Michael Antman’s “Cherry Whip”

Acclaimed Japanese jazz musician Hiroshi Mori arrives in New York City full of life and ready to launch his international music career. But a perplexing acquaintance with a girl named Maureen, the loss of his prized clarinet, and an unexplainable illness paralyze him. As he drifts from the hospital to physical rehabilitation, Hiroshi reflects upon his past and contemplates his future.

This story convincingly portrays the human mind’s process of reflection. The dichotomies between past and future, mobility and paralysis, and citizen and foreigner both reinforce the subtleties of visiting a foreign country and capture the details of daily life. As Hiroshi examines idiomatic expressions or American candy, the surreal tone masterfully describes his liminal existence.

Like Hiroshi Mori, author Michael Antman expresses his art through subtle nuances. The novel certainly holds some parallels to Haruki Murakami’s prose, but Cherry Whip stands alone. New York City’s gritty streets and colorful characters challenge Hiroshi’s passivity. Cherry Whip is his story of growing up, engaging with the world, and choosing to live.

Temporary Hiatus

The site is on temporary leave as I travel and prepare for a new step.

Happy New Year!

Andrew Breslin’s “Mother’s Milk”

English-language-enthusiast-turned-jaded-lawyer Cindy Kichlklug becomes legal counsel to the True Foods Project. This eccentric band of radical food advocates wants to sue the dairy industry; quirky mathematician Eddie Fishman has statistically proven milk consumption provides no scientific health benefits. (In fact, imbibing a different species’ natural milk product is kind of weird.) While Cindy sips lattes and makes cheesecake slices disappear in private, she pours her professional efforts into lactose intolerant culinary crusades. What she discovers can only be described as cowtastrophic truths.

Soaked with conspiracy theories, milk thugs, Vegans, and soy milk, Cindy finds herself following anti-diary rogue Tom Logan around the Beltway and greater Washington, D.C. area. Her lactose cravings tempered by FDA approved mind control elements, she begins to engage with Bessy the cow, a psychic dolphin, and the freedom of soy.

Cindy’s story is bizarrely appetizing. Her skepticism of the plot and her sarcastic retorts reflect the reader’s experience and keep the book lively. Andrew Thomas Breslin writes well. Spilling drops of etymological flavor and milky quotes enriches an interesting read. The novel explains why there’s no reason to cry over spilt milk. Mother’s Milk makes you seriously reconsider FDA regulations and nutritional integrity when asking the question ‘got milk?’

Andrew Hook’s “Moon Beaver”

The life of Benny Henderson is normal, British, and sure. He works for the multinational Company, plans to marry his fiance (and Company co-worker) Louise, plays squash with his friend (Company boy) Carl, and leads a homogeneous life in Norwich (in a house owned by the Company).

Then Moon Beaver enters. She captivates Benny and his wallet with her striking individuality. As the two travel to the distant lands of Moscow and Bangkok, Benny finds himself both mesmerized and exacerbated by his eccentric guide’s whims. First intoxicated by the prominently lipsticked fantasy of Moon, he later realizes her unconventional lifestyle is an attempt to achieve immortality by losing herself in time.

While the story prepares to fly away with Moon, Andrew Hook grounds the novel with real struggles. Poultry farming, adult entertainment, and a self-conscious narrative voice star in subplots. Even Benny’s Norwich faces tragic changes; the Company expands, Louise explores her heartache, and Carl discovers a surprising secret about Moon. Comic fantasy and real satire mingle in this story about individuality, immortality, and meaningful life.

Robert A. Wilson’s “Character Above All”

The word “character” like the word “President (of the United States of America)” holds intrinsic yet abstract meaning. Despite historical evidence of deeply flawed personalities guiding the country, we the people continue to initially conjure the honorable aspects of the two words and link them together. Robert A. Wilson’s Character Above All:  Ten Presidents from FDR to George Bush perpetuates that traditional perspective.

Spanning sixty years (1932-1992), Character offers a rather balanced assessment of ten presidencies. The essays, one per President, are penned by historians, biographers, and journalists. Different approaches include definitions, saintly comparisons, varying measures of criticism and praise, and shared experiences, but each one likens strong character to greatness. The benefits and strengths of such a diverse collection reside in the juxtaposition while the consequential weakness rests in lack of uniformity. Several authors have penned much larger, richer accounts of Presidents, making these snapshots (suited for such a collection) often feel restrained and incomplete. For what it is, the collection presents a good overview of the relationship between character and leadership; it provides a starting point for the historically curious.

Robert A. Wilson, editor
Doris Kearns Goodwin on Franklin D. Roosevelt
David McCullough on Harry S. Truman
Stephen E. Ambrose on Dwight D. Eisenhower
Richard Reeves on John F. Kennedy
Robert Dallek on Lyndon Johnson
Tom Wicker on Richard Nixon
James Cannon on Gerald Ford
Hendrik Hertzberg on Jimmy Carter
Peggy Noonan on Ronald Reagan
Michael Beschloss on George Bush

Walt Maguire’s “Monkey See”

Part instructional manual, part personal asides, and part coming-of-ape story, “Monkey See” is an entertaining experiment in prose.

The primate story follows Ed the Talking Monkey (he prefers Ed) in his transformation from willing lab custodian to his own monkey. Created by evil (human) scientist Dr. Cogitomni and recruited by insurgent (ape) leader General Chekchek, Ed must choose which world he wishes to join. Influencing his decision is Gigi, Dr. Cogitomni’s newest and most advanced experiment, and the complications that arise when your typical teenage talking spider-monkey morphs into Giga-Spide. Ed’s moral conflicts, first love, and personal beliefs challenge the line between human and other intelligent life.

Yet Ed’s story is just one part of this rich read. A witty how-to voice offers you advice on all your primate queries with hypothetical situations, accompanying illustrations, and rambling footnotes. Walt Maguire’s blend of humor (e.g., the “Make Your Monster Name” chart) and satire (“Taunting:  Do’s and Don’ts”) spotlights compelling concerns over the future of cognitive enhancement with no shortage of references to Planet of the Apes. Recommended for mad scientists considering the evil route and the usual suspects up to monkey business.

Haruki Murakami’s “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman”

Surreal. That is the word most appropriate to Haruki Murakami’s largely ineffable prose. His collection of twenty-four stories in Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman explore Murakami’s range in his fictional surreality.

While the individual stories range from normal meetings to haunting episodes to fantastic tales, Murakami’s writing keeps the reader turning pages. The dreamlike tone renders everything – from the mundane to the ridiculous – captivating. Even seemingly obvious questions that a novel would address seem to fade in relevance when submerged in one of these short stories.

Suspended reality doesn’t do justice to the respective plots and poetic prose misses the mark. Simple but not overly succinct, informative but not overbearing, infused with music and love and loss, aware of reality but engaged in a greater world, postmodern and contemporary, that is the magic of Haruki Murakami’s stories.

Stories were translated from the Japanese by Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel.

David A. Brensilver’s “ExecTV”

David A. Brensilver’s ExecTV is a provocative social satire resurrecting public executions. Inspired by an attorney’s bombastic assertion that his death row client dictate his own method of execution, the brilliant but misunderstood (i.e., unemployed) documentary filmmaker Dov Montana concocts “ExecTV.”

Propelled by ego and severely lacking tact, Montana assembles his team. The principals feature Lerz Feingold, the stuttering ‘Tude Entertainment programming director; secretary-bimbo-turned-interviewer (but forever a bimbo) Serena who emits “like” with every breath; defense attorney and impromptu singer (he inserts relevant lyrics into classic tunes) Conrad Thistle III; and the refreshingly taciturn inmate Randall Snell, the notorious “Killer Castrator.”

With exaggerated reenactments, personal interviews, and a captivating finale, ExecTV is the ultimate reality TV program. Brensilver’s satire illustrates how “lensfaces” and “audiopaths” have distorted every form of media to dramatic dribble. His portrayal of humanity isn’t pretty, but the inherent greed is real.

Mark A. Rayner’s “The Amadeus Net”

It is 2028 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, posing as Will Armstrong, is alive and composing. The immortal who has survived history’s greatest challenges including its most recent, the asteroid strike called “the Shudder,” now finds his identity at risk. But the science and arts utopia in which he resides, Ipolis or the sapient machine One, favors Mozart above all its citizens and goes to extreme measures to ensure his safety.

What unfolds is a comedic opera with an intricate plot. While Mozart pines for the sexually confused sex-change clinic nurse Katerina, investigative journalist Helen Printo and spy Alex Burton scheme to catch the immortal, Canadian diplomat Lester Parson ponders his role in the North vs. South nuclear war as well as his empty love life, and sadistic art student Bella Gunn searches for the emotion that first drew her to painting, One works to keep the world safe. Each character delivers his/her own song, a story of his/her past, and as the work progresses these distinct threads join to create an unlikely symphony.

Rayner’s novel sets the most timeless themes of love, identity, and art in a technological world endangered by greed and corruption. Individual viewpoints recount personal pasts and solidify Ipolis as the nurturing utopia. But Mozart remains at the center of this humorous story, weighing his secret immortality as the world approaches self-destruction.

Sarah Crabtree’s “Terror from Beyond Middle England”

Sarah Crabtree’s Terror from Beyond Middle England follows one woman escaping her ordinary life, replete with dysfunctional family, for adventure, mystery, and romance. Zara begins innocently enough, hopping on a train to Lichfield, crashing a geriatric party, and falling into bed with a scientist who does not believe in love at first sight. But as Alan invites her to stay and the two try to build a relationship, Zara’s past catches up to her and even stranger events unfold.

Despite mysterious intruders, a suspiciously resilient ant population, genetic modification protesters, unwanted familial nagging via phone, scandalous trysts, laboratory secrets, and missing laundry items, Zara perseveres. She finds solace in cups of tea and new friend Old Marcus. Indeed, Zara’s tenderness for the man foreshadows the reunion with her deranged mother and her rise as the story’s heroine.

Crabtree has created a genre-busting work of British humor and fantastical plot. Unpredictable events and colorful characters speed this read along. Midway through the novel the omniscient narrator surfaces to deliver a memorable, insightful, and utterly hilarious summary of Zara’s bizarre reality and faulted behavior. Nominated for a British Fantasy Society award, Zara’s journey from small-town temp to Doomsday Globe sleuth will keep you reading. Recommended for people who screen their phone calls because they know drama is calling.