Amseterdam - Ian McEwan

Besides, in Vernon's life lately there was so much to think about, so much of the real world that thrilled, that mere fantasy could hardly compete. What he had said, what he would say, how it went down, the next move, the unraveling consequences of success... In the accumulating momentum of the week, practically every hour had revealed to Vernon new aspects of his powers and potential, and as his gifts for persuasion and planning began to produce results, he felt large and benign, a little ruthless, perhaps, but ultimately good, capable of standing alone against the current, seeing over the heads of his contemporaries, knowing that he was about to shape the destiny of his country and that he could bear the responsibility. More than bear--he needed this weight, his gifts needed the weight that no one else could shoulder.
-Pg 109

So thinks the Vernon the unremarkable newspaper man, who until the political scandal he is helping to stoke came to light, was described as an empty vessel of a human being whose position as an editor of a failing newspaper was a matter of chance and coincidence rather than any real ambition or skill. His hubris is notable only in that it is the unconvincing peak of his character's arc, and is the ham-handedly given key to this ham-fisted morality tale of an entertainment. Vernon, like the other main character in the book, Clive, a successful composer who falls short of his own aspirations to genius, is petty. In fact every other character in the book is petty, each armed with the commonplace instinct to disregard any idea of moral fortitude in the quest to get ahead. And in the end, although the two main characters suffer for their sins (the punishment brought about by an extremely unconvincing deux ex machina), the theme is not that the righteous will prevail, but that two awful men brought down by their own actions are merely representative of a society peopled with other, equally detestable human beings.

Is it funny? Perhaps, but not particularly so, as the humor is undercut consistently by the sense that reading the book is an utter waste of time. What it reminds me of is a Boccaccio story that has been stretched so as to make it long enough to be publishable as a novel (aided by a large type that indicts the publishers of this book with the same cynicism that is embodied by the books characters), which by being overly lengthened distributes the weight and heft of the tale in a diffuse, inefficient way. It seems like the whole point of the book was to introduce the cute trick that ends it, and although McEwan has a good grasp on the vicissitudes of newspaper men, artists, and politicians alike and can use his fluid prose to present the story in a painless way, the whole thing is undermined by the feeling that much of the detail included about the characters was introduced as needless filler, mealy potatoes added to the gristly meat in a watery, all-too-common stew.

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville

One often hears of writers that rise and swell with their subject, though it may seem but an ordinary one. How, then, with me, writing of this Leviathan? Unconsciously my chirography expands into placard capitals. Give me the condor's quill! Give me Vesuvius' crater for an inkstand! Friends, hold my arms! For in the mere act of penning my thoughts of this Leviathan, they weary me, and make me faint with their out-reaching comprehensiveness of sweep, as if to include the whole circle of the sciences, and all the generations of whales, and men, and mastodons, past, present, and to come, with all the revolving panoramas of empire on earth, and throughout the whole universe, not excluding its suburbs. Such, and so magnifying, is the virtue of a large and liberal theme! We expand to its bulk. To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it.
-pg 471 (Bantam Classic)

By the time the reader runs across these lines, Melville in fact has accomplished what this passage describes; he's written a book that, while ostensibly about whales and one whale in particular, is used as a vehicle to explore everything. What is more surprising than his ambition is the execution, and how even in the descriptions of the most technical aspects of whaling he manages to be both edifying and entertaining. Or, at least, this was surprising to me, having long held the perhaps common misconception that this book is 'about' Ahab's quest for the white whale Moby-Dick.

What I found almost as enjoyable as the questing narrative, or the action of the hunting of the whales, was the descriptions of all the processes of the whaling world; the whales' biology; and, even, Melville's detours into the suburbs of the narrative, such as when he considers the dread that whiteness produces in men (there might be some connection here between Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and Moby-Dick). But more than the sheer enjoyment of reading Ishmael talk about the importance of whaling, its history, the methods for hunting, killing, and processing the beasts mid-ocean, I was struck by how convincing it all is; I found myself believing, quite willingly, that the sum total of human knowledge of Cetacea was contained in this book; that nothing more had been discovered since; that here, when reading, in my hands was the key to that world. It was like a different order of the willing suspension of disbelief, that although Wikipedia might be a click away to discover, truly, what ambergris is, or the entire historical process for dismantling a whale, I preferred to be led by Ishmael's encyclopedic knowledge, however dated it might be.

Part of it, of course, is Melville's prose, and although almost any passage plucked from the text would serve to illustrate this point, as, even, the quotation above does, there are some moments of surpassing eloquence, that manage to both describe and inspire, such as this one, in which Ishmael describes their arrival to the South Pacific:

There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath; like those fabled undulations of the Ephesian sod over the buried Evangelist St. John. And meet it is, that over these sea-pastures, wide-rolling watery prairies and Potters' Fields of all four continents, the waves should rise and fall, and ebb and flow unceasingly; for here, millions of mixed shades and shadows, drowned dreams, somnambulisms, reveries; all that we call lives and souls, lie dreaming, dreaming, still; tossing like slumberers in their beds; the ever-rolling waves but made so by their restlessness.
--pg 498

And although the prose here is stellar, the rhythm rising and falling as naturally as waves, the thematic depth that he achieves in such a short passage is particularly noteworthy and representative of the book in general. The Pacific, which serves well as a synecdoche for the ocean as a whole, is a vast graveyard for the entire world, over which the living observer travels, conscious of the "the tidebeating heart of the earth," which might stand for history or simply life, or both, in fact. In this way the passage also has an ourobourian quality to it, that if one considers the ocean, one is considering the land; if one is considering the dead then one must needs be thinking of those who have yet to pass; and so the passage serves to illustrate the thematic link between whale and man; they are complementary, and each worthy of a grand book to describe them to those who would listen.

Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabakov

The story opens with the main character, Cincinattus, receiving his death sentence and then returning to his prison cell. One very important thing that no one tells Cincinattus is when he is scheduled to die. Through a good portion of the novel he is trying to acquire this piece of information while being subjected to absurd, theatrical behavior of those around him such as the prison guard, prison director and a fellow prisoner. Furthermore, they continuously scold him and shoot him dirty looks for being apathetic towards their services.

This novel has a very dream-like element reflecting the absurdity of those around Cincinattus, ultimately a metaphor for society. Everyone knows what is happening, even what day Cincinattus is due to be beheaded, but they don’t let him in on it.

A very powerful scene that shows someone with some kind of understanding of Cinncinatus’s character is when his mother comes to visit him. Although he categorizes her with everyone else, in a world made of “tarbrush time”, she attempts to make sense of him unlike the other characters. Seeing her son in his prison cell she makes an apt connection to a toy from her childhood,

“Well, you would have a crazy mirror like that and whole collection of different nonnons, absolutely absurd objects, shapeless, mottles, pockmarked, knobby things, like some kind of fossils – but the mirror which completely distorted ordinary objects, no you see got real food, that is, when you placed one of these incomprehensible, monstrous objects so that it was reflected in the incomprehensible, monstrous mirrors, a marvelous thing happened… everything was restored, everything was fine, and the shapeless speckledness became in the mirror a wonderful, sensible image” (pg 105).

It is clear that Cinncinatus is one of these “absurd objects” but when put in front of a crazy mirror, he becomes a “sensible image”. His mother recognizes that there is beauty in her son. But she doesn’t see it, nor does she let him know when his execution will take place, so in Cinncinatus’s head she is no better than anyone else.

For such heavy material, this book is read at a quick pace. Things move quickly and everything is dreamlike. At one point, when they are whisking Cinncinatus away to his execution they clear out his cell as if it were a stage. Everything turns out to be a prop, even the little spider that kept Cinncinatus company. At one point, I had to put the book down because I reached a point where the psychological twists and turns were too upsetting. Oddly enough, I have done this with a book before, Lolita, also by Nabakov. No matter how disturbing it can be, it is a worthwhile read. Nabakov successfully takes his readers to another world, unknown to us and makes it completely realistic.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

Over the years, a teacher that I once had and now have the pleasure of working with has repeatedly recommended this book to me. She explained that it is written by a woman who takes low-wage paying jobs in different States to come to a better understanding of how the poor scrape by through life. Although I thought it was a clever idea I didn’t jump at the opportunity to read this book until recently I thought, if she has recommended it to me so often, I’ll probably like it!

I did enjoy the read very much. For one, I find the subject relevant to today’s society. While her book is concerned with only three states: Florida, Maine and Minnesota there is a consistent pattern that I think extends beyond the U.S. and throughout the Western world (we all know that working conditions are far worse in some other regions). It is clear that Ehrenreich and I are on the same page on many social issues such as poverty, racism and rights in the work place. I found myself in full agreement with just about everything she says but I was also quite shocked at some of her observations, some jobs sounding like borderline slavery. Furthermore, it is really does help put the reader in the shoes of people who depend on such work for a living. Even if you pride yourself on being understanding towards those who serve you in restaurants, hotels, retail, etc. you still don’t know how much they go through and how rewarding a customer’s kindness can really be.

Generally, I’m more drawn to literary texts which is probably what kept me from reading this book. However, Ehrenreich’s voice reminded me a lot of Joan Didion’s, one of my favorite female writers. Both writers have a feminine voice but there is that sincerity which keeps the voice from becoming strictly feminine alienating male readers. Also, Ehrenreich takes on some pretty grimy jobs where some things she describes have no room for femininity. For example, she goes into detail about the different kinds of shit she had to clean off toilets as a cleaning lady in Maine.

If you are looking for a quick and interesting reading, maybe you want to take a break from all that heavy duty literary shit you often find yourself reading, this is a nice, intelligent break!

Herzog by Saul Bellow

Moses E Herzog, a character loosely based on Saul Bellow, has been divorced twice, fathered a child from each marriage and his career in academia is slowly diminishing when we meet him. This being the case, he is not altogether in a sound psychological and emotional state. To cope with his anger and frustrations he is writing mental letters to people with whom the nature of their relationships may vary from personal to professional, etc. The content of the letters is often triggered by different memories from Herzog’s past and we follow Herzog’s brain from letter to memory to letter to present and back again. In doing so, we are able to come to understand what has brought Herzog to this state and why he suffers as much as he does. By creating a narrative in such a style we see Herzog as a man mostly consumed by thoughts and ideas, not just having to do with intellectual matters, but personal matters of human behavior including his own.
Herzog is for the most part a kind, loving, trusting and loyal person. We see him continuously trusting people despite their betrayal of him over and over again. The main source of this betrayal is his coldly attractive second ex-wife Madeline. At the time we meet him, he is involved with another woman, who seems to be supportive, but he continuously is trying to escape her. Herzog has almost resigned himself to destruction by women by either avoiding the right women or hurting them and then binding himself to the nasty ones. Furthermore, he feels that his fate is sealed by his parents’ genes. He is always linking certain character traits of his own to those of his mother or father, often with a fatalistic approach, anticipating a tragic end.

At the climax of the story, Herzog tries to gain control by salvaging his relationship with his children as well as restoring a crumbling house in the middle of nowhere, Massachusetts. What we must decide is: is it too late for poor old Herzog?

The White-Luck Warrior - R. Scott Bakker

The sun glares. The air chills. The Mop tosses on and on, an endless ocean of swaying crowns. Whatever relief they hope to find in wind and sunlight is snuffed when they look to one another. Squinting. Eyes glittering from blackened faces. Ragged like beggars. In the gloom below, they seemed as true to their surroundings as the moss or the humus. Here on the heights, there is no overlooking either their straits or their desperation.

This book, and the series of which it is a part, falls easily into the category of world-building fantasy novels that pit evil forces against mankind, rife with battles, sex and court intrigue, sorcerers and gods and superhumans and non-human creatures both vile and sublime, and might easily be written off as one of the many Tor paperbacks that line the shelves of your local bookstore, the author's name stamped on a line of similarly designed covers. But what sets this series apart from other fantasy is the author's ambition. Embedded within the story is a philosophical core that is often absent in other books in the genre, one that guides not only many of the character's actions, but one that also seems to define the way that the world seems to move, the way that the story seems to unfold.


To summarize the plot would be tedious, but suffice it to say it is complicated, and has a novel structure in that narrative arcs are broken up into trilogies (so far). And despite Bakker's attempts to inject more seriousness into the genre, at times it seems the books take themselves too seriously, with the characters' conversations sometimes crossing the line into pedantry. The prose, which is far from terrible, at times becomes ponderous, as in the quotation above.

But the plot alone is worth plodding through the more tortuous sentence constructions, and the vision and the discipline evident in the execution of that vision are remarkable. It seems that Bakker has the whole story laid out in his mind, given the excellent pacing of the narratives in every story, as if each part is simply waiting for the book's bindings before it can be put on the shelf. For all its flaws, the story ranks high in the fantasy writing pantheon, even if it seems to fall short of the author's goals.

A Song of Ice and Fire (Series) - George R.R. Martin

This sprawling, epic, high-fantasy tale begins with A Game of Thrones, blooms into A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords, only to falter with the latest installment in the series, A Feast for Crows. There is a forthcoming release of the next installment in July, A Dance With Dragons, which, if the author is to be believed, will be followed by two more installments some time in the distant future. Despite each volume's size (they range from around 800 pages to 1200), they don't easily fit into the category of novels, as they are more book-length chapters in a larger work, akin to the novel-in-three-parts structure of The Lord of the Rings, the progenitor of the modern fantasy story. The reason for this is simple: None of the books contains a true narrative arc, and each one ends with the explicit suggestion of a cliffhanging TV drama's 'to be continued,' which says nothing about the quality of the series but suggests an admirable span of attention and intensity of ardor in those who love the genre.

The story is as simple as it is complex. A kingdom that has known peace for a decade faces both internal and external threats. As the power structure that keeps the kingdom together crumbles, a many-sided war breaks out in the resultant power vacuum, with long-simmering grudges and rivalries coming up to a boil, all while in the background twinned supernatural threats loom large. The complexity is introduced by means of the narrative structure, a first person limited accounting of events from the viewpoints of an ever-increasing cast of characters, and as the larger, world-encompassing events unfold, the reader is given long, uninterrupted views of the denizens of the world in their cups, in bed, in battle, and generally doing their best to survive in an uncertain and cruel world at war.

The quality of the prose in the books seems to suffer with each new installment, which isn't necessarily a barrier to enjoying the extant works as a whole, but by the third book a vicious editor would have been a godsend, and the fourth book could easily be cut in half--it seems like there are whole chapters that can be skipped over with impunity. But the first book is excellent in its economy of pacing of events and exposition, and by the time you've finished it you're either hooked on the plot or your not, so anyone who'd continue on with the series would understandably, much like the author, be more focused on the plot developments than the intricacies of how well a given passage might be written.

One aspect of the books that is extremely well done is the restraint with which Martin uses magic. Magic and the supernatural crop up rarely, but often enough to foster a sense of wonder and speculation, which ultimately buttresses the reader's interest in the characters, their stories, their ultimate fates, and, in some cases, their origins, which is, in the end, the reason why so many have read and now wait for the next installment, and will wait for the next one after that.