A new year, a new category, or actually just a renewed intent to complete a sort of log of the books that I've read during a given year. When I started this blog, I kept a running list, thinking that I would go back and fill in the list with details. Then I found that the list was a pain in the ass, so last year, I kept the list on a piece of paper, but still, very little was written about the actual book outside of title and author. So to do more than just read the books, I'm making a promise--to myself at least--to keep this category updated. No promises that these minireviews will be useful to anyone but who knows? So with that, here's the first entry with the first three books I've read this year.
Book One
The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas
by Davy Rothbart
Touchstone Books
Story Collection; 162 pp
Finished 1/1/06
I knew Rothbart's name from his being the creator of Found magazine, yet when I first saw his story collection on the shelf, I didn't pay attention to it other than admiring the title. Then I kept hearing that this collection of short stories is actually pretty good, so I took a chance. I'm glad that I did. Rothbart knows how to tell a good story, and even better, he knows how to populate these stories with characters who seem real and original. Sure, these are what my mom would call low-lifes--your ex-cons, runaways, peeping Toms--but even my mom would be tempted to invite them to dinner if she heard their tale. Not that Rothbart makes them sentimental caricatures, but he does infuse them with a humanity that so often tends to get lost in the cliches and stereotypes that many writers dealing with the so-called underbelly fall back on. But just as in the real world, there will be no happy resolutions. They may have grown through the experience, but growth doesn't always mean redemption, not that they were seeking redemption in the first place. If I had one qualm with The Lone Surfer it would be the fact that all of these stories are told in the first person, but then again, I'm not sure that he could have pulled off most of what goes on in any other way.
Book Two
Consider the Lobster
by David Foster Wallace
Little, Brown
Essay Collection; 343 pp
Finished 1/3/06
I'd read all but three of these essays before publication in this collection, so I hoped that a reread, along with a first read of the new-to-me essays, might help me better appreciate Wallace as an essay writer. But it didn't work. Sure, there are moments of pure brilliance: Wallace on the campaign trail with John McCain, Wallace at the Vegas porn convention, Wallace discussing the process of Lobster boiling. But overall, these essays drag and drag, and are weighted down by the fact that Wallace has never come across a detail that he felt didn't at least deserve a footnote. To make matters worse, my favorite essay, "Host," is rendered nearly unreadable by the decision to use the notes as they originally appeared in the Atlantic only without the use of different colors to aid the reader's constant need to follow these side/bubble/whatever-you-call-them notes, and believe me, you can't help but look. For my money, these essays worked better in their original context, but together this is a too-large dose of Wallace the essay writer. Read this book over time, maybe an essay a week scattered in with your other reading, and your experience might be different, even better.
{Note: While reading "Authority and American Usage" you might want to check out languagehat's attempt to "demolish" the essay (scroll down). The page numbers refer to its original publication in Harper's but you should be able to follow it nonetheless.}
Book Three
Simplify
by Tod Goldberg
Other Voices Books
Story Collection; 184 pp
Finished 1/5/06
Chalk this read up to the lit blogs. I don't think I would have ever picked up this book without first reading about it and its author over at The Elegant Variation and then becoming a regular reader of Goldberg's blog. This is a collection that deserves more attention than what it seems to be getting. Goldberg is an engaging writer and his stories come at you with an intensity that can't be understated. In fact, "Try Not to Lose Her" is one of the best short stories I've read in some time. Told in the second person, this reads more like an instruction manual on how to fuck up relationships than anything else. The other stories share revolve around themes of suicide, religion, family relationships, and sanity/insanity. Elvis makes an appearance, though not in a way that even the most zealot Elvis fans could ever imagine. Some of the stories do fall flat, including the Elvis one, but the ones that work more than make up for those.
Be sure to read Goldberg's "Behind the Music" for some background to these stories.
I remember coming across the Rothbart in the bookstore and liking the title. Might have to put it on the list.
Posted by: Justin | January 06, 2006 at 04:21 PM