9.26.2011

33. A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare
Project Gutenberg e-book, 53 pages, 1590-1596

I've always rolled my eyes at people who say they can't enjoy books because school ruined reading for them (I mean, seriously? Just grow up and own the fact that you're functionally illiterate), but it wasn't until I read my first unassigned Shakespeare play that I realized I still have the ghost of my 11th-grade English teacher looking over my shoulder and scolding, "Don't read for plot!!" And I mean, if we're talking about ghosts of teachers past then Mrs. Hillesland is probably better to have around than Mrs. Johnson from the 5th grade making me write "I will not read in class" 100 times and chucking staplers at my head, but this has put me off reading Shakespeare for years--I keep thinking I'll do it when I have time to properly absorb it, whatever that means. Anyway, I've come to realize that reading for plot, if you're not sitting the AP English Literature test, is not a bad thing. It'd be good if you could get some understanding of theme at the same time, and get into some of the wordplay, but there's nothing wrong with getting familiar with our literary heritage, even at a basic level. And besides, if you look at Shakespeare as part of that heritage, the play itself is only the beginning--then there are adaptations, movie versions, and all the other works of art that the plays have inspired. Which is why I decided to read A Midsummer Night's Dream in the first place--as a jumping-off point for reading Chris Adrian's The Great Night, which re-imagines A Midsummer Night's Dream in Buena Vista Park in modern-day San Francisco. I'll admit to being a bit underwhelmed by the play itself, but The Great Night (which I'm currently reading) is fantastic, and more so because I understand the source material.

Next up: The Great Night by Chris Adrian

32. The Blue Castle

The Blue Castle, L.M. Montgomery
Project Gutenberg of Australia e-book, 195 pages, 1926

I kind of hate these covers for L.M. Montgomery's books (the edition of Anne of the Island I read as a kid had a similar one), and because I read it as a Project Gutenberg e-book it doesn't technically have a cover, but I use it anyway to show how fluffy the book was. And yet so good. L.M. Montgomery (in case you don't recognize the name) is the author of the Anne of Green Gables books, which I totally love, I don't care what anyone says. The Blue Castle is one of her only novels written for adults. I actually hated Anne's House of Dreams (one of the later Anne stories where Anne is grown up and married to her childhood sweetheart), and between that and the depressing tone of the first few chapters I thought The Blue Castle would be a disappointment, but I ended up loving it! I thought it would just be a straightforward romance, but most of the book deals with the heroine's rebellion against her stifling family and the social mores of the time. After telling everyone off in a couple of fantastic scenes, she moves out, gets a job as a housekeeper for the town drunk (who turns out to be a pretty good guy), befriends an unwed mother with consumption, and asks a man to marry her (remember, this is rural Canada in 1926). The thing I hated about Anne's House of Dreams is that after all the romantic buildup of the first three novels, once Anne and Gilbert are married they apparently never interact with each other again, because women stay home and have babies while the men go out and work, don't you know. (That, and the story revolves around some "tragic" characters who are everything the first two books poked fun at.) But the relationship between Valancy and Barney is sweet and realistic precisely because it starts out unromantically; they're more like companions than lovers, and because there are no expectations they're free to live the way they want, which involves lots of walks in the forest and hanging out at home (Barney is also a shady character who doesn't seem to have a job of any kind). Of course they really do fall in love in the end and Barney turns out to be a millionaire and everyone lives happily ever after, but it's a really charming story and only a little bit cliche. This really makes me want to read more of L.M. Montgomery's work, particularly the Emily of New Moon series.

Up next: A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare

31. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larsson
Borzoi ebook (Random House), 547 pages, 2005, translated by Reg Keeland in 2008

Yeah, I finally read this, and while I think I liked it overall I'm also kind of ambivalent about it. The nice thing about this book is that it has enough different storylines going on that at least some of it will probably interest every reader. I LOVED the media face-off between journalist Mikael Blomkvist and financier Wennerstrom, and I also enjoyed the mystery of the Vanger family and the descriptions of Blomkvist's life and research in Hedestad. On the other hand, I found Lisbeth Salander, the titular "girl with the dragon tattoo," annoying at best. She was fantastic in the few scenes that showed her in her professional capacity as a private investigator, but the rest of the time it was just this "oh, she's so damaged and promiscuous" act and that got old really fast. A lot has been made of the author's supposed crusade against violence against women, but I really didn't like all the descriptions of rapes and murders--they were completely gratuitous and didn't actually say anything about the issue. And the vigilante justice scene with Salander bugged me--there was something similar in The Time Traveler's Wife (although that was even worse because it was Clare's boyfriend going to kick the rapist's ass--really?), and it's just such a pointless male fantasy. So yeah, I would have been a lot happier if the book centered around Blomkvist, but I'll probably still read the next book in the series. Eventually. Maybe.

Up next: The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

9.21.2011

30. The Old Man and The Sea

The Old Man and The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
Scribner, 80 pages, 1952

I had this on my Kindle already, but I'm not gonna lie, I chose to read it at this particular time because it was short and I'm behind on the book challenge. That said, I'm glad I did because it's an excellent piece of storytelling. Of course it's also a story about pursuit and loss, rich with symbolism. I think it's the kind of narrative that The Alchemist aspired to, which makes it crystal clear that Paulo Coelho is a total hack. This was my first Hemingway, and I've heard all sorts of criticisms of his supposed misogyny, but damn, the man can tell a story.

Next up: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

29. Slouching Towards Bethlehem


Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion
FSG Classics, 238 pages, 1968


First of all I want to say that this book cover is so hip that it's going to be featured (along with my water bottle and San Francisco postcards) in an upcoming magazine article about what gaijin ladies carry in their purses. Okay. Anyway, I had a feeling that this was going to be a difficult book to read, because I have been crazy homesick lately and Didion describes California with a precision that's both photographic and deeply insightful. Surprisingly, the title piece (which is about the Haight-Ashbury in 1967) didn't really bother me at all, since it bears no resemblance whatsoever to the San Francisco I know. Notes from a Native Daughter, though, was every drive I've ever taken up and down the 5 and every summer I spent in Folsom hanging out at supermarkets and dreaming up ways to escape the Central Valley, and I kind of want to make everyone I know in Japan read it so that they understand where I'm from. (But only because I doubt I could get them all to read East of Eden.)


Next up: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

9.05.2011

28. Catching Fire

Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Press, 285 pages, 2009

I've been SO looking forward to reading this ever since I finished The Hunger Games, and it didn't disappoint. I did find the first half of the book less suspenseful than The Hunger Games, since the Games are now over and the story revolves around the victors going on tour and the rebellions that have started in the districts of Panem, but it picked up in the second half for reasons that I can't talk about because it would be a huge spoiler. I don't think I am going to know 100 percent how I feel about this book until I finish reading the third book, to be honest. It did start to seem less like the author had created a complex world and was working within its bounds and more like she was just pulling out all the tricks in the book to create suspense, but shit, it worked.

Next up: Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion