Howards End

HOWARDS END (E.M. Forster) - One Star

Howards End is now the fourth book to fail the 100-page test (After The Power and The Glory, A House for Mr. Biswas and American Pastoral).

Every book I start I insist upon reading at least 100 pages before giving it a rating. I figure that, if after 100 pages I still don't have the slightest interest in the story or the characters, I stop reading and give it a one-star rating. Sometimes I trudge through and read the whole novel anyway (Lolita, Under the Glacier).

Not this one. Mind-numbingly dull characters, a paper-thin (and boring) plot arc, some unusual story structure choices (why a whole chapter on Leonard Bast so early in the novel? I understand he becomes a major character later in the story, but he's a peripheral character in ONE SCENE in the first hundred pages: we do not need a chapter devoted to setting up his character that early in the novel), and some excessively florid writing are the four major flaws I had with the book.

That, and the first 100 pages was nothing but social faux pas and the awkwardness of cross-class relations in early twentieth century England. Which I'm sure was riveting at the time it was written, but now it's like trying to choke down drywall.

Sky Coyote

SKY COYOTE (Kage Baker) - Four Stars

The second of Kage Baker's "Company" series, and my review of it is pretty much the same: a three or four-star plot with a five-star concept and five-star characters. For the concept behind "The Company," please refer to the second paragraph of my earlier review of In the Garden of Iden.

This novel follows Joseph more than Mendoza, though she does have a supporting role. Joseph, Mendoza, and other top notch agents of the Company are sent to California circa 1700 to preserve an entire Chumash Native American village before the Spaniards and English spread into the state and wipe them out. Joseph, a Facilitator Grade I (i.e., a guy who can talk anybody into almost anything) is selected to portray "Sky Coyote," one of the Chumash gods, and convince them that he's taking them to Paradise. I get a feeling (though I don't know for certain) that Baker put a modicum of historical accuracy into the novel; regardless, I enjoyed the way she presented turn-of-the-18th century Native Americans as semi-modern capitalists.

Religion again plays a large role in Baker's story. I greatly approve of the way she praises and criticizes the various aspects of religion and faith in general without singling out any particular religion. She also weaves in a nice dichotomy when a Native American from a different tribe comes to the Chumash to convert them; Joseph/Sky Coyote has to debunk the missionary's claims and point out the holes in the other faith without compromising his own faith-based mission.

Kage Baker's writing is conversational and engaging, in a style similar to a Stephen King. The literary merits might be debatable, but she connects with the reader with tremendous ease and is a wonderful storyteller.

PS: This entire novel is worth reading if only for the Chumash celebration, where the Chumash tribe puts on an elaborate and utterly hilarious pantomime, replete with puppetry and ventriloquism, all about Sky Coyote's penis.