When I went and signed up for library rights at the Philadelphia Free Library I quickly felt a little bit more sane than I had up until then. I was watching too much television, not writing and not reading. Now I'm not watching that much television, not writing but I am reading and it makes me feel a lot better about my overall self. Kind of. Any way my maiden checking out of books was pretty glorious. I checked out four and read three of them, the other-though praised by Nick Hornby- is in epic poem form and, frankly, I don't care to read it if it's going to be all epic poem-y in form, thank you very much. But I did read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. This book is pretty satisfying, as books go. You get a number of different character perspectives, a whole heck of learning about the Dominican Republic's history (especially the Trujillo years) and a good read. I wanted to read it after listening to Terri Gross interview Junot Diaz months and months ago but I could never quite remember the title of the book when I was in a position to be looking for new reading material. A strange thing that happened was that I found that I had read a small excerpt of the book at some point...I think probably in one of C. and T's pile of New Yorkers...but had assumed that the author was female (due to the specific excerpt being about a girl and her mother and, uh, I thought Junot was a girl's name because of my ignorance?).
Last Night at the Lobster is kind of like Nicholson Baker's Box of Matches but not as perfect. Nothing really happens. Actually, that's really the main similarity. Box of Matches is told in first person while Lobster is not. Box of Matches riffes and whatnot far more. It's that they're both quiet books with no big drama. I like these kinds of books because they seem more like life to me.
Richard Russo, oh you the man who likes to write stories about dudes who would never write books like you do. Bridge of Sighs gets off to a pretty slow start but at some point picks up...that or I sat down and read a huge chunk of it on Saturday and not constantly interrupting myself allowed more interest to form. As always he's writing about people living in a small town near some factory or another that is no longer in operation but its effects are still felt. Once again he writes a protagonist who isn't stupid but isn't particularly smart either. Maybe that's an unkind assessment of Lou, "Lucy", Lynch but...well...yeah, it seems like that's what Russo is going for. These 'everymen'. Noble in their desire for simplicity. And then he writes these women who are smarter than the men but love them men anyway. This book is not Mohawk nor is it Empire Falls but it shares many a trait with both of them. And yet it's just different enough, the people the plot the town itself that even though I may have just written like I didn't like the similarities what I really meant was that I'm amazed how he can have so many similarities and still have such a different book.
Last Night at the Lobster is kind of like Nicholson Baker's Box of Matches but not as perfect. Nothing really happens. Actually, that's really the main similarity. Box of Matches is told in first person while Lobster is not. Box of Matches riffes and whatnot far more. It's that they're both quiet books with no big drama. I like these kinds of books because they seem more like life to me.
Richard Russo, oh you the man who likes to write stories about dudes who would never write books like you do. Bridge of Sighs gets off to a pretty slow start but at some point picks up...that or I sat down and read a huge chunk of it on Saturday and not constantly interrupting myself allowed more interest to form. As always he's writing about people living in a small town near some factory or another that is no longer in operation but its effects are still felt. Once again he writes a protagonist who isn't stupid but isn't particularly smart either. Maybe that's an unkind assessment of Lou, "Lucy", Lynch but...well...yeah, it seems like that's what Russo is going for. These 'everymen'. Noble in their desire for simplicity. And then he writes these women who are smarter than the men but love them men anyway. This book is not Mohawk nor is it Empire Falls but it shares many a trait with both of them. And yet it's just different enough, the people the plot the town itself that even though I may have just written like I didn't like the similarities what I really meant was that I'm amazed how he can have so many similarities and still have such a different book.
2 comments:
Oh good the summer reading list is finally coming out, albeit slowly! Get thee to the library and give us more ideas! Altho nothing beats wandering thru Target one time with you, and you pointed out all the best sellers or hot books: hmm read that one, ok, liked this one, that one majorly sucked, that one was tough etc etc. I think you had basically read everything on the top and second shelves. I was awestruck, having thought of myself as a more than good reader! Of course you were in grad school where reading was the thing and staying current was even more the thing but still and all, I was impressed!
I better go read that other Russo I didn't read, but I mix them up, the one I read, the one I didn't...J is reading Ray Bradbury and Chaim Potok for part of her rising ninth grader reading list. So far Bradbury has been met with a sigh, a raspberry, and a "This was pathetic" assessment.
When you are weaned on Harry Potter, much pales methinks.
I forgot Straight Man-that's a Russo book with a less everyman man...and more of the every professor at a small liberal arts college man. Funny thing with ducks in that book.
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