Death of the Heart

Death of the Heart
by Elizabeth Bowen
read: 2021
Time 100 Novels, Modern Library #84, Guardian 1000 Novels

This one had a lot of British class stuff that I probably didn't pick up on fully. It was hard to sympathize with Portia's affection for Eddie, when he was so obviously a snake the whole time.

The Sportswriter

The Sportswriter
by Richard Ford
read: 2021
Time 100 Novels, Guardian 1000 Novels

Ford sets The Sportswriter after a lot of the most critical events in the life of titular protagonist / narrator Frank Bascombe. Frank has gone from promising young writer to abandoning his fiction, from family man, to grieving father of a son struck down by untimely illness, to divorcée. The novel begins after all those events, with a protagonist who largely has come to terms with his tragedies and failures, and settled in comfortably to a life as a sportswriter in a New Jersey suburb.

Frank's maturity from life experience brings perspective as he navigates the events of the novel, as does the grounded reality of being a sportswriter. Late in the book, he sums things up with the observation "The only truth that can never be a lie, let me tell you, is life itself—the thing that happens."

The Forever War

 

  
The Forever War
by Joe Haldeman
read: 2021
Guardian 1000 Novels, Hugo Award, Nebula Award

According to the Theory of Relativity, time moves differently for bodies traveling at different speeds. The difference is miniscule for bodies moving at planet-bound scales, but at faster-than-light speeds, this time dilation has a dramatic effect. That's the case for protagonist William Mandella, who returns centuries later to a very different earth after military tours of duty at far-flung planets. Sometimes the differences are good, usually they are bad, but always they are foreign and leave him feeling like a fish out of water.

This feeling pushes Mandella (and girlfriend Marygay) to re-enlist in the military, though he harbors no illusions about the morality of the army itself or the conflict he is embroiled in. Perhaps this is the only constant in Forever War: death is big business, and those who stand to profit off the war business have little consideration for the lives risked by those forced to wage those wars.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

  
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
by Philip K. Dick
read: circa 2000
Guardian 1000 Novels

I read this back in college, but I had occasion to re-watch the movie adaptation (Blade Runner) again recently, as well as the belated sequel Blade Runner 2049. The latter movie got into the Dick-esque reality-bending mind-screwiness more than the former. 

Herzog

 

Herzog
by Saul Bellow
read: 2021
Time 100 Novels, Guardian 1000 Novels

I got a sinking feeling about 2/3 of the way through that this was going to wind up being really dark. Instead it was sort of like The Corrections - more about a gradual realization than a big dramatic event. Would it have had deeper meaning for me if I had enough of a background in philosophy to appreciate a lot of the references that the titular Moses Herzog, an academic, makes? Maybe.

Rabbit, Run

  

Rabbit, Run
by John Updike
read: 2020
Time 100 Novels, Guardian 1000 Novels

The canon of English-language literature is heavy on white dudes, and Rabbit, Run is one of the more white-dude-ier. Protagonist Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is married, with a good job, a son, and a baby on the way, but he's not happy, or something, so he just up and leaves. Is that compelling? Or is Rabbit just kind of an ass?

The Power and the Glory

 

The Power and the Glory
by Graham Greene
read: 2020
Time 100 Novels, Guardian 1000 Novels

The Heart of the Matter was about Henry Scobie's gradual betrayal of nearly everything he holds dear, and Greene puts similar themes on display in The Power and the Glory. The novel follows a priest in Mexico on the run from a government suppressing the Catholic faith. He loses all the trappings of his office as he goes. A drunkard who once sired a daughter, the priest has crossed almost every line that exists. Despite that, he cannot give up his faith. He refuses to, like Padre Jose, take a wife and renounce the church, and he continues to put himself in danger by practicing his religion when he has the opportunity to flee to safer pastures. He's weak for his failings, but there's a kernel of resolve there too, or at least stubbornness.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
by Michael Chabon
read: 2004
Guardian 1000 Novels, Pulitzer Prize

I finished this one during an overnight layover at Heathrow Airport. Recommended for comic book fans.

Under the Net

Under the Net
by Iris Murdoch
read: 2020
Time 100 Novels, Modern Library #95

There's a lot going on in Under the Net. Of the other novels I've read, I'd liken it most to The Ginger Man, also the work of an Irish author. Like Sebastian in that novel, Jake Donaghue stumbles from place-to-place and action-to-action with little intent and often seemingly without agency. Donaghue is pompous, self-centered, and lazy, but not as destructive as Sebastian. He starts the novel with no residence, no job, a decaying relationship, and very little motivation to improve his situation. On paper, things aren't a lot better at the end of the novel, but he's obtained a fresh outlook on things, with some promise for the future. And a dog.

Candide

Candide
by Voltaire
read: ~1997
Guardian 1000 Novels

I read this back in high school and enjoyed it, though that was a while ago and I don't remember too much. "All that is very well, but let us cultivate our garden."

Giovanni's Room

Giovanni's Room
by James Baldwin
read: 2020
Guardian 1000 Novels

During February, Black History Month, I usually try to read books by African-American authors. An interesting element of Giovanni's Room is that virtually all the characters are white, with Baldwin exploring sexuality, rather than race. Protagonist David struggles with his feelings for the titular Giovanni. Ultimately, it's debatable whether David is gay or bi-sexual, but the larger issue is that he's afraid of his feelings and denies himself happiness. He can't be happy with Giovanni, nor with his fiancee Hella.

The Corrections

The Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen
read: 2020
Time 100 Novels, Guardian 1000 Novels, National Book Award, James Tait Black Prize

I've been on a good run with reading the past couple months, but I started to flag about halfway through The Corrections. The novel shares some themes with White Noise and other novels that deal with the modern middle-class condition, and I slogged through reading extended passages of middle class misery. The section where depressed, alcoholic Gary resists admitting to his wife that he's a depressed alcoholic because she's manipulative and emotionally abusive, especially dragged. Siblings Gary, Chip, and Denise all rebel against their conventional Midwestern upbringing, but their rebellion does not liberate them and becomes its own prison. The children, along with parents Enid and Alfred, are all wildly unhappy.

At this point, two miracle cures are introduced that promise to fix Alfred and Enid: Corecktall, a potential solution to Alfred's Parkinson's, and Aslan, a Narnia-named and sketchily-prescribed pill that temporarily alleviates Enid's shame and unhappiness. At this point, I was fully expecting a redux of White Noise and the role Dylar played.

The novel goes in a different direction, however. Ultimately, neither Corecktal nor Aslan fulfills its promise, yet this doesn't necessarily mean salvation is lost to the characters in The Corrections. Sylvia, a minor character, provides a template in explaining how she got over the tragic murder of her daughter:

[A]bsolutely nothing changes except that you see things differently and you're less fearful and less anxious and generally stronger as a result: isn't it amazing that a completely invisible thing in your head can feel realer than anything you've experienced before? You see things more clearly and you know that you're seeing them more clearly.

Franzen takes us inside the characters' heads so much when they are miserable so he can set up these kinds of epiphanies that allow them to transcend that misery, at least potentially. The children come to realize they are running from rather than running to; ultimately rebellion for its own sake holds no more agency than conformity for its own sake. Once they understand that, they can start working towards building the kinds of lives they want to lead.

Foundation Series

Foundation Series
by Isaac Asimov
read: circa 1996
Guardian 1000 Novels, Hugo Award

When I was a freshman in high school, I had to read an autobiography and deliver an oral presentation in character as the person in question. I chose Isaac Asimov, although I had never read any of his novels. My introduction to his fiction came via Foundation, and I wound up reading the entire saga, at least the seven books Asimov wrote.

There's a lot of dystopian fiction about the horrors of the destruction of individual identity (Brave New World and 1984 are two examples), but the Foundation series ultimately makes an argument for the collective mind over the individual.

The Assistant

The Assistant
by Bernard Malamud
read: 2020
Time 100 Novels, Guardian 1000 Novels

The key scene in The Assistant, to me, takes place towards the end of the book when Morris Bober, desperate for stable income as his grocery spirals towards insolvency, comes groveling to his former business partner Charlie Sobeloff, who had cheated him in their prior dealings. Morris works a day as a cashier, at the end of which Charlie checks his register.

"You're short a dollar, Morris," Charlie said with a little chuckle, "but we will let it go."

"No," the grocer heard himself say. "I am short a dollar, so I will pay a dollar."

He pays Charlie, quits on the spot and walks "with dignity" out the door.

Just a few pages earlier, Morris had described himself as having "the will of a victim, no will to speak of." He shows that mentality throughout the novel, blaming bad luck and his wife making him quit pharmacy school, among other things, for his lack of success. Even here, Morris isn't quite a deliberate actor: the "heard himself say" construct is telling.

But at the same time, there is a choice here. Charlie invites him to let the small discrepancy slide, and Morris has every moral right to cheat his former partner after being swindled in the past. But instead he chooses honesty and making things right. While paying his small debt is presented as almost involuntary, his integrity and dignity are Morris' alone.

Morris is made to suffer repeatedly for his honesty, continually cheated by others while refusing to cheat in turn. No one understands his choices, either, not his wife (presented somewhat one-dimensionally as a nag) or his daughter, who laments his uncompromising nature even at Morris' funeral. Frank Alpine, the titular assistant, has spent his whole existence lying and cheating, making him the least likely person to understand Morris' integrity. And yet, ultimately it is Frank who follows Morris' path. Adhering to the grocer's strict principles of honesty, even at great personal cost, becomes Frank's way of breaking free of his cycle of rambling and crime.

A Prayer for Owen Meany

A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving
read: circa 2002
Guardian 1000 Novels

I don't think any adaption of a written work has angered me as much as Simon Birch, a loose interpretation of A Prayer for Owen Meany and one of the worst films I've ever seen. I'm not sure who it was for; it starred child actors (dispensing with the parallel adult plot of Owen Meany) but dealt with concepts too mature for a kids movie, and anyone who read the book would despise the movie.

My other enduring memory of Owen Meany is the song "Four Strong Winds," a Canadian folk tune that pops up periodically.

American Gods

American Gods
by Neil Gaiman
read: circa 2008
Guardian 1000 Novels, Hugo Award, Nebula Award

My uncle lent me this book and I read it a decade back or so. I don't remember too much, other than the general setup: main character released from prison, wife died after (/during) having an affair, "old gods" in modern America.

The Magus

The Magus
by John Fowles
read: 2019
Modern Library #93, Guardian 1000 Novels

I haven't been blogging much over the last year-plus because I haven't been reading much. I had a lot of space in my life a few years ago to read, between not having kids, long train rides, etc. That's not to make excuses; I just need to do a better job carving out time to read, and I haven't done it. And there haven't been too many books that grabbed me and insisted I not put them down.

Until The Magus, that is. Some of it was circumstance, having time off around the holiday, but some of it was a just ludicrous insane plot that kept me wondering and guessing through the end of the novel and beyond.

At some level, I was aware I was being manipulated, not unlike protagonist Nicholas Urfe. The older, mysterious Maurice Conchis, the titular "Magus," embroils Nicholas in a series of situations where it's unclear who people are, what they want, who is in league with whom, etc. It became nearly impossible to track the lies, double-crosses, alliances, and identity switches that comprised the bulk of the novel. This manipulation wreaks havoc with Nicholas. At some point, I realized that author John Fowles was manipulating me, the reader, in the same fashion. If Nicholas had any self-respect, I thought, he would end this insane pursuit. But then, I wasn't stopping reading, was I?

When I wrote about The French Lieutenant's Woman, the other Fowles novel I've read, I criticized the ambiguous ending as a cop-out. In The Magus, Fowles explains his preference for ambiguous endings, and it makes a lot of sense:

An ending is no more than a point in sequence, a snip of the cutting shears. Benedrick kissed Beatrice at least; but ten years later? And Elsinore, the following spring?

White Noise

White Noise
by Don DeLillo
read: 2019
Time 100 Novels, Guardian 1000 Novels, National Book Award

White Noise is fundamentally concerned with the human fear of death. Jack Gladney is obsessed with it, and he finds his wife Babette—whom he had assumed was too full of everyday concerns to similarly obsess about it—feels the same. Despite Gladney's career success and the variety of situations with his blended family and many children, death is never far from his mind.

I kept waiting for Gladney's friend Murray Jay Siskind to emerge as some sort of passive-aggressive villain, but he never really did—or did he? He does advise Gladney that to kill is to act counter to death, which isn't really great advice.

A Handful of Dust

A Handful of Dust
by Evelyn Waugh
read: 2019
Time 100 Novels, Modern Library #34, Guardian 1000 Novels

I'll probably never think of the phrase "hard cheese" the same way again.

The tonal shifts in A Handful of Dust are pretty jarring; there's a lot of comedy, and also some very, very tragic events that are presented with the blackest of humor.

A Rage in Harlem

A Rage in Harlem
by Chester Himes
read: 2019
Guardian 1000 Novels

A Rage in Harlem hits the ground running and never really lets up. I found myself thinking, "this would make a great movie." Then I realized that it was made into a movie in 1991; the novel was originally named For the Love of Imabelle and then re-marketed under the current title to match the film. I'll have to check it out.