I like pretentious things. I like difficult things. The higher the concept is, the more willing I am to try and appreciate what the author/artist/musician was going for. This past month was the most prolific reading month I've had in quite a while, and I read three books in particular that bore out my penchant for difficulty.
The Fifty-Year Sword by Mark Z. Danielewski
Danielewski made this book into an art project. The illustrations are hand-stitched (in the more expensive versions of the book at least) and the effort undertaken to make the experience of this book a visual one as well as a textual one was something that I thought worked very well. The story is short and perhaps not as engaging as it could be; at a party, five orphans are mesmerized by a mysterious storyteller and the box he brings as a prop to tell the story of the titular sword. The book is narrated by the five orphans years later, with different colored quotation marks denoting which of them is recounting the story at that time. The layering of stories and storytellers is something that Danielewski loves to do, but I think he' done it better elsewhere.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
I put this book down after 100 pages and I wasn't sure I was going to pick it back up. The violence was unrelenting, unending, and awful. I didn't know that I wanted to suffer through another 250 pages of that. It sat there for two weeks or so before I started up again. When I started back up again, something clicked. It's the story of the kid who joins up with a gang in Mexico/Texas in the 1850s that cuts a bloody path through the West toward the ocean. But it's more about the kid who ends up having to respond to evil, to extermination (of people, of feelings, of knowledge, of everything). McCarthy writes this all in a way that is amazing. I've heard it described as biblical and also as though he's trying way too hard to make it sound like important literature. Both are accurate. Like I said, I like pretention, so I ate it up. I'm really glad I stuck with it, the judge is a great character pitted against the kid.
Satantango by Lazlo Krasznahorkai
Maelstrom is the word that comes to mind. The members of a small, dying, Hungarian village are caught in a rainstorm. Rumor gets around that a savior is coming. Every chapter started with a sense of disorientation, that slowly resolved to something resembling clarity once the point of view was revealed. Every sentence battered and threw me around before finishing half a page later. The rain never lets up in the story and the deluge of the writing matches that well. The structure of the book is really well done (the chapters in the first part are numbered 1,2,3,4,5,6: the second part is numbered 6,5,4,3,2,1 and there is a good reason for it). It's not an uplifting book by any means, but the first half left me in awe, and the second half didn't quite match that, but it was very good. I know there are a couple people here who like Roberto Bolaño, and I think this would fit that same category.
Three books with big aspirations, and I enjoyed all three, although for different reasons. I think that "Satantango" was my favorite that I read this month, it's difficulty ended up being the most rewarding. Share your thoughts on difficult literature or start a discussion of what you read this past month.
I mentioned this link to Mak, but it probably didn't meet the serious quotient of his post. Special for the artistes in the Nation.
I am still plowing through 1491, as well as trying to get caught up on back issues of the Economist that The Girl tends to squirrel away in her room.
also, for those of you interested in book art, I will point you to the various works of FobS Brad Zellar (see more generally the Little Brown Mushroom tumblr).
Doc, I think we have a common intersection.
bS - I'll also point to his blog as one of my top 3, go-to points on teh interwebs. His ode to a dog is one of the best essays I've read in quite a while (even if you're not really a dog person).
Yup.
Brad was always a funny, interesting guy. And, if you can believe this, student council preznit as a senior.
I can believe it.
Blitzed through the Mistborn trilogy. I enjoyed it quite a bit. The magic system was great and there were several characters I could root for. Once Sanderson gets, oh, nine more books into his Stormlight Archive I might start that. Right now, I'm reading through this year's Hardball Times Baseball Annual.
I keep meaning to pick up the Mistborn trilogy, I really do. I'm sure I'll remember that series one of these days when I'm buying books on Amazon.
It seems like everyone who has read the Mistborn trilogy reads through it super fast. I have my eye on another Sanderson book first, but that series is certainly on my list.
I didn't read through it particularly quick; I think two weeks per book. I guess that counts as quick. It reads quickly and hooks you in the first book. I have mixed feelings about the ending, but I think it was an appropriate ending.
I've made pretty good progress on "Our Band Could Be Your Life" and "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", thanks largely to the insane amount of downtime at work the past two weeks when I was covering snack bar shifts.
As I mentioned to The Dread Pirate the other day, I recently became interested in Caro's work. I read a few pages of the sample for the first book in the LBJ series, and I'm very intrigued. I'll definitely read them at some point, but it'll be awhile. I need to finish "Third Reich" first, and I'll want to read a palate cleanser between the two. Otherwise, it'd be too much on power-hungry world leaders in a row.
I know you read a lot of non-fiction, do you read any science or engineering-type books, or is it mostly political or cultural books?
I am trying to read more non-fiction, but have more interest in science over the other stuff.
I like science history, like "The Man Who Found Time" for instance, and I've read stuff like "A Brief History of Time", but I tend to avoid overly-technical stuff.
do you like biology/natural history, Mak? I'd point you to Stephen J. Gould's books, which are (mostly) just collections of his columns (so can be read in short bites).
The Path Between the Seas and The Great Bridge by David McCullough both are very science-heavy and interesting. (Well, at least science-heavy to me, but Sheenie loved TPBTS because it allowed her to dust off the engineering portion of her mind.)
The only book I read during the holidays was this continuation of the seminal series, which I thoroughly enjoyed, btw:
On the bedside table I have the following:
The later is more a picture book with some essays (and a CD) so I should be able to handle both at the same time. After that I have:
So I should have some good stuff to report on in future months.
Read Postwar by Tony Judt and loved it. Realized I forgot to put out my annual BoF post highlighting all the books I had read in 2012.
Mak, I wish I could share your enthusiasm for pretension...in truth, I've struggled to complete Catch-22 and A Confederacy of Dunces since picking them up based on rave reviews around here. I don't know if they're worthy of being considered "difficult", I would only admit that I haven't enjoyed them despite their wide appeal to people here who's opinion I respect.
I am, however, enjoying the heck out of my Christmas present from my wife - Land of Amber Waters: The History of Brewing in Minnesota by Doug Hoverson. History + beer + great photos and anecdotes = a very fun read. I'm through the first couple of chapters/70 years of Minnesota history. I can't wait to give you all a final review.
Catch-22 isn't difficult, per se, but you have to persevere for quite a while before you get the nice payoff.
The Pirate will tell you different but I couldn't stand Confederacy of Dunces. On the other hand, Catch-22 is one of my all-time favorites. The humor and irreverence of Yossarian got me, and I really enjoyed the way Heller circled back through events giving a little more information each time.
I found Dunces mildly amusing when I read it in the early 1980s, but nowhere near the hype that had already developed around it. Catch-22 is awesome.
However, responding to this LTE caused me to rabbit-hole to this, which I did not know existed. I am a fan of Canticle.
My issue with Dunces was entirely chalked up to my dislike of the Ignatius, the narrator. It's not just this book, there are other characters like him that I have found similarly grating and have caused me to set down other books.
My issue with Dunces was entirely chalked up to my dislike of the Ignatius, the narrator. It's not just this book, there are other characters like him that I have found similarly grating and have caused me to set down other books.
I'm with you on this. I only made it about 50 pages in and found him so annoying that I couldn't go on.
Of course, I hate George Costanza so much that I can't stomache some episodes of Seinfeld. I know I am in the minority on this.
And then Larry David is essentially the same as George Costanza in Curb Your Enthusiasm. I watched 2 episodes, maybe 3? of that and never came back.
Me too.
Never even saw one.
I enjoy Seinfeld, but I've never watched more than 2-3 minutes worth of CYE before losing interest.
Which is funny, because Jason Alexander's model for George Costanza was Larry David.
which is not exactly surprising, since David co-created the series with Jerry....
I've never been a fan of Seinfeld, but Curb is one of my very favorite TV shows ever.
it's been about a decade since i read confederacy of dunces, which i found to be highly overrated. catch-22, on the other hand... first off, secondy second everything that doc daneeka said. second, i don't have a favorite book, but if i did, it would probably be catch-22.
EDIT: i wrote something that summed up my feelings real nice before, but i can't seem to find it now...
Wait, Daneeka's Ghost has Catch-22 as one of his favorites?
What are the odds?
Better than random chance would dictate, for sure.
That's some catch, that Catch-22.
guys, you're leaving me hanging on this one...
I'm having a difficult time finding a photo of a ballplayer wearing #22 and making a catch.
Gomez?
finest kind...
oh, wait, wrong satirical war novel.
*forehead slap*
"It's the best there is."
One of the really appealing aspects of Confederacy to me is how perfectly it lampoons a lot of the nutjobs who live in New Orleans. I can see that not really appealing/clicking with a more casual reader.
heh. um... what the pirate said.
Other books I read in the last month.
Hellboy: The Storm and the Fury - I really miss Mike Mignola's artwork, but he's working on about 6 other series now, so it's not surprising that others are being brought on board to draw. Still the story careens along with this one, and I'm very interested to see where it goes from here.
Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries - I really like Ronson's style. This was a collection of articles he has written about the weird or people on the fringe of society. An overarching theme was missing from this one, but there were a couple of good short pieces.
Ancient Light by John Banville - This reminded me of Sense of an Ending (which I loved) in that one of the main themes was the unreliable memories of the narrator. Unfortunately this didn't have the quick pace or the same engagement as Sense. I liked parts of it, but I had trouble engaging with other parts. I came to find that this is part of a collection of novels by Banville that all concern the same group of people. Maybe if I'd read those I would have engaged more.
Sorry Please Thank You by Charles Yu - Science fiction short stories with a wink. Yu goes from meta to more meta in this one. It reminded me of Douglas Adams (although not as funny) as far as the reference and use of sci-fi tropes. I enjoyed it but none of the stories made me sit up and say "wow".
Currently Reading:
The Sovereignties of Invention by Matthew Battles - Remember when I said I loved pretension. Yeah, I love these stories. They are available for free here.
The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus - Children's speech becomes toxic to their parents. It's very strange, and it reminds me of the bizarre logic of Shane Jones with the apocalyptic world of Blake Butler. Undecided on whether this will match up to either of those.
Link to Battles' stories.
I'm the opposite with pretentiousness- it definitely turns me off of a story if flowery language is getting in the way of the plot. My favorite authors are definitely more into brevity.
That said, I've read plenty of authors that pack their stories with details and minutiae. I can stand it in small chunks, so short stories are perfect. And free is always good!
I prefer stark writing, like Hemingway, but if pretension serves the work I enjoy it. It's pretension for pretension's sake that annoys me.
Thanks for the link to the Battles book. Nice-sized pieces for a bus commuter.
I donated blood today and read the first two, and the third on the bus home.
I've had to read the first paragraph or two of each story multiple times to understand, but the writing gets less dense after the set-ups (more or less).
M. Night Shyamalan could make some horrible feature-length movies out of these stories.
PS. If you feel like posting links to more short stories which are available on the internet (and which you've enjoyed), please do so. I'm not really of a mind to seek stuff out or anything, but I'll probably read your recs until I start to doubt your curatorial judgement. (Of course, then Hugo-Award Nominees day at the WGOM wouldn't be such an event for me, but that's a small price to pay.)
I actually resolved to start keeping better track of the short stories I read, so I can definitely dump the "read" folder here occasionally. Here's 5, well, 6, but 2 are very short.
"Armless Maidens of the American West" by Genevieve Valentine
"Baby Cheetah" and "Rabbit" by Colin Winnette
"Intestate" by Charlie Jane Anders (I haven't read this yet, but I feel comfortable recommending Ms. Anders stuff)
"The Slingshot" by John Hodgman (not fiction, but worth it)
"The Cottage on the Hill" by J. Robert Lennon
Daneeka's Ghost likes story entitled of "Baby Cheetah"!
What are the odds on that?
This will not surprise you, but that story is how I found out about Colin Winnette. Now I've ordered his collection (which those two stories come from) and am very excited to see what else is in there.
If nothing else, because of these stories I learned what a gnomon is.
I thought it was a new word.
I've got three left, but "For Provisional Description of Superficial Features" is my favorite of the Battles stories.
Actually made me think of something you would've written for Spookymilk, Ghostman. A bit too pointed in its cultural criticism for your voice, but other than that it's close.
I was digging the cowboy/Mexico/horse trilogy stuff by Cormac McC., but The Road defueled me. Don't read this book, it drains/sux the soul.
Too late. The Road was my introduction to McCarthy.
I liked it, but No Country for Old Men and Blood Meridian have given me a deeper appreciation for what he can do with words.
I got the wife a great Prepper knife for Xmas (designed by NYC policeman) that can rip thru an airbag, cut thru a seat belt, bust thru a car window, and LED for dilated pupils.
The Road was the first McCarthy book I read, and I haven't managed to make myself read another one since. I couldn't hardly put The Road down-
Powerful, but yeah, soul-sucking depressing.
Mine too. I haven't read another one since, but not because of a dislike. I loved The Road. I got the sense of dread and perpetual malaise; can even understand the "soul-sucking" tag but I latched on to the love story after the first read and never looked back.
Speaking of pretentious, did I mention that Satantango is the inspiration for a 6.5-hour art film?
Well, I have limits as to my appreciation for difficulty, I'm pretty sure that one won't be on my list any time soon.
If I watch a movie for that long, it had better be by Ken Burns, and he had better not end it with a tedious lovefest about the second-richest team finally overcoming their massive idiocy and poor management to win a championship.
I'd always wanted to try to make my way through the 15½ hour (!) Berlin Alexanderplatz but I never remember to buy it during the Criterion sales. Maybe next time.
I was amazed that Lincoln had no mention of the Red Sox in it.
there were lots of bloody socks....
I read one and a half American Girls books. I started with the second half of Good Luck, Ivy!. I figured I could get the set-up of the conflict from the back (which I did), so I just read for the resolution.
Then I picked up the first Julie book, Meet Julie. Julie is the main character, Ivy is the secondary, so she doesn't have as many books.
Nutshell: San Fransisco 1974, Julie is 12, Mom & Dad just divorced, moving out right before school starts, away from friend. Julie misses old school, friend, life. Wants to play basketball. No girls' team. Boy's Coach is a pig: she can't join. Julie starts petition. Reaches signature goal, Coach dismisses it. She takes it to principal...
And that's the end of the story! Nothing about being on the teams, tensions with joining (she does have one friend on it. Will he give in to peer pressure and be mean to her or something?), what happens when she makes a mistake, etc. etc. I knew she was gonna get on the team, but I wanted to see the real struggle: It's not over when she gets to her first practice.
The preview for the next book mentions "after her big basketball game ends badly" and some reviewer-bot mentions "[Julie] loves being part of the basketball team (in fact, she's the only girl on it!)" and "Julie has a little accident while plant-sitting Tracy's science project, and an even bigger accident on the basketball court." Do I ask CER to check out Julie Tells Her Story next so I can read it, even though I know I'm likely to be unsatisfied with the ease of getting past her problems? None of the other books in the series seem to be about her trailblazing basketball playing anyways.
Not even mentioned. For all the book cares, could have been
Also reading (to AJR) an revised version of The Story of Dr. Doolittle. The $1 Target edition: revised and condensed. I've never read any of these books, but I'm finding it quite enjoyable. I don't think that there are revised and condensed versions of the other books in the series for $1.
Removed the condescending comments towards African natives, eh?
/Taps nose.
Not sure exactly what changed. I see that archive.org has a full-book scan, so I might do a bit of comparing.
New illos, for sure.
Wasn't really around much at all yesterday, but wanted to weigh in on the "pretentious" book idea. I tend to find myself liking "great" books. I'm not entirely sure that pretentious works as a descriptor though. I love Pynchon and Dostoyevsky, classics like Gulliver's Travels, and modern classics like Remains Of The Day. But I don't really enjoy books where the writing itself is pretentious (Rushdie? Meh. "the things that bees love"? Gag me.). So I'm not sure whether I like pretentious or not. Maybe I only like some things that are pretentious and dislike others? Perhaps I'm just fickle that way.
I plan on reading The Brothers Karamazov sometime this year (I have to find the copy I bought at Salvation Army) because I enjoyed Anna Karenina so much more than I expected. My boss devours books (but mainly the same stuff I read), so I'm enjoying picking his brain. I also think I'm going to start reading some of Bruce Catton's civil war books.
The Brothers Karamazov is in my top 5 books (along with Crime and Punishment). Dostoyevsky rocks.
B.K. also in my top 2. C+P is 1. Agreed that D. rocks.
I think Pynchon's V. is my #2, with BK as #3. But I've read V. more recently.
I really enjoyed V. although it took me a long time to read it. I need to read more of Pynchon, but I don't know when that will happen.
I'd recommend The Crying of Lot 49. It's short, and fairly easy. And pretty awesome. I also really really enjoyed Against The Day, but it took me >1 year to finish.
Lot 49 and V. are the only Pynchon I've read. I liked V. better, but liked Lot 49 quite a bit.
V. is one of my favorites, so I certainly get that. I think I romanticize Lot 49 a bit since it was my re-introduction to Pynchon, away from the classroom, and it was fairly accessible. I've still got Inherent Vice on my waiting list, for sometime after I finish this dud I'm reading now (Invisible Man).
Oh, snap. I forgot you were a pynchon fan. The next time we beer it up you'll have to remind me as Dr. Chop wrote her master's thesis on Gravity's Rainbow.
See I didn't like 49 all that much. It was just too ... odd.
I should probably read it again. When you decide to tackle it, let me know. But give me a little advance warning. And read it slow. Then, after you've accommodated all my demands, we can discuss.
I'll let you know. It might not be for a month or two.
Connecting MBD and FMD, Mark Z. Danielewski is the brother of the singer Poe (of whom E-6 is decidedly not a fan).
Anyone here willing to admit he/she preordered A Memory of Light??
I admit that I'm looking forward to reading it, but I will wait for the paperback (or library).
My birthday is in 3 weeks, I've been dropping hints.