I just finished a book that I heartily recommend. It is ostensibly in the mystery genre, but the plot is not as important as the characters, and it is beautifully written. By “beautifully written” I mean that the author uses language in an interesting and effective way, a way that takes you physically into the moment as few authors are able to do.
The book is “Three Things About Elsie” by Joanna Cannon.
It is a book about old people, and one of the reasons I recommend it is that it shines a strong light on the various issues that old people have, especially when they are treated like children because younger people can’t be bothered to listen or understand them.
The main character is an 84-year-old lower class British woman who is living in a retirement community (against her will) and has slipped and fallen in her living room. While she is waiting for someone to find her, she starts going over her past life, memories that are both clear and hidden, especially one incident involving three deaths that happened 53 years before and that has influenced her entire life. Through the course of the book she gradually remembers the truth and learns some parts she didn’t know.
I know I’m not making this sound very exciting or interesting, but the writing really draws you in, and life from the point-of-view of people basically living while waiting to die has never been presented so well (at least, not that I have seen).
After a few days off, I’ve resumed. It’s still deeply weird, and I’m sure it won’t be on my Top Ten list for the year, but it’s (mostly) holding my interest and I’ll read it through to the end.
I just zipped through Sex Criminals, Vol. I: One Weird Trick by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky, a graphic novel about a guy and a gal who discover that they have the power to stop time when they achieve orgasm. They decide to rob a bank to help save a local library, and zany hijinks ensue. An odd concept but interesting comic.
The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey by Piers Bizony is an art-house book about the costumes, models, graphics and production design of the film. Lots of great pictures, drawings and sketches, including some I hadn’t seen before.
Next up: The Brethren by John Grisham, about three disgraced former judges running a con from inside a prison.
Ooooo, that sounds good! I love Grisham and have read several of his novels – I’m reading him right now, actually (Camino Island) – but I definitely haven’t read everything, and it’s not unusual for me to have never heard of something that was released almost 11 years ago. Like this one. Thanks!
I started The Gunslinger by Stephen King…and so far I am not impressed, kinda bored actually. iInce it’s an audio book maybe it’s the narrator’s fault but seriously yawn
I finished the audiobook of George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo this morning, and I’m glad I kept going. It builds to a mostly-satisfying ending. The voice cast, including Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, Susan Sarandon, Don Cheadle, Ben Stiller, Megan Mullally and others, is quite good.
My next audiobook is Patrick O’Brian’s 1978 Napoleonic naval adventure novel, Desolation Island, as I continue to read my way through his Aubrey-Maturin series.
Finished* Love Medicine* by Louise Erdrich. It’s the kind of book that’s undoubtedly great literature, but which I just didn’t enjoy. Its full title is Love Medicine: A Novel, but it’s actually a collection of short stories, many of which focus on a few different incidents from different points of view. Someone who enjoyed Rashomon might like this too.
Now I’m reading The Swish of the Curtain, by Pamela Brown.
Started today on Flight or Fright, a short story anthology edited by Stephen King and Bev Vincent. Really can’t go wrong with this one, though I’ve read some of the stories before.
I’m going to bend the rules a bit, and mention a book I read last year, but highly recommended in light of the recent tsunami: Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester.
It’s a fascinating, far-ranging account of geology, vulcanology, continental plates, Dutch colonialism and trade, the Wallace line, all gradually focusing in on the Big Event: the explosion of Krakatoa, the single-largest explosion in recorded history.
Then he goes on to trace the impact, starting with the immediate impact in Indonesia and the local casialties, then the immediate post-explosion scientific inquiry about Krakatoa and the re-establishment of animal and plant life on the remnants of the island.
He then starts to expand the focus to show its impact around the world, in climate, agriculture and scientific investigations.
He ends with information about the rise of Arak Krakatoa, which started to appear and disappear by erosion until it finally established itself as a new volcanic island in the 1920s. And finally speculation about future explosions on Arak Krakatoa.
It’s the sort of book I imagine most Dopers would enjoy.
Thanks!