I finished Richard Brautigan’s The Hawkline Monster some time back and have been procrastinating writing a review of it. It’s a fantastic piece of literature and I want to share my impressions, but I’ve been struggling to find the right words that capture how and why I like it so much. It was written by a poet and it shows. The use of imagery is magnificent and it’s very efficient in its use of words. The narrative is at different times dark, whimsical, gritty, humorous, intelligent and coarse. Despite that, the voice is steady an evenly paced. I have been guilty of grossly misjudging the tastes the general public before,…

The first 100 or so pages are a combination of Clash of the Titans, Blue Lagoon and Brokeback Mountain. I hope I don’t have to clarify to anyone that that’s a good thing. I think that is kind of what the author was going for. I still can’t shake the feeling that homosexuality was not as taboo in ancient Greece as it is being presented here. I could be wrong, of course. Admittedly not an expert on the subject.

One of the first things I remember thinking is that the book seemed a little homoerotic. There seemed to be a little extra effort describing men and boys in a way that seemed to accentuate physical attractiveness. At first I thought it might be just me. I thought maybe there was something that triggered imagery from the movie 300. It is told from the perspective of Patroclus as a young boy. At least the first several chapters occur during his adolescent years. Then I started thinking about The Illiad. It occurred to me that it was Patroclus’ death that drove Achilles into violent and remorseless madness, and it struck me…

I suffer from a condition that often makes me believe that whatever I am reading at the moment is the most wonderful thing I have ever read. I think I may have already mentioned this in an earlier post. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it is fairly common for me to fall madly in love with whatever book I’m working on. It is almost a guaranteed to happen whenever I read a classic irrespective of whether its appeal is to a mainstream or niche audience.The Hawkline Monster is one of these and it only took a page or two for Brautigan to set the hook. It is billed…

It took me a while to get back around to commenting on this. That, in and of itself, should tell you basically what I thought. Uninspired. There were a couple of good things in there but little of it is outstanding. Corben seldom disappoints. The final piece about a drug addicted superhero I enjoyed quite a bit. One interesting thing of note was the Bode piece I mentioned in an earlier post. Vaughn Bode (fantasy art legend) is the original creator of the piece but it was finished by his son Mark.

I needed a book for my desk at work to read on my many poop breaks. I decided on The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I believe it is a novelized version of The Illiad. I’m not too far in yet. It is told from the perspective of Patroclus (at least the first chapters are). The narrative is a little grim, dark even. But I get the feeling it is going to be a fun little read. Already I am being reacquainted with a long forgotten cast of Greek kings and heroes. The manner in which I came to pick up the book is probably amusing to me at…

I seem to remember a passage from my first read of Getting the Buddha Mind that wasn’t really there. Maybe I read another Buddhism book that I forgot about. Anyway it was something about how a devoted practitioner of Buddhism could be confronted with indisputable evidence of Christianity tomorrow and it would not rattle their belief in the power of meditation in the least. They are not mutually exclusive concepts. I liked that. Just the other day I was listening to a Gloria Estefan interview on NPR. I think it was on Fresh Air. At one point Gloria claimed to be spiritual but not dogmatic. Is it dumb to be…

My daughter got a set of Beatrix Potter books. I think it might be the complete works. They are amusing little reads about anthropomorphized critters set in early 1900s London and/or the English countryside. They are full of very classic looking children’s art and make use of terms and phrasings that are terribly outdated. They are quaint as f%#&. I read her The Tale of Tom Kitten today. He is a mischievous little rascal for sure. His mother, Tabitha Twitchit, is expecting fine company for tea. So Tom and his sisters are washed and dressed in fancy clothing. But the kittens promptly lose the clothes to some ducks and get…

The first tale in Heavy Metal #300 is good. It’s called Lucy:Hope and it is set at the dawn of mankind. The artwork is fantastic. It is actually just the first chapter in a longer tale but it looks like it will be well done. Has a very epic feel about it. It is the kind of thing that fits right into Heavy Metal. The second story is also a first chapter in a longer story, but this one is not off to as good a start. It is well drawn for sure, but the storyline is almost unreadable. It is about 23 pages of the magazine which begins when…