Bukowski – Factotum - Comment

 

The word factotum is a noun meaning – a person involved to do all types of jobs. The many synonyms include – boot boy, dogs body, lapdog, servant and slave. Bukowski writes in the persona of Henry Chinaski, a son of German immigrants, who travels from the west coast to the east coast working menial jobs. Generally, the job lasts no more than a week, as his habit of drinking prevents him from rising in time to meet his obligations. The period is WWII, when getting work is relatively easy for the obvious reasons.  

Chinaski is a wandering vagabond with a keen sense of the streets, and a deep sense of self. He has a few years of college studying journalism, and at some points in the novel, he comments on his short stories and the many rejection slips he receives. He finally gets a few stories published and for the first in the entire novel, the character feels real happiness.  

When Chinaski is not collecting garbage as a ‘sanitation officer’ or cleaning toilets in the restrooms of warehouses, he’s drinking in a bar or imbibing in his five dollar a week hotel with the latest woman, a fellow drunk, that he has met along the way. It touches on the cliche’ but two alcoholics sleeping in the same bed in a dive apartment are bound to argue and possibly get violent with each other. He leaves his job and his latest partner, grabbing his cardboard yellow-suitcase, and hits the road again in search of another lowly job and his next drink.  

If you have read any of Bukowski’s poetry you would know his low opinion of society and its many rules and general morality. The character Chinaski is a rebel though at the same time values hard work and extols a pure kind of self-reliance. Bukowski is most certainly a ‘literary’ rebel, a writer avoiding norms and throughout his work, giving voice to the poor and disadvantaged. For this reader, this gives him a uniquely American voice and style of prose that is direct and deceptively simple.   

One could really describe Factotum as a patchwork of scenes and experiences from the authors life.  Most of his novels are fictional biographies which really became clear to this reader after reading his first novel Post Office.  

In Factotum we enter WWII America and meet the many people that inhabit the country during this unusual period. Even though the novel’s backdrop is war, no one talks about it and are more concerned about making a decent living, getting by from day to day.  

The novel is funny and lowlife, scattered with acute observations of the human condition. 

An interesting read. 

 

Preston & Child – Angel of Vengeance – Comment

 I have been following the Pendergast series for many years, and admittedly the latest, Angel of Vengeance, takes the reader on a time travelling jaunt to 19th century Manhattan, inclusive of a unique gothic/science fiction flavor that is both intriguing and highly entertaining. This tale begins with the novel Bloodless, followed by The Cabinet of Doctor Leng, ending with Vengeance, the grand finale.   

Doctor Enoch Leng must be one of the nastiest evil geniuses rivalling even Hanible Lector. The doctor’s goal is to capture the correct formulation of eternal youth. We know he has achieved his goal in the 21st century because of Pendergast’s beautiful ward, Constance, who hasn’t aged for well over 100 years. Constance goes back in time to exact vengeance for her siblings that Leng, back in the day, murdered in pursuit of halting the aging process. 

Diogenes, Pendergast’s evil brother, comes back from the dead, travelling in time to assist his brother and Constance to prevent Leng’s plan and slew of murders. Diogenes is a particular treacherous psychopath with superior intelligence and a twisted taste for the finer things in life. In going up against Leng, his actions stand out as gruesomely brutal and creative.  

To appreciate the novels fully, one must achieve that literary reading state of “suspension of disbelief.” In this world just about anything is possible and is written in such a way that one can imagine the most outlandish scenes as entirely believable. It’s all part of the fun.  

When completing The Cabinet of Doctor Leng, and realizing the novel was a cliff hanger, and knowing we would have to wait for the sequel, my feelings of disappointment can be described as an understatement. Waiting the 12 or so months for the final installment was in all honesty, well worth the wait.  

Indeed, these novels are pure entertainment.  

USAID and Gaza. Opinion.

 

The Trump administration since the clang of the bell, has entered the ring swinging wildly and hitting hard with a slew of Executive Orders. Elon Musk leading DOGE is closing USAID, to many a well-known tool of the CIA to instigate regime change in democratic countries who do not wholly align with the goals of the permanent government, and a dreadful waste of taxpayer money, has been cheered and welcomed by the MAGA movement who are sick and tired of America's endless wars overseas. So far so good. This week, however, a giant wrench has been thrown into the works, and that is Trump's dangerous intentions of ethnic cleansing in Gaza, announcing the removal of 1.8 million (?) Palestinians, displacing them into Egypt and Jordan, or to any nation that will take them.  

International war criminal and orchestrator of the planets 21st century genocide in Gaza, Israeli PM Benjaman Netanyahu, visited Washington DC, like a conquering hero of our modern times. The obvious obsequious behavior from the DC Blob and particularly President Trump, was truly cringeworthy and difficult to watch. For many observers around the planet, Israel has the US government under its thump. In fact, it is well known that to gain entrance into Trump's administration, the price of admission is absolute fealty to the nation state of Israel. Now with President Trump's announcement to ethnically cleans Gaza, the world has responded negatively, including all major countries in the Middle East.  

The idea of a "two state solution” has been proposed for decades including past US administrations. In present time, after a year of unmitigated slaughter in Gaza, President Trump shocked the planet with his solution of simply displacing the Palestinians out of their homeland and into another country. As said, most of the international community views this idea as ludicrous and a recipe for disaster for all concerned. Trump is truly the great "circuit breaker” for the DC establishment and is well known for his "shoot from the hip" ideas to mix things up, and at times leading to real deals and solutions. It is possible this is one of them.  

The United States government, including my own country, Australia, and the UK, is beholden to the Zionist cause for a greater Israel. To be sure, I have not figured this one out entirely. It has become obvious that the three countries mentioned above have put the interests of Israel above the interests of their own. Unfortunately, because of this strange smarmy obligation to Israel, all are complicit in genocide.  

Common sense should dictate the logical goal of peace and diplomacy in the middle east, though the US has never been a peaceful country since at least WWII. The country's economy is driven by the military Industrial complex where war is exclusively for profit.  

I admire what the Trump administration is doing with DOGE, revealing a deep underbelly of government corruption and inefficiency, some of this corruption connected to regime change and war, though Israel and the middle east is one huge powder keg ready to explode, and displacing Palestinians from their land will only contribute to the possibility of WWII.  

 

Joyce Carol Oates – Zombie – Comment.

 

One of great talents of a novelist is to enter the mind of a character and reflect that character in a realistic manner. In JCO’s Zombie, the reader gains access into the mind of a sexually perverted psychotic, a serial killer, who is not too smart, but manages to get away with his gruesome activities. The narration bounces from first to second- and third person, including us into his insane fantasies, thoughts and opinions on society, and his goal for creating a zombie, that is a compliant sex slave. How the character goes about attaining this gruesome goal is quite disturbing. 

The protagonist calls himself Q-P, (Quentin) a thirty-one-year-old man with a penchant for young male victims. He is the son of a university professor and a stay-at-home mother who, all his life, protected him from the vagaries of life and himself. While reading the psychotic rantings of this character, I was reminded of the real-life serial killer, Jeffery Dalmer. Both attempted to achieve similar goals, and that is creating a compliant sex zombie for the obvious reasons.  

The most instructive section of the novel is chapter 13. It is here that Q-P discovers the scientific material on prefrontal lobotomies. Oates’ quotes from the medical literature, and as a reader, I was surprised and sickened, that this mental health treatment was ever practiced at all. After Q-P studies the material, he sets forth to practice this newfound knowledge on his victims.  

As the reader, it was difficult to move through the protagonist's graphic goals, thoughts and actions. What JCO is famous for, writing about the dark side of human nature with striking believability, that I had to constantly remind myself that this was a novel, and not the actual scribblings of a madman.  

What is startling is that there are human beings out there of the same variety of Q-P: perverted, always on the hunt for their prey, and hell-bent on fulfilling their disgusting fantasies.  

I’ve been a reader of JCO for some years now. It is her talent for the macabre, and subtle nuances of the mind that can shape a malignant soul, and coming away from her writing with unfamiliar disturbing feelings that I can never actually put my finger on. Perhaps it is the potential evil of our fellow human beings and their willingness to act on these feelings of pure evil that is unsettling.  

This novel was on my list for many years. If you want to take a deep dive into the mind of a perverted psychopath on a cloudy afternoon, and be done with it in one sitting, Zombie is the novella for you.