I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: DEFTONES-Saturday Night Wrist (2006).

This is the latest Deftones release. It is a bit more atmospheric overall than the other ones. The dynamics of the record are still there, but aside from one of the more thrashier songs, they don’t seem to be as heavy, overall. Nothing wrong with that, in fact, it really showcases a catchier side to the band. It’s fun to see how well the heavier aspects can become accessible. Overall, I think the album is great, with each song having a great hook. It took a few listens for me to really get into it, but I’m now hooked.

[READ: August 3, 2007] The Translation of Father Torturo.

I reviewed a short story by Connell in McSweeney’s #19 called “The Life of Captain Gareth Caernarvon.” I really didn’t care for it. It seemed to relish in violence and explicit savagery. It is simply not my thing. And then I received a comment from the author, which turned out to be an acknowledgment from his site of my review. I was pleasantly surprised that he linked to a negative review, so I thought I’d check out the rest of his site, and I saw a synopsis of this book, The Translation of Father Torturo. The synopsis said (and this is taken from his website🙂

In 1263, when the vault containing the body of St. Anthony was opened, thirty-two years after its original interment, the flesh had turned to dust, but the tongue was in a perfect state of preservation. For almost eight-hundred years it was kept mounted on a pin. But now it has been stolen.

Wow! How could you pass that up? So, I immediately Interlibrary Loaned the book and started it as soon as it came in. I have no idea if that story of St Anthony’s tongue is true, even though I attended a St. Anthony’s grammar school. But it was a great start to the story.

The basic plot is that Xavier Torturo, a brutal young man, turns to the priesthood on the advice of a family friend. He believes he is destined for greatness, but a foolish incident causes him great hardship. However, through hard work, a little blackmail, and some mystical assistance, he is able to reach his ecclesiastical goals (ie. becoming Pope). The story was a real page turner, and I had a hard time predicting what would happen next.

I was also delighted with the ending, which has a real “ending” feel. This is what I was talking about in On Beauty, which, while certainly ending without any mixed messages, does not resolve itself as tidily as this one does…. I like that even though it has a “sequel” potential, which I assume he will never write because, what would be the point?, the book concludes its arc.

It’s the mystical aspects that take the story into another realm altogether. It becomes uncanny and frequently bizarre. Which really adds to the story. Although as I described the action to my wife she just thought it sounded weird. So yes, when you’re reading it it all makes sense, just don’t try to explain it!

I have a few complaints about the book, though. In this story, as in the short story he seems to really enjoy writing violence in great graphic detail. He seems to really relish violence towards helpless creatures in particular. There are scenes in this book that could fall right out of a “torture porn” movie. [Update: After being questioned about the use of the term torture porn, I thought about it, and I retract the statement. I want to amend the observation to: There are scenes in the book that show an exquisite amount of detail to the minutiae of how the body works. And, of how to punish them. There are scenes of torture, which are grizzly, but torture porn is a bit too harsh.] Nevertheless, this book would probably make a very good movie, (would the papacy aspect help or hinder sales, I wonder?). I realize I’m probably too sensitive about this, but the cruelty in the book is really off-putting to me.

Second, I couldn’t decide if it was a purposeful thing or if he was just trying to avoid saying “The Pope” over and over, but he constantly referred to The Pope as one of several phrases, which really started to stand out and irritate after a while.

Finally, the revenge enactments seemed somewhat trite. When I said earlier that I didn’t see a lot coming, that was true, but there are scenes where justice is exacted in a “turn your sins against you” sort of way (think particularly of the film Se7en, or even The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover) and the revenge scenes were not only predictable but just a showcase for writing some extremely violent sequences.

Overall, however, the story was really good. The main plotline was particularly engaging and surprising. The ups and downs of Xavier’s life, and the ending in particular were really cool. However, there were a lot of things about his writing style that just bugged me. I was glad for the ending because it was very good, and because I was glad it was over. I think if you cut out a lot of the senseless violence, and trim the book down to 150 pages (from 195) it would be a fantastic novella.

Oh, and there are a surprising number of typos in the book. I counted at least 4, some of which were simple spell check errors but one, (typing “lumb” for “limb” was just weird). Not the author’s fault, of course, but come on publishers, proofread! (even if I forget to do so myself).