Book Review: "The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld" by Justin Hocking

Wow.

Having just finished Justin Hocking's memoir about his obsession with surfing and Moby Dick, and his struggles to find direction in his life and overcome his addiction to being in relationships, I feel much like I'd imagine one does after a good round of surfing—breathless and exhilarated, simultaneously.

Justin Hocking was a West Coast kid, outdoorsy, constantly obsessed with motion, an obsession he fed first through break dancing and finally through skateboarding. He became obsessed with Herman Melville's classic novel and really felt it spoke to him, both about his own struggles and the struggles of the world around him. He did painstaking research into Melville's life and career, and read everything he could get his hands on that has been written about the book. (He also has a list of others obsessed with the book, including Jackson Pollock and Laurie Anderson.)

When Hocking moved to New York, he was struggling with the inevitable end of a long-distance relationship and trying to figure out what to do with his life when he spotted someone on the subway holding a surfboard. Shortly thereafter he became obsessed with surfing anywhere and anytime he could, and found himself among a rapidly growing circle of friends who all shared the same love for the sport and the feelings it provoked. As his life grew more and more chaotic and confusing, Hocking could only find peace amidst the waves.

But surfing wasn't enough to make him content. As he started to wonder whether he'd ever find true love, and then began realizing that perhaps he had problems with being in romantic relationships, his life became more emotionally anguished. And on top of that, he grew increasingly unhappy with his job and with much of the culture of New York City, yet found himself incapable of making a decision whether to move to Portland, Oregon, or stay in New York, where he can surf whenever he wants to. On a visit to his family, a violent encounter throws him even more in turmoil, and he equates his struggles and the feelings they cause with those of Captain Ahab.

This is a meticulously researched, emotionally poignant, fascinating, and sometimes humorous book, populated with a tremendously memorable and endearing cast of characters. While at times the book veers off into strange tangents involving Hocking's family (in an effort to illustrate that his obsession with the water may very well be genetic), and he does rant a bit about George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, I was completely compelled by Hocking's memoir. Considering I know nothing about surfing or skateboarding, and have only read Moby Dick once, I was surprised how utterly hooked I was by this book. I think Hocking would be a fascinating person to talk with, and I would love to watch some of the people he wrote with, even from afar, just to see if their reality matched what I saw in my head.

I don't read a lot of memoirs; it takes a compelling subject and a talented writer to reel me in. The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld succeeds in both categories. It's unlike anything I've read, which means it will stay in my head even more than it would on its literary merits alone.

Book Review: "Airstreaming" by Tom Schabarum

Linda is a junior in high school growing up in Kansas City in the 1970s. She is fiercely devoted to her father, who went blind as a result of injuries he sustained during Vietnam. The two listen to jazz music, and even go to a club every now and again so they could simply listen to music. Their closeness causes resentment in Linda's mother, Clare, forced to work because her husband can't, and she wishes that her life didn't involve so many sacrifices on her part.

Martha was a troubled young woman when she met Jack, who was dealing with his own problems. But the two formed a strong connection, and married. What Martha wants more than anything is to have a baby, something that can make her feel truly rooted in the world (although we find out later that there's more to it than just that). Jack is reluctant but knows how much the desire for a baby consumes Martha, so when she becomes pregnant, he is guardedly happy but still worries that something could go wrong.

When a tragedy affects Linda and Clare, it brings Linda into Jack and Martha's life, and it is another tragedy that further brings all four of their lives together. In an effort to help Martha, Jack buys an Airstream trailer, with the thought that the two can travel the world and it will solve all of their problems. But Jack doesn't realize how deep the problems lie, and Linda seeks solace from Jack and Martha at the time when they need to give it most but need their own solace as well.

Airstreaming is a poignant, emotionally compelling book about the power of love—love for your spouse, love for your parent, love for your child, and the desire to be loved. It's a book about the hurts and resentments we keep buried inside, and our need to escape, even when we should face reality instead. And it's also a story about how sometimes the refuge we need isn't always the best solution for us.

I enjoyed this book and found it very moving. All of the characters have flaws, and fears, and problems they should talk about with others but don't. It's interesting that the book took place in the 1970s because at times it felt even more old fashioned than that. I thought the core of the story was very interesting and compelling, although I didn't think a subplot with Linda and Clare's neighbors meshed with the story well. Clearly, Clare is the least sympathetic character in the book, and although I understand what drove her, I wish that Tom Schabarum had focused a little bit more on the depth that he actually gave her.

How do you keep going when it feels like your life is going completely off course, and you don't know how to cope? Airstreaming is a book about people in desperate need of hope, and how they find the strength to carry on.

Book Review: 'Not for Nothing" by Stephen Graham Jones

Full disclosure: I received an advance readers copy of this book from NetGalleys in exchange for an unbiased review.

Nick Bruiseman is a disgraced former police detective and private investigator forced out of his job—and the town of Midland, Texas—after an investigation goes more than a little awry. He returns to his small hometown of Stanton, Texas, where he hopes to drink the rest of his days away, days he's spending working for and living at Aardvark Custom Economy Storage. ("Free room, free board, so long as nobody complains about me taking liberties with their stuff."

He's hoping for anonymity, a life where he doesn't have to handle anything more complicated than picking up chopped beef sandwiches from the nearby water station and letting his old friend' son and his band practice in one of the vacant storage units. But one day in walks Gwen Tracy, former high school cheerleader and homecoming queen, over whom Nick was rather obsessed back in the day (their encounter in his truck one night during senior year didn't help his obsession any). She wants to hire Nick as a private investigator, because she says she is being threatened and stalked by an ex-convict she met while tutoring at a prison.

Shortly after Gwen leaves the storage company, Nick gets a visit from another old friend, Rory Gates. Rory was the star football player to Gwen's cheerleader, the homecoming king to her queen. Nick and Rory used to be friends despite their competition over Gwen. Now Rory wants to use Nick's services to spy on his wife, whom he believes is having an affair. He's not interested in taking no for an answer. The catch of course, is that Rory is now married to Gwen, so Nick has, in a short amount of time, been hired by both husband and wife.

Then someone gets murdered, and Nick is suspected of the crime, which brings him into contact with a shady attorney that owes him a favor. As Nick desperately tries to clear his name and prove what really happens, he finds himself in unending trouble and in the crosshairs of a number of people, including a sheriff sure that all roads lead to his guilt, and a pool shark with a violent streak to whom Nick has owed money for quite some time. And of course, the judge who banned him from Midland pops up, too.

I really enjoyed this book a great deal, and thought Nick was a pretty terrific character. He makes no bones about his flaws and he doesn't care what people think about him (most people, at least); he just wants to live the rest of his failed life in an alcoholic stupor. But he cannot turn off his detective instincts and his need to try and both clear his own name and figure out what's really happening.

Stephen Graham Jones has created a memorable group of characters which seem familiar but are more complex than you first think. It's a plot full of twists and turns, and I like how it kept me guessing. If I have any criticism, it's that there were perhaps too twists—as the story neared its conclusion, I had to re-read a bit just to be clear on what exactly happened and who was really involved. But in the end, Nick Bruiseman and the folks in Stanton, Texas were fun to spend some time with, and I hope Jones takes us back on another journey to Stanton sometime soon.

Book Review: "Ways of Leaving" by Grant Jarrett

Full disclosure: I received an advance readers copy of this book from NetGalleys in exchange for an unbiased review.

Chase Stoller's life is kind of falling apart. He's lost his job as a reporter, his marriage is over in all but the legal sense, and to top it off, his estranged father has just died. He now must return to his hometown in the Poconos, a place he doesn't have many warm feelings for, and face his unresolved feelings about his childhood. Plus, his brother, Aaron, resents him for not being around much and forcing him to care for their father, and Chase's beloved sister, Hannah, has been languishing in a mental institution. It's understandable why Chase has stayed away so long, isn't it?

Growing up with a distant, disengaged father and a mother barely able to contain her simmering rage and depression, Chase really only had Hannah to turn to and protect him, and the two were inseparable until mental illness took hold of her life. And Chase certainly has his own problems—he's addicted to sex and alcohol, has a bit of a rage issue, and his self-destructive tendencies manifest themselves mainly in uncontrollable sarcasm and not knowing when to be quiet. His return home is marked by more than a little bit of abuse (both self-inflicted and inflicted by others), not to mention unabashed flirting and and a few sexual encounters, with an old girlfriend and a fragile, married woman.

"Perhaps everyone found comfort in convenient little myths created out of need, out of desperation. Or maybe some lives were truly wholesome, replete with the rich, sustaining byproducts of love. But what did it matter? Searching for answers was like studying a map after arriving at your final destination. All the information in the world wouldn't alter where he was or what he'd become."

Chase recognizes the problems he sees around him—his brother is so self-centered and self-righteous that he doesn't see how fragile his young children are, and he desperately wants to help his sister out of the catatonia all of her medications have her in, and perhaps bring her back to some semblance of how she used to be. But at the same time, Chase can't seem to help himself. He knows he has problems, he thinks he understands the root of them, but he can't seem to pull himself off the path he's on. He wants to love and be loved but doesn't want the emotional entanglement of relationships, because relationships hurt. He wonders if it would just be better if he died, but he's not courageous enough to take his own life. But it takes a decision only he can make to push him onto a road that might help him recover—or destroy him completely.

I really enjoyed this book so much. Grant Jarrett's writing style reminded me a lot of Jonathan Tropper's, and I really liked the way he developed his characters, particularly Chase. The dialogue is funny, sarcastic, and sensitive at times, and while you may wonder if one person really could find himself in that much trouble all the time, every time Chase opens his mouth or does something, you can see why people have the desire to hit him. Ways of Leaving definitely made me laugh a lot, but it also was poignant and emotional in places.

"Do we all just eventually give up, take what comes to us, convince ourselves it's what we've always wanted and get on with whatever our sad little lives have become because, well, because that's what we do?"

If you like books that combine comedy and emotion with some great storytelling, definitely pick up Ways of Leaving. You may not love Chase's character, but you won't be able to keep away from his misadventures just getting through life.

Book Review: "Redeployment" by Phil Klay

I've been tremendously fortunate to never have had to go to war. I've always been awed by the sacrifices made by the men and women in our armed forces, and truly admire both their physical strength and their mental toughness, which has allowed them to battle actual and psychological challenges.

Thanks to a number of war-themed movies, we've gotten some idea (albeit dramatized ones) of what soldiers went through during wartime and after the battles have ended, and how they coped with injuries and trauma. Add Phil Klay's powerful story collection, Redeployment, to this mix. It's a collection that packs a real punch, and Klay, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, doesn't shy away from brutal honesty, using images and plots that at times may make you uncomfortable, but which truly sear your mind.

Some of my favorite stories included: "Prayer in the Furnace," in which a chaplain finds his abilities and his faith tested by the actions of a zealous Colonel and the effects his zeal had on those in his platoon; "Psychological Operations," which follows the struggles of a former PsyOps Marine desperate for the approval of his father, and a Muslim classmate; "Money as a Weapons System," which humorously looks at the bureaucracy of war, as a Foreign Service Officer ready to make a difference is encouraged to teach young Iraqi children to play baseball; "War Stories," which powerfully illustrates the aftereffects of major injuries on both the injured soldier and one of his best friends, also a veteran; "Unless It's A Sucking Chest Wound," where a Marine-turned-law school graduate deals with a struggling friend still in the service, and the ghosts of those left behind; and the title story, which is a gut punch, following a soldier upon his immediate return to Fallujah, forced into the idea of taking another life.

Klay is a talented writer whose language absolutely dazzles, and the emotion in his stories really resonated. At times when he described gunfire and other action, you actually felt as if you were in the midst of it. His characters are funny, poignant, and all too human. My only criticism of the collection is that Klay uses so many acronyms that soldiers would know, but the average reader probably doesn't, so while I had an idea of what he was trying to say, I couldn't quite grasp certain things. (One story used so many acronyms I could only understand the bare bones of the plot.)

I look forward to seeing if Phil Klay continues writing, because his voice is a powerful one, and his talent deserves to be read.

Book Review: "The Weight of Blood" by Laura McHugh

Full disclosure: I received an advance readers copy of this book from NetGalleys in exchange for an unbiased review.

Lucy Dane has lived in the small Ozark town of Henbane all her life. She's always felt a bit suffocated by her hometown, always longed for something more, and she can't wait to graduate from high school and leave, in search of more excitement. She's also looking for answers—her young mother, Lila, disappeared when Lucy was just a baby, and no one has ever understood what happened to her, although some of the townsfolk believe that Lila was a witch, the way she enchanted people.

When Lucy's friend Cheri disappears and then is discovered dismembered about a year later, Lucy regrets not being a better friend to the girl, but she also can't stop wondering what might have happened to her. And when she finds something of Cheri's in a surprising place, it sparks her need to find out the truth, no matter what trouble she might dig up. At the same time, she starts trying to figure out the truth behind her mother's disappearance, from those she left behind, and those not as willing to share their thoughts.

"Cheri and Lila, two lost girls, bookends with a lifetime of mysteries between them. And then it occurred to me: If it was possible to find one, why not the other? It couldn't hurt to ask around. Someone out there might know what happened to my mother. It might not be too late to find out."

The Weight of Blood follows Lucy's search for answers, as she turns to her best friend, Bess, and Daniel, a local boy she can't stop thinking about. The book also shifts perspective to Lila when she arrived in Henbane, and the challenges, opportunities, and fears she faced. From time to time, the book also is narrated by other characters in both the past and present, which gives more weight to the story.

This is a really powerful book about the ties of family, how blood is so much stronger than anything else, and it often makes us turn a blind eye to what is in front of us. It's a book about the secrets that weigh on us, those we wish we could tell, and those we know we must carry with us for the rest of our lives. It's also a enormously compelling story about the things that go unsaid, and the actions we're driven to because we don't know the things we should.

Laura McHugh is a terrific writer. She's created a tremendously evocative setting in Henbane that you can truly feel, and her characters don't stoop to the stereotypes you often see in books set in the Ozarks. In some cases these are simple people who have made their lives from virtually nothing, but they're not one-dimensional characters. Both Lucy and Lila's stories are gripping, emotional, and satisfying, and although you probably can guess where the book will lead, the story keeps you hooked, much as Henbane has had its hold on so many throughout the years.

"The Ozarks did have a way of calling folks home, though I'd never thought I would be one of them. All my life I had told myself I didn't belong here. Henbane was a map of the devil, his backbone, eye, and throat, its caves and rivers a geography of my loss. But I hadn't taken into account how a place becomes part of you, claims you for its own. Like it or not, my roots tangled deep in the rocky soil."

I really enjoyed this, and recommend it wholeheartedly.

Book Review: "The Fever" by Megan Abbott

Full disclosure: I received an advance readers copy of this book from NetGalleys in exchange for an unbiased review.

Deenie Nash and her friends, Lise and Gabby, seem like your typical high school students. They're anxious about classes, friends, and especially, boys. But their friendships are on shaky ground, as Lise transformed from a chubby girl into a young woman suddenly unaware of the appeal of her body, and Gabby is withdrawing from Deenie, spending more time with another student, the mysterious Skye. Deenie's father, Tom, is a popular teacher at her high school, and her older brother Eli is a high school hockey player who isn't quite sure how to handle so many girls throwing themselves at him.

In a split second, everything changes. Lise suddenly suffers a mysterious seizure during class, and her condition continues to worsen once she is rushed to the hospital. No one can stop talking about what happened to her, and pictures and videos of the seizure make their way across social media. And then suddenly other female students are experiencing strange symptoms—twitching, anxiety, vomiting, and psychological anguish. At a band concert the night after Lise's seizure, Gabby passes out as well, and no one knows what will happen next, and who will be affected.

As more girls become ill and/or hospitalized, both the school and the entire community are abuzz, trying to figure out what is causing this epidemic. Deenie is struggling more than any, as two of her best friends have been stricken and she doesn't know if she's next, or if she's simply a carrier of something that has made her friends ill. Is it some sort of pollution-related illness from the town's lake? Is it a reaction to the HPV vaccines that female students are required by the school system to receive? Or is it something even more sinister?

Megan Abbott follows up her fantastic novel Dare Me with another fantastic depiction of the complicated, sometimes devious minds and behaviors of high school girls. The Fever is quite as mean-girl-filled as Abbott's previous book, but her characters are really well drawn, and I was compelled to keep reading in order to try and figure out what was causing these girls to fall ill. She did a great job of capturing the building hysteria of a community that wants answers and is willing to sacrifice anyone that stands in their way to get them.

More than that, this is a book about secrets, about the things we don't feel comfortable telling our family and friends. It's a book about the anxieties of being a teenager, both for girls and guys, and the anxieties of parenting, the struggles that come with knowing you can't always protect your children from the world around them.

This isn't a perfect book—I felt as if the book headed you down one too many blind paths before revealing the cause of the girls' illness, and I felt that Skye's character wasn't drawn as well as the others. But Megan Abbott is a really talented writer, and I enjoyed this book a great deal despite its flaws. Definitely a fascinating read.