Saturday, April 22, 2006

2006 books 53 and 54

ted thompson, ed. noisy outlaws, unfriendly blobs . . .
i read this mcsweeney's anthology aimed at kid/YA readers in bits and pieces, b/c most of the stories weren't that great. the kelly link one was pretty good, and the neil gaiman was ok (i kind of thought it was leading toward cannibalism, and was a little disappointed when it didn't get there), but the extremely long clement freud story sucked, and the rest were pretty mediocre.

mary gordon's pearl
this book was awesome, on the other hand. it starts with a woman, maria, receiving a call from ireland (where her daughter is studying abroad) informing her that her daughter has chained herself to a flagpole in front of the american embassy and is on a hunger strike. the characters of these two women, as well as a close family friend, are explored in great detail as the reader comes to understand how this story played out. meanwhile, the narrative voice--an omniscent unnamed first person type--is pretty great as well.

unrelated: "american dreamz" is really a funny movie. i still have the song in my head 6 hours after it ended. highlights are too numerous to list, but i will point out to the buffy-fans that the dude who played warren is in it, as a hasidic jew. good times!

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