Veronica Roth's Allegiant: A Book Review

Allegiant reads as a book about teenagers, for teenagers, that leaves little room for the adult mind. While Divergent was an above average fun read, this text picks up right where Insurgent left off, and in doing so, continues to show an impulsive, teenage disregard for human life. People die, for seemingly no reason, and Tris remains bulletproof (that is until the bitter, drawn out end). Tris has always been a martyr to a cause that lacks clear definition beyond her self-anointed path to righteousness. Author Veronica Roth casts her as a Christ like character, but does so overtly and without a true purpose to her cause.

Of course her death should not be a surprise, for while the first two texts came entirely from her point of view, we now enter the equally impulsive mind of Four. While he thinks of Tris a frequent basis, his character is quite flat. He is idealistic, angry at both of his parents, and despite all the bullets flying around him, he lacks the typically teenage preoccupation with sex. Any intuitive and able minded reader can predict the future—Tris will die and Four will have to describe the end. Perhaps Roth could have waited until the end to shift the point of view—did we really need the Tobias and Evelyn reunion show—but what is done is done.

That said, the two find themselves in the Fringe, in an airport just outside of Chicago, and they find that the US Government still exists and is running the city as an experiment to a group of genetically damaged people. This damage is loosely explained at best, but gives the individuals a predisposition to violence. The ruling class in this endless war is genetically pure (but with a more hidden inclination towards violence), and Tris and Four, not even in their twenties are the catalysts for yet another revolution, the third at this point, yet more death and destruction, as they try to impose their will on society.

Always a poor man’s Hunger Games, this text ends predictably, painfully, and thankfully.  

John L. Parker's Once A Runner: A Book Review

First off this is not my typical book review. Once a Runner is not a perfect book, but this book is a must read for any runner or endurance athlete. There is a plot flaw here or there (think the lengthy diversion with Nubbins and honor court), but the meat of the text is the journey of one runner and how he learns to reach his goals through inherent and complete sacrifice.

To some running is a chore, something they do to drop a pound here and there or to get away from the stress of the world, but to many, and especially to those select few lucky enough to live running, the act becomes the stress, the devotion, the aim, the goal. Runners, as John L. Parker notes, are either obsessive compulsive or on their way there, and Once a Runner, hits a nerve the nearly every runner can understand as he follows the life of the fictional college senior, Quenton Cassidy. Cassidy is a runner, an idea that non-runners do not understand, hell, an idea that many recreational runners will never understand. He embodies athletes that I have coached, do currently coach, and that will slide down the pipe to my feet at some point. Parker lived this life, made the sacrifices, and devoted himself to doing something he loved (and hated), for that is what runners do, and thus this protagonist is real. Cassidy bleeds hatred for running but loves every painful step. He curses at cars for invading his space, at gawkers and their comments, and possess a drive and will to be great that not even those he loves can grasp and understand.

Whether it is harkening back to high school cross country and track teams, collegiate competitions, or the throngs of people who meet on weekends to tackle marathon training together, Parker encapsulates the competitive runner’s psyche. Cassidy, a man who has caused the coach in me many a frustration—but coach, they ran 400m repeats barefoot in Once a Runner so I’m going to do it now—has the will. While running requires genetic gifts: the ability to withstand pain, a high VO2 max threshold, and a high motor, it also takes a will. Cassidy reeks of this will during every minute of his cabin isolation. I hear seventy mile a week high school runners begging to run with a person, to rejoin civilization, only to blaze away from me a mile into their ten mile jaunts. They want to be told what to do, how to act, how to respond. Yet, these people are all about avoiding the blank spaces, for blank spaces are lost opportunities, chances of failure, cracks in the armor that could pop up with a 100 meters to go in a goal race. You are never sick, you are only running an undersdistance day.

When Cassidy warms up, when he cools down, when he sees friends, he basks in routine. He calls certain people captain out of custom, he trains at the same time, with the same people. It is all about routine. Same things, same times, same ideas. He basks in the smells, the nuances of exhaustion and pain. In Cassidy we see the truth: the life of a runner can be consuming, but the pursuit of the goal, in any sport, in any facet of life in general, is about said consumption. Not everyone has the grit to run 80 400’s, most of our legs would fall off, but the idea of 80 400’s, the idea that another set will not only make you more fit, but also make you understand who and what you are is why Parker attempts to convey. How many people cut their efforts short just because they are about to break mentally? The answer is an astounding too many. This book is about not quitting, not going my mind is not in it and I am overtraining and I’m cutting it short, this book is about seeing that said training is the only way to reach the goal. You cannot do the impossible unless you do your best to attempt everything that is possible.

Favorite Lines:

• “He ran not for crypto-religious reasons, but to win races, to cover the ground fast. Not only to be better than his fellows, but better than himself” (121-122).
• “It [running] was all joy and woe, hard as a diamond; it made him weary beyond comprehension. But it also made him free” (123).
• “But here was the decision for all time, the decision that would lead him up the path to the higher callings or off on a side road to end up in the bushes” (262).
• “Sometimes you will work your fanny off and see very little gain; other times you will amaze yourself and not really know why” (167).
• “Such matters, as Denton had often said, were settled much earlier: weeks, months, years before, they were settled on the training fields, on the ten mile courses, on the morning workout missed here or made up there” (248).

Helene Wecker’s The Golem and the Jinni: A Book Review

Helene Wecker’s The Golem and the Jinni spins a captivating tale, one I have been waiting to read, experience, and am eager to confront once again. While some disguise the novel as historical fiction, outside of the primary setting, late 1890’s New York City, the novel focuses more on the mythical and fantastical. Page after page, the reader confronts mythological precepts of both Arab and Jewish origins, yet these points come to us in a metropolitan era and in a city of cultural convergence. The fantastical becomes real, humanity converges and merges with it, and one becomes lost in the existential nature of those that lack humanity attempting to be human.

From the get go, we are introduced to the mythical, fabled creature made of clay: The Golem. This figure is lifelike and free to roam the world without a master after the man died at sea just moments after animating her. Unsure of her nature, prone to fits of anger she cannot control, the Golem seeks refuge in a world of confusion. She is cast into New York City after walking along the bottom of the sea floor to avoid immigration and comes out of the sea a lost newborn. Were the reader only privy to this tale: the education and acclimation of an alien creature to the world, then he may be happy, for she is soon seen for what she is by a skilled and learned Rabbi and thus taken in and groomed toward humanity.

But the reader is given a second tale, that of a Jinni, a creature made of fire that has been imprisoned in a flask for generations. The Jinni is released by a Syrian Blacksmith, Arbeely, who takes the organism, trapped in human form, in as his apprentice. The narrative then juxtaposes back and forth between the two plights as each creature creates a purpose and seeks to find its place in society. Ultimately, and begrudgingly, the two meet and begin a mutual narrative, one distrust and anger, one that seeks a Golem looking for a purpose, a Jinni looking for freedom, and the seemingly destructive force the pair is, turning everything they touch into either earth or fire before discovering that they share a bond more concrete than their fantastical nature.