last weekend was vacation, which meant reading. here's what i read last week, in planes, trains, automobiles, and parks:
"disgrace" - j.m. coetzee. coetzee was next on my list of nobel awardees to check out. i don't know that i'll be reading anything else by him. i am thoroughly glad that i read this book, though. a naked look at the darkness of humanity. the lingering power of sexual dynamics in a world that still studies shakespeare and hold truth and reconiliation committees. the more i mediate on this sparse novel, the more i am convinced of the panel's reason for giving him an award.
"love in the time of cholera" - g.g. marquez. "one hundred years of solitude" seems to make life-long acolytes or confused headache bearers out of the people who read it. i am definitely in the former category. this is only the second marquez book i've read, though, and i'm glad i read it when i did. after the starkness of "disgrace," completely and intentionally void of beauty, this book, a meditation on love, was incredible, like an 8-course meal.
i love how marquez staggers through the worlds he creates, seeming to get drunk on the richness of people. no stone is uncovered; ten pages may be devoted solely to a character who disappears for the rest of the novel, but it hardly matters. it doesn't feel like a series of vignettes. it just feels
real. not magically real - real. the only magic is in how he makes you feel while you read his work.
"new york: the big city" - w. eisner. eisner is apparently the father of the modern graphic novel, and this book, while not a graphic novel, was a good indication of why. dozens of vignettes in a paean to city life. some typical, some not; some hopeful, some not; each given an attention to detail that made the characters jump off the frameless page. i'm excited to pick up some of his actual novels from the library, maybe check out the spirit.
"american nerd" - b. nugent. a pseudo-ethnography of the nerd. really insightful research into the implications of class, race, gender, and even policies that play into the marginalization of the "other," as personified by the "nerd," nugent makes a compelling case when he is sticking to his theses.
i particularly liked his ruminations on the conceptions of human-ness in the enlightenment vs. the gradual shift into the industrial age. during the age of reason, he argues, we embraced rationality as the signifying characteristic of humanity. it was what made us different than the animals. starting with "frankenstein" and romanticism, however, we began to see machines performing many of the tasks that were previously done by humans. we began to embrace our animal nature was what signified us as human - not separate from animals, but separate from our own creations.
i was not a particular fan of his more straight non-fiction, reporting style, or his autobiographical moments. they interrupted an otherwise thought-provoking read, and seemed inappropriate. it seemed as though nugent was trying to legitimize his qualifications for writing the book - "look, see, i was a nerd!" the peeks into his adolescence, and the guilt he felt from his own treatment of his nerd friends, might be interesting in another context, but his attempt to weave in a personal narrative just came across as awkward.
"the portable february" - d. berman. dave berman is one of my favorite songwriters of all time. the songs of the silver jews are complex - almost always absurd at first, before the words start to make a slow sense that can be touching, hilarious and life-affirming in a bizarre fashion. these drawings, which remind me of my friend stephen's wonderful "manys" zine, are kind of along the same lines. a post-modern, contemporary art far side of sorts. there were a few pages that made me giggle long after i looked at them, but there are also a lot that i haven't the slightest clue about. i'm looking forward to picking this one up from the ol' coffee table and beard-scratching.
"the toolbox for sustainable city living" - s. kellog & s. pettigrew. "green" books are a dime a dozen these days. i'm not one of those ornery lefties who gets off on calling "foul" because most of these books are either near-worthless or filled with common-sensical ideas that people will still probably ignore. but i do approach books on "sustainability" with a hefty dose of skepticism.
which is why i found myself surprised as i bought this book on my annual quimby's splurge. it's so... useful! chicken-rearing, aquaculture, constructed wetlands, humanure, vermicomposting, and more. this was basically house-porn for me as i keep my fingers crossed pre-closing.
let me know if you want to borrow this one.
right now, i'm reading "the wordy shipmates" by s. vowell, about the second group of puritans to sail across the ocean (massachussetts and "city on a hill," not plymouth rock and thanksgiving myths). so far, it's not anywhere near as good as her "assassination vacation," which was a fascinating look at the assassins (and political atmospheres) of lincoln, garfield and mckinley, filled with wit and charm. that's not saying much, though - vacation was one of the best non-fiction books i've ever read. still, i'm hoping for a rebound.