The Boneyard Reviews Part 4

Rehabilitation of a reader

Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

This author keeps popping up. He writes in something called Magical Surrealism. Very intriguing. His book, the one the most people recommend, is 1Q84, which is 1,200 pages. I’ve already stated my thoughts on books over 500 pages. Would this be a bloat fest? I thought I would dip my toes into the water and try something a little less time consuming. So I picked up Men Without Women (a collection of short stories) from my local library. Go in, I knew, it would have none of the Magical Surrealism of his other book, but I could see how he writes and constructs a story. 

He’s an excellent writer? His first story, Drive My Car, was an excellent start. I thought I’m going to thoroughly enjoy this. The next there, not so good, it took a long time to get to the hook—should really take that long? These are short stories. Anyhow, I was going to throw it to the boneyard. I took a break. My new book, Losing Grip, is out with a development editor and beta readers, and there have been requests about my 3rd Sanctuary book. So I reread Sanctuary 2. (more about that in the next review) 

Once that was out of the way, I returned to Men Without Women, reading the last two stories. I love them both, if fact, the title story, Men Without Women, was jockeying for the best of the bunch; I could decide between that one and Drive My Car. This experience didn't put to rest my fears of tackling a larger work, but I have decided to read something less ambitious in terms of page size like, Kafa on the Shore.

This was enough of a positive experience. I'm going to read more from this author. 

I do recommend this work.  

Boneyard 6, No Recommendation 4, Recommend 5, Highly Recommend 1

Sanctuary 2 by Paul Ashlin

As I stated in the previous review, I have had my readers ask if Sanctuary 3 was coming? After writing Sanctuary 2, I needed a break and started writing two stories, one about a schizophrenic black man, in a white town who wants to start a church. And one about a man stuck in a lucid dream state (when he dreams) and he has a difficult time discerning which reality is real (Losing Grip). I wrote 10 pages of the first and I never stopped with the second and now it’s about to be published. 

At this point in the process, I work on the cover, possible promotion strategies, but there’s a lot of down time. So I needed to refresh myself with Sanctuary 2. I took a break from Men Without Women.

I’m not going to review my own book—that wouldn’t be good. I’m only going to tell you about my experience reading it. I didn’t want to stop. I know, I know what you're thinking, self promotion. I will add this; when you write a book, you live with it, writing, rewriting, over and over. I think I’ve read things at least 25 - 30 times. Now, it has been a minute since my last read (I published it in 2023), and I know what’s going to happen. Even with all that, I found it very hard to put down. Are there things I would like to change? Of  course, there’s always things you’d like to change, but at some point, you have to rest, saying it’s good enough. Anyway, like I said, I’m just sharing my thoughts and insights.

Boneyard 6, No Recommendation 4, Recommend 5, Highly Recommend 1

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

I’ve never read John Steinbeck. I’ve seen the movies Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, but never read his works. So I wanted to open this box, seeing what this art is all about. Cannery Row, 181 pages, seemed like a good way to tip my toe into the water. I really should be called: Welcome to the Neighbor. This is a lot different from the movie. The elements and characters that are present paints a landscape of the people in this area, even the animals and how they interact. It’s brilliant. Some characters are a page and a half, but the richness of this world can’t not be overstated. Even though it’s only 181 pages, it’s dense reading and it took me longer than I thought to get through it—that’s not a complaint, only an observation. No bloat here, and the story arc is different and there is no inciting incident, or acts, or climax. It’s delightful, which puts the whole idea and story telling in question, at least, in the modern sense. 

The issue I did have, this book was written in 1945, so the language, terms, and some things have changed, like the word ‘gay’.  What I didn't know when I picked this up, is that it is considered one of his better books. I love this book, his writing, and will definitely seek out more John Stiebeck. 

I highly recommend this work. This is only the 2nd book to get this classifcation.    

Boneyard 6, No Recommendation 4, Recommend 5, Highly Recommend 2

Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen

Here we go again. I did a Gemini search on authors like Blake Crouch and Haruki Murakami, and Mike Chen came up. I was lucky as the local library had his book, Here and Now and Then. About a time travel agent going across time to save his daughter—excellent, where do I sign up. 

Just like Paula Hawkins, this book started out so strong—I loved it. I was thinking I found a new author, but a tick of doubt creeped in as I remembered thinking the same thing about Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins. Everything was going swimmingly up to chapter 6, and then the book turned into a tell me book, not show me book. I did have a little trouble understanding who was on the ground or standing up in action scenes, or sometimes who was talking, but I forgave these digression. 

I thought once he jumped to the future, leaving his family from 1996, it would have been so interesting to see how they handled having him just vanishing. Instead, we get a report of what happened to them—okay that's the way he wanted to do it—it’s his book. Then proceeded to hammer the same thoughts over, and over, and over. Now Paula Hawkins book just dribbles to the end, but Lee Child, Stephen King do this. Lee Child talks for 5 pages about how bad the weather is before a car crash, or 15 pages about how cold Jack Reacher is because he’s not dressed for the weather. Stephen King talking endlessly about the cigarettes people smoked in the late ‘50s. I have been looking at this as bloat, but I have a new term for this—hammer books. They hammer the same few points over and over. 

With Cheng’s book, it started in chapter 6 and by chapter 10, I thought I’d give him one more chapter to pull out of this nose dive, which didn't happen, so I hung on through chapter 11, and then chapter 12. By the time he got to chapter 13—to the boneyard. Sad, such a great start. Oh well.      

To the Boneyard.

Boneyard 7, No Recommendation 4, Recommend 5, Highly Recommend 2 

Run by Blake Crouch

After reading two Blake Crouch’s books, I’m game for another. Pursuing the library, I came across this book, ‘Run’. I didn't remember seeing it on any list of books you have to read from him. He wrote a note before the book started: This one is for my readers who have been with me since the beginning. I’m not sure how many books he has written up to this book, but it appears it was a self-published book. Ballantine has republished it in 2024. The original copyright was 2011. Because I’ve enjoyed the last two, I didn’t really spend too much worrying if I should give it a whirl. 

This book surprised me; I thought there would be a build up before the people in the story need to run, and there is a little but it’s a ride that starts off and doesn't let you go. What this family goes though—wow—no spoiler here. What a ride! I think as a writer, he starts hitting his stride with this book; it makes me curious to find what he was writing before this one. To use a worn out term, it’s a page turner. Thoroughly enjoyed this work—higly recommended it. If you can find it, pick it up. He has cemented himself as one of my favorite authors.  

Boneyard 7, No Recommendation 4, Recommend 5, Highly Recommend 3