Cherry
Penguin USA
Paperback - 276 pages
Reissue edition (September 4, 2001)

Enjoyed every sentence

This illuminates a difficult time through puberty, complicated by sex and drugs, with a deft command of language. It lights up areas of our past that are often left unspoken.

I didn't grow up in Texas, nor did I grow up in the 60s, in fact, I'm not female, but I was caught up in the magic of Mary's Karr's prose and her ability to depict those long, sometimes boring, sometimes electric moments of being a teenager and wanting to leave home.

Mary Karr says it like it is, and describes one of the most most vivid--and laugh-until-you-cry--descriptions of an acid trip I have ever read.

My favorite and most moving part is the mother's reference to the father as being "USDA crazy" after he's dumped a bucket of plums on his daughter's bed. (I won't devulge the context, you have to read it.) I was so moved I couldn't describe it to my wife for a full minute.

My only criticsm is that there were several references to characters dying later in life, which give the reader the impression the story it going to lead there, but doesn't. Perhaps it was more of a cautionary tale of what drugs did to people--or just, the way it was.

On the whole, it is enriching and well worth your time.

The Temple of the Golden Pavillian
by Yukio Mishima, Ivan Morris (Translator)
Vintage Books
Paperback - 262 pages
Reprint edition (October 1994)

Incandescent

During WWII, Truman's military made the conscious act of not bombing Kyoto. During restoration, one of Japan's most revered temples was set ablaze by a young Japanese man, a stutterer in training to become a Zen priest. The novel is an exploration of this shocking event, a symbolic mourning of Japan's young people turning away from its own cultural roots(??). (Although many other subjects are touched on).

Mishima, heralded as one of the great writers of Japan, committed public suicide during demonstration against American occupation. He was the "John Updike" of his generation I understand. His sharp criticism of Japan succumbing to Western values is evident in this book (the hospital-like order of the warfs where the U.S. Navy ships were docked).

Mishima provides a satisfying complexity on some difficult subjects (e.g., what is beauty), the pyschology of a young person bent on destruction (shades of the Oaklahoma city bombing). Despite the dark subject matter, the novel is full of enjoyable, lively characters who seem to enter at just the right moments to breath fresh life into the sometimes heavy narrative. (Note the opening speach of the Kashiwagi, the club-footed friend with a refreshingly clear, unique pungent logic.)

On the whole, Temple is deeply philosphical with startling twists and turns in observations, which kept me underlining passages. It is full of some of the best similies and analogies I've ever read. The "off-kilter" narration with deep self-questioning of motives reminded me a bit of Doesteovski's protragonist in Crime and Punishment.

The ending seemed a bit abrupt, almost an easy out, but perhaps Mishima, who seems to have a gift for concise observation, didn't wish to over-explain. Every paragraph seemed to count, and I don't think I can look at a Zen temple the same way again.

Timeless

Initially I put this down years ago, unable to finish it, but later picked up again, and from page 200 on, this novel takes off.

The plot is essentially about a middle manager in his 50s who has a midlife crisis and goes on a binge with bohemians. Sinclair takes his time in blowing up all the details of Babbit's alleged extra-marrital affair and its consequences. (I won't tell you if he really does--you have to read it).

This novel comes alive through intelligent dialogue, an ever-moving story-line that stays in real-time (what Updike later drew on with his own brand of super-realism), with a deep and satisfying examination of the ever-shifting and garrelous Babbit, husband and father of two, who safeguards his modest material success in the fictional town of "Zenith."

Multi-layered, with keen observations of American consumerism, with a hard look at marriage, spirituality, business, fatherhood and mid-life crisis.

Written in 1922, the subject matter is universal and timeless. This book has laid the groundwork for many other novels that portray the American business man: Updike's "Rabbit" series, for one, (who he quotes from Babbit in the opening of "Rabbit Run"), The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, the Organization Man and others.

I'm glad I returned to this book, and recommend it to anyone frustrated by the often shallow and dehumanizing world of business. Keep a coffee at your side, though.

	In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck, Warren French (Introduction)
	Usually ships in 24 hours Penguin USA (Paper) Paperback - 355 pages Reissue edition (October 1992)

Captures nuts and bolts of strike experience

Having come out of a 49-day strike myself, I can say Steinbeck captures the logistics of a strike: the manipulation by the media against the strikers, the changing moods of the strikers, the importance of gathering public support. Steinbeck gives a balanced view of manipulators on both sides: the leaders of the strike and the employers. Jim Nolan, the protagonist, is lead by an over-zealous racical, Mac, into riling up disenfranchized apple pickers in a fictious town in California. Steinbeck's talent is in making you experience the strike in real-time, ugly warts and all. Although I felt the ending was harsh, Steinbeck gives the reader a lasting and haunting image of the kinds of sacrafices that were made to fight for the rights of working stiffs. I was most impressed by the vivid characters, an economy and dimension of a Doesteovski novel, as well as an ability to capture scene. I wanted to see more of the aftermath of the strike, but Steinbeck ends the novel like a kick in the gut. Almost too abrupt for my taste, but, alas, this is a classic and well worth the time of anyone wanting to better understand the dubious nature of a strike--its work never finished in a single lifetime.

The Soloist
Mark Salzman
Vintage Contempories
Paperback
February 1995

Resonates long after curtain closes
Few books have touched me like this one. It takes on the hard task of the difficult life shift we must all make at some time or another: when you've gone as far as you can with an art and have to turn to the task of sharing what you know with the next generation. But Salzman never moralizes, he puts you into the mind of a child prodigy -- now as an adult -- who must grow beyond the limited spotlight of the stage. Stalzman has a gift for drawing character, and writing so clearly that it goes into you with the rhythm and life of a well-delivered cello solo. Seems I've rarely been able to stay with a book to its end these days, but this one held me from start to finish. I recommend this to anyone who loves music, loves good literature, and wants to enjoy the beauty and clarity that seems to come straight from the author's heart.