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<![CDATA[ari added 'I Love You More Than You Know']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/64473079
to: I Love You More Than You Know (Paperback)byJonathan Ames
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<![CDATA[ari added 'Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/64472998
to: Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (Hardcover)byOliver W. Sacks
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<![CDATA[ari added 'Women: A Novel']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/64472842
to: Women: A Novel (Paperback)byCharles Bukowski
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<![CDATA[ari added 'Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43572013
to: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (Paperback)byDavid Sedaris
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<![CDATA[ari added 'Building a Bridge to the 18th Century: How the Past Can Improve Our Future']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43571943
Building a Bridge to the 18th Century: How the Past Can Improve Our Future (Paperback)
byNeil Postman bookshelves: currently-reading
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<![CDATA[ari added 'Lush Life: A Novel']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43569772
Lush Life: A Novel (Hardcover)
byRichard Price bookshelves: currently-reading
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<![CDATA[ari
is on page 40 of Lush Life: A Novel
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http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43569772
ari is on page 40 of 464 of Lush Life: A Novel
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<![CDATA[ari added 'Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43539984
to: Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Paperback)byHaruki Murakami
Hardboiled Wonderland is my third Murakami novel and fourth book over the course of the last six months, and my admiration for his writing has developed from a puppy love to a mature one. Gone are the expectations of flawlessness and romanticism because I feel like I now know what to expect, but what remains is even more compelling and significant to me.
There are still aspects of Murakami (and/or his translations) that really irk me, much like moving in with a significant other only to find that they load the dishwasher the wrong way, but his offerings are so numerous and fascinating that I have never even considered putting down one of his books for good.
I would group Hardboiled Wonderland with Kafka on the Shore, and I find myself resisting to call them contemporary fables. Perhaps I am tempted to find some sort of moral insinuation in his writing, but then again it was the lack of moral pontificating that drew me to his books in the first place. He may write with them in mind, but he hides them well enough as to warrant multiple interpretations, which is the most you can hope for in any piece of artwork. Even more significant is that I was able to use his writing to reflect on my own life in this moment, without much effort.
His imagination is so foreign to mine, that I am wholly and completely consumed by it. Both Hardboiled Wonderland and Kafka remind me of Spirited Away in the way that they could meld such existential darkness with the true, small (and possibly fleeting) pleasures of life: food, records, maintaining company with friends and acquaintances, helping others in times of need, the occasional drink, finding satisfying work, and extraordinary adventure, all socially-constructed inventions of the human condition. There are others I have omitted, I'm sure, but they differ for everyone.
My only significant gripe with Murakami (the verbal tick, the facial blemish, the object of disdain one maybe later come to love) is his obsession with cultural specifics. Such a characteristic part of his work, I find his penchant to describe his Nike bag or Toyota car so incredibly distracting that I almost threaten filing for divorce. But if you can get through that, I would hope that your marriage will have been as successful as ours is, blemishes and all, coming to terms with my own faults while learning to love theirs. To quote the great Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting, if I may, "the question is not whether you're perfect or she's perfect; it's whether you're perfect for each other." The ring stays on.
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<![CDATA[ari added 'The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/34899103
to: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Hardcover)byNassim Nicholas Taleb
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