Book Club 20 April 2024 @8PM GMT: Robert McCammon: Boy's Life

[Jason L.]

Join us for a discussion of this book!

Jason Locke is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: 13 April 2024: Robert McCammon - Boy's Life
Time: Apr 13 20 2024 08:00 PM Greenwich Mean Time

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[LJ Beck]

I hope I can finish it in time! It's loooong. I've resorted to chipmunk-speed.

 

[Jason L.]

Hi everybody! I have a major conniption being visited upon me--see Pete for a Concise Definition of Conniptions, if you please, and must push this novel back by one week. I apologize. you could carry on without me, but it's my book. Because of course it is.

 

[LJ Beck]

Hi everybody! I have a major conniption being visited upon me--see Pete for a Concise Definition of Conniptions, if you please, and must push this novel back by one week. I apologize. you could carry on without me, but it's my book. Because of course it is.

Gives me another week to try to finish it. Because it's still going..... lol

Jason, hope your conniptions get sorted without to much who-ha.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

I read it and found some interesting online background about it. Here are some links and a quote from Barbara Kirkus:

First, the author's explanation of why he wrote the book, including some interesting thoughts on his writing process:

Robert McCammon » Why I Wrote Boy's Life

www.robertmccammon.com

Second, the quote from Kirkus Reviews:

A bizarre murder in an idyllic southern town propels a boy and his father into a world of evil in this World Fantasy Award–winning horror novel. Small town boys see weird sights, and Zephyr has provided Cory Jay Mackenson with his fair share of oddities. He knows the bootleggers who lurk in the dark places outside of town. On moonless nights, he's heard spirits congregate in the churchyard to reminisce about the good old days. He's seen rain that flooded Main Street and left it crawling with snakes. Cory knows magic, and relishes it as only a young boy can. One frosty winter morning, he and his father watch a car jump the curb and sail into the fathomless town lake. His father dives into the icy water to rescue the driver, and finds a naked corpse handcuffed to the wheel. This chilling sight is only the start of the strangest period of Cory's life, when the magic of his town will transform him into a man. "Strongly echoing the childhood-elegies of [Stephen] King and [Ray] Bradbury, and every bit their equal," Boy's Life represents the finest work of one of the most accomplished writers of modern horror (Kirkus Reviews).

 

[LJ Beck]

From the first link: "I don't, and never did, write with an outline." - that could explain a lot. McCammon is pretty gosh darn happy with himself. I'm downright pleased as punch for him, the kind of feeling you get from eating a homemade right-from-the-oven apple and cinnamon pie, topped with a wallop of vanilla ice cream while you curl up on grandad's old wooden rocker on the front porch, and you watch the sun sink into the hills over yonder.
(Sorry, couldn't resist. heehee.)

I've checked out some reviews... these are some of the things that I thought were interesting... things that I did not particularly feel.

- BOY'S LIFE is an exceptionally easy novel to relate to.
- ...this book IS magic. It's right in there, glittering between the pages.
- Nothing I have read has so accurately and poignantly portrayed growing up.
- You will laugh and you will undoubtedly cry (unless you have a cold black stone residing in your chest instead of a heart). And when I say cry, I mean UGLY cry. There's no beautiful solitary tear rolling down the cheek. There is full-on sobbing.

I guess I have a cold black stone for a heart.
I thought this was a good recap...

"It's the story of Zephyr and it's assortment of colorful characters. It's a murder mystery, a story about monsters (both human and otherwise), love and prejudice, ignorance and the grace of making good decisions. It's about a boy who can fly with his friends. It's about dreams that meld with life to provide answers. Most of all, it's about growing up and never losing the magic."

And then there was this review that made me laugh.....

----------------------------
I QUIT!!!
I can't stand this book any longer! I mean ....I REALLY can't stand it!!!!!

After about 4 hours of my time listening to the Audiobook...I'm DONE!!!
I don't care what the hell happens -- I can't remember when I've completely disliked a book more

The guys voice on the Audiobook sounds condescending to me most of the time.
Other times the writing itself is too syrupy sweet.
I was bored to death -- I felt everything was OVER-DESCRIBED. My God....I didn't care if the door was shiny. If the damn door was dull it would have been ok with me. Better yet, I was getting resentful with all this boys interpretation about every piece of furniture-his mother's or father's differences.....
( and his fricken wisdom about how his parents differences made for a good marriage).
I could have cared less about the spots of turtles ( as a metaphor for the truth)....

OMG.... and there were TOO MANY metaphors in this book. I was starting to get physically sick...and pissed off!!!

I didn't care about his bike riding or his going to the movies to eat candy and popcorn...

And I HATED the whimsical magical Philosophy of life from this 12-year-old kid.

Boring - long- tedious - pretentious descriptions-

NOT FOR ME!!!!
-----------------------------


I am somewhere in between the gush and the gash. Looking forward to discussing. If I can ever finish it.... I still have 4.5 hours to go, and that's at chipmunk speed.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

Oh, my! Are you listening to an audiobook or reading the text? I read the text and skimmed much of it. Definitely, the endless description...

Where did you find these reviews?

I, too, skimmed through much of the description. I wanted to learn what happened next, not what the door looked like. But the book won awards, and the author earned a living. That's what I want to understand. My same question for Hernán Díaz's Trust. His heartless depiction of human life made me ill, but he sold the book, won the Pulitzer, and lives in luxury most of us only read about in his and other novels.

We need a purpose for this book club for writers. Is it to vent our rage or to figure out how to achieve our goals as authors? As Stan Lee said, " 'Nuff said."

Yet, I rave. If this book and so many of the others we have discussed have sold well, we need to figure out how and why. As I understand it, Litopia is a community of writers who want to succeed, both literarily and commercially. Maybe I got that wrong, but if a book does not appeal to a lot of readers, then it fails, regardless of the accolades. If it does not appeal us, then why does it earn riches for the publisher and the writer?

Sorry for the rant, but I, personally, need answers.

On a sympathetic note, you were lovely on the last Huddle you attended. I wish we humans could sort out our time zones and hemispheres...

 

[LJ Beck]

I am listening to an audible book. I have skimmed little bits as well.

I found the reviews on goodreads.

Boy's Life

An Alabama boy’s innocence is shaken by murder and madn…

www.goodreads.com

Purpose for the book club... I get a lot out of our book club. Hearing what everyone thinks, on a personal reader perspective, as well as a writer perspective makes our group quite powerful I think. I do feel we are analyzing what made the book work or not work, and we try to figure out the enigma of book sales. James is particularly one to ask about that in every meetup.

I like that the books on our list not be ones that I would have read. It helps to broaden my mental library. I like that. I also love to hear why the book was recommended from the person who picked it. What it meant to them. Always so much to learn.

As for why books sell, or win awards, or appeal to the masses... Pete is the best one to answer that question, of course. But IMHO, there's so many disparate factors to that. Not the least of which is personal taste. But others are the amount/kind of marketing that went into the book, the momentum it had (big sales mean more sales), the timing of the book, and luck. If Steven Spielberg happens to read it, and then decides to make a movie out of it, you lucked out.

I do think one thing can be said of all these books, like em or not, the prose is well written. It may not be in a style you like, or a subject you relate to, but they all understand how to express themselves exceptionally well in prose. They understood their market, POV and internalizing, pace and theme, and all those things. So it comes down to taste in the end with these books. That sounds trite, but it's not. Craft isn't the issue, taste is.

 

[Hannah F]

I wouldn't have managed to be there this week, so next week is good.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

I wouldn't have managed to be there this week, so next week is good.

I thought this week, that is April 20th, was the pushed-back date. Or is it next Saturday, that is April 27 now? @Jason L.

 

[LJ Beck]

I too thought it was this weekend as the push back date. If it is next weekend I won’t be able to make it.

 

[Jason L.]

It's this weekend.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

Sorry @Hannah F

 

[Hannah F]

Ah. I won't make it. Hopefully see you at the next one.

 

[Jason L.]

So here are my questions for you:

1. Let's start with the basics: What did you think of the book?
2. This book had a lot of magical realism in it? So why is it that Jason, who hates Gabriel García Marquez so so so much, could stomach it enough to recommend it? What's the deal here? (I'm wondering it myself).
3. What were some of the themes here that spoke to you?
4. In many ways, this book was extremely episodic: most plot elements didn't build on each other, and there were spaces that could have used a haircut. But, for many people, myself included, it worked. Why?
5. One of the things about this book is that it clearly draws you into a time, place, and culture that most of us aren't familiar with, and makes you feel as if you were really there and understood the rules of this society. How did Corey's experience give nuance to our understanding of race in the South at the dawn of the Civil Rights era?
6. What about the ending, when the mystery was solved? What about the Glass sisters? Did you buy it? Should you buy it, considering the way he fought off the river monster, the magic bicycle, the ghostly driver, and the other fantastic elements?
7. What did you think of the point of view? As a writer (I first read this before I started writing) how do you experience this book?

 

[LJ Beck]

@Jason L. These are great questions! I didn't see these before we got on zoom. We did cover most of them, but I did want to re-address no 2.

Magical realism is a genre with a lot of different writers, same as any other genre. Just cuz he invented it, doesn't mean you gotta like his stuff to like other stuff in the genre.

I was going to recommend The City & The City by China Miéville, but I checked and that's classified as "weird fiction." I have a friend who writes magical realism so I'll ask him for some recommends.