Rudy L.B.'s Blog
July 13, 2021
"Leave the World Behind" is getting awards?
Rudy L.B.
A Review of Rumaan Alam’s “Leave the World Behind”
I am glad I took time this summer to read Rumaan Alam’s “Leave the World Behind”. It has won some awards, I had the time-I’m an educator so I have summers “off’- and I was impressed with the wonderful book cover designed by Sam Wood, taken from the Jessica Brilli painting ‘Night Swimming’. It really looks like a cool book, so I read it. Again, I am glad I did. Because I’m also working on some writing projects it was great to read something so bad and so out of touch that it can only help inform my own writing. Just because I am glad I read it does not mean I’d recommend it. No, far from that. In fact, I’d recommend you stay as far away from this book as you can. Let me tell you why.
I’ve never read something where the narration and the narrative voice did such a poor job of thinking about the way others think. It really is, pardon the swear here, a truly “shit-talking” narrative voice. It’s clear the narrator does not like these people. The long paragraphs with short chapters skip from person to person, moving from simple descriptions to heavy sexualized content. I agree with so many of the Goodreads reviews that were put off by his seemingly excessive references to genitalia. “His penis jerked itself towards the sun…” (16) or “she took his wilting penis into her mouth, marveling at the taste of her own body” (21). Ok, we’ve all experienced a “Rose of Sharon” moment but these highly sexualized passages were so oft-putting it was hard to read. Hey, I’m no prude but they certainly did not further the plot.
The plot premise is simple, a middle-aged NYC couple, “he has tenure, and Amanda had the title of director but they did not have level floors and central air conditioning” (16) and their two tweens, rent an Air B&B and get away on vacation. It has “vacation” for the sake of a “vacation” feel and that certainly has its place. Obviously, we all may find ourselves, “letting the days go by” and it is here our narrator really seems to let them have, skipping around in longer paragraphs on topics ranging from contractors to cigarettes to finance to “faith in the institutions of American life, but he had less now… Did you think the President will do the right thing about it? This kind of thing used to sound like paranoia, but now it was just pragmatism.” (89) These longer “tell, don’t show” paragraphs make up shorter chapters, again, all given to us by our maligned narrator.
I can’t tell if our narrator is making fun of out-of-touch liberal New Yorkers or if our narrator is secretly upset they aren’t more of one? It seems unbelievable that these characters would be who they are, successful in ways they have certainly become, and also be so out of touch.
What shakes them out of that NYC-overtly liberal, away from nature gaze is disappointing. Because of some “disastrous sound” (and a flawed dependence on their smartphones) the owners of the air B&B return home. For some reason no one can find any news, a tween gets irrationally sick and our narrator reminds us, “Some people were committing suicide… Stay-at-home mothers were irritated Daniel Tiger was not available. Some people started to realize they’d had a naïve faith in the system.” (244) It all feels confusing and confused, as if we are along on a tough ride no one can figure out.
The character Clay seems to be Alam’s villain here, as if our Alam himself, through the narrator, has received some unfavorable reviews he wants to atone for. Clay, per our narrator, “Wanted to be ask to write for the New York Times Book review but didn’t actually want to write anything.” (16) Clay is best described as a “weeine”, certainly a more feminized character than his wife Amanda, third on the list of male characters behind the Republican-esque contractor Danny, to the seemingly successful finance dude G.H., the original owner of the Air B&B. (Are we supposed to believe here that Danny is going to be ok?) The characters simply are not flushed out enough to matter. How could Clay have had two kids, kept his marriage together, be “the driver”, and be a professor, all while completely losing it when G.H. shows up. And since he is the villain to our narrator, let’s go to Amanda. She certainly is not the hero either, nor is G.H, the kids or G.H’s wife. Amanda drinks (on vacation so what) and she also seems to completely shut down as well. I have certainly met “Amanda-types”; I would believe that they would be able to think rationally through these noises. Or the foil to Amanda, Ruth, G.H.’s wife Even she seems useless.
So why are all the characters so useless? Is this a comment on the feelings people may have felt during our COVID-19 pandemic? Is this supposed to remind us that in times of actual crisis, not just inconvenient mask wearing crises or economic issues that we would all just wilter?
If this was sold as a COVID-19 book, it misses the mark simply because it is all too soon to try to wrap our understanding around the human reaction and toll to such a deadly time. Alam offers no resolution, and I’m not really sure he could have given we are not really done with this global pandemic. The ending is so flat (more on that in a second) it is really disappointing. He makes the age-old mistake about trying to metaphorically conceptualize something without having taken space and time to fully understand it. (See this exact same criticism the narrator makes on page 27 about Amanda reading a book-again, on vacation good for her- that “Amanda had a novel she could barely follow, with a tiresome central metaphor involving birds.) Was this supposed to be a 9/11 book? The last line stings of a “it was all a dream vibe”. That line reads, “well-wasn’t that true of every day?”
I’ve read and re-read the ending multiple times. Just listen to the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Wait Until Tomorrow” or Radiohead’s “Exit Music for a film” and you’ll get the message in three minutes as opposed to 11 pages. It leaves you confused, as you’d expect to feel, from the feeling anyone has in running away. So is that the useless final act, for useless characters? Who lack really any redeeming qualities?
It all adds up to when you are given useless characters, confusing conflicts, and a narrator that trash-talks everyone, you are left as a reader should want to do: leave the world behind. Maybe all of this was a divorce manual?
I’m glad I read this book. It will help me, personally, not write this way. It is a bad book. I’d recommend you leave this book behind.
A Review of Rumaan Alam’s “Leave the World Behind”
I am glad I took time this summer to read Rumaan Alam’s “Leave the World Behind”. It has won some awards, I had the time-I’m an educator so I have summers “off’- and I was impressed with the wonderful book cover designed by Sam Wood, taken from the Jessica Brilli painting ‘Night Swimming’. It really looks like a cool book, so I read it. Again, I am glad I did. Because I’m also working on some writing projects it was great to read something so bad and so out of touch that it can only help inform my own writing. Just because I am glad I read it does not mean I’d recommend it. No, far from that. In fact, I’d recommend you stay as far away from this book as you can. Let me tell you why.
I’ve never read something where the narration and the narrative voice did such a poor job of thinking about the way others think. It really is, pardon the swear here, a truly “shit-talking” narrative voice. It’s clear the narrator does not like these people. The long paragraphs with short chapters skip from person to person, moving from simple descriptions to heavy sexualized content. I agree with so many of the Goodreads reviews that were put off by his seemingly excessive references to genitalia. “His penis jerked itself towards the sun…” (16) or “she took his wilting penis into her mouth, marveling at the taste of her own body” (21). Ok, we’ve all experienced a “Rose of Sharon” moment but these highly sexualized passages were so oft-putting it was hard to read. Hey, I’m no prude but they certainly did not further the plot.
The plot premise is simple, a middle-aged NYC couple, “he has tenure, and Amanda had the title of director but they did not have level floors and central air conditioning” (16) and their two tweens, rent an Air B&B and get away on vacation. It has “vacation” for the sake of a “vacation” feel and that certainly has its place. Obviously, we all may find ourselves, “letting the days go by” and it is here our narrator really seems to let them have, skipping around in longer paragraphs on topics ranging from contractors to cigarettes to finance to “faith in the institutions of American life, but he had less now… Did you think the President will do the right thing about it? This kind of thing used to sound like paranoia, but now it was just pragmatism.” (89) These longer “tell, don’t show” paragraphs make up shorter chapters, again, all given to us by our maligned narrator.
I can’t tell if our narrator is making fun of out-of-touch liberal New Yorkers or if our narrator is secretly upset they aren’t more of one? It seems unbelievable that these characters would be who they are, successful in ways they have certainly become, and also be so out of touch.
What shakes them out of that NYC-overtly liberal, away from nature gaze is disappointing. Because of some “disastrous sound” (and a flawed dependence on their smartphones) the owners of the air B&B return home. For some reason no one can find any news, a tween gets irrationally sick and our narrator reminds us, “Some people were committing suicide… Stay-at-home mothers were irritated Daniel Tiger was not available. Some people started to realize they’d had a naïve faith in the system.” (244) It all feels confusing and confused, as if we are along on a tough ride no one can figure out.
The character Clay seems to be Alam’s villain here, as if our Alam himself, through the narrator, has received some unfavorable reviews he wants to atone for. Clay, per our narrator, “Wanted to be ask to write for the New York Times Book review but didn’t actually want to write anything.” (16) Clay is best described as a “weeine”, certainly a more feminized character than his wife Amanda, third on the list of male characters behind the Republican-esque contractor Danny, to the seemingly successful finance dude G.H., the original owner of the Air B&B. (Are we supposed to believe here that Danny is going to be ok?) The characters simply are not flushed out enough to matter. How could Clay have had two kids, kept his marriage together, be “the driver”, and be a professor, all while completely losing it when G.H. shows up. And since he is the villain to our narrator, let’s go to Amanda. She certainly is not the hero either, nor is G.H, the kids or G.H’s wife. Amanda drinks (on vacation so what) and she also seems to completely shut down as well. I have certainly met “Amanda-types”; I would believe that they would be able to think rationally through these noises. Or the foil to Amanda, Ruth, G.H.’s wife Even she seems useless.
So why are all the characters so useless? Is this a comment on the feelings people may have felt during our COVID-19 pandemic? Is this supposed to remind us that in times of actual crisis, not just inconvenient mask wearing crises or economic issues that we would all just wilter?
If this was sold as a COVID-19 book, it misses the mark simply because it is all too soon to try to wrap our understanding around the human reaction and toll to such a deadly time. Alam offers no resolution, and I’m not really sure he could have given we are not really done with this global pandemic. The ending is so flat (more on that in a second) it is really disappointing. He makes the age-old mistake about trying to metaphorically conceptualize something without having taken space and time to fully understand it. (See this exact same criticism the narrator makes on page 27 about Amanda reading a book-again, on vacation good for her- that “Amanda had a novel she could barely follow, with a tiresome central metaphor involving birds.) Was this supposed to be a 9/11 book? The last line stings of a “it was all a dream vibe”. That line reads, “well-wasn’t that true of every day?”
I’ve read and re-read the ending multiple times. Just listen to the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Wait Until Tomorrow” or Radiohead’s “Exit Music for a film” and you’ll get the message in three minutes as opposed to 11 pages. It leaves you confused, as you’d expect to feel, from the feeling anyone has in running away. So is that the useless final act, for useless characters? Who lack really any redeeming qualities?
It all adds up to when you are given useless characters, confusing conflicts, and a narrator that trash-talks everyone, you are left as a reader should want to do: leave the world behind. Maybe all of this was a divorce manual?
I’m glad I read this book. It will help me, personally, not write this way. It is a bad book. I’d recommend you leave this book behind.
May 27, 2021
Happy Friday!
I can tell I need to find new work. When you are excited for Friday, really, really excited to NOT be at work, maybe that should be your reality.
I've always been leary of people who were so excited to "win" days off. Should that be an incentive of a good company- to not have to be there?
Either way, enjoy time off this weekend. In the U.S. on Monday we celebrate memorial day. Have a beer, a brat, and a hot dog for me.
~ Rudy
I've always been leary of people who were so excited to "win" days off. Should that be an incentive of a good company- to not have to be there?
Either way, enjoy time off this weekend. In the U.S. on Monday we celebrate memorial day. Have a beer, a brat, and a hot dog for me.
~ Rudy
February 15, 2021
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Right? Rich? Famous- an artist- a writer? A career? Poor? Watching tv on the couch...
Today we need to help people break down the "career conversation" into parts. You need an income generator; that job you have where you put in your time and get some type of benefit. Then, we have to help people have a way or a path to be able to do something they actually want to do.
It is true that if you find something you love, you'll never work a day in your life. But today, on a Monday, it feels ok on this cold, cold day, to remember that work is also called "work", not "fun".
Today we need to help people break down the "career conversation" into parts. You need an income generator; that job you have where you put in your time and get some type of benefit. Then, we have to help people have a way or a path to be able to do something they actually want to do.
It is true that if you find something you love, you'll never work a day in your life. But today, on a Monday, it feels ok on this cold, cold day, to remember that work is also called "work", not "fun".
February 4, 2021
From "promoting" to writing
I have been working REALLY hard to get my two writing projects out. "Principle Jones" was a 20 yr labor of love for me. And it was a great thing to finally feel "done with". I remember being out on an airplane, thinking to myself, "If this plane goes down, you never did publish that book and leave behind something for the world."
"Four Stories" is just some warm-up writings and other pieces I worked on over the years. There is some good stuff in there too.
Now, if I could just get somebody to read them!!
I am running an ad in the Wisconsin State Journal and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (I'm from Wisconsin.) I also am running a national ad in "Poets and Writer's Magazine". Also, some Facebook Ads I have been running seem to be successful (and pretty cheap). Hopefully, that will get some "umppppth" behind the projects. Then, I guess it is onto my next book...
Which after having finished one, I am elated to know I can finish another...
"Four Stories" is just some warm-up writings and other pieces I worked on over the years. There is some good stuff in there too.
Now, if I could just get somebody to read them!!
I am running an ad in the Wisconsin State Journal and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (I'm from Wisconsin.) I also am running a national ad in "Poets and Writer's Magazine". Also, some Facebook Ads I have been running seem to be successful (and pretty cheap). Hopefully, that will get some "umppppth" behind the projects. Then, I guess it is onto my next book...
Which after having finished one, I am elated to know I can finish another...
July 23, 2020
The Golden Age of TV
I think we are in a “golden age” of television. Man, there is great tv out there. Even “McMillion$”, which is ok, would have been AMAZING twenty years ago. “Breaking Bad”, “Game of Thrones”, “The Outsider”, “Chernobyl”, “Stranger Things”, “The Mandalorian”, “The Leftovers”, “High Fidelity”, “Better Call Saul”, “The Fabulous Mrs. Maisel”, “Mr. Robot”, “Westworld”, “Ozarks”, “The Man in the High Castle”, heck even “Tiger King” is funny and worth your time because we all need to watch a train-wreck once in a while: there is so much great, great tv. How do they get people to watch it all? How many more people are employed now in writing roles for tv shows that never had a chance before? How much competition is there for eyeballs? I’m pretty sure we haven’t added tons of “new viewers”. In fact, with the advent of the “Youtuber” and kids spending more and more time online in their rooms watching clips, I would think tv viewership has declined. How many of these new tv writers have an unpublished manuscript hanging out in their top-right desk drawer?
