|
May 08
|
|
New comment on Paul's review of
Sometimes a Great Notion
(see all 7 comments)
|
|
Casey
marked as to-read:
There Goes the Hood: Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up (Paperback)
by Lance Freeman (Goodreads author!)
bookshelves:
to-read
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
|
|
May 06
|
|
Casey
gave
to:
The Brothers K (Paperback)
by David James Duncan
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
read in May, 2008
Casey said:
"It's really hard to encompass this book in a pithy review. It's massive, it spans decades, it's about a huge family, it delves pretty deeply into politics and religion, and so on. So...
What I Liked
The honest portrayal of a lower-middle class fa...more
It's really hard to encompass this book in a pithy review. It's massive, it spans decades, it's about a huge family, it delves pretty deeply into politics and religion, and so on. So...
What I Liked
The honest portrayal of a lower-middle class family and the risks and hardships that go along with that economic status.
The successful depiction of what it's like to have brothers.
The humor that occasional made me laugh out loud.
How this guy really did try to write the Great American Novel, taking on Vietnam, hippies, baseball, the allure of Eastern religion, the allure of harcore Christianity, poverty, government, etc. etc., all at once. It's rare to see anyone try and do this, and you have to respect him for it.
The fact that, for the most part, he pulls it off.
The lack of one right answer to any problem faced in the book.
The ability to create characters that you can easily imagine and that you grow extremely attached to.
What I Disliked
Some scenes didn't seem realistic - too cute or too simplified or too obviously designed to make a point.
A style of writing that, while I appreciate the impulse to write simply and with humor, occasionally gets a little cloying and reads like a Sports Illustrated article....less
"
|
|
Casey
is currently reading:
All the Sad Young Literary Men (Hardcover)
by Keith Gessen
bookshelves:
currently-reading
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
|
|
April 30
|
|
New comment on Paul's review of
The Average American Male: A Novel
(see all 3 comments)
|
|
April 23
|
|
New comment on Casey's review of
Varieties of Disturbance: Stories
(see all 2 comments)
|
|
April 22
|
|
|
Casey
gave
to:
Varieties of Disturbance: Stories (Paperback)
by Lydia Davis
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
Casey said:
"Lydia Davis is an incredible writer in terms of having complete and total control over the English language. In terms of writing stories that spark any emotion, revelation, or greater than a passing interest in me, however, she is a very bad writer. ...more
Lydia Davis is an incredible writer in terms of having complete and total control over the English language. In terms of writing stories that spark any emotion, revelation, or greater than a passing interest in me, however, she is a very bad writer.
She writes stories that don't have plots or characters that you care about or enough development of a situation to build up concern about what will happen next. At times I think she's trying to boil down stories to the absolute core, which is a cool idea but ends up feeling like you watched the five-minute climax of a three hour movie, and are then expected to care about it, when that's pretty much impossible.
She writes stories in a variety of formats that don't fit into the traditional structure of what people consider a 'short story.' I'm not against experimentation or crazy story structure or even the lack of a plot, necessarily. But when it's for the sake of either a.) showing how clever you are, or b.) simply to show that stories can be written in a non-traditional format (I couldn't figure out which was really going on her, much like most McSweeny's stories), it's boring and pointless.
I will end with a full reprint of one of her stories:
Title: Index Entry
Body: Christian, I'm not a
That's it. This is something that seems like a goth kid in the 10th grade would write for a class assignment, and be extremely proud of. Maybe that's what the point of the story is. If so, I missed it, and probably missed a variety of other points throughout this book....less
"
|
|
April 21
|
|
Casey
gave
to:
How Cities Work : Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken (Paperback)
by Alex Marshall
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
Casey said:
"A great book if you're into urban planning. The author is a journalist, which means the book is less esoteric and dense than most on urban planning. The guy is obviously a mondo planning nerd/wonk though, so don't get too excited.
The main thesis ...more
A great book if you're into urban planning. The author is a journalist, which means the book is less esoteric and dense than most on urban planning. The guy is obviously a mondo planning nerd/wonk though, so don't get too excited.
The main thesis is that it's all about transportation infrastructure. Choices we make regarding this infrastructure create the cities we live in. Streetcars created dense places, cars created sprawling places. It's a pretty obvious thesis, but it is remarkable how often people in the profession tend to downplay this fact, seeking solutions to sprawl in zoning and design rather than investment in light rail and commuter trains.
The guy has a pretty classic journalistic/op-ed voice, meaning he makes broad, overarching statements with a lot of authority that sound really good and make complex issues nice and simple, but aren't entirely true. This would be really annoying if I didn't agree with most of his points, but I was content to let him spout off, ignoring the simplification and focusing on what was at the core of his points.
One thing I really appreciated was how unabashedly pro-government he was. He believes that government is the only force with the authority and power to plan and implement the infrastructure necessary to create great cities. I agree, though I was surprised to find an ally in the fourth estate....less
"
|
|
March 19
|
|
Casey
gave
to:
Portnoy's Complaint (Paperback)
by Philip Roth
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
read in March, 2008
Casey said:
"I had a love/hate relationship with this book.
On one hand, his honesty is incredible. He shares the inner workings of a pretty deplorable mind without pulling any punches, and it seems likely that much of this stuff is semi-autobiographical. He'...more
I had a love/hate relationship with this book.
On one hand, his honesty is incredible. He shares the inner workings of a pretty deplorable mind without pulling any punches, and it seems likely that much of this stuff is semi-autobiographical. He's very open about the Jewish culture he grew up in, focusing mostly in this book on all their faults, including hatred of any other race but their own and a constant fear of the world. Much of this behavior he credits to generations of diaspora, which has left everyone shell-shocked, suspicious of others, and relying on paranoia to survive.
He's also open about the sexual frustration and consequent sexual obsession that resulted from a childhood of constant parental monitoring, strict morality and an obsessive mother. This is pretty much the theme of the book, this childhood-generated obsession with sex (along with a certain hatred of women brought on by hatred of his mother) and how it plays out over his lifetime.
He tells the whole story as a first-person narrative, the trope being that he's detailing his life to a psychiatrist. Lots of Freudian stuff throughout.
The hate comes in because it gets pretty boring and exhausting at times. Over and over again he laments the failures of his parents, then berates himself for hating his parents, then laments their failures again. Over and over again, he uses women for sex, then laments the fact that he doesn't have a wife, then uses women for sex again. You end up just wanting to get out of the guy's brain for a bit, but you can't, as the entire narrative is just him relating anything that comes into his head.
The afterword is pretty incredible, the story of how his first 19 novels began with one of the nineteen sentences he found on a piece of paper in a diner way back when. Whether it's true or not, I don't know, but it was a great read....less
"
|
|
March 10
|
|
Casey
marked as to-read:
Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, (Vintage)
by Robert A. Caro
bookshelves:
to-read
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
|
