A world of disappointment.

I just finished Another World by Pat Barker. When I started reading this book it sounded super interesting and I was all excited to see where the story led. Unfortunately the book kind of fizzled out for me at the end. The parts of the plot I was interested in just sort of...went away. I felt like the author really missed some interesting opportunities with this book.

Parts of this story made me sad, too. There's a bit of toddler violence in this book, and that was hard to read. It made me hug my little one very tightly.

That ends my vacation reads for this year! Big thanks to Marissa for checking out these from the library for me!

Fun with words.

Words are the star of Lorrie Moore's Anagrams. This book has an interesting construction. The beginning part seems like a few short stories with the same characters, while the longer last section develops the characters more fully. The main character, Benna, is a college poetry professor and it is often in the classroom setting where the reader can see what is going on with her feelings and emotions through words that she uses with her class.

The book is sad. There is a lot of loneliness in Benna's life and the extent of it isn't really all revealed until the last few pages. This was a really good book though and I'm definitely glad I read it.

In which no one is actually named Absalom.

Yes it's true, I finally finished Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! I didn't love this one. The story and complex familial relations are great, but I find Faulkner's writing exhausting. In the edition of the book that I got from the library, there is a timeline and character synopsis for the major players, and I thought that was immensely helpful.

I found (and still find) the lack of an actual character named Absalom funny. That's like publishing a grilling cookbook and naming it Cupcakes, Cupcakes! I decided to look up what the name "Absalom" meant, hoping to clarify. The name means "father of peace" and refers to King Solomon's son, Absalom, who wanted to take over the throne. It's often associated with terrible grief, and that makes total sense because this novel is full of sadness and more sadness.

I think this is one for me to revisit in the future. The story is rich and I like the premise, but Faulkner is a tough one to read.

Marissa

Tiny!

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan is really short. I picked it up and thought, hmmm. Tiny, as my daughter would say. I wondered how much could really go on in such a small volume.

It turns out a whole lot can go on in 185ish pages. This book was so good! I couldn't believe how neatly the story fit together and how entertaining it was! The whole idea behind the book is so unique, too. I loved it! It took me some time to get the hang of who was who at the beginning but it was pretty well sorted out in my head a few pages in. Lots of moral questions presented in here too. I'm amazed the author got this all into such a short book.

Melancholy.

John McGahern's book Amongst Women is very melancholy. I am on vacation now, and I have to say it isn't a typical vacation read. The story follows a man who was abusive to his children and his last few years of life, how he interacts with his kids and how they relate to him and how their lives develop. It is sad, but beautifully beautifully written. It is one of those books where the portrait of the life and environment where the characters live is just amazing.

A weird vacation read, but very good.

From the outside looking in.

I just finished Amerika by Franz Kafka. I was in a rush to finish this and get it back to the library before we go away on vacation, and I did get through it. Kafka did not finish the novel so there is a huge leap in the book - it's like about 8 or 9 middle chapters are missing, and the last chapter is not finished either. (And I'm pretty sure that the gaps are real, it wasn't just me skimming.)

I read in the introduction that Kafka never visited the United States, so the book is an interesting perspective on this country from someone who had not been here. The Statute of Liberty holding a sword is probably the best illustration of that.

This was a decent book, I didn't mind the characters and the plot seemed to move along okay (except for the big jump and the unfinished ending obviously). I don't really know how memorable it will be though when compared to some of the other ones I have been reading recently.

I didn't know what Kafkaesque meant until I started this book. I think I was supposed to have read The Metamorphosis at some point in my educational career, but I don't know if I ever actually did. I think this might be the first book I've ever read by Kafka.

Looking forward to seeing Marissa for a few days starting tomorrow!

Yikes!

Yikes! I kept thinking that as I read American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I had never read anything this violent or graphic before. I had to just skip whole paragraphs and pages of gory violence.

That doesn't mean that I didn't appreciate that this was a good book. I understand why it is on the list. The satire of the 80s is pretty funny. I liked how the reader could tell how connected with reality the narrator was by how he described the clothing that he and his companions were wearing. The resolution at the end is clever.

But, yikes...what violence!

Happy Father's Day.

It's fitting that I am writing about American Pastoral by Philip Roth on Father's Day. This book was fantastic. It made me a little sad, though. Without giving away too much of the plot, the protagonist's daughter commits an act of political terrorism and the book is about how the protagonist deals with his feelings about his daughter and the terrorism, and how it changes his family and his outlook on the world.

There are a lot of flashbacks where this guy is pushing his daughter on the swing, or playing with her as a baby, etc., and it made me sad. As a parent of a one year old, I always love to imagine the possibilities of her life. Whether she'll love basketball, or classical music, or whatever. What she'll decide to be when she grows up. Who she'll fall in love with. And I can't imagine a few years down the road, having my life turned upside down by something like what happens to this guy. Very sad.

I can't stress enough, though, how fantastic this book is. I just couldn't put it down.

Everyone loves Amelia Bedelia.

Me: So this book I'm reading is really long. Amelia by Henry Fielding.
Mike: Amelia Bedelia?

3 days later...
Me: I can't figure out what's so great about Amelia anyway. All the men in the book want to be with her.
Mike: Amelia Bedelia?

A week later...
Me: Amelia's husband is such a moron.
Mike: Amelia Bedelia?
Me: [head explodes]

Finally finished this one. It was actually not about a character who takes directions literally and gets in funny scrapes. (thank you, wikipedia for refreshing my memory on that one!) This Amelia really dragged. The women in this novel were all kind of annoying. Even Amelia, the apparent best woman in the world, got on my nerves. There is a lot of hand wringing. And Booth is SUCH an idiot. Every time things start to look up for the family he messes it up somehow. Oh well. At least they really seemed to love their children and each other. I thought that part was really sweet.

I can't believe I'm done with #30!

A vocabulary lesson.

Oh HI! Thought I forgot about this? No waaaay. Recently finished another semester of grad school, so it's summer and that means...summer reading. I'm about halfway done with Absalom, Absalom! and that Bill Faulkner LOOOOOVES his vocabulary. Ow, my brain. Also, was the period not invented when this book was written? You know, that little dot that ends a thought? Needless to say, I'm not loving this book so far. This may also be due to the fact that I keep falling asleep when I read it. But that's ok, because it's one big long thought, so I wake up and I may have dropped the book in my sleep, open three pages beyond where I was, and it's the same sentence peppered with words like "dulcet," "wroils," and "miasmal."

I love vocabulary, but I cannot get onboard with all these unhappy Southern ladies and that dude Sutpen. Period.

Final thoughts to be determined.

Marissa

Move along. Nothing interesting to see here.

The Ambassadors by Henry James was slow going for me. I found his sentences long and I felt like it took FOREVER to get anywhere in this book. And you know what? Not that much happened. I really thought I missed something, so much that once I was done, I went over to Wikipedia to read the plot summary to find out what I missed. It turns out I hadn't missed anything at all. The book just wasn't that exciting.

I couldn't really relate to the characters and couldn't figure out what was so great about Paris or Madame de Vionnet that would cause Strether to risk a relationship with Mrs. Newsome, who obviously loved him very much. But maybe that's just because I'm an ignorant American!

This was the first book I read on my iPad. Awesome awesome awesome.

Books 31-40

Here are the next 10 books on the list.

31. American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1997)

32. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (1991)

33. Amerika by Franz Kafka (1927)

34. Amok by Stefan Zweig (1922)

35. Amongst Women by John McGahern (1990)

36. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan (1998)

37. Anagrams by Lorrie Moore (1986)

38. Animal Farm by George Orwell (1945)

39. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1877)

40. Another World by Pat Barker (1998)

Seems like an interesting group of books. With a few notable exceptions, lots of relatively recent ones. I read Anna Karenina about 5 years ago, but I think I might reread it for this project. I enjoyed it and I'm curious to see what I will get out of it the second time around.

More like anecdotes. With porcupines.

I just finished Amateurs by Donald Barthelme.

This was super fast because it is under 200 pages, and it's a series of 3 to 5-page anecdotes, with a title page for each one. So it was really more around 100 pages of actual text. (So Marissa, that is why I read it so fast!)

This wasn't my favorite. I didn't really get a lot of the anecdotes. They didn't seem to relate to each other at all. And while some of the anecdotes featured hilariously funny satire (Porcupines at the University was my favorite. "Why not enroll them in Alternate Life Styles? We've already got too many people in Alternate Life Styles.") others seemed to make no sense.

We are all part of history...and it is very sad.

All Souls Day by Cees Nooteboom is an interesting mix of a novel and a social commentary. Unlike Against the Grain, there is a real story here, interspersed with a whole lot of discussion about history and art. The real story here is very sad. This Dutch guy has lost his wife and child on a plane and he spends his time taking videos (he's a professional cameraman and is working on a documentary project for himself too) and talking with his friends in cafes. There's also an interesting young woman that he happens to come across.

The beauty of the book is really in the thoughts and discussions that he has with his friends. A lot of it went way over my head, but it was really interesting. My favorite thought though, was that clouds are the Holy Spirit's horses and they wander around the world making sure everything is OK. I like that thought a lot.

Not as haba as I thought.

My 17 month old has picked up the word "horrible" - "haba". Everything is "haba" right now.

How do you feel?
Haba.

How is your breakfast?
Haba.

Do you want to go in the car?
Haba.

I was sort of expecting All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque to be, well, haba. I knew it was a novel about World War I and I knew it was going to be a grisly, sad read. But I did wind up liking it to my great surprise. I liked how human the characters seemed. It wasn't all about guns and shooting but more about the characters' feelings about being in the war and about their country.

I think I was supposed to have read this in high school at some point, and I'm actually glad I didn't. I don't think I had the maturity then to be able to appreciate it.

This guy can't stop doing dumb things.

I just finished All About H. Hatterrby G.V. Desani. This was not among my favorite books. I'm certainly missing something culturally here because I just couldn't figure out why on earth this guy wound up in these predicaments. It was as if he had no judgment. His friend would suggest some nonsense scheme and then all of a sudden Hatterr was laying on the ground at a circus sideshow having a lion eat meat off his chest. (I'm not exaggerating that one at all.)

So I'm not sure if I just didn't get it, or if I missed enough cultural references that would put this in context, or what. I'm just glad it's over.

The end of the Crusade.

I got an iPad yesterday. Whenever we acquire a new gadget, Mike and I usually have some kind of discussion about what technology is going to be available when our baby is older and how much she will laugh at us for being so excited about an iPad. ("You were this excited about atouch screen? Hahahahaha!")

Just like my child will probably laugh at the concept of an iPad someday, there are parts of The Albigenses that don't resonate well with a 2010 audience. The first half or so of the fourth volume is a very detailed battle scene. There is quite a bit of untranslated Latin and French throughout the book. And the mere fact that it's four volumes means that it's a big commitment for a reader.

Which is too bad, because this is a really great story. The characters are interesting, reading about their adventures was really cool, and I managed to learn something about a Crusade I had no idea existed. There are really unexpected plot twists and I liked the medieval setting. I'd love to somehow see this book updated for a modern audience but I don't think that is usually done. And as Mike pointed out, literature professors would probably be horrified at the suggestion.

More Crusading.

I just finished volume 3 of The Albigenses by Charles Robert Maturin. There is so much going on in these books. This one centered mainly on the female heretic Genevieve. I felt like I got to know her character a lot better. On the other hand, the knight Paladour and the beautiful Lady Isabelle were kind of minimized in this volume. We got to see more of what they were up to through other people's eyes and how they were reacting to them rather than a direct narration. It was different than in the first two volumes.

One thing that was kind of weird is that a new character came in about 2/3 of the way through this book - Queen Ingelberg. It was like all of a sudden the author needed someone for Genevieve to deal with and poof! Here's a queen.

I can't figure out what happened with Paladour and Isabelle and the mystery witch woman. I wonder if I missed it, or if all will be explained in volume 4.

The long Crusade featuring: perfect women!

I am now halfway done with The Albigenses by Charles Robert Maturin. I’ve finished reading volume 2. It is interesting how different volume 2 is from volume 1. There is so much more action! I feel like the plot developed so much more in volume 2, where volume 1 was maybe more about character development. SO much went on in this book.

It’s interesting that both main women characters are portrayed as being pretty much perfect. They are both beautiful, wise, smart, stand up for what they believe in, and have several handsome admirers. The Lady Isabelle even fixes a steely gaze on some bad guys, which intimidates them enough to refrain from doing bad things to her and her attendants! Not a very realistic portrayal. I wonder if they will remain perfect throughout the series or if the next two volumes will humanize them somewhat.

I’m still enjoying this quite a bit, although it isn’t one of the ones I am going around recommending to everyone like The Age of Innocence and Alias Grace. It is pretty long and involved.

Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, will you join the dance?

I had never read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll before. This type of book – fantasy books in general, actually – is really not my favorite. I often feel like these kinds of books are super hard to follow and so implausible. I have a hard time figuring out the story when you never know if the next thing that happens is that the protagonist is going to grow 10 feet tall.

I am glad I read this one though. I was so impressed by the author’s imagination! I don’t know how all that crazy stuff came out of one person’s head. Maybe I will get to like them more if I think about it that way.

My favorite was the Lobster Quadrille song. I thought that was so cute. I also thought the ending was really sweet – how he wrapped it up with Alice’s sister thinking about her. It made me think of my little daughter and what her imagination is going to be like someday. So I didn’t mind this one as much as I thought I would!

Next up: Back to The Albigenses. Volumes 2 through 4 arrived! Now I just have to remember what was going on at the end of volume 1!