Archives for October 31, 2007

• Slate plays the excellent parlor game of asking authors like Amy Bloom, Laura Lippman and John Crowley to name “The Great Books We Haven’t Read.” Mark me down as having never gotten past page 2 of Swann’s Way, which I remember (perhaps erroneously) as having something to do with lying awake in bed and which always puts me to sleep in mine. I’ve tried three times now — I’m like the climber who shows up at Everest every spring amid great pomp and with lots of gear and never gets past base camp.
• Speaking of great books not yet read, I’ve also been enjoying Critical Mass’s Critical Library series, which has convinced me to finally get a copy of Erich Auerbach’s Mimesis.

On Sunday, Mr. Tingle and I had brunch with my parents. There was a brief lull in the conversation and then my mom said very brightly and apropos of nothing, “Gumdrop and Lillian are going to rob Snoopy.”
I thought she’d suffered some sort of mental break until she reminded me she was reading my copy of Away.

5 x 5 Books … is a recommendation of five books that appears regularly in this space. As a special treat, today’s installment is a two-parter. First up is a 5×5 of spooky Halloween books recommended by Kelly Link, author of the knockout collections Stranger Things Happen and Magic for Beginners and a connoisseur of strange, creepy, marvelous books. Just below you’ll find a second 5×5 of not-so-spooky alternative recommendations written by Gavin Grant, Link’s husband and co-founder with her of one of my favorite imprints, Small Beer Press.
1. 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill. One of the best collections I’ve read in years. For Halloween reading, I particularly recommend the stories “Best New Horror,” “My Father’s Mask,” and “Voluntary Committal.”
2. Thirsty by M. T. Anderson. This young adult novel begins this way: “In the spring, there are vampires in the wind. People see them scuffling along by the side of country roads. At night, they move through the empty forests. They do not wear black, of course, but things they have taken off bodies or bought on sale. The news says that they are mostly in the western part of the state, where it is lonely and rural. My father claims we have them this year because it was a mild winter, but he may be thinking of tent caterpillars.”
3. Novels by Robin Westall, stories by E.F. Benson, and some Aiken too. I don’t know if Westall’s young adult horror novels The Watch House and The Scarecrows are still in print, but you can probably track them down. Track them down! Westall also wrote several collections of ghost stories in the tradition of E. F. Benson and M. R. James. Speaking of Benson, Carroll & Graf put out The Collected Ghost Stories of E. F. Benson a few years ago, and I love this edition best of all because it includes a foreword by Joan Aiken. And if you’re already a fan of E. F. Benson, then you ought to pick up Joan Aiken’s short story collections. I could continue to cram recommendations into this paragraph, but then I’d never get to …
4. Cruddy by Lynda Barry. This one’s part Grimm’s fairytale (starts grim and gets grimmer), part Grand Guignol, part Jim Thompson-style grifters on the road. Mud and blood by the buckets, sock monkeys stuffed with money, and a knife named Little Debbie. Pair this with Patricia Geary’s Strange Toys.
5. Flanders by Patricia Anthony. Lastly, I’ll recommend this wonderful WWI epistolary novel by Patricia Anthony. There are ghosts here, and a serial killer, and a mysterious figure in a garden. I’ve been waiting ever since for Anthony to write another novel, but in the meantime I reread this one every other year or so.

Of course, not everyone who sees a haunted house wishes to enter. With some less ghoulish recommendations, here is writer Gavin Grant, who is the founder with Kelly Link of Small Beer Press. Gavin’s list, you’ll note, is 100 percent ghost-and-goblin-free. Or is it?
1. Liquor, Prime, and Soul Kitchen by Poppy Z. Brite. Brite’s series of sort-of-mysteries set in New Orleans make a wonderful break from horror novels. Beginning with Liquor, she tells the story of two young cooks who, inspired by their own prodigious drinking, decide to start a restaurant where every dish will feature liquor of some sort. Great characters, great city, great fun.
2. Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson. This one’s a perennial favorite recommendation and should help keep you from noticing the Halloween ghouls. Half the readers in the country seem to have worked in a bookshop at some point or other which will make the start of this brilliant graphic novel easily recognizable. But the real genius here is that the book collects a comic written over a decade so that none of the characters follows the paths you might expect.
3. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Slightly darker, but not in a ghosts’n’goblins manner is this novel by Diaz, a hilarious, tragic, immersive smashing together of many cultures. Oscar and Junior are college roommates who shouldn’t get on with each other, and often don’t. It’s brutal and fantastic.
4. Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan. OK, this one might be just right for the holiday (although I’d argue it’s right for any holiday). Lanagan’s collections are mind-boggling things. Her first, Black Juice, won an amazing amount of awards. Published as a young adult book, Red Spikes is her third collection (after White Time) and contains enough timeless tales of terror (sorry!) to keep you up all night.
5. Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. Paul Farmer’s a hard-working hero who has spent his life battling against poor health conditions all over the world. You could do worse than reading these five books from the library and sending $50 to Partners in Health.

“I have a weakness for minor artists. But they must be genuinely minor, by which I mean that they mustn’t lapse into minority through overreaching, want of energy, crudity, or any other kind of ineptitude. They must not be failed major artists merely. The true minor artist eschews the noble and the solemn. He fears tedium for his audience, but even more for himself. He sets out to be, and is perfectly content to remain, less than great. The minor artist knows his limits and lives comfortably within them. To delight, to charm, to entertain, such are the goals the minor artist sets himself, and, when brought off with style and verve and elegant lucidity, they are–more than sufficient–wholly admirable.”
Joseph Epstein, In a Cardboard Belt!