13 posts tagged “reading”

I never thought that I, the commited agnostic (hee, is that an oxymoron? it feels like it) would be posting about how much I liked this very Christian book.

OK so Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson, is written from the POV of an elderly father writing to his young son. It's set in the 50s. The father is a Congregationalist minister living in the town of Gilead, Iowa (note that in the Bible Gilead means site of witness or testimony), who has married for the second time, late in life, to a much younger woman. They have a 7 year old son, and the father is basically thinking of all the stuff that he won't be able to tell his son, because he's dying.

Sounds a bit boring and/or depressing, huh? But it isn't! It's a lovely book. It meanders back and forth as the narrator tells stories about how he and his wife met, stories about his family (particularly his grandfather's role in the abolitionist movement) and the family of this best friend, who is a Presbytarian minister in the same town. Along with that, there's narrative on what's happening at the time: his best friend's son (who is his godson) has showed up unexpectedly in town, a happening that history has taught does not bode well; as well as the daily goings on in their household.

But the thing I liked about the novel the most isn't the plot or the stories. Interspersed with that is the narrator's musings on his life, pacifism, Christianity, and a lot on the concepts of grace and forgiveness. I found myself reading many paragraphs again and again because they were so beautifully written as well as being incredibly thoughtful.

It's a lovely story, a slow story, one that you want to read in a quiet place. I recommend.

So Jean said that she hoped I'd write about this book when I was finished. (sidebar: yes, I am one of those terrible people that always begins sentences with "So..." I can't help it anymore, I've stopped fighting it, and I feel like if I stopped doing it my friends would think I'd been body-snatched. But I do notice).

If you clicky on the link to amazon, there's a telling sentence in the amazon review:

Beyond the Pale isn't entirely derivative of Jordan's wildly popular Wheel of Time series: if nothing else, Anthony sets himself apart by having things actually happen in his book.

Which is pretty accurate.

Now, I have to do a disclosure here. I love fantasy. Fantasy and sci-fi, but especially fantasy. It's my guilty pleasure reading, the reading I do when I'm lying sick in bed, or having a whole night on the couch not really moving. And I'll pretty much read anything. I said it a few days ago: I'm a very forgiving reader. But what people who are dismissive of fantasy don't realise? admit? is that there is good fantasy (George R. R. Martin) and bad fantasy (Robert Jordan). Don't get me wrong - I've read all of Jordan's Wheel of Time series, gnashing my teeth, enduring Rand's cluelessness and Nynaeve's chewing her goddamned braid, despairing at the bad writing and yet unable to stop reading until I know what bloody well happens, even though nothing has actually happened in about 5 books [breath] but the point is I know the books are bad, it's just like the fantasy equivalent of grabbing a slice for dinner. A really really overly long, bloated, tedious slice.

My point? I know good fantasy and I know bad fantasy. Beyond the Pale falls somewhere in the middle. Anthony's writing is not fantastic, especially at the start of the book where he kind of switches voice formality a few times, which is distracting. But the characters are engaging and the plot chugs along pretty well. He successfully avoids a romantic tryst between the two protagonists, which I was happy about. And the end has a bit of a resolution, even though the series is only 1/6 way through. So overall, I'd give it a 6/10 and I'll definitely read the rest of them. In fact, booksfree has the next one on the way now.

One final thought: a big reason why I love fantasy is because I'm a fast reader, and I like to get lost inside a world for more than a couple of days. You can't go wrong with the multi-volume series. Oh yeah.

As well as The Economist (yay! got a subscription for Christmas) and catching up with the last few months of National Geographic.

I have to say: not a fan of Dave Eggers. I've tried twice now (this one, and You Shall Know our Velocity!) and there is just something that doesn't click with me. I don't think he writes with heart. Something like that. It's tough to say just why. I'm normally a very forgiving reader - there's little that I won't read. In fiction, all I require is a cast of characters for whom I can find some shred of empathy. (Oh, and maybe an author who doesn't use the word 'visceral' 3 times in two pages, I'm looking at you Stephen R. Donaldson whose writing in the Gap Series was a major distraction for me, the big SF/ Fantasy nerd.) But Dave Eggers and I are over, I think. He and TC Boyle can go hang out somewhere in the "gaspode is ignoring you" section of the library.