August 30, 2016 · 1:19 pm
I started reading David Foster Wallace’s epic Infinite Jest at the cottage. I set myself an (overly) ambitious target of 100 pages a day. Ambitious because it took me an hour to read 15 pages. And I could only reasonably avoid my family and read on the dock for seven hours of the day. Because reading Infinite Jest is an exercise in focus, absorption and dedication. Like the ‘entertainment’ that so bewitches characters that they cannot look away (choosing death by starvation or dehydration rather than stopping the consumption of the entertainment) the novel asks for (demands?) complete attention if the reader is to make sense of the overlapping plot lines, constantly shifting points of view, temporal and geographic locations, narrative styles and relationships among characters. Continue reading →
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Filed under American literature, Fiction, New York Times Notable, Prize Winner, Reader Request
Tagged as best books, Books recommended, Classics, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, prize winner, reading
August 22, 2016 · 11:06 am
Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth is so bad I have almost nothing to say about it (and so will tell you about my accidental thieving – but first…). Continue reading →
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Filed under American literature, Bestseller, Book Club, Prize Winner, Worst Books
Tagged as Bestseller, boring, china, classic, Pearl S Buck, pulitzer prize, racist, sexist, Terrible, The Good Earth, the worst
August 13, 2016 · 4:24 pm
I can’t remember how I first came across Madeline Thien. It was almost certainly in the context of a literature class, and probably the responsibility of L. or D. teaching me Canadian literature. The origins don’t matter so much as knowing that I associate Thien with beautiful writing and themes of family, place and home. So when mutliple folks recommended her new book Do Not Say We Have Nothing I was primed to appreciate it. I say ‘appreciate,’ but I could have also said ‘enjoy,’ or ‘marvel,’ or ‘revel.’ It’s a book that takes for granted that its reader will want and appreciate depth in theme and exquisite beauty in writing. It is not for the lazy reader, and doesn’t assume that such readers exist. Continue reading →
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Filed under Book Club, Canadian Literature, Fiction, Giller prize, Historical Fiction, Prize Winner, Reader Request
Tagged as canadian literature, china, composer, cultural revolution, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, history, Madeline Thien, mao, music, piano, time, timing canada
July 25, 2016 · 12:27 am
Break In Case of Emergency is funny. You’ll read it and laugh at the satire of office life. You’ll laugh a little at the portrayal of income inequality in 30 something friend groups (that sudden realization that your friends make way more (or less) money than you do; or that your friend inherited a heap of money and so never has to think about whether to replace their air conditioner). You’ll chuckle at the representation of hipster politics: the effort to be *seen doing good. It’s the story of Jen – 30 something artist, who starts the novel unemployed and begins working at a (parody of) nonprofit dedicated to enhancing the lives of (all) women. The novel offers sharp observations on white, middle class feminism, on the changing dimensions of female friendship and a whole heap of a lot about fertility. Jen wants a baby. A lot. And she’s infertile. (and some stuff about New York, but who cares).
I guess if you’re an any-age someone you could stand to read this novel for how it demonstrates the extent to which (young-ish) women are bombarded All. The. Time. by messages about their (in)fertile bodies, the judgements heaped upon these bodies for reproducing (or not), the myriad of outrageous and hurtful things that get said out of assumptions about why you have (or more obviously haven’t) had a baby. Continue reading →
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Filed under American literature, Fiction, Funny, Popular Posts, Reader Request
Tagged as art, Break in Case of Emergency, class, feminism, feminist, friendship, infertility, Jessica Winter, maternity, New York, non-profit, pregnancy, satire, Slate, trying to conceive, ttc
