5 Stars for Purgatorio by the Italian writer Dante Alighieri

Upon setting out to read Purgatorio by the Italian writer Dante Alighieri, (with cliff notes, end notes and google) I realized much of it didn't come together, so I took a step back after reading and picked up the BBC version of The Divine Comedy. I suppose one has to go through Hell to get to Heaven, and this is what I did in my journey to understand this fantastical beast breathing fire, redemption and ultimate humility and grace inside a long narrative poem.

Inferno made me sympathize heavily with Virgil, whereas Purgatorio expected me to already understand why he came to reside in Hell.  The fourth circle of Hell paralleled strongly with Dante's darkness inside himself contemplating darker choices. Although every soul coming in contact with Dante saw his breath, and saw he still lived. It was the realms like pride, anger and hopelessness that drew me towards Dante's humanity which came in contact with my own.

Paradiso detailed the art of both Inferno and Purgatorio answering questions of hope, faith and ultimately love. The abstract became concrete in God's light and some Italian opera sounding overwhelmingly angelic. It is a beautiful poem with images both horrific and impressionistic. In the end, there seemed to be two ways to view it: 1. literally 2. as a sermon of ethics and morality. I think I took a little of both, and will be revisiting this poem for years to come.

Five Stars for the show NOS4A2

NOS4A2 is one of the best tv series shows I've watched in a long time. It is certainly not average. First, it is not often a show can make the pay off the book does. I read NOS4A2 several years ago and the concept, plot detail and strength of the female lead blew me away.

After watching the first three episodes of this series, I am in awe once more plus the tv series offers up a few sympathy cards for good and evil that were not present in the book adding to unbelievable characterization.

Every character in the series is completely flushed out, and I don't mean solely through their past, but also the actions of their present and all the neat mannerisms drawn in their favor.

The lead protagonist may be a young Jennifer Lawrence. She possesses all the subtle nuances to create both sympathy and respect. Zachary Quinto playing Charlie has the seductive charm every great villain should possess. I look at him and think Joker/Hannibal/Master Vampire from the book Salem's Lot. He's scary - real scary, remember Quinto in American Horror Story. Besides being scary with a fantastic cast, this is a great concept pushed and sewn together with a Singer and believe me I am singing praises. I cannot wait to see the rest of the season.

4 Stars for Sleeping Beauty

As far as concept goes, Stephen King will not disappoint. Sleeping Beauties by both Kings, Stephen and his son, Owen is not an exception. The story is not one especially horrifying, but more mystifying posing questions like: 1. What would happen if all the women in the world fell asleep inside a butterfly-like cocoon that posed deadly consequences if removed. 2. What would happen to all the men in the world if there were no women? 3. What would happen in a world of women without men?

Focused in a small Appalachia region in an impoverished town, a psychologist, and a sheriff fight to protect a possible cure (a woman named Eve Black) to the sleeping disease known as Aurora - the disease stealing women and maybe saving the world and beginning it again. And now, this poses another question: Is Aurora something that needs to be cured? By the end of the novel, this might be a question best left for the reader to decide.

Because of the clever concept, fleshing out the characters boiled down to the deflowering of only one onion, the person left to decide the fate of all women. The Kings did a good job of peeling that particular onion; however, there were too many other characters. I could not cling to any of them with the exception of the chief decision maker.

Plot spun itself unraveling to a satisfying ending, but leaving an intricate, ambiguous web. My biggest question being: Who was/is Eve Black? There was certainly a lot of speculation including allusion from Mercutio's famous Queen Mab speech in Romeo and Juliet. Queen Mab is a fairy playing pranks in the minds of her sleeping victims. There is also the choice of a name, Eve, another possible allusion to the Bible's first woman. The idea of her true identity being left to ponder did not bother me because the theories felt like a swirl of rainbow cotton candy turning sugar sweet in my mouth. In the end, who Eve Black is/was did not matter because the fate of all women rested on one.

In addition, I found the idea of two men writing a book analyzing the psychology of a woman's mind refreshing. Refreshing because it was filled with understanding, compassion, and the humility it takes for men and women to live together without some strange unnecessary power struggle.

I recommend the King books not only for story and concept, but for the clairvoyance it takes to understand the human condition in the mind of a woman. Joe Hill, Stephen King's other son, does this as well. I recently had the pleasure of viewing the first three episodes of his NOS4A2 on AMC with a young strong female protagonist. I read the book, NOS4A2 several years ago, and enjoyed it enough to read it in four days. I posted a review here in favor of this book and posted a review on my blog for the new AMC series show, because after all this is a book site not a film site.

Go out and read a King/Hill novel today!

Forgiving your flaws. Embracing your virtues. 5 Stars for The Memory Keeper's Daughter.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards at its heart is about forgiveness. David, a doctor, husband, father, and once a child growing up poor with a sick sister makes the choice to give away his own daughter (Phoebe) because she is sick. She simply is born with Downs Syndrome a condition that results because a child is born with an extra chromosome. Notable characteristics of this condition are eyes that slant upward, short stature, and a flat nasal bridge.

Developmentally they are behind their peers and they often make poor judgements combined with impulsive behavior. They are prone to many health issues including heart defects that cause them not to live long; however, there are exceptions to this. David, the protagonist of the story and the memory keeper knows all the this the moment his daughter is born and he combines this knowledge with the sister who caused his family so much pain due to physical defects.

Once being drawn into this book because of the premise, I was further drawn into effects of David's choice to give his daughter away. I wanted to know if happiness and forgiveness is possible after such a choice. Edwards wove the human condition of not just David's feelings, but an intricate pattern of his wife's, son's, surrogate mother's, and finally his own tragic quilt piece into a beautifully odd blanket highlighted by Phoebe's open embrace.

A few years ago, I met a young man with Downs Syndrome and was lucky enough to be in his life on a daily basis for the course of one year. After knowing him, I concluded that his extra chromosome was like an extra sight into the human emotional psyche. He seemed to understand someones's happiness, sadness, and anger before even they did, and often he placed someone else's happiness above his own. He genuinely wanted to make those around him happy though his very simple and rose colored glasses. 

Often I have found myself cynical pondering the flaws of the universe I cannot explain. This young man was like rope in an endless space of darkness. He gave me hope reminding me not of vices but of virtues. Fortunately, his family saw him in the same hope filled light. Kim Edwards understood this with Phoebe, and it was why even the darkest secret can often be forgiven. If you want a story about real forgiveness, read The Memory Keeper's Daughter.

Stephen King and Bob Dylan

For me, a good Stephen King book is like a Bob Dylan concert. Sometimes it's a Subterranean Homesick Blues night, other times it's Blowing in the Wind. Doctor Sleep was far from Blowing in the Wind. It is fast paced scare-the-bejesus out of you horror that is my kind of book. A great many things worked it in this book from plot, tone, minimal imagery allowing the reader to fill in the gaps, to characterization.

The story was told by Danny from King's first book, The Shining; however, Danny is Dan and all grown-up and ready to deal with the monsters of the past and present. Problem is Dan is a recovering alcoholic who has some of his own demons to battle first. He's not hero material and gosh I love a well-flawed character to meet a super villian. King knows how to create those. I'm thinking of Pennywise and the Master Vampire from Salem's Lot. Doctor Sleep has Rose the Hat, a seductive beauty when she's not killing and drinking the steam of the young. She has a single tooth then and a wicked appetite.

I understand The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe's White Witch is playing Rose in an upcoming movie. I can't think of a better person for the role.

I'd love to see this movie!
I highly recommend the book!

BUT.. save the movie for after. I still haven't read The Shining by King, but have watched the movie. I regret that. Always read the book first.

War painted in Fauvist Reds and Grays - 5 Stars for The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

Fauvism is style of painting that used pure, brilliant color aggressively applied straight from the paint tubes to create a sense of an explosion on the canvas. This is what the imagery in The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara looked like when I read it. Of course, it is a book rooted in war and there seems to be nothing more explosive - other than the grief and silence of death. The explosion of color paralleled Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage, but it also favored Crane’s book with blooming characterization from seed to wintery death.

“It was like the gray floor of hell.” Gettysburg as described by Joshua Chamberlain, Union commander.

“War, the red animal, war, the blood-swollen god, would have bloated fill.” Red Badge of Courage

Gray or red each color describes the aftermath of war like ash and fire. Both Crane and Shaara leave the reader with infinite fauvist portraits of war.

The characterization of Lee, Chamberlain and Longstreet, unlike Henry in Red Badge of courage, began in full bloom rather than innocence, men already full of age and wisdom with stubborness as a crutch to choose poorly or not. In Shaara’s retrospective study, Lee’s stubbornness caused the turning point in the war at Gettysburg; whereas, Longstreet saw a better path, one not filled with human pride. The dynamic presented between Longstreet and Lee did not define one man as right or wrong. Shaara did an amazing job of showing the beauty in both of their choices.

My favorite character was Chamberlain. His character examined the reasons for the war exploring not just slavery, but the essence of the human condition which is Shakespeare - and also where the title of the book seem to come from:

“Once Chamberlain had a speech memorized from Shakespeare and gave it proudly, the old man listening but not looking, and Chamberlain remembered it still: “What a piece of work is man...in action how like an angel!” And the old man, grinning, had scratched his head and then said stiffly, “Well, boy, if he’s and angel, he’s sure a murden’ angel.”

This line is from Hamlet where Hamlet glorifies man and then finds man and the world around him as mere dust. It reminds me again of the men that fought and then the imagery presented, gray and red; man comes in like a fiery angel only to turn to dust leaving a gray floor of hell. At its heart, Killer Angels begs the question of why any man may fight and kill another sacrificing his own life. It is worth the read and maybe a second one.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a great source for young people who want to pursue a dream without being ridiculed. After reading Krakauer's intense journey into the psyche of Chris McCandless which unraveled with meticulous journalism; I found myself doing everything but poking fun at Chris. In fact, I ended up admiring his deep passion that unfortunately led to his death. And in the end, this is what a good writer does - they change your mind.

I often wonder if a great many people who live an entire life lived the full life Chris McCandless did in twenty-four years. Krakauer did an admirable job of following Chris's journey to Alaska and then his stay there allowing the reader to make their own mind up about whether or not Chris was a kook, an idealistic idiot, or a passionate youth who made a couple of wrong choices. Sure, there was some biased. It was obvious from the author's note in the beginning Krakauer made his mind up early on about Chris. Krakauer even compared his own youth when he climbed a hazardous mountain called Devils Thumb. Krakauer was only a year younger than Chris when he followed what he described as a "scattershot passion of youth and a literary diet in works of Nietzsche and Kerouac." 

But the parallels Krakauer made to Chris scoped way beyond his own youth, but that of other daring adventurers following their dreams. So, even though Chris's story seems unbelievable at first glance; it is not original. There seems to be a Jack London fascination with the harrowing outdoors that extends into the core of mankind. Without bold strokes of generalization, this fascination makes Chris like so many other youthful men his age. 

For myself, the virtuous characteristics that separated Chris into the individual were those that extended to others outside of his dream. Despite the pain his family went through, Chris possessed an empathy towards others especially those starving and homeless. It was a generosity that bled from him infecting everyone who encountered him on his journey to Alaska. Even though Chris rebelled against the need for others; he embraced it along his journey and in the end his discovery of his need of others was his ultimate epiphany. 

"Happiness only real when shared."

Krakauer had a similar discovery:

"I convinced myself for many months that I didn't really mind the absence of intimacy in my life, the lack of real human connection, but the pleasure I felt in this woman's company - the ring of her laughter, the innocent touch of a hand on my arm - exposed my self-deceit and left me hollow and aching."

Into the Wild is about self-discovery, and no matter what your age; we should always be open to growth.