Book Review: Getting Open by Tom Graham, Rachel Graham Cody

Getting Open: The Unknown Story of Bill Garrett and the Integration of College Basketball

by Tom Graham and Rachel Graham Cody

Hardcover, 272 pages Published March 28th 2006 by Atria Books

My father taught at Indiana University, and the majority of sporting events I have been to in my life have been at IU. Some of my earliest memories come from the first season we had season tickets for 1981. That was the year Isiah Thomas lead the Hoosiers to the national title. While I have mixed feelings in hindsight about the Bobby Knight era of IU basketball I have Hoosier hoops in my blood. Martha the mop lady commercials make me emotional, the IU fight song gets me pumped even though personally I didn't go to IU.

So I was interested in this history not just as a IU fan but a fan of basketball history and Indiana state history. Getting Open is the detailed history of Bill Garrett - the first black player in the big ten. This is an important story about the integration of college basketball. While Garrett was the Jackie Robinson of midwestern college basketball it is important to note that outside the big Ten Black players were accepted to colleges in the west and even a few in the south. The Big Ten, however, was the most visible and popular conference in the sport at the time and in the early 40's they had "Gentlemen's agreement," not to recruit a black player. While that would have been better to call it an "Asshole's Agreement," but whatever. I am not going to say it was easy, certainly Bill Garrett dealt with may examples of racism. The history of racial prejudice in Indiana is not a pretty one. In the years after Garrett one player was murdered and the Klan blew up a black orientated store in downtown Bloomington. That said I happy to say his experience was not as bad as I feared. This book is a fun read if you are into the history of the sport, the story of Garrett's high school run to the Indiana state championship and the 40's Indiana march madness that inspired the national tournament was probably my favorite part. In this book, I learned so much about how the sport worked before TV coverage and that was interesting. In that context I learned little bits and pieces about Indiana. It was really interesting to learn that the Senate street YMCA in Indy was a cultral center where the black community organized. I learned that one of the first competitive basketball games out of Springfield Mass was in Indiana in 1896, and it was between the Lafayette and Crawfordsville Y's. I knew basketball was almost a religion in Indiana but this helped me to understand why. I really enjoyed this book, it is a fun and important history. I don't want to give away what happened to Bill Garrett but it is too bad it turned out the way it did.

Book Review: Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg

Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg

Mass Market Paperback, 153 pages

Published 1974 by Pocket Book (first published 1972)

John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1973)

The first read of my 2019 retro-sci-fi reads is a re-read of the Barry Malzberg classic Beyond Apollo. I first read this ten years ago, but I thought I would have more of context for it now. I did some research recently on BNM's career and history.

This short novel is the essence of out of date science fiction. It is about the first expedition to Venus a planet that we now know is too hot to visit. We have lots of great pictures in orbit but the idea of going to land on Venus is pretty silly. I like reading the out of date stuff because you get an idea of the imagination was at the time, in this case, 1972. Clearly, in the space race, the Apollo missions were coming to an end and no one really knew where the space exploration was going after the Apollo program. This story suggests a disaster during a 1976 Mars landing and the idea that we would be sending people to Venus in 1981 is pretty optimistic.

In many ways, BO is like a slightly harder sci-fi take on similar ideas that Lem explored in Solaris. He keeps it in the solar system and takes advantage of early 70's free love attitudes. I mean there is lots of adult language and tons of sex that feels very out of place and a bit awkward.

The narrative is told from the POV of Harry Evans first officer on the Venus expedition mostly in first person unreliable style. This works pretty well especially when his sanity starts slipping. Was he in psychic communication with Venusian Snake people or is he losing his mind? The theme of the novel appears about the idea that the vast-ness of space may just be too much for our puny little brains.

I am not sure I would call this short novel a masterpiece but it is a quick and interesting read. The author's contribution to the genre may be more as an agent and editor but he is giant and I give this novel a lot of respect. You have to keep the era written in mind or you'll have a lot to laugh off. That said I glad to have this on my shelf.

Note: This book was recommended to me by my friend Robert Garfat the first time I met him when I walked into his book store in Victoria Canada. I knew the man had good taste right away and left with this book and some Spinrad I came in there to find.

Book Review: The Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates

The Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published November 2018 by Ecco

Joyce Carol Oates is one of the greatest writers living today and there are few who would argue against that position. It had been some time since I read one of her books and when I saw the title and read a brief summary I thought I needed to check it out. This book is very much a reaction to modern political issues and the Trump era it is not as direct as some might suspect. If forced to make comparisons I would say it is part Handmaid's Tale and part Philip K Dick's Time out of Joint. It is hard to explain how this worked without giving spoilers for the third act.

The book opens on a choppy in-direct narrative that gives background on the dystopia where the novel takes place. This country is NAS-23 a combination of North American countries loosely run by reality stars. Don't worry too much on the details JCO is not focused on them after the first few pages. We get short lists of rules, some history lessons. While JCO sorta breaks the rules with a series of info dumps, most of the world building is nicely slid into the narrative after the early chapters. After all this set-up we move into the story through the point of view of Adrienne who is arrested after giving her valedictorian speech. Her punishment to be exiled into Zone 9 for her university studies.

At first, it might seem like this Midwestern college town in Wisconsin is ideal but it is a bigger change than she expected. Exile includes teleportation back to 1959 - Zone 9 is a place in the past. The first act sets up the A Brave New World/ 1984 style dystopia and then takes a dramatic turn when the book goes back into time. JCO does a great job of contrasting the struggles of the past with stagnation of the present. That seems to be the over-arching theme, but don't worry knowing that going in doesn't weaken the vibe of the book. It is funny to me that some readers are calling this novel YA, it is simply that JCO is using many tropes of the YA dystopia genre as a starting point but there are several very heavy and deep themes of cold war politics, psychology and personal identity in this book.

Adrienne is a great character who seems to fit the genre stereotypes but her arc is not the same. While she briefly experiences social justice movements she doesn't end up leading the rebellion. JCO seems to want to make a point to the readers who relate to this dystopia heroes about the times when she was growing up.

It is easy at times reading this book to miss the sheer levels of genius at work, and this lends itself to thinking about it long after you close it for the last time. This is the first top ten read of the year contender and certainly a book I highly recommend it for my readers.

Book Review: Bedfellow by Jeremy C. Shipp

Bedfellow by Jeremy C. Shipp

Paperback, 224 pages

Published November 2018 by St. Martins Press/Tor

I have a long history reading with Jeremy Shipp going back a decade to his first surrealist novel Vacation from the indie bizarro publisher Raw Dog Screaming press. I am a big fan of his work and normally that means I would read the book cold. This time I made the mistake of reading the back copy of the book. The back description painted a dark picture. "When the . . . thing first insinuated itself into the Lund family household, they were bemused. Vaguely human-shaped, its constantly-changing cravings seemed disturbing, at first, but time and pressure have a way of normalizing the extreme. Wasn't it always part of their lives?"

Pretty intense and scary sounding right. I thought Shipp who I know as humorous surrealist was writing something far darker than his normal work and I was interested in that. When the intruder breaks in and starts a conversation about Howard The Duck ad the movie having Duck Boobs the tone was not exactly what I was expecting.

In a sense, this novel is a surrealist tale of home invasion featuring a character who is basically a psychic vampire. The home intruder starts as a random bad movie fan, then transforms himself to into an uncle, drinking buddy and worms himself into the family. The narrative switches between family members and it was my understanding that he was able to manipulate their understanding of who he was. In the final act, the book gets darker but that is not Shipp's strength, it is the wit and humor.

Shipp is a funny writer both in prose and even more so as a follow on social media. His love for crappy so bad it is funny cinema bleeds through but it is not exactly a great fit with the rest of the book. I suspect that will bother some readers. I found those moments amusing so it didn't bother me. I think readers looking for a straight-up horror novel likely won't make it past the first 100 pages. If you go in expecting the sarcastic tongue in cheek weird-ness the author is known for you are going to enjoy Bedfellow more.

The problem for me is I read the back cover and thought we were going to get a straight horror novel. I was excited to see Shipp stretch his wings and do something a little different. None the less that is a me problem, the book is well written just not what I thought we signed up for. Despite whatever mixed feelings I had about this book I think Shipp is an exciting writer and I will check out whatever he does.

Book Review: Chicago by David Mamet

Chicago by David Mamet

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published February 2018 by Custom House

OK I am a big fan of David Mamet's films like Spanish Prisoner and Spartan which are super underrated examples of great film storytelling. The man is rightfully known as a master of dialogue and when he is firing on all cylinders his dialogue is great. During this novel, I keep thinking this would be a better experience if he stole the style from Gregory Macdonald's Fletch novels that are 95% dialogue.

That would have been a better reading experience. I know the cover and the description of the book markets you as a gangster Tommy gun fest but it is not that. Look Mamet telling a story about the probation era newsroom is a fine idea. Some of the best moments of the book are slice of life moments of the reporters in the newsroom talking. I might be alone but if the whole book had taken place in those moments I would have been happy.

The story is told through the eyes of Mike Hodge a reporter at the Chicago Tribune, he covers the gangster beat. That sounds really interesting but the story is more about the search for answers in the murder of his mistress. A great example of my experience reading the book happened on the first page of chapter 23. It was a really interesting setting of a winter Illinois state police guard hut. It was a great set-up and the scene lasted a page.

I was playing mental twister trying to convince myself this was a good book, but it wasn't. I was bored and uninterested in the characters. Every time Mamet introduced an interesting concept he seemed to focus his prose on the wrong thing. There are plenty of good moments but the characters didn't hook as much as the setting. I just found myself wishing I was reading a different book. Still love Mamet's films and I may still read his other novels.

This is a short review but I just don't have much else to say.

Book Review: The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

Hardcover, 485 pages

Published June 2018 by William Morrow

At one point while reading this book I was sitting on the bus during my morning commute and the strong California sun was beaming in the window. I stopped reading to hold my hand over the book and cast my shadow on the pages. It was probably the coolest moment I had reading this book. I was reading a part of the book when Max the main POV character realized the person she was talking to had no shadow. You see the concept behind Book of M starts with a very Bird Box-ish weird apocalypse where people lose their shadows and their memories.

This concept may have been more powerful to me if I had not already read the amazing Wonderland award-winning surreal horror novel Sip by Brian Allan Carr. In that novel, the end of the world comes with a plague driven by a growing addiction people develop for "drinking" people's Shadows. That novel was more horror and this novel is more fantasy in a King The Stand kinda of way.

I was first interested in reading this novel after hearing the author interviewed on an episode of "This is Horror." I enjoyed her interview and was excited to dive into this book. There is a lot to enjoy in this novel. First and for most, the two lead Ory and Max are well developed and their love story works. It propels the story forward giving the strong reason to be hooked. Early in the book the two are separated when Max loses her shadow and thus her memories. Worried that she will cause suffering to her husband Max takes off and Ory is desperate to find her. Thus begins parallel road stories across the devastation of a world post forgetting.

The Characters were the majority of my motivation in following the story and that is saying in a high concept story like this.

It is not to say that Shepherd doesn't sell the concept, the hook of how this starts on Zero shadow day in India to how the cities collapse is very done. The story has some excellent set-ups and payoffs that included a twist or two I was not looking for. The last one was pretty smart and one that wouldn't work on TV or a movie. My point is despite all that story I was invested in Ory and Max. Will they find each other.

The story is told in two different formats most of the story is told in 3rd person and those chapters worked better for me than Max's first narrative that was "recorded on tape." I am sure most readers won't even notice but writer's brain kicked in and it took me a bit out of the story. For example, why would she use speech tags? I know just roll with it. Shepherd paid it off and I understand why it was there.

I would say for me the first two acts of the novel felt more horror and it wasn't until the third act that it got to feel way more fantasy. I didn't enjoy the third act as much as the first two despite finding the final reveal effective. The book is excellently written and the best compliment I can give is that I will read her next novel in a heartbeat. I think if the fantasy elements had been established a little earlier it would not have seemed like such a tonal shift.

Shepherd is strong new voice and this is strong debut. It certainly bodes well for the future.

Book Review: Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson

Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson

Hardcover, 446 pages

Published October 2018 by Orbit

KSR has been on a tear the last couple of years. I was not a huge fan of New York 2140, I believe 2312 and Aurora to be two of the best 21st-century sci-fi novels. No matter what it is important to check in with Robinson and see what ideas were getting him going this year.

Red Moon will probably not be as popular as the last couple books but I think there are a lot of important ideas being touched upon in this seemingly straight forward space adventure. The Setting is a Chinese moon colony in the year 2047, our main point of view comes from Fred Fredricks an American engineer working for a Swiss company. Things get messy with governments and jurisdiction when he is accused of poisoning a Chinese official.

Fred escapes the moon with the help of poet and celebrity travel reporter Ta Shu in the process he meets another renegade named Qi. She is the daughter of a famous Chinese political figure who illegally got pregnant on the moon. (for real that would be really dangerous - we have no idea how that would work) What Fred learns is that Qi is a political revolutionary working to change to the political system in China. The political ideas are central to the final act but certainly one of the shortcomings of the novel was that these ideas didn't come to the forefront until 370 pages in.

Certainly, KSR suggests some interesting ideas for how technology could help move democracy forward into a more effective space. As character points out "I think the idea that everyone's got a wrist pad and a connection to the cloud, everyone could participate in some kind of global governance."

Red Moon is a really thoughtful book and I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the last few books but it was not for the lack of ideas. I think it is a little bit more action orientated than most KSR books are. It has an international thriller feel like movies Like Syriana but updated to reflect China as an insurgent super-power and increased space presence.

It is a big deal that the Chinese were the first to solve the issue it would take to put a rover on the far side of the moon. This novel is less about moon issues as it is current political realities being explored into the future. How Chinese politics and economy will affect the future is the spine of this narrative. You might over look it with the back and forth to the moon and the first lunar pregnancy.

The novel is a pretty good experience over-all and I like the third act best. That said it ends really abruptly. I kinda felt like my library copy was missing ten pages.

Book Review: The Orphanarium by S.T. Cartledge

The Orphanarium by S.T. Cartledge

Paperback, 226 pages

Published February 2017 by Eraserhead Press

There is weird sci-fi like Your Leguins and your PKD and then there is otherworldly sci-fi that almost transcends the genre because it is more surreal than anything. That is what we have here.

It would be easy to miss what is happening in a book written this pretty with so much going on. This is not a traditional narrative feeling like a prose version of an abstract painting. The story is a dystopia where the people are trapped in a box city floating in a surreal landscape. The story includes a revolution that includes Robotic orphans and elemental spirits.

I like weird science fiction but generally, I like them grounded in science with weird jumping off from that point. So this is not exactly my favorite kind of story. This is the kinda weird that often loses me. I am generally not a surrealist, but the only writers who can pull this off are the ones who are super talented and SC is an excellent wordsmith.

I know this is a short review but this is a really good book, like a dystopic prose poem that is filled inventive-ness on every page. Big Thumbs up.