Book Review- Steve Martin's Born Standing Up

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This is going to sound crazy, but prior to reading Steve Martin's memoir, Born Standing Up, I had not idea that he had been such a popular stand-up comedian.

I was born in 1977 and as far as I have been concerned, Martin was foremost an actor.

In the last fifteen years, I have discovered his writing as a novelist and playwright. He's a fantastic writer, very adept at creating emotionally charged situations involving mostly subtext. Martin may have a big personality on stage, but as a writer, his works are quiet and subtle.  

My obsession with theme parks even provided me with the knowledge that Martin had worked in both Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm. 

I knew all of this going into Born Standing Up, but I had no clue that Martin has had one of the most successful stand-up careers and had spent years selling out arena shows. Born Standing Up is all about Martin's early career.

The first half deals with his childhood and love for magic and comedy. For my fellow theme park geeks, it has several chapters on Martin's various jobs at both Disney and Knotts. I loved how later in life, Martin returned to Knotts and walked through the employee gate to the Bird Cage Theater and employees recognized him not for being famous, but for being a former employee. It's a sweet anecdote.

The second half of the book deals with Martin's rise in fame and his exhausting stand-up tours. You never feel like Martin is ungrateful for his fame, but that fame is a double-edge sword that comes at a great price. Mostly, Martin strikes me as someone who has spent a lot of time being very lonely at the height of his fame.  

His film and writing career are mentioned briefly to show where Martin headed after his stand-up career peaked. The focus of the memoir is not only on his career, but on his family. The Martin household was not always a happy one and it took many years for Martin to reconnect with his parents and sister. There is a good message about tying up loose family ends and having important conversations before your chance might forever be lost. 

Martin's writings often involve the art world and I enjoyed reading about how Martin's interest in art developed. 

Born Standing Up was a lightening fast read, mostly because Martin's life is so fascinating. I read the bulk of it in a single go and had it done in less than a day. A throughly enjoyable memoir.

Book Review- John Green's The Fault in Our Stars

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Rare does a book make me so emotional that I need to put it down before finishing it. I made a mistake in deciding to take John Green's The Fault in Our Stars on my UK vacation. Although peppered with comical moments, this is not a flimsy beach read. It's heavy and emotionally draining.

I found myself sobbing through the last couple of chapters as I tried to do some covert late-night reading at a B&B in Scotland. This isn't the type of story that I wanted to have an emotional experience with on the sly. I needed to keep reading to find out how it was going to end, although I was wishing that I was experiencing the novel in the privacy of my own home. Alone.

Green's novel is narrated by Hazel, a teenager with terminal cancer who knows she is living on borrowed time, even though an experimental drug seems to have slowed the growth of her tumors. During a support group meeting for teens with cancer, Hazel meets Augustus, a charismatic teen who is in remission. Augustus woes Hazel through a series of quirky dates and bold romantic gestures, showing her how to really live each day as though it were her last. 

I realize that the above paragraph makes this story seem conventional and predictable. It's anything but conventional. The story goes to some strange places, including a Make-a-Wish trip to Amsterdam, so that Hazel can get some questions answered.  I never quite knew where the story was going to end up.

Although this is a book involving teenagers, it's not YA Fiction. It's very adult in content. Living under the shadow of mortality, these teens have had to grow up fast. They can be cynical, snarky and hardened. Dying is not romanticised as it often is in YA fiction. The characters in this story are grasping to hold on to life and they are angry. Having been a caretaker for several family members who have died from cancer, the handling of the disease and emotions that it stirs up were spot on which made it so emotional to read.

I find that the best stories have levity to balance the heavy parts. Green includes many light moments to give the tone a good balance and make the characters even more endearing. It is impossible it read this story and not fall in love with both Hazel and Augustus. Hazel's parents were also wonderful characters, loving without being overbearing. You really root for everyone in the story. 

Green is a gifted writer, who has a way with words. I often stopped to reread and consider a passage or thought. I don't often read books twice, but this is the type of story that would be completely different based on the age and experience of the reader. I may need to give it another go in ten years. 

I loved this book so much, that I started following Green on Facebook and I am now hooked on a daily onslaught of pictures and tidbits from the film version of the story. I am excited, rather than apprehensive, to see the book turned into a film. Green's infections excitement over the film version is catching. 

Easily the best book that I have read in a long time. 

Book Review- Alissa Nutting's Tampa

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I kicked off my UK vacation with Alissa Nutting's controversial novel Tampa about a female pedophile.

Perfect vacation read, right?  

Tampa first came on my radar a few months ago, when early reviews on Nutting's novel began to hit various publications. Admittedly, I was drawn to it due to the hype regarding the controversial subject matter.

Tampa is narrated by Celeste, a junior high English teacher in her mid-twenties, who fantasizes about her male students. Celeste is a cold and calculating predator, who spends much of her time concocting elaborate lies and manipulations in efforts to create and conceal her sexual conquests. 

I finished this book a few weeks ago and am still not sure what to make of it. It's an uncomfortable book to read. However, it should be uncomfortable. Nutting nailed it. 

The story comes on strong in the first quarter. A bit too strong and it is a bit of a turn off. It's just so over the top salacious and graphic with regard to Celeste's fantasies, that it felt like Nutting was trying to push the envelope. The subject matter is enough and Nutting could have been a lot less overt without compromising the story. 

I'm not the slightest bit prudish, but I was beet red while reading Tampa on my flight to London. 

I think that a lot of readers might be turned off with the first few chapters, which is a shame, because once the story really picks up the pace, it was a compelling read. It shifted from a smut book to a solid work of modern fiction.

Rare is the story that manages to grab my attention without endearing me to any of the characters. There are zero likable characters in Tampa. Nutting does a wonderful job of making the reader embrace Celeste's narrative. Celeste is obviously a very biased and unreliable narrator, but you kind of go along with her thought process and dislike the other characters that Celeste dislikes. You sort of root for her.

It's similar to Nabokov's Humbert Humbert in Lolita. In both stories the authors have managed to get the reader to push past the taboos and to go along for the ride. I never liked Celeste, but somehow the people that she loathes (coworkers, parents, her husband) come across as a little worse. Nutting did a solid job, because there is no way that any reader could actually like Celeste and this is the only way to make her come across as even a little bit likable.

This novel isn't for everyone. As squirmy as it was to read, overall, I enjoyed it and I look forward to reading other novels by Nutting. She is a talented writer.