Saturday, August 28, 2010

8-28-10

Fiction
  • The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
  • Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
  • Dubliners by James Joyce
  • The Instructions by Adam Levin
  • Our Kind of Traitor by John Le Carre
  • The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman
Theology/Philosophy
  • After You Believe by N.T. Wright
  • Longing For Spring by Elaine Heath
  • The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel
  • A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Change Is Good

Another one of those great quotes from one of my favorite writers.


"How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but everyone feels it clearly in themselves. And yet in our world, everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing themselves." 
- Leo Tolstoy

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The New Rebels

This isn't text from any book I'm reading, but a great commentary by one of my favorite authors.


"The next real literary “rebels” in this country might well emerge as some weird bunch of anti-rebels, born oglers who dare somehow to back away from ironic watching, who have the childish gall actually to endorse and instantiate single-entendre principles. Who treat of plain old untrendy human troubles and emotions in U.S. life with reverence and conviction. Who eschew self-consciousness and hip fatigue. These anti-rebels would be outdated, of course, before they even started. Dead on the page. Too sincere. Clearly repressed. Backward, quaint, naive, anachronistic. Maybe that’ll be the point. Maybe that’s why they’ll be the next real rebels. Real rebels, as far as I can see, risk disapproval. The old postmodern insurgents risked the gasp and squeal: shock, disgust, outrage, censorship, accusations of socialism, anarchism, nihilism. Today’s risks are different. The new rebels might be artists willing to risk the yawn, the rolled eyes, the cool smile, the nudged ribs, the parody of gifted ironists, the “Oh how banal.” To risk accusations of sentimentality, melodrama. Of overcredulity. Of softness. Of willingness to be suckered by a world of lurkers and starers who fear gaze and ridicule above imprisonment without law." 
-David Foster Wallace

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Cathedral

I know this barely qualifies as a comment, let alone a serious post, but Raymond Carver is one of the most brilliant short story writers in the history of the genre. And Cathedral is probably his best work. I have long loved his "best of" collection Where I'm Calling From, but hadn't realized how much of that collection featured in this one. Pick this up.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Half the Sky

In terms of my own personal heartbreak this week, this has been both just what I didn't need and just what I needed. These stories make my own heartbreak seem small and insignificant, by comparison, and yet the willingness and ability to heal and to endure is far past admirable and well into amazing. Kristof's reportage does not shy away from the brutality enforced on women across the globe, but it is only so as to enhance the strength and courage of the women who turn their tragedy into triumph, for themselves as well as others. The stories are horrifying, but to turn away is nothing short of sinful. These things are happening, and Kristof gives us hope that we might make them stop. First, we must raise our awareness, then our voices, and ultimately change our lives however we can in order to change the world in which we live. Half the Sky is a must read.

8-21-10

Fiction
  • Cathedral by Raymond Carver
  • Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
  • The Instructions by Adam Levin
  • True Grit by Charles Portis
  • The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman
Theology/Philosophy
  • After You Believe by N.T. Wright
  • Longing For Spring by Elaine Heath
  • Reason, Faith, and Revolution by Terry Eagleton
  • The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel
  • A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Don Quixote (Edith Grossman translation)

I have attempted to read Don Quixote on three separate occasions, previous to this one, and each has been an exercise in tedium. I have always loved the story of Don Quixote and have hoped to enjoy Cervantes' book, but have always bogged down in my attempts to read it.


That is, until this time. This time it moves like the grand adventure I knew it could be. The experience has been so inexplicably different, that I was sure it couldn't be chalked up to "4th times the charm".


Fortunately for me, there is a section at the back of this edition that compares translations of varying sections. And I made the startling discovery that this edition hoped I would make, that being, what a difference a good translation makes.


Much as I know better, some part of me still imagined that all translations are, in essence, created equal. Edith Grossman's take on Cervantes has changed that line of thinking forever. I will never take a translation lightly again.


So, if you've ever found the Russians unbearable or wondered how people can stand to read Les Miserables (I've been fortunate in my choice of translation in all these cases), perhaps you should try a better translation. I know that I am glad I did.

The Boys of Summer

When I began Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer, I expected it to be a rewarding experience, which it was. After all, it tops many "Best Sports Book of All-Time" kinds of lists. I expected it to take me back to a time before my time, which it did, focusing on Kahn's first hand experience traveling with and writing on the 50s era Dodgers. What I did not expect, but was blown away by, was the second half of the book and its focus on what happens to men who were treated as gods who have to return to being men again. It is a sad and winsome look at what some had to look forward to, what others didn't, and what all of them left behind. It is certainly the best book on sport that I have ever read and I highly recommend it to baseball and non-baseball fans alike.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

8-18-10

Fiction
  • Citrus County by John Brandon
  • Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
  • The Instructions by Adam Levin
Non-Fiction
  • Bound To Last by Sean Manning
  • Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof
Theology/Philosophy
  • After You Believe by N.T. Wright
  • Longing For Spring by Elaine Heath
  • Reason, Faith, and Revolution by Terry Eagleton
  • The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel
  • A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly

Thursday, August 12, 2010

The Instructions

Here is a poem written by the narrator protagonist Gurion. He is ten years old and in love with a girl named June. 


The poem is titled I Won't Tell You I'm Not Breaching The Penumbra


While I hide inside a doorway
in C-Hall,
preventing my toes from breaking
an outline,
I reject a fancier string of words
than this one
because when
you touched me on the head,
I didn't get dangerous,
and I don't know if you know penumbra


How can you not love this kid? How can you not love this book?

The Instructions

Adam Levin's The Instructions is over 900 pages long. The advanced copy I received was sent in two parts. I imagine the two parts bound together and immediately have Infinite Jest flashbacks.


But that's not all that Levin has in common with Wallace. In fact, only a third of the way through, I am beginning to think that this story of 4 days in the life of a ten-year-old who might be the messiah is going to have a similar impact as that which Wallace's writing first had on me; no small feat.


All that to say, I'm excited. And hoping this book doesn't let me down. It hasn't yet. It hasn't even come close. Come on Levin, don't fail me now.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

8-11-10


Fiction
  • Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
  • How To Live Safely In A Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
  • The Instructions by Adam Levin
Non-Fiction
  • The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
  • Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof
  • My Year of Flops by Nathan Rabin
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

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Nobody's Fool

Am finishing up the book and watched the movie tonight. Have loved this movie since the first time I saw it, but the greatness of the book makes the movie pale in comparison. This is common among film adaptations of books, but it's striking when a film your mind held up as amazing now seems only good.


I don't say any of this to disparage the film (I still enjoyed it quite a bit) but to point lovers of the film to the superiority of the book. If you haven't read it, you really should.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

8-7-10

Fiction
  • Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
  • How To Live Safely In A Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
  • The Instructions by Adam Levin
  • Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo
Non-Fiction
  • The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
  • Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof
  • My Year of Flops by Nathan Rabin
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

Ape House

I'm one of five people who didn't read Sara Gruen's Water For Elephants, so Ape House was my introduction to her writing. I liked it. I don't mean to damn it with faint praise, I really did like it. Quite a bit. Just short of a lot. I didn't love it, but I couldn't put my finger on why. I don't have a complaint with it, except that it's maybe a bit too neat. I don't mind a "Six Months Later" postscript to a story, but I do mind when it simply serves as a way to tie everything up just so. The story and characters don't feel forced (that, I would not have liked), but they seem easy, the tragedies don't seem tragic, the revelations don't bring any real epiphanies. The whole thing never quite comes alive.


That sounds like I didn't like it. I did. I liked the story, I liked the characters. I liked that the apes were characters. In fact, that may be at the heart of the problem. The book's premise suggests a kind of "apes are people too" premise (something I'm not convinced of, but am intrigued by) and yet the apes seem secondary. When featured, they are the most interesting characters in the book and yet they are never fully featured. The promise of the book is that they will be more than plot devices, but they almost never are. Which is sad. Because the other, more heavily featured characters suffer in comparison. I wanted to know more about the apes and less about the woman who works with them, the reporter who is captivated by them, the mogul who exploits them, etc. I had hoped Gruen might get me inside the apes' heads (no easy task, I grant you), but she never does. Which makes the premise seem unconvincing. One walks away feeling that the apes couldn't be fleshed out simply because they're not as "human" as the author would have us believe.


I really did like this book. Really.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Room

Emma Donoghue's Room is as claustrophobic as its title's location, but don't let that keep you from reading it. It is horrifying and heartbreaking, but that shouldn't send you away. In fact, I can't think of any good reason not to make this the next thing on your reading list, except that it doesn't come out in stores until September. When it does, pick it up. It is the story of a room inhabited by a mother and her son. It is a story brilliantly and endearingly narrated by a 5-year-old boy. It is a story full of fear and faith and love and loss. It is a story about the world we live in and what a scary and wonderful place it can be.

8-4-10

Fiction
  • Ape House by Sara Gruen
  • Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
  • 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