books, books, books

[mood swung]

After DFW's death, my friend Chris lent him this last volume of essays/reviews.

neat trick!


I had Infinite Jest on my bookshelf for years. Every now and then, I'd take it down and give it a whirl. Inevitably, I would maybe get a chapter or two in and put it back on the shelf. I finally gave that book away. It's the first and only book I've ever given up on.


And I'm glad! Glad! I'll stick with the shallow end of the literary swimming pool.

[Otis Westinghouse]

What about Ulysses?

[mood swung]

What about Ulysses?

Good book for smashing spiders.

[Otis Westinghouse]

It's the first and only book I've ever given up on.

See, it's at least the second.

[mood swung]

I did not give up on it - read every word, even found St. James of Dingle, so there! EAB, Westinghouse.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Eat one yerself! you only did it so you could tell people 'I've read Ulysses.'

[mood swung]

Yes, that's the truth. I'm always working that into conversations!


-who you voting for?
-obama! I'm sure he's read Ulysses, just like me!


-do you want fries with that?
-what would Dedalus do?


And on a related note, it's Banned Book Week. Do your part and ban Ulysses. Again. :mrgreen

[Otis Westinghouse]

Banning Ulysses would just be a Dedalus.
[That's one to be heard with the last word pronounced as more or less two syllables, not read.]

Actually, it would be sacrilege, like banning Caravaggio or Beethoven or Elvis Costello.

[miss buenos aires]

I just finished Lucky Jim (list) and really enjoyed it. I have just one nagging questions about the end, though--let me know if you've read it, and I'll ask you privately (so as not to spoil anything for pophead).

[BlueChair]

I just finished Lucky Jim (list) and really enjoyed it. I have just one nagging questions about the end, though--let me know if you've read it, and I'll ask you privately (so as not to spoil anything for pophead).

I've read it!

[alexv]

The Nobel book prize has just been awarded.

Anybody here familiar with the author?

Here's an interesting piece on "insularity" in book land.

http://www.slate.com/id/2201447/

[Who Shot Sam?]

The Nobel book prize has just been awarded.

Anybody here familiar with the author?

Here's an interesting piece on "insularity" in book land.

http://www.slate.com/id/2201447/

I read Le procès verbal, his first novel, years ago for a class. Was a bit in the vein of Camus.

[BlueChair]

Just finished Paul Auster's Man In The Dark. Enjoyed it, though the end was a bit unsatisfying.

About to finally immerse myself in American Pastoral. Can't wait.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Never even heard of Le Clezio, insular as I am. That's what the Nobel is all about, though.

Enjoy AP, BLue. It's hard not to. The Swede Levov. Great stuff. Incredibly memorable scenes and images.

[alexv]

What do the following books have in common?

Operation Shylock (93)
Sabbath's Theater(95)
American Pastoral (97)
I Married a Communist (98)
The Human Stain (2000)
Plot Against America (2003)

Philip Roth books, of course. What else do they have in common? Their names come up, repeatedly, in the EC fan forum book annex (Blue is the most recent entry with AP), a veritable hive of PR fandom. And a great hive that is.

But that is not all. The earliest of these books was written when the author turned...60, having already achieved great success with his Zuckerman novels and other worthwhile stuff, which he started putting out way back in the late 50s/early 60s. All that early stuff pales, IMHO, in comparison to his output since 93, which makes him extraordinary among great novelists. I can't think of any writer who spent his 60s writing 6, yes 6, classic novels that tell us things about our history (US) in ways that history books just cannot. Oh, when will those insular Swedes wake up?

He also wrote a nasty piece aimed at Clarie Bloom and her daughter, but that's just his nasty side coming out. Oh, wait, that may explain his popularity with EC fanatics.

[Otis Westinghouse]

He lived on and off with Bloom in London in the 80s but was producing his least memorable books. He then returned full time to the US and turned his attention fully to the US as his topic and canvas. I've read two of those 6 and am on my third, but I think all 6 are essential reading.

[mood swung]

Been re-reading On The Road. I remember inhaling this book as a snot-nosed teenager. It's taken me like 3 weeks, and I still have about 25 pages to go.

[mood swung]

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro.

I really, really hated Remains of the Day. But, I'm a competitive person sometimes (believe it or not), and you List Suckers have thrown down an invisible gauntlet. Hilarity will ensue. Anyway, I checked out Pophead's most excellent blog earlier (where he is making incredible headway through said list!) and he made this one sound interesting, in a Children of the Corn way, and my library had it, so I thought what the heck.

What I hated about RotD is evident here, that being that KI can't ever just say one thing. He's got to take every detour in the guidebook, and some that aren't in the guidebook. I don't ever mind a detour, but sometimes I'm looking at my metaphorical watch, thinking I want to get there before dark. This is infinitely more readable, although I can't think why, because everybody is just as passive as in RotD. The science fiction element, I guess. I've been puzzling over Part 2 a lot, and puzzling over my own little supposed-tos.

I didn't hate it.

[Otis Westinghouse]

'puzzling over my own little supposed-tos'?

I lurved Remains of the Day. Hugely moving and perfectly written. It's a long time since I read it. Great film too. God the pathos of Anthony Hopkins.

I suspect The Unconsoled would be your most hated book ever, Mood, though I haven't tried it yet. I know people who adore and others who loathe it.

My wife thrilled to Never Let Me Go. I got a bit tired of it once I'd guessed what was going on. Worth reading. I read his early ones A Pale View of Hills and An Artist of the Floating World. Both set in Japan and both good, especially the former. He's a class writer. Need to read When We Were Orphans.

[mood swung]

I would be unconsoled after The Unconsoled, is that what you're saying? Yes, I'm puzzled. Why the heck they wouldn't get the heck outta Dodge when they had the chance? (Of course, in real science fiction, they'd have GPS locaters implanted or their heads would explode outside a certain radius...) And my own supposed-tos, well, nobody wants my organs (at least, that I know of), but still there are 1,000 things a day I do because I am supposed to. And really, thinking about it, I don't think people will die if I don't. But, still I do them.

I find his characters very hard to like.

[miss buenos aires]

I read "When We Were Orphans" a few weeks ago, and thought it was kind of hilarious. It's got that same kind of passivity, even though the narrator actually goes out and does a lot of stuff. Has anyone else read it? [minor spoiler follows]: My favorite thing is that the narrator is supposed to be this great detective, but he mentions cases without ever giving you any idea of who did what or how he figured it out... and when you do get an insight into a mystery that he's trying to solve, he literally could not be any wronger.

[alexv]

Today, I noted in The Times that John Leonard, one of our great literary critics died. For as long as I can remember, whenever I noticed a piece by him, either in The Times, Harpers, The Nation, or elsewhere, I would make it a point to stop and read it. He never failed to grab my attention. He was one of the greats of his generation.

Here's a link to his Times obit. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/arts/ ... ref=slogin

I was struck by how much this quote from the obit captures my feelings about books and reading:

"My whole life I have been waving the names of writers, as if we needed rescue,” Mr. Leonard said. “From these writers, for almost 50 years, I have received narrative, witness, companionship, sanctuary, shock and steely strangeness; good advice, bad news, deep chords, hurtful discrepancy and amazing grace. At an average of five books a week, not counting all those sighed at and nibbled on before they go to the Strand, I will read 13,000. Then I’m dead. Thirteen thousand in a lifetime.”

[miss buenos aires]

Still working on the list, though they changed it on me, so I'm down about a dozen from where I was before...

reading now: The Human Stain - Philip Roth. So good! Maybe I should try Portnoy's Complaint again...
just read: The Piano Teacher - Elfriede Jelinek. So disturbing! Maybe I should avoid the movie to the end of my days...
before that: The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst. So long! Maybe other people should adjust the length of their books to how much they actually have to say...

[Otis Westinghouse]

Another one gets the Roth bug! I wouldn't bother going back to Portnoy, I'd stick with the later tours de force.

[pophead2k]

I've just finished Cigarettes by Harry Mathews. An unpleasant book about unpleasant people.