Capitulation

I just bought a Kindle. I was persuaded to do so by the drop in price and the rediscovery of a long-forgotten Amazon gift card (thanks Dad!). I like it more than I thought I would. It's simple to use and the page is easy to read. I bought my first book (The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson) for $5.00, a bargain.

I still haven't completely adjusted to the reading experience. I feel a little removed from the book. I miss the front and back covers, the blurb, the author's photo. On the other hand I like how light the device is. I am looking forward to downloading first chapters of books for free to see if I want to read them. This feature could save me lugging a lot of books home from the library only to abandon them 15 pages in. I anticipate that my spending on books will go up a bit, but I don't see myself quitting the library any time soon.

Passing for Thin: Losing Half My Weight and Finding Myself by Frances Kuffel

This is a memoir by a formerly obese woman who lost 180 lbs in her early 40’s. It’s not a how-to-diet book (there are no recipes) or an inspirational tract (like the popular Women, Food, and God; click to see the Citizen Reader’s take on that book). Rather, it’s about the experiences of (a) completely changing your appearance to the point where you become unrecognizable to friends and family, and (b) carving out new a life in what was formerly uncharted territory – the Planet of Thin, Kuffel calls it. On the Planet of Thin you can buy your underwear in Rite Aid rather than ordering it out of a catalog, you fit in an airplane seat, and most profoundly for Kuffel, you can run through the streets of lower Manhattan to escape the collapsing towers on September 11, 2001. “My weight loss had saved my life,” she says, bluntly and without fuss.

In addition to the Planet of Thin, Kuffel explores the Planet of Girls, another formerly forbidden zone where you can shop for interesting clothes and meet men who flirt with you. This might sound trite but it’s not. Kuffel has her first date and her first sexual experience. Her reactions are decidedly complicated, her descriptions moving. She is shockingly honest and this makes for an interesting read, though sometimes you want to say “It’s okay, Frances, we don’t have to keep talking about this.” This book offers good writing about a transformative life experience. I liked it.

(Book 5, 2011)

Stalin's Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith

This book’s mystery was not as satisfying as some of Smith’s earlier work, but the writing was just excellent. In Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands, Michael Chabon argues for blurring the lines between genre fiction and mainstream literary fiction when we talk about writing. Stalin’s Ghost is a perfect book to further Chabon’s argument that some of the best modern writing is happening in genre fiction (mystery, science fiction, fantasy) rather than in traditional literary fiction. When I think about how Smith’s writing in Stalin’s Ghost compares to some of the sloppy slapdash crap that passes for literary fiction these days I get all worked up (can you tell?). Smith’s prose is just gorgeous, both poetic and precise at the same time; it’s always exactly right.

The mystery is a little muddier – what, exactly, is Renko investigating? The reported appearance of the ghost of Joseph Stalin at a Moscow subway station? Potential corruption in the OMON (the Russian Special Police)? The origins and victims of a World War II-era mass grave in the Russian city of Tver? Pretty much all of it, it seems; Renko is not one to shy away from a challenge. Smith also presents us with an extremely unflattering portrait of modern Russia, complete with its enormous income gap, and peopled by gamblers, alcoholics, motorcycle gangs, runaways and knife-wielding thugs. It’s endlessly fascinating, though occasionally a little over the top for me.

I have been following Arkady Renko’s career since his earliest days as a homicide investigator in Soviet-era Moscow, in Smith’s first book Gorky Park. He’s one of my all time favorite detectives. He’s getting older now, and smokes too many cigarettes and drinks too much vodka, which seems to be the fate of everyone else in Russia, too, if you believe Smith’s portrayal.

(Book 4, 2011)

Index of Books Read 2010

Books read in 2010, alphabetical by title. Use your browser search feature (usually Ctrl F) to find a specific author or title. Or you can search the whole blog from the Blogger search box on the right sidebar.

Angelology by Danielle Trussoni
Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh
The Believers by Zoe Heller
Black Seconds by Karin Fossum
Brave Girl Eating by Harriet Brown
The Blood Doctor by Barbara Vine
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
A Candle in her Room by Ruth M. Arthur
The Condition by Jennifer Haigh
A Dead Hand by Paul Theroux
Do Not Deny Me by Jean Thompson
Finding Iris Chang by Paula Kamen
Frankie and Stankie by Barbara Trapido
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
The Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Haunted Ground by Erin Hart
Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indidason
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Lima Nights by Marie Arana
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Man from Saigon by Marti Leimbach
The Map Thief by Heather Terrell
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
Naming Nature by Carol Kaesuk Yoon
Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl
The Other Mother by Gwendolyn Gross
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee
Privileges by Jonathan Dee
A Proper Education for Girls by Elaine DiRollo
Property by Valerie Martin
Read My Pins by Madeline Albright
Red Bones by Ann Cleeves
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
Restless by William Boyd
Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
Servants of the Map by Andrea Barrett
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert
Sima’s Undergarments for Women by Ilana Stanger
The Good People of New York by Thisbe Nissen
The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton
This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
This One is Mine by Maria Semple
The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer
Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro
Voice of America by E. C. Osondu
The World to Come by Dara Horn
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine

This was the January selection at my book club. I enjoyed it, though not everyone else did. Elana thought there was too much “tell” and not enough “show” and I think Phyllis thought it was a bit lightweight, though she was too polite to say so. I, however, was happily entertained by it, though I don’t think either Elana or Phyllis are incorrect in their analyses.

The book is a retelling of Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen, transferred to Manhattan’s Upper West Side and Westport, Connecticut, in the present day. Schine has transformed nearly every plot point and character into a modern version, some more successfully than others. For example, Marianne, from S&S, is a delightfully free spirit, romantic and impetuous. Her 21st century analog, Miranda, is a spoiled drama queen and not nearly as appealing as Marianne. Fanny, from S&S, who schemes to cheat Marianne and her mother and sister out of their rightful portions, is recreated as Felicity, a more fully developed character in Schine’s version, and more sympathetic too (though I confess, it’s been a long time since I read S&S). It’s fun to play the match-up game, though the book certainly works even if you don’t know the origin of the plot and the characters (as a few book club members sheepishly confessed).

I find Schine to be an erratic writer. Years ago I read Alice in Bed, her first book, and really liked it, but I’ve had more trouble with her later offerings. Sometimes she is sloppy and takes the easy way out (telling and not showing, for example). But sometimes she is really ironic and sharp-witted and I like that. I can’t decide if updating a classic like S&S is brave (oh, the challenge of writing as well as Ms. Austen!) or lazy (don’t have to waste time coming up with a plot!). Maybe it’s both.

(Book 3, 2011)