New Century Reading

The Year of the Flood

I dunno, Margaret Atwood. I used to love you. But I have to confess: I'm not a big fan of this book.

There's been some discussion over at the Tournament of Books about this book, since it had its first round this week. It seems to be a "love it or hate it" book; what most can agree on is that Atwood is such a topnotch writer overall that even her weaker efforts are better than many other writers could hope for as their best.

But that still doesn't overcome the fact that, for me, this is one of her weaker efforts.

Maybe it's because I'm kind of tired of speculative fiction, or that I cringed at the "hymns" that are included as part of the Gardeners' religion, or that I cringed even harder when I learned that the hymns had been set to music, performed as part of the book's tour, and even recorded on CD. 

But still, it was Margaret Atwood, so I tried to keep an open mind. Some of the writing is wonderful, such as on the very first page:

"There still is life, however. Birds chirp; sparrows, they must be. Their small voices are clear and sharp, nails on glass: there's no longer any sound of traffic to drown them out. Do they notice that quietness, the absence of motors? If so, are they happier? Toby has no idea. Unlike some of the other Gardeners--the more wild-eyed or possibly overdosed ones--she has never been under the illusion that she can converse with birds."

Sometimes it's a bit heavy-handed:

"Adam One sighed. 'We should not expect too much from faith,' he said. 'Human understanding is fallible, and we see through a glass, darkly. Any religion is a shadow of God. But the shadows of God are not God.'"

And other times, particularly in the naming of companies in this alternate universe, it's just downright silly and gimmicky. Anoo Yoo spa? SeksMart? Really? That's the best she could do?

Not to mention the saints worshipped by the Gardeners: Euell Gibbons, Dian Fossey, Chico Mendes, David Suzuki, and Peter Matthiessen. Cutesy and over-the-top at the same time.

It's almost as if Atwood was having so much fun making all this stuff up that she stopped to think how it would come across to readers.

I haven't bothered to summarize the plot, which is fairly predictable and has more than a few unbelievable coincidences. Some people have loved this book; I'm not one of them. Has Atwood become one of those "big" authors whose editors are now afraid to critique? That's a shame.

An Anne Frank online festival

Fellow book addict PoMoGolightly and I have hatched a reading plan. Inspired by the upcoming new production of The Diary of Anne Frank and last year's publication of the wonderful Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife by Francine Prose, we decided to go on an Anne Frank binge. Join us! I've read the Prose book, and it's fantastic, and of course the Diaries are always worth revisiting. Check out our "reading" site here.

Rumor has it that we may read other books together too...

Logicomix

Of all the books I would not have expected to see myself reading, this one would be pretty high on the list.

Logicomix. It had two big strikes against it: I'm not always excited about graphic novels, and it was about mathematics.

I'm pausing now, trying to see if there's anything I could possibly care less about than mathematics.

Huh...nope, that's pretty close to bottom of the barrel.

So why did I read this? Turns out it also had two things in its favor: it made the shortlist for the Tournament of Books (which starts Monday!), and my friend Girl Detective, who likes graphic novels more than I do, had a copy and offered to lend it to me.  

I should also add that in spite of my general distrust of graphic novels, I'm rapidly becoming aware that I should give them more of a chance. Teen 1 had the option of reading Persepolis (both parts) last year for world history, so I read it too, and mostly liked it, although at points I thought it was a bit pedantic. Another good friend pushed a copy of Alison Bechdel's Fun Home into my hands, and I ended up thinking it was brilliant and moving. 

But--a graphic novel about mathematics?

Well, you know what? It was pretty good. Some of the logic/philosophy talk went zooming right over my head without mussing a single pretty hair, but the story was much more entertaining and engrossing than I expected it to be. I knew very little about Bertrand Russell before I started reading, so everything was a revelation to me, including his family background (sad) and treatment of his first wife (also sad), as well as his obsession (to put it mildly) with the importance of logic. I may not understand everything he worked for, but I understand the passion behind it, and the price he sometimes paid to continue his work.

In its first round at the ToB, it's up against the daunting Wolf Hall, which I expect to flatten poor Logicomix. I haven't read Wolf Hall yet--its length has caused me to seek out the shorter competitors, as I have a better chance of reading more of those quickly than what I think will be a slower read with Wolf Hall.

Whether or not Logicomix survives its first match, I'm still glad I had the opportunity (and the motivation) to read it.

Even for a non-mathematician.

Let the Great World Spin

Long ago I came to the conclusion that there are far more books I want to read than I'll be able to conquer in my lifetime, and so it was necessary to be heartless when it came to books that didn't "grab" me. I don't have a strict page number policy, except I try to give a book at least 50 pages (more if it's a chunkster) before giving up. I realize in doing so that I might be missing out on something wonderful, but so be it--there are plenty of wonderful books waiting their turn.

So when I got into the second story of Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin and found my mind wandering, I said, buh-bye, back to the library with you, and I moved on. I read many other books that were engrossing, but I started to notice that the McCann book was getting great praise all over the praise; then it won the National Book Award. Not that I think winning a book award means I'll love it--far from it. But it did give me pause.

Then the Tournament of Books added the book to its shortlist, and shortly afterward I walked into my local bookstore, and there it was, in paperback. On a whim, I snapped it up and brought it home.

Well.

Not that I plan to rethink my overall strategy in terms of plowing through books I'm not enjoying, but I'm so, so glad I gave this one a second chance. Even the story that bothered me the first time was fascinating this time. Is it because I caved to popular opinion, or was I just not in the right mood the first time I tried? I'm going with the latter.

In any event, Let the Great World Spin, if you haven't heard about it, is set in New York City mostly during the summer of 1974, when Philippe Petit astonished the world by crossing the space between the World Trade Towers on a tightrope. That's the framework for this novel in stories, but the heart of the book is in other characters: Corrigan, a young Irish priest obsessed with the lowest levels of New York's population; Claire, a mother grieving the loss of her son in Vietnam; Tillie and Jazzlyn, a mother-daughter pair of hookers; and Lara and Blaine, artists trying to find their way in a world beginning to change from the wildness of the 60's.

To tell how these characters' cross paths with each other and how their lives become woven together would require a great number of spoilers, so suffice it to say that they do become intertwined, rich and poor, black and white and Hispanic, male and female. McCann does a marvelous balancing job of his own (pun intended) in moving between characters and stories, with distinct voices and personalities for each.

It certainly doesn't hurt that he's a fantastic writer:

"A row of smokers stood out in front of Metropolitan Hospital on Ninety-eighth and First Avenue. Each looked like his last cigarette, ashen and ready to fall. Through the swinging doors, the receiving room was full to capacity. Another cloud of smoke inside. Patches of blood on the floor. Junkies strung out along the benches. It was the type of hospital that looked like it needed a hospital."

I loved these characters, even the ones I wouldn't want to meet in real life. I was sad for the book to end; I wanted to know more about these people, more about their lives, but really, McCann told me what I needed to know for the point of the book itself.

So, Tournament of Books and Random House, thanks for the serendipity of the shortlist announcement and the paperback release occurring close enough together to trigger me to give this book another try. I'm so glad I did--it might even make it onto that very, very short list of books I plan to re-read someday.