BOOKS THREAD

Nice. I laughed. You caused me to torture myself with dreams of McCandless harpooning reality from the roof of the bus

 

I'd like to know what you think, Beaker, because I loved the first two pages, and thought the rest of the book was almost unreadable. I just cannot understand why it was so praised. The guy from the Atlantic took a hatchet to it and said "the emperor has no clothes" and even though I love Denis Johnson as a short story guy, I had to agree.

It beat out Then We Came To The End by Josh Ferris for the National Book Award, which in my opinion was a huge whiff. Big Epic Vietnam Novel does not equal quality.

 

DD, I'll reserve judgment until I finish it, but I also read that skewering Atlantic review. That being said, and considering it won the National Book Award, I needed to read it for myself.

My only thought would be--and I do this myself--is that I think we tend to hold Vietnam fiction to such a high standard given what's previously been written. I certainly didn't begin the book expecting Tim O'Brien, but I still have his work in the back of my mind.

 

I'm almost ashamed to admit this, but i've read a tree grows in brooklyn and revolutionary road for the first time in the past month. I really loved both of them--I found Brooklyn to be so beautifully sad. Not one page in that entire book dragged on.

I've found myself conflicted about my recent move from NY to the NJ suburbs so revolutionary road came to me at the perfect time in my life. I can't believe i went this long without reading either book, despite knowing of them most of my life....anyway, they were great and i of course recommend them to anyone.

 

great great book

 

Just finished "Dream Boogie" which was a long biography of Sam Cooke. Didn't realize that he died so young.

A pretty interesting guy and a heck of a talent. There were some amazing details about the gospel circuit, the R&B/soul circuit and music production in those days. But not a short book.

 

I got through about a third of Three Nights in August. Then the annoying Faulknerization of certain passages and the ribbons of saliva dripping from La Russa's rod just chased me off for good.

I'll probably resume reading at a later time, but, please, no more paeans to this particular manager. The limit has been reached.

 

Reading Ian O'Connor's "Arnie & Jack/Palmer, Nicklaus and Golf's Greatest Rivalry", a tome that arrived at the office last week.

That I'm mentioned in the Acknowledgments ;D ;D ;D bears not a whit toward the way I'm enjoying this book. The dynamic between the two is interesting. Basically, Ian's inarguable premise is that each wanted what the other one had: Jack wanted Arnie's popularity and Arnie wanted Jack's game.

The game of golf was better for all of it.

 

A tremendous book and certainly one of the best music bios I've read in a long time. But, no, it's not something you knock off in a weekend.

I'm reading a solid Hendrix bio called Electric Gypsy. Exhaustive 200-odd page appendix featuring recording and equipment info, gigs and a discopgraphy, both official and bootleg.

 

The syncophancy level was vomitorious.

But there were enough interesting facts (Lawyer Tony essentially cutting off
visits with his family throughout the meat of a season, for one) to keep one interested.

 

Guralnick's earlier work -- Lost Highway, Feels Like Going Home, and Sweet Soul Music, surveys of different artists in different genres -- is worth picking up.

 

Ben,

It's OK to write about your hero, I guess, but good heavens, show some freaking restraint. Men at Work gave La Russa all the felching he'd ever need. The reductive structure used to paint a larger picture is nice, but Dan Okrent already did this kind of book 25 years ago.

The Darryl Kile chapter was very good.