Recently finished re-reading What Is The What by David Eggers. Recommended by the NY Times, and Jason Dill. Very well written, very sad, very long, very glad to be done with it.
Just blew through Catcher In The Rye for the first time. Honestly had no idea what it was about beforehand. Didn't expect it to be glaringly similar to Ham On Rye (which I'm aware came out later). Glad to finally check it off the list, but it's one of those that when you relate to it, it scares you a bit.
Next up, Dharma Bums by Kerouac. I remember feeling somewhat invigorated while reading On The Road, so I hope this one is more uplifting than my recent bummer selections.
Dil recommended
What is the What? That's a really odd choice for a narcissist like Dill. I'd expect him to be into Burroughs, Vonnegut, that kind of stuff... you know... whatever "edgy" artists dig.
What is the What is a really important book though. I second your thoughts.
Yeah,
Catcher in the Rye is a strange one. Many people - me included - think it's just overrated. In my eyes, it's just one of those novels you can only appreciate before a certain age. For
Catcher in the Rye, that'd be like... 20?
On the Road - no offense! - is kinda similar I think, just that the threshold is a bit higher (25-ish maybe?).
Just finished Ferrante's
A Brilliant Friend and I really liked it. It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea and all the hype around the book just annoys the hell out of me, but it's obvious why so many readers love it. First of all, it's a real page turner. I read all 420 pages in about 3 days, which is kinda fast for me. At the same time, the novel remains complex enough to interest a more academic audience. While you can totally enjoy the plot if you're just reading for entertainment, Ferrante addresses a wide array of key themes of contemporary literature - love, friendship, women's struggles for independence, violence, life in slums, organized crime, class and education, you name it. It's also a fascinating portrait of life in Naples, even though 90% of the plot is set in the
Rione - one of the slums at the edge of the city. Unless you're all about Bukowski and Hemingway, I can definitely recommend Ferrante. I'll get copies of the sequels as soon as the German translations come out.
On a related note, some Italian "journalist" just uncovered Ferrante's identity yesterday. For those who don't know, Elena Ferrante is just a pseudonym. Similar to authors like Pynchon, S?skind or even Salinger, the "real" author wanted to maintain her privacy. She gave written interviews and commented on her prose, yet some people were obsessed with finding out who she "really" is. Long story short, some Italian paparazzi (even though he prefers the term "literary critic") did enough stalking (mostly by looking into people's finances) to come up with a name (which is probably true) and a photo. The whole affair has been nothing but cringeworthy and in my eyes, literary criticism just hit rock bottom. If a writer wants to keep away from the light, she (or he) has every right to do so.
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-unmasking-of-elena-ferranteQuestion of authorship and its relationship to fictional content has been a topic of hot debate for decades, but it doesn't give the public any right to delve into someone's personal life against their will. Personally, I think biographical details of the author's life are irrelevant for an understanding of a novel, poem, or short story. Who gives a fuck which crippled aunt a writer named a secondary character after?! I never understood why people analyzed fiction to find out about its relationship to the author's life - especially, if the author clearly doesn't want you to do that. The work of fiction itself gives you everything you need to know.