Other Recent Reads

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett (January book club): My first foray into authentic detective fiction by a giant of the genre. No doubt such novels heavily influenced contemporary mysteries and novels of suspense. In fact, I wondered if Dan Brown's rapidly paced, super-short chapters are a nod to Hammett's style. The Thin Man brought the era of prohibition to life, and many of the characters were reminiscent of the wealthy, careless, and laconic individuals that people F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels. It was an enjoyable read, and I appreciated the world it brought to life, but I did not find it particularly compelling in character, style, or plot. Perhaps it is too soon to draw this conclusion, but I don't think this genre really resonates with my literary tastes. One of these days, I'll read The Maltese Falcon and something by Chandler to confirm (or overturn) my impression.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (February book club selection): Utterly engrossing. The nested narratives are beautifully woven, and the levels of storytelling that unfold are gripping. The characters--many damaged and some downright disturbing--and their atmospheric world sink into you as you lose yourself in the skillfully crafted passages. The novel manages to be both Gothic and contemporary, outlandish and real. The powerful tale grapples with the themes of identity, loss, violence, healing, origins, madness, life, death, and the spectral realm in between. It explores a plethora of relationships: between parents and children, siblings (in particular twins), writers and their work, readers and books, storytellers and their audience, doctors and patients, guardians and their charges, strangers and friends. At the core of the novel is the conflict between people's internal imperative to search out elusive truths and the necessity of storytelling (which some see as lies) to make sense of our personal histories. There is a beautiful symmetry in the narrative, but it is a complex symmetry that is multiplied, reflected, and refracted a dozen times. This is a novel that moved me, made me think, and left me with a profound respect for the author. Upon finishing the last page, my thought was that I'd like to reread the book again because knowing what happens at the end will surely provide a lens that will throw into relief many details and subtleties missed during the initial read.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. I picked up this book while perusing the writing section at my library. In the flotsam and jetsam of my memory, a glow of recognition emerged when I saw the title. I think an undergraduate classmate had mentioned the book to me years ago. Since I'd been planning on writing more, it seemed like a good way to start getting in that frame of mind. The book is an easy, enjoyable read. I like its conversational and humorous approach, and it feels good to be reading about writing... it's like I'm slowly finding my way back to membership in a long-neglected club that's always been hovering in my mind and heart...

On Stephen Crane

This month, my office book club read three short stories by Stephen Crane: "The Open Boat," "The Monster," and "The Blue Hotel." Now, I was not an "Americanist" in college or grad school, so I'm pretty sure the last time I read anything by Crane was high school. Although naturalist fiction will never be my favorite genre, I do think I appreciated his work much more this time around. His narratives force readers to grapple with complex moral issues; the questionable concept of free will in an indifferent, often hostile environment; and the senselessness of many life events.

Reading these three stories, I never felt sure where the author was taking me. And, after finishing and reflecting upon the tales, I found myself struggling to shape my myriad observations into a coherent interpretation. Surely there must be some elusive core buried beneath the layers of details and literary conventions. It is startling to realize that perhaps there is no such core, that naturalistic fiction would not have a hidden message or truth. This may even be part of Crane's genius: engaging readers in a futile search for meaning that parallels the actions unfolding in the narrative. I'm not really sure though... for some reason, I don't feel altogether confident as a reader when dealing with his work.

Crane's narratives were selected as a loose connection with Halloween ("creepy naturalist stories"), so I read them with that association in mind. And, in terms of moral ambiguities and a kind of dull psychological horror, these stories were creepy! They create a sense of unease that is slow to leave, and they really make you think... in many ways, it's like probing a dilemma that has no solution. Crane seems to like casting his characters as a kind of "everyman," and he is very deft at implicating the reader in the questionable decisions and actions taking place in the story. In the case of "The Monster" and "The Blue Hotel," we ponder the hard question of whether we would truly act differently if faced with the same situations entangling the characters. This pondering engenders doubt, which then implies a degree of guilt, as if we too participated in (or allowed to happen) the terrible events in the story. Certainly food for thought.

After I finished the stories, I read a little of Crane's biography online. Considering that he died of tuberculosis at the age of 28, he certainly produced a large body of work. (The anthology I checked out from the library was almost 800 pages!) Crane married Cora Stewart-Taylor, a well-born New Yorker who had been thrice married and was the proprietress of a brothel in Jacksonville, Florida. Also a writer, she worked alongside Crane as a war correspondent during the Greco-Turkish War. Pretty fascinating stuff. I'd be interested in reading the biography of the formidable Cora!

Overture

And so begins my first foray into the blogging world. Though I love to write (or so I've been proclaiming since high school), I've done precious little writing in recent memory... my bound journal lies fallow for months at a time, and I've even become delinquent in keeping my reading journal up to date. As for creative writing... well, let's not even go there. So, when I learned that a good friend started blogging this month, I was inspired to try it too in an attempt to write more regularly. We'll see how this experiment goes. At the very least, it should prove cathartic. ;P