What I've Read
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville"Nor is this the end."
PROJECT BOOK 2021 - As voted on by my students, my project book for this year was Moby-Dick. One of the top contenders for the "Great American Novel," the book follows Ishmael, a wanderer, as he learns the art of whaling aboard the Pequod. The captain, Ahab, becomes progressively more single-minded in his pursuit of the titular white whale, who took his leg. This encyclopedic novel covers topics from the Bible, to phrenology, to epistemology, to whaling, through Ishmael's narration. I was really looking forward to reading this, given its reputation. I can't say I enjoyed it, or even really got much out of it -- I didn't really like the book. Each sentence is bloated with allusions to the Bible, Shakespeare, philosophy, and whaling jargon. So much so, that without an immense background in those subjects, you can't even understand the book, much less get any meaningful analysis from it. On a whole, Ishmael's narration is constantly interrupted by his long digressions on related topics. The book is so bogged down by these digressions, that you forget what was even happening in the plot. There were certainly things I liked, though. I loved the relationship between Ishmael and Queequeg, some of the language was beautiful, the allusions were often deftly integrated, and the novel swells with an overwhelming sense of impending doom. Overall, I'm not sure who to recommend this to. It's a book for English professors, not for readers. Perhaps I should have read the book with a more critical eye. But either way, it's hard to recommend to anyone. It's a sweeping journey through the nature of mankind, on that lingers and haunts. The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa"When I stop to examine them, though, the words seem hollow, seem to rattle at my feet like empty cans.”
I'm not well read in Asian literature; it's a real blind spot in my literary knowledge. It's not that I avoid reading it, but rather that I know nearly nothing about it. One of my friends recommended this book to me while we were talking about psychological horror. The Diving Pool is, undoubtedly, psychological horror in a series of three short stories. The title story is about a girl following her adopted brother to diving practice; the second is about a pregnancy that may or may not be real; the final story is about a mysterious boarding house and a triple amputee. I loved this collection. The horror is subtle and twisted, written in sparse, matter of fact language. There is no gore, no jump scares, no monsters -- just people. And, truly, that may be the scariest thing of all. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes psychological horror. It's quick, easy to read, and sticks with you. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler"There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself."
Another double author entry -- and both are noir, of course. The Long Goodbye is another classic Philip Marlowe story. It begins without a crime -- Marlowe befriends an alcoholic war veteran named Terry Lennox. When Terry asks Marlowe to drive him to Tijuana in the middle of the night, things start to go haywire. Marlowe is eventually dragged into the underbelly of society, where legality and justice are only words. He deals with gangsters, veterans, cops, and mysterious women while the body count racks up. I loved this book. It has the same, classic Chandler feel, but with a more straightforward plot that runs perfectly alongside political undercurrents. The book was also more easy to follow than The Big Sleep, which I appreciated. However, this book was a little slower and had some very racist moments. I suppose that is to be expected from a book written in 1953, but it still bothered me. I would recommend this book to people who want action and mystery, but don't mind a few slow paced scenes every now and then. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss"And yet."
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss is about a young girl named Alma Singer, coping with the death of her father, and an old Holocaust survivor named Leo Gursky. These two people, though seemingly complete different, are connected in unexpected ways through a novel called "The History of Love". I originally accidentally took this book from a school library and never returned it. I wanted to read it because Krauss' husband, Jonathan Safran Foer, wrote some very good books (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Everything is Illuminated). I expected this book to be a heartwarming page turner. And, I suppose, it was meant to be. It wasn't. From start to finish I found this book a tedious repetition of postmodern tropes without purpose or import. Things like intertextual allusions, typographical changes, multi-textual additions like diary entries or novel excerpts, and a fake book within a book all take center stage for no reason at all. They were boring. Even the "twist" at the end was nonsensical and, to me, detracted from the novel. Perhaps the only thing I enjoyed about this book were some of the quotes. Mushy, cliche, but cute. I would recommend this book to people less jaded than me, or people who like stories about fate. Otherwise, I would steer clear of this book. The Violent Bear it Away by Flannery O'Connor'Go war the children of God of the terrible speed of mercy.' The words were as silent as seeds opening one at a time in his blood.
Flannery O'Connor is one of the most bizarre, idiosyncratic writers I have ever read. Her work is at once both seemingly random, yet tightly controlled. When I first read her novel, Wise Blood, for a grad class on Gothic Literature, I loved it. It was just so... WEIRD. I picked up her final novel, The Violent Bear it Away, and was not disappointed. The book follows the story of Francis Tarwater, a fourteen year old boy who was kidnapped by his schizophrenic, religious fundamentalist uncle and raised to be a prophet. After his uncle dies, Tarwater struggles to deny his fate as a prophet and choose his own path. I loved just how weird the book is. Nothing is normal. Every character is slightly terrible -- there are no good guys for Flannery O'Connor. I also appreciated the religious allusions and symbolism. I didn't love how long some of the sentences were, and I found myself having to reread sections for clarification. I would strongly recommend this book to folks interested in the odd, bizarre, and dark. If you're interested, I would recommend starting with her short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find". Between Here and the Yellow Sea by Nic Pizzolato"No, listen, I want to say, what we think is a gesture of freedom, see, is a symptom of our cage."
I love True Detective. It's one of my favorite shows of all time. Seasons one and three are basically flawless. So, I read the title story, "Between Here and the Yellow Sea," by the series writer/creator Nic Pizzolatto. The story follows a young man and his former football coach as they drive to LA to kidnap the coach's daughter. I loved it. I immediately bought the collection. It had some incredible stand out stories: "Ghost Birds," the title story, and "Graves of Light" come to mind. What I liked most, and I've said it before, is the noir-esque feel to the stories. Each one has such realistically damaged characters -- even the bad guys you understand and feel for. The stories are all just a little bit off, which keeps you reading and interested; the most important stuff is always happening just "off-screen". What I didn't quite like was how repetitive it got. At a certain point, the characters in the stories blurred together for me. The collection's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness at times. I would recommend this book, truly, to anyone. It has solid pacing, interesting characters, and intriguing premises. Splinterlands by John Feffer"Empires, like adolescents, think they'll live forever."
Splinterlands is a post-apocalyptic/dystopian novella by Foreign Policy Expert John Feffer. The book follows washed up academic Julian West as he tries to reunite with his estranged family, under the guise of writing a sequel to his eschatological work, "Splinterlands". Bedridden, West has to use virtual technology to travel across the bleak geo-political landscape of the 2050s. Over the course of the book, we learn more about West, his family, and the great unraveling of the world in the 2030s. I really enjoyed how close to home this book hits. Its dystopian elements are all fairly realistic projections from current issues -- hyper-nationalism, corporate monopolization, countries divided, etc. It was a truly unsettling look into what our future may actually hold. I was also impressed at how non-partisan the book managed to be (for the most part). Given the political nature of the subject matter, I expected it to lean one way or the other, but Feffer managed to keep it all balanced. However, I didn't particularly enjoy the book as a whole. The narrative of Julian West was a weak crutch to describe the future -- I felt very little for any of the characters. I also absolutely hated the "meta-nonfiction-fiction" thing where the title of the book is a book within the book, and footnotes map out what happened after the events of the novella. To me, that kind of meta-trickery is overdone and, in this case, is a poor way to give a story more depth. I would recommend this book to folks interested in geo-politics and political science, with the caveat that the novella not be read as a novella, but an interesting glimpse into the future. I would not recommend this book for anyone looking for plot or character. Counternarratives by John Keene"Growing markets have no margin for mercy. Several years before his death, he received a litany of honors from the crown."
How I found Counternarratives is rather interesting. I knew Dr. Keene as a professor at Rutgers-Newark during graduate school. I also saw that one of my professors in undergrad, Dr. Row, had given the book a glowing review. With two former professors on the cover, and Dr. Keene having just won the MacArthur Fellowship, I figured I had to pick this book up. Counternarratives is about exactly what it's title implies -- the stories that go against the "official" or "well-known" stories. Indeed, as Fredric Jameson remarks, "he underside of culture is blood, torture, death, and terror." The book is a collection of short stories that tell historical events from the perspective of oppressed peoples from 1650 to the present day. Some of the stories are absolutely spectacular: "A Letter" melds conspiracy, the supernatural, and history into a story of dark salvation; "Gloss" uses Gothic conventions and multi-modality to tell the story of a slave trapped in a potentially haunted convent; and "Aeronauts" tells the story of a free African American during the Civil War, travelling to Washington DC to help with the newly created Hot Air Ballon Corps. The stories tell the underside of history, the things we don't learn about in school, in a way that sticks with you. However, the book uses some elements in a way that seems gimmicky and pointless. "Gloss" starts as an encyclopedia entry, then descends into an endless footnote that comprises the whole story. "Persons and Places" is composed of two columns of disparate renditions of the same story. It's clever, but spends too much time trying to be clever. Dr. Keene could have left out these elements and been left with a book that was just as, if not even more, effective. As such, I would recommend this book to serious history buffs or folks interested in majoring in English. Otherwise, it's an excerpt only book. How to be Both by Ali Smith"...to spin across a shining space knowing any moment you might end up hurt, but likewise, all the same, like plus wise, you just might not."
Every year, I have dinner with my former college professor and thesis adviser, Michael Robertson. We talk about what each of us is teaching, how projects are going, etc. Last summer, he had recommended this book to me. He had explained that it wasn't necessarily his favorite book, but he knew that I would like it. Finally, over a year later, I picked it up. How to be Both is the story of a British high school girl named George, who is coping with the passing of her mother. Her mother, an eccentric political cartoonist, was obsessed with a painting by Francesco del Cossa, a little known Italian artist. George, in her grief, becomes entranced by some of his work. The second half of the book is written from the perspective of del Cossa's ghost, following George's triumph over grief and detailing his own life. I loved the writing style - long sentences, punctuated with spaces rather than periods. It kept the narration quick. I really, in real life, teared up when George and her significant other first start interacting. I also enjoyed the weird twist halfway through the book into the ghost. I didn't like, but understood, the opening and closing part of the ghost sections. They were super confusing and a bit lengthy. Overall, Michael was right; How to be Both is one of my new favorite books. I would recommend this book to anyone in or supportive of the LGBTQ+ community, or anyone who has ever felt the pull of love or grief. We Are All Equally Far From Love by Adania Shibli"I could detect this warmth between the words"
I originally read Adania Shibli for my post-colonial studies class in my MA program. We read her book, Touch. It was a collection of poem-esque writings about a young girl growing up in Palestine. I loved the dreamlike quality of the writing and the socio-political subtexts present. So, when I discovered that a new translation of her work, We Are All Equally Far From Love, would be coming out, I picked it up immediately. The novel has the same dreaminess and subtexts as Touch, but with a bit more of a cohesive plot. A young girl working in a mail room begins stealing love letters exchanged between two people, creating a series of repercussions for everyone involved. However, the plot is extremely difficult to follow because it is never clear which character is speaking. If you can get beyond this and let yourself enjoy the imagery and dream-logic of the text, it can make you feel the aches and warmth of love. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy poems and don't mind letting their confusions go. Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace"Some words need to be explicitly uttered, Lenore. Only by actually uttering certain words does one really do what one says. 'Love' is one of those words, performative words. Some words can literally make things real."
David Foster Wallace is, hands down, my favorite author. I had read this book before, when I first got into him, but didn't really like it. He published BotS when he was only twenty-four. It's sort of about a girl, Lenore, whose grandmother goes missing and Lenore's attempts to find her. This situation is really just a backdrop for the exploration of characters and language. So, I decided to reread it and see if age would change my perception. It did, to some extent. I understand more of what Wallace is doing - playing with language, Derrida vs. Wittgenstein, etc. However, even with this understanding, I didn't love this book. It was good, to be sure, but it reads too much like someone using right-click synonyms to seem smart. The book spends so much time trying to be witty that it ends up rarely being witty. That said, there are some phenomenal scenes that really stick with you (eg - the opening scene, dinner with Mr. Bombardini, Lenore talking with her brother at Amherst, Rick confessing to Andy on the plane, for starters). These scenes are good because they show the funny, mundane, and tragic empathy that makes Wallace just so good. I would recommend this book to folks interested int he philosophy of language (looking at you, Period 6 Public Speaking). Give Us a Kiss by Daniel Woodrell"Blood bein' blood and all."
I am a sucker for noir. I've said it before, but it bears repeating. I'm not sure how I came to enjoy it, but I think it has to do with my father always showing me Humphrey Bogart films, and the cool, calm, collected narrators. I picked this book up after rewatching "Winter's Bone" with Jennifer Lawrence. The film is actually based on a book of the same title by Woodrell, so I decided to investigate the author and see what he had. Give Us a Kiss is definitely noir, but set in the Ozarks -- the poor, rural communities afflicted by a stubborn sense of tradition and a dealt a bad hand. The book follows Doyle Redmond on his way back home after living in California. He gets caught back up in the illegal activities of his family, especially his brother, Smoke. The book deals with blood bonds, family, fate, and past lives -- not something I thought I'd find in noir. But I loved Doyle, the narrator, and found all the characters well rounded and likable. It took a while to get to the climax, but it was well worth it. Any noir fans should give Woodrell a try. |
The Vegetarian by Han Kang"Or perhaps it was simply that things were happening inside her, terrible things, which no one else could even guess at..."
Recommended to be by my friend, Michael (who also recommended The Diving Pool), The Vegetarian is a South Korean novel about a young woman's abrupt renunciation of meat. At first, her husband and family think Yeong-hye will get over the phase, but what seemed like a minor change slowly spirals out of control, and into the dark corners of the human psyche. I loved this book. It read like a fever dream, but with enough structure to keep the plot progressing. I really loved the interspersed descriptions of Yeong-hye's dreams. I really couldn't put it down. I wanted to know what was happening to her, and what her family would do next. My only gripe is the final chapter. It sort of gave too much clarity to the events in the book -- a little too much explanation. I would have preferred it all left a mystery. I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone interested in psychological horror. However, you need to be willing to let go of your mind -- let it get lost. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy"You will die -- and it will all be over. You will die and find out everything -- or cease asking."
PROJECT BOOK 2020 - As voted on by my students, my project book for this year was War and Peace. The book follows the lives of three aristocratic Russian families -- the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, and the Bezhukovs -- during the Napoleonic Wars of 1800-1812. Their fates intertwine in interesting ways, dictated by personal and international history. It's hard to summarize the book because, clocking in at 1450 pages, SO much happens. Overall, I really enjoyed the book. The characters we so complex and nuanced and real. Every action a character took was understandable, because we understand that character's personal history. I really liked Prince Andrei and Kutuzov. Pierre got a little samey, and Nikolai was kind of annoying. I LOVED the scenes where Tolstoy's characters interact with historical figures like Napoleon and Kutuzov (the Austerlitz scenes spring to mind). They were just so vivid and real. What I really disliked about the book was Tolstoy's digression about the nature of fate and history. They make up about a third of the book, and by the time the Epilogue comes those digressions have lost all meaning. They're boring. It's hard to say who I would recommend this book to. It's engaging, action packed, historically accurate, and heartwarming. However, it takes incredible patience and dedication to get through. Still, it's a book I think everyone should read once. Thank you to those who tried to undertake this PB with me! Scott Pilgrim: The Complete Series by Bryan Lee O'Malley"I feel like I'm in this river, just getting swept along."
I'm not a big graphic novel or comic person. I like them of course, but I don't usually go out of my way to read them. A while ago, I saw the Scott Pilgrim move, "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" and loved it. I never read the graphic novels that inspired it until a friend lent me the first two volumes. I breezed through them and went to get the other four. The story follows 23 year old Scott Pilgrim as he fights the evil exes of his new girlfriend, Ramona Flowers. The graphic novel has distinct video game and manga influences, with extra lives, final forms, and experience points. I loved this series. It's rare to read something you really can't put down, but Scott Pilgrim is one of those thing. It's funny, heartwarming, and, for me, incredibly relatable. I loved the fourth-wall moments and references to video games. I didn't really like how some characters are driven by stereotype - Knives Chau comes to mind. However, the stereotypes serve as a base for change later in the series, making it mildly justifiable. I would recommend this series to just about everyone. It's an easy, light read with plenty of action and comedy. I do think being just a little bit of nerd would help, but I think anyone can get swept up in this series. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler"It had the austere simplicity of fiction rather than the tangled woof of fact."
I've said it a million times before, but I always feel it's worth saying again: I love noir. I grew up watching Humphrey Bogart movies with my dad -- one of my first being "The Big Sleep" with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. I decided to try giving the book a read over break on my flight to Atlanta. I thought over 200 pages would last the trip; maybe it would have, if it wasn't Raymond Chandler. Classic noir protagonist, Philip Marlowe, is hired by a dying millionaire to investigate a blackmailer. Of course, things are not as they seem, as Marlowe dodges sociopathic gangsters, manipulative women, and bullets in case that inevitably ends where it began. The dialogue and writing is quick, witty, and blunt. It's no wonder that Philip Marlowe sounds like every other noir protagonist -- he did it first and he did it best. I loved the fast pace, the snappy dialogue, and overwhelming sense of loneliness. I didn't love how it ended, because, frankly, I couldn't have seen it coming. I would recommend this book to noir fans, of course, but also to anyone who likes action and suspense. It's a book you can't put down. A book you can finish in three hours at an airport. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee"My life is nothing. It wouldn't have any meaning without putting it to good use. Don't you think?"
Over the summer, one of my friends moved to China to teach English. Before she left, she said, "Oh my god, you have to read Pachinko." So, I went to a bookstore and picked it up. I didn't start reading it until school started, but once I opened it, I couldn't close it. Set in Korea and Japan from 1900-1989, the book follows the saga of a Korean family during Japanese occupation and onward. The story begins with a young woman named Sunja falling for a rich businessman named Koh Hansu. Soon, she becomes pregnant, only to find out Hansu is already married with two children in Japan. A travelling minister named Isak decides to marry Sunja to help her avoid disgrace and they move to Japan. This is where the story truly begins. I loved this book. It was constantly dramatic without being over the top. It also really got me thinking about history and how we are all tethered to it no matter what. I never knew how much discrimination and hardship Koreans endured (and continue to endure) under the Japanese government. What I disliked is how the book really slaps you in the face with the theme -- "Life is like pachinko." I also wish we had a more interior view of some characters, like Noa and Isak; without this view some of their actions seem random. Overall, though, this book was great. It reminded me of "The Wire," and I would recommend it to fans of the show and anyone who likes history and drama. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez"Tell him," the colonel said, smiling, "that a person doesn't die when he should but when he can."
PROJECT BOOK 2019 - As voted on by my students, my project book for this year was One Hundred Years of Solitude. It chronicles the lives and deaths of the Buendia family, from the founding of Macondo to its ultimate destruction. This magical realist classic is a book I was originally defeated by. I was supposed to read it in my undergrad, but gave a few pages in. The sheer density of the prose and the seeming lack of structure left me impatient. However, having read it in its entirety, I see now that the book has a tight structure based on cycles and repetition. Over and over, we see characters fall into the same predicaments, the same traps. Over and over, characters who share a name share a death -- share a fate. It's something I largely came to appreciate. Every character is, in their own right, a tragic hero, unaware of the fate they spiral towards as the plot continues. I was nervous about the ending, considering the book's use of repetition. But, the book resolved, clearly, concisely, and elegantly. The only thing I didn't like about the book was the prose. Just like my undergrad, I found the prose dense and disorienting. This, of course, adds to the overall artistry of the book (loss of time, repetition, etc.), but not to my enjoyment. I would recommend this book only to the patient. It has an extremely high investment, but, also, an extremely high pay off. Every Love Story is a Ghost Story by D.T. Max"Ghosts are talking to us all the time -- but we think their voices are our own thoughts."
I put off reading this for almost seven years. David Foster Wallace is my favorite author; however, I knew that a biography would have been something he hated having written about him. I also don't usually enjoy nonfiction like this. Finally, though, I caved after reading The Pale King again. Every Love Story is the story of DFW's life -- his depressive episodes, his addiction, his recovery, and his final months before his suicide. The story is told through interviews, letters, excerpts, and analysis. It was really amazing to see my favorite author's inner life and commentary through the letters he wrote to his friends and family. I really liked how the book didn't only focus on how his life is reflected in his work, but how his life played out beyond the pages. It made me remember why I fell in love with DFW and his sincere, recursive writing in the first place. However, I think the book was a bit too biased towards DFW, too sympathetic -- especially in his relationship with Mary Karr. I also thought the end, where the author suggests that writing The Pale King is ultimately what caused DFW to commit suicide is a simplified, pop-culture view of depression. That really bothered me, especially after a relatively complex and well researched text. I would only recommend this book to fans of Wallace. And, at that, big fans. I would, however, strongly recommend his short stories (especially Brief Interviews with Hideous Men) and his nonfiction (especially "Shipping Out"). The Outlaw Album by Daniel Woodrell"'We each of us get dealt a lot of cards by our old ones, son, but you don't want to play them all.'"
My first double feature by an author! I picked up The Outlaw Album right after I finished Give Us a Kiss, but I didn't start reading it until now. The Outlaw Album is a collection of short stories that all take place around Twin Forks River (maybe real in Missouri, or maybe conjured up by Woodrell) and the folks who live there. Each story is different, but the deal with the themes of family, fate, death, and revenge. Some stand out stories were "Uncle," "Twin Forks," and "Night Stand." I really love the odd, broken characters here. They're messed up, and do messed up things, but for (what seems to them) the right reasons. The interconnection between the stories is subtle, but really cool -- some families mentioned, places returned to, histories written. There were a few stories that were really out of place and too dreamlike for me. "Dream Spot" and "One United" were oddly floaty in comparison to the rest of the grounded, gritty stories in the collection. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy crime novels or TV shows -- it'll drag you in quick and leave you wanting more. The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh"But because the tracks are so long and the train is so far away, it's not gonna hit him for ages, but it is gonna hit him."
I'm not usually a big fan of reading plays. However, when Mr. Jaludi gave me this play and an overwhelmingly positive recommendation, I took a break from How to be Both to read this. The story is about an unsuccessful author, who is arrested with his brother after a series of murders that mirror his stories. Interspersed throughout the play are the author's parable-esque stories. Sad, tragic, and violent tales about inevitability. I loved the rapid-fire dialogue between the characters. In less than 70 pages, you get fully developed characters with distinct personalities. I also loved the sort of multi-modal work going on with the parables, play, and crime story all at once. I didn't quite understand why the play was set in a totalitarian state. It set up some urgency towards the end, but otherwise it was a mostly pointless plot device. Overall, I would recommend this play to McDonagh fans, but not to anyone with a weak stomach. White Teeth by Zadie Smith"But dying's no easy trick."
White Teeth was published in 2000, so I'm about 18 years late. The critic James Wood coined the term "hysterical realism" in his review of this book. He compared it to David Foster Wallace's writing, which is what drew me to White Teeth. It had been on my "To Read" for a long time, and I finally read it at the end of the school year. I didn't love it. I think I went in expecting it to be more DFW-esque, so I was set up for disappointment. The book follows three generations of two families in London, telling the origin stories of key figures in each. Like much contemporary fiction nothing really happens. The families - Jones and Iqbal - intersect and interact, but there is very little action. I like this kind of book; however, the characters were, to me, rather one dimensional and ultimately forgettable. The book didn't pick up until the last hundred pages or so when the situations of both families and each generation come to a head. I would recommend this book to folks interested in family dynamics.
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders"The way a moistness in the eye will blur a field of stars; the sore place on the shoulder a resting toboggan makes; writing one's beloved's name upon a frosted window with a gloved finger." I love George Saunders. I first read his short stories for a class in undergrad. I picked up Tenth of December shortly after. His ability to weave hilarious satire with deep, heartfelt emotion is rare in fiction today, but something I cannot help but appreciate. I was beyond excited to hear that his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, would be coming out. The book takes place in a kind of purgatory, just after the death of Abraham Lincoln's son, Willie. Based on a single, historical moment, Saunders explodes it into a tale of grief, redemption, and identity. To be honest, I hated the book at first. It read too much like Joyce's Ulysses, which I also hated. However, once I got over the format of the book, and came to understand the world they inhabit and the backgrounds of the characters - especially the Reverend - I came to quickly love the book. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to laugh and cry in the same page, with the warning that you have to be patient with the book to get to the great parts. It lost some of the satirical edge I love from Saunders, but, like the characters in the book, all is forgiven. Joker by Brian Azzarello"It never crossed his mind that what he believed he could do was impossible. I admire that."
I took a break from reading Give Us a Kiss to read this graphic novel. Mr. Jaludi made this recommendation and let me borrow his copy. The book follows one of the Joker's henchmen, Jonny Frost, as the Joker tries to retake Gotham after he is released from Arkham Asylum. The book has a gritty sense of realism, with a distinct noir feel to it that I'm a sucker for. I enjoyed the art style; it really paired well with the noir style narration of Jonny. I love the philosophical implications of the Joker in this book. The sort of vague endlessness, the lack of origin or end that adds to the insanity of the character. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone not already a fan of the Batman franchise. However, if you enjoyed The Dark Knight film, you should check out this graphic novel. |
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
"Only in chaos are we conceivable."
After almost five years and three attempts, I finally finished 2666. When I graduated from TCNJ, my thesis adviser gave me this book as a graduation gift. I didn't pick it up for a while, and the first time I tried reading it I only got through the first hundred pages before I had to stop. The second attempt, about two years later, I got up to 500 pages before giving up. Finally, this summer I started it again and finished it. So I have a history with this book. And I would consider it the most difficult, brutal book I have ever read. While the plot is difficult to explain, the book is divided into sections, focusing on different events and characters. However, every section revolves around the fictional city of Santa Teresa on the US/Mexico border. The city is based on Juárez, and the mysterious murderers occurring there (read more here). The novel is dense, dark, and winding, with sentences that lead nowhere, characters who disappear, and an overwhelming sense of dread. I'm not sure if I enjoyed the book, but it was an journey I don't regret taking. |
The Nest by Cynthia D'Apris Sweeney
"She supposed she could Google, but she preferred to wonder."
A quick, easy read about four siblings waiting on their father's inheritance money. One of the siblings must turn 40 before the inheritance can be dispersed. However, the recklessness of the four siblings threatens to put the inheritance, or "the nest," in danger.
It's not my typical read, but I had a long, red-eye flight with several layovers and picked this book up at the airport. The characters were interesting, but predictable, just like the plot. More than anything else, this book is a glimpse into the lives of old money, rich New Yorkers. Overall, the book was enjoyable with some pretty funny cringe-worthy moments (along the lines of "Arrested Development") but I wouldn't call it a great book. I didn't really feel for many of the characters, as their sole characteristic was greed. However, I would recommend it for a quick, funny, and heartwarming read.
A quick, easy read about four siblings waiting on their father's inheritance money. One of the siblings must turn 40 before the inheritance can be dispersed. However, the recklessness of the four siblings threatens to put the inheritance, or "the nest," in danger.
It's not my typical read, but I had a long, red-eye flight with several layovers and picked this book up at the airport. The characters were interesting, but predictable, just like the plot. More than anything else, this book is a glimpse into the lives of old money, rich New Yorkers. Overall, the book was enjoyable with some pretty funny cringe-worthy moments (along the lines of "Arrested Development") but I wouldn't call it a great book. I didn't really feel for many of the characters, as their sole characteristic was greed. However, I would recommend it for a quick, funny, and heartwarming read.