The Postman Always Rings Twice

By James M Cain
Initially, and as Hercule Poirot would say (sort of), I didn’t buy the psychology in this one – our protagonist, Frank (I won’t call him a hero), rocks up at a diner, manipulates the boss into giving him a job, fancies the missus (Cora), forces himself on her within a short space of time and bites her lip badly enough to make it bleed, and yet she appears to fancy him back. She has, apparently, “lips that stuck out in a way that made me want to mash them in for her”. What the?! Surely Cora’s husband, Nick the Greek, must have been a total monster, if Frank is an attractive proposition?? Yet the only crimes she fingers her husband for is being “greasy”. (Not only are the main characters generally unpleasant, they are also racist! And sexist! Still, it was written in the 30s, I suppose).

After a while, though, I got used to the “psychology” of the characters, even though Frank is so repulsive - and Cora’s not exactly fabulous either. So I was in for the ride as Cora and Frank try twice to kill off Nick the Greek and then go through the inevitable court case and relationship problems. This is not a happily-ever-after story! There is some satisfaction, I suppose, in seeing them get their just desserts…

I haven’t seen either of the films upon which this is based, or even any of the other films based on Cain’s novels (e.g. Double Indemnity) but it is not hard to imagine them as films – they are quite visual, and the writing style very fast and punchy. It reminds me a bit of Psycho, where the person who gets killed in the shower is morally flawed, and the story follows her crime and ultimate downfall.

Incidentally there is no postman in this book, which is a tad confusing because I was imagining some kind of “Cape Fear” story with a psychopathic postman. In fact I don’t believe there are even any doorbells rung. I googled it and apparently the phrase “The Postman Always Rings Twice” is code for the general sentiment “What Goes Around Comes Around”. I wonder if Justin Timberlake ever considered an alternate title for his song??

Rating: 6 out of 10

Let the Right One In

By John Ajvide Lindqvist
Well there was no mistaking that this was a vampire story, because it says “A vampire love story”, right there on the cover! Unfortunately it is a rather sordid and gruesome vampire story (I know, I know – what should I expect??), devoid of any trace of hope or humour. (Unless you count the odd smirk about character names that sound like IKEA furniture). Unremittingly grim. Also it is written in that kind of style that forgoes proper sentences. Yes.

Set in Stockholm, our main character is Oskar, who is thirteen and bullied at school. Another child, Eli, and a man who Oskar assumes to be her father move in next door. People start being killed, gruesomely, which of course those foolish police assume is the work of a serial killer. Well, they're half right. So, who do you think the vampire is??

I don’t feel I have the energy to write much more about this – it was depressing. Every character’s relationships with everyone else were crappy. Everyone is unhappy, sad, deeply ashamed about some aspect of their lives, cruel, or all of the above. What can I say? These vampires aren’t the sexy doomed vampires of Anne Rice, or the trendy, sassy doomed vampires of Buffy, they are just doomed. Eli’s “Father”, Håkan, is a particularly revolting character, being a pedophile and all. Bleah. And seriously, what love story?? Still, this kind of realistic, gritty vampire novel might appeal to many readers.

I'd read Fangland instead. It’s not exactly a laugh a minute either, but there is something about it that lifts it out of the unrelenting gloom…

Rating: 5 out of 10

Fangland

By John Marks
It’s been a long time since I read any horror, because, you know, me and horror don’t get along so well, so I’m not sure if I’m correct here, but I think this book might, well, be sneaking over into the horror genre. There are no ice picks involved, or chainsaws or people being skinned or anything (not directly, anyway) and the book cover doesn’t make use of dripping blood; the horror it contains is more of an intellectual quality - the horror that has been inflicted on real persons throughout the centuries.

Interestingly, also, Fangland is a post-9/11 horror story; the horror that was nearly 3000 people’s last moments (plus all the associated shock and emotional damage that was the survivors’) is woven into the narrative. I’ve only read one other book that was quite so directly a post-9/11 novel, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close; and although I thought Foer’s book was excellent, I think Fangland was more effective at capturing what the events of that day did to the city of New York.

Fangland is a modern take on the vampire legend, and at the start I thought it was going to be a bit too clever for itself, but I ended up really quite liking it. I will look for other novels by John Marks. It is set (for a good part of the action) in the offices of a television current affairs program (The Hour) in downtown New York, located just next door to the holes that exist where the World Trade Centre used to stand. The rest of the story is set in Romania, as we follow what happens to one Evangeline Harker, who has been sent there by her bosses at The Hour to assess the possibility of a story on an Eastern European crime lord called Ion Torgu.

The story is told from the viewpoints of a number of different characters; for me it was Evangeline’s voice that read best, challenging my pet theory that it is difficult for men to write convincing female characters and vice versa. (I can’t really test the vice versa; male characters written by women often seem quite convincing to me, but what would I know? You blokes will have to confirm/deny). Not all of the book works for me and there are, to paraphrase the C&C Music Factory, a few bits that made me go “Hmmm” - such as the scene in which Evangeline uses her sexuality to fend off an attack by Torgu. To paraphrase the evil Mexicans in For a Fistful of Dollars, “ehhhh??” I suppose at least it wasn’t the same old “vampires are sooo sexy” thing that most authors peddle. But overall, the book was moving and chilling…if you feel in the mood for a vampire novel, definitely read this one over Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Fight Club

By Chuck Palahniuk
I did a bit of research on Wiki after I finished this book, because I wondered if it had ever been banned anywhere – it does read like a bit of a primer for civil disobedience, after all, and that usually gets the book-banners’ blood boiling. Waiters spitting (and worse) into restaurant food, selling soap made from liposuction fat to the ladies who had the liposuction (at outrageous prices), bare knuckle fist-fight clubs, blowing things up…this book had it all. I can also easily imagine the society depicted in Fight Club appealing greatly to the disenfranchised, angry, despairing, bored and/or lonely – the type of person who can often end up in a cult. As Hercule Poirot would say, the psychology of the book was right.

Well Wikipedia didn’t mention any attempts to ban the book (or the subsequent film), although Fight Club has attracted some criticism for its violent nature, suggestions of misogyny etc. (Incidentally, my own inbuilt misogyny detector was not activated while reading this book). The Wiki entry on Fight Club did indicate, however, that it has generated rather a lot of deep and meaningful essays and critiques. (Arrrgh). To quote Wiki, “[Fight Club] is now widely considered to be a defining work and an uncompromising critique of humanity's loss of identity through mass consumerism.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_club). Oo-er.

Interestingly, the fight club society that evolves in the book is made up entirely of men. I’m not sure if this makes me prey to gender stereotypes, but I don’t think I would have found it believable if there were lots of women joining up to bash each other’s faces in and obey ridiculous rules unquestioningly. Tell me if I’m falling prey to gender stereotypes, won’t you? I'd hate to fall prey to gender stereotypes...

Fight Club is a curious book – definitely worth reading – it feels like it’s being written by someone with ADD (or possibly extreme sleep deprivation, which is what our unnamed hero suffers from), but as you get towards the end and it all comes together…geez! I mean, I didn’t see that coming! I think Chuck Palahniuk is a bit clever.

Also Fight Club has the rare commendation of being a book that invites comment by total strangers on public transport. I was only on about page 5 when a bloke on the train started telling me what an awesome book it was; I can only recall two other books inviting comment from strangers, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 and one of Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey novels.

I think I’m going to give this book a 10, even though I didn’t quite like it as much as my other favourites, but it was just so well done. A dangerous book!!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Deal Breaker (2006)

By Harlan Coben
Well, I have to say I really quite liked this book. A classic it ain’t, but the hero, Myron Bolitar (ex star basketballer and FBI agent turned sports agent) is really quite good – he’s always got a smart line with which to annoy the bad guys. Myron’s newest star is footballer Christian Steele, who, on the cusp of a very profitable NFL contract, receives evidence that suggests his dead ex-girlfriend might not be dead at all – and so of course Myron has to investigate. It helps that Christian’s ex-girlfriend was the sister of Myron’s ex-girlfriend, with whom Myron is keen to reconcile.

Myron is assisted in all of this by his best friend and business partner Win (short for Windsor Horne Lockwood III) who is a sort of cross between Richie Rich and a sociopath with a black belt. Apart from some amusing banter with Myron, I wasn’t sure I approved of Win; he kills too many people and seems to enjoy it.

Another author to remember for a good holiday read though.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Complicity (2003)

By Iain Banks
I’m not counting this one in my tally of books for the Readathon because frankly I thought it was crap and only got up to about page 50. It starts off alternating between the activities of an unnamed murderer and the activities of a semi-junkie journalist, set somewhere in Scotland. The unnamed murderer (assuming it was all the same guy, I didn’t get far enough to find out) is very busy and had killed two people, several dogs and sexually assaulted another (person) by the time I gave up. The journalist seemed to drive around the countryside a lot getting uptight about the quality of beer in Scotland, smoking, drinking whiskey and sniffing one of those white powders, I forget which, to keep him awake and hanging around in telephone boxes waiting for some secret source to call him about something. By page 50 there was still no apparent connection between the two although obviously there must have been, unless the author was trying to be all post-modern or something.

In the end it was all getting a bit sordid for me – and to top it all off I thought it was pretty badly written, relying way too much on shock value. I won’t be picking up any more Iain Banks books unless they come with a very good recommendation!!

Rating: 0 out of 10

Live and Let Die (2003)

By Ian Fleming
Good heavens, James Bond has feelings! And, sometimes he is afraid!! While this book is really quite well written, it beats me how anyone saw the huge commercial potential for Bondy – i.e. it didn’t really do a lot for me. It was interesting, though, to see which bits of the book turned up in various movies (not necessarily the same one) and how they updated various aspects of the plot – for example, instead of smuggling gold coins that were part of a pirate’s hoard (the book) they smuggled heroin or cocaine or something (the movies). Also, there was no Q or fancy gizmos in the book, and very few smart one-liners from Bond.

If you’re interested in the plot (such as it is), Bond gets sent to the US to help investigate the flood of antique gold coins appearing on the market. He and his pal Felix Leiter fall foul of “Mr Big” who has set himself up as an underworld voodoo master up in Harlem. Mr Big’s chick, Solitaire, escapes with Bondy to Florida and after this there’s a lot of violence involving sharks and barracudas. I won’t ruin it completely by telling you everything, but rest assured Bond comes out of it OK, although slightly more injured than he appears to be in the films.

Rating: 4 out of 10

Tricky Business (2005)

By Dave Barry
Dave Barry is an American columnist who, I have to say, can be very, very funny. Some Australian papers carry his columns from time to time, you might have seen them around. He is also a mate of Carl Hiaasen, a fellow journalist-turned-novelist. This book is humorous and light, except for a few acts of extreme violence, but not quite as good as the Hiaasen’s I have read to date, nor as good as Janet Evanovich. It is better than R is for Ricochet, though.

The plot involves several parties, whose paths intertwine on board a small cruise ship that sails offshore every night so that everyone can gamble relatively legally. The ship is also being used to deliver drugs. This particular night there is a big storm, and some bad guys have a plan and quite a lot of guns. There is also a band, a barmaid and two retirees thrown into the mix. Barry also pokes some well-deserved fun at the inanity of news coverage, where, desperate to drum up a story about the storm, news reporters keep racing to the scene of apparent tragedies only to get killed themselves – thus, they create their own news.

If you could only read one more book before you died, this wouldn’t be it. (My personal choice would be Ulysses, because I know it would take me a really, really long time to finish). More the kind of book you’d read on a plane flight, except that you’d probably be more entertained by Carl Hiaasen.

Rating: 5 out of 10
It’s okay - if you never get around to reading it, it won't be the end of the world.

A Clockwork Orange (2005)

By Anthony Burgess
I wanted to read this book because I decided it was high time I read the real thing and not rely only on the Mad Magazine version of the film by Stanley Kubrick. (Interesting fact: the film is based on the US edition of novel, which did not include the semi-redemptive last chapter). I imagine most people are familiar with the premise – Alex, a very violent teenager, undergoes treatment while in prison that makes him physically unable to commit violence in any way. In a word, this book is confronting – mostly for its straightforward descriptions of “ultraviolence”, including bashing and gang rape. It is not written in a voyeuristic manner, a la Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, just as it happens, from the point of view of one of the perpetrators, who clearly enjoys what he is doing. So, maybe two words: confronting, and disturbing.

It is also, though, a deeply interesting book, leaving the reader with a lot to think about at the end. The central question the novel presents (and I know this because I read it in the introductory essay afterwards) is this: is it better to choose to be wicked than to be forced to be good? I guess central to any code of conduct, religious or otherwise, when we really think about it, is the concept of choice. I remember someone once telling me that Brenda was the only really interesting character on Beverly Hills 90210 because you could see her deciding to be a good person from episode to episode, rather than automatically being one, like all the rest of them, although the assertion that the gang at the Peach Pit were “good” people may have come under fire from the book reviewer in the St James’s Gazette of 1890.

But that is another story…also interesting was Burgess’ depiction of society’s conflicting attitudes to violence: all agree that Alex’s acts of violence are reprehensible, but then embrace violence as part of his punishment. There is as much violence in prison, in this novel, than out of it, and not all of it is committed by fellow inmates – a bit like how in every cop show these days the cops threaten pretty young men into confessions by reminding them of the atrocities against their persons that they can expect in prison. Now, I’m not past a bit of the old “eye for an eye” myself, but I found this book (intentionally or not) quite a strong argument against vengeance. Mind you, all this does not solve the problem of how we should punish people who commit violent crimes, which is a topic too large for a humble book review, I suppose.

The last thing to say about this novel is that Burgess’ use of language is truly astounding – if a little hard to decipher at times. I wonder if Moloko the band took their name from Alex’s word for “milk”?

Read this novel when you’re feeling strong, but do read it.

Rating: 9 out of 10
For being a powerful and original piece of writing, but not really because the reading of it was enjoyable.