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BySaraJarrett
Oregon Daily Emerald
Thom Jones’ latest collection of short stories, “Sonny
Liston was a Friend of Mine,” serves up a delicious array of
12 colorful, raw, razor sharp tales of people hanging onto the
fringes of society. Or maybe Jones is just daring enough to ex
pose existence as it really is.
The book is not a pick-me-up, feel-good encounter but
an experiential read guaranteed to invoke every sense;
each snapshot of life is a jewel. It is obvious why his byline
has graced the publications of The New Yorker, Playboy,
Esquire, GQand Harpers.
Jones proves himself in “Sonny Liston was a Friend of
Mine” as an atmospheric master. His concise, crisp sentence
structure and well-crafted word selections bring whole sce
narios to life in just a few phrases. Before the physical attrib
utes of characters such as “Kid Dynamite” and “Cancer
Frank” are mentioned, their personalities are already defined
by the names Jones gives them.
While most writers’ stories wind up at the end, offering a
complete package of introduction-climax-resolution, Jone’s
style is much more obscure. “40, Still at Home” is a perfect
example of Jones begging the readers to think — to finish
the story for themselves if they dare.
“40, Still at Home” closes as the main character, Matthew,
stuffs his dead mother in the freezer. At this point the reader
must make a decision: Perhaps Matthew drives to town and
tries to redeem his mother’s prescription for morphine; per
haps he climbs back into bed; or perhaps you turn the page
and let the closing image of a still-warm body stuffed inside a
Boy Scout sleeping bag, gathering frostbite while nestled be
tween frozen chicken breasts and juice, fester for awhile.
Such vivid detail runs so rampant in every story, that the
reader is able to sense what the characters smell, see, feel and
hear. Your legs will ache when an unknown assailant takes a
baseball bat to John Harold Hammermeister’s shins in
“Tarantula.”
From war to childhood boxing matches, Jones’ range of
storytelling is clearly well-represented in “Sonny Liston
was a Friend of Mine.”
By Jack Clifford
Oregon Daily Emerald
Carl Hiaasen was bom and raised in Florida, a fact that
readers should know before diving into “Sick Puppy,” the
author’s eighth novel set in the slowly disintegrating Sun
shine State. In fact, Hiaasen loves Florida as much as he
hates the lawmakers who are allowing it to be auctioned off
piece by piece to its sleaziest bidders and the developers
who are carrying out the systematic destruction with gusto.
Similar to his other seven books, Hiaasen slices and dices
the southern buffoons he accuses of ruining what was once a
pristine and charming part of the country. Hiaasen throws a
lot of craziness and chaos into his books, and this latest ef
fort is no different.
In “Sick Puppy,” the isolated Toad Island sits serenely
off the Gulf of Mexico coastline but not for long if big-time
condominium/resort builder Robert Clapley, who has a
Barbie doll fetish, gets his way. Working hard behind the
scenes to push through the appropriate legislation is lob
byist Palmer Stoat.
Stoat, however, is an unconscionable litterbug, a witless
trait that drives eco-terrorist TWilly Spree crazy. Spree’s at
tempts at curing Stoat of his boorish behavior—dumping
an entire truck full of garbage into the lobbyist’s red BMW
convertible, for instance—go unheeded.
Figuring he has nothing to lose, Twilly kidnaps both Stoat’s
wife Desie and the Stoats’ black Labrador retriever named Boo
dle, which is another word for bribe. Once in Twilly’s posses
sion, however, the dog is renamed McGuinn, after Roger, the
former guitarist for the Byrds.
Throw in ex-Florida governor, Clinton Tyree, who lives in
the woods and survives on road kill, along with several other
wacked-out characters, and you have a Hiaasen smorgas
bord.
Too silly to be true, of course, the storyline wobbles around
until its faiiy-tale ending—another prime piece of Gulf coast
property is saved from the crazed developers. The real-life
ending is quite interesting, a fact that Hiaasen drives home
when explaining why the fictional Tyree is an ex-governor:
“It was one thing to recite the standard gospel of envi
ronmentalism — for heaven’s sake, even the Republicans
had learned to rhapsodize about the Everglades! —but to
rail so vituperatively against growth in a state owned and
operated by banks, builders and real-estate developers...
“Political suicide ... the man would’ve had more suc
cess trying to legalize LSD.”
Take a trip with Hiaasen in “Sick Puppy.” The ride, as al
ways, is dizzying.
By Eric Pfeiffer
Oregon Daily Emerald
Sometimes called the greatest living writer in the world,
sometimes called a yahoo, Harlan Ellison makes an impact
everywhere he goes, with just about everyone he meets.
His impact has been felt across the board, inspiring
movies such as “Terminator,” producing cult classics such
as “A Boy and His Dog” and producing one of the ten most
printed stories in the English language, “I Have No Mouth,
and I Must Scream. ”
“Slippage” is Ellison’s first all-new collection of written
material since “Mind Fields,” a collection of short stories
and artwork released in 1994, and “Angry Candy,” out in
Turn to Book reviews, page 8B
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Creative Writing Program Spring
Reading Series
Gary Snyder, March 9,150 Columbia, 8 p.m.
One of the most-acclaimed Beat poets of the 1960s, Snyder has
16 books of poetry and prose, including “Mountains,” “Rivers
Without End” and “Turtle Island,” which won the Pulitzer Prize
for poetry in 1975. The Los Angeles Times has called Snyder “the
greatest of living nature poets.” In conjunction with Snyder's visit
the Bijou is reopening "The Source,” a documentary that exam
ines the Beat Generation. Call 686-2458 for more information.
Charles Wrigit, April 5, Gerlinger Hall Alumni, 8 p.m.
Wright is the author of “Black Zodiac,” for which he won a
Pulitzer Prize, and 12 volumes of poetry.
Chang-Rae Lee, April 27, Agate Hall Auditorium, 8 p.m.
Lee is the author of “A Gesture Life” and the earlier “Native
Speaker,” which won an American Book Award. Lee, a former
University associate professor, now directs the creative writing
program at Hunter College in New York City. His latest novel has
been praised by the New York Times Book Review as a “beauti
ful, solitary, remarkably tender book that reveals the shadows
that fall constantly from the past.”
Barry Lopez, May 18, Gerlinger Hall Alumni, 8 p.m.
Lopez is the author of 13 books, including the National Book
Award-winning “Arctic Dreams.” Praised by critics as one of the
best landscape writers of his time, he has published “Winter
Court,” "River Notes,” “About This Life” and “Field Notes.”