Monday Review, 6/18/2012

If I don't write this now, there is a good chance it won't get written today, so I'm going to write it now, even though it would probably be improved by having a little bit more time to write than I have now.

I have finished one book this week.

Christopher Buckley - They Eat Puppies, Don't They?


A darkish satire about the interactions between lobbyists, defense contractors, and the US government. Walter "Bird" MacIntyre is hired by a defense contractor to drum up a war scare with China in order to convince Congress to approve spending on a new unmanned drone. MacIntyre does so, with the assistance of Angel Templeton, who works for the Institute for Continuing Conflict.

If you already like Christopher Buckley, you will probably enjoy this book. It has the usual selection of zany characters and snark about politics as usual in Washington. Buckley contends that a satirist must, on some level, love the thing si is satirizing, and perhaps that explains the mildness here - Buckley loves Washington politics as usual, and doesn't really want to see it change, even while recognizing that it needs to change, but if it changed he wouldn't have anything write about, so he writes his satire in such a way that it doesn't cause change. I don't know if that's fair - I just think the book could have been sharper. Perhaps the barbs are somewhat misdirected? Maybe Buckley isn't really interested in skewering. Perhaps he is too sympathetic to the lobbyists and the phony institutes. At any rate, if you don't already like Christopher Buckley, this is, perhaps, not the place to start reading. Thank You for Smoking has more bite and Little Green Men has zanier characters - either of those would be better.

Friday Review, only one day late - 11/6/10

P.G. Wodehouse - Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit
Can I confess a weakness? Well, of course I can - who's going to stop me? I have a weakness for P.G. Wodehouse. I'm not sure that there's a way to review this book - if you like Jeeves and Wooster, you already know and love this - it's the one with the mustache. If you don't like Jeeves and Wooster, you're probably damaged in some indefinable way. Or I am damaged in some indefinable way? At any rate, if you don't like the books, you won't like this one, mustache or otherwise. And, if you don't know Wodehouse, you should go and read some. He wrote comedies of manners, set during the inter-war period in England (and sometimes, the US), and they are particularly British. If you like that sort of thing, you'll probably like these.

Gregory Frost - Fitcher's Brides


This was one of the first books in the re-boot of Terri Wilding's Fairy Tale Series. Wilding edit(s?ed?) a series of re-tellings of classic fairy tales for adult readers. Each book opens with a short essay on fairy tales, and on the specific tale being re-written, which are pretty good on their own.

Frost is re-telling Bluebeard. It's a grim tale - a young wife is told not to go into a room of her husband's house. She does so. It contains the mutilated corpses of his previous wives. When he returns, she either escapes, or is killed, depending on the version of the story. Frost sets the story in upstate New York, during the late 19th century. Fitcher is a preacher, leading an apocalyptic cult, which were common in upstate New York during the late 19th century. The novel is good, but gory - I especially liked the setting.

Michael Buckley - The Fairy Tale Detectives


Speaking of fairy tales - this was a cute children's book, the first of the Sisters Grimm series. Two sisters discover that they are the youngest heirs of the Grimm family (the Brothers Grimm, that is), and that fairy tale and legendary creatures are real, but needing much careful supervision. Like DC Comics Fables, but for a much younger set. Not a lot of substance, or a particularly deep plot, but satisfying for what it was. A few laugh out loud moments.