In an effort to catch up with what I’ve read this year so I can (hopefully) write about more current things, here are a few books I’ve read so far this year (warning – there will probably be spoilers):
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
I’m still not completely sure how I feel about this book. I love Faulkner’s writing, there’s no question about that. And this wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be – everything I’ve ever heard about this book is that the shifting point of view makes it nearly impossible to follow at times, but my copy has names at the beginning of each chapter/section, which makes it really simple to figure out who’s talking. The hard part for me was the characters. I just didn’t really like any of them. Darl is probably my favorite, because he seems to be the only one who’s semi-normal. Anse is probably my least favorite; the guy spends the whole time putting every member of his family out, along with people along the way, just because he promised to bury his wife with her family. I don’t think that’s wrong, but sometimes you have to just bury someone. I mean, would she really have known or cared? She’s dead! But no, he made a promise, and he’s keeping it – and then he finds and marries a new woman at the end. I mean… what? Seriously? You dragged your poor dead wife’s body all over the damn place, stinking it up, then take money from your kid to get new teeth, and get married woman after your wife’s barely in the ground. She had only died nine days prior, or something like that.
I really want to hear more about Addie. I would probably read a whole book about her life – she sounded interesting. But I can only wonder if I’d end up disliking her after hearing too much; maybe what we get in the book is just the perfect amount of information.
There’s so much more to it than just that, but this is what I walked away with from reading it for the first time. I’m sure I’ll read it again and analyze it more. I still think about it randomly while I’m doing other things and know I’ll need to get back to it one day. Faulkner needs more than one read.
Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare
This was a fun one because I went to a read-aloud group where we did a round-robin table read. (It was at the Rosenbach museum/library – if you love books and are in the Philadelphia area, definitely check it out!) I love reading plays. I used to do theater/drama, whatever you want to call it, when I was in school, so it’s not hard for me to read them and be able to visualize what’s happening. I know some people have a hard time with that, which is why I think this way of reading it is great – it forces you to pay attention since you don’t have one person’s lines to read, and hearing other people saying the lines helps with understanding them. Shakespeare’s language can be tough to get, and I think seeing his plays is still the best way to understand them.
It had been a while since I read this one, and I only vaguely remembered the plot – the mixup with the twins, and the mad Malvolio prank. It’s always fun to remember that women weren’t onstage so Viola is a boy playing a girl playing a boy… for some reason, that amuses me. It’s a very funny play, and definitely one of my favorites (probably in my top 10 favorite Shakespeare plays). I can’t help but feel sorry for Malvolio being tricked, but I guess we have to assume that he’s really unbearable; we only see a little bit of him being insufferable, and if he’s like that all the time, I’d probably want to lock him away and make him feel insane too. Do I need to say much more about this? I feel like it’s pretty well known… there’s a version you can watch on YouTube that was directed by Kenneth Branagh for anyone who wants to watch it.
The Queen of the Night, Alexander Chee
This was a book I was really excited about when I first heard about it, but I kept putting off reading it because it’s pretty long, and I didn’t have the time to set aside to be sure I’d read a good amount in one sitting… you know how it goes. Anyway, I finally got around to reading it. I really enjoyed it, but I felt like the ending fizzled. I think that was intentional, it’s just disappointing after all Lilliet goes through.
I love that it feels like an opera (also intentional – Lilliet Berne resembles Pamina from The Magic Flute, according to the author). There are impossible and improbably circumstances and coincidences. She goes from American orphan to circus performer to courtesan to maid of the Empress to singer… not always a clear-cut as that, but essentially, that is how she grows. She’s good at lying and disguises, which is how she gets from place to place. It’s hard to sum this book up because it’s so sweeping, and it doesn’t really go in order, though I think that adds to the story; linear storytelling isn’t always the most interesting way to do things. Essentially, someone has written a story that is about her past, which she has hidden from all but four people. The author of the story asks her to originate the role in the opera based on his novel, and she sets out to find out who told him the story before anyone else realizes it’s her true life. The story of her life prior to her singing career is unknown to all but those four people, and it’s not something she wants out there, but we get the full story of how she ended up being the celebrated singer we encounter in the beginning.
It’s always nice to read about strong and independent women, especially during time periods when women were property. Even she is – she essentially belongs to the tenor singer through most of it, though she flees from him more than once. The sad part is, after all she’s been through, her career comes to a really boring end, and she disappears from the opera, but this time, she doesn’t necessarily want to. She ends up doing a traveling opera in America and just… fading away. It’s a sad reminder that female performers have an expiration date in so many minds, even today. I don’t think that was the intent – she commits a crime and needs to hide, and this is the perfect cover, but it’s still just not the end you want for her.
This reminded me of Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus a bit – mostly her time with the circus, but also her character. They are both big personalities, famous women, with secrets and an image to uphold.
Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ve been going through books rather quickly as of late, so I’ll be writing more soon.
Thanks for reading!
Lindsey Reads Things 