Food Rules

I adore Michael Pollan, much as I adore Jamie Oliver: here are two men who want to reclaim food as an enjoyable, communal experience that should remain as close to the source as possible. But I'll admit that Pollan's books sometimes ramble (for me, at least). The Western diet is a crazy panoply of economic, misinformed, corporation-driven weirdness. Point made. The question I'm more interested in is, how do we apply that knowledge to return to a more sensible mode of eating?

This is why I enjoyed Pollan's Food Rules the most of any of his titles. It is a synthesis of the practical applications of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. As he points out, these are simply potential policies that surround his mantra, "Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much." These "rules" are ways of looking at, conceptualizing, and applying the mantra. Many overlap, but intentionally so. By repeating the same general principles in different ways, Pollan attempts to find a way for every person to connect with at least a few ideas. These are not nutritional edicts. These are just ways to help people make wise choices when they shop and cook.

Verdict: Utterly enjoyable and delightfully concise!

The Children's Book

Despite the name, this is NOT a children's book! In fact, it is very grown-up fiction by the talented A.S. Byatt, author of the Booker Prize-winning novel Possession. I vote that we skip over the sheer oddness of me reading an adult book amongst my regular YA blitz and just move on.

The Children's Book, set in the late Victorian period, explores the intertwined relationships of several families surrounding children's book author and matriarch Olive Wellwood. It spans the two decades preceding World War I, as well as several countries, multiple monarchs, and a turbulent stew of philosophical and social movements. At 675 pages, it ought to be overlong and bloated... but it is not. The many threads are complicated, intricately interwoven, and densely packed into the allotted space. (I do not know many stories that convey so much on every page.) There are so many characters that purportedly even Byatt herself had to create a spreadsheet to track them all! This is not a story to be read lightly or with half-attention.

While I am unlikely to reread this one for the sheer joy of it, I am very glad to have spent (considerable) time reading it. I was drawn in by Byatt's attention to relationship, particularly. Much historical fiction pimps either the characters or the setting to focus on the other aspect; The Children's Book does not. The relationship between character and setting (including time) in inextricably tight. Every person's development, expectation, and struggle is informed by the environment and time in which they live. Conversely, the setting is informed by the characters (fictional and historical alike) which populate it. One without the other would be incomplete and cheap. Byatt's attention to historical detail and breadth also lends a polish and complexity that I very rarely see. Here is an author who understands the value of research and context!

The relationships between people are equally important. Byatt does not shy away from the reality of people for the sake of poetic license -- her characters are deeply flawed, which lends them the ability to make both striking and terrible choices, as the opportunities present themselves. The intertwined stories never end with marriage or love, nor death or betrayal; these are simply points in the greater continuum of the story, where time pushes relentlessly forward... toward war, toward death, toward progress, toward endlessly cyclical human nature. Incest, rape, lust, love, childbirth, passion, ambition, and bitterness are all matter-of-fact aspects of human relationships. At points, it almost feels horrific in how bluntly the overarching story includes these things. (For example, after one woman gives birth, Byatt refers to the "bleeding sack of her body.") Such things are often glossed over, but in the relationships between these characters, they are necessarily raw and they inform the development of the lives they touch.

It is a very good book. It feeds that English major and amateur historian still lurking somewhere in my soul.

Verdict: Densely packed, tightly woven, and insightful in disturbing, blunt ways. I would hand this to any aspiring author of the Great Novel as an example of a mature, fully realized work that very few will ever to achieve.

I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President

One of the executive producers of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has written a young adult novel. It is safe to say that you take the show's snarky commentary on world politics, toss in some of the weirder aspects of human nature, and put a deceptively dim-witted middle schooler in as the main character, you've probably imagined this book. Feel free to skip along now and continue about your day.

I wish I had a lot to say about this title, but I really don't. Oliver is an evil genius who secretly runs a global empire while pretending to be a dim-witted 7th grader. He has a secret lair under his house, a polished front man pretending to be in charge, and inevitable Daddy-issues. It's funny, much like The Daily Show is funny. It points to the stupidity of elections, ignorance of the masses, etc. We all love a good evil genius, so that's entertaining too. I particularly like the manipulative vixen Oliver has a crush on; she's a great femme fatal with absolutely no remorse.

But when you get right down to it, this is a book written for adults. The commentary and cynicism will resonate with folks who have already gained distance and perspective as they grow farther from those sweaty puberty years and get further immersed in the vagueries of adulthood. It lacks the immediate insight of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, because it is an adult speaking to a kid, saying, "Look how funny and absurd this is!" (On the other hand, Greg Heffley *is* a middle schooler and speaks directly out of his mundane experience, much the the hilarity of every kid who reads it.)

Verdict: Authors, please realize this: making your character a teenager does not a YA book make. Truly great teen fiction is as well-crafted as adult fiction. This is not it.