Books 63-65 of 2008
Continuing in the year of only reading books recommended to me....
63. Helping Me Help Myself by Beth Lisick (264 pgs)
This had a review in Bitch Magazine that made me curious to read it, and I was disappointed. Luckily it was brief. Lisick is a writer so obviously trying to just make money (throughout the book she is actually working as a hot dog for cash) that I didn't feel like she had the time or energy to really devote to her premise - spending a year living through various self help philosophies. You rarely see her trying to apply the self-help, but she does manage to go to some expensive seminars including a cruise with Richard Simmons. That chapter actually made me laugh out loud. The rest wasn't really worth reading.
64. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (432 pgs)
This was the latest book for the Reading the Bookers LJ community. It chronicles the lives of Oscar and Lucinda in 19th century Sydney, both with gambling problems. I found the book to be about 100 pages too long and it really started to feel like it was dragging but the first half was excellent and full of little things that made me laugh, like the Christmas pudding that changed everything. Carey writes the characters so that nobody is heroic and I loved to hate every single one - kind of like Dickens.
"This was within the range of her expectations, for whatever harm Elizabeth had done her daughter, she had given her this one substantial gift - that she did not expect anything small from her life."
"...An intelligent reader need never be alone."
65. Pastoralia: Stories by George Saunders (188 pgs)
I had read CivilWarLand in Bad Decline earlier this year, both volumes recommended by a friend who majored in contemporary fiction. I enjoyed CivilWarLand, but Pastoralia was really excellent, like you could witness Saunders coming into his own. He has these bizarre themes such as people working in unbelievable jobs in unbelievable theme parks (in both sets of stories actually). His characters are agonizing, but in the way where you either want to reach into the story and strangle them (the unhappy barber), or to reach in and try to fix their lives, even though you agree with the narrator of Sea Oak, that you might just not know how to do it.
63. Helping Me Help Myself by Beth Lisick (264 pgs)
This had a review in Bitch Magazine that made me curious to read it, and I was disappointed. Luckily it was brief. Lisick is a writer so obviously trying to just make money (throughout the book she is actually working as a hot dog for cash) that I didn't feel like she had the time or energy to really devote to her premise - spending a year living through various self help philosophies. You rarely see her trying to apply the self-help, but she does manage to go to some expensive seminars including a cruise with Richard Simmons. That chapter actually made me laugh out loud. The rest wasn't really worth reading.
64. Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (432 pgs)
This was the latest book for the Reading the Bookers LJ community. It chronicles the lives of Oscar and Lucinda in 19th century Sydney, both with gambling problems. I found the book to be about 100 pages too long and it really started to feel like it was dragging but the first half was excellent and full of little things that made me laugh, like the Christmas pudding that changed everything. Carey writes the characters so that nobody is heroic and I loved to hate every single one - kind of like Dickens.
"This was within the range of her expectations, for whatever harm Elizabeth had done her daughter, she had given her this one substantial gift - that she did not expect anything small from her life."
"...An intelligent reader need never be alone."
65. Pastoralia: Stories by George Saunders (188 pgs)
I had read CivilWarLand in Bad Decline earlier this year, both volumes recommended by a friend who majored in contemporary fiction. I enjoyed CivilWarLand, but Pastoralia was really excellent, like you could witness Saunders coming into his own. He has these bizarre themes such as people working in unbelievable jobs in unbelievable theme parks (in both sets of stories actually). His characters are agonizing, but in the way where you either want to reach into the story and strangle them (the unhappy barber), or to reach in and try to fix their lives, even though you agree with the narrator of Sea Oak, that you might just not know how to do it.