The Red Pony Review

There is one obvious question that may need clarification before I begin. Why The Red Pony? And it is a valid question. Would it have made more sense to review The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden or Of Mice and Men? Sure. However, I feel this blog has developed a noticeable trend; long, laudatory pieces providing unabashed praise for the more salient works of important novelists.

I was told that The Red Pony isn’t a great book; I read a review that ratified this perspective and having finished the book, I can wholeheartedly agree. The Red Pony isn’t a bad novel, it’s mediocre. Yet with the aforementioned novels under Steinbeck’s enormous, powerful belt, it seems this mediocrity transforms into disappointment.

The problem with the novel is that it is quite simply bland. It is split into short stories, beginning with protagonist Jody receiving the titular 'red' pony. Jody loves the pony but is forced to grow up when tragedy occurs. The rest of the book seems to simply continue along these dull and faded lines.

I would recommend this book only to those who adore Steinbeck, as it presents his idiosyncratic prose which he is famed for. Yet, if, like me, you enjoy Steinbeck, but don't adorn him, you may find this book slightly bland and  insipid. It may be wise to refer to Steinbeck's aforementioned salient classics that guarantee a great read.

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Post 9/11 US Fiction: Don DeLillo and Jonathan Safran Foer

Theodor Adorno once claimed that to write poetry after Auschwitz was barbaric. He later rescinded this ideal, claiming that ‘perennial suffering has as much right to expression as a tortured man has to scream’.  Adorno was concerned that attempts to artistically interpret or even condemn Auschwitz would be callous, and at the same time, success at such an attempt would be futile.

The same has inexorably been said about art (especially fiction) after 9/11. I have recently read two books that deal with 9/11 in very contrasting ways. The first was Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and the second was Don DeLillo’s Falling Man. Foer’s attempt is different as it seemingly adopts 9/11 as a principal theme, and is excessively referential to the event. The plot is strange and simple, a boy named Oscar, who loses his father in the terrorist attacks on September 11^th 2001, finds a key left by his father and searches New York for whatever it may open, meeting a variety of people who have also suffered and thereby forming relationships built on their mutual anguish.

Oscar is overwhelmingly precocious and is increasingly unlikeable. Foer seems to ask the reader to forgive Oscar’s apparent arrogance and obnoxiousness due to his ever-present melancholy. However, I couldn’t look past how unlikeable he was; page by page I grew increasingly irritated by this 9 year old child. I think what I disliked most was how the author was perpetually referring all of Oskar’s exploits back to the horror of his father’s death, and unfortunately, this didn’t allow the story to expand, or Oskar to become more agreeable.

I think the main problem with Foer’s attempt was that it dealt with 9/11 head on; it appeared too romantic due to the sweet young boy who prevailed through his torment and overcame his fears and trepidations despite the horror of the event. It almost played on 9/11 as a certain way to capture it’s readers, and although this was seemingly a smart move (it sold many copies and was made into a truly awful feature film); in literary terms, the book is over romantic, glorified and ultimately dull.

DeLillo’s attempt is a far more accessible and likeable piece of literature. DeLillo is a more experienced writer and the theme of terrorism has appeared in his works before, especially Players and Mao II (Both excellent books). He has even been called prophetic as he eerily wrote in Players that ‘to Pammy the towers didn’t seem permanent’.

Falling Man begins in the towers, where he claims one can hear the ‘buckling rumble of the fall, this is the world now’. It follows the aftermath of the event, through the lives of a New York couple (Keith and Lianne) who rekindle a past romance. It looks at how their lives have been effected without the over romantic aspects that Foer uses, rather it is quite laconic and only deals with 9/11 intermittently, usually in the characters psychology or through the emotions inspired by a performance artist who hangs from buildings, representing the titular photograph that was famous after the attacks, the Falling Man. (Interestingly, this picture (above, left) also plays a rather significant part in Foer's novel)

By avoiding perpetual reference to 9/11, DeLillo is able to form a far stronger plot and develop more likeable characters that you are genuinely sympathetic towards. This is not to say I had no sympathy for Oskar, but rather he was far more enigmatic and therefore tougher to engage with, and was ultimately, and bear in mind these are fictional stories, tiresome.

I think perhaps what I took from reading these two books, was that in order to engage in such tragic events, the author must attempt to avoid permanent reference to the event, and while it can form the core of the story (in fact if this is part of the plot that would be almost inextricable), playing on the collective emotions that derive from such a horrific event can lead to a novel that is vapid, over-romantic and cheap.

DeLillo gets the balance just right, he deals with the event but also develops a story outside of it, a story in which the event is in the background, permanently installed in the mindset of his characters but not unavoidably driven by it. I would recommend Falling Man and most of DeLillo’s other works, he is an extremely talented contemporary writer, and one of the few that I would entrust to attempt the ostensibly insurmountable task of literature after September 11^th.

5 iconic covers for parts of Remembrance of Things Past through various Publishers

Literature Adaptations

Hollywood producers are increasingly adapting works of literature. Producing films from literature can be a way of bringing some of the best stories ever told into the visual world, and while they can be riveting upon fruition, I think there are some book adaptations that ratify the wide-spread contention that some books are quite simply unadaptable.

For example, two books that I quite adore, Kerouac's On the Road and Don DeLillo's Cosmopolis, premiered at Cannes film festival over the last week on the big screen. Both these films were done by rather artistic, creative and esteemed directors, giving them every chance of success. However, these are books that I would deem unadaptable, and are certainly not meant for an adaptation that veers towards entertaining the inevitable demographics which, unfortunately, they will ultimately seek.

Both films have a twilight star in main roles, and both have been, according to early reviews, and their trailers, diluted to suit a wide reaching audience. If both films are not successful, as early reviews also indicate, I believe it is not because of shortcomings in their scripts or failure from the reputable directors and writers who took part in these projects, but rather due to the fact that certain books are simply not meant for the big screen. They can't be diluted or glamorized because this in itself defeats their point.

When I heard these two books were becoming films I was slightly bemused, I am not against the idea of adapting classic or contemporary works of literature, my problem is that certain novels shouldn't be adapted (including the aforementioned two), and it seems these films may very well amplify my contention. 

A Tim Burton Poem:

I recently read some of Tim Burton's poetry. And while I am usually belligerent towards anyone who feels they can use their fame, or notoriety, to attempt to succeed in another field, I actually quite enjoyed this little book of ornate poetry.

Here's a little sample:

The collection of poems is called The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy, and although it's not Yeates, Keats or Wordsworth, it is certainly entertaining and isn't the worst way to spend your day.