Diane's Book Reviews

Mary After All by Bill Gordon

The Dial Press, 2005. Gordon's first person narrative of Mary Nolan is a love poem of sorts to Jersey City -- a novel concept in itself. Born in 1945, Mary marries the handsome 23-year-old Bobby at the ripe age of 17, only to discover that he's a philanderer with a bad temper. She has her first child immediately and finds herself trapped, caring for her selfish husband, new baby and sickly mother while pregnant with her second.

Mary's experiences are not unique among working class women in the 60's and 70's, but Gordon captures them in a plain and unsentimental way. He takes us through her credible experiences of depression, growth and independence. He also captures the charms and vagaries of a city with a unique character; a city that "survived" in a way that Newark, Camden and Trenton did not. For better or worse, Jersey City continuously transformed itself, maintaining its character while other cities burned.

Also adding to the charm of Gordon's story is the fact that several of the characters in the story are real, to wit, Charlie Cuppacoffee (named for the fact that, as a child, he served coffee to the neighborhood loafers who repeatedly shouted "Charlie, Charlie, cuppacoffee!" -- it stuck) and Bobby Manna. And everyone had or recognizes an "Aunt Dot" who ran numbers out of her kitchen; everyone ate at Al's Diner on 440; everyone spent summers "down the shore" at Seaside.

To be sure, Gordon's novel is no great work of literature. But it is worthwhile, especially if you know "the City" does NOT refer to New York City. I'm glad it got published.

LIES And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken

Dutton, 2003. I should first disclose that I am a left-of-center liberal/progressive -- whatever the hell that means these days. But I'm pro-choice and anti-death penalty. I believe Unions are good. I am willing to pay taxes in return for social services that benefit me directly and benefit those less fortunate than me, creating a better quality of life for us all, which benefits me directly. I can tolerate an explanation of a public policy that is longer than 3 words. I listen to NPR. I hated George W. Bush before he sent thousands of Americans to die while killing innocent Iraquis for reasons that have always been, at best, unclear. I don't give a shit if it results in "democracy" in Iraq -- there were certainly better ways to accomplish that -- assuming it ever is accomplished.

So it will come as no surprise to you that I REALLY liked Franken's book. He takes to task the insanity that is currently referred to as "the news." He points out that there is no real liberal media bias by giving specific examples of how even mainstream media bends over backward to give the Bush crowd every benefit of the doubt, while crucifying every "liberal" over the slightest gaffe. To wit, the media's eagerness to repeat Al Gore's alleged claim to creating the Internet. It didn't exactly happen that way, but so what if it did? Any need to repeat this silliness but gloss over Bush's history with drugs and alcohol?

Franken also takes the goofy right-wing icons -- Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, to name a few -- to task. He points out each of their blatant lies. For example, Coulter: she has 2 driver's licenses - one states her date of birth as 1961, the other 1963 - a federal offense under the Patriot Act; O'Reilly: claimed he won two Peobody Awards with "Inside Edition" when the show actually won one (much less prestigious) Polk Award one year after O'Reilly left the show; Hannity: Oh, you'll just have to read Chapter 14 because it's too much for a short blurb here.

As important to me as Franken's revelations is his humor. I laughed out loud. Even his chapter titles are funny: "I Attend the White House Correspondents Dinner and Annoy Karl Rove, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, and the Entire Fox News Team" and "I Meet Former First Lady Barbara Bush and It Doesn't Go Well." However, not every chapter is a hit. For example "Operation Chickenhawk: Episode One," written in graphic novelette style, depicting Al Gore, John Kerry, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and others in some sort of swift boat battle, where John Kerry is the obvious hero and all the others hopeless losers. I realize the book was written in 2003, but in light of the 2004 election, this didn't seem funny to me.

I've read others of Franken's books which I enjoyed to varying degrees. Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot is one of my favorites. Lies is better.

The Inner Circle by T.C. Boyle

Viking, 2004. To my knowledge, T.C. Boyle is a well-regarded author known for his wit. So I looked forward to reading his fictional account of the career of reknowned sexologist, Alfred Kinsey. There's potential for humor there, right? Well, apparently not.

Let's say then that I was wrong in my understanding and Boyle is NOT known for his humor, or even, let's say, that he decided to write a serious book this time. OK, let's say that. But serious is one thing, boring with hateful characters is quite another.

This story is written in the first person from the perspective of Kinsey's first sex research assistant and captive lover, John Milk -- whose name couldn't be more appropriate for it's blandness (which could have been a source of humor, but, well that's the whole joke). Milk, who lost his father at an early age, is "adopted" by Prok (short for Professor K, short for Professor Kinsey), who subjects him to slave-like work hours and then insists on having sex with him (Milk rates a 1 or 2 on the Kinsey homosexual 6-point scale, and even that is diminishing as Milk has increasingly satisfying sexual relationships with women, including Prok's wife Mac, and Iris, Milk's eventual wife). But because he owes so much to Prok, Milk consents to the unreasonable work demands and the sex even when he doesn't feel like it; even when it puts his own marriage at risk.

Enter Purvis Corcoran (OK, that name IS funny), the dashing, highly sexed psychologist who Prok signs onto the research team. Corcoran becomes Milk's rival both for Prok's and Iris's attention (Prok convinces Iris to have sex with Corcoran so she can get over her "sex shyness" and, in violation of the rules of the "inner circle," she falls in love with him, foolishly equating sex with love). Throw in the interminable discussions of "the project" (the sex study) and the 100,000 sexual histories Kinsey has set out to obtain, as well as Prok's increasing obsession with filming sexual acts of all sorts and you can't believe that you are still bored.

The primary problem is that the characters are so unlikely and unlikeable. Prok is a controlling, egomaniacal sexual predator, almost sociopathic in his lack of scruples. Mac is his too long-suffering, earth motherly wife who will have sex with whomever Prok insists upon. Iris is a whiny, selfish pain but, let's face it, she's probably the best Milk could do given his own limited personality. Milk is the most insipid sycophant imaginable. But add to that that he cannot finish a sentence without stuttering, and that he breaks into sex files to get the goods on people in whom he is interested, and you find that you hate the guy. Unfortunately, as it is "his" story, you have to spend the whole book with him.

I suppose the point of the book was... oh, I really don't know. In the end, John makes a pseudo-stand against Prok in favor of his wife, but that too is so weak-kneed that it can't possibly be the lesson here. And frankly I don't care.