The Corrections

Thanks to 6 cumulative hours on the train this past weekend, I was able to finally finish The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. I sort of chose a hefty book to bring me back to my own age group... so several hours of focused train reading was the perfect strategy to make some progress.

Originally I chose this book as part of the 1% Well-Read Challenge. However, I don't think I'll meet the deadline. So instead I'll say this book was recommended to me by a friend in college who may or may not have also been on my huge long crush list sophomore year. (Totally was).

Ok. The Corrections is the story of a dysfunctional (?) family trying to come together for one last Christmas together before the father's health completely deteriorates. The large chunk of the book is devoted to back story explaining why the idea of one last Christmas is either so horribly important (Enid's view) or so horribly taxing (the rest of the family).

I didn't overlook the deeper meaning or the "correction" connections, but I am having a hard time verbalizing my thoughts. Maybe this is a book we should talk about over tea?

Recommendation: Hang in there for the juicy bits and the somewhat tidy ending.

Mrs. Dalloway

Surprisingly I'd never read any Virginia Woolf before... I'd always meant to...

So I put Mrs. Dalloway down on my list of 1% Well-Read Challenge books.

The novel plays out a single day in the life of Mrs. Dalloway, a London socialite, as she prepares for a party and struggles with the reappearance of an old love.

I can't lie. It wasn't a smooth reading experience... always. I started the book and struggled with focusing on all the characters and all the happenings. The novel plays out over a single day without any natural breaks. It's hard to find good stopping places! (Which is probably why I put the book on hiatus and read 5 others.)

When I had the time and mental clarity to enjoy the book, I really really did. I liked the transitions between characters and all of the connections between the players. It's like one long tracking shot, which is one of my favorite techniques in film to watch develop.

Recommendation: If you had the time and patience to read it in all one sitting, I think it'd be an amazing reading experience. If you don't, try to keep your mind from wandering. It will save you a lot of rereading.

Kafka on the Shore

I was pretty excited to read this book. A teacher friend of mine who knows I love reading, emphatically recommended it to me by yelling across the library. Of course I wrote it down. Then I saw it on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list and popped it on my choices for the 1% Well-Read Challenge. When my roommate and I decided to have a traveling book club this summer, she bought me Kafka and I couldn't wait.

Noted: This was probably not the best book to bring to Peru. Naturally, it was read in short spurts during the peak of exhaustion. Murakami deserves much closer attention than that... especially his novel that John Updike refers to as a "meta-physical mindbender." Due to lack of sleep, overexertion, and the excitement of travel... my mind was already bent.

That being the case... I enjoyed the beginning of the book. There are two distinct plots that gradually intertwine as the novel progresses. The odd chapters follow Kafka, a fifteen year old boy who is facing a series of crises and discovering that life rarely makes sense (but I think it made more sense to him than it did to me). The even chapters follow Nakata, a friendly elderly man with an unusual developmental delay and the ability to talk to cats. Each character sets out on a journey and the reader follows.

I'm not going to pretend like I understood this book. Talking it over with my roommate we both agreed that there was a whole lot more going on than what we picked up. One element we struggled with: all the sex! There's a very graphic retelling of a sex dream in a letter that doesn't relate to much, and a few different potentially incestuous relationships (Kafka and a girl he suspects to be his older sister, and Kafka and an older woman he suspects to be his mother). I'm not against sexuality in books, but I do like to know why! The only explanation in my friend's bookclub for it was, "Well, the book was written by a man." But surely, there must be more to it. Murakami himself describes the book as being written in riddles that have no answers, but that the riddles themselves will take you closer to the meaning of the book. He also notes that the book requires more than one reading.

Seriously, why did I read this in transit?

Recommendation: If you've read other Murakami books successfully, you'll probably be thrilled. If you don't have the time or energy for close and multiple readings, wait until you do.

1% Well-Read Challenge

I came across this challenge the other day, and was so very nerdily excited to join. The challenge is based on the list from 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. All you have to do is challenge yourself to read 1% of the list, which... is 10 books! The challenge runs for 10 months, starting back in May and going through February '09. So very manageable. (1% Well-Read Challenge)

When I came across this challenge I immediately downloaded the list so I could highlight the books I have already read, and mark potential titles. (See what I mean about my nerdy excitement?) Turns out I've already read 5.9% of the list, so 59 books. I was feeling pretty good about that until I noticed how many books other people have already read! Oh well!

Potential Ten Titles:
1. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
2. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
3. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
4. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran
5. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
6. Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
7. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
8. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
9. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
10. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

I'm almost certain this list will mutate over the next few months.