Wednesday, July 09, 2008

It's Good to Be Back

I know I said that I'd be reading my own work — and I did, for a couple days on the train. I should have continued with my work, because it's clearly better than what I've been reading lately. Well, I enjoyed the Christopher Moore book, so I shouldn't lump it in with the others.

I completely hated one nonfiction book that I'd read with the intention of reviewing. It should never have been published, at least not in the appalling condition in which I found it. I won't review it. And I struggled to finish another book, Cooperstown, which was tangentially about baseball. Perhaps I needed to see the problems that arise out of bad structural choices in a novel.

But this morning I began something new on the train, Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghosts. I'm only in the first story, "Buttonboy," and already I'm enjoying it more than anything I've read in the past two weeks — including my book, including Chris Moore. Earlier this year, I read Hill's novel, Heart-Shaped Box, which I found entertaining and enjoyable.

While Hill is the son of writers (Stephen and Tabitha King), he hasn't relied on his father's fame to get noticed. He's done quite well for himself already, and I expect he'll provide many enjoyable works of fiction in the future. While he may never write Pulitzer Prize winning literature, if nothing else, he's provided me with a welcome respite from poor and mediocre writing.

Thanks, Joe.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

HEY...NICE BLOGS! BUT DON'T YOU HAVE A E-MAIL AT ALL??? I'M LONGING TO SHARE OPINIONS AND IDEAS WITH PEOPLE WHO LOVE WRITING AS MUCH AS I DO!
IN CASE, CONTACT ME AT
marzouno@libero.it

OH, ALMOST FORGOT! MY NAME IS GRAZIA, AND I'M AN ENGLISH>ITALIAN TRANSLATOR...I LIVE IN SICILY AND I LOVE BOOKS (both writing and reading them!)
CHEERS!

THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF ONE OF MY OWN SHORT TALES I WROTE AND TRANSLATED MYSELF.
"Ireland is full of ghosts.
I know it. I’m sure of it. Well, I do believe it anyway.
Daniel does not. Because his family is Catholic, of course. They don’t believe in “middle courses”: it’s either Heaven or Hell. But…no, it is not his education. The fact is, Daniel doesn’t believe that ghosts exist and that’s all. He is a practical guy. And he thinks I'm the fool, because at 19 I still look at old castle's walls, looking for pale, floating faces.
- When are you going to grow up, Beth? – he asks, laughing, when he finds me reading the last news about ghost sighting on the newspaper. I should hate him, when he speaks that way, but I can’t.
I should hate him for some other reason, according to half of my Protestant friends, but again…I can’t. When I met him at that concert where my College friends almost dragged me, I didn’t really wonder: is he rich? is he poor? does he come from the right side of the town? is he Protestant as my family, or is he a Catholic? I just saw the great contrast of his dark brown hair and his light blue eyes, very clear, transparent as the water of lake Neagh.
I saw his smile as he told me he thought I was very sweet (yes, “very sweet”, not “beautiful”…and it’s the best compliment I have ever heard!). I saw his nice manners and I understood I would never let him go. WE would never let each other go. We've been a couple for almost 10 months now. (....) "