I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: A HOUSE-Live in Concert (1998).

This is a strange live collection of songs.  The first half are “band” efforts.  And they are pretty good, although the backing vocals on some of the later songs seem a bit much.

The second half of the disc, however, is an acoustic set.  I initially thought it was just Dave Couse, but there are clearly two guitars.  This more intimate set is cool because it shows that their songs are solid even without the effects and silliness some of the originals had. I especially liked “Blind Faith” because he sort of teases the audience into singing with him.

This disc is certainly not essential A House listening (In fact, I can find virtually no record of its existence on line–Wikipedia and Zop list it but there’s precious little information about it).  Hey, maybe it’s a collector’s item (that I bought used for $2 used).  But since there’s no other live recordings of A House that I’m aware of, this will have to do.

[READ: June 26, 2010] Citrus County

I read this book several months ago, but with all of the big summer projects, I didn’t have a chance to say anything about it.

Citrus County is a dark book.  Make no mistake.  It is set in a world of adolescents, high school and crime.  And even within those dark boundaries, this book is quite dark.  And yet it is also kind of funny.

The story is also something of an indictment of Citrus County, Florida, a county I didn’t know existed, although sure why wouldn’t it.  When Shelby Register moves there, she thinks that she’ll be in Disneyland, or at least by the beach, but what she finds herself in is a kind of backwater swampland.  Just what ever teenaged girl wants.

The book opens with Toby being surprisingly cruel to a little boy who has caught him littering.  And yet the cruelty seems to be tinged with truth (or Toby’s imagined truth–it’s unclear whether he is hurtful or just curious).

But it soon shifts to Mr Hibma’s class.  I like the classroom sessions because of the strange point of view that they open with.  Students are called “the kiss-asses” by the unnamed narrator (who of course is Toby), and it soon becomes apparent that Mr Hibma simply doesn’t like his job.  He sort of cares about the kids, but not really the teaching part.  But he’s not a burnt out old man, he’s a young teacher who simply doesn’t know what he has done with his life to end up where he is.  Mr. Hibma particularly hates Mrs. Connor, the sort of head teacher for his wing who is constantly trying to get him to participate more, show more school spirit and basically be more like her.  He fantasizes about killing her almost daily.

So here we have two characters who are pretty fundamentally unlikable.  Toby is a smart kid with a mean streak and Mr Hibma is a smart guy who is pretty lazy (and with something of a mean streak too).  Although I found Mr Hibma much more likable, as he seemed to have a possible future if he would get off his ass and find it.

But the story is really about Toby.  Toby lives with his Uncle Neal.  His Uncle is a nasty, cruel man who is nasty and cruel to Toby.  He also has a shed in the backyard where he grows something that Toby isn’t allowed to know about, but which clearly alters his uncle in some way.

It’s also about Shelby, a girl in Toby’s school who is one of those kiss-asses.  She is transfixed by Toby.  And even though he isn’t especially interested in her (her being a kiss-ass and all) he is drawn to her goodness.  So, which side will win? Good or evil?

Fortunately Brandon has given these characters great depth of back story.  Shelby’s family life is a sad one, and she is really stuck in a terrible situation. And so is Toby.  The more you learn, the more you understand why he does what he does (even if you can’t forgive what he does).

Toby doesn’t know how to respond to Shelby’s affections, so he does the only thing he can think of–something that shocked me so much I can’t bear to give it away here.  But once it happens it impacts the trajectory of the entire story and every character in it.

And so the rest of the story is almost an attempt for the author to make a sympathetic character out of someone who we know is fundamentally flawed.  No, not flawed.  Pretty much downright despicable.

So, basically I hated the character of Toby, and yet I was so fascinated by him that I couldn’t put the book down.  Brandon paints Toby with oddly sympathetic brushes, despite his actions.  You feel guilty wanting things to work out for him.

I simply had to know how this story of violence, of hostility, of enormous mistakes, would play out.  Would the innocent be harmed?  Would any burgeoning relationship between the characters be shattered when the truth came out?  Could a fundamentally evil act be redeemed?  And would Mr. Hibma ever become a part of the teaching staff proper, or would he actually kill Mrs Connor?  With a book this dark, you’d never know.

Some readers will hate this book.  Toby is really a polarizing character.  Or more to the point, his actions are.  And readers may just want to get rid of the book when they see what he does.  But I found the ending to be strangely satisfying, even as it made me feel very uneasy.