Yeesh. I’m running behind. In my defense, it’s been a bit crazy. I also don’t have a great deal to say about any of these books (except Under the Net, but mostly I want to say, go read it!), s this should work as one post. As always, spoiler warning for the texts in question.
Oh, Faulkner. I don’t really know what to do with you. I actually really enjoyed The Sound and the Fury. It wasn’t until I had finished it that I read somewhere that it is supposed to be difficult, which I think is unfair. It’s exquisite in this very raw and painful way. It’s a tragedy both in that it is sad/almost depressing, and that it seems inevitable. I’m still a bit afraid of Faulkner, though, and Go Down, Moses didn’t help that. I can’t see it as a novel, try as I might. I can see it as interconnected short stories, but I’d love to talk with someone about it not as vignettes but as a single arching narrative. Because I just didn’t experience it that way. I didn’t connect with most of the stories, except The Old People, The Bear, and Go Down, Moses, itself; my favorite was the first of those three. It’s the one that finally pulled me in.
The Vicar of Wakefield was quite the change of pace. It’s old, of course, and you can certainly see that. It works best as a satire, I guess. I’m glad that it was short, since it got old near the end (one can only take so much of, “and then another catastrophe happened”). I also did not care for the Vicar at all. I sometimes wonder if I would have a very different sensibility if I had been born during that era, or if I would have chafed at the gender roles and expectations. Clearly, our sensibilities and identities are shaped at least in part by our cultural context, but at the same time people born within cultural norms are the ones who change and expand them, so I do wonder where I would have fallen with that (which is to say, I would make a pretty terrible pre-Victorian woman if I suddenly got kicked back in time). All of that acknowledged, I did appreciate the character of the second daughter and her romance. Nothing modern about either, per se, but still I found it admirable and appealing. The book might make a decent play, if you played up the humor.
Under the Net made me fall in love with Iris Murdoch. I read this book incredibly quickly, because it was so much fun. Who couldn’t love a story where a man decides to steal a movie star dog when he is essentially homeless all for an extremely muddled notion about holding it ransom when it is clearly more of a liability than an asset? I also loved all three women as characters. Murdoch created three dimensional characters that still had elements of caricatures, but that were also fully realized. They had their own desires and ambitions, and weren’t just accessories (maybe because this was the first female author I’ve read in a bit). This doesn’t even touch on the philosophy, which adds weight to what might otherwise seem almost frothy (though frothy is not an applicable adjective at all). It would be interesting to re-read the novel from the perspective of the philosophical debates within it as sort of a meta close read. The other way I’d turn this into an academic paper would be through the main character’s journey arc, also cast through the prism of the philosophical debates. Still trying to figure out to whom I could recommend this one, since I really enjoyed it, but I’m not sure who else would have the same connection.
The Piano Teacher has earned a dubious place on the books that I almost wanted to stop reading/books that I am mostly glad I have read because it means that I never have to face them again. I do not necessarily object to the portrayal of violence, even sexual violence in graphic detail, but this book was really hard for me to get through. I see plenty of the dark side of humanity without it being so thoroughly and singly portrayed in my reading choices. I went back and forth between which character I hated the most. I can admire the craft and the prose, but this one was hard for me and I’m so glad it is behind me. It did raise some interesting questions about why certain books are considered important/good, which I’ll discuss in a later post, though.
Reading the Fingersmith right now. Saw this twist coming, but it was still sort of shocking when it was actually upon me.
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