Gates of Eden
By Ethan Coen
Copyright 1998 - Rob Weisbach Books - 261 pages
A review by Anna Alexander
When it comes to borrowing books at the library, I am unable to leave without at least three books in my hand. I don’t always read all three books but I feel naked leaving with just one book. I find a lot of duds by doing this but occasionally I find a few gems. One such gem is Ethan Coen’s book of short stories, Gates of Eden.
Many of us know Ethan Coen as one half of the Academy Award-winning Coen Brothers who wrote and directed such classics as Fargo and O Brother Where Out Thou? In Gates of Eden we meet a strange mix of characters that only someone who wrote The Big Lebowski could conjure.
There’s Joe Carmody, an incompetent amateur boxer who takes a job as a private investigator and agrees to shoot pictures of the wife of a local thug to try to catch her in the act with another man. Joe learns the hard way that he is just as incompetent as a P.I. as he was a boxer.
There’s Michael Simkin, the son of a rich Jewish family and class clown who defies the principal of his Hebrew school until he makes the wrong gesture at the right time during assembly.
There’s Victor Strang, a fledgling private investigator ,who gets his ear bitten off in a vicious attack and tries to make sense of the world through a series of odd dreams.
We’re immersed in family drama in the story The Boys about a man who is talked into going to The Crazy Horse Pageant in Vermillion, South Dakota by his two sons only to find the cooks at the local greasy spoon do not how to make omelets.
My favorite story was Cosa Minapolidan. The de Louie mob decides to relocates to Minneapolis because the head boss thinks Minneapolis is Chippewa for New Naples. The gangsters find out the hard way that there’s not much action in Minneapolis so they have to make up their own. This includes having dead gay man shipped in from Cincinnati.
There are a couple of radio plays (complete with sound effects) thrown for variety. In Hector Berlioz, Private Investigator Coen puts in musical cues for suspense and uses it as a transition between scenes. The running joke through the play is no one can pronounce Hector's name:
Woman: Mr. Greneen, there’s a Mr. Burly Ox to see you concerning –
Berlioz: Berlioz. Eck-dor Berlioz.
Woman: - a Mr. Egg Door Barley Oaks to see you regarding the Capostello Foundation.
Coen writes the way his characters speak so it feels like you're reading an audio book. In the story Destiny the incompetent boxer Joe Carmody is introduced to the local thug Benny Bendeck who bursts into the locker room yelling, “Ah, look, it’s Bagadonuts. Look at ya, ya f-ing Bagadonuts, you’re a f-ing Bagadnuts, f-ing look at ya!”
I don’t normally seek out books of short stories because I find there are only a few good stories with the rest being filler. Gates of Eden is not one of those. Each story has a distinct voice with unique characters. Coen does not fall back on the same writing style and keeps the reader guessing at the start of each story. It’s a quick read and is perfect for a rainy or snowy Sunday afternoon when you don’t want to leave the house.
Sometimes A Great Notion
By Ken Kesey
Review by Anna Alexander
I was eating my lunch and reading one rainy day at work when my boss walked in to chat. He picked up my book and got a nostalgic look on his face and said, “Sometimes you just have to read a good classic book to get some perspective.”
Indeed.
I like to think of myself as a well-rounded reader. If the book doesn’t grab me with the first sentence, I don’t give it much hope. I set my bar high for what I consider good and rarely does a book knock my socks off. I wish I could have met Ken Kesey to tell him this book not only knocked my socks off, but it left me wanting more.
Sometimes A Great Notion takes place not too far from the Oregon Coast in the fictional town of Wakonda, Oregon. The plot centers around the Stamper Family during a logging strike. The loggers are striking for the same pay for fewer hours due to the introduction of the chain saw. The Stampers are a hard-headed, hard-working logging family that owns its own company and not only decides to keep working during the strike, but agrees to supply the local mill with lumber.
The decision to keep logging is reflected through the Stamper family history and animosity of the striking townspeople. Henry Stamper, the patriarch, is a grizzled old logger whose motto is “Never Give An Inch.” His oldest son, Hank, is an ex-marine who works hard to keep the family business going but fails to see how his determination is wrecking his family; Leland, the youngest son, is called away from his Ivy League education and eccentric lifestyle to help with the logging. And then there’s Viv, Hank’s wife. She’s drawn to him by his bad-boy image which quickly wears thin and has her wanting more than he can give her.
The first part of the book gives a background of the Stamper Family and how the strained relationships developed. Things start really start to pick up when Leland is called home from The East Coast. Strung out on drugs and academia, Leland returns home with a chip on his shoulder and hatred for Hank. He chooses to play the Good Son and go along with Hank’s logging plans so he can get revenge. Leland’s motives aren’t always clear but his long and rambling letters to his roommate Peters serves a diary of what’s going on his head.
The narration of the book is a bit disorienting at first because you don’t always know who is talking. Kesey jumps from The Stampers to the townspeople with no announcement that he’s changed characters. This technique, however, allows Kesey to weave an intricate story for the reader to better understand the motives of the characters who otherwise don’t communicate very well.
One of my favorite passages is when one of the characters is describing the rain in Oregon: “The same old rain, and, even if not welcomed, at least accepted – an old gray aunt who came to visit every winter and stayed till spring. You learn to live with her. You learn to reconcile yourself to the little inconveniences and not get annoyed. You remember she is seldom angry or vicious and nothing to get in a stew about, and if she is a bore or stays overlong you can train yourself not to notice her.
Sometimes A Great Notion was published two years after One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and Kesey has said in interviews that he feels Sometimes A Great Notion is the best book he’s written. Having read both books, I agree with Kesey.
This book is not for everyone. It’s a dense book and has to be read slowly or you’ll miss important details. I took a long time to read this book because I wanted to hear the character’s voices, see the Oregon forests, hear the rain on the roof of the bar and smell the sawdust. I wanted to be there taking notes in the dark corner of the Stamper house. Perhaps this book will make you want to be there, too.