The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Date of Publication: June 15^th, 2010

Memorable Quotation: “So Mitch and I were…happy, yes, but happiness isn’t what people think it is. There is no synonym for ‘happiness’ that could possibly describe the entirety of a life shared by two people…” (pg. 165)

Lasting Impression: Strong concept but poorly executed, The Nobodies Album shows the story of Octavia Frost, a writer and mother trapped in the past, who must face her own personal demons when her son is accused of murdering his girlfriend.

Storyline: A

Pace of Story: B-

Characters: B+

Ending: D

Overall: C+

I became a huge fan of Carolyn Parkhurst after reading Lost and Found and The Dogs of Babel because of her great mix characters and her philosophical undertones of what it means to be alive.  The Nobodies Album, however, was so unorganized and confusing at times that the only reason I finished it was because she had a good hook of a storyline and I wanted to give an author I respected a chance to win me over again.  (Unfortunately, I was greatly disappointed and left saying, “What?” when I finished it.)

The Nobodies Album has a great opening chapter, immediately showcasing Octavia’s personality and situation: a bold writer whose life falls apart after reading a headline about how her son, Milo Frost, lead singer of the band, Pareidolia being accused of murdering his girlfriend, Bettina Moffett.  The story continues with Octavia flying to California to help prove the innocence of her son as she shares the ideas of her latest novel, The Nobodies Album, with her readers.

The novel Octavia writes is interesting because it takes the ending from each of her previous novels and rewrites them, giving her characters another chance to react differently to what happens throughout her novels.  At the end of a few chapters, Parkhurst inserts a section of one of Octavia’s novels, which at first I thought was a good idea but quickly became irritated with this notion because her endings and rewritten endings had nothing to do with the original story.

The other problem with putting these chapters of Octavia’s novel into Parkhurst’s novel was that it deters the reader from the main storyline.  The endings are focused around Octavia’s thoughts and past, which makes the original storyline, her son’s murder mystery, fall by the waste side!   If Parkhurst were to put Octavia’s chapters in an appendix at the end of the book, that would have made the story flow so much better and not made the readers obligated to read these chapters. 

There is a lot of stream of conscious thinking on Octavia’s part that, once again, I did not think was necessary because it seemed to only be taking up space and not providing any true insight into anything.  When Parkhurst did have characters interacting and the what-ifs of the murder began to arise, the story became exciting! Unfortunately, the build up of suspense was not met with a satisfactory ending, only one that was long-winded and reminded me of another murder mystery I had reviewed with the same kind of ending, The Other Woman’s House by Sophie Hannah.

I do not mean to sound like I despised the novel, because I did not. I am frustrated that such great concepts with wonderfully realistic characters were put into a story that was so unorganized that they could not be seen at their full potential. Carolyn Parkhurst is still one of my favorite authors and I do appreciate when an author takes a chance in his or her writing but it has to be organized, and unfortunately, this one was not.  If she were to have cut out a good amount of the Octavia’s stream of conscious thoughts and, as I said previously, put Octavia’s chapters in an appendix, the characters would have shined more and the murder mystery itself would have been so much more organized and suspenseful.

~Shelly-Beans

Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse by Otsuichi

Genre: Japanese Horror/Short Stories

Translator: Nathan Collins

Date of Publication: September 21, 2010

Memorable Quotation: “What are these?” “They’re shoes my friend left. He had this strange habit of saving all his shoes and never throwing them out. He died and these shoes are all that he left behind…the ones on the left end he wore as a child. The ones to the right he wore just before he died. See these guys here, the leather ones?” He pointed at a pair of small shoes near the left end of the row. “He was wearing those when we first met.” He pointed at a pair on the right. “He was wearing these when the café first opened…” History lived in that row of shoes. They were like a timeline.” (From Black Fairy Tale, pgs 263-264)

Lasting Impression: Otsuichi created three suspenseful tales, each filled with magical realism and a description of death that is almost eloquent in its execution.

*NOTE: In rating a collection of short stories, I look at each one overall and combine all of their positives and negatives into one rating, as shown below.*

Story-line: A

Pace of Story: B+

Characters: A

Ending: A-

Overall Grade: A

For those of you who looked at the title and cringed, please do not be deterred.  Although it is true that the three tales in this short story collection are grotesque at times, the idea behind each story is very creative, deserving a chance to be enjoyed.  I have always found the Japanese to be risk-takers in their writing, never having any shame or worrying that they will offend someone, like Chuck Palahniuk, which is why I love reading their literature and always looking past the obvious content to find the deeper meaning.

There are three stories in this collection: Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse; Yuko; and Black Fairy Tale.

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Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse is about three children; siblings Ken and Satsuki and their friend Yayoi and how an innocent conversation and honest confession soon turns into murder.  (SPOILER ALERT: One of the children dies.) The description of the death is graphic but the deceased child lives on by being the narrator of the events that occur (Similar to the narration of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones).  In terms of theatre, the term dramatic irony works well here because in a sense, the reader is aware of what happened to one of the children as the other two main characters try to hide the evidence, but the other characters are not aware as to why the siblings have been acting so strangely. 

Honestly, I was very disappointed with the ending until I read the epilogue. I cannot say the ending left me warm and fuzzy but the epilogue had a crazy twist that I was not expecting, almost making up for my irritation with Otsuichi for ending the story in such a way.

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The 2^nd story, Yuko, is about a young woman named Kiyone and her new position as housekeeper for Master Masayoshi and his wife, Yuko.  The couple seems ordinary until the meal ritual Kiyone must follow is set into place. As Kiyone begins to talk to the neighbors and their rumors begin to mess with her mind, things become stranger by the minute. 

At first, the story reminded me of William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily, but soon different elements came into play that made that comparison not as viable as I had thought.  The twist he gives us in this story is very clever but there is a lot of explanation behind it, making the impact not as much of a ‘wow’ factor as I had hoped. Regardless of the ending, the story was brilliant.

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The 3^rd and final story, Black Fairy Tale, was the longest of the three stories but still packs a pretty good punch in the end.  The story focuses on Nami, a high school girl who loses her left eye in a freak accident and causes her to have amnesia.  Not long after she has amnesia does she get an eye transplant that brings her more than vision in her left eye; she can also see the memories of its previous owner at sporadic times of the day.  As Nami becomes more comfortable with these memories to take the place of the ones she lost, she discovers the hometown of the previous town and the secrets, both good and bad, are waiting for her.

This story has an alternating narrative, in which a writer named Miki tells us his story as well.  He has a terrible gift, one reminiscent of John Coffey in The Green Mile, in the respect that both men can prolong life or take it away.   Miki becomes a serial killer not out of thirst for blood, but out of curiosity for what the human body can become; since everyone he kills stays alive without feeling pain.  Miki and Nami eventually meet as fate would have it, but Miki is only a penname and his real idenitity comes to light as Nami’s gets involved in a situation that may be over her head.  

The best part about this story is the subtle detail in the alternating narratives; you think the two narratives are happening at the same time but as the story goes on, we see just how clever Otsuichi is when he delivers a second twist out of nowhere without skipping a beat.

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When I read a book as ‘different’ as this one, I am not expecting a huge following of people to read this.  At times it was not easy for me to read because of the gory detail and the images that came with them but I challenged myself and made it through those difficult parts to enjoy the rest. I am not asking you to have the same appreciation of Japanese Horror or ‘J-Horror’ as I do, in the same respect that I cannot appreciate the film, ‘Melancholia,’ as much as a friend of mine does.  My point is that sometimes it is nice to challenge yourself; and  if you are someone who likes Stephen King, enjoys writers that challenge the way their reader’s think, and you have an open mind towards different cultural literature, Otsuichi’s novels will be a joy to read.

~Shelly-Beans

April Books That Did Not 'Make the Grade'

There were two books this month that unfortunately did not meet my expectations:

Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui: At first, the novel seemed interesting; it opens with two Japanese psychologists talking about a new way to analyze someone’s dreams.  However, the novel quickly becomes tedious and dull. All of the characters blend into one another (very few distinguishable characteristics), they talked about topics pertaining to their work that I could not follow, and the dialogue structure was a little odd, which led me to find other, more promising reads.

Ship Fever (collection of short stories) by Andrea Barrett: The first story in the collection captivated me immediately and held my interest until the very end because, as most short stories have a tendency to do, the ending was very inconclusive. It almost left me heartbroken because at the end of one page, it sounded like there would be more but when I turned the page, a new story was beginning.  That left me so irritated I put the book away.

~Shelly-Beans

The Mind of Your Story: Discover What Drives Your Fiction by Lisa Lenard-Cook

Genre: Writing Reference

Date of Publication: April 30^th, 2008

Memorable Quotation: “The test of a successful novel is whether the reader takes it with her to the bathroom.” (pg. 91)

Lasting Impression: By breaking the fictional writing process down step by step, Lenard-Cook provides an easy-to-follow and enjoyable guide as to how to write a novel and make it successful!

Accessibility: A

Content: A+

Creativity: A

Layout: A-

Overall Grade: A

Everyone has his or her own story to tell, but how to translate our experiences and memories into a successful novel is not an easy task.  To help with this process, Lisa Lenard-Cook has written The Mind of Your Story: Discover What Drives Your Fiction, an informative and well-written guide to help a beginning novelist find their way into the writing world or a published author find the missing key in their latest novel.  Lenard-Cook starts with the basics of formulating ideas to eventually showing the reader how to rewrite/revise their finished pieces to become the masterpiece they knew was always inside them. Lenard-Cook also uses many examples from popular authors such as Carol Shields and Alice Munro to help explain her points of writing and at the end of each chapter, she includes a writing exercise based on what was previously discussed to help plant seeds of inspiration.

Jewell Parker Phodes says on the back cover The Mind of Your Story is, “required reading for all writers,” which I believe wholeheartedly after reading this book, but I also consider this to be an important read for readers as well.  I feel I have gained so much as a reader, writer, and book reviewer from the way Lenard-Cook explained why certain things do not work in certain novels, such as the misuse of ‘big words’ when simpler words are more effective and how a lack of abstraction (flow of dialogue) will destroy a reader's concentration. 

What really separates this writing guide from the rest is certainly the content and the way that it is explained but more importantly, the voice that is telling it.  Lenard-Cook has such a distinctive voice, and her passion for writing helps this reference book not seem so much as a guide but more like a story on how she found her way to discovering this tried and true method of building a novel.

I had two small problems with this book, however.  (The first is not necessarily a problem but more of a warning, per say) Although this book is very detailed and Lenard-Cook does a wonderful job explaining the writing process from a successful author’s point of view, it may seem intimidating to the weak of heart; not realizing how much goes into a novel.  Please do not feel overwhelmed!  Upon first impression, I felt the same way but if you give it a chance, it will serve to be an extremely useful tool for all of your future writing.  The second problem is more of a minor complaint about the layout.  I appreciate the abstract pictures having to do with time she inserts into the guide because it helps break up all of the black and white pages with some color but at times, the pictures seem to have no correspondence to the content on the page, which led me to be confused as to why they were there. 

Excluding those two minor complaints, this is a treasure I cannot thank my father enough for giving me a few years ago.  In beginning to write my first novel, this writing reference has provided me with the courage and insight to push forward and strive to succeed with my writing. 

~Shelly-Beans

March Books That Did Not 'Make the Grade'

After reading such an engrossing novel such as 1Q84, it has been difficult to find any reading material that engages me in the same way.  I thought I had found two candidates but unfortunately, both of them did not make the grade.

Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland: I liked the storyline but the pace was too quick.  Without much of an introduction to this new world and the key point of the plot made in the first ten pages, there was nothing left to be desired.

Dented Cans by Heather Walsh:  The voice of the main character, a high school girl, is very realistic and easy to engage with but the way she goes on random tangents about her life and family lead me to believe I would have to read about mindless gossip and drama before the real storyline came into play. Overall, I felt it was not worth my time.

Hopefully April will be filled with more reading treasures! Happy Easter!

~Shelly-Beans