Waking The Dead

The laws of nature have been torn asunder as the dead walk again in Fatal Revenant, the 8th installment of the Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever legacy. The series, begun in the 1970's, has gathered an astounding following through two trilogies. Now, Stephen R. Donaldson has picked up the story again, beginning the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant with The Runes of the Earth in 2004 and continuing on with Fatal Revenant. This final Chronicles, a series of four books, will (with any luck) wrap up the long and harrowing saga of Thomas Covenant versus the forces of Despite. Not hip to the story yet? Let me try to catch you up.

Thomas Covenant, a leper, outcast and pariah in our own world, has become the savior of The Land, a world of amazing power and beauty that is constantly besieged by the powers of Lord Foul the Despiser. At the expense of many good lives, including his own, Covenant successfully defends The Land from Lord Foul on two separate occasions bringing to bear the unlimited power of his white gold ring, a material that in The Land holds power outside the limits of nature. In his death, Covenant becomes part of the structure of Time, locking his immortal enemy Lord Foul to The Land forever.

The Last Chronicles pick up in our world where the Second Chronicles left off. Covenant's friend and former personal doctor Linden Avery, who was brought to The Land with Covenant in the second trilogy, is pulled back to The Land after her adopted son, Covenant's psychotic ex-wife, and Covenant's estranged son, who is hell bent on hurting Linden. Linden finds herself back in the land, but a substantial amount of time has passed, and The Land is not exactly as she remembered it, and she knows that the evil Lord Foul has her son.

Fatal Revenant begins with Covenant having apparently rescued Linden's son, and escaped death in the bargain. Covenant takes Linden on a journey through time to accomplish some obscure and un-named goal, which Linden believes will get her closer to defeating Lord Foul and getting her son safely back to their world. (Covenant is part of Time, after all.) As it turns out, the dead may walk again but Covenant is not all that he seems. Linden is forced to make dire decisions that ultimately push her and the custodians of The Land to the brink of war with the forces of Despite.

Ok, I can hear all of the groans now. Another geeky set of books with giants and wizards, magical creatures, a powerful ring, and the eternal struggle between good and evil. Well, I won't lie, these books have all of those things. What make the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant so incredible and so much more worth reading than your average Dragon Lance novel is Donaldson's ability to show his characters internal struggles between their own despair and their need for hope. Many comparisons have been drawn to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, primarily due to the epic scale of these stories. (And, of course, the all powerful ring.) While Tolkien's stories are essentially morality plays, the triumph of good over evil, Donaldson focuses on the conflicts and struggles of his characters to find the strength to overcome their own human frailty and become something greater than they ever thought possible.

So, if this is your first glimpse into the world of Thomas Covenant, start at the beginning and find a copy of Lord Foul's Bane. If you have traveled to The Land before and are eager to see where the final chapter leads, take a look at Runes of the Earth and follow it with Fatal Revenant. If you are worried about having time to catch up, have no fear; the third book in the series, Against All Things Ending, won't be published until 2010, and the final installment, tentatively titled The Last Dark, won't hit shelves until 2013. It's gonna be a long wait.

Moving on Down The Road

Tales of a post-apocalyptic world where survivors must struggle to keep their lives, and humanity, in tact have always been a favorite of mine, and as long as they have an original story and unique voice, they rarely go out of style for very long. The general themes are usually similar; a small group of people fight against overwhelming odds for their survival, and a new beginning for humankind. These stories tend to be deeply metaphorical, turning a mirror on each of us, making us consider just who we really are as people. At bottom, these tales demonstrate to us that what will always survive is not our piles of possessions or monuments to our own egos and intellects, but the indomitable human spirit, and our unflinching need to continue on.

"The Road" by Cormac Mccarthy is just one of these stories. The story takes us on the journey of a father and son making their way west years after the world they knew was consumed in flames. Their journey is slow going, the two trudging through the winter snow and falling ash with their meager belongings stuffed inside a found shopping cart. Each step along the way is carefully chosen, the father doing the best he can to keep himself and his young son out of danger. They constantly teeter on the brink of starvation and death, taking whatever they can scavenge from abandoned towns and homes. While the father carries a pistol for their protection, the single remaining bullet is being saved for a final moment of desperation.

As the story moves on, we see the relationship between the father and son evolve. The young son, at times a regular frightened young boy, and at others surprisingly compassionate and brave, looks to his father for guidance and hope as the road they travel begins to look more and more desperate. The father, who's concern is only for the pairs survival, takes no risks in confronting or engaging the few people they find along the way. The boy, however, in a few surprising moments of bravery, pleads with his father to help some of the destitute people they find along the way, including another young boy they see in the window of an abandoned home. The world the two find themselves in causes the father to see the world in a very fatalistic manner, trusting no one, taking no chances on compassion or charity for the people they encounter. But the boy begins to show him that, even in this world burnt and covered in a thick layer of ash, that the lives they encounter along the way are just as fragile and valuable as theirs.

Something does need to be said here for the prose; after all, this novel did win the Pulitzer Prize. One would expect a story about a gray and barren world to be sparsely written, and this novel is no exception. However, successfully styling prose in this fashion is a tough challenge, and sadly Mccarthy just was not up to the task. For this sort of style to work, it must be sparse yet clearly descriptive in places, which is where the author was lacking in this novel. The writing is sparse to a fault, and Mccarthy's insistence on using short, dry sentences and omitting punctuation borders on infuriating. Because Mccarthy seems to have the magical ability to turn his books into Oscar-winning movies, we will have to wait and see what a screen writer can make of this story, and trust that they can do it justice.

A Familiar Situation

Few of us in "Gen X" or "Gen Y" know about the historical conflicts and ongoing strife in El Salvador. Many of us have no idea that our government helped finance and arm revolutionary forces in that country; forces that eventually formed death squads and militias that continue to terrorize the people to this day. It is a situation, sad to say, that is being repeated today in the middle east with the attempted democratization of Iraq. As Peter Maass of The New York Times Magazine said, "The template for Iraq today is not Vietnam, with which it has often been compared, but El Salvador."

I try, difficult as it may be, to remain politically neutral in this blog, wanting to focus on the literature and not my own or any one Else's political inclinations. But when one reads a book like David Corbett's "Blood of Paradise", it becomes impossible to remain neutral. The backdrop for this unrelenting and brutal story is modern El Salvador, where militias and death squads terrorize innocent people and the corrupt government is run by the wealthy minority. This government, by all appearances was formed by "free elections" set up by none other than the US government. When the elections went sideways and the puppet party supported by the US did not win, the US turned its allegiance to the opposing party, made up of many of the remaining members of the former military and dictatorship. The people of El Salvador continue to try to hold free elections, but the militias and death squads terrorize the civilians into keeping the ARENA party in power, or staying away from the polls all together.

Corbett's story takes Jude McManus, an Executive Protection Specialist, or bodyguard, working in El Salvador when he is visited by a ghost from his father's past. This ghost, who may or may not be on the run from the long arm of the US law, manages to talk Jude into helping him in a scheme with dubious motivations. Jude's father was a police officer in Chicago involved a decade ago in a police scandal that left him dead, one officer disgraced, and Bill Mavasio, Jude's ghost, on the lamb. Malvasio is the perfect noir villain; at times likable and sympathetic, but ultimately devious and pure evil. He is, as it turns out, the mastermind villain behind the enormous body count in Corbett's "Done for a Dime".

Jude's assignment is to protect a hydrologist who is studying aquifer draw-down linked to a bottling plant in El Salvador. The parties with vested interest in this bottling plant and the money it represents are the heartless and terrifying people who have enlisted the help of Bill Malvasio to ensure that the plans for the expansion of the bottling plant do not face any opposition. These people, the rich and powerful minority of the country, care only for their own interests, and nothing for the welfare of the desperately poor majority who have no recourse when their resources and livelihoods are threatened. Those that try to use their voice to effect change when their water supply dries up end up kidnapped, murdered, or both. And this is where Malvasio comes in.

Malvasio's devious plot to eliminate the hydrologist Jude is protecting, keep his bosses happy, and protect his own hide pulls Jude into a roiling quagmire that will force him to make heartbreaking sacrifices and ultimately fight for his life. The story culminates in a brutal shoot-out with tragic results. The story of Jude's unfortunate path and internal conflicts is told with stark clarity by Corbett, who adapted it loosely from the Greek tragedy "Philoctetes" by Socrates. Corbett's language is heartbreaking, brutal and uncompromising, forcing the reader to turn each page faster and faster as the pace of the story quickens. Every so often a book comes along that makes you sweat with anticipation while you read it and itch to get back to it while you are not. "Blood of Paradise" just so happens to be one of those books.


David Corbett is a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, and can be seen at literary events and readings around the city. His other two novels are "The Devil's Readhead" and "Done for a Dime", both available in trade paperback.

Quake, Rattle, & Roll

Last week saw the 8th annual Litquake, a festival of literature, books, words, and oh so much more. We didn't get to see all the events, that would have taken the ability to be in many places at once and probably more hours than there are in a day, but we made it to a couple quality readings that will, inevitably cause me to purchase more books. Not that I needed another excuse.



Noah Levine is a Buddhist teacher and counselor who has found his path through a life of trials and tribulations. He is exceptionally traditional in his take on Buddhist teachings, but you would not know it by looking at him. Levine's head is shaved to the skin, he is covered head to toe in tattoos, and can be seen riding around the freeways of L.A. on a motorcycle. He has spent most of his life in the Punk Rock scene, and has reconciled the angry rebellious angst of that movement with the revolutionary teachings of Buddhism and has begun sharing his own message, both through meditation groups around the country and especially in juvenile halls and prisons. His first book, "Dharma Punx", is his autobiography, detailing how, from a youth spent as a law-breaking punk he found a new path in the teachings of Buddhism. His second book, "Against the Stream" is the world of Buddhism as seen through Levine's eyes, a traditional message delivered by a exceptionally un-traditional man. We saw him at the Roxie Movie Theater in conversation with the Chronicle's columnist Mark Morford, who questioned Levine on everything from his past, his present, and both of his books. Time to find enlightenment.

That was Thursday. Skip to Saturday, to the culminating event known as Lit-Crawl. With a cold Anchor Steam in hand, we settled against the wall in the standing room only Casanova Lounge to listen to travel writers share their adventures abroad. We heard stories ranging from braving a blizzard in Antarctica, to the market places in Timbuktu, Mali, Africa, (yes, there is such a place as Timbuktu), to the back alleys of Saigon. Next, we jumped to one of my favorite places, 826 Valencia, where just inside, past the pirate store, the kids of 826 read some of their pieces in the new 826 Quarterly. The kids were great; such amazing imaginations and such a variety of styles for people so young.



Last, but certainly not least, we settled into a booth at the Makeout Room for the authors of Mcadam Cage, one of San Francisco's top independent publishers. I was really there for just one writer, Craig Clevenger, but found a couple more authors I might need to check out soon. Clevenger, author of "Dermaphoria" and "The Contortionist's Handbook", is working on his third novel, titled "St. Heretic". Unfortunately, though, he did not read from this unpublished work, but from a short story he had written. It was, to say the least, very Clevenger-esque. The effect was most clearly expressed on my fiance's face, a look that just said "What?" He has that effect sometimes. For those interested in historical lit, Janis Cooke Newman's debut novel "Mary" tells the story of Mary Todd Lincoln after her husband's assassination. May be a little dry for some, but could be a great story for those who like to revel in the past.

A few beers down and the night over, we trudged back up to our car and out of the mission. It was a good night, all in all, a bunch of authors, a pile of books, some good, some not as good. I've got a lot of reading to do.

Does Memory Serve?

How much of your memory is truth, and how much of it is imaginary? Are the details of your life, how you met your first love, the first time you rode your bike on your own, or the first time you stole something, a creation of your imagination, or did it really happen that way? Could those memories that have shaped your life up to this point be, at least in part, completely fictional?

In "Dermaphoria", Craig Clevenger's sophomore effort, the lines between truth & fiction, memory and imagination, past and present become tangled and twisted into an inscrutible mess. As the book moves along, the memory of its main character becomes clearer and clearer, but you can never be sure if what he remembers is truth, or if the pieces of the puzzle are falling into the wrong places.

Eric Ashworth, a brilliant mind who's path leads him into clandestine chemistry, wakes to find himself in jail, badly burned, and no memory of what got him there. Slowly, with the assistance of shadowy new friends and illicit chemicals, he begins to piece his sad past together. While experimenting in his lab, Ashworth discovers a way to synthesise a new drug that becomes the new big thing on the street, and the big drug rings want a piece. Ashworth becomes a big piece in the drug racket, until it all goes wrong one night.

The beauty of "Dermaphoria" is the disjointed accounts of memory playing against the scattered and paranoid world of the present. As Ashworth begins to figure out who he was, his world begins to unravel, and the only thing he can remember he truly loved becomes an obsession. This obsession, a woman called "Desiree", may only be a figment of his imagination, but his consuming desire to find her pulls him deeper into the abyss. Finally, the world comes into sharp focus, and Ashworth does the only thing he can to put things right again, and finally find Desiree.

In Honor of an Anniversary...

As the anniversary of September 11th approaches, I felt it would be appropriate to discuss one of the years best novels, "Falling Man" by Don Delillo. Falling Man is a look into the lives of the survivors of the attacks on that day; a very personal and sorrowful look at what the attacks on our country did to the minds and souls of the people who felt the heat from the fires and the earth trembling under their feet. The novel is disjointed and fragmented, each of the characters attempting to put the pieces of their lives back together but not knowing quite exactly how.

The novel follows Keith Neudecker, a man who was working in the towers when they were struck, as he finds himself on his ex-wife's doorstep on that morning broken and bloody, covered in ash, and not knowing how he got there. Each character, from Keith, his wife, his son, and the people around them all try to find in themselves the world that existed before the attacks; but find only a changed world filled with fear, paranoia and constant vigilance on the skies above. Keith's wife, Lianne, seeks solace in a group of Alzheimer patients she helps out each week, listening to them pour their thoughts and emotions onto paper before they are forgotten forever. Keith, trying to find a connection to someone or something familiar, begins an affair with a woman who also survived the attacks, seeking the familiarity and commiseration of the shared experience, while also attempting to reconcile with his estranged wife. Ultimately, Kieth begins a career as a professional poker player, cherishing the instability and feeling of recklessness that world provided him.

Simultaneously, the novel flashes to scenes with Hammad, a young Islamic man who ultimately turns out to be one of the hijackers. The world Hammad lives in is not viewed sympathetically, only realistically as Hammad and his co-conspirators plan and train for their attack. The young men listen to and follow the fanatical teachings of their leader, who decisively pulls his recruits deeper and deeper into the suicidal mindset of the separatist sect. Ultimately, Hammad finds himself on the airplane as it strikes the North Tower, forcing his story to join the story of Kieth Neudecker, who fights through fire, rubble and smoke, watching his coworkers crushed by building debris, to find himself alive outside the burning tower.

Falling Man, which gets it's name from the famous photograph taken of the man falling from the tower, and the performance artist who mimicked that photo afterward and who appears several times in the novel, is so superbly crafted that it will go on the top of my list of favorite books this year. Delillo has managed to create a world in which it is not Us versus Them, but just us, trying to survive, trying to cope and trying to find a way to understand the world again.

The Earth Will Move...

Ladies and Gentlman, boys and girls, prepare yourselves. The literary world is once again going to rumble under the well worn soles of bibliophies from across the bay area as they converge onto San Francisco for one week in October. That's right everyone, Litquake is back, as big and as bad as it has ever been. Litquake '07 rolls into town from October 6th to 13th, hosting such names as Dave Eggars, Amy Tan, Daniel Handler, and underground favorite Michelle Tea. Events venues range from the lovely Herbst Theater on Van Ness to the dank, dark dive bars of the Tenderloin.

The festival showcases writers across all genres and styles, from travel writing to science fiction to feminist fiction and even a literary death match. The whole shebang ends with a wild and crazy night of literary themed parties and readings; a staggering jaunt down Valencia Street called the Lit Crawl. Needless to say, there is something here for everyone to enjoy, this is not just for us bookies who can never seem to keep our nose out of the spine of a novel. Most events are free of charge, and take place in bookstores, bars, libraries and even laudromats, but a few larger events will take place in theaters and will require a fee for admittance.

Get off of your couches for one week in October and hit the town. The world can be a big scary place, but finding a great book and a fun group of people to share it with can make it a bit more bareable. Who knew books could be so cool?