Lost Girls by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie

Lost Girls
by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie

Short Review

Read If: you love gorgeous erotic artwork, you like to read thought-provoking subject matter, you enjoy retelling of classic stories with lots of sex added

Don't Read If: you hate the mere idea of pornography, you refuse to read anything that broaches seriously taboo issues, you just want really classy-looking masturbation material


Long Review

This is a tough review, because Lost Girls is often a difficult book to read. Melinda Gebbie has referred to it as a "beautiful book of sex," and the graphic novel is certainly that at face value. The plot of the book revolves around adult versions of Peter Pan's Wendy, Alice from the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland books, and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz meeting up by chance in an Austrian hotel at the brink of World War I. Together, the women share their past sexual adventures (erotic retellings of the classic stories), while embarking on the expenditure of their current sexual horizons. The book is unabashedly pornography, with many varied sexual situations gracing nearly every page. The squeamish need not apply; especially since the book explores many taboo sexual situations, up to and including pedophilia, bestiality, and incest. The book waves aside any moral implications involving these kind of sexual relationships, as after all, it is just fiction. However, I at least could not help but become somewhat disgusted with some of the more graphically upsetting scenes, even if I could accept it as an artistic exercise and plot device. If you could not stand reading Lolita, you should stay far away from Lost Girls. However, both books have merits far beyond any depiction of socially reprehensible actions.

The art in Lost Girls is simply gorgeous; lush, vibrant, and expressive. There is tons of erotic detail packed into every page, and the book greatly succeeds as a visual expression of humanity's sexuality. Moore's writing in the book is generally minimal and tends towards straight eroticism, with many clever allusions and metaphors. However, beyond mere pornography, Lost Girls has an agenda. It is a direct response to the glorification of violence seen in media, and the looming approach of World War I is felt throughout, adding a dark tint to any sexual ecstasy. The book mourns the vilification of human sexual acts, and raises questions regarding the modern world's Puritanical beliefs regarding pornography. A celebration of sex in all forms, Lost Girls is beautiful, thought-provoking, and sometimes extremely sad. Reading it was a singular experience, and I think anyone who takes the time and effort to read through the volumes will gain something from it. All in all, Lost Girls is a successful if extreme venture into the world of artsy porn, and stands as a thoughtful and moving expression of that famous and all too topical phrase, "Make love, not war."

Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl

Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table
by Ruth Reichl

Short Review

Read If: you love reading about food and eating, you enjoy hearing stories of others' interesting lives, you like hearing about food magazine editors having sex

Don't Read If: you could care less about the gritty insides of the food business, you dislike voyeurism, you want this book to be about only food and not life's trials


Long Review

Yet another sequel on my blog, shame on me! Comfort Me with Apples is the direct follow-up of Ruth Reichl's first memoir, Tender at the Bone. A bit more disjointed and wandering than Riechl's first memoir, Apples still provides a vibrant and honest telling of one woman's search about finding her place in life. This memoir covers Reichl's life through her 30s, following the point in her life when she became seriously employed in the restaurant critic scene. The reader gets to follow Reichl as she visits far-off countries and meets famous chefs and celebrities, learning much about the up-scale restaurant business on the way. However, the book is not solely concerned with food; much of the book chronicles Reichl's personal journeys at the time, from affairs and divorce, to new love and trying to start a family.

Reichl writes beautifully about food, and plainly and honestly about love, sex, and life's hardships. The author has a strong personality and great sense of humor, which definitely come through in the writing. She does have some issues with time management in this book, as sometimes months pass by without any indication (without even paragraph breaks!), and at worst the book becomes overly self-absorbed (although to be fair it is a memoir), but I will admit to being unable to put it down. It feels a privilege to be invited so intimately into this woman's life. Reichl takes her readers through a roller-coaster ride of wild successes and failures, and deep love and heart-rending pain. I am not usually a memoir fan, but I greatly enjoy reading Reichl's life story. If you enjoy modern memoirs and especially food, this is a great pick.

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

The Last Wish
by Andrzej Sapkowski

Short Review

Read If: you enjoy retellings of fairy tales, you want to read fantasy without definite "good" and "evil" sides, you are tired of 5,000 page dry fantasy epics

Don't Read If: you are looking for a substantive discourse on morality, you can't take boob jokes, a collection of fun but not fantastic Polish fantasy stories sounds uninteresting


Long Review

Published in the U.S. shortly after the release of well-received PC RPG The Witcher, The Last Wish is a fantasy short story collection by famous Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. I am a big fan of The Witcher video game, so I will admit some bias in my enjoyment of this book. This book centers around Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher living in a typical European fantasy setting - with a twist. One of the big draws of the game and the book is the premise that nothing in this world is black and white; morality is a hazy gray, and Geralt is often forced to make decisions where there is no "right" answer. Geralt's job, as a Witcher, is to kill monsters; however, the monsters in his world are often no more monstrous than the people who hire Geralt in the first place.

The book is comprised of several short stories, alternating with chapters that make up an over-arching narrative. This format is sometimes confusing, as the time lines jump wildly and the reader is sometimes left wondering where and when the current event is taking place. The Last Wish was originally written in Polish, and the translation seems to do a decent enough job as far as I can tell. There's not much poetry or intricacy in the prose here; it's generally a very straight-forward and quick read. Most of the short stories in the book are retellings of classic fairy tales, such as Beauty and the Beast and Snow White, but presented in a morally-ambiguous and dark fashion. The twists are somewhat similar to Neil Gaiman's classic Snow, Glass, Apples, with the main focus being that both the "good" guys and "bad" guys are flawed and interchangeable. Geralt often becomes trapped between two or more options that end in pointless violence and the death of innocents. One of the main pleasures of the book is watching how Geralt resolves these issues while adhering to his own gruff personal code. Despite all the depressing and violent themes present in the book, The Last Wish actually offers a good deal of laughs, as the stories are peppered with crude jokes, clever wit, and silly antics, especially involving Geralt's foil, the irrepressible womanizing bard Dandelion.

Overall, I found the book to be an enjoyable and easy read, with interesting takes on familiar stories and original narratives set in a gray and dying world. The Last Wish serves as an adequate introduction to Geralt's story, and is an excellent companion for The Witcher PC game. Sapkowski creates for us a convincing amoral fantasy realm where you are never sure who exactly the monsters are, and makes it a pleasure for us to follow Geralt in walking the line between monsters and man.