It by Stephen King....the most disappointing book I have ever read.

So I "finished" this book, or at least I read my fill.  What made me so mad about this 1,029 page book was that I know Stephen King is a really good story teller/writer, but with this book he took a great idea and let it get away from him until he ruined it.  Don't get me wrong, the first 500 pages were great.  There was a good set up to the plot.  There were great detailed accounts of the main characters that made the reader emotionally engaged with the story.  All of this was accomplished with a balanced combination of flashbacks and current plot movement.  Everything was going ok.  But then somewhere around page 500, the whole plot movement went into neutral for about 400 pages.  Virtually all of the second part of the book was completely pointless to the outcome.  I found myself skimming after page 750 or so and I didn't see anything important until around 900 and even then the climax drug along painfully.  The actually confrontation with the monster was wierdo psychological and it didn't fit with the reved up physicall violence in the rest of the book. After reading Pet Sematary and The Shinning, I was very disappointed.  But I guess when you have cranked out as much as he has, there have got to be some stinkers, even with ones that were made into movies. 

I think I am done with King for a while, but I haven't figured out what I want to read next.  It needs to be something good.

Lord Jim

Yes, it took me a long time to finish this book, but I took a little side journey and read my favorite book, For Whom the Bell Tolls.  It was supposed to get me geared up through the our baby moon vacation and the last couple of months of Beth's pregnancy, which it did beautifully.  So I let Robert Jordan rest in the pine needles and I started in on Lord Jim.  Conrad is very good at visualization.  When you read his books, you really feel that world of the British empire, of pith helmets and martini henry rifles, of a time when the entire coasts of Africa and Asia were the back yard of Britian.  The details of the places and people have a dream like quality.  There is a heavy nautical theme that seems to run through all of his books that I have read so far. Even Heart of Darkness, a book about the jungle, takes place mostly on a boat in a river.  Lord Jim was told in a narrative form that rambled more than any other narrative book that I have ever read, but it was done in a way that made the story from Marlow even that more real.  Often an outcome would be alluded to fifty or more pages before it was actually revealed. 

Jim fights his way back from his disgraced fortune of cowardice (making a decision that any of us would have likely made), becomes the benevolent "ruler" of a primitive land in Malaysia, and is ultimated murdered by his evil "foil" character, Gentleman Brown.  There was still that dark overtone that was so blarringly present in "Darkness", but it was not as refined or obvious at all times.  It was a good book by a brilliant British writer, but it was a lot of work to read.  I am going for a little something easier for my fall reading, which usually has to include some horror for the season.  I have read "The Shining" and "Pet Sematary" by Stephen King, so for my next try at King work, I am reading "It".  The made for TV movie scared the crap out of me as a kid so I can't wait to see what the book can do. 

The Wilding: A Novel; by Benjamin Percy

I was not a fan of this book.  I now have no respect for the NPR book reviewers, who put this author in the realm of Jack London.  This was no "To Build a Fire".  The main problem I had with it was that the only character that I liked was the homicidal grizzly bear.  First, I would like to say that it is a decent story.   The part about the deer hunt is pretty well done.  Even though there were some things that didn't add up, like why they were hunting in the middle of the day and how a 12 year old kid makes a 200 yard plus kill on his first hunt ever after only firing a gun five times in his life.  The problem I had with it I think stems more from the pure dislike I had of every major character.  I liked the grizzly bear.  He at least took action.  Justin, the primary character around whom the entire book is really centered is so weak that he cannot even whine forcefully.  He just drives his Subaru and shops at Whole Foods while getting bullied around by the world.  I suppose that he gets transformed in some way at the end, but that is never really expounded on.  Stories like this reinforce my endearment toward Hemingway, who's every letter carried a sense of strength.  I also think that my dislike comes from a complete disconnection in something that I only know to call "global philosophy".  We all know what this is whether or not we have a name for it.  Whenever you experience art, whether a book, or a song, or a painting, you either "get it" or you don't "get it".  If you really "get it", you feel a connection to the artist in some deep way to a point where you feel that you share some common aspect of soul.  I can definitively say that when it comes to this story, I didn't get it.

Next, I am reading Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad.  I have a lot more hope for this one.  There is a worn copy of Heart of Darkness and Secret Sharer on my shelf that has remained one of my favorite books since I read Heart of Darkness in senior English.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

This was the first Oscar Wilde book that I have ever read.  Other that knowing that he wrote "The Importance of Being Earnest", I knew nothing about him.  After reading this novel, I still don't think I know much about him, which is usually the mark of a great writer.  During the beginning, I was pretty sure that I had him pegged as being a perfectly rounded example of the arrogant optimism and faith in humanity that was the hallmark of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.  (This being the time when the common knowledge was that we had discovered all there was to know in many areas of science and that men were not capable of making any more big wars).  But it turned out he was just really good at channeling all those thoughts into his English noble characters.  He really did a good job presenting the asinine nature of the culture.  His British nobles are equivocated champions of doing nothing and spewing sharp witty repertoire while at it.  A short book in itself could be made of Lord Henry's epigrams.  Again, I haven't read any analysis, but I think Lord Henry was the "devil" or some type of symbol for all the hedonistic desires of the time.  Basil, was of course representative of the timeless presence of morality and good, of some sort.  In the end, Dorian's unintentional suicide became an acknowledgment of the inevitability of the soul.  In a way, this stood as the ultimate rebuke to all of Henry's philosophies of self adulation.  After all, there were consequences for the evil life that Dorian had led.  But, I  also feel that that secretly, Lord Henry knew everything about Dorian's life and every word spoken to him was some type of nudge on to total destruction.  Maybe the end was what Henry had planned all along, being that the second that Dorian wanted to destroy the symbol of his sin and corruption, he himself would be destroyed? 

I do like this quote from Wilde in the preface:

"All art is at once surface and symbol.  Those who go beneath the surface do so at their own peril.  Those who read the symbol do so at their own peril.  It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.  Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.  When critics disagree, the artist in in accord with himself.  We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it.  The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless."

Anyway, I look forward to reading some more Wilde some day.  I will probably read "Earnest" next, because it is probably his most famous work.  I am about to jump ahead in literary history a bit.  My next read is going to be "The Wilding" by Benjamin Percy.  It was actually published just last fall.  I heard it referenced on a NPR book review about three great outdoor novels.  It was put in the company of Jack London, so needless to say I have high expectations.