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Book Review: From the Darkness by Dawn Sooy

From the Darkness-Front CoverIn April 2004, during a family fishing trip, Lizbeth’s temper abruptly explodes, alarming her husband and children and revealing the first signs of her burgeoning depression. Over the next eight years, with the support of her loving and patient husband Noah, Lizbeth battles a swarm of personal demons including self-loathing, rage, doubt, fear, apathy, and lethargy that not only leave her unable to function, but push her to such destructive behaviors as self-mutilation and attempted suicide.

Although a novel, From the Darkness is written as an intimate first-person memoir that follows Lizbeth along her arduous journey back to manageable health through multiple hospital visits, therapy sessions, a myriad of medications, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) visits, gambling and spending addiction, and at least two failed attempts to return to full time employment.

All the while, Lizbeth is haunted by a scornful, threatening voice in her head designated “Pita” (aka Pain in the Ass) that relentlessly urges her to take the easy way out. Yet even during the worst of her tribulations, Lizbeth manages to hold her own, drawing strength and encouragement from family, doctors, therapists—and the smallest of life’s victories—to bear the crushing burden of depression and find her way out of the darkness.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Michael Critzer’s Heroic Inspirations

By referencing the backstories and motivations of thirty comic book superheroes, Michael Critzer offers life lessons ranging from overcoming the pain of abuse to conquering self-doubt, from finding the strength to forgive to searching one’s soul for one’s true identity.

Do not mistake such comparisons between fantasy and reality as trivial. I was surprised by how many of them struck a chord in my own life and forced me to pause and consider not only how I managed to survive the darkness of my past tribulations and ordeals, but the scars those experiences inflicted on my conscience and personality.

Yet while the weight of our emotional baggage might always remain with us, we find ourselves becoming stronger when we learn to control and use our pain as a source of wisdom and compassion rather than as an excuse for bitterness, rage, and selfishness. We can rise above.

Such are the lessons taught by the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Daredevil, Spider Man, Vixen, X-Men, Green Arrow, and so many more. Heroic Inspirations is not only an edifying and joyful read, but obvious proof of Michael Critzer’s expertise on the mythology of superheroes and his ability to translate them into practical moral instruction.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Riverworld and Other Stories by Philip Jose Farmer

On Riverworld, no one ever dies… well, at least not permanently. Those who do are resurrected a few hours later elsewhere on the planet. Former western movie star, Tom Mix, found himself on Riverworld after his Earthly demise, along with billions of others from various eras in human history. Mix, along with his companions Yeshua and Bithniah, are on the run from a marauding conqueror Kramer when they join forces with John Wickel-Stafford, the lord mayor of New Albion and enemy of Kramer. Together, Mix and Stafford lead their forces in an attempt to stop Kramer’s next invasion…

“Riverworld” is, of course, one of the better stories in this collection of eleven. My other favorites include:

“J.C. on the Dude Ranch” – At the XR Dude Ranch in Big Wash, Arizona, two imposing cowboys—the heroic J.C. Marison and the sinister Mr. Bales Bub—square off against one another, but it is truly a battle of Biblical proportions or something more cosmic?

“The Volcano” – Detective Curtius Parry investigates an impossible volcano recently formed in the backyard of Henry and Bonnie Havik. The eruption occurred shortly after hired hand and Mexican immigrant Juan Tizoc vanished. Could there be a burning connection between the two?

“The Problem of the Sore Bridge” – In Victorian England, journalist Harry Manders and gentleman burglar A.J. Raffles team up to investigate the disappearance of enigmatic rare gem dealer James Phillimore. At every turn, Manders and Raffles are merely seconds ahead of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, who are also on the case. Manders and Raffles soon learn that Phillimore is not at all what he appeared to be, nor are teardrop sapphires in his collection…

“Brass and Gold” – A hilarious romp focusing on a love affair between a Jewish wife and her eccentric Gentile artist neighbor that begins after her husband locks her in the bedroom with three meals per day in order to curb her gluttony and force her to lose weight…

Other stories include “The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod,” “Monolog,” “The Leaser of Two Evils,” “The Phantom of the Sewers,” “The Henry Miller Dawn Patrol,” and “The Voice of the Sonar in My Vermiform Appendix.”

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle

Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van WinkleContinuing in the Halloween “spirit,” the next book on my October reading list has also been in my collection since high school. In fact, like Great Ghost Stories (reviewed last week), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Wan Winkle was purchased from the Scholastic Book Club.

Washington Irving’s stories are classics of American literature. Both are set in the Catskill Mountains of southeastern New York state where Irving was born and raised.

In the quaint, isolated village of Sleepy Hollow—where fables and superstitions abound—locals are all too happy to regale newcomers with the legend of a Hessian soldier who lost his head to a cannon ball during the Revolutionary War. Ever since, he prowls the woods atop his steed in search of his head. When meek but socially ambitious schoolmaster Ichabod Crane comes to the village, he courts Katrina Van Wessel, the daughter of a wealthy farmer. This immediately puts him at odds with local ruffian, “Bram Bones” Van Brunt. After Katrina turns down Crane during a party at her family home, he storms out, but his disappointment turns to fear when he confronts the Headless Horseman along a dark country road…

Hen-pecked husband Rip Van Winkle avoids gainful employment—and his wife’s nagging—through daytime jaunts in the woods with his dog, Wolf, and helping his fellow villagers with odd jobs. One morning, Rip ventures a bit farther up the mountain than usual and begins to hear thunder. He is soon beckoned by a man in outdated Dutch clothing struggling to carry a keg. Rip lends a hand and together, they enter a nearby cave where other such men are playing nine-pins (bowling). After drinking heavily from the keg, Rip falls asleep and awakens 20 years later, having completely missed the Revolutionary War…

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Great Ghost Stories

Great Ghost StoriesIn the spirit of Halloween, I decided to re-read a book I’ve had in my collection for nearly 30 years. This anthology of six supernatural tales, published by Watermill Classics, gathers works by such famous scribes as Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood, Guy de Maupassant, and Bram Stoker. My favorites in the book are “Keeping His Promise” by Algernon Blackwood and “The Hand” by Guy de Maupassant. There are two in the collection that I would not consider ghost stories but were no less eerie— “Caterpillars” and “The Squaw.”

In “Keeping His Promise” by Algernon Blackwood, a university student pulls an all-nighter to study for an exam when a former classmate from elementary school arrives unexpectedly. Seeing that the man is in dire straits, the student invites him in for a meal and a place to spend the night while he studies. Things become a bit odd the following morning when his old friend can be heard but not seen…

In E.F. Benson’s “Caterpillars,” a man staying overnight at an Italian villa has visions of abnormally large glowing caterpillars amassing in various parts of the house. The following day, one of the other guests captures, then later kills, a smaller version of the same caterpillar—and suffers dire consequences.

A boisterous American visiting Nuremberg, Germany accidentally kills a kitten, sending its mother into a rage. Later, when the American visits the Torture Tower museum and tempts fate by placing himself in one of the devices, mother cat takes advantage of the opportunity in “The Squaw” by Bram Stoker.

In “The Hand” by Guy de Maupassant, a French judge meets an Englishman living in Marseilles and is eventually given a tour of the Englishman’s villa. Among the man’s gun collection is a severed human hand chained to the wall. The Englishman explains that the hand belonged to an enemy and must remained chained—lest it escape…

Ambrose Bierce brings us the tale of two men who use an abandoned mansion to hold a knife fight. One of the combatants ends up dead—but not at the end of a blade in “The Middle Toe of the Right Foot.”

A realtor is hired to partition a haunted estate inherited by three women. During his inspection of the property, he is confronted by the town idiot, a raving wild man named Dickon. The groundskeeper explains that while the previous owner of the estate was a kindly gentleman, he despised the three women, but died before he could change his will. Legend has it that the gentleman still roams the property, causing death and madness in “Dickon the Devil” by J.S. LeFanu.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Joe Haldeman’s Worlds

Joe Haldeman - WorldsIn 2084, sexually promiscuous college student Marianne O’Hara leaves her off-world colony of New New York (one of many known as the Worlds) to attend university in New York City on Earth, where she meets a Bohemian poet and artist named Benny and an FBI agent named Jeff Hawkings.

Marianne and Benny become entangled with an anti-government group that seem at first innocuous—until one of their members is murdered and Benny finds his apartment bugged. As their suspicions about the organization grow and their safety is jeopardized, Benny decides to inform the FBI about the group then move to a remote farm in South Carolina after assuming a new identity. Meanwhile, Marianne takes several months to tour the world with some of her classmates from New York University including Jeff Hawkings.

Upon returning to New York, Marianne is attacked and nearly raped. As tensions build between the Earth and the Worlds over trade agreements, Marianne and Jeff arrange to leave Earth for New New York—but not before she visits New Orleans. While there, Marianne is persuaded to audition for a jazz band as a clarinet player. She soon becomes famous on the local scene—resulting in her abduction by a wealthy businessman who demands ransom from New New York.

How will Marianne escape from her kidnappers and what will happen as negotiations between Earth and the Worlds disintegrate into threats?

Worlds is considered a classic SF novel and while I enjoyed several chapters at the beginning and end, the story suffered from a sagging middle. Marianne’s globetrotting was told in the form of diary entries and much of it was tedious. There was little character development during these chapters aside from the budding romance between Marianne and Jeff and her fleeting concern for Benny back home.