Fiction Friday (124)

 

After reading a few heavier titles, I wanted to take a quick swing through some Middle Grade. Having finished my last book on a Friday, and knew I'd be in the library on Monday, I went through my To-Read shelf and pulled out a book that's been there 17 years. I figured it sort of fit with my Alice readings from last year. I was glad I picked it up.

Alice in Blunderland by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

(Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2003)

Alice is 9 years old, and one thing she knows for sure is that being in fourth grade is very, very hard. Having an older teenage brother that tells you lies because you are gullible and trusting is also very hard. Having lost your mother when you were too young to remember isn't hard, it's just unfair.  If all of that wasn't difficult enough, being prone to making embarrassing mistakes makes being 9 years old practically impossible.

Best known for Shiloh, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has been a fixture in Middle Grade fiction for decades. This book is one of several prequels to her beloved Alice series. I wanted to read it as part of my Alice in Wonderland exploration, though I knew this was related by title only. But like "Alice", Naylor's Alice is an intelligent, curious, and wonderful character. 

For younger readers, this book is an affirmation that the difficult and embarrassing things that happen to you, happen to everyone. For adult readers, especially parents, it's a reminder of how trying it is to grow up and what a struggle it can be to come to terms with life. 

Fiction Friday (115)

 

 

My summer of Wonderland continues as I just recently finished reading the second book in Christina Henry's re-imaging of Alice. While the first book was a gripping, this one was entertaining if not completely revelatory. Definitely a must-read for readers of Alice to see the tale to a satisfying conclusion.

Red Queen by Christina Henry

(Ace, 2016)

Having defeated the Jabberwocky and escaped the horrors of Old City, Alice and Hatcher find themselves in a strange world that is unlike the city...with the exception of danger and odd happenings around every corner. The desolate landscape has been scorched by a mysterious figure in black, the surrounding forests are patrolled by flesh eating giants, and the inhabitants of the only town grieve the loss of their children. Welcome to the kingdom of the White Queen!

The White Queen rules from a icy castle atop the mountains, a castle protected with stolen magic. The White Queen takes pleasure in causing misery for others. But when she attempts to derive pleasure from Alice's misery, she isn't prepared for Alice's determination, or the magic she holds within her.

The follow-up to Alice, this is another great read for fans of Wonderland. However, this book lacks the true horror that the first one conjured up, choosing instead to dwell more in the world of fairy tales. It was the brutality that made the first book so unique and memorable, but this one is solid. At times it falls into repetition, almost as if the writer doesn't trust the reader to remember key details. I found that slightly distracting, but still very much enjoyed this trip into Wonderland.

Fiction Friday (113)

 

After a failure to secure a library book for further Alice readings, I remembered that I had an Alice-related book on my shelves that I'd never read. Problem solved. I've had this book for about twenty years, and picked it up mainly for the cover, but since I've been exploring Wonderland related materials this summer, I decided to go for it, and I'm glad I did.

 

Black Alice by Thomas M. Disch and John Sladek

(Doubleday, 1968)

Alice is most certainly not in Wonderland...but Virginia in the late '60s holds a lot of parallels.

Alice is 12 year old heiress who is kidnapped and held for a $1,000,000 ransom. Her kidnappers drug her and feed her pills that change her, they don't make her smaller or grow larger, but they die her pale skin a coffee brown. They dye her blond hair black and use a curling iron to burn it into tight kinks. When she comes out of her daze, Alice isn't entirely sure who she is anymore. Is proper little Alice, or just another little 'Negro' girl that nobody will ever notice?

This is one of those rare crime thrillers that transcends into literature, beyond just the clever Alice's Adventures in Wonderland elements. Below the main kidnapping plot, this book is about race relations and tensions between the KKK and Civil Rights activists. What's really refreshing about this being a subtext of the book, instead of the main drive, is that it doesn't seem to take a position on the subject...at least not obviously (through Alice's actions, we know where the author's stand).

What we get is picture of this time and what was going on, through the eyes of an observer who has little vested interest in the outcome. It's a snapshot of contemporary social unrest from the past. Any story written today that would be set in that time would inevitably be a revisionist portrait.

Fiction Friday (110)

 

 

 

I recently put together a presentation on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that I did for my library. During my research into books based on Alice, I found several books that I didn't know about. This surprised me since I'm a die-hard fan and thought I knew about most Alice related stories. I immediately put in a request of the first of what I expect to be an autumn filled with Alice. This one was stunning.

 

 

Alice by Christina Henry

(Penguin, 2015)

 

Alice is a broken girl in a broken world. The story opens with Alice as a young woman in a dismal mental hospital that is more like an 19th century prison. The hospital is in "Old City", a fantastical, Dickensian slum. Alice is from "New City" which we never see, but gather is a place of considerable more refinement. There is time period assigned to this world, but it feels very Victorian era.

Alice hates the hospital, but it is safe from the dangers of Old City and the criminals who run it, trafficking in girls and violence. It is also save from her memories of The Rabbit which left her hideously scarred. Plus she has Hatter, the scruffy man in the next cell whom she talks to through a mouse hall in the stone walls. But the hospital hides a secret buried below...a dangerous creature known as the Jabberwocky. Then one night, a fire breaks out, unleashing the Jabberwocky on the people of Old City, not to mention Hatter and Alice.

This is dark fantasy with noir elements, set in a world of almost unspeakable brutality. But as foreign as it is to Lewis Carroll's world, Christina Henry still captures the spirit of Alice and wonderfully integrates and re-imagines the elements of Wonderland into a compelling story that feels related enough to be part of the cannon. There's a second book in the series that I'm currently on a waiting list for.

Fiction Friday (82)

When I was choosing my next book to read a few weeks back, I decided to dig into the "to-read" shelves in my office and came across my signed copy of After Alice. Having been a huge Alice fan since my teen years, I was partially surprised that this has sat on my shelf for four years. Having just finished reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to my daughter, and it still fresh in my mind, it seemed like a good time to read this.

After Alice by Gregory Maguire
(William Morrow, 2015)

 In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice mentions one friend and mentions her exactly once. Her name is Ada, and all we know from Alice is that she wears her hair in ringlets. From that one glimpse, Gregory Maguire gives us this novel. Now, it's not that surprising as he's made a career out of spinning out stories from classic children's literature. What struck me about this book was how he was able to grasp the parameters of Lewis Carroll's world and expand on it in such a precise way that makes the reader feel as though they are inhabiting the same place, unlike say, The Looking Glass Wars which re-invents Wonderland.

Alternating between Ada's attempt to navigate Wonderland, and the frantic search happening in Oxford on that fateful summer day, this book, while slow to begin, becomes entirely engrossing after the first 50 pages or so. It's as much a commentary on Victorian society as it is an examination of the peculiar imaginary land. 

We've only ever seen Wonderland through Alice's eyes, a child who is strong-willed and confident. Ada is a very different child, and her perception of this place gives us new things to consider. I found this book to be extremely well-written (though the author does tend to be a bit pretentious a times). His inventions of Wonderland fit seamlessly with the original, something that was not easy to achieve. I would say this is a must read for serious Alice fans.  

Fiction Friday (78)

While waiting for the second book in the Nevermoor series by Jessica Townsend to come in from library, I decided to pick up a brief book to fill the gap. This is a book that I originally read when it came out sixteen years ago. The sequel to it has been in my "to-read" pile for years and I kept meaning to re-read this one because I couldn't remember what happened. I took the opportunity to refresh my brain and will tackle the next book after finishing the Nevermoor title.

Olivia Kidney by Ellen Potter
(Philomel, 2003)

Olivia Kidney is NOT crazy! Of course, she has a hard time convincing others, especially the school psychiatrist. That's because she often talks to her older brother, who has recently died. 

Olivia has taken an interest in seances in hopes of being about to actually speak to her brother, who she misses too much to let go. However, one strange afternoon in the strangest apartment building in New York City will change Olivia's life forever...and her perspective on life in general.

Much like the inhabitants Alice meets in Wonderland, the people living in Olivia's apartment building seem to be from another world, one that functions differently from the rules Olivia is accustomed to. And like Alice, Olivia is set adrift to navigate through the bizarre escapades of those around her, trying in vain to make sense of the nonsensical. Along the way, the reader is treated to stories filled with danger and flights of imagination. And while Olivia is often unnerved by what is happening, the reader remains confident, as we are with Alice, that she is clever and resourceful enough to find her way out any predicament.

This is a much darker story than I remembered, with a hint of brutality running under the surface for most of the story. It's also much more sophisticated in terms of story structure than I remember and by the end, all the threads come flawlessly together.

Alice in Paris

One of the great things about being a collector of stuff that is supposed to appeal to children is when your child discovers something you didn't know you had. My daughter wanted to look at all of our movies the other day and so I opened the cabinet where we keep the DVDs that we never watch and she found this one and said, "That's Alice! Can we watch that?"

The movie in question is a little known 1966 Czech/American production called Alice of Wonderland in Paris. Being a huge Alice enthusiast, I acquired this DVD years ago. Upon my daughter's discover, it was still unopened and unwatched. 

Now I had an excuse to watch it, and I took it. We made a Daddy & Me afternoon and watched Alice in Paris. This isn't really an Alice story, she's used more as a frame tale to show three illustrated stories, one by Crockett Johnson, another one about the moon, and Madeline and the Bad Hat. I was thrilled with the Madeline and Alice connection, two of my favorite storybook characters. 

The animation was very 60's cartoon style, as was the voice work, which isn't surprising seeing that William Snyder of Tom & Jerry and Popeye fame, produced it. All in all, it was interesting, entertaining, but certainly for Alice completionists only.

Fiction Friday (24)

This month I read two books that pair well together. Both were historical fiction that center around two of my long time literary obsessions, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and In the Realms of the Unreal. Beyond the obvious similarities in these two works of literature, both displaying incredibly imaginative worlds, there are other interesting connections. Both books owe much of their existence to specific children who inspired the authors in different ways, and both books were written by authors with many unanswered questions about their lives. Given that, I thought the two novels below, inspired by the above mentioned works, would make for an interesting edition of Fiction Friday. Enjoy.

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
(Random House, 2010)

Among fans of Lewis Carroll's work, there seems to be just as much fascination with the story of his life as there is with the fictional stories, specifically his relationship with Alice Pleasance Liddell, the little girl for whom he created his most famous work, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Though biographies of the author, of which I have read many, cover this aspect of his life in detail, there has been little attempt to examine the relationship from the point of view of the other person involved. There are very few biographies about the "real" Alice, and most don't delve too deeply into the circumstances surrounding her interaction with Charles Dodgeson (aka Lewis Carroll), which is probably what made Melanie Benjamin's novel Alice I Have Been an instant success when it came out.

Though I was excited upon its publication, I held off reading it until this month. When this novel came out, I had recently read Katie Rophie's Still She Haunts Me, a novel that also imagines the relationship between Alice and the author. I loved that novel, and wanted to wait for it to pass through my system before entering Benjamin's world. While they cover a lot of the same territory, the books are very different. The focus of this novel is the little girl and her thoughts and feelings, and properly leaves the intentions of others to her speculation, as any first person narrative should.

Beyond the appeal of telling a story that has long captured my curiosity, this is a remarkably poignant coming of age tale about a girl who doesn't really want to grow up, but who like all of us, must. It's a touching portrait of a child caught in situations that she cannot completely understand, and ultimately has to live with the consequences imposed by witnessing adults. In many ways, this imagining of Alice's life is similar to the themes in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland about the nonsensical rules of an adult world imposed on a child.

I really enjoyed that the book didn't end where most discussions of Alice end. It continued on, exploring her grown up life in depth, and the kind of burden that came with being "the real Alice". I also appreciated how it didn't attempt to settle the long standing debate on the nature of Lewis Carroll and his intentions when it came to his child friends. Through the entire novel, Alice remained the focus and how the ambiguous historical events may have been seen through a child's eyes, and later how they may have affected her. It was tragic at times, beautiful at others, and always engaging.

While many of the facts concerning the interactions between Alice and Lewis Carrol have been intentionally lost, either by the elimination of his dairy pages after his death or the destruction of the letters he wrote to a young Alice by her mother, Benjamin's portrayal feels very plausible. But the great thing about this book is that it doesn't really matter if they are factual or not. As a novel, the interpretations are carried through with incredible skill, creating a character as unforgettable as the real life inspiration. (My Pinterest Board of Alice Liddell)

Outsider by Stephen Tobias

(Book Publishers Network, 2013)

The life of Henry Darger, one the most intriguing Outsider artists to emerge in the last thirty years, certainly contains enough mysterious elements to conjure up a great novel. Instead of trying to get into the mind of someone whose intentions and thoughts are much debated, Stephen Tobias decides to tell the story of the landlord who discovered Darger's alarming illustrations for his manuscript of the longest novel ever written, In the Realms of the Unreal.

While based on facts surrounding the life of Darger, this novel is the story of Nathan Learner, a semi-successful photographer who has lost his desire to take pictures after his ten-year old daughter's long losing battle with cancer. Remarried, he is surviving on his real estate holdings and a teaching job at a Chicago art school when one his long-time tenants succumbs to age and illness. When Herman Viereck is taken to a nursing home, Nathan is tasked with the chore of cleaning out his apartment and sorting through the stuff left behind. What he finds ends up being an astonishing treasure of art produced in secret over the years.

Eventually Nathan decides that the work needs to be shared with the public for a variety of reasons. The art is so unique and visionary that he feels it would be a travesty to deny sharing it with the art world, but there are also finical reasons because by selling the artwork, he can recoup the rent owed on the apartment, and later, pay for Herman's funeral. But as the art becomes a sensation, he begins to dig deeper into the experiences that caused Herman to produce the shocking images of the Vivian girls endless, horrific war depicted in the illustrations and manuscript. This investigation leads him to the unsolved murder of a child years before.

Since many of the details of Darger's life are unknown, this is the aspect of the novel that takes liberties with the story. While it's known that Darger was obsessed with the murder of five-year-old Elsie Paroubek, it's unknown why, though there is some speculation that he may have somehow been involved in the child's death. It is also known that Darger spent most of his childhood in a mental home, and the book speculates on the horrific influence it may have had on him.

While these elements are fascinating, and the main reason I read the book, the surprising strength of the novel lies in its examination of the art world and how it creates and celebrates myth in order to sell art. It's look at grief and loss is also quite compelling as Nathan comes to terms with his daughter's death, and the realization that there was much he didn't know about her.

This is a great read for those interested in Henry Darger, but I feel my enjoyment relied heavily on my knowledge of the artist's life. I strongly recommend that readers research Henry Darger before reading Outsider, or if not, then definitely after finishing it. I worry that some readers will take this account as accurate, and therefore condemn Henry Darger to characteristics that may or may not be true. (My Pinterest Board of Darger art)

 (Elsie Paroubek/ Alice Liddell)

Happy Mad Hatter Day

"If you knew Time as well as I do," said the Hatter, "you wouldn't talk about wasting it. It's him."

Oh happiest of nonsense holidays! Today has been declared Mad Hatter Day, thanks to the 10/6 fraction on the Hatter's hat in the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland illustrations. It's a day where silliness is allowed and tea parties can be endless with simply moving around the table. 

For me it's always a time to reflect on one of the most important books and authors to influence my own career. The Hatter embodies one of the key elements to the theme of the book that has always been central for me. He represents the absurdity of adults and adult conversation when viewed through the eyes of a child. One of the key themes of the book is how unfair rules set up by grown ups can be. This is a theme that I've focused on through the children's books I've written. As adults, if we can remain aware of this, it can go a long way in making us remember that there is a lot we can learn from children.

Fiction Friday (9)

One of the best things about reading a long novel is the speed at which others seem to fall in its wake. Anyone else notice how much faster the next book goes down after trudging through some epic? Of course, none of that matters if you don't pick the right book to read. I've always felt that choosing the next book is a lot like creating a music playlist. Making awkward jumps can be unnerving. But sometimes I find myself ignoring those rules simply because there is something I've been dying to read. That's what happened last time I picked out a book. Needless to say, it didn't turn out too good. This latest book reminded me of another which I felt the same way about last year. I thought I'd share them both. Though neither really grabbed me, I think the 11 year old inside of me would have enjoyed both and therefore they are worthy of mention.

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
(Del Ray, 2007)

When I first read about this book, I admit that a little drool formed in the corners of my mouth. To say a story heavily inspired by Neverwhere and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is right up my alley would be an understatement. So when I got this book, I tore right into, only to find that while it may have been inspired by those other stories, it lacked their inspiration.

The story takes the main character, a young girl named Deeba, into an alternate version of London named UnLondon. This city is alive with a cast of intriguing characters including trashcan ninjas, half-ghosts, utterlings (words that come to life) and other ideas that play on Lewis Carroll's brand of nonsense. The problem is, nearly all of the imagination put into creating UnLondon feels overly forced. Much like the environmental message of the book, it is so heavy-handed that it seems to take the joy right out of the story.

Another obstacle preventing me from loving this book was my lack of concern for really any of the characters, especially the main character. The structure is partly to blame for this. The beginning fifth of the book or so, the author tries to get the reader emotionally invested in Zanna. And then, just when you do start to care for her, she's out of the story. Deeba, a character who is frankly terrible in the first part of the book, now becomes the one we're supposed to follow and cheer for. I think I never quite got over that switch or my initial dislike of her.

It felt clear to me while reading Un Lun Dun that I was encountering a gifted writer who was working outside his comfort zone. Rather than criticize, I'd like to applaud the risk even if the end result felt a little flat. But all of that said, there was still plenty of enjoyable moments, especially the well-paced action scenes. I also thought the Black Windows of Webminster Abbey were one of the most fascinating elements I've encountered in a long time. Overall, disappointing but entertaining.

Starcross by Philip Reeve
(Bloomsbury, 2008)

What this book does have going for it; lots of action, twists galore, and plot to spare. For a lot of people, that makes for a great book. And if plot is your thing, I would say this book wouldn't fail to entertain. I can see tons of readers falling in love with this book for that very reason...unfortunately, I wasn't one of them.

Overall, the book felt extremely forced to me. I found a lot of the imaginative elements to be contrived. There are any number of writers who try to capture inventive ideas, but few can make them feel effortless, such as Roald Dahl for example. I also thought the characters were very stiff and kind of unappealing. There's an obvious attempt to create a tongue-in-cheek meta-narration such as you find in the Series of Unfortunate Events books, but never quite achieves it to the affect those books do. And in general, I just found the writing style to be sort of clunky. However, that's a matter of personal taste in writing style.

I also had a huge problem with Myrtle. She has to be one of the most obnoxious characters I've encountered in years. Granted, she's supposed to be the annoying older sister. However, her anti-feminist, 19th century young lady spiel is so irksome and I certainly don't want her as the narrator of two lengthy sections of the book. I also couldn't help finding myself wondering how her attitude plays out in the minds of young readers, especially since the target audience of this series is, without a doubt, boys. There is nothing cool about any of the female characters in this book, those traits are all reserved for the male characters. Seriously? How uncool is that.

I hate being harsh on books, especially books that I did genuinely enjoy at parts, such as this. I loved the Doctor Who spacey sci-fi adventure nature of this book. I also think this would be a great book for a reluctant boy reader. But when I see a mediocre book that gets such high acclaim as this (multiple star reviews, year-end best lists, etc), it really bothers me.

In all fairness, my 10 year old self would more than likely give this book 4 or 5 stars. But editors and book review publications are not 10 years old and should've come out this with a more educated view in my opinion.

Fiction Friday (3)

It's the end of the week, time for me to share some thoughts on books I've read recently. There really is no theme to these two books except that they take place in houses by the sea. I thought since I was currently writing about a harbor town, that it might be fitting to choose these two. Having lived in New York City for so long, which many people don't realize is an ocean city, and now living in the mountains, whenever I visit a town with the smell of saltwater in the air, it kind of captures my imagination. Both of these books take advantage of that to varying degrees. Enjoy.

A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz

(Candlewick, 2006)

Though I admit my initial interest in this book came from the striking similarity of the girl on the cover to Alice Liddell, the book turned out to be worth the chance. This is one of those great stories that works on many levels. The surface action is immensely intriguing, following an 11 year old orphan girl named Maud who is adopted by three old ladies despite the efforts of the orphanage's Superintendent to persuade them to adopt a better child. As soon as Maud sets off with her new guardians, it's clear to the reader that something fishy is going on. But like Maud herself, you want so badly for this misunderstood child to enjoy her unexpected happiness that you tend to look past your suspicions.

As the book continues and we learn the true nature of Maud's predicament, I found myself trying to rationalize along with Maud, even though I knew better. But that's the strength of this book, that the reader shares the longings of the main character. The depth and subtlety with which it captures a lonely child's need to be loved is quite remarkable. In a round about way, it's also a surprisingly honest look at dysfunction within families, as well as the patchwork way in which families sometimes come together. This is a book I enjoyed very much and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys books with strong female adolescent characters.

Dark Stranger by Julien Gracq

(1950)

There were moments where I truly loved this book with its flashes of beautiful prose and places where time ceases to exist that intrigued me. It followers a group of wealthy vacationers collected in a sleepy beach resort on the north coast of France between the wars. The author does a delightful job in capturing the almost stifling calm and leisure that surrounds them. However, by doing so, the book tends to drag, sometimes drawing the reader too deeply into the mood. The mysterious Allan character, which is meant to be the driving force of the novel, was often times not nearly as compelling as he probably should have been. It is also one of those books that leaves so much unsaid and inferred. As a matter of preference, it is not my favorite style of story telling, though I can appreciate the effort when done well. My problem with its implementation in this novel is that there wasn't enough else going on to drive the narrative. Another element that distracted me was the presentation of conversations. In the rare scenes of long conversation, the author would delve solely into the two speaking voices, allowing any sense of place or action to disappear.

The ending is pretty masterful. It certainly redeemed an uneasiness that I felt through the last third of the book. It offers a profound look at the romantic hero. The book also serves as a document for the period between the wars, the haunting horror of the first and the pending horror of the second. Though well written, it simply wasn't my kind of book. I'd imagine fans of Hemmingway enjoying this novel...unfortunately, I'm not.

Two of My Favorite Girls

Last week I wrote a short piece of original fiction where CatKid met Alice in a Wonderland maze. I hadn't written in CatKid's voice in a few years, but she's always there in the back of my head yapping at me to pay attention to her. And Alice is one of the reasons I became a writer. So needless to say, it was a bit of a dream project and very fun to write.

You can read it here if you like...I promise you'll laugh (or at least chuckle).

A Day for Hares and Hatters

Poor Lewis Carroll, today is the day all of his un-birthdays have run out. All 364 used up and nothing left to celebrate except an actual birthday for one of the most important authors in my own path to authoring nonsense for the enjoyment of children. Happy Birthday old friend.

Little Birds are writing

Interesting books,

To be read by cooks:

Read, I say, not roasted--

Letterpress, when toasted,

Loses its good looks.

(from Sylvie and Bruno Concluded)

Cyber Traveling

Over the past couple of weeks, I've done a few guest posts and interviews here and there. Some of them have been quite fun and I thought I'd share the links in case anyone feels like adventuring into unknown blogs this weekend. Enjoy.

My Advice to Alice as She Wanders Wereland: This is piece I did for vvB32 Reads, one of the most creative blogs out there in my opinion which mixes reviews, book information, and online storytelling. One such theme was werewolves and cleverly putting Alice in Wereland. I wrote a little verse in the Cheshire Cat style, giving Alice a warning of her predicament. I also created a piece of art for it, also found in the post.

My Commentary of Zombies: For the fabulous review site Paperback Dolls, they asked me to write a little piece about my take on modern zombies. Here my English Literature degree pays off as I can talk topic with the best of them.

BONUS: Here's their review of Zombie Blondes.

A New Interview Where I Discuss Pure Sunshine and Perfect World: The blog Actin' Up With Books has decided to do a series of interviews with PUSH authors and I'm honored to be the first one. In this interview I discuss my road to publication and some of my experiences from when I was a writer just starting to discover myself as an author.

Haunted

"She liked his stories where things came zigzagging out of nowhere, each minute unconnected to the next. True, she was not sure if he was quite like other people. If he were her own age, stuttering like that, she would certainly not like him."  Still She Haunts Me by Katie Roiphe

I recently finished one of most beautifully written books I've read in quite some time. Still She Haunts Me is a fictional novel about the relationship between Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell, the girl for whom he made up the Alice stories. As any reader of this blog is fully aware, this is a subject of a fascination for me and is what led me to pick up the book in the first place. Though, that was the original reason I read the book, I discovered something much richer than a curious interpretation of one author's imagining of this famous historical relationship. 

The novel's real strength is the exploration of the incredibly complicated relationship between artist and muse. The historical documentation of this particular creation story make for a perfect setting to examine the the confusing line between creative passion and desire. Was Lewis Carroll in love with Alice? The answer, based on his own letters and even a small dose of common sense would suggest that he certainly was in love with her. But the nature of this love has been debated, questioned, and analyzed for over a century and a half. Was it an innocent infatuation or something more? It seems most scholars always fall to one side of the divide or the other. Still She Haunts Me suggests, as I've always believed as well, that the real answer falls somewhere in-between or that it was transient, moving back and forth between the two.

"Dodgson shaded his eyes so he could see better. The girls were running across the lawn, batting the ball, their skirts flying behind them.

His eye was drawn to the middle one. Alice. The least pretty. Not an inanimate doll-beauty like the others, but a dark, wild, tousled thing. Her legs and arms too long, sun-browned, her hair short for a girl, almost boyish, and messy, sticking up, as if she had just woken up, the front cut unevenly; no doubt she squirmed under the scissors. Her face was pointed. Her eyes enormous and complicated and black.

 And then there was the slightest trace of theater in her stance. She ran a little too fast. She concentrated a little too intently on the ball. She swung a little too hard when she hit it. All of which served to make her more there than her sisters."  page 11

I've often wondered what it is about some people, or places that stand out in an artistic sense and inspire a creative urge. A lot of my characters are based initially on stranger's faces that for one reason or another haunted me. Gretchen from Tomorrow, Maybe was based on a girl I saw on the subway. Elizabeth from that book and Thief is based on someone I barely knew but for one reason or another occupied my imagination. Same can be for Lukas from Zombie Blondes. In the case of Alice, this obsession by the artist was a hundred fold, but on a basic level, I can understand how inspiration can easily become twisted into obsession...especially to a Victorian era recluse with a stutter who lived hailed the imagination as a divine power. This novel illustrates all of those complex feelings so exquisitely and tastefully. 

I did object to some of the liberties taken by the author when it came to the end and the fallout between Carroll and the Liddell family (which remains one of the great unsolved literary mysteries). Though her suggestion is very plausible, and therefore works in a literary sense and doesn't detract from the greatness of the book, it casts a negative light over the factual circumstances that I feel might be a little unfair. Regardless, it's a fantastic book illustrating a most unconventional love story and I recommend it for anyone interested in the Alice universe or the creative process. 

Goblin Market

Morning and evening

Maids heard the goblins cry

"Come buy our orchard fruits,

Come buy, come buy:"

This weekend I decided to read Christina Rossetti's free verse fairy tale poem again for the first time since college. I was originally lead to the poem by Lewis Carroll's fascination with it. In this poem, he saw that children's literature could be something more than the didactic snores that had existed before. I was recently reading another Lewis Carroll inspired work and was once again steered to The Goblin Market. 

The Goblin Market is the tale of two sisters tempted by forest goblins to eat the fantastical fruits they sell. The sister's know better than to taste of such fruit, but one simply cannot resist...she eats. 

As the wiser sister watches the other prematurely age and begin to die before her eyes, she decides she must face her fears in order to save her sister. What ensues is a maddening encounter that stands as one of the most exiting pieces of poetry written in the Victorian era, in my opinion. 

"Though the goblins cuffed and caught

       her,

  Coaxed and fought her,

 Bullied and besought her,

 Scratched her, pinched her black as ink,

 Kicked and knocked her,

 Mauled and mocked her,

 Lizzie uttered not a word;

 Would not open lip from lip

 Lest they should cram a mouthful in;"

The strength of this poem is in the language. The pace is frantic and enthralling. Reading it aloud, you can hear the words circling upon each other like a storm. It's also clear to see its influence in some of the more manic episodes within Alice's adventures. 

The poem can be read in it's entirety here if you wish...as with any verse though, I recommend you read it aloud. Enjoy. I certainly did. 

My Un-Birthdays Are All Used Up For The Year

-Alice widened her eyes so that she could see the air, particles of static, vibrating blue, yellow, and white dots. She was annoyed with Dodgson for his meticulousness...for the paper he had carried down from his rooms so neatly in a leather folder, all for her pleasure, she knew, but it embarrassed her, the trouble he had taken, the whole production. She felt uncomfortable, like it was her he was folding into small triangles. -  She Still Haunts Me by Katie Roiphe

Today is my birthday and the above quote from the book I've been reading (a novel about Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell) seems appropriate for reasons that will soon be made clear. Rather than write about all the common getting-older-vs.-getting-wiser and is-it-better-or-worse, type of birthday musings, I've decided to write about a strange quirk of mine in regards to receiving gifts.

It's no secret that writers are notoriously bad at conventional social practices that most people perform without thought. One such oddity for me has always been the opening of presents. I've never been comfortable in any situation where there is an expected reaction that I'm supposed to have. It's not that I don't like presents...I love them. It's more about behavioral expectations. Knowing your supposed to be show excitement to the point where it becomes acting, for some reason it's something that I've never been good at. 

I came across the Alice quote the other day, and I knew instantly the feeling that was being portrayed. It's exactly how I've felt in those situations. I love coming across quotes like that...that express feelings you've always had but never could articulate. 

To bring this post full circle, I didn't have to worry about this feeling today. I received three of the most amazing presents this morning from the Missus and my cats. The big present being several beautifully framed Lewis Carroll photographs of Alice Liddell. (Not originals of course. I'd have to have written Twilight for that kind of cash...but beautiful prints). Now, if someone could just give me some wall space to hang them own, it would be a present I'd appreciate.

The Looking Glass Wars Have Ended

Yesterday, I finished reading the last book in The Looking Glass Wars trilogy. I had read all but last thirty pages by mid-morning and decided to save the end for bedtime. That's the kind of books these are...those rare books that you can't decide whether to plow through because you're enjoying them so much, or the kind you savor slowly because you never want them to end.

This last installment (though, does anyone really believe it will be the last, there are certainly open doors for more books) wasn't a let down at all. It did what a third book needs to do...wrap up the bigger story, but also introduce new satisfying storylines. 

I loved the Catepillar Oracle plot. It was very inventive and kept me guessing. I also enjoyed the House of Clubs anti-imaginationist plot, though it sort of disappeared half-way through. And of course, the further development of Lewis Carroll's character along with more time in Oxford was a treat. My favorite part however was the many twists the conclusions of Redd's storyline took, which is odd considering her stories in the previous two books weren't my favorite by any means.

Are these the best books ever written? Absolutely not. Do they benefit from my obsession with Wonderland and the real lives of Alice Liddell and Lewis Carroll? Absolutely. But that's what makes these books so special. Their inspiration comes less from the Alice books and more from the legend that surrounds the books' creation. In many ways, they look at our world with the same kind of imaginative lens that the characters in the story use to look at our world. 

As a whole, the trilogy is packed with intriguing ideas to ponder, as any good sci-fi fantasy should. At the same time, it never loses its heart. There's nothing cynical in these books and for me, that was a bit refreshing. 

For anyone who hasn't read The Looking Glass Wars, but wants to...may I make the following suggestions. Certainly read the Alice books first because a big part of these books' strength comes from the stark contrast between the two Wonderlands. Secondly, read up on the history of how the original Alice story came to be...because as I said before, these books are about the real little girl Alice and not the literary character. My last recommendation...just enjoy the ride.

Dream Meetings

"Now, Kitty, let's consider who it was that dreamed it all. This is a serious question, my dear, and you should not go on licking your paw like that -- as if Dinah hadn't washed you this morning! You see, Kitty, it must have been either me or the Red King. He was part of my dream of course -- but then I was part of his dream too!"  Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

From time to time, I'm lucky enough to be visited in my dreams by characters I've created. Last night was one of those nights. A character from a recent book I finished took up a starring role in my dream. It wasn't the first time either this particular character has showed up and recently I've been playing around with this idea that dreams are like parallel worlds. What if, the characters are real somewhere else and I write about them because somehow our dreams get tangled together? 

This is a very Wonderlandish kind of idea. The above quote is one of my favorites, from the last paragraph of the second Alice book. This idea fascinates me: that what we think of as our dreams could really be us intruding on someone else's. There's a lot of this in The Looking Glass Wars as well, this sort of fragile dreamlike connection between worlds. It's always intrigued me.

The new novel I'm working on is partially about this concept. The character (a different one that the one that keeps me company as I sleep) has trouble distinguishing dreams from reality and it's as if the thin curtain between the two realms is tattered.

As for the other character, she's in a book you will all hopefully get to read sometime soon. But her persistence makes me suspect she isn't done with me telling her story. As I've always known, Freud would have a field day with me.

A Journey Starts with Small Steps

Sometimes an idea comes at night, when I have had to get up and strike a light to note it down -- sometimes when out on a lonely winter walk, when I have had to stop, and with half-frozen fingers jot down a few words which should keep the new-born idea from perishing -- but whenever or however it comes, it comes of itself. I cannot set invention going like a clock, by any voluntary winding up: nor do I believe that any original writing (and what other writing is worth preserving?) was ever so produced. If you sit down, unimpassioned and uninspired, and tell yourself to write for so many hours, you will merely produce (at least I am sure I should merely produce) some of that article which fills, so far as I can judge, two-thirds of most magazines -- most easy to write most weary to read -- men call it "paddling" and it is to my mind one of the most detestable things in modern literature. Alice and the Looking Glass are made up almost wholly of bits and scraps, single ideas which came of themselves.  -Lewis Carroll

I came across the above article a few weeks ago when I was in one my frequent Alice binges. It's taken from a newspaper article that Lewis Carroll wrote. The article was in fact a review of the first ever play production of Alice. The paper had asked the author to review it. In the article he went on to talk about the book and what it meant to him. 

I was struck by the above quote mostly because it's how I've always approached the writing process. Every book I write is basically a collection of random notes that have been jotted down over a period of time. Like Carroll (and probably all writers) I keep a notepad on the nightstand beside the bed. There are frequent wake-ups where I write in the dark--a skill I'm quite good at in the point in my life. During any long walk, I have my notebook in the my pocket. As L.C. pointed out, for some reason the best ideas seem to come when it's freezing out. I remember when I was writing Dirty Liar, I got stuck about half-way through and decided to walk through the woods on a freezing December day in Woodstock....the result was a major breakthrough.

I'm in the first stages of writing a new novel now, so I've been quite involved in this note gathering process at the moment. There's all these snippets of ideas floating out there and it's amazing to see them start to come together. They start mingling and interacting and attaching themselves to a character or a scene. In that way, it's true that a story isn't necessarily something a writer sits down to create. The story creates itself...we just put it together.