Two so-so books that others have rated highly...

Ever pick up a book that others have said is 'great' a 'must-read' and just gone 'err?' I read two books like that so far this week.
The first is the graphic novel Pyongyang by Guy Delise. The French animator is placed in North Korea for a 2 month stint in which he has to check editions of cartoons for French TV. The graphic novel is sold as 'a journey through North Korea' but is actually a single-minded mans view of a small part of North Korea. Now, I'm not saying that North Korea is amazing or politically correct, in fact I know so little about the place that I couldn't make an educated comment on the country, but I can say that Delise is negative about the place from the opening to the end of the book. He never says a single positive thing about the country or the people that he meets, instead he mocks their views, behaviour and culture. Surely if you visit a country you must find something nice to say. Anyone else read this? Have a different opinion?

Challenges:
Graphic Novel Challenge 3/12
A-Z (Title)
In Their Shoes 2/4
Lost in Translation 2/6
The Well Seasoned Reader
My Year of Reading Dangerously 1/12 (Banned

The second disappointing book is sold as 'an American Classic'. The Wonderful O is an extremely short book, which is considered to be one of the 1001 books to read before you die. The simple story is about a pirate who hates the letter O, he travels to a small island where he decides to ban the letter O and all things with that letter in its name. I liked the concept of this but never understood why the people so willingly let this stranger change their world, smash up and ruin their belongings. I liked the rhyming sentences and the amazing amount of things he could ban, and also he ludicrous ways of getting around things ie, you don't have to destroy Cows if they are part of a herd, but it was never gripping and I was happy when it was over.
Challenges
A-Z (Title)
1001 BTRBYD
999 (1001)
Decades Challenge (1950s)
Genre Challenge (Adventure)

My Thoughts: Talking Heads 2 by Alan Bennett

This book contains a series of monologues which originally were written to be performed on the BBC television programme, they since have been recorded for radio and for theatre performance. I read the book of transcripts and I will certainly be looking out for an audio book version of the first series.
The monologues are all told by various people, people you may pass unnoticed on the street, the neighbour, the elderly lady at the bus stop etc. Yet each character has an unseemly story behind their ordinary exterior; they are a peadophille, they are married to a serial killer or they have befriended their neighbour who killed her husband after years of abuse at his hands.
The truth is gradually revealed after you feel that you have gotten to know the person. The monologues are all fairly short, no longer than 15 pages each but each one tells an extraordinary story.

Challenges:
999 (Short Story Collections)
A-Z (Title)
Themed Read (Move 'em Along)
What's in a Name (Body Part)

Short Story Monday Jelly Bean by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Jim Powell was a Jelly-bean. Much as I desire to make him an appealing character, I feel that it would be unscrupulous to deceive you on that point. He was a bred-in-the-bone, dyed-in-the-wool, ninety-nine three-quarters per cent Jelly-bean and he grew lazily all during Jelly-bean season, which is every season, down in the land of the Jelly-beans well below the Mason-Dixon line.

Jim Powell never quite fit in, in an effort to make something of himself he goes away to the war yet when he returns his reputation hasn't changed and the girls are still not interested in him.
He spends his days listlessly, culminating in a party that the girl he has his eye on is attending. He tries to rescue her in two seperate situations yet his luck never changes. He is always to be one of those men that never gets the girl

My Thoughts: Silk, Baricco

I first read about this book earlier this year when Eva reviewed it, gorgeously as usual - it is certainly well worth going and checking out her post.
I sat down to read it this afternoon and wasn't expecting to be blown away by it quite as much as I was.
The novella is only 104 pages in length, with 65 chapters many of which barely fill a page this can be read in about an hour. Despite its shortness every page holds tons of tiny images, the sparse language is almost poetic in its ability to create a picture in the reader's mind.
The book tells of a French silkworm trader. In the 1880s the silkworms across Europe have developed a bug and keep dying. Herve Joncour is sent to Japan, a country, at the time, which was kept unopened to foreigners and reportedly killed any man trying to export products from its shores. While there Herve meets a young women, of unknown origin. They never speak and barely touch, yet she transforms his life.
This was one of those books I wish I had studied at university, I have a ton of questions about individuals interpretations of the events that happened swarming my head and the langauge would be beautiful to look at in close detail.
I will have to check out his other work soon.
Challenges:
A-Z (Author)
Lost in Translation
The Decades Challenge (1990s)
999 (1001)

Short Story Sunday: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

A copy of the story can be found online here

I really want to go and see this film, but it doesn't look like I'm going to get to the cinema anytime soon so I thought I'd check out the story till it comes out on DVD.
The story probably took around 30 minutes to read at the most but it made me think about Benjamin's life for much longer. Benjamin is born an old grey haired man, his father distraught is determined to treat him as a baby so provides him with warm botles of milk and baby rattles etc. The longer Benjamin lives the younger he becomes, gradually becoming younger than his father, wife, son and even grandchild.
This story is told with a real simplicity of language yet we ca vividly see Benjamin's pain by the way others around him treat him. Definately a story to check out

My Thoughts: Wicked by Gregory Maguire

I've been meaning and meaning to read this book for ages, I love retellings and interpretations of stories whether it is through novels, films or poetry. For the few people who don't know this book tell the life of the Wicked Witch of the West. Now before we go any further I will say I have never seen The Wizard of Oz, so I went into this with just the basic information about the background story.
Elphaba is born green all over, with an aversion to water, religion and compassion for other people. The novel covers her birth till her death and all the intervening event in between.
I have a really mixed view of this book, I loved sections of it and happily curled up on the sofa to read about her childhood, college days and days in love. When she moved to free herself of her guilt, and her son into Sarima's house I found myself wondering how much more of the book I had to read, I kept checking the page numbers and felt like I was pulling myself through. The final section was too wordy and by the end I had lost my desire to know what happened to Elphaba or to care for her fate. In my opinion it needed a good edit, and some pace at the end.
Challenges:
999 (Fantasy/fairytale)
A-Z (Title)
Themed Read (Move 'em along)
Chunkster Challenge (496 pgs)

Discovery

I heard a reading of this poem on the radio last week and thought it was one I'd like to share. The poet Ventriloquist's MySpace page can be found here

A Letter from God to PanHey Pan
How's it going?
Long time no see
This is kind of awkward, but I think I owe you an apology
I recently wrote to Man, discussing his disregard of nature
And I thought, I couldn't really leave you out, funny, guess it makes ya
Think about things, you know the order of us Gods
I know I've been the big man, but I do feel sorry for all you sods
Who had a role, each representing an element of existence
And when I got promoted I didn't put up any resistance
I thought I could handle it, like a heavenly president
But like the human system, the failure is more than evident
So I'm writing to acknowledge, the role you used to play
And apologise for your transformation & the price you had to pay

I was just a nipper when you were at the height of your powers
I heard stories about you, would sit and listen for hours
God of nature, flocks, mountain wilds and rustic music
Your appetite for sexual adventure was legendary & you'd use it
To remind people of their animal nature, their place in the scheme of things,
I know when people worshiped you, they hadn't yet heard of sins
You were important to shepherds, which is why you're half man, half goat
Funny how your horns remained in that book that men wrote
I remember you loved singing, dancing and partying in nature
It really doesn't make any sense why men began to hate ya
Well, maybe it does if you think about how much power women had
When you look at the early Hebrew teachers, their attitude was pretty bad
Whereas you loved to play with women and men in equal measure
The founders of Christianity thought women didn't deserve pleasure
They thought shame was born with every woman, men couldn't handle their own desires
They ran from your free spirit while you danced naked around fires

There were too many gods and you had an element of danger
I guess you roamed too free my friend so they made you a stranger
After the bloke on the cross had some admirable ideas
Those who interpreted his teachings seemed to be gripped by fears
Of forbidden this, and shameful that and gradually they turned against you
The more time passed, your reputation grew worse, they'd paint you
As the bad guy, the horned one who raised hell
Me I got promotion and at my feet all the praise fell

I know you stuck around for as long as you could
Still engendering that feeling of fear and wildness in the wood
In the field, on the mountain and in wide open spaces
Humans still use the word Panic, so you still leave traces
But once the church had grown to the Holy Roman Empire
It was only a matter of time before your funeral pire
As they wrapped you up in stories, changed your name and your purpose
Anywhere you showed your face, it was like being at the circus
Satan this, the Devil that, then calling your followers witches
No-one could have predicted the insanity that spread, the stitches
Of your reputation unpicked for all to see
Millions of people were burned because they didn't worship me

I guess you were god of animal and that wasn't enough any more
They wanted something supernatural & that's what I was invented for
One God, to rule them all, made in the image of man
But Gods only exist as long as people believe in us..damn
I just didn't see it coming, now less and less people believe in me
Because they are beginning to realise that they invented me
My powers are waning because I'm only the God of Man
Without you, I'm not strong enough, you're the God of Nature, Pan.

I've still got a few tricks left up my sleeve, I'm giving things a shake up
People need to re-evaluate their place, they need to wake up
They've forgotten they're all actually made of the same stuff
And that being locked in a human frame of reference isn't enough
People are doing some interesting research into nature's building blocks
They might just realise yet that they are the shepherd and the flocks
They are the rivers they're polluting, they are the tarmac too
They are every God they've ever -worshiped, which means they're also you.