The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
by Philip K. Dick
read: 2016

Like most of Dick's writings, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is a mental labyrinth, leaving the reader (and some of the characters) questioning who or what Eldritch really is and what he wants. Characters take hallucinogenic drugs and periodically plunge into realms where the lines between fantasy and reality blur. This is all par for the course with Dick, but Palmer Eldritch also possesses a beating heart under the mental gymnastics: protagonist Barney Mayerson is caught in a spiritual malaise and must find a reason to keep living in a universe where Earth and the other human outposts are largely uninhabitable. Mayerson must not only not preserve humanity, but determine that it is even worth saving.

Tobacco Road

Tobacco Road
by Erskine Caldwell
read: 2016
Modern Library #91, Guardian 1000 Novels

Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road has perhaps the most visceral descriptions of poverty I have ever read. The characters wear tattered clothing, live in dilapidated houses on infertile land, and battle the constant threat of starvation. They have no concept of money and little regard for human life, as evidenced by Dude's casual attitude towards committing two vehicular homicides. They are in part victims of the economic conditions of the times, but Caldwell's portrayal doesn't absolve them of their sins, either: theft, laziness, ignorance, and apathy.

Murder On the Links

Murder On the Links
by Agatha Christie
read: 2016

The multiple twists in Murder On the Links got gratuitous - it no longer felt like an earned surprise but instead just Christie trying to fool the reader. The romance was a bit silly, too - particularly Hastings' willingness to physical restrain Poirot so Cinderella could escape.

Dog Soldiers

Dog Soldiers
by Robert Stone
read: 2016
Time 100 Novels

Dog Soldiers is set in the Vietnam War, and like modern war novels Gravity's Rainbow, Catch-22, and Slaughterhouse Five, it has a wicked sense of dark humor. However, despite the title and temporal setting, Dog Soldiers isn't a war novel. There are no battle scenes, but the world of the novel and the actions of the characters are affected by the war. The characters do a lot, but they seem to be almost sleepwalking through their actions, going through the motions in a world where war has devalued human life.

The Croning

The Croning
by Laird Barron
read: 2016

In some ways, The Croning is a love story (albeit a twisted, horrific one), but I don't think Barron quite stuck the landing. He establishes a strong sexual connection between Don and Michelle, but I don't see a lot of depth beyond that. Plus, she's been lying to him and manipulating him for decades - that he would consider the moral sacrifice he's confronted with late in the novel didn't ring true to me.

Barron is a master of conveying that something incredibly creepy is going on on the outskirts of our world, and I was intrigued and weirded-out through the novel. The tie-in with the classic fairytale of Rumpelstiltskin is a nice touch.

The Iliad

The Iliad
by Homer
read: 2016

Man, the ancient Greeks were not squeamish about violence.

Achilles is not a sympathetic character - he spends the first two-thirds of the Iliad nursing a grudge in a fit of pride, and the last portion on a wrathful rampage. Even the gods are jerks - there really aren't any models for good behavior here.

Dubliners

Dubliners
by James Joyce
read: 2016

I read "The Dead" probably about 10 years ago, and re-reading it now I found I remembered the absolutely brutal, cutting last few pages, but I had forgotten most of what came before. Joyce yanks out the rug from under Gabriel, as all of his concerns, desires, and thoughts are rendered foolish by the revelations of the last few pages. Gabriel is a newer, educated Irishman, pulled towards the idea that England and continental Europe are more serious and urbane than his native land, but this attitude is exploded by the events of the story. This kind of political undercurrent runs through Dubliners, particularly in stories like "After the Race" and "Ivy Day in the Committee Room." The class struggles that exist in contemporary British stories are present here, but the stories also struggle with the idea that Irish culture is often perceived as somehow lesser than many of the other nations of Western Europe.