What I’ve Been Reading – April 2008

May 7, 2008

Books Acquired:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith
Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences – Lawrence Weschler

Books Read:
The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien

Here I am, seven days late, frantically trying to figure out what I’m going to write about. It’s as if, for this month at least, this column has turned into an albatross around my neck – a weight dragging me down, a job I wish I could just pass on.

But that’s not how I work. I have a meticulous personality that expects nothing less than consistency. A What I’ve Been Reading column every month and a chicken in every pot. I can’t fail the fans, right? Wait – these columns are too long to read anyway? They’re just a sort of literary masturbation? A fit of intolerant rhetoric on why the books I read are worth mentioning and torturing you with?

All kidding aside, I only read one book this month: Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.

“Just one?” you might say. “And I thought you considered yourself a reader!”

I do. Leave me alone. It just so happens that sometimes life doesn’t want me to read. That’s fine. I’m okay. Sure, there’s this itching in my mind from being bled to death by the diodes of a television screen, but it’ll pass. At least, that’s what the guys on television say.

It’s NBA Playoff season, and reading has taken a few steps back while I watch somewhere between a quarter to a half of each playoff game. I’ve taken the Celtics on as my pet playoff team (I’m warming to them as a new favorite team altogether, especially considering my penchant for the early to mid-80s Larry Bird) and have been thrilled to watch tons of great players that I often don’t get to see during the regular season.

Of course, on those days when basketball isn’t the focus, I find myself enjoying the outdoors. Or recovering several weeks of sleepless nights thanks to Sierra. Or monitoring election turnouts. Or visiting friends. Hey, I’m a busy person, and where the winter allows me seemingly thousands of hours of available reading time, a warm weather front pushes that idle page flipping to the back of the room, causing it to crowd with blogging and other computer-related activities.

The Things They Carried isn’t a book that’s difficult to get through. It’s not a dense or overcomplicated story by any means. Quite the contrary – it’s a series of short stories that move from half-fiction to faux-autobiography, simple and easy to read, about a subject that we’re all familiar with in one way or another – war, specifically the Vietnam war.

The Things They Carried was a finalist for the Pulitzer, and I can see why. It’s a no-holds-barred look at the war and how it affected those who were a part of it. And while some stories focus on the crazy darkness of Vietnam’s trenches, The Things They Carried takes care to fill us in on the more positive traits of war – the brotherhood, the stories, the fellowship and the relief of find yourself safe, suddenly, without warning.

Don’t get me wrong - the looming shadow of death is always present. But it’s not the driving factor like many novels about Vietnam seem to think.

There’s a voice that filters through the entire book – the voice of a man who feels fortunate to have made it out alive. Tim O’Brien is not shy about admitting that his stories blur the line between what really happened and what makes the story more memorable – not only for dramatic effect, but also for personal salvation; he changes part of the story because he’s not able to take it on himself.

Admittedly, The Things They Carried is fiction that is based on Tim’s own experiences. But the interjections by the author help make it seem more real. You get the feeling that each death really happened – and probably did happen – with the names and places changed to protect the dead and buried. He talks about the difference between real truth and story truth – the idea that what happens in the heat of the moment is skewed, is remembered in a way that no one else can experience, adding a larger-than-life image to a darkly human story.

These exaggerations aren’t lying, O’Brien explains, but are simply a “happening truth.” They happen to you on another plane of being. If you imagine the bullet slowing down, curving around in midair, striking the head of a friend in a fury of laughter; if the sky darkens as if an eclipse, and the trees bend away from the scene of action – these are all true, because they happened to you. They are part of your story. They are not an exaggeration.

What it creates is a fictional representation that better illustrates the war than the pure facts would. It’s a way to, in his words, “the correct way to clear his conscience and tell the story of thousands of soldiers who were forever silenced by society.”

I only read one book this month. It took me forever, even though it was easy. I seriously wasn’t sure I’d even have it finished by the end of the month.

But it was powerful. And I know this for sure – I’ll barely remember any of the playoff games I’ve watched this month. The Things They Carried? That I’ll be able to keep in my mind for years to come.

Tags: What I've Been Reading, Books, Literature |

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WIBR Tournament - Championship Finals

May 6, 2008

We’re back in business. Now let’s crown a champion.

Click here for the entire bracket.

The What I’ve Been Reading Tournament of Books
CHAMPIONSHIP:

East of Eden - John Steinbeck
vs.
Rabbit Angstrom - John Updike

When you dedicate a novel to your two sons, you tend to pour every ounce of your effort into making it the best.

This was the case with John Steinbeck and East of Eden, a novel that served to capture every ounce of his life in the Salinas Valley in California - every piece of land, every life met, every quirk and blade of grass. He takes the temperature of the area and concludes with an incredibly detailed prescription - a look at what caused every hardship, a plan to recreate the joys, a little something to keep the swelling in his heart at bay lest it break at the notion of losing his home altogether. He didn’t just dedicate it to his sons. He dedicated it to the Salinas Valley itself, writing a love letter to those dusty fields, to that backwater town, to the people he grew up with.

It’s masterfully layered, with each generation’s mistakes piling up on the former, creating a solid foundation of failure - and ultimately, hope - that future generations could build upon; Adam Trask cowered in the memory of his brother and father, Cal and Aron felt the unknown shadow of their long lost mother holding them hostage, each character finding refuge in something unhealthy, in pride and greed and a desire to carve out some sort of legacy among his or her peers.

East of Eden is more than a novel about the Salinas Valley. It’s a veiled attempt at reinterpreting The Bible, a raw and gritty look at the darker side of human nature. It has its fair share of joy. But joy has never made for great drama, and the intertwining lives in East of Eden are filled with a higher level of drama, like the difference between the tension in The Godfather, Part II versus a simple episode of Law and Order.

If Steinbeck ever set out to write the Great American Novel, this was it. In talking about East of Eden, Steinbeck said, “It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years. I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this.”

I say all of this now because I haven’t really had much of a chance to explain my love for East of Eden yet. East of Eden has blown out every book it has faced, leaving me with no need to extrapolate a reasoning from the cause of the destruction. Rabbit Angstrom, on the other hand, has been analyzed and justified for three straight rounds. I’ve had to reason with myself as to why it should make it to the Finals, why it should beat The Road and how I could possibly have taken it over Gilead back in the first match-up.

I took a break in the tournament because I felt the Rabbit Angstrom steam-train was about ready to derail, taking the entire tournament with it and causing every decision to be seen with an air of mockery. With the exception of The Road, these two books are the best I’ve read since writing this column, and East of Eden deserved to put its lackadaisical run to the finals behind it - to curb the momentum of Rabbit Angstrom and see how things match up with a clear head and a logical mind.

A week ago, Rabbit Angstrom would have won.

It deserves it. For it’s importance alone. I’ve thrown around terms like “time capsule” and “voice of the generation,” and they’re all true. Rabbit Angstrom is a chronicle of the turn of each decade since 1960. It’s an amazing case study in the idea of Everyman, a man who lives life with a restless eye turned toward the past, who eats poorly and develops heart disease and experiences the rise and fall of success and divorce and children and death and honor and a confused sense of purpose.

But a week later, with both books battering around my head, with the plots reviewed and the emotions freshened, I can’t look past the fact that East of Eden isn’t just the best book I’ve read in the past three years. The fact is, it could be the best book I’ve ever read. Period. End. That’s it. That’s all she wrote, kids. Stick a knife in everything else, etc.

East of Eden’s path to the Final Four seemed predestined, with a random drawing moving the book into an easy bracket, its closest competitors sitting together in the same quadrant, ready to knock each other off. East of Eden was this year’s Celtics, the best book, but so far ahead that you start to forget about it, start making reasons for its demise and stop believing that it was anything special in the first place.

But it is. Oh, man. It is. The tournament was filled with close match-ups. But when we get down to the end, there was probably only one book that ever had a chance to begin with.

The Winner and WIBR Tournament of Books Champion…
East of Eden – John Steinbeck

Tags: What I've Been Reading, Books, Literature |

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WIBR Tournament – The Final Four

May 1, 2008

This, my friends, is what it all comes down to. Four books, each having made it through three tough match-ups, each representing its respective bracket.

We’ve got a quad-logy, a graphic novel, an Oprah Book Club selection and a modern look at humor. We’ve got numerous awards, including a Pulitzer Prize winner and a Nobel Price recipient.

We’ve got subjects ranging from wild and rangy office life to three generations of fuck-ups (actually, that one happens twice.) We’ve got exposes on the nation in the guise of Everyman and we’ve got a love letter to a former home.

Ware. Steinbeck. Updike. Ferris. Two are legends, two are modern stars.

Only two will move on.

Click here for the entire bracket.

The What I’ve Been Reading Tournament of Books
THE FINAL FOUR:

Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth - Chris Ware
vs.
East of Eden - John Steinbeck

Both Jimmy Corrigan and East of Eden deal with multiple generations. Each corresponding generation has a difficulty learning from the mistakes of its former. Flubs resonate throughout the family, creating a butterfly effect that slaps each family member in the face, one by one, slowly and methodically, like the wings of that butterfly against the wind.

Ware takes Jimmy Corrigan and makes him real. Jimmy is an emotional mess, a bundle of nerves wrapped up, with crucial sections exposed to the world. Life pokes at his ribs, forcing him to choke back restrained tears. He struggles to understand what has happened – how he’s managed to go so wrong, how he’s become so misunderstood.

It’s this struggle that hit me so hard. I’ve never genuinely felt so sorry for someone as much as I have for Jimmy Corrigan. He’s a character that still affects me today, leaves me searching for a way to console him, as if he was a neighbor boy mourning the loss of his mother.

Chris Ware doesn’t just take a novel approach to drawing – he takes a writer’s approach to writing, fleshing out the story through the details, relying not just on his images but on his story, the plausibility and emotion of the words used. The pared back style helps the reader focus on the story, not on beautiful drawing.

Of course, East of Eden is what it is – Steinbeck’s greatest novel, according to some. The Grapes of Wrath was Important. But East of Eden? It’s Good. Simply Good. There was no need to go any deeper, to bring out a political message or rely on historical accuracy – it was just a solid, beautiful story that spanned three generations of Trasks.

It’s still a surprise to me that Jimmy Corrigan made it this far. But you can’t blame me for making the obvious choice.

The Winner: East of Eden – John Steinbeck

Rabbit Angstrom - John Updike
vs.
Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris

Then We Came to the End is a clever and hilariously funny book.

But let’s be frank, here. I’ve already moved Rabbit Angstrom through Gilead, through Travels with Charley and through The Road. I’ve had to go to long lengths as to why I chose the book three straight times. It didn’t get the simple path that East of Eden got – it had to fight its way through the Bracket from Hell.

Then We Came to the End? It beat Atonement, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Black Swan Green. Not a cakewalk by any means. But certainly not two Pulitzers and a Nobel.

When it comes down to this, Ferris is the tournament’s Davidson – a great book that few thought had a chance. And against a book like Rabbit Angstrom? Yeah – it doesn’t.

Thanks, Ferris. It’s been a great run.

The Winner: Rabbit Angstrom – John Updike

Tags: What I've Been Reading, Books, Literature |

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Which book would you save?

May 1, 2008

Today is the final day of the Sioux Falls Big Read.

This year, we celebrated Fahrenheit 451. We’ve promoted book discussions all month long. And tonight, we’ll be putting on a mixer at the Museum of Visual Materials downtown, featuring writing contest winners, The Smoke and Mirrors Band and various local personalities discussing a question often brought up when F451 is mentioned.

If all of the books were being burned, and you could risk your life to save one book…which one would you save?

Do you save an important book – one that has changed the lives of millions of readers? Do you save Beowulf – the English language’s first recorded words – or Plato’s Republic or The Bible? Do you save The Diary of Anne Frank or Fahrenheit 451 itself?

Or do you save your favorite book? Do you stand aside, allowing the rest of the risk takers to worry about the Great Canon of Literature while you grab the book that’s meant the most to you and you alone.

This will come as no surprise: I’m going to lay claim to Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath – for both reasons, really. It’s an Important Book. And, it’s one of my favorites. I’ve always liked East of Eden more, and would probably consider The Pearl and Travels with Charley as well, but The Grapes of Wrath is just more important to literature as a whole.

What about you?

Which book would you save?

Leave your answer in the comments – or post it on your own blog. Let’s send The Big Read out in style.

Tags: Books, Literature |

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WIBR Tournament - Round 3

April 28, 2008

The Final Four is right around the corner. Let’s cut this group in half, shall we?

Click here for the entire bracket.

The What I’ve Been Reading Tournament of Books
Bracket One:

Housekeeping - Marilynn Robinson
vs.
Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth - Chris Ware

It’s funny how we come across the books we love – and how random those choices can be.

Housekeeping was a book on the periphery of eventuality for a long time. Two years ago we celebrated Marilynn Robinson’s Gilead (which lost to Rabbit Angstrom in the first round) as the One Book South Dakota. I read it, wrote about it and fell in love with it.

It could have ended there, but a coworker told me that I absolutely had to read Housekeeping – how it’s better than Gilead (it’s not, but close) and blah blah. At the SD Festival of Books, I purchased a copy, had it signed by Robinson and placed it on my shelf.

It could have ended there, as well. But while I sat in the hospital waiting for Sierra to be born, I read Nick Hornby’s Housekeeping vs. The Dirt, a collection of his Believer articles. He read Housekeeping, loved it, and spurred me to reach for it on the shelf.

I read it and loved it too.

Jimmy Corrigan was fueled by some McSweeney’s love as well – he designed the cover of McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Issue 13, a book I received because McSweeney’s was six months late in fulfilling my subscription to Believer.

I loved his style and looked him up. I purchased a copy of Voltaire’s Candide simply because he designed the cover. And naturally, I had to have Jimmy Corrigan, widely accepted as his best work and one of the most respected graphic novels of the 2000s.

It didn’t sit on my shelf. Graphic novels are easy to read, so I started it just hours after taking it out of the box it was shipped in.

What I’m saying is that there’s a lot of love put into a book selection before it’s read. There’s the act of locating the books and the fight to make time to read it. Opinions are gauged, budgets planned, reviews read. After a while, you either impulsively pull the trigger by ordering it online or grabbing it at a store or you wait until you find it at a used bookstore, knowing you’d like to have it on hand but may never read it.

A lot of love went into both of these selections. A chain reaction of factors led to each book’s purchase and completion.

After all of that, it’s hard to shut one of these out. But I have to.

And it makes it so much harder to know that a Final Four showdown of Pulitzer Prize winners is being shot down as well.

The Winner: Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth – Chris Ware

Bracket Two:

The Whistling Season - Ivan Doig
vs.
East of Eden - John Steinbeck

The Whistling Season was selected as 2007’s One Book South Dakota (in fact, it was Gilead’s successor). East of Eden was selected as one of Oprah’s books – in fact, it was a return to the classics, if I remember correctly.

As much as I love One Book South Dakota, it doesn’t really carry the influence (though, admittedly, it also doesn’t carry the stigma) that Oprah’s book club does. Which leads part of me to want to go for the upset here, choosing The Whistling Season over the book everyone knew was going to make it to the Final Four.

But I can’t. Ivan’s a nice guy, and I refuse to let him hang in the wind. The true fact is that this bracket was as chalk as can be. There was no way East of Eden wasn’t going to make it out, which is pretty evident in the fact that I haven’t bothered to write anything about why I’ve chosen it.

Here’s why I choose East of Eden. Because it’s a wonderfully layered novel by one of the English language’s great masters, a book that doesn’t seem as long as it is, a book that looks deep into the psyche of an entire family of fuckups, a family that is doomed to repeat its own mistakes on and on ad infinitum.

It’s Steinbeck’s love letter to the place where he grew up. And it’s as candid as he ever really got (notwithstanding those times when he was accompanied by a dog. See: Travels with Charley.)

The Winner: East of Eden – John Steinbeck

Bracket Three:

Rabbit Angstrom - John Updike
vs.
The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Hey – speaking of Pulitzer Prize winners, here’s two! In fact, four of the final eight have all won Pulitzer Prizes (these two, Steinbeck and Marilynn Robinson). What heady company!

Okay. I’ve been dreading this. Either one could win. And I’m convinced that the winner of this bracket will win the entire tournament. The entire tournament! This is like Spurs/Suns 2007, a battle of heavyweights that will ultimately determine the entire tournament, leaving the other three Final Four combatants shaking in their boots.

But at this point – right now, as I type this – I still haven’t chosen a winner. I’ve even placed links to both book images in the code, not knowing which I’ll eventually choose.

There are two things I could do. I could go on and on about the merits of both of these books, dragging on forever (too late!), ultimately coming to a hackneyed decision based on some triviality like a hangover I had while reading page 346 or a comment that my father made regarding someone with a similar name as the author.

Instead, I will tell you why this decision is so hard.

After reading The Road, I dubbed it “The Best Book I’ve Read in the Past Five Years.”

Oops.

Now, my dilemma: I can either back up that statement wholeheartedly or turn my back on it and choose the other book that qualifies under The Best Book, etc.

I do have an out, though. The Best Book statement was made in March 2007. I read Rabbit Angstrom in April 2007. Continuity, my friends.

The Road really is the greatest book I’ve read from the past five years. It’s haunting and simple, saying so much with so little. That’s what I loved about it – the fears weren’t spelled out for us – they were implied, allowing our minds to create whatever fears we had and transpose them into the story. It was well worth the praise it received. It’s a required read, one of my top ten of all time.

However, Rabbit Angstrom, for all of his faults, sticks with me. The effort of reading all four of the Rabbit books at once, bound together not as four separate sections but as one collected life, made Rabbit part of my circle of friends. I know more about that one character – have watched his rise and fall, his fears and bold accusations, every wrong word and misguided step – than I know about a lot of people in real life.

They’re time capsules, beautifully written and still striking today. The Road is a wonderful book. But Rabbit Angstrom is wonderfuller.

(P.S. – this is a case where both books are equal. So equal, in fact, that if you would ask me which book was better tomorrow, there’s a good chance that The Road would win. Call it a mental coin flip.)

The Winner: Rabbit Angstrom – John Updike

Bracket Four:

Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris
vs.
Black Swan Green - David Mitchell

My past vs. my future. Sad kid trying to fit in vs. copywriter.

As this tournament has gone on, Then We Came to the End has gained momentum I never thought it would have. It’s still pretty fresh in my mind, which helps – like a basketball team that had a rough start of the year forging ahead with a winning streak into the playoffs.

This time, Black Swan Green isn’t saved by a less spectacular book of short stories or a coin flip. When it comes to Then We Came to the End, David Mitchell’s just not in the same league (WIBR-wise).