Review: Sister Carrie

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sister Carrie is a really good, if not deeply flawed, novel. I call it deeply flawed since it might as well be called Sister Carrie, Featuring (I won't spoil who it is, but it might as well carry his name, too. Kind of like a rap single in the 90s featuring some R&B singer who practically carries the whole song). This other character steals the show later in the book, leaving Carrie to almost be like a background character in her own story. It's not that I didn't like this change of pace, as I did. It's a story that moves because it has so much to say with the characters it employs. But in doing so, I feel like something is missing here. It just didn't feel complete by the time I reached the final page.

That said, it's a pretty spectacular story, if not a tad bit long (It doesn't really pick up until the half way point at page 200). Even so, it kept me engaged, so that's saying something. A good, classic book. Though, I wouldn't say it's for everyone.

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Review: The Fall

The Fall by Albert Camus
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

More a lesson on Camus' contribution to existentialism than an actual story, The Fall is about a man who realizes how absurd existence is, and he has a fall from his higher position because of it. The thing is, unlike other books by lesser authors, the protagonist in this book doesn't feel constrained or defeated because of his fall. He actually feels slightly liberated.

At first, the story is annoying since the protagonist spends all his time talking about how great he is, and why he felt more intelligent than everybody else. But in the end, you realize how important all that truly was so you can understand how the events that happen lead to his eventual fall. It's certainly not what you're thinking (I thought he had murdered someone or something). It's a highly perplexing book, and one that takes much thought once you wrap your head around its philosophies. I would give it a higher score, but I usually prefer a true narrative to philosophy disguised as narrative. Even so, I read it in one sitting, so that's saying something.

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Review: The Martian

The Martian by Andy Weir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Okay. The Martian is a great book. A towering achievement in realistic science fiction. It's just not for me. The part that bored me was the actual science . It was interesting in the beginning, but after awhile, even I had to admit to myself that I really didn't care about the science and math. I just wanted to get more to the danger. Is it any wonder that the parts I looked most forward to were when we weren't with the protagonist and were instead with his crew and the people at NASA?

That being said, I can understand the love for this book, especially from males who don't normally read. This might be a newsflash to you, but lots of men do not read fiction. They think it's boring and a waste of time. But give them a book that seems like it MIGHT ACTUALLY HAPPEN, and they lap it up like cake frosting. It's the novel for people who don't like fiction!

Actually, that's not entirely true, because at its heart, its a story about survival and perseverance, and who doesn't love that?

So, yeah, it's a great book and all. It's just not MY kind of book. If that makes any sense. Read it if planting potatoes on alien soil sounds interesting to you.

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On releasing free books on Amazon

Well, I've released my third free story of the summer. This one is a doozy. It's a full novel and it's called, The Interdimensional Subwoofer: A dimension hopping, time traveling, science fiction novel. Why release it for free? Especially when it took two years of my life to write? Well, it's to find an audience, which is something that has eluded me ever since I started pumping books out. I read a short book called, Reader Magnets (Also free), which talks about all the benefits of putting out free books, mainly in getting people to sign up to your mailing list.

So far, it hasn't worked. I put out two short stories, Clean Hands, and Q: Are We Not Human? A: We Are Corpses!, which have been downloaded thousands of times but have only gotten me 20 subscribers, and haven't gotten many reviews. But this is an actual novel, and hopefully will show up on more people's recommended screen. In the end, I guess I'm just saying the same thing that any struggling artist says these days: The struggle is real.

Deleted Preface to new short story, A Father's Fears

My short story, A Father's Fears, will be out soon. But in the meantime, here is a chapter I have since eliminated from the book. I hope you dig it.

Prelude

Lord Imagination sauntered through the room of dreams with his hands clasped behind his back. The colors around him drifted like the liquid in a lava lamp. These colors were mankind’s dreams.

This was always his favorite room in the skyscraper. From the inception of human consciousness, mankind has always dreamed. Over the years, this room has changed in a multitude of ways. The dreams have become brighter and more elaborate with the passing of time, and now, the wavy lines snap about like bullet trains. In simpler times, the multicolored strips would trail across Lord Imagination’s vision slowly like currents in a lazy river. He didn’t even have to squint to see what individuals were dreaming about. Hell, if he wanted to, he could even dip his hands into the strips to provide his own images. This wasn’t, of course, the same thing as altering dreams to inspire a specific result. He would need Lord Instinct to do that. Lord Imagination still occasionally thought about that one time he had to surf the currents of dreams to locate Instinct’s soul after a mishap had occurred. It had been like wading through knee-high mud with the wind constantly pushing him back. He never wanted to endure that again.

But he did want to have some fun. And later today, a man in the outside world named Jeff Haunt was going to go on an adventure. What humored Imagination was that Jeff Haunt had no idea that his life would be changed forever in only a few hours time. Neither did his wife, Marigold, who slept right beside him in bed.

Lord Imagination searched the strips to find Jeff Haunt’s dreams. When he located them, he plunged his arms deep into the yellow tide. He swirled his hands around and moved events to suit his liking. It wouldn’t inspire Jeff Haunt to do anything when he woke up, but it would fill him with doubt and uncertainty. Like a great sculptor admiring her achievement, Lord Imagination grinned at his creations. The weaver of dreams could do no wrong.

Review: The Tenants

The Tenants by Bernard Malamud
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Basically, a book that makes you hate and distrust black people even more than you already do. It's hard to find a book written in the past (Hell, it's difficult to find now) where a black character is admirable unless he's a slave and telling Huck Honey to get back on the boat. Most black characters are seen as vicious, untrustworthy individuals (who don't talk in complete sentences), and Malamud continued with that tradition. The only book I can really think of that had a redeemable, respectable black character was The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, and that character was a doctor juxtaposed with other black characters who loathed him for being so different. It was an interesting character study to say the least, and it was refreshing to read.

But I digress.

Why the four stars for this book that I clearly found offensive? Well, because it's good. The characters, though unlikable, are clear and three-dimensional, and the story is told in a meta fashion, which impresses the writer in me. The story concerns two tenants, a Jewish man and a black man (Though one only pays the rent. Guess which one), who are both writers. The black man feels he has to write about the black experience, sort of like Richard Wright. But the problem is, he isn't disciplined like the Jewish writer. The moment he receives even the slightest bit of criticism, he gets upset and does something stupid. It's infuriating to see such a bum of a character, even though he works hard at his craft. The situation is exacerbated when he does a heinous act after the Jewish character kind of oversteps his bounds with the black man's girlfriend (Though, an argument could be made that the black man was in the fault for not treating his girlfriend right in the first place).

Overall, it's a quick read and an interesting book told in a fascinating fashion. Do I like how blacks were portrayed in this book, which was published back in the 70s? No. There is not one redeemable thing about them. But as a black writer, I guess it's my job to write minority characters who are actually worthy of praise. I just won't go overboard with it. That's how you DON'T write three-dimensional characters.

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Review: Tim and Eric's Zone Theory: 7 Easy Steps to Achieve a Perfect Life

Tim and Eric's Zone Theory: 7 Easy Steps to Achieve a Perfect Life by Tim Heidecker
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I don't know how many times I've thought this, but I'll think it again. Why am I a fan of Tim and Eric? After watching Tom Goes to the Mayor, Awesome Show, Bedtime Stories, Check It Out With Dr. Steve Brule (http://www.cinemablend.com/television...), Billion Dollar Movie, and their live show, I think the only thing out of that list I truly enjoyed was Awesome Show (And mostly only season one). Oh, and their Chrimbus Special, which is how I got into them in the first place. So why do I keep watching and buying their stuff if they have such a hit-or-miss (Mostly miss) record with me? I don't know, but after reading Zone Theory in its entirety, I think I've found yet another strike out.

The problem is the writing. It's not that it's bad, it's just that it's so repetitive, especially if you've seen their other stuff. How many times are these guys going to talk about spaghetti? I mean, jeez. This is the kind of book that is funnier when you just flip through the pages at the store and are assaulted by a picture of question mark shaped penises, or the weird, distorted faces of people throughout the book. I get what they were going for here with the cult-religion stuff, and it's funny for the first few pages. But after awhile, it grows tiresome, and you probably got all you needed out of it from the amazing promo (Oh, yeah. I always love their promos, too. They're usually pretty good. But again, bite-sized Tim and Eric is better than full-length Tim and Eric).

Would I recommend this book to anybody? No. Not even Tim and Eric fans. Leaf through it at the store, get a chuckle, and then put it back down. I guess I'm just not Zone Theory material, and will never find the elusive 8th Zone (Which is fully featured in this book).

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