Almost there.
Remember when I was writing about Novel and I mentioned how sometimes a book doesn't live up to what it should have been? If you don't remember, you can check it out here. Well, I've another to add to that list: Zorgamazoo by Canadian writer Robert Paul Weston. Where to begin? Okay, how about with the basics of the book? It's a light little fantasy romp about a girl (being pursued by nasties who want to give her a lobotomy) who winds up having an adventure involving mythic and fanciful creatures including the Zorgles from -- where else? -- Zorgamazoo. It's written in rhyming verse. That's important.
So what's the problem, you ask. What's not to like about rhyming verse, you ask. Don't you like Dr. Seuss, you ask. Don't you enjoy adventures, you ask. Do you not thrill at the magical worlds of fanciful creatures, you ask. Well, I answer, stop asking so many questions so I can explain.
First off, the verse. I indeed DO love Dr. Seuss! The verse here, however, becomes so tedious, as it goes on page after page after page after page! And even worse, I often felt like I was reading an early draft of Weston's work. If I could stomach re-reading the book, I'd take a count of how many times he filled in syllables with one of his pet phrases: "you see" and "in fact", as I recall, appeared with alarming frequency. Ug.
I'll barely say anything about the title, apart from mentioning that almost none of the story takes place in Zorgamazoo, and to clarify that it's of minimal importance to the plot at all.
Finally, the story is just underdeveloped. So much time has been spent on trying to force the rhyme and rhythm that Weston seems to have neglected to notice that he doesn't have the character or plot development to justify a novel at all. The whole thing would have been better served as a picture book. The book is divided into rather short chapters, and I'm not being facetious when I say I seldom read more than one chapter in a sitting.
In fairness, I should point out that the book has been given several honours, including the E.B. White Read Aloud Award and the Silver Birch Award (which is selected by children). I can only assume that the givers of this award were distracted by the rhyming verse and ended up giving an award for the book's writing structure rather than for its actual literary merit and content. I'm sure kids will enjoy it, but I'm finished with it.
On a better note, July also found me reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. I'm not entirely sure why the title claims the content will be a diary, because it doesn't particularly read that way, but I suppose it's due to the inclusion of cartoons and drawings "by the narrator". In any case, I had a much more positive response to this book than to a certain other recent read (whose title rhymes with "Borgamazoo").
The book is written in the voice of Junior (Arnold Spirit, Jr.), a Native American teenager who makes the difficult and unpopular choice to attend an all-white school off the reserve. The book deals quite frankly with several issues including poverty, abuse of various types, and racism and, as a result, has been the focus of both praise and controversy. It's apparently been banned in a few US school boards. Alexie has mixed a fair bit of autobiographical material into his novel and, perhaps in view of this, it becomes difficult to see the inclusion of some coarse language, mature themes, and sexual references as simply being salacious.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was awarded the National Book Award.
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