I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: WAVVES-“Post Acid” (2010).

Wavves’ King of the Beach CD made many Top Ten of 2010 lists.  I listened to a track somewhere and wasn’t all that impressed.  Right now there’s a live show on NPR, which I listened to a bit (and which made me investigate them further).

They have a few songs on their My Space page and I really like this one.  It is short and fuzzy and catchy and cool.  It’s a fast blast of punk nonsense.  I have no idea what it’s about (and I rather like the weird break in the song where the singer can barely get words out).

I’m not sure if I’d listen to a whole record of them (although I love their hair).  But this was sure a fun track.

[READ: February 17, 2011] Arkansas

John Brandon did a pretty amazing thing with this book.  He took two rather unlikable characters and made them sympathetic and, eventually, compelling.  The unlikability may have come from the detached style of their introduction.  Each of the main characters is introduced separately with a brief anecdote that seems to end abruptly.  In fact, I wondered if it was going to be a series of brief character sketches and nothing more.  I’m thankful that that wasn’t the case since, each character’s “section” could have been a complete (but very unsatisfying) story.  When I saw more of Swin, I was pleased, even though I didn’t really “like” him.

First we meet Swin Ruiz, a very intelligent guy who makes it to college.  While in college a foolish mistake (resubmitting an essay to a teacher) costs him his scholarship, which essentially means he’s out of school.  He scams some money from the rich students and then takes off, leaving his family and his beloved younger sisters with their jerk of a stepfather.  From there, he drifts aimlessly until he meets a bartender who sets him up with someone to help “break the laws of the land.”

Kyle Ribb is the other main character. He’s a harder man, something of a bastard.  He tries to go legit by working in a bike store.  When that doesn’t pan out (the story of that is pretty funny) he reverts back to his “no boss” ways.  He eventually meets a guy who introduces him to Colin, a man with criminal connections.

The third character we meet differs from these two.  First, a date is given as an introduction (1974).  Second, the whole section is written in second person (“You are Ken Hovan”).  We learn about his life and his background and how, eventually, he took the nickname Frog and became a shop owner, a dealer of unusual merchandise (which begins with bootleg tapes and, naturally, transforms into drugs).

The story of Frog’s life from 1974 to the present intersperses the main story (which is really about Swin and Kyle).  And each time frame jump ties together some of the mysteries of the book (Frog, being the boss, ties the thread together).  And there are many mysteries.

Kyle and Swin move up the ranks of the ne’er-do-well scale, until they land a job in an underused state park in Little Rock, Ark.  They get a “legit” job manning the booth, checking visitors in and out, and cleaning up the brush, but their “real” job is to deliver packages to random locations in different states.  They drive a car to a parking lot, wait for a person to get in and then drive off in a different car with a package for the other end.  And that’s pretty much it. It’s obvious they’re doing illegal work, but they don’t ask questions and don’t know too many details.

Their boss at the park is Bright, a man who seems to really enjoy the park and genuinely likes to take care of it.  He is a middleman for Frog, but a rather benevolent one.  There are some other characters as well.  The first is Her, (that’s the only name she gives out), she gives Bright the details about the packages.  Bright’s boss at the park is Wendy, she knows what they do and receives a cut.  She only wears pink and wishes to be a painter.  She recites a quotes from a different painter before she leaves.

Basically Kyle and Swin embrace this new life, they settle in, despite (or perhaps because of) the absolute transience of the setting.  Eventually Swin meets a woman, Johnna, and they begin dating.  She is a nurse with few ties to the area.  Not much detail is given about her until, somewhat unexpectedly, we get a whole section devoted to her and her backstory, which really fleshes out her character.  Kyle is initially skeptical of Swin bringing someone into their situation, but he grudgingly begins to respect her.  A bulldog also stumbles into their turf.  He is friendly, albeit dyed blue.  They feed him and care for him (and name him Bedford) and he eventually becomes a member of their “family.”

Obviously, any book about criminals isn’t going to be all happy, and several different things happen which interrupts their idyllic setup.  The first is a deal that goes awry.  But it goes awry in a way that is unexpected and it ends up shocking and rather riveting.  The second is when Frog begins to suspect them of trying to do…well something.  Take over maybe?  Try to screw him?  He doesn’t know, and he doesn’t like it.  And the end is shockingly violent and unexpectedly grisly. (It takes place in the Hot Springs bath houses which I’ve been too, which was kind of cool).

But before the end, Brandon really fleshes out these characters.  Swin, despite being out of school is always reading (and hopes to be a writer).  He also manages to keep an eye on his baby sisters at home (he is convinced that they are going to turn out bad without his guidance).   Kyle develops a secret (bizarre) relationship with a woman.  And Johnna turns out to have a lot more going on for her than her love of the Razorbacks.  And despite all the bad things they do (and there are a lot of bad things that they do), we grow attached to them.  We root for them, even though they are not nice.  And we hope things will be okay.

But Arkansas isn’t very forgiving.