May 19, 2023As I Lay DyingI don't think I gave this book a fair hand, I don't think the audio book did well. I was worse at following it than I was with my recent forays into Joyce, despite Faulkner's comparatively straightforward story and language. The ravings and wanderings and decayings and burnings and bloatings of the family and their journey, while not inexpertly conveyed, did not quite strike true. I think this should have struck me in the gut, and it did not. Maybe later, or maybe read in the usual oracular sense
Jun 10, 2023The Bluest EyeToni Morrison is perhaps the most powerful writer.
Jun 24, 2023Mason DixonI think this is likely the best of Thomas Pynchon, one of the great novels of my lifetime, although I enjoyed his Bleeding Edge more. I don't know that I've read a better book that was written since I've been born. Better and good and great and enjoyable and exhilarating are all of course very different words, and it is for all of that not one of my favorite books, but. Masterful style, compelling history, quality story of Friendship and a pair in the lineage of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, awesome odyssey and the usual overbrimming of stories and side characters, framing devices and framed devices. It is, all in all, A Lot. But very good at it.
Jul 2, 2023I Am A CatI am a cat is a delight! I guess just an old-timey I-can-haz-cheezeburger meme, but written by an author who I adore for the beauty and elegance of his prose and the delicacy of the relationships he portrays...which does feel a bit of a strange setup, but I guess that is what comes of reading a bibliography in reverse-chronological order, and skipping the other humorous one (I'll get to Botchan eventually). I am a Cat is a delight in the lines of Archy and Mehitable, although it focuses more on the satire and less on the satirical premise - Soseki performs an interesting balancing act of making the funny cat jokes and commenting on the foibles of the Meiji intelligentsia, where the former are more relatable to me and the latter I guess more relatable to him. He is insightful and illustrative and is full of entertaining tidbits, although admittedly I would not say that it has necessarily aged and traveled entirely well; some bits of the book fall flat or are a bit of a chore. Also the ending? Was a bit strong? The introduction suggested Soseki had gotten bored with his characters or ran out of things he wanted to satirize, which I guess makes it the canonical explanation - I would have been inclined to mince my words about the matter a bit otherwise. Anyways, worth a read if you like cats and the Meiji intelligentsia.
Jul 18, 2023A Passage To IndiaA Passage to India is a moral story of a friendship, and I want to be able to say that the moral story that it tells is of course completely obvious these days and is in fact full of its own failings - but the way that the Trial is held does I suppose still technically have something to say about how casual privilege. But like, its mostly obsolete and while definitely insightful for its time, does still make some mistakes of its own as a project of orientalism. And it was like a pretty good story, in general, and always love a story of a Friendship, and misunderstandings always tragic. So I don't think this is like a necessary or important read, but it is a worthy read.
Jul 18, 2023StonerI think I spend too much time trying to solve for the author of a book, in general, when I read. Really I suppose I should kill the author, that is the cool thing to do. But I think here that is my criticism of this book - while aesthetically, technically quite sound (impressive even? great maybe? approaching greatness, at the least), I'm just not that much of a fan of how the author drips through the cracks. The author is someone who read that the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, who admires the stoic farmer and romanticizes the farmer poet. Which, like, fair! The farmer-poet is romantic, and there is a lot of desperation around. And I have enjoyed or at least gotten something out of sad or depressing or hopeless books before - they can provide solace, or validation, or a call to action, they can contain a new way of looking at things whose impact shatters against your soul, or a new way to empathize with people. Not to be like comprehensive about it, but those are what I have gotten.
Sep 23, 2023My Name Is RedYou walk into the room with your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked and you say, "Who is that man?"
You try so hard but you don't understand
Just what you will say when you get home
Because something is happening here
but you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?
Nov 1, 2023The Name Of The RoseI've been keeping a little inventory of books that misuse and abuse the word palimpsest. It is, in my opinion, a bit of a trap of a word - arcane yet evocative, strange sounding with a compelling meaning that is particularly so for authors; what is more authorial than burying one layer of meaning behind another? And so it seems extraordinarily common for authors to shoe in the word where it is not appropriate, either through blatant misuse (I'm looking at you, The Traitor Baru Cormorant) or just like a bit of a stretch (it is not necessary to refer to dirty whiteboards as palimpsests, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow). Also, to Homi K Bhabha, palimpsetical is most definitely not a word that needs to exist.
Nov 5, 2023The AeneidPretty good for self-insert fanfic. Better then the Iliad, better in parts and pieces than the Odyssey.
Nov 23, 2023The MasterA sweet and thoughtful novel, a little bit lonely, Henry James looking back on an interesting and humane life and set of relationships, father and sister and artist friends. Contemplative but never (terribly, I suppose it is in the eye of the beholder) dry, James's life makes for an interesting platform for exploration of life, death, friends and family. I should probably read more of James's work, and I guess Tóibín's while I'm at it.