i wish i were back on a plane, just so i could keep reading

I had been planning on finishing up a few more books to add to the list below, continuing from previous posts (I'm right in the middle of Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose and don't tell me you don't want to hear about it), but school is, as always, getting in the way.  This will probably be my last hurrah of reading for fun until June.  So, here's a wrap-up of the books I read while in Singapore and on the journey home.  I give you four beautiful books, a really-really-trying-to-be-beautiful book, and a dud:

®21. All the Pretty Horses · · · · by Cormac McCarthy (3/25/2012)

Ohmygoshyouguys.  Cormac McCarthy blew my mind and I haven’t found all the pieces yet.  Because I’m in a state of verbal inadequacy, I’m going to simply copy and paste this lovely review from Lara at goodreads: “McCarthy pares his descriptions down to the purest bones, and then, as if all that surrounded it was the shrapnel of a shattering revelation, lays down a jaw-droppingly astonishing sentence that sums up good, evil, man, God, love.  The best and worst in men are inseparable in McCarthy's worlds, which are so exactly imagined as to be indisputable.  John Grady Cole is one of the most memorable heros in contemporary literature.  This one makes me want to ride out across the dust.” 8 out of 10.

®22. Brave New World · · · · by Adolus Huxley (3/26/2012)

Another classic. *yawns, leans back in chaise lounge and tosses book gaily over shoulder.* Seriously, I feel like the only place to read this book would be reclining in the lounge in 1932.  This book must have been the shiz in the 30s, but now, it just seems flat.  There’s really no plot development, there are no non-stock characters, and the descriptions of the dystopian world become repetitive and boring after the first ten minutes of reading.  Although those first ten minutes really are a trip: in this world, the dictatorial government uses happy drugs and playful sex as world-domination tools, and grows people in labs in batches, and purposefully stunts the growth of people in lower social classes, and uses sleep hypnosis to convince people that they really are truly happy with their lives.  It’s a WEIRD, cool idea, but the idea can be summed up in one sentence, instead of dragging it out for an entire book.  5 out of 10.

®23. The Bean Trees · · · · by Barbara Kingsolver (3/27/2012)

This is a warm story about the beautiful absurdity of life, about mothers and daughters, and about the human condition.  This book reminded me of many magical realist short stories, and the sense of bemused amazement as we follow the characters through life’s unexpected twists and turns is infectious.  Mini-synopsis: The heroine begins with giving us readers a clear-eyed account of Kentucky and her desire to leave it.  She eventually does, driving West and searching for a new place to begin.  Somewhere in Oklahoma, somebody gives her a baby.  In a blurb like this, saying “somebody gives her a baby” just sounds trite and soap-opera-y.  Kingsolver, wordsmith extraordinaire, is anything but trite, and this baby turns out to be the most central, most joyous part of the whole book.  This new ersatz-mom stops driving in Tuscon due to other random circumstances, and there her new life (+ baby) begins, and she starts to learn about the mixed misery and joy that humans put each other through.  8 out of 10.

®24. The Color Purple · · · · by Alice Walker (4/1/2012? or perhaps 3/31/2012—I was crossing the date line)

Man, oh man.  (Or, as my roommate says, Woman, oh woman.)  This book is incredibly powerful, and narrates a journey so despairing and joyous that you’ll cry for America.  Walker explores themes of race, misogyny, poverty, incest, rape, motherhood, heteronormativity, religion, creativity, and love, just to name a few.  Here’s an interview with Walker on BBC that has some fascinating stories about how she went about writing the book, and the world’s reception to it. 9 out of 10.

®25. Enduring Love · · · · by Ian McEwan (4/1/2012? or perhaps 3/31/2012—I was crossing the date line)

You know how you read the best book by an author, and how after that every book from the same author pales in comparison?  Atonement was such a complex, multi-leveled book, with a riveting plot, that although Enduring Love was undoubtedly well written, I couldn’t shake the feeling of slight disappointment.  Come on—is two masterpieces too much to ask?  However, McEwan does craft a compelling narrative in Enduring Love, and his writing is as lyrical as ever.  Love, respect, obsession, and identity are all major themes of this book, which chronicles the changes a freak ballooning accident wreak on one man’s life and once-stable love.  7 out of 10.

®26. Lolita · · · · · · · · · · by Vladimir Nabokov (4/3/2012).

Reading Lolita on the bus gives you two reasons to be disturbed: 1) pedophiles, and 2) motion sickness.  (Another reason to be disturbed: People in Portland like to comment on what their bus neighbors are reading.  I know everyone sees me reading Lolita.  I know it’s a classic that everyone should read at some point in their lives.  That doesn’t stop me from wanting to hide it far, far away from my bus neighbors’ prying eyes—shoot, now I’m talking about it like it’s porn—it’s just that it’s narrated by a pedophile who has erotic plans for his stepdaughter, ok YUCK YUCK YUCK I’m stuffing it into my backpack.)  With all that aside, Lolita is a very good book.  It has many themes tucked between the covers, such as societal mores and social expectations, and is kind-of like The French Lieutenant’s Woman taken to an extreme. And the writing really, truly is excellent.  A lovely quote by Nabokov about the book: “…an American critic suggested that Lolita was the record of my love affair with the romantic novel.  The substitution ‘English language’ for ‘romantic novel’ would make this elegant formula more correct.” Various snippets of comments online: “a tour-de-force of style and narrative” and “wantonly gorgeous prose” (the amazon.com review is beautiful in its own right).  The writing is beautiful, the narrator is fantastically unreliable and could serve as a model for any creative writing class to strive for, and you are tugged along, unable to put the book down, even as the bus halts at your stop.  8 out of 10.