These are my first book reviews in a long while. I am motivated to try again after seeing some good ones out in the blogworld. Unlikely to post reviews of everything that I read, but I hope to share some of the really good (check them out!), the exceptionally bad (avoid them!), and the quirky (I'm still me).
New York : Scribner, c2011. 298 p ; trade paperback.
Xavier Ireland works a late-night London radio call-in show with his stuttering sidekick and reluctant friend, Murray. He lives in the middle of a 3-flat apartment house, near but not engaging with those above and below, and spends his off-time at Scrabble tournaments. His existence is quiet and shadowy - until unexpected events force him to confront both his present and the past.
I had read this book when it first came out. Loved it, and hand-sold it to my BFF at the library. It was one of our "chuck it at the wall" books - those we adore but that, in addition to improving our lives, psychically wound us. (No, there is no literal book-throwing.) I've been thinking about it off and on since then, and finally decided to buy it. It has been on my to-read shelf since then. Once I picked it up, I read it pretty quickly, over the course of 3 or 4 days.
Upon the reread, I liked it almost as well. If it was a 9/10 the first time, it's probably a strong 7.5 now. The variance is due to the changes that I've gone through since that initial read, presumably. (I was "in a bad place" back then and related to the main character in a way that seems facile and predictable now.) Still, I can imagine reading this again in a couple of years. I would recommend it to indie fiction readers who are comfortable making up their own mind about what they read.
[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], c2015. 369 p ; trade paperback.
I was given this book by my best reading friend, so that we could compare notes after we'd both read it. It is made up of short chapters (around 3-10 pages) - replays of the author's blog posts. I read it very, very slowly: one or two chapters every two or three days for a couple of months. Any more than that was overwhelming.
The author was apparently fascinating enough to publish her blog posts because she was a sex worker. Interestingly, she also lived with her boyfriend through the majority of the book. Even more interestingly, she was also having a lot of sex with other people at the same time. Perhaps most interestingly, she simultaneously claimed to not enjoy sex and to crave it. It makes one wonder what was the point of any of it. Money, obviously, motivated her. And power - in some sort of perverse reversal of rape, using sex and her ability to grant or withhold it to favor, disfavor, or outright hurt others.
At its best, the book contains some wonderful language, like the following.
"For the first time since meeting him, it occurred to me that I might be bad for him. That his romanticism, and his commitment to romanticism, meant I'd always be a source of sadness. That this dissonance was fundamental to who I was and who he was. That being with me up until this point had been conflicting for him instead of the surest decision he'd ever made in his life, like it had been for me." [p. 336]
At its worst, this book is easy, cheap, and complacent as Hell.
"It's plausible that in the future I might deeply regret the majority of what I've written under this name but so far I don't. It would probably be different if I had to face big consequences. Sometimes I almost feel like I want that, the relief of not having to cover my tracks. But it's easy and cheap to court chaos, particularly when you're as unnervingly lucky as I am. There's even a smugness to it." [pp. 44-45]
Will I read it again? No. I've seen enough of this woman's self-gratifying blathering and satisfaction only by her own ego and the audience of her friends. I could not recommend this book to anyone.
The Best American Poetry series (various editors)
New York : Scribner Poetry, c2013- . Various pagings ; trade paperback.
After I had been working at the library for a few years, I was given charge of collection development in the 800s—literature. With great power comes great responsibility, so I set to reading more of "my section" so that I could justify (to any extent) the choices that I made in terms of acquisition, retention, and weeding. The poetry reading started out as a chore that eventually transformed into a joy. That was how I came to know this series.
Each book is a collection of the best in published poetry from the previous year. "Published" has a pretty broad meaning now, too. I read them slowly, far more so than any other type of books, to absorb the writing and consider the author. What used to be an exercise in "do I like this poem?" has turned into "do I want to read more by this author?" Several of my favorites, from whom I have bought many books, I found thanks to this series. I plan to keep adding to my collection, both forward and back.
I recommend the 'Best American' series to anyone looking for a cross-section of writing in a certain area. (There are several in the collection—see here for more!)
New York : Crown Publishers, c1998. 213 p ; hardcover.
Holden Garfield is a war reporter, burnt out and ready to be done. He returns home to the States and almost immediately gets pulled into a mess. His journalism mentor has a sister who's just been through something awful and needs help, with her brother nowhere to be found. Holden steps into the breach. The book is about remembering, and forgetting, and how each can be vital to moving on.
The first time that I read this book, I had chosen it from a "books with stripes" display at the library. I loved it, and ordered it right away with my employee discount. I had not read it for a second time until just now. I loved it again.
It is a short novel broken into sections rather than chapters, so some care had to be taken not to read straight through as I was swept into the story. I read it over the course of three or four days. It is smart, introspective, witty, and deeply sad.
Recommended.
[the title quotation is by W.H. Auden]
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