Book Report Time Again

I love that I post this shit with the belief that no one wil read it!!! Seriously. It's been a very freeing experience! I actually love blogging now!

Song of the Moment: REMEMBER? from the original Cast recording of A Little Night Music.

SNAP OUT OF IT by Ilene Segalove

UGH!

This is a book to give your worst enemies. Better hope they don’t throw it back at you as you flee!

This moronic piece of New Age fluff possessed 101 of the stupidest ways to supposedly reawaken your creativity. Like kicking the air. Or humming the vowel sounds. Not kidding. Wish I was.

In between these nuggets of corn are several pointless, granola-nut-crunch anecdotes. Basically, every time a beetle farts, the author realizes how we are all connected, or shit like that.

Only read this if you really, really hate yourself. I read it; I am your Jesus when it comes to this book, as I have already paid for your sins.

And a long one but I think it deserves it.

WAS by Geoff Ryman

This is a book I read a few years ago. At the time, I thought it was fantastic enough to keep a paperback version of. Now, even though I still consider it a great book, a bit of the shine has worn off. Since Was was published in 1996, a few novels have since come along and done a better job at what Ryman was trying to do. (Michael Cunningham’s exquisite Pulitzer Prize winning book The Hours pops to mind almost immediately as being more successful.)

Ryman takes a well-known story and riffs on it. His is The Wizard of OZ, the book as well as the movie. Part of his story is a fiction of the little orphan girl who inspired L. Frank Baum’s book. Part of the tale is a thread somewhat based on facts about Judy Garland’s upbringing. And the final part is a fictional story of an AIDS-stricken actor in the 1990s obsessed with the OZ mythology.

Essentially, the structure is all there for a fascinating exploration of the OZ story that has become pure American folk tale. Ryman, however, doesn’t successfully tie all these parts together tightly enough. He chooses to concentrate on the childhoods of the “real” Dorothy, of Garland, and of the actor. His premise is that these three children each had their childhoods and imaginations robbed of them. Ryman seems to hint at the idea that we may all have suffered soemthing like this.

The smallish problem with the book is that so many things are left without closure. We do not know how the Kansas Dorothy spent the largest portion of her life. There is little detail on author Baum. Furthermore, Judy Garland’s childhood and her disappointing relationship with her dad and later her mother are covered, but what of her own relationship with her children as well as her ugly demise?

Essentially, I understand why Ryman wrote his book this way; too much denouncement would seem overwhelming and may take away from the purity of his theme. Still, the author’s thematic focus is why these loose ends do stand out so vividly. In truth, the problem with this book is in its timing. Ryman has written a very good book (even with its lack of closure), but isn’t as clever, it’s characters aren’t as human and engaging, and it isn’t as compactly encompassing as The Hours.


As a side note, I hear WAS (this book) is being made into a musical. I can't find a lot of detail on the internet though. I think this book would make a damn good musical if they drop the Judy part and just stick to the real Dorothy and the AIDS-actor obsessed with finding out about her. Wouldn't it be interested to have this and Wicked both on Broadway at the same time? It would certainly mark without a doubt the effect that the OZ myth has had on the American psyche!