Zizek on Fundamentalism

"...are the terrorist fundamentalists, be they Christian or Muslim, really fundamentalists in the authentic sense of the term? Do they really believe? What they lack is a feature that is easy to discern in all authentic fundamentalists, from Tibetan Buddhists to the Amish is the U.S.: the absence of resentment and envy, the deep indifference towards the non-believers' way of life. If today's so-called fundamentalists really believe they have found their way to truth, why should they feel threatened by non-believers, why should they envy them? When a Buddhist encounters a Western hedonist, he hardly condemns him. He just benevolently notes that the hedonist's search for happiness is self-defeating. In contrast to true fundamentalists, the terrorist pseudo-fundamentalists are deeply bothered, intrigued, fascinated by the sinful life of non-believers. One can feel that, in fighting the sinful Other, they are fighting their own temptation. These so-called Christian or Muslim fundamentalists are a disgrace to true fundamentalism."  -from Violence by Slavoj Zizek

Nobody's Fool

In this era of postmodern metafiction, a guy who writes a straightforward narrative about everyday people can be seen as so last century. That said, for as much as I like a lot of (and love some of) what pometa has to offer, my heart belongs to the John Irvings and Raymond Carvers and David James Duncans and such. So, it seems strange to me (and maybe to you) that I have never read Richard Russo. What a mistake. This guy writes like I wish I wrote about the people I like to read (and write) about. Nobody's Fool is wry and wise, its setting of North Bath, NY is winsome and sad, its main character, Sully, is...well...quite a character. These are the people you read about and wish they were real. You'd have them over for dinner, buy them a beer, ask them for advice, and help them move furniture. They are a reminder of those very same people who exist in reality and how you can do the same with and for them. They help us to celebrate the characters in our own lives.

7-28-10

Fiction/Literature

• Ape House by Sara Gruen
• Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes
• How To Live Safely In A Science Fiction Universe by Charles Yu
• Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo

Non-Fiction

• The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn

Theology/Philosophy

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• Reason, Faith, and Revolution by Terry Eagleton
• The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel
• A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly
• Violence by Slavoj Zizek

A Visit From the Goon Squad

Prefer first person, second person, or third person? Like your narrators reliable or not? Enjoy your fiction more straightforward or postmodern? If your answer to these questions is "yes" then you will most certainly enjoy Jennifer Egan's A Visit From The Goon Squad.


I am still trying to decide whether this is a collection of short stories or a novel. I'm not sure it matters. The narrative is certainly connected, though often separated by 3 or 4 degrees. More loosely tied than, say, Colum McCann's Let The Great World Spin, but more intimately tied as well. This book is funny. "Laugh out loud" funny. This book is sad. "Cry out loud" sad. This book is bold and brilliant. "Read certain passages out loud to your spouse or significant other" bold and brilliant. This book features a chapter (short story?) written as power point presentation, and it may be the most personal and certainly most memorable part of the book.


I'd say this is for fans of David Foster Wallace, but it's really for fans of fiction. Most of you will love all of it, all of you will love some of it. It's one of the more engaging books I have read in some time and I will certainly be reading more of Jennifer Egan's work. I only wish the bookstores weren't closed at 1 a.m. so that I could begin doing so right away.

What Should Kester Be Reading?

Here's a test to see if I actually have a readership. Time to give a bit of feedback. What's a book that if you found out I hadn't read it, you would immediately insist that I do? What's your "must read" book?

One Day w/Spoiler (sort of)

OK, so I wrote in the previous post about how the one day (date) thing wasn't simply a gimmick and that Nicholls was a more thoughtful writer than that. Well, the ending is another sort of gimmick and it feels more like...well...a gimmick. My objection isn't that the ending is sad, but that it's attempt at a sudden, tragic sadness (have you guessed it yet?) ends up not being that sad. It feels pasted on. It feels like the author is trying to make me sad. And he fails to do so.


That said, I liked the book up until the end and the end wasn't bad enough to ruin it. But, what I liked about this book was that it seemed like the kind of things that happen to the kind of people who exist. And then the end felt like the kind of thing that mostly happens in movies and books.


Still worth the read. Just wish he hadn't gone for the tragic tearjerker ending, as it did not have the effect on me that the author was clearly going for.

One Day

What could have been a gimmick turns out to be much more (and less, but in a good way). Actually, I guess it's a gimmick, either way, but it can't be dismissed as gimmick. Here's the premise. Track the relationship between two people by looking at the same day (July 15 -technically, it should be called One Date) over decades of time. Sounds like a gimmick, right? Instead, it allows for a nice, slow character arc and helps us realize the two important truths that a) there is no "most important day of your life" and that means b) all of your days are, potentially, important. These days act as glimpses into a larger story, and David Nicholls fleshes that story and these characters out brilliantly. One of the best friendship/romances in contemporary fiction. I compared it to When Harry Met Sally and Nick Hornby, but it's less campy than the former and less sly and hip than the latter. These days are like days you and I have had, the breakups and fights and tipsy laughter and awkward silences are familiar. And that's what we like about this story.

A Visit From The Goon Squad

They say you can't judge a book by it's cover, but, the fact is, people do. Jennifer Egan's newest book is far too good to have the cover it has. So, if the cover was what was holding you back ("is this rock fiction for tweens?"), don't let it. Pick up this book. I'm only three chapters in and I am hooked and then some. It may be too soon to tell, but I feel myself liking Egan's writing the way I do DFWallace, and for many of the same reasons. The writing is what they call postmo and meta, but mostly it is just very very good. I love this story, I love these characters, I love the way they talk and feel. Egan makes fiction come alive in that the people she makes up don't seem made up, they seem real. Fully realized. Wonderful. Books this good you just hope the author doesn't screw it up before the end. If she doesn't, this will be a new favorite, and I will be checking out more of Egan's fiction.

7-18-10

• Ape House by Sara Gruen
• C by Tom McCarthy
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• One Day by David Nicholls
• A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver

Non-Fiction

• The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn

Theology/Philosophy

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly
• Violence by Slavoj Zizek

Soul of a Citizen

So, here's the problem with a lot of books about how to change the world; 1) they make you aware of a specific crisis, but not offer solutions to it, 2) they will tell stories of people who seem to have solved said crisis only by giving themselves full-time to a solution, 3) they will say that you can solve said crisis, but not offer up practical ideas or stories of how.


Soul of a Citizen is the antithesis of that, and one of the best books on how to do good that I have ever read. The stories that Paul Loeb tells, even of heroes like MLK and Rosa Parks, reveal the back story of years of sacrifices, small and large, that slowly effected change. Loeb makes you aware that there's a problem, inspires you to want to help solve it, makes you believe that you can, and offers practical ways in which to do so. For anyone who wants to do good, but feels overwhelmed by the prospect, I highly recommend Paul Loeb's Soul of a Citizen.

Ape House

I am crazy tired at almost 3 in the a.m., but wanted to mention that I got in the first 3 chapters of Sara Gruen's Ape House over lunch today and am hooked. This is an author who knows how to draw a reader into a story. Excellent characters, well shaped dialogue, and a unique plot are all featured in just the first few pages. It is a story that deals, in large part, with the relationships between apes and humans, between us and the animal kingdom that we are, in fact, a part of. I never got around to reading Water For Elephants, but if Ape House fulfills the promise of its premise, I will certainly be picking it up next.

One Day

Just a quick note based on the 3 or 4 chapters I have read so far. I hate to pull an "it's this meets that" like I'm pitching a movie, but this book is some parts The Time Traveler's Wife mixed with When Harry Met Sally and more than a bit of Nick Hornby thrown in. I mean that in a good way. This book won't change your life, but it has quickly become the most difficult, of the books that I am currently reading, to put down.

7-14-10

Fiction/Literature

• Ape House by Sara Gruen
• C by Tom McCarthy
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• One Day by David Nicholls
• Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver

Non-Fiction

• The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
• Soul of A Citizen by Paul Loeb

Theology/Philosophy

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly
• Violence by Slavoj Zizek

Last night and today I finished A Most Wanted Man by Le Carre, The Past Is A Foreign Country by Carofiglio, and The Wake of Forgiveness by Machart. 

Machart first. I really wanted to love this book and I didn't even like it. Comparisons to Cormac McCarthy and glowing reviews by Tim O'Brien and I was sure this book was for me. The time is turn of the 20th century and the place is Texas. The relationships focus on a widowed father and his three sons. My kind of book. I hoped for stark and spare and sorrowful. All I got was bored.

I came late to the Le Carre party, as this is the first of his books that I've read. That said, it will not be the last. I hate to speak in terms of "elevating the genre" as if adventure fiction can't have merit, but Le Carre is certainly doing something that Tom Clancy and Dan Brown are not. This is a genre that, at its weakest, is driven solely by action and not by characters. Unfortunately, more "literary" works often feel that plot is somehow for those of us who like our fiction with a side of fries. Le Carre reminds us that the best fiction has both, someone we care about doing something we care about. I was caught up in it from beginning to end. So, Le Carre fans, what should I read next?

The Past Is A Foreign Country was my favorite of the three. Talk about a solid plot and fleshed out characters, Carofiglio (I hadn't heard of him either) does both brilliantly. Sort of a mystery, but more than a mystery, this story creates an ongoing yet inexplicable tension, you know something is wrong, but you can't point to what it is that's wrong. But strange things are afoot at the Circle K. Much of this is credited to Carofiglio's narrator, Giorgio, who may or may not be unreliable, which means that he sort of is, regardless. Greatness. I highly recommend this book.

The Boys of Summer

Baseball may be my least favorite sport to watch on television ("may be" if you count golf as a sport). It's a whole lotta nothin' before you get to the good stuff. That said, the good stuff is almost always great. But the whole lotta nothin' keeps me away.


Watching it in the park is better. I can distract myself with the sounds and smells and company of friends. And it's a chance to get outside. If the weather's right, a day or evening at the ballpark can be near perfect.


But what I really love about baseball is the story of baseball. I love Bull Durham and Eight Men Out and even Major League and Field of Dreams. I love the film The Natural as much as I love the book. I loved David Maraniss' amazing biography Clemente and much of what I love about one of my favorite works of fiction, The Brothers K (see sidebar) is that it is a book about baseball. And I am loving The Boys of Summer.


This is Roger Kahn writing about his experiences following, getting to know, and reporting on the mid-20th century Brooklyn Dodgers; the team of Robinson, Snyder, Hodges, and Reese. Each one of these guys is a true character, the way my grandpa means it when he calls someone a character. The kind of character that we think of when we think of baseball; larger than life, battered by experience, dreamy and downtrodden at once. These guys are all too human and yet almost gods.


Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer may be the best book on sports ever written. It is certainly the best that I have ever read. Don't believe me? Just read the opening sentence: "At a point in life when one is through with boyhood, but has not yet discovered how to be a man, it was my fortune to travel with the most marvelously appealing of teams."



The tone of the book is sentimental and bittersweet, much like the sport itself. But its bitter isn't maudlin and its sweet is never shallow, both plumb the depths of humanity and it is that which keeps drawing me in. Kahn paints the picture and he puts you in that place. I pick up this book and it is Brooklyn 1955. I am there. And I don't care if I never get back.

Reading List 7-13-10

Fiction/Literature

• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre
• The Past Is A Foreign Country by Gianrico Carofiglio
• The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart

Non-Fiction

• The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
• Soul of A Citizen by Paul Loeb

Theology/Philosophy

• After You Believe by N.T. Wright
• Violence by Slavoj Zizek

What's Kester Reading?

So, one of my co-workers is soon to be moving on from BookPeople and voiced disappointment that he wouldn't be as up on what was worth reading. His suggestion was that I keep a blog that he could visit to see what I was reading and what I thought of it. That is what this blog will be.

While there are no hard and fast rules to blog posts, most will consist of 1 of 2 possibilities:

1) A list of what I am most currently reading

2) Thoughts on/quotes from/reviews of what I am currently reading or have just finished reading

That's it. Enjoy.