October 2002 Book Reveiws

[Good Omens] - [The Glass Inferno] - [The Man Who Mistook His Job for a Life] - [My Mother the Arsonist] - [Fight Club]

Good Omens
The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

While this book is billed as a collaboration between Pratchett and Gaiman, it reads like a Pratchett book with a liberal topping of Gaiman. This is not a bad thing.

This very witty (Pratchett) story concerns a coming Armageddon (Gaiman) and the people, angels(G), witches(P) and beasts involved in it. I enjoyed it (P) immensely. The plot is too complicated to put here, but suffice it to say that Armageddon isn't as clear cut as everyone thought it would be.

Read it.

The Glass Inferno
Thomas N. Scortia

The Glass Inferno was one of the two books used to create the movie The Towering Inferno, the other one being The Tower. The movie is mostly based on TGI with only a few elements from Tower, so if you've seen the movie, you've got a pretty good feel for the book. Of course, given the premise, it's not rocket science to be able to guess the plotting without any help. Therefore, this is a book that will live or die by the writing.

And I'm glad to say that it lives, no pun intended to the subject matter. The 66 story National Curtainwall building catches fire and we're treated to the whole story, from start to finish with a strong cast of characters. Engrossing throughout, I really enjoyed reading it.

No book is perfect, so I just thought that I'd register a few complaints.

  1. I didn't care for the anthropomorphication of the fire. A few paragraphs every so often were given to a first-person view of the fire. The fire as an 'infant', starving, feeding, etc. I read a few and then skipped 'em after that.
  2. There's no subtlety to the foreshadowing. People talked about how much of a firetrap the building was. "Geez, I hope it doesn't catch fire." [It does.] "If it reaches the utility core, we're in trouble." [It does.] "We're safe as long as those ropes hold. Yup, we'd be goners if they went." [Guess.]
  3. It dates itself as solidly in the 1970s. I had the mental image of all these characters running around in pantsuits and polyester. "Boy, have you heard that new 'disco' music? It's really keen - AIEEEEE! [falls into burning shaft]"


In spite of my complaining, I still had a good time.

The Man Who Mistook His Job for a Life
A Chronic Overachiever Finds His Way Home
Jonathon Lazear

I was hoping that this would be a first-person story about someone who dropped the rat race for a family life and it was, sorta. Let me summarize:

I was too busy relaxing to take the tests, one of the first which contained hilariously involved scoring. (Add the results of a,b,d,e,r, and q. Divide by two. Subtract c,f,g from 32 and so on.) I checked the end to see if it contained something like "If you've made it this far, you're a Type A arse who needs to relax."

So, it entertained me, but not as how the author imagined it would, I think.

My Mother the Arsonist and Other Toasty Tales
Dave Wood

A collection of columns written for Grit and the Minneapolis Tribune, it's a short read. I liked this book, but then again I'm a sucker for collections like this. It's not especially heartwarming nor funny, but it's a pleasant diversion from the gloom and doom that constitutes much of American journalism today.

Fight Club
Chuck Palahniuk

I am Joe's ruptured duodenum. Since the first rule of Fight Club is "You don't talk about Fight Club", I won't go into the details. Besides, after writing this a few times in my head, I couldn't find an easy way to do so without giving away plot points.

I was surprised at the accuracy of the movie to reproduce the book - I had seen the movie first1 and can confidently say that if you've seen the movie, you've read the book. The book is the movie is the book is the movie.

And verse vice-a.

I liked it anyways, in spite of myself.

Reviews
Free Tech eBooks - Book Review Index - January 2004 - 2003 - 2002

Adam
Index - Personal - Bleat - Computer - Links

Gurno.com
Adam - Linnea - About Gurno.com

1 - Which I don't recommend. I wasn't able to see anyone but Brad Pitt and Ed Norton as Tyler Durden and the Narrator, respectively.

Updated: 2002-11-19 - Fixed some, ahem, punctuation error's. Thanks to Adam Baum.