With forty hour work weeks and at least forty hours of school work a week finally abated for the time being, I justifiably have time to delve into some highly anticipated and much appreciated leisure reading. Since May 13th, I've gotten through about four books and bought a few more for the on deck circle: Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, John Brandon's Arkansas, and the og version of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Additionally, I've finally gotten a chance to read the copies of "Believer" magazine that I kept buying and putting aside cause I knew damn well I couldn't read them in the thick of finals. I'm about twenty pages away from finishing Arkansas and its friggin amazing. I really like this guy's style and I feel like we see the world through very similar lenses. The book is about two low level Arkansas mules in a huge drug organization that runs shit in the southeast. I'm not done yet, but I anticipate finishing it tonight and can't wait to see how all the angles tie up and into each other. Barring an unforeseen shitty ending, I highly suggest it for anyone who likes drug books or at least cynical protagonists who think they're better than everyone else.
And of course, believe the hype: McCarthy is the word incarnate and The Road is a must read for discerning and terrified readers that care about Americana's place...post-apocalypse. Damn, after I finished it, I almost got like that same feeling I got when I saw "There Will Be Blood." You know, that "holy shit, that was incredible and scary in a super intelligent and super intense way that I can't quite verbalize but am terrified by what I know it means and more terrified by what I don't know it means." Ya dig?
Johnson's book was interesting...but certainly not quite the engrossing page turner I expected. Historical fiction set against the last pre-germ theory cholera outbreak in the western world, it was intelligent and reminiscent of the classic Devil in the White City that intertwined tales of Chicago's preparation for the turn of the century world's fair and the deranged, narcissistic serial killer with bullshit motives that was torturing the would-be fair goers the whole time in a very "Pulp Fiction" type style. However, Johnson's book is nowhere near as engrossing and the characters are far from developed and therefore, further from interesting. Nevertheless, it was pretty decent and I'd say get it from the library and save the 13 bucks. But of course, read "Devil in the White City" first.
And Matheson's oft-adapted tale of man v. science-vampires was a good story with intelligent (and ahead of its time) theories about mankind's death wish that was markedly different from Will Smith's ego-driven film version. However, the writing style was sloppy and inconsistent to a point that I had to struggle through whole chapters. Science fiction writers just don't have the chops to keep me interested after I spent four years studying English masterpieces at Fordham. Don't wanna sound cocky or anything, but I was spoiled on early modernist literature when geniuses like Joyce, Lawrence, Yeats and T.S. Eliot were dropping classics with ease. And I certainly don't know what the hell was going on with those 200 pages of seemingly random short stories that followed the main "last man on earth story line." Honestly, I only got through the first couple.
I also started Survivor by that Chuck Palanhiuk (i think thats the spelling) guy and the quarter I've read so far is engrossing and posing questions I really wanna see answered. My bro likes him a lot and apparently so do a lot of other people. So we'll see.
Also on deck are McCarthy's Blood Meridian, a collection of short stories by various modern authors called The Worst Years of Your Life, that Dave Eggers book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and a seemingly simpleton book about cigs called The Joys of Smoking by James Fitzgerald. Aside from the righteous description of McCarthy's final installment of the "Border Trilogy" that I read in a big story about him, I know very little about the on-deck books and am going on some severe leaps of faith and sadly, cover judgments. So we'll see if my ass gets bitten more than it already has been recently.
I've been buying a plethora of books lately cause I realized that my new job at Urban Outfitters hooks up that massive discount and there are actually books there that are worth reading. I was doing markdowns the other day and I realized that Jonathan Lethem's debut novel Motherless Brooklyn is only $1.90 and have since told every co-worker who will listen that they should cop that shit ASAP cause it is certainly worth more than that paltry amount. While not quite as good as his masterpiece Fortress of Solitude, it is a damn fine book with an intricate and often...I guess the most apt word would be mesmerizing...style all his own. But like I said, I'm not so sure about the Eggers or the Mark Jude Poirier edited collection of shorties and only got them cause of the discount and speculation. Basically, Eggers eventually became recommended after my initial speculation and the Porier collection just seems to scream at me whenever I walk by it. But at this pace, I'll blow through them by next week.
So stay tuned for the final reviews and buy Lethem and Brandon's books NOW!
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