Revolutionary Road (1961)by Richard Yates

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

Revolutionary Road (1961)

by Richard Yates

Revolutionary Hill Estates, Connecticut

Connecticut: 8/9

     That's a wrap for Connecticut- the last book- On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong- I've already read- so Revolutionary Road  closes out non-Massachussets New England.   The 2008 movie version had me thinking that the book was of more recent vintage- something from the 80's or 90's so I was mildly surprised to learn, after I finished the book, that it was written in 1962, putting it in the literary vanguard of American critiques of suburban ennui, rather than a second generation effort references that earlier period. 

     The book is about a suburban, married couple who meet as young bohemians in New York City, he a GI Bill college student fresh off his World War II service (in France, which becomes a major plot point), Frank Wheeler has artistic aspirations- ill defined, to be sure, but in existence. April Wheeler, who comes from a troubled background with dilletante parents who seemed uninterested in raising their daughter, marries Frank in the hopes of bringing regularity to her disordered life.  The book picks up with them in the suburbs, adopting the now familiar pose of disgruntled urban intellectuals forced to compromise their artistic-intellectual pursuits- well familiar now, but probably a bit of a novelty in the early 60's American literary scene.

  Frank acts like a down-market Mad Man at work- having an affair with a co-worker and drinking his lunches while struggling with writing business-speak brochures for the same company his Dad worked for as a salesman.   It's all pretty familiar terrain in 2023, but of course, the publication date of 1961 is a whole different story.  I've never seen the movie, figure I probably will if only to see DiCaprio portray Frank.

The Giant's House (1996) by Elizabeth McCracken

1001 Novels: A Library of America

The Giant's House (1996)

by Elizabeth McCracken

Massachussets: 18/30

Brewster, Massachussets

   Ok,  I'm out on Cape Cod right now- more than halfway through the interminable Massachussets chapter of the 1001 Novels: A Library of America.  I think I'm close to 10% through this list and... a lot of teen girls coming of age and sad single moms so far.   Speaking of which, The Giants House is another sad single lady- though the mom bit takes the whole book to arrive.  The Giants House is an example of a book that does not make for a good Audiobook- which- I'm coming to learn, is a book where the narrator is someone I don't sympathize with or empathize with.  The closer the Audiobook narrator is to me, the better- which is an example of how bias works unconsciously.  The "voice" of a book never bothers me when I read it, because the voice I hear is "my" voice.

  All I'm saying is that I would have had fewer issues completing this title if I'd read it vs. listening to the Audiobook.   Now, The Giants House was a National Book Award nominee back before they had a longlist/finalist- so it was like one of five or four books.  I went back and read the New York Times review at the time it was released and it wasn't a "whoa, all hail this masterpiece."  If anything I would call it essentially a negative or at least neutral review- close to what I felt.  The problem is with the narrator- Cape Cod Librarian extraordinaire Peggy Cort.   Peggy... does not have a lot of romantic self confidence, and even allowing for the fact that this book is set in the psycho-sexual dark ages- 1950 small-town Massachussets, but you'd at least think a Boston trained librarian would have access to books about sex and such that would allow her to get beyond her one-note neurosis. 

   Peggy falls in love with James Sweatt, a teenager destined to become the worlds tallest man.   Cort meets Sweatt when he is a very tall teenager, and the book follows the two and their curious relationship over the course of about five years.   To McCracken's credit, shit gets extremely weird and dark before she closes up the story.  

Loot (2023) by Tania James

Author Tania James

 

Book Review

Loot (2023)

by Tania James

  Loot was a National Book Book longlist title this year and the description caught my eye, I'm just cut and pasting from Penguin Random House promo copy here,  "A spellbinding historical novel set in the eighteenth century: a hero’s quest, a love story, the story of a young artist coming of age, and an exuberant heist adventure that traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across two continents and fifty years."

   The story starts in pre-British rule India (James is an American author of Indian decent) and makes its way to late 18th century England and France.  Abbas, who starts Loot as a child in the Sultanate/Kingdom of Mysore, is the main character- he has a .talent for carving that leads him to apprentice to Lucien de Leze, a French clockmaker who is in favor at the court of Sultan Tipu.  Anyway, if you look at James' publishing history you can see a familiar trajectory- a first novel that is a multi-generational family saga from the perspective of an immigrant to America (or their children), which is well received critically but doesn't land with a mainstream audience (58 amazon reviews), a follow-up book of short stories.  A second novel (written from the perspective of a rampaging Elephant) which is interesting but again, not a huge seller (239 amazon reviews).   And now Loot, which seems designed to contain both adventure, sophisticated cultural commentary on 18th century colonialism and a love story!

 I'm here for it- looking forward to the film or tv version.  Would certainly read another by Tania James but unlikely to go backwards and check out the catalog titles.

    

Tremor (2023) by Teju Cole

 Book Review

Tremor (2023)

by Teju Cole

  I'm a big Teju Cole fan- I like the way he mixes up fiction, art criticism and biographical detail in a way that reminds me of W.G. Sebald- one of my favorites.  The New York Times reviewer agreed:

He has written admiringly about, and frequently been compared to, the German writer W.G. Sebald; they share among other things a capacity to tunnel back from a single image or artifact to scenes of historical barbarism. (I almost wrote that Cole seems like a postcolonial version of Sebald — but Sebald is already the postcolonial Sebald.)

  

  There are quite a few Sebaldian takes in Tremor, notably the initial chapter where Tunde, a Nigerian-American professor who serves as the Teju Cole figure, and his Japanese wife, go antiquing in Southern Maine and come across a poorly maintained African artifact.  Later there is a chapter length "lecture" on the JMW Turner painting, "Slave Ship," which depicts a historical episode where the captain of a slave ship through his human cargo overboard in an attempt to save his vessel during a storm.

   There are also some non-Sebaldian features in Tremors, like the part in the middle where he voices 24 different people who live in Lagos, Nigeria. All of it is very entertaining to readers interested in the kind of art criticism/fiction pioneered by Sebald, but perhaps less so to those unfamiliar with that world.

Mermaid in Chelsea Creek (2013) by Michelle Tea

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

Mermaid in Chelsea Creek (2013)

by Michelle Tea

Massachussets: 17/30

Chelsea, Massachussets

    Despite having spend close to an entire month in Boston over the past decade, I've never got a sniff of Chelsea, which is technically a Boston suburb but functionally part of Boston.  Chelsea is separated from Boston by the Mystic River, a body of water that serves as a divider between cosmopolitan Boston and the working-class, white suburbs north of town.   Mermaid in Chelsea Creek is, you guessed it, another YA title about a sad teen being raised by a single mom.  She amuses herself by going down to a dirty creek and playing the suffocation game, where you hold your breath until you pass out.  During one of these episodes the titular mermaid appears to her and points her to a destiny that includes- can you guess?!?!- great magical powers and a destiny which includes saving the world, or something.  Mermaid is the first of a trilogy so Sophie Swankowski doesn't get very far in this, the first book.

  The reader is introduced to a variety of characters, some magical (talking pigeons!) and others less so.  As far as YA books go, Mermaid is relatively benign and readable for an adult- probably because it was published by McSweeney's and not a mainstream publisher.  Still, it is hard not to be irritated with yet another YA book about a struggling teen girl.   Look, I get it, it is tough to be a teenage girl in a disadvantage neighborhood.  It seems like there is plenty of thematic overlap in these books:  Issues with their parents, issues with their school, a lack of direction to their future.  Sounds like teenagers everywhere, right?

   Mermaid in Chelsea Creek was one of these 1001 Novels books where I checked out the Audiobook and then quickly realized that listening to an Audiobook of this title would be a nightmare- I can't take ten hours of a teenage girl complaining about her life, it's just interminable. All their complaints are exactly the same.  So then I checked out the hardback from the library and it went down easy.