debsbooks

Search for a Perfect Language

I was organizing my book collection and came across an interesting title: Two Two Legends: Oedipus and Theseus by Andre Gide. The only other work of his I have read is The Balcony,  which I thought was excellent, but Two Legends was compelling, because I am a sucker for literary treatments of Greek mythology. Oedipus on the Road, for example is another book I forgot to add to my Best Fiction Books of All Time list. So after reading Two Legends, I went  to the Barnes and Noble to buy The Immoralist (also by Andre Gide, probably his most famous novel.) While I was there, I happened to get some other items:

• The Proust Project. I haven't actually read all of Proust (I haven't even read Swann's Way all the way through--yet--but I recommend the modern library paperback version) but this seemed interesting; a bunch of writers craft essays about their favorite passage in Proust. This could incentivize me to crack open Swann's Way again.
• Lectures on Russian Literature, by Vladimir Nabokov. Another one I neglected to put on my Best Fiction list was Lolita--I recommend the annotated version. I also have a copy of Nabokov's Lectures on Literature but will probably get to the ones on Russian Literature first.
• The Final Solution: A Story of Detection, by Michael Chabon. I've only ever read Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Chabon, not the more famous prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, or Wonder Boys (although I did see the movie.) But this looks interesting b/c it's about Nazi Germany which is one of my specialties.
• Speaking of Russian literature, one of my favorite authors is Nikolai Gogol, not for Dead Souls (which I haven't finished yet) but rather for his Collected Tales, which includes a story called "The Nose" which is absolutely surreal. So I picked up Taras Bulba, also by Gogol, which I will try at some point.
• Then I found Serendipities, by Umberto Eco. I read Foucault's Pendulum and really enjoyed it, I enjoyed Serendipities (a book of essays about intellectual history) even more, and will start to collect the rest of his books on the topic. Search for a Perfect Language will probably be the next one I read. He has a new book out, On Literature, but I am waiting for the paperback version to come out.

New York Bookstores Part III

Yesterday I went to Coliseum Books, which had a very nice selection of fiction and literature and a very crappy history and social sciences selection. Nevertheless, I was able to pick out some good stuff.

• The Emperor, by Ryszard Kapuściński. You may remember that I recommended his book Shah of Shahs, about the Iranian Revolution. This one is about the Ethiopian dictator Haile Selassie and his overthrow in 1974.
• Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi. This is a memoir written in comic-book form (think Maus) by a woman who grew up in Iran and escaped during the revolution. Persepolis 2: The Story of A Return, is supposed to be out now too, so I will order it.
• The Emergence of Modern Turkey, by Bernard Lewis. I am going to Turkey soon and also have been reading a bunch about the Balkans so it’s about time I learn more. I’m not sure Bernard Lewis is the right person for my first in-depth history of Turkey, since some have accused him of an “Orientalist” bias, so I will keep looking around and read this with an open mind. (I personally loved his book, Semites and Anti-Semites, however.) And of course the DK Eyewitness guides are my favorite travel books so I will get the one on Turkey as well.
• The Aleph and Other Stories by Jorge Luis Borges. I have read a couple of these before, but have never read “The Aleph” itself. Will probably finish this on the plane before I post.
• Women Who Dared: A Book of Postcards. Have to keep up my feminist street cred, nothing more inspiring than looking at Susan B. Anthony et al’s stunning visages. :)
• Augustus: A Novel by John Williams. Yes, I’m not generally a fan of historical fiction but this has been compared to I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves, which are two books that I forgot to put on my Best Fiction of All Time list. So I am taking a chance.
• The Mrs. Dalloway Reader, Virginia Woolf. I am obsessed with this book so it’s great to have an edition that has additional literary criticism.

Best Books of All Time: Fiction

Here are what I consider the best books of all time (fiction; more on non-fiction later), in no particular order:

• A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole. After you read the book you will realize how tragic it is that the author killed himself after not being able to get it published. It was later published by his mother and won The Pulitzer Prize. They are making a movie out of it that will be coming out soon, starring Will Ferrell as the main character, Ignatius J. Reilly, which in my mind is perfect casting.
• God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, by Kurt Vonnegut. Not his most famous but definitely his best. And I've read his entire bibliography more than once, including Bagombo Snuff Box. :) Which reminds me not of a greatest book of all time but a pretty good one by Vonnegut's wife, Jill Krementz, called The Jewish Writer. It's a series of portraits of authors like Saul Bellow, (whose Mr. Sammler's Planet is on my list) and Isaac Bashevis Singer (whose Collected Stories is on my list.)
• Oedipus on the Road, by Henry Bauchau. This is another writer, like Par Lagerkvist below, who just came out of the blue for me. This book was like a fever dream--I had to finish it in one sitting and was stunned when I closed it.
• Barabbas and The Dwarf, by Par Lagerkvist. Lagerkvist's choice of heroes (in the former book, the title character is the convicted thief who is spared by the crowd at Jesus' expense, in the latter it is a dwarf in the court of the Medicis) is striking and his prose is spare and powerful. Both of these books will knock you for a loop.
• Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison. I will never know what it's like to be the victim of racism. This book gives one the smallest of glimpses into that world.
• The Fixer, by Bernard Malamud. This is one of those books that gets to the essence of what it means to be Jewish.
• The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. What can I say. They always make you read Crime and Punishment in school but this is the truly subversive of the two.
• The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. I think I saw the movie (which was also great) before I read the book. The book is still worth it.
• The Tin Drum, by Günter Grass. This is a book about life in Poland under the Nazi occupation and post-WWII that never mentions the Jews. This is only one of the reasons this book is spellbinding. I must warn you this book is vaguely magic realist (which I hate with a passion) but still great.
• Sula, by Toni Morrison. Toni Morrison is another writer that I have read quite a bit of. My first experience with her was when I read Beloved in 12th grade. (That was a while ago...I can't imagine an English teacher in George W. Bush's america being able to get away with that. Please please please VOTE for KERRY.) Sula along with Honore De Balzac's Cousin Bette is one of the great novels about how evil women are to each other. (Pere Goriot, btw, is Balzac's best novel, IMO.)
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Yossarian. Major Major Major Major. The nurse with nipples like bing cherries. If you read one book on this list, read this one. His other major books, Something Happened and God Knows, are also quite good, but this is the one I can recite practically from memory.
• Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. Fiction with footnotes! And actually, while I was looking for the link on Amazon I saw Infinite Jest: A Reader's Guide, which I wish I had had when I was originally reading the book. I will purchase it next chance I get.
• A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving. The main character exclusively SPEAKS IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS and it works! I'm a sucker for a good gimmick.
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams. The rest of the books in the series are good, but these are masterpieces. I also hear there's a movie coming out soon. Hurray!
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. I read this in one night at my grandmother's house when I was 12. It scared the crap out of me. And again, I'm no snob, the movie is excellent too.

There are many more. I will think of them in the course of writing. More later.