The Book of Dave by Will Self

First sentence:

"Carl Devush, spindle-shanked, bleach blond, lampburnt, twelve years old, kicked up bluff puffs of sand with his bare feet as he scampered along the path from the manor."

Description:

"When East End cabdriver Dave Rudman's wife takes from him his ownly son, Dave pens a gripping text--a compilation about everything from the environment, Arabs, and American tourists to sex, Prozac and cabby lore--that captures all his frustrations and anxieties about his contemporary world. Dave buries the book in his ex-wife's Hampstead backyard, intending it for his son, Carl when he comes of age.

Five hundred years later, Dave's book is found by the inhabitants of Ham, a primitive archipelago in post-apocalyptic London, where it becomes a sacred text of biblical proportions and the template for a new civilization. Only one islander, Symum, remains incredulous. But, after he is imprisoned for heresy, his son Carl must journey through the Forbidden Zone and into the terrifying heart of New London to find the only thing that will reveal the truth once and for all: a second Book of Dave that repudiates the first.

Equal parts dystopian fantasy, religious allegory, detective story, and tribute to the sometimes fraught relations between fathers and sons, The Book of Dave is a profound meditation upon the nature of religion and a caustic satire of contemporary life." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This was a complex and gripping book about family, madness, love and religion, with a new vocabulary to get used to from the beginning. At first, I wasn't sure I liked the book, but the story soon caught my interest and I wanted to learn more about Dave and the future inhabitants of Ham.

Date read: 4/25/2014
Book #: 14
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 1596911239
ISBN-13: 9781596911239
Publisher: Bloomsbury, USA
Year: 2006
# of pages: 416
Binding: Hardcover
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The Stranger by Albert Camus

First sentence:

"Maman died today."

Description:

"Since it was first published in English, in 1946, Albert Camus's first novel, The Stranger (L'Etranger), has had a profound impact on millions of American readers. Through this story of an ordinary man who unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed 'the nakedness of man faced with the absurd.'

Now, in an illuminating new American translation, extraordinary for its exactitude and clarity, the original intent of The Stranger is made more immediate. This haunting novel has been given a new life for generations to come." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this book set in 1940s Algeria. Mersault's isolation and indifference to others and his own fate was creepy and thought-provoking.

Book #: 13
Date read: 4/15/2014
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0679720200
ISBN-13: 9780679720201
Publisher: Vintage Books
Year: 1942; 1988 (this edition)
# of pages: 123
Binding: Trade Paperback
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The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

First sentence:

"I keep the Beast running."

Description:

"Hig survived the flu that killed everyone he knows. His wife is gone, his friends are dead, he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, his only neighbor a gun-toting misanthrope. In his 1956 Cessna, Hig flies the perimeter of the airfield or sneaks off to the mountains to fish and pretend that things are the way they used to be. But when a random transmission somehow beams through his radio, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life–something like his old life–exists beyond the airport. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return–not enough fuel to get him home–following the trail of the static-broken voice on the radio. But what he encounters and what he must face–in the people he meets, and in himself–is both better and worse than anything he could have hoped for." -- from peterheller.net

My thoughts:

I loved this story about starting again in a new world. There's joy and heartbreak, excitement and serenity. I liked Hig's interactions with Bangley and especially with his dog Jasper.

Date read: 4/13/2014
Book #: 12
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0307950476
ISBN-13: 9780307950475
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 2013
# of pages: 336
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Nine Tomorrows by Isaac Asimov

First sentence:

"George Planten could not conceal the longing in his voice."

Description:

"These unusual short stories, written by a master of science fiction, are nine uncanny glimpses into the not too distant future of earth people.

I'm in Marsport Without Hilda is a hilarious lesson in outer-space hipster slang conducted by three gangsters suspected of smuggling a vital tranquilizer drug from earth while their frantic interrogator longs for his rendezvous with Marsport's fanciest lady. All the Troubles of the World is the chilling tale of Multivac, the amazing machine that could solve every problem fed into it but the problems of its own humanity. The Ugly Little Boy, the final and longest story in this fine collection, is a subtle, brilliantly conceived study in terror -- as a young child is suddenly catapulted out of the dim reaches of the past to become the subject of a brutal scientific experiment.

Whatever their mood -- wryly humorous or grimly realistic -- these nine stories all reflect Isaac Asimov's masterful ability to combine scientific fact with the unpredictable, 'unscientific' actions of mankind. The collection is spiced with two superb stories in verse (an Asimov specialty) entitled I Just Make Them Up, See! and Rejection Slips." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this early collection of Asimov stories. I especially liked the stories about the supercomputer Multivac and the story "The Ugly Little Boy" about a lost boy far from home.

Date read: 4/1/2014
Book #: 11
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: SF

Publisher: Doubleday & Co
Year: 1959
# of pages:  236
Binding: Hardcover
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