Book Review: Whom God Would Destroy

Title:  Whom God Would Destroy
Author:  Commander Pants
Published: 2009  Pages: 288
Genre: SFF

Plot Synopsis
Oliver is an outreach counselor working with some very unusual outpatients. Abbey, the highly sexualized woman with MPD, tempts Oliver.  Doc's paranoid obsession with Big Mac loving aliens amuses him.  And Greg's schizophrenia offers a touch of excitement.  But Oliver's life is not all mental patients; he is also bombarded by the sane...well, the sort of sane.  His boss Stuart loves theatrical therapy, the boss's boss Peggy is intent on firing him, and then there's Jeremy, a New Age shop owner with a magical bell.

As these characters and more flit in and out of the book, the reader is treated to a convoluted yet simply told look at the nature of humanity, reality, and sanity.

My Thoughts
Euripides said "whom God wishes to destroy, he first sends mad", and clearly Commander Pants knows his Euripides.  Reading this novel is a bit like going mad as you careen through multiple characters and multiple characters with multiple personalities, and each reality you encounter seems just as believable as the next until you are perfectly comfortable accepting burger-eating aliens in search of the Ultimate Orgasm, bell-dinging deities unsure of their own plan, and not-really-crazy people with great acting abilities.  If that doesn't make sense, go read the novel.

The novel is easy to read, the language simple but stylistically intriguing.  The plot, however, left a bit to be desired.  Until the end, I was never quite sure where things were heading - and not in that suspenseful, mysterious way - and in the end, not much had really happened. I would like to add a caveat to this though: I was sick for a week in the middle of reading, which meant that everything went on hold for me for a full seven days.  It is possible that this long pause in the book is what made the plot less accessible for me.

While the plot was a bit eh, the novel is peppered with fascinating characters. Oliver, Jeremy, Abbey et. al., Greg et. al., Doc, Ooklahs, Stuart, Leona, and well, you get the idea, delight in their individual idiosyncrasies as they unapologetically live in their own version of the real world.  I can't even begin to describe the characters because you really need to experience them for yourself.

Thematically, not many books can tackle so many serious issues in such an absurd but meaningful way.  Commander Pants touches on mental health, medication, religion, consumerism, selfishness, sexuality, reality, and Big Macs.

Memorable Scene:  For me the most memorable scene is when Jeremy is speaking to millions of viewers, telling them of the farce that is religion. This is not my favorite scene because I believe religion and God are a giant joke but because of the main message I feel his speech reveals:  "God" gave humanity some wonderful rules and messages, but humanity, in its infinite unwisdom, has always twisted those rules and messages, perverting them, and causing more hate and destruction through these perversions.

Memorable Quote:  As one man rails at fast-food joint patrons, articulating blurpy truths that are insightful in their incoherence, another asks a pertinent question: What chance does reason have against the freight train of invention?

Other Reviews
If I've missed yours, let me know!

A Reader's Respite; Illiterarty; Reading Backwards;  

A Post from the Commander himself can be found here.
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Challenges: SciFi Challenge;


FTC Disclosure: Commander Pants himself sent me this book.  Originally I think it was for a positive review, but once Commander Pants found out that I actually knew the details of the Ultimate Orgasm, he exchanged the book for those details; hence, this review was not bought in any way, shape, or form.

The Second Sex

[Aristotle] thought he could prove scientifically that women's bodies and women's minds ('souls' as he called them) were categorically, naturally, that is unalterably, inferior to men's. Women were, in other words, the second sex in the fullest sense: physically, they were deformed males, and intellectually, they lacked the capacity to make their reasoning powers, such as they were, authoritative.

~Paul Cartledge
The Spartans

*emphasis mine, because it's funny.

What are some other interesting beliefs of the past that have been proven false in the present?

Weekly Geeks: A Bookish Journey

A Bookish Journey

How it gets picked…Rather randomly. Most of the time I pick up a book after perusing my shelves for a title that strikes my fancy. Sometimes choice is determined by my challenges, but even then what specific book gets read is dependent upon my mood.

How it gets read…Mainly I just read. I tend to read one book at a time and in large chunks. Rarely do I spend more than two or three days with a book, and most of the time I finish a book in the same day I start reading it. It is very rare that I write while reading; sometimes I dog ear pages with particular passages that I want to revisit, but quite often I read with very little thought to reviewing later.

How it gets reviewed…Very little time passes between finishing a book and writing a review. Most often I close the book and immediately open my blog and start typing. I tend to write reviews in the moment, never writing, putting away, revisiting and revising, before posting. This is probably not the best way to do things but it works for me.  More than this would feel a bit too much like my job (I teach composition, literature, and film).

What happens after…I have quite a process with my books. After reading and reviewing on my blog, the book is entered on my yearly reading list, I catalogue it in an Excel spreadsheet, the review is copied over to LibraryThing, and if relevant the appropriate link is posted on a challenge blog. Then the book is placed in my library according to basic genre – Literary Fiction, SFF, YAL, Romance, Personal Stories, History, Philosophy, and Education. If I don’t wish to keep the book – which is rare – it gets logged onto BookMooch.

In short:

1. Choose Book
2. Read book
3. Review Book on eclectic/eccentric
4. Log Book on Hominem unius libri timeo
5. Copy review to Library Things
6. Add link to challenge blog (if relevant)
7. Update Challenge Lists on Hominem unius libri timeo (if relevant)
8. Finalize Challenge Post on eclectic/eccentric and add to finished challenges list on hominem unius libri timeo (if relevant)
9. Catalog book in Excel Spreadsheet: Alive/Dead Author, Fiction/Nonfiction, Challenge/Non-Challenge, Genre, Link to Review
10. Place in library or add to BookMooch

Green Bean Bundles

The Book Blog Social Club 

presents the Progressive Dinner

Have you headed over to Angel's Kisses yet for some yummy cinnamon apples with red hot candies and sugar? I hope you have for they are absolutely delicious, but now it's time for something a bit different.  May I present you with Green Bean Bundles.

Green Bean Bundles are easy to make and delicious to eat.  For each bundle, wrap four beans plus a pinch of brown sugar in a half-slice of bacon.  Then, sprinkle cayenne pepper over the top.  Put your bundles on a cooking sheet and back at 425 for 30-40 minutes (or until bacon is done to your liking).  Turn bundles once for crispier bacon.

Take what you like as I have plenty, and if you are interested, Elizabeth has made a Parmesan Star Puff and Heavyset Cheese Ball for our eating pleasure.

Sunday Salon: Sickly Apologies

Well, it finally happened.  I've gone four months with students suffering from H1N1, severe bronchitis, regular bronchitis, upper respiratory tract infections, pneumonia, influenza, and the plain old cold.  With only three weeks remaining in the semester, I thought I was home free.  Then it happened: the tickle in the throat, the tightness in the chest.  I tried to ward it off by drinking inordinate amounts of orange juice, taking vitamin pills, and concentrating really really hard.  Alas, no luck.  Last Monday, the sickness took me.

And I've been down ever since. I have developed an actual cocoon in my basement that I no longer leave. I went three days without ever seeing sunlight.  My car has not moved in six days, and I may have forgotten how to drive. On the plus side, I'm thinking I may come out of this with a better waistline - not for the normal reason.  My stomach muscles have been getting a serious workout with all the coughing.

You would think that with six days of staying at home I would get some reading done, but no luck.  I tried and I tried again, but my ability to focus has been seriously limited by coughing, sneezing, and some sort of inner ear problem that makes movement and sitting up straight difficult.  Sitting up, looking at all of those words swimming across the page, was a rather surreal activity that made me wonder if my medication shares any characteristics with LSD or PCP or well, acid in general.

So in the last week, I haven't read a single book.  Nor have I read your blogs, and for that I sincerely apologize.  My Google Reader has been overloaded, and I may have to just hit Mark All as Read.  I, in my sickliness, apologize.

Thanks to Iman Maleki for the wonderful image.

Countless Cowboys

Rally was obsessed with what made people wonderful. It was usually what she least expected, but she knew the truth when she found it. In Dublin she'd hoped to meet blue-eyed men, raconteurs who would buy her pints and tell her stories. Instead, it was the Irishwomen who fascinated Rally, the young ones with babies, or the ones with pale skin and cigarettes.

In Montana, Rally had talked to countless cowboys - men with blue jeans and money - hoping to sniff out the spirit of the West for a piece she was writing. But it was in Glacier National Park, listening to a park ranger named Russ, a little barrel of a fellow with a lisp, that Rally felt the stubborn inconsequence of men in the wild. What startled Rally, and kept her traveling, was this: when the wonder of an individual human being struck her - when an Irishwoman took smoke in her mouth, or a park ranger's voice broke - Rally felt a throb of loneliness and wanted to kiss that person...to entwine her solitude with his.

~David Schickler
Kissing in Manhattan

Has anything seemingly mundane ever made you feel an extreme emotion?

New Book by Burroughs

"From the author of 'Dry', 'Running With Scissors', 'Wolf at the Table' and 'Magical Thinking'  is the latest offering from the viciously funny Augusten Burroughs, 'You Better Not Cry' from St. Martin's Press:

Augusten Burroughs has, and in this caustically funny, nostalgic, poignant, and moving collection he recounts Christmases past and present-as only he could. With gimleteyed wit and illuminated prose, Augusten shows how the holidays bring out the worst in us and sometimes, just sometimes, the very, very best."

Okay, now my words:  I love Burroughs.  Running with Scissors and Possible Side Effects are hilarious, insightful, and well written.  If you still aren't sold, check out this book trailer:

Now then, how do you win a copy you might ask. St. Martin's is offering you the chance to win the book in a sweepstake, so head over to http://us.macmillan.com/smp/promo/youbetternotcry and get entered!

Movie Review: Snapshots

The Littlest Princess - Aug. 1

I was just looking for something, anything to watch, so when I flipped to some opening credits, I figured why not. About one minute in, I realized I had seen this film before and while I didn't remember the plot, I did remember the feeling. The film features a young girl at boarding school, who after her dad dies in the war, is relegated to the position of servant by the evil, spinstress mistress of the school. It is a typical plot, but the film has interesting details and subplots that make it less formulaic than one would think.

The Incredible Hulk - Oct. 11
Edward Norton and Liv Tyler star in the film. Relatively good movie, action, and - thank heavens - no intense focus on the love story. All I can think about is the enigmatic ending with Robert Downey Jr. as Stark/Ironman telling the General “they” are putting together a team. When is that film coming out?

The Parent Trap - Sept. 3
Why was Sammy, the dog played by Bob? Or rather, why couldn't they just keep the dog's name Bob? And that's all I have to say about this film. It was the remake with Linsey Lohan by the way.

Smart People - Sept. 6
A quote from Mr. T: "This movie is boring as all hell, but kinda good and funny too." Dennis Quaid, Ellen Page, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Thomas Haden Church all put in wonderful performances, and the film itself is oddly moving, but yep, kind of boring simultaneously.

Bottle Rocket - July ?
Friends work to become thieves under the misguided tutelage of Dignan (Owen). The Wilson brothers rock my world and Wes Anderson rocks my world. This movie, however, did not. I try to like it. Every time I watch it, I try to like it. I just can't.