Earlier this month I finished Thomas Pynchon’s V, which turned out to be a great experience. I especially liked the bleak bits in Africa and Malta (Maijstral’s apologia in particular). Now I’m reading both fiction and non-fiction.
Fiction: Again a Pynchon–this time The Crying of Lot 49. This is a lot easier to read compared to V, and also very short. Picked it up yesterday, and might be done tomorrow. It’s still a Pynchon work, so I do find myself having to read with full concentration; can’t switch off at will or read it relaxedly. Oedipa in this book prefigures Doc and Maxine from Inherent Vice and Bleeding Edge respectively. This is very much a tragic work, in that it explores the contours of contemporary tragedy as well as what shapes its contours. People want to call it a noir, and that’s not wrong, but just terribly reductive.
Non-Fiction: Schultz and Schultz’s Theories of Personality. Based on the behavioral method, and sort of an interesting approach to interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships. Also sheds light on how the intra affects the inter and vice versa. Though it is based on the behavioral approach, it nonetheless seems to suggest that the search for an essential human nature is futile, which I find interesting. Good read so far.
I agree with the general consensus that The Nine Tailors is the best Wimsey novel, with the caveat that 400 pages is at least 100 pages too long for a classic twixt-the-wars whodunnit.
However, Clouds of Witness is my favorite Wimsey novel. Sayers was all over the place with her hero’s characterization. He’s slightly or immensely different from book to book. And the Lord Peter in Clouds was the one I found most appealing. Goofy in an almost Woosterish degree.
Started Natsume Soseki’s 1914 novel Kokoro yesterday; great stuff! It’s been on my list ever since Kate Beaton “synopsized” it in her genius online comic strip “Hark, a Vagrant” a few years ago.
I’ll get May’s thread up in the morning. I’ve not been feeling well today and have a splitting headache. Plus my elderly schnauzer had 28 teeth pulled today and kinda needs Mom more than usual.
So I promise tomorrow! Keep reading!
Oh yeah, I finished Tombyards and Butterflies by Orlando A Sanchez today. If you like urban fantasy and buddy cop movies, this series is for you. It was fun to read.
Ooo, thanks, I hadn’t realized it was out yet. Definitely gotta read that - I enjoyed the two earlier books in the series very much (the second of which included one of my favorite sentences in all of American literature: “Oh, I see you, bitch.” Context is everything!)
Unfortunately not, but I think she’ll feel much better once her gums heal, poor thing was in bad way.