Lady Chatterly’s Lover
Somehow it’s not at all what I expected going in
the sympathizer is one of those “told me more about myself than anything ever” books considering my background
reading it is probably the best thing I did this year
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Finished Malcolm X’s Autobiography a few days ago. Obviously it doesn’t need my praise, but it lived up to its classic status. The last chapter (pre-Epilogue) in particular was rousing as hell. I think what struck me most was how honestly he represented his emotions/beliefs as he felt them at the time. While he occasionally referenced upcoming fallouts and the like, it felt more like a narrative tease than an attempt to paper over mistakes/regrets. As someone who finds basically everything I’ve ever done embarrassing, I admire that kind of bravery - it unquestionably adds to power of his newfound sense of enlightenment at the end.
Problematic opinions on women aside, the book is worth it for the sheer number of times the phrase “white devil” appears alone.
Side note: Pynchon definitely used this as a source for Gravity’s Rainbow. Many of the details in the “Kenosha Kid” chapter are ripped straight from the book, and the description of the black fetishes among white elites is a recurring theme too.
Well yeah, Malcom even shows up in that chapter as a minor character (I think he is referred to as Red Malcom, but it has been awhile) in his job shining shoes at the ballroom.
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Right, he shows up at the end again too. I was just surprised at how much of the detail was taken directly from the autobiography.
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Oh fair, and yeah, Pynchon is hilarious in both how well he researches things, and how clearly he references them once you know what they are. He doesn’t hide his work.
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the astrology stuff in Mason & Dixon makes it seem like Pynchon probably spent 20 years becoming one of the foremost astrologers in the world in order to write it. that book is amazing
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Agreed. That’s my favorite of his novels, and maybe my favorite novel period. Also, there was 24 years between M&D and GR (with only the far shorter and less complex Vineland breaking them up), so he very well could’ve spent most of that time researching.
bolano’s by night in chile: man, real antagonistic towards literati in history, burns hard visually, gonna dream of blue and yellow tonight
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I’m reading Roadside Picnic by the brothers Strugatsky, in preparation for the imminent digital remaster of the incredible film adaptation Stalker.
In this 1972 Russian novel, ne’er-do-wells retrieve and sell mysterious, powerful artifacts from an alien landing site. One of those artifacts… is literally just a fidget spinner.
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holy shit
It’s real good!
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell made me reconsider being Catholic
i had to read that n high school (Cleveland author plus Jesuit school meant yeaaah) and i remember liking it, but remember nothing of it.
Finished Jitterbug Perfume and To The Lighthouse recently. Both are cool.
JP is really fun. Robbins is a master of metaphor (though he abuses his talent fairly frequently). And he has an impressively light touch given the scale of the story. The “Dannyboy’s Theory” section is great, though I didn’t care for Dannyboy as a character.
TTL is well-observed and has many sinuous, semicolon-laden, sentences that are fun to parse out (if you are a nerd like me). The mysterious middle section is a highlight.
For some reason I’m feeling drawn to both Ulysses and War & Peace lately (neither of which I’ve read before), so I should probably seek medical attention.
War & Peace is fuckin great, it’s a soap opera for the type of people who like arguing political philosophy in salons.
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How readable is it? I know it’s really long, but is it an arduous 1.2K pages? Or does it go down relatively smoothly? I’m up for a challenge and will finish it if I start it, but it’d be nice to know what I’m getting into before committing.
It starts slow first couple hundred pages, as you might expect, but it picks up quick. I devoured the whole thing in like 10 days while I was in Rome and should have been doing anything but that (going to Rome is a big deal for a USonian like me). That’s what my “soap opera” description was meant to evoke.
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I’m a slow reader, especially if its for fun, but I did finish The Sympathizer and despite a bit of a lull in the middle, after finishing it I can confidently say it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read
The ending is kind of left-field and very dark, but the last few pages gave me that crazy energy and sense of the manifold possibilities of the written word in a way I haven’t experienced since I was a precocious youth, a feeling I would normally associate with those formative books that imprint themselves in your brain and become a part of you, but since all this happens when you’re 16 (or whatever) you later realize are kind of crappy. But because I’m a grown ass adult I know that this one is for real.
Seriously: It’s required reading.
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I feel like those are always the best reading experiences. I had a similar one with Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon. I ended up reading the whole thing in two weeks over winter break from college when I also should’ve been doing something way less academic. But that’s probably my fondest holistic reading experience… it snowing outside, the quality of the light given off by this weird shade-less lamp I was reading by, looking up all the references (I think that book taught me how to read tougher stuff). It was really nice. Makes me sad I may never have an opportunity to fully immerse myself in a book like that again. Guess I gotta get to Rome!