The summer solstice is just around the corner and every year around this time I think of The Great Gatsby.
This might be my favorite quote in all of fiction:
"Why candles?" objected Daisy frowning. She snapped them out with her fingers. "In two weeks it'll be the longest day in the year." She looked at us all radiantly. "Do you always watch for the longest day of they year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it." (16)
Even though I have no particular affinity for rock criticism, Chuck Klosterman is one of my all time favorite writers. This is true despite the fact that I get very few of the references (more about this later).
I believe that everything he writes about actually happened.
Granted, Killing Yourself to Live is billed as 85% of a true story, but I still choose to believe it all. I believe he calls it that to be funny not because it is not really 100% true.
So, this is what I need to know. In Killing Yourself to Live, Klosterman refers to an unnamed person that he calls his Nemesis. There is some entertaining stuff in this area plus Klosterman details a shouting match and other conflicts.
In addition, he writes the following about his Nemesis:
My Nemesis asks me a few questions about why I am driving across America, but he is only mildly interested in my answers. He has a job that involves the Internet, and it sounds difficult and boring; I ask him questions, too, but barely listen to his answers. He's had this job for at least five years, and I still have no idea what he does. (159)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is packed full of quotes. One after the other and so on.
But, this one seemed to work for today:
I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library. (50)
While it might be the case that The Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer has one of the best titles in all of fiction, it is not one of the best "feel good" books in all of fiction.
Though, in all fairness, it is not that the book promises to be "feel good" (guess there is that). But, it does promise to be about choice in the vein of a fictionalized The Feminine Mistake by Leslie Bennetts (mentioned that here).
The description says that the book is about the "opt-out" generation (i.e. women who have promising careers who give them up to stay home with children).
After reading it, things change.
It is not really about that. In fact, it is not really about women (though, most of the characters are women).
The Ten-Year Nap is about massive "existential angst". And, believe it, every character has it (the women, the men and even the kids are so wound up they seem nuts). It scores a 10+ on the depression meter.
Despite the fact that I could not have enjoyed Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman any more (wrote about that here) and I have had this book for years, I had not gotten to Killing Yourself to Live before last week. I finally read it.
Awe-some (insert inflection).
The book is worth (easily) five or six blog posts (mostly in quotes that I'll get to later). The thing is, however, that I am not a music person. This is funny to me because I don't really get half the references, but still absolutely adored this book.
I was certain that the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was based on the Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer (wrote about that here).
But, as it turns out, it is based on a short story (of the same name) that was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I need to investigate (starting with reading the short story).
I was attracted to the Varieties of Romantic Experience by Robert Cohen because I liked the title. It is a collection of short stories and it sounded like it might be one of those books that is like a yummy bag of jelly beans.
But, here is the problem. This book needs an edit. And, not an edit like the Reincarnationist by MJ Rose (which I wrote about here) needs editing. There are at least two typos in the first story alone. Really?
I have always been a fan of Robert Frost.
In light of the financial events of the past two weeks and the generally disapointing performance of both Presidential candidates at the debate, I keep coming back to one of his poems.
Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
The Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicolson is awesome.
It is a tour de force of people and events in "England 1911, Just Before the Storm" and reads like a suped-up retro Twitter aggregate. I loved it.
"Twittering" from 1911 are a variety of well-known people (Winston Churchill, Virginia Woolf and dozens others). But, the book also details less famous people whose stories could create a series of additional books such as Lady Diana Manners, Mary Macarther, Rupert Brooke or Elinor Glyn.
Plus, The Perfect Summer is littered with anecdotes of the time and place and the regular people who worked and played and lived and died that summer.
This is a must read.
World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler is prominently recommended on the cover by Alan Weisman who is the author of The World Without Us (which I wrote about here).
Kunstler's book is most certainly a fictional attempt at describing what would happen with a significant and rapid reduction of the human population on earth. While Weisman's non-fiction book has everyone disappearing for no particular reason, in World Made By Hand the population is greatly reduced by a "Perfect Storm" of terrorism, several pandemic-like events, war and oil shortages.
World Made By Hand starts out great as he slowly reveals the aftermath in and around Albany, NY. But, the last half is kind of a waste. The idea has great potential, but gets too far away from what ultimately makes it interesting. I finished it, because I don't like to not finish books, but I really could have let it go after the first half.
Make no mistake, however, the first half is really pretty interesting. One of my favorite quotes was related to the status of drugs in the new world.
A few people took to smoking opium, but those with an extremely apathetic attitude toward survival tended not to last long in the new disposition of things. (30)
Having long been an enormous Indiana Jones fan, I was surprised that it took me so long to see the new movie. But, I was even more surprised by one of the trailers that preceded it.
The trailer I saw did not give the movie a title, but it is certainly based on the book The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer (which I first wrote about here). I am totally trilled that this book is being made in to a movie (with Brad Pitt!). Greer is an amazing creative genius. If the script is faithful to the book, I am certain the movie will be terrific.
Next up, I will have to read The Story of a Marriage (also by Greer).
When I heard Salman Rushdie talk about his book Shalimar the Clown on NPR I bought it immediately. I mean right away (that day). In hardcover. In 2005. What do I have to say about it? Nothing. I still have not read it.
So, having just had a similar experience (again, NPR is the culprit) with The Enchantress of Florence, I have decided to wait for the paperback version. The thing is that I have never read any of Rushdie's books. Ever. I don't even know if I would like them.
As a result, I'll definitely buy it, but will wait until it is 20% off and in paperback.
