10 November, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Time for another book update, this one stretching back to July! I won’t recap everything I’ve been reading, but just a few things. I’ve been lucky that many of the books I’ve read recently have helped me tremendously with my own writing. I’ve also been on a fiction-in-translation kick for several months now. I’ve grown quite tired of British and American fiction and I’m enjoying my tour around the world. Right now I’m reading Anna Karenina, which I am loving so far but it’s so heavy to carry around with me. Damn Russians.
Okay, so first up, Haruki Murakami. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle blew me away. I can’t tell you what a profound effect this book has had on me as a writer. I was in a writing slump that lasted for a couple months this summer. Reading this book pulled me out of it and helped me to think about my book in a whole new radical way. I can’t imagine where I’d be now if I hadn’t read this. While I couldn’t possibly describe the plot of this 700-page novel, suffice it to say that it’s filled with kooky, strange and metaphysical happenings, plus a lot of zany women. [Oh - and there's a scene with a guy being skinned alive from head to toe that's unforgettable.] At it’s heart, however, is a very ordinary man who just stumbles along in life. In-between the bizarre happenings, we get pages of description of him just eating lunch or going to the dry cleaners, but it’s so interesting! Murakami has a way of grounding his books in the ordinariness of everyday life, which is really what I took away from this book as a writer. Ultimately, this book didn’t make much sense to me, but I still loved it. Just as a side note, apparently for the English-language translation (upon which other foreign translations are based), several chapters were cut by Knopf to shorten the book. Sacrilege!
Reviews of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: NYT and a review round-up here.
I also read Murakami’s Norwegian Wood, but I’m afraid I didn’t like this at all. This book was a mega seller in Japan — it made Murakami such a superstar that he fled to the States for a while. This book is much more straightforward than Wind-Up Bird. It takes place in the summer of 1968 and focuses on a male college student and two women he’s involved with (one of whom is in a mental hospital — why do men love to idealize mentally ill women in literature and films?). Anyway, this book was sorta blah compared to Wind-Up Bird and I think you may have to be Japanese to fully understand the cultural significance of it. One thing I found truly disturbing is that several times the male narrator makes comments to women that he may have to force himself upon them sexually because they won’t give it up voluntarily. Uh, there’s a word for this and it’s called rape. I hope that perhaps something is lost in the translation here, because the character says these things very casually and my impression is that the author is not trying to make any sort of point with this, he just sees it as normal male behavior. Well, it’s not normal where I come from and I doubt it’s normal in Japan either. Not sure what to make of this.
Any other Murakami recommendations? Send them my way. Norwegian Wood reviews: Guardian, NYT.
I recently finished J.M Coetzee’s Diary of a Bad Year. This is the fourth Coetzee book I’ve read, after Disgrace, Elizabeth Costello and Foe. For me, Coetzee has certain amazing gifts as a writer — his ability to compress a lot into a few short pages and his daringness with structure and political themes. Diary of a Bad Year did not disappoint on those fronts, but overall I think it failed as a novel. Still, I found reading it to be a very valuable experience from a writing perspective. It made me think about point of view in a way few other novels have. In the book, there are three narratives going at once. The three narratives appear on each page, one of them running at the top of page, then there’s a line and the second narrative is in the middle, then there’s another line and the third narrative runs at the bottom. It’s fascinating! If there are other books that do this, I’ve never seen them. [However, this structure makes it difficult to read, with all the back-and-forth.] As for the story itself, much of it takes the form of non-fiction essays being written by the main character on a variety of topics, mostly to do with America, the war on terror, etc., though there are also essays on music and literature. [I recently excerpted one of the essays here.] Again, Coetzee is really playing with the novel as a form and I admire that. The reason I think this failed as a novel is because of the weak characterization across the board, from the old man, to the woman he’s lusting after to her boyfriend. I felt the development of the story was secondary to the essays. Also, these kinds of stories with an old man lusting after a young woman grow tiresome. (Paging Philip Roth.) At first I thought Coetzee was trying to subvert this in some way. Here is the political-minded old man objectifying his Filipina helper. His “othering” of the woman is hypocritical, given all of his “enlightened” political views. But while the woman does become more humanized in certain ways, which was good, ultimately she becomes a sainted figure, a one-dimensional cliche, like a play on the ’slut’ with a heart of gold motif. I expect more from Coetzee. Much more. It does drive home one point, however. There are many so-called progressive men who are englihtened on a whole range of issues, yet when it comes to women/sex their views are anything but enlightened. We saw this play out during the recent presidential election. I doubt Coetzee intended to make this point, in fact he’s probably not even aware that his character (and perhaps he also) fits this profile, but it’s there on the page nonetheless.
Reviews of Diary of a Bad Year: Guardian, NYT.
I also read Pig Tales by Marie Darrieussecq, a French novel (a sensation about ten years ago) about a woman who works in the sex industry and slowly turns into a pig — literally. While it’s a brilliant idea, I did not like the execution of it. It’s 135-pages long and it’s all one paragraph. It does not take place in any sort of recognizable reality. It’s been compared to Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” but the brilliance of that story is that it’s so grounded in reality. Pig Tales is in another realm entirely, to the extent that there are no signposts to guide the reader. It’s presents a nightmarish and unbelievable world and one I could not wait to escape.
Reviews of Pig Tales: NYT.
Finally, Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog, the French bestseller. The ending shocked me, just plain shocked me! It also broke one of the “rules” of fiction. I can’t elaborate, since it’ll ruin the book for those of you who may read it. This is not a profound work of literature, but it enchanted me completely. I couldn’t put it down. This book has sold over a million copies in France and I’m not entirely sure why that is. It’s a lovely little book, but it must touch upon something in the French cultural zeitgiest that is beyond my knowledge. It deals explicity with class issues, but come on — the way it deals with them is a bit stereotypical (not to mention sentimental and pat), so that can’t be what’s caused the fuss over this novel, can it? One thing I liked about this novel is the very short chapters. I tend to write short chapters, but I always fear it makes my narrative too fragmented. Reading this novel gave me a bit more confidence.
Reviews of ‘Hedgehog’: Washington Post, Guardian.
I think that’s it for this installement! Did anyone actually read this far?
Anglofille said @ 9:26 pm | literary |
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Jan Says:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:04 pmOh yes we did.
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Kristin Says:
November 11th, 2008 at 12:59 amAs usual, very interesting selections and reviews.
And speaking of fiction in translation… I just today finished Out Stealing Horses. Perhaps if you feel like venturing north, that’s one to check out. It’s a great carry-around book! Other than that though, I am not yet prepared to comment. I will say I’m glad I read it, I certainly got swept up several times, and I felt occasionally very inspired (to write) while reading it. But it’s touch to fresh to assess more thoroughly. Also, I vaguely recall a review in which it was compared to Coetzee, which is interesting.
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Daniela Says:
November 11th, 2008 at 7:30 amOn Murakami - I love Kafka on The Shore to bits. There are two basic point-of-views there, interwined, and what I did last summer was to read them apart, like reading two different books. I was going to mention Murakami on my reply to you about translated fiction - and I will
I generally don’t like his shortest books as much as I love the big ones - Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World is also great, it was the first one I read and that got me hooked. I love the whole Japan thing so I had to fall in love with Murakami. 
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I’ve read a lot about “Out Stealing Horses.” I’ll take a look at it!
Once I’m in the mood for another Murakami, I will try “Kafka on the Shore.” That one came highly recommended from someone else as well…
