Matt’s Book Review #6

I’ve been putting this off until I at least finished the Ozick novel that I’ve been at for ages, which I did tonight. I’m quite unsatisfied with only having 6 books on this list, but I suppose at least the first two books were pretty massive in size. At any rate, here are my thoughts on how much I enjoyed everything, in order of enjoyment.
 
1) Trust by Cynthia Ozick: It took me months to read this book. It is Cynthia Ozick’s first and most massive novel and is equally as polished as her later ones, despite its length. Every sentence is incredibly refined and cadenced, perhaps even to a fault – this is far from the sort of obvious writing that modern readers are going to be accustomed to. Reading each page is a challenge and there are few sections that can be easily breezed through. As for my opinion, I always think Ozick’s writing is a little self-congratulatory and unnecessarily showy and this novel in particular is just unwieldy in its massiveness, but this is also definitely serious, quality literature. I’d say it’s on the better end of Ozick’s stuff, though it lacks the lightheartedness of her later novels.
 
2) The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami: I will probably never read all of this book. That’s because the only translation available in English is an abbreviated (though still 600+ page) version, due to an agreement with the publisher that the book could not exceed a certain length. The entire book has been translated, by the same person who also translated the abbreviated version, but the publisher, Knopf, has refused to publish it. I think this is an outrage as far as literature goes, and it baffles me that Knopf couldn’t at least go to the trouble to print the complete translation at least as an alternative to the abridged version. As it stands, the novel is noticeably incomplete and is definitely one of Murakmi’s more bizarre works. I’d recommend reading another of his books, at least until the full-version of this is available (which it likely never will be).
 
3) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: My first extended exposure to Wilde, this is a surprisingly dark novel. Wilde’s notorious wit is definitely present, but I wasn’t aware that his work contained as many heavy subjects and dark themes as Dorian Gray does (I’m also unaware as to whether Dorian Gray is an exception or the norm). At any rate, as I said, Wilde’s wit is still definitely present here, though at times I thought it was misplaced. There seemed to be many instances where Wilde was simply being witty for the sake of being witty, instead of furthering the plot of the novel or following the theme of it. Overall, I thought the lighthearted wit worked in doses and that the heavier themes did too, but I’m not sure the two ever completely gelled. Wilde’s delivery on the theme of youth and beauty is a bit over the top, too. This is one where I’d likely recommend checking out another of the author’s books, but, seeing as this is Wilde’s only novel, you’re either stuck with this or his plays. I’d say opt for the plays.
 
4) Jeeves and the Tie That Binds by P.G. Wodehouse: P.G. Wodehouse novels probably resemble what it’d be like if Oscar Wilde wrote a sitcom. The wit and magic with words is still present, but the depth is very sorely lacking. Overall, Wodehouse is a funny writer, but many of his puns become repetitive in the duration of a novel, and they become even more so to someone (like myself) who has read several of his books. On the whole, I’d say Wodehouse is worth a try if you’re someone who enjoys comedic novels and you’ve never been exposed to him, but overexposure can definitely set in quick.
 
5) Emma by Jane Austen: I read all of Emma and I found that Jane Austen has many talents as a writer, not least of which is very solid character development. However, none of these talents can overcome the fact that her novels are too slow, monotonous, and predictable for me to ever gain enjoyment from them. But, then, I’m a male, so I’m not supposed to like this, right?
 
6) Reader’s Block by David Markson: Overly experimental literary crap. The book is entirely composed of Markson throwing out random (mostly literature related) facts and occasionally mentioning a “Reader” who is supposed to be the protagonist of the book he’s trying to write. Not only is there not a plot, but there isn’t even a logical stream of thought – just a collection of facts. Admittedly, I didn’t get most of the literary references, so the novel is definitely not for me, but even taking that into consideration I was very unimpressed. Not recommended to anyone and especially not to someone who isn’t into experimental literature.
 
As for nonfiction, I also read Gore Vidal’s memoir Palimpsest, which may be of interest to you if you’re a fan of Vidal and the idea of reading a memoir of the first half of his life sounds appealing to you. Otherwise avoid it.
 
And that is that for now. Hopefully this list is much longer next time.