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Post by callipygias on Sept 23, 2009 1:20:59 GMT -5
#14
The Red Badge of Courage
(1895)
Stephen Crane There's a li'l rebel in me who doesn't want to love books I'm supposed to love (he likes to make lousy puns though), but that's just stupid. Truth is, this great book is a great book. Eighteen year old Henry Fleming enlists to fight the South and to realize his childhood dreams of heroism -- "In visions he had seen himself in many struggles. He had imagined peoples secure in the shadow of his eagle-eyed prowess. But awake he had regarded battles as crimson blotches on the pages of the past. He had put them as things of the bygone...." I don't like to give away specifics (avoid Amazon reviews for that reason if you haven't read Badge and someday might), but things don't go as he hoped. Some people see Badge as an anti-war novel, but despite its well-illustrated horrors of war I don't think it's any more an anti-war novel than it is a pro-war one. It's a perfectly told, extremely insightful study of how war affected one man. Stephen Crane Badge's full text is available online. |
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Post by callipygias on Sept 26, 2009 19:30:49 GMT -5
#13
The Stranger
(1942)
Albert Camus " Mother died today," the narrator, Meursault, says at the beginning of The Stranger. His mother's death doesn't affect him emotionally. Nothing affects him emotionally. He has friends, he has a girlfriend, but he apparently doesn't care about any of it. He kills a man for no reason... or because the sun was too bright or he was too hot or something. He doesn't care that he killed him and he doesn't care that he's caught. He barely cares when they sentence him to death. Meursault reminds me of Billy Pilgrim. They both live passively (usually) and allow life to happen to them. Neither of them seem to feel as though they have control of anything. One of them, Meursault, doesn't care. As horrible as I make it sound, it's a wonderful book. If I made a list of the most beautful books I've read The Stranger would make my top five, though I'd have little idea what I meant by most beautiful. Albert Camus |
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Post by jkazoolien on Sept 27, 2009 21:52:33 GMT -5
^I keep meaning to read this one but never get around to it. Thanks for reminding me!
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Post by callipygias on Sept 29, 2009 0:33:47 GMT -5
#12
Catch-22
(1961)
Joseph Heller During World War II bombardier Yossarian is considered paranoid for complaining insistently that millions of people are trying to kill him; he includes people shooting at him and people ordering him to be shot at equally. Yossarian is as much a fan of mixing logic with absurdity as every other character in Catch-22, but he still functions as a sort of island of sanity among such a bizarre cast. Two of my all-time favorite characters are in Catch-22: Major Major, whose father we learn actually named him Major Major Major when he was born (he lied to his wife about it), so that when he was promoted he became Major Major Major Major; and Milo Minderbinder, who is the ultimate capitalist and profiteer and who builds an enormous empire, partly by assuring that "everyone has a share" in it. He does things like takes the CO 2 cartridges from all the life vests, sells or trades them, and replaces them with meaningless IOUs for shares in his enterprise. But every character, however brief their appearance, is probably someone's favorite. Even poor, emaciated Hungry Joe deserves his own fan club. He's the only pilot to have completed the required number of missions for discharge, but then he screams all night in his sleep until he's ordered to go on more missions. He also dreams he's being smothered by another soldier's cat while he sleeps. To settle things between the two the squad eventually sets up a fight between Hungry Joe and the cat, which Hungry Joe wins by default when the cat runs away as soon as they set it in the ring. Catch-22 is full of unforgettable moments and unforgettable imagery, and though some say Heller was never able to reproduce it, unbelievable style. |
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Post by callipygias on Oct 2, 2009 0:56:02 GMT -5
#11
The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade
(1857)
Herman Melville A con-man takes a riverboat from St. Louis to New Orleans and talks to various characters. The characters are interesting and truthful, there's symbolism all over the place, and, typical for Melville, allusions abound, but as far as plot goes that's about it. Many people absolutely hate this book; it seems like half the time you don't know who's talking to whom. A quote from a contemporary review, "Those who... take it up in the expectation of encountering a wild and stirring fiction, will be tolerably sure to lay it down ere long with an uncomfortable sensation of dizziness." Melville's language and style are the exact things some (me included) love so much about this book. I read a review that said Melville revised the hell out of The Confidence-Man. They called it a "hushing of the voice" to create "an avoidance of vulgar emphasis and meticulous moderation of thought." It was worth it, The Confidence-Man is a unique work of art. The only book it even vaguely reminds me of will be #2 on my list. I love what this Amazon reviewer (John Fischer) said about it: " The Confidence Man is without question the most revolutionary work of nineteenth century fiction--enormously experimental, provocative and simply bizarre. The experimentations with flattened characterizations; the episodic, even repetitive plot structure; and the sheer power of its hallucinatory narration make this novel a post-modern work before there was even modernism." It's beyond unfortunate that The Confidence-Man's cold reception apparently shattered what was left of Melville's confidence. He lectured for a while and then spent 20 years working at a government job. This should be the book he is known for. |
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Post by angilasman on Oct 2, 2009 12:41:48 GMT -5
I'm gonna say that I think Joseph Heller is an incredible novelist and the two non- Catch-22 works of his that I have read, Something Happened and Good as Gold, are brilliant.
In fact, I believe that Something Happened is a better novel than Catch-22. Sure, Catch-22 is more readible, funnier, but there is something frighteningly methodical about Something Happend's cold repetition that really got to me.
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Post by callipygias on Oct 3, 2009 12:24:42 GMT -5
I believe that Something Happened is a better novel than Catch-22. I can see why you (and others) feel that way, but it didn't end up affecting me that way. I read Something Happened last summer after your recommendation in the "just finished reading" thread, and for the first third or so I really liked it. For a while it was exactly what I'd hoped, but by the halfway mark I was thoroughly frustrated with... not with the repetition, but with the way Heller did the repeating. Coming at the same situation from different family members' perspectives (or at least changing subjects), I guess I wanted a little variance in each telling, but I guess that's probably the point of the book: it's all about Bob, and Bob is all about Bob's despair. I may try it again in the distant future. When I don't like a book by an author like Heller I assume it's because of me, not the book. Something Happened and Good as Gold, are brilliant. I think I'll try Good as Gold next. Sounds excellent. |
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Post by angilasman on Oct 3, 2009 15:53:13 GMT -5
^Good as Gold is a much easier one to read than Something Happened, and it's written in a more Catch-22 style.
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Post by Captain Hygiene on Oct 3, 2009 17:58:35 GMT -5
I've never even heard of "The Confidence Man". It sounds like it's something I have to find.
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Post by callipygias on Oct 4, 2009 14:30:43 GMT -5
Top ten time! Really, though, the point where I noticed my list took the turn was at #13, The Stranger. As much as I love the rest, numbers 13 through 1 cause a separate level of squishiness. #10
As I Lay Dying
(1930)
William Faulkner A grotesque, Gothic comedy told from multiple perspectives about the Bundren family's nine-day trek to Jefferson, Mississippi, to bury Addie Bundren, the matriarch, next to her father. Nine days with their mother's rotting corpse on the wagon, four brothers who mostly can't stand one another, a sister with a dark secret and no one to talk to, and a horrible, horrible (though comical) father everybody hates--even his dead wife. With so many narrators and Faulkner at his very best, the characterizations are really stunning. Faulkner's stream-of-consciousness style is different from anyone else's I've read. It's just... raw, somehow. Like he did it with his eyes closed. It can get you so deeply into a character's mind that it's surprising to later see that character from another's perspective, and vice versa. Cash, the dullest brother, seems like a steady, hard-working simpleton for most of the book, but by the end you can appreciate in him an amazing patience and ability to quietly endure. Sometimes it's even strange when two characters whose minds it feels like you've been in even interact with each other. In fact, with Dying there is another level just as jarring: When you've had chapter after chapter from different family members' perspectives and suddenly you see the family from the mind of an outsider. There's sometimes an oddly possessive, "Who are you to judge?!" feeling. But no perspective is sacred to Faulkner. Or rather, every perspective is. Many people recommend As I Lay Dying as the best introduction to Faulkner's major works, and I guess I see why. The style and characters are as complex as anything he did, and it leaves just as much up to the reader as anything (which is a lot), but the story itself is pretty simple, especially compared to his others masterpieces. William Faulkner |
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Post by callipygias on Oct 7, 2009 18:17:34 GMT -5
#9
Candide
(1759)
Voltaire Optimistic young Candide is caught kissing the baron's daughter, Cunegonde, which gets him kicked out of the baron's castle, beginning the series of tragedies, from the nightmarish to the comic, that makes up most of Candide. Treating monumentally horrible events in a casual, offhand way; a dizzying pace; a naive, wandering hero easily led into misfortune after misfortune, never becoming truly embittered, Candide is a strange mix of comedy and tragedy, hopefulness and despair, unlike anything (to me, anyway) but the very best Vonnegut: in few pages it contains enough philosophy to fill textbooks while simultaneously underlining the futility and absurdity of most of it. Even happiness is suspect. Around this very short book's middle Candide and his companion/valet find the mythical city of El Dorado where everything is happiness and beauty and riches. After a very short stay Candide begs permission to leave in order to search for his love, Cunegonde. He brings cases and cases of gold and precious stones with him (the streets of El Dorado are paved with them), and it's so painful to read him losing it, piece by piece, you can only laugh and think how much better off he'd have been without it. Candide's optimism is ultimately... if not destroyed, at least very well tempered, but he does find a philosophy he can live with, despite what he sees as God's indifference to human suffering. Voltaire
(Born Francois-Marie Arouet) |
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Post by callipygias on Oct 11, 2009 20:01:10 GMT -5
#8
Blood Meridian
(1985)
Cormac McCarthy From a book packed with optimism to one completely devoid of it. Meridian's protagonist, "the kid" ( Judge Holden once calls him "young Blasarius," but McCarthy keeps referring to him as "the kid," so it may have been a mocking reference by the judge), is a violent, illiterate runaway who survives an Indian massacre, is imprisoned in Mexico and then released in order to join a government-sanctioned gang of scalp hunters in mid-19th century Texas/Mexico. After joining the gang, and for a good portion of the novel's middle, the kid ceases being the focus of the narrative and becomes another killer in a gang of killers. He sees and takes part in just about every kind of violence imaginable. The Atlantic called Blood Meridian “the most beautifully written, unrelievedly ghastly chronicle of violence, carnage, torture, rapine, plunder, murder and every other conceivable variety of barbarism to be found anywhere in our literature”. As a man, late in the novel, he seems to be wandering, utterly lonely. In the mountains he comes across an old lady and he timidly tries to convince her to accept his help so that he can return her home to her people. I think it's as much as he spoke in the entire novel. When he gets close he realizes the woman is long dead, and somehow it's one of the saddest things I've ever read. It was a feeble, pathetic attempt to atone by a person incapable of even beginning to understand that was what he was trying to do. It's when I started to feel for the kid/man. (What's the literary equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome?) He is naturally violent and an efficient killer, but he is not a natural killer, unlike most of the gang. His brutish, thoughtless mentality, hopeless circumstances, inability to imagine anything better, need to belong, and passive nature lead him to his extremes. I think he's the only character who commits acts of kindness in Meridian. I rarely read about books, but for whatever reason Meridian's an exception. There are some interesting essays about it, from practical studies of characters' and events' real-life sources, to Science vs. Religion with Judge Holden as the devil or a "superman" and the kid as Christ or a "slave." No matter What vs. What, though, most agree the winner is always War, which is what the judge preaches throughout the book. With so much left to the individual Blood Meridian will continue to be as dissected and analyzed a book as any. Cormac McCarthy |
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Post by Mighty Jack on Oct 13, 2009 6:06:34 GMT -5
Hey I just spotted this thread. Nice work!
I've gotten lazy in my old age, now a days all I read are mysteries and comic books. But back in the day Brother's Karamozov was my favorite novel of all time. Fydor, Waugh and Graham Greene were my holy trinity (with Percy's "The Second Coming" allowed entry into the club)
And I didn't have a problem with Catcher - but it seems to have become hip to either love it or hate it. I didn't like the lead character sure, but I found him a compelling figure.
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Post by Captain Hygiene on Oct 13, 2009 19:09:55 GMT -5
I've never even heard of "The Confidence Man". It sounds like it's something I have to find. I'm mightily disappointed that our library doesn't have this in, or "Blood Meridian" either (it's "missing"). I forgot to look up the Faulkner book today but I'll go back and check for it. |
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Post by callipygias on Oct 13, 2009 20:19:41 GMT -5
I think I have an extra copy of The Confidence-Man, if I can find it I'll send it to you along with whatever else you win in the Ass-Off. That's one I'm pretty sure you'll never see as an audio book.
Blood Meridian I think you'll really like, Cap'n (Confidence-Man, who knows?), and apparently there are audio books of it out there.
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