1 post tagged “j.m. coetzee”
I've been reading too much lately, so I've decided to divide this month's SIBR post into two parts. This is the first part and covers all my book-related activities up through October 19th. The second part will cover the rest of the month. I'll post it in a week or two.
BOOKS BOUGHT:
- The New York Trilogy--Paul Auster
- Angle of Repose--Wallace Stegner
- A Bend in the River--V.S. Naipaul
- Disgrace--J.M. Coetzee
- Blood Meridian--Cormac McCarthy
- Jar City--Arnaldur Indriðason (thanks to SteveP)
- The Book of Pilates--Joyce Gavin
- The Walking Dead: Vol.5--William Kirkman
- Pastoralia--George Saunders
- The Studs Lonigan Trilogy--James T. Farrell
- Ticknor--Sheila Heti
- The Middle Stories--Sheila Heti
BOOKS READ:
- Search Party: Collected Poems--William Matthews
William Matthews was a poet born in Cincinnati in 1942. He died ten years ago. I'm usually not much of a poetry reader, but my cousin recommended William Matthews to me and I decided to give him a try. I bought and read Search Party: Collected Poems. My favorite poems in the collection were the ones written about seeing Charles Mingus perform. I also enjoyed "The Penalty for Bigamy Is Two Wives", "Nabokov's Death", and the hilarious "A Poetry Reading at West Point". Some of the later poems were too long and dense for me to figure out in the time I gave them. That's my fault, though.
- Giotto's Hand--Iain Pears
Giotto's Hand is the fifth book in Iain Pears' seven book Art History Mystery series. I made the mistake of reading the seventh book first, so the surprise twist at the end of Giotto's Hand wasn't as surprising as it otherwise would have been. It was still a good, quick read.
- McSweeney's #24
McSweeney's #24 was divided into two sections. The first featured a bunch of authors trying to convince me that Don Barthelme was a great writer. I read his 60 Stories collection last year and didn't care for it at all. In fact, it is probably my least favorite short story collection ever. For some reason, though, I didn't mind reading other authors fawning over Barthelme. I may not enjoy his writing, but it sounds like he was an interesting man.
The second section of McSweeney's consisted of six short stories full of violence and murders. I don't want to spoil anything, but bullets fly in all six stories. It was very un-McSweeney's, but it made for good reading anyway. I especially enjoyed "Bored to Death" by Jonathan Ames.
- The New York Trilogy--Paul Auster
My brother recommended The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. It's a collection of three interrelated detective novellas. These aren't your typical detective stories, though; these are flat-out weird. They actually reminded me a bit of Franz Kafka's novels The Castle and The Trial. All the characters seemed to be mentally unstable with a slightly screwy grasp on reality. I think The New York Trilogy is supposed to be "postmodern", but I've honestly never understood what that term meant. I always thought it was just a fancy thing that grad students said to get me to punch them in the throat.
But anyway, the stories were confusing, but ultimately worth reading. I didn't really "get" the book until I finished it and was able to see how the stories and characters were related. Even now, I'm not sure I understood everything.
- God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian--Kurt Vonnegut
My uncle told me about God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian by Kurt Vonnegut. The book is based on a series of brief essays originally aired on NPR. In them, Vonnegut repeatedly "dies", interviews famous dead people in the afterlife, and then gets brought back to life by Jack Kevorkian so he (Vonnegut) can tell us what the dead people had to say.
I went up to the bookstore to buy God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian and saw that it was a thin volume printed in a huge font with a lot of blank filler pages. I sat down in a chair and read the entire book in the store. It only took me 20 minutes and I saved $10.
- Disgrace--J.M. Coetzee
I have a book called 1000 Books You Must Read Before You Die. It features essays on books the editors consider to be essential reading. In skimming through the book, one of the things I noticed was that there was a lot of J.M. Coetzee in there...eleven books, in fact. I'd never read anything by the author before, so I went out and bought a copy of Disgrace. I picked it over his other books because it had a "Winner of the 1999 Booker Prize" emblem on the front.
Disgrace is about a South African professor whose life falls apart after he has an affair with a student. He loses his job and ends up going to live with his daughter on her farm. He volunteers at an animal shelter and tries to write an opera about Lord Byron. Just when he thinks it can't get any worse, real tragedy strikes.
Disgrace was a great book and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Maybe the 1000 Books editors were on to something.
- The Book of Pilates--Joyce Gavin
This was just a book I bought to familiarize myself with the basic concepts and techniques of Pilates. It served its purpose and one of the models was cute. There's not much else to say about it.
- Blood Meridian--Cormac McCarthy
I was out book shopping and a crazy lady came up to me and told me I should read Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. I've enjoyed McCarthy in the past and I'm always willing to listen to crazy people, so I bought a copy. Wow! I thought No Country for Old Men was a violent book; it doesn't even come close to Blood Meridian.
Blood Meridian follows the adventures of "the kid", a young gunslinger who hires on with the Glanton gang, a real-life gang that was contracted to kill Indians near the Mexican border in the mid-1800s. The Glantons scalp their kills and get money from the government for each scalp they bring in. Before you know it, they're killing everybody...men, women, children, infants, the elderly, horses, donkeys, each other, etc. Glanton himself is one of the most depraved characters I've read, but he pales in comparison to Judge Holden, a huge, strangely gifted man who leaves a trail of raped and murdered children wherever he goes. The Judge makes Patrick Bateman look like an altar boy.
I must admit that I didn't enjoy Blood Meridian. It wasn't even the violence that turned me off; I just had trouble following the story. The other Cormac McCarthy books I've read were easy reads. Blood Meridian was a tough one and it seemed even tougher because I wasn't expecting to have to concentrate so much. There was also a lot of untranslated Spanish that gave me trouble. I don't quit books once I've begun them, though, so I pushed on through. I'm glad I did. The last chapter was absolutely amazing. It was one of the best endings I've ever read. It was so good that I'm seriously considering going back and reading the entire book over again.
CURRENTLY READING:
- The World Without Us--Alan Weisman
- The Middle Stories--Sheila Heti
