The shortest so far from the 5 other Sandman volumes that i've read. This volume is a collection of four stand alone stories that explains some aspects about the Endless namely Dream and Death. Although not a continuation of the Sandman storyline, still it offers readers a lot in regards to the over all scope of this monumental Sandman series.

Calliope - a short story about a struggling one hit writer Ric Madoc and his obsession to reach top form again, doing so he receives a present from cult filmmaker Erasmus Fry, in the form of a muse, whom he abuses and rapes after drawing inspiration from her and writing bestsellers, directing movies and unto the peak of success. Until Dream, who is the muse's former flame, escapes from his captor and decided to free up his muse and gives Madoc a lesson or two about not having any ideas at all.

A Dream of a Thousand Cats - an imaginative tale that shows a gathering of cats and their dream of a world where cats are the masters and human as its servants, a frightening possibility that one feline speaks of, if only all the cats in the world will believe that it is the case ever since the beginning of time.

A Midsummer Night's Dream - won the World Fantasy award for best short story, tells the story of William Shakespeare and his wandering theater troupe and it's performance in front of an audience that looks like not any audiences they have played for in the past.

Facade - is a short story related to another Sandman volume, the Kindly Ones. Former superhero known as the Fury, Lyta Hall now lives in almost seclusion. In the end with the help of "Death" her powers becomes the solution to how she will be freed.

Although i really want to read this volume because i was so curious about Midsummer Night's Dream, although it turned out quite well, i can say my favorite is "Dream a Thousand Cats", the artwork is creepy, the theme so dark and the message frighteningly chilling.

While Calliope reminds me of people who would sell their soul, in exchange for a burst of creativity, makes me wonder who among us right now has a muse somewhere hidden in their bedroom whom they keep imprisoned and abused. Yes another creepy tale.

Plus the inclusion of the sample script by Neil Gaiman will teach you a thing or two about how to write and imagine a story that is ought to be written as a comic book.

All the more makes this a must read for everybody.
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William S. Burroughs' first novel "Junky" (originally titled "Junk") is a fictional narrative, but was heavily based on facts of Burroughs' real life experiences with junk addiction, junk being (opium or any derivatives of opium, morphine, heroin, marijuana etc.).

One can say "Junky" follows the path of the normal "autobiographical fiction that characterized the Beat Generation writing". But unlike Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" , "The Town and the City" and "The Dharma Bums", Burroughs' "Junky" narratives was concentrated heavily on one aspect of his life, which was his own drug addiction.

It's not really what you can call autobiographical, but sort of early day "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" i can imagine Hunter S. Thompson having "Junky" in his mind while writing his legendary book with regards to the effects of Drugs into having hallucinatory dreams.

"Almost worse than the sickness is the depression that goes with it. One afternoon, i closed my eyes and saw New York in ruins. Huge centipedes and scorpions crawled in and out of empty bars and cafeterias and drugstores on 42nd street. Weeds were growing up through cracks and holes in the pavement. There was no one in sight".

It's a book about a particular phase in William Burroughs' life, an accurate portrayal of the junk world and all the characters that got involved in it, the most candid, eye popping account of an underworld that is a taboo to Americans back then, it is an honest assessment of a man's relationship with Junk as Allen Ginsberg wrote in the afterword.

"no attempt at self-exculpation but the most candid, no romaticization of the circumstances, the dreariness, the horror, the mechanical beatness and evil of the junk life as lived".

*****
Junky opens with the first person narrative of William Lee ( Lee being Burroughs' mother's maiden name ) of the very first time that he got introduced to junk just about the latter part of the war ( 1944 or 1945 ). It then goes on with the usual telling of getting used to injecting junk in his system, meeting underworld characters like drug peddlers, hustlers, thieves, pimps and other form of "lowlifes".

To his experiences as a drug peddler himself, in this way Lee get to earn money to support his junk addiction, hustling drunks on trains ( which they refer to as "lush" ) where they will sit beside a sleeping lush target with Lee reading a newspaper and his cohort Roy would put his hand behind Lee's back and reach for the pocket of the "sleeping lush".

"The car was almost empty and there we were wedged up against the mooch with twenty feet of empty seats available"

To summarize it all up it was as Ginsberg wrote "a systematic history of the events of a habit, the cravings, the jailings, the night errands, the day boredoms"...

From hustling croakers ( term for doctors ) to write scripts ( drug prescription ) for morphines, picking lush pockets along different avenues and train stations of New York, William Lee's junky phase will take him to Texas, New Orleans and eventualy running away from the law unto Mexico.

It's more of a window to the persona and soul of a person with a drug habit,
Burroughs at the same time insists that Drugs is not a habit forming drugs, that virgin drug users will take at least 4 months to develop withdrawal symptoms, nonetheless all the characters he wrote tells us that Junk is Junk, it either leaves you lifeless and lost forever depending on substance and chemicals to bring life to your tormented cells.

******
I enjoyed reading this book, the book gives me an accurate portrayal of a person deeply hooked in drugs, it has a serious overtone especially its about someone who wasn't born to be a loser, Burroughs' background is superb, he went to Harvard, studied and lived in Europe and came from a decent family, it shows how vices or drug dependency can hit almost anyone. And William Lee's narratives gives us with all honesty and a brutal characterization of what life is about when you put yourself in such seemingly un-escapable situation.

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This is my first Chuck Klosterman book, I've read it a few months ago and I'm just making the review right now. Don't know what to write whether I enjoyed it or what. It definitely shows some promises and I heard "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto" is the book to read if you really want to discover Chuck's writing talent.

nyway here's a bit of the rundown about his book "Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story".

It was conceived as a sort of documentary book about death with emphasis on the deaths of rock and roll icons. With this path Chuck Klosterman embarks on a road trip across the United States visiting the places of famous death sites of rock and roll stars. Suffice to say he at least visited some sites particularly the NY hotel where Sid Vicious stabbed and killed Nancy Spungen and Sid Himself died, the highway where Duane Allman died in a motorcycle crash, the site where the plane carrying members of Lynard Skynard crashes, Kurt Cobain's Seattle home, the lake where Jeff Buckley drowned, the club that burned killing a hundred people at a Great White show and of course Graceland where the King died.

Apart from tackling what he perceives as death being more advantageous to these figures, thus citing Jeff Buckley's death made his debut album "Grace" from average to something of a "must have" album. Buckley's drowning made him a rock icon from an ordinary good musician.

But the twist if ever there's one is when Chuck Klosterman becomes sort of Charlie Kauffman in "Adaptation" wherein he incorporated himself to the book, the supposed to be death documentary now becomes a sort of memoir of Chuck's experiences with his present and ex-girlfriends. A development that gets annoying sometimes but to his credit he wrote at the first part of the book

"“Well, the larger thesis is somewhat underdeveloped” and by the end, I had my co-worker telling me, “Please don’t write a book about women you used to be in love with,” and when I asks why not, she replies by saying, “Because that’s exploitative. And narcissistic. And a bit desperate.”

Which is what the book became...Chuck Kloster man at his narcissistic stage, can be very well be humorous at a number of occasions and I think that is the only thing why this book belongs on my shelf. I admire his sense of humor and his writing style is something to envy about.

But still, Klosterman wasted a great opportunity here, I mean road trip, death sites of famous rock and roll stars...too bad all of this ended up in the background as Klosterman ended up writing about himself.
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After an injury that he suffered while cutting trees in Boston. Sebastian Junger, a journalist in profession thought about writing a book about the different dangerous occupations in the United States. Living in a nearby fishing community of Gloucester, Massachusetts writing a non fiction book about the events that transpired during the great storm that hit North America in 1991 become the obvious choice.

And the result is "The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea". A narrative account about the preceding moments and the days that followed after the doomed sword fishing boat "Andrea Gail" set out on its fishing journey.

With veteran fishermen who spends more than 10 months on the high seas each year, coming home only to unwind at the local favorite watering destination the Crow's Nest. Junger introduces us to the characters led by Billy Tyne, the captain of the Andrea Gail along with the ship's five other crew members who would suffer a mysterious fate at the very eye of the Hurricane Grace.

Sebastian Junger captured every details about what is life as a fisherman, the rich maritime history of the industry in Gloucester, thematics about fishing and sailing and even the last thoughts that crowds the head of a person about to die by drowning.

Readers will learn to care for the doomed characters to the point that you'll hope for their eventual safety even though its common knowledge that the Andrea Gail was never found and presumed to be swallowed by the sea.

A feeling of abruptness comes while Junger is narrating the events after the Andrea Gail's last radio message, the possibilities of what happened makes it more poignant as it leaves the readers a mystery of the unknown only the real life crew of the Andrea Gail have experienced minutes before their impending death.

The way Sebastian Junger wrote and researched for his material is well applauded, by countless interviews with family members and friends of the crew of the Andrea Gail, he was able to clearly write a narrative that describes each character's life previous to the tragic event and each motivation in risking their life for such a voyage towards the end of the fishing season.

The book also details other close brush with death of other ships and carriers in the region where the Perfect Storm hit. Which involves a heroic cost guard's successful rescue of three crew members from a sailboat.

Over-all, The Perfect Storm is a story that grips the readers about the real life horrors that fishermen encounters each day on their job. The characters are well portrayed without exploiting or sensationalizing each motives and memories of what transpired.

With this book, Sebastian Junger was hailed as the new coming of a writer in the molds of a Hemingway and help usher in a zest for a genre called the "macho non fiction".
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"Haunted" is a collection of 23 short stories in between the narratives about a group of writers who answered an ad that says "Artist''s retreat abandon your life for three months" in an isolated writer's colony run by an old dying man named Whittier.

None of the characters were named by their real name, they were refered to by various aliases like; Mother Nature, Earl of Slander, Duke of Vandals, the Missing Link, Lady Baglady to name a few.

The narratives about their ordeal in the writer's colony are intertwined with the different short stories that these characters have written (which are mostly about them ), the cover of the paperback version of this book has a line from observer that says "brutally graphic".

Which is expected of any Chuck Palahiuk book and with the first short story called "Guts" is of any indication, readers are in for a horrific ride.

As i have learned, "Guts" has been in circulation prior to the writing of this book, Chuck P. has made some news around America during a book reading tour, wherein while reading this short story, scores of listeners dropped unconsciously on the floor, mainly because of the graphic details of the story.

"Guts" was about a teenage masterbation gone wrong, if you are curious. And as i found myself, i cringe halfway through it, finished the story without passing out, but still, true to it, i found it brutal and darkly funny, the true Chuck P. style.

So as the days goes by on the "Artist's colony", with lack of food and stable living condition sets in, the mental state of the writers are greatly affected, the stories they write soon becomes darker, their relationships towards each other becomes spiteful, starvation eventually leads to a suicide and more contempt with each other to the amusement of the old man Whittier...yeah i guess i should stop right here hahaha...

Over all the novel is what every critics have said it is, "full of gore" to some they find it as "worthless piece of graphic literature" (probably the same critics who gave John Grisham's novels a 5 star ).

Reading a book is an intimate experience, its like consentual sex, you wont go on if it doesnt pleases you, and i find reading this book as one of my joyful exuberant moments in reading just about anything ( that includes porn ), if i may say, this one isn't for everybody.

This book aint for the sissy readers who thought "Da Vinci Code" is the greatest book on earth and are foolish enough to watch the film, if you're a Harry Potter junkie, i suggest keep up with your reading habbits, no need in making a grothesgue and sudden change in genre.

But if you are a Stephen King, Irvine Welsh, Alex Garland, The Canterbury Tales reader? then this one is for you.

It will delight you to no end, its brutal content will either leave you laughing your ass of or it might produce some nightmares in the coming night.

Which coincidentally i did, night after i got done reading with "Haunted", i had a nightmare, even though i dont remember the details, it was enough to wake me up in the middle of the night, leave me sweating and unable to sleep the rest of the way.

I can say "Haunted" has gotten under my skin....hahahaha....
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Brief Lives is the 7th collection of Neil Gaiman's acclaimed The Sandman Comics series. It was the 4th volume that i've read so far and probably the most insightful one in terms of explaining to me the relationships between each member of the family of the Endless.

Brief Lives starts with with an old man named Andros climbing up a rocky hill into an almost obscure island, among the small inhabitants of that island where some of Andros' family playing the modern day version of "the priests of Orpheus", it is then revealed that they were guarding and taking care a severed head which seems to be alive and at the same time talking.

Same with almost the previous Sandman volumes, each will start out with a scene that may resonates with the reader as they advance through the story, here the mysterious "talking head" will play a great part in the mysterious past of Morpheus aka Dream.

But the events of Brief Lives progresses on when Dream's youngest sister Delirium ( childlike in any sense of the word ) decided to find the Endless' missing "prodigal" brother Destruction, who about 300 years ago has abandoned his realm and responsibilities.

Delirium travels through the different realms of her older siblings to ask for help in locating their brother, after being churned away by both Desire and Despair telling her that they should respect their brother's decision, Delirium then was able to convince Dream to help her find Destruction in the waking world.

Dream accepted to help childish little sister Delirium so he can take his mind off the pain caused by the latest break up of a relationship with an unmentioned female.

Their quest costs the lives of many people who would be entangled in their search, because of what will be revealed later as result of 'mechanisms' Destruction set up before he left his realm. Eventually, the pair do track Destruction down, with the help of Destiny who in turn told Morpheus to ask for the help of an oracle.

The oracle that will help Morpheus and Delirium's quest for their brother turns out the severed head in the opening chapter, the Oracle's name is Orpheus, none other than Morpheus own son.

In exchange for the information, Orpheus demands a "boon of his father": where he wishes to die; and bound by his sense of obligation to his son, Morpheus cannot do anything but consent to his wish of dying and finding peace. Thus the shedding of family blood.

****
As i said, Brief Lives offers a great deal about the relationship of The Endless, in spite of their different realms and responsibilities, a feeling of love bounded by hundred of years of existence still exist with each other, Destruction's fondness of both Delirium and Despair is both touching and endearing.

The conversation between Dream and Destruction towards the end that explains Destruction's decision to leave offers a hindsight on the start of the existence of the whole Endless family.

Destruction: "As the universe came into being, Destiny came with it, alone on the darkness...before the living thing came into existence, our sister was there waiting"

Dream: "And when the first living thing awoke to life, i was also there"

And how Destruction's decision that he doesn't want any more part in it.

Destruction: "The Endless are echoes of Darkness, and nothing more. We have no right to play with their lives, to order their dreams and their desires"..

And with that Dream and Delirium watch as their brother descends to another world.
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Frank Miller's "Sin City: The Hard Goodbye" tells the story of a down on his luck man named Marv, a huge character with a soft heart for doing good.

 

 

Problem arises when after making love to a beautiful woman named Goldie an experience that Marv describes as:

"I'm staring at a goddess, she's telling me she wants me. She sounds like she means it. I'm not going to waste one more second wondering how it is i've gotten so lucky"

And the next day Marv awakens to a dead Goldie in his bed.

"Not a mark on her, you'd have to check her pulse or notice those perfect breasts of hers aren't moving like they would if she was breathing...and there's nothing telling me it wasn't just a heart attack in her sleep..nothing but that cold thing in my gut getting colder"

And as Marv promises vengeance to those responsible for Goldie's death, the rest of the book details Marv's single-minded pursuit of vengeance in a classic true film noir fashion.

A journey that will lead him to encounter characters like his sexy but lesbian parole officer Lucille, a well-endowed stripper named Nancy, a gun wielding Wendy ( Goldie's twin sister ), Kevin, a sadistic, cannibal who doesn't speak but is a deadly killer to be reckoned with and Roark, a man who lives in the shadows, but holds the ultimate power.

Ultimately Marv got his revenge to those responsible for Goldie's death.

During the time after he sawed of both of Kevin's legs:

"Not even at the end, not even when the mutts had his fill and Kevin's guts are lying all over the place and somehow, the bastard is still alive, still staring at me, not even when i grab the saw and finish the job. HE NEVER SCREAMS"

The best part was when Marv meet up Patrick Henry Roark in his own place.

Roark: "Will that give you satisfaction my son killing an old helpless old man" ( dont be fooled by his rhetorics about being helpless )

Marv: "The killing, NO!, but everything up until the killing will be a gas"

"And when his eyes go dead, the hell i send him to must seem like heaven after what i've done to him"...


*******

It is graphic, violent YES! but the writing are slick, no wonder Robert Rodriguez based the movie page by page, line by line. All you ever wanted in great pulp fiction is here. Frank Miller delivers the goods. And i'm left wondering how great the other Sin City Volumes would be. I guess i had to collect them all.

Damn another reason to be broke, but as Marv would put it
"Everything is worth dying for, worth killing for, worth going to hell for Amen"

Although i aint dying and killing for nobody...i guess Reading "Sin City" is very much worth being broke for.

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