Archive for Magical Realism
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Going Bovine (Nicola)
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Pages: 480 pages
Ages: 14+
First Published: Sept. 22, 2009
Rating: 3.5/5
First sentence:
The best day of my life happened when I was five and almost died at Disney World.
Reason for Reading: I enjoyed Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle books so was up for reading whatever she wrote next.
Summary: The book starts of with Cameron, your typical slacker 16-year-old living in a family that has drifted into typical modern, busy, note-leaving suburbanites, while he and his popular younger sister are at that stage where they hate each other at home and she pretends he don’t exist outside of the house. Since Cameron often does strange things it isn’t easily noticeable when he first starts showing strange behaviour, yelling out at hallucinations and twitching. Not until he has a major seizure at school and is taken to the hospital do the doctor’s start their weeks long testing and it is diagnosed that Cameron has Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (often referred to as the human form of mad cow disease). It is at this point that Cameron is visited by a punk angel, and sent on a road trip with his hospital room mate, a hypochondriac teen dwarf. Thus starts their surreal, hallucinogenic, out of this world journey across the States which has them visiting a happiness cult, picking up a yard gnome who think he is a Viking god, meeting a dead New Orleans jazz player, playing weird TV game shows, being chased down by the snow globe corporation and meeting up with a group of scientists who are on the verge of parallel world travel. This is the tip of the iceberg.
Comments: What can I say? The book is very well written and one wild ride from start to finish. There is plenty of humour, the events are so out there that everything is surreal. Written in the first person of Cameron, the reader knows from the outset that we have an unreliable narrator. Cameron will tell us the hallucinations he is having then he tells us the ‘real’ strange things he sees. What is reality?
The book’s whole purpose seems to be to examine death. The process of knowing you are to die soon, how you handle that knowledge. When do you start living? Is it ever too late to start living? What is living anyway? What happens at the end? There are no spiritual connections made and for me that made the examination process fall flat and ultimately meaningless. However you may reach a different conclusion.
Even though the book’s message didn’t hit home with me, I enjoyed the road trip (mostly) for what it was, a lot of eccentric characters and crazy events. There does come a time in the story though when everything suddenly became clear and from that point on I felt the book was longer than it needed to be. The charade kept being played and the hints kept being dropped to the point of frustration for this reader. I would have liked to have seen more of the family’s reactions, feelings and coping during this time that Cameron was away. Finally, the language in the book is very vulgar and I found that hugely off-putting though I do realize it was realistic of the characters.
Ultimately, I did have some problems with the story and some other issues with some of the content that I would rather have done without but it certainly is an entertaining story. I enjoyed the characters of Gonzo, the Mexican dwarf, and Balder, the Viking garden gnome the best. I couldn’t put the book down and read it quickly over the weekend. This book isn’t going to appeal to everyone, and it is not anything like the author’s Gemma Doyle books, but if the strange, phantasmagoric and surreal appeal to you then this may be right up your alley.
An Irish Country Girl (Nicola)
An Irish Country Girl by Patrick Taylor
Irish Country Doctor series, Book 4
Pages: 298 pages
First Published: January 5, 2010
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
“Run along, make your calls, and enjoy His Lordship’s hooley,” said Mrs. Maureen Kincaid, “Kinky” to her friends, as she knelt in the hall and sponged Ribena black-currant cordial from a small boy’s tweed overcoat.
Reason for Reading: The Irish Country Doctor series has been on my tbr list for a while and when I had an offer to read this fourth book, which can also be read as a stand-alone, I jumped at the chance to get my feet wet with the series.
Summary: This fourth book in the series takes a different direction than the other books by centering on Maureen Kincaid, housekeeper/cook for two country doctors in the 1960s. The book actually takes place during a few hours near the end of Book Three while Maureen is at home preparing Christmas dinner and the doctors have gone out. During this time Mrs. Kincaid reflects back on her earlier life in the 1920s, specifically following the years she was fourteen to eighteen years-old. The book tells the story of Maureen’s biggest characteristic, being that she has “the sight” and how she first became that way, when she first saw the fey and had her first visions of the future. Her story also answers questions such as why she came to be called “Kinky”, how she became a Mrs., and how she finally ended up as the doctors’ housekeeper.
Comments: First, I’ll say the book was not what I had expected. Not having read any of the other books in the series I did not know Mrs. Kincaid had “the sight” making the story a lot more whimsical than just the cozy village story I had expected. I thoroughly enjoyed the book from start to finish and since this book is so different from the others, as a newcomer to the series the only character I had to get to know was Maureen herself. A wonderful story, with exceptional characters, that tells a tale full of romance and heartbreak, life and death, religion and folklore at a time when people spoke of God in the same breath as they warned away the spirits.
Maureen is a lovely, spirited girl with such a bittersweet story. I took to her right from the first page. Actually the rest of her family was just as real and enjoyable that they all felt like people I knew by the end of the book. I wonder if any of them ever came to visit or vice versa in the previous books or if they may pop up again in future books now that they have been introduced. I am now even more eager to get started reading the first book, meet the doctors and read the type of story I was more expecting in the first place but now I will have a familiar face to greet me when I open its pages. Charming tale for those who enjoy cozies, but also appreciate a good dose of Irish folklore.
The Story Sisters (Nicola)
The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman
Pages: 325
First Published: Jun. 02 ‘09
Genre: magical realism
Rating: 3.5/5
First sentence:
Once a year there was a knock at the door.
Reason for Reading: I’ve become a big fan of magical realism over the last year or so and Alice Hoffman was an author on my list, so I figured why not start with her new book.
Comments: Well, I hardly know where to start with this book. What is this book about? It’s the story of three sisters who live in a fantasy world of their own creation. Two of them hold a dark secret, but one of them holds the darkest secret of all. It’s a story of a mother’s loves as she tries to raise her daughters single handedly. The girls grow up, let go of their fantasy world (though parts will never leave them) and face the pain of real life. This is a story of the fantastical, a family saga, a harsh, dark realism and ultimate redemption.
I’ll start by saying I really, really enjoyed this book. But I also have to say there were parts when I just didn’t get it. Each chapter starts with a few paragraphs of an italicized story from the fantasy world, at least that’s what I thought at the beginning, but by the end I had no idea what they were about or what their purpose served. The first half of the book when the girls are young and living in the fantasy world is beautiful. The language and atmosphere is so fairy tale-like. It’s pure delight to read but even at this stage glimpses of the dark secret are seen and the power of even the smallest glimpse of this evil into such serene surroundings is shiver-inducing. As events unfold the author throws a stunning shock at the reader and the atmosphere becomes more realistic, heavier and darker.
The characters are marvelous. I just loved every single one of them, even the ones that I didn’t particularly like as people. They were just so well written I could visualize and hear each one of them. Truly brilliant characterization! The writing as a whole is beautiful, the family saga is compelling and heart-wrenching while the fantasy elements are always present whether in full force or just as tiny flickers. It’s still a book I have to give some thought to, though. This has given me a taste for Alice Hoffman and I plan on reading her again.
Angels of Destruction (Nicola)
Angels of Destruction by Keith Donohue
Pages: 347
First Published: Mar. 3, 2009
Genre: Christian Fiction or Magical Realism (depends on your POV)
Rating: 4.5/5
First sentence:
She heard the fist tap again, tentative and small.
Comments: Ten years ago Margaret Quinn’s 17-year old daughter, Erica, ran away with her boyfriend to join a revolutionary cult. These ten years have been hard on Margaret. She had Erica late in life and is now getting old, old beyond her years actually as she has become a shell of her former self, no longer having the company or sounds of her only child in her house and her husband passed away seven of those years ago. Now she just has her sister, who flies in and visits her every now and then, and the neighbour Mr. Delarosa who does the snow shovelling and other such heavy work for her. Otherwise she is a recluse whose only time out of the house is spent walking into the rural wilderness. She also spends much of her time praying that someday her daughter will return.
Then one day in the middle of a storm, a little girl, Norah, 9 years old, knocks on her door and asks if she can stay. She’s an orphan with nowhere to go she says. Margaret plans to contact the authorities the next day but instead by morning they have concocted a story whereby the girl is the daughter of her missing daughter and Margaret’s own granddaughter who will be staying with her indefinitely. Margaret, Sean, a boy Norah has befriended, her class, and her teacher all become aware that there is something very special about Norah. Then comes the day that Norah announces that she is an angel.
The book starts in the present of 1985, when Norah arrives at Margaret’s doorstep, then goes back to 1975 to Erica’s point of view as she runs away, then returns to 1985 and finishes off with a peek into the future of 2005. I absolutely adored this book. Exquisitely beautiful, the writing, the mood, the topic, the interaction of the characters, everything! All the characters in the book are Christian and though never outright stated as such, Catholic. The religious point of view in this book is absolutely beautiful and I wondered if I was reading Christian fiction at first but did realize that it is supposed to be Magical Realism with Christianity as the core of its “mysticism”. This scene on page 67 set the tone of the book for me:
“How do you do those tricks?” He edged to the foot of the bed. “Where did you learn that magic?”
“Not magic.” Bending to her drawing, she scribbled furiously, the pencil a blur in her hands. “Miracles and wonders. All part of the plan.”
Uncertain whether to believe her or not …..
“Don’t mess around with matters of faith, amigo.”
A truly beautiful book with a page-turning plot as one wants to know what is going on. Is it all real or is it wishful thinking or is someone going a little crazy? Where does the truth start, and for that matter, where does it end? The imagery is simply beautiful and while I’ve talked of how the book affected me as a Christian I know that it is meant to be a mainstream book and that one with different beliefs will get a completely different message from the book and feel more of the magic in the “magical realism”, than I did. The only reason my rating is not a full five points is that the ending is left ambiguous for some characters and I wish it had given us a finite ending for them but then I do see why the author ended it this way, so that we, the reader, can make up our own minds. But, I’m afraid I do prefer my endings to be written down in black in white, no guessing. I heartily recommend this book and I’ll leave you with another quote that touched me.
“Atoms and angels, reason and faith,” he went on. “one without the other is less than half as strong and can be a danger to our vitality. Reason is subject to the tests of logic and observable, demonstrable phenomena. Faith is tested by our desire and will. One cannot see faith, just as one cannot pour out hope or love from a beaker. Self-sacrifice and devotion escape the strongest microscope, but such qualities of spirit can be shown and known by us all, my dear. And so with God’s messengers, more believed than seen, more felt than touched, our angels exist in open hearts, if we have but faith.”
Fade (Nicola)
Fade by Lisa McMann
Wake Trilogy, Book 2
Pages: 248
First Published: Feb. 10, 2009
Genre: YA, magical realism
Rating: 4.5/5
First sentence:
Janie sprints through the snowy yards from two streets away and slips quietly through the front door of her house.
Comments: Janie has found out that she is not the first to experience her ability to enter other people’s dreams. She and Caleb start researching dreams and she begins to learn to gather some control over her blackouts and the dream events themselves. The nightmares are the worst they make her totally helpless and she begins to experience a classmate’s terrifying nightmare over and over as they share study hall together. Caleb and Janie become aware of a horrible situation taking place at Fieldridge High between teachers and students but no one will talk. Janie tries to find the truth, and stop the terrible event from happening anymore, through her dreams. Caleb and Janie’s relationship also matures and two people who have never felt love from anyone their whole lives find love for each other. Janie also learns a brutal truth about her condition and how it will affect the rest of her life. Again tough issues are dealt with here; rape and once again parental neglect and terrible abuse.
Picking up immediately after the first book, Wake, and written in the same day-by-day format the second book of this trilogy grabs you from the first page and doesn’t let go until the end. This book is on an equal footing with the first; well-written, dynamic characters, compelling and page-turning. I haven’t felt this way about a trilogy since the Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray. There is no doubt these books are going to catch the heat of popularity from teens and adults like.
While I liked this book probably even more than the first one, my slightly less rating is due to two points, one of the author’s doing and one of my own personal opinion. First, Janie and Caleb’s relationship turns s*xual and while not graphic it isn’t left to the imagination either. On one hand, the author handled the situation well; it is not portrayed as reckless. But on the other hand, I do not like s*xual intercourse to be portrayed as a “good thing” in books aimed primarily at Young Adults. My second quibble is the plot went, I felt, beyond realistic believability in the way Janie’s “job” was handled.
I can’t wait until the third book of this trilogy, Gone, is published but I will have to somehow make it through the wait until 2010. Highly recommended!
Wake (Nicola)
Wake by Lisa McMann
Wake Trilogy, Book 1
Pages: 210
First Published: Mar 4, 2008
Genre: YA, magical realism
Rating: 5/5
First sentence:
Janie Hannagan’s math book slips from her fingers.
Comments: Seventeen-year-old Janie gets sucked into other people’s dreams. It’s been happening since she was eight. Now that she is getting older things are getting worse. More and more students in high school fall asleep at their desks and Janie blacks out and enters the dreams more frequently. She blacks out at school, on the job at a seniors home, and shortly after buying her first car, while driving. This is getting out of hand and she must learn how to take control of the episodes. So far all she knows is that distance or a closed door will prevent the dreams.
I’m going to say it straight off. I loved this book so much, I could gush about it on and on. Page one and I was hooked! With an absolutely unique plot and characters that appeal to you from the first; I could not put this book down. The world around me stood still as I entered this fabulous plot.
It is a quick read, compelling and moves at a fast pace. Written in a journal type format, yet in the third person, there are no chapters but only short dated entries that make it so easy to keep saying “just a few more pages” well into the wee hours of the morning.
This is a book that is going to appeal to older teens and adults, equally. The story is very realistic; dealing with issues of abusive and negligent parents. This will haunt me for quite some time and is most certainly my most favourite book read this month.
Your Heart Belongs to Me (Nicola)
Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz
Pages: 337
First Published: Nov., 2008
Genre: magical realism
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
Ryan Perry did not know that something in him was broken.
Comments: A young, thirty-something self-made millionaire, finds out that he has a heart disease and is given one year to live and put on the heart transplant list. He starts to become paranoid, wondering if someone has done this to him. Time goes by and he is finally found a donor but he is now having strange dreams and wonders what is real and what is not.
This is the first Koontz book I have read. I was under the impression he wrote horror books but this is nothing near a horror story. But instead it is a deep character study of a man and his brush with death and the slightly paranormal. This is also a story of redemption and finding your real inner self. I also found the theme quite religious, as a man slowly learns to hear God’s voice so that he can in turn listen to it and react. The plot moves slowly through the first part of the book as we learn about the characters and their day-to-day lives. The action becomes faster in the second part and moves on to a page-turner ending. While I figured out the twist early on in the book I still found the unravelling and final climax a fascinating read. I’ve always wanted to read this author and this book makes me want to read him more. I’m interested to see how this compares to his horror stories.
