31.5.08

Book Review



The Living Room of the Dead

Bleak House Books, 2007

By Eric Stone

This is noir at its finest. Uncensored, raw and unpredictable. The fact that author, Eric Stone has lived and worked throughout Asia is apparent with lines like, “It’s drizzling the hot sour soup that squeezes out of the filthy tureen that a lot of the year passes for the sky over Hong Kong.” All the research or anecdotal information of place will never take the reader ‘there’ as lines like that do. I am really glad to read that this is the first Ray Sharp novel as I want to get inside this character’s head some more. An important note however; The Living Room of the Dead is based on real events. Once you know that, the scenes that make you squirm will make you squirm a lot longer. Not to say that he has not created a great book of fiction, but given that the story is based on the unforgiving sex slave trade in numerous parts of Russia and Asia, makes this an important piece. If you enjoyed reading Mo Hayder’s The Devil of Nanking, then you might know the kind of power a work of fiction can pack. Stone’s own words speak how this book made me feel. “It’s beautiful and I’m not afraid. The snapping of electricity above me, in the nearing distance sizzling out of the clouds, hissing in the air that pounds at me from all sides, everything’s juiced….It’s power that doesn’t take sides, that doesn’t give a shit about me…” Stone may be talking about the weather here but it is one of the pivotal metaphors for the subject matter of this outstanding novel. Read it, you will not forget it and like myself, it will leave you wanting more.

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Recommendations

  • GO to: Paris. New York. Montreal. London. Tokyo. Amsterdam. Berlin. A blue collar bar. A cafe. Martini Bar. A Rainforest. A Desert. The Prairies. The Metro. A neglected cemetary. A casino. A used bookstore. A whaling town. Art Galleries. Readings. Walk for the sake of it. Go with a dog.
  • Try anything once but don't jump on a bandwagon. Smoke if you want to. Exercise. Sleep with your window slightly opened. Mingle with strangers, spend as much times as possible with dogs. Be tender and tread lightly. Look around as if it is your first day on earth. Or your last.
  • Read Moby Dick to learn to look below the surface. Read Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man because once you find out who you are, you will be free. Read Nabokov's Lolita to feel uncomfortable. Read Kafka to experience, Chekov to witness(& for a lesson in short story writing) Cormac McCarthy and Joyce to ditch the annoying quotations, Pico Iyer to taste places. Try Chuck Palhaniuk to laugh while squirming, Aimee Bender to dance by her notes of imagination, pick up poetry by Atwood, Billy Collins, Anne Sexton, ee cummings, pablo neruda. Pick up a poet each day, they need a ride in your mind.
  • Films: Sprited Away by Hayayo Miyuzaki (listed first for a reason) Double Indemnity 1948, All About Eve, The Dreamers, Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, Zoolander (the same night as you watch the previous) The Saddest Music in the World by Guy Maddin, film genius of our time, Bladerunner, Brazil and also Tideland by Terry Gilliam(the latter, shot in Saskatchewan where land was an ocean) any water film with Esther Williams to make you feel better. That goes for ALL Doris Day and Rock Hudson films, then Calamity Jane for the sapphic subtext, anything with Greta Garbo (watching it in perspective of how closeted lesbians were then) Robert Mitchim in a white jacket or pants, smoking. Mildred Pierce, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir for nostalgia sake.
  • Listen to Nina Simone, Billy Holiday, Morrissey, Daniel Belanger, Miles Davis, Parov Stelar, Hawksley Workman, Andrew Bird, Bebel Gilberto, Cocteau Twins (yes, even now), Holly Cole, Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, Thievery Corporation, Patricia Barber, Lucinda Williams, Sly & the Family Stone, Ella Fitzgerald and anything by Cole Porter, the Operas Lakme, Norma, the song Summertime sung by anyone, played on repeat until your cells are hot.
  • Read Haruki Murakami, esp. Wind-up Bird Chronicles and Harboiled Wonderland and the End of the World
  • View the artist Takashi Murakami because he will blow your mind and start your engines. He is electric.
  • Read Patricia Highsmith, esp. The Two Faces of Forgery, Edith, all of her short stories and of couse all of the Ripley books.
  • View the artist Fernando Botero because his portraits will make you feel thin and his body of work will make you feel vast.
  • Read all the noir fiction you can beginning with Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, then discover Michael Dibdin and Sebastian Japrisot
  • Drink Espresso as often as possible but make it correctly. Drink red wines from Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, France, Whites from France, Australia or New Zealand and yes, from Canada. Drink as much Belgian Beer as possible. MGD is good too.