“All I want to do is get my check and get drunk.”

This was the first book by Bukowski I’d ever read, and I’ve never read author quite like him since. I’ll start by saying that I can usually identify with how Bukowski’s main character (Henry Chinaski, a semi-autobiographical version of Bukowski himself)  feels, but I can almost never identify with how he acts and reacts to the world around him. His attitude is very similar in my eyes to that of 90s grungers who listened to alternative rock bands like  Nirvana and decided to protest the world’s problems by ‘opting out,’ or through apathy. In fact, one Bukowski’s tombstone is in scripted ‘Don’t Try.’ Maybe that is why he still resonates with readers worldwide to this day.

The book has structure, but not an obvious one. It follows Chinaski, a quiet young man in Los Angeles in the mid 70s, as he drifts between menial jobs, has short and ill-fated affairs with women, and meets with various people, including his parents.

One striking thing about Chinaski is that he is always and constantly himself, no matter how life fluctuates around him. Much to their shock and chagrin, he speaks frankly to his parents and employers, lovers and landlords.

To his employers, he asserts:
“How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 8:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so? “

As for his potential lovers, he gently ruminates:
“She was desperate and she was choosy at the same time and, in a way, beautiful, but she didn’t have quite enough going for her to become what she imagined herself to be.”

I do love to read Bukowski. He gently refuses to present a false front or to deny himself the things he enjoys, which as he readily admits, include leisure and alcohol. I admire his honestly and willingness to live as he chooses, though I personally can’t agree that living a life of rootless destitution and developing a dependence on alcohol is the answer to the discrepancies and complications of the modern human condition. I’ll have to keep looking and reading for that.

–The Reader

[Image reproduced with permission from Jim Barker's photostream on Flikr.com]

image: amazon.ca

I couldn’t stop laughing the entire time I read this book.

The way Stefano Benni writes  is incredibly fun. 14 year old Margherita and her brother, parents and grandfather live in a quiet village and are, though quite eccentric, content and happy. That is, until the Del Bene family moves in next door. The parents, daughter and dog all are wealthy, perfect and a little sinister.

Little by little, the families interact, and Margherita begins to see that the neighbors aren’t exactly what — or who — they say they are. I don’t want to give too much away on this one. I’d just say, read it– you’ll be in stitches!

I definitely want to read more Benni.

–The Reader

Hello fellow bloggers,

I want to ask you for reading recommendations. As you all know, I am interested in books by contemporary authors that deal artfully with modern themes like isolation, consumer culture and the media age.

I’ve discovered a handful of authors that I love, but I want to expand my consciousness. If you stop by my blog, PLEASE feel free to suggest authors or titles you think I might enjoy. I would appreciate it very much!

I look forward to reading your suggestions,
The Reader

[image: twiice.com]

image: digilander.libero.it

I read this book a few years ago, and it definitely deserves a place on this blog. It’s called Jack Frusciante Has Left the Band (in an obvious reference to John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers) and was written by Enrico Brizzi.

The novel examines Alex, an Italian teenager named who feels he is different from his peers, and experiences intense angst during his journey of self discovery. In general, the book  follows Alex in his daily life at school, with friends, and in his free time, recording what he does, where he goes and what he thinks.

In terms of the writing style, I love the way Brizzi gives the novel a definite sense of time and place through his descriptions of exactly what Alex is wearing. Alex is Italian, and dressing is of tantamount importance to Italian men.  In addition, the type of clothes described gives the reader an exact sense of the time period in which the novel was written (the 1990s).

The main theme of Jack Frusciante Has Left the Band is one that is an undercurrent for many of the novels treated in this blog. It’s the boredom with modern existence and the dissatisfaction with a comfortable, middle class, western-style existence. These books make it almost seem as if our current capistalist, democratic lifestyle satisfies  material and physical needs, but leaves spiritual and emotional ones unfulfilled.  Alex understands these principles, and tries to escape the inevitable cycle his parents and elders have experienced through various methods like: making friends that feel the same way,  romantic feelings, art, etc.

Alex and the protagonists inmany other books I’ve read, whether youth, young adults or middle aged professionals, seem to share a feeling of unfulfillment and disengagement with their lifestyle and society. Another thing these characters  have in common is the lack of resolution of this essential dilemma. It might just be the biggest unanswered question of our age.

–The Reader

image: wikipedia.org

This book was an interesting addition to Norwegian Wood, which is the only Murakami book I’d previously read. South of the Border follows Hajime during the course of his life from a 12 year old up to a man in his late 30s. It hilights his various love affairs with Shimamoto (his first crush), Izumi (his first girlfriend, whose heart he breaks), and Yukiko (his wife). His relationships with these three women ebb and flow, and follow him throughout his life.

It’s an interesting read, highly stylised and classy. I found several parallels in this book to Norwegian Wood. These include the middle class, unfulfilled ‘normal guy’ protagonist, the damaged woman he’s in love with, the healthy available woman who he’s comfortable with, but doesn’t want to stay with, and the ambiguous ending as to both the status of his relationships and his happiness.

Although Murakami is widely regarded as one of the best living writers, I don’t feel I relate well with his characters. He definitely captures the complexity of human relationships, and the modern situation of being middle class, comfortable and yet incomplete. However, the protagonists of his books strike me as a little too vacuous and very still. An author like Houellebecq writes about the same themes, but somehow, his isolated characters are engaging. Instead of another traditional novel, I’d be interested to read some of Murakami’s magical realism, like Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

–The Reader

image via borders.com

It’s hard to explain the appeal of Chuck Palahniuk through a plot summary. What I love about the book is the writing itself– so I’ll start off with a summary and end with some quotations.

Lullaby is about a journalist who lives a pretty miserable, lonely existence. His wife and daughter died mysteriously years before. He meets a Helen Hoover Boyle, a real estate agent while investigating a series of infant deaths for a piece he’s writing in a local newspaper. Helen apparently knows a thing or two about sudden deaths as well — her family died mysteriously years earlier, leaving her all alone.

The two find out that the sudden infant deaths are linked to a culling spell which has been mistakenly printed in a children’s book. A “culling spell” is a song that was used traditionally (in this case, in Africa) to put children to sleep, like a lullaby. Unbeknownst to the parents who read the poem to their children, this particular culling spell kills whomever hears it.

The unnamed protagonist, Helen Hoover Boyle, Helen’s secretary Mona and Mona’s boyfriend Oyster set out on a road trip across the USA to try and destroy all copies of the book that hold the culling spell, and they have to also find a way to keep the information under wraps so others don’t know about the sobering power of the spell.

As usual with Chuck Palahniuk, I loved this book. He has the distinct ability to write about subjects I’d otherwise be disgusted by, but to write about them in a way that makes me interested in what he has to say, even entranced by the words he uses to describe them. Here are a few prime examples:

“Every generation wants to be the last. Every generation hates the next trend in music they can’t understand. We hate to give up those reins of our culture. To find our own music playing in elevators. The ballad for our generation, turned into background music for a television commercial.”

“These music-oholics. These calm-ophobics. No one wants to admit we’re addicted to music and television and radio. We just need more of it, more channels, a larger screen, more volume. We can’t bear to be without it, but no, nobody’s addicted. We could turn it off anytime we wanted. These distraction-oholics. These focus-ophobics.”

“What we think of as nature, Oyster says, everything’s just more of us killing the world. Every dandelion’s a ticking atom bomb. Biological pollution. Pretty yellow devastation. The way you can go to Paris or Beijing, Oyster says, and everywhere there’s a McDonald’s hamburger, this is the ecological equivalent of franchised life-forms. Every place is the same place. Kudzu. Zebra mussels. Water hyacinths. Starlings. Burger Kings. ‘The only biodiversity we’re going to have left,’ he says, ‘is Coke versus Pepsi. We’re landscaping the whole world one stupid mistake at a time.’”

Highly recommended.

–The Reader

image: wikipedia.org

This book examines how one person can gain strength by destroying another — in this case, a married couple. Dick and Nicole Diver seem like happy, wealthy American expatriates to outsider Rosemary Hoyt, who meets them while on holiday on the French Riviera.  Through spending time with them however, she pieces together their unusual story.

Dick Diver was an aspiring psychologist who married one of his rich patients, Nicole. In exchange for caring for Nicole, who is in a fragile state, Dick receives the life he’s always wanted — with a partnership in a Swiss clinic and a beautiful, comfortable home life. However, Dick’s superior position begins to wane once Rosemary meets him. Partly because of the strain of his situation, he begins to act in uncouth ways, to let his emotions get the better of him, and to drink heavily. By the end of the book, Nicole has divorced Dick, remarried and is stronger and more stable than she’s ever been. Dick is left alone and financially berefit.

I love F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writing because of the way he portrays the wealthy classes in the early 20th century. He isn’t just another author who writes about Sex and Scandal, however. His writing glimmers with questions about the undercurrents that push and pull his characters. He leaves enough space between his descriptions for multiple interpretations of the protagonists’ motives and for questions about their true identities. As with all good art, perhaps what you don’t say is just as important as what you do say. In the case of Tender is the Night, the question could be– is a life of comfort and wealth worth the sacrifices one must make in order to obtain it?

–The Reader

image: wikipedia.org

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute. –Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was a Russian novelist who believed very much in the ideas of capitalism & self-determination. Her personal philosophy was called Objectivism, and it still influences many readers today around the world.

This book has four main characters: Howard Roark, Peter Keating, Dominique Francon, and Gail Wynand. Howard Roark is the story’s protagonist — a brilliant architect who wants to make modern buildings that no one understands or accepts. He stays true to his individual vision throughout the book, despite all the people who do not agree with him and all the business he loses (this represents the triumph of the individual over the collective.) Peter Keating is another architect who has the opposite strategy– he is not an original artist, but he ingratiates his way to success by knowing the right people. Gail Wynand is the owner of a newspaper who loves Roark’s work. Dominique is the woman who all the men love and who, ultimately chooses to be with Roark because she believes in his vision, genius and artistic integrity.

I loved the way this book was written. At the time of reading it, I did not agree with the principles of Objectivism, but I do believe in adhering to one’s artistic principles. I’m not sure what my own personal philosophy is now… but I am certainly glad I read The Fountainhead, as I do believe that reading all kinds of material from all different kinds of authors helps in the the determination of one’s moral stance.

–The Reader

image courtesy of popieces.blogspot.com

My curiosity started when a friend introduced me to the Twilight movie. Automatically, (like half the population) I fell head over heels for vampires when I saw Robert Pattinson (or in Twi terms: Edward Cullen). I found myself biting my lip the whole way through, wishing for the first time in my pretty sane life for the chance to be bitten by my soon-to-be celebrity obsession!

Anywho, it was after watching the first movie that I decided to buy all four books. YES — all four, all at once (it was buy one, get one free..but thats not the point!)

Naturally, I didnt want to miss out on any extras the director may have edited from Stephanie Meyer’s original novels, so like any true Twihard fan, I started at the beginning….

After a month, I had read all four books. YES…Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn! Now let me really break this down for you…In 744hours. 44640 Minutes. 2678400 Seconds, I managed to read (434+563+628+754) 2379 pages, and if we are talking 173,304  words on average per book, plus the third which is basically double the size, so 348.608…that’s 871, 52 words!!! Now, I’m sure Meyer would agree when I say that’s Twi Twi Twi impressive!!! This is merely proof of
A: how good the books actually are, and
B: how deep my obsession for Pattinson truly goes!

Now, with the good always comes the bad and, sadly, there are some aspects of the books which did at times irritate me. The Twi books were originally targeted to the teen population, and I’m not one to shy from the fact that I’m actually 21…and a half! So as you can imagine…I did find myself shouting out..”Yeah Alright!” and “Get it on already! (Edward and Bella).” But hey –  I could just be a biased 21 year old female, so dont pre-judge — just read!!!!!

May Twilight be with you.

In the name of the Handsome Actor, Extraordinary Lover, Vampire-Vegetarian.

AMEN

This book is a wonderful piece about love in 1960s Tokyo as seen through the eyes of young Japanese students.

Toru, his best friend Kizuki and Kizuki’s girlfriend Naoko are all best friends when their worlds are shattered by Kizuki’s unexpected suicide at 17. Toru and Naoko try to go on by comforting one another, and then fall in love. After a time, Naoko cannot deal with everyday life, and decides to part ways with Toru to spend time in a sanitorium.

Toru goes away to university and meets various interesting characters, including the lively Midori, whom he develops feelings for against the backdrop of the failed Tokyo student marches of the 60s. He continues to struggle with his love for Naoko however, and he visits her in the sanitorium.

Back in Tokyo, Toru is more confused than ever, and neglects Midori. Then, he suddenly receives a letter that Naoko has committed suicide. In his grief, he wanders aimlessly for a month and then returns to Tokyo. He realises through speaking with one of Naoko’s friends from the asylum (Reiko) that he loves Midori. He contacts her to tell her so…. and there the action ends.

The quality of the writing is what really attracts me to this book. Something in the way the characters speak and think, their ennui and aimlessness in modern Western society really captures what it’s like to grow up in an affluent country while trying to establish one’s identity. Also, the suicides are tragedies that cannot be logically explained, but perhaps can be understood when one considers the drifting nature of many of these characters.  The student revolution fizzles out, Toru doesn’t know why he’s chosen to study Drama at university (and has no real passion or aptitude for it), no one is either rich or poor, and there is a dearth of fulfillment and real connection to meaningful sources. The backdrop of a time of great change is contrasted by the characters’ lack of conviction — to connect to one another, and even to live.

[image: chazzw.files.wordpress.com]