Sunday, August 23, 2009

What I've Been Reading and Thinking

There's a funny thing that happens to me when I read great literature. I wonder if it happens to anyone else. I become mute. I feel incapable of communicating with other people in any meaningful way. I live in my head and I immerse myself in more literary work that knocks me out. The author who first got to me this way was Marcel Proust, but David Foster Wallace just about finished me off.

I want to come back to this blog and to be present here and so to kick start myself, I'm going to try and make a little sense of the literary trip I've been on. The list of books I've read since I last posted has gotten too long to go into much detail about each book, so rather than do that I'm going to give a single thought on each. Let's see if my recent foray into Twittering can help me cut to the chase.

The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust

This is the third of the seven volumes of Proust's In Search of Lost Time. The more I've read of him, the easier he is to read and the more awe inspiring he becomes. Once I finish Sodom and Gomorrah I'll be a little antsy because only the first four volumes of the newest translation have been published. I recently acquired Lectures on Literature by Vladmir Nabokov and among the seven fabulous lectures published from Nabokov's nearly twenty years teaching at Wellesley and Cornell is one on Swann's Way, complete with photos of the marked up book and class notes. Reading the notes of one master on another is exhilarating.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

I'd not read any Muriel Spark but after reading this story, I'm a devotee. Fortunately, Muriel Spark was prolific and left many novels and short stories behind. Her work is funny and she was a woman ahead of her time who lead a fascinating life.

Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow

Mike Henry from Lighthouse Writers Workshop once said that Humboldt's Gift made him want to become a writer. I now know why. I read this book after reading The Adventures of Augie March, a novel that is now one of my favorites of all time. Saul Bellow was one of the finest American novelists who ever lived.

Don't Cry by Mary Gaitskill

I loved Mary Gaitskill's novel, Veronica and I thought her story collection, Bad Behavior was brilliant. This new collection of short stories had a couple I loved, but it was a little uneven. Mary Gaitskill is a writer who makes my stomach tighten up into a knot. Her characters are damaged and the stories are raw. She scares me a little and I like that.

The Three Theban Plays by Sophocles

Antigone, Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus -- all surprisingly engaging and readable. The plays help to fill in my educational gaps and they help me to finally understand all the references in Woody Allen movies.

The Iliad by Homer

I confess to putting this one down at about the halfway point, which was still quite a bit of reading. I've seen "Troy" and I get the gist of the story. Don't get me wrong, it is a great story and it too helps to fill in referential gaps, but at times it reads like a gigantic inventory of the names of every character involved in the Trojan War.

Columbine: A True Crime Story by Jeff Kass

This book (and another with a similar title) came out in April, ten years after the Columbine High School shootings. With distance and perspective, it's clear there were some inaccuracies that colored the original reporting on the killers. They weren't the victims of bullying they were first made out to be. Could anyone have predicted what they did? Based on what I read, I don't think so. I was surprised to learn that Harris and Klebold were actively planning the details of their attack on Columbine for over a year, which was ultimately what I found most chilling.

The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton has a way of making sophisticated topics accessible to anyone, which I suppose is my way of saying that he can dumb down a discussion about Proust or philosophy and make them interesting to me. In this book, he's taken the problems of unpopularity, not having enough money, frustration, inadequacy, a broken heart and difficulties and offered consolation via the teachings of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. The Consolations of Philosophy is an entertaining and educational form of CliffsNotes for the aspiring philosophy student.

Love My Rifle More Than You by Kayla Williams

This memoir was written by an Iraq veteran and Arabic translator who wrote the book while still in her twenties. Much of Williams' story is told around her frustration at the enlisted chain of command, frequently feeling she was taking orders from people who weren't very smart and about the sexual dynamics within the military. Any woman who has ever worn a uniform knows that to most of young male co-workers, she's either a bitch or a slut. The author talks about her experiences in Iraq, witnessing death and carnage and the toll that it takes, but it was her struggles as a woman that broke me down. I cried. The woman who wrote this book doesn't have perspective on her experiences yet and although she doesn't know it, she's got a lot of growing up left to do. She comes across as smart, tough, strong and a little cocky at times. I know her. I was her.

Erasure by Percival Everett

Dan Wickett at Emerging Writers Network did an excellent series of posts on each of the many works in Everett's oeuvre. Here is his post on Erasure. Erasure is about a black academic whose novels are obscure and considered inaccessible. In a bout of frustration, in one sitting he writes out a parody of the kind of black novel he disdains. It's full of stereotypical characters and street jargon. He sends it to his agent and to his shock, the publishing industry goes crazy for it. Percival Everett is one of the most prolific postmodern writers you've probably never heard of. Read him.

Halfway House by Katharine Noel

Set in a small town in New Hampshire, Halfway House tells the story of a teenage girl's sudden psychotic break with reality and the turmoil her mental illness brings to each of the four members of her family. Mental illness is treated with compassion and fidelity and Ms. Noel is a gifted writer.

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower

Of this debut short story collection I will only say that it's superb. If you are a fan of the form you must read this book. Here's what the New York Times Sunday Book Review thought of it.

Birds of America by Lorrie Moore

Lorrie Moore is one of the finest short story writers writing today and in October I'll be fortunate enough to attend a writers studio event with her. Moore's stories are funny and they're sad. They're about ordinary people and they're usually in the midst of tragedy of some sort. Her characters are ordinary people. This interview in the Guardian provides a good sense of Moore and her work.

This Lovely Life by Vicki Forman

This poignant memoir is the most difficult book to write about. Vicki Forman is a writing professor and a blogger I came to know through her words before the book was published. This post at The Rumpus was my favorite of the reviews I read. Vicki gave birth to twins at 23 weeks and the story of what happened is about loss, grief, hope, struggle and ultimately about acceptance and love. There was so much that touched me personally and gave me a second chance with the time and the distance I now how to relive the loss of my own child in 1990. This story is tragedy and it's triumph and it poses questions about medicine and the law. It makes us take a hard look at what medicine can do, what we should do and who makes those decisions.

Children of the Waters by Carleen Brice

I so loved Carleen Brice's debut novel that I wasn't sure how I could love Children of the Waters as much as I did Orange Mint and Honey. After finishing this novel in two sittings, I found there was nothing to worry about. Carleen outdid herself. The book's chapters alternate between two half-sisters with very different experiences and backgrounds. Brice handles both sides of a silent conversation about race that for most of us is remains a one-sided dialog. I feel like I often times am Trish -- the white character who, despite having black friends and family she loves will never be able to experience things from their perspective. Brice forces the sisters to work through the often unrecognized issues that in what some are calling a "post-racial" age, almost everyone continues to struggle with. Brice has again given us the fantastic Denver backdrop that she writes like no one else does. Children of the Waters is a great story that's beautifully written.

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

This is Water by David Foster Wallace

The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace

It's here that I will cease my brief treatment of books. In my last post, I talked about my decision to join thousands of other readers to read Infinite Jest this summer and read it I did. I finished it within the first two weeks of the event and went on to tackle the remainder of his work (I've still got 2 1/2 books left). Millions of words have been dedicated to discussing Infinite Jest as well as his first novel, Broom of the System, his short story collections, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men and Oblivion, his essay collections, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and Consider the Lobster and his exploration of the scientific concept of infinity, Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity.

Through Infinite Summer, online friendships have been made and an incredibly brilliant incites made in some of the smartest blog posts I've ever read. I found myself reading so many of them, nodding and saying "yes, I thought that too", but unable to contribute in any more coherent way. You'll note the title, This is Water listed among the books I read. I'd read this in its original form some time ago. You see, it was never intended as a book by Wallace, who took his own life at the age of 46 last September and it was published posthumously. It was originally delivered by Wallace as the commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005 and you can read it in its entirety here. In light of the release of the book, it's quite possible you won't be able to find the speech on line much longer, so if you haven't read it and if you haven't read any of David Foster Wallace's work, I urge you to do so.

Reading Infinite Jest changed the way I look at literature and it made me stop working on the things I was writing so I could start over. Perhaps David Foster Wallace's worldview and his words speak so directly to me because we're of the same era, he born in 1962 and me in 1961. Maybe his unique take on the world, which was not just the dull irony and disdain for modern culture that I fear many of his imitators have given to us, but it was an almost embarrassed exposure of the absurd that was infused with both sadness and compassion and in the end, hope.

Wallace was not an imitator. He approached style and structure in a way that had never been done and that will never be done again. His work was at times the most difficult that I've ever read and at the same time, the most enjoyable. He made me work to read him and it was worth the work. Every person I've spoken to who has read Infinite Jest finished all 1,078 pages and immediately went back and re-read the first chapter. Some people have read the book three and four times. I know I'm likely to be one of them.

Thoughts on what I've been reading? What you've been reading? Recommendations?

25 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

I need to read INFINITE JEST, for sure. Love Lorrie Moore--all of it. Gaitskill-the early stories best.
Have you read OLIVE KITTEREDGE yet? I highly recommend both that and her first book AMY AND ISABEL. Muriel Spark is amazing. My son-in-law teaches her books at The New School.
And although I shouldn't recommend my own daughter--BURY ME DEEP blew me away. It's crime fiction in the way early writers of the century would tell it.

cynthia newberry martin said...

Has this post really been up since July 26th? I don't know how I missed it. I loved reading about all of these books, Lisa. I would also like to know how you chose them.

I've read very few. I loved Mary Gaitskill's new collection. As you said, some stories more than others.

I'm still reading Infinite Jest and loving it. Request: I would love a whole post on DFW, how he changed the way you look at literature and how he changed the way you want to write or what you want to write about.

Excellent post. Now I have even more books I want to read. : )

Anonymous said...

That's a helluva list you've got going on, Lisa. It just so happens that DFW and Proust are two of my favorites, both often called "boring," both heady and top-heavy.

One of my favorite comments about Proust describes his writing as a "frenzied search for happiness." I would guess that goes for DFW as well and fits in with the theme of this blog. So kudos. :)

Gumbomum said...

Good lord, woman, you've been busy! I need to come back and add a few of these titles to my "to read" list!!

Charles Gramlich said...

Sounds like you really did immerse yourself and that must have been a joy. Of these, the only one I have read is the Iliad. I've never tried to really immerese my self in literary writings. I've read plenty of it in between genre fiction and nonfiction but have not tried a steady dose of it. I might try such one day, and if so I've got a list of books I want to get to.

Elizabeth said...

Sigh. So good to hear your blogging voice again. I'm amazed at what you've accomplished and admire your tenacity. I admit to having read many of the books that you got to, but I still haven't attempted David Foster Wallace and I still despise Proust! Lorrie Moore is one of my favorite writers of all time -- the story in Birds of America called "There Are No People...Peed Onk" is a touchstone for me. I am going to read back over your post and go to some of the links -- please keep posting and letting us know your thoughts.

Lisa said...

Patti, I haven't read Olive Kitteredge yet, but my Uncle Denis saw an interview with the author and said she sounds and acts exactly like my grandmother did years ago (enough enticement for me). And you should be recommending your daughter's book! I've heard Bury Me Deep is stupendous.

Cynthia, It's funny how I really do have reading lists sort of mapped out and it doesn't take much for something to take my plans off course. Usually I jump off the planned path for personal interests or reasons (the 10th anniversary of Columbine, particular interest in a woman veteran's memoir and two friends publishing books). Infinite Jest surely took me places I wasn't expecting and after reading it, all I wanted to do (and still do sometimes) is read more DFW. I'm going to try to write something up about how DFW completely changed how I view literature.

Greg, I guess it should come as no surprise that so many of the Infinite Summer participants are also Proust fans.

Gumbomum, I hope some of these titles interest you.

Charles, One of these days I won't have a job to go to and then I can really be indulgent.

Elizabeth, Every time I think of Proust I always think about how much he turns you off/creeps you out and I laugh. I do completely see where you're coming from. Infinite Jest is a huge commitment, but his essays are not and I'll bet you've probably read some of them. Knowing the fiction you're most fond of, I can't say I'd bet that you'll ever be crazy about him, but it would be worth a try.

blog nerd said...

(0)

cynthia newberry martin said...

I came back to reread and click on some of your links. I see you changed the date of the post: ) I knew I hadn't missed it for that long!

Unknown said...

Thanks for reading my book. I am glad you learned some new information; learning is one of the best things that can come out of a tragedy like this. The bullying question is something people often point to. Brooks Brown, who wrote his own book on Columbine, says the killers were bullied. But the killers' extensive diaries - which range from dating to the OJ Simpson murder trial - never mention them being bullied.

Jeff Kass
Author, Columbine: A True Crime Story

sarahloldfield said...

That is a fantastic list of books. I'm not sure if it is your persuasive writing, or your impeccable taste, but I would happily read any of those.

Only two would give me reason to hesitate; I avoid tragic memoirs because they are painful to read. But this isn't necessarily a good reason not to read a book. And The Iliad. Funny, I put it down at about the halfway point too. And the only thing I can remember is the lists!

I haven't read any Mary Gaitskill or Lorrie Moore, and I have heard their names bandied about quite a lot recently. (In a good way.)

Halfway House appeals to me personally, but I wonder how I will feel when I finish Infinite Jest. Maybe like something is missing? I can see how one would have to go on and read more.

Enjoyed your post. Hope to read some more of your thoughts on IJ and DFW soon.

Unknown said...

I thought I was the only one who felt like that after reading The Iliad. Thanks!

Unknown said...

A funny thing happens to me when I read wonderful posts like this...I become mute (....) !
No but seriously you are killing me w/ the "mute reader" now. I still haven't completely wrapped my brain around the "silence of the author".
Actually I don't so much become mute reading your post as just awestruck at the voraciousness of your inner reader. And I start scribbling TBR notes furiously on "little wrinkled up scraps of paper"
(Sorry that was unabashed free associating the line from a Laurie Anderson song).
I hope you will forgive me if this is tactless, but I have to share my weird instant of wordish synchronic frisson over your typo: "incredibly brilliant incites" while discussing #infsum. Because INCITES, as in an intellectual and emotional riot, is much too exactly spot-on. You just keep pouring gasoline on my synaptic storms!! (See for instance metempsychosis)
I'm so enmeshed in IJ/DFW OCD fever, and the huge tentacular beast of mind-bending digressions, that I'm starting to consider leaving little Hansel-and-Gretel-like scraps of paper around my studio w/ messages to myself about the need to eat and sleep once in awhile. And maybe shower and shave on ocassion (Yesterday I think I was scaring the crap out of small children at the Stop&Shop grocery).Otherwise I have to wonder if I'll ever find my way out of this rabbit hole !
And but so no teasing then about an entire post on DFW...now that you've mentioned doing one :) Rabbit holes are more fun if your friends are riding the slide w/ you !

Shauna Roberts said...

Wow! You had a great reading summer. Thanks for the minisummaries about the books. I think you've about convinced me to try Proust.

I read only one book this summer, but I hope to set aside reading days in my schedule this fall and tackle both challenging books and light, frothy reads.

Shauna Roberts said...

PS. Also wanted to say how glad I am you're blogging again.

Vesper said...

What a pleasure to read your post, Lisa. You're privileged to have the time to read so many interesting books. :-)

John JC Burroughs said...

I'm enjoying your blog immensely, Lisa! I've been meaning to, longing to read Proust for years, but haven't made the time. Soon....

Steve Malley said...

Wow, you sure do like your meaty reading! I ought to point the Dynamo at your blog: she's always looking for an alternative to my private eye novels, etc...

aych said...

I'm wondering if the Gaitskill stories broke down in a similar way for you as they did for me, given the almost creepy amount of overlap in our reading lists over the past few years. (In particular, I disliked "Mirror Ball" and "The Arms and Legs of the Lake" and couldn't reconcile them with what I know and love of her writing.

Dan Holloway said...

Lisa, this is an incredible post. I've given you a mention on my Book Blogger Appreciation Week post. You are an inspiration. It is one of my ambitions as a writer to have my book read and commented on by you :-)

WH said...

It depends on the book, Lisa. There are some that leave me, unfortunately, yearning for human contact. But when I find a jewel, I would just as soon find a comfy chair on a cold rainy night and not be bothered. C.S. Lewis said a good book could not be too long, nor a a good cup of tea be too big.

pattinase (abbott) said...

When are we going to hear more about your reading and thinking?

Yellow said...

I've now added Mary Gaitskill's short stories to my Christmas wish list. Your list shows such a breadth of interests. How is your writing getting on. I worried when I reads that you'd stopped some writing in order to start over with pieces.

Going Dutch said...

You know, when I visit your blog I'm always, at a minimum chuffed, often inspired, but today I was gobsmacked, utterly impressed at how you consume literature as if it were air or water. And how it enriches your life. Wow.
I just ordered some interesting picks for me ... we don't generally read the same genre, so I'll be curious if you've read any of them.

Anonymous said...

Cool story as for me. I'd like to read something more about that topic.
BTW check the design I've made myself A level escorts

Subscribe Now: Feed Icon

Literary Quote

It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything.


Virginia Woolf