Stuff I've Been Reading: A Monthly Column (11/07)

BOOKS BOUGHT:

• Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans
• Story of the Eye--Georges Bataille

BOOKS READ:

• Jar City--Arnaldur Indriðason

I spent some time in Reykjavik a few years back, and came away with an interest in Icelandic culture that remains to this day.  I've read Icelandic authors as diverse as Halldór Laxness (yeah!!) and Hallgrímur Helgason (boo!!).  SteveP mentioned Arnaldur Indriðason's Jar City a couple months back, and I knew I had to track down the book and read it.  I'm glad I did; it's one of the best crime novels I've read in a long time.  I look forward to reading the rest of the Inspector Erlendur books.      

• Goodbye, Columbus--Philip Roth

I originally purchased Goodbye, Columbus as a present for my brother's birthday.  Then I remembered he hadn't bothered to give me a present for my birthday, so I ended up keeping the book for myself.  Of course, keeping the book meant I had to read the thing.  I was a bit hesitant as I haven't always enjoyed the Roth I've read.  I liked Goodbye, Columbus a lot, though.  The titular novella was excellent.  The remaining five stories were also impressive.  They all dealt with Jewish culture and the problems of assimilating into post-war America.  It's not subject matter I thought I'd find interesting, but I did.

My favorite was "The Conversion of the Jews" which had a young boy named Ozzie questioning some of the illogical tenants of his religion.  I don't want to spoil it for you, but Ozzie ends up on the roof of his synagogue while his classmates down below encourage him to jump off.   

• Pastoralia--George Saunders  

I first became interested in George Saunders when I watched the second season Christmas episode of NBC's The Office.  In it, Ryan buys a Saunders book to give to Toby for Secret Santa.  I thought to myself, "What kind of book would Ryan buy for Toby?"  I had to find out.  Unfortunately, the episode wasn't clear as to which book Ryan actually bought.  I picked Pastoralia because it was short and had a deer and a caveman on the cover.

Pastoralia is a collection of six short stories.  They were all hilarious and weird.  (The stories reminded me a bit of the work of T.C. Boyle.)  In the first story--also named "Pastoralia"--a man and his co-worker while away their days in a live caveman exhibit.  The thing is, no one ever comes to see the exhibit.  Would you act like a normal person if no one was looking, or would you spend all day in character just in case someone showed up?!  These are among the questions Saunders asks the reader.

Oh, while I'm writing about Pastoralia, I feel I must quote from the story "Sea Oak".  In it, some of the characters watch a television program called The Worst That Could Happen.  The show is described as follows:

...a half-hour of computer simulations of tragedies that have never actually occurred but theoretically could.  A kid gets hit by a train and flies into a zoo, where he's eaten by wolves.  A man cuts his hand off chopping wood and while wandering around screaming for help is picked up by a tornado and dropped on a preschool during recess and lands on a pregnant teacher.

If you can find the humor in that, then you'll probably enjoy Pastoralia.        

• Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans

The full name of this book is Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's Humor Category.  As the name would suggest, it's a collection of humorous bits from the McSweeney's Quarterly Concern and website.  I bought this collection because it made me laugh outloud in the bookstore four times.  The collection of lists at the end of the book was particularly funny.  The best part, though, and the part that made this book worth purchasing, was the essay by J.M. Tyree called "On the Implausability of the Death Star's Trash Compactor".  Yes, this guy wrote four whole pages on why it didn't make any sense for the Death Star to have a trash compactor.

• I Am Legend--Richard Matheson (reread)

All the kids are talking about the upcoming movie version of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, so I thought it would be a good time to revisit the book.  For a science fiction/horror story originally published in the 50s, I Am Legend stands up better than most.  (It occurs to me now that I have no frame of reference here.  I Am Legend is probably the only science fiction/horror story from the 50s that I've ever read.  I'm just assuming it's aged well.)

I had a couple issues the first time I read I Am Legend, and those issues remain even after the second read.  First of all, I think Matheson did a poor job of explaining the differences between the two types of vampires.  This comes into play during the story's ending and left me a bit confused.  Second of all, the parts where Neville tries to scientifically explain the vampire phenomenon are just flat-out boring.  Other than those two issues, I Am Legend is an exciting and interesting take on vampires and one of the best post-apocalyptic tales out there.

My copy of I Am Legend features some of Matheson's short stories tacked on at the end.  I read the stories the first time I read the book and hated them all.  They are among the worst stories I've ever read.  I didn't bother reading them a second time.      

• Angle of Repose--Wallace Stegner

I was on a reading roll at the beginning of November.  In fact, all the books mentioned above were read in the first ten days of the month.  My roll promptly crashed to a halt when I picked up Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose.  It took me twelve days to read the first chapter.  At that rate, it would have taken me 416 days to finish the book.  Most people would have dumped the book and moved on to something else.  I'll quit jobs and relationships without a thought, but I've never quit a novel once I've started reading it.  I plow on through.  It's what I do.

I'm glad I didn't quit.  Angle of Repose turned out to be one of the top two or three books I've read this year.  It tells the story of Lyman Ward, a historian struggling with the results of a divorce and a bone disease that have left him crippled and immobile.  He settles into his grandparent's old house and begins writing the story of their marriage.  He uses his grandmother's letters, old newspaper articles, and his own childhood memories.  The story that results is sad and beautiful.

Here's one of my favorite lines (it's Lyman speaking to Shelly, a neighbor who works as his secretary):

How do I know what you should do?  You'll do what you think you want to do, or what you think you ought to do.  If you're very lucky, luckier than anybody I know, the two will coincide.

I like that.

Angle of Repose won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1972.  I'm not exactly sure what other books were up for the honor that year, but I'd have to say the board got it right.        

CURRENTLY READING:

• The World Without Us--Alan Weisman
• A Bend in the River--V.S. Naipaul

November books