The Monkey King's Used Primate Emporium and Book Reviews

previous - next - random review

Michael Chabon, �Summerland�

Started April 8 � Finished April 16, 2005; 500 pages. Posted 09 June 2005

I just got back from the punk rock DJ night. Not that long ago when they asked me to fill in, I felt like an intruder, but since that time I�ve started to assert myself more, playing a mix of stuff I like along with stuff that everybody else in the world likes. It�s been the most fun that I can remember having in a long time that didn�t involve sexual congress, and so I was happy to do it.

Last week, however, I was a little annoyed at the lack of communication between the bartenders and myself. I was under the impression that DJ�s got drinks free, yet I was paying for about half of what I ordered, which to me meant that I got drinks free so long as I played stuff that the bartender�s liked.

Tonight, however, there was only me and one other person playing, and the other guy was more interested in hanging out with friends than playing music so there were plenty of points where I went solo. Toward the end of the night, one of the bartenders mentioned that the DJ�s actually got paid for being there.

I, of course, have not been paid.

I told him I really didn�t care about that, and if he wanted to exempt my bar tab, that was payment enough. He agreed with my situation in theory, except for one problem � I had quite the bar tab. Apparently, I drained their entire stock of Newcastle. I�d say it was worth it, for what I played. The playlist went like this:

So I don�t know � If you know and like the bands that I played, this might seem like a great time. But it�s also a selective memory kind of thing, because I�m leaving out the fact that in-between my picks of Jawbreaker and The Subhumans, the other guy decided to play The Smiths and a really long, slow, terrible reggae song.

It�s the same thing with this novel, because I don�t know whether I trust the narrator, which in this case is a child. The set up is like the Narnia series, except this time we�re centered on a baseball field instead of a closet. And so we watch the young hero go through his trials and tribulations and can�t help but wonder if he�s leaving out the parts where he had to wait for a eight minute reggae song to finish before something interesting happened.

Or at least that�s how I took it, but like I said, I got all my drinks for free tonight and my judgement is a little cloudy. My night, however, got interesting when the tattooed goddess grabbed my around the shoulders and thanked me for playing, in what she said, was �the best music ever.�

But now I�m home alone, and what kind of stupid ending is that?


Rating: Worth used, not worth keeping.

previous - next - random review