in the past few months, i've read like 4 books. this is a lot for me, as this young lad isn't really much of a reader. i like the idea of reading. i like the sort of cerebral quality reading gives you in the eyes of others. i like that people think i look like i read because my hipster glasses suggest i work in a borders or b&n. i like buying books and owning books and working books into decorating schemes. i like knowing about things that only books can teach you. i like exploring the ways language can make you feel and sense. i like plunging into an author's ideas of the world and life. i like the idea of reading... but reading makes me sleepy.
so like i said, for me to have read like 4 books in 3 months is a big deal. i'm on the make to improve that number, though.
it seems that lately i've had a thing for books with surprise endings... or at least endings that are surprising.
i started my long journey into readerhood with "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" by mark haddon.
the book was a christmas present from my parents that i picked out myself. just like most of my christmas presents... really from anyone. regardless, it appealed to me because it took place in suburbs surrounding london (perhaps somewhere near the "party" i went to in zone 6 one night a long, long time ago) and the cover of the book was orange with a cutout of a poodle. i'm such a sucker for a good bookcover.
the story follows an autistic boy who lives alone with his father after his mother's death. when their neighbor's dog is viciously killed, christopher decides to do some sleuthing and catch the culprit. through his detective work, christopher explores the range of human emotion and uncovers some secrets better left buried.
the story is fresh and insightful, with christopher as one of the most unique and well-voiced narrators since holden caulfield (though i hated "the catcher in the rye"). haddon's depiction of the world from christopher's perspective, lacking a true understanding of people and their interactions but with an almost eerie grasp on mathematics and the relationships between numbers, is spot on. i practically felt autistic throughout the course of the book.
from autism, i moved to zoology and theology with "the life of pi" by yann martel. i'm not entirely sure what drew me to this book, as it certainly was not the author's photo on the back cover. ouch. however, according to amazon, i'm not incorrect in moving from haddon's novel to this one. apparently, others who bought "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" also purchased "the life of pi". i'll leave it at that.
tlop is a complicated story. it follows, well, the life of pi. from his childhood in india to his late adulthood in canada. mostly, though, the book deals with pi's adventures in faith and on the high seas. pi was a christian, a muslim, and a hindu. he forged his religion from the shared heritage of these faiths and the knowledge they have to share about our world. had they jews in india, he'd probably be one of those, too. regardless, pi's ideas about what religion truly is and how faith should operate in our ever imploding world were thought-provoking and steadfast.
pi's not-so-cookie cutter faith was put to the test when, upon a his family's move from inida to canada, their ship meets a tragic destination, putting pi in a lifeboat with an orangutan, an injured zebra, a hyena, and a tiger by the name of richard parker. the tale of pi's trek across the pacific accounts for the bulk of the book. martel details pi's days... how he caught food, how he acquired drinking water, how he maintained his sanity, and how he kept a hungry tiger at bay. pi's adventure is so vivid, so real, i often found myself looking to others on the l for compassion or understanding of what pi and i were going through... together. needless to say, pi makes it to canada in the long run, but how this book ends left me devastated and thirsty... begging pi for something more.
i hopped from a boy and his tiger in "the life of pi" to a tiger changing its stripes in "middlesex: a novel" by jeffrey eugenides, the author of "the virgin suicides" (one of my all-time favorite movies, though i've never read the book). in his latest, the winner of the pulitzer prize, eugenides follows several members of the stephanides family, a greek immigrant family based in detroit, but more closely he follows calliope, the third-generation "daughter" of many years of inbreeding. told from calliope's perspective as a middle-aged man, the reader is led along from her first birth as a baby girl to her rebirth into malehood as an early teenager, for calliope was not only the daughter of inbreeding but also the son... a hermaphrodite.
the story is epic... not only in length, but in structure. eugenides employs so much of the greek tradition in the creation of calliope's story. the sins of the father, well, parents, haunt their children. motifs play out again and again, forcing generation after generation to encounter the same decisions and choices. no great gain is not accompanied by great loss. and the ending is neither climactic nor unexpected but after such an emotional whirlwind, the solace was welcome no matter how unsatisfying. homer could not have written a better odyssey.
from the greek isles and detroit, i hopped over to the isle of great britain and hogwarts. why, i read "harry potter and the half-blood prince" next, of course. in less than 24 hours. on a weekend.
yes, i'm a geek... and i loved every minute of it. even those 15 minutes where i debated whether or not i hallucinated someone yelling "help me" from somewhere within or around our apartment.
what can i say, harry was in a tight spot at that point.
regardless, i'll trade childish flights of fancy for hermaphrodites and autism any day of the week.
posted by brett @ 5:03 PM
1 Comments:
three of my favorites!
the author's ability to see through the eyes of an autistic child and write from his point of view in 'the curious incident' is phenomenal.
i remain haunted by the ending in 'life of pi.'
'middlesex' is an amazing cross-generational epic - hooked from beginning to end.
great choices!
have yet to venture into potter-land and am ok with that....
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