It may have been sat on my bookshelf for a while, I may have very much enjoyed reading Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex, and I may have been intending to read The Virgin Suicides for a while, but the main reason I picked it up yesterday was because it was small enough to fit in my coat pocket so I could take it on the bus. An excellent decision it turned out to be though, because it was brilliant.
Debut novels (or any others to be honest) rarely come out as accomplished as this. The writing is superlative, drawing the reader in from the first page and refusing to let go. The narration, unreliable yet with the sense of authenticity, unknown yet familiar, is splendid. It rings true, the details of what it is like to love and to lust, to watch and to worship, to be, in short, a teenager are what really brings the story and the characters to life. Told from observations and recollections twenty years in the past, it builds up a rich tapestry of life for not only the narrator and his associates, but also for the unfortunate Lisbon sisters, whether real or simply in their imagination.
The lyrical style and the objectification of Lux Lisbon, the sister most of the attention is given to – indeed, the described as the one who looked like what the narrator imagined them all to look like – reminds me of Lolita and certainly some of the themes are similar. The sense of innocence and longing, corruption and naivety conveyed throughout and encapsulating all of the main players in the story only help to build up the impending doom that one knows is coming from the start. The deaths of the girls may be a tragedy, but their short, sheltered lives are perhaps even more so. The changing opinions, forgotten rememberances and unreliable memories shift to create a dense pattern that both mythologises the events and makes them seem all the more real. A fantastically written, extremely absorbing treat of a book.
Book number: 21
Title: The Virgin Suicides
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Category: Books that have been sat on my bookshelf for too long
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Loyal to the Bank of America
Pick a side, any side. Do some research (or not, in a lot of cases), get on your soapbox and shout. Such is the lot of books on popular politics and political culture. One such is Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas? The book explores the trend of working class voters moving unerringly towards the right and voting against their economic interests.
This pattern has been taking shape since Nixon's 'Southern strategy' and 'silent majority' in the late 60s but in the last two decades has suddenly lurched much further to the right. In spite of the damage being done to their livelihoods, many Kansan voters are instead choosing to focus on moral issues (abortion, gay rights, etc.) which ultimately produce a lot of noise and fanfare in terms of getting people to the polls, but never actually make any kind of progress in reality.
Obviously such a book is going to have a point to make and will be channelling a lot of the author's bias and preferences into it. It's probably not going to change anyone's mind in that they probably already have their ideas about politics set in stone, but it does certainly bring to light issues that some people hadn't thought of before. The research is definitely there and it's written in an entertaining and insightful style, but for everyone argument there's a counter-argument and some statsitcs which contradict the author's evidence. I think there is definitely something in it (I remember studying the puzzle of working class conservatives (big and small C) in Britain) and it does give the outsider some interesting views into contemporary America and it's politics.
The idea of two societies in the U.S. – the coasts and the bit in between – is an interesting one, but a little too simplistic for my liking. However alien some of the concepts are (and fundementalist creationist pro-life Christians are pretty alien to me and I imagine an awful lot of us limeys), I'm still not wholly convinced that these people are just stupid, which perhaps they come across as. It was a very interesting read and what it does well is not just laying the blame at the ignorance of the masses or the manipulation of the Republicans, it also acknowledges that the Democrats should take some rap for failing to prevent this happening. Overall, particularly in light of the recent economic crisis, it seems remarkably prescient to have pointed out that unregulated free market capitalism is very much an error-prone system. If there's one thing that studying American history for the last six months has taught me, it's that ideas move in cycles and reforms and regulations swing one way and then the other, so while things have certainly shifted a very long way to the right at the moment, things can and almost certainly will change.
Book number: 20
Title: What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
Author: Thomas Frank
Category: Non-fiction
This pattern has been taking shape since Nixon's 'Southern strategy' and 'silent majority' in the late 60s but in the last two decades has suddenly lurched much further to the right. In spite of the damage being done to their livelihoods, many Kansan voters are instead choosing to focus on moral issues (abortion, gay rights, etc.) which ultimately produce a lot of noise and fanfare in terms of getting people to the polls, but never actually make any kind of progress in reality.
Obviously such a book is going to have a point to make and will be channelling a lot of the author's bias and preferences into it. It's probably not going to change anyone's mind in that they probably already have their ideas about politics set in stone, but it does certainly bring to light issues that some people hadn't thought of before. The research is definitely there and it's written in an entertaining and insightful style, but for everyone argument there's a counter-argument and some statsitcs which contradict the author's evidence. I think there is definitely something in it (I remember studying the puzzle of working class conservatives (big and small C) in Britain) and it does give the outsider some interesting views into contemporary America and it's politics.
The idea of two societies in the U.S. – the coasts and the bit in between – is an interesting one, but a little too simplistic for my liking. However alien some of the concepts are (and fundementalist creationist pro-life Christians are pretty alien to me and I imagine an awful lot of us limeys), I'm still not wholly convinced that these people are just stupid, which perhaps they come across as. It was a very interesting read and what it does well is not just laying the blame at the ignorance of the masses or the manipulation of the Republicans, it also acknowledges that the Democrats should take some rap for failing to prevent this happening. Overall, particularly in light of the recent economic crisis, it seems remarkably prescient to have pointed out that unregulated free market capitalism is very much an error-prone system. If there's one thing that studying American history for the last six months has taught me, it's that ideas move in cycles and reforms and regulations swing one way and then the other, so while things have certainly shifted a very long way to the right at the moment, things can and almost certainly will change.
Book number: 20
Title: What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
Author: Thomas Frank
Category: Non-fiction
Saturday, 12 March 2011
It's not easy being green
I don't really know what to say about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight other than that I feel well out of my depth talking about it. I'm not a linguist, I don't know an awful lot about the 14th century and I'm not even an English graduate. I sense that trying to unravel much about it is well beyond my meagre mind, especially without any serious kind of scholarly study.
Yet it certainly has enough elements to it that interest me enough to read it, not least the fact I'm not very down with my Arthurian legend knowledge yet it's something I have always been intrigued by, but have not done a lot to find out about. My own bizarre internal contradictions inside, I picked up a copy of Tolkien's translation (along with Pearl and Sir Orfeo) and decided to give it a spin.
What first struck me about all of the works is that they are undeniably very well constructed in terms of verse, form, alliteration and rhyme. Which also means the translator deserves credit for rendering them in such an accessible yet true to form manner. They were, as I suppose they were intended to be, easy to read. It also gave of all the elements of a good epic, a good romance, a good story. Whatever the symbolic meanings and themes running throughout – virtue, temptation, hunting, nature – it all comes together to present a fine tale of the Middle Ages. Whether the author (an unknown) intended anything more from it is a matter for debate (probably seems to be the answer), but the sheer volume of different interpretations of it suggest to me that it is a very good piece of writing in that so many different readings of it can be made.
Of the three pieces, I liked Pearl the least, it's Christian virtues doing nothing for me even though it was well written. I completely understand the time in which it was written, but such Biblical stories are not my cup of tea. Sir Orfeo, despite being a very short work, I actually really liked. It was exactly the kind of fairy story or fable that I've always liked. A folk tale with a bit of magic, a bit of mystery and a happy ending – what's not to like? I doubt that I have shed any new (or frankly old) light on these works, but it was interesting to read them and overall liking two out of three ain't bad.
Book number: 19
Title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Category: Books with colours in the title
Yet it certainly has enough elements to it that interest me enough to read it, not least the fact I'm not very down with my Arthurian legend knowledge yet it's something I have always been intrigued by, but have not done a lot to find out about. My own bizarre internal contradictions inside, I picked up a copy of Tolkien's translation (along with Pearl and Sir Orfeo) and decided to give it a spin.
What first struck me about all of the works is that they are undeniably very well constructed in terms of verse, form, alliteration and rhyme. Which also means the translator deserves credit for rendering them in such an accessible yet true to form manner. They were, as I suppose they were intended to be, easy to read. It also gave of all the elements of a good epic, a good romance, a good story. Whatever the symbolic meanings and themes running throughout – virtue, temptation, hunting, nature – it all comes together to present a fine tale of the Middle Ages. Whether the author (an unknown) intended anything more from it is a matter for debate (probably seems to be the answer), but the sheer volume of different interpretations of it suggest to me that it is a very good piece of writing in that so many different readings of it can be made.
Of the three pieces, I liked Pearl the least, it's Christian virtues doing nothing for me even though it was well written. I completely understand the time in which it was written, but such Biblical stories are not my cup of tea. Sir Orfeo, despite being a very short work, I actually really liked. It was exactly the kind of fairy story or fable that I've always liked. A folk tale with a bit of magic, a bit of mystery and a happy ending – what's not to like? I doubt that I have shed any new (or frankly old) light on these works, but it was interesting to read them and overall liking two out of three ain't bad.
Book number: 19
Title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Category: Books with colours in the title
Great expectations
Something that has surprised many people before, not least a Danish bookseller who I once spent a very enjoyable conversation with while she successfully sold me some new reading material, is that I'm not a fan of Terry Pratchett. Considering my personality, tastes, love of reading, sense of humour, etc. it's something that inevitably is assumed I like. A lot of my friends love him. My Dad loves him. My girlfirend loves him. And I can't deny that the concept of them appeals to me – it's something that I personally feel I should like. And yet, having tried a couple before (admittedly not for some years), something just never connected for me.
So it was high time I tried again. The designated tome: Reaper Man. The subject matter: death and the afterlife, in a satrical style. Sounded promising. Yet while I didn't dislike it, it hasn't really done anything to convert me either. Firstly, I didn't find it particularly funny. For me it didn't work well either as a satire (which wasn't concentrated enough) or a comedy (which felt like it ws trying too hard). I could see what it was trying to do and there were some lines that amused me, but it never really made me laugh, either in the sense of sheer madcap silliness, or a dark chuckle about a well-made observation.
Perhaps more importantly was the fact that of the three separate strands to the tale, only one really captured my imagination. The parts featuring the character of Death were amusing and interesting. The other two strands just weren't, leaving me devoid of any connection to the characters (which is not necessarily a bad thing for me – a chacracter can still be a great character even if I have no connection them on a any personal level or they're an anti-hero or even a downright villain). More of an issue perhaps, given the subject matter, was the lack of any connection with humanity and the very subject matter that was being lampooned.
Overall I just felt that it lacked focus in too many things, trying to be all things to all men within it's own particular world view (which I can't deny it has and I certainly appreciate the intellignce and creativity that goes into the design and creation of a fictional world), yet ultimately it ended up by being not much to me. And somewhere out of all of this, I still can't help but feel that I'm just not seeing what an awful lot of other people do.
Book number: 18
Title: Reaper Man
Author: Terry Pratchett
Category: Charlotte's choice
So it was high time I tried again. The designated tome: Reaper Man. The subject matter: death and the afterlife, in a satrical style. Sounded promising. Yet while I didn't dislike it, it hasn't really done anything to convert me either. Firstly, I didn't find it particularly funny. For me it didn't work well either as a satire (which wasn't concentrated enough) or a comedy (which felt like it ws trying too hard). I could see what it was trying to do and there were some lines that amused me, but it never really made me laugh, either in the sense of sheer madcap silliness, or a dark chuckle about a well-made observation.
Perhaps more importantly was the fact that of the three separate strands to the tale, only one really captured my imagination. The parts featuring the character of Death were amusing and interesting. The other two strands just weren't, leaving me devoid of any connection to the characters (which is not necessarily a bad thing for me – a chacracter can still be a great character even if I have no connection them on a any personal level or they're an anti-hero or even a downright villain). More of an issue perhaps, given the subject matter, was the lack of any connection with humanity and the very subject matter that was being lampooned.
Overall I just felt that it lacked focus in too many things, trying to be all things to all men within it's own particular world view (which I can't deny it has and I certainly appreciate the intellignce and creativity that goes into the design and creation of a fictional world), yet ultimately it ended up by being not much to me. And somewhere out of all of this, I still can't help but feel that I'm just not seeing what an awful lot of other people do.
Book number: 18
Title: Reaper Man
Author: Terry Pratchett
Category: Charlotte's choice
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Dance! Dance! Dance! Dance!
Writing a book in one single sentence may be considered a bit gimmicky by some, and certainly it takes an author of some skill to pull of such a feat effectively, even if the book itself if not particularly long, as the text still needs to flow, needs a rhythm in order to make it work, and most certainly needs a strong narrator in order to keep it interesting and draw the reader in, so kudos to Bohumil Hrabal for his tale of Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age, which manages to pull off this feat with good grace, and while I am tempted to lapse into immitation, a sincere form of flattery apparently, I think I've taken this cheap gag just about as far as it can go right now
An unexpected little bonus, which I devoured in one sitting after being intrigued by the cover and then handed it by my housemate to see what I made of it. One of the premier Czech writers of the 20th century, I can perhaps only claim ignorance in having never heard of him, but as she was (ahem) checking him out before a trip to Prague in a couple of weeks, I was intrigued enough to have a read.
I'm not sure I could tell you exactly what happened, but the narration and the descriptions brought to life an array of interesting characters. My take on it is our less than wholly sober narrator, probably a middle-aged or older man, is looking back and telling stories of his youth to a gaggle of younger beauties in a pub somewhere. The pace of the story, the repeated themes of lust and adventure, the memorable folk who crop up in it (the man with a beard so long he has to tuck it into his trousers was a particular favourite) all add up to a really interesting work. It would appear our narrator would have you believe he lived a full life, hobnobbing with the elite and the underclass and engaging in all kinds of hi jinks and sexual shenanigans. I think it needed to be taken in quickly, and its shortness made this possible, but this rich seam of life in Prague could be mined again and would no doubt share new delights upon revisiting it.
Book number: 17
Title: Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age
Author: Bohumil Hrabal
Category: Books by authors I've never heard of
An unexpected little bonus, which I devoured in one sitting after being intrigued by the cover and then handed it by my housemate to see what I made of it. One of the premier Czech writers of the 20th century, I can perhaps only claim ignorance in having never heard of him, but as she was (ahem) checking him out before a trip to Prague in a couple of weeks, I was intrigued enough to have a read.
I'm not sure I could tell you exactly what happened, but the narration and the descriptions brought to life an array of interesting characters. My take on it is our less than wholly sober narrator, probably a middle-aged or older man, is looking back and telling stories of his youth to a gaggle of younger beauties in a pub somewhere. The pace of the story, the repeated themes of lust and adventure, the memorable folk who crop up in it (the man with a beard so long he has to tuck it into his trousers was a particular favourite) all add up to a really interesting work. It would appear our narrator would have you believe he lived a full life, hobnobbing with the elite and the underclass and engaging in all kinds of hi jinks and sexual shenanigans. I think it needed to be taken in quickly, and its shortness made this possible, but this rich seam of life in Prague could be mined again and would no doubt share new delights upon revisiting it.
Book number: 17
Title: Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age
Author: Bohumil Hrabal
Category: Books by authors I've never heard of
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Not the land of his fathers
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe has been on my 'to-read' pile for quite a while. I can now file it away under the 'things wot I have read' category. And for the second successive book, I found that after a slow start, it got a lot better. A short book, split into three parts, the first of which is easily the longest, yet was also the least affecting part of the book. It did admittedly contribute to the story in terms of setting the scene and describing the culture and society of the people, but I didn't connect to it the way I expected to, having heard a lot of good things about the book. I wasn't enchanted by the prose and sucked into the world, like I was with Ben Okri, and neither did I feel the author's love for the characters present in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
What it did have though, was anger, coursing through the book, quietly at first but moving towards a sucker punch at the end. In the second and third parts of the book, the pace quickens and a lot happens very quickly, even if more time has actually passed. The fury of the protagonist, and perhaps, by extension, the author, as he struggles to deal with what has become of his way of life and his people is prominent. Punches aren't pulled, but it is the matter of fact telling, rather than any deliberate attempts to tug at the heartstrings which gives the book a real sadness to it and opens up a whole host of perhaps unanswerable questions.
A tale of morality on more than one level, the interaction of the white men on traditional African society is realised from the perspective of a traditional villager. The lack of understanding on both sides, neither treating the other with respect or as 'civilised' is only going to come to a head in the end. The cleverness and the ruthlessness of the missionaries also meant that it could onyl really end one way. Although I feel that it perhaps the book lacked a little in terms of finesse, it was an undeniably effective and powerful read.
Book number: 16
Title: Things Fall Apart
Author: Chinua Achebe
Category: Books that have been sat on my bookshelf for too long
What it did have though, was anger, coursing through the book, quietly at first but moving towards a sucker punch at the end. In the second and third parts of the book, the pace quickens and a lot happens very quickly, even if more time has actually passed. The fury of the protagonist, and perhaps, by extension, the author, as he struggles to deal with what has become of his way of life and his people is prominent. Punches aren't pulled, but it is the matter of fact telling, rather than any deliberate attempts to tug at the heartstrings which gives the book a real sadness to it and opens up a whole host of perhaps unanswerable questions.
A tale of morality on more than one level, the interaction of the white men on traditional African society is realised from the perspective of a traditional villager. The lack of understanding on both sides, neither treating the other with respect or as 'civilised' is only going to come to a head in the end. The cleverness and the ruthlessness of the missionaries also meant that it could onyl really end one way. Although I feel that it perhaps the book lacked a little in terms of finesse, it was an undeniably effective and powerful read.
Book number: 16
Title: Things Fall Apart
Author: Chinua Achebe
Category: Books that have been sat on my bookshelf for too long
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