2007

Fall

Gilchrist, Ellen. I should read Victory Over Japan but got distracted before I found it. First thing I read was In the Land of Dreamy Dreams and that first story, "Rich," won me over in a big way. Net of Jewels is less successful I think, and when I poked around in the journals, Falling Through Space, it was like she'd gone a little soft.

Faulkner, William. Absalom, Absalom and As I Lay Dying. I think I read these after Bolano either because he referred to the dialogue in Absalom, Abasalom, or The Savage Detectives made me think of it. I'd read AA for a graduate school class about 20 years ago. It's not a book I warm up to, unlike As I Lay Dying, which hits hard but I like the characters.

Summer

Bolano, Roberto. The Savage Detectives. This was definitely the main event of the summer. I couldn't put it down. One of the best writers I've come across in a long long time.

Spring

Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. Re-read inspired no doubt by reading Barnes. I liked it better this time than when I read it before, but I still have trouble understanding why writers fall in love with this book. It seems to me more like something you admire than love.

Gordon, Mary. The Other Side. I barely got through this and my difficulty really has nothing to do with how good it is. It just seems dull, like Anne Tyler. The characters are too ordinary to want to spend much time with.

Gaskell, Elizabeth. Life of Charlotte Bronte. I didn't get all the way through this. Skimmed last parts.

Bennett, Alan. Lady in the Van.

Started, Hughes Fatal Shore and Garcia Marquez Notes and wasn't in the mood for either.

Feb and March, in Santa Barbara.

Barnes, Julian. Flaubert’s Parrot. Read this somewhere in mix of Mexican novels below. Show's how far behind I am in regard to keeping up with contemporary lit. It’s twenty years old now and I’m reading it for what’s happening in lit. However, if you compare it with DeLillo and Auster, and even Coetzee and Martin Amis, it occurs to me that things don’t change that fast in the the rarer air of serious lit. If I wanted to be mean, I might call it bargain basement Nabokov. Actually, that may be how I really feel. More gamesmanship than heart? True also of Flaubert? Where was I reading about escaping forms? Oh, in American Painting Book, discussion of since the sixties. Romanticism, including sentiment, is as much a form as anything else. I should try some later Barnes.

Skimmed Seasons in Hell and Beisbol. Former funny, a little too funny for too long, but good portrait of B Martin in last half. No real sense of baseball season, though. Played more for laughs. Latter is political, second rate, or third rate, Hunter Thompson wannabe. Not much baseball there either. More local color that like former is full of gonzo type one liners that don’t add up to much.

Azuela, Mariano, Los de Abajos, in English, 3/12. So far Azuela only Mexican author in novel book I’ve found, aside from Fuentes. Want to read more by him. During revolution was with Villa’s troops, then practiced medicine in Mexico City in poor area until his death. I like the minimalist style. On a Mexican kick.

Paredes, Amerigo, George Washington Gomez. Had to skim last half. Despite problems as a novel, an interesting book and treatment of classic theme: the turncoat. Malinche? The Mexican who does so well that he becomes white, and wants to be white. Some good local color stuff but on the whole pretty standard. I probably need to read Hinojosa if I’m really interested in border. Also, I guess Paredes’ famous book is With a Pistol in his Hand, about corridos? Back to Azuela: my impression is that he was totally disgusted with revolution, and the common people, but novel book had a point when he said that movement, as opposed to staying still, was really the point, and that moral judgments about it were irrelevant. It just was. On the other hand, couldn’t we say that all this about A’s political stance is pretty contorted apology? Also, need to find Martin Luis Guzman on Villa.

Hazzard, Shirley, Venus;

Bronte, Charlotte, Shirley. Not as good as Villete, but it's a fine novel. I had no trouble getting through it.

Diamond, Jared. Collapse. Had to skim this. Didn't have charisma of first book, but the point, that all societies will eventually use up all resources if not careful, and might anyway, is a good one.

1/07

Bronte, Charlotte. Villette. Finally broke down and bought this, ten bucks, Mlib paperback, from Chaucer’s Books here in SB. Loving it so far; her talking about traveling alone esp. hit a sympathetic chord with me. The trip to London. More ambitious, more flawed; JE perfect, and I have no problem with the romantic part of JE. I see nothing unrealistic about finding one’s soul mate. Bought Shirley today. Will I wind up reading all of Charlotte’s books?

Wilson, Robert. A Small Death in Lisbon and The Blind Man of Seville. Pretty good cop pop. Definitely kept me entertained, despite no originality to speak of.