|
August 29
|
|
Brendan
gave
 
to:
The Great Gatsby (Paperback)
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
Brendan said:
"The book had some wonderful moments; some very nice, unusual descriptions; but I was left a little underwhelmed by its rather facile and obvious critique of affluent American culture, its hollowness and affectation. I think I will give it a re-read,...more
The book had some wonderful moments; some very nice, unusual descriptions; but I was left a little underwhelmed by its rather facile and obvious critique of affluent American culture, its hollowness and affectation. I think I will give it a re-read, though....less
"
|
|
July 31
|
|
Brendan
gave
to:
Sade: A Biography (A Harvest Book)
by Maurice Lever
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
Brendan said:
"Mediocre biography of a fascinating genius.
"
|
|
July 30
|
|
Brendan
gave
to:
Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West (Paperback)
by Cormac McCarthy
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
recommended to Brendan by:
Dudes at work
recommended for: Anyone
read in November, 2007
Brendan said:
"In an interview with the New York Times McCarthy was quoted as saying that he does not care for books that don't "deal with issues of life and death," placing in this category (to my horror and vehement disagreement) such writers as Proust-...more
In an interview with the New York Times McCarthy was quoted as saying that he does not care for books that don't "deal with issues of life and death," placing in this category (to my horror and vehement disagreement) such writers as Proust--but I digress. Now, more to the point, I have only read McCarthy's The Road and Blood Meridian and I would argue that in these two works he only deals with the latter part of "life and death," or perhaps it would be more effective to simply twist the phrase a little and say that the vision in these books is "life IS death." McCarthy's world strikes me as being one where the only motivation, the only rule is to kill before you are killed--but these men don't actually LIVE for anything; life is preserved simply for the sake of preservation. I see in these books men who are already dead, or at best are simply waiting to die--pseudo-corpses somnambulating through "life." (Footnote: This idea is not quite so stark in The Road, where one finds implied, unspoken moments of tenderness; tenuous glimpses of hope and affection.)
But herein lies part of the power of this book for me: while I do not agree with McCarthy's limited idea of literature's scope, and am sometimes appalled by his grim vision of the world, ultimately, I am not turned on by an author's message, his thoughts on the human condition, the story is,
in a way, even ancillary, what stirs me in a book, what thrills my senses is STYLE. And Blood Meridian is style. While I very much appreciated The Road's beautiful exercise in minimalism, it is the richer, more vivid (sometimes brutally and alarmingly so) world of Blood Meridian where I
found the most pleasure. In Blood Meridian are still those stunningly laconic, poetic turns of phrase (at points the book is so lyrical it practically sings), but they really shine in this more thoroughly drawn, more deeply textured world. McCarthy creates a vibrant Southwestern country with powerfully unique descriptive force. A passage that I just happened upon: "...they traveled under the cape of the wild mountains upon a broad soda plain with dry thunder and rumors of light. Under a gibbous moon horse and rider spanceled to their shadows on the snowblue ground and in each flare of lightning as the storm advanced those selfsame forms rearing with a terrible redundancy behind them like some third aspect of their presence hammered out black and wild upon the naked grounds." (Footnote two: for some reason I really like unique descriptions of the moon, and while the above example is not particularly descriptive, McCarthy has some gems, a personal favorite being when he calls it a "blind cat's eye.")
And here perhaps I have in a way argued against my own original claim about McCarthy's hopelessly morbid vision: perhaps it is in these images of beauty evoked by our author that constitute the life of the novel, the vitality and the purpose exist not so much in the men themselves but in their surroundings, as well as in the imaginative process of writing and the creation of this vivid fictional world. I don't know. I do know that I like it regardless.
So much more could be said about this book (the unforgettably enigmatic and spectral character of the Judge, for instance) but doubting that anyone has cared to read this far, I will leave it there.
...less
"
|
|
Brendan
gave
to:
In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower: In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 2 (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
by Marcel Proust
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
Brendan said:
"This volume has one of my favorite moments in the whole book: M. de Charlus on the beach at Balbec ridiculing M. for his swimming trunks with little anchors on them. Hilarious. Perhaps my favorite volume of the novel.
"
|
|
August 17
|
|
Brendan
gave
to:
Laughter in the Dark (Vintage International)
by Vladimir Nabokov
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
read in August, 2008
|
|
July 30
|
|
Brendan
gave
to:
Finding Time Again: In Search of Lost Time (Vol. 6)
by Marcel Proust
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
read in July, 2008
Brendan said:
"Marvelous. Enchanting.
"
|
|
July 09
|
|
Brendan made a comment in the group White Nights—The Original of Laura to be published topic:
|
|
June 17
|
|
Brendan
gave
to:
Glory (Paperback)
by Vladimir Nabokov
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
read in June, 2008
Brendan said:
"Not one of Nabokov's heaviest books, to be sure, and not so full of those verbal acrobatics that so enhance his later work; in fact Glory is almost universally considered his least remarkable novel, but I quite enjoy it. Some memorable, well...more
Not one of Nabokov's heaviest books, to be sure, and not so full of those verbal acrobatics that so enhance his later work; in fact Glory is almost universally considered his least remarkable novel, but I quite enjoy it. Some memorable, well drawn characters: the witty and languorously charming Darwin, who is given one of my favorite descriptions in the book when we are familiarized with the soles of his shoes as he always has them listlessly propped up on some piece of furniture. Equally striking is the sloe-eyed Sonia: playfully seductive with her incessant sarcasm ("I forgive you, because you are Swiss, and 'cretin' is a Swiss word, jot that down"). But as with all of Nabokov's novels, the real pleasure is found beneath the surface of the story, in the subtle details, in the shadows of the text. In Glory we get get a taste of techniques that are perfected in his mature works, in his patterning and mirroring of events and imagery, creating a subtle but complicated textual maze. This puzzle aspect is for me part of the uniquely thrilling experience of reading Nabokov's works. The reader cannot take a single word for granted and is forced, in order to take all they can from the text, to be especially active in their reading. The unusual challenge is enjoyable in itself and the experience is heightened by equally unusual rewards for the reader. A bright, fun read.
Nice passage:
"Brooks burbled, concealed among the foliage; blue butterflies fluttered up from the damp spots on the road; birds bustled in the bushes..." Listen... those brooks continue to burble through all those "b"s....less
"
|
|
June 16
|
|
Brendan
gave
to:
Nabokov's Deceptive World (Hardcover)
by William W. Rowe
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
|
|
Brendan
gave
to:
Nabokov: The Mystery of Literary Structures (Hardcover)
by Leona Toker
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
|
White Nights
— 102 members
— last activity 9 days ago, 01:14PM
