Just breezed through The Sailor From Gibraltar by Marguerite Duras. A great meandering novel on loneliness, communication, boredom, restlessness and an endless search for that one love..
At least that’s what I got out of it.
Just picked up 2666…
Catching the Big fish by DAVID LYNCH.
I just finished “The Stranger” and am moving on to “The Myth of Sisyphus.” I’m also reading a book on game theory and “Frankenstein” for school.
Just started both Last Days by Brian Evenson and The Widow by George Simenon.
Mr King-2666 is actually a fairly quick read. Not intimidating as it looks.I enjoyed it a lot.
I didn’t think 2666 was a quick read at all. I spent several weeks with it. It took me awhile to find my footing. I had to get past the idea that not all of this is ever going to connect (although some of it does), that Bolano will spend a lot of time generating plots and characters and then leaving them behind for good, and that the novel is something of a story-generating machine that demands a superabsorbent memory to keep everything straight in your head, not unlike a Pynchon novel, and that the title itself will remain a mystery. (The editorial postscript only complicates matters.)
Having said that, the last half of the book goes a lot more quickly than the first, and I suspect that the book would be supremely pleasureable if I read it again. A lot of literary masterpieces work that way; they get better the more you know them.
Bolano has been a difficult pleasure for me, someone I found hard to get from the beginning. I really wound up hating “The Savage Detectives,” which I thought was just a long, boring international wild goose chase in search of the answer to a riddle that isn’t that interesting. (I even wrote a book review playfully suggesting that there was no Roberto Bolano, that he was just a hoax on the reading public and especially the critical community, who are easy suckers for poets who die too young.)
Of course, you could almost describe 2666 the same way, although now the riddle is completely internalized; the ending itself seems to me somewhat elliptic, as the reader is invited to imagine how the ending and the beginning go together. (Will Archimboldi actually meet with those four critics who are pursuing him around the globe?)
I’m halfway inclined to think that if I read “The Savage Detectives” over I’d like it, because I’m a little more tuned in to this writer’s rhythm.
I think Bolano is a superb prose artist, but I’m skeptical as to what the big picture is with him.
I’m sure there are a lot of readers who connected with him a lot more easily than I did.
Current: “Knowing the Score: Notes on Film Music” by Irwin Bazelon.
Waiting in the wings: “The Boer War” by Thomas Pakenham
I just finished “A Confederacy of Dunces” and started “Heart of a Dog.”
Philosophical investigations by Ludwig Wittgenstein
Asylum Piece by Anna Kavan.
when the nines roll over is great, always wanted to adapt DeComp into a short film. Though my favorite has to be the barefoot girl from clover.
Behind the Pink curtain sounds interesting, i have quite the fascination with pinku eiga.
American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis (amazing and hilarious)
I Hope they Serve Beer in Hell – Tucker Max (hilarious)
The Road – Cormac McCarthy (excellent)
Siddhartha – Hermann Hesse (very good)
books this past year i’ve read in order..
Right now I’m reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon.
Can’t go wrong with “Slaughter House Five”
“Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell " – Susanna Clarke; “Against the Day” – Pynchon. A lot of talk about McCarthy – anyone read “The Border Trilogy”? I actually preferred the middle part, “The Crossing”, to “All the Pretty Horses”. Read “Blood Meridian” a few months ago – blew me away. Good to see one of my faves – “A Canticle for Leibowitz” – getting a mention. When I – finally! – get through with the Pynchon, I plan to delve into some Updike (only ever read one of his novels, and not the Rabbit ones).
Books indeed.
I’m still waiting for Rendezvous With Rama.
Well I’m still reading East of Eden because my reading keeps getting interrupted by the books I have to read for school. I’m also reading My First Movie: Take II.
I just finished Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and I’ve started Ulysses which I think might be a horrible idea without a reader but I’m going to do it once on its own and then again with one, I think.
For school, I’m reading Nietzsche’s “The Birth of Tragedy” essay and lots of Walter Benjamin.
Just finished a re-read of THE LONG GOODBYE, and re-watched Altman’s film version and just don’t really see the point of re-imagining Philip Marlowe as an ineffectual boob.
Re-reading LITTLE DORRIT, enjoying the hell out of it.
I gave up on Bolano’s 2666 when I finally realized that the ratio of Good Stuff to Really Just Boring Stuff was way too low. Basically I didn’t give a damn about anyone or anything in it, at least not enough of a damn to keep reading. Felt that way about THE SAVAGE DETECTIVES too. I guess Bolano isn’t my cup of tea.
funny you should ask. I’m a rare bookdealer,lots of great film books
www.cinemagebooks.com
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse was excellent, and all though I read the book a few months ago— its lessons have very much remained fresh in my mind, the specific symbols— less so. Some key elements to know are the river, represents all things past, present and future, the metaphysical aspects of “being,” “living,” etc. The snake (approaching Siddhartha)- which I remember less of, I imagine represented the presence of all living things, at one with each other, in perfect harmony. Inspirational and enlightening book!
Since I am on spring break now I’m going to try to finish East of Eden in the next ten days. With 300 pages left that’s only 30 pages a day so I can probably do it. Then what should I read: Lolita, Othello, or Lovely Bones (I don’t mean to group this with the two masterpieces but the movie is coming out and I have heard the book is good)?
@Drew: Lolita is a totally awesome read. Really captivating.
I’m reading/re-reading José Saramago and Philip Roth this year.
I’ve just finished Let the Right One In and I can’t wait to see what they do with the film.
Now reading the second in the Matthew Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom – Dark Fire. These books are excellent. Set in London during the second half of Henry VIII’s reign. Some of the best scene setting I’ve found in a novel. I recommend them to anyone who enjoys crime and/or historical fiction.
Currently reading Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins.
A selection of short essays about film by Mark Cousins.
The Genius in the Design, about the rivalry between Bernini and Borromini.
Nice to see this thread is still alive.
halfway through “le feu follet” by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle
Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Marissa
currently reading “Epitaph of a Small Winner” by Machado De Assis