Book Forum, Anyone?

[Rod Hagen]

I'm 100 pages in and I think I get it, suffering. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna stop reading. Did anyone read this? What do you think?

 

http://www.amazon.com/A-Little-Life-Novel/dp/0385539258

 

http://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Michaud-The-Subversive-Brilliance-of-A-Little-Life-320.jpg

[AdamSmith]

Reminds me of reading "Jonathon Livingston Seagull" in my late teens. I kept looking for the 'subtle message' everyone was talking about, when finally someone explained it, I realized that our definitions of subtle were different.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41P78KEfQ3L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Segal-Chicken-Sol-Weinstein/dp/1936404435

 

[Rudynate]

I'm not saying it didn't have a good message, just that it wasn't particularly subtle.

 

The message in pretty much any self-development literature is the same. Some authors state it more compellingly than others, but it doesn't vary much.

[AdamSmith]

Also...

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/419I-1YRawL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

[body2body]

I am also a binge-reader and, sometimes, a binge-rereader.

 

 

 

So many of my earliest internet buds are into SFF and I'm (mostly) not. They consider it anything but lightweight.

 

There seems to be a consensus that SFF, particularly the sci fi/ speculative end, is more highly regarded today. Many SFF books play with received ideas. Some "classics" or books now highly regarded for literary purposes are technically SFF: Frankenstein, Dracula, 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, A Clockwork Orange, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Handmaid's Tale (though I am no fan of it - super implausible and not very original). Can't think of any more now.

 

Among "mainstream" writers who have written science fiction, the wildest is Doris Lessing. Shikasta, The Marriage Between Zones Three Four And Five, The Sirian Experiments, and The Making of a Representative for Planet Eight. I found them after reading a review by Le Guin. She doesn't care about rockets, or physics. She writes about existence, destiny, and the meaning of life. Not an easy read, but amazing. She also wrote a terrifying changeling story called The Fifth Child which is a worthy successor to Frankenstein .

[+ WilliamM]

Also his first novel, The Swimming Pool Library. I liked that one the best; he seems one of those writers who to some extent have one book in them that they write over and over. (Not a criticism.)

 

True about one book being like another. I just checked my bookshelf and had forgotten Hollinghurst's "The Stranger's Child" and "The Folding Star." So many gay writers died duting the plague. Although Alan Hollinghurst and Edmund White may not be my very favorite gay writers, I am very glad they are still writing and publishing books.

[+ quoththeraven]

I'm 100 pages in and I think I get it, suffering. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna stop reading. Did anyone read this? What do you think?

 

http://www.amazon.com/A-Little-Life-Novel/dp/0385539258

 

http://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Michaud-The-Subversive-Brilliance-of-A-Little-Life-320.jpg

I've had discussions about the book with people on Twitter and just put out a call for personal reactions if they've read it. From reviews, I can tell you without spoiling the plot that its main message is the importance of friendship. It is not just about suffering, although I gather there is a fair amount of that going on.

 

Of course, that doesn't mean you should continue reading. If I learn more via Twitter, I will post it here.

[+ quoththeraven]

I tried reading Hollinghurst's The Swimming Pool Library and quit because not only did I not much like the narrator, he didn't seem to like himself very much, either. (This may be projection, but to me and every other reader, the book is what we see in it.) But because the narration is (IIRC) first person, the narrative comes across as self-centered and self-indulgent.

 

Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine has written several novels with gay themes, acts, or where gayness is central to the narrative. (Examples: The Child's Child, A Fatal Inversion, The Chimneysweeper's Boy.) Maybe it's the difference between literary fiction (itself a genre) and genre fiction, but I'd much rather read Rendell/Vine. Her characters are no less flawed, but their stories are told in a way I find more interesting.

[AdamSmith]

I tried reading Hollinghurst's The Swimming Pool Library and quit because not only did I not much like the narrator, he didn't seem to like himself very much, either. (This may be projection, but to me and every other reader, the book is what we see in it.) But because the narration is (IIRC) first person, the narrative comes across as self-centered and self-indulgent.

 

Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine has written several novels with gay themes, acts, or where gayness is central to the narrative. (Examples: The Child's Child, A Fatal Inversion, The Chimneysweeper's Boy.) Maybe it's the difference between literary fiction (itself a genre) and genre fiction, but I'd much rather read Rendell/Vine. Her characters are no less flawed, but their stories are told in a way I find more interesting.

Yeah, Hollinghurst is emphatically Literary Fiction. I love genre fiction too, but for me he achieves his aim of fairly high art.

 

But then, on a desert island I could be content with Pale Fire and the collected poems of Wallace Stevens. Hollinghurst goes a fair distance toward being a legitimate heir to Nabokov, for my money.

[+ quoththeraven]

Yeah, Hollinghurst is emphatically Literary Fiction. I love genre fiction too, but for me he achieves his aim of fairly high art.

 

But then, on a desert island I could be content with Pale Fire and the collected poems of Wallace Stevens. Hollinghurst goes a fair distance toward being a legitimate heir to Nabokov, for my money.

 

Keeping in mind Lolita is the only Nabakov I've read and The Swimming Pool Library the only Hollinghurst I've attempted, I don't see the artistic connection between him and Hollinghurst other than that they're both writing literary fiction in English.

 

My desert island needs to have internet access, a comfortable bed, flush toilets, and a reliable shower, which probably obviates the whole desert island concept.

[+ WilliamM]

Keeping in mind Lolita is the only Nabakov I've read and The Swimming Pool Library the only Hollinghurst I've attempted, I don't see the artistic connection between him and Hollinghurst other than that they're both writing literary fiction in English.

 

Maybe Hollinghurst loves butterflies too. (I visited Nabakov'a childhood home in St. Petersburg near the Winter Palace -- very nice neighorhood).

 

QTR, if you did not like "A Swimming Pool Library," I would not recommend his other books. Has anyone mentioned John le Carre's The Quest fot Karla books: "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" followed by "The Homourable Schoolboy" and "Smiley's People." By now, he's written too many books. But, it is almost impossible to stop once you start "Tinker, Tailor......"

[+ quoththeraven]

Maybe Hollinghurst loves butterflies too. (I visited Nabakov'a childhood home in St. Petersburg near the Winter Palace -- very nice neighorhood).

 

QTR, if you did not like "A Swimming Pool Library," I would not recommend his other books. Has anyone mentioned John le Carre's The Quest fot Karla books: "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" followed by "The Homourable Schoolboy" and "Smiley's People." By now, he's written too many books. But, it is almost impossible to stop once you start "Tinker, Tailor......"

 

No, but I had LeCarre's The Perfect Spy, which was recommended as a good first book of his to read. I saw the movie of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and found some of it hard to follow. I'd like to read the book someday.

[+ WilliamM]

No, but I had LeCarre's The Perfect Spy, which was recommended as a good first book of his to read. I saw the movie of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and found some of it hard to follow. I'd like to read the book someday.

 

The story can be difficult to follow in the three books too. But, it is so interesting -- well worth the effort.

 

Those three books were a major high point in my fairly long history of reading.

[+ quoththeraven]

The story can be difficult to follow in the three books too. But, it is so interesting -- well worth the effort.

 

That's why it was suggested to read The Perfect Spy first.

[+ WilliamM]

That's why it was suggested to read The Perfect Spy first.

 

I had to remember where "The Perfect Spy" fit in Le Carre's career. A good intro to the author, for sure.

[Rod Hagen]

If I learn more via Twitter, I will post it here.

Thank you. I'm beginning to think the "friendship", the possibility that this is a male version of mary mcarthy's "The Group" is a faint, and that it's actually a book of suffering.

[+ quoththeraven]

Thank you. I'm beginning to think the "friendship", the possibility that this is a male version of mary mcarthy's "The Group" is a faint, and that it's actually a book of suffering.

 

I haven't heard anything back. There's one person in particular I will communicate with directly because I know she knows something about the plot, but I follow her book blog and don't remember her mentioning this as a book she read or had started to read.

 

I did, however, read The Group a long time ago and while it may have spent more time on a few characters, it did not concentrate on one of them to the extent A Little Life does. So I think that's an incomplete or flawed analogy.

[+ quoththeraven]

Thank you. I'm beginning to think the "friendship", the possibility that this is a male version of mary mcarthy's "The Group" is a faint, and that it's actually a book of suffering.

 

Here's what I learned, verbatim:

 

"I haven't read it and don't want to but I've read a lot about it. I find the divergent opinions fascinating."

 

Me: "I'm asking on behalf of someone who's 100 pages in and thinking of bailing bc he sees its main theme as suffering, not friendship."

 

"a lot of people saw it that way, whether they liked it or not."

 

There you have it from a community college English professor. Make of it what you will.

[Rod Hagen]

There you have it from a community college English professor. Make of it what you will.

 

I really appreciate that. And, as it turns out, this morning the NYT Arts section delivered my next book. ITS ABOUT A RELATIONSHIP WITH A GAY HUSTLER. ok, that should get everyone's attention. "What Belongs To You" Sounds like a really good book.

 

Review: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/20/books/review-what-belongs-to-you-a-story-of-desire-and-outcomes.html?ref=books&_r=0

Book:

http://images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/macmillan_us_frontbookcovers_186W/9780374288228.jpg

 

Author: Garth Greenwall.

http://sofiaecho.com/shimg/zx620y348_1107713.jpg

Ironically, he wrote what is considered one of the most baffling reviews of A Little Life:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/05/a-little-life-definitive-gay-novel/394436/

[+ quoththeraven]

I really appreciate that.

Review: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/20/books/review-what-belongs-to-you-a-story-of-desire-and-outcomes.html?ref=books&_r=0

Book:

http://images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/macmillan_us_frontbookcovers_186W/9780374288228.jpg

 

Author: Garth Greenwall.

http://sofiaecho.com/shimg/zx620y348_1107713.jpg

Ironically, he wrote what is considered one of the most baffling reviews of A Little Life:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/05/a-little-life-definitive-gay-novel/394436/

 

You're welcome. Ironically, Greenwall's review of A Little Life is the only one I've seen. I'm sure it was from a Twitter link, most likely one tweeted or retweeted by the woman whose advice I sought.

 

I hope What Belongs To You is more to your liking than A Little Life turned out to be.

[+ quoththeraven]

I don't know exactly where to put this link. In some ways it deserves its own thread, in others it fits better in the discussion of gay romance but this is about slut-shaming female characters in romance novels, so it's focused on heterosexual romance. But broadly (pun welcome but unintentional) it fits here.

Guest Rant: Slut Shaming in Romance (Smart Bitches, Trashy Books - this is one of the three big-name websites dedicated to reviewing and discussing romance novels no matter what the gender of the characters)

[+ quoththeraven]

I could have put this in Friday Funnies, but thought I'd try to revive this thread:

Truth. (Source)

 

I finished some books recently but I'm not sure how interested anyone here would be in them: Manga in America: Transnational Book Publishing and the Domestication of Japanese Comics by Casey Brienza (based on her PhD dissertation and research), The King's Man by Elizabeth Kingston (medieval historical/romance novel), and Special Interests by Emma Barry (contemporary romance set among D.C.'s political class). What I'm in the middle of now might be: The Cuckoo's Calling, the first in the Cormoran Strike mystery series by Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling.

 

What are you reading, or what have you read recently?

[Marlfox]

Currently I'm reading Kings Rising, the conclusion to a trilogy by CS Pacat. Set in a fantasy world, sort of like Game of Thrones. Lots of intrigue and skulduggery and m/m sex. Love it!

I'm also reading on my kindle Afterglow (upending Tad: A journey of erotic discovery Book 6). Sexy and funny and lots of m/m sex. Love it!

Sitting on my bedside table waiting to be read are A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (2015 Booker prize winner), The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro and The New York Nobody Knows by William B Helmreich. The way my interest seems to be going, New York is going to remain a closed book to me.

[+ quoththeraven]

Currently I'm reading Kings Rising, the conclusion to a trilogy by CS Pacat. Set in a fantasy world, sort of like Game of Thrones. Lots of intrigue and skulduggery and m/m sex. Love it!

I'm also reading on my kindle Afterglow (upending Tad: A journey of erotic discovery Book 6). Sexy and funny and lots of m/m sex. Love it!

 

I read the 1st two installments of Pacat's Captive Prince, as the series used to be known, and would have bought and started the third but for the near-$10 price. (I also know people who got to read it ahead of time.) Now I'm waiting to see if it'll go down or eventually be on sale temporarily. But I'm sure I'll get it eventually.

[Marlfox]

I assume the $10 was for the kindle edition. I paid Au$22.99 for a paperback edition, which for here was not a bad price.