Assassination Vacation Simon & Schuster
by Sarah Vowell
Reviewed by Josh Spilker
I went on a trip once with my parents to Washington D.C. The only thing I remember about an assassination from that trip was seeing the eternal flame in Arlington Cemetery. It was interesting to think how the flame never went out. Of course, I never thought about the possibility of a constant stream of propane underneath it keeping the flame from even the vilest of forces.
Vowell in this book decides to explain the "gas," or details that suck out some of the luster of the event. Even though Kennedy would be a fitting subject, Vowell focuses her research and travels on the first three presidents of the United States that were assassinated: Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. Vowell bets on a limited knowledge of the three, and especially their assassinations, and this lack pays off for all involved. She explains the behind the scenes events that sometimes may diminish the life of a president (Lincoln) or fully explain that if we remember a President at all it is because of his death (Garfield). In being generous, we'll let McKinley fall somewhere in the middle of greatness-we did go to war with him as President.
Part history book, part travelogue, Vowell tells what history (teachers) often forgets -compelling stories. There are rambling anecdotes that involve Vowell personally in the facts of each assassination. Vowell re-creates the quirkiness that surrounds each-from the histories to the tourist grounds.
Vowell uncovers an essential, but unnerving thread that links each story together-the life and times of Robert Todd Lincoln. The son of President Lincoln, Robert Todd was in close proximity for all three of the assassinations-next to his father at Ford Theater, as part of Garfield's cabinet, and present in Buffalo, New York at the time President McKinley was shot while at an exposition there. Turns out Robbie Todd was bad luck, and this malaise would be nagging to him the rest of his life.
But for each of our great Presidents mentioned-Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley- there is a great, or maybe bold, killer: John Wilkes Booth shoving Lincoln's face in the dust, Charles Guiteau handling the transaction of Garfield's farm, and Leon Czolgosz who set McKinley's foot in motion to kick the can. And behind every great assassin, there is a great story. So Vowell searches out these fringe men, because frankly, they are more intriguing. And what does America do with its great murderers? Do we ignore? No, we turn their lives into a $5 historical tour. So what turns up on Vowell's vacation is a Bible sex cult, some execution films, and the phrase "sic semper tyrannus," that all play more into American history than we may first expect.
Because Vowell is an observer, and not a historian, she is unafraid to take the stories of the past and forecast them into the present. Vowell realizes that history is living and that the way events are discussed today affects the way we think about the past. So history really is moving forward, and descriptions about where we place plaques, interactive museums, and the use of period costumes would have been irrelevant in a mere history book-but Vowell spins this as social commentary. A historian might view those things as devaluing history. However, Vowell would say no, these stories and idiosyncrasies, and modern abominations (Colonial Williamsburg!) don't cheapen history, they grow it-and if historical events were a deposit, then this vault of fringe memorializing is the interest. And that is the most interesting, the fringe.
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Complicated Shadows: The Life and Music of Elvis Costello Grove Press
by Graeme Thomson
Reviewed by Brighid Mooney
Graeme Thomson has finally done what has for years seemed the impossible. That is, he has written what is inarguably the most thorough, complete and in depth account of the life and music of Elvis Costello that has ever been done. There already exist a decidedly large number of Costello biographies littering the bookstore shelves, but for the most part they have always proven thin and uninsightful, relying heavily on the press clippings with which their target audience would generally already be more than familiar. Thomson manages to steer clear of the recap trap through a myriad of personal interviews with family members, former lovers, ex-band members and friends, as well as drawing out the detailed minutia of Costello's immense career from past articles, concert and album reviews, and even apparently, close listening to heaps of live concert recordings. Over the course of 352 pages, Complicated Shadows chronicles Costello's entire career, relating information about his pre-fame existence that the subject seems to have always taken great care to conceal, as well his ever-acrimonious relationship with backing band the Attractions and his perpetually troubled love life and its influence on his life and work without ever delving into tabloid details. What results is the most complete record of the man and his work that the public is likely to see until Costello finally pens his own version of the story.
Starting with a prologue about the most ignominous moment of Costello's life and career, his drunken brush with career suicide in a Midwestern hotel bar during the Armed Forces tour, the book then goes on to cover the first 50 years of his life, all the way up to his most recent creative output. Throughout, Thomson writes with an innate understanding of his subject, and with a good dose of humor, tracing the darker aspects of Costello's life and persona with sympathy, but without letting him off the hook. We get a glimpse of Costello as a fuller human being than the one-dimensional portrait often painted by the press, a musical chameleon as capable of creating works of great beauty and brilliance as he is capable of bad decisions, arrogance, occasional cruelty and general unpleasantness.
The sheer breadth of detail concerning concert set lists and studio recordings may get tedious to all but the most arduous fans, but Complicated Shadows also provides plenty of insight into the meaning and background of much of Costello's work, and even takes a stab at explaining the much-theorized inspiration behind Costello's most famous ballad, "Alison," and Thomson's explanations of the motivations and impetuses behind some of Costello's less acclaimed work at times make me feel guilty for perhaps too easily dismissing some of his loftier efforts when they weren't to my taste. In the end, Costello comes off as a fallible human being with a sincere love of music and an unquestionable gift of which he himself was never uncertain. A formidable tome, Complicated Shadows is sure to satisfy the curiosity of even the most rabid of Costello's fans, even if it will undoubtedly irk the man himself.
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Haunted: A Novel Doubleday
by Chuck Palahniuk
Reviewed by Deborah Beckers
"WRITERS' RETREAT: ABANDON YOUR LIFE FOR THREE MONTHS
Just Disappear. Leave behind everything that keeps you from creating your masterpiece.
Your job and family and home, all these obligations and distractions, Put them all on hold
for three months. Live with like-minded people in a setting that supports total immersion in your work. Feed and lodging included free for those who qualify. Gamble a small fraction of your life on the chance to create a new future as a professional poet, novelist, screenwriter. Before it's too late, live the life you dream about. Space is very limited."
Their first mistake was answering the advertisement. A group of writer wannabes set out to complete their greatest works in what each of them believes to be the ideal writing environment. Peace, quite and uninterrupted composition time. In short, heaven. What they get instead is a dank, dusty, moldy hell. Locked inside a decaying vaudeville theatre with a lunatic, their only hope is to outlast each other and survive their time inside. Each of the writers have a ghost that he or she has brought along and in their tales of horror; each holds theirs up to the light.
Things get worse as they start to unravel and start sabotaging themselves and each other. Every one of them is relying on their story being the most saleable to the American public if/when they are finally rescued. The one with the most bankable story wins.
Haunted is either the best introduction to the writing of Chuck Palahniuk or it is the absolute worst. I am still trying to rid myself of layers of grime and disgust that this book heaped upon me.
Don't get me wrong, Haunted is one of the most brilliant pieces of fiction I have read in the last decade. The layout is enjoyable, there is an overall narration broken up with visual poems about the characters, which are followed up by their life-changing moment stories, told in their own voices. It has the same feel as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and is truly a modern retelling of that classic. (side note: A comparison between Chaucer and Palahniuk's characters would make an excellent university English Literature paper)
Once you get past the gore and your disgust (queasy, it made me feel queasy), you will see a frank and grotesque look at our own consumptive society. A society that will give whomever suffers the greatest publicly the biggest piece of the pie.
The characters themselves are two-dimensional cardboard cutouts with no redeeming qualities; there is no one to root for because they are all morons representing the worst our culture has to offer. Maybe they are so horrifying because we see bits of ourselves in them. Palahniuk is making an astute comparison to the reality TV that is flooding the airways with the same characters as the ones in Haunted.
We have become a culture of voyeurs. You feel no real connection to the characters. It's like there is plateglass between us and them, barely keeping the beasts at bay. The ultimate version of Survivor. It is to this culture that the characters in this novel pander. Every horror, every minute fear that we have, is effectively reflected back to us from the pages of Haunted.
It's not plateglass. It's a mirror.
Widely regarded as one of "Generation X's" most prolific writers, Chuck Palahniuk is the author of seven full length fiction novels (Fight Club (adapted into film), Survivor, Invisible Monsters, Choke, Lullaby, Diary and Haunted: a Novel) and two non-fiction (Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon and Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories). You can learn more about Chuck and his writing at his official fan website.
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Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran Public Affairs Books
by Azadeh Moaveni
Reviewed by Susan Brooks
Lipstick Jihad is a timely read; the memoir of Iranian-American author Azadeh Moaveni. Moaveni is a journalist who wrote for several years on Middle Eastern topics for Time Magazine and the Los Angeles Times before penning this more personal account of her youthful struggle to unify her identity, straddled as it was between the ancient pull of her Persian heritage and the privileges of her modern American upbringing. Moaveni's secular and intellectual parents left Iran and she was born in California in 1976. She was raised in a Diaspora community in the San Francisco Bay Area with strong ties to her ancestral culture, but also with complete exposure to Western life. Moaveni said she grew up with the nostalgic sense that she was fully Iranian until she finally moved there and realized that many of her countrymen viewed her as alien. Spending an extended time in the real Iran also stripped her of her own illusions and gave her a relationship to her homeland as a living entity instead of the rosy dream she had cherished since childhood.
Lipstick Jihad is extremely well-written. Moaveni extensively discusses the impact the Islamic Revolution had on her family and California community and on the country of Iran itself. She has a unique perspective with a vantage point on both sides, and comments astutely on policies of government and politics in the region, but her true strengths shine when she delves into intimacies of her family and friends, and observations about daily life in a changed and changing country. She has a sharp eye for detail and a poignant knack for description, and her best writing comes through when she is discussing her grandfather, who lived near her and her mother in Palo Alto. His way of dealing with such a late-life transplant was to recreate a Persian garden on a tiny plot of land in front of his apartment. He also spoke only in phrases of poetry like a scholar from an archaic court, another mechanism by which he maintained his equilibrium in an unfamiliar environment. He is impressed with her accomplishments at the end of his life, when she can finally speak to him in flawless Farsi, a language in which she had strained to make herself feel at home. Her mastery of her people's tongue is a great metaphor for her arrival at the new sense of herself that she achieves through her arduous attempts to understand the far-flung reaches of her East-West world.
Other strong points of the book include her unflinching portrayal of harsh realities under the Islamist regime. A prisoner is tortured in a government house next door to her aunt's home in Tehran, and women are abused on a daily basis. The mistreatment of the female gender is a central theme, a concern for Moaveni as it is for any strong, thoughtful woman. She insightfully notes that the reformers' plans to remake society will never succeed as long as women are not granted equality as individuals and the innocent pleasures of the people are denied. You cannot exclude half of society and repress natural instincts and expect the resultant system to work. The society itself snaps back into reactivity when the rights of the people to happy pursuits are compromised, and Moaveni highlights the pathology that results. Beatings by thuggish police are common and women must behave modestly at all times or risk severe consequences. The title of the book refers to the small victories of dress and comportment the women of Iran win with their defiance.
At the base of the backward-looking tyranny of the regime, Moaveni rightly senses and sensitively articulates a primal fear of feminine sexuality. The desire to control this force motivates the mullahs and holds back the growth of an entire country. It is not too strong to say that Moaveni risks her life by publicly criticizing this, even in a Western forum. She continues to work in the Middle East, where such commentary continues to be unwelcome. Her courage in expressing these cosmopolitan opinions is commendable. The story is incomplete, an arc rather than a full circle; Moaveni herself is only twenty-nine with many years left to live and write, and Iran's future is also yet unwritten. Opposing opinions of where its destiny lies will shape its ultimate outcome, and Moaveni should remain an able chronicler of its path.
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Out of Control Brava
by Shannon McKenna
Reviewed by Deborah Beckers
Mag Callahan is on the run. Framed for the murder of her ex-boyfriend and his secretary, Mag becomes Margot Vetter, gets two jobs, a stray dog and tries to get on with her life, complication free.
But there are always complications. Her life gets turned upside-down again when she acquires a psychotic stalker and an overprotective Neanderthal of a private investigator. Davy McCloud isn't going to leave her alone until she is safe and "Snakey" isn't going to leave her alone until she belongs to him alone.
Davy McCloud is the strong, silent, always in control type. His secret lust for Margo has been testing his legendary self-discipline for weeks. When she finally asks for his help, his sense of duty will not let him say no to her, even when he knows it is in his best interest to do so. An ex-wife and a month in a hospital bed years ago taught him that you couldn't be a hero, because heroes always fail. When threats to both of their lives become all too real, both of them must face their demons in order to come out the other side alive.
Out of Control by Shannon McKenna is a rapid paced romantic thriller. Although romantic may not be the best word to accurately describe the interpersonal exploits between Davy and Margot, erotic works better. McKenna is at her blistering best when she is exploring the dynamics between the Hero and the Heroine. Their dialogue is snappy and completely in character (even if you want to shake both of them from time to time). Her action sequences leap off the page and haul you along for the ride, and that's when they have their clothes on!
From the very first meeting between Margot and Davy the erotic tension crackles. It's only a matter of time before the two of them ignite. If you are at all prudish, you may not want to pick this book up. While it is by no means explicitly pornographic, I would definitely rate the love scenes as NC-17. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed Out of Control from start to breathtaking finish.
My only complaint lies with the copy editors. Whoever edited this book for misprints, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, did a shoddy job. Even the back cover spells Margot's name two different ways. A little more care on their part would have made Out of Control the perfect fun read. I look forward to experiencing more of Ms. McKenna's world.
McKenna's full-length novels include Out of Control, Return to Me, Standing in the Shadows and Behind Closed Doors. She has also contributed to three Brave anthologies, All Through the Night, I Brake for Bad Boys and Bad Boys Next Exit. To learn more about Shannon McKenna visit her website.
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Yeah, I Said It Atria
by Wanda Sykes
Reviewed by Liz Haze
Typically it's pointless to enter online contests. The odds are slim to none. Besides, you have to claim it on your taxes. This is what logic told me before I entered a random drawing on ComedyCentral.com promoting Wanda Sykes' new book, Yeah, I Said It. A few months later an email arrived saying I had in fact won and all I had to do was get a notarized release signed (US $5) and send it in (US $12 for two-day mail for waiting 3 days before the deadline) to receive a free copy. I reluctantly complied, but was happy to see the book at my door within that next week.
So my free copy arrived and I immediately started reading. Why wouldn't I be eager? I am a self-proclaimed comedy nerd and Wanda Sykes is tremendous. She has proven herself to be hilarious on numerous occasions in television and film, from the critically acclaimed HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm or her role as the maid in Down to Earth, or perhaps the best place to witness the talent and wit of this comic vixen simply doin' her comedy thang; Comedy Central--whether that be her Comedy Central Presents, Tongue Untied or Premium Blend spots.
Wanda was presented with the idea of doing a book. She could have chosen the "what inspired me to greatness" story, the "how I got to where I am" angle, or even the "whom shall I ridicule" book, but she didn't. She chose to write a book for the ADD kids. Great! I'm one of them. Basically, Yeah, I Said It is a collection of rants and jokes Ms. Sykes has written, whether as material for her stand up act or specifically for this book, and typically the reader will be able to tell. Normally, the ones written specifically for the book involve phrases similar to "man, I've got to write 70,000 - 90, 000 words for this bitch; I got another 65,000 to go."
The book is separated into thirteen parts, each being devoted to topics in the same area. The first section is politics, to get the controversial subjects out of the way. So you know straight up--she's not a fan of Mr. Bush. Then, she progresses to everything from O.J. to Kobe to other popular news stories, before moving on to social issues such as racism and society's double standards on beauty, right down to marriages, relationships and who could forget drinking! She likes to drink. Just a bit. Says so in the book.
Wanda was even gracious enough to allow her friend, comedian Alyson Fouse, to write a few things and get some exposure...as long as she did it in at least 1,000 words.
Overall, the book is a very entertaining, easy and fast read, but it does get a bit monotonous in its format. It's almost like "Wanda's blog--new in hardback!", although, don't let that deter you from reading it, because Wanda Sykes has some great insight into the human condition, wildly funny opinions and great quips that will make you laugh out loud in public places. The best part is, it's so funny, you won't even care. You'll just have to read it to the person next to you on the bus so they won't think you're as crazy as you look. So, check it out, because if you own it you, too, will be a winner.
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