Sorry, folks, but I got nothing else. My mind is mush, I’m hungry for dinner, and the Bears game is on soon, though I don’t know how much of that Brian and I will be able to watch, depending on how well (pfft) they play tonight. So here it is. A stupid quiz. But you know you’re going to click right on that link and find out which book you are! You might not post it on your blog, but you know you’ll do it! Mwahahahaha! By the way, you have no idea how hard I had to search the Internet just for a stupid quiz! Quizilla just ain’t what it used to be.

You’re Les Miserables!
by Victor Hugo
One of the best known people in your community, you have become something of a phenomenon. People have sung about you, danced in your honor, created all manner of art in your name. And yet your story is one of failure and despair, with a few brief exceptions. A hopeless romantic, you’ll never stop hoping that more good will come from your failings than is ever possible. Beware detectives and prison guards bearing vendettas.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

One wild thing, anyway. I just took this picture myself because I’m too impatient to wait for Brian to get home to take it for me, which is why it’s so blurry. That, and probably because I had it done in 1992, LONG before the movie existed, so no trendiness here.

“Where The Wild Things Are” is my favorite book of all time and I’m afraid to see the movie because I don’t want it to ruin the book for me. In my experience, books are better than their film adaptations no matter how excellent the adaptation, and this is a classic. Even if people think the movie’s great, I still don’t know if I could bring myself to see it.

by Douglas Coupland

Brilliantly, wonderfully depressing. In a witty sort of way. Creative Writing MFA (prospective, past, and present) students, especially, should read this novel.

by Cormac McCarthy

I was looking forward to seeing this movie, since people only had good things to say about it, but then I discovered that the book came first. And when that’s the case, I always read the book before I see the movie. Though I’d never read Cormac McCarthy’s work, I didn’t think I’d like it because I had the impression that his stories are all set in the Old West, which doesn’t interest me. But since I knew the movie is set more recently then that, I gave it a whirl and I’m glad I did!

To absorb all the nuances, I read this book twice — partly because it wasn’t until about halfway through that I was able to understand McCarthy’s narrative style. His use of dialogue reflects the speech patterns of that part of Texas, which is more extreme than say, a Houston accent, which I only know because I lived in that city for a year. McCarthy writes almost phonetically, so I had trouble understanding some of what was being said. For example, he’d write “kindly” when what the character actually means is “kind of.” In addition, McCarthy rarely, if ever, uses quotation marks throughout, so sometimes it was hard to know who was saying what until you got to know the characters. The second read helped a lot.

The narrative is sparse, yet includes so much detail. He makes your imagination work hard! Seeing the movie first would have ruined the aesthetic experience for me. Each chapter begins with a first-person narrative that reads almost like a journal entry, and is what the story is really about. It only took me about 2/3 of the way through the book to figure it out, though!

I’m very excited about seeing the movie — just bought the DVD. It’s bound to be as great as everyone says, considering it’s a Coen brothers film.

by Michael Reaves

Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter centers on Maul and what should have been, for him, a simple mission that Michael Reaves turns into a novel with potential but falls flat. Not only is the story predictable, the author’s writing is . . . not good.

The narrative is written mostly in the vernacular, that is, in plain language, which is fine. However, on many occasions he suddenly incorporates one word that, though perhaps accurate in usage, simply does not belong in the phrasing. Some examples: “Darsha felt the stairwell shift and shudder as if in the throes of a temblor” (153). “Temblor”? Is there something wrong with “earthquake”? Or: “It was a twisty path that Green Hair led them down, even for Coruscant — through dark alleys and back utility routes grown vermicularly complex over the centuries” (277). “Wormlike” would have worked just as well if not better than “vermicularly,” especially since one character here is called Green Hair. Reaves also uses weak similes such as, “a stab of pain like a blaster bolt through her skull” (199) to describe a headache.

Shifts in point of view are not smooth. A situation or action takes place in just a few paragraphs, then abruptly continues from a different character’s viewpoint. This happens often between Maul, the antagonist, and Darsha Assant, one of the protagonists. Indeed, what Reaves does best is draw parallels between the Sith apprentice and the Padawan by describing both characters’ interpretations and subsequent actions via the Sith and Jedi Codes, respectively. Still, disappointing all the way around.

The good news is, James Luceno’s short story, “Darth Maul: Saboteur,” previously available only in electronic format, is included in the paperback version of Shadow Hunter and is a real treat.