The Collector by John Fowles

I am close to finishing The Collector by John Fowles; I can barely pause to write this blog, I'm so engrossed in the story. Fowles is one of my favorite writers; not only does he have a Nabokovian flair for the twisted-but-slightly endearing antagonist, he weaves a gripping plot through eccentric and realistic characters. In fact, the story really unfolds from his characters: he creates, in this case, a seemingly asexual working-class recluse who collects butterflies and turns him loose on the world and the rest falls into place...

The back cover of a Laurel paperback edition reads:

THE POWER OF PASSION

THE POWER OF EVIL,

THE POWER OF THE MOST SPELLBINDING STORYTELLER OF OUR TIME, come together in this sensational, million-copy-selling triumph by John Fowles, author of A Maggot and The Magus.

The setting is a lonely cottage in the English countryside. The characters are a brutal, tormented man and the beautiful, aristocratic young woman he has taken captive. The story is the struggle of two wills, two wasy of being, two paths of desire-- a story that mounts to the most shattering climax in modern fiction!

Well, that's a bit dramatic. But it's a very good read and I suggest you pick up a copy... and we have a whole John Fowles collection available at Wellington Square Bookshop. So come down and get one!

Timbuktu by Paul Auster

I just had to post this image of the new cover when I saw it on the Book Design Review Blog (a great blog, by the way).

Timbuktu is a short novel following a homeless man, Willy G. Christmas, and his dog, Dr. Bones, who wonders about an afterlife his owner referred to as "Timbuktu." As usual, there are rogue written texts in Auster's book-- Christmas locks his manuscripts in a bus station locker where they remain after his death. We don't know what they say. But another author takes over-- Dr. Bones, the dog, whose story shouldn't even be available in written form. But here it is in Auster's unusual book. Christmas's writings might be more complex or more successful, and the story we get from Dr. Bones constantly refers back to the unavailable ideal manuscripts hidden in the Greyhound lockers. What remains is a humble and tragic novel.

Richard Matheson Readfest

So I was reading about all these new movies coming out based on books and one that caught my eye was the story of "The Box" which stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden. It's a box such that if you push a button, you become instantly wealthy, but you kill someone that you don't know. I thought it was a pretty interesting premise, and when I googled the author Richard Matheson, I found out he had written I Am Legend as well AND Stephen King called him his greatest influence. How could you go wrong? Hence, my Richard Matheson readfest began.

Button, Button: Uncanny Stories by Richard Matheson

There are a lot of stories in here. But let me tell you, some of them are dissapointing. "Button, Button" didn't live up to the hype - I guess because it was a short story, and I expected the ending to be better (it's got a pleasant twist but I was looking for something more). The story probably would've been better if it was a very short/somewhat short novella, which means I'm looking forward to seeing the movie still.

I expected more of a philosophical approach to the short story than it was (and I think that's partly because of the ending which was ba-dum-da-dum blah). There was room for elaboration and, in my humble opinion, some deeper and more profound dialogue. Norma, the wife, really annoyed me by the end - but I thought that she and her husband, Arthur, could've had some pretty good banter before it was all over!

There are some stories that are pretty good - I especially enjoyed "No Such Thing as a Vampire". But others, like "Pattern For Survival" and "Dying Room Only" were just weird... partly because they didn't have the kind of weirdness I expected from Matheson. I thought that "Button, Button" was actually one of the stronger short stories in this collection, even though a lot of the reviewers on Amazon strongly disagreed with this opinion. All in all, the stories in this collection are just average - the title story is good, and readers will enjoy this if they're looking for a quick read, but it didn't have that sparkle you expect from Matheson.



I Am Legend

I must confess, I watched the movie a long time ago (it was scary!) and didn't read the book beforehand. However, I still enjoyed this story immensely and it was much better than the movie. I Am Legend the movie changed the ending a lot and the story line a little. Adding in the dog and Will Smith was a good call but the movie's new ending - not so much.

Anyway, I Am Legend has that special twist I really expected from Matheson. It's about a man named Robert Neville who, because he was bitten by a vampire bat (?), is immune to a germ that infects people and gives them vampire-like qualities. Furthermore, in shocking and disturbing news, the germ can also inhabit dead people to make them zombies. But it also infects living people, too - and Robert Neville's flaw is that he fails to see that the vampires are still inherently people on the inside.

Every day, Neville goes around building back up his house, then waiting out the storm of vampires who try and lure him out of his cave at night. And fairly, he's tired of living the way he is, and so he sets about finding a cure for vampirism. While walking in the daylight, he meets a woman who seems to be immune, just as he is, so he captures her for observation. And the story only gets better from there.

In conclusion, if you have a couple of hours to kill, skip the collection and go for I Am Legend.

Then, read "Button, Button" in November before the movie comes out. It'll take you 15 minutes.