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http://www.goodreads.com/event/show/57257-poet-claire-hero-reads-at-apostrophe-cast
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Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:35:13 -0700The Complete Collection of people, places & things (Paperback) by John Dermot Woods]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/66229484
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Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:39:41 -0700The Universal Exception: Selected Writings (Hardcover) by Slavoj Žižek]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43512673
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Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:39:39 -0800
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.]]>
Point Counter Point (Paperback) by Aldous Huxley]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43512531
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Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:27:21 -0800The Time Traveler's Wife (Paperback) by Audrey Niffenegger]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/36480071
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Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:56:45 -0700
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/16268-middlesex-why-can-t-i-enjoy-this-book
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Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:13:44 -0700 Serious criticism for decades now, from Luce Irigaray to Judith Butler has taken dead aim at gender with profound consequences. This novel has nothing to do with that. It is not the revolution. It is the t-shirt with Che Guevara's face on it.
But one does not have to be interested in the politics and psychology the novel sensationalizes to be disappointed. The novel's "description" of San Francisco is a good place to start. In terms of a fully realized environment, he doesn't even describe the park where our young protagonist was homeless and hungry, where a mugging and sexual assault take place. We are told there are large bushes, and lots of kooky people he didn't see in Detroit. The only way to recognize anything about the city would be to recognize what the back room of a peep show looked like in the seventies.
This novel doesn't really address huge issues, it decorates itself with huge issues. The Smyrna passages are an excellent example. Cormac McCarthy can write about a genocidal massacre, because he respects that genocidal massacres tear a hole in the flimsy world of fashion and style -- that they threaten the possibility of art. Eugenides' description of the massacre reads like a walk through a house of horrors at the fair. The episode ends with an evocation of laughable British stereotypes, conjured only to decorate the novel with the issue of the inhumanity of Imperialism. It sticks a post-imperialist button on its lapel. Decisions like that, and the novel is full of them, are bewildering. And damaging, because by the end of the novel, the novel has decorated itself with so much ideological flair, it comes off as either confused or tacky.
The way the novel deals with race is the Elephant in the room no one wants to deal with. The fact that he portrays the riot at all is taken as a great service we should all be grateful for. I beg to differ. Once again, the indulgence in cuteness is supposed to cover for the ultimate emptiness of the novel. The darling little girl who rides her bike to go find daddy behind a tank is not an image for the ages. It is an image from a children's book. A photograph of a Chinese student standing in front of a tank in an image for the ages. The only real conclusion to draw from Eugenides' description of the riot is that black revolutionaries and the federal government had a war and Greek Immigrants were inconvenienced. How are we supposed to take that, especially taking into consideration the continued upward trajectory of the Greek family?
The title of this discussion was "Why can't I enjoy this novel?" And I felt compelled to answer. I would invite you to review your memories. ]]>
The Inquisitory (John F. Byrne French Literature Series) by Robert Pinget]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/36126306
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Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:27:46 -0700
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Middlesex (Paperback) by Jeffrey Eugenides]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/35857190
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Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:13:25 -0700
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