Crime and Punishment

I recently finished Crime and Punishment by you know who. ;o) I almost don't want to admit that this was my first time, since I know I'm like the last person on earth to read it. In case you haven't read it, I don't want to say that you should, because you could very well live without it. However, it is suspenseful and intense, if you like that sort of thing. I found myself consistantly amused by the characters and their Russian behaviors. Russians crack me up, even the ones I've known personally have always made me laugh- unintentionally, of course. Relax, man. That's all I really want to say to them. But oh the fun of seeing them get all heated up in an arguement!

So here is a quote from the book that made me laugh out loud. The author is describing what Raskalnikoff thinks of Svidrigailoff: "The man was objectionable to him; he was evidently a thorough rake, decidedly crafty and knavish, probably utterly depraved. Evil reports were in circulation about him." The part that made me laugh was how "probably utterly depraved" is just tacked on there at the end like an afterthought. So dramatic. Gotta love them Russians! :o)

Mason & Dixon

Thomas Pychon's novel, Mason & Dixon, is a reimagined telling of the history of this famous duo's partnership. From first chronicling their observation of the Transit of Venus in a distant Dutch colony to their years in America surveying and mapping out the line separating the North and South, and finally their descent into old age and ultimately death, Pychon creates a combination of scenes and tales of adventure that come together to form a huge fictional account of the lives of these two men. The actual history of the existence of Mason & Dixon and the historical facts of what they accomplished are used as a skeletal framework upon which Pychon creates his fantasy.

Much of Mason & Dixon reads like the recounting of an old adventure by an old man who observed events and felt compelled to turn them into a series of tale tales. We read of dogs who can talk, mechanical ducks capable of supersonic flight, ghosts, gigantic vegetation, a golem and even the hidden realm all around us inhabited by the tribe that took the eleven days that the British Calender Act of 1751 "removed" in order to fall in line with the Gregorian calendar. There is a grain of truth in all of it, but only just so. One is reminded of the absurd Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

If all of this seems quite strange one need only consider the source. Pychon is known for his extremely intricate plots and attention to tapestry-like detail. This is not light reading by any stretch of the imagination. For starters, Pychon adopts a sort of pseudo-Old English form or writing and spelling that can be downright annoying at times. There is liberal use of archaic words and terms and a good dictionary barely begins to address the issue. On top of this Pychon seems to have an obsessive need to write in the present tense. Often he appears to be deliberately obscure and part of the process of reading Mason & Dixon is trying to decipher just what is happening. In this sense Mason & Dixon is a difficult if not nearly impossible book to romp through on a weekend read.

I'd like to point out that Mason & Dixon can be easily enjoyed on many other levels. If one takes the book as a series of tales and doesn't try too hard to follow how they're all tied together then the going can be somewhat easier. There is plenty of accessible humor throughout the book and many passages are as elegant and beautiful as anything you'll find in the whole of English literature. I found the last section of the book, where Pychon imagines Mason & Dixon now in old age seeing each other only rarely but still lifetime friends, to be some of the most touching writing I've read in a while.

You're not going to want to pick up Mason & Dixon if you're looking for something quick and easy. You're not going to want to pick it up if you're looking for something that merely entertains and requires no effort on the part of the reader. If, however, you're willing to put in the time and the effort and can bare Pychon's rather eccentric style then Mason & Dixon will yield many rewards.

Hodgepodge

Books I read this month:
Tricked by Alex Robinson
Country Girls by Edna O'Brien
How We Are Hungry by David Eggers
You Shall Know Our Velocity! by David Eggers
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Books I read last month:
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
Lamb by Christopher Moore
Song of Susannah by Stephen King
Dark Tower by Stephen King
Harry Potter 4-6 (yet again) by JK Rowling

The past few months I've been reading books like crazy. It feels that way anyway. I am not sure if my mind has suddenly come to life again from school, or if it is more of a desire to read anything that doesn't relate to school. Distraction. Either way, I've read a number of good books lately. The most enjoyable to read of those listed were Lamb, Dracula, and You Shall Know Our Velocity!. I consider the Dark Tower absolutely wonderful, but in an entirely different class from these other books. It is more of a staple (although Dracula would earn that title too). I just started Crash by JG Ballard. I've seen the Cronenberg movie which is totally messed up. If you haven't seen it, it is the story of a man who becomes a part of a group formed by people with car crash fetishes. I am wondering if the book will be quite as disturbing as the movie. Probably more so. But then again, it was Cronenberg (who I am a big fan of) making the movie. I also have Kite Runner and Reading Lolita in Tehran on order from the library. I feel my time being taken away by homework and somewhat useless assignments, and I want to read all the more to compensate for the boredom inflicted there.

Watching the English

I bought this book during an eight hour layover in Amsterdam, however, I have been slowly wading through it as it isn't a very gripping read. While it is a humor book geared at a British reader, I bought it because it looked like it might help me to better understand British culture, which has stumped me since I started working as the lone American in a British company about 6 months ago.

The author is the daughter of some renowned antropologist who, due to my relative ignorance of anthropology, I have never heard of. It's a tongue-in-cheek anthropological study of British culture meant half as a joke, as in, "Haha, we're the chimps!" and half as a genuine analysis.

Good news: It is incredibly insightful in explaning British culture and perspective. British idiosyncracies that I formerly thought of as rude (stand-offish behavior, fear of foreigners, etc)made perfect sense once laid out in context. It also helped me to better understand American culture, which is (arguably) rooted in British culture. A must-read if you find yourself headed to England or if you anticipate being surrounded by Brits, or if you are interested in behavior studies. The humor smooths over the heavy analysis.

Bad news: The presumed "God-view" of the world that I find so irritating about British culture sometimes emerges in the book where a sincere self-evaluation (the author is a Brit) would have been better. However, that is a strong aspect of their culture and maybe adds to the book's bona fides.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Okay, so I suppose I will first to blog in our little group, does that make me special?

If you have read my blog, which I am sure you all have by now, ahem. Then you already have small review of the last book I finished, The Kite Runner, so I won't waste your time telling you again what a WONDERFUL book it was.

Instead, I will go onto another book I thoroughly enjoyed, see title as title of blog, I figured you would catch on. This book is written from the perspective of a young child suffering from autism and is truly a wonderful rendition of this disorder. My mother has taught these children for years and I have spent countless hours observing them. I would say he is an antihero because it is difficult to like or feel sympathy for him because he comes off as simply being selfish throughout the book. But that is not the case at all, it is merely there disorder that makes their thought process resemble that of a color blind horse with blinders, things are this way or that, it does not matter what or who is effected by it.

I must admit that at times, it can become difficult to read. A lot of the book seems like one long run-on sentence, but it is not due to the poor grammar skills of the author. Instead it is a stream of consciousness of someone who deals with this mental disorder.

Whether or not it is difficult and sometimes cumbersome to read, I thoroughly reccomend it as insight into someone's mind that suffers from autism.