The Living One by Lewis Gannett

It's been a massive number of years since I read this book the last time, but it is one which despite a very muddled ending, has always remained in my mind. The younger Spoor--standing on the cusp of manhood--contrasted with the image of his his father Malcolm Spoor who is falling into madness is a really interesting dynamic and a rather fresh way at looking at vampirism.

This is an epistolary novel, done as homage to Stoker's Dracula, and for the most part it works, switching from...moreTitle:  The Living One
Author:  Lewis Gannett
Genre:  Horror, Coming of Age
URL:  Amazon
Price:  Varies by 3rd party seller - Out of Print


Summary (from Library Journal):  After a ten-year estrangement, Malcolm Spoor wishes to spend a few months with his teenaged son Torrance and invites him to live at the estate he has purchased in New England. Malcolm's reason is bizarre: he claims that he is the victim of a family curse and that he will go insane and die before he reaches the age of 50. Good-natured Torrance thinks this is a ruse to gain sympathy; he agrees to the visit but soon suspects his father may be losing his mind. Torrance sees him spending most of his time locked away in his office, screaming and raging at people who never answer, and learns with horror and anger that Malcolm is using hidden cameras to record Torrance's every move. Something is indeed very wrong at the Spoor estate, but it is Torrance, not Malcolm, who is slated for death--or something even worse.

My Review:  It has been a massive number of years since I read this book the last time, but it is one which despite a very muddled ending, has always remained in my mind. The younger Spoor--standing on the cusp of manhood--contrasted with the image of his his father Malcolm Spoor who is falling into madness is a really interesting dynamic and a rather fresh way at looking at vampirism.

This is an epistolary novel, done as homage to Stoker's Dracula, and for the most part it works, switching from the perspective of the younger Spoor to his teacher. Gannet manages the multiple POVs well and even delves into issues of coming out, growing up, strained familial relationships and less than honest and forthright teachers.

The characters are all very well rounded and the author manages to maintain a creepy almost voyeuristic tone to the novel that fits it well. Not so many scares in this one, but it is a really interesting character study and though it is not a YA novel in any respect, I think for young people it deals pretty honestly with the issues of growing up awkward, being a bit of an outcast, and having parents you just can't understand.

Only near the end does it get muddled, but for me, the story was enough for me to forgive the sloppiness at the end.

Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers: A Novel by Lois-Ann Yamanaka

Title: Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers: A Novel
Author: Lois-Ann Yamanaka
Genre: Coming-of-age
URL: Amazon
Price: $15.00 (list)
Summary (from Wikipedia):  Written in both English and Hawaiian Pidgin, Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers is a coming-of-age first-person narrative of Lovey Nariyoshi, a local Japanese girl growing up in Hilo, Hawaii, after World War II. During the anti-Japanese wave that flowed through the United States during this time period, Lovey looks back at all of the key events and people in her life that help shape the young girl she becomes in the end. By only seeing white stars on TV, discovering the birthing canal with her pregnant teenage-neighbor Katy, rationalizing her best friend Jerome's homosexuality and other events, Lovey tries to find her place in the world - a world that constantly tells her that being pure Japanese is not beautiful.

My Review:  Anyone who knows me knows that I have a strong connection to the Hawaiian Islands and a strong curiosity to read the stories by Hawaiian authors. I'm not so much interested in the exoticism of the islands as I am the real, true life stories. So when author Lavina Ludlow (novel forthcoming from Casperian Books) suggested the work of Lois-Ann Yamanaka, I was more than willing to dive in.

Now, when authors are new to me, I do not search out any reviews or biographical information before hand as I don't want to color my perception of their work, positively or negatively. So when I looked at the list of Yamanaka's work, this novel was the first listed and so I went with it. And am I glad I did.

Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers is set in and about Hilo, Hawai'i (the big Island) in the 1970s. Our lead is the appealing Lovey (interestingly, one letter shy of Lovely), a relatively plain girl from a working class Hawai'i. As the blurb says, her Hawai'i is not the Hawai'i of picture post cards. Her family are barely surviving financially, unable to afford the comforts that the haole (white) islanders and many of those with whom Lovey goes to school have. This instills in Lovey a somewhat covetous personality. Like all children, she wants to fit in, be smart and popular and have the coolest things. And her attempts to fit in always seem to backfire, reminding her of her "place" in life.