A Reader Unravelled

From StarMag

Review by DAPHNE LEE

THE COMPLETE POLYSYLLABIC SPREE: THE DIARY OF AN OCCASIONALLY EXASPERATED BUT EVER HOPEFUL READER

By Nick Hornby
Publisher: Penguin Viking, 278 pages
(ISBN: 978-0670916722)

I LOVE spying on people as they browse in bookstores. I pay attention to what the person in front of me at the cashier is buying. I always want to know what my friends and family are reading and what they have blown their allowance/pay packets on at their favourite bookshops.

That's why I love Nick Hornby's collection of articles about books. I was thrilled to see, on first flipping through this book, that each chapter begins with two lists: “Books Bought” and “Books Read”. If you are a book addict, you'll know that the two lists don't always overlap. If you own over a thousand books and you haven't stopped buying more, it's unlikely that you will read every book you buy the moment the shrink-wrap comes off.

First of all, there's the question of mood. You may want to (nay, need to) buy a book on the spot, but, years may pass before you feel like reading it! This is why my bedside table is stacked with books. I'm usually in the middle of at least three at any one time because I never can tell what I'll feel like reading first thing in the morning or last thing at night.

It's good to see Nick Hornby publicly identifying with and acknowledging the problem. Not that it really is a problem. It's only those spoil sports who read maybe half a book every couple of years who see it as such. Their main concern would probably be shelfspace or lack thereof, but if you truly love to read and like owning what you read (or will, one day, so help you God, get around to reading), shelfspace ceases to be an issue. Who needs bookcases when there are other kinds of surfaces that will as readily hold your books? Who says your wardrobe is only for clothes? Or kitchen cabinets are just for crockery? Has it ever occurred to you that there's a lot of useable space under your bed?

Anyway, if you're an enthusiastic reader and buyer of books (and if you're a Hornby fan) you will love The Complete Polysyllabic Spree. It comprises two year’s worth of the author’s column, Stuff I’ve Been Reading, for American literary magazine The Believer, and, besides revealing that Hornby buys a lot of books and reads a lot of books but that the lists don't necessarily overlap, it also describes the method-in-the-madness way he chooses his reading material; how one book or author leads to another; what makes him want to read more, and what puts him off the activity.

It's all written in a very chatty style. And at times Hornby also nags and whines, scoffs and simpers. But that's the book's greatest charm. You don't feel intimidated by Hornby. You don't think, “Cor, he's so widely read, how will I ever catch up?” and “My goodness, that book sounds deep! He must be a clever clogs!” Hornby is like that friend with whom you go book-hunting on weekends, who sometimes buys books simply because of their cool covers and who's looked at his copy of Candide for the past seven years and never ever felt the slightest inclination to read it. In short, a perfectly normal, ordinary guy who just happens to like reading.

He does read widely, but he's guided by curiosity and a desire to have a good time, not worthy reasons like the pursuit of knowledge and the quest for peace. We've all been at the mercy of people who stroke their chins and say stuff like, “Denise Robbins? What could a book by her possibly teach you?” Oh, yawn.

I have not learnt a whole lot from Polysyllabic apart from the titles of some books that I might very well enjoy and the fact that Hornby is, like me, the sort of person who panics about silly things like not having something to read (even though they live in a house where there is no where to park your bum because there are stacks of books on all the chairs). He is also the sort of person who might impulsively buy books on obscure subjects like the migration patterns of the peregrine falcon. I am much comforted by this fact as I once bought a book on fly fishing in New England.

Hornby is as funny, wry and sarcastic in Polysyallabic as he is in his novels, but this book is a much more enjoyable and relaxing read than his fiction because whereas his characters are always in the midst of personal crises and trying to come to grips with life, Hornby, the main character, so to speak, of Polysyallabic, is just a man wandering aimlessly through a wonderland of books, rambling on, rather pointlessly, but quite engagingly, about the delights and frustrations of reading. Well, it suits me anyway and I can't see why anyone who loves books wouldn't be just as entertained.

Sunday, January 28, 2007 in Book Reviews

Prince of Darkness

I'm currently biting my nails over Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, which is part-detective, part-horror fiction, about a group of scholars investigating the truth behind the legend of Vlad the Impaler, the cruel medieval ruler whose crimes formed the basis of the myth of Dracula.

Reading this book, prompted me to re-read Bram Stoker's Dracula. Coincidentally, two new versions of the classic tale arrived on my desk about a month ago: an illustrated edition, and a graphic novel.

Review by DAPHNE LEE

THE ILLUSTRATED DRACULA

By Bram Stoker

Illustrated by Jae Lee

Publisher: Studio, 400 pages

(ISBN: 978-0142005156)

PUFFIN GRAPHICS: BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA

Adapted by Gary Reed

Illustrated by Becky Cloonan

Publisher: Puffin, 176 pages

(ISBN: 978-0142405727)

AS my eldest sister (who is 13 years older than me) was a fan of the macabre, in particular vampire stories, I was familiar with the legend of Count Dracula from a tender age. My earliest brush with the aristocratic fanged one was even before I turned five. My sister took me with her to watch Christopher Lee in the Hammer House of Horror cult classic, Dracula. This was probably very silly of her, but, thankfully, I suffered no lasting damage from the experience. (Some may disagree though.)

I have next to no recollection of the movie (although I do remember Dracula’s blood-red eyes), but I understand that although it is based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the script is not faithful to the novel.

For example, the film begins with Jonathan Harker arriving at Castle Dracula with the intention of killing the vampire. Although he manages to destroy one of Dracula’s brides, he is overpowered by the Count and is turned into a vampire. His fiance meets the same fate and both are killed by vampire-hunter Van Helsing.

In the novel, Jonathan is a solicitor at the English law firm hired by Dracula to purchase property for him and when he arrives at Castle Dracula, he has no idea that his host is one of the undead. He manages to avoid being bitten, although he does end up very ill. Later, his fiance, Mina’s life and soul is threatened by Dracula when the vampire sets up home in Britain. However, Stoker allows the couple a happy ending.

I suspect the movie wasn’t too scary or I would have remembered more of it ... just as I remember The Exorcist. The book, on the other hand, is one of the creepiest tales of horror I have ever read. It comprises the various characters’ journal entries as well as log entries, letters and newspaper reports.

I’ve never been able to believe that anyone writes such detailed journals as they do here (or in Bridget Jones’s Diary for that matter), complete with dialogue, but that may just be me projecting my own sloth onto others. It doesn’t matter though, because the reader gets so drawn into the story that unfolds that he soon forgets its source and is simply swept along by the events described.

Like the best scary stories, the details are subtly drawn, relying on the power of suggestion and imagination to horrify and repulse. The scene in which Jonathan Harker looks out from his bedroom window, in Castle Dracula, and sees the Count crawling down the wall is one of the most powerful in gothic fiction.

Another episode that makes a lasting impression is set aboard the ship carrying Dracula to England. The account, from the ship captain’s log, is dark, despairing and heavy with fear, dread and nail-biting suspense: One by one, ship hands disappear and the first mate suspects the cause to be supernatural. When his worst fears are confirmed, the captain makes a brave and horrifying decision. The episode ends with a newspaper article about the arrival of the ship in port with the dead captain strapped to its wheel.

The report is written in a dispassionate and stark journalistic style, but the facts, as they stand, are ghastly enough to make your hair stand, your flesh crawl, and all the other signs and symptoms connected with having the daylights scared out of you.

Two new editions of this classic story were published last year: an illustrated version and a graphic novel. Marvel Comics regular Jae Lee provides the artwork for the former – mostly terribly slick and sophisticated portraits, in which the subjects look posed. It’s all very beautiful and very cold, and not terribly inspiring. I also expected more action-oriented studies, for example, of the infamous wall-scaling scene.

I prefer the illustrations in the graphic novel, drawn by Becky Cloonan, which, although rather amateurish, possess a liveliness missing in Lee’s work.

Gary Reed, scriptwriter for the graphic novel, has done an admirable job, too. Stoker’s fans will appreciate how he has condensed the story without losing any of the marvellous atmosphere of the original, while those unfamiliar with the novel cannot fail but be enticed to read it.

Lost and Found

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

PETER PAN IN SCARLET
By Gerladine McCaughrean
Publisher: Oxford University Press
(ISBN:978-0192726209)

WHEN dreams begin leaking out of Neverland into this world, Wendy Darling believes that there must be something wrong and proposes a visit to Peter Pan’s home so that the problem can be found and fixed.

But many years have passed since Wendy flew with Pan. She is a grown woman now, with a daughter of her own. Her brother Michael has perished in the war and John is a husband and father, as are most of the Old Boys – who were once Lost Boys, until they were adopted by Mr and Mrs Darling when they returned from Neverland.

Only children can fly to Neverland, though, and so the adults don their children’s clothes and become young again. It’s a case of clothes literally making the man ... and child. And it is a theme that is repeated throughout Geraldine McCaughrean’s official sequel to J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, released worlwide on Oct 5.

Although I have always enjoyed McCaughrean’s books, I didn’t count on liking Peter Pan in Scarlet. However, I was spellbound from ... no, not the first page, but very soon after.

The story builds up slowly: We meet Wendy and the Old Boys and learn a little about their lives post-Peter; our memories of Neverland (red-skins and mermaids, crocodiles and cutlasses) are stirred; we are taken on an expedition to Kensington Park; babies are stalked and a fairy is caught. (It is possible that the fairy, Fireflyer, might just be even more annoying than Tinker Bell.)

The book blossoms once the “children” take off and head for Neverland: “second to the right and straight on till morning.” How things have changed though: Neverland has lost its eternal summer foliage and is now an “ocean of golden orange, and scarlet trees”; Peter wears blood red Virginia creeper and maple leaves, and has forgotten Wendy. He is “dying of boredom”; Tinker Bell has “run off”; the Lost Boys (those who came after the original gang) are all culled for “breaking the rules”.

But with Wendy once again in Neverland, the boy is raring to go, while Wendy and the others, now that they are once again children, forget why they have come back in the first place. Fixing problems is the last thing on their young minds; adventures and quests are uppermost!

And so, The League of Pan go in search of thrills and spills and the story unfolds to reveal secrets and wonders, horrors and terrors, dark deeds and deep disappointments. (By the way, if you can, re-read Peter Pan, the novel, and marvel at the way a seemingly minor although evocative detail at the end of the book has been developed into an important and powerful part of Scarlet’s plot.)

This stunning book celebrates and honours Barrie’s original work by staying true to his ideas and voice. It is also a triumph of McCaughrean’s imagination and inventiveness.

Like Barrie’s tale, this one is magical and exciting, full of action, suspense and danger, high jinks, fun and frolics. But it is also suffused with sadness and anger, resentment and regret.

The best of the action centres around an intriguing new character, the ringmaster Ravello, who comes to work as Peter’s valet when his circus is torched to the ground. He proves to be the key to the mystery of the changes in Neverland, and he himself is the greatest mystery of all. When all is revealed, don’t be surprised if you actually hear the pieces clicking satisfyingly into place.

As for the ending, it is one all mothers (or mothers of Mrs Darling’s ilk, at any rate) will love McCaughrean for. Think reunions and resolutions, closure and comfort. Think a book that is destined to be a classic. Barrie would be proud.