It’s Wednesday… What I’m (almost) Reading…
By Kristen on Feb 6, 2008 in Future Classics...?, Reviews
What an interesting week of reading… Please remember that I loved 2/3rds of what I read last week, and notice that I put a link to a review of each novel in order to off-set my own perspective. Two of my discards won awards, after all…
First, I tackled The Echo Maker by Richard Powers — read 60 of the 450+ pages and put it aside. I loved the premise — man gets in car accident, sustains brain damage, and no longer recognizes the sister who has been caring for him since the accident (giving up her job, home, etc.). Interesting! But the writing felt so wooden and forced — maybe over-written? Or over-edited? I’m not sure exactly, but I knew after 60 pages that I didn’t care (at all) about either sibling, the eco-friendly passages about the cranes and their extinction were intrusive and not lyrical, and I simply thought “Life’s too short” and invoked Pearl’s 50 page rule. By the way, when I first opened the book, someone had written “Don’t Bother” and underlined it twice — the librarian had tried to erase it, but to no avail. I did try not to be influenced by this, but who knows…
And, if I had known that I would be invoking Pearl’s Rule two more times in as many days, I wonder if I would have given up so easily on The Echo Maker…? (Probably…)
Friday we headed to the cabin and popped in Rick Bragg’s Ava’s Man on cassette. Bragg is a masterful short story writer, so I had high hopes. Unfortunately, the way he set up the narration was distracting and eventually insurmountable (a series of flashbacks all the way back to the 1500’s… seriously…). And we just weren’t convinced that Ava’s an was worth that much history, so Bragg only kept us company on the ride to Wisconsin, but not the ride back.
Next I attempted Anne Enright’s The Gathering and Jane Smiley’s Ten Days in the Hills. I was interested in The Gathering because the premise was a sister dealing with the week immediately following her brother’s death. Since I have unfortunately lived through his horrific experience, I was curious to see how it would be portrayed in writing — and the book had won the National Book Award, so how bad could it be? Well, after 50 pages I felt as if it was a manual on how NOT to live. The protagonist assumed the worst of everyone around her and was particularly vitriolic regarding her mother. There may have been good cause, but I was relieved not to be trapped in her psyche any more than 50 pages worth. Again, life is too short…
Last, and certainly least, I attempted Jane Smiley’s latest. I really enjoyed Horse Heaven and thought Moo was o.k. Well, I only got through 20 pages of male genitalia and Hollywood nonsense before I chucked that one!
Thankfully, at the last minute I had packed a light, perfectly engaging mystery by Emilie Richards, Prospect Street, which cleansed my palate and satisfied my reading needs for the remainder of the weekend.
So far this week I have had the distinct pleasure of rereading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson for a custom kit. Just as singular and spectacular as I remembered… thankfully. (The kit should be finished and ready for purchase by late next week, by the way…)
Happy Reading! Hopefully next week I will have a couple of winners to recommend… On deck: Rabbit, Run by John Updike.
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