Good read.
Apr 20th, 2007 by B.
My entries lately have been so media/entertainment heavy, but this is book is well worth mentioning. Heart Shaped Box, written by Joe Hill (if you don’t recognize the name, google him, he’s got a great pedigree), is a real page-turner. I picked up the novel based on sheer curiosity (wanted to see how far the apple fell from the tree) and a real love of the cover art. I wasn’t expecting much… after all, Papa casts a long shadow, but by the fifth chapter I was completely hooked. And less than 24 hours later I’d finished all 368 pages, sad to see it over.
Heart Shaped Box is about an aging death-metal rock icon (think Marilyn Manson meets Trent Reznor) who has a collection of macabre items. A cannibal’s cookbook, a witches signed confession, a used hangman’s noose, snuff film… so when he’s told about a dead man’s suit (accompanied by ghost, free of charge!) for sale on the internet, it goes without saying he sees to it he’s the highest bidder. But what at first appears to be a random act quickly becomes a life-meets-death case of posthumous revenge.
Hill does a great job of fleshing out his main character- giving him the hard edge necessary to make him believable:
“So, Anna was living with you when she killed herself.” he said. Still in possession. Still perfectly calm.
“You’re going to die…” she spat.
He cut her off. “Think up a new line. And while you’re working on that, here’s something else to think about. I know a few angry souls myself. They drive Harleys, live in trailers, cook crystal meth, abuse their children and shoot their wives. You call ‘em scumbags. I call ‘em fans. Want to see if I can find a few who live in your area to drop in and say hello?”
“Ought to put something on that,” he said, “before it festers and rots. There’s less work for pole-dancers with visible disfigurements.”
“You’re a sympathetic sonofabitch, you know that?”
“You want sympathy, go fuck James Taylor.”
While at the same time making him likable, human and not just another spinal tap parody:
“What would your kids find out about you?” he asked her.
“That I dropped out of high school. That when I was fifteen I let a guy turn me into a prostitute. The only job I was ever any good at involved taking my clothes off to Mötley Crüe for a room full of drunks. I tried to kill myself. I been arrested three times. I stole money from my grandma and made her cry. I didn’t brush my teeth for about two years. Am I missing anything?”
“So this is what your kids would find out: no matter what bad thing happens to me, I can talk to my mother, because she’s been through it all. No matter what shitty thing happens to me, I can survive it, because my mom was through worse and she made it.”
A small sample that doesn’t begin to touch on the story, but I liked the character development. Especially because it’s incorporated into a personality most people would shy away from. Kudos to Hill. While I won’t say he’s a carbon copy of his father, I will say… and in my book this is a true compliment… that he’s his own unique, interesting, and ultimately very readable voice.
As to the story, it clips along at a tight pace. So tight that I never found a comfortable ‘putting it down point’; meaning I read it almost straight through (who needs sleep anyway?). It’s oh-so-scary at points, too. Especially when read by lamplight at 3:00 a.m. with just a five pound chihuahua for company. So, check it out… it gets two enthusiastic thumbs up from me. (plus the added bonus of leaving you humming Nirvana all day)
