Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!
Christine Montross journals a semester of cutting people open in BODY OF WORK: MEDITATIONS ON MORTALITY FROM THE HUMAN ANATOMY LAB. Understandably, Montross was frightened of the class, but comes to terms with it over time, even if she views her subject (nicknamed “Eve”) as still a life, placing her own hand on Eve’s arm for comfort during an incision, or feeling uncomfortable inserting an instrument into the corpse’s eye socket. That she and her fellow med students were respectful of the bodies is reassuring, and Montross endears herself with remembrances of being mortified at witnessing her initial hysterectomy; similarly, she marvels at seeing Eve’s cut-open woman parts for the first time. The author writes with a lyrical lilt, but the woe-is-me passages toward the end are pretentious, and I get the feeling that somewhere along the way (“I am Persephone”), she acquired the holier-than-thou doctor’s ego. An excellent use of period anatomical drawings in this one.
DRIFT adequately describes my attention span while reading New York-based lawyer Steven Paul Mark’s debut novel. Out of the service and in a rocky marriage, a down-on-his-luck Max applies for a job at an oil company. However, when he drops a name during his interview that he surreptitiously heard in the lobby (“Bran”), they don’t so much offer him a job as they do kill his wife and send him fleeing for his own. On his flight, he meets Rebecca, a seismologist in California who’s been investigating the cause of a recent rash of superstorms, which tie back to the practices of the rogue oil company. Gas prices being what they are, oil companies are an easy villain these days, but DRIFT doesn’t quite know what to do with it, despite enticing you with an opening line of “Don’t fucking move.” It’s like the book took its own advice, because even with occasional flashes of action, the dialogue is forced, the romance predictable and the ending the very definition of labored and pat. In the hands of a strong editor, there’s enough to turn the concept into a summer beach read.
Some 75 years ago, a bizarre skull was discovered in Mexico, so shaped to suggest either a severe deformity or an alien creature. Guess which one alternative researcher Lloyd Pye picks? In THE STARCHILD SKULL: GENETIC ENIGMA OR … HUMAN-ALIEN HYBRID?, Pye explains in great detail his efforts to prove this cranium is not of this earth. This includes X-rays, CAT scans, electron microscoping imagery and bone examinations. Each of these tests is represented with black-and-white and color photographs, but as with most UFOlogy works making a case for the otherworldly, it’s so damned technical that it doesn’t make much sense. Luckily, there’s a secondary story at work here, of Pye’s personal journey during this time; falling in love with a much younger, full-figured woman; finding his funds dwindling away; and struggling to find an agent and publisher who’ll take his theory seriously. They didn’t (STARCHILD is self-published), but it’s these obstacles that prove more interesting and identifiable than the hunk of bone.
For couch potatoes who need something to do during commercial breaks, there’s WHO’S YOUR TV ALTER EGO?: THE ULTIMATE TELEVISION CHARACTER PERSONALITY TEST. With each of its 52 chapters based upon a certain TV show – new and old – the book asks you various questions and then, depending on your answers, reveals what character from that show you most resemble. For example, if you were a toy, would you be a Mr. Potato Head or a Wiffle ball? Somehow this relates to the personalities of beloved sitcoms, dramas, cartoons and reality shows. Noah Lusky’s book is a novelty more than anything else, but I’m sure those who watch several hours of the tube a day will find it tuned to their wavelength. For those who don’t know SOUTH PARK from THE SOPRANOS, however, it will be worthless. –Rod Lott
Related posts:
- QUICKGASM >> 4.30.07
- QUICKGASM >> 10.18.06
- QUICKGASM >> 2.5.07
- QUICKGASM >> 9.8.06
- QUICKGASM >> 4.11.07
