The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway

The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway Jennifer L. Knox 83 pp.

Jennifer L. Knox’s The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway is a deliciously strange collection of verse. In a slim volume, Knox presents an enjoyably twisted view of the world around her, filtered through the strange perceptions of mashed-up imagery.

Knox’s poems are each unusual, little twists designed to shake the enjoyer of poetry out of their expectations. In tightly worded verse, Knox takes an image, typically domestic and comfortable, and gives it a rorschach splattering of surrealism. From the devious crocodile mother coming to claim her “lost” child to her intimate description of the villains in an old silent movie-nothing in Knox’s work is conventional.

This conscious break from the comfort zone of much poetry is, of course, symptomatic of modern poetry, but Knox acknowledges this in my favorite poem of the book, “Modern Poetry.” In general terms, “Modern Poetry” is a typical piece from this collection. Knox brings her charmingly unreal imagery to the table, with lines like “In the bottom left corner: a clown-/his red nose, a sudden start, or/ stoplight. Only his comic prosthesis/ is clear” Form wise, she deviates from her typical mode of prose poems or long stanzas into short, choppy couplets. In a very nice touch, she tacks on a list of “Questions for Discussion” at the end of the poem. In these questions Knox’s surrealism surfaces again, wrapped in her cutting sense of humor.

“If you were standing in this poem, would you be wearing a T-shirt or a parka?” (T-shirt, definitely)

The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway’s strongest poem is the long prose piece “Cars.” In lengthy paragraphs of sparkling prose, Knox follows the adventures of an unnamed narrator through the wild spaces of the road. Each of these verse hinge on yet another bad event taking place in the next of a long series of bad cars. At the same time, Knox works the cars in two directions. On the one hand, the cars function as liberation, freeing the narrator to traverse wide spaces physically and mentally. But for this person, cars seem to be a serpent’s tongue, drawing her inexorably towards destruction. From the early paragraphs where the threat is simply the unintentional slaughter of a deer, to the later sections, clipping the door off a van of girl scouts, Knox’s narrator just cannot run into good luck with cars.

I greatly enjoyed The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway-Knox’s poetry was weird and inventive, each poem surprising me with an unexpected image and a pervasive sense of humor. After finishing this volume, I am eagerly looking forward to reading more of her work in the library.

Would I recommend The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway? Yes

Score: 4.3/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? Yes.

-Mr. Cheddar

1Q84

1Q84 Haruki Murakami 925 pp.

Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 is a masterpiece. There, the review is over. It is a perfect book. Stop reading this review and go read 1Q84.

Would I recommend 1Q84? Yes, without any hesitation.

Score: 5/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? Yes.

-Mr. Cheddar

You’re still here?

In that case, I’ll actually talk about the book. On its surface, 1Q84 is a novel about Tengo, a writer commissioned to ghostwrite a young girl’s mysterious novel, Air Chrysalis; and Aomame, a physical trainer who murders abusive husbands in a manner so subtle it comes across as simply a heart attack. This, however, only describes the book in the grossest possible sense. 1Q84 is a tour de force of magical realism, as Murakami brings Tengo and Aomame closer and closer together with an achingly slow pace, small shifts begin to occur in the world, twisting the rules and conventions we bring to understanding reality.

Air Chrysalis functions in the novel as a guidebook, hinting at and demonstrating much of the shifts which take place in Tengo and Aomame’s lives. Towards the end of 1Q84, a certain element of metatextuality begins to shape the reader’s understanding of the novel. You start to find yourself wondering how dissimilar it is to read 1Q84 in our unquestionably real world from the fictional characters reading Air Chrysalis inside of the novel. Murakami explores the notion of two worlds existing side-by-side throughout the story, exemplified by the two moons hanging in the sky over the characters’ heads. After reading this novel, one would find it difficult not to step outside on a clear night and stare at the sky, ensuring that the number of moons has not changed.

I tremendously enjoyed Murakami’s feminism in the gender dynamic between Tengo and Aomame. Through the course of the novel, Tengo’s role tends to be slightly more passive, he is largely acted upon by the other characters, achieving his own agency in two ways-first by giving birth to the finished Air Chrysalis, and second by coming to terms with the emotional relationship between his father and himself. By contrast, Aomame’s agency works primarily through acting upon other people, pursuing her sexual desires and shaping the course of events around her. It would have been all to easy for Murakami to compose this story with the gender roles more common in fiction, but it was with tremendous pleasure that I found Aomame to be not only a “strong” female lead, but a fully developed and interesting character in her own right.

I will be honest, I have only scratched the surface of this book, but that is in no small way because I don’t believe I can do it justice in this format. At some point in the future, I will put together an essay delving into some of the finer points in this novel, but a short review is not the right place to really get into this gem of a novel. I’ll close this review in the same way I opened it. Go read 1Q84.

-Mr. Cheddar

Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages

Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them 42 pp. and Quidditch Through the Ages 56 pp. J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling’s Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages are an immensely enjoyable post-script to the Harry Potter series. While they have little effect on the plot of the books, I tremendously enjoyed Rowling’s choice to compose and publish them. 

Magical Beasts gives the reader a view of the species which populate the world she created outside of the steady dribble of plot-relavant information needed in each of the books. It is a simple bestiary, giving tidy descriptions of the magical beasts living on the outskirts of the wizarding world. Rowling does not let up from her strong writing which dominated the series proper. Each description fills out the species in question, giving us a sense of what a wizard would know if they were to meet such a creature in the woods or mountains outside of their normal lives.

Quidditch Through the Ages delivers exactly what it says on the cover, a history and explanation of the game of Quidditch. In this book the history of Quidditch by itself is perhaps the less interesting point of the text. One could read it as simply a study of the development of the game so universally admired in the wizarding world, but there is a stronger element there. As we study and learn about the development of wizarding past-times, Rowling gives the reader a much better sense of the changes in wizarding society as history has maintained its steady march through and around them. By the end of the book, simply having watched the wizards retreat into hiding and focus their efforts on maintaining secrecy, the reader has a much deeper understanding of the pervading atmosphere of secrecy which so dominates the Harry Potter series.

The presence of these two volumes as world-building devices leads me to comment on some of Rowling’s world-building throughout the Harry Potter series. In books five, six, and seven Rowling devotes an entire chapter to painting a picture of the magical world’s dealings with Voldemort’s evil outside of Harry’s life. These chapters were richly rewarding on two levels. First they set the tone for the rest of each book perfectly, especially the chapter with the Prime Minister in The Half-Blood Prince. In that chapter especially, the pervading mist which so unnerves the Prime Minister forces the reader into a state of unease, longing for the warm comfort of the earlier books.

Would I recommend Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages? On their own, no, but in the context of the whole series? Certainly yes.

Score: 3.9/5

Would I keep these on my bookshelf? Yes

-Mr. Cheddar

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

The Tales of Beedle the Bard J.K. Rowling 111 pp.

J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a neat little children’s book written to accompany the larger Harry Potter series. While it is easy to focus on this book as simply an add-on to the series, an hour-long read to give the Harry Potter fan a last taste of the world they loved so much, there is much more here. Despite its appearance as a simple addition to the series, it is clear that Rowling was actively engaged in producing more stories in the world she has so lovingly created for her readers.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard collects five fairy tales, purportedly told by wizards to wizards. Much like Quidditch through the Ages, it gives an account of the values instilled in wizards from a young age. Dumbledore’s commentary on the text draws out these values, placing these stories not only in their context in the wizarding world, but giving us a sense of how people have read and responded to these stories throughout wizarding history.

These stories are each intriguing in their own way, though the theme of an over-reliance on magic is developed strongly through the entire book. In The Tale of the Three Brothers, the brash approach of using magic to artificially extend one’s life quickly brings demise to two eldest brothers, the very emblems of hubris. The Fountain of Fair Fortune portrays this moral somewhat more neatly, the four protagonists seek a magical fountain which will remedy all their problems, easing them into the neat life. In the end, however, the magic was inside them all along, and their own mundane actions with each other solved their problems.

Rowling’s writing comes back again in force, treating the fan of the series to another installment of magical adventure and wonder. To say nothing of the book’s own value, in the same vein as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages, Rowling uses her tremendous popularity and devoted fanbase to generate a large sum of money for charity, with much of the proceeds from the publication of this book going to support children in the United Kingdom. Good feelings aside, The Tales of Beedle the Bard is an enjoyable slim volume of light reading.

Would I recommend The Tales of Beedle the Bard? Yes

Score: 3.7/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? Yes.

-Mr. Cheddar

The Vanishing Hitchhiker

The Vanishing Hitchhiker Jan Brunvand 208pp.

Jan Brunvand's lively book, The Vanishing Hitchhiker is an intriguing overview of American folklore and superstition. Brunvand arranges his book around iconic American bits of folklore, the cement-filled car and the eponymous vanishing hitchhiker stand out as particularly worthwhile examples. The most interesting aspect of The Vanishing Hitchhiker is following the development of these stories as Brunvand gives us a wide variety of tellings from around the country and in different times.

The Vanishing Hitchhiker is wonderfully written, Brunvand works magic on two fronts. In the first, his own prose, framing the narratives he tells to the reader is polished and well-written. Beyond that, his careful re-creations of the folk legends he focuses on are entertaining and intriguing. Brunvand’s commentary, while frequently kept to the background of the writing, is incisive. While focusing on the stories as interesting objects of study in their own right,  The Vanishing Hitchhiker works the social conditions which led to the creation of these stories into the text.

This focus on social conditions is the highlight of the book, Brunvand’s interest in the people who tell these stories, these are paramount in the text. At the end of the book there is an introductory essay to using the stories people tell to gain an understanding of the people who tell them. This displays Brunvand’s work with narrative wonderfully. Much like in The Study of American Folklore, Brunvand’s focus on narrative is intriguing. (Also like The Study of American Folklore, Brunvand’s dismissal of belief is somewhat off-putting.)

Reading The Vanishing Hitchhiker was a treat, it is a smooth, enjoyable book, driving down a winding road of stories developed largely over the automobile age. In the presentation of the stories, the enjoyment of watching a story develop over time and respond to different cultural trends and fears of new threats, real or perceived, is tremendously worthwhile. There is an undercurrent of stories, just outside of the mainstream which Brunvand happily presents, tracing their course through the path unbeaten, the side roads, and the endless homogeneity of suburbia.

Would I recommend The Vanishing Hitchhiker? Yes.

Score 4.1/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? Yes.

-Mr. Cheddar

Company of Pilgrims

Company of Pilgrims James A. Gittings 79pp.

James Gittings’ Company of Pilgrims is a tidy collection of poetry produced in celebration for the bicentennial of the Presbyterian Church. Gittings’ writes from a very rural viewpoint, unapologetically working his own personal history and sense of place into the text. Company of Pilgrims is primarily a collection of poetry, but it is social history as well. The focus shifts from the history of the Presbyterian church, to the Vietnam war, to the intentionally rustic life of Appalachia.

Gittings puts his strongest writing at the beginning of the book, in a long poem weaving the history of the Presbyterian Church with the spread of American settlers across the continent. Each section of the poem opens with a selection from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, lovingly reproduced in the original language. In addition, Gittings works his own life into the poem, carefully weaving memories into the history of the church.

In his poems, Gittings is clear-spoken to a fault. His work is sparsely dotted with metaphor and complex imagery, choosing instead to direct its focus on simple facts out of his life and the history of the Presbyterian church. There is an air in these poems, almost a longing to elevate the poet’s life into the realm of art. But this term is not precisely accurate. If Gittings wanted so desperately to bring his life up, his writing would have worked in equally elevated language. Instead, Gittings writes in plainspeak, no metaphorical or artistic tricks. It is this comfort which dominates the work, sliding Gittings’ poetry and life into a higher register than it seems at first.

I wanted to like Company of Pilgrims more than I did. The writing flows well, clearly the result of a well-honed poetic talent, but it seems to be missing some critical element. Gittings drive to portray his church and his life simply work to make the book come together in a carefully calculated way, but I found myself wanting more from it. Gittings’ plainspeak is well-wrought, but the book needs the elevation it lacks. The verse is well-crafted, just not quite worked out in the way that I desired.

Would I recommend Company of Pilgrims? No.

Score: 3.2/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? No, I won’t.

-Mr. Cheddar

Where the West Ends

Where the West Ends  Michael J. Totten 268 pp.

Michael J. Totten’s Where the West Ends is a collection of travel essays across the near east. Totten is clearly fascinated by the interplay of cultures on the border between the explicitly western European countries of continental Europe and the cultural sphere of Islam extended by the Ottoman empire. Specifically, Totten travels through three regions: Northern Iraq, the Balkans, and Georgia.

I was briefly put off by Totten’s emphasis on the otherness of the cultures in which he swas travelling, but quickly came around to appreciate his style. Yes, he does portray these cultures as alien to an American, but it quickly becomes apparent that he has subverted this in a meaningful way. Where the differences in culture are highlighted, it is not done so in order to set them aside as merely a strange group of countries on the fringe of “western” territory, but to emphasize the experience of an American traveller in a new land.

Totten’s charisma throughout the essays is infectious. His journeys are all by-the-seat-of-his-pants affairs, with a vague plan sketched out in advance which quickly falls to pieces in the face of new sights to see. Through these trips Totten is careful to maintain a lingering sense of danger in the back of the reader’s mind. This danger reaches its zenith in Georgia as Totten gallivants around the bleak, ruined countryside in the face of a Russian incursion. The Georgia essay did its work for Totten’s book as cultural study in a backhanded manner. Russia, not Georgia, is the focal point of this essay.

During Totten’s time in Georgia, the Russian army had pushed its way deep into Georgia, nearly cutting the country in half. The trembling emotions nearing apathy of the local population were particularly effective here. Reading this essay as an American, I felt a voice in my head asking, “If you know the Russian’s will come, why not make preparations to defend yourselves?” Totten answers this cleanly- the thought of Georgia fighting off the vastly superior Russian military is romanticism and nothing more. His portrayal of the Russian advance is carefully done- it happened, almost without resistance, and now that it has happened, it is the case. And that’s that. 

Lingering racial tensions form the core of the danger Totten focuses on in the first two sections of the book. In Iraq and Turkey, the Kurds are trustworthy and helpful, welcoming to the hapless American travelers. They are completely contrasted against the often hostile and officious Turks. In the Balkans, Totten is constantly nervous driving around in a car with Bosnian license plates outside of Bosnia. Lastly in Georgia, the overwhelming threat of the Russian army directly across the border pressures the locals with an air of lingering authority, despite the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Where the West Ends was a very enjoyable book. After I got used to Totten’s writing, it was a very easy and enjoyable read. I enjoyed being taken along on a loosely planned adventure around the fringes of the west, narrowly avoiding danger and unfortunate run-ins with governments and local populations.

Would I recommend Where the West Ends? Yes.

Score: 3.9/5

Would I keep this on my bookshelf? Yes.