August 2007 Archives

Reviewed by Dave Morrison, Building Manager, Cabell Library

“Sometimes you have to lose yourself…before you can find anything.”
Lewis Medlock (Burt Reynolds) speaking to Ed Gentry (Jon Voight) in John Boorman’s 1972 film Deliverance

This fall I will be experiencing for the first time class V white water rapids while shooting down a remote and treacherous West Virginia river. The above mentioned and not-so-well-remembered scene from the film, coupled with the excitement of my upcoming adventure, had me scurrying to the fourth floor stacks of JBC in search of James Dickey’s classic survival novel Deliverance, which I devoured eagerly over a recent weekend. Prior to reading the book, which happened to be an antiquated and tattered volume from 1970, all my knowledge of this story had been gathered from multiple viewings of the movie over the years. I knew of no one else who had tackled the original written version either.

When mentioning my interest in reading Deliverance, almost everyone familiar with the movie recalled the famous scene of an acutely afflicted, yet grossly talented banjo player hammering out a timeless battle, or musical collaboration, whichever way you choose to look at it, between the coarser side of human nature and what we would consider the civilized world, represented by a cheerful, guitar-picking Ronny Cox. The infamous Ned Beatty scene was almost always mentioned too. Both of these and many of the movie’s other images originally appear in the novel and for the reason that Dickey himself played a large part in making the film, these scenes are recreated quite accurately from book to film.

The story in the novel follows four middle-class, suburban men setting out for a weekend adventure in a rustic and not so friendly region of Georgia, intent on exploring the wild Cahulawasee River using canoes and little backwoods experience. Their zealous and naive approach to the area, the river and its sparse population of “hillfolk” create the perfect environment for a weekend gone wrong. Violence, survival and murder are the topics throughout and never let up to the end. My goal in reading this book was to uncover deeper character insights, to get a better understanding of the survival and self-analysis side of men that Lewis makes reference to, and to be taken on a rowdy, dangerous and desperate literary experience. That is exactly what I found as I paddled wildly through the story of Deliverance.

Cabell Library PS3554.I32 D4 1986

Reviewed by John Glover, Reference Librarian for the Humanities

Fun Home is an autobiographical comic written in a nuanced, literary style, intermingling the stories of the author's coming to grips with her sexual identity and her closeted father's untimely death. Bechdel, author of Dykes to Watch Out For, draws in a style that meshes comfortably with her narrative, neither outshining nor underwhelming it. To consider this comic simple autobiography, however, would be a disservice. Through its pages one sees the trials and tribulations suffered by generations of queer America, both in the cities and in the small towns of America.

Fun Home will appeal to all readers who enjoy thoughtful literature. Bechdel's work is clever, emotionally gripping in a way that moves beyond simple feelings such as joy or anger and into the strange sensations (or lack thereof) that arise at life's crossroads. She includes many snippets of other authors' works when the characters are reading, using their texts to replicate their various epiphanies, from Camus to Colette.

Cabell Library PN6727.B3757 Z46 2006

Reviewed by John Glover, Reference Librarian for the Humanities

Bones of the Moon is a down-the-rabbit-hole sort of fantasy, one that begins in a wholly real Manhattan and ends up traveling through Rondua, a land strange and whimsical enough to rival Poictesme or the Dreamlands or Neverland. The intrusion of the strange in this novel is gradual, the kind of slow seepage one finds in Shirley Jackson or Robert Aickman, and readers will find themselves believing in the thoroughly real world of the protagonists as easily as they will the adventures set in the land of Rondua. It’s difficult to talk in detail about the characters and the plot without giving the entire story away, but suffice it to say that everything in the book, however fantastic, develops from a major turning point in the life of Cullen James, Bones’ protagonist.

This short novel will appeal to readers who like both thoughtful fantasy and domestic tales. A great part of the story is concerned with the relationship between Cullen and her husband Danny, and the minutiae of their lives, albeit subtly influenced by the fantastic. Carroll, an American-born author residing in Vienna, has won notable literary awards in the U.S., Britain, France, and elsewhere. His skills are on fine display here, from his eerily apt descriptions for imaginary geographies to his nuanced descriptions of Cullen James’ reactions to the events that overtake her life like a sudden storm.

Bones of the Moon is available in VCU’s Special Collections, and other Carroll stories can be found in the circulating collection, from the surreal adventures of architect Harry Radcliffe (Outside the Dog Museum) to a comic battle between Go(o)d and Chaos (Glass Soup).

Cabell Library Special Collections and Archives PS3553.A7646 B6 1988

Cabell Library PS3553.A7646 O87 1992 (Outside the Dog Museum)
Cabell Library PS3553.A7646 G57 2005 (Glass Soup)

Reviewed by John Glover, Reference Librarian for the Humanities

A literary historical/horror novel, Perfume rose to the top of bestseller lists around the world when it was released in 1985. It follows the exploits of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a wretched, misbegotten boy who rises from a life in the gutters of Paris on the near-magical abilities of his nose to separate scents from one another. Given the hardships to which he was exposed in childhood, it comes as no surprise when Grenouille enters adulthood lacking anything resembling normative morals and acts as he sees fit in order to satisfy his nose. The historical aspect of the novel is enthralling; Suskind grounds the action with concrete period detail, and he provides fascinating descriptions of the French perfume industry of the 18th century. The language of Perfume is often overwhelmingly rich, all in the service of trying to describe Grenouille's world of scents, which few readers could otherwise hope to comprehend.

This novel is a unique, extraordinary work, portraying a criminal mind without peer or restraint. On the one hand, Grenouille's actions increase in their daring and verve along lines familiar from criminology. On the other, he is a creature as evil and alien to most readers as any monster from the annals of science fiction. Perfume is enjoyable for its dense, florid style, and for the panache with which Suskind tells his clever story, but be warned that this is a dark, disturbing novel.

Cabell Library PT2681.U74 P313 1986

Reviewed by John Glover, Reference Librarian for the Humanities

Harvey Pekar is one of the people who helped begin the gradual broadening of acceptable subject matter for comics in the U.S. Starting in the 1960s, a number of comics creators began producing "underground comics" -- comics which had nothing to do with the typical subject matter of comic books. Harvey Pekar entered this arena in 1976 with his autobiographical series American Splendor.

This volume contains stories culled from recent decades of American Splendor. One of the most striking things about the book that's visible right away is the variation in the artwork. Pekar is a writer, not an artist, and has frequently been quoted as having said he "couldn't draw a straight line." Various artists have illustrated his stories over the years, and this book is a showcase of styles, from the rounded, almost kanji-like drawings of Frank Stack to the thin line realism of Joe Zabel.

The stories themselves vary quite a bit in nature, but all revolve around Pekar's life in Cleveland as a file clerk at a V.A. hospital. They have all the pluses and minuses of stories of anybody's daily life, but in each Pekar finds something meaningful to say that elevates it above the status of mere episode. The author is known for being downbeat and combative, and many of these stories deal with the pains and anxieties of real life, with no positive resolution. If you enjoy the fiction of Raymond Carver, Tobias Wolff, or perhaps Charles Bukowski, you might enjoy these stories of Harvey Pekar's life.

Cabell Library PN6727.P44 B47 2005