The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

Is it just me? Why do I dislike books that so many other people love? This is going to turn into one of those deals where everyone asks me if I liked such-and-such a book, and I have to say “nooooo…. ” and then justify my response to their astonished looks. Like Atonement. Like The Corrections. And now, The Marriage Plot.

I suppose I should describe the plot: Mitchell, Madeleine, and Lawrence graduate from Brown University. Mitchell loves Madeleine, Madeleine loves Lawrence, and Lawrence has bipolar disorder. Madeleine and Lawrence set up housekeeping together over the summer while Mitchell wanders around Europe and India. Madeleine is directionless (and boring), Mitchell is lonely (also boring), and Lawrence is hospitalized. That about sums it all up.

English majors might like this book because it will make them feel good about all the useless stuff they know. I don’t frequently come across references to Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar in my day-to-day reading, and I enjoyed those aha moments. There’s also a lot of showing off about semiotics and Roland Barthes. What is the point of this in popular fiction (or, to use Barthes’ own words “readerly text”)? Many readers (most readers?) won’t get these allusions. Is it meta? Or is it ironic? Who cares? It’s just boring.

(Book 5, 2012)

The Frozen Rabbi by Steve Stern

Rabbi Eliezer, a great sage, is accidentally frozen in a block of ice in Russia in 1889. He remains thusly preserved for over a hundred years until he is inadvertently thawed out and reanimated during a power surge in Memphis, Tennessee in 1999. His unwitting rescuer is Bernie Karp, an overweight socially awkward Jewish teenager who has found the frozen rabbi in his parents’ basement chest freezer. How Rabbi Eliezer came to be stored in that freezer, and what happens (to him and to Bernie) after he is defrosted is the plot of this book.

This book joins a list of my favorites of this genre (Jewish magical realism?), including The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, The World to Come by Dara Horn, and A Blessing on the Moon by Joseph Skibell. It combines fantasy, humor, mysticism, history, tragedy, and adventure all in one pot. But this recipe also has some negatives: as sometimes happens in books like this, Stern gets carried away and tries to cram in too much. At times the book staggers under its own weight.

We talked about The Frozen Rabbi at my book club this week. Most everyone agreed that it was too long and too messy but we disagreed about what parts or characters we would cut. Most of us admitted to skimming sections but again, not the same sections. And we were all baffled by the ending which was just plain weird. We decided that this book is greater than the sum of its parts; individual sections are overly long or disturbing, but they add up to something really good.

(Book 4, 2012)

Faith by Jennifer Haigh

This is the book I’ve been waiting for Mary Gordon or Alice McDermott to write. These women are leading writers of Irish-American fiction, but neither has taken on the subject of the sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic church. Jennifer Haigh has done it instead, and done it well. I was a little unsure at the beginning, in the way that I always am unsure when starting a book steeped in a current news issue: Would it be exploitative? Would it trivialize the issue? Or wallow in it? The answer is none of the above. This is a really really good book about a sensitive topic.

Faith tells the story of Arthur Breen, a Catholic priest accused of the sexual abuse of a young boy in Boston in the early 2000s. The book isn’t so much about whether or not Arthur is guilty, but is more the story of Arthur’s youth, education, and life in the Catholic community in Boston, and about his siblings Sheila and Mike, who careen wildly among the various emotions and beliefs that are engendered by the charge against their brother. I don’t want to give away too much detail here because the question of Arthur’s guilt or innocence is still salient to the plot, but I will say that Haigh allows us too to experience the varying emotions. Is Arthur creepy? Sad? Totally innocent? A monster? A victim? All of these at once?

How tempting would it be, if you were writing this book, to try to draw conclusions about the causes of the church’s scandal? To make generalizations, or sweeping statements. People do that all the time about this issue. Haigh masterfully avoids those urges and instead has written a story about one man, about his family, and about the bad things that can happen in life. I loved it.

(Book 3, 2012)

Powell's Partnership

I've decided to join Powell's Partnership program. I am doing this mostly so that I can have a legal way to grab the book cover images that I use in my posts. Now when you click on the image of the cover you will go right to the Powell's website, where you can buy the book. Apparently I get a small commission from any sales that are generated this way, though I don't really expect that to happen all that often.

Regular readers of this blog know that I am mostly a library user and if I could figure out some way to link to the copy of the book at your local library so you could automatically request it I would do that instead. But I guess that won't work. Oh well. Powell's (located in Portland, Oregon) is a very cool store and I'm happy to support it.

Book Lust Rediscovery Series

My favorite librarian-who-is-also-an-action-figure Nancy Pearl* has made a deal with Amazon to publish Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust Rediscovery series, which will release six Nancy-selected books a year of previously published but now out-of-print books. Apparently some readers have taken against this idea, accusing Pearl of collaborating with the enemy, that is, Amazon, because of their predatory policies. (You can read about that here.) I understand the pressure Amazon puts on the industry (for librarians, book sellers, and authors) but I also feel like anything that puts more books in the hands of readers can’t be all bad. I’m looking forward to checking out this series. I haven’t read either of the first two books slated for release later this year: A Gay and Melancholy Sound by Merle Miller, and After Life by Rhian Ellis.

I am still working my way (slowly) through Pearl's summer reading list. And now I see that she put a new list out in December called 7 Books with Personality. Must get going on that too! All this reminds me that I haven’t recently read anything published by Persephone, the UK-based publisher of out-of-print titles by 20th century women. I wonder if Nancy Pearl's books will look as pretty as the ones published by Persephone.

*because you know I have some favorite real-life librarians too (hey Sarah S.-C. and Lexy S.!)

The Oriental Wife by Evelyn Toynton

I swore I wasn’t going to do this: pick up random books at the library. This was what got me into trouble last year; most of the books I found this way proved dull or annoying, and I wasted several days on each one. However, I can’t seem to resist the habit, and this time it paid off. I found The Oriental Wife on the new fiction shelf and gobbled it up in a few days. The story was haunting, the writing elegant and spare, the pace perfect. I have to remind myself that I have discovered many great authors through my random shelf pillaging. Just because I had a bad stretch doesn’t mean it doesn’t sometimes work out.

I can’t find much information on Evelyn Toynton on the Web, or any mainstream press reviews of The Oriental Wife. It seems to have slipped in under the radar. Toynton’s writing style reminds me a lot of Anita Brookner whose books are similarly graceful and traverse a similar landscape; the postwar years in London and Europe, and lonely people attempting (but usually failing) to make connections with others.

Louisa and Rolf are children together in Nuremberg, Germany in the 1930’s. As young adults both manage to flee to New York and are later joined by their parents—while the war is a backdrop to this story it’s not omnipresent. Louisa and Rolf marry, but shortly afterward Louisa suffers a traumatic brain injury which drastically changes their lives. Rolf proves not to be the man we had hoped he was and Louisa’s deterioration is saddest part of the story.

Okay, this description makes the whole book sound like a complete downer. While that’s one way to describe it, another way is that this is a serious book about the ups and downs of people’s lives. You can escape from the Nazis and still end up with a brain tumor. You can start out loving someone and then that person changes and you can’t love them anymore, even if the change isn’t their fault. And if the author delivers all this in a way that is measured and thoughtful and insightful, then even better.

(Book 2, 2012)

Bookless

Madison, WI is building a new Central Library. On January 28 they are holding a community celebration (called “Bookless”) in the old empty library building. The celebration goes on all day and includes an art gallery, family activities during the day and a “party in the stacks” in the evening, featuring local food and a cash bar. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. All proceeds benefit the new library. Click on the picture below for more information. I’m going; how about you? Maybe I’ll see you there!

Weekly Check-in

Currently Reading:

• The Frozen Rabbi by Steve Stern. Funny and odd, a bit too long. I am reading this for my book club which doesn't meet until the end of January. I don't want to post about it until I hear (and think about) everyone else's reactions. I'm reading this on the Kindle.
• The Oriental Wife by Evelyn Toynton. I discovered this on the new fiction shelf at the library. I never heard of it or the author, but it's good. It's about Jewish refugees in New York during World War II so it's from a different perspective than what I usually read. 

Recently Sampled:

• The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan. I read the extract on the Kindle and liked it. I want to read it soon. Several people have recommended this to me.
• 11/22/63 by Stephen King. Another Kindle sample, this time not a success. I always want to like Stephen King because I like his plot ideas but I can never get beyond his overly casual writing style. I won't read this.
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. My first impression was of amateurish writing and maudlin situations. This I checked out of the library but I plan to return it unread.

I'm Hearing About:

• The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. Everyone is talking about this and asking me if I've read it yet. Do I want to read a book about baseball? My friend Jane liked this a lot, but she likes baseball. It's the same with that TV show Friday Night Lights, which Jane also liked and about which I keep hearing. But it's about football.....
• Swamplandia by Karen Russell. Another one people keep recommending. I downloaded a sample; maybe I'll read that next.

I'm writing this blog post in an effort to be more intentional with my reading as per my New Year's resolution. I'd like to continue doing these once a week, but we'll see...