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Some short reviews of books I recommend
A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry) - Most books that have loads of hype are usually not very good, are they? I'm happy to say that A Fine Balance is an exception. It's good that the book has 713 big pages because you keep wanting to turn them. Following the life histories of three people who share a tiny apartment in tumultuous India in 1976 (when the vast majority of the story takes place), we are washed away in a heat wave of social and political chaos while the three characters, just trying to survive and live their lives, struggle through as best they can. A fascinating look at India, A Fine Balance is full of interesting plot twists and likeable and dislikeable characters. Definately recommended.
Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe) - This book is one of my favourite books. If you saw the movie, don't let that influence you reading the book. They even made a book about how they managed to make such a bad movie out of such an excellent book. Anyway, it's 600 pages and I read it all within 2 days. The book follows the downfall of a Wall Street darling in the heady days of the late 80s.
After accidentally running over a black man who may or may not have been trying to mug him in a bad part of New York, Sherman McCoy takes off from the scene. This incident sets the stage for a wild bunch of egos looking for as much play time in the spotlight of controversy as possible. They all collude, unwittingly, in Sherman's downfall by engaging in the same hubris that drove him to the top: the drunken reporter looking for pullitzers, a black priest playing on race relations to drive his own power and ego, the mayor, looking for re-election. Not only is the book hilarious, but it provides an interesting and original look at modern day themes.
The Chocolate War (Robert Courmier) - Robert Courmier is often considered a children's author because of the simplicity of his storylines and the general ages of his characters, however it's a great diservice to his writing to consider him only in this vein. I've read few books that have managed to cut so deeply and bitterly into human experience. On the surface, the book is about a new boy in an all-boys Catholic school in the 70s. The school is tight-fistedly controlled by two forces - the cruel and strict Brothers, and a secret gang called the Vigils. Together, they both keep everyone in line. When the headmaster overzealously orders too many chocolates for the school's annual fundraiser, he enlists the help of the Vigils to ensure that, through whatever means possible, every boy sells twice as many chococlates as the year previously...at twice the price. School spirit is terrorized into the students. To fuck with the headmaster, the Vigils have the new boy refuse to sell chocolates. However, on the third day, when he's supposed to give in, the new boy continues saying no. And keeps saying no, to everyone's horror. The headmaster and the Vigils then embark on a campaign of threats, attacks, blackmail and lies against the new boy. This only strenghtens his resolve.
The Chocolate War is full of interesting characters and a story that is both unpredictable and sadly inevitable. It clips along right to the end and the last few pages leave you feeling like you've just been kicked in the face. The book is wildly entertaining and quite brutal. I can't recomend this book enough.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Mark Haddon) - A very cleverly written book about an autistic teenager who decides he's going to solve a mystery and write a book about it (the book you actually end up reading). Incredibly entertaining, the book also has things to say and points to make, which are always important in book. An engrossing and fast read. Highly recommended.
Election (Tom Perrotta) - Another book that made it into a movie. Except this time the movie wasn't bad. Actually, one of the joys of reading the book is seeing how well they managed to make a movie out of it. The book follows several characters all narrating in their own voice who, for one reason or another, get tangled up in a Student's Council election. There's the teacher organizing it who, while obligated to show impartiality, secretly hates the forerunning candidate for a whole slew of reasons, both deserved and undeserved and secretly plots to stop her, stepping way over the bounds in the process. There's the rebellious in-the-closet student, campaigning for revenge and running solely on an 'I don't care' platform. Then there's the happy dumb jock, running because everyone expects him to. I like this book because it's one of those stories where the ending is inevitable. Everyone steps over the bounds and it all coagulates to form this mess that has it's own momentum, each character individual helpless to stop it and too self-involved to see what's really going on.
This book reads like candy. You can't put it down and the characters and situations are deliciously real and ironic. Funny while poignant and original. A must read.
1978 (Daniel Jones) - I'm recommending this because it's very original, a very fun, quick read, Canadian and somewhat rare. I quite liked the book and it managed to say a lot without ever being preachy. Basically about the punk/drug scene in Toronto in the 70s, this book is different, captivating and simultaneously disturbing and hilarious. You can read a review of it here. 1978 was published posthumously.
Shampoo Planet (Douglas Coupland) - While I'm ambivalent about most of Coupland's work, Shampoo Planet is a wonderful, fresh and exciting novel. Coupland is best known for his first novel Generation X (which I also recommend), but Shampoo Planet is a much more richly textured and surprisingly heartfelt creation. Shampoo Planet follows Tyler, a hippy-child who's dedicated to throwing out the old healy-feely plant going ways of his mother, for a year as he embraces 'modernity' in all its quirks and inconsistencies from making a living selling brand knock-off watches and sunglasses, to traveling Europe to visit celebrity cemeteries, to working as a theme-park designer for his hero, the rags-to-riches CEO of Betchol. Enjoyable to read, hard to put down, and full of interesting observations and cultural juxtapositions.
Fruit: a novel about a boy and his nipples (Brian Francis) - This is a fun book. Don't let the fact that its premise is the hot-subject du jour of contemporary Canadian small press (ie, growing up gay in a small town) turn you off. It's got a twist (or should I say purple nurple?), as the nipples of our unheralded, naive and nerdy hero - Peter Paddington, with his homo-erotic bedtime movie fantasies and eating disorders - know Peter's secret and threaten to reveal it to the world. It's a secret even Peter doesn't know and, in denial, he tapes his nipples down to shut them up. Fruit is a fun and truthful read that anyone who has been awkward at some point in their life will find entertaining.
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