Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
First class writing of a funny, moving story. The first couple of chapters are quite difficult, as Foer's style is certainly not run-of-the-mill. But this book is a process - the writing develops as you read it, following the relationship between the narrator & author (there's some complicated metafictional stuff going on here too).
The story follows the histories of two Ukranian families - one Jewish, one not - and delves into the traumas suffered by villages during WW2. Light reading it isn't. But Foer made me laugh out loud and cry too, and gave me plenty to think about.
Highly recommended - stick with it past those first two chapters!
First class writing of a funny, moving story. The first couple of chapters are quite difficult, as Foer's style is certainly not run-of-the-mill. But this book is a process - the writing develops as you read it, following the relationship between the narrator & author (there's some complicated metafictional stuff going on here too).
The story follows the histories of two Ukranian families - one Jewish, one not - and delves into the traumas suffered by villages during WW2. Light reading it isn't. But Foer made me laugh out loud and cry too, and gave me plenty to think about.
Highly recommended - stick with it past those first two chapters!
Friday, September 14, 2007
Interesting & readable story about a young woman's struggle with depression. Plath's semi-autobiographical novel lucidly describes the experience of 19 year old Esther's mental breakdown, and treatment in a 1950s asylum. Not the cheeriest of books, but well written, thoughtful and worth a read.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Falling Out of Cars by Jeff Noon
Fabulous. I was already a big fan of Noon's writing, and this is definitely up to his standard of challenging, lyrical, literary mindfucking. This is a book about words and images - about what would happen if the semiotic world we live in broke down. Here, images proliferate and disengage themselves from what they represent. Signifiers fail, meaning can no longer be comprehended, we are adrift in a sensual overload that refuses interpretation. How do we know who and what we are, if there is nothing stable to measure experience against? How can we communicate with each other if we can't express what our senses tell us? Fascinating stuff.
Fabulous. I was already a big fan of Noon's writing, and this is definitely up to his standard of challenging, lyrical, literary mindfucking. This is a book about words and images - about what would happen if the semiotic world we live in broke down. Here, images proliferate and disengage themselves from what they represent. Signifiers fail, meaning can no longer be comprehended, we are adrift in a sensual overload that refuses interpretation. How do we know who and what we are, if there is nothing stable to measure experience against? How can we communicate with each other if we can't express what our senses tell us? Fascinating stuff.
