I’m in one of the inter-book chasms right now. I finished reading a history book a couple of weeks ago, and I can’t seem to settle on a new book. I bought Michael Chabon’s new book, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, read the first two chapters, didn’t like it, and returned it. This was disappointing, because I loved Chabon’s first two novels, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys, and really enjoyed The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
After returning the book, I bought Orhan Pamuk’s Snow. It was supposed to be good, and the author won the Nobel Prize. I’ve been reading it this week, but I’m 100 pages into it and I’m bored. I’m giving up, because I can.
Then I was thinking I might read something like Anna Karenina, which is supposed to be one of the greatest novels ever. But I’ve read the first few pages online and I don’t think I’m in the mood for it.
I think I feel like reading something more American, more modern, more fresh. So I’m leaning right now toward either Don DeLillo’s Libra or Philip Roth’s I Married a Communist. DeLillo’s book supposedly does neat things with history; as for Roth, I’ve read three of his novels, and although he can be old and cranky and hetero, I love his prose.
I’m also very curious about this. But it’s not out for a few weeks.
So we’ll see.
Have you read “100 Years of Solitude”?
I haven’t… I flipped through it once, but it didn’t appeal to me at the time.
Go for the Roth. DeLillo always seems like a good idea at the time but by the time you’re done with it, you’re just annoyed. I Married a Communist is no American Pastoral or Plot Against America or Operation Shylock (three of my favorite 10) but its still good. Anna Karenina is long but good, but if you want to go for long and good, go for the Proust.
Don’t bother with 100 years of solitude. Massively overrated, I think. Unless you can read it in the original perhaps. I really felt I was reading a translation, all the way through.
Read Mary Gaitskill’s Veronica. Sentence by sentence, it’s some of the best writing I’ve read recently…
But I’m just a poet, nobody trusts us… ;-)
hey, there!
have you heard about the film adaptation of MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH in which the writer/director of DODGEBALL has CHANGED 85% of the story?
he’s completely CUT gay arthur, demoted phlox to art’s ex-g/f and made cleveland is bisexual lover!
for more info check out: http://www.myspace.com/mysteriesofpittsburgh
if you’ve liked to read the script, email me: bechstein[at]yahoo[com]
Well, I decided to stick with non-fiction (I like to feel like I’m learning something, and I love history). So I’m reading Nixon and Kissinger, which just came out.
FranQ: I hadn’t heard that so many changes were made in the adaptation of Mysteries of Pittsburgh. Thanks for the news! It’s not uncommon, though, and it looks like Chabon approved the changes and that there’s still a sexual confusion aspect to the plot. So I’ll keep an open mind.