Only Ed Calkins can compare and contrast two books that are seemingly dissimilar on the surface: "Lycanthropic Summer" and "Flower Power."
I'm thrilled to be placed in the same category as Lindsay Lake.
Dear MOMI,
It was
good to see you in person. I know you're really busy but here is the book
review that Linsey might want to read
"Werewolves and
Zombies, the Tale of Two Teens: Book Reviews"
I’d like to introduce you to two teenage girls with
some things in common. Both find themselves facing adulthood in the 1960’s and
have some untraditional plans that may seem naïve yet so relevant to more
mature adults living in present times.
The youngest is a creation of Denise M. Baran-Unland in the
novel "Lycanthropic Summer." Caryn Rochelle plans to start her adulthood by
being very rich; much wealthier than her mother who divorced her father when
she inherited big. But seventeen-year-old Caryn has a less conventional way in
mind. She is going to write the greatest werewolf love story ever written
before her eighteenth birthday. She envisions the tours, interviews, and book
signings after that will surely keep her a wealthy, busy, young adult.
There is a small problem, however, and it’s described
in an interesting way. Caryn has yet to write a single word of it and it's
already June 1st. Her birthday is in late August. Her dad, the only person that
isn’t dead and is still of use to her has an answer, be it a cheesy one. It’s a
yellow diary with a childish lock and key. The bulk of the novel is a dated
letter to an imaginary friend, “Maggie”, who was a classmate of hers but never
an actual friend. There are other pretend friends, too, in the story. But it’s
the friendship, not the teenage girls, that are imagined with Caryn secretly
disdaining them while keeping up appearances of a close-knit inner circle.
Caryn is a true lone wolf; cynical, imaginative,
vulgar, and sexually inexperienced. Early in the novel, she gets in trouble
when she attempts to change that inexperience after her prom dance in her
boyfriend’s car. Still, both the boyfriend and the experience seemed designed
to give her something to complain about rather than satisfy adolescent urges.
She gets caught by a policeman and grounded in a way that grants her mother a
summer without a daughter stealing cigarettes from her purse.
Mother sends daughter to live with dad and her aunt
Silly in a tourist prison called Shelby where her father has a veterinarian
office and a place he shares with his sister, who makes her living by crafting
and selling jewelry to the tourist trap shops. Caryn adapts to her new prison
quite well. One might expect to find her just a rich kid spoiled brat, but
she’s almost the opposite, looking for any opportunity to help Dad with his
veterinarian office and Aunt Silly with her jewelry. Caryn won’t admit it, but
she’s also quite fond of her easy-going unconventional aunt.
Caryn’s prison quarters are about the size of her
bathroom at home, but she seems to prefer it, even though her bedroom door is
misfitted to the frame and doesn’t close all the way. Housework has an
interesting pattern well suited to teenage sensibility.
The journal fills with the wisdom of adolescence and
werewolf lore along with some of Caryn’s short werewolf stories. The writer
has talent, but the wisdom is confined to her number of years. The days of
Shelby fall into rhythm, but no "Greatest Werewolf Love Story" emerges.
One might expect that a seventeen-year-old might
mingle with the local teens, sharing cigarettes and ways to make trouble. Caryn
keeps to herself, her aunt, her father, and the animals under her father’s
care. But a rumor causes curiosity to creep into her writer’s mind and she
explores a rich native’s estate. Through a window she finds a naked, hairy,
teenage boy chained to a basement wall. Naturally, she expects to spend her
reward money promoting her book when she turns the captors in; but another idea
claims her attention.
The writer gets an idea and, just as quickly, the
greatest werewolf love story gets its first chapter. As the journal fills, the
other chapters only get written every time she conducts her clandestine visits to
her chained naked muse. As a reader, you can feel the urgency as the pages yet
to read grow smaller and the progression of chapters seem to fail to claim
those pages. The village of Shelby has its secrets, but the revelations are all
shadowed. Caryn has a deadline that her father seems to legitimize.
I’ll give you
one hint. As you’re reading the novel, keep an eye on that door that doesn’t
close and also the misbehaving rowan cane and the power of the native flowers.
Except for the "f" bombs which I find humorous, the story is not one word
longer than it needs to be and its full sense isn’t revealed till the book’s last
sentence.
The story of an older teenage girl starts in a hick
town in Texas sometime after the Beatles invaded the States. In the novel, "Flower Power" by Lindsay Lake, Shelby is the protagonist looking for a life that
doesn’t depend on marriage. Like Caryn, Shelby is independent, creative, and
has a smart streak that seems to fail her early on. Unlike Caryn, Shelby loves
everyone and is quite interested in boys almost to the point of addiction.
She wants to be a nurse, but her high school grades
rule out college. She works as a nurse’s aide with German nuns in a newly built
hospital. But then, she talks with an Air Force recruiter. The Air Force could
make her a nurse. She signs on the dotted line and is shipped to Lackland Air
Force Base in Texas for her secretarial training! That’s the last thing she
wants, and she makes that clear to her assignment officer despite a warning not
to make waves. Was that her first mistake or was it being too dismissive of a
pair of guys boasting that they could get her assignments anywhere in the
world?
In either case, she’s flown out to begin her four year
sentence on Thule Airbase in Greenland, where the sun rises once a year. Once on
the base, she hopes to meet handsome pilots, but is confronted by zombies who
overrun the base. Hmm. "Zombies" and "overrun" might be an exaggeration.
Zombies would have more personality and "overrun" implies that they are acting
in unison. No, the airmen, contractors, and support staff aren’t undead, they
just look like it and the dull grey that covers everything doesn’t help much.
It seems like everyone on the base is dead inside and mental illness threatens
in many forms. They drink too much, fight, rape, and kill themselves when they
are not too busy being clinically depressed.
On her first day, Shelby meets her two commanding
Captains. Madonna Wakowski, who runs the hospital, is an RN with a manlike
haircut and a likable disposition. Dr Alan Markkov has the charm and looks of a
grumbling homeless man with an unkempt long beard and dark circles under his
eyes. Being the only doctor on the base left the man and the clinic he worked
in gigantic mess; one that Shelby got right down to cleaning up. He doesn’t
impress her, but she does have what could pass for dinner with him in the
officer’s mess hall. Dr Alan gulps down his food and leaves for his quarters
before she’s halfway through her meal.
Once in her quarters, her neighbor Nan informs her
that they both have dates with the base commander and a friend. She dresses for
the Officers Club she had heard about, but instead finds herself at the
friend’s apartment where drinking is taking very seriously. Shelby gets bad
vibes and bails.
The next morning, Shelby is late, and Captain Wakowski
has a new patient; the base commander who got drunk and tried to force himself
on Nan who happened to study karate. All that happened on the first day.
Because of my enthusiasm for the novel, I’m in danger
of telling the story instead of letting the author do it. What I can tell you
is Shelby appoints herself as an activities director. Her first task is to
change the color of the walls. Surprised that she had no trouble getting the
Air Force to send Thule gallons of paint that isn’t grey, she was even more
surprised at the ease of getting contractors and airmen to volunteer to paint.
She has other ideas too and the bulk of the novel is
the execution and effect of them, sometime unintended. There is also the matter
of sex, lovers, and storms both inside the buildings and out.
Will a simple flower child be able to fight back the
tide of zombies or is the base doomed to suicide, riots, and starvation, not to
mention nuclear war? She does have allies. The base commander isn’t the jerk he
makes of himself, rather he, too, is the victim of the craziness of the desert
snow.
Later, two other characters, DeSoto, an angry black
airman, and Beau, a brawling young contractor sporting long hair and piercings, join her quest and mix it up with the base in varying ways. All the main allies
journal their pain. Although the entries don’t take up much of the novel, each
informs of some secret insanity looming. Even Shelby is not doing as well as
she appears and her plea to her childhood imaginary friend Buc will break your
heart. To the reader I’ll give a hint. Keep your eyes on the weather and the
dog sleds as the ending takes a hard left turn.
But how am I to make these tales of two teenage girls
all about me? I have to come up with something. I could say things like; while "Flower Power" is historical fiction, the werewolf novel is hysterical fiction,
(please don’t make me pronounce that title again,). All the f bombs did make me
laugh. I could say that the name Caryn sounds like ‘caring’ which is a big part
of Caryn’s character. I could say that Shelby sounds like "shall be" which
sound like a biblical Beatles’ song or something often proclaimed by a very
confident activities director.
I could be clever and insightful by pointing out that
werewolves are the perfect metaphor for adolescence. I could also claim that "Flower Power" tells the story that modern life is decades removed from. In the
Vietnam era the nation was sharply divided, suffered runaway inflation, and
lived in fear that the Russian's aggression would lead to the end of the world.
Wait…never mind.
I could sound ridiculous by stating that the major
difference between the two novels is the location of power that combats the
wolfs and zombies. In the first, it’s the power of flowers that grow inside of
Shelby. In the second, it’s the flower power that grows inside of Shelby.
I will admit you might read both books and disagree.
Here’s something you can’t disagree with because you
lack the authority. I have two new imaginary friends and a lot in common with
both of them. People that have worked with me might think I’m more like Shelby.
We both have had the same unofficial jobs. But I am most of the time more like
Caryn in keeping to myself.
Caryn has no use for anyone her age, or as she puts it "anyone that isn’t dead". Is it fear that motivates that? Oh, I know she does
not agree and would use her string of f bombs say so. But I know fear and am
inclined to project it on her. Is it her, me, or both that distain company because
of fear of getting her/mine/our feelings hurt? Or is it the reverse? Are we
afraid of the monsters inside of us hurting other people? One thing about Caryn
is that she believes herself to be a great writer. I can’t say that about
myself. If I could have just a little of her confidence, maybe I could pretend
to believe which would lead to believing, which would lead to being. You see
why I’m keeping her around.
Then there’s Shelby. It’s going to come out of me
anyway so I might as well admit it. I have a crush on Shelby. For a man my age,
you might call that creepy. I’d rather you call it ruthless. How can I help it?
When Shelby looks at me with big blue eyes, her lit-up smile, and Jane Fonda
haircut, she’s bouncing on the balls or her toes almost too excited to tell me
about the new activity she’s just thought of. She’s irresistible, even if I
have to share her with guys more endowed than me.
Caryn is my "writers block" buddy. I imagine her to the
right of me as I type on my computer and she’s scribbling in that yellow dairy.
“How’s it coming, Mouse?” I would call her that. I’m
about the same age as her father in this fantasy and he called her that. “What
are you writing just now?”
“No way!” she’d insist. “I’m not giving you my
werewolf love story for free. You have to buy it like anyone else.”
But I can see she’s at her diary and not at the typewriter. She knows
she’s busted.
"What about you?” she asks.
“I’m writing, but I’m not sure anyone’s going to read it.”
“Bleep that blah!” She uses more
colorful words. “Write any way you think and if any of the Bleeping Blobbing
blahs can’t understand the bleeping blobbing blah you’re trying to say…well
bleep em. Besides, my werewolf love story is going to make so much money you’ll
never have to bleeping blah again. And if any bleeping bleeper bleeps the blah
out of you I’ll beeping …well you know what I’ll do.”
“Thanks, Mouse.”
Shelby is for a different time. When I feel like my Greenland is an
island of cold, white, old age surrounded by death, I’ll be alone in my
barrack’s apartment, and she knocks on my door.
“It’s
open,” I tell her. There’s no reason to lock it.
“Are you OK?” she asks, but she can see that I’m not. “Is there anything
I can do for you? Anything at all?”
Hmm,… but no. I tell her, leaving out the ‘hmm’.
Big blue eyes stare back at me hopefully.
“Is there anything you can do for you?”
“Yes,” I admit. “I could check the signup sheets for some activity I
might enjoy or write in my journal. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to pick up a phone.”
But her blue eyes haven’t left mine. She’s still hoping as if she’s
coaching the words from my mouth.
“Or
I could come up with my own activity and print out sheets for that.”
That’s what she wants to hear from me.
“But the mail came today, Shelby. My world is smaller than it was and
the activities that I once enjoyed I’m now too old for and have less people in
my life to share what’s left.”
Shelby doesn’t answer. With tears forming in her eyes she buries her
face in my chest and wraps her arms around me. For a minute or more, there is
nothing but the body heat and empathy between a young, tired woman and a dried-out old man.
“Is it time to plan a hard left turn," she whispers, still embracing me.
“Not yet, Sweety. Not yet."
My
girls…not yours. I imagined them first. Well, maybe the authors played some small
part but it’s my imagination that makes them so real. You’re not going to
understand any of this until you read the books, and I should get back to
telling you why you must read them. I’m
reviewing with my own system of grading.
“Lycanthropic Summer’ is an easy read with profanity, humor, mystery,
and the astute observation of an adolescent that showcases her talent but stays
within the experiences her years allowed. The book makes good use of fonts and
forces you to reevaluate its plot line after you’ve finished the book's last
sentence. Do yourself a favor and don’t read ahead. I give it five out of five.
"Flower Power’ is an insightful masterpiece with a firm grip on the
history and psychology of the men and women who served at that time in that
place. It is fictional, but for each bump in the plot there is a comparable historical
twist according to my source, who implies some of his information is still
classified. (He brags a lot.) But regardless of whether the plot is meant to
mirror actual incidence, Lindsay Lake gives her characters a balance yet makes
you care about them. For some that lived during the Vietnam era, the book may
bring painful memories which is testament to its truthfulness. For those who
have not lived in the era, it’s a must-read lest we forget the lessons the U.S.
military learned. The book is a page turner but expect more tears than laughs.
I give it five out of five.
Caryn from the werewolf book gets five packs of cigarettes. (To
understand my willingness do that, read the book)
Shelby from “Flower Power” gets five red roses.
