Category: Books

The Dreaming

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Last week was somewhat heady for me. As I mentioned a few days ago, I saw Inception at a midnight screening. I also watched Waking Life for the first time a few days before that. I also had a metaphysical encounter of a different sort that week, one of the most interesting reading experiences I have had in a while in Cloud Atlas, a novel by David Mitchell*. I was intrigued by the description of the novel’s structure included (without proper spoiler warnings!) in a New York Times Magazine profile of the author.

[Spoilers below. It’s not the end of the world to be spoiled on the structure of the novel, but I’m certain that it will change the reading experience.]

Continue reading “The Dreaming” →

Zadie Smith – White Teeth

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  • Zadie Smith, White Teeth, 2000.
  • This book is for: fans of family saga novels. People interested in contemporary British fiction. Those who love fully-formed characters, and their interactions.
  • This book is not for: people looking for an uncomplicated look at immigration, racism, generational conflict, and bi-racial issues. People who move their lips when they read.

Although this is Zadie Smith’s first novel, it’s not the first one I’ve read. I first read her novel On Beauty on a whim, not aware of the accolades and praise she has gathered. They are both domestic novels, concerned with large families over long spans of time, as well as the culture clash inherent to interracial relationships, and the way that those clashes are expressed through their children. As the child of mixed-race parents, a lot of her writing rings true to me, although the cultures involved are different.

At the heart of White Teeth is the lifelong relationship between Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. Jones and Iqbal, a Bangladeshi, met as young soldiers at the tail end of World War II, then became friends after returning to England. They both married younger wives at the same time: Iqbal to a 25 years younger Bangladeshi through an arranged marriage, Alsana; and Jones to an equally young, second generation Jamaican immigrant, Clara. They both have children at the same time. Samad and Alsana have twin boys, Magid and Millat, and Archie and Clara have a girl, Irie. The plot of the novel is concerned with the different generational conflicts associated with immigration: race, religious identity, education, class, respect and the child-parent  relationship.

By focusing on these characters and their interactions with each other, Smith has the opportunity to present not only the conflicts, but the way that different circumstances affect those conflicts. Samad and Alsana both come from the same culture, so their fears are that their children will replace “English” values with their values. Archie and Clara are both English by birth, so they are both comfortable with Irie being a part of the dominant culture, however their is some tension in their relationship because they come from different backgrounds. Magid and Millat respond in different ways to their family’s religion: although Magid is sent back to Bangledesh to become a religious scholar, he becomes an atheistic intellectual that is “more British than the British.” Millat is more troubled, turning to a fundamentalist Islamic group in, however  he, too, has a freedom in his spirit that comes from English youth culture.

This is an astoundingly good book. The characters are lively, the emotions are real, and Smith knows how to write her characters such that they are free to be ugly. I’m curious about other people’s responses to the work. Smith doesn’t pass judgment on her characters, and whatever side you sympathize with probably comes down to culture and temperament.

Wunderkind

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One of the books that I return to on a regular basis is a short-story collection, First Sightings: Contemporary Stories of American Youth. It was one of the things I read in my high school freshman English class, and I’ve found it a valuable tool for keeping track of the way that my mind thinks differently about things from the last time I explored the collection. The stories never change, but I do. It also seems like every time I go back to the collection, a different story calls to me.

This time around, it was “Wunderkind,” a famous story by Carson McCullers, first published in 1936. The story is about Frances, an adolescent girl who has trained to be a piano prodigy, coming to the slow realization that it is not in her to be a musical genius. The story takes place over the course of a piano lesson, where her teacher grows increasingly frustrated with her inability to bring life to her music. She thinks back to a recital she gave with another prodigy, Freddy, on violin. Freddy is now making his debut orchestral experience, and she realizes that she might never reach the same level of artistry as he.

I was blown away by how sad this story is. I may have read it before, but this time it kicked me in the gut. McCullers herself planned to study at Juilliard, but was unable to pay tuition. I couldn’t say that this story is autobiographical, but the specificity of the writing shows that McCullers was familiar with the thoughts and emotions that go through Frances’ head.

Though Frances is a musician, the story is really about potential, and the self-doubt that comes with great potential. When Frances and Freddy present their recital, they are both poised to move on to greater things (although a negative newspaper review suggests that perhaps Frances never had as much potential as she thought), and yet Freddy is moving on to the next stage, while Frances stays behind. Her potential becomes a burden; her teacher, her parents, all of the people that she’s been introduced through her music carry expectations, and Frances is confronted with the thought that she might not be able to fulfill those expectations. It’s the heaviest burden.

The burden of potential, both in failure and success, seems to me to be if not unique to music, at least the easiest to see in music. I would imagine that it is similar for writers and painters, mediums in which production falls to one person. In the course of my music studies, it’s been interesting to see how common this self-doubt is in composers. This doubt is not a function of success or failure. Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony was extremely poorly received by critics, and it launched him into a depression, and accompanying writer’s block, that lasted years. At the other end of the spectrum, Sibelius wrote seven symphonies, each more acclaimed than the last. His Eighth Symphony was so eagerly awaited that he felt trapped by the public’s expectation and never wrote another note.

Extremely Quick Book Reviews

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The Children’s Book A.S. Byatt

Set in the years before World War I, this book chronicles the lives of a group of children related to Olive Wellwood, a children’s novelist. By turn family drama, historical fiction, and disturbing fantasy, this meaty book rewards perseverance and has one of the most emotional (and shocking) endings I’ve ever read.

Pros: The plot is extremely well crafted; only at the end did I understand some of the subtext of the beginning chapters. Again, one of the best endings I have ever read. Although it is not consistent, some of the characters are deeply and realistically developed. It never feels underwritten, everything gets enough space.

Cons: It’s a hefty 688 pages (2.2 pounds, according to Amazon) which isn’t bad in itself, but I feel like some sections could be tighter. The historical fiction is a little weak, there are a couple sections which read as a long list of names, places and events. Perhaps I would connect with it more if I were English.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian Sherman Alexie

This YA novel takes place during part of a school year as Arnold (Junior) Spirit transitions from his Washington reservation school to the white school in the nearby town. He has to deal with family, community, personal relationships, athletics, and good old-fashioned nerdidom.

Pros: Junior has a strong and memorable voice. The book reads quickly. Alexie does a good job of portraying the difficulties of code-switching between two different societies. Extremely funny.

Cons: Slightly underwritten. I wish that it was a little longer, or that Alexie had dug in a little further.

A Lost Lady Willa Cather

Somewhere in between Henry James’ Daisy Miller and The Sun Also Rises, this is a novella set in frontier Colorado at the turn of the century. Spanning several decades, it is a long examination of the relationship between a young frontier boy and his infatuation with the titular lady, the most elegant and glamorous resident of the small town. Once her husband dies, however, a different side of the woman emerges, one much different from the idealized lady that the boy –now a man– imagines…

Pros: Good quality prose. Cather presents two strong and opposed sides of the lady and pulls them off with great style. Very antiquated and un-PC presentations of Indians and black people are given, as far as I can tell, without a hint of irony or critique, but Cather does a good job of showing the beauty and simplicity of the frontier West before it was ‘ruined’ by development and increasing population. Answers the question of what Daisy Miller might have become had she lived, married an Army veteran and moved to the sticks.

Cons: Although the lady is well written, our protagonist and narrator is both kind of bland and also removed from the action for the second half of the novel. There is a case to be made for the silent protagonist, however it is not made here.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon

Christopher Boone is a 15 year old English autistic boy. He discovers a heinous crime, tries to solve it, and finds out that the roots of the crime extend further into his life than he bargained for.

Pros: Haddon uses interesting and unconventional prose to great effect, like Jonathan Safran Foer (as an example of another good writer. See also Dave Eggers, for bad). Christopher is a narrator unlike any other, and his inability to use metaphor or lie means that the plot is tight and also makes poignant moments feel more real when they could feel trite.

Cons: I wish it was longer, but only because it was so good. It’s probably best exactly like it is.

The Blind Side Michael Lewis

As I wrote earlier, I was somewhat bothered by the excerpt of this book in the New York Times Magazine. I thought I owed it to Michael Lewis to read the book. I was happily surprised to find that most of the concerns I had about the article are not found in the book. In fact, the portrayal of the Tuohys are much more nuanced than in the article, and the description of Oher’s time at his high school is far less of a Cinderella story. On the other hand, this does make the changes made for the movie that much more disgusting. Also missing from the article/movie are the great sections on the history of the left tackle position and football strategy which tie Oher’s story into the history of the game.

Pros: Amazing story dealt with fairly; journalistic style makes it a gripping read.

Cons: By the end of the book I was sick of the Tuohys, Ole Miss, people from Memphis, football people and Southerners. The edition I bought had a picture of Sandra Bullock on the cover. I still could have used more of this story from Michael’s perspective.