The Dante Club

So starting a book review blog during my busy junior year may have been a little too ambitious. However, even with the amount of coursework I have, I am determined to share my opinions of books for the masses, or at least the small amount of readers this blog gets. I will now be mixing in some “reviews” from previous Facebook reading projects, to make sure that every Monday will have something to offer.
This is from “Caught Reading: Summer Project 2007.”

The Dante Club, by Matthew Pearl

“An interesting historical fiction mystery that starts out a little rough but finishes strong. This book was very hard to get into since the first 50 pages were more or less for character analysis and laying the foundation for the rest of the novel, but once it gets into the mystery of it (and people start dieing), it keeps you at the edge of your seat. Four Boston writers in 1865 (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and J.T. Fields) are working on translating Dante's "Inferno" with much literary criticism from those who don't think Dante's writings are appropriate in proper society. But when multiple murders start occuring, the writers get swept into the mystery after discovering that the events are mimicking gruesome scenes taken directly from Dante's work. It is up to the intellectuals to save the day since they are the only ones capable of making any sense of it all. If you can struggle through the beginning of the novel (which I admit was hard) you will be rewarded for your efforts by going through the amazing and exciting process of finding a serial killer in historical Boston.”

I still think this book is a good one to share, which must say something about its quality. Personally, being an English major, I liked the literary aspects they were able to take to “epic” proportions. The beginning takes a while only because you need some time to understand the politics of the university administration and untangle a cast of seemingly similar professor characters. The action in this book is thrilling, and not what you would expect from older teachers. It is both physically and mentally active. The main characters stick to their passion of translating Dante even to the point of almost losing their jobs, but their work leads them to the cat-and-mouse chase of a mass murderer. They want to inspire others through this epic poem, but one character becomes far too inspired to the point of reenactment. Only those with literary knowledge are able to solve the mystery, which is inspiring to us English majors. But the best part is that you don’t have to be a literature expert to understand the novel or its references. The author gives readers the exact amount of knowledge needed about Dante’s work through the comprehensible dialogue that also helps readers just feel smart for knowing anything about Dante.

I think it says enough that I have chosen to re-share this book; I would definitely recommend it to any book lover who just likes to know that someday everything they read will help pay off. Maybe not to the point of catching a murderer, but I hope all this reading will help mold me into a cultured individual… someday.

“A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.”
- Abraham Lincoln

Dry

Dry, by Augusten Burroughs

After reading about his childhood experience in Running with Scissors, I was intrigued to find out what Augusten did with his life afterward. Having read his first memoir, I was not all that surprised in his second one to learn he became a heavy drinker. While the writing was less graphic this time around, his content was still what you would expect. Burroughs remains the best-selling writer that can keep you entertained and laughing, even during his period with alcoholism and treatment.

After being abandoned by his mother with her psychiatrist who later adopted him and living in a “life of squalor, pedophiles, no school and free pills,” Augusten left for New York. At the age of 19, he was able to sell him self as self-educated and determined, landing him a job in advertising. By the age of 24, when this memoir takes place, Augusten is drinking a little too much. When his drinking starts to cause problems at work with his partner when trying to land a Faberge egg account, his boss gives him an option. He can either go to rehab or lose his job. Augusten chooses rehab, thinking it will just be a month with no work and movie star glamour at a gay rehab center called the Pride Institute. It is in these thirty days that Augusten realizes he truly was an alcoholic and not just the casual New York drinker he thought everyone in advertising was. During therapy, Augusten realizes that his reason for drinking is in order to not feel everything that he has to deal with. And this is all in the first few chapters. The rest of the memoir involves Augusten’s struggle to return to the life he lived drunk and try to live it sober. This is not made easier when his best friend is sick, a friend from rehab moves in, and Augusten becomes attracted to a man in group therapy (where he signed a contract not to get romantically involved with anyone). And then there is also his job. His agency is working on a campaign for German beer and to top it off, someone from the office seems to be messing with him so he will lose his job. Will Augusten learn to deal with his new sober lifestyle or is everything just too much to keep him from drinking again? All of this at the age of 24.

I’ll admit that his first memoir was pretty explicit, but this work is tamer in its descriptions while still keeping it fascinating. When starting the novel, I expected his time in rehab to be the majority of the book, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn about what happens after when you are on your own. One doesn’t need to read the first memoir to understand this work since Burroughs returns to his past when necessary to better understand what he is trying to deal with. His writing remains interesting throughout the whole, and readers will find themselves emotionally reacting to what Burroughs presents during his tug-of-war struggle with drinking, as well as everything else in his life with which he has to deal.

This is another work where I would only recommend to a certain type of reader. And though I said you can get by without reading Running with Scissors, I would still read it first to get the whole chronological effect of the experience. Augusten Burroughs definitely encounters some interesting characters in his life and you will love what he has to say about them.

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”
- Groucho Marx

What-the-Dickens

What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy, by Gregory Maguire

Gregory Maguire is a fascinatingly creative author who takes well-known fairy tales and reinvents them with a new perspective. The author of Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Mirror Mirror and many others, Maguire surely has a first-class talent. What-the-Dickens, however, though creative, may not compare as highly to his previous works. Maguire boldly shines when he gives an original twist to those stories we grew up with, but when creating an entirely knew story about the Tooth Fairy, he only twinkles softly.

During a strong hurricane, it seems as if the world is ending. Dinah is barricaded in her house with her older brother Zeke and younger, almost two-year old sister Rebecca Ruth. Their parents have gone missing after leaving to find medical help for the mother, so it is lucky that their second-cousin Gage was there to look after them when the rest of the area had been evacuated due to the storm and subsequent landslides and loss of power. In order to remain brave in a crisis, Gage tells the children a story about skibbereen, fairy-like creatures we believe to be the Tooth Fairy. These creatures live in separate local colonies, which explains how all of the teeth can be collected and paid for in a single night. These creatures are loyal to their colony and competing colonies are in a state of war, conducting raids for resources. They live by the motto “Hidden and Forbidden:” they must hide from sight and if caught are forbidden to tell anything about their colony, especially its location. When the orphan skibbereen, What-the-Dickens, is born in a tin can, the story follows his quest to learn who (and what) he is and where (if anywhere) he belongs. After many different attempts to belong, either with the cat McCavity, the mother grisset or an old woman who thinks him to be the Angel of Death, he finds another skibbereen named Pepper that illegally takes him back to her colony located in a tree stump in the center of a highway clover. Here, What-the-Dickens is able to learn what he is and that there are others like him, but he quickly finds that is it a complicated and untrusting world. Thought to be a spy, What-the-Dickens must prove that he is not in order to try and win himself a home.

The thing about trying to create a new fairy tale is that a whole cultural background must be created from scratch. And even harder is trying to portray this enter society of tooth fairies in a way that is still fascinating and readable. By using the idea of an orphan trying to figure out who and what he is, lots of questions are asked, allowing the readers to better understand the circumstances of the novel. Yet, there is 200-pages worth of build up that must be done before the last 100 pages of plot can take place. Personally, I found the constantly intertwining story of those in the hurricane far more fascinating than that of the skibbereen’s history and social dynamics. However, once a strong foundation had finally been made for What-the-Dickens, the plot quickly picked up and readers will be happy to know that little things from those first 200 pages play a larger part near the end and it wasn’t all for nothing. Once you continue through to the end, you get some action and resolution in the land of skibbereen. But when readers return to those human characters in the hurricane, done with the completed story of What-the-Dickens and the warring, tooth-collecting skibbereen, a second and I think necessary ending seemed to be missing. The present ending appears to be incomplete and even contradictory. Some might consider it to be bittersweet, while I consider it not enough.

For those who have the will to finish the novel, you will be better off than those who quit before anything substantial can be gained. If you choose to start this, please finish it, or you will not understand it or appreciate the creativity and originality of the work or of the author. While this book was only okay, I would still recommend Gregory Maguire as a talented writer that should be read. His previous works make you wish there were more pages to read, but What-the-Dickens made you wish it were Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister instead.

“All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality -- the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape.”
- Arthur Christopher Benson

Running with Scissors

Running with Scissors, by Augusten Burroughs

Some of the extraordinary contents of this memoir are only made more captivating (or shocking) by the fact that the author is only in his very early teenage years during the majority of these events. However, sometimes it’s just nice to know that there are others out there worse off than you. And who better to remind you than someone whom Entertainment Weekly has named one of the fifteen funniest people in America?

After his parents’ divorce, Augusten’s father will not accept the charges on collect phone calls and therefore Augusten is left alone with his crazy mother. When his mother decides she is unfit to raise her son, she leaves Augusten in the care of her eccentric psychiatrist and his cuckoo family. This dysfunctional family consists of a kibble-eating wife; an overly devoted 28-year-old daughter that still lives at home and treats the Bible like a Magic 8 Ball; a rebel teenage girl yearning for a job at McDonald’s; a pedophile; many other peculiar extended and adopted siblings who pop in and out of the house; and finally the psychiatrist, who should really be the patient instead. Augusten is constantly pushed and pulled between the two worlds he sees himself in. There is the no-rules house he thought he wanted (full of dirty dishes, pet hair, cockroaches and last year’s needle-less Christmas tree and with an outside just as bad), where he is allowed to drink and smoke and miss months of school by faking an emotional breakdown. Or there is his mother’s apartment where Augusten is only a visitor interrupting her writing or psychotic episodes. In all of this mess, Augusten tries to find himself. He dreams to become many different things, ranging from an actor playing a doctor on television to the head of a hair care empire, but he doesn’t yet realize that his constant journal scribbling will lead to a future in writing. It is astonishing how much Augusten is involved with during this portion of his young life. Even at his young age, he realizes that he is gay, which is followed by sexual exploration. A strong friendship blossoms between Augusten and the psychiatrist’s daughter Natalie, leading to hilarious escapades like ripping apart the kitchen ceiling to build a skylight because they felt oppressed.

I was only slightly disturbed by this memoir every time that I was reminded how young Augusten is at this time and what that all meant, but the writing of this memoir was constantly entertaining. Some readers may find this memoir too explicit or crude, but the writing is as funny as it is emotional. There were as many times I was bursting out in laughter, as my mouth was open in awe. The ending makes it all worthwhile when Augusten realizes that he has a choice to make after some truths about those in his current life come to light. His decision will not disappoint you, but make you proud.

Overall, this was a good book. It was one I enjoyed reading for its unique plot and fascinating characters. I don’t think it will be making my personal top five, but I would definitely recommend it in the right situation.

“To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him and travel in his company.”
- Andre Gide

Introduction

Welcome fellow bookworms!

I make this assumption, because if you are not a book-loving readster looking for your next novel to

• curl up with by a fire on a cold winter’s day,
• lay out with while catching some rays,
• pass the time during breaks from the ordinary,
• add to your personal reading list, or that of your book club,
• or just spice up your life with some much needed culture,

then you may be at the wrong blog. “Between the Covers” offers a regular book review in an attempt to share worthwhile books or warn you against those that are not.

Hello, my name is Alex and I will be your tour guide through this complicated world of bountiful literature for as long as you care to keep visiting. I am currently a student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, concentrating in English with a minor in History. I am also in the Secondary Teaching Certification Program through the School of Education with English and History as my dual teaching majors. I have taken many English classes and have loved my time discussing the works my professors have chosen to share with their students.

A couple years ago, I made the decision to devote my summer vacations to special reading time with novels I can personally pick myself. I have been documenting my previous summer readings on Facebook, but would love to share my discoveries with a wider audience. This upcoming semester, much to my regret, I will not be taking any English classes, but this means that I will do something I have never done during my college career: read for fun while a semester is still in session. It is a bold endeavor, I know, but I am so excited for this experience.

This blog will be devoted to written works that I have chosen to read rather than those that have been assigned to me. There is something special about picking up a novel for the sole purpose of enjoyment that also comes with the knowledge you will not be tested later on any of this information. As I continue with my mission to read for fun, please come back every Monday so I can share with you these books I have read. I'll do my best to read fast enough and keep you up to date!

“A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”
- Samuel Johnson