Sundog Rising!
Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog
The Truth in False Advertising
This is not a book review. I don’t think I can honestly review the book in question. Expectations were set so very differently from what was actually read.
So what’s a poor kid to do? My son wants to buy his mother a book for Christmas, but knows she is a discerning reader, so he hunts through Chapters for a couple of hours finally happening on a book that from the fly-leaf blurb sounds like it should be perfect! A beautiful tale of two children finding the true meaning of home and family in one of my wife’s favourite cities, from the naif drawing on the cover.
To top it off, when he gets it home his father — that would be me — tells him, oh good choice, I’ve been meaning to read that one myself. Got a good impression of it — from the fly-leaf and the cover.
Needless to say, both cover and fly-leaf were lying.
This isn’t unusual, but I like to think I usually have better instincts for catching the unreasonable. I remember picking up a video copy of Princess Mononoke by Hayao Miyazaki with the blurb on the back loudly proclaiming in giant letters LIKE A JAPANESE STAR WARS! Let’s face it, promotional material and entertainment covers are usually provided on the basis of WE REALLY REALLY WANT YOU TO BUY THIS!
In the case of Princess Mononoke I knew I wasn’t going to be disappointed by what was there, and I never for a moment thought it would really be like Star Wars. However, in the case of this book, both my son and I legitimately thought we were getting at least something along the lines of what was advertised.
Childlike book cover and fly-leaf emphasizing a beautiful tale of two children finding the true meaning of home and family. Actual message of the book?
Those of us with the strongest spirits are doomed literally to drown in a river of excrement. And by the end of the book, the remaining family in the story is so shattered none of them can speak to each other and they are in a boat in the middle of the ocean, exiled from their original home, with no sense of where they’re headed next.
I don’t think I’m the only one seeing a disparity between the advertised message and the actuality here?
Moral of the story: adjust the old adage. Never judge a book by its cover or its fly-leaf. In fact, never go into any story with expectations. That way at least you can judge the piece for what it really is. And you’ll also avoid those disappointing situations where what might be a good read by different terms ends up in the hands of entirely the wrong audience at the wrong time.
That being said, when my book of Jason Midnight short stories was published I was asked to write my own blurb. Going back I find this is what I wrote:
People with lives suddenly twisted to the unbelievable can always call on one man: feisty Winnipeg North End Private Investigator, Jason Midnight. “No Case Or Solution Too Ridiculous To Be Considered.” Whether it’s dealing with a strange Norse God cult in Manitoba’s Interlake, trying to run down the ghostly reincarnation of Jack the Ripper in Winnipeg’s Old Market Square, or dueling with the Devil himself over questionable results in the Provincial Lottery, Jason Midnight is always on the case.
First off, I don’t believe I wrote this. “Feisty”? Not an adjective I’d ever willingly choose for the Midnight Man. Plus I know “dueling” has two l’s in Canada. I might have written that bit about “questionable results in the Provincial Lottery”, but I don’t think it punches the point trying to be made at all adequately. And the people in the Interlake weren’t a “Norse God cult”. They actually believed they were Norse Gods. So that’s not entirely honest.
On the whole, I’d say it’s not particularly grabbing or well-written but it’s more or less honest. But I think it would have been better to stop at “No Case or Solution Too Ridiculous To Be Considered.” That’s the line that best captures the spirit of the book. Plus, I can’t imagine disappointing anyone going in on the basis of that description —it leaves things wide open for me to do whatever I want. Rather than what you might expect from a “feisty Private Investigator who’s always on the case”.
So I accept it’s difficult to sell a book based on one paragraph or so. People do want some sense of what the story’s about. How much do you tell them without giving things away? Another good reason never to read the fly-leaf blurbs on mysteries. At the very least they always tell you who got killed. Something the author might actually want to keep you in suspense about for awhile.
But how’s a casual reader or person trying to find a book he might not read himself for another person entirely supposed to judge whether a particular volume’s worth buying or not? He’s got to make a snap decision based on something, you can’t stop and read every possible book in contention first, especially if your tastes are different.
I try to go Zen on it. I do read the blurb, I do look at the cover, I check the author’s name, I skim through the book. I check the font-size, the quality of the paper, the heft of the book in my hands, how easy it’s going to be to hold it while reading, everything. Only I don’t concentrate on any one aspect as I take it in. I mash all the impressions together at once, attempting to penetrate the book’s comprehensive being without actually reading the story itself. I reach out and assess the book with a holistic, no desire-no expectations attitude that I have faith will guide me right.
Then I look at the price, and decide if I want to spend that much money on the person it’s for or not.
*****
REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!
The results for Doyle-Ish come stumbling in on Monday, and The Electric Detective fries again on Friday, February 20th. Reality Fiction Three: The Interrupted Edition continues at:
http://realficone.blogspot.ca/
Danger from the skies, and incomprehensible rule changes. Reality at its finest!
Episodes to Date:
Episode One: Dante-Ish — Mak’s Inferno
Episode Two: Chaucer-Ish — The Hermit’s Tale
Episode Three: Malory-Ish — Le Morte de Mak
Episode Four: Doyle-Ish — Mak the Kipper
All with illustrations by the author. Working through the Contestants in order of their appearance.
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