Jonathan Safran Foer makes me mad. Or jealous, rather. I want to be a wunderkind author. On the other hand, I wouldn't have wanted to face the expectations he must have been staring at following Everything is Illuminated. ELIC is a good sophomore effort, and he didn't shy away from taking on something big, in September 11th, although he did protect himself a little by couching himself in the guise of an odd and grieving little boy.
I liked this book. I liked and wanted to protect Oskar, just as I felt for his namesake in The Tin Drum. JSF is talented at exploring the ways that people who love one another deceive and/or misunderstand each other. The members of the Schell family reach out to each other in funny ways and reciprocate another's plea within the overwhelming paradigm of his or her own individual pain.
Life is hard. But it is also incredibly touching.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Thursday, June 23, 2005
The Plot Against America
To begin, I'd like to offer one piece of advice: be thoughtful about bringing hardbound books to the beach. Expect (especially if it's windy) that sand will get between pages and everywhere else.
Anyway, I read the new(ish) Philip Roth on a camping trip. It was so idyllic - and in some ways very middle-America too - that it made for an interesting backdrop while reading a dystopia of the 1940s. Overall I was extremely impressed by the novel, and enjoyed it much much more than the other book of his that I've read, Sabbath's Theater. Roth is convincing as a 7 year old version of himself, and touching too. The grand arc of the plot is a little weak though. Provided, yes it seems fantastical (but no more so than some of what's happened in recent American history), but I was able to suspend my disbelief until the last two chapters. Then everything lost coherence. I think this was Roth's intention, but still, it left me confused and unsettled. (Again, pretty sure this is intentional, but I still would have liked a little more closure. Oh well.)
Anyway, I read the new(ish) Philip Roth on a camping trip. It was so idyllic - and in some ways very middle-America too - that it made for an interesting backdrop while reading a dystopia of the 1940s. Overall I was extremely impressed by the novel, and enjoyed it much much more than the other book of his that I've read, Sabbath's Theater. Roth is convincing as a 7 year old version of himself, and touching too. The grand arc of the plot is a little weak though. Provided, yes it seems fantastical (but no more so than some of what's happened in recent American history), but I was able to suspend my disbelief until the last two chapters. Then everything lost coherence. I think this was Roth's intention, but still, it left me confused and unsettled. (Again, pretty sure this is intentional, but I still would have liked a little more closure. Oh well.)
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Politics & Plays
Not a book review, but sufficiently similar that I think it belongs here...
I've been collecting programs in the last week. Friday was Chloe's culmination event for pre-school, and last night was the annual spring fundraising dinner at work. Saturday, we went to the Tamarind Theatre to see The Eyes of Babylon, a one-man autobiographical show about a gay Marine's experience in Iraq. Jeff Key, the writer-performer, fulfilled a life-long ambition when he joined the Marines in 2000, at the age of 34, going back in the closet to do so. His naked (sometimes literally) performance challenges whole sets of assumptions about what it means to be: gay, in the military, Southern. It problematizes simplistic views on either side of the political spectrum of what's happening in Iraq - sure, he's in Shiite southern Iraq, and sure, he's a gay actor in Los Angeles so he's probably pretty liberal, and sure, he came out last year to leave the military. But it's complicated, as all things are. In addition, he evoked how foreign things were here in the aftermath of September 11th, in my mind the most serious indictment of how far we've swerved off course in the past 3 1/2 years. And there's a love scene that's so unexpected, so touching, that it still makes me warm inside. Babylon is disarming, challenging, and entirely human.
Sunday took us up to Topanga, to the Theatricum Botanicum, for a series called Botanicum Seedlings, which consists of readings and workshops for plays in progress. It's a way of cultivating playwrights. The reading we saw was of Matt Pelfrey's An Impending Rupture of the Belly, a satirical reverie about a modern-day Willy Loman. In a world consumed with threat, danger, and consumption, can the wussy man survive? Or will he snap? I liked the reading format. Stage directions read, instead of witnessed, props half-assed, or missing. Actors carrying their scripts. Very minimalist. I personally think they should keep the show under-produced like this. As for the play itself, it was very biting and amusing, and certainly topical. But I don't know that it ever really connected with me. It'll find an audience though.
Plays are great fun. And plays, much more than novels, place great premium on being witty. I appreciate that.
I've been collecting programs in the last week. Friday was Chloe's culmination event for pre-school, and last night was the annual spring fundraising dinner at work. Saturday, we went to the Tamarind Theatre to see The Eyes of Babylon, a one-man autobiographical show about a gay Marine's experience in Iraq. Jeff Key, the writer-performer, fulfilled a life-long ambition when he joined the Marines in 2000, at the age of 34, going back in the closet to do so. His naked (sometimes literally) performance challenges whole sets of assumptions about what it means to be: gay, in the military, Southern. It problematizes simplistic views on either side of the political spectrum of what's happening in Iraq - sure, he's in Shiite southern Iraq, and sure, he's a gay actor in Los Angeles so he's probably pretty liberal, and sure, he came out last year to leave the military. But it's complicated, as all things are. In addition, he evoked how foreign things were here in the aftermath of September 11th, in my mind the most serious indictment of how far we've swerved off course in the past 3 1/2 years. And there's a love scene that's so unexpected, so touching, that it still makes me warm inside. Babylon is disarming, challenging, and entirely human.
Sunday took us up to Topanga, to the Theatricum Botanicum, for a series called Botanicum Seedlings, which consists of readings and workshops for plays in progress. It's a way of cultivating playwrights. The reading we saw was of Matt Pelfrey's An Impending Rupture of the Belly, a satirical reverie about a modern-day Willy Loman. In a world consumed with threat, danger, and consumption, can the wussy man survive? Or will he snap? I liked the reading format. Stage directions read, instead of witnessed, props half-assed, or missing. Actors carrying their scripts. Very minimalist. I personally think they should keep the show under-produced like this. As for the play itself, it was very biting and amusing, and certainly topical. But I don't know that it ever really connected with me. It'll find an audience though.
Plays are great fun. And plays, much more than novels, place great premium on being witty. I appreciate that.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Dangling Man
This month's book club selection, courtesy in part of Michael's suggestion to honor the late Saul Bellow. I was a little nervous as I really didn't much like Henderson the Rain King (in fact, it made me like the Counting Crows song a little less for quite some time). And after last month's meeting which was largely (and sadly) a bashing session of Barbara Kingsolver, I was wanting something I could really get behind. The first twenty pages of the book confirmed a lot of my fears. It was meandering and boring, and I couldn't really tell what was going on. I put Michael to sleep twice reading it. Luckily, he acknowledged first that this was not a book for reading aloud and took matters into his own hands. Leaving me to catch up. Which I am now doing. Actually, I should be finishing it right now, but am blogging it instead. At any rate, it's gotten much better, although I don't at all see how it's going to wrap up in 50 pages.
The "dangling man," by the way, is our hero and journal-writer, a Chicago resident in the midst of WWII who is essentially sitting around waiting to be drafted. This has been going on for some time now, due to Army confusion and bureaucracy (and a Canadian birth certificate) and in the meantime he has left his job and become alienated from those around him. He dangles, waiting...
The "dangling man," by the way, is our hero and journal-writer, a Chicago resident in the midst of WWII who is essentially sitting around waiting to be drafted. This has been going on for some time now, due to Army confusion and bureaucracy (and a Canadian birth certificate) and in the meantime he has left his job and become alienated from those around him. He dangles, waiting...
We truly are bowling alone
The book has me partially inspired, and feeling pretty good about where I stand in relation to civic participation. In fact, I marched on a picket line for the first time the other day, and while definitely feeling out of place, was truly warmed by the power of solidarity. On the other hand, I'm also acutely aware now of any and all areas in which my social capital is deficient. Michael and I have had several talks about this in the past week. (Also a little sad: Putnam reverses some on his evangelicals argument, which I had found really fascinating.)
Upshot: the book might be a little dated at this point, and I'd be curious to see a new foreword or any "five years later" analysis of where we are. But still a good read, especially for those of you who don't mind repetition (or are good skimmers) and even more so for people who like graphs and statistics.
Upshot: the book might be a little dated at this point, and I'd be curious to see a new foreword or any "five years later" analysis of where we are. But still a good read, especially for those of you who don't mind repetition (or are good skimmers) and even more so for people who like graphs and statistics.
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