Book Reports- For Fun
Stuff I've read this summer so far:
White Teeth by Zadie Smith. About two best friends in London and their intertwined families. Archie Jones is the sweet, depressed white guy who marries a Jamaican woman and has a daughter (I sense that the Jones family is a more-or-less accurate reflection of the author's; she herself is the daughter of a white Brit and a Jamaican woman). Archie's best friend is Samad Iqbal, a Muslim Bangladeshi immigrant who has an arranged marriage with Alsana, also from Bangladesh. The Iqbals give birth to two twin boys at the same tame as the Jones have their daughter. The novel spans a period of about twenty years, tracing the various stages of life between the two protagonists- before marriage, married life, children, and infidelity.
I was absolutely in love with most of this book- it was engaging and relatable, and the characters were incredibly well-written. However I do think that a good hundred pages could have been edited out of the book (it's about 450 as-is) because Smith does tend to ramble in ways that don't really contribute to the story. A few times, characters and concepts were introduced and then completely dropped. For example, the theme of teeth comes up twice in the whole novel, both in the first half. It almost seems tacked-on so her book can have a quirky name or something. There's also an extramarital affair that becomes a central storyline, only to vanish in the last part of the novel. All in all, though, I loved this book. I was awestuck by what a good writer Smith is, expecially considering the fact that this was her first novel and she wrote it in her early-twenties. I definitely want to read more of her books in the future.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I decided I should read this one because it's a classic and it seems like everyone loves it. I don't know. It clearly fits into the "inspirational reading" category, and I've never been a fan of that. I think I'm just a little too jaded and cynical for this book. It's about an unnamed young Spanish shephard boy who dreams of hidden treasure in the Pyramids, so he travels through the Saharan desert to find it. He meets a bunch of people on the way, and falls in love with a girl named Fatima. Blahblah learns life lessons, lots of talk about a "Life Key" or something along those lines. It's pretty cheesey, but I think I would have really enjoyed it if I had read it when I was like 10. And even though it wasn't my cup of tea, I can understand why the general masses are obsessed with it: it's easy, it's optimistic, and you don't have to be a "reader" to read it.
Dance, Dance, Dance by Hiraku Murakami. I started this book last summer and never got through it for some reason. I picked it up again this summer and it took a whole month to finish, ha. It's not long or difficult, and the story is good, but it's just didn't grab me. To be fair, though, it's not one of Murakami's best books and I only picked it because it had a cool cover. And although I wasn't completely enamored with the story, I loved his writing style and the overall sense of loneliness with the main character.
It's about a thirty-ish freelance writer in Japan who is dissatisfied with his job and spends most of his time alone. He becomes transfixed with a mysterious hotel in Sapporo. He falls in love with one of the concierge girls, and finds himself staying there a lot. One night, he meets a strange "Sheep Man"- a ghost-like figure who lives in the hotel- who instructs him to "dance." It's confusing. But then the story turns into a murder mystery, and I don't want to ruin it so I won't say much more. But among the characters are a sullen thirteen year-old girl (daughter of famous Japanese writer Haruki Makimura- anagram!) who becomes the protagonist's main companion, an old friend from school who is now a famous actor and heart throb, the dull concierge girl, and plenty of high-class hookers. Lots of dreaminess and haunting past. It's a good book, but not amazing. I also just found out it's actually a sequel, too, so that's probably why I didn't connect so thoroughly. It's also a translation from Japanese to English by an American guy and at times the language is much too American- lots of slang. It didn't feel as Japanese as it should.
Next I want to finally finish The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (a Czesky!). I started it right before I went to Prague and just got too distracted to finish. There's a lot of sex in it. A lot of Czechs. A lot of Prague. It just might make me cry to read this and actually know the places described. I'm going to start from the beginning.
I was absolutely in love with most of this book- it was engaging and relatable, and the characters were incredibly well-written. However I do think that a good hundred pages could have been edited out of the book (it's about 450 as-is) because Smith does tend to ramble in ways that don't really contribute to the story. A few times, characters and concepts were introduced and then completely dropped. For example, the theme of teeth comes up twice in the whole novel, both in the first half. It almost seems tacked-on so her book can have a quirky name or something. There's also an extramarital affair that becomes a central storyline, only to vanish in the last part of the novel. All in all, though, I loved this book. I was awestuck by what a good writer Smith is, expecially considering the fact that this was her first novel and she wrote it in her early-twenties. I definitely want to read more of her books in the future.
It's about a thirty-ish freelance writer in Japan who is dissatisfied with his job and spends most of his time alone. He becomes transfixed with a mysterious hotel in Sapporo. He falls in love with one of the concierge girls, and finds himself staying there a lot. One night, he meets a strange "Sheep Man"- a ghost-like figure who lives in the hotel- who instructs him to "dance." It's confusing. But then the story turns into a murder mystery, and I don't want to ruin it so I won't say much more. But among the characters are a sullen thirteen year-old girl (daughter of famous Japanese writer Haruki Makimura- anagram!) who becomes the protagonist's main companion, an old friend from school who is now a famous actor and heart throb, the dull concierge girl, and plenty of high-class hookers. Lots of dreaminess and haunting past. It's a good book, but not amazing. I also just found out it's actually a sequel, too, so that's probably why I didn't connect so thoroughly. It's also a translation from Japanese to English by an American guy and at times the language is much too American- lots of slang. It didn't feel as Japanese as it should.