BOOKS THREAD

For anyone who's read Roth's "Indignation," what did you think of his device of having the narrator be dead?

 

Christopher Hitchens wrote an absolutely savage review in The Atlantic.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200810/hitchens-roth

 

Yeah, I had read that, but I usually take Hitchens with a grain of salt.

That being said, while I enjoyed it more than I first thought I would, I got the sense that he wrote the thing in one hasty, yet almost nonchalant, sitting.

 

Man, The Road was an amazing and disturbing read.

I read the entire thing last night and had some troubling dreams afterward.

Just a great story about relationships and God, or the lack thereof.

I've never read a 280-page book where only one name is used and neither of the main characters names are used.

 

LJB, what did you think? I am kind of reluctant to buy it since it seems like a very depressing well-written book to slam Schulz.

 

Well, it's very grim. I had to put it aside at points and pick up something else. It's sad that a guy bursting with talent and remarkable things to say about humanity and society struggled so badly to manage his own happiness. There was a very touching part in the PBS documentary a year ago when he breaks down crying because he can't accept that he's been burdened with cancer. He had a will to keep going, but it never seemed like it was for the right reasons.

 

I just started "The Road" yesterday and got 45 pages in. I'll give the Coen Brothers credit for turning me onto McCarthy. "No Country" was a great book and movie.

My favorite lines so far ... because I have a son and the bits of dialog like this are so beautifully written and touching:

"He knew that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke" on page 5.

And on pages 10-11, the exchange between father and son where the son asks, "What would you do if I died?" and the father answers "If you died I would want to die too." The boy asks, "So you could be with me?" and the father says, "Yes, so I could be with you."

The exchange where the man finds a Coke and gives it to the son, who has never had Coke was also just great.  The little boy insisting his dad have a drink and the old man giving in for one sip before returning the treasure he found to his son.

I wouldn't normally read something quite this dark, but while the dialog between the man and his son is sparse, every sentence of dialog I've read so far makes me think that I would have said the same thing or done the same thing for my son or daughter.

 

Anybody read Searching for Schindler? It's about Thomas Keneally's writing process for Schindler's List. It's pretty interesting so far, I am about 45 pages in or so.

 

Some recent reads:
Kill the Messenger. About Gary Webb and how his CIA-crack cocaine story destroyed his career and ultimately him. The writer, Nick Schou, knew Webb and it's a sympathetic portrait, but doesn't shy away from criticizing him at various times.

The Kingdom and the Power. A classic by Gay Talese. A bit strange reading it in these times, because back then of course newspapers were basically printing money. James Reston is profiled throughout the book. His kid, James Jr., is portrayed by Sam Rockwell in Frost/Nixon; he was one of Frost's advisors.

New York Stories: Collection of the best stories from New York magazine's 40 years. Awesome collection. I wish they would have had a few older stories, since I had already read all of the ones from the last five years or so. Some of the classics include Tom Wolfe's "Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's," and "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night." My favorite one might be George Plimpton's "If you've been afraid to go to Elaine's these past twenty years, here's what you've missed." Plimpton takes a then unknown writer to the famed Elaine's. The guy had won an evening with George Plimpton, and Plimpton didn't know what the hell to do with the guy. The writer was Jerry Spinelli, who went on to become a successful author.

Now some questions. Need to stock up for an upcoming trip and will be heading to the Strand. What are some good ones on the fall of the Soviet Union? Is Remnick's the best?

Are there any great books on the AFL (not the Arena League)?

And what's a good, lively, broad history of the Revolutionary War? I always sort of blow that one off when it comes to war books - Johnny Tremain might be the last book I've read set in that era. I'm sure McCullough's 1776 is good, but there are some lesser-known ones?

 

I read a nice, quiet novel called Matrimony by Josuha Henkin this past week that reminded me of my college days in many respects. It was not revelatory, but a good love story spanning three decades with some musings on The Writing Life and the nature of friendship, betrayal, forgiveness and growing up. Worth your time if you are looking for a breezy, literary read. The NYT picked it as a noteable book last year.