Graphic Novel Review: The Sandman Volume 4- Season of Mists

 

The Sandman Volume 4: Season of Mists 

* Warning: This review, like all my reviews, contains spoilers.  In fact, I talk about the big reveals and the ending in detail so if you don't want anything ruined don't read this.

This was my forth encounter with the masterfully created Sandman and it has been the best encounter yet.  The plot is on par with the first volume which introduced us to Morpheus and provided a decent amount of his background and the other characters here are the most fascinating I've seen so far.

It begins with a meeting of the Endless and we get to see Morpheus' interactions with the other members of his family- Death (whom we've seen in previous volumes and know that Morpheus is closest to), Desire, Delirium, Despair and for the first time Destiny who is so intriguing that I could happily read volumes upon volumes on just him and the endless tales contained in that book of his.  It's a brief encounter but it wets the appetite so well that one can't help but pray that the upcoming volumes of the series will go into a lot more details about these fascinating characters.

Anyway, back to the plot: Death confronts her brother about an action he took ten thousand years ago in which he sentenced an ex-girlfriend of his to an eternity in hell (full story of the worst break-up ever contained in volume 2).  After telling him that it was a pretty rotten thing to do he concludes he's gotta get her out of there so off to hell he goes.

The stakes are high as the last time he was there (Volume 1) he had an encounter with a demon that lead to him showing off a bit and angering Lucifer so he goes in expecting to find a seriously pissed off Satan waiting for him.  He is shocked to find Hell all but empty and Lucifer closing all the gates explaining that he's done with the whole thing.  Why?  Well, seems he didn't really like the role that his creator put him in and after so much time was tired of it all so he decided to turn in his wings and try spending some time on earth, taking a vacation from the whole thing.  Why Dream coming to spring his ex from the eternal slammer catalyzes this departure I couldn't say, but Destiny seems to know.  Lucifer hands Dream the key to hell before his departure, leaving our MC with a lot more than he bargained for.

Demons, Fairies, Order and Chaos, Odin and his sons and a pair of angels from heaven come knocking on his door as soon as he's arrived back in the dreaming (his kingdom) pursuing various goals, most surrounding a quest to obtain the key and use it for their own ends.  There's never been a piece of real estate more sought after and the stakes are pretty high, especially since one of the demons kidnapped the ex-girlfriend Dream had sought in the first place.

A banquet is held and then Dream invites each visitor to talk with him one on one plead their case.  These characters come from a pantheon of myths, archaic scriptures, and other comics and point to so many other series I couldn't name them all.  Each one is pretty fascinating in their own right and I found myself feeling poorly read for having little to no prior knowledge of them- but I get the feeling someone well-versed in mythology would be giddy with all the references.

A free-standing chapter shows the devastating consequences of hell's now homeless damned returning to earth and provides us with the title of this tome by way of the mist that covers everything with all these spirits roaming around wreaking havoc on the living and giving Death so much work she can't keep up with it. I found myself wanting more detail about this particular element of things and I hope future volumes will at least reference it.

Back in the dreaming Morpheus is sparred the ultimate decision, thankfully for him, when the angels observing everything get an order from the almighty to take over in Lucifer's place since he wants people from his organization to continue running things.  A final encounter with the demon who kidnapped Dream's ex proves anticlimactic and he has a final goodbye with her during which we find out that she was kept prisoner not by his will but by the same internal belief that kept all the other souls there: the idea that they deserve it.

From a theological perspective this was the most fascinating concept of the whole thing- seeing Lucifer as a rather simple angel waiting for his creator to allow him to leave rather than an all-powerful tyrant happily torturing the occupants of his kingdom and seeking out souls "like a fishwife come market day" as he explains it.  The chapter in which Lucifer tells of his downfall and time in hell is by far the best one of the entire volume and I find myself seriously thinking about looking into the Lucifer series once I'm done with this one.

The last chapter wraps things up with the demons and the damned returning to hell to resume things as they were but finding that the new sheriffs in town run things a bit differently than their previous landlord.  The implications of the new system of pain as a payment for redemption are staggering and leave one wanting a follow up as to how this new system will be working ten thousand years from now.  And Lucifer's last shot is sort-of staggering- the devil's due never looked so good.

All in all, this may be my favorite volume of one of the most amazing series I've ever read.  I'm thrilled to pieces that he returned to a more traditional novel format after the short stories of the previous volume and I can't wait to read the next one.  In fact, I'm starting it right now.

Book Review: Stern Men

Stern Men

*Disclaimer: As always, this review contains spoilers so if you want to read this novel with bated breath don't read this review.  (Not that this is that kind-of book anyway, but just in case.)

Anyone who follows this blog knows that I am a huge fan of Elizabeth Gilbert which is why it pains me to say that I really, genuinely did not like this book.  I might go so far as to say that I hated it.

It isn't because her writing was sub-par in any way.  Gilbert shows the same astounding gift for dialogue and capturing the essence of real-life people that I first encountered in Pilgrims (her collection of short stories which I read prior to this) and I would still recommend her to anyone who was looking for a good example of writing strikingly real characters or dialogue.  She still does an amazing job of capturing the complexities of human relationships.  And she still shows the same flair for creating atmosphere with setting and she devotes more time to that in this book than pretty much anything else.  In fact, a much more accurate description of this book would be to call it a story of two islands and their people rather than a love story or even a coming-of-age story which is how most reviews describe it.

Where the book fails, however, is in the story itself.  Mainly, it's too damned short.  When I was still in the midst of reading this a friend asked me how long it was.  I told him it was a little under three hundred pages.  He commented on it being a rather short book and I realized that I hadn't really thought about it before then.  At the time, it didn't worry me.  That was until I finished a chapter ending in a huge development and then beheld the word "Epilogue" on the next page.  It hit me like a smack in the face.

And then as I read through that last chapter I was horrified to find that she had skipped over six years following the dramatic development in the previous pages and jumped straight to the (albeit heartwarming) conclusion of the story.  So far as the story arc goes she pretty much completely skipped over the climax and jumped right into the resolution.  I was shocked when I realized this.  And, to put it mildly, I was pissed.

"What the hell?  Did she not know how to write out that confrontation?  Did she write it but then scrap it for some reason?  Why the hell would she do that?"  I don't know the answers to any of these questions nor to the countless others that come up as she describes where all the characters are at six years later- because she didn't write them.

I'm not saying that you can't skip time in a story.  Heck, there's nine years between the second and third chapters and that didn't phase me at all.  What I am saying is that when the main character is revealed to have a huge life change in the works and her father has just learned this shocking revelation you don't skip over what happens next. 

What's more, the resolution, at least so far as the love story, doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense.  I mean, the main character meets this guy, they have a total of two relatively awkward conversations before walking off into the woods and screwing like bunnies (in one of the most graphic and out-of place sex scenes ever written, by the way).  The adults in charge are pretty pissed and one is expressly forbade to see the other so that by the time of that big revelation they haven't seen each other or spoken for about five months.  Then, in the epilogue six years later, they apparently have one of the happiest marriages on the planet even though the only thing they seem to do together is screw like bunnies.  I'm sorry, but great sex does not a miraculous relationship make.  And calling this book a love story because of that is just straight-up ridiculous.

And if you're in it for the other reasons- those complex relationships between the occupants of these two islands, their long history of distrust and warring over lobster fishing territory, their complex and somewhat fascinating way of self-governing and their chosen lifestyle which is so vastly different from the mainland- you'll still be disappointed.  Gilbert has the main character do something for the community which every single flippin' character in the book repeatedly says would never, ever happen and provides virtually no explanation as to how she does it.  Is she just magic?  What on earth did she say?  How could she possibly get them all to agree to that?  Explaining it all away by saying that because she was an accepted insider is not a satisfying end.

Like I said, I was pissed.  Still am, in fact (I'm sure you can tell).  I have absolutely no idea what purpose that giant skip forward served other than to ruin what seemed like it could have been a really good story.  And while this is no way detracts from my love of her other works it will make me wait a while before I pick up her new novel.

Book Review: Into The Wild

 

Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer

I picked up this book because I had seen the movie a few years back.  It was a good movie.  But the book, in addition to being far better, is a completely different experience altogether.

This is a non-fiction account of a dangerously idealistic young man by the name of Christopher McCandless who goes out into the wild (thus the title) in order to find/redefine himself.  He has an intense love affair with nature while traveling across the country and forms the goal of proving himself by living off the land in the wilds of Alaska.  Like so many others on similar life-altering quests his ultimately proves fatal and despite getting a decent look at the person in the movie I was ultimately left feeling the same emotions most of the individuals who first read of the events felt: sadness and anger.

It was originally published in Outside magazine and the author, Jon Krakauer, received a backlash of angry letters and missives expressing outrage at the young boy's carelessness in taking on such a daunting outing without any former training or experience.  People called him stupid, naive and woefully misguided for thinking he could survive and expressed sentiments akin to "good riddance" as if he were a candidate for a Darwin Award.

While I wasn't quite as angry as the readers of the article I was ultimately dismissive at the end of the movie.  I think it was a defense mechanism protecting me from feeling too much sadness.  I had no such defenses to protect me from this book and the reason for that is because of the way Krakauer peels away the layers of the story. 

The first few chapters are rather straightforward and seem to be the primary source material for the movie.   Krakauer starts off with accounts from individuals who met the young man throughout his travels- everyone from those who picked him up while he was hitchhiking across country to those he formed rather close relationships with while working spare jobs or staying put at different locals for a while.  He included all the letters, postcards and other missives McCandless exchanged with these folks and every page of it is deeply personal, almost intrusively so.  It's one of the things that makes the book so disarming.

But more than that, it's clear that these people- each and every one of them- was captivated by this young man.  McCandless had a bigger impact on their lives during the brief time they shared than so many relationships we take for granted.  Reading the things these people had to say about him, the relationships they had with him, the deep hole which he filled and then left empty makes one like the protagonist.  Perhaps that's why the first response is anger when remembering how the story ends.

This is one of many areas in which Krakauer's writing itself shines.  Each one of these individuals has enough details to make them real.  He doesn't write paragraphs describing any of them, he gives you a snapshot of his meetings with them.  An example would explain this better than I can.  In describing his interaction with an elderly gentleman who became particularly fond of McCandless he writes:

"God, he was a smart kid," the old man rasps in a barely audible voice.  He directs his gaze at a patch of sand between his feet as he makes this declaration; then he stops talking.  Bending swiftly from the waist, he wipes some imaginary dirt from his pant leg.  His ancient joints crack loudly in the awkward silence."

Stunning, right?

Krakauer then goes on to discuss why McCandless did what he did, and it's here that the similarities between the book and the movie end.  The movie follows a linear timeline of McCandless beginning with his graduation from college and departure out west and following him to his death in the Alaskan wilderness.  His journal entries are the main anchor for the storyline and it gives the viewer a feeling like McCandless himself is narrating.  The book, on the other hand, begins with the account of a man who picked  McCandless up while hitchhiking into Alaska and then jumps back in time to discuss how he got there.  It's very clear that Krakauer is the narrator and we connect with him as a journalist of sorts who is trying to piece everything together.  And while the movie offers no explanation for McCandless' actions the book spends the bulk of the narrative doing just that.

He starts off with a sort-of sociological perspective looking at McCandless side by side with other men who seemed to share his passion and his fate.  There are two accounts of men, at various points in time, who also went out in the Alaska wilderness.  One was a mountaineer who seemed driven by a troubled relationship with his father and a need to leave a larger legacy than he'd had.  One was a man who seemed far too simpleminded to make it as long as he did in life: a simple failure to plan a pick-up led to his demise.  The final case is the most striking and it's clear that Krakauer planned it to be.  It's the story of a young man similar in age to McCandless who expressed the same ideals and beliefs about how life is to be lived and left just as gaping a hole in the lives of his family and those who knew him.  As interesting as I found all of this to be, it pales in comparison to the story of the McCandless family themselves.

The descriptions of Billie and Walt, the boys parents, and his sister, Carine, are the most heartbreaking of the book.  And nothing is sparred in the narrative.  Krakauer goes into great detail about his life growing up, the observations those who knew him made, and the family secret which ultimately drove him to sever all ties with his family.  The bravery these people display in allowing their lives to be laid bare in this book is nothing short of astounding and it goes a long way to explaining this boy's psyche and motivation for what he did.

There's another portion that I just have to share with you, it's too devastating and pure to leave out:

"As she studies the pictures, she breaks down from time to time, weeping as only a mother who has outlived a child can weep, betraying a sense of loss so huge and irreparable that the mind balks at taking its measure.  Such bereavement, witnessed at close range, makes even the most eloquent apologia for high-risk activities ring fatuous and hollow."

Like I said, Krakauer blew me away and I suspect I will be checking out some of his other works in the future.

The last section of the book is Krakauer's personal story which he uses as a parallel to explain McCandless' actions.  Like McCandless, Krakauer struggled in his relationship with his father and this turmoil led him, he reflects, to perform a number of activities as a rebellion against (but secretly desperate plea for) his father.  Like McCandless, he is enamored with nature and his particular method of experiencing it was by climbing mountains.  Like McCandless, this aspect of his personality led him to Alaska where he attempted to scale the north face of a mountain called the Devil's Thumb- an action that, like McCandless', could have easily proved fatal.

Krakauer dives into the details of his own personal experience on this mountain as an explanation for the seemingly idiotic actions that so many adolescents struggling to identify themselves as adults take.  It isn't cockiness, he explains, nor is it simple rebellion against all of the people who may say that whatever foolhardy endeavor they've set out to achieve is impossible.  Instead, he recalls from his own experience, it is a deep lack of understanding of the permanent nature of death and the limitless effects that one's actions have on the world.  I think it was this portion of the book that I resonated with most.  My teenage years, thankfully, are long behind me but I admit that I had glimpses of the overpowering emotions that I too experienced during that time in my life.  And his description of it, with his talent for wording, made me appreciate that aspect of the protagonist's psyche on a much deeper level than I had before.

Krakauer states that he himself could have easily ended up just like McCandless and in the end it was only luck that saved him.  And he argues that it was only a bad streak of the same amorphous influence that ultimately killed McCandless.

There were a lot of theories about what exactly caused McCandless to die- some of which Krakauer himself originally posited.  In the last chapter he explains each of these one by one and then knocks each one of them down with new research he uncovered after the publication of the original article.  I think it's here that Krakauer shows the depth of his respect for the subject of his writing- his refusal to accept the easy answer, his determination to look into every single aspect of his death and his portrayal of himself as someone who could have just as easily succumbed to the same fate all prove unequivocally that McCandless was far more than just a story to Krakauer and I think that's why in the end he is far more than just a story to us.

All in all I was extremely surprised by this book.  It went in a much different direction, explored unexpected avenues and ultimately affected me on a much deeper level than I was prepared for.  If you're looking for good non-fiction I can't recommend it highly enough.

Graphic Novel Review: The Sandman Volume 2: The Doll's House

Important links: Neil Gaiman's Site and info on the series and this volume

"We have seen stranger things in dreams; and fictions are merely frozen dreams, linked images with some semblance of structure.  They are not to be trusted, no more than the people who create them."

That's the opening of this volume, placing you smack-dab in the middle of this strange, sometimes chaotic, but always uncertain realm of dreams.  It's clear from that opening that Neil wants us on our toes the whole time, warning us that it would be foolish to trust anything we see within the pages that follow.

Those pages make one glad for such a warning as from the get go we find ourselves disoriented.  After a recap of the events of the last volume, told to us by a mysterious figure who fills us with intrigue, we are suddenly thrown into the deserts of Africa where tribes still carry out coming of age rituals.  One of those rituals is a story- one so valuable that it is only ever heard once and only ever told once.  And it reveals the back story of a character we saw ever so briefly in the last volume- once consigned to hell for reasons we learn of now.

And then, much like the last volume, we are once again thrown into a series of stories- all connected, but all different.  Everything from a man made immortal simply so that one of the endless can have someone to talk to, to a serial killer convention, to nightmares and dreamscapes misplaced from the realm they belong in, to a house full of lost souls all looking for something beyond their grasp.  Each new character is as strange and captivating as the last and we find ourselves unable to get a firm footing with every new introduction.

It begins to reveal a little more about our title character, Dream, and brings out other layers of him.  As much respect as he does appear to have for the mortals whose dreams he reigns over he has other characteristics which challenge one's adoration of him: he is prideful and vengeful.  He carries out certain deeds which can irrevocably alter lives without second thought.  He ignores the suffering caused by these deeds and makes declarations of other deeds to come.  I can't say he's becoming more three dimensional as I imagine that by the time this series ends he will be fleshed out in far more than just three dimensions.  Unbound by the limits of time, space or meaning we struggle to grasp who he is with every new revelation about him.  And we left in a state of constantly wanting to learn more.

On the technical side, the dream-like quality of this work exists beyond the events of the story.  The panels don't follow a grid- they change shape and layout with almost every page and sometimes it's very hard to follow the progression of words as the pictures swirl around the pages and disorient you.  And those words themselves are so dream-like it can challenge one's perception, as it's meant to.

"we're just dolls.  We don't have a clue what's really going down, we just kid ourselves that we're in control of our lives while a paper's thickness away things that would drive us mad if we thought about them for too long play with us"

Try reading that in an eerily quiet office with no one else around and tell me it doesn't screw with your head.  And yet, you want to read more, don't you?  Learn more about those things, those beings who could drive you mad if you think about them for too long.  Dive further into the abyss, as it were.  As trippy and disconcerting as this boundless world is it's one that you can't help but want to explore, want to learn more about, want to lose yourself in.  (And getting lost in there is so easy to do.)

In the end I'm left with the same feeling I had at the end of the last volume, and the same question.  Dazed, and wanting to know where the next one will take me.  Needless to say, volume three is next on my list.

Graphic Novel Review: The Sandman Volume 1: Preludes & Nocturnes

I've been hearing about this series for years.  My boyfriend (who is an avid comic reader) has told me that he's heard it lauded as one of the greatest series of all time.  Plus, Neil Gaiman is consistently spoken about as an utterly fantastic writer by everyone who I tend to bump into on the intarwebs.  In other words: this series' reputation preceded it.

Though I'm still digesting it I'm fairly confident that my opinion of this will ultimately be full of just as much love and praise as others have for it.  Gaiman's writing was reminiscent of very old stories with language you'd expect to find in legends and fables and the artwork often reminded me of artists I've been exposed to in series like Crossed.  Both the words and images are haunting and could most definitely give you nightmares if you read them right before bed.

I loved this first story line- Dream is mistakenly captured by an occultist who set out to capture his older sister, death, and imprisoned for 70 years.  The first story recalls what happens to people during that time and how Dream finally escapes.  The remaining stories follow dream as he tracks down the tools of his trade which were stolen from him upon his capture- his famous bag of sand, his helm and his ruby dreamstone.  His quest takes him to hell and back again and along the way he encounters characters at once familiar and brand new.

Cain and Abel- the brothers of biblical fame- are given new faces as occupants of dreamworld and keepers of stories.  The weird sisters of Shakespearean fame guide him to the the places where he may seek out his tools.  John Constantine, Lucifer himself, a host of demons and Dr. Destiny of DC comics are all here bringing with them references to their full canon and reminding anyone well versed in those canons of things they have already read, seen or encountered.

It's a little overwhelming, honestly.  As if someone took all of your comics, fables, myths, biblical stories and occult songs and stuck them into a blender.  The resulting words and images are so familiar it leaves you thinking you should go back and re-read (or read for the first time) so many stories that you could be kept busy in your library for years.

Having not read much of DC myself a lot of this was mostly new to me: I've only seen Constantine in the movie of the same title and I don't know the storyline of Dr. Destiny and Morpheus, so their battle was new to me here.  But these character's stories are so effortlessly intertwined with Dream's own that I can't help but feel like I should give them a try.

This series could be seriously addicting- not only to more Sandman stories (of which there are 11) but also to the other characters of the DC universe.  Thankfully, I already have volumes 2-4 so I can keep on reading and I believe- based on what people are saying on Goodreads- that it only gets better from here.