Book Review #14

Enigmatic Pilot by Kris Saknussemm

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In the last book I review on goodreads, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, I complained that I was not always convinced of the narrator's age and that he seemed just a little too precocious. The same complaint could certainly be made of the main character of Enigmatic Pilot, Lloyd Sitturd, but I'm not going to make it.

Enigmatic Pilot steers it's reader so quickly and so deeply into a strange land that his antics seem just right for the [very] pre-teen 19th-century robot-building uber-genius protagonist. While Lloyd character demanding highly-hyphenated descriptors, particularly his man-sized libido and multiple-men-sized intelligence, his mistakes as well as his innocence make his character surprisingly sympathetic.

Despite it's diminutive length Engimatic Pilot is jam-packed with mystery, adventure, magic, tragedy, and growth. I finished this book about a month ago, but I'm still turning many of the mysteries over in my head.



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Book Review #12

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Though I loved many of the Newberry Medal winning books as I child, it's been years since I read a new one. If you're the same, let me whole-heartedly recommend The Graveyard Book as a re-entry point into the world of childrens' literature.

Simply, this is a beautiful little book. Gaiman takes the question, "what would it be like for a child to grow up in a cemetery?" and tells the story of a loving community, that despite it's obvious idiosyncrasies, feels surprisingly true, and nearly normal. The most compelling aspect of the book is the main character, Bod, short for "Nobody."

In books like Neverwhere, Stardust, and American Gods, Gaiman describes the growth of males from stunted adolescents to manhood. Unlike the males in those books, Bod's journey isn't strictly heroic, instead he grows through thought and exploration. He is a solemn, sympathetic, and inquisitive boy that I think many men could learn from.

My one quibble is with the adversary. The villainy was far more hollow and arbitrary than in other Gaiman works. In style and vague suspense they hark most to Croup and Vandemar from Neverwhere, but whereas C&Vs' relative lack of origins makes them even more chilling, with "the Jacks" I feel the opposite affect. Over the course of the book we learn that "the Jacks" are an ancient brotherhood of ne'er-do-wells, but the roots or purpose of their work is just a bit too ephemeral to me. "The Jacks" are tools, but to what end? Gaiman tells a hauntingly beautiful story about a boy growing up in a cemetery and for me that's enough. At times "the Jacks" were compelling (like when there were knives or history involved), but really they were too vague a menace to feel like a fully realized and necessary part of the book.

But leaving aside that aside, I wish there was more. I could have easily and happily spent another 100 pages watching Bod grow up, or finding out the truth (or more of the truth) about Silas. Gaiman has said that he hasn't rule out returning to this world, and I'd love to read a story about Bod's experience in the world beyond the graveyard.



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Book Review #10

The Final Solution: A Story of Detection by Michael Chabon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is Chabon's first book after Kavalier and Clay (I'm not counting Summerland; I mean The Final Solution was his first book of merit). The Final Solution is a slight volume, but I don't think it's a slight work. In some respects it reads like an erudite young adult book. The language is mostly simple and direct. The conceit of the main character is amusing, and the boy and his parrot are provocative ciphers. The actual mystery isn't quite as interesting as I would have hoped, but the mystery really serves as a foil for the characters and their relationships. Ultimately, this book is plenty worth the 2 hours it will take you to read it.



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