Whatever by Michel Houellebecq. If I were to say, "Houellebecq captures precisely the cynical disillusionment of disaffected youth." Would you want to read it? I wouldn't. It seems that reviewers are desperate to use terms like that to explain books that deal with alienated people. I wonder if Albert Camus received the same comments after L'Etranger was published in 1946. I enjoyed Whatever although it lacked the handling of The Elementary Particles. If you missed reading this read his second book first and then decide if you want to back-track.

The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq. This is Houellebecq's second novel—it caused a scandal in France and ignited a fervent debate over the virtues and vices of liberalism. He attacks what he believes to be the decadent culture of the 1960s, which (in his mind) spawned the selfish, narcissistic individualism of contemporary Western civilization. The title refers to the book's relentless existential theme: that society is a fraud, and permissive contemporary culture has enslaved human beings in a world of loneliness and misery. Houellebecq's message: sex equals consumerism "and ever darker fates." I don't know if I agree, but it was a great read. Check out the News section for a couple of articles on him.


True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. This was an enjoyable read and rightly won Carey the Booker Prize. It tells the story of legendary Ausie highwayman Ned Kelly. Told in the form of a letter to his daughter; he explains how he went from being a poor boy to the legendary criminal he became famous for. Although factually not always true (Ned Kelly didn't have a daughter) Carey uses his devices carefully and creates a beautiful story from historical scraps.

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. It only took one letter to a bookstore in England to start up a twenty year correspondance between book lovers. It's Ms. Hanff's humour and Mr. Doel's sweetness that makes this book such a wonderful read. I'll rarely discuss movies in relation with books but in this case I will make an exception as the film adaption is brilliant.

Young Adam by Alexander Trocchi. This was the first novel for this Scottish Beat writer, originally published in 1954. A young woman's corpse is found floating in the canal by a drifter working on a barge between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Slowly his connection with the drowned woman unfolds along with his mental stability and you are taken along for the ride.


The Reivers by William Faulkner. Considered one of Faulkner's "comic masterpieces," The Reivers follows the story of three unlikely car thieves from rural Mississippi on a roadtrip. The cast include's an eleven year old boy, one of his father's retainers and thier black coachman as they steal the boy's grandfather's new car and drive to Miss Reba's bordello in Memphis. Hilarious.


Waiting Period by Hubert Selby Jr. Like Joyce Carol Oates' Zombie, Selby tells his story from the point of view of a suicidal man who becomes a serial killer. The difference with this tale is it begins before he kills and follows the narrator's twisted logic as it justifies his actions. Written with Selby's customary daring you are carried along on a "joyfull killing spree" with as much ability to stop as the main character.

Welcome to the book section. A mixture of reviews, beefs and lists. I considered separating them into topics (non-fiction, fiction, et al) but since that isn't how I read them I listed them as is. This year has been a good year for books. I'd been eagerly awaiting new books by Zadie Smith (Autograph Man), Chuck Palahniuk (Lullaby), Dave Eggers (You Shall Know Our Velocity) and Dan Fante (Spitting Off Tall Buildings) and now that I've got them all and have finished reading them I can say that it was worth the wait (in gold). I was surprised to read that the critics were unsatisfied with Smith's book, I found the book more controlled than White Teeth which in my opinion had a poorly resolved ending. The critics have been a lot more friendly to Palahniuk whose book saw a return to the brilliance of his earlier works. Frankly I was disappointed with his last endeavor, Choke, which seemed to lack the balance between the 'facts' and story needed for his style of 'dangerous writing' to coalesce into a believable story. Suspension of belief is needed to enjoy any book, especially so for Chuck's, but a foundation of reality has to be fabricated for his work to shine and in this Choke failed. The reviews for Eggers is mixed and extreme; personally I'm enjoying the book even with the copy-editing mistakes. He is a good writer, there's no denying it. There are some really strong passages in this book that I happily reread a couple of times but in general it's not a masterpiece (and neither was A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, no matter who told you heard otherwise).

Enjoy,
Paul