The Enormous Room

Not much to say to this one, but that it was sometimes a good time, sometimes not, probably just depending on my mood.  If anything, I pulled out of it that there is essentially good in anyone, especially E.E. Cummings, who seems to be the type who is able to find charm in any terrible situation.  La Ferté-Macé really sounded miserable, but Cummings describes it with such an upbeat outlook that it's hard to see it as it was.  His fondness for his fellow inmates, as well, really exemplified his kindness and good humour.  He would have been a lovely person to meet,  and to especially have as a friend, I think.  Bros before hos the French!

There was quite a lot of simple French dialogue in my e-book version, without any form of translation.  With my highschool/early college knowledge of French, I was able to understand the majority of it without help, but wondered whether everyone was so educated in the language in the 20's.  What do modern people do when they read this?

In other news, JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER HAS COME OUT WITH A NEW BOOK!  That means the next book from the 1001 list is probably going to have to wait a little longer to get its turn from me.

Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen in summation...

The first 500 pages: Before there was Larry David, who got famous for writing stories about nothing, there was Jane Austen.  It was like time was still, with nothing to report on for months on end.  It really must have been nice to be the child of a wealthy European person in the 1800s.  Their problems were trivial and emotions juvenile, and nearly everyone is unlikable.

The last chapter: Night and day from what I just described.  Very odd; everything from the writing style, to perspective, to pace was entirely separate from the rest of the book.  It almost seemed like someone had put a gun to Austen's head and told her to just sum it up or else.  Austen speeds through months within a matter of pages (what would have taken her hundreds if not more pages previously), and skips through what one would have presumed to be the ultimate climax as if it were a trifle.

It seemed like the author was learning how to write throughout the entirety of the book, getting into the groove in the middle, but then realizing she had taken up all of her pages in the beginning and finally giving up and rushing through the ending.  I really do not give much credit to Jane Austen.  I don't understand why she is given so much praise; her female protagonists are often silly and mindless and it's very hard for me to connect with them.  I can only imagine that her life reflected that of all of her characters', and that her own life must have been a very dull one indeed.

A Room With a View

There's no getting around it.  I have been a lazy piece of garbage.  I hadn't read anything for almost a complete 3 months, not because I was busy, but simply because it seemed like too much effort.

But I've broken free now!  And I read a very short book, very slowly.  I don't have much to say about E.M. Forster's A Room With a View, except that it was an ideally brief story as befitting a lazy me.  I preferred his A Passage to India - that one seemed to have more mystery and voice and elegance.  Room was almost silly, though perhaps it's really just my disinterest in reading about people falling in love so plainly.  I'm pretty jealous of the lifestyle all of these characters have in this time though - all travel to fantastic locations, and socializing, and lazy afternoons in the country.  I wish.

Not dull, but also not much to dote on.  That is my simple view of this book.  (But after a google image search of the title, I see there was a movie made with Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy looking all pre-emo, and Maggie Smith as Charlotte, and it's screwing up my whole perception of what these characters could be.  Oh the difference a film can make)

Dead Babies

Well shit.

Dead Babies by Martin Amis is one hell of a book.  Everyone on GoodReads seems to be super disturbed by it, but I don't share that sentiment.  To me, it was cool (in the slick way, not the can't-think-of-a-way-to-say-I-like-something-way), funny, and actually elegantly engaging.  I don't know why all the readers on the aforementioned site keep calling Amis shallow, because this book, so closely resembling dark genres of cult legend like Clockwork Orange, in my opinion, is much easier to digest than that (not to mention far superior to any garbage like Paluhniuk that everyone jizzes over so much).  It isn't gruesome in an unnecessary way, and though it obviously isn't a popular opinion, I honestly think the characters are likable in their individual crazy ways.  There is a point to everything that happens, and I really appreciate that having read so many books on this list that seem to have endless pages of useless dribble.

Sure, the subject is crass, dirty, and edgy.  But that's what gives it so much character.  There's pure joy in getting to spend a few days with these drug addicted assholes.  Fuck and get fucked up until the very climactic end.  It's all in good fun, folks.

Kokoro

#744. Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, translated by Edwin McClellan.  Apparently an important book in Japanese literary history.

But man, I really don't like Sensei.  The entire time, all he does is wallow in self pity and act all high and mighty about his "experiences" when he's the worst of them all.  On top of his inability to grow a pair EVER,  he kept subtly talking down on women as inferior beings (I know, I know, it's a reflection of the times) when he was the most cowardly bitch out of anyone.  Jesus, was the world just filled with a bunch of sensitive emo types in the early 1900s, because that's what I'm getting from the recent slew of books I've been reading.  I can't deal.

I'm also starting to question whether you really can't accurately translate Japanese to English.  This translation had a cold formality that I have often found in Japanese to English books, and I really don't believe that the originals were written with that tone.  Every translation I'm speaking of has been done by white people, so though they may be fluent in the language, I wonder if it's just something that's culturally hard to understand as a secondhand speaker.  I'd like to see a translation done by a native Japanese speaker to compare.

Despite all of these things that bothered me, this shorter story kept me decently entertained.  It's weird to think how little has changed in terms of society standards ("back in my day, we worked for our money instead of having parents pay for their adult children") and human nature despite cultural differences with 101 years between.

D.H. Lawrence

Ugh. Look at this guy.  What a little prick.

Can we talk about how D.H. Lawrence has SEVEN works pn this list?  Wtf.  Does this not seem excessive, and not to mention a little biased?  Who approved this, I swear.  To make matters worse, I'm simply not a fan.  Everything he writes just sounds like a rich white guy in a parlor filled with other identical men trying really hard to string together the best words to sound the most impressive.  But, as I've signed up to this, here we go I guess.

The Fox is an unsettling little story that is heavy in symbolism in a way that makes it hard to take seriously.  On top of that, Lawrence's voice is long winded and over-explained, and it gives him little credit for being an established writer.  It feels like a first draft that didn't get much editing done, and that makes it rather disappointing.   There is a lot of finesse in being subtle about your intentions in a story, and this story definitely did not even attempt that.  Maybe it goes with the theme of following blindly with what you're told, because reading The Fox felt like I was pushed through doing something I didn't exactly want to do by a greater force.  I did, however, appreciate March's strength as a heroin, and was also interested in one of the final thoughts about the level of one's happiness remaining constant, as it is something I have faced and thought a lot about lately, growing older.  The author was 37 when this story was published though, so I guess what that tells me is that I only have more of the same to face as the years stack up.

Women in Love: What is even the point of this, and why is it so goddamn long?  Here's D.H again, talking to himself and trying to prove how smart he is to no one in particular.  At least The Fox had a plot but this one had none that I could detect, and the pointless conversations just kept going on and on and on.  I started wondering whether Lawrence thinks women are intelligent, or evil, or both, because it's sure hard to tell.  Men and women alike, his characters are extremely fickle, and yes, perhaps that is the true nature of people, but there is no way that anyone in the history of the world ever acted so ridiculously as these characters do.  Lawrence's outlook on life seems incredibly miserable.  Damn artists.  This one took me months to read because I was basically fidgeting (literally) through every chapter, struggling to go on.

Dear god, 5 more of these horrible stories.  Kill me now.

Dracula

Epistolary novels usually aren't my favorite, but Dracula by Bram Stoker managed to keep me engaged quite well.  There is something charming about a group of intellectual, kind men banding together to protect a lady (who also is quite smartly heroic), and though at times the author's voice did seem outdated on the "manliness" of other characters' heroism, it didn't bother me too much.

Dracula does seem like an incredibly weak enemy, and I wonder why such a villain was ever created.  He seems more like a rat or some other such vermin rather than an equally matched foe.  He scuttles around in the dark, has too many weaknesses to count, and can't even approach you when said weaknesses are brandished.  It seems quite simple to keep yourself out of danger from him.  Just don't invite him in your house, yo.  I wonder why the townspeople around Transylvania never thought to attack him if they knew what it takes to keep him away.  He does seem like a gentleman, though, so maybe they were being courteous.

It was another surprise to find that wolves were Dracula's friends in this story.  Are they separate from werewolves, I wonder?  So many random questions I have.

Anyway, this was a fun read, and is a solid classic.  Seems like a nice, quick pick for some kind of exciting trip.  Or, you know, for just rolling around inside your house, hiding from the sunshine like I did.