Things I Know I Know

I used to write more about the books I was reading and I'm going to try to get back to that, because although I haven't been writing about them, I have been reading them. Although many of them have not been very good.

However, let's start on a postive note.

Lisa loaned me Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart and I loved it. Loved it. It's not perfect (in spite of its title) but it's very good.

Sometimes I read small press books and think--they should have just resisted the urge to publish this book at all--but not this one. This is a good book.

The main character in Perfect Circle is Will "DK" Kennedy who sees ghosts. "DK" stands for "Dead Kennedy," which is an urge the author should have resisted, though it does have its moments. Will doesn't drive because at night he can't tell the ghosts from the people (the ghosts are black and white, but it's harder to tell at night). He has a basically hosed-up life--dead-end jobs, lousy apartment, ex-wife--which he blames mostly on the ghosts. The family relationships are terrific, most of the characters are more complex than they may seem at first, and the story is about life and living it, about different ways of dying, about how important the way we see things can be, about happiness, about death, and about family.

It reminds me a lot (and not in a plagerism sort of way) of a book I read and loved a good few years ago--Almost Famous by David Small, which I found on a drugstore book rack in some town I don't even remember. Almost Famous is not at all fantastic and isn't, really, even my sort of book, but I loved it a lot when I read it. It was one of those books that you feel different after reading and you're not even sure why (this is as opposed to books that you feel different after reading and you do know why--and I don't mean the ones that make you stupider). Almost Famous is about a guy who was destined for baseball superstardom, got in a near-fatal accident, and has been pissed off about it ever since--without admitting in any way that he's pissed off and pretending that he doesn't care.