The Summer Books
by Will Bailey
Hard reading.
I need help. “No s**t,” you’re probably thinking, but since this is a family blog, you say something like “No stick” or “No stupid” à la the leading mean in an action movie censored for daytime television. To which I respond, “Forget you! Are you going to help me or not you forking assistant?!” To which you respond, “Calm down you sod head! Don’t be such a matter shocker.” Then something explodes and we cut to commercial (paper towels and medication that may cause loss of eyesight and sudden death). But seriously, I need help putting together a summer reading list. The problem is that I’ve been slogging through The Brothers Karamazov for the past three months, which doesn’t exactly Make Reading Fun. Think about it: have you ever seen an advertisement championing the joys of reading by showing a group of children crowded around a dusty, forty-five pound edition of The Brothers Karamazov and reading one of several passages in which the characters discuss the apparent meaningless of life? “Reading can transport you to 19th century Russia, where life is misery and everybody has five different names!” I guess what I’m trying to say is that I need some palate cleansers to get me excited about reading again. Because right now cracking open my book is like heading to the salt mines for another day of hard labor. Also, my Foreman, Dostoevsky, is way more articulate than me, can read in Russian, French, English and German and is dead. What a fudging acrobat!
A thousand splendid suns – khaled housseini
The white tiger – arvind adiga
wide sargasso sea – jean rhys
20 fragments of a ravenous youth- xiaoluguo (fantasticbook about the merging of chineseand american cultures)
I Think, Therefore I Have a Headache!: A Laugh-Out-Loud Look at Life
Martha Bolton (Author) happy reading.
Thanks for the suggestion! Throw it on the pile!
I thoroughly enjoyed Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall — a depressing title, but a downright hilarious novel! Not sure about what you have read or your literary taste, so can’t give as specific a recommendation as I’d like. Jill Dawson’s Fred and Edie is a favourite with me too, for something contemporary and about love. A light-hearted classic would be E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View, while Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca is a great suspenseful masterpiece (even as it might have a trashy romance novel cover). Hope this is helpful!
Wife read Rebecca and absolutely loved it. I am very interested to check out Decline and Fall. My literary taste is all over the map. I love Vonnegut, J M Coetzee, John K Toole, Heller, Bellow, Nabokov, Kafka, David Foster Wallace, and Charles Bukowski, among others.
I have the same problem! Too much hard reading feels like the salt mines sometimes. Try something like Jonathan Franzen, modern literature is easier to read but you don’t feel like a dolt in the way that reading off the NYTimes BestSeller list can often make you. Currently I’m switching on and off from An American Tragedy to Bitch by Jackie Collins. Yes, Jackie emeffing Collins!
I totally agree with your point about modern literature. I’ve found a fantastic middle ground in J M Coetzee. He’s effortless to read but deeply thought provoking at the same time. He’s actually the reason I picked up The Brother Karamazov because he references it a bunch.
Unless I suddenly become suicidal, I will avoid Russian literature for the rest of my life. Probably the most beautiful book I have read in the last 10 years is: Forever by Pete Hamil. It is meaningful and fun. Lovely, lovely, lovely book.
Sold!
I love reading, couldn’t be without a book! My all time favorite is Life of Pi by Yann Martel, but who hasn’t read that yet
Another great book is the Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, really liked reading that. Or Headlong by Micheal Frayn. Sorry that they are all a bit dated, but in Mexico it is incredibly hard to get anything in English, so I guess I am a little behind. I am trying to learn to speak/read Spanish asap so I can get in to the Latin American writers. Actually a great motivation and any suggestions on them is greatly appreciated
Love Life of Pi! My knowledge of Latin American writers is extremely limited. I’m only familiar with Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Junot Diaz.
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. It’s a real perspective if you have kids. I’m not sure if you have kids, but you do have a cat. Maybe something will translate. I think in a previous post you mentioned it MEOWS a lot.
Also Brothers Sisters by Patrick deWitt. He writes like it’s a Coen brothers movie. AND deWitt is Canadian.
Hi Will, great blog!
For some fun in the sun, I’d suggest NEMESIS by Philip Roth (scorching heat, polio epidemic, New Jersey, iron lung), COCKROACH by Rawi Hage (hallucination, alienation, black humor, despair) and Alison Bechdel’s FUN HOME (dysfunctional family, funeral home, suicide). All terrific books that pack a mean summer punch!
Great suggestions! I’m a big Philip Roth fan and have been eyeing Nemesis for a while. You’ve inspired me to take the plunge!
Is Tiger Mother the book that was so controversial a few years ago? If so, I am definitely going to check it out.
Yes, that’s the one. It caused a bit of a sh*t storm when it came out.
For me a simple to read, that always adds more lessons is “The five people you meet in heaven”.
Not at all religious but helps me put things in perspective.
Dave
Thanks for the suggestion! I always love me some perspective (seriously).
HA! I’m also reading TBK….five different names indeed. One of my favorite books of all time, while not hip, is Watership Down. Just finished Cutting For Stone (quite good), anything by George Pelecanos (main writer for The Wire tv show), 11/22/63 by Stephen King was actually really good, The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson was fabulous, as was Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.
Watership Down is great. Reminds me of the Redwall craze of the early 90′s. Definitely going to check out Pelecanos on your reco.
Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
anything by Alistar McLeod
Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury
and if you really want to cleanse your literary palate- and get a taste of your neighbour’s culture (kind of, sort of, in a way) read Will and Ian Ferguson’s “How to be a Canadian” – it is a humourous look at a nation known for its humour and cold weather – though I happen to live in the Sun Parlour of Canada near the Detroit border in a small town – so I still think in farenheit and have to figure out that 30 degrees celcius is much too hot
You had me at How to Be a Canadian.