Midnight (W)rite ~ Book reviews and other curiosities

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Exhalation by Ted Chang

Digital pets, AI, and societal perspectives There is a lot to unpack in these complex speculative science fiction stories In this collection of short stories, the author visits themes of time travel, the future, and artificial intelligence, among others. It took me a few stories to warm up to the the writing style, which at first felt a little technical and cold (come to find out, the author is a technical writer) – but by the time I got to the story about self-aware online digital creatures (this story reminded me of the 1990s Tamagotchi digital pets my kids had) I was completely hooked. Each somewhat unsettling story is a well-thought-out idea on where the future may take us. The writing is nuanced and complex. I also enjoyed the author's notes at the end that explained where the ideas came from for each of the stories. Although there were a few stories that were extreme standouts for me (the one on life-logs and how the written word changes our societal perspectives was amazing,...

Brown Dog by Jim Harrison

The character of Brown Dog is the Upper Peninsula of Michigan's Siddhartha. Brown Dog is always on the lookout for a good fishing river, a night of carnal pleasure, or an odd job that pays enough to buy a six-pack. He is happiest when he is in the woods of Michigan and flying under society's radar. He is a flawed every-man with simple tastes and a pure heart whose bare-knuckled fighting skills, occasional poor judgment, and adherence to his own set of rules rather than the law of the land often land him in one sort of trouble or another. He does his very best to take care of those who can't take care of themselves, even when he's having a hard time meeting his own needs. This book collects all of the various Brown Dog novellas into one (along with one new B.D. novella) so lovers of Brown Dog can immerse themselves in his off-kilter hero's journey. I am so fond of the character of Brown Dog. As someone who has lived in and has strong memories of the U.P., I ...

Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories by Ghassan Kanafani

This collection of stories is deep with understanding about how war tears at the hearts, minds, and physical bodies of regular citizens not involved with the policies or the decision making that set one country to battle against another. It consists of a novella and a handful of very brief stories that involve attempts to cross a closed border, forced re-locations of families, a few stories that have a strong, emotional father-son dynamic, and an epistolary piece by a character who has the means to flee Gaza for the United States, but is having second thoughts. They address the universal suffering of war and conflict. The sad and tragic nature of the stories were brought home to me even more by the fact that the author, Kanafani, was killed in a car bomb explosion in Beirut when he was 36 years old. Although each story was written with beautiful, subtle language and was impactful, the ones that stood out for me were The Land of Sad Oranges, A Hand in the Grave, and Letter...

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

In Brisbane, Australia, a passenger ship docks and the passengers disembark and disburse. A young girl of 4 is discovered on the docks by the wharf master, alone, sitting on a s mall suitcase. She doesn't know her name or where she is from. The wharf master takes her home and when, after several days, no inquiries are made about her, he and his wife decide to call her Nell and keep her as their own. The Forgotten Garden is the story of Nell's life, with the mystery of her family origins at its center. The story moves back and forth between the early 1900s, the 1970s, and 2005, and incorporates Nell's ancestors and descendants into the story as the mystery slowly unfolds. It is a dark, gothic tale full of family secrets with themes of enchantment and faerie tales woven throughout. I really liked the the character of Cassandra, Nell's granddaughter, and her time spent at the atmospheric Cliff Cottage on the edge of the sea.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

M rs. Dalloway takes place over the course of a single day in the mid 1920s during which the title character is planning for a party that she is hosting that evening. The point of view passes from Mrs. Dalloway to other characters in a round-robin fashion, during which the reader has access to that person's inner monologue, shared in a style that's close to stream-of-consciousness. Access to the characters' thoughts and memories allows the reader to know what is in the mind of not only Mrs. Dalloway, but also her family, future attendees of her evening party, and a husband and wife who are struggling with severe “shell-shock” being experienced by the war veteran husband, a condition we would now call PTSD. Being privy to the perspectives of so many characters who have opinions about the main character also gives the reader an interesting 360-degree view of Mrs. Dalloway. The way Virginia Woolf writes the internal, anguished monologues of her characters is remarkable....

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

In this Pen Hemingway-winning novel by NoViolet Bulawayo, 10-year-old Darling and her friends live in a small village made up of shacks lived in by families who were forcibly ejected from their homes by developers with bulldozers who razed their houses to the ground. The children make frequent treks to nearby affluent neighborhoods, taking fruit from the trees in front of the homes in order to ward off hunger. They make up games to keep themselves occupied and witness some terrible things, sharing the stories from a child's perspective. Eventually, Darling is sent to live with her aunt and her aunt's family in Detroit and she needs to learn new adaptive skills to survive in this place that has plenty of food, but is strange and filled with other challenges. The story contains heavy, heartrending events told with innocent playfulness from a child's, and then teenager's, perspective. I was completely engaged by the language, which pulls the reader in and brings t...