The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
Book Thread
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on February 16, 2010, 04:05:12 pm ---Someone was asking what ONE book a global person could read to give them an understanding of the US. The one I would choose would be the excellent book with a gay theme, among others, Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. The reason is because there are actually at least four Americas: the South, the Midwest, and the two coasts. If you read a book set on one of the coasts, then you don't understand the other three. The South is rapidly becoming just like the other parts of the country, losing its distinction. But the Midwest is the true melting pot of the US, and that is where The Corrections is set. It's about a midwestern family, a chef daughter who is gay, a schoolteacher son, and a mother and father who go on a misguided cruise.
What would be your choice for the one US book the rest of the world should read? How about Canada?
--- End quote ---
I loved The Corrections and think it would be an excellent choice as a book to represent the U.S. It's not entirely set in the Midwest, though. The parents live in St. Louis, and the kids are from there, but they have moved to the East Coast. As I recall, the daughter and elder son live in Philadelphia, and the younger son lives in, I think, New York.
I think The South still does have its own distinct character, but sadly it, like everywhere else, is becoming more indistinguishable from the rest of the country.
What a great idea it would be to write a novel involving lots of different regions of the country. I have lived in the West (Idaho), the South (Louisiana), the Midwest (Minnesota) and the East Coast (New York City), so I've tried a few. They all do have their own distinct characters.
Andrew:
A few weeks ago, when BrianR stopped in Boston as part of his big tour, he and Paul and I went to the Boston Public Library to hear Michael Cunningham read from his new novel, By Nightfall. Paul and I got inscribed copies at the end of the reading. I have since read it and actually could not believe how much I came to like it. I had read the first part of A Home at the End of the World (1990); I had not read The Hours (1998). Frankly, the first chapter of By Nightfall even as read by the author was not strongly inclining me to read it, but following an instinct I re-read that chapter myself, persisted with the rest and was rewarded with a story that kept drawing me in more and more. Now that I have finished it, I am at the stage where I am going back to reread different places and think about how concentrated it is, how he makes everything contribute to the whole, how there is a new thought or effect on every page, how involving and plausible and thought-provoking it all is.
The story of A Home at the End of the World was spread over years, and I know from reading about it that The Hours is juxtaposing the lives of three women in successive generations. Cunningham is attempting something new with each novel, and By Nightfall is short, unified, and linear. It takes place in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Greenwich CT over just a few days, with only three central characters. His subject is a kind of experience many middle-aged people go through, though Peter Harris' version of it is very specific to who he is as an individual, and what he is expecting (and not getting) from life. I was at page 50 before I got in tune with the theme and started to see how every part of the novel was connected, how all the symbols drove the story into a single course while being completely ordinary, realistic parts of his life at the same time. In the end, the story was only limited by the realism of the outcome, which is no limitation at all.
This is the kind of story Ang Lee has such a genius for turning into unforgettable films. There are so many projects I wish he would do, darn it! But the book has some remarkable passages which, even if they inspired the director to come up with some amazing visual/aural equivalent, also need to be appreciated just as writing.
Monika:
For my class in detective fiction that I´m currently taking, I´ve been reading detective stories lately. I´ve also joined the town´s book club although I still feel like Luke from The Gilmore Girls everytime I go there. But it´s nice to read again. I almost stopped completely after Brokeback because I compared everything to it. I still haven´t gotten around to watch movies as much as I did before BBM.
I enjoyed Tony Hillerman and his two tribal police officers Chee and Leaphorn. He writes about a people somehow stuck in limbo on a reservation they don't want to live but at the same time find it impossible to live on.From what I understand Hillerman lives in the Four Corners area himself, so he nails the description of the empty, desolete area too.
I hated Margarete Crombie´s novel A Finer End. A detective story written in a very distinct Brittish style set in a small town in the countryside. The perspectives change between different characters and we find out about extramaterial affairs, unwanted children and old enemies. I had no idea who the killer might be up until the very end when the author explains it all in half a page. And it's the most unbelievable explanation ever. I felt like throwing the book out the window.
Then it was Leonie Swann´s Three Bags Full - a detective story revolving around the murder of George the shepherd and his flock of sheep. The sheep are trying to solve the case themselves, you see. In the best way that sheep can. The entire book is built on the notion that the reader will find all this hysterical funny. And it works - mostly anyway.
But out of these three, Hillerman was my favorite.
Andrew:
--- Quote from: Android on October 26, 2010, 09:58:55 pm ---A few weeks ago, when BrianR stopped in Boston as part of his big tour, he and Paul and I went to the Boston Public Library to hear Michael Cunningham read from his new novel, By Nightfall. Paul and I got inscribed copies at the end of the reading. I have since read it and actually could not believe how much I came to like it. I had read the first part of A Home at the End of the World (1990); I had not read The Hours (1998). Frankly, the first chapter of By Nightfall even as read by the author was not strongly inclining me to read it, but following an instinct I re-read that chapter myself, persisted with the rest and was rewarded with a story that kept drawing me in more and more. Now that I have finished it, I am at the stage where I am going back to reread different places and think about how concentrated it is, how he makes everything contribute to the whole, how there is a new thought or effect on every page, how involving and plausible and thought-provoking it all is.
The story of A Home at the End of the World was spread over years, and I know from reading about it that The Hours is juxtaposing the lives of three women in successive generations. Cunningham is attempting something new with each novel, and By Nightfall is short, unified, and linear. It takes place in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Greenwich CT over just a few days, with only three central characters. His subject is a kind of experience many middle-aged people go through, though Peter Harris' version of it is very specific to who he is as an individual, and what he is expecting (and not getting) from life. I was at page 50 before I got in tune with the theme and started to see how every part of the novel was connected, how all the symbols drove the story into a single course while being completely ordinary, realistic parts of his life at the same time. In the end, the story was only limited by the realism of the outcome, which is no limitation at all.
This is the kind of story Ang Lee has such a genius for turning into unforgettable films. There are so many projects I wish he would do, darn it! But the book has some remarkable passages which, even if they inspired the director to come up with some amazing visual/aural equivalent, also need to be appreciated just as writing.
--- End quote ---
There is a three-part video interview of Michael Cunningham by James Franco at Amazon, on the page for By Nightfall. A little is about the novel but a lot is about writing in general.
http://www.amazon.com/Nightfall-Novel-Michael-Cunningham/dp/0374299080/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288569621&sr=1-1
Front-Ranger:
Andrew, I will definitely try By Nightfall. Buffy, are you going to be studying Sherlock Holmes in your detective fiction class?
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