Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Atonement (by Ian McEwen)
In the meantime, I am onto the Time list, and Atonement is another book that Ian already had on our bookshelves. Very handy, his book collection. Reading this book was an experience. I started out absolutely loving it—the prose is pitch-perfect, masterful. Then at the end of the first part, you find out what happens, and it is so depressing that I had a hard time picking it up again. I get all anxious at the idea of Tragic Misunderstanding, I suppose.
The next part was the war part, and it took me a little while to get into it, but it is very vivid, very much like A Farewell to Arms, which I did not love, but do acknowledge did a great job of portraying a war march. McEwan did a great job as well. and I definitely did care about the character. Unlike Beth, I did not pick up on anything about the novel’s structure at this point.
Then came the nurse section, which brought me closer to being sympathetic toward Briony, but not really, as I still wanted her to suffer more—which I guess was the point, in the end. And then came the ending, and now I am going to spoiler tag:
At first the whole metafiction coda made me upset, but that’s probably because I really wanted the semi-happy ending for the characters. Beth said that she was afraid Robbie would turn out to be the villain after all—I had that same fear! Upon reflection, I think that the ultimate reveal is perfect. It adds a beautiful layer of meaning to the whole story—not only does it provide the final tragic blow to the reader, but it reveals that Briony’s atonement was to get inside the heads and hearts of these people, to fully convey the depth of her crime against them. Minor plot question: I didn’t think that Lola actually knew Paul had done it, although Briony clearly did think that, from her behavior in the church and her statements at the end. I thought Lola was confused, in spite of having been attacked by Paul earlier, and I blamed Briony from start to finish. Also, what kind of a name is that? Sorry, I have an issue with implausible names.
I also have the feeling that I need to think about this book more. Maybe Ian or Foo can convince me that the ending is a bad idea after all. (I think they both think that.)
posted by mo pie at 3:54 PM 2 comments links to this post
Sunday, October 29, 2006
The Big Sleep (by Raymond Chandler)
I thought the book was boring, though, and a little confusing. I didn’t understand anyone’s motives all that clearly, least of all Marlowe’s. I thought some of his metaphors (those famous noir metaphors) were stretched pretty thin. It wasn’t that suspenseful or exciting because I didn’t actually care about anyone. It had its moments, but overall, it seemed more “important” than actually good. I far preferred The Maltese Falcon.
[Edited to add that I just went looking around the Amazon reviews, and the consensus is that his later books are much better. There are a lot of four-star reviews glowing about Chandler but then admitting that his plot makes no sense. So, yay! Not just me.]
posted by mo pie at 2:45 PM 3 comments links to this post
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Don't Worry, I Won't Even Try
There are a lot of good and great books on here, but I don’t think there were a whole lot of tough choices made; this person just included everything. Even The Black Dahlia, which is horrible! No Ayn Rand, though, which is something. And Breton’s Nadja is on there, which makes me happy. But did you know Edith Wharton wrote something called The Glimpses of the Moon or something? I didn’t. It seems like if an author is on there, the list includes all their minor and major works, and does no culling, and that weakens the whole list. And if you’re going to compile a list this exhaustive and not include The Epic of Gilgemesh, I just don’t trust you.
Anyway, I like seeing how many books I’ve read when I see a list like this. It took me awhile to calculate and I might have missed one or two, but I counted 143½. Seems rather pitiful when compared to Doppleganger’s 200 books, but hey, at least I’ve read Ulysses!
posted by mo pie at 1:37 PM 0 comments links to this post
Monday, October 16, 2006
Book 100
I have read 99 of these books; I have suffered through Look Homeward, Angel and Atlas Shrugged. How can I give up now?
In the meantime, I have shifted focus over to the Time 100 list, since Ian seems to have many of those books on his shelf. I'm reading The Big Sleep right now, in fact. At least my entire reading project won't grind to a standstill as I struggle with this moral quandary about book number one hundred.
posted by mo pie at 4:25 PM 5 comments links to this post
Sunday, October 15, 2006
The End and The Beatrice Letters (by Lemony Snicket)
posted by mo pie at 11:09 AM 0 comments links to this post
Thursday, October 12, 2006
The Glass Castle (by Jeanette Walls)
One issue is that the author right away tells an anecdote that makes you kind of hate her, but never circles back around to it to give you a better understanding of her motives... in hindsight, she seems like more of a bitch than I think she probably really is. (I'm sorry if that made no sense; I've had some wine.) Anyway, it's an interesting story, well told, and if you did love Liars' Club you'll probably like it... although it's not as good... although, what is?
posted by mo pie at 8:49 PM 0 comments links to this post
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Even Better Than The Rand Apologists
posted by mo pie at 2:51 PM 1 comments links to this post