Book Review: Just Kids by Patti Smith

Bottom line: the writing is lovely and the story is fine. Just Kids is worthy of the attention and the accolades it’s generating. I get it. I get why everyone is praising this book…

However, and it’s a big however, this book was not for me. I’m just not the right audience for it — why?

The author’s utter adoration/idolization of the artist (an almost religious worship) and the supreme importance given to the aesthetic life are, in my opinion, old-fashion relics, romantic woohoo, from my parent’s generation. This odd mystical certainty that the one true path to the one “true” art requires a life of sacrifice, an unrelenting dedicated commitment (enhanced by drugs and experimentation) to struggle and poverty is frustrating to me — and cruel, in a way, to continue to advance to the current generation. It’s like those faith-healing charlatans who, when they can’t heal your particular illness, blame the failure of their powers on your lack of faith.

Plus, it’s a watered-down brand of poverty that no longer exists, a poverty light, of that specific era — sure, with lice and brownish drinking water — but no real violence, no daily terror, no injustice. A poverty in which the author’s part-time bookstore job can finance an apartment in New York, buy art supplies, rare books and fashionable clothes, food, and apparently fund the opportunity to travel to and bum around Paris.

It’s a poverty in which everyone you meet in the neighborhood (not predators or thugs) is a genius and fellow artist-deity in the making: your neighbor is the next Rimbaud, that guy on the corner who looks like Oscar Wilde paints like Jackson Pollock. The girl passed out in her own vomit is the next-next Andy Worhol.

There was one scene in the book where Smith found like 50 cents (or something ridiculous like that) in the grass at the park and she used it put a deposit down on an apartment, bought groceries for a week and some art supplies to boot. It was fascinating! Imagine this life today. I can’t! I couldn’t. I just could not!

This kind of impossible life, this kind of violent-free poverty, this self-imposed sacrifice to art, this mystical devotion to the artist, is, I’m sorry, too too difficult for me to appreciate — despite the author’s having lived through and thrived in it, and despite this excellent and influential artist having written quite beautifully about it, too.

So, while this memoir was not for me, this art she created could definitely be worth your time.

If you’re a fan of Patti Smith or Robert Mapplethorpe, by all means, read this book. If you believe in art and the artist as special or even sacred, this will be a great read. The writing is interesting and poetic, and even when the author is cold and matter-of-fact (which is quite often), I found the writing to be quite lovely.

I guess you could say, yes, while I did swirl the Kool-Aid around in my mouth and swish it about in between my teeth, I just couldn’t swallow it. I wanted to — I tried! I really wanted to suspend my serious disbelief and just enjoy the story. But, like I said, I just couldn’t do it. I’m clearly not the audience for this book. And that’s ok.

Book Review: 11/22/63 by Stephen King

If you’ve gotten this far in your research for Stephen King’s 11/22/63, then you probably already know two things about the book: 1) its remarkable premise — which is thoroughly interesting and wonderful: Jake Epping, a high school teacher turned time traveler, plans to stop the Kennedy assassination (and a few lesser injustices) in an attempt to change the future world (aka the current world for our hero) for the better; and 2) it’s 867 freakin’ pages!

For me, thing number 1 was so remarkable that I readily overlooked thing number 2 and decided to give it go. I had also heard there was a Hulu show coming out or that had already come out based on the book and that helped with this decision to push forward as well.

But I was annoyed about how long the book was and I did complain to anyone who would listen. I thought (I hoped. I justified) that maybe Stephen King is so tuned-in to his audience and is so successful and popular that his publishers don’t even bother to edit his books anymore — which may or may not be true — but it doesn’t really matter in this case, because, as it turns out, after reading the thick book and thinking about it for a minute, I feel that its length is actually a component (an intentional feature) of the story being told by our narrator. And I believe it was done intentionally for this reason —> The future, as you’ll learn (and this is not really a spoiler) is obdurate and does not want to be changed, especially major events like Kennedy getting whacked. Because of this, the super-long story that develops around the time-traveling-high-school teacher is then (I feel) a direct result of Time’s unwillingness to be changed. The story (basically everything that happens to Jake along the way) is ostensibly a barrier to his lofty goal of changing the future. Conflict is what is it. Good old-fashion conflict. Drama. Serious stuff. And it makes perfect sense — at least, it made perfect sense to me, and this is my review, so whatever. I’m probably right about it.

It’s sounds weird and flaky, I know,  but it’s true (within his world), and so, the size of the book, you might say, does matter, in this case. And I think King did it on purpose.

Anyway, that being said, I enjoyed the book — and I bet I’ll enjoy the TV show, too. It made me think, and it made me imagine myself in this crazy scenario, and made me think about what I might do in Jake’s shoes. For me, that’s a real sign that I was heavily engaged with a book and had all the right feelz for the characters. I really truly cared what happened to them. I was interested in their plight, and I was not able to guess the ending, which I found to be satisfying and thoughtfully crafted and delivered. It was a really good book and worth all 867 pages. It made me want to read more King books in the future <— Get it? In the future? 😀

Random Book Reviews Web Blog Reviews Gary, the Four-Eyed Fairy Today

I was excited and grateful to learn that my book, Gary, the Four-Eyed Fairy and Other Stories, was reviewed today by the Random Book Review Web blog. Check out an excerpt below:

“Hi everyone! This week I’m reviewing Gary, the Four-Eyed Fairy and Other Stories by Frank Mundo, which I kindly received from the author and Booktasters. This collection of short stories revolve around a particular character, J.T Glass who works as a security guard at various establishments. The stories are snippets of his life, from his childhood and relationships with his family, to his escapades at work.

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. Mundo really captures Glass’ voice, who is our narrator for the majority of the stories, and it never falters. It is very dry, occasionally black humour laced with moments of reflection. As a result, Glass comes across as a very well-fleshed out character. He is relatable even in the most bizarre of scenarios, and you cannot help but laugh at some of the predicaments he finds himself in…”

Read the whole review.

Book Review: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

I don’t normally read a lot of nonfiction, except memoirs (which I love), but this book was highly recommended by a friend, so I gave it a shot. Plus, I was intrigued by the book-cover descriptions that referred to the book as a nonfiction novel – which made me think of Capote’s In Cold Blood or something like that – and hopefully not some dry textbook that, while most likely educational and probably edifying to my soul, might be just plain boring.

And, thankfully, I was right, and my friend’s recommendation was spot on.

Yes, Erik Larson offers extensive research to recreate the building of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, bookending his account a few years before and after this major event in American history. And, yes, this story alone is worthy of an entire book by an author or Larson’s talent. But he did more; he made it fascinating. I was learning (gasp!) and was also thoroughly entertained at the same time.

The story deals with, along with many other topics, genius. The first is Daniel Burnham, the architect who builds the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. And the other is H.H. Holmes, evil but no less a genius, one of the first known serial killers in the United States (with a “murder castle” of horrors) who exploits the fair to find his victims. (There’s a third smaller but still important plotline about Patrick Eugene Prendergast who assassinates popular mayor Carter Harrison, Sr. before the fair is through). We also meet a lot of other geniuses throughout the book from Frederick Olmstead, George R. Davis, G. Brown Goode, Francis David Millet, Ferris (famous Ferris Wheel designer) to Kodak to Buffalo Bill Cody and many, many more, who all helped pulled off this historic event.

There’s not much more to say without spoiling the book, except that I found the first half of the book more educational and the second half of the book more entertaining (and much easier to read). If I have one complaint (a big one), it’s that Larson didn’t discuss Frank Geyer enough – Geyer is the genius detective, from the famed Pinkerton Detective Agency, whose relentless determination in getting his man led to an epic cross-country investigation that ends the book with a much bigger bang than I ever expected. Geyer deserves his own book!

Nonetheless, The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is an excellent read that makes learning fun.

Books by Frank Mundo

Two new book reviews by Frank Mundo

Earlier this year, my new book Different was reviewed by Big Al’s Books and Pals, and my short story collection, Gary, the Four-Eyed Fairy was reviewed by Indiereader.com; Here’s an excerpt from each:

5-star review for Different / Frank Mundo

Description:

“One morning 12-year-old Gregory Gourde wakes up in his bed with an impossible new feature: his head has become a watermelon. We follow Gregory down a rabbit hole of sorts to a new world and an audacious exploration of what it really means to be different in this dark yet humorous nod to Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.”

Appraisal:

Gregory Gourde certainly does take a trip down the rabbit hole in this dark fantasy; I felt like he was skating on the edge of madness for most of this story. Surely this is not what it is like for most boys going through puberty. But the author’s prose had me convinced that it had been for him. Frank Mundo does not just throw words at the page in hopes that they stick. There is much thought put into the words he chooses and this story will leave you thinking about it long after you have finished the story. This is the sign of a true wordsmith.

The story is told through Gregory’s eyes with an omniscient narrator who pops in occasionally to move the story along or fill in past events of Gregory’s life or other characters that played an important role.

Read the full review at Big Al’s Books and Pals –> http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2013/12/different-frank-mundo.html

Review: “4-stars: GARY, THE FOUR-EYED FAIRY AND OTHER STORIES is an entertaining romp, full of irreverent humor that leaves you wanting more…chronicling the life and times of J.T. Glass, a security guard armed with a sharp tongue, keen wit and vivid imagination…each story in this collection can stand on its own, but read together, the book feels more like a novel told out of chronological order, or like a puzzle that engages you, the reader, to assemble and experience the transformation from boy to man. The dialogue is crisp, the nuances are rich, most of the stories move at a fast clip, and you’ll be laughing or crying most of the journey.

Mundo knows how to delight and surprise, no holds barred. He has an excellent command of story, and the courage to go dark. Upon discovering some horrible truths about his deceased roommate, J.T. wrestles beautifully with his conscience in “A Friend In Need.” “Remorse” dares to walk that tightrope, balancing comedy and tragedy. The witty banter and innuendo in “A Conversation Piece” sets the tone of for the wild and crazy times defining J.T.’s life.” –Indiereader.com

Read the full review at Indiereader–> http://indiereader.com/2014/01/gary-four-eyed-fairy-stories/

Different by Frank Mundo at Amazon.
Gary, the Four-Eyed Fairy and Other Stories at Amazon.
Gary, the Four-Eyed Fairy and Other Stories at Barnes and Noble.
Gary, the Four-Eyed Fairy and Other Stories at Smashwords.

Book Review: The Book of Want by Daniel Olivas

I reviewed The Book of Want, the debut novel of Los Angeles writer Daniel Olivas for La Bloga and LA Books Examiner.

Check them out here:

La Bloga –> http://labloga.blogspot.com/2011/07/book-review-of-book-of-want.html 

La Books Examiner–> http://www.examiner.com/books-in-los-angeles/book-review-the-book-of-want-by-daniel-a-olivas

Sadly Ever After: 3 Books to Tear Into

I was a guest blogger for The Journal of Cultural Conversation. How cool is that?

If you want to check out my post, here’s the link. If you have time, please leave a comment on the site, so they will invite me back.

http://www.thejcconline.com/sadly-ever-after-three-books-to-tear-into/

Thanks