Tuesday, January 20, 2009
The Road
Cormac McCarthy
2006
This is a post-apocalyptic novel about a man and his son walking south trying to survive.
This novel is what post-apocalyptic writing should be. It doesn't give an inch. There are no flashbacks so we can reconstruct why the world ended. There are no hints at any type of war or disease or other catastrophe. The catastrophe just happened, what happened or why is not important, and McCarthy resists any tempation to imagine why. The story also take place well after the end of the world, when everyone who is going to die, already has. The story is about people dealing with it who have long ago accepted what happened. There's no trauma or crying or looking back, just cruel acceptance and adaptation. The book is riveting, thrilling and easy to read. I read it in three days. McCarthy writes very crudely: no apostrophes, no quotations, broken sentences. The style is opposite a elegant victorian novel. There is no elegance. The text is as crude as the landscape in which the story takes place. An excellent book. (Disturbing even, the scene of people being kept in a basement for food shook me a bit).
Cormac McCarthy
2006
This is a post-apocalyptic novel about a man and his son walking south trying to survive.
This novel is what post-apocalyptic writing should be. It doesn't give an inch. There are no flashbacks so we can reconstruct why the world ended. There are no hints at any type of war or disease or other catastrophe. The catastrophe just happened, what happened or why is not important, and McCarthy resists any tempation to imagine why. The story also take place well after the end of the world, when everyone who is going to die, already has. The story is about people dealing with it who have long ago accepted what happened. There's no trauma or crying or looking back, just cruel acceptance and adaptation. The book is riveting, thrilling and easy to read. I read it in three days. McCarthy writes very crudely: no apostrophes, no quotations, broken sentences. The style is opposite a elegant victorian novel. There is no elegance. The text is as crude as the landscape in which the story takes place. An excellent book. (Disturbing even, the scene of people being kept in a basement for food shook me a bit).
Monday, January 05, 2009
Twilight
Stephenie Meyer
2005
This is an adolescent novel about vampires.
This book bothers me because it targets deep thinking pre-teen girls but it is very poorly written. Anne Rice could construct a brilliant sentence and understood the proper use of adjectives. I'm not sure if Meyer is a poor writer, or she has dumbed down her writing trying to appeal to adolescents. Either way, her writing is inexcusable. I read it because I wanted to talk about it wit my students. The story wasn't horrible. The story is basically My So Called Life if Jared Leto was a vampire. She falls in love with him, evil vampires come to fight, and love triumphs. Worse than the writing is Meyer seems to make up her own rules for vampire behaviour, which is sort of over the line for fantasy writers, especially ones that are so widely read. They should respect the tradition.
Stephenie Meyer
2005
This is an adolescent novel about vampires.
This book bothers me because it targets deep thinking pre-teen girls but it is very poorly written. Anne Rice could construct a brilliant sentence and understood the proper use of adjectives. I'm not sure if Meyer is a poor writer, or she has dumbed down her writing trying to appeal to adolescents. Either way, her writing is inexcusable. I read it because I wanted to talk about it wit my students. The story wasn't horrible. The story is basically My So Called Life if Jared Leto was a vampire. She falls in love with him, evil vampires come to fight, and love triumphs. Worse than the writing is Meyer seems to make up her own rules for vampire behaviour, which is sort of over the line for fantasy writers, especially ones that are so widely read. They should respect the tradition.
