The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

For years I heard about how this book was quite controversial when it was released (in 1951) and how it remains banned from some schools. When I picked it up I was expecting to read a shocking tale of violence and sex and drugs. Instead, I found a moving first-person account of a frustrated teen who finds himself thrown out of yet another school for simply failing to give a crap.

Given that I’m prone to seeing parallels in literature, I found myself thinking often of Holden Caulfield as a parallel worlds version of young Owen Meaney. Their internal narrative and thought process seemed quite similar in their frustration with people who are phony or otherwise lacking in an essential character trait.

Yet, where Owen channeled his frustration and energy into his studies and quickly rose to the top of his class academically (but was still unbelievably socially awkward), Holden rejects the whole damn system and runs away both figuratively and literally, tragically unaware that his actions are about to irreversibly change his entire life’s trajectory.

The fact that this book was/is banned strikes me as sadly narrow-minded. Some news reports I’ve read say that “The Catcher in the Rye is perennially banned because Holden Caulfield is said to be an unsuitable role model.” This is idiotic. The whole point of the story is that he may have legitimate beefs about society and school but his response to his situation is quite destructive.

The fact that the book has lots of swear words and descriptions of the main character getting drunk should make it all the more interesting to kids. When my boys are old enough to read I will absolutely let them read it and then we will talk about how life likely turned out for Holden depending on what he did after the book ended.

The Wisdom Tooth, by Augusten Burroughs

This was the single worst chapter of any book I've ever read.

I listened to this chapter from his book as a free download from iTunes, and re-learned that just because something's price is low (or zero) doesn't mean that the cost is the same.

Burroughs' book about his childhood, Running with Scissors, was an interesting/shocking look at the traumatic life of a kid who grew up living with his mother's crazy psychiatrist. The Wisdom Tooth, however, was beyond awful.

It is one thing to have a terrible childhood but at some point you need to grow up. Burroughs seems to have become a professional victim who loves to whine about everything from getting up early to needing pills constantly.

This piece was overflowing with petty complaints and annoying stereotypes. So he and his boyfriend go away for a weekend to a B&B. Burroughs can't do any of the planning because he is disorganized. And the dolls creep him out and his boyfriend apologies needlessly and Burroughs adores him. Why do I care?

When burroughs breaks his tooth on some food at a restaurant he goes off about how excited he is because he thinks that he is going to get a huge legal settlement, and how this time he won't blow his chance to get one like he did when he didn't sue when he got hit by a falling piece of wood in NYC. That's not something anyone should brag about. It is something he should be embarassed by. If everyone was like Burroughs as he describes, our society would come to a screeching, whining halt.

The Magus, by John Fowles

I’ve come to realize that the reviews I’ve started writing are all intended for other people who have already read the books – such as myself in the future. I suppose I should put a generic spoiler warning at the top of each review but I won’t since I assume that I will be the only one ever reading these ramblings.

The Magus is what I would call an old school book. The descriptions were so detailed and so carefully crafted that I imagine it took the author a month to write each chapter. Ditto the plot, which was wonderfully complex and obviously planned out far in advance.

At times while reading the Magus I was completely engaged, engrossed, and fascinated. The questions surrounding the intrigue between the narrator and Conchis was excellent. Irving’s writing is, in many places, beautiful.

That said, it was really just a story about a rich guy who likes to mess with people’s heads. It was interesting to see the narrator continue to pursue the woman and the mystery even once he knew he was being toyed with.

I found the ending highly unsatisfactory.

The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson

I didn’t like this book at all, which was a surprise since I enjoyed Snow Crash quite a bit.

I found very little of interest in this book which is a story in the future about society splintered into different sects and a little girl who gets her hands on a special book that has all sorts of special adaptive learning features and helps her develop into a leader.

Everything seemed so predictable. I labored to read the whole thing, hoping it would come together.

It didn’t.

Distress, by Greg Egan

Greg Egan is my favorite author this year. Diaspora and Permutation City were fantastic books with brilliant writing and mind-bending concepts to ponder. His short stories are sublime.

Which makes Distress all the more of a puzzle to me. The read was nearly entirely unpleasant and went nowhere, slowly. I suffered through the endless discussion of political intrigue, waiting for the good stuff to emerge, and it never did. Worst of all is that the story concept at the center of the book was beyond ridiculous. I'm still shaking my head at it.

At its essence, this book is about the search for A Theory of Everything -- a single equation or set of equations that can explain all of the fundamental interactions of matter and energy. Such a theory would explain gravity, the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, the electromagnetic force, and provide clarity into all sorts of elementary particles, how they transform themselves, and how all of this relates to dark matter and dark energy – assuming that they exist.

Apparently, Stephen Hawking used to believe that a Theory of Everything was attainable but later changed his mind, saying, "Some people will be very disappointed if there is not an ultimate theory, that can be formulated as a finite number of principles. I used to belong to that camp, but I have changed my mind." (Stephen Hawking, Gödel and the end of physics, July 20, 2002.)

I was hoping to read about the search for this theory, and one possible resolution of the issue. I was sorely disappointed to find the core concept of the book to be the most bizarre and unreasonable bastardization of The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle I have ever heard of. Namely, that the event which causes the universe to be created has not happened yet. It happens in the future and the event radiates instantly throughout time and space. That I could buy, for reasons too complex to discuss here. What I can't buy is the idea that the event that causes the creation of the universe is a single conscious human "thinking" and understand the Theory of Everything in his or her brain.

Put another way, Egan suggests that the moment Stephen Hawking or Antony Garrett Lisi (or you) comes to understand the Theory of Everything, that clarity of understanding – that "aha moment" -- somehow causes the universe to spring into existence, in a manner similar to how a single electron seems to "appear" from a foam of quantum uncertainty when its speed and location is measured.

What puzzles me most about this book is not Egan's flight of fancy beyond, what seems to me, the boundaries of science fiction. Rather, it is the relatively large number of people who have posted glowing reviews for this book at Amazon.com. Perhaps these folks enjoyed the lengthy discussions of philosophy. Or they understood Egan's idea much more (or much less) than I did.

Regardless, I am glad that this book made them all happy but it certainly did not make me happy. I would much rather Egan have expanded on the concepts he explored in the early chapters such as future technology that can temporarily bring a murder victim back to consciousness for a few minutes, for the purpose of identifying their killer.

On the other hand, Egan has lots more stuff that I've yet to read and I remain a huge fan of his work. Off to the bookstore…

A Prayer for Owen Meany

I picked this book up on the advice of a friend and found it to be one of the most enjoyable, funny, and thought-provoking novels I’ve ever read.

Sitting here now, having just finished the book, I find it hard to put into words my feelings. Over these last weeks I feel as if I’ve come to know Owen and respect and admire him. What would he say about my hesitation to write about what is essentially his life’s story?

“START AT THE BEGINNING AND GO FROM THERE,” he would probably say. “DON’T OVERTHINK IT.”

Of course saying that suggests incorrectly to the reader that I view myself as having more in common with Johnny Wheelright. Nothing could be further from the truth, as I found myself loathing and resenting the narrator right from the start, for so many reasons.

To begin with, he was cruel to Owen when they were children. I have no patience for bullies.

Next, he was spoiled and spineless and lazy. He was given everything and he made nothing of it. In my opinion the essence of what it means to be an American is to better oneself. If you are born into wealth, find yourself some adversity, grow some guts, and find a way to improve yourself and help others.

Third, he was a jerk of an English teacher. The worst kind of snob who assigned his tenth grade students obscure books and then looked down on them when they failed to get the insider jokes that, quite frankly, aren’t very funny. Such teachers do a masterful job of turning kids off to the joys of reading and that should be a crime. Few things are as enjoyable to me as reading a wonderful book and feeling for a time as if the characters and their world is within my grasp – a place I could go as soon as I could go to my own backyard.

There are more reasons but they aren’t worth listing. Instead, I prefer to remember what it was about Owen that made me laugh and admire him. In many ways he was a similar hero to Orson Scott Card’s Ender character. And, looking around the Internets, I see that a good number of people who enjoyed Owen Meany also enjoyed Ender’s Game. I wonder how many of them see the connection, and whether there is something in their psychological makeup that makes them root for the little guy and dream of being a hero.

There was so much to like and respect about Owen. His hard work, his reliability, his loyalty, his recognition of his own limitations.

In retrospect, I wish I’d stopped reading the book about halfway through. Once the boys entered high school and the war loomed in their future and the author’s rantings about Vietnam began, the book began to sour for me. And worse, it started to become apparent to me where the story was heading, and that was a place I didn’t want to go. I would rather have stopped mid-way, not knowing what was to become of Owen and Hester and the rest.

Still, an outstanding read.