September, 2014--Leaves are turning and so are pages but...what are we reading?

Finished Rene Denfield's THE ENCHANTED.

An odd book, gritty and dark, with an disconcerting element of magical realism. The combination is sometimes jarring and ineffective, especially at the conclusion of the novel. I'll give it an endorsement...but with a few caveats.

Just finished a book of Gogol short stories, including the novella Taras Bulba. It was not anything like the rest of them (the Nose, the Overcoat, Diary of a Madman, etc). I loved the other short stories and found Taras Bulba entertaining yet it was as if it was written by a different author. Also, antisemitic tropes bother my modern psyche. It reminded me of reading Ivanhoe.

>1 CliffBurns:
this is good to hear as it's the most negative review i've seen of this book so far. she's local to north portland (where i am) and it's all the rave here right now. saw her speak/read last week and found her really interesting and the short passage she read seemed very well written. but i get skeptical when the only things i hear are either completely glowing or the opposite.

THE ENCHANTED is a debut novel and so it's not surprising that it's not perfect. I can see why the novel would appeal to people, although there are some very, very dark sections. I won't risk spoilers but I do think the fantasy/magic realism element should have either been eliminated or downplayed until it was only present in a single character's mind. The fantastic plays too prominent (and intrusive) a role at the book's conclusion, marring it (in my view).

>4 CliffBurns:
interesting. thanks for this. i'm more interested in your feeling about how the fantastic is dealt with in the book than the dark stuff, which is more taste/preference than how well something is done.

she has published a few nonfiction books and has written in other capacities for a while so i'd still expect her craft to be a little more honed.

it'll be a while before i get to it but i'm still looking forward to reading it one day...

Just one reader's opinion. Hope you find reading the book a rewarding experience.

Mo Wan's Red Sorghum. Just finished Mary Szybist's Incarnadine. Starting Nemerov's Selected. And linear algebra as a palate cleanser between courses. (Yes, linear algebra!).

David Sahner
Santa Cruz, California

Now reading The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories. I've read Lovecraft before, but many, many years ago.

>2 anna_in_pdx: Anna, I'm really only familiar with the Gogol short 'The Nose' from the early Shostakovich opera...

Oh Le Carre you magnificent bastard. Loooved the ending for The Spy That Came In From The Cold.

Bonus clip: Richard Burton! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_khnbwEwNv4

Last night I very stupidly picked up the last installment of Robert Caro's biographical series on President Lyndon Johnson, THE PASSAGE OF POWER, started flipping through it and now I fear I'm hooked into an 800 page tome when I'm deeply mired in work.

I find LBJ absolutely fascinating--a flawed man whose flaws were only magnified as his stature grew. Morally conflicted, beset by inner demons. And Caro brings him to life brilliantly, with all of his depth and contradictions.

#10--Le Carre's latest, A MOST WANTED MAN, is also worthy--and I note that the movie, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, has just been released.

I enjoyed A Most Wanted Man.

The book or movie?

Book, have not seen the movie, usually don't see new releases :)

>12 CliffBurns:

Thanks. I will have to look it up. I have a few Le Carre books that I want to read but I need to pace myself.

> 2

I thought Dead Souls was hilarious. So it's time to read more of Gogol, including Taras Bulba. Maybe I've procrastinated because as a Teen, I saw the movie, and the threat to castrate poor Tony Curtis was apparently too much to take.

> 8

'Ashamed to say my only knowledge of Ctuhulu, is from Eric Cartman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcbV1CukCNc

Thucydides has kicked my intellectual ass, so to speak. I'm taking a breather and am reading spoilers, instead. I'm currently enjoying A War Like No Other.

Closed the book, so to speak, on THE PASSAGE OF POWER.

Wow.

Author Robert Caro covers a smaller period of time in this volume of the LBJ biographical series, but these are critical years: becoming Vice President, the assassination of John Kennedy and its aftermath. Engrossing portrait of the rivalry and profound hatred that existed between Johnson and Robert Kennedy.

GREAT non-fiction.

About 2/3 of the way through David Mitchell's new one, THE BONE CLOCKS.

I made the decision to read nothing about the book--no reviews or author features--before buying it and I'm glad I did because it has taken me completely by surprise. I won't disclose anything or give away any spoilers but I'm curious what others will think, especially big Mitchell fans. I'm enjoying the book immensely, was immersed in it for HOURS yesterday. Look forward to our future discussions.

Thanks for the rec of the City of Dreaming Books book by Walter Moers (who recced it? It was in last month's what we are reading thread). I raced through it and loved it! I note there is another book in his series also set in Bookholm - I must read that soon.

I recently finished The Soul of all Living Creatures as an early reviewer book - it's been a long time since I have participated in LT's early reviewer program. It was a pleasant read but I fear I have read too many similar books for it to be earth-shattering for me. I am mulling that before writing a review.

I am still reading In Search of Ancient Oregon which is just fascinating and has such beautiful pictures and makes me want to drop everything and go swanning off to the farthest corners of my beautiful state to see all the landmarks.

Re-reading A Delicate Truth as our bedtime reading aloud project, and enjoying the characterizations and the dry style.

>18 CliffBurns:

was just talking to someone the other day who said she just reread the first 2 and thought they were even better the second time. she was falling all over herself talking about them, so after a break you might want to give them another go! you both have almost convinced me to read them...

#21 It's a magnificent sequence of books, a fully-formed portrait of a complex and highly flawed man who assumed the status of king...and then suffered a great fall.

It's Shakespeare and the ancient Greek dramas, all rolled into one man.

I've loved every book--but I think MASTER OF THE SENATE is my personal favorite.

Finished THE BONE CLOCKS and loved it. I've written about it in our group's "Personal" thread so I'll merely say it was worth the wait.

About a third into Pnin by Nabokov. I'm beginning to wonder if there will be a plot. The writing is exquisite though.

>23 CliffBurns: Unfortunately the Booker committee didn't agree with you and came up with a truly bizarre short list.

I'll never, ever understand jury decisions.

Otherwise Known as the Human Condition by Geoff Dyer. I have been a fan for some time ever since I read his brilliant gem on jazz But Beautiful.

This is a book of essays and reviews and i just finished the section entitled,Visuals- essays on photographers, painters and sculptors. Dyer looks and thinks in a unique way.

This should be a fun read to get through as Dyer travels the world, books and ideas.

Can anyone suggest which of his "novels" i should read first?

Finished Baudelaire's INTIMATE JOURNALS.

Very bitter, misogynistic, caustic...and if people think literary feuds can get nasty these days, they should read Charlie's comments on George Sand. Whoo-hoo!

Started Dark As The Grave Wherein My Friend Is Laid, and after reading half a dozen genre books it's like fresh water after a drought.

"I read and enjoyed very much We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves when it was on the Booker long list. Recommend it to all. Am still dabbling in The Alexandria Quartet and just started Metroland, the first novel by Julian Barnes, a heavily autobiographical coming of age novel that already displays a sure and mature writer's hand.

Just finished Mitchell's The Bone Clocks - definitely a good read, though anyone who was put off by anything supernatural in Cloud Atlas had better steer clear. Still, Mitchell remains a chameleon who can bring very varied characters to life while tying disparate plots together quite neatly.

About to start reading some Joyce Carol Oates - a literary lady whose work I've yet to delve into. On the recommendation of a friend, I got her latest, The Accursed. Reviews were mixed, but how can I resist a gothic thriller with Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson?

>31 chamberk: I picked up one of hers yesterday, The Female of the Species. The only book I've read of hers is Man Crazy.

#31 Re: THE BONE CLOCKS, certainly James Wood, in his recent NEW YORKER review, was less than pleased with the supernatural elements of the plot.

Finished Conn Iggulden's EMPEROR: THE BLOOD OF GODS.

Entertaining historical fiction portraying the rise of Octavian/Augustus.

Just finished Pnin a earlier today. This quote clarified a lot:

"From an early stage in the development of the character of Pnin, Nabokov planned to write a series of stories about him which could be published independently in the New Yorker, and later strung together to make a book, thus ensuring some continuity of publication and income while he tried to find a publisher for Lolita. This proved to be a shrewd professional strategy. It also partly explains the unusual form of Pnin. Is it a novel or a collection of short stories? Between them, the stories describe a continuous narrative arc, poignantly tracing Pnin's quest, (...) to find a home, or to make himself "at home" in alien Waindell."

Well no wonder then.

I think A Most Wanted Man was Le Carre's best novel in a long time. The reviews of the film, and Hoffman's performance, are ecstatic. I can't wait to see it.

***I just found this...please post it wherever it really should be! Thanks, Esta1923

At a time when so much media is just a search and click away, movies, music and books that have not made the transition to digital can feel infuriatingly elusive – especially if they are hard to track down in physical form as well. This phenomenon makes the publication today of a new edition of Jean Merrill’s “The Pushcart War” by the New York Review Children’s Collection feel less like a simple book release and more like a successful rescue mission. Finally, parents can get their hands on new copies of the best book about politics ever written for children.


(Credit: New York Review Books)
First published in 1964, “The Pushcart War” is a fake history in the tradition of “A Canticle for Liebowitz,” which came out four years earlier. While “Canticle” ranged far into a post-apocalyptic future, “The Pushcart War” was set in a theoretical near future, and featured a more mundane conflict.

Merrill told the story of New York City pushcart peddlers who found themselves under physical threat from the increasingly-aggressive drivers of ever-larger trucks. To counter a propaganda campaign the truck companies waged against them, the peddlers decided to show the public who was really causing traffic jams and an escalating number of accidents by systematically sabotaging truck drivers’ tires.

What makes “The Pushcart War” so wonderful is not simply its inventive premise or its deftly-sketched cast of characters, including Maxie Hammerman, known as the Pushcart King for his work building carts, the corrupt Mayor Emmett P. Cudd, and activist movie star Wenda Gambling. These elements alone would have made the book a great deal of fun, but Merrill accomplishes something greater. She manages to put together a plot that introduces children to almost every element of a political controversy.

The initial attack on pushcart peddlers is the result of collusion between three trucking companies, eager to deflect attention away from the way they have changed city traffic. But the conflict between the two sides escalates when an ill-tempered driver named Mack deliberately hits a peddler named Morris the Florist. The incident is a perfect example both of how individuals can take political rhetoric to places the speakers did not intend and how individual actions can become catalysts for larger movements.

When the pushcart peddlers decide to start attacking truck tires, the city’s response is shaped by personal conflicts at the highest levels of government. Mayor Cudd has accepted stocks from the three major trucking companies, and is eager to champion their causes. But because he does not get along with his police commissioner, Mayor Cudd has difficulty enforcing the truckers’ agenda. When it becomes apparent that the pushcart peddlers are more popular than the truck drivers, the police commissioner has a wonderful opportunity to outflank his boss politically.

The “Pushcart War” is hardly confined to government, and Merrill is both shrewd and funny in showing readers how the campaign plays out in the media.

A professor named Lyman Cumberly develops an academic theory about traffic congestion. Wenda Gambling lends star power to the pushcart peddlers’ campaign, and later stars in a movie about the conflict that changes events to meet Hollywood convention. The trucking companies secretly publish a newspaper that casts blame for traffic on the peddlers, and when a mainstream paper publishes a photo of the aftermath of the attack on Morris the Florist, it becomes a sensation. After a peddler named Frank the Flower is arrested for sabotaging tires, he claims responsibility for all of the attacks and becomes a folk hero, inspiring slang terms, a style of women’s hat and even a hit pop song.

In “The Pushcart War,” Merrill gives readers a portrait of politics that ranges far beyond conventional partisan bickering and far afield from airless legislative and executive chambers. Most of all, this lively, lovely novel is an argument for staying hopeful about the possibility of bringing about change, even when you are going up against entrenched and powerful interests.

“That is what we fought the war for,” Maxie Hammerman tells the anonymous narrator of the novel at the end of “The Pushcart War,” “so that there should always be a few pushcarts in the city of New York.” The chance to hold a copy of “The Pushcart War” again is proof that the fight to keep very good books alive for a new generation of readers is not a futile battle, either.

Nearly finished Glenn Greenwald's book on the disclosures of Edward Snowden, NO PLACE TO HIDE.

Every time I read something about the surveillance state, I'm overwhelmed with feelings of fury...and despair. How can one oppose a vast, national security apparatus with no oversight, virtually unlimited powers? You can't...and if you try, you end up hiding out in an embassy or squirreled away in some safe house in Moscow. Or, if you're Chelsea Manning, doing hard time in a military prison.

Transparency? Accountability?

Using words like that is like giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Traitor...

37: I read that book as a kid - it must have been what made me a anarcho-syndicalist-sympathizer today.

Reading WILSON, A. Scott Berg's take on the life of the academic and bookish American president.

Not a life full of incident, at least in his first forty years, which were spent at various institutions of higher learning, most notably Princeton. Compared to Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson was a bit of a bore. But I imagine things will pick up once he enters the political arena.

Still making my way through Justine. The eternal conflict between self-indulgent pretentious twaddle and great art remains unresolved, although the further I get into it, the more pretentious twaddle looks like winning out. It seems to me that you can be fooled by the style into thinking the book has something deep to say, but it really doesn't. If it did, I could more easily put up with the fact that nothing actually happens.
Hang on - something is happening! Something to do with somebody getting shot during a duck hunt. This could entirely change my opinion of the book.

Finally getting to the real meat of Berg's biography of Woodrow Wilson (WILSON), the president gradually becoming inclined to enter World War I (despite campaigning on a pledge to "keep America out of the war").

Not exactly a thrilling or compelling life--Wilson came out of academia--but his relationships with his two wives and colleagues are of interest, as are the moral deliberations and anguish he faced while in office.

Cliff: I've not read any Mitchell before, but James Wood's review in the New Yorker turned me off on the idea of The Bone Clocks. It would be interesting (for me) to hear your response to that review, when you've finished the Mitchell.

Oops--now I've gotten to post #33, Cliff, and see that you've already seen the Wood review. It seemed to me that Wood wasn't against the supernatural per se but that the human characters were hollowed out in its service.

Nina Allan has an interesting review of The Bone Clocks - she's less than impressed: http://www.ninaallan.co.uk/?p=1710

A good author isn't liked by everybody--there are people who don't like or deny the genius of Delillo and Pynchon. But a true writer follows their own aesthetic conscience. Mitchell's THE BONE CLOCKS is well-written, well-conceived, intelligent and, damnit, FUN. Grab a copy of the book and decide for yourselves.

ol Woody Wilson is a major player in The Accursed, as is Upton Sinclair and Grover Cleveland. I'm really enjoying it so far, it's a great gothic horror with some really spooky scenes so far.

Ismail Kadare's Agamemnon's Daughter is really good, and so (so far) is "The Blinding Order," the other long story/novella in the book. I'm wondering how I didn't know about Kadare until a couple years ago.

Currently having a second try at My Name is Red, which I bounced off a couple of years ago. Enjoying it more this time than I remember from my last attempt. We *do* change as we read more and more books... A good thing, of course.

Closed with a satisfied thump, Metroland by Julian Barnes. It's easy to like, philosophical in a natural and unpretentious way.

Opened with a curious peek, The Word Exchange by Alena Greadon. Speculative dystopian fiction for nervous nerds who might be afraid of 'going stupid.'

> 50

Amazon and my local library say the name is spelled Graedon. Thanks for the tip.

Sam Lipsyte's The Fun Parts. Felt like a sugar high: diverting but insubstantial.

Reading David Means' short story collection THE SPOT.

Well executed literary fiction. I'm impressed.

Started David Lodge's latest, Thinks. Interesting so far.