Even on a re-read it boggles my mind that this was a first novel -- Zadie Smith is one of the finest character novelists. The way she then scales the Even on a re-read it boggles my mind that this was a first novel -- Zadie Smith is one of the finest character novelists. The way she then scales the characterization out onto the pressing issues and the political is so impressive she makes it seem effortless. I'll re-re-read this again someday....more
Re-read this after watching the movie adaptation in the theater: the movie interpreted the absurd, wacky, surreal plot well and nailed the humor & horRe-read this after watching the movie adaptation in the theater: the movie interpreted the absurd, wacky, surreal plot well and nailed the humor & horror, even though some conversations veered toward grad-school theatricality (some lines nearly verbatim from the book). The book improved the movie experience and I just say I was pleasantly surprised how reading the book after watching the movie improvised the reading of experience....more
For those particularly satisfied with a book after reading it, may I exhort you: read it again a few years later. The familiarity of the material makeFor those particularly satisfied with a book after reading it, may I exhort you: read it again a few years later. The familiarity of the material makes the characters stand out, and the sentences scream nearly toward sentience.
Thus was the case when I dove back into D.F. Wallace’s ‘The Pale King.’ I re-read it after nearly the same length of time as had passed between Wallace’s death and its official published date.
“An Unfinished Novel” is a title-cased epitaph sandwiched between the book’s title and the author’s name on the title page. It’s sad, apt, and misleading. Sad for the obvious reasons; apt w/r/t descriptiveness; misleading in that it might dissuade a reader to plunk down hard-earned $ for something unfinished.
While the whole of the narrative surely would’ve been longer, is the upfront negation not dissimilar to defining shooting stars as unfinished? We see its, the star’s, partial arc and we revel in its beauty. We wonder where it will end up. But beautiful is the illumination of which we are able to view the star’s parabolic scattering of reflected dusty light, no matter its length or brightness.
The epigraph explains the entirety of this book’s reading experience, from the initial heads up, the purchase, the pre-reading When/Should I Read This? Toil, the actual work of reading it, to the completion/fugue that both empties and fills the reader at The End. It’s the ability to be immersed:
“We fill pre-existing forms and when we fill them we change them and are changed. --- Frank Bidart, ‘Borges and I’”
And but so you’ve heard of boredom. That the book is about boredom. How to manage boredom. Sure, but don’t stretch ‘This Is Water’ as a Hallmark-ishly thin mask over the entire novel. The speech is great, but the clean platitudes are easily misinterpreted. In The Pale King, they are etched in stone, dealt with at times in detail so penetratingly deep that there is no wiggle room, so to speak. Alas, Wigglers -- those human machines filing, sorting, and finding meaning in various IRS documents -- try to find a meaning in life. I know the way this is going to sound, but I felt each character was as if they were at the end of the line in string theory, sitting there wiggling, with no real way to describe fully what is going on. Indeed, something is happening, but we don’t know what it is (do you, Mr. Jones?).
A character in an early section in the book is looking out an airplane’s window at a car on the road, driving what seems to be in slow motion from that great height. Much of the book reads along that type of scaling. From above, down a microscope. Scaling, finding meaning at whichever length befits the occasion.
Several characters are fully-fleshed out, such that one could place them in any type of scene and know what’s likely to transpire. Think of Seinfeld’s characters: you get to know them so well that when you see them react to the current environment, it rings so true you feel as though you predicted what was going to happen.
A pale, marbled, stoic Jesuit substitute instructor offers kingly words to those about to take a graduate level accounting exam, “Enduring tedium over real time in a confined space is what real courage is.” He mentions heroism as the individuals’ benefact of dealt with banalities, the mundanity that is found in far more happenings than simply accounting. It’s life. Deal with it. The theatrical valor shown in venues of entertainment offers a fallacious understanding about existence. No audience. No applause.
Whole stretches of the novel are as comic and sad as ‘Infinite Jest,’ and, in some cases, funnier and sadder. The cruel irony is that you could laugh to death reading this. ...more
I will start by stating that I'm heavily biased, in that I adore Bob Dylan. His writing is like experimental jazz: on the fly, off the cuff, vibrant, I will start by stating that I'm heavily biased, in that I adore Bob Dylan. His writing is like experimental jazz: on the fly, off the cuff, vibrant, rattles inside your bones, offers that warm-burn an extended hand toward a campfire provides. If you like his lyrics from the 60s (that's also the timeframe in which he wrote Tarantula), read this collection of poems and prose. It's as simple as that. A narrative description of the book is fruitless; it's a spontaneous work of poetic genius. Read it aloud and you'll be hooked. A line from the text, "... resign from mind the heart of light & approve the doom, the bending & the farce of happy ending..."...more
Deb Olin Unferth is largely influential to me w/r/t writing. Unferth's is a writing that pushes enough against the grain of convention that it createsDeb Olin Unferth is largely influential to me w/r/t writing. Unferth's is a writing that pushes enough against the grain of convention that it creates an original, recognizable voice without drawing too much attention to itself, which is an awfully difficult thing to pull off. I think she's better than Jennifer Egan in that regard (I do like Egan). She's Don DeLillo-ish to me, and that's a compliment I reserve for few authors... 'Vacation' mulls over the ideas of escape, curiosity, mistakes, devotions, theft, risks, relationships, maniacal thoughts, et cetera in a very worthwhile and enjoyable way. This is the third straight year I've read 'Vacation,' and it might continue to be an annual read for me. Also, there are dolphins in the book. Dolphins. Oh, and if you liked the documentary 'The Cove,' this should be required reading. ...more
Mr. Reclusive himself may as well be V., the unfound signified (or maybe signifier? Dualities!) causing countless quests to end without satiation. Or Mr. Reclusive himself may as well be V., the unfound signified (or maybe signifier? Dualities!) causing countless quests to end without satiation. Or is the quest the destination? The questination perhaps? Is V. even real? Or can V. just be extracted in anything upon analysis? Perhaps the overarching answer is found somewhere deep within the partridge droppings in Slab's pear-tree. I'd explain, but you'd be better off reading it yourself.
Pynchon's sentences are profound, funny, highly concentrated, and drenched in density.
So the question is this: can you find the world through the word?...more
Quick re-read for a refresher. I learned more about history than Dylan, but I knew that going in to this book. Wilentz is a historian, so I could onlyQuick re-read for a refresher. I learned more about history than Dylan, but I knew that going in to this book. Wilentz is a historian, so I could only read this in small sections at a time. It is well-written; I'm just a fiction nut. There is much to be read re: Dylan, and this book is worth the time for any Dylanphiles out there. Wilentz frames the history that molded and influenced Dylan. I especially liked the section on Blind Wille McTell....more
I love The Old Man and The Sea. It was the first Hemingway I read. I grew up in Arkansas, and loved birds as a kid. One day, I told my teacher I spokeI love The Old Man and The Sea. It was the first Hemingway I read. I grew up in Arkansas, and loved birds as a kid. One day, I told my teacher I spoke to and named birds that I saw outside of my house. She told me that that reminded her of a scene in her favorite book, The Old Man and The Sea. She brought it the next day, and I read the part in the middle of the book where the Old Man sits imaginatively in the boat and starts conversing with a recently perched bird, a warbler. That passage and book immediately became my favorite, and the warbler became my favorite bird. I also named a bird near my house 'Old Man.'...more
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