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!