My Book Review
This summer, as a consequence of no social life, I was able to read nine books. Ten if you count the short Anna Quindlen one, which for all intents and purposes I will add on to my list. I shall list them in order of when I read them and tell you how good they are. Mainly, this is the patented "Dawn Marie Scale of Books Worth Your Time". Please enjoy. Feel free to leave comments.
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett:
A novel of terrorism, love, and the dynamic of the Third World, Bel Canto is a triumphant work of art that paints all of its characters, from opera singers to guerrilla recruits, in the most humane and universally beautiful light. The novel takes place in an unknown South American country at a birthday party held for a prominent Japanese business. The party is made up of many foreigners and an American opera star, but all sense of order is thrown away when a terrorist clan takes over the building and holds the party-goers hostage. If I were to divulge any further details it would ruin the beautiful unravelling of the novel that leads even the skeptical reader into a false sense of assurance when tragedy is inevitable. This book is not a commentary on the terrorism as right nor is it entirely unsympathetic to the rebels; actually, the novel creates an amazingly human picture of the motivations and hardships of those who choose violence to speak out. What happens is both extraordinary but surprisingly probable as terrorist and hostage develop a kinship as they lie in wait for the government's reaction. It is hard to describe what makes this book amazing without relinquishing the key to its power, so I'll stop. Suffice it to say, this is one of the most compelling stories I've come across in a while. In our day in age, the message of this novel has great import.
DM Scale: 10 out fo 10
Saturday by Ian McEwan:
I don't know how I ended up reading two novels about terrorism and its effects in sequence. But this novel takes place, ironically, in post-9/11 London. So this is the Western World's look at living with fear and possible disasters. But that is merely a backdrop to the modern life of middle-aged neurologist Henry Perowne, a well-adjusted man who is then faced with a hellish twenty-four hours after he witnesses a small plane crash. Naturally thinking Britain's terror number is up, Perowne spends the rest of the day straddling his own over-blown imagination and a less obvious threat that he opens himself up to in the space of his day. Again, I don't want to spoil the plot for you, but suffice it to say that weird shit happens. Not a very erudite statement, I know, but that's about what happens. The novel drones on, really, but once it reaches its climax the droning makes sense. McEwan presents a very realistic look inside our current mentality and how it acts as a sinister undertow that distracts us from all other possibilities of personal danger. Suffice it to say, this is stream-of-consciousness without the mindboggling jumps in logic. That may sound like a contradictory statement, but it works, I assure you. I have great respect for Mr. McEwan for his amazing work Atonement, so I can't say much in the way of criticism except to say the novel took a great deal of time to pick up. Regardless, McEwan has a knack for dead-on realism with psychological meanderings still tagging along.
DM Scale: 9 out of 10
Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
As is Vreeland's specialty, the novel focuses on the importance of art in life as well as its roots and permutations. This story follows the life of a single painting, a lost Vermeer of a girl sewing by a window, and traces its life back to each previous owner and even back to the young woman who is the subject of the work. Since it is a light read, I won't wax philosophical, but it definitely has its merits. A good little book if you want something short and sweet.
DM Scale: 8 out of 10
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
I give credit to this book only because it broke many barriers and paved the way for our modern literature, but also likely birthed every pornographic novel since. Not to say this novel doesn't have its thematic significance; it offers a dismal look into the restlessness of the Lost Generation, or the Not-So-Lost-But-Still-Pissed-Off Generation as the case may be. The novel also portrays the telling signs of man recoiling from man in a society growing more modern and less personal. Still, I found little redeeming quality in the primary theme and prominent feature of the novel: the redemptive power of sex. If you ask me, I don't believe Lawrence feels any real sympathy toward his protagonist, Lady Chatterley, who takes two lovers after her husband is injured in WWI and left emasculated. Though she grows to realize she and her husband have little to connect them, she seeks out purely physical connections with two men, only one of whom lasts and results in pregnancy, go figure. As I said before, I don't believe Lawrence saw Lady Chatterley as a full human being, merely a lonely woman with an insatiable though understandable want for sex. I'll grant that Lawrence provides an all-too-realistic look into intimacy, but at the same time the intimacy is purely physical and at times putridly disjunct. The lovers have nothing to connect them but their physical need of each other, which seems no different from the lusts of the automatons Lawrence despises for their anonymity and brazen inhumanity. Perhaps I missed the message and I'm sad that I sound so prudish; in truth, I generally like the presence of sex in books, but this novel overuses it and misuses it on many levels. The book cover speaks of finding oneself through the redemption of physical love, but I believe Lady Chatterley loses herself more than anything. And I find little to argue against that point; I actually think even Lawrence believed it. Sadly, this is probably an accurate portrayal of the world, in which case I have since decided to remain an abstinent spinster with many cats.
DM Scale: 4 out of 10
The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by Ann Bresharis
I needed a light read after Chatterley, so don't give me any grief. Yes, this has virtually no literary merit, but I read it and liked it well enough. It determined for me once and for all that I have never been a normal teenage girl. But I guess that depends on your definition of normal. At any rate, this is an insightful and endearing look at all of the miniature dramas and major moments that define that awkward phase known as adolescence. Even crappy times in one's life have lessons to them. Bladdy-blah, I'm not going to try to make this sound significant, but read it if you need something vaguely funny and worth reading.
DM Scale: 6 out 10
*As I feel inexplicably lightheaded and tired, I shall continue the other half later. Assuming I remember that I started it in the first place.*
The Scale:
- 10: Highly worth your while with literary merit to boot.
- 9: Well worth your effort, perhaps more cumbersome in terms of length or subject matter
- 8: Good and stimulating, if not on varying levels
- 7: Good, but don't expect to see it on a required reading list
- 6: Enjoyable, but with its weaknesses
- 5: Average, a bit cumbersome and disinteresting.
- 4: You got through it, but barely
- 3: Bordering on worthless.
- 2: Not worth the time.
- 1: Drop it and forget it until further notice.