Now reading...

[Matthew]

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen. Enjoyable read so far, I'm about a quarter of the way through.

[jlhoots]

T. Jefferson Parker: A Thousand Steps

[ejp626]

Halfway through Farrell's Troubles.  Living up to the high praise it received.  Will try to get to the rest of the trilogy in Jan/Feb.

Also about halfway into Al-Aswany's The Yacoubian Building, which is also entertaining.  This reminds me a bit of Mafouz's mid-career novels.

Probably will read Knut Hamsun's Hunger after these two.

[BillF]

50 minutes ago, Matthew said:

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen. Enjoyable read so far, I'm about a quarter of the way through.

👍

Now rereading after seeing the recent film:

 

[ejp626]

3 minutes ago, BillF said:

Now rereading after seeing the recent film:

 

I reread this back in 2018, and I enjoyed it but it didn't strike me as quite as amazing as it did in my 20s.  I remembered large chunks of it (as I was watching the movie) but actually had forgotten the ending!  (I still enjoyed the movie though.)  I'm thinking that if I reread it in 2023 (or more likely 2024), it will stick a lot more this time around.

[Larry Kart]

Max Beerbohm "Zuleika Dobson"

[BillF]

2 hours ago, ejp626 said:

I reread this back in 2018, and I enjoyed it but it didn't strike me as quite as amazing as it did in my 20s.  I remembered large chunks of it (as I was watching the movie) but actually had forgotten the ending!  (I still enjoyed the movie though.)  I'm thinking that if I reread it in 2023 (or more likely 2024), it will stick a lot more this time around.

In a way it's seeming a bit dated during the reread (published 1985.) In a book focussed on on omnipresent things in contemporary American society such as supermarkets and television, the absence of internet technology now seems all too noticeable. An interesting departure from the original text in the 2022 film is that the protagonist's Jewish co-worker is now an African American played by Don Cheadle.

 

 

[ejp626]

On 1/1/2023 at 2:13 PM, BillF said:

In a way it's seeming a bit dated during the reread (published 1985.) In a book focussed on on omnipresent things in contemporary American society such as supermarkets and television, the absence of internet technology now seems all too noticeable. An interesting departure from the original text in the 2022 film is that the protagonist's Jewish co-worker is now an African American played by Don Cheadle.

 

 

That's an interesting point.  There are quite a few novels that just don't make much sense unless you remember the internet and cell phones don't exist for the characters.  Perhaps it is the way DeLillo seems to be writing in the eternal present rather than in a specific era.

I grabbed Hunger from the library and will try to start it this week, though I have to wrap up Troubles first.  Also, will likely be getting to Reuss's Horace Afoot soon.  While this was published in 1997 it also seems to be set in a time before the internet (or at least the narrator has rejected the internet (not the same thing of course)).  In fact, he spends most of his time dialing strangers on the phone (another thing that is considerably harder in today's era of cell phones screening out and rejecting unknown callers).

[Brad]

I tried reading White Noise once but didn’t find it particularly interesting and I don’t usually give up on fiction. I tried watching the movie (20 minutes) and that too did nothing for me

[BillF]

[jlhoots]

Susan Straight: Mecca

[BillF]

[Brad]

[ejp626]

Wrapped up Farrell's Troubles.  I got about 1/3 into Hamsun's Hunger, then for complicated reasons switched over to reading (and comparing translations) of Gogol's Dead Souls.  I defer to Nabokov who thought Guerney's was the best translation, though I also like Reavey in the Norton critical edition, which has the best notes and probably the best reconstruction of Book II.  I do not care for Rayfield's recent translation, which is the one that NYRB is publishing.

Edited January 16, 2023 by ejp626

[sidewinder]

Digging into the hardback edition of this one by Larry Kart. A stimulating read.

[BillF]

[jlhoots]

Ayanna Lloyd Banwo: When We Were Birds

[BillF]

[BillF]

[BillF]

[jlhoots]

Patti Smith: A Book of Days

[jlhoots]

Leigh Newman: Nobody Gets Out Alive

[ejp626]

I finished the Guerney translation of Dead Souls and am about halfway through the Reavey translation, which has a reconstruction of Book II.  I'm also about 2/3 through Reuss's Horace Afoot.

I'm still waiting for Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur to show up in the mail (starting to get a bit concerned...), which will probably be the next significant novel I tackle. 

I might read Kingsley Amis's Girl, 20 in the meantime.  

[felser]

[Brad]