Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith

        This is the book that sent me on the trail of books I'm still following now. From this to The One Inside by Sam Shepard to Monsieur Pain by Bolaño and now 2666 by Bolaño as well. There's a common thread between these stories, they're all mysteries with no answers, and all quite surreal.
        It's hard to tell how much of Year of the Monkey is true and how much is fiction, as it drifts between reality and dream with little indication. I found it best to let myself be carried, and then the mystery became the focus. It's not a conventional mystery because there are no individuals involved. Instead, Smith is investigating a mystery of worldwide occurences, of climate disasters happening everywhere, to the election of Donald Trump, to the death of a friend and disablement of another, and a number of small bizarre moments in Smith's life. The culprit of these events is not even a human, as is revealed in the end, though she does give it a name.
        There's very little pressure with this book, it seems like it was written with ease, a stream of events, and is easy to read, too. There's no pressure to stay on top of it, no pressure to investigate the clues because Smith is the investigator and this book is just a series of findings. It feels like there is no more she can say beyond what she's said, but the mystery is still bigger than what is written. I think that may be the essence of any ambiguous or abstract art. A good artist isn't witholding. If we can't understand fully what they're saying, it's because it can't be clearly explained.

Monsieur Pain, Roberto Bolaño

        Monsieur Pain is a Parisian Mesmerist, paranoid loner, and a WWI veteran. This story is a mystery that opens and closes before we (or Monsieur Pain) are able to fully comprehend it, yet we are given an answer at the end. An answer that only raises more questions about the essence of the mystery that precedes it.
        Pain is riding downhill, often looking back at his youth. He's watching himself slide into poverty and not making any effort to stop. He's pulled into the mystery by a woman (whom he secretly loves) pleading that he try his occult healing practice on her old friend's husband, who lays in a pertpetual hiccup fit that threatens to kill him. I'll spare you the details from here, it's worth discovering as you go.

        The strongest element of this novella was not its overall mystery (which, as I said, is unending to this day), but its moment to moment occurences. Throughout most of the story, Pain is wandering the streets of Paris, following some whim or idea or nothing at all. He finds himself in strange places seemingly out of time, and Bolaño does an incredible job of handing you all the fear and paranoia straight from Pain's thoughts, including a couple of chilling moments that may be a thrill to read in a dark room. Descriptions of the darkened streets, the winding hospital corridors, twisted night clubs and junk warehouses pull you into his world.

        And through these strange places, Pain is haunted by images of his old life creeping in, like some unseen hand is trying to lure him, placing references to his old mentor and colleagues, alive and dead, whom he hasn't seen for many years.

        It's a short, strong story that may not work for you, but it's worth a try. It didn't leave me with much immediately, but the questions still occur to me, more and more as the months go by.

Howards End, by E.M. Forster

        Howards End has a beautiful and simple premise that spans the whole of first-world society, from the poorest to the richest, illustrating a wide variety of the sentiments that travel between these groups, the pity, ignorance, desire for culture, glorification, degradation, and everybody's own ideas of what is most important in life. This is a universal book, at least I felt it to be so, but the story is told within a microcosm of it all, in England during the turn of the century, and our main characters are the Schelgel sisters, Margaret, practical and lively, and Helen, youthful and dramatic, a pair safely nestled in the upper-middle class due to a sizable inheritance. They encounter the Wilcox family, the stone cold mastermind Henry, his wife the gentle old Ruth who lives small and feels her entire existence is encompassed within her old family home, Howards End. Lastly, there is Leonard Bast, a starving young man locked into poverty but looking to become cultured.Throughout the book, their lives become entwined and certain facets of these personalities come to the forefront. We see how each character admires one, despises another, all on the basis of their philosophies for what life is about. They discuss this all openly and plainly, especially between Margarget and Helen, who have extremely open conversations. Politics come up often, for example women's suffrage, a hot topic at the time, and social welfare. The story of the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes is a story of rocks smashing together in unexpected ways, and always creating sparks, bringing to mind conflicts we all have within ourselves. Arts and culture against practical living, the sanctity of property ownership, money vs. life and death, and of course it can't give us any answers but it makes clear there are some people who are at complete equilibrium with these things, and others who think they know what is best. All the while, there's some great drama (unexpected pregnancy, old love affairs revealed, and DEATH) and some good fun. Not a dull moment.

Mister Miracle, by Tom King

A great comic book miniseries about a lesser-known hero, Scott Free, AKA Mister Miracle, legendary escape artist. He was born son of the benevolent god Highfather on the planet New Genesis, but raised in the fiery slave pits of the planet Apokolips, ruled by the tyrant Darkseid. He comes from a group of characters called the New Gods. Knowing the mythology of these characters helps with the enjoyment of Mister Miracle, but the book works on many levels so it's not necessary. The best superhero stories use the otherworldly aspects of the characters, their powers and cosmic origins, in tandem with their very human vulnerabilities and problems. This book begins with Scott, now living on Earth, attempting suicide. He states it was an attempt to escape death, but we see that he's depressed and disassociated. He wasn't trying to escape death, he was trying to escape life. The art of the book is presented like an old television set, often being interrupted by static. The narration is that of an old mystery serial or golden age comic book. This all feels like a representation of Scott's disassociation with reality. Everything feels off, he keeps showing signs of some inexplicable unrest, not knowing what's wrong with his mind, something like what motivated his suicide. He says he can escape anything, as he proves in many cases, but he can't escape this disconnect. Until one day he realizes he can. And for reasons I can't spoil for you, he decides not to. Check it out.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Haunting of Hill House was a pioneer of the haunted house genre. It mainly follows Elanor Vance, a young woman looking for a new purpose in life after her mother's death, and her descent into madness. A paranormal researcher, Dr. John Montague,  invites Elanor and two others, Luke and Theodora, to come observe supernatural occurrences in Hill House. The book moves back and forth between the very methodical explanations by Montague, and Elanor's increasingly unsettled inner monologue. There are very few interactions between the house guests and any spirits. Instead, the house itself seems to do most of the work, whispering to Elanor, seducing her into fantasies of that new purpose she needs. These fantasies lead her into extending herself in unusual ways, trying to fulfill these fantasies. But after overstepping all of her personally held social boundaries (asking to move in with Theodora, and flirting with Luke) she ends feeling alienated by her comrades, as they become annoyed by her. What's so effective about this book's description Elanor's story is the way it carries us along her path to complete disillusionment. Somehow we are aware that she is crazy, yet we're fooled as well. Almost every mistake she makes feels honest, and every time she does something shocking, the other characters don't seem justified in being shocked. We see how unhappy she is before coming to the house, and so every hope the house feeds her is a false hope for us as well. We want her to be happy. Very good, easy, short read. Would benefit from a floor plan printed on a page, so the complex descriptions of the layout of the house could be a little more clear.

American Pastoral, by Phillip Roth

A book I have been working on for about 3 years. I finally got down to business and started over, finishing it via audio. The long history I've had with this book made me like it more than I would have if I had finished it on my first try instead of my third. Anyway, I thought it was great. The Swede is such an incredible character because he can be three totally different people depending on who's talking about him. In the beginning he's described as the hero of Weequahic, Newark, the shining symbol of American culture in a community made mostly of Jewish immigrants. Shortly after his death, his younger brother reveals him to be a weak, innocent man-child who never grew out of the American dream. Over the rest of the book, we see from his perspective that he's as strong as his town believed him to be, but completely unaware of what it's like to have life deny his dreams. Until his daughter, Merry, bombs a post office.