- Christian anarchist and pacifist. War What Is It Good For, indeed.
- Wealthy. Member of Russian nobility.
- On the eve of his wedding to Sofya he gave her his diaries detailing his extensive sexual history.
- Love your neighbor and God. Don't look to the Church or state for guidance.
- No meat, tobacco, or alcohol. Chastity.
- No Shakespeare.
- Excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church.
- Abandoned his wealth and family at the age of 82.
Showing posts with label literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label literature. Show all posts
Monday, March 1, 2010
The Last Station
Watching The Last Station made me realize that I know nothing about Lev Tolstoy (other than that his original title for "War and Peace" was "War What Is It Good For?" and his mistress made him change it). So I did some light internet research, no big deal:
Monday, December 7, 2009
Let the Great World Spin
Let the Great World Spin
by Colum McCann
I am going to come right out and say it, no suspense-building here, this powerhouse of a novel gets a 5 out of 5 from me.
The story centers around Philippe Petit's tightrope walk between the World Trade Center Twin Towers in the 1970's. And by the way, that's a true story (watch this documentary!) although that story is certainly romanticized in this novel and it is quite clear that the author has taken liberties to add many a whimsical detail and flourish. Regardless. It's a fascinating bit of history. I think of Petit as both 1) quite literally a freak of nature -- seriously, how many people in the world could have accomplished that feat? and 2) amazing in the truest sense of the word. Throughout the novel we get glimpses into Petit's brain about his preparations and his actual walk as well as the various reactions of New Yorkers who saw him up there, over 100 stories high.
Mind if I read you the first paragraph?
The meat of the story intertwines the complicatated lives of several strangers, picked to live in a house, work together, have their lives taped . . . oh sorry, I have Real World DC on the brain. There is Corrigan, a young Irish monk, who lives among the prositutes of the Bronx and struggles with his faith. There is a Park Avenue woman who has lost her son in Vietnam. There is a young artist who finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run. There is Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother whose teenage daughter is also a prostitute. Their lives are messy, fascinating, heartbreaking.
5 out of 5
Read it. And here is an extra credit viewing assignment:
by Colum McCann
I am going to come right out and say it, no suspense-building here, this powerhouse of a novel gets a 5 out of 5 from me.
The story centers around Philippe Petit's tightrope walk between the World Trade Center Twin Towers in the 1970's. And by the way, that's a true story (watch this documentary!) although that story is certainly romanticized in this novel and it is quite clear that the author has taken liberties to add many a whimsical detail and flourish. Regardless. It's a fascinating bit of history. I think of Petit as both 1) quite literally a freak of nature -- seriously, how many people in the world could have accomplished that feat? and 2) amazing in the truest sense of the word. Throughout the novel we get glimpses into Petit's brain about his preparations and his actual walk as well as the various reactions of New Yorkers who saw him up there, over 100 stories high.
Mind if I read you the first paragraph?
Those who saw him hushed. On Church Street. Liberty. Cortlandt. West Street. Fulton. Vesey. It was a silence that heard itself, awful and beautiful. Some thought at first that it must have been a trick of the light, someting to do with the weather, an accident of shadowfall. Others figured it might be the perfect city joke -- stand around and point upward, until people gathered, tilted their heads, nodded, affirmed, until all were staring upward at nothing at all, like waiting for the end of a Lenny Bruce gag. But the longer they watched, the surer they were. He stood at the very edge of the building, shaped dark against the gray of the morning. A window washer maybe. Or a construction worker. Or a jumper.This is the backdrop.
The meat of the story intertwines the complicatated lives of several strangers, picked to live in a house, work together, have their lives taped . . . oh sorry, I have Real World DC on the brain. There is Corrigan, a young Irish monk, who lives among the prositutes of the Bronx and struggles with his faith. There is a Park Avenue woman who has lost her son in Vietnam. There is a young artist who finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run. There is Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother whose teenage daughter is also a prostitute. Their lives are messy, fascinating, heartbreaking.
5 out of 5
Read it. And here is an extra credit viewing assignment:
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Philippe Petit | ||||
| ||||
Friday, September 18, 2009
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsoon
I was very skeptical when we selected this book for Oktober Book Klub because
1. it's the first part in a trilogy, are we going to read the other two books?
and
2. it's a thriller, will we have more to talk about than just plot?
I don't yet know the answers to these queries. I do know that Oprah picked her latest Book Club selection because I had at least 7 emails in my Inbox about it today from amazon and Barnes and Noble and saw it mentioned on 10 blogs in my google reader. I also know that I stayed up way too late past weeknight bedtime last night reading this novel and then walked over to the computer like a ROBOT, ROBOT to reserve the second installment at the library. In trying to be more thrifty and less wasteful with book purchasing, it seemed like a good idea to actually try and use that Arlington library card I got two years ago and used only once. Well, the universe must be trying to tell me something because I am 170th on the waitlist for The Girl who Played with Fire. And coincidentally second on the list for The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch). Super.
The story takes place mostly in modern day Sweden. Have you ever been to Sweden? Do you know Hedeby Island or Uppsala or Uddevalla? Because it's sort of maddening if you don't. Oh, he went to Uppsala for the weekend? Oh, OK cool. I have not idea what that means.
The protagonist, Mikael Blomkvist, is a financial reporter who gets convicted of slander of a business tycoon. He temporarily leaves his magazine job and conveniently gets hired by an old rich guy, Henrik Vanger, to investigate the disappearance of Vanger's niece. The niece disappeared more than forty years ago, but Vanger is still obsessed with finding out what happened. He suspects that she was murdered, probably by someone in the family, and every single year on his birthday, someone tauntingly sends him an exotic pressed flower in a frame, a tradition his niece had started before her disappearance.
Blomkvist doesn't think he'll be able to crack a case that has 40 years worth of research behind it, but his incentive is the damaging information Vanger promises to give him about that scoundrel tycoon. Oh and along the way he crosses paths with a girl who has a dragon tattoo. She is socially inept but is secretly a genius and totally a bad ass.
Towards the end there the story takes a turn and gets sort of sickening and gross, Silence of the Lambs style. But things get resolved. For the most part. And then you're just left sitting there wondering why your waitlist number has not moved even one spot.
4 out of 5
by Stieg Larsoon
I was very skeptical when we selected this book for Oktober Book Klub because
1. it's the first part in a trilogy, are we going to read the other two books?
and
2. it's a thriller, will we have more to talk about than just plot?
I don't yet know the answers to these queries. I do know that Oprah picked her latest Book Club selection because I had at least 7 emails in my Inbox about it today from amazon and Barnes and Noble and saw it mentioned on 10 blogs in my google reader. I also know that I stayed up way too late past weeknight bedtime last night reading this novel and then walked over to the computer like a ROBOT, ROBOT to reserve the second installment at the library. In trying to be more thrifty and less wasteful with book purchasing, it seemed like a good idea to actually try and use that Arlington library card I got two years ago and used only once. Well, the universe must be trying to tell me something because I am 170th on the waitlist for The Girl who Played with Fire. And coincidentally second on the list for The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch). Super.
The story takes place mostly in modern day Sweden. Have you ever been to Sweden? Do you know Hedeby Island or Uppsala or Uddevalla? Because it's sort of maddening if you don't. Oh, he went to Uppsala for the weekend? Oh, OK cool. I have not idea what that means.
The protagonist, Mikael Blomkvist, is a financial reporter who gets convicted of slander of a business tycoon. He temporarily leaves his magazine job and conveniently gets hired by an old rich guy, Henrik Vanger, to investigate the disappearance of Vanger's niece. The niece disappeared more than forty years ago, but Vanger is still obsessed with finding out what happened. He suspects that she was murdered, probably by someone in the family, and every single year on his birthday, someone tauntingly sends him an exotic pressed flower in a frame, a tradition his niece had started before her disappearance.
Blomkvist doesn't think he'll be able to crack a case that has 40 years worth of research behind it, but his incentive is the damaging information Vanger promises to give him about that scoundrel tycoon. Oh and along the way he crosses paths with a girl who has a dragon tattoo. She is socially inept but is secretly a genius and totally a bad ass.
Towards the end there the story takes a turn and gets sort of sickening and gross, Silence of the Lambs style. But things get resolved. For the most part. And then you're just left sitting there wondering why your waitlist number has not moved even one spot.
4 out of 5
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Olive Kitteridge and Kitchen Confidential
Olive Kitteridge
by Elizabeth Strout
Thirteen stories about residents of a small town in coastal Maine, all linked by Olive Kitteridge, a retired teacher. I will give this book an unenthusiastic
4 out of 5
Kitchen Confidential
by Anthony Bourdain
I hated Bourdain's pompous, coke-addicted, mean voice throughout the entire narrative. But I also couldn't wait for bedtime reading time every night to learn more behind-the-scenes kitchen stories.
4 out of 5
by Elizabeth Strout
Thirteen stories about residents of a small town in coastal Maine, all linked by Olive Kitteridge, a retired teacher. I will give this book an unenthusiastic
4 out of 5
Kitchen Confidential
by Anthony Bourdain
I hated Bourdain's pompous, coke-addicted, mean voice throughout the entire narrative. But I also couldn't wait for bedtime reading time every night to learn more behind-the-scenes kitchen stories.
4 out of 5
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
6% complete
I've read past page 63 of my Summer Reading Project #2, which means that I am just a little ahead of schedule. So far I don't know what to make of anything (well, I've cheated a little bit and peaked at a couple of things on Wikipedia and the David Foster Wallace Wiki: Infinite Jest, but not enough to actually understand what is going on).
- For one thing, there's endnotes. And there's footnotes about the endnotes. And then there's an eight-and-a-half page endnote detailing the filmography of one of the (fictional) characters. That shit is wack, I say, but an "integral part of the text", the Internet says.
- Chapters are called "Year of the Trial-Size Dove Bar" and "Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment". My understanding is that the chronology will be revealed sometime later, and the goal at this point in the reading is to pay as close attention as possible and to absorb as many details as possible. I.e. I expect a reread of the entire thing.
- There's an emerging central character named Hal who attends a tennis academy.
- There's a chapter about a drug addict burgling houses.
- There's a chapter written in fake Ebonics (?)
- Apparently you are supposed to know Hamlet to get the full effect of this novel.
- And what in the hell are InterLace cartridges? The precursor to DVDs??
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Lush Life
Lush Life
by Richard Price
This one is a New York City police drama, where a drunk white guy gets shot and the detectives scramble to find the suspect. It's definitely more engaging than that simple story line -- Price gives the reader detailed portraits of the shooter, the detective, the grieving father, the bystander, the neighborhood. It almost reads like a mystery novel, even though early on you know who the perpetrator is. Maybe it's like watching an episode of The Wire? I don't know, I've never seen that show. It's a good summer read.
4 out of 5
by Richard Price
This one is a New York City police drama, where a drunk white guy gets shot and the detectives scramble to find the suspect. It's definitely more engaging than that simple story line -- Price gives the reader detailed portraits of the shooter, the detective, the grieving father, the bystander, the neighborhood. It almost reads like a mystery novel, even though early on you know who the perpetrator is. Maybe it's like watching an episode of The Wire? I don't know, I've never seen that show. It's a good summer read.
4 out of 5
Sunday, May 31, 2009
2666
2666
by Roberto Bolano
After completing Summer Reading Project #1, I'm left reeling, pooped, exhausted, confused, relieved, sad, happy, content, full. Over the past few weeks, this almost 900-page novel had become my part-time moonlighting job.
This book, this mammoth, was the homecoming queen of 2008. I remember reading tons of blogs and articles about it at the end of last year. Time magazine named it Book of the Year. It was everywhere. First published posthumously in 2004 in Spanish, it was translated and published in English last year. Bolano had mostly completed the novel when he died in 2003, at the age of 50, of liver disease. He had wanted each of the five parts of the book to be published separately, but I guess the publishers liked it better as a whole.
1. "The Part About the Critics"
The first part follows four European literary critics who are obsessed with a reclusive German writer named Benno von Archimboldi (definitely a non-German name). They are scholars of his work but they've never met the writer and they know very little about him or his personal life. They come to learn that his last known whereabouts are in a Mexican town on the U.S.-Mexican border, Santa Teresa. In a desperate attempt to locate the old man, they go to Mexico but have no luck finding even a trace of Archimboldi.
2. "The Part About Amalfitano"
In this part we get to know a philosophy professor who teaches in Santa Teresa. We first meet him in Part I, where he is a minor character -- a guide for the literary critics. Now we learn more about his life, his daughter. Perhaps he is slowly going insane. He hangs a geometry book on a clothes line outside, a la Marcel Duchamp, to see how the pages? the ideas? survive the elements. I could have done without this section of the novel.
3. "The Part About Fate"
This part follows an African-American journalist sent to Santa Teresa to cover a boxing match between an American fighter and a Mexican opponent. He meets Lola, Amalfitano's daughter. He also learns about the deaths of many women in Santa Teresa and wishes to stay in town to write an article about these serial crimes.
4. "The Part About the Crimes"
The longest and most difficult part. Bolano catalogues the hundreds of women who have been killed in Santa Teresa. They were wearing such and such clothes, they had such and such wounds, their such and such bones were broken, they were such and such raped. The police have a suspect in custody, a German named Klaus Haas, but the murders keep happening. Are the police detectives incompetent? Are they part of a conspiracy, a drug cartel?
5. "The Part About Archimboldi"
We meet Archimboldi at last, learn about his small-town childhood, follow him to World War II, meet his family, his friends, his lovers, trace his steps as a writer. Is every single question answered? No. And while that's certainly maddening, it almost makes the novel stronger.
This novel is bizarre and superb, and all of those critics and bloggers and commentators did not lead me astray. On a final note, New York Magazine picked its "Five Most Unskippable Passages in 2666" which I very well plan to go back and re-read. My personal favorite sentence in the book comes from Part V, when Archimboldi is renting his first typewriter from an old man and the old man says: "Reading is pleasure and happiness to be alive or sadness to be alive and above all it's knowledge and questions." Right on.
5 out of 5
by Roberto Bolano
After completing Summer Reading Project #1, I'm left reeling, pooped, exhausted, confused, relieved, sad, happy, content, full. Over the past few weeks, this almost 900-page novel had become my part-time moonlighting job.
This book, this mammoth, was the homecoming queen of 2008. I remember reading tons of blogs and articles about it at the end of last year. Time magazine named it Book of the Year. It was everywhere. First published posthumously in 2004 in Spanish, it was translated and published in English last year. Bolano had mostly completed the novel when he died in 2003, at the age of 50, of liver disease. He had wanted each of the five parts of the book to be published separately, but I guess the publishers liked it better as a whole.
1. "The Part About the Critics"
The first part follows four European literary critics who are obsessed with a reclusive German writer named Benno von Archimboldi (definitely a non-German name). They are scholars of his work but they've never met the writer and they know very little about him or his personal life. They come to learn that his last known whereabouts are in a Mexican town on the U.S.-Mexican border, Santa Teresa. In a desperate attempt to locate the old man, they go to Mexico but have no luck finding even a trace of Archimboldi.
2. "The Part About Amalfitano"
In this part we get to know a philosophy professor who teaches in Santa Teresa. We first meet him in Part I, where he is a minor character -- a guide for the literary critics. Now we learn more about his life, his daughter. Perhaps he is slowly going insane. He hangs a geometry book on a clothes line outside, a la Marcel Duchamp, to see how the pages? the ideas? survive the elements. I could have done without this section of the novel.
3. "The Part About Fate"
This part follows an African-American journalist sent to Santa Teresa to cover a boxing match between an American fighter and a Mexican opponent. He meets Lola, Amalfitano's daughter. He also learns about the deaths of many women in Santa Teresa and wishes to stay in town to write an article about these serial crimes.
4. "The Part About the Crimes"
The longest and most difficult part. Bolano catalogues the hundreds of women who have been killed in Santa Teresa. They were wearing such and such clothes, they had such and such wounds, their such and such bones were broken, they were such and such raped. The police have a suspect in custody, a German named Klaus Haas, but the murders keep happening. Are the police detectives incompetent? Are they part of a conspiracy, a drug cartel?
5. "The Part About Archimboldi"
We meet Archimboldi at last, learn about his small-town childhood, follow him to World War II, meet his family, his friends, his lovers, trace his steps as a writer. Is every single question answered? No. And while that's certainly maddening, it almost makes the novel stronger.
This novel is bizarre and superb, and all of those critics and bloggers and commentators did not lead me astray. On a final note, New York Magazine picked its "Five Most Unskippable Passages in 2666" which I very well plan to go back and re-read. My personal favorite sentence in the book comes from Part V, when Archimboldi is renting his first typewriter from an old man and the old man says: "Reading is pleasure and happiness to be alive or sadness to be alive and above all it's knowledge and questions." Right on.
5 out of 5
Friday, May 22, 2009
Infinite Summer
Summer Reading Project #2: Infinite Summer. Don't worry, I fully recognize that I'm ridiculous for being really excited about this venture.
And in case you were curious, Summer Reading Project #1 is well under way -- Roberto Bolano's 890-page 2666. I am half way through, and it's been super fantastic.
And in case you were curious, Summer Reading Project #1 is well under way -- Roberto Bolano's 890-page 2666. I am half way through, and it's been super fantastic.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The Easter Parade
The Easter Parade
by Richard Yates
I am going to be honest with you, I am getting tired of summarizing the books I read
because
Number 1, I have been reading too fast to keep up with the blog
and
Number 2, I don't always have a lot to say because it's like having a conversation with myself and it's NOT LIKE I am going to disagree with myself!
Anyway, I first learned about this novel when I went to hear David Sedaris read his essays at GWU a year or two ago, and at the end of his performance, he picked up this book and read the first page to us, or maybe it was the first paragraph. I don't specifically remember why he did that. Probably as a recommendation. So it has been on my list. A month ago I bought a copy at a used book sale and finally realized that it was written by the same author as Revolutionary Road.
The book follows the lives of two sisters -- one marries and has a family early, while the other doesn't quite settle down as easily. It's a melancholy book. Bleak is definitely a good word to describe it. Do you agree? Yes, I agree.
Here is the opening paragraph:
4 out of 5
by Richard Yates
I am going to be honest with you, I am getting tired of summarizing the books I read
because
Number 1, I have been reading too fast to keep up with the blog
and
Number 2, I don't always have a lot to say because it's like having a conversation with myself and it's NOT LIKE I am going to disagree with myself!
Anyway, I first learned about this novel when I went to hear David Sedaris read his essays at GWU a year or two ago, and at the end of his performance, he picked up this book and read the first page to us, or maybe it was the first paragraph. I don't specifically remember why he did that. Probably as a recommendation. So it has been on my list. A month ago I bought a copy at a used book sale and finally realized that it was written by the same author as Revolutionary Road.
The book follows the lives of two sisters -- one marries and has a family early, while the other doesn't quite settle down as easily. It's a melancholy book. Bleak is definitely a good word to describe it. Do you agree? Yes, I agree.
Here is the opening paragraph:
Neither of the Grimes sisters would have a happy life, and looking back it always seemed that the trouble began with their parents' divorce. That happened in 1930, when Sarah was nine years old and Emily five. Their mother, who encouraged both girls to call her "Pookie," took them out of New York to a rented house in Tenafly, New Jersey, where she thought the schools would be better and where she hoped to launch a career in suburban real estate. It didn't work out -- very few of her plans for independence ever did -- and they left Tenafly after two years, but it was a memorable time for the girls.
4 out of 5
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Diaz
Maybe it was the footnotes describing the Dominican Republic's tumultuous history. Maybe it was the ghetto English/Spanish slang of the narration. Maybe it was the pop culture references. Maybe it was just a certain je ne c'est quoi. I really enjoyed this novel.
The center of the story is Oscar, an overweight, terrifically nerdy, entirely desperate, Dominican living in New Jersey. The story however spans several generations and traces the evolution of the fuku, the family curse. Diaz intertwines Dominican history with the part tragic part triumphant stories of various family members and accentuates it all with Spanish slang (I soldiered on without the aid of a dictionary and thought I gathered most of the gist). Homeboy deserved his Pulitzer for realz.
4 out of 5
by Junot Diaz
Maybe it was the footnotes describing the Dominican Republic's tumultuous history. Maybe it was the ghetto English/Spanish slang of the narration. Maybe it was the pop culture references. Maybe it was just a certain je ne c'est quoi. I really enjoyed this novel.
The center of the story is Oscar, an overweight, terrifically nerdy, entirely desperate, Dominican living in New Jersey. The story however spans several generations and traces the evolution of the fuku, the family curse. Diaz intertwines Dominican history with the part tragic part triumphant stories of various family members and accentuates it all with Spanish slang (I soldiered on without the aid of a dictionary and thought I gathered most of the gist). Homeboy deserved his Pulitzer for realz.
4 out of 5
Sunday, April 5, 2009
The Believers
The Believers
by Zoe Heller
A slice of life type of novel. I read it all day today. I read it at work -- waiting for my computer to boot up-- which I promptly left to continue reading. I read it at Starbucks, paired with a steaming cappuccino. I read it on the balcony for hours, took a nap on said balcony, and continued reading. I read it so much that I don't want to talk about it. So I will just type out the book jacket, if you don't mind.
5 out of 5
by Zoe Heller
A slice of life type of novel. I read it all day today. I read it at work -- waiting for my computer to boot up-- which I promptly left to continue reading. I read it at Starbucks, paired with a steaming cappuccino. I read it on the balcony for hours, took a nap on said balcony, and continued reading. I read it so much that I don't want to talk about it. So I will just type out the book jacket, if you don't mind.
When radical New York lawyer Joel Litvinoff is felled by a stroke, his wife, Audrey, uncovers a secret that forces her to reexamine everything she thought she knew about their forty-year marriage. Joel's children will soon have to come to terms with this discovery themselves, but for the meantime, they are struggling with their own dilemmas and doubts.
Rosa, a disillusioned revolutionary, has found herself drawn into the world of Orthodox Judaism and is now being pressed to make a commitment to that religion. Karla, a devoted social worker hoping to adopt a child with her husband, is falling in love with the owner of a newspaper stand outside her office. Ne'er-do-well Lenny is living at home, approaching another relapse into heroin addiction.
[Etc.]
5 out of 5
Thursday, March 19, 2009
The Reader
The Reader
by Bernhard Schlink
I definitely ruined the reading of this novel for myself by watching the film first. With every mention of Hanna, I imagined Kate Winslet as a Nazi, speaking with a German accent. Which would then remind me of Ralph Feinnes, playing a German, but speaking with an English accent. That bit of the movie did not make a whole lot of sense to me.
The story is bifurcated into two parts. In the first, Michael Berg, a fifteen year-old, has an affair with a thirty-something woman named Hanna Schmitz. He falls in love. She soon skips town. Then you blink, turn the page, and years later Michael is a law student attending a seminar on Germany's Nazi past. He attends a war trial, and wouldn't you know it, one of the accused camp guards is none other than Hanna. Syurpriz! Hanna has a secret that may possibly lessen her sentence if brought to light. Michael realizes that he's always known the secret, but he does not bring it to the court either.
There's many interesting things going on -- that Michael has quite a lot to think about. On the one hand he is quick to condemn, obviously the Nazis, but also the society that accepted them after the war. Buzzword(s): collective guilt. On the other hand, he realizes that he himself fell in love and had an affair with one of those Nazis. Sure, he did not know of her past at the time, but the woman that he had made love to and obsessed over was the same woman who had picked out the monthly quota of Jewish prisoners to be sent to their deaths and the same woman who had allowed her whole charge to burn to their deaths in a church fire. How does he reconcile his two sides? Does he have the responsibility to share Hanna's secret with the world or should he let her self-destruct? He also finds that his love for Hanna, his first love, affects all of his succeeding relationships. This novel is an easy read, but the moral and philosophical challenges involved are more than difficult.
4 out of 5
by Bernhard Schlink
I definitely ruined the reading of this novel for myself by watching the film first. With every mention of Hanna, I imagined Kate Winslet as a Nazi, speaking with a German accent. Which would then remind me of Ralph Feinnes, playing a German, but speaking with an English accent. That bit of the movie did not make a whole lot of sense to me.
The story is bifurcated into two parts. In the first, Michael Berg, a fifteen year-old, has an affair with a thirty-something woman named Hanna Schmitz. He falls in love. She soon skips town. Then you blink, turn the page, and years later Michael is a law student attending a seminar on Germany's Nazi past. He attends a war trial, and wouldn't you know it, one of the accused camp guards is none other than Hanna. Syurpriz! Hanna has a secret that may possibly lessen her sentence if brought to light. Michael realizes that he's always known the secret, but he does not bring it to the court either.
There's many interesting things going on -- that Michael has quite a lot to think about. On the one hand he is quick to condemn, obviously the Nazis, but also the society that accepted them after the war. Buzzword(s): collective guilt. On the other hand, he realizes that he himself fell in love and had an affair with one of those Nazis. Sure, he did not know of her past at the time, but the woman that he had made love to and obsessed over was the same woman who had picked out the monthly quota of Jewish prisoners to be sent to their deaths and the same woman who had allowed her whole charge to burn to their deaths in a church fire. How does he reconcile his two sides? Does he have the responsibility to share Hanna's secret with the world or should he let her self-destruct? He also finds that his love for Hanna, his first love, affects all of his succeeding relationships. This novel is an easy read, but the moral and philosophical challenges involved are more than difficult.
4 out of 5
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road
by Richard Yates
April and Frank Wheeler married young, soon after April got pregnant. Two kids and a house in the suburbs later, they are disappointed and frustrated with each other and with their lives. Seriously pretentious, they see themselves as being able to discern the masquerade of suburban society, they see themselves as singular intellectuals, and they see themselves as having the right to pass judgment on their neighbors and their surroundings. Just too haughty! Posers, I think.
Not to give too much of the plot away, the Wheelers decide to leave it all and move to France, but their relationship starts to seriously crumble. Things escalate quickly.
I can't quite put a finger on why I have downgraded my rating. The writing, style-wise, was comfortable to read. Perhaps because the story left me with an indescribable taste in my mouth, bland almost. Surprisingly I didn't find the story tragic or depressing -- the Wheelers created their own calamities. I mean, if everyone could just take a chill pill and repeat my mantra, "No More Drama", we could all turn out swell.
3 1/2 out of 5
by Richard Yates
April and Frank Wheeler married young, soon after April got pregnant. Two kids and a house in the suburbs later, they are disappointed and frustrated with each other and with their lives. Seriously pretentious, they see themselves as being able to discern the masquerade of suburban society, they see themselves as singular intellectuals, and they see themselves as having the right to pass judgment on their neighbors and their surroundings. Just too haughty! Posers, I think.
Not to give too much of the plot away, the Wheelers decide to leave it all and move to France, but their relationship starts to seriously crumble. Things escalate quickly.
I can't quite put a finger on why I have downgraded my rating. The writing, style-wise, was comfortable to read. Perhaps because the story left me with an indescribable taste in my mouth, bland almost. Surprisingly I didn't find the story tragic or depressing -- the Wheelers created their own calamities. I mean, if everyone could just take a chill pill and repeat my mantra, "No More Drama", we could all turn out swell.
3 1/2 out of 5
Saturday, February 28, 2009
The Cider House Rules
The Cider House Rules
by John Irving
This book was my fourth or fifth Irving novel, and don't get me wrong, it was good, but it had none of the brilliancy of A Prayer for Owen Meany. As always, Irving develops some interesting characters that the reader gets to really know. And here he also presents some interesting questions. What are the rules of friendship and love? What are the rules of playing God?
4 out of 5
by John Irving
This book was my fourth or fifth Irving novel, and don't get me wrong, it was good, but it had none of the brilliancy of A Prayer for Owen Meany. As always, Irving develops some interesting characters that the reader gets to really know. And here he also presents some interesting questions. What are the rules of friendship and love? What are the rules of playing God?
4 out of 5
Friday, February 13, 2009
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Less than thirty pages long. Read it.
4 out of 5
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Less than thirty pages long. Read it.
4 out of 5
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Norwegian Wood
Norwegian Wood
Haruki Murakami
I read most of the novel on the plane ride home from Dublin. I did not particularly find it to be an engaging page turner -- the plane just did not have individual monitors on the backs of the seats, perfect for voracious movie watching. This is my third Murakami novel, and while this one was more normal, compared to the other bizarrenesses I've read, it just didn't strike any chords. The narrator recalls his college days and two of his significant relationships. I mean the language (translated) is pretty, but the story line was no stand-in for a good airplane movie, for which I happened to be in the mood.
3 out of 5
Haruki Murakami
I read most of the novel on the plane ride home from Dublin. I did not particularly find it to be an engaging page turner -- the plane just did not have individual monitors on the backs of the seats, perfect for voracious movie watching. This is my third Murakami novel, and while this one was more normal, compared to the other bizarrenesses I've read, it just didn't strike any chords. The narrator recalls his college days and two of his significant relationships. I mean the language (translated) is pretty, but the story line was no stand-in for a good airplane movie, for which I happened to be in the mood.
3 out of 5
Sunday, January 11, 2009
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
The storyline of this novel is fairly simple, its prose and ideas are anything but. The first narrator is Renee, a 54 year-old concierge of a rich Parisian apartment building. She does a good job of acting out her role in public as the uncultivated nonentity that her wealthy residents expect her to be. But she hides from the world a secret -- Renee is highly intelligent and cultured and philosophical. She reads Russian literature, rents Japanese films, delves into philosophy, pores over Dutch Golden Age painting, and thinks profound thoughts about Art and beauty. The second narrator is a twelve year-old girl who lives in the building, wise beyond her years, who is determined to commit suicide on her thirteenth birthday. The lives of both of these females change when a new resident moves into a vacant apartment.
Reading this book is more akin to reading a treatise on philosophy and Art and nature and society, presented from two view-points, two kindred spirits who are separated by age and class. I must admit that some of the grand ideas and statements went over my head. I must also admit that this book made me cry. For me it was part heartbreaking but also part inspirational. Take time to appreciate beauty in everyday life -- not only a Vermeer painting on a museum wall, but also an especially moving melody or poignant turn of phrase or perhaps a completed hot-off-the-printer tax return that burns your hands. Simple pleasures.
Two additional notes:
1. This novel was quite popular in France in 2007 and was translated from the French last year.
2. It reminds me to one of these days pick up History of Beauty and perhaps its Ugly counterpart.
4 out of 5
by Muriel Barbery
The storyline of this novel is fairly simple, its prose and ideas are anything but. The first narrator is Renee, a 54 year-old concierge of a rich Parisian apartment building. She does a good job of acting out her role in public as the uncultivated nonentity that her wealthy residents expect her to be. But she hides from the world a secret -- Renee is highly intelligent and cultured and philosophical. She reads Russian literature, rents Japanese films, delves into philosophy, pores over Dutch Golden Age painting, and thinks profound thoughts about Art and beauty. The second narrator is a twelve year-old girl who lives in the building, wise beyond her years, who is determined to commit suicide on her thirteenth birthday. The lives of both of these females change when a new resident moves into a vacant apartment.
Reading this book is more akin to reading a treatise on philosophy and Art and nature and society, presented from two view-points, two kindred spirits who are separated by age and class. I must admit that some of the grand ideas and statements went over my head. I must also admit that this book made me cry. For me it was part heartbreaking but also part inspirational. Take time to appreciate beauty in everyday life -- not only a Vermeer painting on a museum wall, but also an especially moving melody or poignant turn of phrase or perhaps a completed hot-off-the-printer tax return that burns your hands. Simple pleasures.
Two additional notes:
1. This novel was quite popular in France in 2007 and was translated from the French last year.
2. It reminds me to one of these days pick up History of Beauty and perhaps its Ugly counterpart.
4 out of 5
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Netherland
Netherland
by Joseph O'Neill
This novel does not have a significant plot line to speak of. A Dutch-born financial analyst is living in New York City with his wife and son, but soon after 9/11 she leaves him and goes back to London. He rediscovers his love of cricket and befriends a Trinidadian entrepreneur/(gangster). The strength and the intensity of the novel does not come from following an intricate or explosive plot line. Rather, it comes from the depth of the protagonist's introspection into his life -- his nostalgic earliest memories of playing cricket, his remembrances of his mother and his childhood home in The Hague, his feelings about his opinionated wife and their broken relationship, his bewildered thoughts about New York, and his concerns about his new friend. At times I thought I was reading a memoir of a real person, albeit a memoir that is not arranged chronologically. Hence why the novel proves to be a bit of a challenge -- you must really pay attention. The protagonist may be driving in a car talking to his friend, but something he sees or something someone says turns his thoughts to a conversation with his wife from two years ago, which in turn reminds him of a childhood memory of his mother, and then he's back in the car again. The sentences are complex as well, with multitudes of dashes separating parenthetical thoughts -- I like to use them too! -- and some run on for lines and lines. Unlike most other books, I found myself having to re-read certain sentences and passages. Overall, a deeply satisfying read.
4 out of 5
by Joseph O'Neill
This novel does not have a significant plot line to speak of. A Dutch-born financial analyst is living in New York City with his wife and son, but soon after 9/11 she leaves him and goes back to London. He rediscovers his love of cricket and befriends a Trinidadian entrepreneur/(gangster). The strength and the intensity of the novel does not come from following an intricate or explosive plot line. Rather, it comes from the depth of the protagonist's introspection into his life -- his nostalgic earliest memories of playing cricket, his remembrances of his mother and his childhood home in The Hague, his feelings about his opinionated wife and their broken relationship, his bewildered thoughts about New York, and his concerns about his new friend. At times I thought I was reading a memoir of a real person, albeit a memoir that is not arranged chronologically. Hence why the novel proves to be a bit of a challenge -- you must really pay attention. The protagonist may be driving in a car talking to his friend, but something he sees or something someone says turns his thoughts to a conversation with his wife from two years ago, which in turn reminds him of a childhood memory of his mother, and then he's back in the car again. The sentences are complex as well, with multitudes of dashes separating parenthetical thoughts -- I like to use them too! -- and some run on for lines and lines. Unlike most other books, I found myself having to re-read certain sentences and passages. Overall, a deeply satisfying read.
4 out of 5
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Disgrace
Disgrace
by J. M. Coetzee
"Disgrace" is one of the strongest novels that I have read in a long time. The prose is beautiful, haunting even. It tells the story of a 52-year old womanizer, a poetry scholar living in South Africa, David Lurie. He seduces one of his 20-year old students. As a sexual harassment scandal erupts, he leaves his job and goes to live with his hippie daughter out in the country on her farm. Soon after he settles into his new life, native South Africans attack the farm, attack him and his daughter. The rest of the book explores David's relationships with his daughter, with the neighbors, with the family of his victim, with his work. This book is the winner of the 1999 Booker Prize, and Coetzee is the 2003 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Go read it, READ IT!
5 out of 5
by J. M. Coetzee
"Disgrace" is one of the strongest novels that I have read in a long time. The prose is beautiful, haunting even. It tells the story of a 52-year old womanizer, a poetry scholar living in South Africa, David Lurie. He seduces one of his 20-year old students. As a sexual harassment scandal erupts, he leaves his job and goes to live with his hippie daughter out in the country on her farm. Soon after he settles into his new life, native South Africans attack the farm, attack him and his daughter. The rest of the book explores David's relationships with his daughter, with the neighbors, with the family of his victim, with his work. This book is the winner of the 1999 Booker Prize, and Coetzee is the 2003 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Go read it, READ IT!
5 out of 5
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