So I finished The Farthest Shore yesterday and I think that’s my favourite of the 3 Earthsea novels I’ve read so far? Maybe it’s because it really spoke to my own anxiety and fear of death. I also found Arren to be a bit more compelling than Tenar was and it certainly helped that Ged was present for greater parts of the story. Started Foundation today and I’m hooked already. The way I’ve got back into reading for pleasure this last month has been so lovely, it’s nice to take the time to just immerse myself in different worlds and stories for a bit.
I also decided to prioritise new Rooney, and I’m loving it. Her prose is so enviably precise. The characters, as ever, are carefully drawn, and thankfully not as irritating as the cast of Conversations With Friends. I am enjoying the emails a lot more than I expected, too — there are a lot of interesting ideas and anxieties packed in there which I think are a heck of a lot more successful than, say, Patricia Lockwood’s novel. They can feel a bit like Guardian Opinion articles that she has decided to put in a character’s mouth rather than her own, but I often like Guardian Opinion articles so I’m cool with it.
Booker shortlist: I have A Passage North and Great Circle, so that's my two next reads... after Foundation. Detransition, Baby will have to keep waiting ñññ
Shortlist A Passage North - Anuk Arudpragasam The Promise - Damon Galgut No One Is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood The Fortune Men - Nadifa Mohamed Bewilderment - Richard Powers Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead
Kinda okay with Ishiguro missing out. He doesn’t need it and it was just fine. Surprised China Room didn’t make it. The Lockwood book is awful, Arudpragasam’s is exhausting and ultimately not worth it, and Galgut’s is, for me, the standout. Excited for Bewilderment! I just wish I could get the Canadian edition because it’s beautiful.
Award season continues. National Book Award longlist for fiction: Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers Matrix, by Lauren Groff Abundance, by Jakob Guanzon Zorrie, by Laird Hunt The Prophets, by Robert Jones, Jr. Intimacies, by Katie Kitamura The Souvenir Museum: Stories, by Elizabeth McCracken Hell of a Book, by Jason Mott Bewilderment, Richard Powers Loos like Bewilderment is the it book this season?
Today, the National Book Foundation announced its 5 Under 35 honorees: five fiction writers under the age of 35 “whose debut work promises to leave a lasting impression on the literary landscape.” Caleb Azumah Nelson, Open Water Nathan Harris, The Sweetness of Water Lee Lai, Stone Fruit Claire Luchette, Agatha of Little Neon Dantiel W. Moniz, Milk Blood Heat All in my evergrowing TBR, of course!
I'm reading Three Floors Up by Eshkol Nevo and so far it's really good. The first story *ucked me up, can't wait to read the second one tonight. Spoiler After watching the legendary Selena Gomez in Only Murders In The Building.
My final thoughts on new Sally Rooney? I kinda wish she had just released a book of essays. She has alot to say on the subject of fame (in particular), modernity, sexuality and faith (amongst other topics) and while it was interesting to read these thoughts - her writing is characteristically clear and intelligent and without pretension - it didn’t quite meld successfully with the “plot” of the book. In fact said plot felt more like a hastily sketched in version of what we’ve come to expect from a Sally Rooney book to facilitate all of the other things she wanted to discuss. I don’t know. There was some great writing here but the book doesn’t work.
I can see this, but at the same time I really enjoyed it. It took an awful long time for the characters to come together, and when they did it was, at first, a bit of a letdown. But then there were some great scenes, and ultimately I came away satisfied. Spoiler Can’t decide if the Felix/Simon gay-baiting was okay or a little manipulative, and I’m also kind of surprised everyone got a happy ending.
Okay Rooney stans now let’s get in formation. I’m currently six chapters into Beautiful World and (i) she remains a master at expertly capturing the push and pull between two people who are attracted to each other. Those first encounters between Alice and Felix pop and sparkle so much; (ii) her knack for drawing richly layered characters in the most sparse and economical way remains unparallelled; (iii) the e-mails so far are a lot less pretentious than the reviews made them out to be - although, really, who still writes like this in the age of WhatsApp and Instagram? (iv) Eileen is already pulling at my heartstrings; (v) I hereby plant the seed of a future adaptation starring Saoirse Ronan as Alice. YOU READ IT HERE FIRST.
I thought Alice and Felix had like, zero chemistry? And the only thing more tedious than the repetitive conversations about their non-relationship were the 187 sex scenes between them. Many nights I dropped the book in frustration when I realised another 3 pages of awkward humping was about to happen. By getting it wrong, Alice/Felix (and to a lesser degree Eileen/Simon) highlighted how right Rooney had got the central dynamic in Normal People.
I just can’t be arsed with the frustration of another full length novel of characters unable to articulate their feelings. My housemate read it straight away (loving Normal People is basically her whole personality) and loved it, but I just can’t bring myself to pick it up yet.
Finished The Dark Forest (book two in the series that starts with The Three Body Problem) and really enjoyed it. Bizarrely shitty depiction of women aside, it’s sci fi that is an absolute feast for anyone into physics and space. Everything is very, very well thought out and draws on tonnes of actual science. If you’ve ever watched and enjoyed an episode of PBS Space Time, you’ll like it. Next up… I’m either going to read Bewilderment, or I am half-tempted to go to a book club Meetup about Sarah Moss’ Summerwater. How come?
I finished Foundation and Empire yesterday and with the show premiering last week I'm in such a sci-fi mood that I'm looking for anything space in it. The Three-Body Problem has been in my TBR for years, so maybe it's time. The Bookers can wait until November ññ
Worth knowing that the first book has lots of physics, computer science, and other interesting stuff, but there’s not tonnes of space. The book starts in the 1960s!
