Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

This is one of the most convoluted Culture novels (9 in total plus State of the Art about Earth).  I read it awhile ago, but forgot to write about it since I skipped through it as some parts are barely readable, and I suspect the skipping made it even more unreadable. 

It is about a mercenary called Zakalwe, who does the dirty work for Special Circumstances, but there are two narratives, one going forward in time, depicting Zakalwe's current mission, and another going backward in time, depicting previous missions and eventually back to his childhood.

To save you the effort, eventually we find out Zakalwe is not Zakalwe, but Elethiomel, Zakalwe's childhood friend who eventually becomes an enemy in a Civil War and murders real Zakalwe's sister Darkcsense, and as if that is not horrible enough, makes a chair from her corpse (the Chairmaker) and sends it to Zakalwe to sit on.  Zakalwe kills himself out of grief and Elethiomel is possessed by guild so he takes Zakalwe's name and identity and becomes high-danger mercenary for Culture's Special Circumstances' most dangerous missions, secretly hoping he will die and be released from the constant guilt and regret for being responsible for the death of his childhood's best friend.

It doesn't go that way though, and Zakalwe becomes a highly important asset for SC and the current mission is also very dangerous and he only accepts it if SC can help him find Livueta, real-Zakalwe's last remaining sister.  He is wounded in the conclusion of the current mission and SC keeps the promise and brings him to Livueta whom he begs for forgiveness, but she recognizes him as Elethiomel, his brother's and sister's murderer, and does not forgive him and he gets a major brain aneurism from desperation, but still doesn't doe as the SC drone who is there performs emergency surgery and saves his life. 

So, the fake Zakalwe is still alive and continues to suffer from his guilt for the murders, and SC goes back to business conducting secret operations, assassinations and coups, as long as the Minds say it is in the best interest of everyone. 

I stopped reading Culture novels after this one, since it is very dark and sordid, and yet still with the most incomprehensible names for characters, just because, but Iain Banks seems to have been a great guy, dead of 59 of bladder cancer, which might or might have not been partially caused by his love for Scotch Whisky. He married his nurse 6 months before his death and asked her 'would you do me the honor of becoming my widow?" How cool is that in the face of certain death? So, I will read ALL Culture novels after all.

Candy House by Jennifer Egan

This is the 'second part' to the Pulitzer-prize winning 'A visit from the goon squad' and like all sequels - it is not as good as the original.  It happens, mostly, 30 years in the future, and main protagonists are the children of the protagonists in the first book and some side characters.  This also gives Egan a chance to throw some science fiction in the mix, including the mandatory AI hate, but it doesn't work all that well. 

There are a bunch of stories, with characters appearing in several and connecting them, mostly about families of the characters from the previous book.  The first one with the invention of the Mandala Cube consciousness upload machine is a little far fetched and Egan chooses it as a connecting thread through most of the stories, the Cube being a literary device for hearing character's thoughts (one critic long ago said "characters don't walk around speaking their thoughts" - well in this book, they do!).

The two stories that stayed with me were about the recovering heroin addict, Lou Kline's daughter with the anthropologist (that they went on an Africa trip in the previous book), since it is very genuine and seems like it is drawn from real life; and also the Citizen Agent story about Lulu, which can be sordid at times, but it is quite powerful and knowing that initially was released on Twitter (Yes, X for you, Musk!) in continuation, it makes it even stronger. Def better than the PowerPoint chapter in the previous book.

Also the guy who yells in public to elicit authentic responses is pretty cool and the Counter story is kind of ok, but predictable.  Overall, the stories are not of the same high quality as the previous book, but they are interesting in their own right and are kind of a closure to the previous stories.  Worth the time to read, especially with Egan's supremely flowing style. 

Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

 Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

An interesting book. Published 11 years after the author's suicide in 1969 at age 32. Toole was a successful and popular professor, but, maybe triggered by the rejection of this book, he sank into paranoia and psychosis which lead to him killing himself by inhalation of car fumes. How quickly can lives change and forever. Reminds me of my own episode, which, thanks God, didn't end in permanent damage.

The book is about Ignatius Reilly, a 30 year old, Master of Arts in History, medieval-Boethius-obsessed, giant, overweight lazy ass. The Pulitzer prize was awarded posthumously and mostly for the detailed descriptions of New Orleans in the 60s and the New Orleans downtown accent of various ethnic groups.  It is a very faithful imagination of the city during that time period. 

It is a satire humor, hinging on understanding of context and mentioned events and literary works and pop culture references.  Ignatius starts the book by waiting for his mother (who drinks) in front of a department store in his green hunting hat (in Tropical New Orleans) and attracting the attention of policeman undercover, office Mancuso.  His mother, drunk, crashes their car (old Plymouth) and Ignatius needs to find a job to pay for the damages she caused to the building in which she crashed. 

After lots of unsuccessful attempts, Ignatius gets a job at Levy Pants, but loses it after trying to start a black riot to impress his university girlfriend Myrna. Then he becomes a hot dog seller and has many adventures which eventually land him in a hospital and with his mother wanting to put him in a mental institution. 

The book is not laughing-out-loud funny, but more of a grunting-funny, yet it still manages to be an interesting read.

Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin

 The second volume in "The Song of Ice and Fire". Also not as good as the first one, though it follows faithfully the second season of the HBO show.  It is surprising how young all the characters in the book are, Denaris being 13 years old. At least the HBO show aged them to the late teens or twenties, since otherwise it would have been even bigger scandal (than the open nudity and sex). 

This is my gym-read audio book, as I only read it when I go to the gym, so it takes a while to finish. The book is quite large, having much more material than the show and showing different perspectives like the Meister from the beginning of the book trying to poison the Red Woman. 

The rest of the book mainly concerns the battles for the throne, especially Renly and Stannis, and also the Lannister's - Tyrion fighting battles and becoming the Hand of the King, Jamie getting caught and the horrible conditions in which he's held (force to shit in the corner of his cell, eventually creating a small mountain of stench and rot), and Tywin winning battles and becoming the Hand towards the end of the book. 

It delves much deeper into Theon Greyjoy's point of view and development - in the show we mostly see him as the castrated "Reek".  Also Sir Davos Seaworth is quite developed, who, although well played in the show, was never given the enough screen time for his character climbing from a common smuggler to a nobleman.  Still, the entire book feels much slower than the previous volume and some would say also weaker. 

The Battle of Blackwater is the pinnacle of the book, though I was not that impressed, as I liked the social and cultural aspects of the show much more than its militaristic parts.  The show actually downplayed and deemphasized the battle and military parts which was a smart move.  Onward to A Storm of Swords now!

Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer

  Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer

So, this is the second part of Less, the previous Pulitzer winning novel by Greer, but no wonder it didn't win another Pulitzer as it is not as good.  Feels like Greer wanted to make some money from the same topics of the previous book and using the same characters, like a bunch of extra chapters.  Freddy is now announced as the narrator in the beginning which makes the book less interesting as it is not a surprise uncovered at the end like in the previous book.  Also the tour of the US South and East is not as interesting as the international tour Less did in the last book.

The characters he meets and the events he attends are also less interesting, with the exception of his meeting with his father and their relationship.  The worst part is at the end when he meets the black Arthur Less and realizes he attended many events which were meant for him. The "Financial Peril' plot seems very forced, as why wouldn't Robert pay the back debt for the house where they lived together? Very unbelievable. 

Having Freddy both as a narrator and a character doesn't work.  His travel to Maine, the island and 'the widow' is strangely disconnected from the rest of the narrative and doesn't add to it in any meaningful way. 

All in all, I read this to the end, but I wasn't impressed.  Another proof that sequels rarely work (but they're amazing when they do!)

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

 Less by Andrew Sean Greer

I read this book because my psychotherapist was aghast that I've been reading Oscar Wao, especially during a period where I was experiencing physical and psychological distress.  He did a search on Pulitzer and comedy and this book came on top (only two comedy books ever won the Pulitzer fiction prize, all the rest are traumatizing, dark horrors).  

The book is not exactly a comedy, more like social commentary with comedic touches, but definitely brighter than my previous horror experience that is still traumatizing me.  It is mostly a meditation on gay love and turning 50, i.e. being decidedly middle age with no way to deny it and fast walking towards the inevitable ultimate death and perishing forever in this universe.  Maybe when the universe is recreated from the breath of Vishnu you'd exist again, but then you would be remembering previous existence and you don't.

Less is a middling famous writer from SanFran who lost his love Freddy to another man and is taking a trip around the world on other people's expense to forget about it.  He goes to Mexico, Italy, India, Morocco and Japan, of all places, always doing engagements with his writer fame and getting into different happenings, mostly funny, but not all of them.  The ones concerning aging are depressing, especially if you're over 50 when everything in your body suddenly starts to fail in various non-funny way.  

It is a good book and kept my spirits up during the lead up to my hospitalization even though I skimmed through some parts as I was too psychologically distraught to pay attention to the written word.  It impressed me so much that I read the next one, which turned out to be a disappointment. 

Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

 Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

I finished this book back in March and it was a part of my new initiative to read Pulitzer-prize winning fiction,  Because of the health and life happenings of the past few months (including the month-long hospitalization, thanks wife!) I haven't written any reviews, though I have definitely continued reading. Now that I am reinstalling THERIPPER in order to erase any possible hacks, I have time while BitDefender is running full disk scan (12TB), so here I am.

Well, one thing I didn't count with was that Pulitzer prize winners are dark, bleak and traumatizing, describing the worst of human nature, which I cannot stomach at the best of times, let alone in probably the worst psycho-physical situation I've been in my life so far.  The ENTR mechanical keyboard feels good, but not as good as I remember from a lot of typing. Well, this book is supposedly satirical, i.e. funny, but describes some blood-curling scenes like Oscar being beaten to almost-death and the perps jumping on his head with both legs and his great-grandfather being tortured in Trujillo prison by having wet rope tied to his skull and then dried in the hot sun, causing permanent brain damage. Shit, I'm going to have nightmares about those for life.  Definitely not a good idea to read it in this condition, but my condition was not bad when I started. 

Anyway, the book is describing horrifying events through the lens of satire and sci-fi/fantasy obsession of the main character, the obese, love-hungry Dominican-American Oscar who wants to fall in love, but no girl in the US would have him so he goes back to Dominican where he falls in love with a former prostitute who is currently banging a corrupt police chief who orders the cruel beating and eventual murder of Oscar. The US authorities couldn't care less, of course, as long as the Trujillo regime is hunting 'commies'.  Commies were more important to the US than the lives of its own citizens. 

The books goes several generations back, with Oscar's mother, grandmother, and great-grandfather and what happened to them as a result of that animal Rafael Leonidas Trujillo being left to run amok since the US wanted him to kill more 'commies'. If you think Trump's regime is bad, checkout the US from the 50s and 60s - unbelievable.  Google Operation Condor too.

Anyway, very well written book, very flowing style and funny parts, but certain scenes are lifelong traumatizing, especially when you know that it was all actually true and most of these perp animals were never punished (El Dentista).