Grenouille

11mo

Good looks on The Tunnel, I think I’ll pick this up

UIP

11mo

my first DeLillo so i didn’t quite know what to expect. the somewhat slow opening ~50 pages had me wondering where all the substance was, but the author packs SO MUCH into the next 160 pages that it’s almost overwhelming. i enjoyed this surprise, though, and the book ended up impressing the hell out of me.

i really enjoyed the wacky range of characters, even if we don’t bother to get to know any of them much at all, outside of each of their fleeting interactions with the protagonist. DeLillo’s writing style is super distinctive, like pretty much any other great writer, but it’s hard for me to describe or offer comparison having no other experience with his work.

the novel is wordy, random, ridiculous, pretentious, philosophical, and allegorical. there’s a lot to love, but i can also see the jargon and pretentiousness alienating some readers.

for me, the ending was the best part of the novel and made me even more glad I picked this one up.

4/5

UIP

11mo

yeah Cronenberg directed the film adaptation, starring Rob Pattinson apparently never seen it

HrdBoildWndrlnd

11mo

This one was fine, kind of a confusing trip through Egyptian politics and religious life. I knew almost nothing about the Egyptian military, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Arab Spring and subsequent coups in Egypt, which made understanding the story of this book fairly difficult. Understanding the emotional thrust of this book on the other hand is fairly easy, and the author does a great job making clear the effects of living under a tenuous state on the edge of collapse.

There's an incredible Kafka-esque (not a term I use lightly, this is truly something Kafka would write) twist near the end that throws the story into overdrive and coalesces the themes into something that makes the book more powerful than the entire lead-up. The book almost lost me in the middle, but at the end came to be something slightly more powerful. Wish I understood more of it, although it has made me start reading several wikipedia articles about the Arab Spring and it's impacts on Middle Eastern countries.

Seems like kind of a response to The Stranger, where instead of a disconnected, unaffected protagonist here you have a protagonist that is too raw and compulsive to live in society. I liked this one a lot, and in the same vein as The Stranger I could see a lot of my own personality blown out of proportion in this character. I would recommend this one to any Camus-heads. It helps that it was a quick read, 140 pages made up of short ~4 page chapters.

Grimmest book I've read in a long long time. It's gross, it's grimy, it's sad, it's horrifying. It's like if Jack Kerouac had none of the whimsy of the beat generation. I did like it a lot, it's another one that can be sped through to reach the psyche-baring conclusion. Which I absolutely loved.

Marble

11mo

Gonna read the Tunnel, I’ll get back w my thoughts here

HrdBoildWndrlnd

11mo

Please do!

Grenouille

11mo

· edited

I’ve read quite a few this year, here’s a few recent reads.

Shuggie Bain (2020)

This is an incredibly depressing novel. It’s so harrowingly visceral — reading is it’s as if you’ve transported to 1980s post Industrial Glasgow, following the atrocities that is Margaret Thatcher’s Britain.

Man, Shuggie. What a thoroughly sad character.
The novel is deftly expert at tiptoeing around his sexual identity in a society that refuses to accept it — “that boys no right” - as well as making the reader sympathise with an alcoholic who doesn’t seem to want help. Compounded in a massively dysfunctional family.

Definitely not a read when you’re not feeling at your best.

3.5/5
———
Stoner (1965)

I picked this one up at the airport as a read over my flight and I ended up reading the whole thing in about 2 hours.

The overarching premise of this book, much like the protagonist, is absolutely forgettable. The novel follows the life of Stoner, a man from impoverish conditions who lives his life as a remarkably ordinary University professor.

He lives in a loveless marriage; his wife holds his daughter emotionally ransom; he is stymied by office politics; his one love affair is ended abruptly… yet in the face of all of this, he simply endures. It’s very stoic - he doesn’t wallow nor does he change anything.

Whether positive or negative, there appears to be something moving about Stoner’s disposition.

3.5/5
———
Frankenstein (1818)

I’ve read this novel in the past (whilst at school, actually) and loved it then. My re-read just solidified how great this novel is. Shelley wrote this as a 19 year old woman in the 1800s and it astounds me every time. The concept; the writing quality — it’s phenomenal. This book is the quintessential gothic novel.

A must read for all.

5/5

Grenouille

11mo

· edited

I’ve read quite a few this year, here’s a few recent reads.

Shuggie Bain (2020)

This is an incredibly depressing novel. It’s so harrowingly visceral — reading is it’s as if you’ve transported to 1980s post Industrial Glasgow, following the atrocities that is Margaret Thatcher’s Britain.

Man, Shuggie. What a thoroughly sad character.
The novel is deftly expert at tiptoeing around his sexual identity in a society that refuses to accept it — “that boys no right” - as well as making the reader sympathise with an alcoholic who doesn’t seem to want help. Compounded in a massively dysfunctional family.

Definitely not a read when you’re not feeling at your best.

3.5/5
———
Stoner (1965)

I picked this one up at the airport as a read over my flight and I ended up reading the whole thing in about 2 hours.

The overarching premise of this book, much like the protagonist, is absolutely forgettable. The novel follows the life of Stoner, a man from impoverish conditions who lives his life as a remarkably ordinary University professor.

He lives in a loveless marriage; his wife holds his daughter emotionally ransom; he is stymied by office politics; his one love affair is ended abruptly… yet in the face of all of this, he simply endures. It’s very stoic - he doesn’t wallow nor does he change anything.

Whether positive or negative, there appears to be something moving about Stoner’s disposition.

3.5/5
———
Frankenstein (1818)

I’ve read this novel in the past (whilst at school, actually) and loved it then. My re-read just solidified how great this novel is. Shelley wrote this as a 19 year old woman in the 1800s and it astounds me every time. The concept; the writing quality — it’s phenomenal. This book is the quintessential gothic novel.

A must read for all.

5/5

Bizzle

11mo

Shuggie Bain really is relentlessly f***ing bleak lol

Grenouille

11mo

· edited

I’ve read quite a few this year, here’s a few recent reads.

Shuggie Bain (2020)

This is an incredibly depressing novel. It’s so harrowingly visceral — reading is it’s as if you’ve transported to 1980s post Industrial Glasgow, following the atrocities that is Margaret Thatcher’s Britain.

Man, Shuggie. What a thoroughly sad character.
The novel is deftly expert at tiptoeing around his sexual identity in a society that refuses to accept it — “that boys no right” - as well as making the reader sympathise with an alcoholic who doesn’t seem to want help. Compounded in a massively dysfunctional family.

Definitely not a read when you’re not feeling at your best.

3.5/5
———
Stoner (1965)

I picked this one up at the airport as a read over my flight and I ended up reading the whole thing in about 2 hours.

The overarching premise of this book, much like the protagonist, is absolutely forgettable. The novel follows the life of Stoner, a man from impoverish conditions who lives his life as a remarkably ordinary University professor.

He lives in a loveless marriage; his wife holds his daughter emotionally ransom; he is stymied by office politics; his one love affair is ended abruptly… yet in the face of all of this, he simply endures. It’s very stoic - he doesn’t wallow nor does he change anything.

Whether positive or negative, there appears to be something moving about Stoner’s disposition.

3.5/5
———
Frankenstein (1818)

I’ve read this novel in the past (whilst at school, actually) and loved it then. My re-read just solidified how great this novel is. Shelley wrote this as a 19 year old woman in the 1800s and it astounds me every time. The concept; the writing quality — it’s phenomenal. This book is the quintessential gothic novel.

A must read for all.

5/5

HrdBoildWndrlnd

1y

:​

Examines the lives of several scientists whose discoveries have pushed the boundaries of human knowledge. As it happens each of the scientists in this book also went insane around the same time they made these discoveries; this book leans more towards a "gazing into the void" thing than "these people were just predisposed to a certain kind of neuroticism" thing. Making a book about mathematicians and physicists be this fascinating and gripping is an incredible talent. The book's thesis seems to be something about losing sight of how one's discovery will change the world in the excitement of the discovery itself.

The prose of the book is gorgeous, the descriptions of the locations visited feel real and awe inspiring. Labatut is able to give a contextually useful explanation of the science discussed without boring the reader, I was familiar with some of the theorems in the book but even the ones I wasn't familiar with were within grasp after their chapter.

Most importantly I came away from this book with the feeling that I understood humanity a little better. Best book I've read in a long long time.

Pure nonsense, sometimes enjoyable nonsense. But mostly just unintelligible, uninteresting, unsatisfying nonsense. This is like a 4/10

plants

11mo

I'm loving Chambers writing. (finished her Monk+Robot duology last month) The way she writes about different species, speaks on how they all evolved under similar planetary conditions, and how they mingle is just a delight. I also been on a nonfiction kick lately so jumping back into some fun scifi has been great. Book had me both in tears of joy and sadness at points.

Reading the second in the series right now.

Rock Mudson

11mo

I was just looking at this yesterday. Sounds fun. Anything you can compare it to?

plants

11mo

I'm loving Chambers writing. (finished her Monk+Robot duology last month) The way she writes about different species, speaks on how they all evolved under similar planetary conditions, and how they mingle is just a delight. I also been on a nonfiction kick lately so jumping back into some fun scifi has been great. Book had me both in tears of joy and sadness at points.

Reading the second in the series right now.

shaedonsharpe

10mo

finally finished kafka on the shore
5/5
great metaphysical, f***s with your head type book