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TECK TALES

Name: TECK TALES
Author: John Mogan
ISBN: 978-1-4251-4645-0

by John Mogan ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2008

Interesting premise delivered with inconsistent results.

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Seven short stories examine the human condition in a technological age.

The title of the collection hints at technology entering into, or colliding with, our everyday lives and the tales loosely follow the suggested guideline—some, such as an opera singer confronted with a more perfect version of her own voice thanks to a recording, adhere; others barely touch upon the subject. “Dennis the Duck Who Looked Like a Boy,” which starts off the collection, presents a duck that emerges from an egg with the physical features of a boy who then undergoes a superficially successful, but ultimately futile, surgery to make it fully human. This tale may be read as absurdist satire, telling us that all the medical advancements in the world cannot change the essence of a living being—even after plastic surgery, a duck is still a duck. Other stories are less absurdist and more simply absurd. In “What You Don’t See,” a shy young man quite literally has his biggest secret exposed, and then finds himself on his way to a career in pornographic films. Here the work does not shy from vulgarity and features, among other things, a U.S. Army-sponsored orgy. But it lacks the incisive social critique to add poignancy to its extremes. In this and other stories, the characters dealing with such outrageous situations are considerably less complex than the situations themselves, and Mogan often describes both physical and emotional characteristics matter-of-factly, lessening the contrast between humans and their machines. Where Mogan is most successful is in “Diva Diva,” the aforementioned tale of the opera singer. There, a woman’s voice, with all its beauties and imperfections, is slowly silenced by its own recording, and the brutal crash of technology upon humanity resonates deeply.

Interesting premise delivered with inconsistent results.

Pub Date: March 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-1-4251-4645-0

Page Count: 123

Publisher: Trafford

Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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CARRIE

by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1974

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...

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Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).

All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."

Pub Date: April 8, 1974

ISBN: 0385086954

Page Count: 216

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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NEVER FLINCH
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YOU LIKE IT DARKER
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Appreciations: Carrie Turns 40

- SEEN & HEARD
Stephen King Used ‘Carrie’ Advance To Support Mom

- BOOK TO SCREEN
New ‘Carrie’ Series in the Works at Amazon

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.