This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. Find all my work at MJMunoz.com
Prepare yourself for some off-the-cuff book talk as I tackle another middle grade book
chapter by chapter.
I am bringing you my thoughts, my review, my chapter by chapter coverage or discussion
of, yeah that's what I think, chapter by chapter discussion of Maniac McGee. This first chapter
that I'm talking about is not the first chapter, it's actually the introduction, it's called
Before the Story and it's kind of wild. I don't like this writing style and I'm suddenly
regretting that I decided to listen to this book, to have this book on my list. It's,
you know, a famous award-winning type of book. It's got accolades and just because something
has accolades doesn't mean it's actually good, which is something that I'd forgotten about.
I don't know, but it's on a list of other books, like it has Number of the Stars on
here of, you know, listeners also enjoyed that kind of thing. That was a great book,
it was one of the best books I've read so far in this section. But then BFG's on there,
BFG's supposedly weird. I don't know, Cricket and Times Square is on that list as well and
that's a great book. So yeah, I'm really not sure what to think about this. And just because
something is popular doesn't mean it's good. And again, just because something has accolades
doesn't mean I'll like it either, it doesn't mean you'll like it. You don't have to like
what everybody likes, you don't have to go by the Newberry Award list. That has a certain
utility but you also need to use your own discernment and I kind of randomly selected
or used those. I used a chat GPT I believe to come up with this list. People talk about
the biases of that. And I did a little bit of filtering but some of the books I didn't
know what they were. I just knew that they were acclaimed and I thought, hey, I'm going
to check them out because the point of the project of Forge of Fiction is to check out
these classic and modern children's books that have great appeal, great success and
see how I like them and see if I think they're worthy of a place of honor in the Forge of
Fiction. That's what I'm doing here. And yeah, I don't know what to think about this book.
It's so strange already. And it my biggest problem with it. So it has an ending line
that goes with a 123 structure. The history of a life and these what it says is that the
history of a kid's life is one part fact, two parts legend and three parts snowball.
I think that's a non sequitur. If it isn't actually a non sequitur that just means nothing,
then it's got some sort of hidden meaning in it. And a snowball does two things. So
it's like a very evocative language that's being used, but it's also strange and weird
and I don't really like it. And I don't know that there's much utility in it to children,
who's the intended audience? Will it make them more critical thinkers? I don't know.
It might just like I honestly listened to the chapter two or three times just and I
just finished relisting to it as I was walking out here to sit down and talk about this book
or this introduction. And I thought the thought came to me, this book is sliding off of my
mind. And then I thought, no, that's not quite right. And then I tried listening to it again.
And I thought, okay, this the writing style of this is repellent to my mind. And it'll
be funny if I watch this or if I listen to this whole book and I end up loving it at
the end. But yeah, it's got like a like a slam poetry kind of style to the diction.
And that honestly might be a little bit because it's being read by S. Apta Merkerson. And
if you don't know who she is, she's fabulous. I don't know what else she was in, but I know
her from Law and Order from the 90s and maybe early 2000s with Briscoe and Green. And she
was the LT over their unit. I can't remember what precinct they were in, but Law and Order,
the crime, you know, procedural show. And man, that's a great show. That's a great show.
And she was great in that show. And, you know, she's an African American woman. So she brings
her own style. And like she brings herself, she brings herself to the role of reading
this book. And the book's about, you know, black people and white people, I presume,
because it's about racial division in somewhere Southish, I guess. Yeah, the kid was born
in Pennsylvania, I think is what they say. Or did I just meet someone from Pennsylvania?
I'm not sure. Anyway. And yeah, it's odd. It's odd. She brings her style to it. And
I think it's a great performance. And it sounds good. And that's the thing about like that
slam poetry style of writing. There was a Star Wars book written by Daniel Jose Older.
It was a Han and Lando book, I believe. Last Shot, I think is what it's called. And for
the audiobook, they did three people, they did a woman, him and one other man, I believe
who did the the reading. And Daniel Jose Older's performance is I pulled up for you, if I could,
but it's at one point, somebody gets drunk or like, like Chewbacca gets like spice thrown
into his face. And if you don't know from Star Wars, spice is like a drug. And, you
know, I'm just going to patch it in, I'm going to find a clip and I'm going to record like
10 seconds of his performance and share it with you. And like I overall like that book
a lot. But like I kind of cringed every time his parts came up, because he covers like
a specific character at a specific time in their life. And just like the delivery and
like the the structure of the diction, it's like a very or the structure of the sentences,
the prose, it's a very like, trying to sound like, you know, I walked up the stairs, grabbed
a cigarette, lit it as I stroke the match against the hard wooden banister. The heat
of the fire lit up the end of the cigarette like a
fire that had been left on too long. It was burnt. Sweet. Almost like colonized. You know,
wheat, which that rhymes on accident. Anyway, it's like that kind of style where it's like,
you're trying to sound really cool and you're trying to like, like be something like project
an image of something. That's what I felt about those sections of that book. But the
one man wrote them all. And the other sections didn't feel like that. So he was definitely
he gave voice and character to each section of the book. And I know I'm talking about
a Star Wars book now, not about Megan Mcmiggy, but this first chapter really feels like it
has that or this introduction. It has that vibe of like that trying to harken back to
like the like a beatnik. It's like beatnik delivery of a story. And I don't really appreciate
that. Like, I'm happy for those people to do that on their own. But it doesn't mean
I have to like it in my books. And I don't like it here. And spoilers, I actually because
the chapters are so short. I actually listened to all of chapter one as well, which is just
a couple minutes and it's similar. Like, I don't know, I'll just go back to it real quick.
In the intro, they say that they say that maniac McGee was born in a dumpster or a dump
that his heart was a cereal box and his stomach was a spring. And he had an eight inch cockroach
that he washed, walked on a leash and rats that would guard him at night when he slept
at like, I don't know that's supposed to be kid myth and kid legend, like old school playground
legend when there was no internet when there was no, there was only like, you know, three
TV channels. And kids would just like make stuff up and, you know, lore developed and
things like that. And that's something I kind of touched on in. I only remember seeing Clemens
or Mark Twain and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Wait, Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer is what
I read for fortress fiction. And I talked about that. And like, it's interesting. And
I don't know if it's distinctly Southern because Tom Sawyer was definitely Southern. He grew
up in rural Mississippi or Mississippi is rural, I guess, at the time all of it was
rural and like the vocal performance of that was really good. And it had like a music to
it and a rhyme. And I'm sure that comes from that comes from, you know, the actor gave
that performance, but also it came from the from what Clemens wrote himself and Twain,
sorry, what Twain wrote. And like, there's definitely skill in what Jerry Spinelli is
doing. Like he's doing something skillful, but I don't have to appreciate it. I'm not
required to appreciate your skillful. I'm not required to appreciate your skills. And
I don't appreciate this so far. So it'll be interesting to see how I get through the book.
You know, it's plausibly short. I think the total like it's taking me about three hours
to get through the book, which probably six hours because I'll listen and then I'll come
talk about listening to talk about it. And yeah, I don't know. I don't know if you've
read this book. I'd like to know about it. I'd like to know what your thoughts are on
it. I'd like to know if it gets better. And I mean that in multiple ways. And yeah, I
know this will be an interesting journey. And just because the books on the list, just
because I'm doing a chapter by chapter, it doesn't mean I'm going to like it doesn't
mean it's going to get into the fortune fiction. But in spite of the book itself or the you
know, these things I don't like about it, it might be an amazing book that gets gets
in anyway. So I just might have the caveat that yeah, it belongs here, but it's just
not for me. I'm not the target audience for it. I'm not the reader for it. But anyway,
I know this will be interesting, interesting journey through this book. So till next time,
folks, take care and keep reading.
Here is a sample of what I was talking about from Star Wars Last Shot by Daniel Jose older
a book I do like but I love some criticism at very clear that whatever that song was,
it was all about Hans current crappy state of affairs. Each bending lick and all those
whining harmonies going each other teasing or turning to the ether. They were clearly
designed to paint pictures of Hans own mashed up heart, the pulsing sense of regret, the
never ending replay of each step along his dumb broken life that had led him here to
this moment. Lovesick and wasted at Mazas and waiting for Sana to show up with whatever
ridiculous cargo she needed his help smuggling. And Sana was late, which the song seems to
know to prep the Falcon she said before she left. Chewie would do it. And anyway, the
Falcon was always prepped. And why were these cackling but tango notes mirroring Hans silent
compensation with himself?
Yeah, so I mean, there it is. You know, a song doesn't know anything. Like it's very
expressive. But it's like mumbo jumbo, sort of. And it kind of irritates me. And that's
the kind of thing you get maniac McGee as well. And it's just an interesting. I don't
know if that's a whole literary like sub genre or what that is. But I'm not familiar with
it. And I'm not the audience for it. And I'm not saying anybody who is is wrong. It's just
surprising that if it is a thing, that it is a thing, because I wouldn't think anybody
would be too interested in hearing that for too long. So anyway, I think that's going
to be it for now.
I hope you enjoyed that. Please remember to like, share, subscribe. I invite you to comment,
ask questions and share your thoughts with me. It's always more fun when you're part
of the conversation. Until next time, keep reading, be well and do good things. Visit
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