Bucket’s
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(group member since Feb 13, 2015)
Bucket’s
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from the Reading with Style group.
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20.9 AnniversaryThe Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
From chapter 42: “He had a sweetly uncertain look about him. He was drinking champagne as though it was lemonade.”
Review: This is a lot -- too much really. There are too many characters, so that many (most?) go less-than-fully explored. There is too much detail about the historical context (art, literature, politics, social custom) that distracts from the narrative. The plot is thick, threads are dropped and picked up over and over and only messily woven together at times.
BUT I still loved it. I loved the sprawl of it, the mess of it, the overwhelm of it. I love the imagination in the children's stories. I love the insertions of French and German. I love the mix of history (and real historical figures) with the invented characters. I love the way most of the book is infused with both magical child-like wonder and sinister darkness all at once. It's Grimm-esque.
+20 Task
+5 Combo (10.7 Many of the MCs serve as soldiers, medics or nurses in WW1 including Julian Cain, Philip Warren, Dorothy Wellwood, and more)
+10 Review
+10 1001 Books
+5 Jumbo (675 pages)
Post total: 50
Season total: 80
Claimed to date:
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - 20.4 - - - - 20.9 -
20.4 Non-linearSilence Is My Mother Tongue by Sulaiman Addonia
I did not expect the reading experience I got here. This novel is fascinating - characters, structure, plot, all of it.
Saba is a beautiful character, sometimes wise beyond her years and sometimes terribly unknowing. She's smart and sensitive, and takes care of everyone she feels empathy for. Her brother above all, but also friends and fellow refugees who are outsiders in ways large and small.
There are really tragic and brutally violent moments, including sexual violence and coercion. Addonia is deft - he doesn't shy away from the details but he also doesn't overwhelm with them or create drama for drama's sake. It's brutal truth, but it's truth, and no more.
NON-LINEAR STRUCTURE: The structure was interesting and includes several experiments. They don't all work, but they are all interesting. We start at the end, then go back to the beginning. The bulk of the rest is linear, but with several events (mostly those of violence, including a near circumcision) mentioned in a quick sentence in their linear sequence, then told in real visual detail in a later chapter. It felt as though we saw key events in Saba's life only when she was old enough and ready to come to terms with them. I thought this smartly done, and like that Addonia didn't overuse it.
+20 Task
+10 Review
Post total: 30
Season total: 30
Claimed to date:
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- - - 20.4 - - - - - -
15.1 TDoS (R2)Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Rated 5* by Erin NY and Sara Grace.
I did not expect to like this as much as I did. Early on, I found Alex's tone grating (and Borat-esque?) but I got used to him and he also found his voice (as writers do). By the end, Alex was my favorite character.
The most fascinating thing here is not really knowing what is the truth. The book is about Jonathan Safran Foer (the character) finding his past, but it's really Alex's past he finds. Meanwhile both he and Alex are writing. Jonathan is writing a magical fable about his past that may have loose basis in truth. Alex is writing about their adventure and what they learn, with (probably) strong basis in truth.
It's a great theme to find in the end that the "truth" is less important than the creation. Writers of novels can and do create fiction from truth and create truth from fiction. This is a humorous adventure story. It's an exercise in creating a voice (Alex and his thesaurus words). It's masterfully structured - completely out of order and looping back on itself over and over. And it's a treatise on the writing process.
+15 Task
+5 Review
Post total: 20
Season total: 830
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 10.3 - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10
R2: 15.1
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 20.7 - - -
20.7 Riding the MetroMyra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal
Set in Los Angeles
Country: U.S.A.
Continent: North America
This is a satire of certain old novels that gives all those dreams of unfettered power and manifest destiny to a woman instead of a man. The characterization of Myra is strong and fearlessly done. She's awful, and she's perfect.
Vidal's treatment of lgbtq and transgender identities was boldly ahead of its time, even with the larger-than-life tone, but the white male gaze is very much still here. Vidal's hang-ups and politics shone through, shaping the story.
I go back and forth on the blasé attitude towards rape and sexual and mental abuse here. In many ways, it fits with the character and makes sense - though I could have used less play-by-play. But it's also really awful, and the (abrupt) ending shows that Myra's ways justified the means - ick.
+25 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996 (pub’d 1968)
Post total: 35
Season total: 810
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 10.3 - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 20.7 - - -
10.3 Page Count 150-199Victorine by Maude Hutchins (191 pages)
The voice of Victorine captures the intensity of adolescence (naïve but knowing, immature but sometimes treated like an adult, confident but terrified).
Sexual awakening is a major focus - particularly on the taboo nature of sexual feelings and how very real an imaginary sexual experience can feel.
In the second half, Homer's death takes over and we lose sight of Victorine. Her and Costello feel little or nothing about the death, which ought to be telling, but isn't explored.
+10 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996 (pub’d 1959)
Post total: 20
Season total: 775
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 10.3 - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 - - - -
15.10 TDoSLaughable Loves by Milan Kundera
Rated 5* by Hilary and two other members.
Each of these stories is about sex, and the games and schemes that people use to get it, enjoy it, or (often, in this collection) ruin it. There's quite a bit of sex here, but more often the stories are about the chase, or a character's inner monologue.
Most of the men here are awful, some are predatorial. Most of the women are timid play-things for the men. However, these stories still appealed to me. I enjoyed Kundera's lack of reserve, his playful ideas, and his understanding of how sex can hide or change one's identity in someone else's eyes, or even in one's own eyes.
+45 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996 (pub’d 1970)
+100 Finished all 15-point tasks!
Post total: 155
Season total: 755
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 - - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
✔ 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 - - - -
15.9 TDoSRagtime by E.L. Doctorow
Rated 5* by Lisa and Hilary.
This book is a look at the early 20th century in New York, with all its booming growth, rampant racism, ruthless business tycoons, and toxic mix of hope and repression. Doctorow captures it all beautifully. It's all a backdrop for the story of Coalhouse Walker and Sarah, the woman he loves. Intermingled are moments spent in the perspectives of real people (J.P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Harry Houdini, Henry Ford) that further the drama.
I love the choice to leave most of the fictional characters nameless. It's true to life -- history remembers the famous, and the infamous (like Coalhouse) and no one else.
+45 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996 (pub’d 1975)
Post total: 55
Season total: 600
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 - - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 -
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 - - - -
15.8 TDoSThe Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Rated 5* by Deedee and Lisa.
A gorgeous novel, all about belonging and identity. It's about the changes that happen to you and the changes you impose on yourself that form who you are. Gogol is a great character, whose adolescent blunders and adult reminiscences in his 30s feel very true to life.
This does have that common hallmark of a first novel. The themes and the deeper meaning/lesson of moments is a bit overt. There's that authorial fear that we won't understand her and she needs to tell us exactly what she means in addition to showing us. It's minor though and having read more Lahiri I know she quickly got over that as she grew as a writer.
+45 Task
+5 Review
Post total: 50
Season total: 545
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 - - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 - -
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 - - - -
15.7 TDoSAround the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Rated 5* by Valerie Brown and Deedee.
This is a problematic book, of course -- and moreso than many classics. There is zero cultural or racial competency, many problematic scenes, and the only female character in the book is virtually silent the entire time and there only to fall in love with the hero.
But the trip around the world is fun and creative, and the writing moves along at an exciting clip, with details about transportation technology and routes that were brand new when this was written in the 1870s. Worth a read.
+30 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996 (pub’d 1872)
Post total: 40
Season total: 495
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 - - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 - - -
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 - - - -
15.6 TDoSThe Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
Rated 5* by Rebekah and Valerie Brown.
Just not for me. This is of the thriller/crime/mystery genres, which I already know aren't my thing, but I read this because it's on the 1001 list. I get it -- it's the epitome of a genre. It deals with the Cold War and East Berlin (big topics), and very much puts the murky morality of espionage in sharp relief.
But it's all plot. The characters are there only to drive said plot and surprise us at the end. I believe what I've heard - that this is the best of the best when it comes to thrillers. I suppose that means I'm never going to be a lover of thrillers, if it's all downhill from here. :)
+30 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996 (pub’d 1963)
Post total: 40
Season total: 455
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 - - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 - - - -
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 - - - -
15.5 TDoSBehind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
Rated 5* by Kathleen (itpdx) and Rebekah.
Fascinating and heartbreaking -- this is reporting that reads like a novel. It's meticulously researched and Katherine Boo's empathy for the people she interviewed comes clearly through. I found it to be a fantastic reading experience. I learned a lot from this in-depth look at political corruption and slum-survival from the inside.
+30 Task
+5 Review
Post total: 35
Season total: 415
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 - - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 - - - - -
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 - - - -
15.4 TDoSThe Overstory by Richard Powers
Rated 5* by Devin Murphy and Kathleen (itpdx).
I really, really liked this. It's an ambitious undertaking. The first half is 8 character-focused short stories -- and they're good stories too. Complete in and of themselves and they don't feel like stubs or laundry lists giving us someone's past. The second half weaves these characters' lives together, in ways big and small.
The intro stories are 5 stars to me. They are fascinating, well-done and the cast of characters is wonderful. The second half I definitely enjoyed, but not quite in the same way. The best parts are about the five characters who come together as eco-protesters - their threads were really thought-provoking and worked well as they came together and then apart again.
The other three threads never felt fully ingrained. The stories had poignant moments but the connections sometimes felt forced. The tone also moved into preachiness and melodrama at times - particularly the end of Patricia Westerford's story. A little disappointing because climate change and human destruction of biodiversity ARE life and death issues already, no overdramatization needed.
Overall though, my complaint is small - this is a wonderful book, well worth reading.
+20 Task
+5 Review
Post total: 25
Season total: 380
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 - - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 - - - - - -
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 - - - -
20.6 Riding the MetroIstanbul: Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk
Set in Istanbul
Country: Turkey
Continent: Asia
This is a blend of memoir and history, and I think it's very successful in that each aspect makes the other more interesting. It's not an all-encompassing history of Istanbul, it's the pieces that interest and/or impacted Pamuk. These choices shed a lot of light on Pamuk as a person and writer, and also give a feel for living in the city that many histories wouldn't give.
+25 Task
+5 Review
Post total: 30
Season total: 355
Claimed to date:
10.1 10.2 - - 10.5 10.6 - - 10.9 10.10
15.1 15.2 15.3 - - - - - - -
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 - - - -
Hi there - just claimed Bitter Grounds by Sandra Benítez which is fully set in El Salvador -- that should turn it green!
10.9 Page Count 450-499Bitter Grounds by Sandra Benítez (464 pages)
I didn't love this, but it was still worth a read. This is an on-the-ground, even in-the-weeds, perspective on El Salvador and its wars and massacres in the 1940s and 1960s. The first section, focused on Mercedes, was very good, and unfortunately no other section lived up to that start.
The writing was honest and un-self-consciousness, but the whole tone felt a bit larger-than-life. There was something too overt about it, especially when it came to the stilted dialogue of Maria Mercedes and her friends towards the end. It felt like I was watching a musical or a high school play, where the actors are over-projecting and over-emphasizing their facial expressions.
+10 Task
+5 Review
Post total: 15
Season total: 325
20.5 Riding the MetroThe Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Machado de Assis (published 1881)
Set in Rio de Janeiro
Country: Brazil
Continent: South America
I was very excited to read this early example of experimental literature, and it didn't disappoint. Bras Cubas is not a great person, but he's a great character. His hindsight (and humor) about his life is funny and fascinating.
This has a semi-stream-of-consciousness tone, while also being very self-conscious, conversational (with himself and the reader), and attentive to the writing and editing process. The short chapters, the asides, the seamless sprawl in a narrative that is actually quite compact: all of this makes the novel great.
+20 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996
Post total: 30
Season total: 310
20.4 Riding the MetroMarta Oulie by Sigrid Undset (published 1907)
Set in Oslo
Country: Norway
Continent: Europe
A simple, quick read that packs a punch and feels very modern. This is a fascinating look into the soul of a character who is figuring out that love isn't always enough, and neither is lust. Her anguish is clear, and so is her intelligence.
It's a very realistic story -- Marta struggles with the disappointments and regret that come with hindsight. The story also doesn't shy away from discussing the struggles and restrictions women faced as wives and mothers 100 years ago.
+20 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996
Post total: 30
Season total: 280
20.3 Riding the MetroThe Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo (published 1831)
Set in Paris
Country: France
Continent: Europe
The classics all have their problems when it comes to social discrimination, but I had more trouble letting this one be of its time and place than usual. I think I was under the impression that Esmeralda was a strong, fun character (Disney's fault?) and she does have one scene where she rescues a man from death. But other than that, it turns out that she spends the novel dragged here and there by various men who think that because they love her they own her. Even the kindness of Quasimodo is basically, "I promise not to touch you or let you see me, but I'm going to look at you all the time."
The focus on physical appearance (Esmeralda's beauty, Phoebus' beauty and strength, Quasimodo's ugliness) also got old for me. I know that's how things were, and really it's how things still are. But that doesn't make it enjoyable reading.
I love reading the classics and see a lot of value in many of them, but in my opinion this one may have run its course.
+20 Task
+5 Review
+5 Before 1996
Post total: 30
Season total: 250
15.3 TDoSBattleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins
Rated 5* by Karen Michele Burns and Devin Murphy.
These short stories have a strong sense of place (they're set in Nevada) and are very contemporary and fresh. No old Westerns old, even when the story is actually an old Western (The Diggings).
Most of the stories show us a character's day-to-day survival or grief in the face of quiet tragedy. Sometimes brutal tragedy, sometimes tragedy averted, but still, these characters deal with it quietly.
Most of the characters are struggling to love or be loved, and see themselves as damaged by their past in unfixable ways. The endings are lightly hopeful -- in the sense that they're open-ended.
+20 Task
+5 Review
Post total: 25
Season total: 220
