Bookshelf 4

Of course I started this, only to never update. But here are some notable reads from the last few months:

The Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
-- Actually rather disappointing, given the heaps of positive word-of-mouth reviews I had received from friends. Seemed to be the same story with different characters. "A Temporary Matter" and "The Interpreter of Maladies" are the strongest stories in the collection.

Romola - George Eliot
-- Loved it, even though my favorite teaching fellow from college thought Romola was Eliot's weakest novel. True, the heroine was too heavenly, too pure, too Dickensian. But Eliot's description of social turmoil in late-15th-century Florence, the sense of catching a city in flux, is some of her strongest writing.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery
-- Admittedly, I picked up the book because of its puzzling title. But the simple, straightforward story cleansed my literary palate, so to speak. A quick reading that just left me happy and satisfied.

Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
-- My first Peter Carey novel, but certainly not my last. The love story of two flawed, isolated and touchingly naive people steers clear of sentimentality in depicting an idealistic but futile labor of love.

The Floating Opera - John Barth
-- The most structurally perfect novella I have read in a long, long time. Barth has never been a favorite (I had to read Giles Goat-Boy for a junior seminar on the postmodern novel), but this novel is undoubtedly a canonical work for adolescents. Joseph Heller meets William Faulkner, and much better than that combination sounds.

Albert Einstein and Mileva Maric: The Love Letters
-- Recommended by a close, close friend. Savored.

Too Big To Fail - Andrew Ross Sorkin
-- Requires a basic knowledge of economics and investment vehicles, but presents a very readable, just-gossipy-enough account of the financial meltdown. Fast-paced and personal, it eschews all of the technical explanations in favor of detailing the behind-the-scenes deals struck by the NY Fed, the Treasury and the major Wall Street players.

Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanesi - Geoff Dyer
-- Unfortunately, I enjoy Dyer's non-fiction works so much that his pseudo-memoir was actually a bit of a letdown. First-time readers of Dyer will probably enjoy the restless, driving tone of the novel, but I prefer But Beautiful or The Ongoing Moment (which is a wonderful natural pair with Camera Lucida by Barthes).

City of Thieves - David Benioff
-- In my very humble opinion, Benioff is one of the best of the 30-something and 40-something novelists. A friend of mine often bemoans the ascent of the "navel-gazing" genre, and Benioff's pared-back narrative is a sharp contrast and a welcome relief. Benioff & Jonathan Lethem: two of my all-time favorites.

Ravelstein - Saul Bellow
-- Funny and reflective, but ultimately a bit too much of the loose, baggy monster around this fictionalized biography. Bellow loses a bit of his usual verve and poise in the last 50 pages or so, but the descriptions, observations, wit and mannerisms are classic Bellowian. Look out for the Lanvin blazer.

And my current reads:

The First Tycoon - T.J. Stiles
-- Biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt. I'm on a bit of a tycoon biography kick; in the last year, I've read Nasaw's biography of Carnegie, a history of Honda, and a history of the Hershey/Mars wars.

The Presidential Papers - Norman Mailer
-- Loosely conceived as a series of essays directed at a potential president, written by a man who reveled in the low and the loud, relished being the lowest and the loudest, but couldn't stop talking about his college years at Harvard. Complex much, Mr. Mailer?

Bookshelf 3

Currently reading: The Bear by William Faulkner
-- Faulkner is great for reminding me, when my life is complicated, that even the most simple lives are unexpectedly complex and rich.
-- Also, for reminding me that it could always be worse--i.e., that it could involve corncobs or incest.

Currently reading: Yeats by Harold Bloom
-- Even though I am extraordinarily skeptical about Harold Bloom, I love Yeats. I'm hoping my love for Yeats will override my skepticism about Bloom.
-- Though I strongly disagree with Bloom's dismissal of Eliot, among other early-20th-century poets, I hope that the chapters dealing with Yeats' actual work will be stronger.
-- Not having a strong grounding in poetry, I'm not overly familiar with the lines of influence through the 19th and 20th centuries. Have to brush up on my Shelley and Blake.

Just finished: Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan
-- Remarkably comprehensive overview of how all the problems of the 19th century and all of the conflicts of the 20th century met in Paris for six months in 1919.
-- MacMillan not only addresses the better-known conflicts to arise out of the Conference (tension between Italy and France, self-determination in the Balkans, power struggles in the Middle East) but also turns an eye on the less-frequently noted conflicts in the East, particularly those between Japan and China which led to such disastrous consequences during WWII and whose effects reverberate today.

Just finished: The Untouchable by John Banville
-- Reminded me very strongly of Brideshead Revisited, with the exploration of the sexual relationships and eerie connections between a pair of siblings and an "outsider." Banville is much more straightforward in laying out parallels between Nick and Baby; I think the connection of Baby to androgyny does not operate to flesh out Baby's character, but rather serves only to highlight Vic's replacement of Nick with Baby. In a way, the androgyny is too blunt for my taste.
-- Some of the finest points of the novel occur when Vic readily admits how absurdly petty and cruel he is, only to turn around and claim all of those nasty character traits as a privilege of old age. Though Vic uses his old age and fall from grace as an excuse to inflict pain on his son, his daughter and his would-be biographer, his old age does not always evoke sympathy from the reader. We can only pity Vic when it turns out that for all of his spitefulness, for all of his so-called devotion to a cause, he has been an inconsequential figure his entire career. I'm not sure which is worse--Vic's betrayal by Nick, the love of his life, or Vic's discovery that, all along, he was both less clever and less important than he imagined. How did he feel, I wonder, when he discovered that he, who prided himself on being a wonderful spy, was all along so pitiably transparent?

Bookshelf 2

Currently reading: The Untouchable by John Banville
-- Picked this up randomly at Emerson Books, Antique Maps and Prints in Portland, Maine. Great little bookstore where my boyfriend bought a 10-volume miniature set of Edgar Allen Poe's complete works.
-- Realized that my knowledge of Irish literature is essentially limited to Joyce, Yeats, Heaney and Synge. And Wilde, if you want to be very technical. Clearly unacceptable.
-- Have become fascinated by the stories of the Cambridge spies after reading Graham Greene's collected letters.

Bookshelf 1

Currently reading: Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan
-- Recommended by my International Human Rights professor. Apparently Ms. MacMillan is the granddaughter of David Lloyd George.

Just finished: The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie
-- Entertaining, quick read. Too clever by half for its own good, but I found it more entertaining if I imagined Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie reading it aloud.
-- The one aspect that really comes through and sticks is Laurie's love of motorcycles.

Just finished: Guerrillas by V.S. Naipaul
-- Cannot decide if this novel is better or worse than The Sheltering Sky, by Bowles.
-- Point in favor: the "exotic charmer" is given a voice, and something of a presence.
-- Point against: impossible to tell when, if ever, the seducer is speaking truth as opposed to fantasy.

Just finished: Inner Workings by J.M. Coetzee
-- Wonderful essay on Sebald, and another good one on Roth. Every time I read a book of collected literary essays, I come away with a fresh list of books to read (or re-read).