Funny Girl by Nick Hornby

Boychik Lit Book Review - No. 24

Here’s my book review of Funny Girl by Nick Hornby.
British novelist Nick Hornby is best known for his books that have been adapted as movies and television series, including High Fidelity, About a Boy, and A Long Way Down. Many of his humorous novels fall into the genre they call in the UK “lad lit,” and I’ve called boychik lit, about young men on the make. Funny Girl is a departure. It’s about a young woman who is less concerned about men than becoming a comedienne on TV. Her role model is Lucille Ball and after her arrival in London from the sticks she takes the stage name Sophie Straw – Sophie for sophisticated and straw for brassy blonde.
Sophie fails rapidly upward and is soon the star of a new BBC sitcom. It’s the 1960s – in the midst of the so-called sexual revolution. Yes, Funny Girl is about Sophie’s personal relationships and those of her mostly male colleagues. But it’s mostly about how hard it is to generate comedy, week after week. Funny Girl is sharply witty, and not so much funny as touching.
The writers, Tony and Bill, fret continually about what’s funny. And their gags run the gamut from potty humor to mature marital spats.
So, Funny Girl is not lad lit at all. And it’s not so much funny as witty, which shows up in the catty dialogue as Sophie and the guys argue over script notes, social gaffes, and their personal heartaches.
Nick Hornby describes his writing process this way: “I write in horrible little two-and-three sentence bursts, with five-minute breaks in between. It’s all pretty grim! And so dull!”
It’s routine, all right. The best writing advice I ever got was to get into a chair every day. But clearly Hornby is doing a good job of entertaining himself and us. I suspect that’s why he keeps going  back to his chair.
For Boychik Lit, I’m Gerald Everett Jones. My series of boychik lit books is the Misadventures of Rollo Hemphill, and the most recent installment is titled, Farnsworth’s Revenge. Young men may identify, mature men will remember, and women of any age will delight in seeing poor Rollo go splat. Don’t forget to catch these podcasts at Boychiklit.com.

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

Boychik Lit Book Review - No. 23

Here’s my book review of A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler.
There’s a saying in show business: Give them a new story that’s stood the test of time. Anne Tyler, who is possibly America’s most revered living novelist, has done just that. She’s presented us with a new, fictional extended family with all their foibles and melodrama, and placed them in the setting we know well from so many of her books – in the community of Roland Park in North Baltimore and in a hand-crafted old home with varnished hardwood floors, meticulously hung pocket doors, and vaulted ceilings. The Whitshanks are a quirky, close-knit family of builders, craftsmen, and nurturers. And this house is their pride and joy. Its stately endurance through a family saga of three generations lends a sense of timelessness – but Tyler’s story is all about the passage of time and the influences our short lives have on each other.
Another time-honored Hollywood maxim: The main character grows stronger as his villain opponent becomes meaner and stronger. To her credit, Tyler not only ignores this rule, she defies it. This story has no single main character – unless it’s the house. And, as in all of her books, there are no vicious opponents. The engines of conflict whir almost entirely within the family. Adversaries that seem the most obnoxious, inconsiderate, and spiteful ultimately show us their redeeming qualities.
In every Anne Tyler novel there’s a conspicuous bad boy. In A Spool of Blue Thread, Denny shows up on the first page. And throughout the story, he’s obnoxious, inconsiderate, and spiteful. And he’s the one his saintly mom loves best, and eventually, we do, too.
Authors, your Hollywood agent or your book editor will tell you to raise the stakes to life and death. The dreary result is on-screen violence – shootouts, and fiery crashes, and bloody mayhem. But Anne Tyler quietly and bravely won’t go there. She gives us a no-fault auto accident and a sibling quarrel that ends with punch in the nose.
So how does Tyler do it? How by defying the rules does she engage us? Her narrative slows down to the pace of daily life. She gives us none of her own opinions, but a stream of meticulous detail about meals, clothes, woodwork, plants, weather, money problems, idle thoughts, and petty grievances. And in focusing the marvels of the mundane, she helps us appreciate the joys of living our own ordinary and wonder-filled lives.
For Boychik Lit, I’m Gerald Everett Jones. My book written for Anne Tyler fans is Christmas Karma, about a dysfunctional family coping with the holidays, narrated by an angel with a wacky sense of humor. Catch these podcasts at BoychikLit.com.
These book reviews are syndicated on LASplash.com.

A Delicate Truth by John Le Carré

Boychik Lit Book Review - No. 22

No spoilers here. This is the behind-the-scenes story of a small anti-terrorist black op  - secretly sponsored by a Member of Parliament - that might or might not have happened. Problem is, its very existence - even as a plan - is so politically incorrect as to be a profound embarrassment if anyone involved decides to break silence and go public with the few facts they know. So the trendy topic of whistle-blowing is very much at issue.
I find two things remarkable about this novel.
First, the dialogue is almost entirely and deliberately off-point - more than in any other Le Carré book I've read. The words are about everything but the topic at hand. Everyone speaks, not just in trade jargon and code, but in hints and innuendos and metaphors. It's annoying. And real. And perhaps an angry commentary on a societal lack of not only frankness and honesty but also an unwillingness to face any real facts at all.
They might be discussing murder, but all you hear are acronyms.
Second, you won't have a clear idea of who the main character is until fairly far along. He will grow on you, as he will become bolder in his own estimation of himself. But he's a bureaucrat (as are most of the rest of them) and in many respects lackluster. Totally absent are the mythic proportions of James Bond. And he has nothing like the cunning wit or the cleverness of George Smiley.
He does, however, eventually realize he has a conscience and a loyalty to ideals that are both naive and reckless.
Master spy novelist Le Carré often refers to intelligence operatives as close observers. Of course, that’s just what a reader is. His narrative technique is to immerse you in detail, much of which may be irrelevant to the plot – just the way we experience reality every day, from one perception to the next.
In training you to think like a spy – like a close observer – Le Carré makes you a better reader and a more critical thinker.
A Delicate Truth is very much about today. And there is much to learn, if in those cryptic conversations you also learn to listen between the lines.
For Boychik Lit, I’m Gerald Everett Jones. My humorous novel Farnsworth’s Revenge merges the intrigue of Le Carré with the improbable logic of Woody Allen. You’ll learn how cold fusion works and international money laundering mostly doesn’t. And don’t forget to catch these podcasts on BoychikLit.com.

Abandoned in Hell: The Fight for Vietnam's Firebase Kate by William Albracht and Marvin J. Wolf

Boychik Lit Book Review - No. 21

Here’s my book review of Abandoned in Hell: The Fight for Vietnam’s Firebase Kate by William Albracht and Marvin J. Wolf.

In 1969 Bill Albracht was the youngest, greenest Green Beret captain in Vietnam. One night, six thousand of the enemy attacked his 200 troops. They held out for five days through heavy fire, sporadic aerial support, and hand-to-hand fighting. Given up for dead by the brass, Albracht led survivors through enemy lines under cover of darkness. He went on to become a Secret Service agent, and served four presidents.

Just three years earlier, Bill had passed the officer candidate exam by one point. His best friend Joe failed – also by one point. Albracht told Joe he might be the happier guy. Bill wasn’t sure he wanted the responsibility.

Abandoned in Hell is not a Hollywood action-adventure story. It’s the real deal. Veterans know war as years of tedium interrupted by short periods of pure terror. In the case of Firebase Kate, those horrific moments stretched into five seemingly endless, bloody days, then a harrowing escape trekking through the jungle and open-field running in almost total darkness.

Albracht shielded the bodies of soldiers with his own. He carried fallen comrades through firefights – into a waiting chopper at the best of times, or just into a protective ditch.

This book is about what’s most inspiring about bravery under fire. It has little to do with wanting to fight or why you’re there. It’s doing the right thing by your friends, from one desperate moment to the next.

F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should … be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.”

I’m Gerald Everett Jones, author of Mr. Ballpoint about another man, who said, “If you want to do the impossible, you have to do it right away.” You can catch these podcasts at Boychik Lit.com.