I'm glad that I didn't know much about this book before I read it. If I had known how much mythology and how many famous parabals were included, I likely wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much. I have this thought that I don't like fantasy or magical realism, but I'm finding that there are more exceptions to this rule than I'd thought. This book was certainly an example of one of those exceptions.
The book takes place in the '30s and begins with young Martin Dressler working in his father's cigar store. As time, and the book, carries on, he takes a job at a local hotel, opens a cigar shop in its lobby, is promoted within the motel, opens his own chain of diners and achieves many other layers of success. With each added success, Martin is increasinly surprised at just how far he's gotten and continues to shoot even higher. So high, in fact, that he eventually falls.
This book is written like a biography. While there is dialouge dispersed throughout, it's told in a very linear way and I was left feeling that the author was mostly guessing at his characters emotions.
There are many themes throughout this book, but the one that stuck with me the most is of Martin as a dreamer. He begins modestly but takes on such feats as opening a city within a hotel. This hotel has many levels underground, complete with full city blocks, zoos, theater districts, parks with ponds and on and on. He also befriends two ladies. One of them he marries, one of them he respects. We're left watching his failed marriage and wishing that he'd married the one he clearly cared about. However, he is not interested in the practical. His hunger is only for the oft silent beautiful sister.
In summation, I enjoyed this book very much. I'm interested to read more from this author and if I didn't all ready have many books in queue, I would probably re-read this one to get more of a feel for some of the myths I missed the first time.
"Do you believe that the actor on the stage is really a villain? Let me ask you something else. If he isn't a villain, then is he a liar?"
8/10
YTD:
Books read : 36
Pages read : 10,375
Currently reading : Veronica - Mary Gaitskill & Early Autumn - Louis Bromfield
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Book 35 : Elbow Room - James Alan McPherson
When I saw that the Pulitzer prize winning author James Alan McPherson was currently teaching at the school I may attend in the fall (the University of Iowa), I decided it was time I got around to reading Elbow Room. It had been on the to-be-read shelf for years, mostly because it's a collection of short stories - and I think I've made my feelings on short stories clear by now.
I can't really say that there was a particular story in this collection that stood out to me, or that I found particularly interesting or well written. There also wasn't a story that I felt was poorly written, or that lost my interest while i was reading it.
In the end, I was entertained enough while reading the stories but they did not leave a lasting impression on me. This is my typical experience with short stories.
Sophocles - 5/10
YTD:
Books read : 35
Pages read : 10,082
Currently reading : Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden & Martin Dressler : The Tale of an American Dreamer - Steven Millhauser
I can't really say that there was a particular story in this collection that stood out to me, or that I found particularly interesting or well written. There also wasn't a story that I felt was poorly written, or that lost my interest while i was reading it.
In the end, I was entertained enough while reading the stories but they did not leave a lasting impression on me. This is my typical experience with short stories.
Sophocles - 5/10
YTD:
Books read : 35
Pages read : 10,082
Currently reading : Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden & Martin Dressler : The Tale of an American Dreamer - Steven Millhauser
Book 34 : Three Classic Greek Plays - Aristophanes & Sophocles
This book contained three plays, Lysistrata by Aristophanes and Electra and Oedipus the Kingby Sophocles.
While I loved Lysistrata, I was not a huge fan of either of Sophocles' plays.
Lysistrata was straight up funny, which I was not expecting. You don't think of plays from 400 B.C. as being particularly scandalous, funny or interesting but it was. The basic premise is that in order to end a war that's been going on forever, the women decide to withhold sex from their husbands when they return for a break. Hilarity ensues and I loved it.
There was also an interesting anti-war message, in particular a speech given by Lysistrata, the orchestrator of the sex with holding scheme, who goes on about how all wars are civil, as we are all brothers. It's interesting and sad that nations are still fighting over the same thing they were thousands of years ago.
As far as Sophocles goes, I'd already read Oedipus, though it was years ago. I don't have the patience to enjoy being beaten over the head with the Chorus' constant reiteration of what I already understand. I can see why these plays are taught in school, as they do paint an interesting picture of times long gone, but they didn't do a wonderful job of gaining my interest.
Aristophanes - 8/10
Sophocles - 4/10
YTD:
Books read : 34
Pages read : 9,796
Currently reading : Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden & Martin Dressler : The Tale of an American Dreamer - Steven Millhauser
While I loved Lysistrata, I was not a huge fan of either of Sophocles' plays.
Lysistrata was straight up funny, which I was not expecting. You don't think of plays from 400 B.C. as being particularly scandalous, funny or interesting but it was. The basic premise is that in order to end a war that's been going on forever, the women decide to withhold sex from their husbands when they return for a break. Hilarity ensues and I loved it.
There was also an interesting anti-war message, in particular a speech given by Lysistrata, the orchestrator of the sex with holding scheme, who goes on about how all wars are civil, as we are all brothers. It's interesting and sad that nations are still fighting over the same thing they were thousands of years ago.
As far as Sophocles goes, I'd already read Oedipus, though it was years ago. I don't have the patience to enjoy being beaten over the head with the Chorus' constant reiteration of what I already understand. I can see why these plays are taught in school, as they do paint an interesting picture of times long gone, but they didn't do a wonderful job of gaining my interest.
Aristophanes - 8/10
Sophocles - 4/10
YTD:
Books read : 34
Pages read : 9,796
Currently reading : Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden & Martin Dressler : The Tale of an American Dreamer - Steven Millhauser
Book 33 : Now In November - Josephine Johnson
This book was easily the best book I've read this year. It's hard to say, so soon after having read this book, how much it will still be with me in the long run but I do believe it will remain as one of my Top 5 books ever read.
If you like The Grapes of Wrath you will love this book. In fact, TGoW is my all time favorite book and yet I still think that Johnson did a better job of telling the story of the Great Depression.
Now in November won the Pulitzer in 1935, 5 years before The Grapes of Wrath won it. It tells the story of a family on a farm in Nowhereville, America who is having trouble making their mortgage. People starve to death. People are evicted from their land. People die choking on the clouds of dust. The local teacher lady goes crazy. It's all very depressing and very touching and extremely moving.
The writing style is very simple. I found myself reading this book much more slowly than I normally do, as I wanted to give the words time to drip down and seep in. That sounds retarded but no one reads this anyway so that's fine.
In summation : This book should be required reading in every American high school.
'"The things we felt most are hardest to put into words. Hate is always easier to speak of than love. How shall I make love go through the sieve of words and come out something besides a pulp?"
10/10
YTD:
Books read : 33
Pages read : 9,641
Currently reading : Elbow Room - James Alan McPherson & Three Classic Greek Plays - Aristophanes / Sophocles
If you like The Grapes of Wrath you will love this book. In fact, TGoW is my all time favorite book and yet I still think that Johnson did a better job of telling the story of the Great Depression.
Now in November won the Pulitzer in 1935, 5 years before The Grapes of Wrath won it. It tells the story of a family on a farm in Nowhereville, America who is having trouble making their mortgage. People starve to death. People are evicted from their land. People die choking on the clouds of dust. The local teacher lady goes crazy. It's all very depressing and very touching and extremely moving.
The writing style is very simple. I found myself reading this book much more slowly than I normally do, as I wanted to give the words time to drip down and seep in. That sounds retarded but no one reads this anyway so that's fine.
In summation : This book should be required reading in every American high school.
'"The things we felt most are hardest to put into words. Hate is always easier to speak of than love. How shall I make love go through the sieve of words and come out something besides a pulp?"
10/10
YTD:
Books read : 33
Pages read : 9,641
Currently reading : Elbow Room - James Alan McPherson & Three Classic Greek Plays - Aristophanes / Sophocles
Book 32 : The Dying Animal - Philip Roth
Right after I finished this book I watched Elegy, which is a movie based on the book. I'd say you could skip the book and go straight to the DVD.
It's not that I didn't enjoy it. I just don't know that I would have enjoyed it if I didn't know as much about Roth's background as I do. Because you see, it was based directly on a situation in his life.
That situation is basically that he's an old man but he still loves the young ladies. He is a professor at a major university, sets his sites on a Cuban girl in his class and begins sleeping with her. Eventually he does weird things like lick blood off of her legs.
The book is a pretty self-indulgent undertaking. It is clearly just him trying to make sense of the affair and an attempt to discern why it affected him so much. I don't think he quite accomplishes that but I did end the book feeling like I'd gotten some useful insight into his own life and how it's affected a few of his other books.
Overall : I would not recommend this to anyone who is just starting out with Roth. In fact, I wouldn't even recommend it to a Roth fan who hadn't read both The Professor of Desire and The Breast.
7/10
YTD:
Books read : 32
Pages read : 9,410
Currently reading : Elbow Room - James Alan McPherson & Three Classic Greek Plays - Aristophanes / Sophocles
It's not that I didn't enjoy it. I just don't know that I would have enjoyed it if I didn't know as much about Roth's background as I do. Because you see, it was based directly on a situation in his life.
That situation is basically that he's an old man but he still loves the young ladies. He is a professor at a major university, sets his sites on a Cuban girl in his class and begins sleeping with her. Eventually he does weird things like lick blood off of her legs.
The book is a pretty self-indulgent undertaking. It is clearly just him trying to make sense of the affair and an attempt to discern why it affected him so much. I don't think he quite accomplishes that but I did end the book feeling like I'd gotten some useful insight into his own life and how it's affected a few of his other books.
Overall : I would not recommend this to anyone who is just starting out with Roth. In fact, I wouldn't even recommend it to a Roth fan who hadn't read both The Professor of Desire and The Breast.
7/10
YTD:
Books read : 32
Pages read : 9,410
Currently reading : Elbow Room - James Alan McPherson & Three Classic Greek Plays - Aristophanes / Sophocles
Book 31 : The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara
The good news is that if I were interested in an entire book focusing on one battle during the American Civil War, this would have fulfilled that interest.
The bad news is that I don't give a fuck about the American Civil War.
I only read The Killer Angels because it was required of me to finish my Pulitzer challenge. After I finished it I read a few reviews and was shocked to find that many, many people think that it's the best book ever written.
First of all, there is little to no emotion in it. It is basically a fictionalized first person account of the battle at Gettysburg, told from numerous points of view. The fact that parts are written from Lee's POV and Chamberlain's POV, etc. should have meant that I'd be left with a sense of how it felt to be dealing with this huge battle that neither side thought they had the chance to win. Yeah, no.
I didn't give a shit about any of the characters. I didn't get any insight into their feelings or really their thoughts, beyond what they thought of the decisions in the battle (i.e., which flank to attack) and one guy's haunting images of his wife (I think she was dead? I wasn't clear on that and I really didn't care).
I also felt it would have been a unique opportunity to get into the background of what really sparked the American Civil War, but it didn't. There are a few mentions of some of the Rebels not supporting slavery and that the war wasn't about slavery to them but there's never really an explanation for their feelings.
There was one character I liked, Kilrain. He was talking to a Union man who told him that, while he was fighting them and would continue to do so, he respected the Rebel soldiers and found them to be gentleman. Kilrain went on an anti-gentleman tirade, which I enjoyed and will post below.
Overall: I just felt that this book was extremely cold and boring. Obviously it had some historical relevancy but if you're going to take the time to do this much research in order to write a fictional book, I would think you would take enough liberties to give the major players some actual personalities and feelings - otherwise why wouldn't you just write non-fiction?
This isn't about equality. There is no equality. The Great White Joker in the Sky dooms us all to stupidity or poverty from birth. No two things on earth are equal or have an equal chance, not a leaf nor a tree. There's many a man worse than me, and some better, but I don't think race or country matters a damn. What matters is justice. 'Tis why I'm here. I'll be treated as I deserve, not as my father deserved. I'm Kilrain, and I God damn all gentleman.”
3/10
YTD:
Books read : 31
Pages read : 9,254
Currently reading : Elbow Room - James Alan McPherson & Three Classic Greek Plays - Aristophanes / Sophocles
The bad news is that I don't give a fuck about the American Civil War.
I only read The Killer Angels because it was required of me to finish my Pulitzer challenge. After I finished it I read a few reviews and was shocked to find that many, many people think that it's the best book ever written.
First of all, there is little to no emotion in it. It is basically a fictionalized first person account of the battle at Gettysburg, told from numerous points of view. The fact that parts are written from Lee's POV and Chamberlain's POV, etc. should have meant that I'd be left with a sense of how it felt to be dealing with this huge battle that neither side thought they had the chance to win. Yeah, no.
I didn't give a shit about any of the characters. I didn't get any insight into their feelings or really their thoughts, beyond what they thought of the decisions in the battle (i.e., which flank to attack) and one guy's haunting images of his wife (I think she was dead? I wasn't clear on that and I really didn't care).
I also felt it would have been a unique opportunity to get into the background of what really sparked the American Civil War, but it didn't. There are a few mentions of some of the Rebels not supporting slavery and that the war wasn't about slavery to them but there's never really an explanation for their feelings.
There was one character I liked, Kilrain. He was talking to a Union man who told him that, while he was fighting them and would continue to do so, he respected the Rebel soldiers and found them to be gentleman. Kilrain went on an anti-gentleman tirade, which I enjoyed and will post below.
Overall: I just felt that this book was extremely cold and boring. Obviously it had some historical relevancy but if you're going to take the time to do this much research in order to write a fictional book, I would think you would take enough liberties to give the major players some actual personalities and feelings - otherwise why wouldn't you just write non-fiction?
This isn't about equality. There is no equality. The Great White Joker in the Sky dooms us all to stupidity or poverty from birth. No two things on earth are equal or have an equal chance, not a leaf nor a tree. There's many a man worse than me, and some better, but I don't think race or country matters a damn. What matters is justice. 'Tis why I'm here. I'll be treated as I deserve, not as my father deserved. I'm Kilrain, and I God damn all gentleman.”
3/10
YTD:
Books read : 31
Pages read : 9,254
Currently reading : Elbow Room - James Alan McPherson & Three Classic Greek Plays - Aristophanes / Sophocles
Book 30 : The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
This was one of the best collections of short stories I've ever read.
As mentioned to the point of aggravation, I am not a fan of short stories. I like to commit to my literature and short stories tend to feel like a summer fling that was over before I was able to analyze it to death and suck all of the fun out it.
I especially dislike collections of short stories because even the best authors' voices come through in them. While I typically like to feel as though I can hear an author's voice, when it happens during a book of 30 of their short stories and it's the same author with different stories, I get confused, partially due to the fact that I'm extremely dumb and partially due to the fact that they almost always center around the same themes or characters who hail from similar backgrounds and locations.
This was not the case with Katherine Anne Porter. Every one of these stories was completely different in style, voice, content and characterization and every one of the stories was brilliant. It helped that many of them were over 50 pages long (one was over 100). The length allowed me to get to know the characters as intimately as I wanted.
All in all, this was a fantastic book from a writer who is not only talented but extremely versatile as well.
8/10
YTD:
Books read : 30
Pages read : 8,899
Currently reading : The Dying Animal - Philip Roth & Now In November - Josephine Johnson
As mentioned to the point of aggravation, I am not a fan of short stories. I like to commit to my literature and short stories tend to feel like a summer fling that was over before I was able to analyze it to death and suck all of the fun out it.
I especially dislike collections of short stories because even the best authors' voices come through in them. While I typically like to feel as though I can hear an author's voice, when it happens during a book of 30 of their short stories and it's the same author with different stories, I get confused, partially due to the fact that I'm extremely dumb and partially due to the fact that they almost always center around the same themes or characters who hail from similar backgrounds and locations.
This was not the case with Katherine Anne Porter. Every one of these stories was completely different in style, voice, content and characterization and every one of the stories was brilliant. It helped that many of them were over 50 pages long (one was over 100). The length allowed me to get to know the characters as intimately as I wanted.
All in all, this was a fantastic book from a writer who is not only talented but extremely versatile as well.
8/10
YTD:
Books read : 30
Pages read : 8,899
Currently reading : The Dying Animal - Philip Roth & Now In November - Josephine Johnson
Book 29 : The Breast - Philip Roth
I read The Breast a year or so ago but when I recently read The Professor of Desire and found that it was a part of a trilogy that began with The Breast I decided to re-read it before reading the 3rd installment.
I also wanted to re-read it because the first time I read it, I thought that Roth was gently mocking Kafka's Metamorphosis, which I enjoyed because I'm not a huge fan of Kafka. However, after reading the continuing Kafka parallels in The Professor of Desire, I realized that he's actually paying homage to him. Clearly I missed the point the first time I read The Breast.
The first time I read it, I didn't care much about it, either way. It's the story of a man who wakes up one morning to find that he's turned into a giant, human-sized breast. The book is from his perspective as he learns to live in this new and unexplainable world.
The second time around, it wasn't any better. It wasn't bad - in fact I thought it was an interesting book that made me think about common things in strange ways. But it also wasn't something that I related to at all or that made me feel particularly excited to get back to it when I took a break.
Overall, there are many people I would recommend this book to - namely Kafka fans or those more interested in Science Fiction than I am. For me, however, it was a pleasant though not all together satisfying break from my norm, and from Roth's.
6/10
YTD:
Books read : 29
Pages read : 8,404
Currently reading : The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter - Katherine Anne Porter & The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
I also wanted to re-read it because the first time I read it, I thought that Roth was gently mocking Kafka's Metamorphosis, which I enjoyed because I'm not a huge fan of Kafka. However, after reading the continuing Kafka parallels in The Professor of Desire, I realized that he's actually paying homage to him. Clearly I missed the point the first time I read The Breast.
The first time I read it, I didn't care much about it, either way. It's the story of a man who wakes up one morning to find that he's turned into a giant, human-sized breast. The book is from his perspective as he learns to live in this new and unexplainable world.
The second time around, it wasn't any better. It wasn't bad - in fact I thought it was an interesting book that made me think about common things in strange ways. But it also wasn't something that I related to at all or that made me feel particularly excited to get back to it when I took a break.
Overall, there are many people I would recommend this book to - namely Kafka fans or those more interested in Science Fiction than I am. For me, however, it was a pleasant though not all together satisfying break from my norm, and from Roth's.
6/10
YTD:
Books read : 29
Pages read : 8,404
Currently reading : The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter - Katherine Anne Porter & The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Book 28 : Jailbird - Kurt Vonnegut
I don't know what to say about Vonnegut that I haven't said before.
Jailbird, like everything I've read by Vonnegut, was filled with subtle humor and scathing attacks on the hypocrisy and overall ridiculousness of society in general. It told the story of a man who'd been jailed after Watergate and his first few days after being released.
I've been trying to write a summary of the plot for 20 minutes now. It's Vonnegut. I can't summarize the plot. It's simply not possible - and it's really not the point. The point is that the man is all about making awesome jokes that I'm into and saying really relevant and clever things that I'm also into. Such as :
Thus I discovered that the bottom drawer contained seven incomplete clarinets - without cases, mouthpieces, or bells.
Life is like that sometimes.
* * * *
"Or maybe it isn't worth it," she said.
She was talking about rescuing the people of the United States from their economy, but I thought she was talking about life in general. So I said about life in general that it probably was worth it, but that it did seem to go on a little too long.
I just realized that taken out of context, neither of those quotes are very compelling. I guess you'll have to take my word for it that in context, their power would compel you!
I'm not sure why I gave this 7/10. I did enjoy reading it but it wasn't my favorite of the works I've read by Vonnegut and I don't think it'd be one that I would recommend as a starting point.
Overall I think it was fun to read but I doubt that it will stick with me for long.
7/10
YTD:
Books read : 28
Pages read : 8,315
Currently reading : The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter - Katherine Anne Porter & The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Jailbird, like everything I've read by Vonnegut, was filled with subtle humor and scathing attacks on the hypocrisy and overall ridiculousness of society in general. It told the story of a man who'd been jailed after Watergate and his first few days after being released.
I've been trying to write a summary of the plot for 20 minutes now. It's Vonnegut. I can't summarize the plot. It's simply not possible - and it's really not the point. The point is that the man is all about making awesome jokes that I'm into and saying really relevant and clever things that I'm also into. Such as :
Thus I discovered that the bottom drawer contained seven incomplete clarinets - without cases, mouthpieces, or bells.
Life is like that sometimes.
* * * *
"Or maybe it isn't worth it," she said.
She was talking about rescuing the people of the United States from their economy, but I thought she was talking about life in general. So I said about life in general that it probably was worth it, but that it did seem to go on a little too long.
I just realized that taken out of context, neither of those quotes are very compelling. I guess you'll have to take my word for it that in context, their power would compel you!
I'm not sure why I gave this 7/10. I did enjoy reading it but it wasn't my favorite of the works I've read by Vonnegut and I don't think it'd be one that I would recommend as a starting point.
Overall I think it was fun to read but I doubt that it will stick with me for long.
7/10
YTD:
Books read : 28
Pages read : 8,315
Currently reading : The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter - Katherine Anne Porter & The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Book 27 : The Pianist Who Liked Ayn Rand - A Novella & 13 Stories by Gene H. Bell-Villada
I have no idea how this book ended up on my bookshelf. There are only a few hundred copies of it. It turns out that the author is this super anti-Rand professor at some college or another and had this book printed for a class of his. In any event, I'm glad I finally gave it a shot.
I'm pretty sure that if Woody Allen were huge into classical music, and Hispanic, this is the book he would have written.
I think if I'd read any of these short stories or the novella on their own, I would have really loved it. However, when grouped together they felt a little flat. First of all, every story was about the same protagonist - yet he had a new character for each one. So the voice was identical to the story before, yet there was an entirely new background. It made it really confusing at times, especially when the guy always ended up with a leading lady that was basically the same character - yet different - every time as well.
I also had an issue with these stories not really being, well, stories. Not a single one of them had any sort of conclusion. Almost all of them started out with a huge infodump, then set up a problem . . . and stopped, sans resolution.
He also clearly could have benefited from an editor. There were many instances of poor word choices that a simple read through from an unbiased eye could have picked up on. Note, for example, the excessive use of the word 'almost' in this passage :
"Oh, damn, English class, I'd almost clean forgot," he muttered. The bike ride across campus felt almost exhilarating. There was almost no one on the paths as he coasted along.
Those issues aside, I did really enjoy the book. It was peppered with all kinds of tongue in check attacks against Rand and Objectivism in general.
My favorite was easily a story called History Reconsidered which was actually a satirical review of a fake book called, Hitler Reconstructed : An American Conservative Takes a Second Look at the Third Reich, and Finds More Than a Few Things to Recommend. It included great lines like, "Can anyone who killed 20,000,000 Soviets really be half bad?"
Overall : I'm glad I read it and I would recommend a story or two to a friend, however, I don't think it worked as a volume.
7/10
YTD:
Books read : 27
Pages read : 8,032
Currently reading : The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter - Katherine Anne Porter & With These Hands - The Hidden World of Migrant Farmworkers Today by Daniel Rothenberg
I'm pretty sure that if Woody Allen were huge into classical music, and Hispanic, this is the book he would have written.
I think if I'd read any of these short stories or the novella on their own, I would have really loved it. However, when grouped together they felt a little flat. First of all, every story was about the same protagonist - yet he had a new character for each one. So the voice was identical to the story before, yet there was an entirely new background. It made it really confusing at times, especially when the guy always ended up with a leading lady that was basically the same character - yet different - every time as well.
I also had an issue with these stories not really being, well, stories. Not a single one of them had any sort of conclusion. Almost all of them started out with a huge infodump, then set up a problem . . . and stopped, sans resolution.
He also clearly could have benefited from an editor. There were many instances of poor word choices that a simple read through from an unbiased eye could have picked up on. Note, for example, the excessive use of the word 'almost' in this passage :
"Oh, damn, English class, I'd almost clean forgot," he muttered. The bike ride across campus felt almost exhilarating. There was almost no one on the paths as he coasted along.
Those issues aside, I did really enjoy the book. It was peppered with all kinds of tongue in check attacks against Rand and Objectivism in general.
My favorite was easily a story called History Reconsidered which was actually a satirical review of a fake book called, Hitler Reconstructed : An American Conservative Takes a Second Look at the Third Reich, and Finds More Than a Few Things to Recommend. It included great lines like, "Can anyone who killed 20,000,000 Soviets really be half bad?"
Overall : I'm glad I read it and I would recommend a story or two to a friend, however, I don't think it worked as a volume.
7/10
YTD:
Books read : 27
Pages read : 8,032
Currently reading : The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter - Katherine Anne Porter & With These Hands - The Hidden World of Migrant Farmworkers Today by Daniel Rothenberg
Book 26 : The Professor of Desire - Philip Roth
This wasn't my favorite Roth - in fact I would not even recommend it to a friend - but of course I loved it none the less.
Roth's first two books (Goodbye, Columbus and Letting Go) were sprawling narratives written by Roth before he was 30 years old. They were honest, and though flawed, they were clearly focused and straight forward.
With his most famous book, Portnoy's Complaint, Roth started trying new literary techniques. He continued this for several books - none of which I am a huge fan of.
The Professor of Desire is a book on the cusp of his experimental period and the point at which he went back to his roots. He still tried many weird literary techniques in this book and none of them worked for me.
One example is the dialouge. Instead of the standard (starting a new paragraph when a new speaker begins) he varied his dialouge tags based on the urgency of the conversation. An example :
"Well, there's no need to ask what you thought of him, is there?” "It's as you said : he adores you.” "Really, just what has empowered you to sit in judgment of other people's passions? Haven't you heard? It's a wide, wide world; room for everybody to do whatever he likes. Even you once did what you liked, David. Or so the legend goes.” "I sit in judgment of nothing. What I sit in judgment of, you wouldn't believe.” "Ah, yourself. Hardest on yourself. Momentarily I forgot.” "I sat, Helen, and I listened and I don't remember saying anything about the passions or preferences or private parts of anybody from here to Nepal.” "Donald Garland is possibly the kindest man alive.” "Fine with me".
I think he was trying to encourage the reader to realize that this type of dialouge was much quicker and more urgent than a typical conversation. I found it distracting and hard to follow. In fact, many passages like this went on for 4 or 5 pages without a paragraph break.
I also found portions of it to be over written. Roth has an extensive vocabulary throughout all of his books, but only during this strange experimental phase did I become aware of his writing - of the fact that he was trying. Good literature should be like special effects in the movies -- no matter how difficult they were to pull off, your goal is to find a way to make them seem natural and believable and to not have your audience think twice that they are effects. An example of his painful overwriting :
Hardly a single benighted literature major straying into ingenious metaphysical exegesis!
There were some interesting themes in this book that I really enjoyed. It starts out with David, the protagonist, in love with a very complicated and exciting woman. They eventually marry and the passion between them becomes too much for either of them to live with. Years after they divorce, he moves on to a much simpler woman who is content to simply be with him.
In the end, neither extreme works for him. He realizes that nothing is going to work for him. Not that he is destined to be alone -- but rather that he will never find the ideal he is looking for. This book is part two in a three part series focusing on David and my guess is that in Book 3 he will find a way to find happiness with another.
* * * *
Ah, Clarissa, let me tell you, all that is pleases. The pond where we swim. Our apple orchard. The thunderstorms. The barbeque. The music playing. Talking in bed. Your Grandmother's iced tea. Deliberating on which walk to take in the morning and which at dusk. Watching you lower your head to peel peaches and shuck corn . . . Oh, nothing, really, is what pleases. But what nothing! Nations go to war for this kind of nothing, and in the absence of such nothing, people shrivel up and die.
* * * *
She never speaks of what she does not have, never lingers for so much as a moment upon loss, misfortune, or disappointment. You'd have to torture her to get her to complain. She is the most extraordinary ordinary person I have ever known.
8/10
YTD:
Books read : 26
Pages read : 7,798
Currently reading : Jailbird - Kurt Vonnegut & The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter - Katherine Anne Porter
Roth's first two books (Goodbye, Columbus and Letting Go) were sprawling narratives written by Roth before he was 30 years old. They were honest, and though flawed, they were clearly focused and straight forward.
With his most famous book, Portnoy's Complaint, Roth started trying new literary techniques. He continued this for several books - none of which I am a huge fan of.
The Professor of Desire is a book on the cusp of his experimental period and the point at which he went back to his roots. He still tried many weird literary techniques in this book and none of them worked for me.
One example is the dialouge. Instead of the standard (starting a new paragraph when a new speaker begins) he varied his dialouge tags based on the urgency of the conversation. An example :
"Well, there's no need to ask what you thought of him, is there?” "It's as you said : he adores you.” "Really, just what has empowered you to sit in judgment of other people's passions? Haven't you heard? It's a wide, wide world; room for everybody to do whatever he likes. Even you once did what you liked, David. Or so the legend goes.” "I sit in judgment of nothing. What I sit in judgment of, you wouldn't believe.” "Ah, yourself. Hardest on yourself. Momentarily I forgot.” "I sat, Helen, and I listened and I don't remember saying anything about the passions or preferences or private parts of anybody from here to Nepal.” "Donald Garland is possibly the kindest man alive.” "Fine with me".
I think he was trying to encourage the reader to realize that this type of dialouge was much quicker and more urgent than a typical conversation. I found it distracting and hard to follow. In fact, many passages like this went on for 4 or 5 pages without a paragraph break.
I also found portions of it to be over written. Roth has an extensive vocabulary throughout all of his books, but only during this strange experimental phase did I become aware of his writing - of the fact that he was trying. Good literature should be like special effects in the movies -- no matter how difficult they were to pull off, your goal is to find a way to make them seem natural and believable and to not have your audience think twice that they are effects. An example of his painful overwriting :
Hardly a single benighted literature major straying into ingenious metaphysical exegesis!
There were some interesting themes in this book that I really enjoyed. It starts out with David, the protagonist, in love with a very complicated and exciting woman. They eventually marry and the passion between them becomes too much for either of them to live with. Years after they divorce, he moves on to a much simpler woman who is content to simply be with him.
In the end, neither extreme works for him. He realizes that nothing is going to work for him. Not that he is destined to be alone -- but rather that he will never find the ideal he is looking for. This book is part two in a three part series focusing on David and my guess is that in Book 3 he will find a way to find happiness with another.
* * * *
Ah, Clarissa, let me tell you, all that is pleases. The pond where we swim. Our apple orchard. The thunderstorms. The barbeque. The music playing. Talking in bed. Your Grandmother's iced tea. Deliberating on which walk to take in the morning and which at dusk. Watching you lower your head to peel peaches and shuck corn . . . Oh, nothing, really, is what pleases. But what nothing! Nations go to war for this kind of nothing, and in the absence of such nothing, people shrivel up and die.
* * * *
She never speaks of what she does not have, never lingers for so much as a moment upon loss, misfortune, or disappointment. You'd have to torture her to get her to complain. She is the most extraordinary ordinary person I have ever known.
8/10
YTD:
Books read : 26
Pages read : 7,798
Currently reading : Jailbird - Kurt Vonnegut & The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter - Katherine Anne Porter
Book 25 : The Fixer - Bernard Malamud
With the possible exception of Night by Elie Wiesel, The Fixer is the most powerful and affecting book I've ever read.
It tells the story of a Jew living in Russia ~1920. The Fixer is a man who has grown up in the Jewish ghetto and moves into the city of Kiev in an attempt to make a better life for himself.
He gets a job and all is going well until he runs across a man who is passed out, drunk, in the street. After he helps him to his home, the grateful man offers him a well paying job in his warehouse. Though the Fixer knows that it's in an area of Kiev where Jews are not allowed, he accepts the job anyway.
Eventually he is arrested for living in a Jew-Free-Zone and subsequently is charged with the murder of a local boy. The majority of this book takes place in prison, where the fixer tries desperately to get access to a lawyer, to get an indictment or to just understand at all what the charges before him are.
He is poisoned. He is chained to a wall. He's beaten, he's sexually assaulted. Throughout it all, his captures promise to let him go if he will only admit that he killed the boy because 'the Jews' told him to. He is not a religious man, yet he refuses to pass on the blame.
This story was incredibly hard to read. Though it won the Pulitzer in 1967, there are some very clear parallels that can be drawn to Gitmo.
Overall, an outstanding and highly moving book.
9/10
YTD:
Books read : 25
Pages read : 7,535
Currently reading : Jailbird - Kurt Vonnegut & The Pianist Who Loved Ayn Rand - Gene H. Bell-Villada
It tells the story of a Jew living in Russia ~1920. The Fixer is a man who has grown up in the Jewish ghetto and moves into the city of Kiev in an attempt to make a better life for himself.
He gets a job and all is going well until he runs across a man who is passed out, drunk, in the street. After he helps him to his home, the grateful man offers him a well paying job in his warehouse. Though the Fixer knows that it's in an area of Kiev where Jews are not allowed, he accepts the job anyway.
Eventually he is arrested for living in a Jew-Free-Zone and subsequently is charged with the murder of a local boy. The majority of this book takes place in prison, where the fixer tries desperately to get access to a lawyer, to get an indictment or to just understand at all what the charges before him are.
He is poisoned. He is chained to a wall. He's beaten, he's sexually assaulted. Throughout it all, his captures promise to let him go if he will only admit that he killed the boy because 'the Jews' told him to. He is not a religious man, yet he refuses to pass on the blame.
This story was incredibly hard to read. Though it won the Pulitzer in 1967, there are some very clear parallels that can be drawn to Gitmo.
Overall, an outstanding and highly moving book.
9/10
YTD:
Books read : 25
Pages read : 7,535
Currently reading : Jailbird - Kurt Vonnegut & The Pianist Who Loved Ayn Rand - Gene H. Bell-Villada
Book 24 : Interpreter of Maladies - Jumpa Lahiri
Interpreter of Maladies is a collection of short stories that center around the experience of being an immigrant in the United States.
I don't typically like short stories and almost never read them of my own accord. I only picked this up because it won the Pulitzer and I'm reading them all. I feel pretty confident that I could read this woman's short stories exclusively for the rest of my life and be quite happy. Each story had distinct characters that she managed to fully develop within a very short amount of time. Some were funny, some where sad. Unfortunately, none of them were pornographic.
I highly recommend this book and will be reading more from her.
9/10
YTD:
Books read : 24
Pages read : 7,299
Currently reading : Jailbird - Kurt Vonnegut & The Pianist Who Loved Ayn Rand - Gene H. Bell-Villada
I don't typically like short stories and almost never read them of my own accord. I only picked this up because it won the Pulitzer and I'm reading them all. I feel pretty confident that I could read this woman's short stories exclusively for the rest of my life and be quite happy. Each story had distinct characters that she managed to fully develop within a very short amount of time. Some were funny, some where sad. Unfortunately, none of them were pornographic.
I highly recommend this book and will be reading more from her.
9/10
YTD:
Books read : 24
Pages read : 7,299
Currently reading : Jailbird - Kurt Vonnegut & The Pianist Who Loved Ayn Rand - Gene H. Bell-Villada
Book 23 : The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris
I can't say that I had high expectations for this book, which turned out to be a good thing. I felt like I was reading an episode of Law & Order. There was zero in the way of character development. Sure, I knew what school the protagonist was going to and basic information about her room mate and a flashback here and there to her childhood. But overall, I didn't really get to know or care about the characters.
I kept waiting for it to get scary but it really didn't do it for me. The tension wasn't built quite well enough for me, nor was the writing particularly interesting. In fact, I noted that there were 3 pages in a row where every singleparagraph started with, "Starling..." (which is the main character's name). "Starling went to the bank.." "Starling thought long and hard, " Starling woke up and then walked around for awhile."
Everyone was either good or bad, there was just basically no depth at all.
Overall, I'm not impressed.
4/10
YTD:
Books read : 23
Pages read : 7,031
Currently reading : Jailbird - Kurt Vonnegut & The Pianist Who Loved Ayn Rand - Gene H. Bell-Villada
I kept waiting for it to get scary but it really didn't do it for me. The tension wasn't built quite well enough for me, nor was the writing particularly interesting. In fact, I noted that there were 3 pages in a row where every singleparagraph started with, "Starling..." (which is the main character's name). "Starling went to the bank.." "Starling thought long and hard, " Starling woke up and then walked around for awhile."
Everyone was either good or bad, there was just basically no depth at all.
Overall, I'm not impressed.
4/10
YTD:
Books read : 23
Pages read : 7,031
Currently reading : Jailbird - Kurt Vonnegut & The Pianist Who Loved Ayn Rand - Gene H. Bell-Villada
Book 22 : The Destiny of Nathalie 'X' - William Boyd
I'm doing several 'challenges' this year, one of which is the Alphabet Challenge. I'll be reading a book by an author of each letter of the alphabet as well as a book that begins with each letter of the alphabet. Each book can only be on one list.
When it came time for me to find a D book I had a few options on my shelves. One of them wasThe Destiny of Nathalie 'X' by William Boyd and I have no idea where it came from.
Each of the stories told took place in a different country. One is in a small village in Italy, one in Paris, one in Germany. The author himself is from South Africa, though he was schooled in Britain.
None of the stories are told in a traditional way. The first is a script that I'm assuming was for some kind of docu-drama, as there is both scripted voice over and interviews with people. Another story repeatedly inserts compelling information taken from a report about cork, written in the late 1800s. And I am not being sarcastic when I call it compelling - who knew cork was so interesting!
A lot of the stories had a philosophical feel and several of them centered around arguments in favor of a person's right to suicide. Some parts reminded me of Vonnegut, such as :
The simplest way to describe the book of moral philosophy that I am writing is that it concerns what can and cannot be said. In fact it will be only half a book. The most interesting half will be the one that I cannot write. That half will be the most eloquent.
In summation : I really enjoyed this and found it to be a pleasant surprise. I will be reading more of William Boyd.
We never love anyone. Not really. We only love our idea of another person. It is some conception of our own that we love. We love ourselves, in fact.
8/10
YTD:
Books read : 22
Pages read : 6,664
Currently reading : Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris & The Fixer - Bernard Malamud
Book 21 : The Color Purple - Alice Walker
I'd read this book before, probably 10 years ago or more. However, it did win the Pulitzer and in my quest to read all of the Pulitzers I am re-reading those I'd read before I set my goal.
This was one of the few I'd read that I wasn't looking forward to re-reading.
Having just finished this book, I'm trying to remember what I thought about it before I began it this second time around. I believe my disinterest was probably almost entirely due to the fact that it was an assigned book. I did not like to read in high school and I can't think of a book I was ever assigned that I didn't hate.
In any event, I'm glad I read it again. I typically don't enjoy books that use a lot of dialect as I usually just find it distracting. However, reading this book made me realize that, when attempted by someone as skilled as Ms. Walker, it can be extremely effective.
In fact, I'm not sure I can think of anything in this book that wasn't effective. There were a ton of characters, which can easily be a problem, especially when many of them disappear for years at a time like they did in this book. But here they were rich and alive enough that I never needed a moment to remember who was who or what was what.
There were a lot of lessons in this book. Some of them regarding religion, some on the history of Africa, the realities of Reconstruction and other lessons of a more internal and philosophical nature. While the intent of Alice Walker was clear, she managed to get these things across without being preachy and they flowed as naturally as the rest of the story.
I was also very pleased with the ending. I only vaguely remembered the plot from my previous reading and as the end was approaching I realized that I had no idea what was going to happen. I don't usually wish for happy endings but in this case I did and I was not disappointed.
I'm not sure why I gave this an 8/10 and not a 10/10. I guess, while it was expertly crafted, it just didn't grab me. I really have no complaints about this book and would highly recommend it. But it wasn't the type of book that made me think about my life differently or the type of book that I will still be chewing over weeks from now. It was a very self-contained story that didn't reach me on a personal level. I suspect this has much more to do with my own life and what touches me than it does with Ms. Walker's ability to write affecting prose.
In summation, I found this book to be incredibly effective but not very affecting.
8/10
YTD:
Books read : 21
Pages read : 6,465
Currently reading : Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris & The Destiny of Nathalie X - William Boyd
Book 20 : Absolute Brightness - James Lecesne
It's been a long time since I've read a young adult novel. I don't know if this is par for the course, but holy shit did this book make me feel like a prude!
First of all, Absolute Brightness is written by the man who co-founded The Trevor Hotline, which is a 24 hour suicide prevention hotline for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and questioning teens. I'd also seen his work on the short Trevor which received an Academy Award for best short and was really spectacular.
So, let's just say that my expectations were high. I'm not sure if they were met, because, you see, the thing is...
I have no idea what to expect in a young adult novel --especially one that clearly states on the back of the book that it is intended for audiences that are 12 years of age and over. I can, however, tell you what I didn't expect which was :
- Constant use of language like fuck, shit, damn, bitch, etc. Really? For 12 year olds? Is that normal?
- Tons of teens smoking with no bad consequences or even mentioning that it's 'not cool'. And I'm a smoker! But Jesus, can we not encourage our kids to do this shit?
- Graphic sex scenes between children and adults.
- Graphic sex scenes between children and children – including one that led to a physical assault and almost led to a rape.
- A father raping his 14 year old daughter.
- A gay boy being raped, murdered and thrown in a lake with all of his limbs tied together.
- Lots of information on how 'good' shop-lifting makes kids feel. Again with no negative consequences or alternative points of view.
While a lot of the subject matter seemed too mature for a 12+ audience, I felt like a lot of the writing talked down to the reader. There were a lot of jokes followed by explanations of the joke, as though the reader was an idiot.
There was also a lot of political stuff going on. He touched on issues of tolerance of homosexuals, anti-death penalty stuff as well as some anti-Iraq issues. I have no problem with these issues being discussed in a Young Adult novel, in fact I love that. However, it was really jarring. They'd go from talking about a soldier who'd recently returned to Iraq with a broken leg to a long diatribe written in really hygienic language that felt much more like a lesson than an actual human story. I felt preached to, and considering that I'm a member of the choir, I found it annoying.
All of these problems were issues from the first 100 pages or so. Once I accepted them and allowed myself to get drawn into the story, I was really moved. In fact, I cried a few times.
I would recommend this to a more mature Young Adult audience, though definitely not the 12 year olds it suggests.
7/10
YTD:
Books read : 20
Pages read : 6,170
Currently reading : Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris & The Color Purple - Alice Walker & U.S. Hands Off the Mideast! - Cuba Speaks Out at the United Nations - Fidel Castro and Richardo Alarcon
Book 19 : The Mercy Seat - Rilla Askew
I started out really loving this book. And then . . . well . . . it all went to hell (pun intended).
The Mercy Seat starts out as a tale of the old West. It is told from the point of view of a 10 year old girl named Mattie, whose father gets involved with some shady gun-making business in their small town in Nebraska. With the law after them, they must move west. Along with Mattie, her brothers and sisters and parents, her uncle and his family move west together.
There are all kinds of interesting things going on in the beginning. Mattie is only 10 but as the eldest, she takes on much of the burden of motherhood. They get as far as a mountain pass and decide to stop for the winter. Before they can move on, Mattie's mother drops dead of a broken heart, as she does not want to raise her children in Eye Tee (I.T. - Indian Territory).
When the mother dies and the family moves on, all of a sudden the perspective changes from Mattie's to that of some weird medicine woman. We then hear all about all kinds of weird rituals that are a juxtaposition of Christian and Indian rituals. There's magic and paranormal stuff going on. It is a harsh contrast to the realism and historical fiction tone that had been going on (and that I'd enjoyed).
There's also this whole plot of Mattie being taken by Scarlett Fever and becoming psychic, seeing dead people and contemplating all kinds of weird shit. None of this made any sense in the parameters of the rest of the book, nor did it have any impact on the rest of the plot.
I was really frustrated with it, but about 150 pages later the plot took a sharp turn once again. It then became about a gunslinging battle between Mattie's father and her uncle. All of a sudden the story was told through the 'first hand' accounts of about a dozen people who didn't actually see the gun battle first hand, but had pieced together stories. I found this to be much more interesting, though still not what I'd signed on for.
There were also some clear comparisons trying to be 'subtly' made to Cain and Abel that I thought were simply overdone and didn't work as the author seemed to intend them to.
All in all, I'd say I liked about 1/3 of the plot of this book
As far as the writing? Holy long paragraphs and semi-colons! An example :
In this way he was able to live, this means he had discovered, not from will but from necessity, from his nature, which resisted words, resisted thought in language; which, in the twisting of grief, was unwilling to allow even that which is most human -- the ability to plan and look back, project and regret -- as if the meted portion had all been doled to his brother, to make his brother fired with language, paralyzed with future, locked in past, and these not genuine past or future but only that imagined in the volcanic language of Fayette's own mind.
Note that is ONE sentence. The entire book was written this way. And by 'this way' I clearly mean 'over written'.
Overall, I felt like the author tried to take this book in about 4 different directions. Any one of those directions would likely have made for a decent book and the combination of directions might have been pulled off by a better author. I just didn't see the talent in Askew.
6/10
YTD:
Books read : 19
Pages read : 5,696
Currently reading : Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris & The Color Purple - Alice Walker & U.S. Hands Off the Mideast! - Cuba Speaks Out at the United Nations - Fidel Castro and Richardo Alarcon
Book 18 : Buying a Fishing Rod For My Grandfather - Gao Xingjian (translated by Mabel Lee, Ph.D.)
I'm not usually a fan of short stories and this collection of translated stories by the Nobel Prize winning author Gao Xingjian reminded me of why that is.
The thing is, I just don't get drawn into short story collections. As soon as I start to get interested, it ends and I'm left trying to get to know a whole new set of characters or to care about an entirely new set of circumstances.
Those issues in this book were only exacerbated, for one main reason.
"Gao warns readers that his fiction does not set out to tell a story. There is no plot, as found in most fiction, and anything of interest to be found in it is inherent in the language itself."
As a reader who is more interested in the way a story is told than the actual story, this isn't necessarily a problem.
But. It was translated! If the whole point of the work is the use of language, and I can't see that language in the way the author intended, what's the point? I simply don't understand why you'd translate a work that was completely about the writing and not the plot.
That said, a few of the stories were interesting. In the Park in particular struck me. It was the story of a couple spending a lazy day together. Nothing exciting happened, there was no passion, no twists. But it sort of gave you a glimpse into these people's lives in a way that felt very intimate and beautiful.
Overall though, I can't say that I'd recommend it, considering that I'm not really reading Xingjian's work, but that of his translator.
5/10
YTD:
Books read : 18
Pages read : 5,269
Currently reading : Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris & The Color Purple - Alice Walker & U.S. Hands Off the Mideast! - Cuba Speaks Out at the United Nations - Fidel Castro and Richardo Alarcon
Book 17 : One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (translation by Gregory Rabassa)
If you're into incest, pedophilia, rape, incestuous rape and/or bestiality you'll love this book.
One Hundred Years of Solitude spans, not shockingly, 100 years in the lives of a family in Maconda, a country in the Caribbean. Initially, the story was quite intriguing, despite the fact that it had several elements that typically turn me off, such as magic and paranormal activities. The first few stories of the family that initially settled the city and the stories about things like the 2 year insomnia spell that prevented anyone from sleeping, or the lengths the family went to to keep death from finding where they were, and thus insuring their immortality were engaging, dramatic and certainly enjoyable to read.
Once the 2nd generation began to be introduced, however, I became a bit...uncomfortable.
First of all, there is a shit ton of incest in this book. With every generation (there are about 5 generations depicted in this book) the parents are some combination of brother/sister/aunt/cousin and always take great pains to make sure that their children don't know that they're the result of incest. They go to such great pains, in fact, that the children end up not realizing that they're related and inevitably procreate with one another.
Over and over and over again.
Also, the incestuous sex is graphic and bizarre. For example :
"While he would rub Aureliano Ursula's [his aunt] erect breasts with egg whites or smooth her elastic thighs and peach like stomach with cocoa butter, she would play with Aureliano's portentous creature [that's his penis], as if it were a doll and would paint clown's eyes on it with her lipstick and give it a Turk's organza bow ties and little tinfoil hats."
There's also all kinds of bestiality and children having sex with each other and with adults.
Beyond the sex business, which was no small problem for me, the other problem I had was with the names. The main characters are named as follows :
Jose Arcadio Buendia
Jose Arcadia
Arcadia
Jose Arcadio
Jose Arcadio Segundo
Colonel Aureliano Buendia
Aureliano Jose
Aureliano Segundo
Aurelianos
2 men named Aureliano
Amaranta
Ursula Iguaran
Amaranta Ursula
Remiedos
Remidos the Beauty
Renata Remidos
You can see how this would pose a problem. After about 100 pages or so, I completely gave up on trying to tell them all apart and just went with the flow. It would definitely take a few readings of this to properly grasp it. I don't see that happening.
4/10
YTD:
Books read : 17
Pages read : 5,142
Currently reading : The Mercy Seat by Rilla Askew & Eastern Europe and Communist Rule by J.F. Brown
Book 16 : You Back the Attack, We Bomb Who We Want - Micah Ian Wright
The idea behind this book was solid. Micah took various propaganda posters from various countries and wars (most of them were American circa WWII) and updated them to be relevant to Iraq and Afghanistan. He threw in various articles and commentaries on the wars and the general state of unrest in this country.
I was impressed, initially. A few of the updated posters were somewhat amusing, thought none of them were funny. Most of them, however, were just stupid and over the top. I will never understand the need for Anti-Bush people to exaggerate what a douche he was. There's plenty of fact based arguments to make without comparing him to Hitler or making 'jokes' about his sexual prowess. All this shit does is make the left look crazy and close the mind of those who might have considered what he had to say.
Except, of course, it turns out that he doesn't have much to say except that war = bad and peace = good.
The articles were not only repetitive but many of them were downright insulting and condescending to the reader. I felt like I was being lectured and talked down to, when quite frankly, if this book is any indication, I'm much more well informed than Mr. Wright is.
The idea behind this book was good which makes me even more disappointed in how poorly it was executed.
3/10
YTD:
Books read : 16
Pages read : 4,759
Currently reading : The Mercy Seat by Rilla Askew & Eastern Europe and Communist Rule by J.F. Brown
I was impressed, initially. A few of the updated posters were somewhat amusing, thought none of them were funny. Most of them, however, were just stupid and over the top. I will never understand the need for Anti-Bush people to exaggerate what a douche he was. There's plenty of fact based arguments to make without comparing him to Hitler or making 'jokes' about his sexual prowess. All this shit does is make the left look crazy and close the mind of those who might have considered what he had to say.
Except, of course, it turns out that he doesn't have much to say except that war = bad and peace = good.
The articles were not only repetitive but many of them were downright insulting and condescending to the reader. I felt like I was being lectured and talked down to, when quite frankly, if this book is any indication, I'm much more well informed than Mr. Wright is.
The idea behind this book was good which makes me even more disappointed in how poorly it was executed.
3/10
YTD:
Books read : 16
Pages read : 4,759
Currently reading : The Mercy Seat by Rilla Askew & Eastern Europe and Communist Rule by J.F. Brown
Book 15 : History Matters (Conversations on History and Politics) - Howard Zinn
History Matters is comprised of 8 interviews conducted by Alternative Radio between August 2002 and February 2005. While the title led me to believe it would focus on discussing issues with the politicization of history, it was actually mostly focused around the lead up to and eventual invasion of Iraq.
The book was good, Zinn is an engaging man and is great at summing up how I feel about things in a much more laconic way than I could. That said, I didn't feel as though I really learned much from this book. It's the kind of book that is geared toward the exact people who don't need to read it.
I would recommend it to someone who's just beginning to understand that the People's history is not taught in High School. I will continue to read Zinn as I have done for years, but will stick with books that are a little more specific and in depth.
"Here in the United States, we are brought up to believe that our nation is different from others, an exception in the world, uniquely moral; that we expand into other lands in order to bring civilization, liberty, democracy. But if you know some history, you know that's not true. If you know some history, you know we massacred Indians on this continent, invaded Mexico, sent armies into Cuba and the Philippines. We killed huge numbers of people, and we did not bring them democracy or liberty. We did not go into Vietnam to bring democracy; we did not invade Panama to stop the drug trade; we did not invade Afghanistan and Iraq to stop terrorism. Our aims were the aims of all the other empires of world history - more profit for corporations, more power for politicians."
7/10
YTD:
Books read : 15
Pages read : 4,642
Currently reading : One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez & You Back the Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want - Micah Ian Wright
The book was good, Zinn is an engaging man and is great at summing up how I feel about things in a much more laconic way than I could. That said, I didn't feel as though I really learned much from this book. It's the kind of book that is geared toward the exact people who don't need to read it.
I would recommend it to someone who's just beginning to understand that the People's history is not taught in High School. I will continue to read Zinn as I have done for years, but will stick with books that are a little more specific and in depth.
"Here in the United States, we are brought up to believe that our nation is different from others, an exception in the world, uniquely moral; that we expand into other lands in order to bring civilization, liberty, democracy. But if you know some history, you know that's not true. If you know some history, you know we massacred Indians on this continent, invaded Mexico, sent armies into Cuba and the Philippines. We killed huge numbers of people, and we did not bring them democracy or liberty. We did not go into Vietnam to bring democracy; we did not invade Panama to stop the drug trade; we did not invade Afghanistan and Iraq to stop terrorism. Our aims were the aims of all the other empires of world history - more profit for corporations, more power for politicians."
7/10
YTD:
Books read : 15
Pages read : 4,642
Currently reading : One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez & You Back the Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want - Micah Ian Wright
Book 14: Mockingbird Wish Me Luck - Charles Bukowski
I've read several of Bukowski's novels and never enjoyed them. I've read two of his short story collections and liked a few of the stories but wasn't overly impressed.
However, I've long been a fan of his poetry. I hadn't read anything of his for years so I was excited when a friend gave me several of his books of poetry for my birthday.
Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this collection at all. As in, there wasn't a single poem of 159 poems that struck me. This really read like a man who was just spitting out words to make some cash. Very disappointing.
My 'favorite' poem isn't even one I liked much, though it was better than the rest of the drivel in this collection.
my friend william
my friend William is a fortunate man :
he lacks the imagination to suffer
he kept his first job
his first wife
can drive a car 50,000 miles
without a brake job
he dances like a swan
and has the prettiest blackest eyes
this side of El Paso
his garden is a paradise
the heels of his shoes are always level
and his handshake is firm
people love him
when my friend William dies
it will hardly be from madness or cancer
he'll walk right past the devil
into heaven
you'll see him at the party tonight
grinning
over his martini
blissful and delightful
as some guy
fucks his wife in the
bathroom.
3/10
YTD:
Books read : 14
Pages read : 4,475
Currently reading : One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez & History Matters : Conversations on History and Politics by Howard Zinn
However, I've long been a fan of his poetry. I hadn't read anything of his for years so I was excited when a friend gave me several of his books of poetry for my birthday.
Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this collection at all. As in, there wasn't a single poem of 159 poems that struck me. This really read like a man who was just spitting out words to make some cash. Very disappointing.
My 'favorite' poem isn't even one I liked much, though it was better than the rest of the drivel in this collection.
my friend william
my friend William is a fortunate man :
he lacks the imagination to suffer
he kept his first job
his first wife
can drive a car 50,000 miles
without a brake job
he dances like a swan
and has the prettiest blackest eyes
this side of El Paso
his garden is a paradise
the heels of his shoes are always level
and his handshake is firm
people love him
when my friend William dies
it will hardly be from madness or cancer
he'll walk right past the devil
into heaven
you'll see him at the party tonight
grinning
over his martini
blissful and delightful
as some guy
fucks his wife in the
bathroom.
3/10
YTD:
Books read : 14
Pages read : 4,475
Currently reading : One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez & History Matters : Conversations on History and Politics by Howard Zinn
Book 13 : Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
Years ago I read Terms of Endearment by McMurtry. I didn't like it at the time and I'm considering going back and re-reading it, because I don't remember what my issue was. I lovedLonesome Dove so much that I can't imagine this man writing an ineffective word.
I think most people realize that this book is a Western. It takes place in the late 1800's and follows a group of cowpokes and Rangers as they travel from a town called Lonesome Dove (which is in Texas, right on the Rio Grande) to Montana, which has yet to be 'properly' settled. There are whores, gunfights, scalpings, hangings and any number of other things I wouldn't think I'd like to read about.
I was not looking forward to this book not only because I thought I didn't like Westerns but because it comes damn close to being 1,000 pages long. However, I was very surprised to find that there wasn't a moment in reading this book that I wanted it to hurry up and end. I didn't just like it despite the Western elements, I actually became fascinated as I realized just how recently it was that cowboys were riding around shooting Indians, and Indians were scalping those cowboys in response.
I have a feeling I'll be on a real Western kick for awhile here, which is completely bizarre. Luckily, McMurtry went on to write 3 more installments in the Lonesome Dove series. I can't wait to read them.
No quotes this time, but I will share a fun fact : Larry McMurtry won the Oscar a few years ago for writing the screen adaption of Brokeback Mountain.
10/10
YTD:
Books read : 13
Pages read : 4,316
Currently reading : Mockingbird Wish Me Luck - Charles Bukowski & One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I think most people realize that this book is a Western. It takes place in the late 1800's and follows a group of cowpokes and Rangers as they travel from a town called Lonesome Dove (which is in Texas, right on the Rio Grande) to Montana, which has yet to be 'properly' settled. There are whores, gunfights, scalpings, hangings and any number of other things I wouldn't think I'd like to read about.
I was not looking forward to this book not only because I thought I didn't like Westerns but because it comes damn close to being 1,000 pages long. However, I was very surprised to find that there wasn't a moment in reading this book that I wanted it to hurry up and end. I didn't just like it despite the Western elements, I actually became fascinated as I realized just how recently it was that cowboys were riding around shooting Indians, and Indians were scalping those cowboys in response.
I have a feeling I'll be on a real Western kick for awhile here, which is completely bizarre. Luckily, McMurtry went on to write 3 more installments in the Lonesome Dove series. I can't wait to read them.
No quotes this time, but I will share a fun fact : Larry McMurtry won the Oscar a few years ago for writing the screen adaption of Brokeback Mountain.
10/10
YTD:
Books read : 13
Pages read : 4,316
Currently reading : Mockingbird Wish Me Luck - Charles Bukowski & One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Book 12 : Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
It is really unfortunate that in those weeks where it physically hurt my face to read, the few moments I got in had to be wasted on this book. Because you see the thing is : I fucking hated it.
It came to me highly recommended. I'm known for reading anything that people recommend me, so long as it isn't SciFi. The lesson I refuse to learn, however, is that when I put that caveat on my inquiries for recommendations, people always insist on recommending SciFi, because they're convinced that I've only read terrible examples of the genre and if I just read this one book...!
I did my best to go into this book with an open mind. I know several people who typically read good books (good books as defined by me of course!) and liked this. I also have read many positive reviews online. But seriously? I yelled at this book. Out loud. And not in an, "I'm so caught up in the story and the characters that I'm driven to righteous fury!" kind of way. No, in an "I hate every character in this book and am hoping that my eye never heals so I never have to finish this terrible, terrible book" kind of way.
The problem with this book is that it was completely plot driven, and I hated the plot. There were 2 main characters and you didn't learn a damn thing about them, beyond the very surface background information. I hated them both and I hated the plot and it was just awful.
It was also very poorly written. I would have expected to learn that Stephenson was in some kind of high school freshman writer's workshop. Boring. Dull. Eye-roll inducing descriptions. Terrible dialouge. I'm pretty sure the guy has never had an actual conversation with a woman.
I think you get the picture.
1/10
YTD:
Books read : 12
Pages read : 3,371
Currently reading : Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
It came to me highly recommended. I'm known for reading anything that people recommend me, so long as it isn't SciFi. The lesson I refuse to learn, however, is that when I put that caveat on my inquiries for recommendations, people always insist on recommending SciFi, because they're convinced that I've only read terrible examples of the genre and if I just read this one book...!
I did my best to go into this book with an open mind. I know several people who typically read good books (good books as defined by me of course!) and liked this. I also have read many positive reviews online. But seriously? I yelled at this book. Out loud. And not in an, "I'm so caught up in the story and the characters that I'm driven to righteous fury!" kind of way. No, in an "I hate every character in this book and am hoping that my eye never heals so I never have to finish this terrible, terrible book" kind of way.
The problem with this book is that it was completely plot driven, and I hated the plot. There were 2 main characters and you didn't learn a damn thing about them, beyond the very surface background information. I hated them both and I hated the plot and it was just awful.
It was also very poorly written. I would have expected to learn that Stephenson was in some kind of high school freshman writer's workshop. Boring. Dull. Eye-roll inducing descriptions. Terrible dialouge. I'm pretty sure the guy has never had an actual conversation with a woman.
I think you get the picture.
1/10
YTD:
Books read : 12
Pages read : 3,371
Currently reading : Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
Book 11 : Steal This Book - Abbie Hoffman
Of the 3 of Hoffman's books I've agreed to read this year, this was by far the worst - and I hated the other 2 so that's saying something.
In this book, not only did I have to deal with his annoying style of writing and poor grasp of vocabulary, I also got to read some extremely terrible advice. This book was written to help those on the 'underground'. It started with not-so-terrible advice for those dodging the draft and generally on the run.
It then went on to give wonderful advice on making bombs. It also had information on the best way to cut and beat up cops as well as completely pointless shit about vandalizing things. For example, he gave the recipe to make an epoxy to ruin various locks and credit card machines. Not that I think it's ever okay to do that, but it wasn't as though he was suggesting targeting financial institutions to 'bring the man down', which is supposed to be the point of his struggle and this book. Instead, he seems content to create random chaos for the lulz.
I have been known to support the violent overthrowing of governments. I do not support idiots running around creating trouble because they're bored.
I will be so glad when I'm done reading his shit.
1/10
YTD:
Books read : 11
Pages read : 3,044
Currently reading : Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson & Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
In this book, not only did I have to deal with his annoying style of writing and poor grasp of vocabulary, I also got to read some extremely terrible advice. This book was written to help those on the 'underground'. It started with not-so-terrible advice for those dodging the draft and generally on the run.
It then went on to give wonderful advice on making bombs. It also had information on the best way to cut and beat up cops as well as completely pointless shit about vandalizing things. For example, he gave the recipe to make an epoxy to ruin various locks and credit card machines. Not that I think it's ever okay to do that, but it wasn't as though he was suggesting targeting financial institutions to 'bring the man down', which is supposed to be the point of his struggle and this book. Instead, he seems content to create random chaos for the lulz.
I have been known to support the violent overthrowing of governments. I do not support idiots running around creating trouble because they're bored.
I will be so glad when I'm done reading his shit.
1/10
YTD:
Books read : 11
Pages read : 3,044
Currently reading : Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson & Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
Book 10 : A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
All day, I've been thinking of what I could say about this book. I keep typing out a plot synopsis, which is interesting enough in this case. But there's just so much to this book. I was looking around online to see what others had to say about it, when I came upon the following quote by the author himself :
"But criticism, for the most part, comes from the opposite place that book-enjoying should come from. To enjoy art one needs time, patience, and a generous heart, and criticism is done, by and large, by impatient people who have axes to grind. The worst sort of critics are (analogy coming) butterfly collectors - they chase something, ostensibly out of their search for beauty, then, once they get close, they catch that beautiful something, they kill it, they stick a pin through its abdomen, dissect it and label it. The whole process, I find, is not a happy or healthy one. Someone with his or her own shit figured out, without any emotional problems or bitterness or envy, instead of killing that which he loves, will simply let the goddamn butterfly fly, and instead of capturing and killing it and sticking it in a box, will simply point to it - "Hey everyone, look at that beautiful thing" - hoping everyone else will see the beautiful thing he has seen. Just as no one wants to grow up to be an IRS agent, no one should want to grow up to maliciously dissect books. "
So, hey.
Everyone.
Look at that beautiful thing.
Also :
"We have advantages. We have a cushion to fall back on. This is abundance. A luxury of place and time. Something rare and wonderful. It's almost historically unprecedented. We must do extraordinary things. We have to. It would be absurd not to."
"But criticism, for the most part, comes from the opposite place that book-enjoying should come from. To enjoy art one needs time, patience, and a generous heart, and criticism is done, by and large, by impatient people who have axes to grind. The worst sort of critics are (analogy coming) butterfly collectors - they chase something, ostensibly out of their search for beauty, then, once they get close, they catch that beautiful something, they kill it, they stick a pin through its abdomen, dissect it and label it. The whole process, I find, is not a happy or healthy one. Someone with his or her own shit figured out, without any emotional problems or bitterness or envy, instead of killing that which he loves, will simply let the goddamn butterfly fly, and instead of capturing and killing it and sticking it in a box, will simply point to it - "Hey everyone, look at that beautiful thing" - hoping everyone else will see the beautiful thing he has seen. Just as no one wants to grow up to be an IRS agent, no one should want to grow up to maliciously dissect books. "
So, hey.
Everyone.
Look at that beautiful thing.
Also :
"We have advantages. We have a cushion to fall back on. This is abundance. A luxury of place and time. Something rare and wonderful. It's almost historically unprecedented. We must do extraordinary things. We have to. It would be absurd not to."
10/10
YTD:
Books read : 10
Pages read : 2,893
Currently reading : Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson & Steal This Book - Abbie Hoffman
Book 9 : Rabbit is Rich - John Updike
Rabbit Redux is book two in Updike's four part Rabbit series. I wasn't a huge fan of the first book,Rabbit, Run but two of the other three won the Pulitzer so I thought I'd better read all four. This book was much better - equal parts ridiculous and delicious.
In the second book, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit has gone back to his wife after their child left. Eventually his wife leaves him for a local mobster and Rabbit is left to raise their 13 year old child. He ends up meeting an underage runaway girl whom he eventually brings home to live with him and his son. There's a bunch of weird sex things going on that I could do without; underage isn't really my thing.
Basically the rest of the book consists of the various trouble they get into. There's some heroin overdoses, some racial politics and a house burning down - not to mention a murder. It's really just an absurd story that made me laugh out loud more than once. It was also a story of change and redemption.
I highly recommend it and am excited to read the next 2 books in the series.
"It comes to him : Growth is betrayal. There is no other route. There is no arriving somewhere without leaving somewhere."
8/10
YTD:
Books read : 9
Pages read : 2,518
Currently reading : Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson & Steal This Book - Abbie Hoffman
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