aslant | Cassandra in Babylon (2 book reviews)

25. Babylon By Bus, Ray Lemoine and Jeff Neumann

This was a lot of fun. A lot of depression and a lot of fun. Ray and Jeff are these two Boston asshole kids who sell Yankees Suck tshirts, and then give it up to take a bus into Iraq semi-illegally (after the "liberation" but right before things got really really bad) and got jobs and did some good in the world, mainly because they didn't give a shit about rules, and also they took a lot of drugs along the way. Sadly, or perhaps not, this is the most helpful guide to the development of the Iraq conflict, post-2004, that I've seen so far -- not that I've been looking, but I didn't pick it up expecting to learn so much. And about Israel, too, along the way. It's a sobering but hilarious read, definitely gonzo style warzone romping and a kind of outsider's-insider view of how war media live and the occupation government worked (or not) and the rest of it; they run with semi-famous journalists and filmmakers and humanitarians, some of whom are killed. I kind of wanted to read a follow-up, can they also explain to me what's happened since they left? But then perhaps that's the whole point -- no more asshole Red Sox rats trying to help/occupy/bungle. Highly entertaining and not stupid at all, they are actually highly educated liberal assholes, but not in a flaunting-it kind of way (though some of their background research does show through a little baldly in some of the exposition, it wasn't too overt) and they are mildly aware of their own privilege and assholeishness throughout, and they have a healthy respect for nuance, and for people who get things done, and have lived through more than most American kids my/our age have, that's for sure. Highly recommended, very quick read.
{ETA: this is another book found through an old This American Life episode.}

26. Cassandra at the Wedding, Dorothy Baker

I picked this up from a NYBR review (it's their reprint edition) and was surprised, pleased, taken in. A short novel of tight, closely-observed narration by a crypto-lesbian twin in the 1960s. Apparently I didn't read the review very closely because I totally missed the whole lesbian thing until I got into it, and so it was pleasantly shocking to read between the lines and realize what the narrator was saying/not saying, though her coded words and very oblique references could probably have gone over the head of a blinkered reader, I'm sure. But this was part of the fun! It's also a sad and weird novel, almost of a piece with the Bell Jar; if I could go back in time I'd tell myself at 16 to read this along with the Bell Jar, I suppose. It's a nice companion to that kind of claustrophobic dissociative first-person depressed youth early-feminist vibe. When I finished it I was kind of despondent (a night's sleep was helpful) because it was hard to come out of it, wanting more. Highly recommended -- stylish early 1960s, alcohol-soaked, unreliable narrator, interesting character studies. I really wanted this to be a film, maybe in the vein of the Virgin Suicides or even Picnic at Hanging Rock. That kind of dreamy, sun-soaked, surreal vibe. Looking online, seems like someone is planning to make a modern update -- it would have been fantastic with those old 60s movie voices, though; if done right it could be a real style maker, like Mad Men gone off the rails. In a way I suppose it kind of has been updated for modern times -- it would be hard to beat Rachel Getting Married, to which it has more than a few passing similarities.