Collected 1990's Literature 1990-1992
Well, it's not my most inspired run of work, that is for sure. Almost entirely books from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list. I mention in one of the reviews that one of these years had the most titles for a single year in the entire project, and there is a feeling that the 1990's are the emotional center of the 1001 Books project, which says something because the first edition was published in 2008. Perhaps it's an example of the presentism that afflicts any attempt to define a canon of works over a set time period- the farther back you go, the less people care. Going through these titles, I sense a lack of inspiration- there are two WG Sebald books but I don't say anything interesting about either of them.
Published 6/5/17
Like Life (1990)
by Lorrie Moore
It's the 90's, people! I was born in 1976, and by 1990 I was starting high school and reading the kind of books you would expect a precocious teenager in the Bay Area to read: Mostly the Beats, the French existentialists, Tom Wolfe, Hunter Thompson and "new" journalism. I read... the New Yorker, my parents had a subscription. I never read the fiction in the New Yorker- I still don't- I'm just not a huge short story guy (Like Life is a collection of short stories) and it appears that my sentiments were shared by the editors of the 1001 Books project. Fewer than ten titles in the 1001 Books list to date have been short story collections. Lorrie Moore may be it, now that I think about it.
I think, personally, that people are going to be revisiting the time immediately before the digital/computer/cell phone revolution of the past decade. In Like Life, Moore is writing about "now" (several of her stories appear to be set in the near future, where global warming and climate change lurk in the back ground. But, I can already say that I am tired of sad white folks. Whether they be English, American or Australian, Scottish, Irish, Canadian or South African. Rich or poor, living now or in the past, I am tired of them and their problems. Boo hoo, I say.
In a sense, that is also my demographic, but it's like, I don't want to read endless fiction about sad yuppies (or sad working class) Americans living in LA or New York, or, as some of the characters in this book are, the Midwest. In fact, I think Moore is here as a representative of fiction written by Midwestern authors, so in that sense, maybe she is someone I should be reading carefully. Perhaps she is a muse of the Reagan Democrats and Trump voters of Wisconsin and Michigan.
Published 6/20/17
Amongst Women (1990)
by John McGahern
John McGahern is another excellent answer to the question, "Why bother with the 1001 Books list?" There is not doubt that McGahern is an excellent novelist, with a compelling ear for dialogue and superb grasp of the mechanics of the "country novel." That he could publish such a book in 1990 and have it considered a masterpiece is even more a testament to his skill, since the cool, quiet realism of country life in 20th century Ireland is far, far from the precincts of post-modernism and magical realism.
Amongst Women is about Michael Moran, an IRA guerrilla turned farmer, living in the middle of the 20th century, out in the country, with his second wife and his children from his first marriage. Moran and his family live quiet, respectable lives, but Moran also lives with a tightly suppressed anger that occasionally bursts forth in a manner that we today consider border-line domestic abuse. In the context of the mid 20th century, Irish milleu, Moran is far from being a boundary breaker, and as the novel proceeds, McGahern softens Moran's character over time in a way that will ring familar to anyone with the experience of a stern patriarch.
What could be a one dimensional tale about an abusive patriarch is instead something far subtler and richer.
by John McGahern
John McGahern is another excellent answer to the question, "Why bother with the 1001 Books list?" There is not doubt that McGahern is an excellent novelist, with a compelling ear for dialogue and superb grasp of the mechanics of the "country novel." That he could publish such a book in 1990 and have it considered a masterpiece is even more a testament to his skill, since the cool, quiet realism of country life in 20th century Ireland is far, far from the precincts of post-modernism and magical realism.
Amongst Women is about Michael Moran, an IRA guerrilla turned farmer, living in the middle of the 20th century, out in the country, with his second wife and his children from his first marriage. Moran and his family live quiet, respectable lives, but Moran also lives with a tightly suppressed anger that occasionally bursts forth in a manner that we today consider border-line domestic abuse. In the context of the mid 20th century, Irish milleu, Moran is far from being a boundary breaker, and as the novel proceeds, McGahern softens Moran's character over time in a way that will ring familar to anyone with the experience of a stern patriarch.
What could be a one dimensional tale about an abusive patriarch is instead something far subtler and richer.
Published 6/25/17
The Things They Carried (1990)
by Tim O'Brien
The Things They Carried is like the real-life version of the fictional Vietname memoir/work of fiction that forms the basis of the film Tropic Thunder. That fictional book was also called Tropic Thunder. The Things They Carried is named after one of the interlinked short stroies about the author's experience fighting in Vietnam- the story describes the items carried by the soldiers during the tour of duty in Vietnam. Poetic, it is not. Lyrical, perhaps- but not poetic. Readers looking for cutting edge prose technique are likely to be disappointed. Instead, you get literal stories about phrases non-combatants may have thought to be metaphorical.
One story concerns the platoon taking mortar fire in a literal shit field- so called because local villagers used it for the deposit of their feces over a lengthy period of time. I would say that much of The Things They Carried is cliche, but of course, that is only because lesser lights have so often covered the same ground, particularly Hollywood, which had codified the Vietnam experience with it's code of mud, blood and incomprehensible combat objective. All that is here in purest form, making it a must for Vietnam war buffs and fans of combat literature.
The Things They Carried (1990)
by Tim O'Brien
The Things They Carried is like the real-life version of the fictional Vietname memoir/work of fiction that forms the basis of the film Tropic Thunder. That fictional book was also called Tropic Thunder. The Things They Carried is named after one of the interlinked short stroies about the author's experience fighting in Vietnam- the story describes the items carried by the soldiers during the tour of duty in Vietnam. Poetic, it is not. Lyrical, perhaps- but not poetic. Readers looking for cutting edge prose technique are likely to be disappointed. Instead, you get literal stories about phrases non-combatants may have thought to be metaphorical.
One story concerns the platoon taking mortar fire in a literal shit field- so called because local villagers used it for the deposit of their feces over a lengthy period of time. I would say that much of The Things They Carried is cliche, but of course, that is only because lesser lights have so often covered the same ground, particularly Hollywood, which had codified the Vietnam experience with it's code of mud, blood and incomprehensible combat objective. All that is here in purest form, making it a must for Vietnam war buffs and fans of combat literature.
Published 7/10/17
The Music of Chance (1990)
by Paul Auster
Paul Auster is balls deep on the first edition of the 1001 Books list. I was thinking about Auster while recently reading a book about the formation and maintenance of canons (called Canons), published around the same time as this novel. The trend, in those days, was to oppose canons and critique the process of canon formation, often in the key of "dead, white men." Ultimately, this critique foundered on the realities of institutional pedagogy: One has to teach something in freshman English, but it is this time period which gives us the concepts and vocabulary to accurately describe the canon forming process in the same way that I am attempting to describe it via the 1001 Books project.
Most of the disparate essays in Canons deal with 19th century poetry, but one interesting essay on canon formation for American fiction between 1960 and 1975 makes some interesting empirical observations about what is essentially the current canon forming process. The author's hypothesis is that the best place to start is the best seller list, and that you then overlay the best seller list with critical response- he doesn't differentiate between critical response before best seller status.
If you want to apply this quick and dirty method to say, the current New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list, you see quick results. Of the 15 titles on this list, nearly half are automatically disqualified because the best-selling author has no critical audience. These are titles by: David Baldacci, Nora Roberts, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, Janet Evanovich, Dean Koontz and John Grisham. To the extent that any of these writers are likely to sneak onto any literary canon, it will be with a single, early novel. Almost every other author on the New York Times Hardcover Top 15 Bestseller list can be excluded with a single Google Search: Elin Hilderbrand (writer of summer beach read novels according to her wikipedia page), Paula Hawkins (thrillers), Adriana Trigiani (YA fiction), Don Winslow (Police procedurals), Lee Child (Jack Reacher books).
This leaves us with two possibilities:
1. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
2. Beach House for Rent by Mary Alice Monroe
Since the list is rolling, you have to imagine doing this maybe 30-40 times over the course of a year, and then toting up points at the end, that would give you your best canonical candidates for fiction. Looking at these two, Arundhati Roy, who ticks all the serious lit boxes AND doesn't write fiction very often, seems like the obvious choice. If you were looking for one book to maintain literary relevance over the summer, it would be the Roy novel, and if you were going to bet on one book from this time period, it would be that one.
Which all goes to say that the inclusion of so many Paul Auster titles on the first 1001 Books list represents another manifestation of this best seller/critical appeal overlay. Auster sells books and he appeals to critics, this makes each of his books, even the non best-selling titles, candidates for canonical inclusion. He, like other artists writing in the "present" benefit from the easy access to pre-canonical "best of" lists, typically organized by year.
The Music of Chance is an interesting novel, like other of his books it blends dark action and European style philosophical musings, with a firm understanding of the role of genre in serious fiction. His books are recognizable but slightly askew, they go down easy, but stay with you over time.
Published 7/11/17
At Home at the End of the World (1990)
by Michael Cunningham
At Home at the End of the World is a combination of a gay coming-of-age book and a contemporary relationship novel. Each chapter is voiced in the first person by a different narrator. The narrator rotates between the three main characters: Bobby, Jonathan and Clare with occasional appearances from Jonathan's mom. The main childhood friendship is between Jonathan- essentially the main character and author stand in, Bobby- his straight friend, and Clare, who is the type of woman one might call a "fag hag" - in a non pejorative sense, of course.
Although these characters are 20 or so years older than I am, I recognized all of them, from the parents on down, as being accurate portrayals of urbanites in the late 1980's. Unlike other gay-friendly lit titles from this time period, At Home at the End of the World explicitly deals with the AIDS crisis through the travails of a minor character who none the less features prominently in the unexpected resolution of the book.
Published 7/13/17
The Buddha of Suburbia (1990)
by Hanif Kureishi
The Buddha of Suburbia is another example of the way familiar literary themes can be invigorated by the introduction of novel perspectives. Here, the novel perspective is that of a mixed-race Indian/English narrator, a stand in for the author, growing up in and around central London in the 1970's and 1980's. The Buddha of Suburbia is not the narrator, but rather his India immigrant father, who augments his office work with a mid-life crisis that involves him leaving his wife and the narrator's mother for a different English woman.
Karim, narrator and protagonist, is a bright, vibrant fellow, not gay but certainly bi-sexual, who decides to make his way as an actor. He has amusing adventures along the way. Like many characters coming of age in contemporary fiction, the growth process can look suspiciously like non-growth, or arrested development, but it is impossible to pin that on Kureishi, who does a good job blending style and really gives insight into the mentality of a second generation London area immigrant.
Published 7/13/17
Get Shorty (1990)
by Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard is an interesting figure to use as a basis for discussing the yes or no canonical status of an author. He clearly did not start out life as a canonical author- there was no burst of initial recognition and prize winning type plaudits. Rather, he labored for years an average type genre writer- starting with Westerns, and graduating to Detective fiction. He wasn't a stranger to Hollywood, either, with something like 10 movie versions of his books being released before the movie version of this book, Get Shorty, was released in 1995. That was followed by well received versions of Jackie Brown (based on Rum Punch) and Out of Sight in 1997 and 1998. In 2017, Leonard is firmly in canonical territory, with three separate Library of America compilations "Four Elmore Leonard Novels of the 1970's" etc.
I think Leonard's canonical place was secured by those three films- the first of which was a commercial hit, and the last two were critical hits, with some commercial success, by notable directors. I would argue that it is this book- Get Shorty, where Leonard delivers the blend of action, humor and philosophy that constitutes "classic" Elmore Leonard. The humor and philosophy came later to his work- early books like City Primeval are short on anything except tough talk and hard living.
The idea of doing a noir/detective novel about Hollywood was hardly original- by 1990 people were literally writing books about "Hollywood Noir," but the ability to blend humor into the mix clearly set Leonard apart then, and continues to do so today. Get Shorty the book (unlike the film) holds up 25 years later.
Get Shorty (1990)
by Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard is an interesting figure to use as a basis for discussing the yes or no canonical status of an author. He clearly did not start out life as a canonical author- there was no burst of initial recognition and prize winning type plaudits. Rather, he labored for years an average type genre writer- starting with Westerns, and graduating to Detective fiction. He wasn't a stranger to Hollywood, either, with something like 10 movie versions of his books being released before the movie version of this book, Get Shorty, was released in 1995. That was followed by well received versions of Jackie Brown (based on Rum Punch) and Out of Sight in 1997 and 1998. In 2017, Leonard is firmly in canonical territory, with three separate Library of America compilations "Four Elmore Leonard Novels of the 1970's" etc.
I think Leonard's canonical place was secured by those three films- the first of which was a commercial hit, and the last two were critical hits, with some commercial success, by notable directors. I would argue that it is this book- Get Shorty, where Leonard delivers the blend of action, humor and philosophy that constitutes "classic" Elmore Leonard. The humor and philosophy came later to his work- early books like City Primeval are short on anything except tough talk and hard living.
The idea of doing a noir/detective novel about Hollywood was hardly original- by 1990 people were literally writing books about "Hollywood Noir," but the ability to blend humor into the mix clearly set Leonard apart then, and continues to do so today. Get Shorty the book (unlike the film) holds up 25 years later.
Published 7/13/17
Vertigo (1990)
WG Sebald
Vertigo is that rarest of entities: A book that is both experimental and commercial, and one that achieve both goals while being translated from a different language (German to English). Still, it's hard to even describe Vertigo let alone summarize the plot, which may not exist.
Vertigo is comprised of four stories connected... not at all? About different literary figures, one section concerns Stendahl, another Kafka. The figures aren't named directly- Kafka is Dr. K, so it is left to the reader to figure it out. The same could be said for the whole book.
Published 7/18/17
Possession (1990)
by A.S. Byatt
Possession is another excellent example of a book that made "historical metafiction" one of the hottest genres in literary fiction, a trend that continues today. Historical metafiction can be viewed through a variety of lenses, but I think the easiest perspective takes into account that practitioners of historical metafiction tend to be well versed in literary theory as well as literature itself, that, like all genres that combine sales with critical acclaim, it strikes a resonant chord with prospective readers. A.S. Byatt meets all those criterion, and the forward to the Modern Library edition also makes it clear that she was directly inspired by the success of Umberto Eco in The Name of the Rose.
Clearly for me though, the element which elevates Possession beyond turgid high concept post modern historical fiction is the author's ability to describe action, albeit the kind of action that collectors and professor of literature get up to in 1990's England when a career making discovery is at hand.
Possession (1990)
by A.S. Byatt
Possession is another excellent example of a book that made "historical metafiction" one of the hottest genres in literary fiction, a trend that continues today. Historical metafiction can be viewed through a variety of lenses, but I think the easiest perspective takes into account that practitioners of historical metafiction tend to be well versed in literary theory as well as literature itself, that, like all genres that combine sales with critical acclaim, it strikes a resonant chord with prospective readers. A.S. Byatt meets all those criterion, and the forward to the Modern Library edition also makes it clear that she was directly inspired by the success of Umberto Eco in The Name of the Rose.
Clearly for me though, the element which elevates Possession beyond turgid high concept post modern historical fiction is the author's ability to describe action, albeit the kind of action that collectors and professor of literature get up to in 1990's England when a career making discovery is at hand.
Published 7/22/17
Wise Children (1991)
by Angela Carter
Angela Carter died of cancer shortly after Wise Children was published. It was an early death, she was only 51. We don't know what else she would have written, but fair to say that it was a premature loss. Carter was not only a novelist, she wrote poetry, short fiction, translated works from French and a wide variety of anthologized non-fiction.
Her novels are therefore only one aspect of her contribution to the republic of letters, but I'm sure it's fair to say she has a higher profile in England then she does over here. Like Nights at the Circus, her 1984 publication that ranks as her top book, Wise Children features non-conventional families immersed in the world of early 20th century musical theater and vaudeville. Unlike Nights at the Circus, Wise Children is firmly rooted in the real, and abandons the flights into surrealism and magical realism which characterized Nights at the Circus.
Wise Children largely consists of the reminiscences Dora and Nora Chance, the illegitimate twin daughters of theater impresario Melchior Hazard. Set in an unspecified "present," much of Wise Children takes place in flashback form, as Dora and Nora go through all the different permutations suggested by the flow chart above.
Published 7/24/17
Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord (1991)
by Louis de Bernières
Louis de Bernières is an English author. His most famous book is Captain Corelli's Mandolin, forever tainted by its association with walking human meme Nicolas Cage. Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord is the second book in his "Latin American" trilogy, apparently based on his love for the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his stint teaching English in Columbia. His take on magic realism is firmly grounded in the politics of "now," circa 1991.
Señor Vivo is a philosophy professor, the son of a General, who takes a public stand against narco-business in a local newspaper. He draws the wrath of the Coca Lord. Magical realist flourishes aside, the violence and corruption depicted by de Bernières are very much real, or at least the reality that we are familiar with from television.
I'm not sure it really stands up as a classic. It's basically still within the 25 year quarentine zone that hovers around new releases and personally, I find it a tiny bit offensive that an English author feels so comfortable writing about Latin America in a magically realistic style, I mean who is he to judge?
Published 7/27/17
Stone Junction (1990)
by Jim Dodge
There aren't many books that come with a foreword from Thomas Pynchon, but Stone Junction, "an alchemical potboiler" is one such book. The endorsement is clearly stated and makes perfect sense, since Stone Junction and Pynchon's library contain a shared themes of conspiracy, underground cabals and 1960's era hippie counter-culture. Regerttablly, Dodge was a one hit wonder- or rather- a one book author- with only some books of poetry to stand alongside Stone Junction.
Stone Junction is basically a counter-culture spy novel/coming-of-age story. Stone Junction is less elaborately plotted than Pynchon's stuff, the material actually resembled later day Pynchon books like Inherent Vice. It was a pleasure to read, but it's sad that it stands alone. I was concerned that I'd never heard of Jim Dodge before the 1001 Books introduction.
Stone Junction (1990)
by Jim Dodge
There aren't many books that come with a foreword from Thomas Pynchon, but Stone Junction, "an alchemical potboiler" is one such book. The endorsement is clearly stated and makes perfect sense, since Stone Junction and Pynchon's library contain a shared themes of conspiracy, underground cabals and 1960's era hippie counter-culture. Regerttablly, Dodge was a one hit wonder- or rather- a one book author- with only some books of poetry to stand alongside Stone Junction.
Stone Junction is basically a counter-culture spy novel/coming-of-age story. Stone Junction is less elaborately plotted than Pynchon's stuff, the material actually resembled later day Pynchon books like Inherent Vice. It was a pleasure to read, but it's sad that it stands alone. I was concerned that I'd never heard of Jim Dodge before the 1001 Books introduction.
Published 7/31/17
Downriver (1991)
by Iain Sinclair
Iain Sinclar is best known for his affiliation with the "pyscho-geography" movement. Psychogeography is an off-shoot of the Guy Debord created Situationist International movement, which also played a big role in other 20th century subcultures, like, for example, Punk and pretty much any late 20th century art movement that includes surrealist or dadaist aspects. The idea of psycho-geography is to look at the impact that place has on the development of individuals, and as it is expressed by authors like Iain Sinclair, it dovetails nicely with post-modernist trends in literature.
Downriver takes place in a slightly askew version of Thatcherite London, in various locations "downriver," the city being London, the river being the Thames and the places being in East London and environs. I couldn't piece together much of a plot- although I read elsewhere that it was supposed to be about a documentary film crew making a feature about "vanishing London" in the "Thatcher era." The highlights are individual episodes- particularly the Isle of Doges, where the Vatican has taken over the East London Isle of Dogs, "largely for tax purposes," and a gang infiltrates the drainage system to witness a spectacularly evil ritual.
William Gibson has called Sinclair his favorite author, and it is hard to not think of one while reading the other. Sinclair's prose is dense and very geographically specific- I found myself making a Google Map of the locations he mentioned and looking at the actual places, and their spatial relationship to the other places in the book, as I went along.
I would highly recommend Downriver- I know from looking at the page views of this blog that this is the sort of book the people who read this blog would be interested in reading.
Downriver (1991)
by Iain Sinclair
Iain Sinclar is best known for his affiliation with the "pyscho-geography" movement. Psychogeography is an off-shoot of the Guy Debord created Situationist International movement, which also played a big role in other 20th century subcultures, like, for example, Punk and pretty much any late 20th century art movement that includes surrealist or dadaist aspects. The idea of psycho-geography is to look at the impact that place has on the development of individuals, and as it is expressed by authors like Iain Sinclair, it dovetails nicely with post-modernist trends in literature.
Downriver takes place in a slightly askew version of Thatcherite London, in various locations "downriver," the city being London, the river being the Thames and the places being in East London and environs. I couldn't piece together much of a plot- although I read elsewhere that it was supposed to be about a documentary film crew making a feature about "vanishing London" in the "Thatcher era." The highlights are individual episodes- particularly the Isle of Doges, where the Vatican has taken over the East London Isle of Dogs, "largely for tax purposes," and a gang infiltrates the drainage system to witness a spectacularly evil ritual.
William Gibson has called Sinclair his favorite author, and it is hard to not think of one while reading the other. Sinclair's prose is dense and very geographically specific- I found myself making a Google Map of the locations he mentioned and looking at the actual places, and their spatial relationship to the other places in the book, as I went along.
I would highly recommend Downriver- I know from looking at the page views of this blog that this is the sort of book the people who read this blog would be interested in reading.
Published 8/1/17
Regeneration (1991)
by Pat Barker
Pat Barker- female- fyi- English- won the Booker Prize, not for Regeneration, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but for a later book in her trilogy about World War I. Regeneration was the first book in the Regeneration Trilogy. Barker blends fact and fiction to tell the story of the treatment of English soldiers suffering from "shell shock" or post-traumatic stress disorder at two different hospitals. Most of Regeneration takes place at Craiglockheart War Hospital, where Siegfred Sassoon- a real life war hero, poet and what we would call "contentiousness objector" has been confined after a public declaration against the war. He is being treated by Doctor W. H. R. Rivers.
Sassoon is a tricky case for Rivers- Rivers knows that Sassoon isn't "insane," but he can't be labeled sane without being considered a traitor and a coward. It's a sticky wicket, and most of Regeneration involves resolving Sassoon's situation. Then, in the last portion, Rivers moves to a different hospital, where he is exposed to the shock intensive methods of Dr. Yealland.
It's easy to forget just how far we have come with the treatment of veterans with mental health disorders, and how far we have to go. Living in Southern California, and working in the world of criminal justice, I see how seriously the government takes the mental health of veterans. It is no joke, seeing the impact of combat on soldiers, and this is the beginning of that story.
Published 8/9/17
Typical (1991)
by Padgett Powell
Padgett Powell is typically known as a writer from the "new South" or Southern literary tradition. This is a line of literature essentially established by William Faulkner en toto, and then echoed by excellent writers like Flannery O'Connor and Carson McCullers. Traditionally, this school was called "Southern Gothic" to indicate a level of creepiness that seems to go hand-in-hand with all the writers mentioned above.
Powell, on the other hand, is more of a surrealist/post-modernist in the Donald Barthelme tradition, and Typical, which was his first collection of short stories, bears little in common with the other writers from the South, call it "Southern post-modernism." Many of the short stories contained in Typical have little to no plot or even incident, characters go unnamed, statements go unexplained, none of it really makes sense but all of the stories carry an unabashed southern vibe, which extends to the outre practice of a white author using the word "Nigger" in more than one of these stories.
I would have liked to get more out of Typical, and I would consider returning to Powell and going deeper into his fiction, but Typical didn't do it for me.
Typical (1991)
by Padgett Powell
Padgett Powell is typically known as a writer from the "new South" or Southern literary tradition. This is a line of literature essentially established by William Faulkner en toto, and then echoed by excellent writers like Flannery O'Connor and Carson McCullers. Traditionally, this school was called "Southern Gothic" to indicate a level of creepiness that seems to go hand-in-hand with all the writers mentioned above.
Powell, on the other hand, is more of a surrealist/post-modernist in the Donald Barthelme tradition, and Typical, which was his first collection of short stories, bears little in common with the other writers from the South, call it "Southern post-modernism." Many of the short stories contained in Typical have little to no plot or even incident, characters go unnamed, statements go unexplained, none of it really makes sense but all of the stories carry an unabashed southern vibe, which extends to the outre practice of a white author using the word "Nigger" in more than one of these stories.
I would have liked to get more out of Typical, and I would consider returning to Powell and going deeper into his fiction, but Typical didn't do it for me.
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| Mao II print by Andy Warhol |
Mao II (1991)
by Don Delillo
Before author Don Delillo entered into his brick-production period, he could write nimble little novels, and less nimble novels that were none the less under 300 pages. Mao II, his tenth novel, shows him on the way to his "high Delillo" period of 100 page opening chapter set pieces set in baseball stadiums (Mao II opens with a Moonie "mass wedding" taking place in Yankee Stadium."); but still not quite at the stage where his books are over 500 pages.
Reclusive novelist Bill Gray is the center of Mao II. Gray resembles a combination of J.D. Salinger (exclusiveness) and Ernest Hemingway (life style choices.) Gray has been trying to finish his most recent book for decades, and his assistant, Scott, is worried because of what the completion and publication of his book will mean for their relationship, which can basically be expressed using the term "co dependency."
After one hundred and fifty pages of hand wringing and existential angst, Gray gets roped into attempting to rescue a poet from a Marxist group of Lebanese rebels. That's about it for the action. Like many Delillo novels, it is the themes that the characters harp on in their quiet moments that provide the most lasting, memorable, moments. Here, the effective theme is his prescient forecasting of a forthcoming "age of terror." Spot on, that one. Good call.
Published 8/12/17
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China (1991)
by Jung Chang
The absence of titles from China on the first edition of the 1001 Books list is one of its greatest flaws. Up to this point (the 1990's) the most memorable China-set novel on the 1001 Books list is Empire of the Sun, by J.G. Ballard, an Englishman. At least Wild Swans is written by an author FROM China, even it was written in English, in England, after Jung Chang got out and never went back. Although Wild Swans covers three generations, from the earliest part of the 20th century through the cultural revolution, the main attraction is Chang's description of the cultural revolution, details of which continue to be shrouded in mystery.
Summarizing the cultural revolution isn't that difficult, basically, it was the largest country in the world turning into a Chinese version of Lord of the Flies. Mao, worried about his power base, used children and teenagers to persecute his own officials, or "capitalist roaders" as they were called. The victims of the cultural revolution were Mao's own loyal officials, the people in charge of implementing his revolution. This came on top of his eradication of the capitalist/land owning class which preceded the cultural revolution. Chang was the daughter of two upper level Chinese officials- both Mother and Father.
She and her family aren't the most sympathetic types- but the chaos of early 20th century China makes the decision to enlist with the Communists seem like an easy choice to make. After that- they were trapped. Chang makes it clear how little even educated Chinese knew about the West in the 1960's and 1970's. It is one hell of a wild ride.
Published 8/16/17
Hideous Kinky (1992)
by Esther Freud
As the 1990's progress in the 1001 Books project, I begin to ask myself, at what point, exactly, does one become exhausted with depictions of white privilege? For sure, every book written before the 1960's gets a free pass. By the 1970's, the questions were being asked, but there was a deficit in replacement literature. In 1992, when Hideous Kinky was published, Toni Morrison was a couple a years away from winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, and I was asking myself if this semi-autobiographical depiction of the early childhood of Sigmund Freud grand daughter Esther Freud in the wilds of boho Morocco, was really worth the admittedly minimal effort it takes to read.
What really came to mind while I read Hideous Kinky was the antics of Ab Fab protagonists Patsy and Edina. The Esther's character's mother seems to be a younger version of Edina. Since the novel is written from the point of the daughter, there are no references to Freud's favorite patronage. She is depicted living month to month on a remittance from her (presumably estranged) husband.
I suppose the point is that this is an outrageous example of comically neglectful parenting, albeit well meaning and ultimately harmless to the children. Like many of the "international best seller/film coming soon" books from this period, Hideous Kinky places privileged white people in unusual locations.
Hideous Kinky (1992)
by Esther Freud
As the 1990's progress in the 1001 Books project, I begin to ask myself, at what point, exactly, does one become exhausted with depictions of white privilege? For sure, every book written before the 1960's gets a free pass. By the 1970's, the questions were being asked, but there was a deficit in replacement literature. In 1992, when Hideous Kinky was published, Toni Morrison was a couple a years away from winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, and I was asking myself if this semi-autobiographical depiction of the early childhood of Sigmund Freud grand daughter Esther Freud in the wilds of boho Morocco, was really worth the admittedly minimal effort it takes to read.
What really came to mind while I read Hideous Kinky was the antics of Ab Fab protagonists Patsy and Edina. The Esther's character's mother seems to be a younger version of Edina. Since the novel is written from the point of the daughter, there are no references to Freud's favorite patronage. She is depicted living month to month on a remittance from her (presumably estranged) husband.
I suppose the point is that this is an outrageous example of comically neglectful parenting, albeit well meaning and ultimately harmless to the children. Like many of the "international best seller/film coming soon" books from this period, Hideous Kinky places privileged white people in unusual locations.
Published 8/17/17
Black Dogs (1992)
by Ian McEwan
I guess everything with Ian McEwan is pre-Amsterdam vs. post-Amsterdam, Amsterdam being McEwan's 1998 smash hit, Booker prize winner. Black Dogs was his second novel to be short listed for the Booker Prize. Like many prize winning/prestige novelists working in the mid to late 20th century, there is a clear career trend of starting with shorter novels and graduating to longer novels. Being allowed greater length and complexity is a privilege of authors with established track records, in the same way that pop artists who sell millions of copies can release double records. Black Dogs is still prior to that period in the career of McEwan- it's not quite on par with the early work that earned him the nom de plume Ian Macabre, but it's not a sweeping meta-fictional historic epic, either.
Rather, Black Dogs is about a pair of relationships and how they impact the narrator, an orphan seeking to delve deeper into the failed marriage of his wife's parents. The events take place against the back drop of the fall of the Berlin wall in Germany, giving Black Dogs a temporal quality it would have otherwise lacked.
Black Dogs (1992)
by Ian McEwan
I guess everything with Ian McEwan is pre-Amsterdam vs. post-Amsterdam, Amsterdam being McEwan's 1998 smash hit, Booker prize winner. Black Dogs was his second novel to be short listed for the Booker Prize. Like many prize winning/prestige novelists working in the mid to late 20th century, there is a clear career trend of starting with shorter novels and graduating to longer novels. Being allowed greater length and complexity is a privilege of authors with established track records, in the same way that pop artists who sell millions of copies can release double records. Black Dogs is still prior to that period in the career of McEwan- it's not quite on par with the early work that earned him the nom de plume Ian Macabre, but it's not a sweeping meta-fictional historic epic, either.
Rather, Black Dogs is about a pair of relationships and how they impact the narrator, an orphan seeking to delve deeper into the failed marriage of his wife's parents. The events take place against the back drop of the fall of the Berlin wall in Germany, giving Black Dogs a temporal quality it would have otherwise lacked.
Published 8/17/17
Arcadia (1992)
by Jim Crace
If you want to check the current relevance of a particular novel in American culture, check the Wikipedia entry. If it doesn't have a page, that's a 0. If it has a page that shows copious annotations over time, that is a ten. Arcadia, without a Wikipedia page, scores a zero on the Wikipedia test. Crace is an English author who hasn't quite made it to the point where American audiences pay attention. I'm not particularly surprised, but I quite enjoyed Arcadia, which I can say of many of the selected works from the early 1990's that made their way onto the 1001 Books list. This was a weak time for literature, and the taint of the high profile "artsy" movie version of many of these books makes me questions whether the title has been selected for literary merit or because the movie just makes the book too popular to ignore.
Crace starts with a fairly straight forward Horatio Alger tale about Victor, a street urchin turned millionaire, living in an unnamed city that resembles London or New York, contemplating his existence as he turns 80. He is assisted in his endeavors, which include dominating the supply chain and real estate of the Salt Market, by Rook, a grocer-labor activist turned fixer. Rook has taken to feathering his nest with cash bribes from vendors which he calls, "pitch fees."
Crace moves backwards and forwards in time, telling the story of Victor's unusual childhood, while focusing mostly on Rook as he prepares for Victor's 80th birthday party. Events are set into action when Rook is exposed as a bribe taker and terminated from his position. Immediately after, Victor decides to replace the market with "Arcadia" which is familiar to many in the guise of what we might call a "food hall."
We are kept well apprised of the economic and political ramifications of the decision, and the action unfolds against the familiar backdrop of urban real estate development.
Published 8/18/17
Asphodel (1992)
by H.D.
Do not be fooled by the 1992 publication date- Asphodel was written in 1921. The lengthy delay in publication was due to the author's explicit desire that it never be published. The final manuscript that served as the basis for this publication had "Destroy" written across the top in red ink. Asphodel is a fellow traveler with the experimental writers of high modernism. She had a lengthy relationship with Ezra Pound- who is one of the main characters in this roman a clef. H.D. (Hilda Doolittle in real life) was an important figure in modernist circles during the important years: the late teens and early twenties. Her "rediscovery" serves as the inclusion of an important female voice in the high modernist canon. Like many works of high modernism, Asphodel, though a roman a clef, and essentially, a combination of literary gossip and classically infused stream of consciousness, is at times impossible to follow.
The reader gains an impression of various locations and people, but there is precious little action. Most of the actual events of the book seem to be the narrator, sitting, lost in reflection. That's a key difference between Asphodel and, say, Ulysses, which isn't stream of consciousness from the perspective of the author, but a fully developed novel.
Asphodel (1992)
by H.D.
Do not be fooled by the 1992 publication date- Asphodel was written in 1921. The lengthy delay in publication was due to the author's explicit desire that it never be published. The final manuscript that served as the basis for this publication had "Destroy" written across the top in red ink. Asphodel is a fellow traveler with the experimental writers of high modernism. She had a lengthy relationship with Ezra Pound- who is one of the main characters in this roman a clef. H.D. (Hilda Doolittle in real life) was an important figure in modernist circles during the important years: the late teens and early twenties. Her "rediscovery" serves as the inclusion of an important female voice in the high modernist canon. Like many works of high modernism, Asphodel, though a roman a clef, and essentially, a combination of literary gossip and classically infused stream of consciousness, is at times impossible to follow.
The reader gains an impression of various locations and people, but there is precious little action. Most of the actual events of the book seem to be the narrator, sitting, lost in reflection. That's a key difference between Asphodel and, say, Ulysses, which isn't stream of consciousness from the perspective of the author, but a fully developed novel.
Published 8/22/17
Jazz (1992)
by Toni Morrison
Every Toni Morrison novel on the 1001 Books list is a breath of fresh air. It is genuinely refreshing to read books that aren't about wealthy white people and their sad problems. Character in Toni Morrison's novels grapple with real life. Her writing style has always been realist with a touch of magical realism, but Jazz is more experimental, as reflected by the title, which both refers to the popular style of music and the location- 1920's Harlem. It also reflects the more experimental style, as Morrison flits between characters and time to tell a complete story in a fractured way. Like JAZZ itself.
The themes of Jazz are familiar for Morrison fans, but her shift in technique gives everything a fresh vibe. As in other works of contemporary post-modern embracing fiction, there is a jig saw puzzle aspect to the plot that differentiates it from other books (even those by Morrison herself) concerned with the same subject matter.
Jazz (1992)
by Toni Morrison
Every Toni Morrison novel on the 1001 Books list is a breath of fresh air. It is genuinely refreshing to read books that aren't about wealthy white people and their sad problems. Character in Toni Morrison's novels grapple with real life. Her writing style has always been realist with a touch of magical realism, but Jazz is more experimental, as reflected by the title, which both refers to the popular style of music and the location- 1920's Harlem. It also reflects the more experimental style, as Morrison flits between characters and time to tell a complete story in a fractured way. Like JAZZ itself.
The themes of Jazz are familiar for Morrison fans, but her shift in technique gives everything a fresh vibe. As in other works of contemporary post-modern embracing fiction, there is a jig saw puzzle aspect to the plot that differentiates it from other books (even those by Morrison herself) concerned with the same subject matter.
Published 8/22/17
Black Water (1992)
by Joyce Carol Oates
Black Water is Joyce Carol Oates' take on the Chappaquiddick incident involving the death of Mary Jo Kopechne at the (negligent) hands of Ted Kennedy. Oates took several steps to fictionalize this well known event- she moves it from 1969 to the 1990's, the scene from Cape Code to the Booth Bay area of Maine and of course the characters have different names. Black Water is a novella, expanded from what was originally a poem, and the prose reflects the poetic background. Narrated entirely by the victim as she drowns, waiting for the Kennedy-figure to rescue her from the car, Oates employs a familiar light touch. Surely Black Water is a meditation on politics, gender and celebrity but obliquely, without rubbing the reader's face in the harsher edges of the events.
Like many selections in the 1990's portion of the 1001 Books 2006 edition, I was left questioning if this was even one of Joyce Carol Oates best efforts, let alone worth including in the 1001 Books project. I think Oates fits into the category of a writer whose best work lies outside the traditional novel, making it hard to find representative works to include in a project centered on the novel.
Black Water (1992)
by Joyce Carol Oates
Black Water is Joyce Carol Oates' take on the Chappaquiddick incident involving the death of Mary Jo Kopechne at the (negligent) hands of Ted Kennedy. Oates took several steps to fictionalize this well known event- she moves it from 1969 to the 1990's, the scene from Cape Code to the Booth Bay area of Maine and of course the characters have different names. Black Water is a novella, expanded from what was originally a poem, and the prose reflects the poetic background. Narrated entirely by the victim as she drowns, waiting for the Kennedy-figure to rescue her from the car, Oates employs a familiar light touch. Surely Black Water is a meditation on politics, gender and celebrity but obliquely, without rubbing the reader's face in the harsher edges of the events.
Like many selections in the 1990's portion of the 1001 Books 2006 edition, I was left questioning if this was even one of Joyce Carol Oates best efforts, let alone worth including in the 1001 Books project. I think Oates fits into the category of a writer whose best work lies outside the traditional novel, making it hard to find representative works to include in a project centered on the novel.
Published 8/22/17
The Butcher Boy (1992)
by Patrick McCabe
I remember watching the film version of this book in theaters. It was frightening and surreal, about the turmoil surrounding a neglected/abused boy-man growing up in rural Ireland in the mid 1960's. Francis "Francie" Brady is the narrator and main character, speaking to the audience in a modified stream of consciousness which drifts between reality and fantasy without so much as a how-do-you-do as to which is which. Initially, the combination of stream-of-consciousness and Irish dialect is confusing, but as the book moves through it's 220 pages, Brady's narration style becomes familiar.
The plot of The Butcher Boy is like the photo-negative of a bildungsroman/coming-of-age novel where the character, instead of growing up, becomes gradually less mature and eventually criminally insane. There are legitimately shocking moments in The Butcher Boy, which, aside from terrorism in the north, would seem difficult to conjure given the milieu of rural 1960's Ireland, but critics have postulated that The Butcher Boy is "about" the struggles of Ireland to become psychically integrated in the aftermath of Irish independence.
It should be said that The Butcher Boy makes for incredibly sad reading. It also contains disturbing descriptions of violence and sexually motivated child abuse.
The Butcher Boy (1992)
by Patrick McCabe
I remember watching the film version of this book in theaters. It was frightening and surreal, about the turmoil surrounding a neglected/abused boy-man growing up in rural Ireland in the mid 1960's. Francis "Francie" Brady is the narrator and main character, speaking to the audience in a modified stream of consciousness which drifts between reality and fantasy without so much as a how-do-you-do as to which is which. Initially, the combination of stream-of-consciousness and Irish dialect is confusing, but as the book moves through it's 220 pages, Brady's narration style becomes familiar.
The plot of The Butcher Boy is like the photo-negative of a bildungsroman/coming-of-age novel where the character, instead of growing up, becomes gradually less mature and eventually criminally insane. There are legitimately shocking moments in The Butcher Boy, which, aside from terrorism in the north, would seem difficult to conjure given the milieu of rural 1960's Ireland, but critics have postulated that The Butcher Boy is "about" the struggles of Ireland to become psychically integrated in the aftermath of Irish independence.
It should be said that The Butcher Boy makes for incredibly sad reading. It also contains disturbing descriptions of violence and sexually motivated child abuse.
Published 8/27/17
Written on the Body(1992)
by Jeanette Winterson
The 1990's were the break out period for LGBT literature. Specifically, points of views started to emerge in the 1980's and 1990's that expanded LGBT voices beyond wealthy white men and artistic bohemians. Winterson is one such standard barrier, a working class, "out" at 16 lesbian who left her super religious home earlier and ended up studying at Oxford. She burst onto the scene with her bildungsroman, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, which I think is the first novel about a working class lesbian in the English mid-lands. It sounds absurd- Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was published in 1985, but is actually in line with the state of law in the British isles. Male homosexuality was only decriminalized in 1967 in England, and in places like Scotland it remained illegal until 1980.
For my money, Written on the Body is preferable to Sexing the Cherry- her other mid-career 1001 Books representative. Sexing the Cherry is close to Kathy Acker territory in terms of its impenetrability . Written on the Body, on the other hand, is a conventional yuppie-love-heartbreak story with the twist that the gender of the protagonist is never revealed. It is an interesting technical achievement, and like her lesbian coming of age tale, I'm not sure it's been done before. So many English people, though, in the 1001 Books project. I guess English people from outside London are a different life experience, but the characters of Written on the Body are run of the mill sophisticated Londoners, so that aspect of Winterson's appeal is missing here.
Written on the Body(1992)
by Jeanette Winterson
The 1990's were the break out period for LGBT literature. Specifically, points of views started to emerge in the 1980's and 1990's that expanded LGBT voices beyond wealthy white men and artistic bohemians. Winterson is one such standard barrier, a working class, "out" at 16 lesbian who left her super religious home earlier and ended up studying at Oxford. She burst onto the scene with her bildungsroman, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, which I think is the first novel about a working class lesbian in the English mid-lands. It sounds absurd- Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was published in 1985, but is actually in line with the state of law in the British isles. Male homosexuality was only decriminalized in 1967 in England, and in places like Scotland it remained illegal until 1980.
For my money, Written on the Body is preferable to Sexing the Cherry- her other mid-career 1001 Books representative. Sexing the Cherry is close to Kathy Acker territory in terms of its impenetrability . Written on the Body, on the other hand, is a conventional yuppie-love-heartbreak story with the twist that the gender of the protagonist is never revealed. It is an interesting technical achievement, and like her lesbian coming of age tale, I'm not sure it's been done before. So many English people, though, in the 1001 Books project. I guess English people from outside London are a different life experience, but the characters of Written on the Body are run of the mill sophisticated Londoners, so that aspect of Winterson's appeal is missing here.
Published 8/27/17
The Crow Road (1992)
by Iain Banks
I quite like Iain Banks- a Scottish author who achieved success in genre science fiction and literary fiction without ever really making it in the United States. The Crow Road is straight forward literary fiction, a very 1990's blend of a regional British bildungsroman (Scotland) and airport-book-shop suspense. It is a testament to Banks skill as an author that the whole thing comes together, and it reads much shorter than it's 500 pages led me to expect. Partially, it's because Banks keeps the suspense angle hidden. He also uses craft, utilizing the familiar post-modern techniques of flipping between, time, place and narrator to build the suspense plot without making the reader especially aware that a suspense plot is developing.
He did a good enough job that I found myself asking, 200 pages in, if I was just reading a Scottish version of Less Than Zero or an upper class version of Trainspotting. It certainly was nice to read a book written by a Scottish author about Scottish characters where those characters weren't desperate working-class losers. The blend of bildungsroman and suspense leads to particularly satisfying resolution, but there is nothing here to make The Crow Road a break out hit for Banks.
The Crow Road (1992)
by Iain Banks
I quite like Iain Banks- a Scottish author who achieved success in genre science fiction and literary fiction without ever really making it in the United States. The Crow Road is straight forward literary fiction, a very 1990's blend of a regional British bildungsroman (Scotland) and airport-book-shop suspense. It is a testament to Banks skill as an author that the whole thing comes together, and it reads much shorter than it's 500 pages led me to expect. Partially, it's because Banks keeps the suspense angle hidden. He also uses craft, utilizing the familiar post-modern techniques of flipping between, time, place and narrator to build the suspense plot without making the reader especially aware that a suspense plot is developing.
He did a good enough job that I found myself asking, 200 pages in, if I was just reading a Scottish version of Less Than Zero or an upper class version of Trainspotting. It certainly was nice to read a book written by a Scottish author about Scottish characters where those characters weren't desperate working-class losers. The blend of bildungsroman and suspense leads to particularly satisfying resolution, but there is nothing here to make The Crow Road a break out hit for Banks.
Published 8/31/17
Indigo (1992)
by Marina Warner
Historic meta fiction involving the retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest, and set in between a fictional Caribbean island and 1950's and 60's London/Paris? You can't get much more 1990's literature then that. You don't need to be intimately familiar with the play to enjoy the book, but it's best if you are intimately familiar with the techniques of late 20th century metafiction. It's not our history exactly- the Island, like the island in the Shakespeare play, is fictional. The plot details are informed by advances in colonial studies. The white planter class, despite being major characters, are not particularly sympathetic and Warner extends the antipathy towards them across the hundreds of years Indigo spans.
I'm not positive that Warner accomplished anything in Indigo that Jean Rhys doesn't accomplish in Wide Saragasso Sea, but it does serve as another worthy entry on the shelf of historical metafiction with Caribbean locales.
Published 9/5/17
The English Patient (1992)
by Michael Ondaatje
The English Patient is another potential canon selection which arrives as part of the very popular 90's literary genre "International Best-Seller," preferably with an Oscar Nominated (or Winning, in this case) film version and a prestigious international literary award (Booker Prize, 1992). Ondaatje is a poster-child for an Author writing in this period: Lives in Canada, from Sri Lanka, writes in English, writes historical fiction with twists set in exotic or semi-exotic locales. The English Patient check all the boxes to the point where one it could call it either the best of this crop of would-be canon titles or a tedious, cynical exercise in commerce.
The case for canonical status is aided by the huge success of the movie. Who could doubt, circa 1992, that the difference between a good and bad movie version can be the difference between a book obtaining or not obtaining canonical status. My hypothesis is that a successful movie version creates a kind of psychic place holder in the mind of the public audience, ensuring that book versions stay on book shelves and in private collections.
The elements of The English Patient are not particularly ground breaking: A man without a past, a Sikh sapper (Mine de-fuser), a nurse and a secret agent, all living in the same falling-down villa in the immediate aftermath of the Italian campaign of World War II. Like many other works of literature which straddle critical and popular acclaim there is an element of surprise and intrigue that makes detailed discussion of the plot impossible.
I guess now I can finally go see the movie version.
The English Patient (1992)
by Michael Ondaatje
The English Patient is another potential canon selection which arrives as part of the very popular 90's literary genre "International Best-Seller," preferably with an Oscar Nominated (or Winning, in this case) film version and a prestigious international literary award (Booker Prize, 1992). Ondaatje is a poster-child for an Author writing in this period: Lives in Canada, from Sri Lanka, writes in English, writes historical fiction with twists set in exotic or semi-exotic locales. The English Patient check all the boxes to the point where one it could call it either the best of this crop of would-be canon titles or a tedious, cynical exercise in commerce.
The case for canonical status is aided by the huge success of the movie. Who could doubt, circa 1992, that the difference between a good and bad movie version can be the difference between a book obtaining or not obtaining canonical status. My hypothesis is that a successful movie version creates a kind of psychic place holder in the mind of the public audience, ensuring that book versions stay on book shelves and in private collections.
The elements of The English Patient are not particularly ground breaking: A man without a past, a Sikh sapper (Mine de-fuser), a nurse and a secret agent, all living in the same falling-down villa in the immediate aftermath of the Italian campaign of World War II. Like many other works of literature which straddle critical and popular acclaim there is an element of surprise and intrigue that makes detailed discussion of the plot impossible.
I guess now I can finally go see the movie version.
Published 9/7/17
Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992)
by Alice Walker
If you are uninformed about the wide spread reality of female genital mutilation or FGM, this is the book to get you up to speed. FGM is widespread throughout Africa and the world of Islam, and is very common in parts of Africa without an Islamic presence. FGM is sometimes (used to be?) called female circumcision, but, speaking as a circumcised male- there is no comparison. FGM is more like cutting off a man's penis then cutting off his foreskin.
Walker's tale is set among the fictional Olinka people- who also appear in the Color Purple. Possessing the Secret of Joy is not a sequel to The Color Purple, but it is part of the same fictional universe with overlapping characters. The Olinka are a fictional people, but in The Color People said they were located four days from the capital of Liberia, in West Africa, so that, at least, is where Possessing the Secret of Joy is set, a fictional West African nation.
Posseesing the Secret of Joy engages in the familiar modernist style of switching back and forth in time and between different characters. There is a gradual unveiling of the plot with a murder at the center, but those considerations are actively outweighed by the gruesome horror reality of female genital mutilation. I wasn't in any way ignorant of the horrors of FGM, except for thinking it was somehow largely a problem of Islam. Trust, is not simply that. FGM is a part of many non Islamic African cultures.
Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992)
by Alice Walker
If you are uninformed about the wide spread reality of female genital mutilation or FGM, this is the book to get you up to speed. FGM is widespread throughout Africa and the world of Islam, and is very common in parts of Africa without an Islamic presence. FGM is sometimes (used to be?) called female circumcision, but, speaking as a circumcised male- there is no comparison. FGM is more like cutting off a man's penis then cutting off his foreskin.
Walker's tale is set among the fictional Olinka people- who also appear in the Color Purple. Possessing the Secret of Joy is not a sequel to The Color Purple, but it is part of the same fictional universe with overlapping characters. The Olinka are a fictional people, but in The Color People said they were located four days from the capital of Liberia, in West Africa, so that, at least, is where Possessing the Secret of Joy is set, a fictional West African nation.
Posseesing the Secret of Joy engages in the familiar modernist style of switching back and forth in time and between different characters. There is a gradual unveiling of the plot with a murder at the center, but those considerations are actively outweighed by the gruesome horror reality of female genital mutilation. I wasn't in any way ignorant of the horrors of FGM, except for thinking it was somehow largely a problem of Islam. Trust, is not simply that. FGM is a part of many non Islamic African cultures.
Published 9/11/17
The Heather Blazing (1992)
by Colm Tóibín
1992 might be the single busiest year for the 1001 Books Project- 16 titles. To put that in perspective, the entire 18th century- 1700-1800- only has 53 entries on the list. So in other words, the century that invented the novel has 50 listings, and 1992 has 16. That is as clear as an example of "presentism," or favoring the present at the expense of the past, as you are likely to see in any canon forming exercise. The first version of 1001 Books was published in 2006, meaning that 1992 was roughly 10 years before 1001 Books was put together, and 10 years prior is probably the point at which experts start losing confidence about their canonical picks.
The major literary trends in 1992 are meta-fiction and regional fiction. 1992 had Irish fiction, Scottish Fiction, English Fiction, Spanish Fiction, American Fiction, African American Fiction, LGBT Fiction, French Fiction, German Fiction. A movie version is almost required. The Heather Blazing represents one aspect of the growth of regional fiction- retelling the stories of privilege and inner turmoil which characterize English fiction in the early to mid 20th century, but from the perspective of non-English elites. Here, the perspective is that of an Irish High Court Judge from a revolutionary Irish family. The Heather Blazing is no doubt interesting and well written, but there can be no question that it's canonical status is based on it being about an IRISH High Court Judge.
The Heather Blazing (1992)
by Colm Tóibín
1992 might be the single busiest year for the 1001 Books Project- 16 titles. To put that in perspective, the entire 18th century- 1700-1800- only has 53 entries on the list. So in other words, the century that invented the novel has 50 listings, and 1992 has 16. That is as clear as an example of "presentism," or favoring the present at the expense of the past, as you are likely to see in any canon forming exercise. The first version of 1001 Books was published in 2006, meaning that 1992 was roughly 10 years before 1001 Books was put together, and 10 years prior is probably the point at which experts start losing confidence about their canonical picks.
The major literary trends in 1992 are meta-fiction and regional fiction. 1992 had Irish fiction, Scottish Fiction, English Fiction, Spanish Fiction, American Fiction, African American Fiction, LGBT Fiction, French Fiction, German Fiction. A movie version is almost required. The Heather Blazing represents one aspect of the growth of regional fiction- retelling the stories of privilege and inner turmoil which characterize English fiction in the early to mid 20th century, but from the perspective of non-English elites. Here, the perspective is that of an Irish High Court Judge from a revolutionary Irish family. The Heather Blazing is no doubt interesting and well written, but there can be no question that it's canonical status is based on it being about an IRISH High Court Judge.
Published 9/12/17
The Winshaw Legacy: or, What a Carve Up! (1992)
by Jonathan Coe
The Winshaw Legacy is one of the more specifically English books on a 1001 Books that is well stocked with representatives of all eras of English literature. It is, thankfully, a comedy, about a fictional family that embodies the worst excesses of Thatcherite England and their entanglement with the novelist who, in a moment of weakness, takes a paid gig at a vanity press to write the history of the Winshaw family.
By "comedy" I mean satire, and by satire I mean dark satire. Coe does an excellent job of integrating reportage style material about subjects like the sales of arms in the Middle East, and the dismantling of the National Health System. These portions are often more convincing then the in-book plight of the characters who, at times, seem like they exist merely to fulfill the needs of satire.
The Winshaw Legacy: or, What a Carve Up! (1992)
by Jonathan Coe
The Winshaw Legacy is one of the more specifically English books on a 1001 Books that is well stocked with representatives of all eras of English literature. It is, thankfully, a comedy, about a fictional family that embodies the worst excesses of Thatcherite England and their entanglement with the novelist who, in a moment of weakness, takes a paid gig at a vanity press to write the history of the Winshaw family.
By "comedy" I mean satire, and by satire I mean dark satire. Coe does an excellent job of integrating reportage style material about subjects like the sales of arms in the Middle East, and the dismantling of the National Health System. These portions are often more convincing then the in-book plight of the characters who, at times, seem like they exist merely to fulfill the needs of satire.
Published 9/13/17
A Heart So White (1992)
by Javier Marías
The absence of Spanish (from Spain) authors from the 1001 Books list is a little unexpected, but I attribute it to the dominance of Latin American writers and "magical realism," combining with the fact that the traditional Spanish literary perspective, that of a professional, white, male adds little to the list of works by similarly situated authors who write in English. In fact, Spain, outside of Barcelona, remains a staid, traditional society circa this past decade (when I visited). The influence of fifty years of the soft fascism of Franco was stultifying on the development of the international culture that is necessary for literary fiction to achieve prominence in translation.
A Heart So White (1992)
by Javier Marías
The absence of Spanish (from Spain) authors from the 1001 Books list is a little unexpected, but I attribute it to the dominance of Latin American writers and "magical realism," combining with the fact that the traditional Spanish literary perspective, that of a professional, white, male adds little to the list of works by similarly situated authors who write in English. In fact, Spain, outside of Barcelona, remains a staid, traditional society circa this past decade (when I visited). The influence of fifty years of the soft fascism of Franco was stultifying on the development of the international culture that is necessary for literary fiction to achieve prominence in translation.
Published 9/17/17
The Secret History (1992)
by Donna Tartt
The Secret History is one of those exceptions that proves the rule(s) of the marketplace for late 20th century literary fiction. It was a debut novel (!) by a woman(!) written about an esoteric intellectual subject (the study of ancient Greece) featuring unlikable characters (a group of elite college students who kill a couple people) that was immediately recognized as a potential hit (initial printing of 75,000 instead of 10,000) and was a sales success (best-seller.)
I'll admit that it does make an enjoyable, quick read, Almost every major theme in the book relates not necessarily to the study of ancient Greece, bur the ideas of philosopher Nietzsche's ideas about ancient Greece in his very well known The Birth of Tragedy- nowhere mentioned in The Secret History despite having character espouse ideas taken directly from it's pages in almost every chapter. Tartt, a Bennington College graduate, bases The Secret History in a thinly veiled Bennington stand-in called Hampden. I'm certainly no stranger to the particular literary appeal of Bennington- Less Than Zero- probably my favorite novel is written by another Bennington grad and partially set there. Last year, while in New Hampshire, I drove to Bennington and spent the weekend just to get the vibe.
That said, I don't think The Secret History is canon- particularly after The Goldfinch, written eight years after the first edition of 1001 Books was published, won the Pulitzer Prize. The Secret History is a fun read and the themes revolving around esoteric knowledge and privilege are ever-green, but everything else, including the murders at the heart of The Secret History (and revealed to the reader in the prologue, so calm down if you are somehow reading this before you read the book.) were firmly in the "who gives a fuck what happens to these people."
Marías himself is an exception that proves the rule. He spoke fluid English, taught in both England and the United States and the international tone of A Heart So White is made explicit through the narrator- a translator/interpreter (don't get him started on the difference between the two, nor on the difference between simultaneous and consecutive translation) who speaks four different languages fluently. Although A Heart So White is written in Spanish and translated into English, it seems fair to say that nothing, or almost nothing is lost in the translation, since the narrator/author is himself aware of the ambiguities that translation presents and draws the attention of the reader when it occurs in the text.
In other ways, A Heart So White resembles the continuation of the European Philosophical novel tradition. The narrator narrates obsessively, working through different logical permutations of events and the possibility of future events. In other ways, A Heart So White resembles the "existential" Detective fiction of early Paul Auster- where a loose who-done-it provides the skeleton for the philosophical musings of the protagonist.
As a criminal lawyer who deals daily with translators in the precinct of Federal Court, I am well familiar with the interpreter/translator culture, which, at the highest levels, attracts an almost insane percentage of people who have come from Spain or the tonier countries of Latin America to translate in the American court system. The number of "official" Court interpreters in Federal Court who come from either the USA itself or border cities like Tijuana and Mexicali is almost non existent.
But- there is nothing ground breaking to read here- no Spanish equivalent of "Magical Realism" or "historical metafiction" to draw a wider critical or popular audience outside of Spain and the Spanish language- despite that it may have well been written in English, for all the difference it makes.
The Secret History (1992)
by Donna Tartt
The Secret History is one of those exceptions that proves the rule(s) of the marketplace for late 20th century literary fiction. It was a debut novel (!) by a woman(!) written about an esoteric intellectual subject (the study of ancient Greece) featuring unlikable characters (a group of elite college students who kill a couple people) that was immediately recognized as a potential hit (initial printing of 75,000 instead of 10,000) and was a sales success (best-seller.)
I'll admit that it does make an enjoyable, quick read, Almost every major theme in the book relates not necessarily to the study of ancient Greece, bur the ideas of philosopher Nietzsche's ideas about ancient Greece in his very well known The Birth of Tragedy- nowhere mentioned in The Secret History despite having character espouse ideas taken directly from it's pages in almost every chapter. Tartt, a Bennington College graduate, bases The Secret History in a thinly veiled Bennington stand-in called Hampden. I'm certainly no stranger to the particular literary appeal of Bennington- Less Than Zero- probably my favorite novel is written by another Bennington grad and partially set there. Last year, while in New Hampshire, I drove to Bennington and spent the weekend just to get the vibe.
That said, I don't think The Secret History is canon- particularly after The Goldfinch, written eight years after the first edition of 1001 Books was published, won the Pulitzer Prize. The Secret History is a fun read and the themes revolving around esoteric knowledge and privilege are ever-green, but everything else, including the murders at the heart of The Secret History (and revealed to the reader in the prologue, so calm down if you are somehow reading this before you read the book.) were firmly in the "who gives a fuck what happens to these people."
Marías himself is an exception that proves the rule. He spoke fluid English, taught in both England and the United States and the international tone of A Heart So White is made explicit through the narrator- a translator/interpreter (don't get him started on the difference between the two, nor on the difference between simultaneous and consecutive translation) who speaks four different languages fluently. Although A Heart So White is written in Spanish and translated into English, it seems fair to say that nothing, or almost nothing is lost in the translation, since the narrator/author is himself aware of the ambiguities that translation presents and draws the attention of the reader when it occurs in the text.
In other ways, A Heart So White resembles the continuation of the European Philosophical novel tradition. The narrator narrates obsessively, working through different logical permutations of events and the possibility of future events. In other ways, A Heart So White resembles the "existential" Detective fiction of early Paul Auster- where a loose who-done-it provides the skeleton for the philosophical musings of the protagonist.
As a criminal lawyer who deals daily with translators in the precinct of Federal Court, I am well familiar with the interpreter/translator culture, which, at the highest levels, attracts an almost insane percentage of people who have come from Spain or the tonier countries of Latin America to translate in the American court system. The number of "official" Court interpreters in Federal Court who come from either the USA itself or border cities like Tijuana and Mexicali is almost non existent.
But- there is nothing ground breaking to read here- no Spanish equivalent of "Magical Realism" or "historical metafiction" to draw a wider critical or popular audience outside of Spain and the Spanish language- despite that it may have well been written in English, for all the difference it makes.
Published 1/3/18
All the Pretty Horses (1992)
by Cormac McCarthy
I think Cormac McCarthy is dramatically under represented within the 1001 Books project. I would put him up there in the same category as major contemporary authors like Coeteze and Auster and if I had to pick my personal top 1000 he would probably be represented over a half dozen times. His status within the 1001 Books project is interesting. He only had one title in the 2006 edition (The Road) then added titles in 2008, this one and Blood Meridian, then lost All the Pretty Horses and Blood Meridian in the 2012 revision, taking him back down to The Road as his only representative.
McCarthy's expanded canonical status can be based on several arguments: He has always had a supportive critical following. He has experienced world-wide commercial success, including the adaptation of at least two works into films (The Road and No Country For Old Men) that can lay claim themselves to being canonical works. He has expanded his scope of work, moving into post-apocalyptic fiction and crime fiction. He's the main and perhaps only canonical author with a particularly "Southwestern" point of view. It is, perhaps, given the genre success and bloody mayhem that figures prominently in almost all of his works, that he will ever win the Nobel Prize in Literature, but certainly a Booker Prize wouldn't be out of the question.
All the Pretty Horses was the first book of his "Border Trilogy." In 2000 it got a dud movie version starring Matt Damon as narrator John Grady Cole and Penelope Cruz has his Mexican rancher's daughter love interest. Directed by Billy Bob Thorton, the movie version received poor critical reviews and bombed at the box office.
All the Pretty Horses was also a popular break-through for McCarthy, entering the New York Times best-seller list, ostensibly because it was a "softer" book, with an actual love story, and contrasted favorably with his "bleaker" earlier books. I knew of that reputation coming in, but other than the Mexican/American forbidden love plot, All the Pretty Horses does pack a McCarthy-ian punch, with much of the third act taking place inside the walls of a Mexican jail.
All the Pretty Horses (1992)
by Cormac McCarthy
I think Cormac McCarthy is dramatically under represented within the 1001 Books project. I would put him up there in the same category as major contemporary authors like Coeteze and Auster and if I had to pick my personal top 1000 he would probably be represented over a half dozen times. His status within the 1001 Books project is interesting. He only had one title in the 2006 edition (The Road) then added titles in 2008, this one and Blood Meridian, then lost All the Pretty Horses and Blood Meridian in the 2012 revision, taking him back down to The Road as his only representative.
McCarthy's expanded canonical status can be based on several arguments: He has always had a supportive critical following. He has experienced world-wide commercial success, including the adaptation of at least two works into films (The Road and No Country For Old Men) that can lay claim themselves to being canonical works. He has expanded his scope of work, moving into post-apocalyptic fiction and crime fiction. He's the main and perhaps only canonical author with a particularly "Southwestern" point of view. It is, perhaps, given the genre success and bloody mayhem that figures prominently in almost all of his works, that he will ever win the Nobel Prize in Literature, but certainly a Booker Prize wouldn't be out of the question.
All the Pretty Horses was the first book of his "Border Trilogy." In 2000 it got a dud movie version starring Matt Damon as narrator John Grady Cole and Penelope Cruz has his Mexican rancher's daughter love interest. Directed by Billy Bob Thorton, the movie version received poor critical reviews and bombed at the box office.
All the Pretty Horses was also a popular break-through for McCarthy, entering the New York Times best-seller list, ostensibly because it was a "softer" book, with an actual love story, and contrasted favorably with his "bleaker" earlier books. I knew of that reputation coming in, but other than the Mexican/American forbidden love plot, All the Pretty Horses does pack a McCarthy-ian punch, with much of the third act taking place inside the walls of a Mexican jail.
Published 2/12/18
The Emigrants (1992)
by W. G. Sebald
I was reading a book review last week when the reviewer called the book, "Sebaldian" referring to a combining of text and photos, narrative and non fiction, with a recognizably melancholic weltanschauung. Sebald's Emigrants are Germans, most of them grappling with the after effects of World War II, a good portion of them commit suicide at the end of their chapter.
It's remarkable that Sebald has established an international English language audience- not exactly contemporaneous, the 1992 publication date is from the German language version, the English translation followed in 1996. If you don't know it can be hard to tell that you are reading a book that has been translated from another language- many of the locations are in the United Kingdom, and other than the characters all being from Germany, there is nothing particularly "German" about the proceeding. I mean, wrestling with the consequences of the Holocaust- not exclusively a German subject, but something that German authors tend to obsess over.
Published 9/18/18
Smila's Sense of Snow (1992)
by Peter Hoeg
I was 16 in 1992, when Smila's Sense of Snow was published, 17 the next year when the English translation came out. It was a minor literary sensation back then, before The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series catapulted scandi-noir into the consciousness of the literate English speaking public. Indeed, Smila's Sense of Snow is almost a template for the elements of Dragon Tattoo: A young, female outsider protagonist, a mystery that involves the intertwined relationship between Scandinavian business and society and a distinct sense of outrage about the moral calculus of capitalism.
I distinctly remember the hard cover edition my parents bought, this time I read it as an Ebook, on my Kindle app. There, it was more evidence of the difficulty have reading on my Kindle cell phone app. It took me almost the entire 21 day borrowing period, and I barely finished before the library check-out expired automatically. Not because Smila's Sense of Snow as a bad choice as an ebook, quite the opposite: Anything that involves genre or is already familiar to the reader is going to be ok to read as an Ebook. Rather, it is the fact that the cell phone presents so many other options to engage me when I'm using it. Compare that reading experience to an actual book or listening to an audiobook, both of which more or less require undivided attention. I end up flipping back and forth between the Ebook and Instagram, going to Facebook, reading articles in my feed, refreshing my email, sending text messages, anything but reading. My whole idea is that I would increase my efficiency and spend less time doing useless stuff on my phone, but the useless stuff, really any distraction whatsoever, is enough for me to close the Kindle app on my phone.
Like many canon level works of detective/crime fiction, Smilla's Sense of Snow holds up well, both in terms of the book itself and the setting: early 1990's Copenhagen and bits of Greenland. If someone told me that Smilla was published last year, instead of in 1992, I wouldn't be surprised. The editors obviously prefer Hoeg to Dragon Tattoo author Larsson, who has never been selected in any edition.
Smila's Sense of Snow (1992)
by Peter Hoeg
I was 16 in 1992, when Smila's Sense of Snow was published, 17 the next year when the English translation came out. It was a minor literary sensation back then, before The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series catapulted scandi-noir into the consciousness of the literate English speaking public. Indeed, Smila's Sense of Snow is almost a template for the elements of Dragon Tattoo: A young, female outsider protagonist, a mystery that involves the intertwined relationship between Scandinavian business and society and a distinct sense of outrage about the moral calculus of capitalism.
I distinctly remember the hard cover edition my parents bought, this time I read it as an Ebook, on my Kindle app. There, it was more evidence of the difficulty have reading on my Kindle cell phone app. It took me almost the entire 21 day borrowing period, and I barely finished before the library check-out expired automatically. Not because Smila's Sense of Snow as a bad choice as an ebook, quite the opposite: Anything that involves genre or is already familiar to the reader is going to be ok to read as an Ebook. Rather, it is the fact that the cell phone presents so many other options to engage me when I'm using it. Compare that reading experience to an actual book or listening to an audiobook, both of which more or less require undivided attention. I end up flipping back and forth between the Ebook and Instagram, going to Facebook, reading articles in my feed, refreshing my email, sending text messages, anything but reading. My whole idea is that I would increase my efficiency and spend less time doing useless stuff on my phone, but the useless stuff, really any distraction whatsoever, is enough for me to close the Kindle app on my phone.
Like many canon level works of detective/crime fiction, Smilla's Sense of Snow holds up well, both in terms of the book itself and the setting: early 1990's Copenhagen and bits of Greenland. If someone told me that Smilla was published last year, instead of in 1992, I wouldn't be surprised. The editors obviously prefer Hoeg to Dragon Tattoo author Larsson, who has never been selected in any edition.
 |
| Kenneth Branagh plays mercurial (is there any other kind) Swedish Police Detective Kurt Wallander |
Published 1/15/19
Faceless Killers (1991)
by Henning Mankell
Replaces: Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
Faceless Killers is the first "Wallander" novel- about mercurial small-town Swedish police detective Kurt Wallander and his personal and professional problems. Mankell is one of the canonical authors of "scandi-noir" which more or less burst into the international consciousness when Smilla's Sense of Snow made it big, and reached a height during the Girl with A Dragon Tattoo era. Wallender isn't quite as explosive as Lisbeth "Dragon Tattoo" Sanders, but the two share a similar fascination with coupling straight forward detective work with deeper Scandinavian social issues.
Here, immigration is the social issue, and the murder is that of an elderly farming couple, who at first glance have nothing to hide. Wallender's personal issues include a troubled relationship with his father, a recent separation/divorce, a troubled relationship with his daughter, an episode of unprotected drunk driving and a very mild attempt at sexual battery. The personal problems get as much attention as the crime itself. It's hard to say why Wallender captured the attention of the international crime fiction community, but my best guess is it is the novelty of the setting: small town Sweden, that attracted audiences more used to big city crimes and big city detectives.
I listned to the Audiobook- a good choice for this and other works of Detective fiction, since this book, like others in the genre, is told in a single narrative voice- that of Wallender himself.
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| Jacvier Bardem played author Reinaldo Arenas in the well received movie version of Before Night Falls. |
Published 3/16/19
Before Night Falls (1992)
by Reinaldo Arenas
Replaces: Sputnick Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
Reinaldo Arenas is yet another poet-writer who makes it into the canon based on prose, with his corresponding poetry nowhere to be found. Before Night Falls was the beneficiary of an extremely well received movie version, directed and produced by Julian Schnabel, released in 2000, that introduced a fair segment of the cultured American public to both Before Night Falls and the existence of Arenas, who died, in New York, in 1990, from complications related to HIV.
Often referred to as his auto-biography, but more akin to autobiographical fiction in terms of theme, arrangement and presentation, Before Night Falls tells Arenas' own story as a gay intellectual in Cuba, one who first worked for the regime, but later fell into the hazy Cuban persecution complex, including harrowing stints in medieval prisons, and a formal blackballing of him from obtaining any gainful employment.
Castro was an active persecutor of homosexuals, but it was as a peculiar kind of persecution owing to the distinction between "active" homosexuals- who were ok, and "passive" homosexuals- who were the persecuted group. Thus, one could escape punishment for being a homosexual per se by simply insisting on playing the active role.
Arenas was also a critic of the Castro regime, and his imprisonment was tied to that status, and it was his contact with the outside world via his published writing that proved to be his eventual salvation, leading to his eventual emigration as part of the Muriel Boat Lift in 1980. Arenas saves much of his bile, not for the Cuban regime itself, to which he occupies a position similar to that of the "old bolsheviks" of the USSR, who were integral to the early stages of the revolution, only to fall into pre and post Stalin persecution, but for American and western European intellectuals who saw Castro as a hero figure for his resistance to the west.
For those like me who have only displayed a passing interest in recent Cuban history, Before Night Falls is a must, and I am interested in seeing the film soon.
Published 3/31/19
All Souls (1992)
by Javier Marias
Replaces: Trainspotting by Irving Welsh
Javier Marias burst into the 1001 Books project in the 2008 revision, where he added three titles to the list. All Souls is the oldest of the three, but it combines translation, life at Oxford University and Graham Greene type British spy stuff- not so overtly as his later stuff, but the hint of British Intelligence Services hovers about All Souls.
I'm at a loss to account for Marias emerging into the canon in so spectacular a fashion. Getting three books onto the revised list is unheard of, new authors get one or maybe two books. I can see it for Marias, since he is a foreign writer who writes about the very English concerns of the English intellectual classes. I thought it was funny that All Souls replaces Trainspotting by Irving Welsh, since one of the observations that accompanied revisiting Trainspotting this time around was just how many OTHER Scottish writers have traversed, more or less, the same terrain, albeit with less Iggy Pop-referencing savvy.
All Souls is nominally about an extra marital affair between a visiting Spanish lecturer (the narrator) and a young English tutor name Clare Bayers. This book is as rich with Oxford ritual as a Harry Potter novel, specifically the institution of the "high table" which is literally a table that higher than the tables of the other diners and is stuffed with Oxford Dons in full pomp and regalia, plays an important role in the book.
All Souls (1992)
by Javier Marias
Replaces: Trainspotting by Irving Welsh
Javier Marias burst into the 1001 Books project in the 2008 revision, where he added three titles to the list. All Souls is the oldest of the three, but it combines translation, life at Oxford University and Graham Greene type British spy stuff- not so overtly as his later stuff, but the hint of British Intelligence Services hovers about All Souls.
I'm at a loss to account for Marias emerging into the canon in so spectacular a fashion. Getting three books onto the revised list is unheard of, new authors get one or maybe two books. I can see it for Marias, since he is a foreign writer who writes about the very English concerns of the English intellectual classes. I thought it was funny that All Souls replaces Trainspotting by Irving Welsh, since one of the observations that accompanied revisiting Trainspotting this time around was just how many OTHER Scottish writers have traversed, more or less, the same terrain, albeit with less Iggy Pop-referencing savvy.
All Souls is nominally about an extra marital affair between a visiting Spanish lecturer (the narrator) and a young English tutor name Clare Bayers. This book is as rich with Oxford ritual as a Harry Potter novel, specifically the institution of the "high table" which is literally a table that higher than the tables of the other diners and is stuffed with Oxford Dons in full pomp and regalia, plays an important role in the book.
Published 4/14/19
Memoirs of Rain (1992)
by Sunetra Gupta
Replaces: Glamorama by Brett Easton Ellis
Widely hailed as a "true heir" of Virginia Woolf, that should tell you all you need to know about the experience of reading Memoirs of Rain, Gupta's debut novel about the relationship between the cloistered upper-class Indian girl Moni and her English husband, Anthony. Virginia Woolf is on my list of canonical authors that I need to revisit, right now my feeling that Virginia Woolf is the epitome of the difference in tastes between the academic audience and the lay audience for 20th century fiction. Among Professors and students of literature, Virginia Woolf is probably THE Author, the author whose understanding is a required achievement of any serious student of literature. Outside of that ambit, she is not widely read. Her books are all in print because they define the literary canon, but you'd be hard pressed to find a movie or television adaptation which has achieved any significant success.
Like Woolf, Gupta's straight forward story of cultural misunderstand and textbook infidelity by a man towards his wife, winds backwards and forwards through time, hiding the conventional narrative of courtship/marriage/marriage conflict that obsesses so many 20th and 21st century writers. Moni, the woman and narrator, is what you might call hopelessly naive, which seems to be the standard position for Indian women of high caste well past the colonial period. Anthony- I mean you have to know he is going to be a jerk just based on the Virginia Woolf comparison.
Perhaps due to her elliptical approach, the locations in Indian and England are vivid. The experience of immigrant writers contrasting home environments and western environments are always interesting for me, and Gupta is better than most.
It's also worth noting that Gupta is a professor of infectious diseases at Oxford University in England, so she is both a widely admired author and a scientist of global level achievement. Gupta replaces Glamorama by Brett Easton Ellis- hard to argue with that substitution. I actually own a hardback, first edition copy of Glamorama but I don't think I've reread it for this blog- making it one of the 50 unreviewed titles from the first edition of the 1001 Books selections.
Published 7/15/19
Vineland (1990)
by Thomas Pynchon
I've owned a hardcover first edition of Vineland for over a decade- a remaindered first edition and I've never read it- never really even thought about reading it, even as it became one of the last 50 books from the original 1001 Books list I hadn't read, and even as I profess Thomas Pynchon as one of my favorite twentieth century writers. Even after Vineland I've got one more Pynchon title from the original 1001 Books list- Mason & Dixon- which is a re-read for me.
Vineland has a reputation as the least of Pynchon's novels- there are probably people who would argue that Bleeding Edge is worse than Vineland, but I'm more of a Bleeding Edge fan. Trying to explain the plot of Vineland is a typically Pynchonian chore, but the elements involve the consequences of the 1960's, rogue federal prosecutors, northern California hippies, drugs, the Reagan era, etc. Pynchon doing Pynchon stuff. I found myself yearning for the Audiobook- which appears to be an Amazon/Audible exclusive, published late last year.
Published 8/21/19Vineland (1990)
by Thomas Pynchon
I've owned a hardcover first edition of Vineland for over a decade- a remaindered first edition and I've never read it- never really even thought about reading it, even as it became one of the last 50 books from the original 1001 Books list I hadn't read, and even as I profess Thomas Pynchon as one of my favorite twentieth century writers. Even after Vineland I've got one more Pynchon title from the original 1001 Books list- Mason & Dixon- which is a re-read for me.
Vineland has a reputation as the least of Pynchon's novels- there are probably people who would argue that Bleeding Edge is worse than Vineland, but I'm more of a Bleeding Edge fan. Trying to explain the plot of Vineland is a typically Pynchonian chore, but the elements involve the consequences of the 1960's, rogue federal prosecutors, northern California hippies, drugs, the Reagan era, etc. Pynchon doing Pynchon stuff. I found myself yearning for the Audiobook- which appears to be an Amazon/Audible exclusive, published late last year.
The White Castle (1990)
by Orhan Pamuk
There are a SURPRISING number of Orhan Pamuk novels available as in the Audiobook format. I jumped at the opportunity to listen to The White Castle because I saw it was a period piece- set during the heyday of the Ottoman Empire. Ismail Kadare- the Albanian author- also writes about the Ottoman empire- and I'm generally interested in the subject- reading about the Ottomans is one of those sweet spots in literature where you can learn history at the same time.
Most of the action in The White Castle in the 17th century, where an Italian scholar is captured by the Ottomans and enslaved. He proves his worth serving as an unofficial doctor, and eventually draws the attention of Hoja, a kind of freelance scholar who is close to the Sultan. Eventually, Pamuk develops a classic unreliable narrator, as the relationship between the Italian scholar and Hoja- who he closely resembles- blurs, eventually sparking a secret exchange of identities near the end of the book- I'm sure that might be considered a spoiler but seriously- it's Orhan Pamuk.
Clocking in at under 8 hours- it's hard to consider The White Castle a waste of time- but it's not particularly satisfying in a way similar to much contemporary European literature- who am i, what am i doing here- it's a stereotype of European existentialism, and in that sense Pamuk is as European an author as any French or German writer.
Published 9/16/19
Larva: Midsummer Night’s Babel (1990)
by Julian Rios
Replaces: Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord by Louis de Bernieres
Larva: Midsummer Night’s Babel (1990)
by Julian Rios
Replaces: Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord by Louis de Bernieres
It is hard to say much about Larva: Midsummer Night's Babel. Originally published in Spanish in 1983, it was immediately hailed as a "post-modern masterpiece," which should tell you that it is most likely five hundred pages long and nonsensical. That does indeed proof to be the case! Larva shares similarities with Joyce and anticipates the concerns of psycho-geography. I guess the idea is that Larva is a present-day retelling of Don Juan set in a well articulated London, but I only know that because I read it on the internet and the front flap of the book jacket.
I'm not sad to see Senor Vivo get replaced- Louis de Bernieres seems like a one book guy, and that book is Captain Corelli's Mandolin, not Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord, but I'd be hard pressed to tell anyone, "Yes, you must read Larva: Midsummer Night's Babel," and I'm almost positive the readership for this book in the US is restricted to participants in university writing programs.
Published 10/3/19
The Witness (1990)
by Juan Jose Saer
Replaces: Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
Saer is one of the top Argentinian novelists of the 20th century, but he's little known in the United States/larger English speaking world. The Witness is an inviting tale that combines elements of Conrad and Borges in a story about a young man who travels to the brand new-new world only to be taken captive by cannibalistic natives when the exploratory expedition he is attending is killed by said natives. Also, they are eaten, and Saer brings an anthropological eye to the accompanying human feast and attendant debauchery. Several years later, the boy, now a young man, is returned to another boat of Spanish explorers and returns to Spain, where he wrestles with questions of memory and, indeed, larger questions about humanity.
Published 10/14/19
The Witness (1990)
by Juan Jose Saer
Replaces: Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
Saer is one of the top Argentinian novelists of the 20th century, but he's little known in the United States/larger English speaking world. The Witness is an inviting tale that combines elements of Conrad and Borges in a story about a young man who travels to the brand new-new world only to be taken captive by cannibalistic natives when the exploratory expedition he is attending is killed by said natives. Also, they are eaten, and Saer brings an anthropological eye to the accompanying human feast and attendant debauchery. Several years later, the boy, now a young man, is returned to another boat of Spanish explorers and returns to Spain, where he wrestles with questions of memory and, indeed, larger questions about humanity.
Published 10/14/19
Fado Alexandrino (1990)
by Antonio Lobo Antunes
Replaces: At Home of the End of the World by Michael Cunningham
I'm going to have to protest the replacement of At Home of the End of the World, an excellent gay coming of age story by a talented American writer, with Fado Alexandrino, the ponderous (500 pages!) meandering tale of five Portuguese soldiers, united by their service in the Mozambique Liberation War, catch up and tell each other stories about their lives in the intervening years.
Fado Alexandrino makes for extremely difficult reading. The narrative, which is largely but not entirely stream-of-consciousness veers between different narrators and time and place with minimal breaks in the text. There are parts and chapters, but each chapter mostly eschews paragraphs, meaning that the reader is basically forced to read at least one chapter at a time, and the chapters are usually 20 plus pages of one or two or three paragraphs of text, written as a stream-of-consciousness and no guide to who is speaking, when it is occuring or why it is occuring.
I would refer you to the suspiciously excellent Wikipedia page for further details. Fado is one of those books where everyone who reads it must feel compelled to hail it's genius, because it sure is not fun to read in any way, shape or form. I mean, it took me a solid month plus of keeping this book on my nightstand to finish. Just horrific.
by Antonio Lobo Antunes
Replaces: At Home of the End of the World by Michael Cunningham
I'm going to have to protest the replacement of At Home of the End of the World, an excellent gay coming of age story by a talented American writer, with Fado Alexandrino, the ponderous (500 pages!) meandering tale of five Portuguese soldiers, united by their service in the Mozambique Liberation War, catch up and tell each other stories about their lives in the intervening years.
Fado Alexandrino makes for extremely difficult reading. The narrative, which is largely but not entirely stream-of-consciousness veers between different narrators and time and place with minimal breaks in the text. There are parts and chapters, but each chapter mostly eschews paragraphs, meaning that the reader is basically forced to read at least one chapter at a time, and the chapters are usually 20 plus pages of one or two or three paragraphs of text, written as a stream-of-consciousness and no guide to who is speaking, when it is occuring or why it is occuring.
I would refer you to the suspiciously excellent Wikipedia page for further details. Fado is one of those books where everyone who reads it must feel compelled to hail it's genius, because it sure is not fun to read in any way, shape or form. I mean, it took me a solid month plus of keeping this book on my nightstand to finish. Just horrific.
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| Turkish Nobel Prize winning novelist and author Orhan Pamuk |
The Black Box (1990)
by Orhan Pamuk
There are a seemingly endless number of English translation Orhan Pamuk novels available in Audiobook format. He has published at least 20 books in Turkish, about half of those have English language Audiobook editions. Narrator John Lee is one of my favorite Audiobook narrators- he narrated HHhH by Laurent Binet, When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro and the entire Pamuk back catalog. Lee has over 300 Audiobook titles to his credit, ranging from fantasy to non fiction, to classics and really just every sort of Audiobook you could imagine.
There doesn't seem to be any constraint among Audiobook narrators about what type of books to read- it seems like it is a "gig is a gig" world. But Lee has a diction that I find relaxing and he elegantly captures Pamuk's difficult sentences- which merit a postscript by the translator of the most recent translation (the first was in 1994, the second in 2004.) discussing the difficulty of translating Turkish into English. Specifically, that the passive voice is prefered in Turkish literary culture, whereas as any college undergraduate in an English college knows, the passive voice is to be avoided in all forms, whenever possible, in favor of the active voice.
The Black Box is a strictly contemporaneous (Istanbul circa the late 1980's) post-modern detective novel- with an emphasis on the post-modern, with twisting identities and stories within stories within stories. In a sense, the plot can be described in a single sentence: Dissatisfied Istanbul lawyer Galip discovers that his wife, Ruya, has disappeared and he tries to find her.
However within that Pamuk weaves a complicated garment, with Galip becoming increasingly obsessed with Celal, a newspaper columnist and lifetime friend, who has disappeared at the time as Ruya. Gradually, Galip assumes Celal's identity while also recounting newspaper columns by Celal as a part of trying to find Ruya. As a detective story, spoilers lurk, even if they are the kind of low pay off surprises that fail to evoke the mildest gasp of surprise.
Published 5/12/20
American Psycho (1991)
by Bret Easton Ellis
American Psycho was the first book I read on the 1001 Books list close to the release date. I probably read it in 1992- a year after the 1991 release date, which was itself delayed from 1990 after the original publisher withdrew because of the subject matter of the book. I borrowed a copy from a neighbor of mine- an older neighbor- who had connections with college students. I remember that reading American Psycho as a 16 year old felt very transgressive, at the time I hadn't yet transitioned to "adult" books and was mostly reading fantasy and science fiction I checked out from the local library.
I returned to American Psycho in college, after reading Less Than Zero for the first time and becoming aware that Ellis at least had a claim to be the "voice of his generation." The first time I re-read American Psycho I was discovering other contemporary American literary voices like David Foster Wallace- Infinite Jest was released in 1996 and I read it in 1997- Jonathan Franzen, Don DeLillo, etc. I was in college and was developing a taste in literature. Obviously, the first time I read American Psycho I was too young to grasp anything beyond the fact that it was meant as satire of 80's Wall Street Culture. The second time I actually liked it as a book.
The movie version was released in 2000 and against all odds it was generally well received and didn't flop at the box office. I think the success of the film was crucial in pushing American Psycho into the realm of canon. American Psycho is one of the FUNNIEST books of the 1990's, if you peruse the 1990's label on this blog, you will see few rivals- Trainspotting (1993), perhaps. Great Apes (1997) is another funny book from that decade- my point is that if you can accept how funny American Psycho is supposed to be, you'll agree that it is a good pick for the 1001 Books project.
Ellis has a sad and continuing afterlife- a Podcast on Patreon! Books nobody reads or talks about! That is sad because the tetraology of Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, American Psycho and Glamorama are among the best representatives of 20th century American Literature, and the last great representative of American Literatue in the 20th century: Glamorama was published in 1998.
I didn't re-read American Psycho for this post, I feel like I know it by heart, and I've seen the movie at least a dozen times in bits and pieces over the year. I guess I could have looked up the Audiobook.
Replaces: Cocaine Nights by J.G. Ballard
American Psycho (1991)
by Bret Easton Ellis
American Psycho was the first book I read on the 1001 Books list close to the release date. I probably read it in 1992- a year after the 1991 release date, which was itself delayed from 1990 after the original publisher withdrew because of the subject matter of the book. I borrowed a copy from a neighbor of mine- an older neighbor- who had connections with college students. I remember that reading American Psycho as a 16 year old felt very transgressive, at the time I hadn't yet transitioned to "adult" books and was mostly reading fantasy and science fiction I checked out from the local library.
I returned to American Psycho in college, after reading Less Than Zero for the first time and becoming aware that Ellis at least had a claim to be the "voice of his generation." The first time I re-read American Psycho I was discovering other contemporary American literary voices like David Foster Wallace- Infinite Jest was released in 1996 and I read it in 1997- Jonathan Franzen, Don DeLillo, etc. I was in college and was developing a taste in literature. Obviously, the first time I read American Psycho I was too young to grasp anything beyond the fact that it was meant as satire of 80's Wall Street Culture. The second time I actually liked it as a book.
The movie version was released in 2000 and against all odds it was generally well received and didn't flop at the box office. I think the success of the film was crucial in pushing American Psycho into the realm of canon. American Psycho is one of the FUNNIEST books of the 1990's, if you peruse the 1990's label on this blog, you will see few rivals- Trainspotting (1993), perhaps. Great Apes (1997) is another funny book from that decade- my point is that if you can accept how funny American Psycho is supposed to be, you'll agree that it is a good pick for the 1001 Books project.
Ellis has a sad and continuing afterlife- a Podcast on Patreon! Books nobody reads or talks about! That is sad because the tetraology of Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, American Psycho and Glamorama are among the best representatives of 20th century American Literature, and the last great representative of American Literatue in the 20th century: Glamorama was published in 1998.
I didn't re-read American Psycho for this post, I feel like I know it by heart, and I've seen the movie at least a dozen times in bits and pieces over the year. I guess I could have looked up the Audiobook.
Published 1/25/21
The Discovery of Heaven (1992)
by Harry Mulisch
Replaces: Cocaine Nights by J.G. Ballard
Over 700 pages, The Discovery of Heaven has a great reputation as the greatest Dutch language novel of its generation, but I found the plot: A laborious construction about a plot by literal Angels to restore the 10 commandments to the Holy Land by intervening in the lives of a pair of Dutch intellectuals living in the 1960's and 70's; to be tedious to the point of incoherent.
Luckily I managed to find a copy of the English translation in a nearby Little Library, otherwise I doubt I ever would have got to it. My description makes it sound like there might be some interesting magical realism angle, but quite the opposite, even the dialogue BETWEEN ANGELS seems bogged down in the idiom of over-educated Western Europeans. No doubt there are interesting novels coming out of the Netherlands- the 2020 Booker International winner was a young Dutch writer, but as far as this being THE Dutch novel of a generation, I would have to demur.
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