Reading Lists
I just finished reading Madame Bovary for the first time. I didn't expect to enjoy it as deeply as I did, but I devoured it, particularly the incisive psychology of characters' motivations and actions and reactions. There's also a lot of emotional resonance (and angst) applicable to today's monogamous relationships, not just in 1850s France. It's doomed and powerful and I feel drained. I'd be curious to hear others' gut reactions and analyses of the book.
I've been reading a lot the past few weeks (the upside of all those subway rides to and from downtown), and here's a list of what I've been excited about lately:
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
Net of Jewels by Ellen Gilchrist
Go Ask Ogre by Jolene Siana (I may have recommended this in a previous post)
Tear Down by Ali Riley
Next I'll take on some Virginia Woolf, a couple of Italo Calvino books I haven't read yet, and more Jerzy Kosinski.
I'd love some recommendations from others, especially for something current that fits this demanding description: energetic mind-blowing hybrid narrative imagistic defying categorization like if you genetically spliced Janette Turner Hospital with John Ashbery with Beckett with Lorrie Moore with Kathy Acker with George Saunders. Something like that. Does that exist? That's what I'm craving. Please advise.
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I've been back into doing the Globe's cryptic crosswords. Anyone else do these? I love them, but I never get all of the answers, though each clue that I puzzle out is deeply satisfying. I found a great way to get one finished: collaborate. Between my efforts, Bryan's, and emails with his brother Dave, together we completed June 17th's and June 24's. Last week's, July 1st's, is driving me nuts. Not the big Canada Day one, but the regular book section one. Anyone reading this get that one done?
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On a more serious note, here are some articles that recently affected me. Sometimes I just want to move to another planet. Didn't Stephen Hawking recently recommend that?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13887.htm
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,104102,00.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13885.htm
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One other tidbit for you: the chemist character in Madame Bovary says to someone "Goodness! As if I hadn't enough on my plate already!... No, I can't help it, you must come back later."
Published first in 1857, this is a 1950 translation. I thought "a lot on my plate" was merely a recent corporate mangling of language, but no, apparently we've been having a lot on our plates for well over a century. Well, I'll liase with the stakeholders and touch base about taking ownership of our key messages and core initiatives in a value-add paradigm... and get back to you. Keep on the critical path, paved with action items!
Cheers.
SPOOF THE SPOOF by John Southworth
posted by j-love @ 1:52 p.m.
6 comments
6 Comments:
I don't know if this fits your literary criteria, but I've been quite enjoying a compendium of back Spiderman issues.
They certainly are energetic and mind blowing to say the least. They could also be hybrid narrative imagistic, however, I don't know what that means.
Signed King Komic Kid.
I read an excellent new novel recently that I think you'd really like: Stolen by Annette Lapointe.
Also, anything by Muriel Spark. I can't remember if you're already a fan of hers. If you're not familiar with her novels, give some of them a try. I'm in the midst of a major reread of my favourites and they're holding up really well. Short, intense novels that interweave violence, religion, totalitarianism, with a strong vein of black humour. Right up your alley! Some of her best are: The Driver's Seat, The Comforters, and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
One of the best books I've read in recent years is Richard Powers' Operation Wandering Soul (a wonderfully surreal fable about hospitalized, disabled children who plan a tour of an American ghetto with a theatrical production of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"). It might be hard to find though.
A really good read with an unusual method of story telling is Kiss of the Spiderwoman by Manuel Puig I found this an intriguing read, also pretty quick to get through.
I agree with you about Madame Bovary, the more I read it the more comes out - what a clever guy was Flaubert, despite what Henry James thought of his work!
Maybe a little late, but how about Pixel Juice by Jeff Noon? And, not the best writer but an excellent story teller, Philip K. Dick -- his short stories are terrific.
Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum is worth a read. I read that one before she got really popular.
Judy Budnitz has some pretty wild short stories.
Lawrence here again.
Read those articles you posted. Re the one on Venezuela, there's always some right-winged jerk objecting to any restraints on capitalism.
Isn't it ironic that the doctors who are going to Venezuela to work in needy areas are from Cuba? If Cuba is such a backwards communist system, why is it that they have such a good educational system and can afford to send doctors to Venezuela? Their health system seems to be working better than ours, and surely much better that that of the U.S.
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