Tag: Class

Books

Book 69: The Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri

Geoff W

A friend in undergrad recommended I read this novel and I’m sad it took me this long to read it. The Namesake is one of the most beautifully and eloquently written novels I have read this year, if not ever.

There is something so simple and yet strikingly intricate in Lahiri’s prose. I can only compare her to the lyrical like prose I’ve read from many Irish authors. I found myself repeating sentences in my head because of their artful construction. The foreign names, foods, and customs interwoven with the familiar places and customs created a story I couldn’t put down. I’ve compared Jhumpa Lahiri to Jane Austen, in the ordinariness of what she writes and her style, and I stand by this, but it is the lives and deaths—the full picture, rather than the snapshot—at which Lahiri excels.

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Books

Book 68: Waiting for Snow in Havana – Carlos Eire

Geoff W

This book was both brilliant and boring. There were times when I couldn’t stop reading and times when all I wanted to do was abandon the book for another. Mostly I’m glad I finished it and hopefully it is one of those books that in a few weeks/months I’ll appreciate having read it.

I was excited about seeing Eire speak at the upcoming Boston Book Festival and I still plan on going to the panel, but I’m not as excited as I was. This isn’t the first book I’ve read that let me down. Leaving it on my list for so long without reading it, removed a lot of the luster and excitement from when I first found it and wanted to read it. Either way I can’t get my copy signed as Tom accidentally spilled water all over it and I had to check out a new version from the library to finish reading it (the main impetus in actually finishing it).

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Books

Book 64: Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

Geoff W

As I mentioned earlier I decided to bump this higher on my list as I missed a trivia question and realized how woefully lacking French literature (Classic) is from my lists and my life.

Having finished it, I’m not quite so sure it was a bad thing French literature was missing from my life. There were parts of the novel I really enjoyed, the romance, the passion, but there were parts that dredged on and definitely left me wishing Flaubert was a more concise writer.

This is of course the story of Madame Bovary (Emma – my trivia question was ‘ In which novel by Gustave Flaubert is Emma the protagonist?’) and her fall from grace. I would say it’s a story of lessons—Don’t live beyond your means; Believe in love, and don’t give into lust; and Never stop dreaming, but know where the line between dream and reality is. We follow Charles Bovary from his time as a young school boy through to his education and his first wife. His first wife dies and he eventually marries Emma, and the rest of the story is about their love (or lack thereof) and Emma’s search for extramarital love/life. The ending is sad, but poignant.

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Books

Book 60: Amerika (The Man Who Disappeared) – Franz Kafka

Geoff W

The American dream isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in this Franz Kafka novel.

As an introduction to Kafka I thought it was decently well written and had an interesting story line. I can only imagine the improvements of the work had Kafka finished the novel in his lifetime and had time to rewrite and edit the novel. As it is the novel has a few interesting quirks pointed out in the preface, like a bridge between Boston (whoop) and New York City, and what appear as the Rocky Mountains just outside of New York City (between NYC and Oklahoma). I’m definitely interested in reading more of Kafka. I have The Metamorphosis on my Kindle, so maybe I’ll get to it soon.

Without knowing how Kafka meant to end the book, one can only surmise on the lessons the novel appears to teach. From the hardship of his forced immigration to the US by his parents, to the abandonment by his uncle, and the indentured servitude to his friends, the protagonist, Karl Rossman has a tough time in America.

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Books

Book 56: Slammerkin – Emma Donoghue

Geoff W

What a stark contrast to Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. I’m not sure if this is because a woman wrote this novel, or if it’s because she wrote it over 60 years later. The handling of rough trade/prostitution and women in this novel is miles beyond the poor treatment and overt misogyny of Miller’s novel. Donoghue also empowers her female characters so much so that they seem to control their own destiny, and definitely their own choices regardless of whether they choose the easy road or not, on various occasions.

Set in 17th century London, Slammerkin is the story of Mary Saunders and her short-lived life. It is about passion/desire/lust for beautiful things and a better existence. An incredibly bright and intelligent child, Mary at the age of 14 does something incredibly stupid and short-minded. She has sex with a ribbon peddler for a ribbon and winds up pregnant. Disowned by her family and raped by a battalion of soldiers, Doll, the very same prostitute which caught Mary’s imagination with the red ribbon, rescues her from the ditch and certain death. The two are inseparable until Mary comes down with a deathly cough and Doll forces her to go to a charity hospital. While in the hospital Mary learns needlework, embroidery and stitchery, ironically the same trade/skills her mother wanted to teach her.

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