My New (Old) Friend, "VENUS" by Suzan Lori-Parks

 

Me with my friend Venus, a brilliant, Obie-award-winning play by Suzan Lori-Parks.  I first read the play in college and it felt like new reading it again. My edition also looks like new, safely packed away in a box for years now.

Hi. I'm Bobby Keniston, and my only friends are books. Don't worry about it. I've made it this far. 

I've made it far enough to reconnect with an old friend and have it feel like making a new friend all over again. This friend is Venus by Suzan-Lori Parks, the first play I have covered on talked about on this particular blog, but by no means will be the last. Some of my favorite books are plays, after all, and I couldn't be happier that I am discussing a play by Suzan-Lori Parks, who is one of my favorite living playwrights. Back in the early 2010s, I would tell people that if I were on the Board in Sweden, my two top picks for a Nobel Prize in Literature would be Kazuo Ishiguro and Suzan-Lori Parks. In 2017, Mr. Ishiguro did indeed win. Now I am waiting for Parks to get that recognition. For one thing, the Nobel doesn't honor enough playwrights in my opinion. For another, she simply deserves it. 

Not that she is short on prizes. She has won many, many over the years, including an Obie for Venus, as well as a Pulitzer Prize for her incredible Topdog/Underdog, and her most recent play, 2019's White Noise won an Outer Critics Circle Award. Along the way, she also received a MacArthur "Genius" Grant. 

Because she is a genius. 

With an incredible work ethic. She undertook the challenge of writing 365 plays in 365 days. And she did it. The result, 365 Plays/365 Days has been produced in theaters all over the world. 

ABOUT MY NEW (OLD) FRIEND, VENUS

Venus tells the real-life story of Khoekhoe woman Saartjie Baartman, also known as Sarah Baartman, and who would come to be known as the "Hottentot Venus". Baartman, when she is "The Girl", is living her life in South Africa in the early 1800s when she is asked by a bearded opportunist if she would like to go to London where "the streets are paved with gold" to be a dancer. He assures her in two years, she could make a fortune and come back home wealthy. She agrees to go on these terms, that everything will be split 50/50. Once in London, he pushes her into a sexual relationship before selling her to "The Mother-Showman" and her freak show, and then disappearing. 

This is not easy subject matter. Baartman is put on display because of her backside, and spends years being objectified, pawed at, touched, sexual assault (alluded to in a few lines). This plays is about not only colonization, but about the objectification, racialization, and fetishizing and historical sexualization of back women. It is uncomfortable. Just the cover of my edition is uncomfortable in its dehumanizing, racist imagery. 

And being uncomfortable is the point. 

Eventually, a character called the Baron Docteur (based on Georges Cuvier--- more on him later), buys Baartman from the Mother-Showman. He takes her to Paris where he begins an affair with her, but also puts her on display as a scientific specimen. In this way, she is still being gawked at and pawed over and ultimately dehumanized. 

The Baron Docteur is married, and receives pressure from "An Old School Chum" to stop the affair, and get to the dissection, which, really, should be the only purpose for his interest in this "Hottentot Venus", right?

There is also a "play-within-the-play" called For the Love of the Venus, performed by the Chorus. 

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THE PLAY

What I love about the play is its power and its energy. Suzan-Lori Parks, instead of telling a standard, linear tale here, uses terrific theatricality, theatre of the absurd flourishes, lively language, and a Chorus ensemble to heighten the themes and characters. She uses history as a jumping off point, but is truly interested, as she herself said, in the "questioning the history of history". 

I also love that Parks is not afraid to make us feel uncomfortable. She does not shy away from the nastiness of how Baartman is used, how she is objectified and sexualized. She shows the lust head-on and in your face. And at the same time, she makes Baartman such a complete character, making it all the more upsetting to see her as either an object of lust or a scientific specimen. 

Another major idea explored here is the very notion of agency over ones own life and body, which, of course, is all the more relevant even today with our SCOTUS. 

IN REAL LIFE

Georges Cuvier, in real life, was a French zoologist, sometimes called "the founding father of paleontology". Like other "founding fathers", he was also an entitled white man and a racist, who was one of the founders of scientific racism, the psuedo-scientific bullshit that suggests that other races are inferior to whites. He subjected the real-life Sarah Baartman to examinations while she was being held captive and neglected. After her death (she was only 26), he performed an autopsy, and compared her physical features to those of monkeys. 

Suzan-Lori Parks has these "findings" described by the Baron Docteur in her play. It is, obviously, stomach turning. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Venus and the real-life Sarah Baartman deserve dissertations and far more conversation than what I can accomplish here on my stupid little blog. But what I can say is how fortunate I feel we all are to have this play. We need to remember. We need to take stock and accountability of the fact that white people have systemically stripped people of color of their agency and humanity for their own benefit, desires, and discoveries for... well, forever. We should be uncomfortable by this fact. We shouldn't look away. 

Please check out the work of Suzan-Lori Parks. I look forward to reading and re-reading more of her work, including her novel Getting Mother's Body. 

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. 

My New Friend, "HEAVEN" by Mieko Kawakami, translated from the Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd

 

Me, Bobby Keniston, with my new friend "Heaven" by Mieko Kawakami, translated from the Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd

Hi. My name is Bobby Keniston, and, as the name of this blog suggests, my only friends are books. You might be thinking, "Huh, that's sad," but it's not really. Books don't bully you or one day just disappear...

Which brings me to my new friend, Heaven by Mieko Kawakami, translated from the Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd. But before I get into the details of my new friend Heaven, I would like to share a quote from author Mieko Kawakami:

"We have to confront and examine our mistakes, and write stories to pass down our folly and ignorance. Literature should not just portray our ideals. We have to examine our past mistakes, our past ignorance, without turning our eyes away." (from an interview/conversation between Kawakami and Fernanda Melchor for "Broadly Speaking" through the Wheeler Centre. You can watch the full interview on YouTube by CLICKING HERE... I highly recommend it). 

Kawakami certainly does not turn her eyes away from harsh realities in Heaven. The word "unflinching" really had no solid meaning to me until reading this book. It is indeed a work of art, so let's talk about it. 

HOW I MET MY NEW FRIEND

I heard about Heaven from a booktube channel called Books and Bao, hosted by Willow Heath, and they had so much praise for the novel and Kawakami (you can watch their video review HERE). I would like to think I would have heard of the book when perusing the International Booker Prize longlist and shortlist, but, who knows? Willow's recommendation certainly encouraged me to check it out sooner. I am glad to have read the book before the winner of the prize is announced. 

ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

Heaven is a first-person narrative of an unnamed fourteen year-old protagonist who is bullied. Constantly. In myriad, painful ways. Please believe me when I say this. The bullying is graphic, but often told in a simple, almost understated manner to highlight just how tragically normalized it has become for our narrator. Though perhaps understated isn't the best way to describe it-- perhaps it is better to say that it is presented flat-out as a fact of our narrator's life. His tormenters, led by a cool, beautiful boy named Ninomiya, call him "Eyes" because of his lazy eye, and they punch him, kick him, and hurt him, and he waits for it to be over with. 

But the novel actually begins with our narrator receiving a note in his desk at school, a note saying "We should be friends." It turns out that the note is from a girl in his class, Kojima, who is also bullied. When they meet up, they do become friends, and though they can never intervene to help each other at school (indeed, they never even really talk at school), the secret notes they share offer a great deal of comfort to each other. 

This is a short novel, and I don't want to give too much away, but I will say this: to suggest that the book is simply about bullying is like saying Moby Dick is just about trying to catch fish. Kawakami uses bullying to look at the bigger picture behind power structures, and the meaning, if any, behind them. 

Short and sleek, but absolutely painful and beautiful. 

BULLYING

I know I have already said it, but I cannot stress enough how unflinching a portrayal of bullying resides within these pages. If you were someone who was bullied (as I was), this book will bring up the memories and the pain (at least it did for me). Kawakami captures the constant stress, anxiety, fear and shame that comes with the territory of being bullied. Please do not misunderstand me here--- I don't mean to suggest that is like some afterschool special about bullying for a YA or middle grade audience. It most certainly is not. Kawakami delves deeply into the philosophy behind bullying, truly exploring what it means to have power, what it means to be weak, and whether that weakness can really be a strength. 

It is not easy to read sometimes, but still an important read, in my opinion. 

If you are someone who had no experience with being bullied, and that's really great if that's the case, you may think it is perhaps exaggerated here. I don't know. Maybe a little. But it felt very real to me. I didn't have it exactly as bad as our narrator, but there were some similar moments. 

Things you never forget. Things that, many years later, your realize are permanently a part of you. 

Special note: if you are being bullied, do not make the same mistake I did. There are things I kept to myself, never told my parents or a teacher, not even my closest friends. I know, believe me, I know, there is shame attached to being bullied and it is not easy to talk about. But please try to talk to someone, even if it is anonymously. There is support out there. CLICK HERE for some resources. 

BEAUTY

And yet, amongst all the pain, there is still beauty. And Kawakami's writing is absolutely beautiful, and lovingly translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd. 

"His eyes shifted, the way the shadows of clouds pass the sun on windless days."

I can't even tell you how much I wish I could write a description so beautiful in its simplicity and precision. 

FINAL TAKEAWAYS

This book hurt my stomach at times, and I mean this as the highest compliment. Great writing does hurt sometimes, great writing should be unflinching and honest. I am so happy to have finally read Mieko Kawakami and can't wait to read her other works in translation, like Ms. Ice Sandwich, Breasts and Eggs, and the recent release, All the Lovers in the Night. Clearly Kawakami is a writer at the very top of her powers, and she has a brand new fan. 

Thank you for reading my thoughts on my new friend Heaven.  Come back Monday to meet a whole new friend, and please feel free to comment any thoughts below. 

My New Friend, "KINDRED" by Octavia E. Butler

 

Me and my new friend "Kindred" by Octavia E. Butler. This is the 25th Anniversary Edition

Hi. My name is Bobby Keniston, and my only friends are books. And sometimes books have to tell you hard truths. Sometimes friends have to hold you accountable. Sometimes friends need to make you look at an issue with empathy, shock, and, yes, sometimes even guilt, to help you grow and change. 

I am talking about my new friend, Kindred the late, but certainly great Octavia E. Butler, who helped redefine what science fiction for a new era. Kindred may be her most celebrated standalone novel. Written in 1976, writer Walter Mosely said, "It is everything the literature of science fiction can be," while Harlan Ellison called the book, "That rare artifact... the novel one returns to, again and again, through the years, to learn, to be humbled, and to be renewed." 

I think my new friend is truly great. Let's talk about why. 

HOW I MET MY NEW FRIEND

I have been meaning to read some Octavia E. Butler for quite some time. And then a YouTube channel I enjoy watching called "Books and Things" had a video about a Historical Fiction Readathon for the months of May--- and here we are. One of the challenges in this readathon is to read a piece of historical fiction that has a speculative element, and the host, Katie Lumsden, recommended Kindred. That felt like a nice bit of encouragement to finally discover this brilliant author, and I am very glad I did. 

(If you want to watch the video about the #HistoricalFictionReadathon, you can do so by following THIS LINK)

I was happy that my local library, The Thompson Free Library, had a copy of my new friend Kindred. I am a little sad, though, that it looks like I'm the first person to ever take it out. 

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

Kindred tells the story about woman a black woman in the 1970s who, after moving into her new house with her white husband Kevin (I only mention their races because they are imperative plot points and thematic points in the book), inexplicably finds herself getting dizzy, losing, fading away from her new home and arriving in the antebellum south on a plantation in Maryland. Here, she finds her path intersected with Rufus Weylin, the son of the plantation owner, who, we learn early on, is an ancestor. She is clearly coming back to save his life time and again, protecting her very bloodline, though at the expense of becoming an enslaved person and confronting the violence of the time. Each time she is pulled back, the stakes are higher, and she loses not only more months and years of her life, but also is threatened with losing the very foundation of who she has always known herself to be. 

SOME THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

Kindred is simultaneously a difficult book to read because of its unflinching portrayal of the inhumane treatment that white Americans inflicted upon the people they enslaved, while also being a suspenseful page turner. That is a huge testament to Butler's remarkable skill as a storyteller. 

I also love that Butler doesn't waste time. She comes right out of the gate, hooks you, then continues to keep kicking it up a notch as the pages fly by. For example, her are the first two sentences of the book:

"I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm."

If that doesn't grab a reader, then let's just say it is the fault of said reader and not the writer. 

You will notice based on these first two sentences that the story is told as a first-person narrative, another brilliant stroke by Butler. For this story in particular, a first-person narrative heightens the idea of empathy as we the reader see things through Dana's eyes, and hear her every thought. And Butler gives us a thoroughly complex, but relatable, and oh-so-strong narrator. Dana is brilliant, resourceful, and with compassion that I believe very few people could have in her circumstance. She is put through a great deal in this book, and we are put through it with her. It is impossible not to root for her (unless you are an awful person, but more on that later). 

Butler gives every character (with the exception of maybe one or two very minor ones) a complex humanity. This is what could be truly brilliant about the book, and the very thing that makes it as philosophically complex as it is flat-out entertaining: Butler recognizes that, like it or not, whether we want to admit it or not, dark, grotesque inhumanity is still part of being human. The enslavement of a race of people would not be possible if it wasn't. 

Try to let that sit with you for a moment. As much as we try to separate ourselves from the very idea of inhumanity by calling it inhumanity, it is simply not true, but just another way for humans to avoid accountability. These vicious deeds SHOULD NOT be part of the human experience. But, dammit, they are, and acknowledging it is the first step to maybe trying to actually do something about it. 

I also love Butler's depiction of the relationship between Dana and her husband Kevin. They are both writers, and, while they do have fights, their love is strong. When Kevin is sucked back in time with her (perhaps a mild spoiler, but it happens early on--- sorry), we really get to see how it affects their relationship and what they feel about one another. 

It is also worth noting that, since the novel takes place in the 1970s, Butler's present day is historical now, too. A history story that goes into a deeper history story. Clearly, one of the messages here is that, even for present day Dana, there are still issues (especially her marriage to a white man). One can look at the novel as very prescient in the idea that for ever advancement, we are always being pulled back by the wrong people. 

Sad that it is still true even 46 years after the novel was published. 

RANT

Which leads me to a little rant. 

Kindred, in my opinion, should be taught in every high school in America. The fact that it is one of several books that, even recently, have been banned in my country at certain schools, proves Butler's point completely. 

We make progress but are pulled back. 

This book should be taught because it tells the truth. 

White people enslaved back people in this country. In a very real and horrifying sense, it is part of how this country managed to be built. This needs to be discussed openly and honestly and often. 

I will not lie--- I am sickened by the many arguments against CRT, the arguments that ban books by Toni Morrison and Octavia E. Butler and many others--- sickened and honestly exasperated.  No one is saying that any of us white people today are responsible for enslaving black people in the 1800s. But here is the simple truth:  we white people have benefited and continue to benefit from the white supremacy that help build this country. This is not opinion, It is fact. And white people are the only ones who can really fix the problem of white supremacy, because we are the ones who made it and continue to benefit from it. 

And it starts by taking this accountability of our history AND our present. 

Rant over (for now). 

FINAL TAKEAWAYS

Read Kindred. It is enriching as well as being absolutely exciting and gripping. Fiction can make a difference and it is writers like Octavia E. Butler who can remind us. 

Please feel free to tell me your thoughts about my new friend Kindred in the comments., and join me next time with a while new friend. 

My New Friend, "THE SWEET RELIEF OF MISSING CHILDREN" by Sarah Braunstein

 

Me and my new friend, The Sweet Relief of Missing Children by Sarah Braunstein. I'm the one in the hat. 

Hello everyone, my name is Bobby Keniston, and my only friends are books. Don't worry about me--- perhaps there is a sweet relief that comes with being friendless except for stories, perhaps even like The Sweet Relief of Missing Children, the new friend I will be talking about today. This is the debut novel of Sarah Braunstein, an MFA alum of the distinguished Iowa Writers' Workshop who currently lives in Maine, and, according to her website (which you can visit by CLICKING HERE), teaches at Colby College. She has also been the recipient of a "5 Under 35" award from the National Book Foundation and a Ronna Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. So, yeah, she is far too accomplished to be my friend, but at least I have her book. 

HOW I MET MY NEW FRIEND

Constant readers of my blog (Hello?! Hello?! Do you exist?!) know that I started this project with a number of Maine authors, as I am a Maine writer myself, and wanted to read more from Maine voices that didn't belong to Stephen King. When I was doing some research about writers based in Maine, Sarah Braunstein came up. I was completely captivated by the title The Sweet Relief of Missing Children, found it dark yet lyrical, a mite unsettling. The book proved to live up to these initial feelings about the title. 

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

My new friend was the recipient of the 2012 Maine Literary Award for Fiction, and deserves a higher rating on Goodreads (though many great books are divisive). 

The Sweet Relief of Missing Children begins with a short passage about Leonora, a 12-year-old girl who is taken. This is not a spoiler--- this is how the story begins and is mentioned directly on the jacket. We do not know right away how she was taken or by whom, only that she has been taken. Leonora and her story becomes the structural foundation on which the many wings of this house are built, and meant to be the device which connects them all. In this regard, it mostly succeeds. 

The several threads of the novel, which Bitch magazine called "akin to the film Magnolia (if Saul Bellow had written the novelization)", include Paul, who we meet as a young, serious boy, ditched by his mother "Goldie" on his birthday, who goes out with a photographer in hopes of becoming a model. Unbeknownst to Paul and Goldie, they are often spied on by a genuine Peeping Tom--- Tom Grant, an abortion nurse with a daughter, Jade, Paul's age. The reader will meet Paul and Jade when they are teenagers in what turned out to be my favorite section of the book. 

Other threads include Sam, the only survivor of an "accident" after his mother drove their family into a train. He is adopted by his Uncle Joe and his wife, Constance. Joe is great friends with Hank and his wife Grace, who have a daughter named Judith who one day goes missing. Sam, who would rather be losing his virginity to his high school girlfriend Helen, becomes instrumental in bringing Judith home. 

My friend jumps around in time and in perspective frequently. I am a fan of stories that are not afraid to be non-linear, and was happy to take the journey. There are a few other threads I feel I can't get into without distinct spoilers, but we do see Paul, Sam, and Judith grow up (sadly, I felt that Jade was kind of written away in just a few sentences), and, in-between, we learn more details about Leonora's life, a strange encounter she has with an adult, and, ultimately, her abduction. 

I understand that some people are frustrated by non-linear novels. I understand this fact, but don't quite get it. Novels should stretch your mind at least a little, don't you think?

FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

I like the dark, unsettling feel to much of the novel. Braunstein does well at creating emotional reactions with clear, yet lyrical prose. I wrote down many lovely quotes from the book, sentences that say far more than the number of words would suggest. When a character thinks how he "felt a desire to smash love into his body, to smash love into the world, to allow love to be the violent act he'd always suspected it was," I was struck by the beauty and darkness of the image, and impressed by the very mechanics of creating such a sentence. 

SOME CHALLENGES WITH MY NEW FRIEND

Even the best of friends can sometimes overstay a visit a little bit. After the major threads are resolved, including Leonora's, there are another fifteen pages to the book or so. And while they are not completely out of place, I would be lying if I didn't say they felt a tiny bit anticlimactic. 

FINAL TAKEAWAY

I am very happy I discovered this book. I had to get it on interlibrary loan from the Bangor Public Library. But I am happy I found it and read it. Sarah Braunstein's website says a new novel is in the works, and I will definitely read whatever she puts out next. 

I need as many friends as I can get. 

Come on back to my next post and meet the new friend I have made. Please feel free to comment below about your favorite friends, too. 

My New Friend "GOD IS DEAD" by Ron Currie, Jr.

 

A photo of me and my new friend. I met my new friend at the Thompson Free Library in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine

Hi everybody. My name is Bobby Keniston. My only friends are books. But don't feel sad for me--- after all, a book has never called me up at 2 in the morning wanting to talk about something bad that has happened in their life, causing me to feign interest and empathy while my eyelids keep wanting to close. So... there's that. 

Today, I am going to introduce you to my new friend, "God is Dead" by Ron Currie, Jr. 

QUICK DISCLAIMER

I realize the title alone will activate the blasphemy radar for certain readers. These readers will not even want to go past the cover or title page, and probably shouldn't. While there is challenging content within the book, I would not consider it blasphemous or immoral or anything of the sort. But then, I like to read critically and think about what I've read, and am not the type of person to hide my narrow-minded world view and prejudice behind an appearance of morality and righteousness. That's just me. If you are that type of reader, you may want to skip this post altogether. 

HOW I MET MY NEW FRIEND

For the many, many readers who have been following along with my posts (is there anybody out there?), you know that I have been trying to discover more Maine authors. One of those authors has been Carolyn Chute, and when I did a search about her, I found a YouTube video of Ron Currie, Jr. interviewing her about her latest book, "The Recipe for Revolution" for the Portland Public Library. You can actually watch the video if you like by CLICKING HERE--- it's a long interview, but worth it. It may be the least pretentious interview between two authors you will ever see. This is what piqued my curiosity about Mr. Currie and his work. 

In full disclosure, I read Mr. Currie's first novel "Everything Matters!" before I read "God is Dead," which is his debut book, though a collection of thematically-linked short stories and not a novel. I may write about my friend "Everything Matters!" in a different post. 

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

As I mentioned above, "God is Dead" is a collection of short stories, starting with the title story in which God comes to Earth as a Dinka woman in the North Darfur region of Sudan. God has come, it seems, to apologize to humanity, but can do very little except sympathize and provide endless amounts of sorghum. God runs into Colin Powell, who, in the world of the story, has come back into contact with his childhood and the racism he faced, and it has made him a "foul-mouthed race warrior" as Lydia Millet said in her blurb for the book. Indeed, Mr. Powell practicing his best Samuel L. Jackson glare is a moment that made me laugh at loud, which I don't do too often when reading. 

In any case, God, while in this human form, dies, and is subsequently eaten by a pack of feral dogs, who have no idea that they are eating the "Creator", and it gives them a strange consciousness, though this  isn't fully revealed until later in the book, the sixth story, titled "Interview with the Last Remaining Member of the Feral Dog Pack Which Fed on God's Corpse", which, despite a title that will turn off readers I mentioned in the disclaimer above, is actually a fascinating tale about meaning and existence, through the eyes of a changed feral dog, who, for all its consciousness, is not deified. 

Indeed, every story after the first is an examination of how our society would change if we had distinct and definite proof that God had somehow died. Suicides for the clergy sky rocket. There is a mass panic for a time. New idols (including children) are put in place to fill the need to worship. New philosophies, the Postmodern Anthropologists and the Evolutionary Psychologists, form, indoctrinate, create zealots and war on each other (these names were another deep chuckle--- I laughed out loud when a popular country song, "Proud to be a PoMO" is played at a parade). 

Basically, the world changes completely, but not really at all. People simply scramble to look for meaning. 

Which is funny. 

But really sad. 

FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

There are three stories that connect into one big story:  "False Idols," "The Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit" and "Retreat". It was nice to follow these characters. 

I also like how Ron Currie's theme here, and in "Everything Matters!' is how meaning can exist if we make it so. We often try too hard, or depend on outward forces, real and imagined. But Currie seems to be telling us that we don't need to do this. There's plenty of meaning within if we just look for it in the simplest of terms. 

FUN FACT

When my new friend was first released, many compared its author to Vonnegut. Mr. Currie himself has said that he doesn't find the comparison an apt one. Neither do I. 

FINAL TAKEAWAY

I recommend it for those who want to think about our world and its quest for meaning. Be prepared--- despite some humor, it can be a big downer and isn't for those squeamish about dark comedy. 

Thanks for reading my thoughts on my new friend and its author, Ron Currie, Jr. 

Come on back to hear me talk about a new friend...

My New Friend "DEVIL HOUSE" by John Darnielle

 

Here's the cover of my new friend. I like retro feel. But don't let this cover convince you this is a horror story--- it is not. 

Hello. My name is Bobby Keniston, and my only friends are books. Don't feel sorry for me. Though if you can't help being sorry for me, at least pronounce "sorry" like Canadians do, so that it will rhyme with "story."  I love a good story. That's why books are my only friends. 

I know that all of the readers following this blog... wait... I need a break for laughter....it's just funny imagining that there are any people actually following this blog....Sorry.  

I know that all of readers following this blog are probably tired of my little project consisting only of Maine authors, so I thought I would talk about my friend "Devil House" by John Darnielle, who is not a Maine author. "Devil House" is also the newest of my new friends. Its birthday was January 25th of 2022. I was happy to find it at my local library, where I meet many of my new friends. 

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

My new friend "Devil House" is the third novel from the multi-talented John Darnielle, following his second novel "Universal Harvester" (which I have read and enjoyed) and "Wolf In White Van" (which I have not read, but which was nominated for a National Book Award merely days after its publication date--- not bad, eh?). "Devil House" tells the story of Gage Chandler, a true crime writer who was always told by his mother that he was descended from kings. He wrote a very successful true crime book about "The White Witch of Morro Bay", which dealt with Diana Crane, a school teacher who killed two young men who broke into her house and then tried to dispose of the bodies. Chandler's book, much like "Devil House", deals with the mythology a community constructs around murders and tragedies, while the complexity of the truth seems to fade away. 

Gage Chandler, on a tip from his agent, moves into what the locals of Milptas  call "Devil House", the scene of a double homicide. Milpitas is also where the events depicted in the book and film  "River's Edge" took place, and that true crime story hangs over the book in some ways. Once in the "Devil House", Gage works meticulously to recreate the crime scene, to do his best to get into the nooks and crannies, every inch of the house, looking for the story... and the "truth". 

MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

My friend has many things going for it, not least of which is being written by John Darnielle. Darnielle is the songwriter and singer behind The Mountain Goats, and his songs are very creative, powerful and lyrical. His prose here is also impressive, and the way he writes the first section as a true crime book itself is intriguing and effective. Reading about Gage's methods keeps the pages turning. The second section about Diana Crane, the "White Witch" is also a page-turner. Darnielle does well humanizing not only the teacher, but the two young men who attack her. In fact, he is quite good with teenage characters, which serve him well for the sections about the "Devil House." 

I also appreciate how Darnielle touches upon the "Satanic Panic" of those days, and how the Devil House murders could have fallen into that hysteria had the folks of Milpitas not worked so hard to squash the story after the sensationalism of "River's Edge". 

CHALLENGES WITH MY NEW FRIEND

There is an interlude in the book about a medieval boy becoming king, complete in medieval font, which, while well-written and entertaining, did not fully convince me that it was necessary. Perhaps this is my failing and not my friend's, I don't know. The surprise twist ending is bold and brave (and something I wouldn't even think about spoiling here), but I am still not 100% sure how I feel about it. Still, in its defense, it makes Gage confront how, no matter how well-researched and well-intentioned, "true crime" is only ever partly true and never complete. 

FINAL TAKEAWAY

Readers, if they are like me, will want to make friends with "Devil House". But, I must reiterate my warning from the caption below the above picture: do not go into it expecting a horror novel, or you may well be disappointed. 

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. Come on back to see who I make friends with next...

My New Friend "THE POLICE KNOW EVERYTHING" by Sanford Phippen

 

The author and the book. Photo from the Digital Commons @UMaine, Sanford Phippen's Literary Papers

Hi. My name is Bobby Keniston, and my only friends are books. Before you get to feeling sorry for me because of my lack of human friends, just remember that books don't mind if you wake them up at 3:00 AM because you feel like laughing or crying and don't want to be alone. So... yeah. 

If you have read my previous posts--- a prospect I find highly unlikely as generally my blogging reaches the exact same audience I would have as simply talking into a mirror--- you know that I have been reading a great deal of Maine writers lately, as I am a Maine writer myself, and want to have a wider knowledge of authors from my neck of the forest (or my shoulders of the woods, if you prefer). 

That is why my new friend is "The Police Know Everything" by Sanford Phippen. I have mentioned Mr. Phippen in my two previous blog posts because, aside from being a writer and a teacher, he also hosted interviews with Maine authors in a segment called Good Reads on Maine Public Broadcasting. This was back in the early 2000s I believe, but can be found on YouTube. On this show he interviewed the likes of Stephen King, Richard Russo, and Carolyn Chute to name a just a few. For the fun of it, you can catch his interview with Stephen King by CLICKING HERE. 

This is why the new friend I made for this post was "The Police Know Everything", which is a collection of Downeast Stories.

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

"The Police Know Everything" is a quick read, originally published in 1982 by Puckerbush Press, a small publisher based out of Orono, Maine, where Phippen taught school for many years. The stories are all short and compact, but with an overarching connective tissue in its exploration of class, the art of storytelling itself, and of place and time. The title story starts off the collection, named "The Police Know Everything" because it deals with our narrator's elderly aunt and her friends as volunteer police officers. Our narrator is Andy (or "An-day!" as he is called in the vernacular of his family and friends), clearly a stand-in for Phippen himself. Many of the stories are of Andy asking questions to his friends and family and then being told the story--- kind of a story within a story vibe. Some of the stories are humorous, some of them deeply sad, and some of them upsetting in their depiction of people's ignorance (including the use of racist and homophobic words). But Phippen was trying to show "the real Maine," the kind the tourists don't see at the fancy places on the coast. He wanted to show the truth. And I feel he succeeds. 

On another note, my understanding is that "The Police Know Everything" was considered a "small press bestseller" for a number of years. I found the copy I read in my local library. 

Oh--- and Stephen King blurbed another one of Mr. Phippen's books, calling him "a Maine treasure."

WHAT I LIKE BEST ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND

It was a strange, but after reading a few stories, there was such a feeling of familiarity, and I wondered where it was coming from. And then I realized--- the way the Downeast characters in this book were telling stories is the exact same way my Grandfather, Jesse I. Keniston, used to tell me, and all of his family, stories. The details, the manner of speaking, practically seeing the yarn spinning--- it all hit me with a surprising emotional payoff, thinking about being a little kid and listening to him talk. 

Next to this wonderful feeling of honest nostalgia, my other favorite thing was the story, "The Returned Native," about someone who left Maine but is back for a visit. It brings up a lot of the conflicting feelings I have about this state. How it keeps me here, but how I see its flaws (and they do feel like unique flaws), and how the flaws make me often wish I could get out--- but how long would I stay out? Phippen writes with clear honesty here, and it is worth considering. 

WHAT I FELT COULD HAVE MADE ME NEW FRIEND EVEN MORE FUN TO BE AROUND

While I did enjoy the collection, I do feel some of the stories were perhaps a bit too short, and ended abruptly at times. I also feel like my new friend could have perhaps had just a tiny bit more connective tissue for a stronger, clearer arc for the collection. But these are small complaints. 

FINAL TAKEAWAY

If you can find a copy--- and I believe a new press has taken over its distribution and that it is available on e-book as well--- I would recommend giving it a read. That is, if you are interested in looking at more of the "real Maine" instead of what you see in the travel brochures. Do not be fooled by the title and the cover artwork and think this is just a fun, silly, slice-of-life Maine humor read, a kind Tim Sample routine in book form. It is much more than that. 

Thanks for reading my thoughts on "The Police Know Everything". 

Come back soon to hear about another new friend!