Pachinko (by Min Jin Lee)

I read this for the Read Harder Challenge category "the book that’s been on your TBR the longest."  I don't really keep a TBR list so I really wasn't sure how to approach this. But I meant to read Pachinko for the 2018 Tournament of Books and then people have been recommending it. I checked it out of the library in March 2018 and at least seven times after that. So it clearly was a longtime TBR and also one I found it hard to read, so on two levels, this seemed to fit!

I thought the beginning was slow (probably why I kept not finishing it or hooking into it) but indeed, I loved it by the end. It's about Koreans living in Japan, who were born there but still not considered native Japanese. The history of this population and the challenges (and racism) they face were fascinating, and explored through really wonderful characters and evocative descriptions of life in Japan. And I loved the title… to me, it evoked the little balls dropping and how small actions and decisions kept impacting the next generation.

Everyone I know who has read this multi-generational family saga has loved it; I think multi-generational sagas intimidate me somewhat? But I ended up loving it too. And feeling like I accomplished something, after finally getting through it!

Goodbye, Vitamin (by Rachel Khong)

A super enjoyable novel. This is the story of Ruth, who has just gone through a breakup and moves back in with her parents to help care for her father, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's.

It's not showy or flashy. It quietly explores Ruth's relationship with her father, her experience of her family and her breakup, and her general anchorlessness.  The writing style is captivating and subtle, the observations are wry and astute. All I can say is, a solid, excellent novel.

This is another one that I read in a day and could arguably fit the "read in one-sitting" category of Read Harder Challenge. But still holding out for something that I read through, uninterrupted. (Like on an airplane.)

White Tears (by Hari Kunzru)

A Tournament of Books book and this one is... well, it's weird. But the more I think about it, and the experimental course it takes, the more I like it.

It's definitely like side A and side B of a record, which is appropriate since it focuses on a lost blues record by Charles Shaw. Except it turns out the record (and Shaw) was an invention of our two young, white protagonists, Carter and Seth. Or was it? 

This is one to read with an open mind. I don't know how to fully describe it except that it's challenging and fascinating, and does definitely veer far, far away from the "privileged white kids appropriate black music" that it looks like at the beginning.

I can see people hating this book. I was like, "Wait, what is happening right now?"  But I ultimately ended up loving it.  Very interested in the Tournament discussion on this one. And happy to have been introduced to this weird, experimental, but ultimately satisfying novel.

So Much Blue (by Percival Everett)

Finally, a winner from this year's Tournament of Books! Percival Everett has apparently written dozens of novels, but I'd never heard of him. Where have I been?

This novel centers on an artist named Kevin Pace and opens with hi talking about his giant, secret piece of abstract artwork that he has shown to nobody.  It interweaves three stories: present-day, 30 years earlier in El Salvador, and 10 years earlier in Paris. Kevin has and keeps many secrets in addition to the painting, and as the novel unfolds, we find out what they are and how everything fits together.

I was least interested in the El Salvador storyline, as it seemed a bit less grounded in reality (to say the least). But I loved how the strands came together in the end; to me, it really worked. Kevin is an interesting narrator who I sympathized with in spite of myself. The writing itself is beautiful. I'm interested in checking out more from Percival Everett and seeing how this does in the ToB. 

The Idiot (by Elif Batuman)

I hate to say this because I loved The Possessed, but I almost didn't finish this. The only reason I powered through to the end was because it's in the Tournament of Books, and I always enjoy the discussion more when I have read the book.

I started out really into this. Batuman is a wonderful writer, and this book is full of amazingly observed, funny-sad moments.  However: nothing fucking happens.  I feel like if it had been 300 pages of nothing happening, I would have loved it. But stretched out to 425 pages, it got so tedious. Our main character goes here. She sees this thing. This other thing. More things. This person. This other person. She thinks about the boy she likes. She sees a thing. She eats some food. She sees another thing. She goes to another place. She eats some food...  I just didn't have the stamina for it.

It's clear why people love this. It has nuggets of truth and is super well written, with Batuman's trademark erudition and insight into culture and language. So I feel like a bit of a failure for having found it boring. But Pie Not Included is a place for brutal honesty and thus, here it is: reader, I was bored af.

The End of Eddy (by Edouard Louis)

Not exactly a memoir -- it's an autobiographical novel.  Picked this up for the Tournament of Books and this is the book I alluded to in my last post as a bit of a slog, although it's quite short.

I'm not sure why I never warmed to this book. It's the story of a gay boy growing up in rural France in roughly the present day (the author, whose life this is based on, is only 21) and dealing with extreme poverty and homophobia.

I had some issues with the verb tenses shifting (which, to be fair, may be a translation issue) but also I found the characterizations somewhat uneven, the plot at times stagnant, and the timeline slightly confusing.

This simply did not click for me, for whatever reason, and I feel like it's probably a better book than I'm making it out to be. Curious to see how the Tournament discussion shakes out. I probably wouldn't have finished it otherwise.

Dear Cyborgs (by Eugene Lim)

Now that I have this library thing figured out, as soon as the Tournament of Books shortlist came out, I immediately added every book I could find to my library holds list (minus the ones I've already read: The Animators, Fever Dream, Lincoln in the Bardo, Manhattan Beach.) This is the first one that was available.

Unfortunately, Dear Cyborgs was an inauspicious beginning for me. Although there are some insightful passages and commentary that will probably lend themselves well to being quoted in Tournament of Books judgments, this did not hang together for me at all.  My notes merely say "hella pretentious and annoying."  The lack of narrative, the fragmentation, the experimentation -- just all felt like it went a bridge too far and I did not go along for this particular ride. 

Lots of people love this and it worked for them. But it didn't work for me.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Vacation Reads: Italy Edition

I just got back from two glorious weeks in Italy, and I read lots of books! (I also watched the entire miniseries of Big Little Lies on the flight home. Good, but the book is better.) Here are my brief reviews:

The Woman in Cabin 10 (by Ruth Ware) 

I had heard mixed reviews of this one, but took a chance on it since it was (you guessed it) a library book. I actually really enjoyed it, especially the setting (a mini-cruise ship). A fun page-turner!

Aurora (by Kim Stanley Robinson) 

After Six Wakes, I was looking for good generation ship stories, and I found this one on some recommendation lists. Thought-provoking and rich with detail; the ship itself was one of my favorite characters. I didn't love it, but I liked it.

The Dinner Party and Other Stories (by Joshua Ferris) 

Very male and white and heteronormative, but enjoyable nonetheless. There are some standout stories (like the title story, which was first published in the New Yorker and is findeable online) and some that didn't quite mesh for me thematically (like the one set in a trailer park).  A good read nonetheless.

The Animators (by Kayla Rae Whittaker) 

Really good, assured, impressive debut that I plucked off the Tournament of Books longlist and into my Kindle. It is a skoch MFA-ey. The character of Mel is a bit unrealistic, particularly her dialogue. But compulsively readable.

Sharp Objects (by Gillian Flynn) 

I feel like Flynn is an underrated writer. It's a good suspense thriller, but also has some excellent turns of phrase and some really solid writing. I enjoyed the creepy plot and the unreliable narrator. I did not enjoy the various swipes at fat people throughout.

Holding Up the Universe (by Jennifer Niven)

Speaking of fat people, this was my favorite of all these reads. It's a young adult novel about a boy with prosopagnosia (face-blindness) and a girl who once had to be cut out of her house; she has lost hundreds of pounds but is still obese.  It's painfully relatable and so well-written. This may be one I actually purchase so I can re-read it as much as I want to.

Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies (by Michael Ausiello)

A moving and affectionate memoir of his late husband, written with raw honesty and humor. Includes am enjoyable dash of pop culture (I know Ausiello as a pop culture writer for Entertainment Weekly and online). I had been really looking forward to this one and it didn't disappoint.

Fever Dream (by Samanta Schweblin)

I didn't participate in the Tournament of Books summer reading event, but I did pay attention to the final winner, which will automatically get a pass into next year's ToB. When it showed up on my library app* I grabbed it. Hooray, a head start!

Fever Dream is not an exact translation of the original title, but it's an excellent description of what this book is. A woman is in an unknown location, recounting a story in which something bad may or may not have happened to her child, and another child (who is talking her through the story) may or may not have had his soul moved out of his body. Also, this novella may or may not be (but probably is) an allegory for the real-life use in Argentina of a carcinogenic pesticide called glyphosate.

This is a novella, not a novel -- it really can be read in one sitting and I believe is fewer than 100 pages long. It reminded me a bit of Annihilation, in terms of the vague creeping horror.  As a mother to a small daughter, it was a tense experience; I had to keep reading to find out how things would turn out. I'm looking forward to the discussion of this during the Tournament of Books. If you don't mind experimental literature that reads like a prose poem of creeping dread, you may want to give it a go.

*After reading The To-Do List, I made a long to-do list. One of the items was "figure out how to borrow library books on my Kindle." Since the last time I'd tried it, Amazon has built an integration, so it means I can use the Overload app to reserve books via my local library, and then download them right from my Kindle app, which is how I read everything anyway. This is going to save me a fortune on books! I did have to stop by my local branch to renew my library card but it was super easy. That's my PSA for the day for fellow Kindle lovers.