2008 was apparently the year that dead foreign writers crossed over in America. We saw the release of Roberto Bolano's 2666 (which may be making it to my book list) and Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
I'm about 125 pages in since last night and this is the first book in a while that I've felt has really consumed me. I was up way too late reading it and find the characters, situation and pacing to be excellent.
I'm kind of loathe to really speak to much about it at this point because much can shift but so far the translation reads quite brisk taking time to annotate unfamiliar nouns to give context.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Book 3: Bug Jack Barron
This book turned out to be quite well done. With elements of horror, science fiction, media criticism, race relations (the book was written in 1969), with foul language, brutal violence, political cynicism, science apathy, and a really dim view of human nature where people do good not out of the desire to do good but either because it is the final option they haven't yet tried or out of guilt.
It came across to me as the well written novel of an angry young man (the author was 29 when he wrote it) who had beaten society to the grit and grime of the 70s.
In light of Obama, the book is a really fascinating read into the view that things would never change. This combined with reading things like Post-Soul Nation, it just seems amazing that we were able to get to where we are now. Of course there's still a long way yet to go.
I wish I could write more on this book as there are some rather keen stylistic bits that I'd like to show off and I'd love to be able to give specific examples of Why I Hate Her (the horribly written female lead who had the emotional development of protoplasmic goop). This is certainly worth reading, and would make a great art film, but if Hollywood ever got it, it would probably be horrible.
I would film it as though it were filmed in the 70s using color processes by DeLuxe that are specific to the time period, casting unknowns. It's a really talky picture with little action or need for expensive set pieces so I don't think it would even cost that much. I'm willing to bet the rather liberal usage of the word "nigger" would certainly put the kibosh on the whole thing.
It came across to me as the well written novel of an angry young man (the author was 29 when he wrote it) who had beaten society to the grit and grime of the 70s.
In light of Obama, the book is a really fascinating read into the view that things would never change. This combined with reading things like Post-Soul Nation, it just seems amazing that we were able to get to where we are now. Of course there's still a long way yet to go.
I wish I could write more on this book as there are some rather keen stylistic bits that I'd like to show off and I'd love to be able to give specific examples of Why I Hate Her (the horribly written female lead who had the emotional development of protoplasmic goop). This is certainly worth reading, and would make a great art film, but if Hollywood ever got it, it would probably be horrible.
I would film it as though it were filmed in the 70s using color processes by DeLuxe that are specific to the time period, casting unknowns. It's a really talky picture with little action or need for expensive set pieces so I don't think it would even cost that much. I'm willing to bet the rather liberal usage of the word "nigger" would certainly put the kibosh on the whole thing.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Interlude: 1000 Novels You Must Read
The Guardian paper has begun publishing a series of articles entitled 1000 Novels You Must Read with a few grand genres (so far Comedy, Crime, Love) and then a series of smaller articles for more niche sub genres and some devoted to individual authors Michael Dibdin (whom I love), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I'm not really a fan of Sherlock Holmes, and much prefer his shorter fiction like The Brazilian Cat), and Great Arabic Love Stories.
So far I haven't had much time to really go through all of the novels, but I thought it may be of interest.
Spent far less time reading this weekend than I had previously planned, so I have still not finished Bug Jack Barron.
Next book will definitely be The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
So far I haven't had much time to really go through all of the novels, but I thought it may be of interest.
Spent far less time reading this weekend than I had previously planned, so I have still not finished Bug Jack Barron.
Next book will definitely be The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Interlude: Book Buying.
I am almost finished with Bug Jack Barron. I'll probably finish up the remaining 70 pages tonight.
Don't know what's next.
Thanks to Strand Books, I picked up two Ian M Banks books, Consider Phelbas and The Player of Games. Both in the Culture series of Science Fiction books. To my understanding it's not really a series but rather a Universe wherein the Author dips in and out of various worlds and the like. I honestly can't say as I've not read any of them, though I now have 5 of the books.
I also grabbed The Dark Descent, which is my absolute favorite horror anthology of all time and I will try to do a short write up of it. As it's over a thousand pages and I've read it to the point of disintegrating a copy, I don't think I'll be up to reading it for the 52/52 project. The anthologist, David G. Hartwell tries to break down horror into three aspects and then attempts to trace historical roots of these aspects by interposing modern and historical stories. I don't have the book in front of me to quote or define what those aspects are, so I will just link to the Google Books entry wherein you can read the excellent introduction yourself.
I've also picked up The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This book had quite a bit of hype when it was released in September and it seems to be another author we Americans are only getting after he's died. Haven't read to much on it, but I do know that there's a film version coming from its home country of Sweden.
Don't know what's next.
Thanks to Strand Books, I picked up two Ian M Banks books, Consider Phelbas and The Player of Games. Both in the Culture series of Science Fiction books. To my understanding it's not really a series but rather a Universe wherein the Author dips in and out of various worlds and the like. I honestly can't say as I've not read any of them, though I now have 5 of the books.
I also grabbed The Dark Descent, which is my absolute favorite horror anthology of all time and I will try to do a short write up of it. As it's over a thousand pages and I've read it to the point of disintegrating a copy, I don't think I'll be up to reading it for the 52/52 project. The anthologist, David G. Hartwell tries to break down horror into three aspects and then attempts to trace historical roots of these aspects by interposing modern and historical stories. I don't have the book in front of me to quote or define what those aspects are, so I will just link to the Google Books entry wherein you can read the excellent introduction yourself.
I've also picked up The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This book had quite a bit of hype when it was released in September and it seems to be another author we Americans are only getting after he's died. Haven't read to much on it, but I do know that there's a film version coming from its home country of Sweden.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
interlude: Is it not enough to just read genre fiction?
The Guardian book blog features a post entitled "The Lure of the Spy Story" wherein a woman whose natural inclination to read literary fiction is superset by her desire to read and enjoy spy fiction (to the amusement of her brother, apparently).
Is it possible to enjoy genre fiction without digging up classical antecedents to justify the genre and to contextualize your enjoyment within a canonical education?
Is it possible to enjoy genre fiction without digging up classical antecedents to justify the genre and to contextualize your enjoyment within a canonical education?
Bug Jack Barron Continues
I'm about half way through this book and the other shoe, with regards to the plot, has dropped.
This book is excellent with the interplay between Jack and his various nemeses but it's really falling apart whenever Sara (the love of Jack's life) is involved in any way. The relationship she has with other characters and her internal monologue rings just absolutely false. The setting up her as the great motivator for Jack's various actions is similarly hollow as well.
It is driving me up the wall because she's becoming more important to the story.
The internal monologues are still holding up even when we shift from character to character without much warning. It's a technique of which I feared I'd get tired, but it's only laborious when it's Sara (oh how i love jack. how i would hate for anything bad to happen to him. oh what's that man doing? what has he gotten himself into? and on and on and on. Less a realized character.)
It's also kind of funny to see how much of the book's worldview falls apart with regards to race relations in light of the election of Obama (there's a speech by Luke, Jack's former co-activist partner, where in he says that there will never be a president who isn't white and is angered by Jack's casual statement that Luke run for president).
This book is excellent with the interplay between Jack and his various nemeses but it's really falling apart whenever Sara (the love of Jack's life) is involved in any way. The relationship she has with other characters and her internal monologue rings just absolutely false. The setting up her as the great motivator for Jack's various actions is similarly hollow as well.
It is driving me up the wall because she's becoming more important to the story.
The internal monologues are still holding up even when we shift from character to character without much warning. It's a technique of which I feared I'd get tired, but it's only laborious when it's Sara (oh how i love jack. how i would hate for anything bad to happen to him. oh what's that man doing? what has he gotten himself into? and on and on and on. Less a realized character.)
It's also kind of funny to see how much of the book's worldview falls apart with regards to race relations in light of the election of Obama (there's a speech by Luke, Jack's former co-activist partner, where in he says that there will never be a president who isn't white and is angered by Jack's casual statement that Luke run for president).
Monday, January 12, 2009
Interlude
Last night before bed, I began to flip through MURDER INK (as referenced below) and read a few bits of it. I'm an occasional mystery reader, but more of a tourist than a devotee. I come across neat stuff as it comes to me rather than my seeking it out, so reading a book by a fanatic for fanatics is really a bit of an eye opener.
The thing I want to discuss today is the Haycraft Queen Cornerstones. This is a list of works which stretches back over two hundred years dealing with "mysteries." It is not a complete list, but rather touches upon the main works within the genre (thus the name Cornerstones). Unfortunately I could find no formatting of the Cornerstones which matches the annotation found within Murder Ink, nor could I find something so simple as a collection of links from the authors and works to existing Wikipedia articles so that people unfamiliar with the list (people like myself) could find helpful notation on WHY the work is considered important.
However, I wanted to post the link to the list here. As the list ends in 1952, expect a particular bias with regards to the titles mentioned.
The thing I want to discuss today is the Haycraft Queen Cornerstones. This is a list of works which stretches back over two hundred years dealing with "mysteries." It is not a complete list, but rather touches upon the main works within the genre (thus the name Cornerstones). Unfortunately I could find no formatting of the Cornerstones which matches the annotation found within Murder Ink, nor could I find something so simple as a collection of links from the authors and works to existing Wikipedia articles so that people unfamiliar with the list (people like myself) could find helpful notation on WHY the work is considered important.
However, I wanted to post the link to the list here. As the list ends in 1952, expect a particular bias with regards to the titles mentioned.
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