I’m leaving for my annual week reading on the beach Saturday morning, but don’t have the usual stockpile of books I’ve been saving for the occasion. I’ve got a few books in the to-be-read queue (oh, hell, who am I kidding, I’ve got a houseful of books, all too many of them unread), and am planning to grab some of them, but those are mostly nonfiction – mm hm, nothing says “lazy days of summer” like a little Richard Dawkins, eh?
I need some novels. I like good novels, nothing wrong with long ones. I read virtually no genre fiction anymore. Things I’ve read, liked, and recommended here: The Crimson Petal and the White, The English Passengers, The Road to Paradise (Vargas-Llosa’s take on Gauguin and his grandmother). Wasn’t wowed by The Shadow of the Wind. Liked The Curious Adventure of the Dog in the Night (I’m paraphrasing the title here, I think), but didn’t love it.
I’ve got a copy of Madame Bovary, which I read 30 years ago, and a copy of 100 Years of Solitude, which I’ve never read. Maybe Moby-Dick? pseudotriton ruber ruber keeps pushing Robertson Davies, which seems like a possibility, but I need to check the library on that.
I’m reading a big, thick novel called “A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth. It’s about 1950s India and the struggle of maintaining notions of tradition, social class and family obligations in a changing world. Thus far, it’s been pretty interesting.
I just finished Robert McCammon’s “Swan Song.” It’s one of those end-of-the-world novels (brought on by nuclear war). It was written in the 80s, so there are some Cold War assumptions which wouldn’t be applicable today, and it has some supernatural aspects. (Much like Stephen King’s “The Stand”.) Over all, though, it was an entertaining “brain candy” read.
I’d only read it previously in High School, and while I remember liking it. . .well, it’s really blowing me away right now. The language, the dialogue, the characterization, the humor. I’d forgotten what it’s like to read really good writing. The kind of writing that makes you want to write.
I know the plot lines don’t cry out “light summer reading” but it’s not what I’d call a heavyweight either.
So, if you’re looking for a classic that maybe you haven’t picked up in a while (if ever), there ya go.
Okay, went by the remainder warehouse on my way home, and picked up a few random things – then went and paid full price for a copy of The Deptford Trilogy at Barnes and Nobel. Also got City of God out of the library.
The last book I was really sucked into was Baudolino by Umberto Eco. I laughed, I cried, etc etc.
In the mystery vein, but not a typical genre mystery, there were a lot of good things about The Emperer of Ocean Park by Stephen Carter (the legal scholar). The mystery itself was kind of bland, but it was an intriguing look at … I guess I would call it the hidden upper middle class of African-Americans.
Last year, I really enjoyed Any Human Heart by William Boyd, it’s a novel told in diary form starting with the narrator’s time at school at Oxford in the 1930s and following his entire life. So like English life for people of a certain class throughout the 20th century.
If you like short stories, I liked Adaptations which is an anthology of short stories that were made into films. It’s the kind of thing where you’ve heard of just about every film, some of them I hadn’t even realized were based on short stories. A very wide variety of styles and genres are represented.
I love the Deptford Trilogy so you should have fun with that!
Well, I got back from the beach two weeks ago – but didn’t read it there. Just finished it today, in fact.
Liked it a lot, though I’m hard-pressed to describe it. (I had it on my desk at work the other day, because I needed to call the library to renew it. A coworker said, “Oh, Doctorow – what’s it about?” “Um,” I said, “uh…” “God?” he asked helpfully. “Yeah, kind of. And the city, in a way. Basically, uh, it’s about, um… Well, it’s about the 20th century.”)