The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more

Book Review: Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

Book #54 of 2019:

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James (The Dark Star Trilogy #1)

This is a dense and somewhat oblique fantasy tome, richly steeped in mythic history from across Africa. It’s sprawling and recursive, nesting stories within stories within stories, resulting in an epic closer to the original oral tradition of that genre than the more modern style popularized by Tolkien. It is definitely not “an African Game of Thrones” as some of the early marketing materials have suggested… If anything its tale of a powerful warrior recounting his larger-than-life exploits bears a passing resemblance to The Kingkiller Chronicle, but even that is fairly imprecise.

I’m grasping for comparisons here because this is such a weird novel, and I’m honestly not sure whether I like it or not. There’s very little in the way of a conventional plot, and although the characters bounce off each other in fun ways, their succession of betrayals and reconciliations grows rather numbing after a while. I don’t know if I’ll bother with the next two books in this trilogy, which author Marlon James has suggested might largely retell the same events from different — yet equally unreliable — points of view. But I’m definitely impressed with his vision, and this narrative of a gay intersex black man adventuring across a folkloric landscape is incredibly vivid and distinctive.

[Major content warning for graphic violence and sexual content, including genital mutilation, torture, child abuse, bestiality, and rape. There’s a tendency for the fantasy genre to be considered aimed at young adults by default; this is emphatically not such a book.]

★★★★☆

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Book Review: In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

Book #53 of 2019:

In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children #4)

I’ve generally enjoyed this series of novellas about children longing to escape back to other realms, but this latest installment doesn’t quite carry the same magic for me. I feel as though author Seanan McGuire never really makes the case for why this particular heroine would feel like such an outcast in our world, which makes her tale more of a generic portal fantasy than the pathos-drenched narratives of previous volumes. I also think this version of the Goblin Market bears little resemblance to that of the Christina Rossetti poem that gives the book its title and epigraphs, and its focus on fair value in bargaining is an inevitable letdown after how much more interestingly that concept has been explored in Naomi Novik’s masterful Spinning Silver.

In the end this is still a solid adventure story, and as a prequel it fleshes out a side character nicely. It’s just not at the level that I expect of this series, unfortunately.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Assignment in Eternity by Robert A. Heinlein

Book #52 of 2019:

Assignment in Eternity by Robert A. Heinlein

This 1953 anthology collects four stories by Robert A. Heinlein originally published over the preceding decade. Each has its moments of rip-roaring sci-fi fun, but none are particularly great as a whole, and the author’s flaws are unfortunately on full display throughout. There’s casual misogyny in the treatment of female characters, enthusiasm for humanity’s best that sometimes tips over into outright eugenics, and a tendency for the narrative to stall while pompous figures declaim at one another. Overall, I can’t say that I’d recommend the book.

(Apparently the first novella Gulf is a prequel to the Heinlein novel Friday, but it’s been long enough since I read that one that the connections haven’t jumped out at me.)

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: Becoming by Michelle Obama

Book #51 of 2019:

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Overall a fantastic memoir from the former First Lady, spanning from her 1970s childhood in the South Side of Chicago through her departure from the White House in 2017 at the end of her husband’s second term. As an author, Michelle Obama is a consummate storyteller, reflective and engaging as she traces the unlikely pathway of her life. She is candid about the struggle she’s had in subsuming her own interests and career under Barack’s, while always foregrounding the clear love and trust they share as a couple.

My biggest critique about this book, in fact, is that the president’s story often (and perhaps understandably) eclipses the writer’s own. The earliest sections of Becoming are richly detailed and insightful, the sign of a talented memoirist working through her own understanding of her origins. Yet as her primary role transitions into that of a politician’s wife, it feels as though she is sometimes leaving out certain key steps of her personal narrative — we are often told of a new job, or a new initiative, for instance, without always understanding what precise factors have motivated the shift in her focus and goals.

All told this is still a powerful work, full of Mrs. Obama’s commitment to increased opportunities for children of under-privileged backgrounds like herself. It’s worth reading for the inside look at her family and the recent presidency, as well as the excellent first chapters examining who she was before they came into being.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala

Book #50 of 2019:

Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala

This is a well-written if depressing slice-of-life novella about a gay Nigerian-American teenager navigating police discrimination, his father’s expectations, and his best friend’s well-meaning interference. However, the project as a whole feels somewhat aimless, especially given that it jumps suddenly to the friend’s perspective for the final third of the text. There’s a lot of suffering for being black and for being gay in this book, and although it all comes from a place of emotional honesty, I’m a bit dissatisfied with some of the character choices and an overall lack of closure by the end.

[Content/spoiler warning for domestic abuse, racism, homophobia, conversion therapy, and a police shooting.]

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

Book #49 of 2019:

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

This post-apocalyptic novel takes a little while to click into place for me, in part because its inciting plot doesn’t exactly endear me to the characters and in part because the rules of its world feel hazy in a magical realist way that I think weakens the narrative. Eventually, though, it becomes a little clearer: people around the earth are losing their memories to fuel acts of magic, not all of which are entirely by conscious choice. And the initial storyline of a man chasing after his fleeing wife (who can’t bear to just wait around until she forgets everything) turns into a sprawling journey across a dramatically-changed American landscape.

The book ends a lot more strongly than it begins, and along the way it reminds me of several others that I’ve enjoyed in this genre. There’s the poignant sense of missed connections that haunts Station Eleven, the exploration of what it means to be the other from The Girl with All the Gifts, and of course the epic dystopian road trips of something like The Stand. Debut author Peng Shepherd has ultimately produced an intriguing vision of life after our present, and although I don’t quite love it as a whole, I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for what she comes up with next.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Off the Sidelines by Kirsten Gillibrand

Book #48 of 2019:

Off the Sidelines by Kirsten Gillibrand

This 2014 memoir / female empowerment guide is essentially my introduction to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a 2020 presidential candidate who has only been peripherally on my radar before now. Reading it hasn’t convinced me to vote one way or another in that upcoming primary election, since the American political landscape has changed a lot in the past five years, but it’s familiarized me with the author’s past battles to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and combat sexual assault in the military and reassured me somewhat about her general philosophies on governance.

Gillibrand comes across in this book as remarkably likeable and down-to-earth — which are far from necessary qualities in a commander-in-chief, but speak highly to her electability. She’s open about the struggles she’s faced as a young mother in Congress and her efforts to reform its old-boys-club elements, and is unapologetically encouraging of women everywhere to demand fair treatment. On the other hand, she also seems overly comfortable with the fundraising apparatus of the Democratic Party, and her advice for readers to increase their monetary contributions if they want to bring attention to their concerns strikes me as a) unrealistic for many voters and b) perhaps indicative of a toxic pay-to-play mentality.

Still, the senator seems committed to the issues that constituents have raised with her in the past, and willing to be convinced by new data and new perspectives. On a personal level, she clearly cares strongly about female mentorship and extending the ladder of opportunity to women behind her. I may not vote her way in the primary season, but this slim volume has convinced me that she would be an effective and considerate president.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi

Book #47 of 2019:

Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi (Pandava Quartet #1)

This is one of those books that I don’t really love myself, but am glad exists in the world for other people. I’m sure many young Hindu readers will see themselves in the heroine, and children in general will likely learn a lot about the mythological figures that author Roshani Chokshi has incorporated into her tale. (It’s the first release in Disney-Hyperion’s “Rick Riordan Presents” publishing line, which is explicitly aimed at delivering folklore-inspired #ownvoices stories from writers of underrepresented cultural backgrounds.)

Where the novel fails for me is in its macguffin-collecting plotline, along with some perpetual wisecracking about things like selfies and Oreos. I haven’t read any of Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, so I don’t know how that compares, but this volume also skews closer to middle-grade urban fantasy than the young-adult epic fantasy I generally prefer. I may check out some of the other RRP titles, and I’ll happily recommend this one to a certain sort of reader, but I don’t feel particularly drawn to continue on with its sequels.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Book #46 of 2019:

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

As in her later book Circe, author Madeline Miller has crafted an immersive retelling of Greek mythology, here bringing to life the tragic love story of Achilles and Patroclus. The latter figure has always struck me as a bit of an afterthought in The Iliad — the most famous surviving work to feature the man — but he makes for an engaging narrator in Miller’s hands. As he tenderly recounts his idyllic childhood and growing relationship with the famous hero, he adds true pathos to the fate that readers know lies waiting outside the walls of Troy.

It’s only this last part of the novel that falters a bit for me, where Miller’s narrative begins to overlap with Homer’s. The timeline suddenly accelerates, skipping past whole years, and there are several moments that feel wholly mandated by the traditional plot that the author has inherited rather than arising organically from the characters she’s drawn thus far. Still, as a prequel to the mythic Trojan War that deepens our understanding of several key players, the work is a definite success.

★★★★☆

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TV Review: Breaking Bad, season 4

TV #10 of 2019:

Breaking Bad, season 4

Another superb year of ratcheting tension, untenable situations, and wonderfully complex character arcs. I have some issues with where the story goes from here, mostly in how it sometimes frames Walter White as more of a hero than I think is merited, but this penultimate run of episodes is all about showcasing him as a petty tyrant willing to sacrifice anything to get his way. It’s also the season where Skyler has her most interesting plotline yet, grappling with the steadily revealing horror of her husband’s true nature, and where Hank really comes into his own as a compelling protagonist in his own right.

It’s a period of recovery from rock bottom for Hank and Jesse alike, and it’s interesting how each of those arcs plays out against Walt’s one-sided war on Gus Fring. The writers are juggling quite a lot in this era of Breaking Bad, but none of it feels extraneous and it all comes together beautifully by the end. The acting and the cinematography on this show are just as breathtaking as ever, with everything on top of its game as the series enters its final chapter.

★★★★★

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