Book Review - Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim

Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim

Brian Lackey, age of eight, is at his little league game one minute, and the next thing he knows, he’s in a crawl space under the stairs at his home. He lost five hours that he can’t account for. Years later, through a series of events, he begins to believe he was abducted by aliens during those five hours. He begins a search to find out exactly what happened to him, and he finds that Neil McCormick is the key to unlock his mystery. Neil McCormick is a teenaged male hustler, who played on the same little league team as Brain.
This novel presents two story lines about two boys who experience a series deeply disturbing events. The boys are affected in radically different ways, and both are driven in unimaginable opposite directions. But these two paths, born of the same horror, must converge at some future point in order for these boys to confront their past. The two story lines are recounted in the first person by each boy. The alternating perspectives of the boys drive home the sense of how alone they are, and that they can’t share their experience with anybody but each other.

Mysterious Skin is not a story for the morally squeamish. It deals intelligently with a subject not often encountered in literature. It presents graphic sex scenes which could disturb the faint of heart, but they are needed to present the greater theme of people victimized by situations out of their control, and how that damage expresses itself in later life.

The characters are chillingly believable. The descriptions are often intimate and beautiful. I must say that this is one of the few times I’ve enjoyed the movie more than the book, and I think that is because I waded through a lot of description that didn’t add much to the story, where as the movie cut all that out.
Another issue I had with the story is that there are more narrators than the two boys. The boys are the central narrators, but there are others, done in first person, which seem more annoying than confusing. My feeling was I wanted to get the story from the boys, and the other got in the way. Those minor issues aside, I do highly recommend this disturbing, thought-provoking, and worthwhile read.

Book Review of The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett



While walking her pack of Corgis around the grounds of Windsor Palace, the Queen of England sees something she has not seen before, a bookmobile parked outside the kitchen door. She investigates to find that the bookmobile comes every Wednesday afternoon, and one of her kitchen staff, Norman Seakin, is an avid reader. Norman’s interest in books leans towards English gay writers, although he seems well versed in all literature. The Queen doesn’t read books, being too busy with reading reports and conducting audiences with heads of state and such, but as an act of kindness, she lets Norman select a novel for her to check out.
The queen discovers that reading is a joy, and the next Wednesday she consults Norman on another selection.
As the queen is drawn into the world of literature, book by book, life at the palace begins to change. She begins to cut audiences short, even with her own Prime Minister, so she can have more time to read. She begins showing up late for events, having forgotten the time because she was lost in her book. She tries to discuss literature with everyone around her but finds that nobody reads books. She promotes Norman from kitchen help to literary consultant, so they can spend hours each day discussing books. Norman leads the queen on a journey through E. M. Forester, Nancy Mitford, Emily Dickenson, Jane Austin, Ian McEwan, Proust and many others. As the Queen’s day to day obligations continue to suffer, the Royal Secretary, the Prime Minister, and others begin to plot how they can rid the palace of Norman so the Queen can get back to her normal proficient self. Will they succeed or will their plotting backfire?

I had known of Alan Bennett’s writing talent from his success with The History Boys and The Madness of King George. But I had not read anything by him before this.

This novella is a sheer delight: smart, funny, and keeps the reader fully engaged throughout. It paints an affectionate portrait of the Queen and makes you want to curl up in front of a fire and discuss Proust with her. It is a simple plot, but one that will delight you and surprise you in the end. Underneath this simple, humorous story, is a meditation on the merits and limitations of reading, and how books can soften, or at least alter, your life and those around you.
If you enjoy tight prose, interesting characters, British humor, and the power of books, do yourself a huge favor and read this novella. But beware: you just might be drawn down the same path as the Queen, and then where will you be?

Book Review of Mahu Surfer by Neil Plakcy

Mahu Surfer by Neil Plakcy

Kimo Kanapa’aka is a detective working on the island of Oahu in Hawaii and has recently been outed on television by his brother, who works for the local station. The Honolulu police chief decides to use Kimo’s outing as an opportunity to send Kimo undercover to investigate the surfers, and three murders on the north shore near Pipeline. Kimo is the perfect candidate since he was a competitive surfer before joining the force. The fact that he’s been outed so publicly provides the chief an opportunity to report that Kimo has left the force due to pressures regarding his sexuality.
Kimo wants to use this case as a way to regain respectability with his fellow officers, but once he begins to infiltrate the close-knit surfer community, he finds he must immerse himself in the north shore’s gay enclave in order to uncover information. Once he gets tangled within the gay web, he finds himself falling deeper and deeper into trouble, both in terms of the case and his personal life.

The story is a glimpse into a sometimes funny, sometimes sexy, sometimes sad struggle of a gay man trying to prove himself in the straight dominated field of law enforcement, while solving a murder case. Watching Kimo juggle his career aspirations, his family obligations, and his sexual needs felt very real. Although I’m not a fan of detective stories, the ending did not particularly surprise me. I found this read rather interesting because I could identify with Kimo’s struggle to blend his sexuality into his professional and family life. It was the main character, rather than the plot, that kept me turning pages.
Being a traveler, I did have one regret: I was hoping that the story would give me more of a feel for life on the islands, and there was some description of the landscape and the culture, but it came in little nibbles, certainly not enough to make a full meal. However, if you like a well written detective story, and the idea of a dark skinned, hunky, Hawaiian surfer snapping the cuffs on you ups you heart rate, then by all means, this will be an enjoyable read.