Chapter One Hundred Eleven: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is fantasy author Neil Gaiman's most recent novel (or one of them--I had trouble in my brief search finding a chronological and up-to-date list of his publications).  I've been meaning to read it since it was published, and I finally had the time for it, and now I'm very glad I did.  It is not as heavy as, say American Gods felt to me at times, despite the fact that its plot is largely driven by a creepy and mysterious event buried deep in the narrator's past.  Gaiman does a great job in The Ocean at the End of the Lane at bringing in enough elements of fantasy to satisfy at least my appetite for the fantastical without causing any confusion about what he's describing.  (Again, this is unlike American Gods or Anansi Boys, which I enjoyed but in which I felt I was missing something due to my very shallow knowledge of mythology and folk tale characters.)  Still, if you don't like fantasy this probably isn't the book for you, grounded as it is in realistic-feeling descriptions of a boy's life in 1960s rural England.  The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a fairly fast-paced novel whose action is fairly quick to start, and it had no problem gaining and holding my interest, so if you want a fun little fantasy read, I'd heartily suggest it.

Chapter One Hundred Ten: The Lake

The Lake is a fairly short novel by Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto.  I've read some of her work before, for one of my undergrad classes, and I enjoyed it then, so when I came across some of her novels in the library, I thought I'd check one out.  While the plot and characters are interesting, I think my favorite aspect of the book is actually Yoshimoto's writing style, or at least how her writing has been translated into English.  (Not speaking Japanese, I can't compare it to the original, of course.)  Her prose is not simple, but very straightforward and direct, clean and purposeful.  I'm not sure I'm describing it well, but I really enjoy the way she just says things without any fuss.  Of course, the main characters in The Lake, a new couple in their twenties, are interesting themselves, with their own quirks and, in the case of one of them, a mysterious and traumatic past.  The slow unveiling of that past as their relationship progresses is the main plot element to this story, and when the mystery is finally revealed, it is done right--it isn't overblown or corny, but believable and matter-of-fact.  I found this novel to be a very interesting read, and if you're looking for contemporary, realistic fiction, this would be an excellent choice.

Chapter One Hundred Nine: Bossypants

I've been wanting to read Tina Fey's autobiography for a while now, because it looks hilarious.  I am happy to say that in this case, my expectations were exceeded: Bossypants had me totally engaged and even chuckling aloud at times.  And I should say that, which I have no problems with Tina Fey, I wouldn't say I'm a fan of her work (not that I don't like it--I just haven't bothered to watch it enough to form an opinion).  Even so, with hardly any knowledge of Fey at all, I still thoroughly enjoyed Bossypants and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a laugh and an interesting account of how someone normal ended up being famous.

Chapter One Hundred Eight: La mécanique du coeur

I read La mécanique du coeur by Mathias Malzieu in its original French, and I'm not sure if there's an English translation widely available, so I won't make this a long post.  I was not a huge fan of this novel, at any rate.  While its premise is very interesting--a little orphan boy whose adoptive mother fits his defective heart with a clockwork prosthetic--the potentially cool steampunk atmosphere just falls back on typical tropes with a few distracting anachronisms.  (For example: the book is set in the late 1800s.  Why is the protagonist talking about airplanes?)  The protagonist himself, who narrates the story, veers between sympathetic and irritating as he finds himself bullied at school and obsesses about his love for a girl he saw one single time, singing on a sidewalk.  Still, despite the tropes and the narrator, I felt okay about the story right up until its end, which I did not like at all.  I won't reveal the ending in case any of my readers are planning on reading this story, but I found it totally unsatisfactory.  Still, it was great to read a book in French again; I haven't done that in a while, and it's good practice.

Chapter One Hundred Seven: The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly

The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly is a novella that comes to us from South Korean author Sun-Mi Hwang.  This little book doesn't take long to read--I read it in one sitting--but it is definitely a case of a good thing coming in a small package.  The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly has a sort of traditional, fable, or fairy-tale feel to it, possibly because its protagonist is a hen who talks.  All of the animals in this story can talk, in fact, but not to humans, just to each other.  Anyway, Sprout is a plucky hen who escapes the egg-laying coop where she's spent most of her unhappy life to live as a free hen so she can accomplish her one great dream: to hatch one of her eggs and raise a child.  She faces both dangers and joys outside the coop--not everything about her new life is as great as she hoped it would be.  This story could end up feeling a bit too heavy-handed in its possible allegories, but Sprout is such an endearing and engaging character that the story feels natural and is able to focus on her at least as much as the messages being conveyed about the importance of love and family.  I found it to be a very moving piece of writing.  If you're looking for something quick to read but long to linger in your thoughts, I'd highly suggest The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly.

Chapter One Hundred Six: Holidays on Ice

I didn't enjoy Holidays on Ice as much as I thought I would.  This little book is comprised of maybe two non-fiction essays of the type its author, David Sedaris, is famous for, and several short fictional pieces that he's written about bitter people exploiting or suffering through the holiday season.  The two pieces that seemed to be non-fiction were by far my favorites in the collection; I enjoyed them immensely.  The fictional stories, however, were a bit too vicious for my taste.  Their characters were mostly overblown stereotypes who were meant to be humorous but were just sort of tired, and the plots were not that surprising or intriguing.  The essays about Sedaris's own life are hilarious and interesting because you can never guess what's going to happen, while his fiction is much more predictable and therefore less interesting.  If you want to read something by Sedaris, I'd recommend some of his other collections of essays (When You Are Engulfed in Flame, Let's Discuss Diabetes with Owls, or Naked).

Chapter One Hundred Five: Passage

Wow!  As per usual, I've let too much time elapse between my previous post and the present time.  Anyway, I re-read Passage by Connie Willis (one of my all-time favorite authors) a few weeks ago now, and I was really into it.  The main characters caught me right from the beginning, even though there isn't much action at the book's start.  I usually find her protagonists immediately likable, which is certainly the case in Passage, and because I like them I want to know what happens to them. If there isn't much suspense at the book's beginning, however, it quickly increases once one of the main characters agrees to participate in the experiment she is helping to administer.  Things get very strange and a bit terrifying pretty quickly after that!  Without giving away any plot points, let me just say that about halfway through this pretty long book, I always find myself sobbing, and that sobbing continues intermittently while I'm reading the second half of this novel.  I find it to be a pretty powerful book.  Even though it makes me sob, I really enjoy reading it every time I come back to it.