People come
People go
You never know
-B.B
Poet Without a Pen
Ben Bonkoske
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The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin – Book Review
I supposedly read this book in college. I honestly can’t remember a single thing I read in those deranged years. I took a class titled Black Political Thought that was taught by a white man. I’m not implicating that this is an act against God, but I do think I may have learned a little more from someone who was more rooted in the material.
James Baldwin’s writing is beautiful. It is truly a gift to read. His tempo is on point the way that a jazz musician keeps the beat, and can diverge at the same time. The Fire Next Time is a…memoir of sorts? Baldwin is speaking directly to the reader about his experiences growing up in the church, and his encounter with the Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. I resonate with Baldwin’s experience of becoming involved with the church at a young age. Religion can be such an overwhelming discovery when we are young. God seems to be able to answer all of our unanswered questions and prayers. However, as we grow older, we begin to lose faith and realize the silly traditions and rituals that organized religion entails.
Baldwin is able to mend together his youth in the church, and his experience and conflict with the Nation of Islam. The life that molded him, and the man he has become.He does not hold the same reservations for white individuals that the Nation of Islam does. He brings up important introspection and insight that anybody can learn from. It is universal love and respect that we must learn to acknowledge in one another. It is not dated. He is not convicting anyone. It feels as though he is explaining his experience the way that it has been dealt to him. He blames no one, including himself. He does, however, raise questions that beg the reader to reflect.
The book is never superfluous, although his language is delightfully similar to Fitzgerald. It is quick, but not easy!
90/100
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untitled
Why can’t I take one night off? I could but I can’t. I take all kinds of days off. Many hours go wasted, poured down the drain like flat beer. My whole life is a vacation for Christake. Everything is losing its fun lately. It is a symptom of taking life seriously. I want to laugh again. Even Dave Chapelle has lost his sense of humor it seems. I wish to be different. I wish to be born in a different time in a different body with a different mind. What kind of world would make someone feel such awful ways? Earth baby. It is full of worthless people who make you feel worthless. My best friend is a septuagenarian. I live in my parent’s basement and I’m still doing better than I ever have in the past 5 years. Unless you consider suicide missions my peak. You know what saves me? The fact that I can disappear into a time different than all the bull in a book. I’m so glad I don’t watch television. You may have noticed, but the screen is a good reminder of why life and our genetics are insufficient. At least it is nice to read. I would welcome some tears, or a smile, or just being listened to. I’m convinced I’m a bad person. I made a lot of mistakes. I got tired of making them, but I still made them all the same. I want to write so I can be left alone. I don’t meet too many people these days who do what they want because they love it. Even my agency is based on word count.
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Monday Night Poetry #10
Love isn’t all bad
It is just a fall
and then broken pieces
-B.B
Breakfast in Bed
Turn off the newsCome sleep in
I’ll warm your cold feet
I’ll be your breakfast
In Bed
-B.B
Really good friendswe stayed
after all these years.
I’d stop by
say hello
But you
wouldn’t
know me anymore.
-B.B
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The Firm by John Grisham – Book Review / Synopsis
This was the first John Grisham book I read and I was not let down. Although it is not high-brow literature, it is fun, enjoyable, and a writer may take many lessons from his ability to shape a story. John Grisham has been on the end of a lot of criticism from book reviewers and I don’t know if I will be able to spare him either. His belief is that critics are jealous that they can’t churn out a national best-seller, and he may be right, but that doesn’t distract from the fact that his writing can be shallow and simple. There aren’t very many morals in The Firm other than, “it is bad to launder money” and a lesson is what I usually look for in a book. Something worth taking away.
Nevertheless, the book was a delight. I don’t think I have been on the edge of my seat in the way I was when I read The Firm in a long time. Although his prose is sparse, it can be compelling just the same. It is consistently good, not great, but good. Some of the characters are a little flat, and there were a few instances when I didn’t really care about anybody besides the protagonist Mitch and his wife, Abby. Still, that was enough to carry the book through to the end, and the last 100 pages are what really shine in this story.
If I am being honest there might be better books to spend your time on. However, just because a book isn’t deep doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read it. I was not as emotionally invested or moved as I have been with writers like Khaled Hoesseini, but those books are apples and oranges. The intention of the books are different. The Firm is meant to forget about the world’s problems while The Kite Runner is meant to make you face them.
John Grisham obviously had an outline when he devised this menacing story. At times, it felt like he was just progressing from one plot point to the next, but it was rarely boring. An outline is a necessity if you are going to write a suspense story so you can know where you are going, but writers like Stephen King also suggest that half the fun of writing is finding out where a story leads the writer. If too much is already planned, it can make the writer feel confined.
All in all, it was not my favorite book, but I think it has more of a lesson than I give it credit.
Synopsis: (Spoilers)
Mitch McDeere, a recent Harvard Law School Graduate is approached by a small but prestigious firm in Memphis. They throw him tons of money and perks such as BMW and a low rate mortgage on his house with his wife Abby. After passing the bar, he is approached by an FBI agent named Terrence who implies that the Bendni Law Firm has ties with the Chicago mafia, the recent death of two associates at the firm were not accidents, and his car and house is bugged. Mitch instantly reports this back to the partners of the firm who tell him not to worry.
Mitch has brother named Ray who is in jail. Ray tells Mitch of a private investigator named Eddie Lomax. Mitch hires Eddie to investigate the death of the two associates. It is revealed that there is evidence that the firm had a hand in the death. Eddie is taken out by the firm. Mitch agrees to help the FBI for 2 million dollars and a promise to get his brother out of jail. Mitch begins working with Eddie’s secretary named Tammy.
His wife Abby is petrified by the circumstances. She claims that she is leaving Mitch, but hops on a plane to the Cayman Island where she meets with Tammy. Tammy drugs a partner of the firm who own a condo on the island where a lot of incriminating documents are kept. They take the partner’s keys and copy all of the documents overnight.
The FBI releases Ray from jail. The FBI wires Mitch the first million. The firm hires a FBI agent to trail Mitch who reveals he is working with the FBI. Because of this, Mitch no longer trust the FBI but will still give them the incriminating documents. The firm plans to kill him so he flees. While on the run, Mitch steals 10 million dollars from one of the firms accounts and stores it in a Swiss bank account. Mitch, Abby and Ray hide out in Panama City Beach, Florida while the Feds and the Mafia are looking for them. They leave the documents for the FBI and escape on a boat to South America with 8 million in the bank.
Rereading everything that happens, I’m realizing how sloppy some of this story telling is. A LOT is happening at once. Still, it makes sense while I read it. Perhaps being able to juggle so much is a sign of Grisham’s capability as a writer. It was a good time.
79/100
Ben Bonkoske is the author of two novels, Spoon in the Road, and Carolina, Colorado, California. He is also the author of two collections of short stories, Ten Zen by Ben, and Eleven Stories for 11:11. He lives in Chicago, where he likes to take walks.
B. A, M.A.T.
Ben Bonkoske 