At first glance you might think that Girl Factory by Jim Krusoe is just another story about a lovable loser.  Or, maybe it is another one of those unreliable narrators.  Or maybe it is a subtle political statement about the objectification of women.  In fact, it might be all of these things.  But to me it is about the role of perception and self-deception in our lives.

Allow me to steal PW’s plot summary:

In the basement of a Southern California yogurt shop one hot summer night, Jonathan, a down-on-his-luck fro-yo slinger, discovers several young, beautiful naked women encased in glass and suspended lifelessly in a milky mixture. Jonathan’s boss, Spinner, catches him nosing around and reveals his experiment: acidophilus, yogurt’s active culture, has the uncanny ability to preserve and nourish life, he explains, and the women bobbing before Jonathan’s wide eyes are making “an investment in their future.” When foul play suddenly makes the women Jonathan’s wards, he has to see if he has the right stuff to care for them-and perhaps free them.

This is a succinct plot summation and it gives you an idea of the comic nature of the story.  But the real focus of the novel is Jonathan’s inability to do anything right and the flawed perception and self-deception that is at the root of his problems.

Jonathan is certainly an unreliable narrator.  He presents each of his actions and decisions as rational and well intentioned even as each ends in disaster and failure.  At the start of the story, Jonathan sets out to save a dog unjustly imprisoned and facing euthanasia.  Despite his good intentions, however, this rescue attempt ends in death and mayhem and the release of a dangerous and vicious dog.

Once he finds the women in the basement, Jonathan once again proceeds with a plan to rescue them and once again things end badly.  This is a pattern in his life.  In fact, one of the women suspended in yogurt resembles a girlfriend Jonathan may or may not have left on the side of the road in Mexico.

Jonathan as lovable loser provides some comic moments.  You have to chuckle as he tries to manage the increasing mess he has made of his life with only the feeblest of mental and social skills.  As things come crashing down around him he seems convinced he is just one lucky break away from solving his problems.

What made Girl Factory more intriguing, at least for me, was whether Jonathan was really a bumbling idiot or whether there was something a little more sinister at work.  Is he just stupid - unable to see his lame ideas and rationalizations for what they are - or is he really a sort of psychopath who rationalizes his violence by acting like everything is just an honest mistake or misunderstanding?

Jonathan beans an employee at the dog shelter with a crowbar, plays a role in the death of the women in the yogurt shop basement, and might have abandoned his girlfriend in the middle of nowhere while on a road trip in Mexico.  You don’t have to be a conspiracy theory nut to wonder if the bodies pilling up around Jonathan are more than just accidents.

And all of this is wrapped up in this comic, almost absurd, story about women suspended in yogurt and whether Jonathan can resuscitate them with some combination of soap and water.  Krusoe never reveals the answer to any of the questions but lets the reader attempt to work it out on their own.

And let’s be honest, Krusoe may take things to an absurd level, but I think we can all admit that perception plays a huge role in our lives and it isn’t always easy to spot the difference between harmless rationalization and dangerous self-deception.

However you come down on what the story is really about, Girl Factory is certainly entertaining.  And short enough to be considered a novella, with a quick and engaging style, it is a quick read.  Its wry humor and insightful descriptions of human nature and American culture will bring a smile to your face and occasionally a chuckle. 

But I bet it will also leave you pondering what it was really all about.

I am either generous in giving author’s the benefit of the doubt or I am a glutton for punishment. After two rather inconclusive takes on David Gregory’s books I decided to give it one more shot. This time with The Next Level. This is labeled “A Parable of Finding Your Place in Life.” Having recently gone through considerable chaos in my professional life I thought this book might strike a chord. I have to say I was disappointed.

It isn’t that The Next Level is horrible or unreadable or something, it is a quick read, but rather it just left me uninspired and with no real insights.

Here is the publishers description:

Business degree in hand, Logan enters the immense Universal Systems building and is hired as an organizational analyst — a trouble-shooter. His job: evaluate the company’s five divisions, each on a separate level and each operating on startlingly unique principles. Which set of principles is successful? Why is most of the company’s profit generated by one tiny division? What is real profit, anyway? And who is the enigmatic executive that Logan ends up reporting to?

Logan engages in a life-changing pursuit for The Next Level–a fascinating parable that will help you answer some of life’s most perplexing and vital questions. Joining Logan in evaluating each level’s approach, you’ll be inspired to consider the big picture of your own life from an entirely different perspective — one that holds the key to life’s ultimate purpose. No matter where you are now, get ready to embark on your own passionate pursuit of The Next Level.

As I noted above, the book is a quick read and Gregory keeps things move at a good pace. There is a mystery involved as Logan proceeds through the levels and that keeps the readers interest as well. Gregory’s conception of the stages of Christian faith as a corporation is an interesting one. The process of Logan evaluating each level does provide some thought provoking ideas about how you approach your faith.

But as with the other books, this one just feels thin. Not in terms of length, although that is obviously true, but in terms of depth. In reading the book nothing jumped out as me as particularly insightful or interesting. It has too much of a paint-by-numbers feel to it; a rout translation of an idea into a fictional setting.

In order for a parable or fable to work it needs to bring something in the telling that can’t be communicated through a straightforward explanation; it is supposed to explore the issue from a fresh direction. I just didn’t get that from The Next Level.

–> Happy Trails to You: Stories by Julie Hecht

Publishers Weekly

Returning from the story collection Do the Windows Open?(1996) and novel, The Unprofessionals(2003), Hecht’s married, childless photographer is still stuck in her mid-40s. Diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and counting the Nantucket days until she can see her psychiatrist again, she quietly frets the summer away over the course of seven expertly heartbreaking tales. The narrator has mastered her issues, but only to the point that her horror-of other people’s meat eating, of their bodily flaws and of almost everything else about them-surfaces in only the mildest passive-aggressive forms; what goes on beneath that surface is what comprises the book. “Over There” chronicles two visits to an elderly hard-of-hearing neighbor: its tacit comparison of the narrator’s ways of accommodating her illness with her neighbor’s accommodations of old age is exquisite. “Being and Nothingness” records the narrator’s use of an Emerson biography and of taking the flag down as an antidote to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Elsewhere, she intervenes in a gay actor-waiter acquaintance’s health regimen, and instructs her intractable Jamaican “cleaner helper” Norma on the dangers of radiation-and on how to dress for her job. A life that consists entirely of neurotic avoidance produces a peculiar pathos, and Hecht nails it unfailingly.

–> Havana Gold: The Havana Quartet by Leonardo Padura

Publishers Description

Twenty-four-year-old Lissette Delgado was beaten, raped, and then strangled with a towel. Marijuana is found in her apartment and her wardrobe is suspiciously beyond the means of a high school teacher. Lieutenant Conde is pressured by “the highest authority” to conclude this investigation quickly when chance leads him into the arms of a beautiful redhead, a saxophone player who shares his love for jazz and fighting fish.

This is a Havana of crumbling, grand buildings, secrets hidden behind faded doors, and corruption. For an author living in Cuba, Leonardo Padura is remarkably outspoken about the failings of Fidel Castro’s regime. Yet this is a eulogy of Cuba, its life of music, sex, and the great friendships of those who elected to stay and fight for survival.

When I first heard about the new novel from Adam Gittlin, The Deal, I thought it had an interesting hook: big time commercial real estate in New York City. Seemed like an interesting backdrop to a thriller. That turned out to be true, but the heart of The Deal isn’t real estate but trust and priorities. Who can you trust and what is most important to you.

The Deal is an fast paced thriller with an interesting setting and a creative twisting plot. But I will confess that the main character turned me off and this hampered my enjoyment of the book.

Here is the publishers tease that sets up the plot:

Everything about Jonah Gray screams success movie-star good looks, expensive clothes, a Park Avenue penthouse, and a seven-figure income. A cutthroat, rainmaking New York city commercial real estate broker, Jonah craves opulence and power. He beds models, romps the globe on the weekends and sees the world as his for the taking. Jonah Gray has it all. Or at least he had it all.

When a friend presents Jonah with the deal of a lifetime, Jonah jumps at the chance. All Jonah has to do is act quickly, invest half a billion dollars in prime NY office buildings, and collect a huge payoff.

But this golden opportunity is anything but. Within days of signing on, Jonah is mysteriously thrust into the epicenter of an international and personal scandal.

Forced to explore a whole new territory where he can trust no one, and where danger, death and deception lurk at every corner, Jonah will learn some painfully hard lessons about the quest for easy money.

Closing this deal could mean losing everything.

The commercial real estate business in New York provides the setting for the novel and it also helps introduce us to the central character Jonah Gray. Jonah not only works in the business but grew up around it as his father is a mover and shaker in the same field. Jonah’s life and career is centered on this world. And a central aspect of the plot is focused on a real estate deal.

But once the plot really picks up steam the real estate aspect begins to fade away. At this point the traditional thriller aspects take over and the setting is just background. In some ways this is natural, and the setting provides a creative way to kick the plot off. But the author, who works in the business, also spends time having the character talk shop in ways that cause the plot to drag and may not interest readers.

I realize there is a fine line between a realistic setting and too much background, and the shop talk involved wasn’t that distracting, but Gittlin might find the industry more fascinating than the average reader. For me, the book took a while to really get in a rhythm. Once it hit its stride it was a fast paced story and quick read, but it dragged a bit in setting the stage.

For more click the link:

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When I was a graduate student at George Washington’s Graduate School of Political Management the following exchange happened in one of my classes:

Professor: Does everyone know who Robert Bork is?

Student: Yes, he is a fascist!

Why do I bring this up? It came to mind while watching Jonah Goldberg discuss his book Liberal Fascism at Denison University Monday night. This sort of exchange has been witnessed by nearly every conservative in America. If they haven’t been called a fascist of some sort they have had one of their intellectual heroes (Reagan, William F. Buckley, etc.) called one.

Tired of constantly hearing about how the threat of fascism, if not its actual existence, was from conservatism Jonah decided to write a book to correct this glaring popular misconception. And Monday night he outlined his arguments for a gathering of college students and what seemed to me like a number of adult Goldberg fans (they actually ran out of books to be signed).

Long time readers will be aware that I am not exactly an unbiased observer in the controversies that have erupted surrounding Jonah’s book. Jonah helped me get my start in online Journalism at National Review Online and I had the opportunity to read Liberal Fascism in galley form.

So feel free to take my opinion with whatever grains of salt you feel are appropriate, but I think Liberal Fascism (LF) is a fascinating, timely, and important book. I meant to write about the book, the controversy surrounding its publication, and even interview Jonah but a variety of factors led to that not happening. Hearing Jonah’s talk Monday night made me feel a little guilty for not having put my thoughts down on paper when the book came out.

So I am belatedly attempting to remedy that today. More after the jump.

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–> Julius Caesar by Philip Freeman

Publishers Weekly

Historian Freeman (The Philosopher and the Druids: A Journey Among the Ancient Celts) paints a flattering portrait of Caesar in this admirable biography, exalting his cunning, military skill, political insights and allegiance to the plebeian class. In fast-paced prose and detailed historical sketches, Freeman traces Caesar’s life from early youth onward, covering his marriage and service as a priest (or pontifex); his election to pontifex maximusin 63 B.C.; his command of Roman forces in the Gallic Wars; his ascension to leader of the republic; and his famous assassination. Drawing on Caesar’s own writings, Freeman portrays him as a brilliant military strategist whose defense of Roman land in the Gallic Wars extended the rule of Rome from Italy to the Atlantic. Caesar returned to Italy in 49 B.C. and became dictator three years later, seeking to improve the republic through civic reforms, including the taking of a proper census, the building of a library, the codification of Roman law and the conversion of Rome to a solar calendar. Although Freeman’s biography reveals little new information about Caesar, his cultural and historical knowledge bring the emperor to life and humanize him in a way no writer before him has succeeded in doing.

–> Horse: How the Horse Has Shaped Civilizations by J. Edward Chamberlin

The Washington Post - Jane Smiley

While Horse is not as detailed and informative as I might wish for, it is well worth reading for the way Chamberlin builds his argument and his energy, and for the way that, yes, even rational humans who might never buy a horse or watch a horse race might be brought to appreciate what horses have done for us and meant to us for thousands of years.

–> Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de’ Medici by Miles J. Unger

Publishers Weekly

Although a well-mined biography topic, the Medici dynasty continues to fascinate, and critic Unger (The Watercolors of Winslow Homer) offers a smart, highly readable and abundantly researched book, making particularly good use of Medici family letters and earlier biographical sources such as Machiavelli’s writings. Heir to a vast international banking empire and trading cartel with branches in Venice, London and Geneva, Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449-1492) was born to rule. Naturally sociable and charismatic with a common touch, famous temper and cynical world view, the teenaged Lorenzo excelled in classics, riding, arms, archery and music. He pursued liaisons with both women and men, represented his sickly father, Piero, on an important diplomatic mission and thwarted his father’s enemies during a legendary ambush. His accomplishments do not stop there: as Florence’s de facto ruler, Lorenzo actively collaborated with the artist Botticelli, was a master tactician and diplomat, and survived a papal-sanctioned assassination attempt that claimed the life of his beloved brother. Renaissance Florence-where wealthy aristocrats rubbed shoulders with the poor on narrow city streets and whose art and intellectual life dazzled Europe-is itself an intriguing character, proving Unger’s mastery over his facts.

–> Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power by John Harwood and Gerald Seib

Kirkus Reviews

There are plenty of centrists in America, but to judge by Wall Street Journal stalwarts Harwood and Seib, there are very few in Washington. These profiles of 16 of the capital city’s fixers, fundraisers, spin doctors and assorted movers and shakers reveal that they agree on little except that they disagree. Americans have always known political divisions, the authors aver, but “today the divisions have taken on a new character. Power is so divided between the two parties that, in a very real sense, nobody has enough control either to paper over differences or to roll past them. Nobody is in charge.” Moreover, Republicans and Democrats no longer hang out in the same bars and restaurants, as they once did. Indeed, many, such as Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, no longer hang out in Washington, preferring, in essence, to commute from their districts rather than become dreaded inside-the-Beltway insiders.

The furor over the Dubai Ports World affair, whereby a foreign-owned (and Arabic-speaking) company would be in charge of several American seaports, is just one of the partisan cases in point. There was so much shouting involved that few sat down to discuss if there was any merit to awarding the contract to a company that, after all, managed ports all over the world. Some lament the death of collegiality; some true believers applaud it. But the real movers and shakers, this book makes plain without quite saying so, are a tribe unto themselves. Ken Mehlman, one-time Republican Party chairman, is the law partner of one-time Democratic Party chairman Robert Strauss, and he is given to wondering why the two contingents have yet to really make common cause against the “Islamic fascists . . . themost anti-Semitic, sexist, homophobic, religiously intolerant force in the world.”The culture may change soon. It may not. Policy wonks will enjoy this solid, well-reported portrait of life in the District, while insiders will look for their names in the index.

Interesting YouTube on author Donald Ray Pollock and his decision to get an MFA at Ohio State:

I hope to read Knockemstiff and maybe even interview Pollack soon.

I struggled with what I thought about David Gregory’s first book, Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, so when I saw he had a sort of companion book, focused on a female character’s interaction with Jesus, I thought I would check it out. Unfortunately, A Day with a Perfect Stranger didn’t clarify my thoughts much.

Here is a basic synopsis:

What if a fascinating stranger knew you better than you know yourself?

When her husband comes home with a farfetched story about eating dinner with someone he believes to be Jesus, Mattie Cominsky thinks this may signal the end of her shaky marriage. Convinced that Nick is, at best, turning into a religious nut, the self-described agnostic hopes that a quick business trip will give her time to think things through.

On board the plane, Mattie strikes up a conversation with a fellow passenger. When she discovers their shared scorn for religion, she confides her frustration over her husband’s recent conversion. The stranger suggests that perhaps her husband isn’t seeking religion but true spiritual connection, an idea that prompts her to reflect on her own search for fulfillment.

As their conversation turns to issues of spiritual longing and deeper questions about the nature of God, Mattie finds herself increasingly drawn to this insightful stranger. But when the discussion unexpectedly turns personal, touching on things she’s never told anyone, Mattie is startled and disturbed. Who is this man who seems to peer straight into her soul?

The story here is basically the flip side of the previous book. Dinner covered the husband and Day follows the wife. Dinner dealt with a workaholic who had drifted away from faith as his adult life got to busy. Day deals with his wife’s reaction to having a religious nut as a husband and her reluctance to accept his faith.

One thing that got under my skin about this book is the whole “I hate religion” refrain. This is very popular with certain types of evangelicals. They decry religion and talk only about a “personal relationship” with God. This is all well and good on some level. After all religion, like everything else, faces the temptation of becoming route and rule bound and ceasing to function as it was intended. One can mistake the practice of faith with faith itself.

But on the other hand this is really quite silly. Because no one practices their faith in some sort of free flowing non-religious manner. Religion develops from belief because man is a creature of habit and structure. We gather together and begin to worship and serve; develop and defend theology, etc. This is natural and inevitable. After all God imbued the Israelites with a religion and the structure of Christianity came from people living out their faith and building on what they had experienced.

In other words, it is easy to say “I hate religion” far harder to practically live out your faith without it.

More below.

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Too big time lit bloggers made news this week. In case you missed it, Mark Sarvas’s novel Harry Revised hit the books stores this week. And even as I type it is winging its way to me via the magic of online bookstores (I had hoped for a Kindle version, but alas will have to read it in dead tree version).

Mark also appeared on the Bat Segundo show for its 200 episode.

Congrats to both for their success. I look forward to reading Mark’s novel and listening to their conversation. You would do well to do the same if you haven’t already.

Much like Quiver, Quicksilver by Stephanie Spinner is a retelling of various Greek Myths in the form of a young adult novel. This time the central character is Hermes.

Quicksilver starts out rather lightheartedly as Hermes runs various errands for his father Zeus and cracks jokes along the way. It takes a darker turn when discussing the Trojan war, but soon returns to happier times as it tells of his falling in love with Calypso.

As I noted with Quiver, these books are interesting and entertaining as sort of fictional tour guides through the world of Greek mythology. Spinner has crafted a very accessible way to become familiar with the characters and stories of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece.

But for me, the stories never quite take on a life of their own. Quiver at least had a strong heroine and the plot surrounding her marriage suitors, but Quicksilver’s plot is less focused because Hermes is not a central character in the myths. The result is story line that jumps from one episode to another without a central plot.

But these books are not likely to be read for their action or suspenseful plot. Rather, what Spinner does well is imagine the gods and goddess as people with all the emotions and challenges that involves. For example, Hermes desperately wants to please his father and misses his brother Apollo when they are separated for extended periods. He feels guilt and jealousy, love and desire, despite having supernatural powers. Spinner does a good job of brining the pantheon to life.

I don’t mean to be to harsh here. Not every book you read can be in the “wow” category. All in all, these books are well done re-tellings of classic myths in an accessible - if unsophisticated - format.