Monday, August 25, 2014

#Read26Indy Roundup: Books 12-15


I've been so incredibly behind on posting about the books I'm reading for #Read26Indy. It isn't that I haven't been reading - I've been on a mission - but life has been so crazy busy that blabbing about what I've read didn't seem particularly important. I'm rounding up the four books I've read over the last couple of months in one mammoth posting.


I originally intended to read a mix of fiction and nonfiction for #Read26Indy, but this is the first nonfiction book I've read all the way through this year (others I've just read particularly chapters that interest me). This slim little volume was fascinating. It's all essays on the creative process and the making of art, and the uncertainty that comes with attempting something creative. There were so many moments where I found myself saying "Yes!" because a passage made so much sense. One in particular stuck with me, discussing why artists get so frustrated halfway into a piece:

"The development of an imagined piece into an actual piece is a progression of decreasing possibilities, as each step in execution reduces future options by converting one -- and only one -- possibility into a reality."

This explained exactly why I get so frustrated writing stories. In the beginning they can be anything! But as you write, as the story progresses, it becomes what it is - there is only one place to go and its frustrating to push through and get to that now-determined outcome, even when its where you want to go.

I'd recommend this book to artists, writers, anyone doing something creative. I loved it and burned through it quickly.

Book #13: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

This book was recommended by my friend Sarah, and then I set it on the shelf with my other to-read books for a few months. I was supposed to start reading The Corrections for my book group, which in hardcover is a large book, and I looked over at this novel and decided to read it instead for a while. And then I couldn't put it down. I read too late into the night, I got up early and read it while drinking my morning coffee, until I finished it within a couple of days.

The story centers around a writer named Juliet Ashton who, after having written a popular newspaper column in WWII, is looking for her next novel idea. She receives a letter from a man from the island of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, located between England and France. In the letter, he mentions the existence of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. From this letter, a correspondence between Juliet and many of the denizens of this island begin, and they discuss the occupation of the island by the Nazis during the war, and the book group that began as a ruse to hide a pig.

The entire novel is written through letters. Much of the book seems light and airy, but out of nowhere will come a story of something truly horrid that happened during the war, and it cuts to the quick. Because of the levity people inject into their stories and their letters, its easy to forget for a moment the terrible things that truly happened, which makes this book both enjoyable and effective. I came to truly care about the characters, which is a mark of a good novel.

Read this one.

Book #14: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

I read this one on the bus up to Minneapolis. I'd seen the previews for the film version when I went to see The Fault in Our Stars, and I was curious. It's important to read the book before seeing the film so that you can be judgmental throughout the film regarding how faithful it is, instead of simply enjoying the film.

One thing I found upon opening the book was how short it really is. They've tried to disguise this by using large type and including long excerpts from two other books at the end. It's more a novella than a novel, which is not a bad thing, but I was surprised. It's a young adult (YA) book, and I've been trying to read more of those since I'm attempting to write one.

The majority of the book takes place after the main character, a cello-playing Juliard-bound eighteen year old named Mia, has been in a terrible car accident that takes the life of her parents. The central question of the story is this: does she choose to live or die, knowing that life will never be the same? Through flashbacks we learn about her parents - her rocker dad turned schoolteacher and her badass biker chick mom, her younger brother, and her boyfriend Adam, a musician who is on the verge of making it big with his band.

There are no major twists and turns here, and sometimes a good straightforward story is all you need. I won't say that it's amazing writing, but its an interesting concept for a story, and I look forward to catching the film version on Netflix at some point in the future.

Book #15: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Oh god, how I hated this book. It was chosen by my book group, and the person that picked it said, "I really don't like this book, but I want to discuss it." Red flag, people, red flag. Going into it, my expectation was that it would be well-written and possibly controversial. I don't really know if it was either of those things. My only real prior knowledge of this book was from the kerfuffle around it being named an Oprah book and the author getting all hoity-toity and saying something in the realm of not wanting those kinds of people reading his book because they wouldn't get it. Based on that, I was predisposed to assume the author was a douchebag. That impression did not change upon completion of the book.

This is a book about flawed characters stemming out of a suburban, relatively well-to-do family. Two parents and three (now adult) children. We are first introduced to Chip, a former professor who has lost his job because of the stereotypical reason of having an affair with his student. He is now living wretchedly, barely making ends meet, writing a terrible screenplay and wearing leather and earrings to make himself feel edgy. Chip's parents come to visit him as they are about to embark on a cruise that departs nearby, and his successful chef sister comes to visit them as well.

We get to know the parents - Alfred and Enid, both of whom are dull and miserable in their own ways. Alfred is beginning to lose control over his body, and his mind as well. Enid just thinks he's being difficult. As we learn more about them and their pasts, we don't like them any more.

We also get to know the oldest of the three children, Gary, who is married with three children of his own. Gary cares about appearances and nice things, and wants everyone to recognize that he is better off than they are. He mopes about feeling unloved and not included in his family, with his wife being close to the children and more or less excluding him. He believes that he is depressed and that he must not let on to his wife, lest she have the upper hand.

We don't learn much about Denise, the sister, until later on, but she is equally messed up, having a thing for older, married men. She is a driven, successful chef running her own restaurant. But because Jonathan Franzen needs everyone to be wretched, she too blows up her life.

Everyone in this book is miserable. No one grows. I'm not sure exactly what we are supposed to learn from this book, except to analyze the expectations and flaws of the nuclear family and the mundane lives we all live. Parts of this book reminded me of Gravity's Rainbow, which is not a compliment, but which the author would likely take as one.

Much of this novel seems devised as a way to show us just how intelligent the author is. The first 20 pages were so pretentious that I wondered if it was meant as an effect to show us how pretentious the character of Chip really is. I learned in my book group that apparently the author based the character of Chip on himself, and now I wonder if the author was self-aware enough to be mocking his own pretention.

Our book group was divided on this one - a couple people thought it was extremely funny, and others (me included) thought it was just sad and depressing. People whose opinions I respect love this book, so I will leave it at the idea that just like people can taste foods differently, we can all read books differently. I will not likely follow Mr. Franzen's work in the future, but it sounds like he has a following so large he doesn't need my help anyhow.