September 2023 – Hits and Misses

Better Living Through Plastic Explosives, by Zsuzsi Gartner

Has anyone actually read this book? If so, what is it about????

What I know for … sure? It’s a collection of short stories. Although there is a cross-over scene involving a missing Japanese exchange student reappearing riding on the back of a giant tortoise in North Vancouver, so maybe they are all connected???? Many, many question marks. It’s possible that the lead story is about a home dweller in a North Van cul-de-sac who is a motorcycle-worshipping … werewolf? Who lures the neighbourhood wives into his cult of nightly … meat-eating? Until the neighbourhood husbands … kill him? I don’t know!!! In another story, entire houses disappear into the North Shore mountains in a matter of seconds. Like, literally get slurped into the earth in the 30 seconds that your back is turned. It doesn’t appear to be science fiction. In yet another, a woman quite possibly rigs a high-tech bomb to blow up a car that chronically speeds through her subdivision, and although I am unsure, her son may have ended up as collateral damage? Maybe?? Maybe not????? (although I enjoyed this one for the fact that she is referring to as “the recovering terrorist” and attends a recovering terrorist support group). Most of the rest of the stories are dark, and confusing, and what I did understand was sad and/or tragic.

My favourite of the collection was “Floating like a Goat”, subtitled “Or, What we talk about when we talk about art”. It is written in the form of a progressively more hilariously aggressive note from a mother to an elementary school art teacher who graded her 6 year old daughter “not yet meeting expectations” when the daughter breaks an art class RULE by drawing a goat whose feet do not touch the ground. I feel like every parent has had a child taught by this teacher and has wanted to write this note. No disrespect to teachers in general, but isn’t there always one in every crowd, whose principles make absolutely no sense, but on whose good graces your child’s passing grade depends??

Summary: ????????????????????

The Witches Are Coming, by Lindy West

Lindy West has an issue, and frankly so do I. The expression “Witch Hunt” has become a favourite among fretful rich white men who seem to feel that the power they hold over virtually everyone (and their freedom to commit heinous crimes) is under threat whenever they are asked to reconcile their massive wealth with the ongoing erosion of a functioning and just society (or to simply obey the law). The irony is that those accused of leading the hunt are the very witches who were once hunted. And, of course, burned. Well, how the tables have turned! It seems the hunted have become the hunters! It’s ludicrous. But Lindy has decided to go all in, as should we all, and this her (our) rallying cry: Beware! The Witches are Coming! And she does all of it with her razor-sharp sense of wit and humour, as exemplified by such chapter titles as “Ted Bundy was not charming: are you high?” and “Obsolescence is a preventable disease”. You should absolutely read this book ASAP. Bravo, Lindy!

Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng

Things that I would include in my doghouse (themes in a book that would be a Hard Pass for me):

• Generational trauma
• Family dysfunction
• Children used to fulfill the dreams of parents

Things that describe Everything I Never Told You

• Generational trauma
• Family dysfunction
• Children used to fulfill the dreams of parents

And yet … I could not put this book down! I thought maybe I just wanted to know what happened to daughter Lydia – the opening sentence of the book is “Lydia is dead, but they don’t know this yet.” – but the book skims the surface of this (potential) crime and instead delves more deeply into the family events that led to this point. I can’t say why I liked it – the writing? the story-telling? the characters (no, not the characters, I’m pretty sure I didn’t really like any of them except maybe the poor girl who died). Whatever the reason, I did like it. A lot! I have enjoyed all three of Celeste Ng’s books and look forward to a fourth.

Atlas of the Heart, by Brene Brown

This book was an incredibly thoughtful gift from my friend Chrystal, and I have been savouring it over a period of several months. It is too much to include here and, at any rate, I feel it deserves a dedicated Blog. Stay tuned.