Author: literarymasters

Haruki Murakami

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You’ll remember from my last post that I am midway through the novel Norwegian Wood by the Japanese author Haruki Murakami.  This is the first novel I’ve read by him, and I suppose I shouldn’t say that too loudly, as he is tipped by some to be the next Nobel Prize winner.  Where have I been?

Now I read that he is set to “take the West by storm” with a 1000-page book bound as a trilogy entitled 1Q84.  Here’s the link to the article; I am definitely going to keep my eye on this one.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/10/haruki-murakami-trilogy-1q84

And something else about Murakami that makes me want to get to know him better:  he’s a marathon runner!

Man Booker Prize 2011–The Short List!

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Exciting news in the world of books–and the prizes that propel them.  The short list is out for the Man Booker, and guess which book is not on it!  That’s right, The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst! That novel is, as you all know, our Literary Masters book of the month for May 2012.  Will I be changing our reading list?  Hmm…stay tuned for further details…

To find out which books are on the short list, click here.

Let me know if you’ve read any of them–what an eclectic selection!

Where in the WHIRL Have I Been???

literarymasters Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, The Counterlife by Roth, WHIRL Leave a comment

I love you all–thanks for the flood of correspondence wondering where I’ve been–it’s so nice to feel loved and missed!  I have been away on a literary mission (!) and as soon as I get my photos downloaded, or is it uploaded?, I will post a couple and blog more about my adventure.

Have I piqued your curiosity?

For today, though, I am blogging about some books that are on my side table.  These are books that I am in the midst of reading, but I’ve put them down because I knew at a certain point in each book that they would not work for my Literary Masters book groups and literary salons.  However, these are books that I do intend to finish!  We can call it a Mid-way WHIRL, if you like, or an In-Progress WHIRL:

First off, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami.  My brother, yes–the one who disdains used books, is a fan of Japanese literature, and he introduced me to Kenzaburo Oe, the author of A Personal Matter, which I reviewed here.  Murakami is the author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which you may have read; I never have.  I decided to start with Norwegian Wood on my brother’s advice, and I…like it…I don’t love it, but I do like it and I am willing to persevere with a rather slowish read.  I am not, to be fair, very far into the novel.  So far I think I’ve met the key players, although not a tremendous amount of action has taken place.  The back of the book describes it as:

“A magnificent blending of the music, mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student’s romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man’s first, hopeless, and heroic love.”

Umm…okay.  I hope to finish this novel to see why, again stated on the back of my book, “This stunning and elegiac novel propelled Hauki Murakami into the forefront of the literary scene…”

When I do, I will review it at length.  Stay tuned!

Next, Tyrant Memory, by Horacio Castellanos Moya.  You’ll remember that I became an instant fan of this author when I read his novel, Senselessness.  I eagerly anticipated his new book, and was so impatient, I bought it instead of waiting for a library copy!  Although I am thoroughly enjoying it, I don’t think it measures up to Moya’s previous work–but, to be fair, I have not yet finished reading it, so stay tuned…

It follows a certain family, their trials and tribulations, in El Salvador in 1944 during the month between an attempted coup and a general strike that forced out the dictator Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez.  Staggering between laugh-out-loud hilarity and close-your-eyes horror, this novel is a very compelling read.  I just didn’t think I could subject my book groups and literary salons to it, though.

Finally, for today, The Counterlife by Philip Roth.  Many consider this to be his best work, so I was excited to read it.  I am a fan of Roth, although I know a lot of women have difficulty reading his work.  I’ve said before, as you know, that one of the funniest books I’ve ever read is Portnoy’s Complaint, which I read many, many years ago.

I am enjoying The Counterlife, and I can see why it is so highly regarded, but I have to admit, I was getting kind of bogged down in the second section, after loving the first…and I imagined my Literary Masters members getting bogged down also.  The idea of the novel is a character who dies in the first section, but then who isn’t dead in the next.  From the little I’ve read, I’m surmising that we are delving into the area of parallel universes, or the lives we could have, would have, should have lived.  Something I find very interesting, so I do hope to finish this book.  Again, stay tuned!

Right, now that I am back turning pages and pressing keys, I hope to be posting much more frequently than I did during this past month.  What about all of you, though?  What Have YOU Been Reading Lately???

A Wee WHIRL

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I will be blogging at length about these two books shortly, but for now, just a “Wee WHIRL”:

(And you all know by now that WHIRL stands for “What Have I Read Lately”, right?)

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett:

I know this novel is getting lots of positive critical reviews, but I have to say, I was…underwhelmed.  I loved Bel Canto, the last Patchett book I read, and I was looking forward to her latest, but I found it rather lackluster and disappointing.   The story is about a woman who goes to the Amazon to investigate her company’s investment in a drug that will allow women to bear children into their old age.  Patchett raises many questions through multiple themes, one being the morality of scientific experiments, but I felt like she was forcing issues rather than authentically exploring them.  Stay tuned for a longer review, but meanwhile feel free to weigh in with your own opinion.

Nemesis by Philip Roth:

This is one of the best books I’ve read all summer.  I loved it, and now I want to read the three that precede it in its group, “Nemeses”:  Everyman, Indignation, and The Humbling.  This most recent novel from Roth tells the story of one summer in 1944 in Newark, when the local boys were either off fighting WWII or home awaiting a different kind of enemy, but one that was just as deadly:  polio.  This is such a thought-provoking book: it raises all sorts of existential questions.  I will blog at length about it shortly, but I want to say here that I highly recommend it.

WHIRLing the Summer By!

literarymasters Banville, Bruno's Dream, Forna, Murdoch, Roncagliolo, The Memory of Love, The Sea, Uncategorized Leave a comment

No, I have not jetted off to some remote island with no internet access–far from it.  I’ve just been busy, busy, busy reading away–trying to choose the absolute BEST books for the upcoming season of Literary Masters Book Groups and Literary Salons.  So, have I finalized my list of selected books?  No, but I’ve been having fun trying!  Check out some of what I’ve been reading:

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna.  This book was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize this year.  Is it possible to like and hate a book at the same time?  That was my experience.  Set in Sierra Leone, the birthplace of the author, the story involves characters who are trying to come to terms with their pasts–in a place that has recently emerged from a civil war.  There is much to discuss and think about with this book, but I feel reluctant to choose it for my book groups because…well, I think it drags on too much.  I am generally a very patient reader, but I found myself multiple times thinking, “get on with it.”  So, although I think this is a good book with an important story to tell, I’m not putting it on my list.

Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo.  This book won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize this year.  I liked this book a lot, and I’m torn whether to put it on my list.  Written by a Peruvian author now living in Spain, it tells the story of the incredibly officious and bureaucratic prosecutor Chalcatana investigating a series of murders.  But of course, it’s about so much more than that.  I was so curious after reading it that I did some research on the Shining Path in Peru, and I even started reading Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa, but I feel these books could be just too grim for my groups.  I recommend Red April for an individual read, though, absolutely.  I haven’t yet finished Death in the Andes.

Bruno’s Dream by Iris Murdoch.  I always wanted to read something by Iris Murdoch, and now I have.  I enjoyed this book immensely, but I don’t think it will do for my groups, so I’m leaving it off my list.  Bruno, an old man who resembles a spider (the description of Bruno is worth reading the book for) and who collects stamps, is dying.  Wanting to come to peaceful terms with his estranged son, he calls for him.   I’d love to say that he then weaves a wonderful web in which he catches his son and the other characters (the book has quite a few), but alas, the metaphor is not carried through the book, or if it is, I missed it.  This novel is quite good and well worth reading, but I don’t think it will be on my list.  I’ll have to try another Iris Murdoch novel–yay!

The Sea by John Banville.  This book won the Man Booker Prize in 2005, and John Banville won the Kafka Prize this year.  I loved this book.  It is beautifully written; it carries the reader along on a tide of lyrical prose.  It’s about love, loss, grief, and memory, and it is undoubtedly worth reading.  I’m not sure if it will land on my list because I’m wondering if most people have already read it.  We’ll see.

WHIRLing Away!

literarymasters Horatio Castellanos Moya, Jonathan Dee, Larry Watson, Montana 1948, Privileges, Senselessness, The Ghost Writer, The True Deceiver, Tove Janssen, What Have I Read Lately, WHIRL Leave a comment

As you all know by now, WHIRL stands for What Have I Read Lately.  Sometimes I read a book and I don’t have time to post at length about it, but I don’t want you to miss out on a really good read.  So I WHIRL and tell you just a little bit about what I’ve read lately.  But you should know–often these are some of the best books I’ve read in a long time.  Here goes:

The True Deceiver by Tove Janssen.  This is an odd yet thoroughly compelling book.  It won the 2011 Best Translated Book Award, which is how it came onto my radar.  I checked it out of the library and was surprised to find that it was written in 1982 but wasn’t translated into English until 2009.  Thomas Teal is the translator and my edition has an introduction by Ali Smith.

The story takes place in a snow-laden village where everyone pretty much knows everyone else’s business.  Or so they think.  Katri Kling, always brutally honest and ferociously protective of her younger brother Mats, has earned the villagers fear and respect.  Caring nothing for anyone but Mats, Katri sets out on a relentless mission to secure his future.  And so they befriend Anna Aemelin, a children’s book illustrator who sees the world as she paints it–full of lovable, fluffy bunnies.

What happens to these individuals as they get closer to each other makes for a thought-provoking and page-turning read.  I was very grateful for Ali Smith’s introduction, which I read after I finished the book.  Her insight into the novel gave me much more to ponder than I would have done on my own.  It was like being in a Literary Masters book group!

Senselessness by Horatio Castellanos Moya.  Wow.  What a book.  I want others to read it so I can talk about it with them, but I hesitate to have my Literary Masters book groups read it because it is, how do I say this, not for everyone.  It’s a short, dense book, and I know it will stick with me for a while.  I look forward to reading more from this author.

The narrator tells us his story in a kind of stream-of-consciousness ramble, with long, convoluted sentences that have lots of repetition and end up circling back on each other.  He is editing a report that the Catholic Church has pulled together from the testimony of victims of military brutality during the country’s civil war.  We don’t know exactly which country they are in, but from outside reading I’ve done, I understand the place to be Guatemala, and the events to have taken place in the 1960’s.  The narrator is fearful of the repercussions from his work; after all, the military whose crimes he is exposing is still in power.

His fear turns into paranoia, but what do paranoid people say? “Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get me.”  Perhaps that’s a clue to this book, which is alternately hilariously funny and horrifically shocking.

This is, without a doubt, one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

The Privileges by Jonathan Dee is also an excellent read.  This is similar to Carol Edgarian’s novel Three Stages of Amazement in that it follows the lives of two people who decide to grab their piece of the American Dream, but with vastly different results.  I found this novel very literary in how it is crafted, and I would love to discuss that aspect of it with a Literary Masters book group, but even if you read it on your own, it’s a terrific story.  Very compelling.  The kind of book I couldn’t wait to get back to.

Perhaps you’ve heard by now that Philip Roth is the fourth writer to have won the Man Booker International Prize, awarded every other year.  He’s joined Alice Munro, one of my favorite authors, as well as Chinua Achebe, and Ismail Kadare.  So…I went to my local library and checked out The Ghost Writer, the first of a series of novels with Zuckerman as the narrator.  Now, you may know that one of my all-time-most-hilarious-fall-off-the-couch-laughing books is Portnoy’s Complaint, and I like Philip Roth in general, so I was looking forward to this book.

I really enjoyed it.  Many themes are in it that will surface in other Roth novels, and I even thought about picking up The Finkler Question, a book I disliked, again.  Something in Roth reminded me of the best bits of Jacobson…

Montana 1948 by Larry Watson won the Milkweed National Fiction Prize, and it is a wonderful little book.  I read it in a day.  Narrated by a grown man who is looking back on the summer of his twelfth year, the story manages to be both lyrical and riveting.  I couldn’t help thinking of To Kill A Mockingbird while I read it, although the two stories are nothing alike.  I think it is the coming of age quality of it, as well as the unforgettable voice of the narrator that reminded me of Harper Lee’s masterpiece.

Should Your Book Club Read Three Stages of Amazement by Carol Edgarian?

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If you’re looking for the bottom line, here it is: absolutely yes.  This is a perfect book for book clubs, and if you don’t belong to one and you’re reading it on your own, you’ll still love it.

Quick plot overview:
The story takes place during one pivotal year, 2009, the first year of Obama’s presidency.  The country is reeling from the financial crash of late 2008, but people are still clinging to the hope they’ve pinned on a new president and on the American dream that is, let’s face it, their birthright.  Charlie, a surgeon, and his wife Lena, a documentary film maker, want their little slice of entitlement and Charlie knows how they can get it.  He’s going to build a medical robot that can be used in remote locations and the venture capitalists in California will fund it and they will all live happily ever richer.

So Charlie and Lena move to San Francisco “ready for luck.”  They have “made their deal.  Charlie would give everything to Nimbus and Lena would handle the rest.”  The slight glitch is that “the rest” is quite a bit, and this puts a strain on the marriage that it may not survive.

Meanwhile, in a beautiful mansion in Pacific Heights in San Francisco, live Cal and Ivy.  Cal is Lena’s estranged uncle, a fact that concerns Charlie immensely.  Because guess who wants to invest in Nimbus and make Charlie and Lena super successful and wildly wealthy?  You guessed it–Uncle Cal.  Charlie is caught between a rock and a hard place, and without giving anything away, let’s just say he risks getting crushed between the two.

The plot thickens as we meet Alessandro, the mysterious Italian who works for Cal but who was once Lena’s lover.  Alessandro’s job puts him in a position to have a direct impact on Charlie’s success–and on his marriage with Lena. 

The opening line of Three Stages of Amazement begins “The modern marriage has two states, plateau and precipice…”  And yes, this novel is about marriage.  It’s not about the wedding, nor the divorce.  It’s about that in-between part, the real thing, marriage.  What creates a marriage, what’s the glue that holds a marriage together, what a marriage does to the couple in it…you could spend an entire meeting over just this issue, but this novel is also about so much more.  What else can your book club talk about when discussing it?

The title, for starters.  The book is divided into three sections: Silence, Disbelief, and Talk.  I was fortunate enough to attend an evening where the bright and beautiful Carol Edgarian spoke about her book, and when asked about the title, she tied it to how people react when they are amazed by something.  First, silence–kind of a stunned silence.  Next, the brain’s not really accepting it, so there’s disbelief.  Finally, as we process what’s going on, we begin to talk.

I love this explanation because it works on so many levels for this book.  Many of the characters go through the three stages of amazement on a personal level as they confront various events of their lives, but also the entire country is going through the same three stages following the catastrophic crash of the financial markets.  Carol Edgarian does an amazing job of capturing the zeitgeist of that little slice of time between when those cataclysmic events occurred and when people finally accepted those events as real, permanent, and part of a new way of life.  You can view this novel as a coming-of-age story for an entire country, when innocence was lost and disillusionment set in.

No doubt you’ll want to discuss the characters in depth, and as you do so, see how each character’s desire is playing a role in the story. And their principles.  And their secrets.  And how all three of these interact to create unexpected results.  A major theme in the book is whether or not we have any control over our lives; is there such a thing as fate, destiny, luck, or are we asserting our own will?

As summer approaches, it is perfect timing to read this book.  It’s fast-paced enough to read on a trip, but literary enough to keep you interested and engaged.  A “cerebral beach read”–now that’s the ticket!  Whether you go to the beach alone or with your book club, you’ll enjoy Three Stages of Amazement.

Should Your Book Club Read The 1000 Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell?

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This bursting-at-the-seams novel was the May selection for Literary Masters book groups.  It proved to be a polarizing choice.  Perhaps it’s the time of year; I, like many others, feel like my head is inside a Magi-mixer–and the switch is on!  Some members (myself included) loved the book, and others found it really hard going.  Everyone appreciated the opportunity to discuss it, though.  So, if you’re here for the bottom line, I would say: this is a book worth reading, and if you do read it, you’ll want to talk about it with others, so yes, your book club should read it!

Our groups talked about so many things, one main concern: what on earth is this novel about?  You’ve got the first plot–the Dutch on Dejima island in Japan at the turn of the nineteenth century, based on real events–and then there’s the second plot–the sisters and monks living in the mountaintop shrine.  And then the British frigate, again based on true events, arrives–almost a third plot–and helps tie everything together.  It’s an adventure story par excellence, and it’s also full of big ideas for your book club to explore.

We cover about twenty years–from 1799 until 1819 or thereabouts, yet all the major concerns of the century will be crammed in the story.  Science versus superstition, tradition versus modernity, West versus East, exploration versus exploitation, and much, much more.

Several overarching themes were discussed:

  • The idea of man being a complicated creature, a mix of both good and evil.  Are we just the sum of our deeds?  Is morality an absolute, or is it relative and dependent upon our culture?
  • The idea of life being a zero-sum game, and we are all just living by the law of the jungle.  It’s always all about power–who has it, who can grab it, how to use it.  Betrayal is pervasive throughout the story, which makes sense when it’s an eat or be eaten world. 
  • Stories, myths, and why we tell them.  And how they form who we are.  Whether we realize it or not.  Refer to page 244 for a great quote on this.
  • How we (often times blindly) hold onto a belief or ideology that justifies any and all of our actions.  How hard it is to let go of our beliefs because they form our identity and they give us power.  Refer to page 205 for a wonderful quote on this.
  • How very difficult it is to communicate, especially across cultural or other divides.  The power that an interpreter has, and the huge consequences that can arise from misinterpretation.
  • Imprisonment in a time of exploration.  Think about it–lots of the characters either chose their own prison or were put in one by someone else.

This book is bursting with metaphors, but one I loved was the birth at the beginning of the novel–a wonderfully symbolic scene.   And we all loved the language, especially the haiku-like ‘interruptions’–usually tied to nature–that underscored the action.  For example, when the villagers don’t want to know about what’s going on in the shrine on p.182, the line reads “She hears the ancient hush of falling snow,” and then later, when the truth is being uncovered on p. 236, the line reads “Someone sweeps snow in the courtyard with a stiff-bristled broom.”  How gorgeous is that?

There’s lots more to this book, but this ought to get you started with some ideas to discuss with your book club.  Happy reading!

Man Booker International Prize!

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BIG NEWS in the literary world: Philip Roth has won the Man Booker International prize.  He’s the fourth person to do so, joining Chinua Achebe (read Things Fall Apart if you haven’t yet), Alice Munro (one of my favorites), and Ismail Kadare (I read his Chronicle in Stone last summer–really good).  One of my all-time favorite laugh-out-loud books is Portnoy’s Complaint by Roth.  I have never read American Pastoral (I know, hard to believe)–I’ve had it in my “to be read” pile for years.  Perhaps this summer I will get around to it…What is your favorite Roth novel?

Bad Nature, Or With Elvis in Mexico by Javier Marias

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Wow, this seemingly simple story packs a powerful punch.  I am constantly lamenting the gaps in my literary life, and one embarrassingly deficient area of knowledge for me is the Spanish-speaking world of literature.  I am trying to rectify this, and one author that I’ve had on my radar for awhile but had never read is Javier Marias.  I mean, Orhan Pamuk has said that Marias should win the Nobel prize for literature, and Orhan should know–he’s won it himself.

One of my favorite bloggers suggested I start with this book.  And I can see why.  This is a quick little book; in fact, one can easily read it in a day.  I think it will take much longer than that to process, however.

Quick plot overview:
The narrator is being hunted.  He makes this abundantly clear to us in the first five pages of the story.  In a kind of stream-of-consciousness style, he tells us just how hunted he is.  For the rest of the story, we learn why there are people out to get him, but the story is so funny, I forgot about his being hunted at all.

The narrator is in Mexico to shoot a movie with Elvis Presley.  There is, as one can imagine, quite a large contingent of people accompanying Elvis, and our narrator is there for one purpose: as a diction coach.  His job is to see that Elvis pronounces the letter “c” as it is pronounced in Spain; Elvis doesn’t want to have a Mexican accent.  An easy job, as it turns out; as our narrator tells us, “Mr. Presley had to pronounce very few Spanish phrases in the course of the film…”

We learn that Mr. Presley is quite a nice guy, but is rather restless as well.  When they aren’t shooting the film, he and his entourage go out in search of a good time. Our narrator is with them, but he’s no longer a diction coach.  Instead, much to his dislike, he is forced into the role of translator.  Seeing as they’ve all stumbled into a local bar full of hostile thugs who are intent upon insulting Elvis and his companions, the job of translator is a dangerous one indeed.  Our narrator must relay the messages from Elvis to the thugs and vice-versa, all the while trying to keep the peace. 

And all of a sudden, this quirky amusing novella becomes seriously intense and psychologically deep.  And impossible to put down.  Suffice to say, I closed the final page and my hands were practically trembling.  The power of words.  The power of image. The power of the medium.  What is real.  What we believe.  I’ve been pondering all this and more thanks to Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico.  And the fact that Javier Marias worked as a translator for years–wow, that just adds more brilliance to an absolute gem of a novel.

The next Marias novel I want to try is A Heart So White.  How about you?  Which Marias novel is your favorite?