Quirky Books

I just finished There is Only Us by Zoe Ballering.  This was a book that was being promoted by Powells City of Books (in Portland), which isn't a huge surprise as she is a Portland-based author.  Ballering has written a number of offbeat stories with the final story "Here I Am" being a fable of sorts where as a spin-off of NASA research, scientists have found it is possible to download a human's brain into a mole rat (ostensibly to enable long-distance space travel) with the side effect of no longer feeling pain (or perhaps recognizing it as such).  It isn't even clear to the outsider observers whether this is restricted to physical pain or also encompasses emotional pain, but (not too surprisingly) suddenly a booming industry of private clinics emerges to carry out this surgery on anyone (like the narrator's sister) who finds the pain of living in the world to be too much. 

Many of her stories are like this.  There's also one about an inoculation that wipes out the need for sleep, and the impact that has on the resisters who still crave dreams.  Another fable-like story is about a man who can double inanimate and animate objects.  I thought this one was beyond silly, as the physics are beyond impossible, and the finale didn't work for me at all.  "Luz Luz" also had a premise that was beyond silly.  Some supernatural power, probably "God," was wiping out whole classes of things: keys, all cars, birds, and then humans, except for the narrator who had a name that simply confused God, so he left her alone.  I think this might have worked better in the hands of an absurdist like Donald Barthelme.  I guess I mostly found these stories to have weak SF-type plot contrivances overlaid on deep feelings of loss and loneliness.  Perhaps Ballering might trust herself more and just write in a more naturalistic vein.  I did find "Substances: A School Year" to be fairly interesting; it reminded me of the Hobstown Mystery Stories series, which is itself a dark funhouse mirror-world version of Scooby Doo (or something like that).  

Anyway, I was pretty glad that I was able to grab this from Robarts rather than ordering my own copy and then finding I didn't like it that much.

I felt almost the same way about The Vegetarian by Han Kang, though this one was a bit easier to find in the regular library.  And Arvida, which I slammed in this review.  In the end I decided it wasn't worth reviewing Lalonde's Glorious Frazzled Beings, but I didn't care for her stories either.  I don't think it's just that I don't like short stories, but I prefer them either to be grounded in reality or to be plausible, self-contained SF stories.  I don't care for unrealistic fables, though I have made exceptions from time to time, for writers such as Angela Carter and arguably Donald Barthelme.  That said, I probably will give Double Dutch by Laura Trunkey a shot, though I may be a bit quicker to pull the plug than I used to be.

I have been enjoying Joy Williams's stories considerably more, and I am learning towards picking up a physical copy of The Visiting Privilege to supplement an e-book.  As I have said before, I'm not a Luddite, but I still prefer reading hard copies of books when possible.

I'm keeping an eye on The Quick and the Dead, also by Joy Williams.  While TPL has a reference copy (grrr), Robarts owns a circulating copy, but it is currently out on loan.  It should be back in a few weeks (fingers crossed).  Perhaps I shall see if it is available at some point after I have finished Farrell's The Singapore Grip.

The final book to discuss isn't particularly quirky but rather is Salman Rushdie in a bit of a return to his post-modernist tricks in Victory City, which he had completed before he was attacked last year.

I'd say most of the reviews have been overall positive, though some don't like the framing device of a narrator relating the tale of an immortal or near-immortal queen found in ancient fragments, though I assume this is down to Rushdie not quite have worked all the Cervantes out of his system in Quichotte. Overall, it sounds like a book I would enjoy.  I believe the trade paperback should come out this summer.  I know that Rushdie is in no rush to go out promoting this book, but I will keep my eyes out to see if signed copies will be sold to raise money for PEN or another one of his pet causes.