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Finished in September: VALIS, Philip K. Dick This is a heaping helping of tinfoil hat religious theory and incoherent insanity. Awesome if you love the sort of stuff on crank.net Sybil, Flora Rheta Shriber The abnormal psyche masterpiece about multiple personalties. Definitely tarted up to serve as entertainment, the ending implies that 'Sybil' was completely cured when in actuality she had to deal with episodes of dissociation until her dying day, although nothing as severe as previous to her treatment. I'm a little skeptical of the total of "sixteen" as well. Twilight, Stephenie Meyer Everything that can be said about this is said over here. Recommended purely for the trainwreck value. I limited myself to a chapter a day, and the stupid didn't hurt too badly at that low an exposure level. Lord Hornblower, C.S. Forester Send the guy to retake a tiny little sloop from mutineers and he ends up overthrowing Napoleon. Yeah, I'd say making him a Lord for that isn't uncalled for. Wintersmith, Terry Pratchett Not a good idea to get Old Man Winter to fall in love with you. Wings to the Kingdom, Cherie Priest Priest's stuff is to ghost stories what the tv show Heroes is to comic books, but with a better climax.
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Sep 30, 2008 21:57
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Have finished David Weber's Field of Dishonor and Terry Pratchett's Nation within the last two days. Partway through David Drake's Lt. Leary Commanding and will start John Marsden's Circle of Flight once I've finished that. After that, we'll see.
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Oct 1, 2008 11:47
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Iceman by Chuck Liddell. It's a biography of a guy with a mohawk and a tattoo on the side of his head that gets paid alot of money to fight. Good stuff for UFC fanboys/manchildren. It helped me stay focussed on martial arts.
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Oct 1, 2008 16:06
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Finished Dostoevsky's, The Brothers Karamazov - highly recommended for those interested in the concept of good vs. evil and how it relates to the human condition. "Hesitation, anxiety, the struggle between belief and disbelief—all that is sometimes such a torment for a conscientious man ... that it’s better to hang oneself." Right now I'm staying Russian, just started Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
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Oct 1, 2008 20:36
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America The Book: Teacher's Edition by Jon Stewart/The Daily Show. I listened to the audiobook a year or two ago and enjoyed it, and had the opportunity to pick this up for two bucks at a local library sale the other day. I'd say that both mediums have their advantages; the book is written in a way that's meant to be read aloud, which gives the writers a chance to work tone, timing, and other verbal cues into the humor that you wouldn't get from reading it on your own. On the other hand, reading gives you all the pictures/diagrams to go on. I wouldn't say it's worth buying both outright, but if you've experienced one and enjoyed it, try finding the other at your local library or something. As for the "Teacher's Edition" part of it, it's basically just a respectable college professor going through and making corrections/notes in red pen, basically creating a "straight man" for all the jokes. Some of the things he writes are funny, others are pretty interesting or otherwise informative about history, but it can get kind of annoying if you're just trying to read straight through the book since they're all over the page and sometimes not that easy to read.
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Oct 1, 2008 20:38
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I finished Water for Elephants last night, and now I can never read another book ever again. I demand cinema adaptation and/or sequel. It was just so good, I don't know what to do without it.
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Oct 1, 2008 23:07
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Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire-Depressing as it gets, I wish he went more into his ptsd and how he overcame it. If you want read about Genocide, this book is for you.
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Oct 2, 2008 02:38
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The Tunnel, Russell Edson I read this collection in two days earlier this summer and have been compulsively returning returning to it since. Most of Edson's work here is very surreal, philosophical prose poetry (most people credit him as the inventor of the prose poem). Store of the Eye, Georges Bataille A one-hundred page depiction of two French teenagers' adventure in obscene, bestial sexual experimentation with lots of radical philosophical reflections in between.
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Oct 2, 2008 02:59
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The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons Its a pretty good book, taking place in Russia during WWII...this girl falls in love with a soldier with a "mysterious past and a dark secret" It has some sexual scenes in it, so wouldn't recommend it for kids, but it was good now I'm waiting for the sequals to come in the mail.
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Oct 3, 2008 05:53
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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain - About a man who ends up in King Arthur's court. A good book a lot of bad movies are based on. I am now reading [b]The Illustrated Man[/] by Ray Bradbury.
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Oct 3, 2008 15:20
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City of Glass: The Graphic Novel by Paul Auster A pretty good book. Not at all what I was expecting. It was like an anti-detective book. Good stuff though.
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Oct 6, 2008 01:14
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VALIS by Philip K. Dick I can say with certainty that I've never read anything like that before in my life. The first 50 pages were really tough to get through - reading page after page of discussion about the true nature of God, with random crazy sci-fi ideas mixed in, is a little tough to swallow at first. But I eventually got in tune with the book and started to appreciate the odd humor mixed in, and really started to enjoy it. This is absolutely the work of a person missing a few marbles, but there are some surprisingly rational bits of insight, and the thing as a whole is an enjoyable read if you're in the right mindset for it.
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Oct 6, 2008 03:40
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Naked by David Sedaris Ridiculously late to the party on this one, I finally tracked down some of David's books after enjoying him so much on TAL. The book was pretty much excellent, every story was very funny and the poignant little endings he brings home each time made for a rewarding reading experience. I picked up Me Talk Pretty and Dress Your Family as well and am looking forward to getting into them. 
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Oct 6, 2008 04:37
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The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Really loved it. It took me awhile to get into it, getting used to his style of writing I suppose, and trying to figure out the many different characters. But once I was used to it, had a handle on who everyone was, and started being able to analyse and compare to Soviet Russia, it was really, really, amazing. Behemoth must now be one of my favourite characters of all time!
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Oct 6, 2008 13:03
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The Ender Books, Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind. A pretty good series, and I still have to read the shadow series as well. It's kind of jarring how the novels change between the first and the second, but they're all pretty good. Nothing can match Ender's Game, obviously. Too bad Orson Scott Card is completely insane. Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Some of the best hardish Sci-Fi I've read. I also finished Chasm City and I'm working on The Prefect right now. Moist von Lipwig fucked around with this message at 09:24 on Oct 7, 2008 |
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Oct 7, 2008 09:21
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The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian. It's a 600+ page novel written by a guy who finished a residency in pediatrics at UCSF and then decided to go to Harvard Divinity School. The book's setting is the Apocalypse, but not in the way you'd expect - the world is drowned under 7 miles of water, and the only ones spared are the 700 patients of a children's hospital, along with the doctors, nurses, staff, and patients' families present in the hospital the night of the flood. The protagonist is a 3rd year medical student, and the first third to half of the book reads like a medical drama/comedy. The hospital then evolves into a utopia/dystopia for a while, then radically changes again 2/3rds of the way through. For a book with obvious religious connotations, there is very little, if any, "preachiness" about it. And for a 600+ page book, it's a pretty fast read. But for a fast read, it's difficult to understand. Let me explain. Other than a section somewhere toward the middle of the book, there's always something happening, and there's always an expectation that something important is about to happen. I turned each page hoping, like one of the characters, that finally I would learn what was going on, why things had happened the way they had, where the hospital/boat/whatever was going, etc. After finishing it though, I'm still wondering all those things. I come away from it feeling like there was a reason hidden somewhere in the book, but that I missed it, and that it'll require a re-read to find it. 1212121 fucked around with this message at 06:38 on Oct 8, 2008 |
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Oct 8, 2008 06:34
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Jean-Paul Fartre posted:Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire-Depressing as it gets, I wish he went more into his ptsd and how he overcame it. If you want read about Genocide, this book is for you. A friend lent this to me before he joined the army and I out it down and never finished it. I should really pick it back up.
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Oct 8, 2008 13:33
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Just finished a rock block of Lady Chatterley's Lover and St. Mawr. I'm reminded of something Gerald Stern told me once. Lawrence was a great poet, an ok novelist, and a lovely painter. Lovely prose, but I couldn't get over the stinking piles of thinly veiled masochism.
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Oct 9, 2008 21:00
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Pontius Pilate posted:Thought this would make a good addition, pretty much the title of the forum, what did you just finish and how did you like it? good call, I really want to re-read this. I just finishe After Dark by Haruki Murakami...he is my favorite author!
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Oct 10, 2008 04:56
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I just finished Carry Me Home: The Life and Death of Private Jake Kovco by Dan Box. It's written on the first Australian soldier to die in current war in Iraq and the consistant failures in the Australian defence force in dealing with it. It started a little thin but found its stride a few chapters in and was excellent to the end. Now I'm moving on to The Angel of Grozny: Inside Chechnya by Asne Seierstad. It's been good so far but nothing has really drawn me in. It seems a little uneven.
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Oct 10, 2008 06:21
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Black Voices (various), and am now sternum deep in OYO Volume II, River Journeys (another collection of work in several formats(also mostly autobiographical)by various authors). I just recently sold most of my books, but if I hadn't I would be starting The Time Machine by H.G. Wells for about the millionth time right now. I was reminded just tonight that I love that story, and enjoy the thoughts and topics of conversation that it tends to foment.
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Oct 10, 2008 08:20
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Post Office by Charles Bukowski First Bukowski book for me, so I didn't know what to expect. I've heard his name thrown around a lot, but always in regard to his poetry and him being a cantankerous old bastard - there's also that Modest Mouse song, and a decent bar named after him off Boylston st. in Boston. The book was totally not what I expected, but I really enjoyed it. He has a simple unassuming writing style, but there's nary a wasted word and it's just engrossing from cover to cover. I didn't really find the book "funny" (didn't laugh once), but the humor within isn't really punch-line stuff - it's more situational, where the humor is revealed through a two-page conversation. I also really liked the chapter setup, where most segments are 1-3 pages, and begin in medias res - there was always something interesting going on, and I had a lot of trouble finding places to stop and put the book down. After just having finished VALIS, this was the perfect quick read.
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Oct 10, 2008 15:25
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Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King After finishing Wizard and Glass, this book was a breath of fresh air. I felt Wizard was a few hundred pages longer than it needed to be and was concerned with this book because it was equally as long. Wolves tells a pretty interesting story reminiscent of Seven Samurai. I probably wouldn't have enjoyed this book as much if I hadn't already read Salem's Lot, as it involves a character from that book and spoils a huge moment at the end of that book. I only have two issues with this book: The conflict is set up early on in the book and doesn't come to fruition until the final 50 pages and by the end no progress is made towards the tower. The book begins with them coming to the township and ends with them still there. Overall I really enjoyed the book and it sets up the next book perfectly while still having a satisfying ending. Song of Susannah by Stephen King I can see why people didn't like this book, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It had some weird pacing with different stories hopping around. (I felt the end of The Wastelands did this better than any of the other books) It continued on the odd plot point revolving around Stephen King's book showing up and telling Father Callahan's story. but I thought this was handled pretty well. When Roland and Eddie met Stephen King I had a bad feeling he would write about himself creating them and being their god. Instead, it's written in a way that suggests that he created the first book, and from there the events actually started occurring. Instead of him making it up, it's as though he subconsciously knows about events happening in another world and he's just writing the story as he sees it. It's not something that will gel with everyone, but I thought it was fitting with how the story has gone from the start. This book also contains one of my favorite action sequences in the entire series. The shootout at the gas station that occurs immediately upon them going through the portal. Not my favorite of the series, but not as bad as I was expecting from warnings. The cliffhanger at the end of this book is so huge that I can't see anyone not continuing with the final book. Jolo fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Oct 10, 2008 |
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Oct 10, 2008 18:46
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My professor got me a copy of Castles of Steel by Massie. Damned if that wasn't a good take on the naval bit between Britain and Germany in WW1. Have now ordered Dreadnought by him as well.
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Oct 10, 2008 21:58
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I just finished binging on the Dexter books, read the first three, I need to pick up the 4th next time I'm at the bookstore. The series is excellent so far, now I'm starting on the first season of the show.
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Oct 10, 2008 22:11
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Neo_Reloaded posted:Post Office by Charles Bukowski Try Ham On Rye, the 'prequel' to this book.
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Oct 11, 2008 08:38
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ApocalypsePlease posted:Try Ham On Rye, the 'prequel' to this book. Seconding this, Ham on Rye was loving brutal.
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Oct 11, 2008 10:48
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Just finished Barney' Version by Mordechai Richler. I'm seriously mad for his later work these days for some reason. I'm about twenty pages from the end of 'homicide, a year on the killing streets' by David Simon. Anyone who's a fan of the Wire and who hasn't read it is doing themselves a disservice.
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Oct 11, 2008 20:33
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Just finished The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. The Tao of Pooh uses the characters of Winnie the Pooh to explain Taoism and is very easy to read and somewhat thought provoking. I found it shortsighted because it basically said that knowledge is necessarily detrimental to wisdom. So ignorance is wisdom. "The wise are not learned. The learned are not wise." I get the whole idea of over-thinking things, but... Vonnegut was genius, as usual. It was a very funny book but not that I could laugh. It was interesting how he used the delusion of time travel to relate post-traumatic stress to the reader (or WAS it delusional???) In any case, one of the best reads I've had in a while.
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Oct 12, 2008 14:39
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Ba1thazar posted:Naked by David Sedaris They're all golden. I saw him speak at UNCW once and he is just as funny in person. Having him narrate in my head just makes it better. Edit: I just saw that his newest was released in June, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. I'll have to pick that up. Chimpsky X fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Oct 12, 2008 |
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Oct 12, 2008 14:41
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I just read Michael Chabon's The Final Solution. I enjoyed it a lot and read it at high speed so I completely missed the 'twist'. Someone else had to tell me! How dumb am I?
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Oct 12, 2008 23:31
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I've just finished Slaughterhouse Five. I had somehow managed to confuse this story with one about children looking after a Nazi in a barn. I'm not sure how I pulled that off, but I'm certainly glad I got around to reading it. The writing style was engrossing, and there were plenty of things I would rip off if I was ever a public speaker. I'll have to pick up more Vonnegut.
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Oct 13, 2008 22:29
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I just took a page (pun intended) from the Hall of Fame thread, and finished House of Leaves. It had me pretty captivated, risking life going into the unknown and risking their lives trying to chart the unchartable. I think there's a little room left at the end to continue on and further explore the physics bending house, or to complete Johnny's search.
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Oct 14, 2008 17:14
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Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks Fun read, appears to take things seriously, but it's all just comedy. Has some useful survival tips in it tho. I am Legend by Richard M. Matheson. Completely and utterly different from the movie, and I liked it. It's nice how he tries to explain scientifically why vampires dislike garlic and sunlight and other such vampiric traits. Long Way Round Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman. After seeing the series I was compelled to read this book, I loved the series and this book gives so much more information. Generation Kill by Evan Wright. Saw one episode of the series, decided I wanted to read the book, so I did. Top-notch war reporting, truly excellent. Gonna watch the series now. Next up: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas The Stand Uncut edition. P.S. I'm a Dutch guy but I never read translations, I have read all of the above in original English, and it's better I think. spankmeister fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Oct 16, 2008 |
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Oct 16, 2008 23:00
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I used to read about 2 books a year, but thanks to this thread and Amazon Prime, I’ve gone through about 30 this year. Anyways, it’s been a while since my last contribution, so there are quite a few books for report back on. Here it goes: Storm Front by Jim Butcher – This was a good start to a pretty fun series. The author is obviously fantasizing about himself being a badass wizard P.I. investigating mysterious cases, but I still enjoyed the one dimensional characters; in the same way I’d like a cheesy mindless action movie. The middle of this book is a little weak though. Grade C+ Full Moon by Jim Butcher – I’m hooked on the series apparently. This second installment was a definite improvement over the first in terms of story. Maybe it’s just because I am a sucker for werewolf stories or maybe the plot felt a little tighter than the first. It’s been mentioned before, but the character of Murphy is just plain ridiculous. If there was a term to describe a character as even less than one dimensional, I would use it to describe her. If you liked the first book, definitely pick this one up for a good October read. Grade B The Devil You Know by Mike Carey – Continuing my current affair with books about supernatural Private Investigators, I stumbled on this little (big) novel. The main character Felix Castor is so similar to the main character of the Jim Butcher novels that it’s laughable. Both are wisecracking, cynical, tuff as nails P.I.’s with special powers, making barely enough money to survive and taking on dangerous cases that they shouldn’t be taking. For whatever reason I like this series better. In this one, Felix the exorcist is investigating a haunting at a London archive when things get more complicated than he figured on. It’s enjoyable, it’s dirty, and the plot moves slowly at first, but then blazes along, perhaps too conveniently. Grade B Vicious Circle by Mike Carey – The second book in the Felix Castor series, about an exorcist for hire who takes on the job of finding a little girls ghost and returning her to her parents. But as you might have guessed, people and things are not as they seem. This plot of this one was a little more interesting than the last and the ending was definitely better. That said, the middle was too long and unfocused. Too many times, Felix wanders around thinking that he’s missing something, only to all of the sudden, out of thin air, figure it out and propel the story forward. Other than that it’s really entertaining and quirky. On a sleazy note, the character Juliet (a demon who literally fucks the souls out of men) makes you all tingly down there. You’ll see. Grade B+ Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov – Middle aged man meets 12 year old, middle aged man kidnaps twelve year old and screws her til his little pedo hearts content as they traverse across the United States in the late 1940’s. This was definitely a very interesting read. There were moments that I was absolutely creeped out, especially as Humbert, the main character, describes his attraction to nymphs and how he can get just a little taste of them without corrupting them. It’s like a fantastic train wreck that you just can’t stop staring at. Nabokov charms you with his amazing use of our language. It’s hard to believe that it’s not his native language. I’m glad that I finally read this and can see what the fuss is all about. In time, I plan to check out a few other Nabokov books. Grade A- Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin – Peter Lake is an orphan who leads a life of crime as a burglar in New York City around the turn of the 20th century. One night, he breaks into the house of newspaper tycoon and meets and falls in love with his daughter. Weave into that a layer of magic horses, towns that exist in some other dimension, and bridges to heaven, and you have yourself Winter’s Tale. I loved the setting of the story and the initial love story. That’s about all that I really loved. The rest of the novel is more of a feeling than a coherent plot. 9/10th of the book is spent talking about how magical and awesome NYC is. I also felt like Peter Lake wasn’t very fleshed out and gets the shaft in the end. To me, the novel feels like the book equivalent of a chick flick. Grade C- The Man in the Picture by Susan Hill – I’ve never read Poe, but I have the sneaking suspicion that this is what he’s like. The premise centers on a guy named Oliver who visits an old friend at Cambridge, a professor and collector of art. A dark and curious painting adorns his wall, depicting a venetian carnival scene from the late 18th century. It has an odd magnetic quality to it that is soon explained by Oliver’s friend. This is really an awesome old school ghost story. It’s short enough to read in one sitting and gets its hooks in you right away. I can't recommend it enough, especially around this time of the year. Grade A Manifesto by Ron Paul – This guy has some great ideas and knows how to put the workings of the government into print for the average person to understand. I read this right before the brunt of the economic crisis hit us. Once it did I kept thinking, “Ron Paul must be blowing a gasket because of what’s happening!” His book taught me some things and scared me a little bit about the direction that we are headed. I do disagree with some of his points, but respect the overall message that he is putting out. Read this for an informative and often chilling view of how far into the danger zone that we’ve gone and how we could go about getting out of it. Grade B The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson – Fantastic book! It tells two stories, one of the men and women who dreamed up and created the World’s Fair in late 19th century Chicago; the other, the story of a cold blooded serial killer operating at the same time, plucking victims out of the ever expanding city of Chicago. The two stories weave themselves together as a classic tale of good and evil at a magical time in a great city. Some historical fiction is dry and monotonous, but this one is exciting and moves along at a brisk pace. It seems a little obvious that the author took some liberties with the available material by making assumptions where there were gaps. That doesn’t take anything away from how enjoyable the read is though. Grade A Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell – Orwell’s sort of autobiographical account of living and working in London and Paris in the early part of the 20th century. He tries not to starve to death by working in restaurants, selling his clothes for a small pittance, and drifting from one shelter to another. It reminded me a little bit of Hunter S. Thompson. You aren’t quite sure what really did happen and how much of it is embellished, much like Thompson’s work. I have a inkling to believe that this novel influenced Hunter at some point in his young life. Overall I liked the story. It does get a little tedious to read about “Orwell’s” daily struggle though, even though the book is very short. Note that the London part of the book was added later and has a different, less authentic feel as the Paris portion. Grade C Next up … House of Leaves, On the Road, and Grave Peril. Dudikoff fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Oct 18, 2008 |
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Oct 18, 2008 03:09
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I just finished Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky. I'm writing a gigantic term paper over his writings for my Siberian history class, though I have no idea on what topic yet, so I'm going through his writings. Notes was seriously mindblowingly amazing and the best thing I've read in a very long time. The Underground Man was absolutely, completely unlikable, yet not charismatic at all in the Humbert Humbert sense. I'm reading The Idiot now and I hope it's just as good, but stretched over 600 pages.
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Oct 18, 2008 04:36
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Big Fish by Daniel Wallace. I haven't been reading much at all lately, due to being really busy and having my main book currently be Dune Messiah, which is a bit tiring to read. Big Fish, though, was really good and really easy to read, so I burnt through it in a few days. I really liked how it balanced the episodic form of the story with a larger arc, so that it really feels like one big story despite being broken up into the short stories. I was really surprised (in a good way) by the ending - I was expecting another frustrated conversation between the narrator and his father, so when the last "take" of his father's death changed it up, it was much more interesting. The fact that, just as it starts seeming real and normal, it goes right back into myth at the end, is a pretty great way to bring the whole story full circle. Overall, Big Fish was a great book that balanced being easy to read and humorous with some good metaphorical/thematic stuff and a general knack for good writing. I'll have to check out some of his other books. For now, though, I'm refreshed enough to get back to hammering away at Dune Messiah.
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Oct 18, 2008 18:18
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Bringing Down The House by Ben Mezrich - I recall some other folks in TBB have read this recently and I have to agree, Mezrich's style leaves a lot to be desired. The story is interesting but I read an article in Wired some years ago that adapted the meat of the story from the book (a group of MIT students who worked out a way to beat the house at blackjack by counting cards - they had an incredible system worked out and made a poo poo-ton of money before they were found out and blacklisted from every major casino in Vegas and others across the US) - so the book doesn't really get into a lot more detail that you wouldn't already know if you had read the article easily found via Google. The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer - This was one of the possible options for last month's book club, I believe. I'd been meaning to read some of Mailer's non-fiction so I picked this up and was very impressed. Mailer chronicled the story of Gary Gilmore, an ex-con who was released from Marion in 1976 after spending most of his life in prison and started trying to get his life back together, only to let it all go when he killed two men in cold blood. The story begins with Gilmore's release from Marion and ends with the aftermath of the media circus and controversy surrounding Gilmore's desire to die after being sentenced to death by firing squad in Utah. Mailer not only follows Gilmore's life outside of prison and the events leading up to the murders he received the death penalty for, but the lives of the people around him before and after the murders. Despite the length of the story (the copy I read was well over 1000 pages) - it almost always remains fascinating and Mailer neither condemns Gilmore for his actions nor condones them - merely chronicling them. Definitely one of the best books I've read this year.
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Oct 18, 2008 20:33
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The Melancholy of Resistance by Laszlo Krasznahorkai, in which a strange circus arrives in a small Hungarian town with an army of hangers-on (plus a huge preserved whale), challenging local authority with a cult-like reverence for chaos. Written around the end of the Soviet era in Hungary, its not too surprising that the main resistance to the circus is engineered by an overbearing and dictatorial town councillor, but the novel mainly focuses on those taking a battering between the two extremes. With the unbreaking wall of text and the obscurity of some of the symbolism, I can't claim its all clear and simple, but despite all that it's worth the effort. CineD goons might recognise it as the basis for the less melodramatically-titled arthouse favourite The Werckmeister Harmonies. Also William Everdell's survey of early modernism (up to WWI), The First Moderns. Books on modernism are a dime a dozen, but Everdell does a great job, not only proposing a uniting factor (discontinuity, being the antithesis of the 19th century's love of unbroken certainty in its arts and sciences), but applying it to a wide range of disciplines. Discontinuity has to be stretched a bit to cover all the bases but its worked into a convincing argument - Seurat's pointillism, Picasso's cubism, Boltzmann's atomic theory, Strindberg's symbolist theatre, and Whitman's free verse all break up 19th century norms, not to mention Cantor's dividing up infinity into smaller infinities. Hell, there's even a chapter on the invention of the concentration camp. Plus Proust's early volume, Pleasures and Days, which isn't really that interesting to any but the most fanatical Proust scholar. 15 years before Swann's Way, the odd passage shows that the germ for In Search of Lost Time is obviously there, but overall the tone is still juvenile and derivative. Once it climaxed with 40 pages of "sketches" of locations, many of which involve autumn leaves, I figured I safely could put it down.
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Oct 19, 2008 07:25
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| # ? May 14, 2024 04:04 |
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Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk This is one I'd been really looking forward to, since I had previously read Guts and had heard that the short stories in Haunted start at Guts and just get crazier and crazier the further you get. I knew the basic premise for why there were 23 short stories (writer's retreat gone wrong), but I didn't know how big a part of the novel it was. I have to say that the main plot didn't really do it for me - it was pretty much the worse example of Palahniuk's excess where he just rambles and rambles and the exaggerates and exaggerates without any real reason. Yes, there was an interesting point tucked inside the main narrative, but it was belabored to an extreme, and we really stopped learning anything new after the halfway point. From there on out, it was just the most violent, disturbing things you can imagine people doing to themselves. I had really had enough by the time they ate Miss America's baby and then her, and when the Matchmaker chopped his own dick off. The short stories, on the other hand, were fantastic. Yes, a few too many of them ended up just being that the person telling them was a murderer, but each one had its own unique twist and really sucked you in. A few in particular were unbelievable - Guts obviously has its "charms," but Exodus, Civil Twilight, and Dog Years were all really something else. And my favorite, The Nightmare Box, was especially powerful given that its shock and awe comes without a single disgusting or violent twist. I enjoyed the book a lot and will most likely revisit it frequently - but I have a feeling I won't even touch the main plot, and just stick to the short stories.
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Oct 19, 2008 23:00
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