Sin City by Frank Miller

Unleash your inner psychopath!
This is the first and best of Frank Miller’s Sin City graphic novels. Originally published in 1992, the first edition was simply entitled Sin City. It was later named The Hard Goodbye to distinguish it from the later stories in the series. Here we are introduced to the incomparable character of Marv—a big ugly psychotic lowlife with a heart of gold. Marv wakes up next to a dead hooker who just gave him the night of his life. In gratitude for his good fortune he vows to track down her murderer, even if he has to torture and kill everyone who stands in his way. Miller plucks the choicest cliches from every gritty noir thriller of the past three-quarters of a century, then exaggerates and magnifies them until they meld into something totally original and exhilarating. Miller simultaneously critiques and revels in America’s love affair with violence in pop culture. Through Marv’s interior monologue we are allowed entrance into the mind of this brutal antihero who possesses the mind of a child, the loyalty of a faithful dog, and the blood lust of a maniac. It is a testament both to Miller’s skill as a writer and to the depravity of our violence-jaded culture that we can root so enthusiastically for this demented sadist. The effect is truly liberating. Reading The Hard Goodbye is a ride like no other.

In the past two decades so many artists have copied Miller’s stark black and white art that it’s difficult to remember just how shockingly original this style was when these comics first came out. I remember seeing this book for the first time, as someone who had enjoyed superhero comics for most of my life, and thinking it was like nothing I had ever seen before. Miller’s work still stands as superior to all his imitators. The art of Sin City pays homage to the classic newspaper comics of masters like Milton Caniff and Will Eisner, yet Miller pares down the imagery to its sparsest elements, distilling each panel until it resembles something like a Japanese woodblock print. Though he takes plenty of liberties with human anatomy, Miller’s ingenious manipulation of positive and negative space would make this book an excellent supplemental text for an undergraduate drawing course. Of course, it wouldn’t be politically correct to use the book for such a purpose because the story is so delightfully perverse.

Judging from Miller’s art, I always thought Marv was a black man until Mickey Rourke was cast to play him in the movie. Rourke turned out to be an excellent choice, and the movie did justice to this great story. There’s still a few scenes here that never made it into the film, however, and Miller’s fabulous art alone makes it worthwhile to experience this story in its original form. For comics enthusiasts, this is one of those modern masterpieces you must own. Even if you don’t normally read comics, if you like hard-boiled crime stories of any media, you’ll love this book. Of all Frank Miller’s Sin City stories, this is the one essential must-have.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R9PF4WD9K4OUW/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

A tropical-island Walden
Even for those who have never read the actual novel, the premise of Robinson Crusoe is well known. In the late 17th century, the title character, while on a voyage from Brazil to Africa, is shipwrecked alone on an uninhabited island in the Caribbean. While various movie adaptations and condensed children’s versions of the story have tried to make this book out to be an adventure novel, that label really only applies to the last few chapters. The majority of the book actually more closely resembles a tropical-island take on Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. The overall tone of the novel is one of contemplation rather than action. There is a strong Christian message to the book. At first Crusoe sees his isolation as a punishment from God for disregarding his father’s wishes. To the 21st-century audience, who don’t necessarily believe it is a son’s duty to follow his parents’ choice of career, this seems like an awfully harsh sentence. Over time, however, Crusoe renews and strengthens his relationship with God. He comes to tolerate and at times even to enjoy his solitude. He learns to count his blessings, resign himself to what fate hands him, and give thanks to providence for what he’s got. Though Defoe expresses these thoughts in blatantly Protestant terms, even Atheists of a Stoic persuasion can appreciate the book’s message. Truth be told, the novel does contain some profound thoughts, which would explain why it’s still being read three centuries after its initial publication. The modern reader, however, ends up wishing they would have been expressed in a less tedious manner.

After his arrival on the island, Crusoe is able to recover an amazing amount of stuff from the wrecked ship, to the point where he’s really wanting for nothing but companionship. For decades he makes no attempt to get off the island, and industriously applies his time and effort to the contrivance of various desert-island technologies to make his stay more comfortable. He sets about building houses, fences, even shelves; plants barley; and domesticates livestock; with each process described in minute detail by Defoe. This how-to narrative, coupled with Crusoe’s reflections on his lot in life, makes up the bulk of the text.

Although the book was first published in 1719, the prose has a conversational feel that is remarkably contemporary. The plotting, on the other hand, is hopelessly antiquated and frustratingly slow. The first three chapters leave the reader screaming, “Get to the damn island, already!” Soon afterwards there are a couple of chapters reproducing excerpts from Crusoe’s diary, which agonizingly repeat everything which took place in a preceding chapter. The soul searching discussed above occupies about two-thirds of the book, followed by a few chapters of action which at times defy belief. Defoe then unforgivably wraps up the entire book with a chapter that is almost totally unrelated to everything that came before, and is therefore quite unnecessary.

While reading Robinson Crusoe, one can’t help thinking, “What would I do if I were in his place?” After reading the novel, one realizes that pondering that question is more fun than reading the actual narrative that Defoe delivers. Though the book was no doubt ground breaking for its time, and has been extremely influential in subsequent literature, 21st-century readers may find it difficult to enjoy. The book does have its merits, but if you are expecting an adventure novel, prepare to be disappointed.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R23BOWFCOP0CEW/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

The Recruit by Honoré de Balzac

Provincial paranoia in 1793

Honoré de Balzac

The Recruit, also known as The Conscript, was originally published in 1831 under the French title Le Réquisitionnaire. It was written by Honoré de Balzac as part of his monumental series of works known as the Comédie Humaine. Though it is a short story of maybe 50 pages at most, like all pieces in the Comédie Humaine it is considered a stand-alone work of literature, and it is thus offered by Amazon in a Kindle file unto itself.

The story takes place shortly after the French Revolution. The royal court of Louis XVI has fled Paris and the palace at Versailles, and an overwhelming tide of anti-royalist sentiment has swept the nation. Madame de Dey is a wealthy and socially prominent widow living in the sleepy provincial town of Carentan, in Lower Normandy. She is beset by a flock of suitors who arduously strive for the attainment of her hand and her property, and surrounded by nosey neighbors of republican inclination who are just waiting for her to make a slip and betray her royalist sentiments. Her son, a soldier who has remained loyal to the royal cause, has followed the royals in their exile, leaving his mother alone to defend herself. When she cancels her weekly salon and closes her doors to visitors, it inspires a great deal of speculation and rumor among the suspicious citizens of Carentan.

Balzac does a brilliant job of encapsulating the paranoia and vindictive opportunism that pervaded provincial France following the Revolution. For American readers, imagine what it would be like if there were a civil war between liberals and conservatives in this country, and the persecution members of the losing side would face at the hands of the winners. While the Terror was taking place in Paris, with heads falling to the guillotine, personal dramas like those of Madame de Dey’s were taking place throughout the provinces, where the newly victorious Republicans looked for any excuse to confiscate the property of the rich. Here Balzac captures the danger and urgency of this situation in a lively and suspenseful tale.

Balzac does, however, commit a sin that is common to his short stories, which is capping the story off in an all too abrupt ending. He manages to cleverly tie up all the loose ends in one pithy paragraph, but the reader feels slightly cheated. The conclusion of the plot is itself satisfying, just the curt manner in which it is handled leaves one with the feeling of a door slammed in the face. I’ve always preferred Balzac’s novels to his short stories, and this story does little to change that, but there’s no denying this master’s Herculean literary talents in any format, large or small. The primary value of The Recruit lies in its role as a scrap in the grand quilt of the Comédie Humaine. When judged on its own merits, it’s a good story, but not a must-read for casual fans of Balzac’s work.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1G09CC2KPZD4U/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Burning Daylight by Jack London

You can take the man out of the Yukon, but you can’t take the Yukon out of the man.
Although he has just marked his 30th birthday, Burning Daylight is considered an old-timer among the populace of Circle City, Alaska. Long before the dawning of the Klondike Gold Rush he was hitting the snowbound trails in search of the precious yellow dust. Blessed with seemingly limitless stamina, intelligence and strength, the former Elam Harnish earned his colorful nickname from his oft-repeated, good-natured scolding to softer and lazier men reluctant to wake up and hit the trail. A born gambler, Daylight thrives in the environment of the northern wilds, where fickle fortune can make or break a man in the blink of an eye. His gambler’s mentality, however, drives him to seek ever bigger stakes, prompting him to return to civilized society, settle in San Francisco, and try his hand in the world of big business.

This novel by Jack London was originally published in 1910. The first third of the book takes place in the North, and with the exception of The Call of the Wild it may be his best Klondike novel. At times it resembles a collection of scenes lifted from his early short stories, but London does a fine job of integrating these scenes into a compelling, well-crafted adventure story. Unfortunately, Burning Daylight is one of those books that gets worse as it goes along. It doesn’t descend so far as to be a bad book, but Part II never quite lives up to the promise of Part I. When London writes about Daylight’s financial adventures, such as hostile takeovers or stock market maneuverings, he uses so many poker and boxing metaphors it’s often difficult to tell exactly what is being transacted. At times the book shows inklings of becoming a superman-versus-the-corrupt-establishment narrative, but about halfway through, Daylight finds a love interest. Though love was never London’s strong suit, the relationship between Daylight and Dede is more realistic and less annoying than most of his romances, but the dialogue between the two does become tediously repetitive. Though it would have made a great subplot to the business adventure story, instead their romance dominates the latter half of the book. This unfortunate turn is easily forgiven, however, because Daylight is such a likeable and engaging character that the reader will willingly follow him anywhere.

For those familiar with London’s writing, it’s obvious that the hero of Burning Daylight shares many personal characteristics with his creator. Daylight is an incredibly idealized version of the already larger-than-life London. He is the man London wants to be, and he lives the life London wants to live. Even Daylight’s business dealings reflect the moves London would make at a Wall Street fantasy camp. Writing this book was probably a labor of love for the author, and maybe that’s why the story feels a little too happy, too pleasant, too idyllic to be satisfyingly realistic. You won’t find here the pessimistic fatalism so blatant in grittier works like The Call of the Wild or Martin Eden. What Burning Daylight could use is more conflict. Nevertheless, if you find yourself in the mood for a lighter and more optimistic story, this novel might be just what you’re looking for. It may be lacking in gravity, but Daylight’s personal quest does impart some meaningful life lessons. Burning Daylight is not one of London’s masterpieces, but it still amply displays the talents of this master storyteller, and will prove an enjoyable and satisfying read for long-time fans of London or newcomers to his work.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R20X2XSNIJKTZ3/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Blix by Frank Norris

A light-hearted romance from one of America’s best novelists
The cryptically titled Blix is an early novel by the great American writer Frank Norris. Originally published in 1899, it is probably his least-known work. Later that same year he published the novel McTeague, a now highly regarded masterwork that was controversial for its time. While McTeague put Norris on the map as a force to be reckoned with in American letters, the unassuming Blix was most likely forgotten soon after its publication. Nevertheless, this obscure novel from the early years of Norris’s brief but illustrious career displays ample evidence of his characteristic excellence as a storyteller.

Travis Bessemer is an attractive young woman of 19, mature for her age and independent-minded for her time. She resides with her father, a widower, in a moderately well-off home in San Francisco, where she helps to raise her younger sister and brother. She enjoys the companionship of a 28-year-old suitor, Condy Rivers, who bears some resemblance to a young Frank Norris, in that he writes hack articles for a local paper while waiting for his big break as a fiction writer. Although they have been a couple for about eighteen months, Travis forces Condy to admit that the two don’t really love each other, and that they should stop pretending they will be married some day and simply be friends. She also decides to renounce her membership in San Francisco society, turning her back on the debutante balls and society teas that have tediously occupied so much of her time. Determined to find her own means of enjoying life, she invites Condy along for the ride, as chums only. The two then embark on a series of unconventional adventures, such as spending a leisurely afternoon in a Chinese tea house or embarking on their first fishing trip. The more Travis enjoys her nonconformist lifestyle, the more independent she becomes, and, not surprisingly, the more she becomes her own woman, the more Condy falls in love with her.

Though the subject matter of Blix is quite frivolous in comparison to the life-and-death struggles one encounters in Norris novels like The Octopus and McTeague, for what it is—a story of two young people enjoying one another’s company—Blix is actually quite good. There’s not a great deal of conflict here, but the reader finds a pleasant joy in sharing in the enthusiasm of the two main characters as they go about their humble adventures. To his credit, Norris treats this story with the same naturalistic precision that he imparts to all his novels. His vividly detailed descriptions of a sunset over San Francisco Bay, the bustling streets of Chinatown, or even the wares on display at a sporting goods store show an observational gift worthy of his literary idol Emile Zola. Here and there the Norris fan can find scenes that would go on to be repurposed and reused in later works, like a scene of wheat being loaded onto a cargo ship that reads like it’s straight out of The Octopus. One major drawback to Blix is the annoying century-old slang which Condy spews forth with each and every sentence. A few chapters into the book, he gives Travis the nickname “Blix,” apropos of nothing, and the reader is stuck with it for the rest of the book. The novel also unfortunately bears a weak final chapter, which is too convenient and conventional for the book that precedes it.

In its entirety, however, Blix is a well-crafted, fun, and engaging little romance. It doesn’t deliver the shock and awe of a Norris masterpiece, but those who have enjoyed his other works, or naturalist literature in general, won’t regret plucking this novel from obscurity and giving it a try.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2057MNBRGPW48/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Gustave Baumann: Nearer to Art by David Acton, Martin F. Krause and Madeline Carol Yurtseven

Beautiful landscapes from a master of the color woodcut
German-born artist Gustave Baumann (1881-1971) immigrated to American at the age of ten. After beginning his career in Chicago and the artist colony of Brown County, Indiana, he settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lived and worked for more than five decades. Baumann was a master of the color woodcut who combined traditional European relief printing methods with a modernist sensibility of color and form. Applying his craft to the Western landscape and subjects relating to Native American culture, Baumann created an impressive body of work which is lovingly celebrated in this excellent retrospective published in 1993.

The book begins with an introductory preface and two illustrated essays on Baumann’s life, work, and methods. Together they combine to form an admirable abbreviated biography of the artist. At times the writing can be a little dry, reading like an annotated resumé, but personally I prefer the just-the-facts approach over the many artist biographies that read like psychological profiles. The essays are illustrated with a variety of works chronicling all stages of Baumann’s career, as well as photographs of the artist. One of Baumann’s prints, Spring Blossoms, is singled out for a technical demonstration of his artistic process. The eight color layers which comprise the work are reproduced individually to illustrate how they progressively combine to form the final artwork. Following the essays, the book concludes with 70 pages of color plates.

With a few exceptions, the 123 illustrations are reproduced beautifully, and the majority are given full-page treatment. The illustrations among the essays are sometimes layed out in a two-column format, rendering the prints so small they don’t do justice to the beauty of Baumann’s detailed carving. In such cases the reader may find himself hunting for a magnifying glass. Baumann often began his print designs from studies painted in gouache, several of which are reproduced here. These gouache studies look fuzzier than the woodcut prints, though I suspect this has more to do with Baumann’s painterly technique than with issues of photographic reproduction. There are a couple isolated instances where images have a blurry appearance that suggests they were reproduced from lower resolution scans than the rest of the book (namely figures 3 and 82). It is unfortunate that these few bad examples have to mar an otherwise exceptionally printed book.

Though Baumann utilized European printing techniques, there is a subtlety to his work that evokes the Japanese woodcut style. His ink application is somewhat mottled in its consistency, allowing the white paper to show through. This gives his prints a decidedly impressionistic feel, as opposed to the in-your-face patches of solid color often associated with block prints. Baumann’s sublime landscapes call to mind the paintings of the California Impressionists or the Canadian artists The Group of Seven. As for fellow woodcut artists, his closest stylistic counterpart might be Norma Bassett Hall of the Prairie Print Makers.

For fans of Baumann, this book is an exceptional tribute to the man and his work. For those who possess a love for the art of woodcut printing but may be unfamiliar with Baumann, this volume offers an excellent opportunity to get to know this master and his art. For either class of reader, browsing these pages is a joy and a revelation.

Morning Sun, 1932, color woodcut, 10.75 x 9.625"

White Desert, 1930, color woodcut, 9.5 x 11.125"

To view more images of Gustave Baumann’s prints, check out the web site of the Zaplin Lampert Gallery in Santa Fe.

If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R23XTUGICWBCYS/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

You already know the ending
Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has become an indelible part of pop culture, having been adapted into many different forms since its original publication in 1886, from plays to movies to comic books. Despite everyone’s familiarity with the story, the readership of the original work has most likely dwindled over the past century, and the question must be asked whether or not it still deserves to be read.

Though it contains some of the elements of a science fiction tale, horror story, or psychological thriller, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is essentially a mystery novel. A lawyer named John Gabriel Utterson attempts to determine the basis of the strange relationship between his friend and client, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the mysterious Mr. Hyde, an individual of questionable moral character who inspires revulsion in all he meets. Jekyll has recently altered his will, leaving all his belongings to Hyde, which leads Utterson to suspect that Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll. Upon further investigation, Utterson discovers the incredible and tragic truth.

Of course, anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the last century is already privy to the horrible secret which Utterson uncovers. The phrase “Jekyll and Hyde” has become such a common expression in our language, one can’t help but already know the solution to this mystery. It is a testament to Stevenson’s excellent writing that the story of Jekyll and Hyde has transcended its original form and evolved to the level of mythology. One can only imagine the shock and awe that Stevenson’s contemporaries would have experienced when reading this book for the first time. That’s part of the problem for today’s reader: one can only imagine it. While the final two chapters of the book are riveting, everything leading up to that point consists of the rather dull Mr. Utterson striving to solve a riddle that the reader already knows the answer to.

If you are thinking of reading Jekyll and Hyde because you’re looking for the entertainment value one expects from a science fiction or horror story, then you will probably be disappointed. As explained above, the whole book revolves around the big secret, and that cat has already been let out of its bag long ago. If however, you wish to read Jekyll and Hyde because you are a fan of Victorian literature, can appreciate the excellent writing of Stevenson, and wish to gain further insight into the psychological dimensions of his famous dichotomous character, then you may very well enjoy this classic work. It is slow going at first, but one’s anticipation is aptly rewarded by the memorable and moving ending.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R30UUF87AGYBNM/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm