Well, it’s been a while since my last installment of ‘Books I’ve Read’ (November 28th, 2011), so here is a hearty update.
December 2011
The Pale King by David Foster Wallace (still reading, currently on page 323/547).
The last of DFW’s work - The Pale King is Wallace’s unfinished novel. I’m a bit more than half-way through, and The Pale King is no different from Infinite Jest in terms of it’s style and difficulty. That difficulty is the product of Wallace’s patent writing style which includes SAT-list dwarfing vocabulary, extremely long-winded sentences, and extensive use of footnotes. An additional feature of The Pale King that only adds to it’s difficulty is the matter at hand: the IRS. The truth is that there are whole chapters which are devoted to the various procedures and highly embellished bureaucracy of the organization. I think it will be another two or three months before I finish the book, as I’ve been reading other works in between. I guess one of the most striking properties of DFW’s work is the diligence and care a reader must take while consuming and processing the information, as well as the commitment that is created between the reader and the work. Through my prior readings of his novel and various collections of short stories, I know that Wallace had an ability to make such a struggle worthwhile, and I can only hope that this isn’t missing from his last and incomplete work.
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster.
Supposedly Auster’s most recognized work (I read that somewhere), I enjoyed The New York Trilogy for it’s inter-connectivity, and it’s easyreadin’ 3-section approach. This is definitely more along the lines of Invisible and Leviathan, rather than Sunset Park or The Brooklyn Follies; in other words, it’s vaguely a mystery novel, without the rote and dry repetition of the mechanics which make most mystery novels a plug-and-print kind of formula. It’s probably my fourth favorite Auster novel thus far (placing The Brooklyn Follies in dead last at spot number five).
The Better Angels Of Our Nature by Steven Pinker (Christmas gift).
My family got me this new Steven Pinker book for Christmas (my sister is also a Pinker fan), in it’s beautiful hardback edition. Since I’ve been endowed with so many books, I’ve had to try and find a reasonable way to read without starting books never to end up finishing them. Therefore, I’ve been taking to reading this hefty edition when I’m at home. I’ve only managed to finish the first chapter thusfar but it’s certainly an interesting book. The premise is that over time violence has decreased among humans, rather than increased (backed up of course by a nearly 100-page bibliography).
January
January has been an exciting month in terms of my book-reading, because I visited and became a card-carrying member of the new Stuttgart Stadtbibliothek at Mailänder Platz, which is the most incredible library I have ever visited (see here).
Hot Water Music by Charles Bukowski (library copy).
This collection of short stories by Bukowski was a quick read, and nice for my daily bus ride seeing as how the stories were on average 3-4 pages in length. I really am a fan of Bukowski - for having balls and just writing what he wanted to instead of trying to polish what he himself called his shit. But this collection is out-dated, sexist, and only has a few memorable stories. I certainly wouldn’t say that this collection is without reading merit - Bukowski does hit on some feelings which will resonate with most readers, but damn, it really isn’t his best.
Lumpenroman or Novelita lumpen by Roberto Bolaño (German translation, library copy).
Well, this was pretty exciting for me because Lumpenroman was the first full book I’ve read in German! Sadly, my library only has a select few of Bolaño’s publications in English translations, and absolutely none of his work in the original Spanish. That said, they have a pretty good collection of his work translated into German, so I took a shot at this short novel of his. The story centers around a brother and sister, orphaned by their parents’ recent fatal car crash, living in Rome and hardly managing to scrape by. I am by no means a master of the German language, and spent a good bit of time with a dictionary in order to make my way through the book, but I still feel like this translation was missing something. The characters simply didn’t seem to be graspable, and the ending was to me fairly standard, almost cheap. Familiar with Bolaño’s writing, I am fairly sure this disappointment stems from the combination of my poor management of the German language and the translation of the novel into German. I plan to find a copy of the original Spanish and give it another go. Still - first German book down!
Los funerales de la Mamá Grande (Funerals of the Great Mama) by Gabriel García Márquez (library copy).
I’ve been itching to read the entirety of this collection of short stories by Márquez ever since I read three of the stories in my high school AP Spanish Lit class. Finally I found a copy (a French-Spanish Bilingual edition, but hey…) and was able to enjoy the others. I can’t explain how wonderful these little shorts are - of course many are rooted in the history of Márquez’s imaginary town of Macondo, and reading those stories brings up the kind of feeling you get when you re-watch a movie with a trained eye on symbolism, or even goof-ups like watches on switched wrists. Really glad I managed to find this!
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (library copy).
Another incredible South American writer, Borges is the master of the labyrinth and the human mind’s exponential ability for complexity. I’ve read about half of the included short stories, and each one is a reminder of this man’s complete domination. Invented planets which start to leave artifacts in the ‘real’ world, dreams within dreams (yes ladies and gentlemen, Inception wasn’t really that ground-breaking), and symbolic mazes. He also writes in a very clear Spanish without too many regionalisms, for which I am incredibly thankful.
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Books I’ve Read Since Living in Germany (July 2011- Present):
July
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker.
- Steven Pinker is a genius, that much is certain. There is very little I can disagree with in this book, and I think that’s a great thing. He provides a great alternative to fundamentalist arguments on how to address moral issues in society.
The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker.
August
Invisible by Paul Auster.
- My first introduction to Auster’s work. I was blown away - lot’s of surprises and a new but seemingly familiar post-modernism.
El general en su laberinto (The General In His Labyrinth) by Gabriel García Márquez.
- You’d better like history, Latin American post-revolutionary history.
September
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (Library copy, not pictured)
- First Nick Hornby book I’ve read - didn’t realize Fever Pitch and About a Boy (the films) were based off of his books. Light reading I suppose, but this one made me laugh a good few times and I gleaned two or three quotes from it.
Noticias de un secuestro (News of a Kidnapping) by Gabriel García Márquez (Library copy, not pictured).
- I was a little put off by Márquez’s El general en su laberinto, but I saw this in the library and decided to give another go at his historical accounts. This one really pulled me in and I enjoyed it a lot. Got me interested enough to look into the victims’ lives.
Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster (Library copy, not pictured).
- The situation and format of this novella really interested me, it wasn’t until I later looked up the book online that I learned that many of the characters are borrowed from his other writings - now I’ll have to go back and re-read!
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (Library copy, not pictured).
- Read this one out of boredom - it wasn’t particularly moving. Too surreal and too forced for my tastes.
Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster.
- After having read two of Auster’s books, Brooklyn Follies struck me as a divergence from his typical writing style, in that everything was wrapped up beautifully in a nice package for an ending. The stories are beautiful, but they do not resemble the gritty and unresolved endings that really won me over in his other books.
Sunset Park by Paul Auster.
- Of Auster’s books that I have read thus far, this has impacted me most. It’s a perfect example of beauty and uncertainty and tragedy blended together to paint a picture of how we all are living.
Tenían veinte años y estaban locos (They Were Twenty Years Old and They Were Crazy) edited by Luna Miguel.
- A truly beautiful collection of poetry from young Spaniards. I cannot recommend it enough - although I guess ability to read Spanish is a bit of a prerequisite.
November
Las teorías salvajes by Pola Oloixarac (haven’t finished).
- Spanish is not my first language, and it shows when I try to read this book. I am really intrigued by the characters thus far, but it’s a struggle - not aided by the fact that the writer is Argentinian (side-note: she’s also incredibly beautiful). I plan on working through this one over the winter holidays.
Leviathan by Paul Auster (currently reading).
- So far, I’m sold. Should be finished within a day or so.
