Blaze by Richard Bachman/Stephen King

I wasn't sure which author to credit since they're one and the same and they both appear on the cover! I'm also not sure how I'd classify Blaze. It's definitely fiction but it's not horror. I wouldn't call it a psychological thriller. I'm dithering because this is Stephen King and I'm so accustomed to his books of the macabre and terror.

King himself mentions Of Mice and Men in his foreward so I guess it's okay for me to do that too. His main character has a certain kind of charm. He's a brain-damaged con man with a heart of gold, how's that? His name is Clayton Blaisdell, Jr. but everyone calls him Blaze. Blaze was horribly injured by his alcoholic, abusive father when he was just a boy. Now he can't function on his own and needs the help of best buddy and fellow con, George. Or does he?

George and Blaze long planned a caper that would let them retire rich. It seems so simple and all the details have been worked out.

I guess that's as far as I'll go with that. In between, details about Blaze's sad childhood come out and all I could think was, gee, poor guy, what tough breaks he's had all his life. Still, I knew he was not making good choices by going with a life of crime.

Is the caper pulled off? Does Blaze retire rich or from the criminal world? I'm not telling!

This is Stephen King. It may not be his best work but it's still very engaging and moves very fast.

Blaze fits these challenges:

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

Now that I'm out of high school and have fulfilled all my lit requirements in college, I haven't had to read any classics. I committed myself to doing so, however, because there are so many fine works out there that are just "old" and difficult to read but definitely worth the time spent doing so. Still, I've been nervous about picking up the earlier classic books I choose to read.

I'm amazed at Moll Flanders. Daniel Defoe published this book in 1721. Was it considered "racy"? I don't know enough about the time period except to say that my belief about that time is that people were shocked and did not want to talk about prostitution. They would not look favorably on an author who had a prostitute as the "heroine". Well, maybe I'm wrong.

Moll Flanders is a prostitute. She didn't start out that way. Born to a convict mother, she was given over to foster care when her mother was deported. She might have had a terrible life but she didn't. She always wanted to be a lady. The thought of being a servant was abhorrent to her. She's pretty clever in the way she managed to avoid that fate.

Moll leads a very colorful and interesting life all right. I think that's why amazed me so much. I wouldn't want to give away too much of the story but some of her marriages (there are five) and situations she gets into are ... well, shocking.

It took me longer than usual to read the book because of the language and style. Once I got used to it, though, I was able to pick up speed. It really was a pretty good book!

Reading the book fits into these book challenges:

A Fractured Mind by Robert B. Oxnam

A Fractured Mind by Robert B. Oxnam has been on my "to-be-read" shelf for at least four years! Some of these books have become buried and forgotten because I have so doggone many books and it's a real shame. This was an excellent book!

I've always been fascinated with books about multiple personality disorder, especially once I learned it's brought on by severe trauma in childhood. I read Sybil and When Rabbit Howls. This is the first time I've read about this disorder in a man. I know that it happens, it's just that there weren't many books about it.

I hadn't heard of Robert B. Oxnam before. Apparently he is a renown scholar and used to be the president of the Asia Society. It's amazing that he was able to carry himself in a way that no one suspected he had eleven different personalities. How could this have happened to him? He didn't seem to have experienced any trauma in his life and yet he struggled with alcoholism and depression. It took a very skilled and dedicated psychiatrist to help get to the root of it all.

One unique thing about the book is that the personalities speak. Some voice more strongly and more often than others and I found that fascinating. It was also fascinating to get such an up-close-and-personal look at how the personalities communicated with each other.

I won't say what happened to Oxnam and whether or not the personalities became integrated. Anyone who's interested won't be sorry to read the book and find out.

A Fractured Mind falls into these challenges: