My friend MJ doesn't believe that I actually read the books I put in my sidebar under "books I'm reading." That's okay, but I actually do read them just for honesty's sake. But it occured to me that I should make clear that I'm not recommending all the books on my list. I'm just telling you what I'm up to. So I don't want to take responsibility for you reading them and hating them because they were on here.
That said, I did recently finish: Home by Marilynne Robinson and The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss, both of which were, in a word, aMAZing.
Home (which I should disclose everyone in my book club HATED) was a retelling of the prodigal son story in the 1960s in a little town in Iowa. It's a quasi-sequel to Gilead, which I read in graduate school and didn't like nearly as much. Home is unique in that it seems to actually have no plot. By that I mean nothing actually happens in the entire book. But it is still a great story, about redemption and confession and salvation and grace and all those things and how they work, or don't. Anyway, I realized after our book group discussion that the book is deeply and unapologetically Christian, Reformed Christian at that, and so may not carry as much meaning for those not steeped in that tradition. But I still loved it. (MJ: You might like this too...check it out!)
The History of Love is a novel about various characters all somehow connected to the manuscript of a book with the same title, written by a young writer in Poland at the start of the holocaust for his love who leaves for America without him. It's fabulously written, creative and sophisticated. Though I was surprised and confused by the end, which made me want to go back and read the whole thing again! It is very similar to a book written by the author's husband, Jonathan Safran Foer, called Everything is Illuminated, which is also amazing. I'd love to be a fly on the wall at their dinner table one day.
And now I'm on to Committed, the most recent book by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love. Committed is an expose about marriage and also a chronicle of the author's journey toward a second marriage after her first failed one. I absolutely KNOW that I will find it annoying and petty as I did Eat, Pray, Love, so I'm not sure why I'm bothering other than that I bought it for book club and then didn't read it and now feel compelled to do so by our discussion. (Let me for a moment defend my hatred of the most popular 'chic-lit' book in America right now: I canNOT feel sorry for someone who has a rough time and then gets paid a huge advance to travel around the world carelessly and write about finding herself. Most of us have a rough time and then continue along with our regular lives and somehow deal without an all-expense paid round-the-world therapy venture. So just suck it up, okay.) Anyway, I'm onto Committed. But to balance it out, J-Dogg and I have decided to start reading The Brothers Karamazov together, which should be much more intellectual and take approximately five years to finish. I'll let you know how it goes.
For now, keep reading, mon chers!
p.s. Okay....let's be honest: Part of my despising Elizabeth Gilbert is that maybe a small part of me is jealous that they would never get Julia Roberts to play me in the memoir of my life. They'd probably get Jane Lynch and make her gain 40 pounds.
You and I are on the same page with Eat, Pray, Love. To be fair, I didn't read it, but that is because the concept of the book made me want to kill the woman (and because my mom read it and wanted to kill the woman). Lemme know about Committed.
ReplyDeletei believe that JSF and NK wrote those two books at the same time. i read them back to back. it blew my frickin' mind!
ReplyDeleteI actually didn't like the Brothers Karamazov. Not to start you out depressed or anything...
ReplyDeleteLOL--Okay, for a moment I was all, "We canNOT be friends if you hated 'Eat, Pray, Love.'" But I totally get where you're coming from, though I have to say that I never thought we were supposed to feel sorry for her. The first time I read it I was post-traumatic-break-up myself and my bitter, sarcastic, inner monologue throughout the whole read was basically what you mentioned in your post. Because naturally I was just trying to get through each miserable day, and no one was paying me to do it in Italy, India and Bali and then write about it. I only "liked" it my first time through. I recently re-read it from a better place in my own life and enjoyed it much more. I've even embarked on a yoga/dance journey that--while local--is meant to help me find myself in a similar way.
ReplyDeleteI really LOVED "Committed" though. I gave it to my sister as a wedding shower gift, because she's always had a "different" idea of what marriage is meant to be, and I knew she'd love it. I hope you enjoy it!