Bookwash: 162 in 10

Shantaram

2010-01-04T21:53:00.000-08:00

Hello !!!

It has been ages since my last post but be assured that I am still plodding along. I'll get back to the list soon. Today's entry is on Shantaram (2003), by Gregory David Roberts . I read the back exerpt and was hooked.

So Greg was sentenced to 19 years in prison for armed robberies in Australia. He escaped and spent 10 years in Bombay where he established a free medical clinic and worked for the mafia. He was then recaptured and served the rest of his sentence.

The book is about the seedy sides of Bombay: slums, opium dens, prostitution, etc. I'm too curious, will it turn out to be an outsider writing shit about a country he thinks he knows but doesn't? Will Greg treat Bombay with a conscientious respect, i.e. attempt to understand local ways of living? Or will this be dirty Orientalism in the vein of what Edward Said condemned?

At any rate, I want to read this ! I just hope the writing is bearable.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

2009-11-05T22:23:00.000-08:00

The Elegance of the Hedgehog, 2006, by Muriel Barbery.

It is with a heavy heart I start this post on the best book I've read in a very long time. I wish the book was longer. I will miss the characters. Two people, a 54 year old concierge, Renée Michel, and a twelve year old girl who lives in the building, Paloma Josse, both deliberately conceal their intelligence and sensitivity from others. The chapters alternate from the journal entry of one to the diary of the other, giving readers two perspectives on class consciousness, art, literature and the everyday. Eventually, with the help of a new tenant, Japanese business man Kakuro Ozu, Renée and Paloma recognize one another as kindred souls.

An excerpt from Paloma's diary provides an idea of their internal dialogue (p. 158):

Personally I think grammar is a way to attain beauty. When you speak, or read, or write, you can tell if you've said or read or written a fine sentence. You can recognize a well-turned phrase or an elegant style. But when you are applying the rules of grammar skillfully, you ascend to another level of the beauty of language. When you use grammar you peel back the layers, to see how it is all put together, see it quite naked, in a way. And that's where it becomes wonderful, because you say to yourself, "Look how well-made this is, how well-constructed it is! How solid and ingenious, rich and subtle!"

Writing as a craft is a familiar concept, but somehow this adjective, "solid," combined with "How," as a declaration of startling wonder, struck me. I saw more clearly how an expert of language may experience literature, how a sentence can be immediately satisfying or offensive in the way a that with a glance, one knows if a room is tidy or a mess. But further, this description of "solid" turns writing into a sturdy, concrete, visible object, be it in the metaphoric form of architecture or machine.

From Renée's journal (p.248):

Literature for example, serves a pragmatic purpose. Like any form of Art, literature's mission is to make the fulfillment of our essential duties more bearable. For a creature like man, who must forge his destiny by means of thought and reflexivity, the knowledge gained from this will perforce be unbearably lucid. We know that we are beasts who have this weapon for survival, and that we are not gods creating a world with our own thoughts, and something has to make our own wisdom bearable, something has to save us from the woeful eternal fever of biological destiny.

Therefore, we have invented Art: our animal selves have devised another way to ensure the survival of our species.

Renée and Paloma's entries complement each other. Together, they offer a definition of Art, how to experience and savor it, and they persuade us that we need Art to live.

I pick this entry from Paloma's diary to illustrate what by their definition -- the recognition of purpose and meaning in the fleeting -- can serve as Art:

Diane Badoise was completely thrown out of joint when she twisted hr ankle, making weird angles with her knees, her arms and her head, and to top it off, her ponytail sticking out horizontally like that -- and I immediately thought of the Bacon in the bathroom. For a very brief moment she looked like a disjointed rag doll, her body completely contorted and, for a few thousandths of a second, Diane Badoise looked like a full-length portrait by Bacon. From that impression to the consideration that the thing in the bathroom has been there all these years just so now I could fully appreciate her bizarre contortions, there is only a short step.

Good to A Fault: The Sinister Thread of Charity

2009-09-25T19:40:00.000-07:00

Good to A Fault by Marina Endicott, 2008. Giller Prize Finalist.

I read this a couple of months ago and so this review is from memory, a dangerous vantage point, I admit; however, the alternative is to forget this book, like the others I've neglected to blog about.

Clara Purdy is a forty-three year old, unmarried, single woman. One day her car hits another that is loaded with a family of six: two young parents, two children, a baby, and a grandmother. The Pell family is poor and are en route to find work in another town. After the accident, the mother is hospitalized, and it is later discovered that she has cancer.

Clara feels guilty and invites the family to live with her temporarily. Almost immediately she rearranges her life, work, and home to accommodate these strangers, and it is apparent that she loves it. The husband can't deal with the stress or his wife's illness and runs off. Clara keeps the children and grandmother, and as the mother undergoes treatment, the arrangement becomes more permanent.

I won't tell more plot but will ruminate. I remember being fascinated by Clara, at once pitying her needing so badly to live another woman's life, and then, rooting for her, wanting her to be happy. Yes, it was a book hinging on one event that changed people's lives, of strangers colliding and somehow filling the needs of each other; but, the most arresting thread of this book was charity -- the giving and receiving of money and help, and the social obligations and expectations resulting from a transaction that is seemingly benevolent. It is this theme that struck me and while reading, I would sometimes be furious at the Pell family's ungratefulness, while at other times I was maddened by Clara's expectation of gratitude, and almost bordering on manipulative actions.

Worth reading. Most Giller Prize associated books are generally decent.

Dime Store Magic

2009-09-25T18:56:00.000-07:00

It is with hesitation that I post about the next book, Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong (2004), because it is "junk food". I have hangups about reading books not on the list and/or fluff pieces that have little to no possibility of inspiring me in some way, either to think about another facet of life, or understand the human condition from another perspective. (And yes, I am thinking about Twilight too) I know. It's messed. A person should read what they read, right?

With that meandering done, let me go on about how much I enjoy books on witches, especially ones set in modern day. Dime Store Magic and Dr. Strange and Mr. Norrell are books that describe supernatural worlds co-existing with the human one, and this seems to make magic real.

Paige Winterbourne, age twenty-three, is the leader of the American Coven of Witches, a group comprising mostly of the Elders, three or four matronly women who wish to keep low profiles. Paige is the guardian of a teenaged witch who is sought after by the latter's father, a sorcerer and leader of a powerful cabal. Over the centuries, witches and sorcerers have become enemies, but one young male sorcerer, son of another powerful cabal leader, comes to Paige's aid as her lawyer. You see, its a legal custody battle between Paige and the teen's father. What can I say. Is it worth it to say more?

I will say one more thing. Books on supernatural beings all must define the parameters of powers and abilities. Kelley does not excel, but her take on the history of witches and their powers as well as those of the sorcerers can be entertaining and refreshing.

The Ponder Heart

2009-07-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty, 1953.

What Can I Say. Truly one of the better books I've read in a very long time. A detailed cast of characters. Keen, smart observations. Hilarious. I won't describe the plot as it would ruin the effect of this book, one that is meant to unravel before an assumed intelligent reader.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

2009-06-23T19:52:00.000-07:00

Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, 2004. Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel, among others.

I started reading it last night and I'm about half way into the 800 pg novel. Magic is back! Well, sort of, this novel is set in the early 19th century. Norrell, a bookish, socially inept, nervous, fussy character, is the older magician. He has two goals: destroy all other magicians, and work for the British government, i.e. military. In his attempt have Sir Walter Pole aid him in his latter cause, Norrell summons a faerie (more a demon creature) to resurrect Pole's recently deceased fiancee, and makes a pact with the faerie which gives away half of the young woman's life. She is later enchanted, forced to dance all night for years at the faerie's balls, unable to tell anyone; at one point, she says death would be better than her predicament.

Strange is Norell's pupil and has more natural magical abilities, though I wouldn't describe him as highly practical or intelligent. He is happy-go-lucky, stumbles on and agrees to things that later somehow benefit him.

010 Of Love and Other Demons

2009-02-02T13:04:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since my last entry. I've been in China for the last few months. I came home to visit for a few weeks and leave again soon. I really missed reading in English while gone and so, during this break, I picked up a few books from the library.

Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel García Márquez, 1994. 140 pages. I read this book quickly. I doubt I'll remember it. I think I'll have to read A Hundred Years of Solitude to do Gabriel justice.

Sierva María, born in a South American seaport to a Marquis, is bitten by a rapid dog at the age of twelve. Her father, dimwitted, has his life happen to him, while her mother, once a scheming beauty and keen business woman has, by the time we meet her, become an unfeeling, bloated, gassy blob, ruined by drugs and sex. Neither parent cares for Sierva María; She is raised by slaves, learns their languages, customs and beliefs.

A series of events are set off after Sierva María is bit by the rapid dog. Her father, desperate to save his daughter, hires a variety of witchdoctors and medicine men to cure her. Each treatment gets more outlandish than the next, and eventually news of Sierva María being possessed reaches the Bishop's ear. She gets sent to the Convent of Santa Clara to await for an exorcism.

Father Cayetano Delaura, a librarian under the Bishop is put in charge of Sierva María's case. He falls in love with her and one night, after smelling some of her possessions, flagellates himself. When he is found on the floor in a bloody mess by the Bishop, he declares:

"It is the demon, Father," Delaura said. "The most terrible one of all." (p.118)

The above line on the book flap is what compelled me to borrow the book. I did find interesting the preface by Gabriel describing the event which inspired Of Love and Other Demons. He was sent in 1949, as a reporter, to the Convent of Santa Clara when they were emptying burial crypts to build a five star hotel there.

They found the crypt of a young girl and still attached to the skull was 22 meters of copper hair. The tomb bore the name, Sierva María de Todos los Ángeles.

On to another take on love:

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, 2005. The general public, and especially teenage girls, are nuts about this book. I found it on the fast reads shelf at my library by chance and picked it up. I read this book paragraphs at a time. Really good material for exercising how to read fast -- light, frivolous and cute.

Teenage girl, Bella, moves to a new town and is attracted to teenage boy who is actually a vampire. They fall in love. The plot does not move until four fifths into the book, meaning Bella's life is not in any danger until then.

It is not a fantastic book by any means, but it reminded me of the kind of books I enjoyed and how it felt to read as a kid. So that was cool.

009 The Pickup

2008-08-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer, 2001.

A rich white woman from South Africa falls for a Middle Eastern illegal immigrant. When he is deported, she decidedly buys two tickets and follows him to his village. After nearly a year and much effort, he is granted a visa into the U.S.; however, she tells him, two days before departure, that she will stay in the village.

Abdu, later identified as Ibrahim il Musa, hungers for the lifestyle Julie rejects while she desires the life in the village bordering the desert. Both believe the other is naive to want what they do not.

The Pickup is a complicated book about love, taking changes, identity, imagined places, seeking out the kinds of fantasies that are the opposite of what one knows, a hunger and drive to fulfill oneself, regardless of the opinion of others. Both characters are like that and through a series of events, they help each other reach the footholds of spaces where their imagined selves begin to form.

It's a book that sneaks up on you. Bravo.

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures

2008-08-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam, 2005.

Giller Prize winner by Canadian novelist and doctor, Vincent Lam.

Touted as the inside scoop on medical school and practice in Canada, this book follows four people through their pursuit and later, their practice of medicine.

I did not find the characters engaging: Ming, the focused Chinese girl who is cold, methodical, slicing into corpses without compunction; Fitzgerald, the alcoholic doctor who gets fired and later contracts SARS while working for a private medical company; Sri, the psychiatric and sentimental doctor who dies young; and Chen, whom I have no recollection of other than he married Ming.

The book peeps into the medical profession. The bottom line is doctors are human; they make sacrifices, grapple with doubts, walk in gray zones, and fib truths to spare people pain. Generally speaking, there are no surprises but there are specifics, that is, set up and details of choices that doctors must make.

A quick read with functional writing.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

2008-08-10T12:51:00.000-07:00

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, 1968.

A quick read. The writing itself is what I would call, functional, that is, it does the job but nothing else.

Set in 2021 after the World War, earth is full of radioactive dust, abandoned buildings slowly crumble, and debris or "kipple" encroaches into every living space. Most humans, encouraged by the government, have emigrated to Mars. Animals are scarce and ownership of one, depending on their rarity, signifies social status. Androids, built to ease life on Mars, become nearly indistinguishable from humans. Several kill their human owners and flee to Earth.

Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter of rogue androids who've escaped to earth. He identifies them through an empathy test which is comprised of questions about dead animals. Appropriate verbal answers as well as speed and physical response times are measured.

We find that empathy and later, the will to live even in hopeless situations, are what distinguishes human from android.

This book inspired the movie Blade Runner. I watched that movie ages ago but remember little of it. An image of a very tall Daryl Hannah with wet hair comes to mind. The premise of Philip's book is good, and I wanted to know more of how people lived, both on Mars and on Earth; however, the book, as it should be perhaps, was focused on the "android/robot" literary conundrum: where does the dividing line lie?

Yes, as foretold by many a science fiction and Japanese anime writer, we will one day make androids who will be as human as we are. Whatever criteria we deem as requisite to be human, androids will satisfy them at some point. It's not that bad! Obviously there will be bad robots, but there will be good ones too -- look at Wall-E.

008 Blindness

2008-08-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

Blindness by José Saramago, published in English in 1997.

This is the third entry today. And like the previous two, I no longer have the book on hand . I have reservations about continuing on with this reading list. So many outdated books. Too much American content. Having said that, I don't enjoy translations of international books because translations never do originals justice. Meanings are lost or twisted and the art of the writing itself is crippled. So reading American books are easier and in some sense, the intended meanings are less skewed because they are written in English and I know, to some extent, American history. It's pickle 22.

Ok. Now on to two paragraphs or so about José's book. I like science fiction, and this book was written recently (in book time) so it was a refreshing read. Of course, like all winners or books by winners, heavy themes exist. José's story of a society going blind en mass, except for one doctor's wife, and people being quarantined, references the holocaust.

Over three hundred blind people are confined to an old mental asylum. No outside help is given to them because the "white blindness" is highly contagious. Rooms, halls, courtyards are covered in feces. Food is delivered daily. A group of twenty men, armed with one gun and self fashioned weapons, control the food and demand payment first in material goods and then in women.

The doctor's wife stabs the leader of the blind thugs in the throat with a pair of scissors.

In a way, this book is similar to Grapes of Wrath. In the worst of inhumane conditions, people reveal their true nature. People will do acts previously unimaginable. Like the doctor's wife who kills.

From these books, over and over again, it is the message you don't know what you are capable of nor what you are made of until tested.

007 The Known World

2008-08-07T14:36:00.000-07:00

The Known World, 2003 by Edward P. Jones and winner of the 2004 Pulitzer prize.

The book revolves around a dead black slave owner, Henry Townsend. Events and stories of people connected to him -- his old master, parents, wife, teacher, and slaves -- are presented in snatches in and out of flux.

Ed first tells us what will or has happened and then goes back, like memory, to fill in the gaps. It's like a reverse mystery where you see the crime scene, and then work backwards to understand how things happened the way they did. For example, in one scene, a slave starts carving a doll for his daughter, and we are told that this child would, in her nineties, live to ask for this very doll on her deathbed.

I have read many books with the subject of slavery and The Known World differs from them by focusing on slavery as a keeping of boundaries. Little is known about black slave owners and this is another distinguishing feature of Ed's book. And so in short, as a one sentence sum up, this book is about the boundaries between black slave owners and their slaves.

006 The Grapes of Wrath

2008-07-25T17:49:00.000-07:00

Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, 1939.

"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."

This is the story of an Oklahoma family, the Joads, who lose their land to banks and migrate westward to find work. Richly developed characters, no speech wasted and every metaphor haunts.

"There ain't nothin' so easy to get ready as a rabbit," he said. He lifted the skin of the back, slit it, put his fingers in the hole, and tore the skin off. It slipped off like a stocking, slipped off the body to the neck, and off the legs to the paws." p. 49

And later in the book, the skinned rabbit metaphor is evoked by farmer's tans on men.

***

I've returned this book since starting this entry so can no longer quote from it. I will say that the female characters, particularly Mother Joad and later her daughter, Rosasharn, are tough if not tougher 'n the men.

In short, the book is about a family sticking to their values despite suffering poverty and hunger.

The Stolen Child

2008-07-16T00:57:00.000-07:00

The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue, 2006.

A book reviewer on the back cover said, "Take that, Bilbo Baggins!" and so with excitement, I picked the book up. Unfortunately, this book fell short -- Bilbo did not have to take anything, no stabs, no punches, not even vehement cussing.

Inspired by W.B. Yeat's poem of the same title, Keith weaves a story of two boys or two changelings. Chapters alternate between the perspective of Aniday, the human boy stolen from his family and adapting to faerie life, and Henry Day, the changeling who takes his place in the human world. The changelings in Keith's book are a group of children who kidnap a child, replacing him or her with one of their own. Each changeling must wait his or her turn with the newest member at the end of the line. A changeling typically waits a century before being reintegrated back into society.

Other than the description of the changeling ways which could be done in one chapter, nothing really interesting happens in the book. Henry Day carefully plays human while Aniday roams in nearby woods with the rest of the feral changelings. Each struggle with memory loss of their previous lives as humans and later do find their original identities. They both accept their lots. The End.

Keith tries to draw the realm of myth and reality together while showing how myths disappear in the modern world. The woods where the changelings have inhabited for at least a century are bulldozed and middle class homes are erected. Trapped in children's bodies, spaces where they can live unnoticed are disappearing. This line of thought is interesting, however, it is not explored fully as the book is devoted to Aniday and Henry Day's internal thought processes.

The idea in this book had potential but ended up being unremarkable.

The House of Mirth

2007-11-16T16:36:00.000-08:00

I read Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth yesterday. Edith was the first woman to win the Pulitzer in 1921 with her book The Age of Innocence. I considered substituting HM for AI to count for this blog but decided against it. I didn't want to read AI; I saw the movie and lost my chance to read the book with fresh eyes. I'll get to it eventually, just so I can say "I have read all the Pully winners."

In HM Lily Bart, age 29, is a husband hunter circulating among the elites of old New York. Beautiful, charming, and masterful at self presentation, she gets close a few times and even gets offers but she always, at the last moment, screws it up or declines.

Lily reminds me of Esther from The Bell Jar in that she is keenly observant and reflects upon her own actions shrewdly. On one level, Lily senses that the life she was born into and trained for is unsatisfying. This ultimately leads to -- you guessed it -- her death. In the end, you realize that she could never fully commit herself to the ideals which would have given her a wealthy lifestyle. As a whole, the decisions she makes pointedly suggest a tragic becoming: Lily was aware that she could not be fully satisfied by society life and yet, that was what her upbringing had honed her best to do. At each crisis, she avoids making decisions, prolonging problems until they worsen. The resulting events tell vividly of a woman who is suspended between awareness and habit.

HM was very easy to read. I inhaled it. I enjoy books where events turn quickly and conversations flow easily. In part, I picked up HM as a break from Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus. I started DF last week and I'm about one fifth into it. Let's just say DF is vastly different from HM and the technicalities on classical music is not a page turning subject.

I plod on.

005 The Old Man and the Sea

2007-11-12T19:26:00.000-08:00

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway first published in 1952.

I might have read The Old Man and the Sea in high school but I'm uncertain. The title is familiar yet I remember nothing else. I choose this short book -- only 127 pages -- to ease myself back into this blog.

Short, direct, clear prose. An old fisherman pit against a mighty fish --a marlin. After hooking the fish, the old man waits a day and a night for the fish to surface. After killing the fish, he beats sharks off his catch. He returns to the fishing hamlet with a carcass, which is sad yet bringing the skeleton to shore is a heroic feat: it is a visible testament of his trials and of his unyielding resolution.

Two words sum up this book: mental fortitude.

The old man's stream of consciousness narrates events. Fishing alone, he talks to himself, thinks to himself. He is constantly encouraging, planning, preparing himself to handle tasks he must do. Unflinchingly, he makes sacrifices quickly -- cutting the other lines, eating the fish he caught -- to stack his chances to win. He knows well the psychology of battle, and keeps his mind sharp by reason, by rest, by food:

"The punishment of the hook is nothing. The punishment of hunger, and that he is against something that he does not comprehend, is everything. Rest now, old man, and let him work until your next duty comes." p.76

The theme of mental resolution, expressed so poignantly by Ernest Hemingway, is at once noble and horrific. Noble because it is shows how battles are won in the mind. Horrific because someone who knows mental fortitude so well, enough to convey it convincingly in literary form, killed himself.

It begs the question: What is it about modern life or his life that was so unbearable? It is frightening to imagine that someone with the intellectual capacity and, perhaps, fortitude of the Old Man, encountered something that beat him to death.

I mention Hemingway' s suicide because I read Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar just prior to The Old Man and the Sea. Plath also killed herself.

In The Bell Jar, a small town girl wins a one month internship at a magazine publishing house in New York. Intelligent and keenly self-conscious, Esther's observations of people and events are painfully frank. She is equally merciless to her own thoughts and actions.

You sense that modern city life dulls and suffocates. In short, it kills. The city teems of depth-less people spouting canned conversations, performing gestures which are emptied by repetition. A glimpse of this existence and Esther is changed: her mind sickens and she tries to commit suicide. Esther gets shock therapy and after a session she says:

"All the heat and fear had purged itself. I felt surprisingly at peace. The bell jar hung, suspended, a few feet above my head. I was open to the circulating air." p.206

The space under a bell jar is a metaphor for a state of mind touched by the emptiness of modern madness. It is a powerful symbol. You are helpless. You cannot move or breathe. The 360 degree field of vision remains a relentless source of pain; you see in stark clarity and feel razor eyes upon you.

Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, was it this?

To Be Continued...

2007-10-19T23:07:00.000-07:00

Wow. Is it already October 2007? I thought of this blog yesterday and it occurred to me that I may be running behind. For a steady clip, I need to average reading 16.2 books per year but I've read only 4 since May 2006 so I'm behind 12+ books so far.

You know, this is getting really exciting. Very soon I will have a justifiable reason to do nothing else but read. I might spend all of the holiday season reading instead of playing video games. That is a bit of a connundrum: do I read a bunch of so called "good" books or do I play video games and keep it real?

The Hookers Downstairs

2007-02-20T21:54:00.000-08:00

It's been so long since my last posting. I haven't read any novels recently and I don't feel like blogging about textbooks or journal articles.

I moved downtown last November. I live in a condo and from my den I see high-end hookers strutting their TNA. On rainy nights, they parade under the scaffolding that covers the sidewalk lining an empty parking lot. Only during bitter cold snaps do they wear pants. At 4 A.M. they are still poised to sell. I take a break from my work, peer over my computer and see them in their tall, shiny platform boots. They don't want to be mistaken for anything but hookers so they dress accordingly.

Hookers, prostitutes, ladies of the night - these women are muses to artists. Manet's Olympia, Ingres' harem paintings, Picasso's flat 3 dimensional cuts of madames, and Kirchner's sharp fox-faced street walkers just to name a few.

The young, attractive, glitzy, pampered prostitute that is nice to look at and nice to hold. But what of the older, worn, saggy, diseased, drug addicted, scabby, impoverished hookers working to feed their children?

Reading Frenzy

2006-08-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been reading many books and neglecting to blog them. I'm listing the last three before returning them:

1. Politician: Bio of a Space Tyrant by Piers Anthony, 1985.
Set in the future and in space. A man wakes up in a room full of his own feces and realizes his memories have been erased. He slowly pieces his past together buy cracking code words he left in the cell before being mem-washed. He is a Hispanic politician with powers to persuade and manage people.

The planets in the solar system have been colonized. Africa gets the hot planets like Mars and Venus. The U.S. gets Jupiter. Not that great of a book.

2. Moon Cakes: A Novel, by Andrea Louie, 1995.
A Chinese American woman, Maya, is haunted by her past. Her father died when she was young leaving a void. Her mother is the typical cold Chinese mother and her sister the perfect over achiever. Maya had a miscarriage and never told her last boyfriend about the pregnancy. She has emotional baggage and goes on a whirlwind tour of China; the landscape and people she encounters triggers memories of her father and guys she's dated. Maya tries to discover what it was about China that her father and her last boyfriend loved so much. She wants to share that experience but finds China foreign to her.

Boo hoo. Wa Wa. Sappy reminiscing that doesn't quite cut it. Louis tries to weave the story together with past memories and tries to let Maya's past unravel slowly so the reader finds out suddenly why Maya is so sad. eg. her father died. I don't mind this technique but its not done well. See below for an excellent example.

3. The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy, 1997 (Winner of the Booker Prize)

One of the best books I've read in a long time. Great character studies that show how and why people act the way they do. Most of all I like how everything culminates at the end, showing how history is triggered by events that in hindsight seem inevitable. Everything and everyone has a place in this story. And the writing is a delicious drink of water after walking the desert barefoot.

Set in India, twins return home after being separated as children. Hmmm. I don't think I want to tell too much of this book. I don't want to spoil it because it's worth reading not like above. (My tell all saves you from wasting your time)

You do need to know a little about India's caste system and the history of Marxism there to get the book.

004 Soul Mountain

2006-07-31T18:14:00.000-07:00

Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian (New York: Harper Collins, 2000)

Ugh. This book is tough to dig unless you like passages akin to dream sequences and airy descriptions of misty landscape. It would be easier on you if you've seen some films set in China to help you picture the rundown hotels and littered train stations.

A man who finds out he doesn't have lung cancer gets a second chance at life and goes traveling in Sichuan China. Along the way he learns local legends and myths. He alo makes up a bunch himself.

I'm 141 pages in but the book doesn't grab me. I'm trying, really! I want to like it and some bits are interesting but this is not a page turner. Not much of a plot. More of a floating around dreamily. Maybe that is the desired effect? But it comes at the price of snoring.

The pungent scent of crazy

2006-07-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I finished the book yesterday. It wasn't good. Sometimes it wasn't clear who said what. I'd re-read over passages to follow what was who and where was how. A bit annoying. Overall, it was a satisfactory quick read.

The main character, Willadene, has the "nose". She can pick apart any smell but most amazing is her ability to smell evil emanating from people. (What kind of logic governs that type of diagnosis? I guess her morals are physically linked to the membranes in her nose) It is suppose to be a horrible, gut wrenching stink. Nice ability but would you be able to handle it? You would know all of a sudden your co-worker sitting beside you is evil.

I'd like to read a book where someone can sniff out crazy. I wonder what that would smell like? Licorice and lard?

Scent of Magic by Andre Norton

2006-07-26T22:59:00.000-07:00

I'm back!!! Went to the public library today and finally paid enough of my $68 fine from last century (1999) to take out books again. I asked the librarian if she could pardon some of it, she asked me sharply why, I told the truth ( I was a student and forgot to return the books) and she gave me a $12 discount. Hey $12 is $12 man!

Took out among other books, Gao Xingjian's Soul Mountain and One Man's Bible (He's a nobel prizer).

But on this glorious night I am going to start with some pure fantasy, Andre Norton's Scent of Magic. Yea!!!!! It's got two fiesty heroines that can smell evil or something. ooooooOOOOo!! This will be a delicious, non-philosophical, non-analytical fast read!

I am just so happy my library card works again. If I knew this I would have paid my fines sooner.

Later y'alligators!

NOB & PULLY LIST

2006-06-15T16:38:00.000-07:00

Everytime I go to the library I forget my nobel/ pulitzer book list. Today I'm sticking it here for easy reference. You may use it for your own purposes.

r = read it before this blog

c = author won nob and pully so I only need read one of their work. Sort of like a two for one.

Read	Prize	Year	Author	Title
	Nobel	1901	Sully Prudhomme
	Nobel	1902	Theodor Mommsen
	Nobel	1903	Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
	Nobel	1904	Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray
	Nobel	1905	Henryk Sienkiewicz
	Nobel	1906	Giosuè Carducci
	Nobel	1907	Rudyard Kipling	The Jungle Book
	Nobel	1908	Rudolf Eucken
	Nobel	1909	Selma Lagerlöf
	Nobel	1910	Paul Heyse
	Nobel	1911	Maurice Maeterlinck
	Nobel	1912	Gerhart Hauptmann
	Nobel	1913	Rabindranath Tagore
	Nobel	1914	None
	Nobel	1915	Romain Rolland
	Nobel	1916	Verner von Heidenstam
	Nobel	1917	Karl Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan
	Pulitzer	1918	Ernest Poole	His Family
	Nobel	1918	None
	Pulitzer	1919	Booth Tarkington	The Magnificent Ambersons
	Nobel	1919	Carl Spitteler
	Nobel	1920	Knut Hamsun
	Nobel	1921	Anatole France
	Pulitzer	1921	Edith Wharton	The Age of Innocence
	Pulitzer	1922	Booth Tarkington	Alice Adams
	Nobel	1922	Jacinto Benavente
	Pulitzer	1923	Willa Cather	One of Ours
	Nobel	1923	William Butler Yeats
	Pulitzer	1924	Margaret Wilson	The Able McLaughlins
	Nobel	1924	Wladyslaw Reymont
	Pulitzer	1925	Edna Ferber	So Big
	Nobel	1925	George Bernard Shaw
	Nobel	1926	Grazia Deledda
	Pulitzer	1926	Sinclair Lewis	Arrowsmith
	Nobel	1927	Henri Bergson
	Pulitzer	1927	Louis Bromfield	Early Autumn
	Nobel	1928	Sigrid Undset
	Pulitzer	1928	Thornton Wilder	The Bridge of San Luis Rey
	Pulitzer	1929	Julia Peterkin	Scarlet Sister Mary
	Nobel	1929	Thomas Mann
c	Nobel	1930	Sinclair Lewis
	Pulitzer	1930	Oliver La Farge	Laughing Boy
	Nobel	1931	Erik Axel Karlfeldt
	Pulitzer	1931	Margaret Ayer Barnes	Years of Grace
r	Pulitzer	1932	Pearl S. Buck	The Good Earth
	Nobel	1932	John Galsworthy
	Nobel	1933	Ivan Bunin
	Pulitzer	1933	T. S. Stribling	The Store
	Pulitzer	1934	Caroline Miller	Lamb in His Bosom
	Nobel	1934	Luigi Pirandello
	Pulitzer	1935	Josephine Winslow Johnson	Now in November
	Nobel	1935	None
	Nobel	1936	Eugene O'Neill
	Pulitzer	1936	Harold L. Davis	Honey in the Horn
r	Pulitzer	1937	Margaret Mitchell	Gone With the Wind
	Nobel	1937	Roger Martin du Gard
c	Nobel	1938	Pearl Buck
	Pulitzer	1938	John Phillips Marquand	The Late George Apley
	Nobel	1939	Frans Eemil Sillanpää
	Pulitzer	1939	Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings	The Yearling
006	Pulitzer	1940	John Steinbeck	The Grapes of Wrath
	Nobel	1940	None
	Nobel	1941	None
	Pulitzer	1942	Ellen Glasgow	In This Our Life
	Nobel	1942	None
	Nobel	1943	None
	Pulitzer	1943	Upton Sinclair	Dragon's Teeth
	Nobel	1944	Johannes V. Jensen
	Pulitzer	1944	Martin Flavin	Journey in the Dark
	Nobel	1945	Gabriela Mistral
	Pulitzer	1945	John Hersey	A Bell for Adano
r	Nobel	1946	Hermann Hesse	Siddartha
	Nobel	1947	André Gide
	Pulitzer	1947	Robert Penn Warren	All the King's Men
r	Nobel	1948	T.S. Eliot
	Pulitzer	1948	Pacific James A. Michener	Tales of the South
c	Nobel	1949	William Faulkner
	Pulitzer	1949	James Gould Cozzens	Guard of Honor
	Pulitzer	1950	A. B. Guthrie Jr.	The Way West
	Nobel	1950	Bertrand Russell
	Pulitzer	1951	Conrad Richter	The Town
	Nobel	1951	Pär Lagerkvist
	Nobel	1952	François Mauriac
	Pulitzer	1952	Herman Wouk	The Caine Mutiny
005	Pulitzer	1953	Ernest Hemingway	The Old Man and the Sea
	Nobel	1953	Winston Churchill
c	Nobel	1954	Ernest Hemingway
	Nobel	1955	Halldór Laxness
	Pulitzer	1955	William Faulkner	A Fable
	Nobel	1956	Juan Ramón Jiménez
	Pulitzer	1956	MacKinlay Kantor	Andersonville
	Nobel	1957	Albert Camus
	Nobel	1958	Boris Pasternak
	Pulitzer	1958	James Agee	A Death in the Family
	Pulitzer	1959	Robert Lewis Taylor	The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
	Nobel	1959	Salvatore Quasimodo
	Pulitzer	1960	Allen Drury	Advise and Consent
	Nobel	1960	Saint-John Perse
r	Pulitzer	1961	Harper Lee	To Kill a Mockingbird
	Nobel	1961	Ivo Andric
r	Nobel	1962	John Steinbeck	Of Mice and Men
	Pulitzer	1962	Edwin O'Connor	The Edge of Sadness
	Nobel	1963	Giorgos Seferis
	Pulitzer	1963	William Faulkner	The Reivers
r	Nobel	1964	Jean-Paul Sartre	No Exit
	Nobel	1965	Mikhail Sholokhov
	Pulitzer	1965	Shirley Ann Grau	The Keepers of the House
	Pulitzer	1966	Katherine Anne Porter	Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
	Nobel	1966	Samuel Agnon, Nelly Sachs
	Pulitzer	1967	Bernard Malamud	The Fixer
	Nobel	1967	Miguel Angel Asturias
	Pulitzer	1968	William Styron	The Confessions of Nat Turner
	Nobel	1968	Yasunari Kawabata
	Pulitzer	1969	N. Scott Momaday	House Made of Dawn
	Nobel	1969	Samuel Beckett
	Nobel	1970	Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
	Pulitzer	1970	Jean Stafford	Collected Stories
	Nobel	1971	Pablo Neruda
	Nobel	1972	Heinrich Böll
	Pulitzer	1972	Wallace Stegner	Angle of Repose
002	Pulitzer	1973	Eudora Welty	The Optimist's Daughter
	Nobel	1973	Patrick White
	Nobel	1974	Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson
	Nobel	1975	Eugenio Montale
	Pulitzer	1975	Michael Shaara	The Killer Angels
c	Nobel	1976	Saul Bellow
003	Pulitzer	1976	Saul Bellow	Humboldt's Gift
	Nobel	1977	Vicente Aleixandre
	Nobel	1978	Isaac Bashevis Singer
	Pulitzer	1978	James Alan McPherson	Elbow Room
	Pulitzer	1979	John Cheever	The Stories of John Cheever
	Nobel	1979	Odysseus Elytis
	Nobel	1980	Czeslaw Milosz
	Pulitzer	1980	Norman Mailer	The Executioner's Song
	Nobel	1981	Elias Canetti
001	Pulitzer	1981	John Kennedy Toole	A Confederacy of Dunces
010	Nobel	1982	Gabriel García Márquez	Of Love and Other Demons
	Pulitzer	1982	John Updike	Rabbit Is Rich
r	Nobel	1983	William Golding	Lord of the Flies
	Pulitzer	1983	Alice Walker	The Color Purple
	Nobel	1984	Jaroslav Seifert
	Pulitzer	1984	William Kennedy	Ironweed
	Pulitzer	1985	Alison Lurie	Foreign Affairs
	Nobel	1985	Claude Simon
	Pulitzer	1986	Larry McMurtry	Lonesome Dove
	Nobel	1986	Wole Soyinka	Requiem for a futurologist
	Nobel	1987	Joseph Brodsky
	Pulitzer	1987	Peter Taylor	A Summons to Memphis
r	Pulitzer	1988	Toni Morrison	Beloved
	Nobel	1988	Naguib Mahfouz
	Pulitzer	1989	Anne Tyler	Breathing Lessons
	Nobel	1989	Camilo José Cela
	Nobel	1990	Octavio Paz
	Pulitzer	1990	Oscar Hijuelos	The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
	Pulitzer	1991	John Updike	Rabbit at Rest
	Nobel	1991	Nadine Gordimer
	Nobel	1992	Derek Walcott
	Pulitzer	1992	Jane Smiley	A Thousand Acres
c	Nobel	1993	Toni Morrison
	Pulitzer	1993	Robert Olen Butler	A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain
	Pulitzer	1994	E. Annie Proulx	The Shipping News
	Nobel	1994	Kenzaburo Oe
r	Pulitzer	1995	Carol Shields	The Stone Diaries
	Nobel	1995	Seamus Heaney
	Pulitzer	1996	Richard Ford	Independence Day
	Nobel	1996	Wislawa Szymborska
	Nobel	1997	Dario Fo
	Pulitzer	1997	Steven Millhauser	Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
008	Nobel	1998	José Saramago
	Pulitzer	1998	Philip Roth	American Pastoral
	Nobel	1999	Gunter Grass
	Pulitzer	1999	Michael Cunningham	The Hours
004*	Nobel	2000	Gao Xingjian	Soul Mountain
	Pulitzer	2000	Jhumpa Lahiri	Interpreter of Maladies
	Pulitzer	2001	Michael Chabon	The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
	Nobel	2001	Naipaul V.S.
	Nobel	2002	Imre Kertész
	Pulitzer	2002	Richard Russo	Empire Falls
	Nobel	2003	J.M. Coetzee
	Pulitzer	2003	Jeffrey Eugenides	Middlesex
007	Pulitzer	2004	Edward P. Jones	The Known World
	Nobel	2004	Elfriende Jelinek
	Nobel	2005	Harold Pinter
	Pulitzer	2005	Marilynne Robinson	Gilead

Madame Sadayakko

2006-06-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

I have nothing to read tonight. I have one shitty book, Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Bewitched the West by Lesley Downer (New York: Gotham Books, 2003) and I read to p.65 but I can't stand it anymore.

It is based on the life of a geisha so it's a historical novel. I'd have rather read a book committed to fiction without the waffling. I don't like it because Lesley tip toes alot so much of it is Sadayakko probably felt like this or thought about that. Too much speculation. Just say it for crying out loud!

You might wonder why the last 3 books are Japanese in theme. It's because I bought them for $5 each at this egghead convention a while back. Don't worry, I don't own anymore unread books.

I must stop being so lazy and get myself to the school's library. (I have $90 fine at the public library so that's not an option). I gotta get back to the list.

Bookend Mystery

2006-06-04T19:29:00.000-07:00

Finished The Dragon Scroll. There was a mystery within the mystery working like bookends so that was kinda different. All in all, the book isn't exciting but ok to pass the time.

The Dragon Scroll

2006-06-04T00:52:00.000-07:00

Again a book not on the list; I'm halfway through I.J. Parker's The Dragon Scroll (New York: Penguin, 2005). Set in 11th century Japan, Sugawara Akitada, a junior clerk, on an imperial mission, is determined to find out why one region's tax payments keep vanishing.

You can tell a white person who enjoys Japan's past wrote this. I.J. is an English prof at Virginia Univeristy and she's won some awards for her novels. I'm sure she 'researched' the historical context because there are facts woven into the setting of the book. For eg. during the Heian period (794-1185), people thought the world was ending which lead to a rise in Buddhism and religious centers . It's also true that travel around Japan gained popularity in this period. In the book a bunch of monks are suspicious culprits and many pilgrims go to the temple. (Keepin' it concise here)

My complaint is that someone who knows about the history/culture of the Heian period, such as myself, knows that the speech and actions of the characters for 11th century Japan are absurd. They act like westerners with a bit of cultural knowledge who go back in time and try to blend in with the locals. Readers might like it because the book is exotic and unfamiliar but what happens when most of it is wrong? Here then is a cause of people who think they know a country or past but do not.

A problem with knowing history when reading a 'historical novel' is your mind rejects it saying, That's totally off! or No one would ever say that! It's like watching a movie and saying, That whole shot was CG or No one would ever do that in real life. You just have to go with it despite knowing its so fake.

In the end, I.J. Parker is no Agatha Christie but she's no Saul Bellow either and I need something to read tonight.

In the Miso Soup

2006-05-29T20:27:00.000-07:00

I read a book not on the list, In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami ( New York: Penguin, 1997). I was getting my hair done and needed to read something to avoid small talk with the hair dresser.

Kenji guides tourists who want sex in Japan. An American, spouting standard psycho killer babble, hires him. This book was disturbing. Violence to genitals. Tampons. Need I say more?

There I was sitting, getting my hair wrapped in foil, and reading about sex and blood spurting from someone's body parts. It was twisted.

I don't like violent books but I understand sometimes there is a need for violence to prove a point. Having said that, the quality of Ryu's work or his overall point (Japan has a seedy side) doesn't justify the amount of violence he uses.

What book warrants violence? Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird, 1976. Horrific scenes and circumstances caused by war. That book changed me. I began to understand how tragic war is and realized that terrible things happen which are beyond what we who live in first world countries can imagine or would want to know.

No progress on the thesis yet. I'm going to school tomorrow so I'll borrow something.

Here's to shootin' low!

2006-05-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to announce that this blog is too far ahead of schedule so I'll have to go on pause. 162 books in 10 years gives me 3.2 weeks per book and I'm 3 down already. Three books should have taken me to July 11th.

I wish. The truth is my draft is due end of the month. Got to slug along on that.

Think of the martini as a go away and come back later message. Back in a week.

Pity, Thinkers & Sloths

2006-05-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

Finished Humboldt's Gift this morning. Three thoughts on pity, thinkers, & sloth and this book will close.

- - - - - - - - - - PITY - - - - - - - - - -

Previously I complained how HG was inaccessible but on p.320 there was something familiar -- Charlie Citrine's pity. Citrine suspects his girlfriend, Renata, has run off but cannot confront her scheming mother, the Señora.

I couldn't argue with the Señora. I had seen her one morning before she was made up, hurrying toward the bathroom, completely featureless, a limp and yellow banana skin, without brows or lashes and virtually without lips. The sorrow of this sight took me by the heart, I never again wanted to win a point from the Señora. When I played backgammon with her I cheated against myself.

Citrine sees a person who doesn't have what they value most. Never again will the Señora be beautiful or young (firm, bright skin; full lips; lashes and brows) and for a person that trades on looks, this must crush her daily. Would the Señora be pissed to know Citrine's pity is why he cows to her? Damn rights! She would hate him to shreds for patronizing her and for assuming her weakness. Perhaps the Señora has accepted aging and moreover, doesn't care if her daughter's sugar daddy sees her without makeup. Besides it must be a hoot for her to look like a bag and still get Citrine's money.

Pity is a way for Citrine to think himself in control and his thoughts can never be challenged because they without doubt, quietly assume.

- - - - - - - - - - THINKERS - - - - - - - - - -

Renata does elope with another man and writes her thoughts on the human condition in a farewell letter (p.430):

As a beautiful woman and still young, I prefer to take things as billions of people have done throughout history. You work, you get bread, you lose a leg, kiss some fellows, have a baby, you live to be eighty and bug hell out of everybody, or you get hung or drowned. But you don't spend years trying to dope your way out of the human condition. To me that's boring.

To this Citrine thinks (p.431):

Yes, when she said this, I saw thinkers of genius throwing skeins of belief and purpose over the heads of the multitude. I saw them molesting the race with their fancies, programs, and world perspectives.

At the base of this statement is our friend Karl. Yup, the Marx one. The thoughts of intellectuals are no better than regular people and it's mental tyranny for them to keep thinking, saying, pressing to continually keep the positions of know-it-alls/ banishers of anomie/ leaders to utopia.

Ok good for Citrine. He's just reached the post-modern conundrum:

we better not be oppressors like our predecessors
we can't speak for the oppressed because we cannot know them and so it's injust to rally for change on their behalf
we still want to do the above and secretly think we can
we want to know the oppressed because their views can help us make a better society
'we' are intellectuals though nowadays the club is not exclusive to old white men.

(For these same conclusions on p-mod stretched over many readings see Subaltern Studies or Gayatri Spivak)

- - - - - - - - - - SLOTHS - - - - - - - - - -

A word on sloth because I started my blog with this sentiment, see A Slothly Start http://bookwash.blogspot.com/2006/05/slothly-start.html

Citrine admits to being slothful and explains to his childhood sweetheart that it's hard work (p.306):

"Some think that sloth, one of the capital sins, means ordinary laziness," I began. "Sticking in the mud. Sleeping at the switch. But sloth has to cover a great deal of despair. Sloth is really a busy condition, hyperactive. This activity drives off the wonderful rest or balance without which there can be no poetry or art or thought -- none of the highest human functions."

At first I thought ooh yes, I too suffer from a condition of sloth, but then I realized this bit on sloth masks and romanticizes procrastination. Keeping busy doing things other than what you must is plain old procrastination and making excuses just ain't cool.

Can't we let a sloth be a sloth?

One sentence sum up: The protagonist, Charlie Citrine, is boring for 400 pages and the last 87 pages doesn't warrant the long windup.

Humboldt's Gift is a Story

2006-05-20T00:19:00.000-07:00

Read to p.343. Charlie Citrine in Humboldt's Gift lives his life at a distance. He watches passively as events triggered by friends/ lawyers/ accountant/ girfriend/ ex-wife, all after his money, happen to him. Finally, at long last -- something happens in the book! Charlie snaps out of it and is moved to act. On p.239 he finds out Humboldt bequeathed a letter to him and a hundred pages later, Charlie has this letter in hand.

Will these words from the grave help Charlie shed his guilt from not crossing the street to greet Humboldt that day? Will it shock him awake (i.e. start writing and seek answers to questions of extistence and death)?

Even more exciting news! Humboldt's letter includes a story that he says is a gift to Charlie. Yup, this is the clearly identified money shot. Or the theoretical, soul shaking shot. I haven't read the gift yet. I want to keep curious so I will want to return to this book.

Saul Bellow aka Sollie

2006-05-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

Saul Bellow (June 10, 1915 – April 5, 2005)

I wanted to post nasty photos of Saul but couldn't bring myself to because he's dead, likely someone out there loves him, and it's mean to laugh at old people. So I put a young one of him, and an older, more distinguished, haughty looking one that I'm sure Sollie would have loved. I imagine Charlie Citrine from Humboldt's Gift to look like the right photo -- lean, intelligent, vain.

Sollie is a Canadian-born American writer of Jewish descent. His parents are from St. Petersburg, Russia and he grew up in the slums of Chicago. Living in the U.S. during WWII and the Cold war with that background must have been tough. Last century's identity issues remain relevant but at the same time, it's so far away to me and I can identify with none of his background. This is partly why Sollie is inaccessible to me but mostly its because he writes from the perch of an old white guy.

I've put off picking up HG. I'll read a bit this weekend and report back.

003 Humboldt's Gift

2006-05-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

Now on p.120 of Saul Bellow's Humboldt's Gift. Saul is a Nobel winner and HG won the Pulitzer so its a 2 for 1. (New York: The Viking Press) 1975.

HB is concentrated self-apologizing high snot. It's about poets and writers finding meaning in life. Consistent name dropping. Proust, Hegel, Marx, Durkheim, Balzac and tons I've never heard of. Need I say more?

Fine you egg me. Charlie Citrine, a famous writer (won the Pulitzer) living in Chicago, now an old man, is haunted by his mentor, Von Humboldt Fleisher, who died poor and crazy. Charlie is made to be so smart that he feels guilty having a Mercedes and from getting kicks from hanging out with petty criminals (read proles). He knows capitalism/ disparity of wealth is bad from a lifetime of reading philosophical/ literary/ revolutionary books but still enjoys what money can buy.

Hey you educated, rich people! Got Guilt? Read HG to soothe yourself! An intellectual knows your pains!

It gets better. While alive Humboldt despises Charlie for being rich and insults him (p.3):

They gave Citrine a Pulitzer prize for his book on Wilson and Tumulty. The Pultizer is for the birds -- for the pullets. It's just a dummy newspaper publicity award given by coorks and illiterates. You become a walking Pulitzer ad, so even when you croak the first words of the obituary are 'Pulitzer prizewinner passes.'"

I'll spin this for you, the people in the book (author too) are above awards. The prize givers are unworthy to judges. They just don't get it -- can't get it. This reeks of high High Snot. Who can judge then? People that have read all of the above plus more?

But then again, how I be so nasty to Saul especially since his opinion applies aptly to this crappy Pulitzer winner.

Fay the Real Optimist

2006-05-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

I finished The Optimist's Daughter. The plot was boring but the character development was alright. An old man from Mount Salus, Mississippi dies and in the following days his daughter, Laurel, learns to let go of the deaths of her mother, husband and father. Laurel learns through interacting with her father's second wife, Fay, a selfish, hillbilly floozy.

There are conflicts from class differences and feminine kinds of rivalry. Fay is white trash and after her husband death, screams selfish things like, "All on my birthday. Nobody told me this was what was going to happen to me!" (p.44).

We are suppose to hate Fay (I felt sympathy because women characters are often too simply vilified). She's the bitch who is especially hated by other women in town because she is rude and a bad housekeeper. But Eudora hints at sympathy for Fay when a neighbour, Adele, commenting on how Fay threw herself on her husband's corpse points out, "I think that carrying-on was Fay's idea of giving a sad occasion its due." (p.109) .

From my high horse I'd say -- Fay does what is appropriate according to her own sense of propriety and the problem of 'distaste' is that her guidelines differ from those who bad mouth her.

The one sentence sum up: A low class, selfish bitch helps the protagonist let go of the past.

Eudora Welty's Bloggin' Style

2006-05-16T13:04:00.000-07:00

I'm paid to organize 3 months of a lecture series. Mostly it's responding to emails from academics, AV & venue peeps but it seems 80% of my time is spent on unexpecteds. Today is the culmination of an unexpected that in hindsight was obvious. I don't want to get into it. It's boring and insignificant.

Eudora Welty has a perfect blog writing style. The Optimist's Daughter has no unnecessary words and sentences are short with maximum effect. See this description of our protagonist (p.3):

Laurel McKelva Hand was a slender, quiet-faced woman in her middle forties, her hair still dark. She wore clothes of an interesting cut and texture, although her suit was wintry for New Orleans and had a wrinkle down the skirt. Her dark blue eyes looked sleepless.

From three sentences we know Laurel's full name, age, physique, character, clothing style, location, and current state of mind.

Eudora expects the reader's attention and uses details to build characters. Laurel finds out her father is dead and she's in the hall with the doctor (p.41):

Laurel felt the Doctor's hand shift to grip her arm; she had been about to go straight to the unattended. He began walking the two women toward the elevators. Laurel became aware that he was in evening clothes.

This bit tells the Doctor's experience with the bereaved and his off duty trip to the hospital. Laurel's previous state of shock is conveyed through her coming to awareness.

Ok peeps. If you are or know a know it all who thinks they can read people like a book by their habits/deportment/slips of speech, tell them to read Eudora Welty. They'll love it.

002 The Optimist's Daughter

2006-05-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

Pockets of stress since I woke up. Urgent things at the part-time job, driving in traffic, but the cherry was emailing my prof to report that my draft is not ready for today's deadline. "End of the month!" I said.

As a treat then, I'll start The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty this evening. It won the 1973 Pulitzer prize (the P is always chosen among work published the previous year). Here is the version I'm reading:

Welty, Eudora. The Optimist's Daughter. New York: Random House, 1972.

I've never heard of the author or book before but chose it for the title and because I like female authors. The other book I borrowed today was Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow. Sounds boring doesn't it?

I took out books on these books. Humboldt's Gift made me do it. Cringing after flipping through that book, I decided to skim what others say before condemning it. And just in case OD is a drag I better get a book on it as well.

Sometimes books are boring because I don't know the context or miss the cultural references of the time. Maybe these crits will help place these books. But don't expect indepth analysis here. I get enough of a work out just thinking about my draft.

ACoD: Annoying & Boring

2006-05-13T02:51:00.000-07:00

It's that time of day again. Not sleepy yet too tired to "work". Though I did photoshop this nifty collage of A Confederacy of Dunces covers:

And no, I'm not nuts about the book. The publishers from the 60s were right -- nothing really happens. Plus Ignatius was irritating especially during passages of his first person lengthy, flouty tirades. Yes, Ken probably wanted Ignatius to reach out and peeve the reader and that's edgy and all, but the kiss of death was that those parts were boring too.

Don't judge a book by its title. I picked ACoD for its title and its back blurb that promised hilarity. In the end, the title was more interesting that its contents. Strangely this cheers me up because there are some seriously dry sounding titles on the 162-10 list.

An aside, if you're ever hard pressed for a Halloween costume, put on a green hunting cap, a plaid shirt, call yourself Ignatius J. Reilly, and shout insults like, "What an abortion!" Can you imagine a party that would really get and dig such a costume? Now that is frightening. Ha ha right? Until it dawns -- we'll get it.

Growing up in the 60s

2006-05-12T22:04:00.000-07:00

I finished reading A Confederacy of Dunces today. There are themes of revolution and in particular of revolting against the white upper middle class. The book speaks of its time -- the 1960s. I imagine Ken living his 20s and being influenced by beatniks, the young hip and cool people that resented the wholesome story book family life promoted by consumer ads.

Why would no one publish Ken's book while he was alive? It's because ACoD when read in the 1960s is blathering young angst but in the 1980s, after civil rights and feminist movements, suddenly his book was seen in a new light. Young angst, through a change in temporal perception, transforms into a historical novel of youth (anti- conforming ones) growing up in the 1960s in the U.S.

It's almost nostalgic. But in this sentiment lies the seduction of Pulitzer prize fiction (the P is awarded to novels of American life). I must remember, this country and its past are not mine.

I leave you with a passage that I like from ACoD on how George, a teenager, explains the verbosity of Ignatius, p. 283-4:

You could tell by the way that he talked, though, that he had gone to school a long time. That was probably what was wrong with him. George had been wise enough to get out of school as soon as possible. He didn't want to end up like that guy.

George is right. I've been in school a long time and I've seen what it does to people. Some talk in tongues. Actually, now that I think of it...Ignatius' self righteous pomposity does recall academics I've known...

Ken & Ignatius

2006-05-11T21:23:00.000-07:00

John Kennedy Toole (December 17, 1937 – March 26, 1969)

Googled Mr. JKT today. It turns out his life does mirror Ignatius'. JKT, aka Ken to his friends, like his character, lived in New Orleans, Lousiana, was sheltered by his mom, earned an M.A. degree, worked in a clothing plant, was an aspiring writer, and speculated as gay.

It's likely people from New Orleans know Ignatius because A Confederacy of Dunces is hailed for its vibrant post-WWII portrayal of New Orleans. Or maybe they know of him from the bronze statue at 800 Iberville Street in New Orleans.

Thirsty for details?

Ken: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy_Toole
ACoD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_Reilly
Ignatius statue & book setting pics: http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/qualin/ignatius/

001 A Confederacy of Dunces

2006-05-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

I feel compelled for proper book citation. It results from my long stint in school. I'm even using Endnote. Here's my version:

Toole, John Kennedy. A Confederacy of Dunces. New York: Grove Press, 1980.

Some prelim remarks. Toole wrote this book in the 60's and committed suicide in 1969 at the age of 32. His mother, Thelma D. Toole, pressed for it to be published after his death.

The main character, Ignatius J. Reilly, a self-centered, unemployed, annoying, fat and messy 30 year old, lives with his mother. He is forced to get a job after his mother 's car accident (she backs up into a building and smashes a store). I'm on p.74 and he just got a job. And the people in the office seem as eccentric as he does.

Poor John. Did he live with his mother? Did he feel inadequate because there is a stigma attached to men living with mommy?

It's not right that I project the character onto its author. Why should I draw a parallel from Ignatius to John? Then again, who says I shouldn't speculate? Is it the highbrow lit critics?

I must say I am split on whether it is pathetic for a guy to live with his mom. On the one hand, they are selfish beasts that need their underwear washed by someone yet on the other hand, they may have family values especially if they live with elderly parents and care for them. As usual then the answer is IDOC or It Depends On the Circumstances.

Ok a special treat for those egomaniacs out there, I leave you with a quote from the preface of the book:

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by his sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.

--Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting

A Slothly Start

2006-05-09T02:39:00.000-07:00

It's fitting that this blog starts at 2am with a book on sloth. The time reminds me of how often I am up and not doing things I should. I could be surfing, cooking, reading but seldom do I work.

Guilt is half dead this morning. Times change. From this moment on reading is sanctioned by blog. I've got a vow to keep -- 162 books in 10 years.

It's a happy coincidence that the book to kick off this blog has a good study of bad habits. I am reading John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces which makes it the very first book for this bookwashing. A comedy about a sloth. (Don't get too excited. I had to read up to p.66 before I laughed aloud)

The beware for this book: a book reveling in bad habits still conforms by teaching what not to be.

Who knows when I'll check in but I will because I've a vow to keep.