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Currently I am rereading "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen. I was inspired to pick it up after reading Janelle Brown citing it as an influence. (I devoured her satirical book "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything.") I read it when it first came out, in 2001, and mainly recalled uncomfortable family dynamics and a squeamish scene with a man slipping raw fish in his pants. Ah, yes, I thought: "That a salmon fillet was now spreading down into Chip's underpants like a wide, warm slug did seem to have everything to do with his brain and with a number of poor decisions that this brain had made" (p 97).
"The Corrections" is excruciatingly good - so hyper perceptive, so sharp-edged, so painfully alert to the absurdities and hypocrisies of American life. He describes the cluttered home of Alfred and Enid, an elderly couple, zeroing in on a Ping-Pong table in the basement: "At the eastern end Alfred's calculator was ambushed by floral print pot-holders and souvenir coasters from the Epcot Center and a decide for pitting cherries which Enid had owned for thirty years and never used, while he, in turn, at the western end, for absolutely no reason Enid could ever fathom, ripped to pieces a wreath made of pinecones and spray-painted filberts and brazil nuts" (p 7). You have to groan in recognition - and laugh at the pinecones.
Franzen's writing is so skillful, it's exhilarating. Nearly every page has a deadly accurate observation, such as this comment on pretension: "'I'm so starving,' she said. It was a thin woman's apology for being corporeal" (p208).
The character I felt for the most was passive-aggressive Enid, the mother who is willing to guilt her children into coming home for Christmas. Her twisted sense that she deserves a nice holiday no matter what is both sad and true. Her family Christmas may come at the expense of her son's marriage, her son's sanity, her husband's health and her daughter's happiness, but it's really the least they can do.
Also this week, I read "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court" by Jeffrey Toobin. I really enjoyed his somewhat gossipy, behind-the-scenes take on some of the most important decisions of the Rehnquist Court. He also makes very smart analysis of how the Justices' lives affect their rulings - Kennedy's exposure to international judges, Thomas's anger over his confirmation hearings.
I have complex feelings towards Sandra Day O'Connor - I have met her twice and want to love her. She's a true trailblazer, obviously, and she also seems to have a great joy for life. "Don't fall into a rut of making the same meals all the time," she once told a law professor of mine. "Not when there's so many recipes to try." I love that spirit! But - even though it's a decade later - I still lament and grieve Bush v. Gore.
I also read "Commencement" by J. Courtney Sullivan - I expected to love this smart book about female friends in college and beyond. It's pretty much a winning formula. Look at Martha Moody in "Best Friends," Anne Rivers Siddons in "Outer Banks," etc. And yet this book seemed to be trying too hard. None of the characters moved beyond stereotypes of the angry rebel, the sexy girl next door, etc. And the big drama at the end felt really forced - a last-minute attempt to convert a friendship novel into a suspenseful thriller.
The novel did do an excellent job at depicting the hothouse atmosphere of an all-women college - a claustrophobic feeling of being surrounded by females, expressing emotions and overeating and indulging in sexual experimentation and obsessing about the patriarchy.
Also - I read "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" by Alison Bechdel. I remember reading rave reviews when it came out in 2004. And now I know why! I've only read a few graphic novels - "Maus" and "Persopolis." "Fun Home" is extremely literate with all kinds of meditations upon memory and truth as seen through Proust and Joyce. I was utterly absorbed. I don't think I'll read it again, though.
Decided to track what I'm reading... I've read so many book blogs and decided to join in the fun. I love discussing books.
Currently I am rereading "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen. I was inspired to pick it up after reading Janelle Brown citing it as an influence. (I devoured her satirical book "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything.") I read it when it first came out, in 2001, and mainly recalled uncomfortable family dynamics and a squeamish scene with a man slipping raw fish in his pants. Ah, yes, I thought: "That a salmon fillet was now spreading down into Chip's underpants like a wide, warm slug did seem to have everything to do with his brain and with a number of poor decisions that this brain had made" (p 97).
"The Corrections" is excruciatingly good - so hyper perceptive, so sharp-edged, so painfully alert to the absurdities and hypocrisies of American life. He describes the cluttered home of Alfred and Enid, an elderly couple, zeroing in on a Ping-Pong table in the basement: "At the eastern end Alfred's calculator was ambushed by floral print pot-holders and souvenir coasters from the Epcot Center and a decide for pitting cherries which Enid had owned for thirty years and never used, while he, in turn, at the western end, for absolutely no reason Enid could ever fathom, ripped to pieces a wreath made of pinecones and spray-painted filberts and brazil nuts" (p 7). You have to groan in recognition - and laugh at the pinecones.
Franzen's writing is so skillful, it's exhilarating. Nearly every page has a deadly accurate observation, such as this comment on pretension: "'I'm so starving,' she said. It was a thin woman's apology for being corporeal" (p208).
The character I felt for the most was passive-aggressive Enid, the mother who is willing to guilt her children into coming home for Christmas. Her twisted sense that she deserves a nice holiday no matter what is both sad and true. Her family Christmas may come at the expense of her son's marriage, her son's sanity, her husband's health and her daughter's happiness, but it's really the least they can do.
Also this week, I read "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court" by Jeffrey Toobin. I really enjoyed his somewhat gossipy, behind-the-scenes take on some of the most important decisions of the Rehnquist Court. He also makes very smart analysis of how the Justices' lives affect their rulings - Kennedy's exposure to international judges, Thomas's anger over his confirmation hearings.
I have complex feelings towards Sandra Day O'Connor - I have met her twice and want to love her. She's a true trailblazer, obviously, and she also seems to have a great joy for life. "Don't fall into a rut of making the same meals all the time," she once told a law professor of mine. "Not when there's so many recipes to try." I love that spirit! But - even though it's a decade later - I still lament and grieve Bush v. Gore.
I also read "Commencement" by J. Courtney Sullivan - I expected to love this smart book about female friends in college and beyond. It's pretty much a winning formula. Look at Martha Moody in "Best Friends," Anne Rivers Siddons in "Outer Banks," etc. And yet this book seemed to be trying too hard. None of the characters moved beyond stereotypes of the angry rebel, the sexy girl next door, etc. And the big drama at the end felt really forced - a last-minute attempt to convert a friendship novel into a suspenseful thriller.
The novel did do an excellent job at depicting the hothouse atmosphere of an all-women college - a claustrophobic feeling of being surrounded by females, expressing emotions and overeating and indulging in sexual experimentation and obsessing about the patriarchy.
Also - I read "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" by Alison Bechdel. I remember reading rave reviews when it came out in 2004. And now I know why! I've only read a few graphic novels - "Maus" and "Persopolis." "Fun Home" is extremely literate with all kinds of meditations upon memory and truth as seen through Proust and Joyce. I was utterly absorbed. I don't think I'll read it again, though.
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