book reviews (the third quarter is over already!)
Those who have visited our living room (and if you have not, you are most welcome to come visit) have noticed that we have a bit of a capacity problem as far as books are concerned.
Marriage has been a rather distressing affair as far as books are concerned—I no longer seem to know what books I have or what the books on our shelves are about. And though the books we own that I have not read are quite numerous, I always seem to want what I cannot have. So I end up borrowing books from the library instead of reading what I have on hand. But this last quarter, I’ve finally decided to dig into the books that are now overflowing onto our floors.
But enough with pictures and mundane chatter, and onto the reviews. My husband complained in my last set of book reviews that he wanted a thesis for why I rated each book with the number of stars that I did. It is not that deep. I write these reviews, not to pretend to be some professional reviewer, but simply to help me remember each book, its contents and what I liked or disliked about it. In doing so, I hope to give others some guidance as to whether or not they would like to read the book themselves. I do not assess these books in terms of its quality of writing or judge them as a piece of work or a contribution to humanity or whatnot; I am merely rating my enjoyment of the book in my little subjective world. :)
Rating scale from Goodreads
* didn’t like it
** it was ok
*** liked it
**** really liked it
***** it was amazing
Fiction
**** The Road (Cormac McCarthy) ~ This book traces the journey made by a father and his son as they attempt to reach the coast. The world has been destroyed by presumably what resembles a nuclear apocalypse. Major cities were burned, nearly all vegetation and animal life were destroyed, and everything was covered in ashes. As food became scarce, violence and murder increased until even humans were far and few between. McCarthy writes very simply and very calmly, but manages to recreate the bleakness and constant fear that permeates the father and his son’s journey. His novel highlights the extremes of human depravity, explores the tensions between compassion and survival, and offers a somber picture of hope.
**** Out of the Silent Planet (C.S. Lewis)~ C.S. Lewis never fails to satisfy me. This is the first volume of his science fiction Space Trilogy, and in many ways, reverses the elements of a traditional science fiction alien civilization plot. This novel functions at many levels—a beautiful exposition of life on another planet, an exploration of human nature and fear, and a critique of modernism. (PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD). A man named Ransom is captured by two humans and taken to Mars, a planet whose civilization has not “fallen” into original sin. Unlike a traditional science fiction plot, this alien civilization is peaceful and is not intent on invading other planets, even though their own is dying. The two humans, who captured Ransom, because of their own fear (based on their own knowledge of human nature), misunderstand the alien civilization’s good intentions for the worse. One of the most poignant passages occurs at the very end, when one of the humans who captured Ransom stands before the Oyarsa defending his modernism vision of taking over other planets “for the sake of humanity”. His speech is translated into a language that is intelligible to a society that knows not war, violence or oppression. In the translation, the contradictions and foolishness of modernism are revealed.
**** Peralandra (C.S. Lewis) ~ This novel reads nothing like the typical interplanetary travel and discovery we expect in science fiction novels, but is rather intensely mythical and philosophical. This is not to say that C.S. Lewis does not describe a beautiful, enchanting and strange vision of the planet Venus— covered in water, where the patches of solid land float on the ocean like water lilies, shifting great distances and undulating according to the water movement. The main character Ransom is sent to Venus in order to play role in the “Garden of Eden” mythological equivalent. Humanity has just begun on the planet Venus, with Adam and Eve in a state of innocence, and forbidden from sleeping overnight on the “Fixed Land”. Satan has shown up as and continuously tempts “Eve” to disobey God’s order. What follows is an intense philosophical reflection on the choice presented to Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden.
** Invitation to a Beheading (Vladmir Nabokov) ~ This is one of Nabokov’s earlier works, composed in Russian and translated by his son into English. It narrates the imprisonment leading up to the execution of Cinncinnatus C., accused of “gnostic turpitude”. The novel offers commentary on totalitarianism, authority, conformity as well as the nature of fiction. I was a little disappointed with the novel—I had high expectations of the novel because it was so intriguingly described in “Reading Lolita in Tehran”. But I don’t do well with “absurd” stories, and this novel was full of irrational and crazy scenes that defied expectation and made no sense. The prose style, though suggestive of Nabokov’s masterpiece Lolita, was underdeveloped in comparison. There were a few notable passages on Cinncinnatus’s emotional reaction to the absurdity and surrealist that surrounded him, but otherwise, the novel is interesting only for the theoretical questions it poses and as a work of Nabokov, but not so much for holiday reading enjoyment.
*** Invisible Cities (Italo Calvino) ~ In this novel, Marco Polo describes to emperor Kubla Khan (spelling?) the various cities in the kingdom that he has conquered. What follows are short vignettes describing various cities, that hover somewhere in between real physical cities and ethereal metaphysical cities. Calvino seeks to describe different aspects of the personality, character and scope of cities—their changes, the way they make people interact, their relationship with other cities, with poverty, with corruption etc… This doesn’t quite carry the narrative cohesiveness or thematic clarity of say, Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles. It is another case of a novel that reads better as poetry, or perhaps, as paintings or sketches. Calvino writes fairly well, and some of the vignettes are quite thought-provoking and beautiful but others resemble more frustrating art for art’s sake.
*** Atonement (Ian McEwan) ~ I was interested in reading this novel as several of my friends have absolutely loved it (and not because there’s a Keira Knightly film!). However, while I enjoyed the novel, I didn’t find myself loving it, primarily because I tend not to be that into period novels, or more “emotional” or “sentimental” fiction. I’m more into “idea” novels or novels that play with language. That being said, I will attest that the novel is very well-written. McEwan narrates his plot and characters with a melodramatic and psychological approach, that sometimes borders on humourous. I was especially amused with his descriptions of Briony, a 12-year old (?) aspiring writer who reminded me much of myself. The ending really distinguished the novel beyond a simple period piece (at times, the novel reminded me of Jane Austen)—it was surprising, moving and thought-provoking. (PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD) At the end, it is revealed the novel was written by Briony and that her sister Cecilia and her lover Robbie Turner actually both died in the war as opposed to reuniting happily in the novel. The novel serves as an atonement for what actually happened, giving her Cecilia and Robbie an opportunity to live together happily in fictive memory. “When I am dead, and the Marshalls are dead, and the novel is finally published, we will only exist as my inventions… No one will care what events and which individuals were misrepresented to make a novel. I know there’s always a certain kind of reader who will be compelled to ask, But what really happened? The answer is simple: the lovers survive and flourish. As long as there is a single copy, a solitary typescript of my final draft, then my spontaneous, fortuitous sister and her medical prince survive to love.”
***** That Hideous Strength (C.S. Lewis) ~ One of the most telling ways to determine if I have been reading a good book is to examine my reading space. Am I surrounded by little shreds of ripped paper, the remnants of make-shift bookmarks used to mark passages that I like? This certainly was the case with this book. The novel is set in England and recounts a marriage between two academics and the rise to power of the modernist organization, N.I.C.E., the National Institute for Controlled Experiments. This was probably my favourite book out of the Space Trilogy, because of its chilling portrayals of marriage, academic life and institutional life were so realistic (realistic in the sense that it touches upon the real spiritual core of these institutions, not in the sense that it is “probable” and likely to happen in this world). Despite the realism, or perhaps because of this realism, the novel also provides a brilliant exposition at the level of ideas, relating to the history of mankind, the nature of gender and the character of obedience, power and love. Couple that with humorous, sharp and yet beautiful prose, and you have one spectacular book. Read with care. Even I did and I’m the queen of skimming.
Non-Fiction
** Mindless Eating (Brian Wansink) ~ I picked up this book at the library while in California visiting my family. I skimmed through it one afternoon. It is part interesting and entertaining facts and research relating to the psychology of eating and part “easy diet”/healthy eating advice. The book provides simple ways of reducing calorie intake by taking advantage about how we psychologically relate to food. The diet/healthy eating tips were mostly common sense, but helpful to a certain extent (I have a terrible office snacking habit). Of all the research studies, I most enjoyed the experiment where participants ate day-old chocolate cake. Despite having eaten the same cake, participants who received menus that noted the cake as “chocolate cake” rated the cake taste as mediocre or poor, whereas those who received menus with “Fine Belgian Double Chocolate Cake” rated the cake as amazing and very good. Interestingly enough, in this study and many others participants always noted that they didn’t believe they would be affected by such marketing tactics.
*** Ways of Seeing (John Berger) ~ This book compiles seven (?) essays, three visual, four written relating to art history, visual studies and capitalism. I didn’t really understand the visual essays, but I did find the four written ones enjoyable and thought-provoking. The first reflects upon the different ways of seeing, and reflects upon the impact of reproduction of art on art (based on Walter Benjamin’s essay Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction). The second essay related to the depiction of male and female, naked and nude. The last two essays were on oil painting and its relation to capitalism and art ownership, and the role of the image in advertising. The essays were very readable and prompted thought relating to the role of economics and social class in the production of art.
** Philadelphia 300-Year History (editor Russel Weigley) ~ History has historically been my worse subject, so please be aware of my bias in this review. Despite being averse to history, I’ve recently decided to start learning more about both Philadelphia and the United States. This book assembles essays from a variety of authors and covers Philadelphia’s colonial period to around 1975. I started reading this 750 page tome (sp?) with much interest, especially in seeing how the initial plan of this city was laid out, started skimming when I reached the 18th and 19th century, and by the 20th century, I was rapidly skimming. Though the essays are decent and informative—most of them lack a strong narrative arc or argument and read more as laundry lists of facts about the development of various aspects of Philadelphia (e.g. demographics, crime, civil institutions, government reform etc…). As someone who is interested in the “spirit” of cities, this book was more just about the bones and though providing me with a few facts about the city’s history, failed to provide a cohesive vision for understanding it. Perhaps I should not expect history to be written this way, but I want to read history as a story, not a chronological date list.
*** An Introduction to Marx (Peter Singer) ~ This was an interesting and easy to understand introduction into Karl Marx’s life, ideas and influence. Singer particularly highlighted Karl Marx’s biography (his surprisingly unproletariat life), his evolution of thought, key concepts and his influences.
**** Terra Nullius: A Journey Through No One's Land (Sven Lindqvist) ~ I think sometimes I tend to be prejudiced against obscure books—thinking that most of them are probably not very good since they are not well-acclaimed or well-known. Reading excerpts from Terra Nullius for my Community Economic Development class definitely proved my prejudice wrong (To be honest-- should I really allow my reading tastes to be dictated by Barnes & Nobles?). This is a beautiful mixture of narrative and history, describing the devastating deaths and injustices that resulted from colonization. It covers the historical conquest, recent political developments and the academic study of aborigine culture. It questions the rational justifications for these actions and reflects upon what it means to make amends on an historical injustice. The novel does not follow a linear progression, but jumps from sections of a few pages each that touch upon related topics. The book is beautifully written and clear, and incredibly informative.
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