16 posts tagged “fiction”
We started a road trip and decided to take some audio books with us. The problem is that our reading tastes do not overlap. This one was my husband's choice.
At first I detested this book. I wondered how I would make it through the whole twelve hours. But eventually I realized that the narrative is both insane and very original.
The book is about human genes. And how they are becoming co-opted in strange ways by scientists and pharmaceutical companies.
The narrative is told without a main character. All the characters (and there are tons of them!) are given equal time. Some stories go somewhere, some don't. Some get picked up further down the line, others run into each other. Yes, it's a confusing as you would imagine, but it's also ingenious. It is the concept of genes as closely as could be represented in a textual format.
Didn't love it, but definitely can say I appreciated it.
(I would love to meet a parrot like Gerrard as well.)
At first I detested this book. I wondered how I would make it through the whole twelve hours. But eventually I realized that the narrative is both insane and very original.
The book is about human genes. And how they are becoming co-opted in strange ways by scientists and pharmaceutical companies.
The narrative is told without a main character. All the characters (and there are tons of them!) are given equal time. Some stories go somewhere, some don't. Some get picked up further down the line, others run into each other. Yes, it's a confusing as you would imagine, but it's also ingenious. It is the concept of genes as closely as could be represented in a textual format.
Didn't love it, but definitely can say I appreciated it.
(I would love to meet a parrot like Gerrard as well.)
This was my second book by Murakami. I picked this one up for two reasons. First it's his most popular book in Japan and the book that created his notoriety. Second, it's the only book he wrote that is straight-forward. He said in an interview that his reason for writing this book was to see if he could write a story without magical realism.
This book gave me a better feel for Murakami. In the future if someone asks which book to start with I'll recommend this one.
As in Kafka on the Shore I had a really hard time believing in the characters (they all feel like the same person to me) and caring for them (they feel two-dimensional).
The part that really didn't work was Murakami, a man, writing about female sexual experiences. It just didn't ring true at all. Just one example: two women had sex with one particular man and it was so good they swore off sex for the rest of their lives.
But, as in the previous book, I did appreciate the overarching story. What would it be like to continually know people close to you committing suicide? Or to continually be involved in three-way friendships?
This book gave me a better feel for Murakami. In the future if someone asks which book to start with I'll recommend this one.
As in Kafka on the Shore I had a really hard time believing in the characters (they all feel like the same person to me) and caring for them (they feel two-dimensional).
The part that really didn't work was Murakami, a man, writing about female sexual experiences. It just didn't ring true at all. Just one example: two women had sex with one particular man and it was so good they swore off sex for the rest of their lives.
But, as in the previous book, I did appreciate the overarching story. What would it be like to continually know people close to you committing suicide? Or to continually be involved in three-way friendships?
Finishing my second Palahniuk book, I am struck by how many people are shocked by this work. I suppose it did have scenes not usually depicted (the cannibalism springs to mind foremost) but I'd use a word like chilling over shocking.
The book largely seems like an indictment of reality TV. Let's hope that eventually people are not killing and being killed for the sake of one's 15 minutes.
The structure of the novel is interesting. It is a novel about writers who are writing short stories throughout the novel. Every other chapter is a short story "written" by one of the characters. Really, the stories are confessions from each one's past.
The short stories are far more interesting than the novel proper. No less unbelievable, but very memorable.
While Haunted is vastly different from Choke (and one of Palahniuk's more minor novels) I'd say I did draw one more conclusion about the author's style.
He has a talent for making the most far-fetched idea seem, at least, plausible.
The book largely seems like an indictment of reality TV. Let's hope that eventually people are not killing and being killed for the sake of one's 15 minutes.
The structure of the novel is interesting. It is a novel about writers who are writing short stories throughout the novel. Every other chapter is a short story "written" by one of the characters. Really, the stories are confessions from each one's past.
The short stories are far more interesting than the novel proper. No less unbelievable, but very memorable.
While Haunted is vastly different from Choke (and one of Palahniuk's more minor novels) I'd say I did draw one more conclusion about the author's style.
He has a talent for making the most far-fetched idea seem, at least, plausible.
I finally picked this book up after years of people either telling me to read it or assuming I already had.
Enjoyable read, a little too tongue-in-cheek maybe for such a topic, but well researched.
Nothing shocking, or even revealing, if you know much about intersexual issues. The side issue (of incest) was the topic I found much more interesting.
Desdemona was a great, great character. Maybe one of my all-time favorites. It was worth the read just for her.
Enjoyable read, a little too tongue-in-cheek maybe for such a topic, but well researched.
Nothing shocking, or even revealing, if you know much about intersexual issues. The side issue (of incest) was the topic I found much more interesting.
Desdemona was a great, great character. Maybe one of my all-time favorites. It was worth the read just for her.
Slate's audio book club did a review of Philip's Roth's Everyman. One of the commentators said that John Updike had tackled "the same issue" in Villages and had done a better job. The issue was a man who narrates his life as a series of sexual conquests.
I really enjoyed Everyman. It was my first experience with Roth and I found the story rather poignant and haunting. Villages was my first experience with Updike as well. Whereas I was able to sympathize with Roth's protagonist, there was nothing to like about Updike's main character who learns nothing by the end and neither has the reader.
I really enjoyed Everyman. It was my first experience with Roth and I found the story rather poignant and haunting. Villages was my first experience with Updike as well. Whereas I was able to sympathize with Roth's protagonist, there was nothing to like about Updike's main character who learns nothing by the end and neither has the reader.
I started this book back in June, but it ended up being the last book I finished in 2008. The book was mostly one long character sketch written as interlacing short stories. It was an interesting concept, but often felt like an album where each song sounds the same.
Winesburg, Ohio is a story of a Midwestern kid who decides to leave and make his way in the "big city." I could identify with him very much, even down to the detail that he had the same job I did when I lived in that small, Midwestern town. It brought back a lot of memories.
And it drove something home. I was reminded of this fact--first by visiting Ohio this summer--and then by reading this book. Those of us who grow up in the Midwest have to decide whether to leave or stay; whichever route we take we always wonder if the other choice would have been better.
Kids in other parts of the country, I suspect, never feel this way. Whether you grow up in Houston or New York City or Seattle, you have a sense of place. In the Midwest, we feel lost for some reason--and Anderson captured that feeling uncomfortably well.
Winesburg, Ohio is a story of a Midwestern kid who decides to leave and make his way in the "big city." I could identify with him very much, even down to the detail that he had the same job I did when I lived in that small, Midwestern town. It brought back a lot of memories.
And it drove something home. I was reminded of this fact--first by visiting Ohio this summer--and then by reading this book. Those of us who grow up in the Midwest have to decide whether to leave or stay; whichever route we take we always wonder if the other choice would have been better.
Kids in other parts of the country, I suspect, never feel this way. Whether you grow up in Houston or New York City or Seattle, you have a sense of place. In the Midwest, we feel lost for some reason--and Anderson captured that feeling uncomfortably well.
This book doesn't have a cover picture because it's been out of print for some time. It took a lot of searching to find it. Eventually, I bought it in a compilation collection from someone in New Zealand.
Last December I was reading a forgotten author named William Samson. This December it was Storm Jameson. She wrote over 20 books and was very popular during the Great Depression, but has sense disappeared into obscurity.
So was it worth the hunt? It was. The very short book is one of the most haunting I have run across. It takes place all in one day and is sort of a A Christmas Carol in reverse.
The main character has recently lost her boyfriend and she remembers some of the events that led her to grow so bitter. She is suspicious of everyone who offers her any consideration, and in the end she has a choice and she betrays a woman who is kind to her. In effect, that moment, like Ebenezer repenting on his grave, she seals her psychological fate.
Definitely not as heart warming as A Christmas Carol, but it has just as much to say about the human spirit. Each of us chooses who we become--not by what happens to us--but by how we choose to interpret what happens to us.
Last December I was reading a forgotten author named William Samson. This December it was Storm Jameson. She wrote over 20 books and was very popular during the Great Depression, but has sense disappeared into obscurity.
So was it worth the hunt? It was. The very short book is one of the most haunting I have run across. It takes place all in one day and is sort of a A Christmas Carol in reverse.
The main character has recently lost her boyfriend and she remembers some of the events that led her to grow so bitter. She is suspicious of everyone who offers her any consideration, and in the end she has a choice and she betrays a woman who is kind to her. In effect, that moment, like Ebenezer repenting on his grave, she seals her psychological fate.
Definitely not as heart warming as A Christmas Carol, but it has just as much to say about the human spirit. Each of us chooses who we become--not by what happens to us--but by how we choose to interpret what happens to us.
I picked this one up because it was short. Roth is one of those author's that I have on my mental to read list. This was perhaps not the best one to start with, but I did enjoy it enough to want to read some of his other works in the near future.
The book has some themes that I always find fascinating. Can people truly be monogamous? Is it really more satisfying to live an artist's life? Generally, does love keep you safe or help you make mistakes? Is progress connecting us or driving us apart?
At least in this book the answers are mostly negative. The unnamed, main character is dead at the book's opening and then we see his life mainly through his many hospital stays and his relationships with women.
The main character makes many mistakes, alienates those in his life, and doubts himself inwardly. It is interesting to note that his father and brother chose a 9 to 5 lifestyle and were happy all round and physically healthy.
On the flip side, the main character wants to be an artist his whole life. When he retires from advertising he finds that there is little long term pleasure in painting. And he soon feels he has no more inspiration for it. The artist's life is so often romanticized that it was nice to see the "boring" people end up with some happiness, at least this time.
The book has some themes that I always find fascinating. Can people truly be monogamous? Is it really more satisfying to live an artist's life? Generally, does love keep you safe or help you make mistakes? Is progress connecting us or driving us apart?
At least in this book the answers are mostly negative. The unnamed, main character is dead at the book's opening and then we see his life mainly through his many hospital stays and his relationships with women.
The main character makes many mistakes, alienates those in his life, and doubts himself inwardly. It is interesting to note that his father and brother chose a 9 to 5 lifestyle and were happy all round and physically healthy.
On the flip side, the main character wants to be an artist his whole life. When he retires from advertising he finds that there is little long term pleasure in painting. And he soon feels he has no more inspiration for it. The artist's life is so often romanticized that it was nice to see the "boring" people end up with some happiness, at least this time.
I first heard about this book when I was a senior in high school. The idea that someone in the late 1880s had written a time travel book about a time that had still not occurred fascinated me to no end. I decided I would read it in the year 2000 for dramatic effect. I am eight years behind, but I did eventually get around to reading the book.
While the ideas put forth in the novel are interesting, the storyline itself is absolutely dreadful. A guy wakes up in the year 2000 and sits in a room while the new guy who lives in his house tells him about what the year 2000 is like. While that makes for a pretty slow book, I am amazed that he got some things right. Of course chimneys have not disappeared and awning technology has not been advanced, but he did imagine corporations, credit cards, and women in the workplace.
He imagined that after a financial crisis on Wall Street, Americans realized that corporations and money were the root of all our countries woes, and decided to take this opportunity to restructure the country. All private industry was abandoned and the US entered a radical socialist era--with a dash of democracy thrown in for good measure. Quite interesting considering recent events, but I think things would have to get a whole lot worse for something that radical to even be mentioned, much less take place.
This book was the most popular book of the 19th century. It was a best seller for many, many years. In fact, only one book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, ever outsold it in its time. Funny, that today most people have not even heard of Looking Backward. Of course, Ayn Rand also wrote a didactic "philosophical" novel. I wonder if her books will be as forgotten one day, or if she had a formula that Bellamy just did not capture.
While the ideas put forth in the novel are interesting, the storyline itself is absolutely dreadful. A guy wakes up in the year 2000 and sits in a room while the new guy who lives in his house tells him about what the year 2000 is like. While that makes for a pretty slow book, I am amazed that he got some things right. Of course chimneys have not disappeared and awning technology has not been advanced, but he did imagine corporations, credit cards, and women in the workplace.
He imagined that after a financial crisis on Wall Street, Americans realized that corporations and money were the root of all our countries woes, and decided to take this opportunity to restructure the country. All private industry was abandoned and the US entered a radical socialist era--with a dash of democracy thrown in for good measure. Quite interesting considering recent events, but I think things would have to get a whole lot worse for something that radical to even be mentioned, much less take place.
This book was the most popular book of the 19th century. It was a best seller for many, many years. In fact, only one book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, ever outsold it in its time. Funny, that today most people have not even heard of Looking Backward. Of course, Ayn Rand also wrote a didactic "philosophical" novel. I wonder if her books will be as forgotten one day, or if she had a formula that Bellamy just did not capture.
Housekeeping does not have much in the way of plot, but it certainly is haunting. It is rightly considered a modern classic for its beautiful, poetic language.
I love the title of this book too. We have so many underlying notions about that word--many of those preconceptions come up in this book.
I kept thinking of The Secret Life of Bees (a book I particularly loathe) while reading this. In that book the main characters are also females in a situation that is a bit out of the mainstream, but that's where the similarity ends. Housekeeping is powerful where the other book is cheesy. This book deals with loneliness, expectation, and waiting and results in with a life-usually-does-not-give-you-what-you-expect ending. The Secret Life of Bees has an everything-works-out-in-the-end-if-you-just-believe-hard-enough ending.
Generally, books about women with female characters and a domestic plot line are more like Secret Life of Bees. I am glad Marilynne Robinson was able to give us something else.
I love the title of this book too. We have so many underlying notions about that word--many of those preconceptions come up in this book.
I kept thinking of The Secret Life of Bees (a book I particularly loathe) while reading this. In that book the main characters are also females in a situation that is a bit out of the mainstream, but that's where the similarity ends. Housekeeping is powerful where the other book is cheesy. This book deals with loneliness, expectation, and waiting and results in with a life-usually-does-not-give-you-what-you-expect ending. The Secret Life of Bees has an everything-works-out-in-the-end-if-you-just-believe-hard-enough ending.
Generally, books about women with female characters and a domestic plot line are more like Secret Life of Bees. I am glad Marilynne Robinson was able to give us something else.
