it's weird to be back at the beginning again. :)
orhan pamuk's snow
the story of a turkish poet who returns to a tiny town to investigate a series of muslim girls committing suicide--but really to try and fall in love with a woman he once vaguely knew--and whose writer's block suddenly ends, this novel derails a little as a smarmy actor helps lead a political coup during a big snowstorm. there's a lot of conflict b/w the westernized actor and various political islamicists, with the poet caught in the middle. there's also a lot of speechifying. the body of the story is good but some of the political elements take center stage for far too long for my own taste, and the conceit of the story being narrated by the poet's friend after the poet's death (which is never satisfactorily explained) has potential that it never reaches. however, i did love the phrase "heart full of oatmeal" to describe the poet, and may have to try and use that in my own conversations.
4 comments:
Well, I finally finished #100 on the 30th (my birthday, no less). It was a fun year. I put some highly nerdly photos and details here:
http://www.unc.edu/~macmw/100books.html
I am thoroughly enjoying Auster, as well as the Decameron (am reading a story per day for 100 days).
--JohnM@SILS
hee, those photos are impressively nerdly. a lot of my books were library books so i couldn't accurately do that myself. :)
but congrats, and happy birthday!!
i really like your story-a-day idea . . . i have some great short story collections if you need recommendations. :)
Sure, let's hear a couple. Here's a few I've got on deck, mostly SF/slipstream-oriented:
* Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others
* Andy Duncan's Beluthahatchie, & Crossroads
* Kelly Link's Stranger Things Happen (finally), & Trampoline
* The 4 Polyphony collections (http://www.wheatlandpress.com/)
FYI, for bonus nerdiness on my page, I added a Decameron-o-meter. ;)
--JohnM@SILS
i definitely recommend the link--she's awesome. glancing at my bookshelves, i'd also say to check out stuff by roald dahl, michael chabon, david bezmogis, ellen gilchrist, allegra goodman, gish jen, a.l. kennedy, jhumpa lahiri, savyon liebrecht, ana menendez, lorrie moore, rick moody, haruki murakami, zz packer, isaac bashevis singer . . .
probably you've already read all those, but i'm too lazy to check your site. :)
and also probably i'll think of some really good ones that i missed. :)
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