RE: Wandering Spirits - Day 235 - Haiku and Book Review - On the joy of language, and a small part of what separates great authors from crappy ones
Any time, always a pleasure to meet another Davies addict, and here's hoping we can infect a few dozen (hundred, thousand . . .) more!!!
My other current favorite writer is on a completely different section of the spectrum, but if you don't know him, I heartily recommend just about everything by Christopher Moore, who is quite simply one of the funniest writers alive. As with Davies, I've so far read everything I've been able to get my hands on, and will ultimately read them all.
I was introduced to him by another close friend, who lent me a couple of his books ,"Island of the Sequined Love Nun," and "The Love Lizard of Melancholy Cove," which quickly became my favorite book, and remained so for some time.
Set in coastal Northern California, I later discovered that it is in fact the second installment of his "Pine Cove Trilogy," which I highly recommend reading in order, as they build beautifully on one another to a hilarious climax.
And with "Fluke," and "Lamb, the Gospel of Jesus According to His Best Childhood Friend, Biff," Moore has proven that he can successfully combine razor sharp wit and humor with deep respect, insight and heart. A rare talent indeed.
He wrote "Lamb" for his mother, when she was dying of cancer, and happily she loved it when she read it, shortly before her death. He managed to take a highly charged subject, inject it with humanity, and treat it respectfully, while still being quite funny.
And "Fluke" is my favorite book by him, by a wide margin, but then the plot revolves around whale researchers, which was my lifelong dream . . . when I started college, my plan was to live on a boat and study whales and sharks.
I did study them for many years, and that great love has never left me . . . or, apparently, Moore. The whales clearly got to him as well. And his story greatly benefits from that love. Wonderful, hilarious, and deeply moving.
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I am grateful for those suggestions; I have never read anything of Moore's. I've mostly been reading the choices of my book group, which have largely been good stories, inexpertly told. (Right now it's the second of NK Jemison's trilogy, the Obelisk Gate. Jemison has won the Hugo award three years running but I do not see why.) I do love a great wordsmith. No one has yet beat Davies for me in that regard.
Yeah, Davies is in a class pretty much all his own. I've never found anyone to beat him either, and damned few even come close.
And Moore's style is entirely different, smart and funny, but far more accessible to readers. And, being from San Francisco, he sets the majority of his stories in my favorite parts of my home state, which to me is a big part of his charm.
A favorite line from near the end of "Love Lizard," which I'll have to paraphrase, talks of life in general and the creatures of the coastline getting back to normal, with the great white sharks dreaming of their favorite snacks, crunchy shrink-wrapped surfer dudes on fiberglass crackers.
I damned near choked to death the first time I read that passage. Inhaling your coffee while reading is not recommended, nor is explosive laughter when your mouth is full, and it took steely self-control to prevent myself from spewing it all over the book. ;-)
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Crunchy shrink wrapped surfer dudes! a shark that thinks like a surfer dude, with the appetite of a shark! so brilliant! I think I will love his style.
Jemison is an amateur writer with great vision, a lot like J K Rowling, another author whose style I don't appreciate, but whose imagination is fabulous. The world Jemison creates is very compelling, but her telling of it irritates me. Mostly I think she is guilty of giving us too much information, leaving too little to the imagination. She tells us, doesn't show us, something I do too as I recently learned. At this point in my reading of the second book, I think she has improved in her descriptive skills, but is still telling me too much. Maybe by the third book?
I read Oryx and Crake by Atwood in between the first two of Jemison's books, and it was eye opening the differences in craft and artistry. Atwood did what I wish Jemison could do.
Moore regularly has me gasping for air with laughter, which for me previously was pretty much the domain of Carl Hiassen, but Moore's well-crafted insanity has pretty much eclipsed all other comic writers for me at this point. If you come across anyone as smart, sarcastic and funny, please point me in their direction!
Moore has also written what is hands down the funniest vampire trilogy out there, so come equipped with your most finely tuned sense of the absurd, and get ready for a wild ride.
I was surprised to discover today that I actually have all of his books except for his newest, "Noir," set in post WWII San Francisco, which came out last year.
A lot of his books inhabit the same universe, with a number of recurring characters, including "The Stupidest Angel" from the Pine Cove Trilogy, who makes further appearances in other books, including "Lamb."
And Roberto, the talking fruit bat from "Island of the Sequined Love Nun," remains one of my favorite characters of all time. As is Steve, the lust lizard from "The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove," who, when not menacing or mesmerizing the creatures and populace along the central coast, disguises himself as a doublewide mobile home. ;-)
I'll be checking into Atwood as well. Time to get reading. ;-)
I'm sorry to hear that you consider Jemison's work to be below par, as I was planning to start on her trilogy in the near future.
But I can relate, a number of award-winning books have left me cold. Good thing we have so many choices. ;-)
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For the record, the correct full subtitle of Christopher Moore's "Lamb" is "The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal."
Great book, hilarious, and yet respectful, which is a tough combination, given the subject matter.