Wednesday October 9, 2002 michigandaily.com/arts mae@michigandaily.com ARTS 5 'Non-required' lives up to its too-wiytitle By Stephanie Kapera Daily Arts Writer Pick up any edition of "The Best American Short Sto- ries" but don't crack open the cover. Whether it's the 1915 publication or the newest 2002 volume, you can pretty much assume, without even thumbing through it, that it'll be stuffed to the gills with some of the best writing this country has to offer. Take away all the John Updikes, Alice Munros and Richard Fords, replace them with a few satirical pieces of journalism, a 24 page long comic, and many, A many coming-of-age stories, and you're now holding a copy of "The Best Nonrequired THE Reading 2002." NONRI This year, the creators of "The Best Ameri- READI] can" series ("The Best American Essays," "The Best American Sports Writing") have Edited introduced a new addition to the family. Cart and Instead of a rosy-cheeked newborn, however, Marine "Nonrequired Reading" seems more like a delinquent stepchild in a family of books usually brimming with literary poise. Series editor Michael Cart, and this year's guest editor, Dave Eggers (author of the critically acclaimed memoir "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius") have teamed up to produce an anthology geared toward readers between the ages of 15 and 25. "Nonre- quired Reading" differs from "Short Stories" in that it includes satire, essays and news pieces that are plucked from both mainstream and alternative publications - a worthwhile project when you consider that "Short Stories" often reads more like selections from the New Yorker or the Paris Review. The fiction chosen for "Nonrequired Reading" is, at its best, poignant, clever and touching, although the book steers clear of material that is too stunning or challenging. David Schickler's "Fourth Angry Mouse," the best story in the anthology, spins the rich tale of Jeremy Jax, the grand- son of a famous comedian, who suddenly discovers that he is not funny. Schickler's Manhattan is like a vibrant, pulsing cartoon - the only setting in which we might be willing to fly with the silliness and sweetness of his plot. Elizabeth McKenize's gentle prose makes "Stop That Girl" a lovely piece as well; in it, a fifth grader is banished to Europe after kicking her new stepfather in the shin. Also of note is Heidi Jon Schmidt's "Blood Poison," in which the grown daughter of a feeble failure of a father must come to terms with his weaknesses during a trip to New York City's Muse- um of Natural History. The non-fiction pieces are all well written, but many seem to have been chosen for their gimmicks, which steers the tone of the anthology in a cheesy sort of direction. Take, for example, a piece like "Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good," - it sounds like it could have potential, but is in 'Fight Club' author Palahniuk's 'Lullaby,' fails to captivate, interest er fact boring, unless you truly care about scien- tists who make flavors in the New Jersey area. The humor pieces are funny, especial- ly "'Jiving' With Your Teen," (which trans- lates slang for confused parents) and BEST "Local Hipster Overexplaining Why He QUIRED Was At The Mall." However, their inclu- G 2002 sion, mixed with some of the more serious (and manipulatively saccharine) pieces Michael about war in Afghanistan and speed addicts ave Eggers in Bangkok, makes for a muddled and Books watered-down reading experience. The stories, explains Dave Eggers (in an annoying and un-funny introduction), were chosen by he and his "team" of student "helpers." Herein lies the book's main problem. Instead of being an edgy collection of sto- ries that we don't normally get to read because they're pub- lished in ZYZZYVA and Zoetrope instead of The Atlantic Monthly and Ploughshares, we get material chosen because its content - not the power of the writing, but the topics addressed by the author - appealed to a dozen teenagers from the San Franscisco area. To college students, and maybe even some high school students, this anthology will feel a bit insulting. However, the book explains in its fore- word that it exists for "young adults" - whoever they are - in order to provide material that hasn't been censored by mean parents. If this is true, then that is precisely the angle that is spoil- ing what could potentially be a wonderful read. Instead of a celebration of lesser-known works, we are given a sort of anthology of rebellion. This is disappointing, but if "Nonre- quired Reading" is meant for the "Goosebumps" and "Sweet Valley High" age groups, it's certainly a valuable volume (although Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are actu- ally way more fun than "Nonrequired Reading"). For us college kids, though, this book might be a tad too dumb. As a whole it felt bland; nothing really struck too powerfully, and almost everything read like a weak David Sedaris piece (including the David Sedaris piece itself). Instead of picking up this anthology, which might have been good had it not taken a left on "Chicken Soup for the Soul" avenue, explore a copy of one of the independent/alternative publications that "Nonrequired's" pieces have been chosen from. Or, just buy "The Best American Short Stories." After "Nonrequired Reading," required reading has never looked better. By Ted McDermott For the Daily The sentences that carry us through "Lullaby," Chuck Palahniuk's fifth novel, are clear and direct. Unfortunately, nothing else about the novel is worthy of these adjectives. The prologue introduces us to what the third-person narrator describes as "our hero, Helen Hoover Boyle." "Our hero" is a such a constant tag that in the prologue it works almost as a "Mrs." would. Clearly, this is either pretty heavy-handed foreshad- LULL owing, or even heavier-handed irony. Helen NO is a real estate agent. But rather than nego- B tiating the transactions of typical suburban By Chuc homes or offices, she deals exclusively in Doub haunted houses. "Lullaby" narrator Carl Streator is a journalist assigned to a five-part series on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). As might be gleaned from Helen's atypical real estate dealing, Palahniuk demands that the reader either believe in magic or that the reader take it as a necessary device for the telling of his story and just accept it. The first option, believing in magic, seems impossible and is not up for discussion either way. The second option, though not necessarily problematic, is mandatory in this particular situation. There are plenty of examples in literature in which the author asks the reader to go along with the super- natural (Kafka's "Metamorphosis," for one). Which is to say, the going-along is not the problem here, it is that the entire story, essentially from first to last sentence, is an exercise in accepting the impossible for no appar- ent reason (except authorial laziness). "Lullaby's" narrator is Carl Streator. Streator's most recent assignment is to write a five-part series on SIDS. He discovers, rather quickly, that the cause of SIDS is the reading of a culling song found on page twenty- seven of "Poems and Rhymes from Around the World." The culling song is thought to be a lullaby; unsuspect- ing parents read it to their children, killing them. The method of discovery is painfully simple - Carl finds the book either open to page 27 or a copy of the book that falls open to this page at the scene of the various SIDS death scenes he is using for his articles. It is difficult to accept a lot of this - that a lullaby kills babies, that this lullaby can be checked-out of your neighborhood public library (and remains undis- covered), and that ghosts exist and haunt houses. Unfortunately these are just some, and some of the less extreme, instances of Palahniuk stretching and ignoring reality for the sake of his story. Part of Palahniuk's motivation, it seems, in using these devices is as metaphor for his overt social com- mentary. A seemingly innocent lullaby being the cause of SIDS seem toreflect the narrator's obsessive irrita- , l tion with society's addiction to sound - the sound of televisions, stereos - and fear of silence. "These music-oholics. These calm-ophobics," Carl refers to the sound-obsessed. The reading aloud of a lullaby exists as a sound, a disturbance of the calm before sleep and, in Carl and Helen's world, a murder weapon. The metaphorical link is not hard to discern here. Besides this function, the inclusion * of the supernatural acts to tie all of the many the loose ends together. ABY: A Neither of these motives seems justifi- )VEL able. When Palahniuk avoids the supernat- .l i ural, which he does do for certain side Palahniuk streams, it works quite well. His writing is bleday much more powerful, his social commen- tary more biting. The loose ends are a clear fault. Excusing them with the supernatural only exacerbates their obviousness and the problems they create in the story. Palahniuk is an excellent crafter of clear, brief sen- tences. He is talented at creating unusual and interesting characters. And, clearly, he is an imaginative storyteller. In this story's case there is simply too much tugging on the bounds of reality. The inclusion of some of these supernat- ural twists would not be unreasonable, but "Lullaby" is simply a case of taking it too far, making these twists too prevalent and too important. .1 '== *I: THE EFFECT OF :I: !19 ABED A-BASAT UDA'S MARCH 27TH In SUICIDE ATTACK Eli i : ':i ON HIS PALESTINIAN I JA~ I' FAMILY: LA F CL «L $25,000 IN CASH In FURNISHED APARTMENT Im, PENSION FOR LIFE CELEBRITY STATUS m m i