Chet Reads & Writes*

Three years ago I was introduced to The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. If you’re not totally familiar with the tale, it’s a short story written by Ernest Hemingway. It’s the tale of a couple on Safari, and a chain of events that leads to the end of Francis. It’s a great story, and was my first glimpse into Hemingway. I have nothing but respect for this story.

However, there are not two modern authors who have taken the title, changed it to fit their characters, and then produced work that I’m not thrilled about. First up is The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. For some reason beyond my comprehension this book is a Pulitzer Prize winner. I read this book, from beginning to end, and kept saying to myself, “It’s going to get better.” I made this same mistake with A Million Little Pieces. I’m positive that there are plenty of people out there that really enjoyed Diaz’s novel. It just couldn’t do it for me, and that could have something to do with not being able to connect with the characters. I thought Oscar and I could connect on some level, but there were just far too many differences for me to care enough about Mr. Wao.

Next up we have Stephanie Meyer. That’s right, her. The ruiner of vampire mythos for generations to come. I already don’t like her for the weird way she’s chosen to portray vampires, for the overwhelming “stalking is awesome” and “emotionally abusive unstable men make awesome boyfriends” themes found in her books. With the adding of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner to her catalog I’m ready to draw the line. I’ve had enough of her, and need her to go away now. At my wife’s very slight urging I read Meyer’s introduction to her novella, and it is pretty ridiculous. I can’t figure out how she wrote an entire section of her series dealing with these “new-born” vampires, and then claims that she never bothered to understand them until this? I don’t get it.

I almost called this blog A Short Woesome Rant by Chet, but decided before I wrote anything that this was cheap, and would ruin the spirit. Instead you get a tribute to Matt Stone and Trey Parker.