Books

[telophase]

I recently read Mikal Gilmore's Shot in the Heart after a years-ago rec from rachelmanija. Gilmore is the brother of Gary Gilmore, executed in Utah by firing squad for murdering two people, and the book is his memoir of growing up in an immensely fucked-up family, tracing the roots of dysfunction back for a couple of generations. Compelling.

What I found most interesting is his exploration of mythmaking: the stories (and lies) we tell ourselves about who we are and what we do. Both sides of the family had stories deeply embedded in their psychologies that, when Gilmore set to tracing them, turned out to be untrue. Also - and this is the reason rachelmanija made the rec in the first place - the family experience disturbances of a paranormal nature which, although Gilmore is quite clear that he does not believe in such things as spirits, reflected the disturbances within the family and their psyches and as such became part of the family myths.

And then I read Gillian Flynn's Dark Places: A Novel,apparently because I am a glutton for punishment after reading Shot in the Heart. Not because it's a bad book - by no means is it a bad book - but because it's a novel about a family's murder, and the deep secrets, dark places, misunderstandings, and stories we tell ourselves. Thematically appropriate after Gilmore's memoir, but I've been shuffling around vaguely depressed since Saturday because of reading two dark books so close to each other (well, okay, the migraine is not helping that either).

I'm not sure where I came across the review of it that made me send the sample to my Kindle, but send it I did and on Friday night, when I was going through my samples and deleting them or moving them to my "Possible Purchases" Kindle collection, I read the sample for Dark Places And couldn't stop thinking about it. I ended up reading Shot in the Heart first, as I'd been intending to read it for years, but when it was finished I still couldn't stop thinking about the Dark Places sample, and bought it. Apparently I was in the mood for violent crime noir.

Libby Day survived the massacre of her mother and two sisters in 1985, at the age of seven, and was instrumental in providing testimony that put her then-15-year-old brother Ben in prison. Fast forward to now, when Libby is 32 and the money she's been living on, donations from kind-hearted well-wishers, is running out. She ends up falling in with a true crime enthusiast group because they're willing to pay her for appearances and for artifacts of her family. Turns out, they believe Ben is innocent and want to try to exonerate him. Libby is resistant to this, but starts investigating for them because she desperately needs the money, and turns up a dark nest of lies.

The novel has frequent flashbacks to the day of the murders from a number of different viewpoints, and shows how people misinterpret each other's actions and motivations. If you're a fan of the sort of storytelling that shows the events from different points of view, you'll probably appreciate this.

Weirdly, I can't say that it's a great book, because I usually base that on my emotional reaction to it, and this is so dark that I feel it's an awful book, because the things in it and my reactions to it are so awful. Which probably means that it's wildly successful, as I suspect that reaction is Flynn's intention. It was compelling enough that every time I put it down - and there were points when I had to put it down, as it hit very close to personal squicks and triggers - I also had to pick it back up again, to find out what happened and who the killer was - Ben? Someone else?

Needless to say there are a huge number of potential triggery items and themes here, but if you're a fan of this sort of dark novel, you're probably not bothered by that. Recommended, if you like this sort of thing.

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Now I have to go find something HAPPY and LIGHT and FLUFFY and PINK to read, to scrub out my brain. I've got several samples on the Kindle of memoirs by and about people buying houses in rural France and Italy which may be just the thing.

Comments

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I started Shot In The Heart a few months back and I had to put it down. I was really impressed and I want badly to read it at some point, but I just did not have enough cope on hand to read that book at that time...it made me want to slit my wrists (not literally) and I had nightmares for days (literally).

I was impressed by Flynn's Sharp Objects. Will (gingerly) give this one a try.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

It's an excellent book and makes me want to check out some of Gilmore's music writing but yeah ... damn tough to read. The question ends up not being why did Gary do what he did, but how did Frank Jr and Mikal escape as much as they did.

I will probably pick Sharp Objects up at some point, but not for a while. I need escapism first!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Can you believe that I've not only read it, but re-read it? Several times? It's not only very dark, but even though it's written by the brother who escapes, it ends on a disquieting note.

The ghost stories are so damn creepy! It doesn't even matter whether you take them literally or not, they're creepy either way.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I now want to read books in which the ghosts reflect what's going on in the house, but I suspect most of them would be dark enough that I should read something else first. :) (I think Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger is one of those, and I've seen it recommended ... er, somewhere.)

[estara.livejournal.com]

Get the second Castle Waiting collection! There are two dark past explorations but it's all relatively low volume amids the exitement of finding a new room for Jain and the baby! Lots of lovely bowling and telling of love story with giants and flashbacks to Jain as a child, etc.

[fourthage.livejournal.com]

I have this weird thing about stories like that. I am totally fine reading them (and usually interested in doing so) if it actually happened. Fictional? Can't get past the first ten pages. I wish I knew why.