Book Report: The Messiah of Morris Avenue

The Messiah of Morris Avenue
By Tony Hendra

Book Description

Hendra is back with a novel set in a very reverent future where church and state walk hand in hand. Fade-in as Johnny Greco -- a fallen journalist who nurses a few grudges along with his cocktails -- stumbles onto the story of a young man named Jay who's driving around New Jersey preaching radical notions (kindness, generosity) and tossing off miracles. How better, Johnny schemes, to stick it to the Reverend Sabbath, Americas #1 Holy Warrior, than to write a headline-making story announcing Jay as the Second Coming? Then something strange happens. Died-in-the-wool skeptic Johnny actually finds his own life being transformed by the new messiah. Alternately hilarious and genuinely moving, The Messiah of Morris Avenue brings to life a savior who reminds the world of what Jesus actually taught and wittily skewers all sorts of sanctimoniousness on both sides of the political spectrum. Writing with heart, a sharp eye, and a passionate frustration with those who feel they hold a monopoly on God, Tony Hendra has created a delightful entertainment that reminds us of the unfailing power of genuine faith.

First paragraph (prologue):
Fort Oswald, Texas. An early summer storm roils the sky. Lightning crackles between fat thunderheads. They lurch over the flat plain, roly-poly gun-metal-gray giants, thousands of feet tall, occasionally spitting thin streams of dazzling light at the ground.

This is a book I bought mostly based on the cover. The description sounded pretty close to something I'd enjoy, but I could imagine it going either way. For a dollar, I decided to gamble.

The only other 'Christian' book I've read is 'Monster' by Frank Peretti, and I didn't even realize it was classified as such while I was reading it. This book, however, is very in-depth about the workings of religion and as I am not familiar with such, I was easily lost and skimming ahead. This story takes place in the future where Christianity has taken over the world to the most extreme; it's become a parody of itself as everything, from school systems to television award shows, have been reworked to accommodate this new breed of Christianity. Governing it all is Reverend Sabbath, who is enjoying his time in the limelight and the severe degree of importance he carries.

Having just watched the movie, 'Resurrecting the Champ', I likened the story to that film as nearly-outdated journalist Johnny Greco struggles to make regular postings to a sleazy Internet newspaper, let alone find any *real* story. He's frequently pursued regular stories of self-proclaimed messiahs and miracle workers, and, disappointed by all, has developed a distaste for them all. That is until a certain story catches his attention, a mysterious young man in the heart of the bronx, who appears long enough to preform an act of goodness and then vanishes again. He is without a name, seemingly only appearing to the people he saves, seemingly uninterested in fame and fortune--a fact that confuses and intrigues Johnny. So he sets out to find this 'Messiah of Morris Avenue', and find out what sort of corruption or evil plan is to come from him.

But the more time Johnny spends with Jay (whose real name is Jose Francisco and is of Guatemalan descent), the more Johnny finds himself believing in Jay's quiet, patient preachings. Chapter 11 stands out as one of the most moving parts: an intense but peaceful interview between Johnny and Jay taking place in a dingy motel room.

I asked him why he or his parents allowed evil to flourish.
"Evil is caused by selfishness, by people acting out of the belief that they and their needs are paramount. And just because our first and only commandment is love, the diametric opposite of selfishness, doesn't mean that we're going to save people from the consequences of their selfishness. If you force the vast majority of people to live in squalor so you can live in splendor, you'll bring on the Black Death. If you allow the rise of a homicidal maniac like Hitler because you see him as a way to beat down those who want equality and social justice, he'll start killing people. Don't blame God."
"What about AIDS? What have we done to deserve that?"
"AIDS has fundamental environmental causes that a team of scientists led by a young woman will soon isolate."
"Who's the young woman?"
"Can't tell you. You might track her down and in some way obstruct her. She's a second-year medical student in a sub-Sarharan country, and she'll soon win a graduate scholarship to a medical school in Italy."
"When will she cure AIDS?"
"You don't need to know."
"The public has a need to know."
"No, they don't. That's journalists masturbating. The public has no right or need to know the future."
"Will she become rich and famous?"
"No, she's truly a selfless person. But she'll be venerated as the savior of Africa--which will become the savior of the planet."
"Not the U.S.?"
"Dream on."


I really enjoyed Jay's character and his gentleness, what he stood for and how people interacted with him. This character is by far my favorite part of the book. Who knew the second coming of Jesus would appeal to me so much? To read the ending and the tragedy that unfolds was extremely painful, but a brutal illustration of the realities surrounding us today. While heartbreaking and morally wrong, it's impossible to miss the point Hendra was trying to make. And it is a message that resonates long after the book is closed.

While the set-up and exploration of a world gone Christianity-crazy was written with humor and detail, it pales in comparison to the compassion and depth of Jay's story. However without this eccentric background, the story wouldn't stand as strongly. In a universe where God has become so heavily commercialized, Jay's words of love and mercy ring honest and true--but most are too self-absorbed to hear, which is the biggest tragedy of all.

Four out of five stars for characterization, preaching without 'preaching', superb dialogue and crafting one of the most painful tragedies I've ever seen.

Book Report: Into The Wild

Into the Wild
By Jon Krakauer

Description:
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.



In the book I read just prior to this, Brendan Wolf, the protag had a 'thing' for Into The Wild and often spoke fondly of Chris McCandless, often times fantasizing about a life in which they lived together in the Alaskan Wilderness. I learned the basics of the Into the Wild plot through Brendan Wolf, and decided that I should try to rent the movie.
Not long after, I was in the video store, looking for a movie to rent when I was (as I always am) suckered into their 'buy two get two free' deal on the previously-veiwed DVDs. Into the Wild was actually my second choice; the previews had always sort-of interested me but I just wasn't interested in enough to actually watch it. So I came home with my four new(old) movies and Into the Wild was the first one I watched.
I immediately fell in love.
I was fascinted by the story and character of Chris McCandless. The film is incredibly well done. It is long and ping-pongs between Chris's final days in the bus, and his ventures that led him to be in this current situation. The movie starts as Chris graduates college. He turns down his parents offer to bestow him with a new car, then later in his room cuts up his credit cards and social security card and then takes to the road in his faithful old Datsun. Chris in infatuated with the grandiosity and freedom of nature, and without a map or provisions, drives until he can drive no further and then continues his internally-driven quest by foot. He meets a variety of people and experiences a variety of landscapes, occasionally taking the odd job only to earn enough money for items necessary to continue his travels. This is wanderlust at its finest. Anyone who has ever dreamed of blindly picking a spot on the map and escaping it ALL will be indulged with this movie.

I was blindsided by the tragic ending--Brendan Wolf never mentioned Chris's heartbreaking demise. Tragedy is really the only word to describe it.

So in love was I with this story that I wanted to read the book. I had imagined it to be a novel--I knew Chris's story was true, but I still thought I was going to read a written mirror of the story I'd just watched.

What I got instead was what I would classify as a companion to the movie. Jon Krakauer is an excellent researcher and magazine writer, and out of years of work and interviews and travels to retrace Chris's journey, he put together this insightful biography of Chris's life. There are answers here that the movie couldn't quite acheive, and insight into the McCandless's lives, and even research about other young men who undertook similar journies as Chris's.

Although not what I expected, I appreciated this deeper look into a life I had become so instantly fascinated with. Honestly though, this may be the one time I would recommend watching the movie before reading the book. The movie entertains, while the book probes deeper and therefore looses its 'story' effect.

Into the Wild is a story I will never forget. Chris McCandless and his alter ego, Alexander Supertramp, seem to have won over many hearts despite some controversey over his death. Was he just a stupid kid who had no business being in the Alaskan wilderness? Did he get what he deserved? Or was Chris a slave to his inner self, simply trying to put his demons to rest?

Incredible work by Krakauer for this story. Told with respect and personal insight, sympathy and fairness, Krakauer has turned Chris McCandless into a legend--and rightfully so, in my opinion.
Five out of five stars

Book Report: Brendan Wolf

Brendan Wolf
by Brian Malloy

Description:
Who is Brendan Wolf? It all depends on who you ask.

* To the staff of a Minneapolis nursing home, he's the devoted partner of a much older man who's recently suffered a debilitating stroke.

* To the women of a conservative, Christian pro-life organization, he's the tireless volunteer grieving over the recent loss of his wife and their unborn child.

* To one gay activist, he's the unaffectedly charming, yet directionless and unemployed man that he's fallen hopelessly in love with

* To his brother and his brother's wife, he's the lynchpin of a scam that will net them enough money to start their lives over somewhere new.

* To the general public, he's an armed and dangerous fugitive

All of these people - and yet none of them - Brendan Wolf is an ambivalent lover, reluctant conspirator, counterfeit Christian, and, most of all, an unemployed daydreamer obsessed with a dead man.




First sentence:
Brendan is in the park on what those assembled are calling a glorious day: the sky is clear blue without even the wisp of a cloud, the temperature is hot but not oppressive, and there is a soft breeze that gently sways the branches of the trees overhead, creating an agreeable rustling sound.

This story is very much a character journey, a sort of coming-of-(middle)aged story as Brendan Wolf (a pseudonym chose for himself inspired by Chris McCandless's 'Alexander Supertramp') finds the meaning of love amidst the mess that his life is quickly becoming. Dangerously close to losing yet another mimimum-wage job, Brendan is about to become homeless. Chapter one sees him riding the bus to visit his brother, an inmate soon to be released after surving time for swindling the elderly out of their savings. Ian, aware of Brendan's predicament, gives Brendan the address of an elderly man with a hunger for young men, pampering them in return for relations. Although turned off by the proposition, Brendan soon has no choice. He arrives on the old man's front step, single suitcase (filled mostly with well-loved books) and proposes to act as the man's servant (sans the sex) in exchange for a room. When Marv insists on that one small detail, things turn sour. Brendan tries to blackmail Marv, threatening to tell the cops of the old man's deeds. Marv relents, barely, and when Brendan returns home from work one day, he finds the locks have been changed and Marv has burned all of Brendan's treasured books. Enraged, the two get into an arguement. But before they can come to blows, Marv drops from a stroke.

At first guilt keeps Brendan at Marv's side. He lets the hospital staff mistake him for Marv's 'next of kin'--the inmate now locked up with Brendan's brother. Marv cannot talk to tell the truth, and in fact can't do much of anything. Brendan has time to figure things out.

Meanwhile, Brendan's brother Ian is released from jail and he and his wife are cooking up a scheme to steal pledge money from a pro-life group on the day of their big marathon. To pull off this intricately designed job, they need Brendan's help. Soon Brendan finds himself volunteering at the organization, stuffing envelopes under the sad alibi of a recently-widowed man who lost his beautiful wife during childbirth. He is quickly taken under the wings of the 'gals' who volunteer, and one of them even tries to set Brendan up with her daughter, unknowing that Brendan is really gay.

Lies and deceit are a common motiff in this story, as Brendan develops many different names and stories to suit his purposes. He's longing for love, still hurting after the recent break-up, and finds solace in books--constantly referring to Chris McCandless, or Brian's idealized version of him. These lies ultimately bring about his demise, as it becomes impossible to keep each thread of his life from tangling. For all his efforts to protect himself, in the end Brendan still 'gets what was coming to him'--only by this time, he is ready to change, to accept love and give honesty, tragically after the curtain has fallen.

My only complaint would be that at times, this story seemed a little long. But because of this book I discovered 'Into the Wild', and for that, I am most appreciative.

Four out of five stars for characterization, simple and relaxing prose, an eye for detail and writing the ending that needed to be written.

Book Report: Coal Black Horse

Coal Black Horse
By Robert Olmstead

From the flap:
When Robey Childs's mother has a premonition about her husband, a soldier fighting in the Civil War, she does the unthinkable: she instructs her only child to find his father on the battlefield and bring him home.
At fourteen, wearing the coat his mother sewed to ensure his safety--blue on one side, gray on the other--Robey thinks he is off on a great adventure. But not far from home, his horse falters and he realizes the enormity of his task. It takes the gift of a powerful and noble coal black horse to show him how to undertake the journey of his life: with boldness, bravery, and self-possession.
Yet even that horse is no match for the brutality and senselessness of war, no surrogate for the courage Robey needs to summon in its face. It's in the center of that landscape, as witness to the lawlessness and carnage around him, that he is forced to raise a gun for the first time in his life. When he returns to his mother, Robey Childs will be the best a man can be, and the worst, irrevocably scarred by all he has seen--and all he has done.

First line:
The evening of Sunday May 10 in the year 1863, Hettie Childs called her son, Robey, to the house from the old fields where he walked the high meadow along the fence lines where the cattle grazed, licking shoots of new spring grass that grew in the mowing on the edge of the pasture.

I nearly quit this book early on when I caught myself head-jumping between mother and son, but I'm glad I grit my teeth and kept going. This story is very simple, a coming of age tale in which a young boy realizes the world is not what he thought it was. I enjoyed the history and actually picked it partly to learn about the civil war--though through Robey's eyes most places and events were nameless and left to the reader to already know what part of the war was unfolding. While Robey might not spout off such details, he sees a great deal more--of finer focus.

This story puts the reader right in the heart of the war, dodging bullets and cannonballs and sword play and death, carnage and destruction in ultimate 3D effect. You can feel the bloodspray, hear the screams and tearing of flesh, breaking of bone, smell the rotting wounds as Robey tip-toes through morning-after battlefields littered with the dead and dying. The violence of it all actually gets hard to read, and I can tolerate just about anything. Nothing is safe as both humans and animals are slaughtered en masse.

The horses standing in harness held their heads high as their lathered flanks heaved with every breath. They danced and trod heavily and then they too began to fall onto their haunches and sides but not before eight or ten bullets found their wet-sleeked hides, their withers, their long necks, their ribs, their croups, their powerful beating hearts. It was never the intention to kill the horses, but that was how thick and crossed the fire was in those first minutes of chaos.
He could see a cannonball striking sparks as it bounced over the rounded cobblestone and then slowing and gently rolling his way. He jumped aside, but another soldier, his gaping mouth still gobbed white with a paste of crackers and cheese, held up his rifle as if stepping into water and put his foot out to stop the cannonball and in an instant his foot was gone and blood was gushing out the stumped end of his leg onto the street where his blood showed like red glass in wet sunlight. A second cannonball blew a soldier's head clean off and continued on to smash another man to death. The headless soldier walked three more paces before falling to the street where his dead body shook fishlike before extinguishing.

Throughout the story, the focus is on Robey and his encounters during his trip. He meets a collection of characters, each playing a role in his evolution into a man, forcing him to harden before his time. His morals begin to change and soon Robey is living by traveling from one abandoned house to the next, living on whatever scraps he can find. The journey to find his father turns out to be anything but the adventure he imagined, and seemingly at every turn a part of him dies or hardens.

The balance to all the darkness and destruction is the coal black horse who silently, and in that way than only an animal can, teaches Robey about himself. The horse is intuitive, brave, and noble. Such an outstanding creature it is, in fact, that it becomes his trademark. The coal black horse causes all other characters to take notice and be envious--even treacherous. As a character states in one of the last pages of the book: "That's a fine horse," the man said. "Any man who'd seen that horse once would know you again." Robey finds peace atop the horse, and I could almost feel the hoofbeats as he traveled...

"It was beautiful to ride the back of the coal black horse and in those first days of journey they traveled constantly. The valley when he discovered it was luxuriant with grass and clover. The red-clay roads were wide and hard packed and the road cuts were dry and banked.
As the days drew by they passed silently through fields, swamps, pastures and orchards. They rode through marsh where the water table was only a few spades deep, but the corduroyed lanes of passage were high set and well staked. They crossed acres of fresh turned earth, plowed straight and harrowed and sown with wheat, rye, and oats shooting the surface and knitting it green. They encountered walls of pine so thick it took days to skirt to find a throughway and when they did it was through a land of wind-blown trees, or dead on the stump, the crooked and angled limbs bleached white with sun."

The little girl in me is still in love with horses and while the coal black horse is a powerful presence, it is not an overwhelming one. Robey remains the main character and the coal black horse his catalyst, not just for the physical journey but the deeper one as well. I enjoyed riding along with Robey, seeing what he saw, meeting the strange (and sometimes frightening) people, experiencing the war that was played out in my backyard as if I were really there. There is a hint of tragedy to this story as Robey seems to deteriorate and become familiar (and comfortable) with death, but perhaps he started off naive and unrealistic. The ending does indeed see him back home, but far more mature--a man though still just a teenager--and lethal.

"This was not the raving mad. This was not for love or greed or ignorance. These are the well bred and the highly educated. This is humanity. This is mankind, son."

Four out of Five stars for a haunting basis in truth, vivid prose, creating an animal character that is truly just an animal, and illiciting reader empathy.

Book Report: Boy A

Boy A
By Jonathan Trigell

This is a 'promotional copy--not for resale' stolen off the top shelf at my local Cargo Largo. (Well, not stolen stolen--I did pay $1.50) Boy am I glad that store loves to rip people off an sell them things not meant to be sold individually.

From the back:
A is for Apple. B is for Bad Apple.
Jack has spent most of his life in juvenile institutions: he's about to be released with a new name, new job, and a new life. At 24, he is utterly innocent of the world, yet guilty of a monstorous childhood crime.
To his new friends, he is a good guy with occational flashes of unexplained violence. To his girlfriend, he is strangely naive and unreachable. To his case worker, he's a victim of the system and of media-driven hysteria.
And to himself, Jack is on permanent trial: he struggles to start from scratch, forget the past, become someone else.

First sentence:
He's seen noses broken over less: the fag butts on the pavement have been carelessly tossed, five drags left in them.

I loved this book. Like, really loved it. Never wanted it to end. Was fascinated. Awed.

This story starts with a boy named Jack (a named he picked for himself, after being only 'Boy A' for so many years) being released from imprisonment into the real world. He is being set up in a witness-protection like program for his own safety, because if his true identity is ever discovered, he will surely be hunted and killed for a crime he committed that was so horrible, it shook the nation. The details of the crime itself are breadcrumbs scattered throughout the story, tidbits dropped in sparingly but perfectly, so that a handful of words draws a horrifying picture and lures the reader along for more. Scenes from Jack's childhood are painted the same way, starting with Jack's isolation from other children, the bullying and meaness that created an outcast, then the relief when Jack discovers a friend in the dark and often cruel Boy B. The two become friends (if you could call them that) and through what may have started as innocent little-boy activities quickly become sinnister and utterly evil. There is a true sense of foreboding in these pages, a sense that something horrific is being born.

"Get something to hold it down, quickly," he said.
B appeared, with their digging tools. He slid A's flat wood beneath the eel, and pushed the point of the nail just slightly into its oily back. Then, with a half-brick, he banged it home. The eel hissed wetly, and bucked its head upwards, as the nail passed through it and into the wood. Fatty blood splattered. One small drop went in B's mouth.
The eel fought for an hour, while its tormentors shared A's pack-lunch. They always shared. B got free school meals, but the scrap-saving, flap-armed dinner ladies didn't do take-outs. He tried to feed the eel a bit of Mighty White crust, only for some reason it wasn't hungry. It twisted around to bite at the nail though, tearing the hole in itself larger and larger, yet still unable to get free.
When it finally gave up the ghost, B ripped it from the board and threw it into the Byrne. It sank for a moment, and then inexplicably rose to the surface again. They pelted it with stones like when they had the jonny. But it wouldn't to away. Eventually it drifted out of sight.

Simultaneously, the story progresses in real time as Jack struggles to fit in to the false life he's been given. He befriends his coworker, meets his first girlfriend, and struggles to keep all the lies straight.

This is the house that Jack built. This hide of twigs and leaves. A little extra camouflage added every day. Another little sprig of lie, that he must remember and believe, or die. He can't do anything other than stay inside his hut, and hope he's safe from prying eyes. Except to pray, if he still can, that no one kicks the sand foundation. And no one checks the brittle sticks that support the straw roof. And most of all, that no one huffs and puffs.

Each chapter is named and ordered alphabetically, and the view points change between that of Jack, his therapist/case worker, and once, a female therapist who worked with Boy A and Boy B during the trial. After working with these boys, the therapist goes home and sits in her yard to enjoy the weather and her son, and finds her son torturing insects. In this instance, there was a very kenetic feel to the emotions, as if the essence of evil is contagious or a dark poison that leeches through the air, tainting whomever it touches. This was a powerful, illustrative diversion from the main story line.

The style of writing is entrancing. Each word is perfect and well-placed, exact. Insightful.

The official rockets shoot up in clusters. They crackle like high amp rice-crispies as they fire. Explode into bright, life-loving, punk-rock colors. Then drift slowly downwards like destroyed worlds. Jack is entranced. He holds Shell's hand, but doesn't murmur a word while volley after volley lights up the sky. When it's all over, the darkness looks more dark because of what it's known.


As the story progresses, Jack's noose tightens. His cover begins to unravel, his fears play out. Already an isolated young man, the climax finds him completely alone through a very clever play of vengence from a character never expected. Contemplation (and the carrying out) of this downfall is heartwrenching and Jack's destruction is heartbreaking and gripping. The final paragraph mirrors a passage from earlier in the book, landing this story gently and leaving the reader amid the ripples of amazement, sorrow, and wonder. This is very much an exploration of evil and how it comes to be born, and I enjoyed the thoughts it provoked.

Terry's felt the power of that perverse desire. He believes that everyone has. He can still picture himself as a child, sat on a bus, biting his tongue to stop himself shouting out: 'You're all fucking spastics', at a group of happy, helpless, handicapped. Even as an adult, he's had to fight the need to take his wife, by force, when he found out about her affair. Yes, rape. Just to show her that he could, not from desire, just to wipe that bloody smirk away. Does that mean he's evil? Or is it that without those urges he could not be good? If being good is a denial of the bad then those we deem evil are not worse, they are weaker. And if goodness means anything at all, surely it means the strong helping the weak. That's what Terry thinks.


A line of praise on the back cover reads: 'A modern day immortality tale...delivered with a horrific sense of foreboding.'

I think this describes Boy A prefectly. Horrificly foreboding, a slow unfolding of events that keeps you by the throat even as things become almost too painful to bear. Excellent read.

Five out of five stars for imagery, illiciting emotion, originality, realism, and overall captivation.