Nault's adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale an instant classic

Women writers, comic books and women in comic books are the loosely connected themes to the bulk my recent reading.

Let’s start with a superb graphic novel — Renée Nault’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

Nault’s rendition is exactly what Will Eisner had in mind as he envisioned the comic book developing into the graphic novel.  Eisner’s concept of the graphic novel was one of art and text in sequence, telling a complex story about important issues.; essentially, a comic book for adults.  

Nault, a Canadian, (as is Atwood), deftly handles the source material, remaining true to the spirit of Atwood’s fine and frightening novel of a near future in which America is caught up in a civil war. The hand maids are young women, held captive against their will, and compelled to serve as brood hens for a conservative arm of Christianity. 

Set against the horror of the story, Nault’s water colors leap from the page.   And it is exactly here — in the juxtaposition of beauty and horror — that the power of the graphic novel lies.  Nault has set a high bar for future graphic novels, whether an original work or adaptation.

The Handmaid’s Tale joins March, Maus and Persepolis as a superb and lasting example of how the comic book has morphed into a powerful vehicle  for telling meaningful stories for adult readers.

Two books by Robert Crumb, The Sweeter Side of R. Crumb and Odds & Ends, are best reserved for the Crumb aficionado.  Illustrations range from designs for business cards to concert posters to portraits.   

Also for aficionados is Reinventing Comics by Scott McCloud, which is a follow-up to his pioneering treatise on comics, Understanding Comics. McCloud wrote Reinventing Comics 20 years ago and changes in technology and the comic industry reveal how badly the book has aged. 

Caroline Fraser won the Pulitzer Prize last year for her biography, Prairie Fires, The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Half-way through this engaging book I was amused to realize that I’ve never read Wilder’s classic children’s series.   Now, I believe, I need to pay a visit to that little house on the prairie.  

Fraser’s writing is highly readable and her research impeccable.  Prairie Fires is especially engrossing when Fraser explores how Wilder often crossed the line between fiction and fact in her books.  

My first thought on seeing The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen in my local bookstore was “OK, enough is enough.” The book is published by Quirk Books, which also published The Legion of Regrettable Superheroes, The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains, and The Legion of Regrettable Sidekicks by Jon Morris.

In its design,  The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen appears to be following ground already plowed by Morris. I liked Morris’s three books. I truly did, but I failed to see how a fourth book — even one written by another author — was necessary.

I was wrong.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book by Hope Nicholson. It is a valuable addition to comic history.

Nicholson’s a good writer, lively and engaging. And she doesn’t limit this history of women in comics to superheroes, but touches on the full scope of women’s roles in comics from the 1930s to today.

Additionally, she furnishes information on how to read  the actual exploits of the female characters she features here. In some cases, Nicholson must send us to the back-issue bins at our local comic shop, but in a surprising number instances the stories are available on-line or have been assembled into hard-cover collections.

Strong recommendations for The Handmaid’s Tale, Prairie Fires, and The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen.

Books read -- January

1.   Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens

2.   Voodoo River, Robert Crais

3.   Yossel, April 19, 1943, Joe Kubert

4.   Lie In The Dark, Dan Fesperman
5.   A Canticle For Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
6.   Flash, The Making of Weegee The Famous by Christopher Bonanos

7.   Neptune's Brood, Charles Stross

8.   Perish Twice, Robert B. Parker

9.   The League of Regrettable Sidekicks, Jon Morris

10. Casino Royale, Ian Fleming

11. Mrs. Palfrey At The Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor

Books read -- February

12. The Golden Tresses of the Dead, Alan Bradley

13. The Problem of Susan and Other Stories, Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell

14. The Rhesus Chart, Charles Stross

15. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

16. Shrink Rap, Robert B. Parker

17. Wish You Were Here, Graham Swift

18. The Big Fella, Babe Ruth and the World He Created, Jane Leavy

19. School Days, Robert B. Parker

20. The Boats of the Glen Carrig, William Hope Hodgson

21. The Professional, Robert B. Parker

22. Distrust That Particular Flavor, William Gibson

23. Flannery O'Connor, The Cartoons, ed. Kelly Gerald

24. Comics & Sequential Art, Will Eisner

25. Sharpe's Escape, Bernard Cornwell

26. Thirteen Ways Of Looking, Colum McCann

27. Late In The Day, Tessa Hadley

Books read -- March

28. Still Life, Louise Penny

29. Golden State, Ben H. Winters

30. Slowhand, The Life and Music of Eric Clapton, Philip Norman
31. The Border, Don Winslow
32. Careless Love, Peter Robinson

33. Dreyer's English, An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, Benjamin Dreyer

34. The Best Cook in the World, Rick Bragg

35. The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells

36. Red Dragon, Thomas Harris

Books read -- April

37. The Dragon Factory, Jonathan Maberry

38. K, A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Tyler Kepner
39. Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe

40.Wolf Pack, C.J. Box

41. Run Away, Harlan Coben

42. A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories, Flannery O'Connor

43. The Hand Maid’s Tale, art and adaptation by Renée

Nault, based on the novel by Margaret Atwood

44. The Sweeter Side of R. Crumb, Robert Crumb

45. Odds & Ends, Robert Crumb

46. The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen, Hope Nicholson

47. Prairie Fires, The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, 

Caroline Fraser

48. Reinventing Comics, Scott McCloud

Currently  Reading --

The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

Letters to a Friend, Diana Athill

The Goat Getters, Eddie Campbell

Box, Coben among April highlights

April reading includes a mystery, a thriller and two literary classics.

The thriller is the Wolf Pack by C.J. Box. It features Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett as well as the usual cast of characters.

Box typically weaves current social and political issues into his narrative. In Wolf Pack, destruction, disturbance and death arrive in the form of a drone used to herd wildlife, a pair of arrogant federal agents and ill-considered policies regarding the federal witness protection program.

It’s a fast-paced read. Box is masterful at kicking a story into high gear on page one and not letting up on the accelerator until the final page. The body count is higher than usual, and there are some major changes in the lives of several of the regular characters — which means Box is also skilled at leaving the reader eagerly awaiting his next book.

I’ve read one novel by Harlan Coben a few years ago, but — candidly — I don’t remember it. That changes for me with Run Away, which begins as a conventional story of a dad in search of drugged-out daughter and deepens into a mystery around DNA websites, a cult and several murders.

The characters are clearly drawn, the pacing measured in a way to draw out tension and the mystery proves genuinely satisfying.   I liked this book a lot.

Flannery O’Connor’s  A Good Man Is Hard To Find and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe are both highly regarded works that do not translate well in light of today’s social standards. Modern readers are likely to be uncomfortable with the attitude toward blacks that pervade  both books.

O’Connor is generally regarded as a master of the short story, but many of the tales in this collection didn’t hold up for me. Her fascination with human oddities leaves behind an unpleasant taste.

I was certain that I read Robinson Crusoe in the distant past.  After reading it recently, I don’t believe that I had ever read it.  Any memory I have seems to be around Robinson Crusoe on Mars, a 1964 moving starring Adam West.

The Guardian considers Robinson Crusoe the second best novel written in English. It’s also worth noting that the book is regarded by many as the first English-language novel.

Certainly, it establishes the framework for a number of literary genres that were to follow — the adventure novel, the Christian confessional, the travelogue, etc.

Even given such consideration, I don’t recommend Robinson Crusoe unless, like me, you’re working through one of those prolific lists on “books you have to read before you die.”

Crusoe is an arrogant sod and the book a plod. 

Books read -- January

1.   Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens

2.   Voodoo River, Robert Crais

3.   Yossel, April 19, 1943, Joe Kubert

4.   Lie In The Dark, Dan Fesperman
5.   A Canticle For Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
6.   Flash, The Making of Weegee The Famous by Christopher Bonanos

7.   Neptune's Brood, Charles Stross

8.   Perish Twice, Robert B. Parker

9.   The League of Regrettable Sidekicks, Jon Morris

10. Casino Royale, Ian Fleming

11. Mrs. Palfrey At The Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor

Books read -- February

12. The Golden Tresses of the Dead, Alan Bradley

13. The Problem of Susan and Other Stories, Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell

14. The Rhesus Chart, Charles Stross

15. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

16. Shrink Rap, Robert B. Parker

17. Wish You Were Here, Graham Swift

18. The Big Fella, Babe Ruth and the World He Created, Jane Leavy

19. School Days, Robert B. Parker

20. The Boats of the Glen Carrig, William Hope Hodgson

21. The Professional, Robert B. Parker

22. Distrust That Particular Flavor, William Gibson

23. Flannery O'Connor, The Cartoons, ed. Kelly Gerald

24. Comics & Sequential Art, Will Eisner

25. Sharpe's Escape, Bernard Cornwell

26. Thirteen Ways Of Looking, Colum McCann

27. Late In The Day, Tessa Hadley

Books read -- March

28. Still Life, Louise Penny

29. Golden State, Ben H. Winters

30. Slowhand, The Life and Music of Eric Clapton, Philip Norman
31. The Border, Don Winslow
32. Careless Love, Peter Robinson

33. Dreyer's English, An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, Benjamin Dreyer

34. The Best Cook in the World, Rick Bragg

35. The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells

36. Red Dragon, Thomas Harris

Books read -- April

37. The Dragon Factory, Jonathan Maberry

38. K, A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Tyler Kepner
39. Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe

40.Wolf Pack, C.J. Box

41. Run Away, Harlan Coben

42. A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories, Flannery O'Connor

Currently  Reading --

Prairie Fires, Caroline Fraser

The Spectacular  Sisterhood of  Superwomen, Hope Nicholson

The Hand Maid's Tale, graphic novel adaptation by Renée Nault

Kepner's K in best tradition of books on baseball

In the acknowledgements to K A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Tyler Kepner writes that he has been a fan of baseball since he was seven years old. 

Structured around the idea of various pitches — from the splitter to the knuckleball to the spitball — it’s little wonder then that K reads like fan mail.  Really, really excellent fan mail.

Kepner, national baseball writer for The New York Times, pays due diligence to the 10 pitches featured in K, tracing the history of each pitch and spotlighting its most skilled practitioners.  But where the book rises to excellence — like a Bumgarner fastball defying the laws of physics — is in the stories that enliven each chapter.

Stories of pitchers mastering a particular pitch thus salvaging a career that was on the rocks. Stories of pitchers who nonchalantly skirt the rules. Stories of batters baffled by the ball’s behavior. Stories of hijinks, on the field and off.

Some of the stories unfold over several pages, others are told in only a few sentences.

Anyone who shares Kepner’s love of the game will find passages to linger over. A number of players from my hometown team, the Kansas City Royals, are here, including George Brett, Dan Quisenberry, Kelvin Herrera and manager Ned Yost.

But my favorite story comes early in the book, in the chapter on fastballs.  Kepner recounts the pivotal moment from the 2014 World Series when Madison Bumgarner was in position for a Golden Pitch.   It’s a term used by the Society for Baseball Research for a pitch that could win or lose the championship for either team. 

“By definition, this spot arises only in Game 7 of the World Series, in the bottom of the ninth innning or later, with the visitors leading and at least one runner on base.”

In 2014, the Royals trailed the Giants in Game 7 by one run in the bottom of the ninth. There were two outs. Bumgarner was on the mound. Royals’ lelftielder Alex Gordon was on a third after a sinking line drive was misplayed into a triple. Royals’ catcher Salvador Perez was at the plate.   

My wife and I were in the stands that night.   I never expected to attend a World Series (I ultimately made it to two), let alone be in the seats for an elusive seventh game. We watched as Bumgarner enticed Perez into a pop up, and secured the Series for the Giants.  

Kepner’s account is a fine accompaniment to my memories of that night.  Thanks to his reporting I know more about what went on behind the scenes, as Bumgarner and Giants’ catcher Buster Posey decided how to pitch to Perez.  It was going to be a fastball. Anyone familiar with Bumgarner knew that, but location, well, location was a whole different ball game. 

K is a delightful book, solidly in the tradition of the best baseball books. (I’m thinking of the two Rogers here, Angell and Kahn.) In its pages, Kepner demonstrates once again the truth of the adage — Baseball Writes.  

It reads too.   

A quick summary of my other three recent reads:

The pace of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells is slow for the modern reader, but it is worth a perusal simply to understand its significance to current science fiction books and film.  All those alien invasions of Earth started here.   (Incidentally, my favorite book in this sci fi sub-genre is Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.  My favorite film would be The Day The Earth Stood Still.)

In normal circumstances I wouldn’t read either Red Dragon or The Dragon  Factory, but these books happened to fill a particular need.  They were free, and they were paperbacks. I was going on vacation and needed a couple of books I could read and discard.  

Both books also met my criteria for the perfect beach read — fast-paced thrillers that didn’t require a lot of concentration.  Red Dragon is about the hunt for a serial killer. It’s the basis for the move Manhunter, which I’d seen years back. I normally don’t like such subject matter, but needs must.  

The Dragon Factory is a thriller bordering on sci fi.  It’s about the hunt for a mad scientist bent on ethnic cleansing.  It’s full of ex-Nazis, secret government agencies, genetic monstrosities  and a hero — Joe Ledger — whose superpower is survival.  This is the second book in a six-book series.

Books read -- January

1.   Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens

2.   Voodoo River, Robert Crais

3.   Yossel, April 19, 1943, Joe Kubert

4.   Lie In The Dark, Dan Fesperman
5.   A Canticle For Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
6.   Flash, The Making of Weegee The Famous by Christopher Bonanos

7.   Neptune's Brood, Charles Stross

8.   Perish Twice, Robert B. Parker

9.   The League of Regrettable Sidekicks, Jon Morris

10. Casino Royale, Ian Fleming

11. Mrs. Palfrey At The Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor

Books read -- February

12. The Golden Tresses of the Dead, Alan Bradley

13. The Problem of Susan and Other Stories, Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell

14. The Rhesus Chart, Charles Stross

15. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

16. Shrink Rap, Robert B. Parker

17. Wish You Were Here, Graham Swift

18. The Big Fella, Babe Ruth and the World He Created, Jane Leavy

19. School Days, Robert B. Parker

20. The Boats of the Glen Carrig, William Hope Hodgson

21. The Professional, Robert B. Parker

22. Distrust That Particular Flavor, William Gibson

23. Flannery O'Connor, The Cartoons, ed. Kelly Gerald

24. Comics & Sequential Art, Will Eisner

25. Sharpe's Escape, Bernard Cornwell

26. Thirteen Ways Of Looking, Colum McCann

27. Late In The Day, Tessa Hadley

Books read -- March

28. Still Life, Louise Penny

29. Golden State, Ben H. Winters

30. Slowhand, The Life and Music of Eric Clapton, Philip Norman
31. The Border, Don Winslow
32. Careless Love, Peter Robinson

33. Dreyer's English, An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, Benjamin Dreyer

34. The Best Cook in the World, Rick Bragg

35. The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells

36. Red Dragon, Thomas Harris

Books read -- April

37. The Dragon Factory, Jonathan Maberry

38. K, A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Tyler Kepner

Currently  Reading --

Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe

Prairie Fires, Caroline Fraser

A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories, Flannery O'Connor