One Word Book Titles

Deserve one word reviews, right? For Fury, I would pick misanthropic; for Ragtime, sumptuous.

Well, all right, they both deserve a bit more than that.I actually really liked both.

I've been making my way through Rushdie's' oeuvre. Nothing has surpassed or even come close to my love of The Ground Beneath Her Feet (The Moor's Last Sigh came the closest, and it was still a solid miss). That said, I do love Rushdie. Fury was very short, but it was so richly and tightly woven that it still had the decadence of any Rushdie. That said, it had a bit of a different feel, perhaps because it was so tightly focused and took place almost completely in the US. In some ways, it almost reminded me of Zadie Smith's works.

I will admit that Neela did not do too much for me. I was much more interested in Mila. This may reflect my age more than anything, though of course there's always the possibility that I liked her since she made me think of Mila Kunis, which is pretty much always a good thing.

I decided to stay in the city but jump back about 100 years for Ragtime. This is actually one that I wasn't excited about reading. I love the musical, but I had once tried to start this one about seven years ago and couldn't get into it, so I was concerned. However, I really loved it. There were some extremely beautiful passages (particularly the part that is Our Children and Atlantic City in the musical), and it really is masterfully constructed. The real historical characters get more room in this than the musical, particularly Nesbit and Houdini. I found Younger Brother's story a bit more compelling in the book as well, though I found Coalhouse less so.

It's interesting, actually, to see how the two different mediums work for this story. On the one hand, the novel is more leisurely and can explore its richly and again tightly woven world in these vignettes of detail that are lovely. On the other hand, the story simply aches for music.

It was also an excellent choice for Independence Day, I rather think.

How Strange

Some books simply are not cut out to have back of the book descriptions. I think these are two good examples.

The first, Orlando, by Virginia Woolf, according to the back of the book, is about a 16th century nobleman, who over the course of the story will become a 20th century woman. Indeed.

The second, The Blind Assassin, starts out describing the suicide of a young woman in the 1950s in Canada, before jumping to the alien planet Zycron. Yep.

That said, I actually enjoyed both a great deal. I have some issues with Woolf, but I found Orlando to be her most readable and enjoyable. This may be due to it being less melancholy than your average Woolf. It is strange, but overall it works surprisingly well, and it raises some interesting questions about gender, sexuality, and identity (fluidity is sort of the theme).

Similarly, I found The Blind Assassin to be one of the more enjoyable Atwood's that I have read (though I confess the aliens didn't due too much for me). It's an interesting one structurally, certainly, and the twists work. I think Iris is a bit of a polarizing character, and your enjoyment likely will depend on how well you can take her.