Book Review: Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon is a good-time ride on the self-destruction train. Humor and absurdity poured over a series of miserable episodes, as everything gradually (and not so gradually) falls apart. Well done, well written, a fun (in a way) read, but for me Wonder Boys was nothing terribly new and there was nothing enlightening or redeeming about the book. I must have missed something. It was both easy to keep reading and easy to not get involved, because watching people make intensely stupid and unkind or cruel decisions isn't my favorite entertainment, unless Chabon was going to explain to me why stupid and unkind decisions were natural, necessary, or inevitable. There are just too many books where the characters are inexplicably given free rein to hurt people without repercussion; if people did this IRL we'd shoot them, but we laugh if it's in a book. Wow, I'm cranky today. This was my first (and only) Chabon book. Maybe it wasn't the right time for me to read this, maybe I need to give it a re-read. But whither moral fiction? And the ending of Wonder Boys, well, just no. Seemed waaaaay too easy. The movie is also entertaining. [3 Stars]
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