend to come and go over the course of the narrative and their different pursuits take the plot in a wide range of directions at various stages of the text. That’s not my favorite style of storytelling, but author Min Jin Lee spins out the drama masterfully and maintains a degree of focus by always keeping the family matriarch near the center. The historical backdrop is fascinating (and largely unknown to me), and I feel like I could have kept reading further well past the end.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling

Book #236 of 2018:

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter #6)

I love plenty of individual moments in this penultimate Harry Potter book, but if I’m being truly objective, its flashback-heavy narrative arc is a bit of a step down for the series. As usual author J. K. Rowling is juggling several different plots for this volume, but the main throughline of the boy wizard learning more about his enemy’s backstory features rather more exposition than action or personal growth. As with a running subplot about Harry suspecting a classmate of undefined villainy, there’s a tendency for the story to hit the same beats over and over again with little variation.

Against that backdrop, it’s the smaller scenes and character moments that have to carry the day — and by and large, they do. New professor Horace Slughorn is an interesting addition to our understanding of Slytherins, Harry’s mentor relationship with Dumbledore gets developed most poignantly, and the titular mystery over a former textbook-owner is a delightfully small-stakes throwback to the early Potter novels. Even the teen romance angle works better for me than I know it does for some readers, and I do enjoy learning more about Lord Voldemort’s origins, even if the delivery method can feel a bit a clunky at times.

When this story finally kicks into gear in its last few chapters, the result easily matches the best moments of the rest of the series. I wish that Rowling could have maintained that level of quality throughout the whole novel, but unfortunately the cracks in her endgame are already beginning to show.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars by Virginia Hanlon Grohl

Book #234 of 2018:

From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars by Virginia Hanlon Grohl

Author Virginia Hanlon Grohl is the mother of Dave Grohl from the bands Nirvana and Foo Fighters, and although she seems to have enjoyed getting to know and interview other musician moms for this project, that experience unfortunately doesn’t translate into an especially gripping read. The short biographical stories that Grohl has produced generally have no more depth or style than a typical magazine puff piece, and her overall presentation never really adds up to any substantial argument or narrative. I’m glad that the musical artists covered in this book are more diverse than its title would suggest — ranging from Miranda Lambert to Dr. Dre to HAIM — but I haven’t gotten much out of hearing about any of their childhoods.

★★☆☆☆

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Movie Review: Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Movie #20 of 2018:

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

This musical biopic of Queen singer Freddie Mercury is much better than I expected it to be. I’m not super well-informed about the actual history of the band, but it seems like the movie sticks pretty close to the facts. I’m especially surprised – quite pleasantly so! – that Freddie isn’t white-washed or straight-washed by the movie narrative at all. He’s quite explicitly presented as a queer man of color, and a lot of the difficulties he faces over the course of the film tie directly to his struggle to find/make a place for himself in society. I only went to see this in theaters because it was what my family wanted to do the day after Thanksgiving, but it definitely exceeded my expectations by a lot.

★★★★☆

Book Review: Strange Weather by Joe Hill

Book #233 of 2018:

Strange Weather by Joe Hill

These four novellas from author Joe Hill are of mixed quality, but the collection as a whole is well worth the price of admittance.

SNAPSHOT: A thirteen-year-old boy learns that his neighbor’s dementia has been caused by a sinister man whose magic camera is stealing her memories. This is one of those Hill stories that feels like an homage to his father Stephen King, but it never really goes anywhere unexpected. ★★★☆☆

LOADED: By far the stand-out entry, this depiction of a mass shooting and its aftermath is a chilling critique of the trust we put in security services and the idea of a good guy with a gun. This is one of the best things Hill’s ever written, but it comes with a major content warning for gun violence and domestic abuse. ★★★★★

ALOFT: An anxious skydiver lands in a solid cloud, and things only get weirder from there. This isn’t really my kind of narrative, but it’s well-executed and presents an interesting look at romantic entitlement. ★★★★☆

RAIN: This last novella is a solid post-apocalyptic story about razor-sharp crystalline needles raining from the sky, although the irreverent tone feels like an odd fit. Hill says in the Afterword that he intended it as a spoof of his usual style, and while this doesn’t quite work for me, other readers might like it better. ★★★☆☆

Overall book: ★★★★☆

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Book Review: How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids by Jancee Dunn

Book #232 of 2018:

How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids by Jancee Dunn

I think this self-help book would probably be most beneficial for parents who have already found their relationship growing more toxic, but it was certainly eye-opening to read five months before the due date of my first child. I feel like I’m better informed now about behaviors like resentful scorekeeping to watch out for, as well as healthy communication strategies for navigating (co-)parenting effectively. As the title might suggest, author Jancee Dunn sometimes leans a bit hard on male and female stereotypes, but she does spend some time discussing how gender roles have been shifting toward more equitable divisions of household labor and how the myth of male incompetence harms everyone in a family. I could see myself rereading sections of this book as needed in another year or so.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

Book #231 of 2018:

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

After a little bit of a bumpy start, this Frankenstein retelling quickly settles into itself and by the end proves nearly as remarkable as the Mary Shelley classic. Author Kiersten White’s primary inspiration is to present the familiar horror narrative from the perspective of Victor Frankenstein’s adopted cousin Elizabeth, offering a plausible and compelling take on what this character could have been doing behind the scenes of the original tale. It reminds me somewhat of Megan Shepherd’s Madman’s Daughter trilogy about Juliet Moreau, but with a much closer relation to the base text in question.

This version of Elizabeth Frankenstein is every bit Victor’s equal, a calculating antiheroine who is both drawn and repulsed by his mad science, and she only becomes more interesting as the book progresses and the reader slowly realizes that White is recasting Shelley’s protagonist as an unreliable narrator. Thus, this story ultimately asks not only what the seemingly dainty maiden of the classic novel is up to when Victor is not around, but also what Dr. Frankenstein’s own motivations might be in how he presents his version of events to the world.

The result is strong enough that it could probably stand fine on its own, but it is best read as an interrogation and feminist critique of the patriarchal values of the original storyline. White places a great deal of emphasis on how women are often brought up in the expectation that they will subsume themselves in a man’s desires, and her counter-narrative represents an important reclamation of the space for Elizabeth and the other female characters to pursue their own interests. It’s thrilling and insightful in equal measures, and a valuable contribution to the Frankenstein mythos.

★★★★☆

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TV Review: Friday Night Lights, season 1

TV #49 of 2018:

Friday Night Lights, season 1

It’s a real testament to the quality of the storytelling on this show that I’ve become so invested in the fates of its characters despite not caring at all about sports – let alone the high school football that this narrative is built around. But this isn’t really a show about football; it’s a show about a community’s relationship with the game and how it inflects every aspect of life in this small Texas town. I’ve heard mixed things about where the story goes from here, but this first season is practically flawless. Just pure, character-driven drama with great writing and believable emotional stakes. It’s enough that I can look past the football, easily.

★★★★★

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