Walk While Reading

Book Review

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

I don’t feel entirely comfortable writing unfavorably about an art form I have so much respect for. Writing, and producing fiction stories is something I hold in high regard. But when you’re an author like Haruki Murakami, and you’ve published a novel of 926 pages, at a price tag of over 30 dollars, the reader must demand a return on the investment. 1Q84 is not only a waste of money, it’s a waste of time, for every sentence spent reading it.

Harsh words for an author I use to admire. I no longer do and may never read another word he writes. That sentence is even harsher (I don’t even know if harsher is a word) but I can’t help it, I will not hold back. Writing words like this for an author beloved by millions is not going to gain me many points. I understand that. But I also know, I’m no average reader. I read books every day. I read constantly, I don’t stop reading. I feel like I know what a good and bad book is, and 1Q84 is deplorable. 

I’ve heard the words ‘love story’ used to describe this novel. That is complete bullshit, and if you fall into believing this novel is a love story you’re delusional. Here’s why. Aomame and Tengo fall in love in grade school when they hold hands. After they hold hands they do not see each other for twenty years. They hold hands for a moment. They hold hands!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is all, their love for each other becomes eternal. Murakami, must think I’m stupid, because this is the plot device he uses to keep us reading for almost 800 pages. Unfortunately I was stupid. I should have never picked this book up. I should have never spent a dime on this novel. Why did I read 926 pages and finish 1Q84, because it took me 500 pages to realize I was being duped and being that far into a novel I couldn’t not finish it. But everyday I picked it up, I wished I was reading something else, or doing laundry.

There’s so much wrong with this novel I can go on forever. Murakami repeats himself every third page. He’ll write about how badly someone needs to go pee. Then he’ll describe that person going pee. Then three pages after that he’ll tell you how that person felt when then finally went pee. Then four pages after that the person who went pee, will wake up remember he peed in a bucket and he should flush the bucket of pee down the toilet, because when he went pee earlier, the water in the apartment was turned off. If you think I’m joking I’m not. 

Murakami you really let me down. Nine hundred plus pages is a huge investment in time. I should have been enjoying the reading experience, instead I fantasied about jumping into your novel and kicking the shit out of both your main characters. Because this is all your fault and you should be ashamed of yourself. Oh and one last thing, Murakami, I now hate looking at the moon, thanks a lot.

Illuminations by Authur Rimbaud

Translated by John Ashbery

Book Review

Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

There’s something to be said about discovering Ernest Hemingway in your early thirties. It’s as if you need some life lessons behind you, or some sort of feeling that you’re living life, instead of life living you. There’s just no way I would have been able to appricate Hemingway in my early twenties. I was too selfish then, into my self, and my Friday and Saturday nights. Hemingways words would have had zero effect on me. 

I’m now thirty four. I’ve done somethings, felt love and terror. So when you turn the last page to Farewell to Arms and you gasp, or a tear rolls down your cheek you understand the feeling. The final pages hit you like a brick to the chest. It hurts, and the first words out of your mouth are, “Fucking Hemingway” as you shake your head and smile. 

In describing the books we read we use the words “on the surface” a lot and this book is no different. On the surface, this book is about a love story between Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver serving with the Italy army during World War I and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. Hemingway is not just an on the surface kind of writer, although this love story is tragic, and rips your heart from your chest, Hemingway folds in World War I, like I’ve never seen written about before. 

When I finished this novel it felt like another piece of work that’s completing me as a person. What I mean by that, is, books can form little pieces of you. We each have books we read we’ll never forget, when they come up in conversation or we see them on bookstore shelves we smile, or poke a friend and say “Have you read this..?”

Farewell to Arms leaves a mark. That mark will never go away, for that I’m grateful. 

Book Review

God is Dead Ron Currie Jr.

I’m not sure how to write this review. I felt the book worked, then all of a sudden didn’t work. The first half of the book is brilliant, the second half of the book is not. There’s tremendous writing throughout, and then there’s ummm…..scratch your head and wonder “Wha”. 

It’s a tough book to describe, because it’s feels like a book of short stories. Only one character I believe makes a reappearance within the book. A character, unfortunately, I wasn’t very fond of. 

God comes back as a young Dinka women, he enters a refugee camp in the North Darfur region of Sudan. The Janjaweed are ruling over the region through fear, and murder. A foul mouthed Colin Powell is in the Sudan, full of guilt. He wants to change things, his government does not. God dies, I’m not giving anything away, it’s the title of the book. He dies in the desert of the Sudan and is eaten by a pack of feral dogs. Word spreads throughout the globe that God is dead.

For the most part Currie Jr. succeeds with this moral question. My favorite part, or chapter, or short story, is Indian Summer. Ten men who make a pact to kill each other, because I guess the turmoil of what the world has turned into, is something they’re not interested in. This section really had some weight behind it. It felt heavy, and very gripping. This is actually where I thought the book was heading, but unfortunately it doesn’t, it takes a little bit of a turn and yes trails off to it’s conclusion.

God is Dead is good. It seems like the start of something. Like an author starting out. Finding his way through humor, moral questions, ethics and what it’s like to be a human being. He just missed the mark by little bit. If you read this book, or if you have, I think you’ll understand where I’m coming from.

Book Review: Palo Alto by James Franco

Book Review

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Is this the best book I’ve ever read…? Please don’t roll your eyes. I’ve been giving that question a lot of thought over the last few days as I reflected back on it. When I think back on the reading experience I can’t help but think of how involved emotionally I was with this story. I’m sure I’ll come down off this high, read another book or two and think, oh yes that Freedom was pretty good. But part of me believes that it’s not going to leave me right way. It’s going to linger, stay with me like Gatsby stays with me. That’s what makes great books great. They just don’t go back on the shelf to be forgotten, they stay with you, never leaving your side.

Going into this book I really didn’t know a ton about it. I haven’t had any experience with Jonathan Franzen, I haven’t read Corrections. Enter gasp here ______, so I really went into this book kind of blind. What you learn quick is that Franzen is so gifted its paralyzing. I understand he takes his craft very seriously, it took him ten years to write this, but it comes off as effortless. I haven’t been following as close as I should, but have they started using words to describe Freedom like, masterpiece, work of major importance? If they haven’t yet, they will, it will only be a matter of time.

Walter and Patty Berglund have two children, Joey and Jessica, throw in Richard, Walter’s best friend from college and you have the characters that end up replacing the real life characters in your own life. People have been struggling to write about this book, and I’m afraid I’m not going to do much better.

I’m sure there’s families like the Berglunds but I’ve never meet one. That doesn’t take anything away from the novel, this family has real problems, but they’re kind of over the top problems. Walter and Patty’s marriage is in turmoil, Patty may or may not be in love with Walter’s best friend Richard. Joey and Walter border line hate each other and Jessica is just a younger version of Patty. This I’m afraid doesn’t even scratch the surface of this novel. Mari touched on the major theme of the novel in her earlier review of the book, that theme being the word freedom, freedom from everything and that’s what’s at the core of this novel.

I want to keep writing about this book and being that this is my blog, I’m going to do just that. People are talking about the ending and how disappointed they are about it. I’d like to say with out giving anything away, I disagree with those that don’t like the ending. Why do I say that….? Those of you that have read this book, did you not read the final forty pages in a flurry, were you short of breath and reading the lines of the pages quicker then you normally would…? Did you gasp or slap your knee, maybe shout, or use the word “shit”..? If you did any of these things you loved the ending, and don’t fool yourself into thinking you didn’t. It’s a story, it’s a work of fiction. It’s not real life. It’s a book and it’s a damn fine book at that.

Side note: I just read Jimmy Chen’s review of Freedom over at HMTLGIANT and it’s a far better review then mine. If you have the time. 

Book Review

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

Some authors come to you during a time in your life you’re completely honoured they stopped by. Per Petterson is someone I had heard about and knew about. Out Stealing Horses was his welcome to the world. I saw his book at the bookstore the other day and almost took it off the shelf to give to a random person. “Read this” is what I would have said if I wasn’t a shy, dork who struggles with first contacts. 

Out Stealing Horses is the kind of book that when you put it down you think to yourself there’s more in these pages. You almost want to flip to the start and start all over again. Retracing a man’s life you’re not sure whether to like or dislike. 

He walks away from life. Finds a house in the middle of nowhere to live a life untouched. He has a dog, cuts down trees, goes for walks in the forest. Simple. No thoughts about an outside world he no longer cares for. He has children that he doesn’t seek contact from, and that of course is where he lost me a little. 

There’s a knock at his door that comes from his past. It’s not something he wanted butallows him to look back, whether he wanted to or not, his past his there and some question need to be answered within him. 

Petterson writes with stark, simple prose. The book isn’t big and there’s no big words in it. But the questions about life, our souls and the meaning of life are done with a style I haven’t seen in a very long time. I have a feeling this novel will be recognized as a classic. Years, decades, will go by but it’s feeling will always be there. 

Book Review

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell

David Mitchell is an author that not only amazes me with his gifts, he amazes everyone who has ever read a word of his. This is only my second experience with his work and they’re both so good, so different, so awe inspiring it’s actually hard to understand. When I read Black Swan Green, I took serious interest. It was a book that developed real emotions and it was as if he wasn’t even trying. De Zoet is so completely different that it’s hard to believe it’s the same author and that I believe is his greatest gift.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet is a dialogue heavy, character rich piece of art. Jacob is a book keeper sent to Dejima, a Dutch made island in Nagasaki Harbour. He comes across all sorts of people one of which a mid wife named Orito Aibagawa that changes his world. This novel is thick, in history, in beauty, in intrigue. The minute I heard about this novel I wanted to read it. I talked about it constantly on my blog, and now that I’ve experienced it, the wait was SO worth it. Unfortunately this book is not for everyone. When I used the word thick I meant it. Not in material, there’s samurais, and drunken sailors, monks, and a British frigate. The kind of stuff everyone can get behind. But there are parts of this book that are tedious, ok I’ll say it, a little boring. People will put this book down and move onto something else. When they do that though, they’ll miss out on the beauty of language and the art of story telling not many on this planet possess. 

There’s no David Mitchell book that is the same. This one I hope brings him the long over due Booker Prize. He’s an author that deserves all the accolades he gets, he now just needs to be recognized for his talent.