International Book Club

Will read for fun.

I've read 20 books in the past 9 weeks here in Guatemala and have decided to start an International Book Club -- like Oprah's but better.  Your job: let me know if you've read any of the following books and let's discuss via email, gchat, facebook, whatever!  OR you could conversely just read one of the following books that strikes your fancy.  Your choice.  Here they are, in order from most favorite to...well, actually I enjoyed and/or loved all of them except for Silas Marner.  Sorry, George Eliot.  Here they are chronologically, from first to most recent, with a haiku about each.

1. The Hunger Games Trilogy, Suzanne Collins

remember Harry

Potter? this fills a very

small hole. still, good read

2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon

this: the perspective

of an autistic boy who

finds a dead dead dog

3. Survivor, Chuck Palahniuk

religious cult meets

the rise of celebrity

and a plane crashes

4. Atonement, Ian McEwan

who doesn't love a

prolix period piece with

war, estates and love?

5. Lord of the Flies, William Golding

revisit this high

school classic.  there is more there

there after years passed

6. The Talented Mr, Ripley, Patricia Highsmith

inspiration for

film, but with much less homo-

eroticism

7. Marya: A Life, Joyce Carol Oates

took me 200

pages to say, "Mariah,"

not "Mar-ee-ya."  right?

8. We Were The Mulvaneys, Joyce Carol Oates

a family comes

apart and tries to heal, with

mixed results, obvi 

9. Silas Marner, George Eliot

didacticism

of the transparent and dry.

don't linger here long

10. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami

it's never too late

for pursuit of a new dream

or twenty-six miles

11. The Book of Salt, Monique Truong

cuisine, Gertrude Stein,

a gay Southeast Asian chef,

Paris, the thirties. 

12. Bluebeard's Egg, Margaret Atwood

we all know how I

feel about Ms. Atwood, yes?

Let's leave it at that. 

13. A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan

Egan contemplates

interconnectivity:

virtual / fleshy

14. Room, Emma Donahue

trapped in the closet,

but sans R. Kelly (or for

that matter, music)

15. Death of the Adversary, Hans Keilson (unfinished)

dense unappealing

prose, fascinating premise.

maybe in ten years?

16. Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan: my hero.

confronting the true evils

of the modern world

17. Under the Banner of Heaven, John Krakauer

just more religious

crazies; proof that god simply

should not be. ever

18. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis

the allegory, 

for some, will be lost to the

femicide. A+

You didn’t like 2666? That’s bologña!

Upon finishing Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, the posthumously published 900-page tome centered on an elusive German author and the spate of yet-to-be solved female sexual homicides committed in Juárez, Mexico (which Bolaño fictionalizes as Santa Theresa) in the past 20 years, my initial reaction was: what the fuck?

Absent was my usual conception of a novel’s end: a resolution, some semblance of a wrap-up. Here we have five seemingly disparate books placed one after the other, and the threads of varying thickness tying each to one another were revealed slowly, and at times enigmatically, but where was the dénouement? I sat stunned, and a little betrayed, for a few moments, until I began to process what had just taken me the better part of two months to finish. A revelation: 2666 had, for me, pulverized the boundaries within which a novel must remain and revolutionized the rules to which a novel ought to adhere. Could this be due to my sophomoric understanding of the current literary landscape? Perhaps. But if so, I implore those in the know to point me toward works on par with 2666 (Maybe Infinite Jest?  It's on my list, okay?).

There is something bigger at play betwixt the first and final pages: between the subtle call to action; the intersection of postnationalism and cultural identity; the commentary on futility and obsession; the plight of wars both intra- and international; the silencing of a multiplicity of voices. Yes, these tropes can be found across the spectrum of literature, but Bolaño creates a new stage from which to air them; his novel both dazzles and provokes without adhering to conventional parameters. In full cognizance of the vagueness in which I’m communicating (due to my apprehension at spoiling the beauty of this novel for anyone), let me say that in this, his final work, Bolaño explodes the very term, novel, yet adheres to the secondary definition, creating something unusual, crafty, and inimitable.

Most Erudite Feline II

Dictionary.com isn't the only way to receive Word of the Day.  Lucy's selection for today is most fitting for her: phonophobia.

Most Erudite Feline

Ginny embarks on a literary journey her father began many years ago. Personally, I would have recommended beginning with The Robber Bride, but I don't like being pushy -- and the short essays in Writing with Intent are more palatable for a cat.