My summaries have gotten appallingly bad. I'm just so daunted by the amount of catching up I need to do!

Book #23

Saturday by Ian McEwan

Summary: An ordinary Saturday in the life of a British neurosurgeon turns violent and surreal.

Thoughts: Problematic, in a word. McEwan’s protagonist is kind of loathsome – a posturing middle-aged man – in his dealings with the street thug he encounters. And the ending is just so… it’s like an episode of ER or something. However, McEwan is so great at description – the family members, the house, London, etc. – that I almost forgave him. Almost.

Book #24

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

Summary: The Queen becomes an avid reader when she accidentally comes across a travelling library, leading her to neglect her royal duties.

Thoughts: Really, really lovely. Bennett is funny, quick-witted, sharp. He also imagines a Queen Elizabeth who is perhaps more intellectually curious and sarcastic than the real person (no one will ever know, of course), and who is quite a charming protagonist. By focusing on what reading means in the life of one extraordinary person, Bennett urges us all to read, whenever and wherever we can.

Book #25

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Summary: Two girls and a boy grow up in an elite boarding school – but all is not as it seems.

Thoughts: I was completely on board with the futuristic dystopia of this novel, but the characters are so dull. The narrator endlessly worries about what everything means, the other lead female is completely unsympathetic, and the third member of the trio – a male love interest – is just boring and has absolutely no sex appeal. I think part of the problem is that all of the characters feel very immature – which makes sense in context, since they’ve been raised in these secretive schools for one specific purpose (organ donation) and don’t manage to experience much of “real life.” But it doesn’t make for very psychologically complex interior monologues.

Book #26

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

Summary: A chaotic family lives an eccentric life in the country, and the female cousins grow up and go in pursuit of love and adventure.

Thoughts: Excessively diverting, if I may borrow an Austen phrase for a second. Really this was just a lot of fun, with the perfect amount of bittersweet. There’s not much else to say – it’s the sort of chaotic, scrambled life I think a lot of children like to imagine for themselves, with adventures and exotic parents far off in the distance and lots of wild cousins to play with. But when all these children grow up it gets a little more complicated, as Mitford demonstrates very well. The pursuit of love is always frustrating and unsatisfying, and for every person who finds what they want there are five who don’t. So despite the adventures and chaos at the beginning, this novel has something of a realist outlook.

I know it's been a while. I've read 47 books this year - fingers crossed I'll make my goal and be able to up it for 2010! I'm at a pathetic 22 on the "reviewed" scale though. Time to step it up.

Book #21

A Live Coal in the Sea by Madeleine L’Engle

Summary: When Dr. Camilla Dickinson's teenage granddaughter raises questions about her birth, long-kept secrets rise to the surface to test the faith, love, and loyalty of the Xanthakos family. (Chapters.ca)

Thoughts: I was quite disappointed by this. I love L’Engle’s young adult fiction. And when I say “love,” what I really mean is “the person I am today was created as I read L’Engle’s YA fiction over and over again.” (See Book #20.) So, you know, this novel – one of L’Engle’s many works of fiction for adults – had a lot to live up to.

And it didn’t! There was just way too much going on. Mothers sleeping with professors, love stories, difficult adopted children, shocking deaths, adultery, illicit gay sex, veiled child abuse, etc. The wonderful thing about L’Engle’s YA writing is that no matter how complex the issues at hand are, the stories are actually quite simple: characters learn how to love themselves and look at the world with curiosity, not animosity. From the wild beauty and confusing scientific tangle that is her Time quartet (A Wrinkle in Time and its companion novels) to the quiet intimacy and coming-of-age awkwardness of the Vicky Austin novels, L’Engle’s characters deal with real life problems (yes, even in the novels about time travel and international scientific intrigue). I couldn’t find a character to hold on to in this novel.

Love the title, though.

I will be seeking out some of her other adult fiction, but that’s only because of the indelible impression her YA stuff had on me. Somewhere out there I’m sure she’s written something just as wonderful as A Ring of Endless Light, only for adults.

Book #22

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

Summary: Alice’s life was changed forever when she killed a high school friend – a boy she loved – in a car accident. Now she’s a librarian who seems to leave her small town upbringing even farther behind when she marries Charlie Blackwell, the charismatic son of Wisconsin’s former governor. And when Charlie decides to enter politics himself, Alice finds herself in the midst of a life she never imagined. Sittenfeld’s novel is based on the imagined inner life of Laura Bush.

Quote: “That moment – inside it, I could anticipate the thing I most wanted and I could be beyond it, it had happened already, and I was ensconced in the rich reassurance of knowing it was certain and definite. … Or maybe this is only what I think now. But it was all we ever had! Approaching each other, him from the gym, me from the library – this was when I walked down the aisle and he was waiting, this was when we made love, it was every anniversary, every reunion in an airport or train station, every reconciliation after a quarrel. This was the whole of our lives together.”

Thoughts: As soon as I read that quote above I fell in love with this book. It’s an early peak, coming about one fourth of the way through such a huge novel. Sittenfeld’s approximation of what Laura Bush’s childhood and teenage years might have looked like, if they took place in small-town Wisconsin, is wonderful. Yes, the real Bush killed a friend of hers in a car accident when she was seventeen. For Sittenfeld this becomes the focal point of “Alice’s” life, an incident which fundamentally alters her character and perhaps explains why she chooses to marry rich, fun-loving, charismatic Charlie Blackwell (aka George Walker Bush himself). Since this is a book based on a rather inscrutable public figure – and the parts of her life she never discusses in the press – Sittenfeld is smart to wonder what motivates Alice/Laura. That’s what we find most fascinating about Laura Bush, after all. Why is this quiet former librarian married to George Bush, of all people? How did that happen?

Sittenfeld neatly expresses the anguish of possibility, particularly in this quote above, which describes the last encounter Alice has with the high school friend and potential boyfriend she will later hit with her parents’ car. It’s moments like this in the novel that are beautiful and movingly written irrespective of the plot’s connection to Laura Bush. Unfortunately, once Alice meets Charlie Blackwell it becomes something of a guessing game trying to recognize the Karl Roves and Dick Cheneys of the narrative. And Charlie Blackwell is odious – the frat boy charm and jokesy manner can’t conceal his unearned privilege and reactionary politics. At that point Alice becomes almost impossible to identify with. And also at that point I started to wonder how much literary merit this novel has beyond its connection to Laura Bush. Taken on its own, it’s the story of a small-town girl who accidentally kills a boy she loves and spends the rest of her life married to an irresponsible, privileged charmer who becomes president of the United States almost without effort. It’s dramatic, of course, but what gives it human interest is the George and Laura Bush connection. If we didn’t know that it was true, it would seem almost too much plot for one novel, especially when the writer’s talents on their own are clearly more than enough to hold the reader’s interest.

I've been reading a lot and neglecting to write up my thoughts. I have 37 books read now, and have managed to pretty much forget what I thought of them! Here are a few with no unifying theme other than they were all written by women.

( Books seventeen through twenty after the jump! )

If the novel is "the adventure of interiority," as Georg Lukacs asserts in The Theory of the Novel, these three novels are exemplars of the genre. Livesey's protagonist lives a secluded life with mostly her imagination for comfort - and we're left to wonder whether the ghosts she sees are real or imagined. Meanwhile, Tyler explores a marriage from two perspectives, and Wolitzer follows a group of stay-at-home moms seeing the same experiences through very different eyes.

Book #14

Eva Moves the Furniture by Margot Livesey

Summary: Eva has always had “companions” – strange, ghostly figures who protect and counsel her. However, as she grows older they start to interfere more and more with her daily life.

Thoughts: (There may be errors in my citation of factual details here – it’s been a while since I read this.) Promising plot, clear and interesting enough writing, likeable main character – and it all falls apart about halfway in. Raised by her loving father and aunt after her mother’s death in childbirth, Eva sees ghosts – the figures of a beautiful woman and a little girl – for most of her childhood. She calls them “companions” and they spend less time with her as she ages. From playing with the girl while the woman watches in childhood, Eva becomes a nurse and moves to Glasgow where she helps with the war effort. And then she falls in love with a young Jewish doctor and the companions make a reappearance – determined to keep her away from Samuel. This is where characterization and plot disappear. So Eva’s been portrayed as this smart, intuitive girl who doesn’t want to settle down and marry just about anyone – and then after the companions convince her to dump Samuel she does exactly that! After becoming a nurse at a boys’ boarding school she marries a teacher. The worst part – she seems to do it just because she wants to have a baby. But there’s been no indication in the novel until that point that she’s the maternal type. And Samuel, the supposed great love of her life, is never heard from again. The companions seem oddly sinister – it’s as though Livesey was writing a real ghost story and then stopped halfway through and tacked on a heart-warming ending. It’s very odd, and not something I want to reread, to be honest.

Book #15

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

Summary: Attending the funeral of an old friend, Ira and Maggie Moran are prompted to look back on their courtship and marriage, and attempt to set things right between their son and the mother of his child.

Thoughts: Loved this! Tyler switches seamlessly between Maggie and Ira’s viewpoints, and the juxtaposition of their decades-old memories and the main “action” of the novel, which takes place all in one day, keeps the pace quick. You get to meet Maggie and Ira at multiple stages of their lives and their relationship is perfectly drawn.

Book #16

The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer

Summary: This novel follows the lives of several stay at home moms in New York City as they shepherd their children through elite Manhattan schools and reflect on why they gave up their careers.

Thoughts: Very good writing – sort of gently funny, introspective, multiple viewpoints – but this novel is a victim of what I call my “Jennifer Weiner curse.” As much as I like or admire the writing style and agree with the author’s politics (or my impression of their politics, as I don’t know if Wolitzer has a feminist blog a la Weiner), I just can’t relate much to the subject matter. That’s certainly not always necessary (I can’t really relate to Heathcliff and Cathy or Romeo and Juliet either) but this is a very interior novel, and relating to the characters is necessary. It’s heavy on free indirect discourse and light on action and dialogue. To be quite honest, the lives of stay-at-home moms – particularly the privileged New York City moms of this novel – don’t really interest me at this stage of my life. They meditate a lot on what it means to stay at home with children and how they came to choose this for themselves, etc. etc. Meanwhile, on the periphery of the main plot there’s a rocket scientist mom and a high-powered curator (also a mom) having an affair and they both seem more interesting than the stay at home moms who narrate the novel.

These are linked only because I read them for the same class on literary theory!

Book #12

Professing Literature by Gerald Graff

Summary: An institutional history of English literature as it is taught in American universities.

Thoughts: This may not be interesting to anyone without a vested interest in how English literature is taught at universities but I found it fascinating. Graff focuses on literature but his history of the teaching of English in American institutions encompasses philosophy, drama, history and many other subjects as well. From the early days of faith-based Harvard and Yale programs to the New Critics to the current vogue for interdisciplinary studies, this is a comprehensive and readable history. Graff also has an informed point of view on what’s best for students.

Book #13

The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald

Summary: The narrator, a thinly disguised Sebald himself, takes a walking tour of southeast England and reflects on the history of the region, and Europe as a whole.

Thoughts: Really, all that comes to mind when I think of this novel is a lot of rambling. I read it only two months ago but it feels like eons. Sebald’s narrator takes a walking tour through the southeast coast of England and meditates on the process of history and problems of interpretation. It’s not a novel as much as it is a collection of historical anecdotes which all illustrate the difficulties of trying to assign one definitive meaning to an action or event in a person’s life. Sebald lingers on the life of the young Joseph Conrad, the writings of seventeenth-century naturalist Sir Thomas Browne, and others in order to explore how we assign and interpret meaning centuries after the fact. It is definitely an interesting book – as rambly and discursive as the seacoast that Sebald wanders. But if you’re a plot-driven reader, as I normally am, the style takes some getting used to. Don’t expect characters or any coherent narrative.

Fortuitously enough, sometimes the books I read seem to connect via theme or style... These two novels are about many different characters with lives that intersect at unexpected angles. While Eliot focuses on a small English village and Lahiri's characters leap across oceans and cultures, both novels are about the feelings that unite us all as human beings.

I haven't posted in a while, but I've been doing lots of reading. I just finished book 30, so I'm halfway to my goal of 60 by December (if I make that, next year the goal gets upped to 70). I'd like to get to 45 or even 50 by the end of the summer, because I have so little time for pleasure reading during the school semester.

Book #10

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Summary: The goings-on of a small English town as seen through the eyes of an idealistic young woman and a determined young doctor.

Thoughts: Hmm. I found this… difficult, to be honest. I kept expecting a lot of Austen-like satire or Bronte-like histrionics, but Eliot always pulls back before either extreme. It’s probably unfair and lazy to compare all the female writers of the 19^th century to each other, but here we go. I frankly wasn’t prepared for the role religion was going to play in Middlemarch. Austen’s clergy are either objects of cruel satire (Mr. Collins, Mr. Elton) or wise love interests (Tilney), while the Brontes favour the ascetic side of things (St. John). Eliot presents a passionate Protestant heroine, Dorothea Brooke, who longs to do good works and is just slightly out of touch with reality. There’s gentle satire there (particularly at the beginning when Dorothea longs to marry a Milton-like figure), but the character is really too good. You can’t sympathise with someone that pious, or hate her either… she’s just this negative presence in the novel. I felt sorry for her but I couldn’t understand her at all. Was that the point? Who knows. And the supposed love story between her and Will Ladislaw… he’s a layabout! Her sympathetic friendship with Lydgate seemed like a much better romantic connection – but of course he is married to the odious Rosamund.

This is the kind of novel I might have to read again to even like… Right now I can only appreciate Eliot’s obvious talent. But I find her writing quite dense and I didn’t quite get it.

Book #11

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

Summary: Lahiri’s collection of short stories deals with themes familiar from The Namesake: the immigrant experience in America, human connection, bonds between families and the journey into adulthood.

Thoughts: I loved this short story collection. The standouts, for me, were the last three linked stories. The final one in particular is an evocative and moving exploration of chance and missed opportunities. Lahiri’s writing always feels very grounded in setting – so whether it’s Rome, a lush Thai beach or the suburbs of Seattle, I felt as though I were right there with the characters. Lahiri’s characters also have rich inner lives – she focuses much more on introspection than on dialogue, and she does it wonderfully. Highly recommended.

Book #7

Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner

Summary: When Cannie’s ex-boyfriend writes a column about their relationship called “Loving a Larger Woman,” it plunges Cannie into the scariest, best year of her life.

Thoughts: That’s a horrible summary but there are quite a few dramatic plot developments, so I wanted to keep it simple. That’s my main quibble with the novel – a bit too much to take in, and Weiner is a very funny writer who doesn’t take things too seriously. Some of the events, then (for example, Cannie gets pregnant and almost loses the baby when she falls down after a push from her ex’s new girlfriend), feel a bit out of place in such a light-hearted novel. And then the whole Hollywood part is pure wish fulfillment, I think. As I said in my previous review of a Weiner novel, I love her blog but I guess I’m not old enough/haven’t had enough dating experience to relate to her novels.

Book #8

The Beautiful Miscellaneous by Dominic Smith

Summary: For most of Nathan Nelson’s life, his father has pushed him to study science and math. A genius, Samuel Nelson is unapproachable and difficult to love, and Nathan in turn has always felt too ordinary for his father. When an accident changes Nathan’s brain – and his life – forever, father and son find their way back to each other.

Thoughts: This was a strangely forgettable novel. I heard about it a long time ago and it went on that mental list I keep of novels I think I might like. Outcast main character? Check. Quirkily intelligent characters? Check again. Difficult parents? Yup. Some kind of strange or exciting main event that affects our characters (in this case, the narrator’s brain injury results in synaesthesia)? Perfect. But put it all together and… it was kind of a dull read. I think it might be Smith’s prose. It wasn’t extraordinary enough to live up to the promise of the novel. If you have some kind of weird or quirky plot idea, your writing better be outstanding as well.

This is also how I felt about The Memory Keeper’s Daughter and Water for Elephants. A weird/strange/quirky/whatever plot doesn’t make up for mediocre writing.

Book #9

Utopia by Thomas More

Summary: More describes the ideal society of Utopia as a way of satirizing the politics of Renaissance England.

Thoughts: I read this for a class and really don’t remember much. It was kind of dull? I’m sure that’s not a very academic thing to say about an important philosophical/literary work but… there you go.

Book #6

Bleak House by Charles Dickens (re-read)

Summary: “Jarndyce and Jarndyce” is an infamous lawsuit that has been in process for generations. Nobody can remember exactly how the case started but many different individuals have found their fortunes caught up in it. Esther Summerson watches as her friends and neighbours are consumed by their hopes and disappointments with the proceedings. But while the intricate puzzles of the lawsuit are being debated by lawyers, other more dramatic mysteries are unfolding that involve heartbreak, lost children, blackmail and murder. (Taken from when I last read the novel, in summer 08.)

Thoughts: I loved it even more the second time, of course! With the surprises of the plot out of the way I was able to appreciate Dickens’ skill at characterization and especially foreshadowing – something that’s impossible to notice when you don’t know what happens next. Some things I picked up on this time:

1. Character mirroring. A lot of the characters can be compared or considered in pairs/groups. I think this is a valuable tool because it allows us to consider the society Dickens is criticizing in microcosm. Guppy, for example, is a bumbling law clerk. He’s far removed from the powerful, ruthless and cold Mr. Tulkinghorn, and he’s also got much more energy and vivacity than Mr. Vholes, the mid-level leech of a lawyer who is described as “vampire-like.” And yet Guppy is much younger than those two – so the implicit suggestion seems to be that he will go on to become as corrupt as any of the older lawyer characters. Does the law ensnare everyone who comes near it? The entire plot of the novel, as well as character mirroring, seems to suggest so. And then you can mirror characters in different ways, too: all the mothers (Mrs. Jellyby, Caddy, Mrs. Bagnet, Lady Dedlock, etc.), the orphans, those involved in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce suit (Richard, Mr. Jarndyce, Miss Flite) and so on. Because there are so many characters in the novel, representing such different facets of Victorian society, I think Dickens is urging us to take them in pairs or groups.

2. Foreshadowing via characterization. Dickens almost always reveals things about what will happen to characters using traditional methods of characterization. These things can be small details or huge plot surprises. For example, he foreshadows Mr. Krook’s death by spontaneous combustion, which is the hugely unrealistic but technically stunning main firework of the novel, by telling us that Krook breathes very heavily, as though his insides are on fire (Dickens actually uses this phrase, or something very similar), the very first time we meet him. Another instance of foreshadowing includes the dirt and disarray of the Jellyby household. This is expressed before we even meet those characters via some neat description of the dusty surroundings of another character who is at that moment discussing the Jellybys.

3. Narrative complexity. There are two very, very different narrators: an omniscient third-person narrator who speaks ironically and in the present tense, and Esther, a main player in the drama of the plot who is nevertheless self-deprecating about her own importance. She tells her side of the story from her vantage point years in the future, so that the events as she sees them are described in past tense. There’s this constant tension between the two narrators. Should we side with the sarcastic third-person narrator, who follows every minute event as it happens, or does sweet, forgiving Esther provide a better example, as she has more critical distance from the events of the plot? I find this kind of thing fascinating.

I’m sure I will be reading this again, and maybe even again, within the next few years. I genuinely love the novel. It’s fun, and funny, sad, romantic, complex, exciting, and technically astounding. And it also provides a wealth of things for Victorian scholars, English students or anyone interested in either of those things (me! me!) to think about.

Book #3

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

Summary: As a fifteen year old, Michael falls into an affair with the older, mysterious Hanna – he reads to her and she teaches him about love during an idyllic summer. Later, as a law student, Michael comes across Hanna on trial for an unspeakable crime, and suddenly he uncovers the secret she’s been keeping for years.

Thoughts: This was excellently written. The prose wasn’t overly descriptive but it was technically captivating – Schlink gets a lot across with well-chosen words. Hanna is a very, very interesting character and the book provokes an ethical debate in the reader – as Schlink perhaps intends. I would have to read much more post-war German fiction to form an opinion, but for people who aren’t interested in that, this is still a good read – suspenseful, sad, haunting, etc.

It’s not just this sensationalist novel about an older woman and a teenage boy – well, it is very much about that, and Michael’s experience with Hanna informs much of his life and has a profound impact on him. But it’s not sensationalist at all. Schlink’s prose is sad and lovely.

 

Book #4

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Summary: Charles, a bumbling country doctor, marries beautiful young Emma, who has always dreamt of the finer things. When Charles can’t satisfy Emma, she turns elsewhere to fulfil her romantic fantasies.

Thoughts: I talked about this novel extensively in my 19^th century fiction class, and anything I say here will only be a poor approximation. We discussed Flaubert’s cruelty as an author – he forces Emma to suffer for her crimes (adultery) and her death scene is so over the top and dreadful it becomes comical. I remember laughing out loud when she “reared up like a galvanized corpse” (and I’ve never forgotten the line). But Flaubert is cruel to all of his characters, or at least it seems as though the narrator disdains all of the people in the novel. There isn’t a single good, or at least mild, character for the reader to root for – save perhaps the pharmacy assistant who cries genuine tears over Emma’s grave (his name escapes me). And it’s for that reason that I didn’t like the novel. I don’t like to be coddled, nor do I like characters that are bland and boring, but you can tell that the narrator hates everyone he (or she) is talking about – so what’s the motivation for the reader to care? You want them all to die or meet some horrible end but then when they do the schadenfreude is sad, not satisfying. I mean, his prose is wonderful – controlled, descriptive, evocative – but that’s not always enough.

Book #5

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger (re-read)

Summary: An ambitious editorial assistant realizes that working in the fashion industry isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Thoughts: I just wanted a fluffy read and this provided that very well. There’s not much to say, especially as I’ve read this before.

Well, I started off the year by re-reading two wonderful novels that I love. I love to re-read because I always, always discover new nuance and depth in characterization or technique. I also don't really think you can read such a huge, sweeping novel like Anna Karenina once (particularly since I read it for the first time at quite a young age). There is a LOT to digest in that novel. My review doesn't even begin to touch on it, but since I read it for a class I feel like I've already analyzed the crap out of it; I should just post the paper I wrote on religious imagery.

Book #1

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (re-read)

Summary: Catherine Morland, the oldest of ten children and an unlikely heroine, is invited on a trip to Bath by her childless neighbours. There she navigates her way through the complicated social world of fashionable people, meeting the amiable Thorpe siblings and the kind Tilney family. But when Catherine, an avid novel reader, is invited to the Tilney family’s abbey, her imagination takes her too far.

Thoughts: This is such a delight to read, really. The first of Austen’s novels to be written (but last to be published), it’s a sardonic parody of Gothic novels – that part takes a while to get going, though, because Austen takes the time to establish Catherine, Tilney and a few others as realistic characters (something missing from a lot of 18^th century Gothic fiction!). The love story is very, very sweet, almost too saccharine for this cynic. I remember when I first read this I complained a bit that Austen relies on the narrator to wrap things up rather than showing us how Catherine and Tilney work things out. But upon this reread I now think that was a smart decision. Things might just seem a bit too sickeningly romantic for me otherwise. Austen always knows when to reel it in, no? Anyway, I always love rereading an Austen novel but this one is probably the most fun of them all. It’s certainly the most light-hearted. Despite the dead mother of the Tilney siblings there’s no real darkness in here – and in fact the whole point is that Catherine imagines the dead mother to be some kind of ominous Gothic spirit or whatever when in fact she’s not at all. There’s no sad, downtrodden spinster type like Miss Bates (Emma) or Charlotte Lucas (until she marries Mr. Collins; P&P) to remind us that Austen’s women have very few choices in life.

Side note, people always ask me which of the six is my favourite and I really can’t decide. I vacillate between Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice, with Northanger Abbey coming in third, I think. Then it’s Emma, but the top four are very close. Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park are tied for last place, with MP just edging out S&S.

Book #2

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (re-read)

Summary: A sweeping novel about unhappy families, adultery, love, social changes in Russian society, marriage, really everything you want to find in fiction. Anna is a beautiful woman married to the rather dull Karenin. She lives for her son, but on a visit to her genial brother Oblonsky (himself a philanderer) she meets and falls for the passionate Count Vronsky. Vronsky, however, has just jilted young Kitty, who turned down the proposal of socially awkward but worthy estate owner/farming enthusiast Levin, a good friend of Oblonsky’s. Anna soon leaves her husband for Vronsky and Levin and Kitty find their way back to each other in this examination of love, courtship and marriage.

Thoughts: What is there to say about Anna Karenina? It’s completely wonderful. My summary of course sounds like a soap opera because all of the characters are connected, but Tolstoy is so devoted to each one’s inner life that it’s easy to keep track of everything. Indeed, every character will make an impression, and it’s this shifting perspective that gives the novel its depth and ambiguity. Sometimes we side with Anna, sometimes with her jilted husband, and sometimes, once their affair starts going sour, with Vronsky. While the adulterous Anna storyline gives the novel its title and seems to be what most people remember, it’s balanced out by the love that develops between Levin and Kitty. And though the characters are very much rooted in their changing Russian society, Tolstoy is so adept at accessing their emotions and inner thoughts that everything feels timeless. Definitely one of my favourite novels; I’m glad I had the chance to re-read it this semester.

Book #60        

Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner

Summary: A group of very different pregnant women accidentally form a support group and see each other through childbirth, marital disasters and more.

My Thoughts: I read this so long ago that I can barely remember what it was about. I keep reading Jennifer Weiner novels because I love her blog and her insightful comments about feminism, books by women and the Times Book Review. But her novels aren’t really my thing. I think she’s a generous writer in terms of character – she always gives her readers a lot to like and root for in characters, and I appreciate her well-rounded female protagonists a lot. The plots, though, center around family and having babies and all that and I guess I can’t quite relate to it yet.

Book #61

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

Summary: A series of vignettes about a small town in the 19^th century, Cranford, populated almost entirely by elderly spinsters.

My Thoughts: I wanted more from this – more drama, more action, a love plot or two (I just expect that from 19^th century novels now) and much more about the narrator, a youngish woman compared to Cranford’s spinsters who doesn’t actually live in the town and is therefore our “outsider” perspective. The writing is detailed, and good in the technical sense, but this lacks the urgency of North and South and the whole love-story-plus-social-critique aesthetic which made that novel so engaging. I think “slow” might be the word I’m looking for here.

Book #62

Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins

Summary: A royal family down on their luck, suspiciously watched by the American government. A young princess who fancies herself an environmental activist. An anarchist who just wants to make a statement without abiding by any rules. And a race of red-headed extraterrestrials. It all combines in this witty, original novel about love, modern society and writing.

My Thoughts: Wacky comes to mind, but I think that might be a bit unfair. I use wacky in the best sense of the word – original, fun, charming. The novel feels a bit like a modern day fairy tale, given the extraterrestrials, royal family shenanigans, and (rather) one-note supporting characters. Love the writing, though – Robbins’ powers of description are great. The imagery is unique and the self-reflexive passages about writing are very insightful. This novel is almost impossible to describe, really. It made me want to read everything else Robbins has written, so that’s an endorsement.

I am finally, finally done cataloguing my 2008 reads. No idea why it took so long. I've only read 9 books so far in 2009, and haven't written up any of them yet. Soon? Maybe.

Book #58

Dashing Through the Snow by Mary and Carol Higgins Clark

Summary: An overly plotted Christmas-themed mystery.

My Thoughts: Every year I get a Christmas-themed book for Christmas from my parents, and since they know I love Agatha Christie, it’s often a mystery novel. I read this in about three hours. Entertaining – I love small town mystery novels with wacky characters – but a few too many of those wacky characters got in the way of the plot.

Book #59

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

Summary: A collection of essays about customer service, neighbourly competition and family during the holidays.

My Thoughts: I love David Sedaris. His essay on working as an elf at Macy’s is particularly hilarious. This is just a solid, laugh-out-loud collection all around. I read it myself, but it’s also worth it to pick up a book-on-tape of him reading his own words. His tone is very dry and ups the hilarity.

These novels both achieve that special balance between unbelievable heartbreak and beautiful writing that is my own particular kink in fiction. Thus, I love both far beyond reason and wholeheartedly recommend both to everyone. Summaries taken in part from Chapters.ca, as noted.

Book #56

A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot

Summary: Set during and after the First World War, A Very Long Engagement tells the story of a young woman’s search for her fiancé, whom she believes might still be alive despite having officially been reported as "killed in the line of duty." Unable to walk since childhood, fearless Mathilde Donnay is undeterred in her quest as she scours the country for information about five wounded French soldiers who were brutally abandoned by their own troops. (Chapters.ca)

My Thoughts: This book, like The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and Atonement before it, completely broke my heart. Now, I read it in English, but it was originally in French, so I can’t say much about the writing. If the translation was faithful, Japrisot’s writing is by turns wry, perceptive, beautifully descriptive and technically stunning. He describes scenes in few words, uses humour and pathos together and just generally seems to understand his characters to the point of making them seem real. Mathilde is such a delightful character: single-minded in her pursuit of her fiancé, but not blindly optimistic. She hopes for the best but expects the worst, you might say. The novel is structured like a mystery, and as Mathilde meets people all over France in search of the fiancé, you will fall in love with many, many different characters, almost all endearing and generous, trying to do the best they can with what they’ve been given. The mystery plot is twisting enough to drive the reader forward, but simple and focused, which allows Japrisot to focus on the emotional centre of the novel – Mathilde’s love for her fiancé. Finally, it’s also a meditation on wartime horrors and how society begins to recover from destruction. And the ending will break your heart in a most unexpected and bittersweet way. Read it, read it, read it. Someday soon I hope to read the novel in the original French and I will report back then!

Book #57

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Summary: Set against the bleak winter landscape of New England, Ethan Frome tells the story of a poor farmer, lonely and downtrodden, his wife Zeena, and her cousin, the enchanting Mattie Silver. (Chapters.ca)

My Thoughts: This novel is like crack for pessimists: a bleak winter landscape, hardscrabble characters desperately trying to make ends meet, thwarted lovers, and an air of inevitable tragedy. Needless to say, I loved it. Sure, we can all see the sad ending coming a mile away – but Wharton flips it at the very last second so it’s not quite the tragedy we’re expecting. I think I might just have a problem, because I love exquisitely sad stories like this, no matter how battered my heart feels by the end. It’s just so pathetic, Ethan’s monotonous existence and his awkward attempts to find some sort of happiness in his love for Mattie. And the ending! Oh god, the ending. There’s lots to say about the novel’s technical virtues – the realism, Wharton’s uncompromising prose, the slightly obvious frame device – but I prefer to bask in the sweet agony of heartbreak.

Summaries from Chapters.ca, as noted.

Book #54

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Summary: The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of an arranged wedding, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ashoke does his best to adapt while his wife pines for home. When their son, Gogol, is born, the task of naming him betrays their hope of respecting old ways in a new world. And we watch as Gogol stumbles along the first-generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs. (Chapters.ca)

My Thoughts: This is really lovely writing, first of all: Lahiri is able to empathise with all of her characters, and each feels like a fully-rounded individual with a rich inner life. In the tradition of the finest realist novels, small details – mostly those involved in the Gangulis’ attempts to replicate certain aspects of Bengali culture in their new home and the eventual Americanization of many of their traditions – leap off the page to evoke a whole world. Gogol is also a wonderful focalising character. He’s able to see his parents with an American eye, but inherits some of their Bengali/Indian/Old World viewpoints, and thus gives us a fresh perspective on American culture as well (his observations about Maxine’s family are particularly poignant). However, I might be biased because I love Kal Penn, who plays Gogol in the movie – which I also recommend. Anyway, this is an engaging and absorbing book, excellently written and carefully characterized – this is what a good family drama in the 21^st century should be.  

Book #55

Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen

Summary: Orphaned and penniless at the height of the Depression, Jacob Jankowski escapes everything he knows by jumping on a passing train—and inadvertently runs away with the circus. So begins Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen’s darkly beautiful tale about the characters who inhabit the less-than-greatest show on earth. (Chapters.ca)

My Thoughts: Is it me? I thought this was quite boring, with lazy characterisation and writing. “Darkly beautiful” it is definitely not. Gruen could have gone for broke, perhaps making her narrator less straightforward and virtuous (he’s like milk: bland and wholesome), or using more creative writing techniques (a circus novel begs for magical realism or Southern gothic). But her prose is mild, and as I said, the main characters are so obviously good that there’s absolutely no moral complexity to the story.

Yeah, so I did read 62 books last year, and now I'm taking my sweet time "reviewing" them and getting my thoughts posted. Oh well. I've only managed to finish one book so far in 2009, anyway.

Book #51

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Summary: Charismatic Rex and Rose Mary Walls, dreamers who can’t stand the conformity that settling down and working regular jobs would bring, take their four children all across America in search of adventure and excitement. But when the money runs out, the Walls are forced to settle in a poor West Virginia mining town, and there Jeannette and her siblings plan to escape to New York and make new lives for themselves.

My Thoughts: This was very well-written – not sentimental. Though it’s a memoir, it reads like a novel. Jeannette’s voice is often sardonically insightful and the descriptions of the family’s poverty are shocking because she presents them in stark, uncompromising detail.

Book #52

The Interpreter by Suzanne Glass (re-read)

Summary: Dominique, a simultaneous interpreter at medical conferences, overhears something that could lead to a breakthrough in AIDS research. Nicholas, an Italian scientist, is responsible for that breakthrough. But they meet and fall in love without realizing what the other person knows.

My Thoughts: The best part of this novel is Glass’ description of the actual, physical act of simultaneous interpreting. Languages fascinate me, and I aspire to be multi-lingual, so Glass’ elucidation of how it feels to be sitting in a dark booth, furiously translating a speech or what have you, is cool. Her imagery is very tactile, vivid in general, and makes you feel like a part of the novel. The love story aspect of this, though, is kind of… gooey. I do think that Nicholas and Dominique work as a couple, I just think they fall in love very quickly, and while they keep claiming it’s passionate, it doesn’t actually seem like a very passionate affair.

Book #53

The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare

Summary: Leontes thinks his wife is cheating on him, and is cursed with her death and the death of his son. Heartbroken, he sends his baby daughter away to another land, to be raised as a poor shepherd’s daughter. But then, sixteen years later, a new love story begins to right the wrongs of the past.

My Thoughts: Another tricky play – what genre is this, tragedy, comedy or romance? What’s up with the sheep-shearing scene? Why is one of the characters chased offstage by a bear? And are we really supposed to forgive Leontes’ jealousy so easily? It seems improbable that Hermione lives in seclusion for sixteen years and suddenly reappears when everything is neatly wrapped up. The “comedy” part is not as riotously funny as, say, The Taming of the Shrew, and though Shakespeare often makes us question the limits of genre – see my thoughts on The Merchant of Venice – the “tragic” first two acts are not as moving as the end of Hamlet or Macbeth. So what is this play? I don’t know. But it can definitely be read again and again, and it was entertaining, as Shakespeare always is.

Obviously I have to use my North and South icon for this post...

Book #50

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Summary: When Margaret Hale’s father, a minister, decides to leave the Church of England and move the family to a northern industrial town, she submits uneasily to her new life. In Milton, Margaret meets the Thornton family – Mrs. Thornton, proud and opinionated; Fanny, silly and weak; and John, a hard-working mill-owner who strikes up a friendship with her father. Though John and Margaret clash at first, as Margaret develops affection for the factory workers of Milton and faces family tragedy, she realizes that she has come to depend upon Mr. Thornton as a friend… and perhaps as something more.

 My Thoughts: Amazing. It’s really easy to compare this to Pride and Prejudice but I’ll try to resist. For one thing, Gaskell is much more – what’s the word… earnest, I guess, than Austen ever is. While Austen knows how to hint at the small tragedies of female life and always highlights the lack of options for women in middle-class England, Gaskell’s writing is much less restrained (perhaps benefiting from a post-Romantics viewpoint and the backlash against Victorian restraint…). In that way I would say Gaskell is more similar to Dickens, but subtle, with gentler characterization. North and South is about the factory system, too, so it’s sort of like the feminine counterpart to Hard Times.

And what’s interesting about North and South is how the eventual marriage of Mr. Thornton and Margaret symbolizes a union between the “masculine” factory system and Margaret’s more “feminine” ideals: compassion, equality, forgiveness and workers’ rights. While in Hard Times, the factory system destroys relationships – and society in general – North and South presents romantic relationships (or familial ones) as a way to counterbalance the harsh aspects of industrialization. I also like how very intimate all of the relationships feel. Margaret and Thornton are confused by their feelings for each other, and their first instincts are to keep them secret. It feels like both of them eventually find respite from difficult family situations in each other, which I love in a romantic plot (kind of like how marrying Darcy gets Elizabeth away from her crazy relatives, while he’s able to be more open and unrestrained with her). But we also see that Mrs. Thornton really understands her son and wants the best for him, which is nice – in so many novels where the love story is a central theme, parents become mere obstacles or caricatures.

Gaskell’s characterization is really rich – we get long looks into both Margaret and Mr. Thornton’s thoughts, and I also thought her descriptions of their reactions to each other were very interesting. It’s that universal feeling of being simultaneously drawn to and repulsed by someone – awareness of each other’s bodies in the same space, over-analysis of every movement of the other, etc. Mr. Thornton in particular is a well-rounded character, which is perhaps where Gaskell outshines Austen. She’s not afraid to tackle the masculine perspective. One scene, where Thornton walks for miles in the country because he’s frustrated by his love for Margaret, is wonderfully vivid.

Of course, Mr. Thornton is also dreamy. There are more substantial things that could be said, but let’s end on that.

Book #48

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

Summary: When Bassanio needs money to court Portia, his best friend Antonio borrows it from Shylock, a Jew, who locks him into a strict contract. Characters interact and conflict arises as Bassanio courts Portia, Shylock’s daughter elopes, and Antonio cannot repay his debts.

My Thoughts: This is a really interesting play. One of my past profs once said that using the word “interesting” to describe a book is lazy, but I don’t know what else to say. Is it anti-Semitic or is Shylock the one we’re supposed to empathize with? Well, I don’t see that those two things are mutually exclusive. It also raises some questions about genre – is this a “romance,” as usually categorized, or a tragedy, or something in-between? What are we to make of Shylock’s animalism? And the homoerotic relationship between Antonio and Bassanio – was that intentional on Shakespeare’s part and what are its implications for Bassanio’s relationship with Portia? So yes, I thought this was a very interesting play.

Book #49

Othello by William Shakespeare

Summary: Othello and Desdemona marry in haste. Though they seem to have a strong physical relationship, Iago is able to exploit their weaker emotional connection and destroy their marriage with his dark, jealous scheming.

My Thoughts: I loved this play, probably one of my favourites of the semester. It’s a darkly sexual play, of course, since Othello and Desdemona seem to have a mostly sexual relationship that falls apart once it’s put under public scrutiny. And Iago – he’s a conniving bastard but you have to admire his manipulative skill, and how his identity twists and turns depending on who he’s talking to.

So it's December 30 and yes, I've hit my goal for the year. Actually, I finished Book #61 earlier this afternoon. Who knows how long it's going to take me to write them all up - in the past two weeks I've read some pretty intense stuff, and I have a lot of things to say - but. I DID IT. Yay!

Book #45

Evelina by Frances Burney

Summary: Evelina is an innocent young orphan sent to stay with friends in fashionable London. She must learn to be charming, polite and agreeable, but not to attract the wrong sort of attention. Matters are complicated when Evelina meets Lord Orville, a wealthy bachelor, just as her rude, neglectful maternal grandmother reappears in her life.

My Thoughts: Dreadfully boring, to be honest. Evelina the character is a blank slate with no seeming personality beyond her social awkwardness and modest self-deprecation. The ‘outsider contends with fashionable London society’ plot could be interesting with more compelling characters, and there are great moments of social satire, but without said interesting characters the plot feels thin and shallow.

Book #46

Maria or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

Summary: Although sane, Maria is locked up in an asylum by her husband and falls in love with a fellow prisoner. Their plan to escape forms most of the plot but Wollstonecraft died before she finished the novel.

My Thoughts: I also found this boring. I suspect I’m just not a fan of 18^th century novels… I love Wollstonecraft in all her rational, philosophical feminist glory, but the madhouse setting of this novel promised Gothic goodness and did not deliver. If she had gone all-out creepy it would have been much more entertaining.

Book #47

The Monk by Matthew Lewis

Summary: Monks who are not what they seem, innocent young girls, power-hungry nuns, valiant heroes and demonic forces combine in Spain in this over-the-top Gothic novel.

My Thoughts: This, on the other hand, was a hilarious and fun read because Lewis does go for the all-out Gothic goodness. Devils, vampire-like characters, demons, innocent virgins and evil monks abound. It’s amazingly entertaining, and I did read it for a class, so it’s possible to analyze it, but I don’t particularly want to here.

Book #43

Richard II by William Shakespeare

Summary: Richard II is overthrown by Bolingbroke, soon to become Henry IV.

My Thoughts: Good golly this was a boring one. I love Shakespeare, I love the history of the British monarchy, I love tales of political intrigue and coups. But for some reason this fell totally flat, possibly because there are no entertaining characters to root for, or even annoying ones (like Hamlet) to long to slap across the face. Richard II is boring, Bolingbroke isn’t really all that inspiring (he wants the crown because Richard wanted to take away his lands and title… snooze), and the historical drama pales in comparison to some of the other stuff England has to offer (hello, Henry VIII?).

Book #44

By the Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie

Summary: A Tommy and Tuppence Beresford mystery in which old ladies mysteriously disappear from nursing homes!

My Thoughts: You know I’m desperate to make my total for the year when I start to count Agatha Christie novels. I go through these like candy and read probably 15 to 20 a year (many are re-reads). I don’t usually count them because they are so fast to read and, let’s face it, having something like this count as one book while something like Bleak House counts as another doesn’t make a lot of sense. But! I’ve never read this one before and thought I’d throw it on here because I WILL make my 60-books-in-2008 goal, damnit. It was entertaining as Christie always is, and sufficiently creepy with a sort of dead-baby motif and eerie old ladies.

Book #42

The Republic of Love by Carol Shields

Summary: Fay is a folklorist with several serious relationships behind her; Tom is a late-night radio host who’s been married three times. Shields chronicles how they meet and fall in love as sweetly and perceptively as you could wish.

My Thoughts: I’ve read this almost to pieces by now and I just love it more every time. It’s another book that I appreciate more as I get older. (Perhaps everything is like that?) I often think of Shields in connection with Austen because she was a huge Austen fan and wrote a bio of Jane for the Penguin Lives series. (I read it last year.) This story, because it is a thinky, talky, perceptive love story, makes me think of Austen, too. The characters are 35 and 40, much more mature than Austen’s young women and men. And there’s sex. But the family connections, flung wide across the city of Winnipeg (alive in the novel, almost another character), and the little coincidences of so-and-so knowing such-and-such a person, which happen so often in real life, are just so Austen.

OK, let’s stop talking about Austen. So yes, some of this book is unrealistic. Fay is a “folklorist” – I’m not sure what that is, but it sounds like something awesome that isn’t really a career, and I want to become one immediately. Tom is a late-night DJ who only works four hours a day for five days a week and manages to make enough to live on. Oookay. Well, it was the early 90s. Those are my only quibbles because quite honestly I love this book.

Shields’ writing technique is revealing and allows for a lot of indirect characterisation. Chapters alternate between Fay’s narration and Tom’s, and Shields often allows her secondary characters to go on page-long monologues on some question that’s bothering Fay/Tom. With this we get insight into Fay and Tom, the characters speaking, relationships, and life itself. Shields also manages to capture the rhythms of regular speech here – people are flustered and go on tangents and make surprisingly profound statements seemingly out of nowhere. It’s wonderful. We also get letters, anecdotes, and people calling in to Tom’s radio show, all delivered realistically.

This novel was written in the early 90s and it honestly makes me nostalgic for a time that seemed so exciting and community-driven, pre-9/11, before I realized what a messed up world this is. I was a child in the early 90s, so the nostalgia here is somewhat natural; it’s also interesting to read the book and wonder what Fay and Tom would be like now, fifteen years on, still living in Winnipeg (presumably).

You also just don’t read that many novels about Winnipeg. And I love that the characters constantly think about Winnipeg and how they love it in spite of its bad weather and other shortcomings, because it’s like this metaphor for how we should love ourselves even on our worst days. In fact, we should love ourselves the most on our worst days, because that’s when we need to cut ourselves some slack.  

I also like how the ending is both ambiguous and solidly Austen (there she is again) because it’s a marriage. Marriage at the end of a novel is often a sign of the classic “and they lived happily ever after” cop-out, except Tom has been married three times before he marries Fay, so we know that marriage isn’t always that happy ending. It’s interesting to wonder if Fay and Tom really will make it, and I think Shields leaves it up to us by focusing so much on their uneven romantic pasts. There are also examples of (mostly) happy marriages, of course, in Fay’s parents and her brother and sister-in-law. It’s a novel about relationships and the things we love and hate about them: they’re messy and difficult and all-encompassing, but they’re also immensely rewarding and intricate and life-affirming. Again with her use of the Winnipeg-as-closely-knit-community thing, Shields also demonstrates how our relationships unite us together as citizens of one place, rather than the accidental fact of where we’re born.

I’m beginning to ramble. I can’t really analyze this novel because I love it so. Read it right now. Seriously.