Chabon is a classic example of his-first-novel-was-the-best disease.
― Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 1 December 2011 17:51 (twelve years ago) link
what are you saying Alfred? I own a copy of Kavalier & Clay and plan on getting around to it eventually. Are you saying it's not worth my time?
― iagree (henrietta lacks), Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:03 (twelve years ago) link
K&C has lots of marvelous bits but it's not a great novel.
― Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:04 (twelve years ago) link
he has a weird aphasia whenever something "happens", like an action scene or a gun being fired or a major event, at which his writing suddenly, temporarily crumbles, & it's hard to get a sense of what's even meant to be unfolding.
i think those novels - the yiddish policeman thing, wonder boys & k&c - are fun & readable tho
― Never translate German (schlump), Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:06 (twelve years ago) link
He's also got that MFA habit of flaunting his erudition. K&C boasts an uninteresting sideplot about Allied troops in the North Pole that betrays more than a few hours spent at the library.
― Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:09 (twelve years ago) link
that's not an MFA thing
― flexidisc, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:13 (twelve years ago) link
see Melville's whale stuff in Moby-Dick. he didn't have an MFA.
― flexidisc, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:15 (twelve years ago) link
also it was the South Pole
structurally Moby-Dick could support its "digressions" (I would argue they aren't).
― Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:19 (twelve years ago) link
Pynchon
― flexidisc, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:21 (twelve years ago) link
the glove stuff in American Pastoral
― flexidisc, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:22 (twelve years ago) link
they are digressions--to think they are not is to miss the point of what Melville does in the book
― flexidisc, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:23 (twelve years ago) link
Melville's whale stuff ruled. Anyways, that's apples and oranges: some of that stuff in Moby Dick is intentionally wrong, and is supposed to characterize Ishmael the narrator as a well-read layman for whom Ahab's mania is gathering universal implications. Whereas I doubt Chabon would ever risk looking stupid like that.
― iagree (henrietta lacks), Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:24 (twelve years ago) link
Anyway my point is. . .writers with and without MFA's flaunt their smarts all the time, it's a "thing" that writers do.
― flexidisc, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:26 (twelve years ago) link
I am reading Malone Dies
― flexidisc, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:27 (twelve years ago) link
some of that stuff in Moby Dick is intentionally wrong, and is supposed to characterize Ishmael the narrator as a well-read layman for whom Ahab's mania is gathering universal implications.
otm
flexidisc, if I step away from what Melville achieves rhetorically in the novel with those "digressions," they still work as explanations of shipping and whaling culture.
― Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:27 (twelve years ago) link
yah but my point which you are not seeing is, he (Melville, not Ahab) is flaunting his erudition with them.
― flexidisc, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:28 (twelve years ago) link
oops i mean Melville not Ishmael
― flexidisc, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:29 (twelve years ago) link
and you have provided 0% evidence that MFAers do this sort of thing
i'm reading the second coming of steve jobs
― your voice of treason, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:31 (twelve years ago) link
Just finished
Joan Didion, Where I Was From Charles Willeford, Miami BluesL.P. Davies, Twilight Journey
I had a big Murakami binge recently, so I need a break before starting 1Q84, but I am looking forward to it -- glad to hear there are plenty of cooking and eating scenes.
― Brad C., Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:32 (twelve years ago) link
and you have provided 0% evidence for taking a remark on a message board so seriously
― Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 1 December 2011 18:32 (twelve years ago) link
1Q84 was the first Murakami book I was able to get halfway through. Finished it within a week or two and really enjoyed it.
― calstars, Thursday, 1 December 2011 19:25 (twelve years ago) link
still working on 1Q84, i the part where fuka-eri says:
"the poor gilyaks!"
...paragraph...
"the wonderful gilyaks!"
was very cute
― diamonddaze85 (ok), Thursday, 1 December 2011 19:37 (twelve years ago) link
i thought the part**
also possibly the first time fuka-eri exclaimed anything?
― diamonddaze85 (ok), Thursday, 1 December 2011 19:38 (twelve years ago) link
* 1Q84 spoiler alert * in book 3 tengo misses the way her voice goes up at the end of a sentence when she asks a question, which kinda pisses on how we think she asks a question prior to that hitting that line
― farah ferrigno, Thursday, 1 December 2011 21:30 (twelve years ago) link
Joan Didion, Where I Was From
how was this? i always put it back on the shelf sorta (i know, terrible) thinking OLD TIMES, BORRRRRING, but my friend was enthusing about it recently. it's essays, right? family essays. i finally got around to ordering political fictions, so that's next, but could use further endorsement of WIWF
― Never translate German (schlump), Thursday, 1 December 2011 21:39 (twelve years ago) link
there are lots of sloppy things abt the way tengo 'reports' her reactions, like what it means to not answer a qn.
yeah im not really a big fan of his but i found this one super readable too, even if it was p repetitive and conceptually sloppy i just wanted to spend time w/ the characters, gather more hints. i sorta wish he hadnt squished any kind of suspense or mystery or drama w/ all the explanation and heavy foreshadowing tho
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Thursday, 1 December 2011 21:41 (twelve years ago) link
xp
I liked WIWF. It's sort of disguised as a family memoir, and there is plenty about old times in it, but it's mainly about California, and the Californian state of mind, crashing and burning.
― Brad C., Thursday, 1 December 2011 21:45 (twelve years ago) link
her piece on californian water pressure in the white album is one of my favs, & probably bodes well in terms of suggesting i'll be interested even if the premise doesn't sound gripping. TY
― Never translate German (schlump), Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:01 (twelve years ago) link
fwiw: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/books/10-best-books-of-2011.html?_r=1&hpw
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:02 (twelve years ago) link
i've been reading this albert einstein biography and i just realized it's by the same guy who wrote the big steve jobs bio with all the crazy quotes
― n/a, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:06 (twelve years ago) link
nytimes, what a stoopit list. but swamplandia is p. neat. I think it's a dark, funny, beautifully written book that is also... forceably odd? not always very good? but super entertaining, too.
― remy bean in exile, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:07 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.readersread.com/pics/swamplandia_cover.jpg
^^^ may be an HBO miniseries?
― remy bean in exile, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:08 (twelve years ago) link
of the ones i read, swamplandia! was pretty great, art of fielding was pretty terrible, and 11/22/63 was solid but doesn't deserve to be in a best of 2011 list
― n/a, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:08 (twelve years ago) link
if you're going to read a large, numerically-titled sci fi-tinged novel about alternate worlds by an acclaimed novelist who's past his prime, i'd definitely go with 11/22/63 over 1Q84.
― n/a, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
feel to logey/dim to really organize my thoughts but swamplandia! was just too precious/considered/crafts-y for me
it is a p funny list non-fiction wise but im looking fwd to the new stephen king
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
'art of fielding' was just actual garbage tho
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:10 (twelve years ago) link
1Q84 gets worse and worse in my mind as more time passes since i read it, it's approaching "freedom" levels of disgust now
― n/a, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:10 (twelve years ago) link
swamplandia! had some "modern literary fiction" problems but at least had an interesting setting and unusual characters and an unpredictable plot, unlike art of fielding, with its precocious students and troubled headmaster at a small new england college
― n/a, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:12 (twelve years ago) link
http://literarytransgressions.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/fitzparadise.jpg
― wil smif, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:13 (twelve years ago) link
^^ i think thats my fave of his
the idea that ppl dont read 'the art of fielding' filled with disgust for everyone involved makes me so angry
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:21 (twelve years ago) link
Anybody read Ten Thousand Saints? That sounded amazing...
― iagree (henrietta lacks), Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:24 (twelve years ago) link
xxxxps
Parts of Where I Was From put the water management systems described in that White Album essay into a broader historical context.
Warning, it is a depressing book. Didion summarizes the history of the state in the words of Virginia Reed, survivor of the Donner party: "Never take no cut-offs and hurry along as fast as you can."
― Brad C., Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:25 (twelve years ago) link
lamp you remind me of f scott fitzgerald
― wil smif, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:25 (twelve years ago) link
ummmm????
yeah, i posted abt it on real ilx i think, i liked it a fair bit (xxp)
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:26 (twelve years ago) link
its true you have a very similar writing style! & content even
― wil smif, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:27 (twelve years ago) link
yeah ten thousand saints did sound good, would read
― Never translate German (schlump), Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:36 (twelve years ago) link
I finished Blue Nights before Thanksgiving -- not as affecting as its predecessor, almost thin in places. When she does her trick of repeating images like motifs it's quite moving: serving fried chicken on nice china, Quintana's rather eerie childhood self-possession, ordering room service when on assignment.
― Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 1 December 2011 22:43 (twelve years ago) link