Although I have way too many demands on my time right now, and can't really afford the time to blog, it's a relief to have a desire to blog about something. It's a relief to have a desire to communicate and write anything. Last week was a busy law week, a very poor writing week and pretty bad reading week - until yesterday. The combination of being tired, overworked and reading several uninspiring novels left me feeling creatively empty.
The poor reading week culminated in me reading a book that had got decent reviews by other readers whose tastes often merge with mine, but for me, it was like eating cardboard. Nothing wrong with the mechanical writing, but I just kept thinking, What's the point of all this? I was bored by the characters. Cared nothing for them.
And then, yesterday, salvation came in the form of Sleepwalker by Jordan Castillo Price.
I love JCP's books. I've read quite a few now, having been introduced to her via Josh Lanyon's stint on her Petit Morts series. She's a great writer and publishes her own stuff on JCP Books. I am All Admiration for this writer, I tell you, and Sleepwalker is as good an introduction to her work as any.
What a great little book. 40k words. Neat, lean, efficient, poignant, full of beautiful little character sketches, great use of setting/props. Lovely spare little snippets of profundity. I just really loved it. When I picked up this book, I was like a dusty old car sputtering into the petrol station. Reading it replenished my fuel tank, and I drove away much happier.
Our hero is Web, a night security guard at a decrepit natural history museum desperately in need of funding. We realise very quickly that something is wrong with Web. What this is, the way it is parsed out - so patiently - for the reader is far far too good for me to spoil it for you by telling you what it is. Suffice to say, if you like a damaged hero (and I most assuredly do) you will love Web.
An opportunity to gain funding arises and the museum management bring in a local taxidermist to spruce up the tired and decaying exhibits. Enter Jesse Rae Jones. A sort of sexy skater boy cum hillbilly who is smart, unflappable and kind. Just as Web and Jesse are beginning to negotiate a possible relationship, one of the museum's management is murdered and both Web and Jesse come under suspicion.
It's a nice little plot -I enjoyed the denouement even if it was a little pat. And the attraction and growing relationship between Web and Jesse is well done. But what I really loved with this book was the deeper work. The thoughtfulness of the setting - a decrepit old museum - and what that said about the characters and their lives, what they were contending with.
Everything in this novel added something to the meaning of the story and the satisfaction of the reader. No accident that Jesse is a restorer of damaged things. No accident that Web is a night guard, both figuratively, and at times literally, sleepwalking through his life, missing the business of living in order to guard old memories.
Lots of stuff too in here about missed opportunities and the danger of holding off on living. The town Web lives in, Faris, was destroyed by a tornado 15 years before. Lives were wiped out then and there. As Web says:
If life's taught me anything, it's that you might as well eat your dessert first, 'cos the ceiling might fall in before you're even done with the salad.
But understanding that lesson is easy. Living it is harder. Seizing what you desire in life is fraught with all sorts of difficulties, some of your own making, some beyond your control. Sometimes taking what you want means giving up something else that feels vital. Web, and one of his fellow guards dislike their jobs but feel trapped because of their need for health insurance. Jesse wants Web but he has a responsibility to his father to do this job properly and bring home the bacon - so he tells Web he needs to finish the job at the museum first. These decisions are frustrating but understandable.
There were many many passages I loved in this book, but I'm going to quote this one. Web is showing Jesse a stunted tree that grows inside the building. A design that didn't really work out:
"The architect was on crack or something, I guess."
"Nah, I think it was a cool idea, once." He pressed his hand into the wall as if he could feel the tree's underground structure pushing back, then looked up through the grate like he was searching for the starry night sky beyond the tempered glass atrium ceiling. "It just didn't turn out the way they thought it would."
And doesn't that just sum it up so very nicely? Sometimes stuff doesn't work out. It doesn't mean the whole thing - whether it be a person, an idea, a path in life - has no value. A damaged thing has worth too.
Sometimes it can be saved, sometimes not. But there's always something. Even if it's just the memory that it was good, once upon a time.
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