Fiction: Iodine, by Haven Kimmel

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If there is one author I would want to be, if I were an author, it would be Haven Kimmel. I’ve read and loved her previous novels (here and posts from June 26, 2004 and April 13, 2004 on this page) AND her nonfiction/memoirs (here and the post from April 24, 2005 on this page). When I saw a new Kimmel in the window of the bookstore on the way home, there was no question I was stopping to buy it, regardless of my many grocery bags.

This one is a bit darker than you may be expecting. While her lead characters are often girls in crisis…generally they are girls finding a way out of it. This book is about a girl who may not even know she’s in it. But we the reader certainly do.

While Trace and her haphazard life sucked me in just as powerfully as Kimmel’s other characters have in the past, this was a more distressing read and a very intense one. Academically somewhat dense, with rampant literary “nods”, and mentally unsettling.
If you liked Sharp Objects or My Sister’s Continent (April 16, 2006 on this page), I think you will find a way in to this book. But it may be a tough read for the faint of heart.

Fiction: Sway, by Zachary Lazar

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A fictionalized account of a number of non-fiction events. There’s a) the Rolling Stones in their drug heydays, with Brian Jones falling off the deep end, a fan getting murdered at Altmont, and a trip to Marrakech; b) Charles Manson and his groupies beginning their swath of murders; and c) Kenneth Anger, whose psychedelic filmmaking forces the groups to intersect and ties the two stories together.

Really creative premise. Very effective blend of fact and fiction. I didn’t love all of it. I liked the Stones-centric chapters a lot better than the others. And I particularly enjoyed Lazar’s handling of Anita and Keith’s “characters”, and the vivid candlelit interactions as the group circles ’round each other during the trip to Morocco.

A very interesting read.

Short Stories: Dead Boys, by Richard Lange

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This was our September challenge book and it was so nice to be reading short stories again after slogging through the Musil in August.

These are not happy times stories. Someone in every story is lost (physically, mentally or emotionally), or lonely, or angry, or … or they’ve come to the end of what they can handle or find their way around.

For some characters, their searching leaves them in a better place than where they began, but never the perfect place. But for some, the story’s end is further down a road they never should have been on in the first place.

Really engaging. Unexpected. True and original. Unlike stories you’ve read before. In a very gritty down to earth way.

Fiction: The Man Without Qualities, Volume I, by Robert Musil

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Tthis was our August challenge book. And we did not enjoy it.

The reason it made our list was Dad had bought it years ago and always meant to read it, particularly after the Wilkins/Pike translation came out and it was lauded everywhere as “the third member of the trinity in 20th-century literature, complementing Ulysses and Remembrance of Things Past” (Wall Street Journal).

In the beginning, I found it sardonic and was open to it. As it went on, it dragged and felt very pedantic and, as I put it, “kinda prissy.” Dad’s more adult reaction was “It’s very arch.”

We can sort of understand the reaction, originally. A big book trying to touch on a million different European themes right as the War is sneaking up on everyone…

But to compare it to Joyce? or Proust? No. Not in the same league. Not experimental, not groundbreaking, not even truly entertaining. And not worth our time to read Volume II so we’ve scratched that from our plan.

Challenge ’08 Update.

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We are tweaking our challenge slightly.

In July, we both only got through the first half (it was THICK). And in August, we finished (eventually. Or I did, a few days into September, can’t remember if Dad actually did or not) but we did NOT enjoy the book and have no interest in reading part II (which was the book for October).

So we are scratching October’s choice and reading the second half of the July book this month.

In case you were wondering.
October: “The Man Without Qualities, Vol 2” by Robert MusilSecond half of “The New Granta Book of the American Short Story” edited by Richard Ford
November: “The Oxford Book of Short Stories” edited by V.S. Pritchett
December: “The Trial” by Kafka

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Eating: The occasional square broken off a chocolate bar from a Claudia Care Package. But mostly just drinking beer.

Making: The second sock to go with the first sock that I mostly knit at Dragon*Con. I am sooooo close to being done with #2.

Gearing Up For: The Chicago Film Festival! Yay! I bought tickets to 11 films. Woooooooot. Although it’s highly possible I may not wind up seeing all of those.

Reading: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson. So far that girl hasn’t been much involved. But I like the other characters as well.

Watching: One of my favorite shows from last year’s shortened season, LIFE, which has had three episodes in a week’s time and another on Friday. Last Monday’s? Pretty good! Glad it’s back. Friday’s? Sucked soooooo bad. May have been the worst episode of any TV show EVER. This Monday’s? Awesome. Mostly. I had a few reservations. What will Friday bring? Who can say.

Listening to: My Morning Jacket, who I’m going to see tomorrow nightoh. 🙁 Also Joseph Arthur, Nana Grizol, Carla Bruni and some songs from this post and this post .