30 before 30!

A week or so ago, I turned the big 2-9, and given that I only have just under 360 days left in my 20s, I'm putting together a literary bucket list of sorts:  My 30 before 30.  This is comprised of books I've either been dying to read, should have read by this point, or want to revisit with the perspective of age.


Classics:  
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald **
Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger **
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy **
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
Pale Fire by Vladmir Nabokov


Contemporary:  
Arcadia by Lauren Groff
Celebrity Chekhov by Ben Greenman
Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe
Blindness by Jose Saramago **
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruiki Murakami
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart 
Eat the Document by Dana Spiotta
The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
Men in the Off Hours by Anne Carson
Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson **
The Descent of Alette by Alice Notely **
Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky
The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
The Old Child and Other Stories by Jenny Erpenbeck
Spirit Seizures by Melissa Pritchard

Nonfiction/Essays: 
The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Possessed by Elif Batuman
Zona by Geoff Dyer
Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford


** rereading


Of course I'll supplement with my typical diet of new releases and review all along the way.  Looking forward to getting started!!!

Review: The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto

title: The Lake [purchase here]

author: Banana Yoshimoto

genre: fiction

pages: 188

source:  New York Public Library

It was this blurb on The Millions about Yoshimoto's The Lake being shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize that prompted me to pick it up:

"The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto: She’s big in Japan, inspiring a cult following and selling upwards of six million novels, but Banana Yoshimoto will always polarise opinion. Critics may be tempted to call her Murakami-lite, given her fondness for the same kind of broad subjects as her heavyweight compatriot – ultra-modern and slightly otherworldy paeans to urban restlessness. But that comparison probably doesn’t do Yoshimoto too much justice. Certainly, Murakami could learn from her brevity. The Lake revolves around the relationship between two fragile students, Chihiro and Nakajima. Nakajima bears the scars of a terrible past, and the plot – such as it is – concerns Chihiro’s attempts to figure him out (complete with a visit to a couple of Nakajima’s mysterious old friends who live in a run-down shack by the side of a conveniently misty lake). It has its moments, and her champions – of whom there are many – will doubtless shout her claims from the rooftops. But if this was the best book to come out of Asia this year then I’m – well – a Banana."

After reading The Lake, I'm planting myself firmly on Team "Murakami-lite."  I'd even argue that although 1Q84 could have done with a bit of editing, Yoshimoto has far more to learn from Murakami in terms of character development and literary language.  Yoshimoto's narrative is spare, almost arid.  I had expected her style to be simple, but not barren. What drew me to the book was all the buzz I'd read about the story.  The story was supposed to be so compelling, so mysterious...I just didn't find it so.  I just don't get what all the fuss is about.  

Back when I was a teacher, one of the teaching points we spent a lot of time on during the Writer's Workshop was the concept of "show not tell" when developing a character.  Granted, I was teaching first and second grade, where "show not tell" was incredibly basic (read: instead of telling me you felt sad, show me what you said and did and looked like that would let your reader know that you felt sad).  Yoshimoto could brush up a bit on her "show not tell" technique.  The story is written in first person from the perspective of Chihiro, an artist who starts a relationship with a young man who lives across the street.  Instead of letting the reader infer how Chihiro is feeling or evolving over the course of the story, nine times out of ten Yoshimoto has Chihiro just tell us in a super straightforward manner, which seems a bit elementary.  Maybe it was an intentional stylistic decision, but for me, it felt too easy. 

Rubric rating:  4. If this was the best book to come out of Asia this year then I'm--well--stunned.  

I FINALLY FINISHED!!! Review: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

title: 1Q84

author: Haruki Murakami
genre: fiction

pages: 925

source:  New York Public Library

1Q84, Murakami's newest (and lengthy) tome, covers a lot of ground in 925 pages.  Part science fiction, part magical realism, part romance, part action...and part redundant.  The plot follows two main characters, Tengo and Aomame, through what seems, at first, to be two completely different stories.  But as the plot progresses, their stories become more and more intertwined as the world around them starts to unravel and time itself becomes called into question. 

What I loved:  The story itself was fascinating.  I loved the way Murakami told it from multiple perspectives as it allowed him to weave together key details and plot points delicately and gradually.  And the way he wove both stories together was original and more often then not, unexpected. The concept and the execution, though definitely evocative of other works, retained their freshness, which is not an easy feat.

What I wasn't into:  I'm not sure if this was a problem with translation or an intentional stylistic decision, but the book read like a television serial.  Very redundant.  Many chapters reminded the reader of key details that were revealed in the past 20 or so pages.  In a media saturated society of instant gratification such as ours, I understand why many television shows begin with a "previously on..." segment.  But I want to be treated like a  far more advanced being with the capacity to recall major plot points when I read.  If the redundancies were eliminated, I bet a good 25-30 pages or so could have been shaved off the book.  That said, I could absolutely see 1Q84 being successfully developed into a HBO series.

What said, I also loved how, despite its length, I was left wanting more, wondering what was next for Tengo and Aomame, what would become of 1Q84, etc.  I wanted to read Air Chrysalis, a book that plays a central role in the plot.  Its strange that a book could at the same time feel too long and not long enough.

Some of my favorite quotes:

Komatsu, on writing: "There also has to be that 'special something,' an indefinable quality, something I can't quite put my finger on.  That's the part of fiction I value more highly than anything else. Stuff I understand perfectly doesn't interest me. Obviously."  (page 18) This is EXACTLY how I feel about the books I read!

Aomame, on the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana: "Aomame of course knew about the wedding, but she had no particular interest in it, and she could not figure out why people were so deeply concerned about the fate of an English prince and princess.  Charles looked less like a prince than a high school physics teacher with stomach trouble." (page 102)

Tengo, on writing: "There were too many questions.  It was probably Chekhov who said that the novelist is not someone who answers questions but someone who asks them."  (page 264)  Ironic, because precisely one of the things I could have done with a bit less of was answers.

Ayumi, on life: "That's what the world is, after all: an endless battle of contrasting memories." (page 293)

Ushikawa, on human nature: "Nobody's easier to fool, Ushikawa thought, than the person who is convinced that he is right." (page 634)

Rubric rating:  8.5.  I LOVE Murakami, but this was not his best.  1Q84 didn't deter me from reading his most current work but rather helped me to appreciate his previous works all the more.