Books Catch-up: Fury, Diary of a Bad Year, Food Matters, The Soul Thief, Now You See Him, Tinkers
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Fury: A Novel by Salman Rushdie
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
I love Salman Rushdie. His work digs into the relationships between people, with oneself, and between reality and fiction. It’s heady and thick and at times swamped with detail to the point of asphyxiation. But this is his intention. In Fury, Rushdie’s protagonist is burdened and overwhelmed and gasping for air. There is no doubt that it is Rushdie himself, portrayed as an impossible, furious, insane, ego-driven, emotional man. He does not care to give the reader a one-level view of life. Human beings are complex. Our minds, our emotions, are layered and often conflicting. Fury is bold. Rushdie is strange. The book is published mid-2001, and it is written in present day, set in NYC. It is fascinating to read something that takes place in that city just before the towers fell – the energy throughout the book and in the characters and their interactions is frenetic and heat-driven, and apt. I don’t think this is anywhere near Rushdie’s best work, but no one else would be more capable of accurately capturing this slice in time.
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Diary of a Bad Year
by J.M. Coetzee
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
What a strange and lovely novel. Each page is sectioned off into three voices per page and as a reader, you need to let go of traditional structure and allow the writing to determine which graphs are read in what order. I admire Coetzee for this and for his consistent wariness of narrative and identity. I did not even notice that the protagonist, Senor C, could in fact be Coetzee himself until he made an off-hand remark about Waiting for the Barbarians more than halfway through the book. And then, much later, he is called “Juan” by Alan. There is a definitive break between the first 2/3rds of the book and the second diary. This is when Alan’s voice is introduced and the perspectives in the three sections begin to weave around each other more – there are four voices now for three sections and they often mix their inner and outer monologue. It is at this point in the book, prodded by some of the content in the "soft opinions," that I began to wonder whether all of it was imagined/written by the protagonist – that he never actually hired his typist, that she is in fact a muse he created for the book and to usher him to the other side of his life. As the book draws to a close, the protagonist nears death, and the structure and 'reality' of the novel continue to loosen.
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Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes
by Mark Bittman
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
I have not read the Omnivore’s Dilemma, but have heard it has a similar viewpoint to this new book from Mark Bittman. I found Food Matters helpful and have become even more conscious of my eating habits because of it. Bittman points out that what we eat is directly tied to the health of the environment – in addition to our own health. It’s filled with good recipes and suggestions as well as mind boggling facts. For instance: what it takes to create a steak dinner for a family of four is the energy equivalent of hopping in an SUV and driving around for three hours while leaving all the lights on at home. What I particularly like about Bittman is that he is no stickler. He suggests eating vegan (or close to vegan – don’t berate yourself over cream in your coffee!)for lunch and dinner and eating whatever you like at dinnertime. It’s sensible.
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The Soul Thief
by Charles Baxter
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
I would recommend this book for fans of Charles Baxter who would like to bring something to the beach. It’s entertaining, but somehow doesn’t not feel as fully formed as the other book of his which I’ve read, Feast of Love (both a nice pleasant book and movie.) But, in general, Soul Thief reads quickly and well. The ending reveals why the language is so romanticized, why some passages are so eloquent and descriptive am why others are sparse. There are a number of things to discuss in regards of this book, but I will try not to give away the plot – for it is a mystery of sorts. What might be obvious but perhaps overlooked is that Jerome Coldberg loved Nathanial. He was in love with him and wanted everything about him. He made Theresa his lover only because Nathanial did. He got rid of Jamie brutally because she would not go away any other way. He wore Nathanial’s clothes, stole his books, learned his history. He was obsessed. There is haze around the story, chunks of missing time –so that the reader, like Nathanial, will never know what truly happened. What story do you choose to believe? Baxter never really pushes to one side or the other – and in this respect he is loyal to his characters. The story starts in the 1970s as a remembrance that brings the reader up to present day. A few things to ponder about the book: what’s with a) Nathanial’s Gertrude Stein obsession, b) Jamie’s note, c) ending in general, and d) role of women? These questions make me thing this book would be a safe bet for a book club. It does not push the literary envelope but it is a nice book to sink into for some pleasure reading.
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Now You See Him
by Eli Gottlieb
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Now You See Him is a decent book. The story is told by Nick, a man in his thirties who lives with his wife and kids in the town where he grew up. The book is labeled as a thriller/mystery because Nick’s childhood best friend, the writer Rob Castor – a celebrity of the town – becomes an even bigger media celebrity once he kills his girlfriend and then himself. Nick unravels upon the death of his friend and the reader is not sure quite why – no one is, really, until the end. An easy, quick read – the story line is engaging and the writing flows. It’s not a masterpiece by any means but I think Now You See Him has gained acclaim because it is a solid contemporary offering from an author who could write many more in the years to come. Very similar to Roth and Auster in that way – interesting twists in a well written story that keeps you entertained in a world that doesn’t always fold neatly together.
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Tinkers
by Paul Harding
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Tinkers is an interesting book. Well written and unusual. It’s the story of a man on his deathbed as his mind drifts through memories and emotions and hallucinations, and every once in a while the reader is brought back into the world of the living, given a countdown to how many hours left before death and given a glimpse of the man outside the memories – who hid money in boxes around the house and with banks around the state to provide for his wife after he died. We learn about his childhood and his father, and because of his state of mind, the reader gets thrown from voice to voice, memory to memory – yet to Harding’s credit, the storyline remains intact. I bought book because the quote on the cover is from Marilyn Robinson and I can understand the connection. This book is about how we come to be the people that we are, how different and odd and unusual each of us are as human beings, and how that difference makes us the same in the end, binds us together. Harding’s characters are admirable. They are steadfast and loyal to themselves, and compassionate to those around them.
