kurtwombat's reviews
883 reviews

Jim Thompson is always worth the time. However, some of his books hit the ribs and torso stronger than others. While I enjoyed this one while reading it, the afterglow was briefer than classics like THE GRIFTERS, THE KILLER INSIDE, and AFTER DARK, MY SWEET. The morally ambivalent main character, while enjoyable, isn't quite as sharply etched as others by Thompson but was still a good ride. The classic Thompson trait of people doomed to play out the cards dealt to them is in abundant and fun evidence here. The supporting characters aren't quite up to classic either though I would like to have spent more time with the shy toothy deputy than some of the others. Good but others are better.

Disappointing collection of Matheson stories reissued to tie into an illfated movie based on the title story. Of the group of stories only a couple rise above mediocre. What has always appealed to me about Matheson is his ability to take the amazing and place it amidst the very ordinary. His straightforward style creates a kind of normalcy that grounds the unreal in reality. BUTTON, BUTTON and MUTE and NO SUCH THING AS A VAMPIRE all work quite well. Can't imagine the title story being tortured into a full length movie. Appreciated MUTE in particular for it's balancing of two paths that could be positive crossing in painful fashion. Some of the others are either mediocre or just plain awful. THE CREEPING TERROR has a cute premise completely run into the ground--the terror came from the fact that it never seemed to end. And TIS THE SEASON TO BE JELLY was apocalyptic mutation simply irritating. THE JAZZ MACHINE was good and truthful in it's way but the use of old bluesman dialect and even song phrasing...well, my jury is still out on that one.

To celebrate the opening of baseball season, decided to delve into the most talked about baseball book of recent years. I was as surprised as I was dissappointed. The book became notorious for outlining the success of the small market Oakland A's at maintaining their competitiveness despite humble funds. The A's brain trust used computers, creative statistics and thinking outside the box to scoop other teams for the best players. At the time the A's had been consistently good....but the passing of seven years offers a different perspective. The dissapointing part of the book is that the revelatory statistical analysis that was supposed to have given the A's such an advantage, is really just another tool. Like any other tool in a gold mine, it will uncover it's share of nuggets. The 2002 draft which is followed in delightful detail, can be viewed differently now that the players have had a reasonable time in the minors. The A's had stocked up several extra first round picks because of losing several free agent players. Their choices, at the time still question marks, have not proven to be any better than an average draft. The players that have been the most successful were sought by many other teams...and thus not a product of their new way of thinking. With all their extra early picks, you can argue that they should have done much better. For example, one of the players they were praying someone else would "waste" a draft pick on was only Prince Fielder who is doing quite well these days. Their open minds bashed him because his father Cecil Fielder was overweight his whole career. While I found much of the statistical analysis interesting, when they broke down much of a ball player's success to "luck", the whole argument lost air. Now the surprising part, was how much I enjoyed not only the inside the baseball world mechanics, but the profiles of players like Scott Hatteberg and Chad Bradford and others involved in the game. The gradual unfolding of their stories and how their skills evolved to keep them in the big leagues was intriguing and even endearing. The A's General Manager, given the lion's share of the credit for the A's success, is quite captivating....almost appearing a work of fiction at times. His desperate need to succeed to the point of being not only unpleasant to be around, but also self destructive captivates in an often ludicrous way that someone from Joseph Heller's Catch 22 might. On the whole enjoyable, but not always in the ways they intended.

Memory is that which gives us the illusion of existing while vanishing before our eyes. That is the joy and sorrow and shortcoming of this book. This trek though the history of the Los Angeles (formerly Brooklyn) Dodgers long time spring training and minor league facility feels like an ongoing chat with old friends. That is it's joy. A nice chat indeed--memories of players and fans and team personel representing virtually every year in the life of Dodgertown. From the comic (players sneaking out after curfew) to the serious (race relations as the Dodgers broke the local color barrier), the book makes these events feel like a part of your personal memory. But they are memories without much reflection. The constant skimming left me wanting to rest on certain topics--such as the racial issues in Vero Beach or a better understanding of the ongoing real estate issues between the Dodgers, Vero Beach and the FAA (Dodgertown actually being on the same property as an air field). But on the whole I appreciate the memories I now have of he glorious formation of Dodgertown, growing up a Dodger fan these memories mean more to me than many of my own. And I even appreciate the sad decline, as the existence of Dodgertown in Vero Beach is caught in the vice between money and change until finally it was gone. Even that sadness has stayed with me, though it seems to be fading faster than it should.

A marvelous tale of the first mechanical man created in the late 19th century. Equal parts art book, graphic novel, history text--this Gump like adventure has the mechanical man Boilerplate moving through history but not in a way that trivializes like Gump...but as a critique of the world man created as the 20th century burst into being. Created with the intention of freeing man from war, Boilerplate instead was misused like new technology often is. Can almost be read as a straight historic text as Boilerplate's interaction with history is presented in a thorough and fleshed out manner. Each event is presented in a historical context, given a full background with tasty famous people mixed in all over the place. From the Boxer Rebellion to Teddy Roosevelt's mythic charge up San Juan Hill to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, it's a delightful trip through time. Especially interesting to me was the original US/Korean conflict--known as the Korean Expedition of 1871. The art work is fantastic--original and recreations with Boilerplate inserted in history--historical photographs with Boilerplate inserted all seem to work. The work is effortless and never seems forced.

There were a couple nice twists within this fast moving mystery romance but on the whole, too much romantic passion and not enough passionate mystery. The killer is as annoying as he is evil and obviously guilty from the get go. His habit of spouting movie quotes wears thin really fast—especially since the lines chosen are mostly over-played before appearing in the story (first line quoted is the box of chocolates line from Forest Gump—knew I was in trouble at that point). Every description feels like it is mundanely described twice as if that will make it more vivid instead of just using a clean fresh description. Maybe she’s just padding her word count. There are attempts to make you question who the killer is, but since the only other viable option presented is the romantic female lead, and you just know a happy ending is coming, so that limits the options really to one. I was practically praying for the irrational insertion of someone else just to make it interesting. The initial meeting and hook up of the romantic leads turns out to have occurred for such a ludicrous reason that I was angry for the rest of the book. Also frustrating that two adults who are supposedly at the top of their respective professional worlds (ace defense attorney and art gallery owner) seem to have the emotional maturity of twelve year olds. Especially frustrating is the male lead. Supposed to be the most sought after defense attorney in the country—which would seem to indicate a certain sharpness of mind—who loses any analytical ability the moment any distraction occurs. The conclusion does gather some steam…but by then I was just pushing through to finish it. Maybe I was creating my own steam.

Sarah Vowell makes even the most obscure history as accessible as dishing on the neighbors. Differentiating between the first band of folks coming over on the Mayflower seeking religious freedom and tolerance and those that followed them who sought to impose their own framework of ideas on the new world without a whole lot of tolerance does not whet the appetite of most readers. I started the book because it was Sarah Vowell—I have enjoyed other books by as well as her work on NPR—but almost stopped the moment I realized what the subject matter was. Fortunately, almost immediately she hooked me with her insight, humor and her knack for translating the language, intent and emotional life of the early Americans into contemporary terms that does not sell short who they were or what they believed. Her love of history is evident on every page. I knew virtually none of the people involved in this corner of history but I felt compelled to follow their stories none-the-less. The blend of politics and fear and hope and paranoia and just plain craziness that was mixed together into the cement of America’s cultural foundation is vividly rendered and ended all too soon. The ending felt a little bit rushed but I think that’s just because I was happy.

The Difference Engine as designed and partially built in the 1830’s was a mechanical device of some 4000 moving parts that could perform automated mathematical functions (logarithmic, trigonometric and polynomial). The brain child of mathematician/inventor Charles Babbage, the machine was never completed during his lifetime. However in the late 1980’s a working model was produced to celebrate Babbage’s work—remaining largely loyal to the original design and production abilities of the 19th century craftsmen. This book details both the original genius of Babbage’s life and work as well the recreation of it over 150 years later. Unfortunately, the modern part of the book and the building of the machine is more compelling than the Babbage part. The author was involved in that part himself, and that closeness to the story gives the tale more life. The detailing of Babbage’s life shifts gears, often awkwardly, between being straight bio and workshop treatise. There is a level of reality created by going back and forth from Babbage’s funding problems and frustrations and his work in the shop, but I felt it diminished the work in the shop greater than necessary. I would have appreciated more effort explaining the theories and processes involved in the ground breaking work and less on what an irritation Babbage could be to those around him. The idea of someone attempting to build a computer in the early part of the 19th century is fascinating (as anyone interested in the creative genre of steampunk already knows), and this book does percolate on occasion but not nearly as often as I wanted. The parallel frustrations of Babbage in the 1830’s and the author in the 1980’s at attempting to get their machines built was interesting too but by the time the machine was built, I was ready to move on.

When GAME OF SHADOWS arrived on the scene, the clamor was to know about Barry Bonds and what, if any, illegal drugs he took to fuel his pursuit of Major League Baseball’s all time home run record. To a lesser degree people wanted to know why. Those questions are answered painstakingly throughout the book. In fact, the presentation of Barry Bonds in this book is so brutal, like a villain from a penny dreadful novel, that if it wasn’t true he would have sued. Truth be told, I have been a Bonds hater since he signed with the San Francisco Giants---rival to my LA Dodgers. But even I often blushed at the broad strokes of distasteful behavior that he is shown to be capable of. That, however, is the prurient part of the book. What makes GAME OF SHADOWS a book of historical note is the depth it plumbs into the entire performance enhancing drug culture. The book was criticized upon arrival for not being all about Barry Bonds—as if the rest of it were just padding. Bond’s outsized personality is used to shine a light on the rest of what was going on at the time. Tempting to just use the term steroids when talking about performance enhancing drugs as a short cut, most people have some sense of what those are, but the book reveals that the many different drugs used come from many different places and medical disciplines. Following the drugs from creation to distribution to use is fascinating and the extent to which they have permeated the sports world—including to a very large degree our Olympic athletes who seemingly should have held themselves to a higher standard—is astonishing. Basically an extended newspaper article, the book remains fresh and lively throughout by deftly dropping one story line for another so by the end there is the feeling of having followed the story for months and staying on top of it the whole time. Don’t be scared off if you are not a baseball fan. Or a sports fan. The book reminds us that we may think we have air tight characters, but one wrong decision and we sink like stones.