Category: Literature (2024)

The last of summer reading is upon us.

Before the school year started up I managed to sneak two books into my schedule before classes started up. The first was a true winner and the second was missing of much win.

No surprise to the living and breathing world of literature, the Jackie Collins novel I picked up was tantalizing. Her books are trashy representations of the upper class. There an escape to the world of the rich and famous. The kind that makes the middle class mom in Iowa glad she never pursued her dream of acting.

Last summer I spent most of my time with Jackie Collins. In fact the last book I read was Hollywood Wives. Her books might be four or five hundred pages long, but it's not implausible that you could knock one out in an afternoon. They're that good. Jackie Collins is a goddess.

The final book I read was Tigerman. I made the mistake of judging a book by it's cover. I thought, this looks really cool let me read it. I got books with the twins and Miss Sara Bellum picked up Nick Harkaway's Angelmaker. It's the same man who wrote Tigerman and I thought we would love it. We did not.

Looking at his picture on the flap of the book I just imagine he imagines himself as an Ernest Hemingway. Take that as you will. The book caters to this kind of created masculinity. It's archaic and muscular yet firmly set in the 21st century.

That was his name in the book.

They live on this island that's going to be destroyed. And, I'm sure somewhere between all the words the author explained why it was necessary for the Sergeant to turn into Tigerman. The comic strip superhero of Mancreu. I'm not kidding you. This is the plot. All of it set in a realism.

This book could have been fast paced. It needed an editor to cut some of the length out. That could have helped my perception of it. However, despite my criticisms of this book I really did grow fond of a few of the characters. Like The Sergeant, the boy, and Africa (you have to read deep into the muck for this jewel).

Also the fact that the book has thirty page chapters is not kosher. It takes ten years to get through one chapter and I have no drive to read another one. Long chapters are deaths to solid literature. They halt the progress it takes to read it.

What made me the most upset was the ending. I spent all this time. Invested all this energy into loving and supporting these characters FOR YOU TO DO THIS TO THEM???

I am still so mad. I was on break finishing this book when this happened to me. NICK HARKAWAY YOU HAVE RUINED MY LIFE.

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese author.

I was in a round of Knowledge Bowl. High school. The teacher said, “none of you are going to know this.” I along with everyone else told him to ask the question anyway. He asked for the name of the author of 1Q84. I told him it was Haruki Murakami. He was pleasantly surprised.

The first time I was introduced to Murakami was by this wonderful lesbian I had in my French. I would never say that we were friends. She wasn't the kind of person who had friends. She had lovers. I don't know if I would say we were even particularly close, but I don't know if she's knows the kind of impact she's had on my life.

She was unapologetic about her sexual orientation. It was empowering. It's how I try to be now. She introduced me to Lana Del Rey and Murakami. She's a goddess. I hope she's doing well wherever she is.

This girl was always in a book and day I asked her what she was reading in class one day. It was 1Q84 and she told me Murakami was one of her favorite authors.

I didn't end up reading it until that summer. That's when I did all my reading and I stumbled upon it in the library and I picked it up. I read it in three days. If you've ever seen 1Q84 you should know that's an accomplishment.

This novel is a tome. It was published as three separate books in Japan before it was finally published as one volume there and in the United States. It's an intense read and all these years later not the novel I would start a beginner in Murakami on. This is a novel you need to carve out time for. Someone asked me what was this book about and I told them what wasn't it about.

I love 1Q84. I love the titles deliberate riff on George Orwell's classic. I love the book. I've been told by some that they found the ending disappointing. I don't agree. Murakami is the kind of author that book club's can read. He's a superstar in Japan. Much like E.L. James or J.K. Rowling is in America.

It was a good read. I must admit. It took me a little under a week. I must say that seventy page chapter was unnecessary. This is not a book I would start someone on. I do love everything Murakami does, but I wouldn't consider this his best. I did enjoy the titles reference to The Beatles. That's something Murakami is always doing. Tying his novels to music. Classical music most often.

Definitely make time to read Norwegian Wood if you want. I would never stop you. Murakami never falls flat, but it is not my favorite.

What I love about my friend group is that I actually have people who will let me talk about Murakami with them. That's when you know you've picked the right friends. The kind of people who read Murakami in their off time are the kind of people you want to know.

Unless you live in Japan, because there's not a person who doesn't read their Murakami or at the very least go to their nearest retailer and pick themselves up a hardcover copy.

Teen Wolf is back and more excitedly MTV has debuted a new television show, Scream. MTV has long ago given up it's namesake of promoting music and has resorted to a roster of reality TV and questionable hour long diversions.

The show is based off the 1996 film of the same name. That movie starred Courtney Cox, David Arquette, and Drew Barrymore. And, is filed on a long list of movies that I will eventually get around to seeing in my life time. MTV is capitalizing on the franchise's history to build an audience for their new show.

This show is building itself on the thin guidelines of a slasher. It's not an exact carbon copy. I watch it with the lights off and a bowl of popcorn. It scare me just enough that I can still go to sleep. It's trashy, basic white girl fun, and I stand for it.

Scream is one of my guilty pleasures of the summer. I would not say it's quality television, but it's so entertaining. It also has a little bit of that How To Get Away With Murder intrigue. You don't know who the killer be. So, you have 10 episodes to figure it out and more people get slashed as you go along. So, the suspect pool is much smaller.

Let me tell you how surprised I was by the level of enamored I was with this short little novel by Voltaire.

I did not expect to like it. Let's look at the facts. It is from the 1700's. Eww. Voltaire is an enlightenment thinker. Double eww. To be perfectly honest I didn't actually plan on reading it all for my English class. Skimming was definitely on my mind. Spark note it if it exists.