MONSTERS-A Fan's Dilemma-Remains Unclear after Reading

Claire Dederer poses an interesting conundrum, how to separate the art from the artist when the artist is known to have been hideous and committed serious offenses. This is a compelling question as one may seek dispensation to appreciate works done by an artist known for committing sexual or physical assault, child endangerment. Or someone who is a womanizer and treats others with cruelty and utter disregard. This prescient topic weighs heavily on us in today's woke world with a continuous list of talented celebrities being outed for their bad behaviors.  Dederer narrows her monstrous subjects to males which is one sided but necessary to conform to her thesis.  And, further restricts judgements for the rare few where  true genius is applicable. Her thesis asks if genius merits accommodations or hall passes for the individual's actions.  Dederer seems to waffle rather than commit to a conclusion.  She does imply quashing the artist's freedom to act without consequences would inflate artistic freedom and the artist's psyche. The term genius is not a term dispensed without gravitas. The adjective is reserved for an iconoclastic group for whom unequivocal esteem is owed. (Of course, this too can be debated.) Taking examples from the various art forms of music, film, literature and visual arts Dederer honed in on Michael Jackson, Woody Allen, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso.  She further asserts, "We are excited by their ass-hole-ness...We want the asshole to cross the line, to break the rules. We reward that rule-breaking, and then we go a step further, and see it as endemic to art-making itself." This assumption is where I part ways with Dederer's dissertation. But, it's imperative to note there are degrees to which bad-ass behavior is tolerated. In no way is criminal behavior to be exonerated for the sake of great art, rather legal actions would be merited. And, the paradigms for Hemingway and Picasso's womanizing do not do justice to disavowing their contributions. Having read MONSTERS, the issue is not resolved as to how to appreciate great art created by geniuses who nonetheless are mere mortals. Although, it doesn't require an Einstein to solve this enigma. I argue great art stands on its own merits and should be viewed as its own entity. Not, to be diminished. But, the dispensation of negating illicit and degrading behaviors must not be disregarded.  Society is too quick to hand out accolades and too quick with its condemnations. For the film that doesn't receive an Acad. Award, does it change the work in any way? Of course not. Music, literature, art doesn't change like Dorian Gray's portrait in the attic but the stains on human nature are notable nonetheless.  

Comedian Daniel Tosh-Pulls No Punches

Last night before a sold out house at Santa Rosa's Luther Burbank Theater, Daniel Tosh was in top form as he wielded the crowd with his wit to laugh at the absurdity from both sides of an issue. Known for his sardonic take on current political and social issues, Tosh took aim at hot topics including abortion, vaccines, political parties, black athletes, police brutality with a no holds barred, brash approach. Tosh's topical material was well crafted and cutting-edge. It felt totally organic and original. Tosh started out gently and built-up to a comical crescendo. He said he planned to switch his career from comedy to magic. He gave a sealed envelope to one person and asked another to name a number from 1-100.  The number chosen, 99, was not the 54 in the sealed envelope. Tosh poked fun at the ridiculous choice of 99, then came down on "54" for not choosing 99 to save the joke. He often made himself the butt of the joke, "This all proves that magic is stupid." His modus operandi through his non-stop, spell-binding routine that pushed back at the absurdity of opposing views. His routine flowed effortlessly for well over an hour with precise timing and circuitous material which was sardonic, sensible, irreverent and redemptive.  His overriding attitude of disdain was never off-putting. He steered the audience to ironic and hilarious observations that still allowed the audience to feel safe and sane regardless how inane or contentious the joke. Tosh told the audience it was his job to go there...and go there he did. He claimed, "I'm willing to lose half my audience," and I for one, took him at his word.  His wife's pregnancy with 3 fetuses was cause for high-fiving after learning 2 of the 3 fetuses had become non-viable. A seriously funny discourse ensued that crossed pedophilia with life beginning at fertilization. His poignant goodnight kiss on his daughter's birthmark led to a cringeworthy punchline that struck you in the gut and the funny bone. Tosh was for abortion just not pro, pro-choice for women. He appreciated how cop's get trigger happy, "I was a lifeguard and I admit to blowing the whistle when not necessary." The litany of people he's okay with getting shot include fans who try to enlist their sections in cheers and people who drive around speed bumps.  His candid take  mocked his own wealth and the virtues of having money as far outweighing being poor. Tosh's contemptuous outlooks delivered without rancor were altogether clever, thought provoking and hilarious. Tosh contemporary outtakes showcase him at the top of his game and destined for fame.  Daniel Tosh tells it like he sees it and pulls no punches. My hunch is he's a formidable funny man for the ages. Catch him whenever, wherever you can. 

sardonic sarcastic sensible irreverent redemptive 

Kelly Link's The BOOK of LOVE-Something to Love for Everyone Thus for No One

The author of The BOOK of LOVE, Kelly Link, is a Pulitzer Prize nominated short story writer. In her debut novel, she spun a multi-genre novel into a cornucopia of characters and plots. The book begins bewitchingly then morphs into a bewildering mess and far less transfixing. The pastiche of genres and themes include young adult fiction, fantasy, romance, magic, coming-of-age, family dysfunction, racism and racial stereotyping, good versus evil and plenty of sex.  Not to say a mixed concoction can't be intoxicating, but, here too many ingredients did spoil the brew. The genesis of the plot has a lot to convince you to imbibe this elixir of intrigue.  Three teens somehow arrive in their high school at midnight with a dawning dread. There's a unifying realization they somehow were dead. But, somehow are back from the dead to talk about it. Their unease and puzzlement as to what happened and their sense of second chances offers up a lot of an enticing spell.  Mo, Daniel and Laura are the teens from a small, coastal town called Lovesend.  The convoluted plot entails the three who knew each other as classmates, neighbors and band mates. It continues to revolve around a myriad of tasks they must complete to compete for the prize of remaining alive.  All three are learning to tame magic powers they've obtained while releasing their liscivious libidos. Cursed mortals that had been granted immortality are complicating matters and creating terrifying problems for the teens.  Meanwhile, Laura and her sister Susanna are constantly at each other's throats. Daniel and Susanna spend as much time as possible having sex.  Mo finds his lover who unfortunately is hexed and not as he appears. There's more drama on the home fronts;  the sisters' father return after a long abandonment. Mo mourns the death of his grandmother who died while he was dead. And, Daniel's younger half-siblings offer chaos and charm.  Link tries to utilize her short story writing skills to combine all the different characters and twists but there's too much to contain and feel sane.  I wished for a change of pace in my reading but this was too dizzy to decipher and too far-fetched to sustain. Link failed to pull a rabbit out of her hat.  Don't read that!  Read in lieu of The BOOK of LOVE, GET IN TROUBLE instead.

GRIEF is for PEOPLE- Sloane Crosley Mires the Loss of Her Friend and Her Trinkets

Sloane Crosley is a renowned writer of humorist essays that have garnered literary awards, and fans for her wry, observational sense of humor. "GRIEF is for PEOPLE" is deeply personal and introspective as she mourns the loss of her friend, Russel Perrault who killed himself.  Perrault hired her at Random House. From there, the relationship evolved into much more. Crosley describes Perrault as "my favorite person, the one who somehow sees me both as I want to be seen and as I actually am, the one whose belief in me over the years has been the most earned (he is not my parent), the most pure (he is not my boyfriend), and the most forgiving (he is my friend)'. Crosley navigates her grief away from painting Perrault as a saint as she quickly counters. "There are, of course, days when he is not my favorite person, days when I would pay him to be a little less like himself."  Crosley's memoir is more clever than maudlin, more delightful than depressing, yet it is all of that and more.  Perrault's unexpected suicide coincides with a burglary of her jewelry and treasured trinkets stolen from her apartment from the spice case purchased during a flea market trip (one of Perrault's favorite pastimes) enjoyed together where he cajoled her into purchasing the item "meant for her." The exhuming of relevance between a robbery and the death of a loved would seem to bear inconsequential significance. Crosley's deft skills as a writer and sleuth expose the crossroads and the disjunction between the two events.  "In the case of the burglary, there is a bad guy, there is a potential for restitution and there is a potential for fairness. Not so for a suicide." Joan Didion's memoir "The Year of Magical Thinking" is often referred to as Crosley convinces herself her obsession with regaining her possessions is sound. "If the necklace can come home, then everything will be just as it used to be." Nonetheless, Crosley pursues the villain who robbed her of mementos and looks back for an understanding why her beloved friend would chose to end his life which are both responsible for extracting her happiness and security.  Crosely doesn't gloss over her depression but neither does she let us wallow in morbidity. She illustrates Perrault as complex, convivial with an infectious dash of  exuberance. As the layers of Perrault's character are removed and Crosley contends with life going forward, we're uplifted peering through the sharp lens of her inconsolable loss and unflappable spirit. Looking back with somber acceptance of Perrault's heartbreaking decision, Crosley asks him, "How come you didn't see the great wheel of the world and find a different spoke? Were you so jaded and impatient? Weren't you curious about what would happen tomorrow and the days after that?"

Percival Everett JAMES-Jim Narrates His Harrowing Escape with Huck

Twain's novel The ADVENTURES of HUCKLEBERRY FINN is one of the most iconic books of the 20th C. Having read the novel as a young teen, I was swept away by the odyssey of Huck and Jim on the MI river and taken with the friendship between Huck, a young white boy and Jim, a Blackman living as a slave. As much as I admired Huck for befriending Jim and abetting him as a runaway despite being raised to view blacks as subhuman, unworthy of compassion, the gravitas of Huck's rejection of these vile norms and his courageous rejections of them didn't strike me with as much pain as being witness to Jim's agony through his eyes, mind and conversations with Huck. Jim's humanity bellows in anguish and resounds with dignity as he attempts a harrowing escape north looking out for himself and Huck who's fleeing an abusive father.  This book deals a with Jim's abilities to read, write and speak in a dialect that aligns with the grammar and elocution of whites. The burden of illiteracy and speech denoted inferior, is a form of subjection that perpetuates enslavement. The inner strength and moral certitude of Jim comes through his selfless acts and conversations with Huck who looked to him for comfort and guidance. Hucks asks Jim, "How I s'posed to know what good is. Way I sees it is dis. If'n ya gots to hat a rule to tells ya what's good, if'n ya gots to hat good 'sprained to ya, den ya cain't be good. If'n ya need sum kinda God to tells ya right from wrong, den you won't never know." Attention is focused on literacy as it signifies freedom. Jim realizes, "The power of reading made itself clear and real to me. If I could see the words, then no one could control what I got from them. It was a completely private affair and completely free and, therefore, completely subversive."  Jim was met with bafflement from those, including Huck and fellow slaves in regards to his non-slave talk and his literacy skills. One of the many poignant and deeply disturbing experiences involves another slave George who aided Jim in risking his life to swipe a pencil stub he asked for. George beseeches Jim to write his own life story, understanding how oppression is maintained by keeping slaves illiterate. The sovereignty embedded in writing is also the power to record history and dispense knowledge. Everett's novel works as a daring odyssey of survival against all barriers. The most egregious obstacle is systemic racial hatred and the barbaric of human slaves. Huck's dawning realizations and Jim's convictions provide simple truths without preaching by reaching deep into one's soul. "How kin one person own another person? Dat be a good question, Huck." Jim considers "A man who refused to own slaves but was not opposed to others owning slaves was still a slaver, to my thinking." And, Jim's assessment of evil did not apply to whites only. "Bad as whites were, they had no monopoly on duplicity, dishonesty or perfidy." Twain's "HUCK FINN" stands as a classic tale and testament to the horrors of slavery woven into an adventure experienced within a coming of age novel. JAMES expounds on this tale in a broader and more honest manner.  I strongly urge reading both great literary works as testaments to the scope of humankind's attributes, from the most divine to the most sinister.  

Anthony Veasna So's AFTERPARTIES-Published Posthumously-CA/Cambodian Families Who Fled Communist Killings

Anthony Veasna So's parents escaped Cambodia's the communist regime to northern CA along with a community that provided their children a safe haven in which to thrive. So's combined short stories in AFTERPARTIES is a wry exposure of the malaise of inertia that permeates the first generation of American Cambodians blessed with opportunities that seem to go awry. Living with the omnipresent lament of their parents and elders it was often heard, "We escaped the Communists. So what are boys like you doing?" The next generation never achieve expectations. Pressure to produce proves overbearing as the majority of young people, more so for young gay Cambodians, and most  succumb to the status quo, "Guys who never left our hometown, who stayed committed to a dusty CA free of ambition or beaches." embedded in these stories are quirky, likable characters whose self-awareness and acknowledgements of their families' antiquated customs, create endearing stories of generational and social divides. The Cambodian genocide shrouds all 11 stories. In the first story, "Three Women of Chuck's Donuts" a single mother of two girls brings them with her to her flailing donut shop. She's plagued by the menacing presence of a Cambodian patron she fears will harm her and her daughters  having located her. The young girls use their imagination to construct their own stories about the man that are far more innocuous and entertaining. In "Superking Son Scores Again," a young Cambodian who was hailed as a badminton star is now the proprietor of a languishing grocery store where the younger Cambodian boys gather. The former star is exposed as a gambler who drives his family business into debt but not before the younger boys enlist him as coach in their triumphant badminton competitions. There is a jocular warmth to all the stories along with the love and respect deeply enshrined in their culture. Many a similar amusing refrain is heard in all households, "Ba, you gotta stop using the genocide to win arguments." The only story in darker, more somber mode is the last in the one, "Generational Differences," It's a clever social commentary on the mass shooting based on the 1989 mass shooting in an elementary school with a major Cambodian student body. In the tragic aftermath, Michael Jackson came to the school to provide support while receiving a major public relations promotion. Throughout, So's deft writing provides a keen perspective from within the lives of first generation Cambodians in CA looking outside their communities while deeply entrenched in their's. The Cambodian mother and teacher who worked at the school during the massacre explains her feelings, "Through my frustration, my clenched teeth, I didn't have the words to say those years were never the sole explanation of anything; that I've always considered the genocide to be the source of all our problems and none of them."  

Daniel Mason's Magical Historic Traverse in NORTH WOODS

NORTH WOODS is an enchanting traverse through the woods in western MA that spans centuries from  early colonial days to near present day. What transpires is unhurried and unexpected stories of inhabitants of the same home and the surrounding woodlands. Each succession reads independently of the preceding story. All are enchanting and delightful in unique fashion.  Starting with a lusty young couple having abandoned their confining lives in Puritan New England to start anew on their own. Their emancipation and ardor are met with a violent demise at the hands of the "Natives". Daniel Mason is a masterful writer who depicts the land as artfully alive as his various characters. Each varying tale stands independently, yet much is gained noting the passage of time and the discoveries of relics that reveal more of what befell those who claimed the same, yellow house in the woods as home. The stories all share a profound connection with their surrounding woods. Many characters encounter a macabre demise that if not surprising, is deeply mournful. The Osgood twins is a delightful tale of sisters who resourcefully manage their father's apple orchard alone after their father enlists to fight in the Revolution.  We delight in their daily lives and devotion to one another until it becomes something more sinister. A later tale is of a painter and his illicit love for a famous writer related in an epistolary fashion through letters he composed to his male lover. The eloquence of these letters begs an answer to how they came to be found within the painter's home. The reader delights in the treasure of findings. Answers appear at later, unexpected dates becoming  all the more rewarding in their discovery.  The last story, and the most intricate is a widowed mother dealing with the anguish of a son diagnosed with schizophrenia. As in each story, the moral norms and behaviors of the time period are presented along with the ever changing landscape. Mason writes with a flourish filled with crisp descriptions that elicit tactile responses along with what the characters are experiencing. Minor characters play major roles and transient beings become more prominent. All the unexpected journeys are to be celebrated.  Solid roots are planted from which multifaceted branches expand into new realms organically. This is a sumptuous novel of ephemeral  beauty. "The young saplings she remembered from her childhood had matured into a forest of their own. Nothing like the old woods that lay beyond the stone wall, but still remarkable, this sense of reclamation." I wholeheartedly encourage journeying into NORTH WORDS.