What I've been reading, Australia edition

Its been a slow reading month so far. I went to Australia hoping to get a ton of reading done, and buying way too many kindle books in anticipation, but unfortunately I wasn't as successful as I expected.

The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
I was most excited for this one out of all my kindle purchases, so I decided to tackle it first. I know everyone was reviewing this late last year, so I'm a bit late, but it still felt pretty new and exciting to me. I'm sad to say I was a little disappointed overall. I loved the setting (in the New York parts at least), particularly the antique shop, and I always enjoy references to art and literature, but here they felt a little unnatural. I can easily forgive a writer for making a lot of references to other writers (Donna Tartt did this in her other two books as well, but in both it made more sense) if the plot is good. Unfortunately I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. Without giving too much away, I thought that the big event at the beginning wasn't done very well (I know that sounds very vague). I understand that Theo is young at the time (around 13), and Tartt is trying to express that with her narration. As the book progresses the writing style definitely improves, and older Theo is more interesting anyway. But still, I wasn't enthralled by the story, the characters or the writing. I found it empty. Themes were touched upon in various discussions between characters at the end of the book: our relationships with objects, our struggle to be good. It all felt much too straightforward, like telling the reader how one should feel about it.

Maybe its because I enjoyed The Secret History so much, or maybe because I knew Donna Tartt took 10 years to write this, I expected more. The Secret History actually affected me more after reading it, when I was left to consider it as a whole. Weeks after reading The Goldfinch, I haven't really thought about it at all. I feel like maybe I'm missing out on something- other people seem to have had really great experiences with The Goldfinch.


Some other books I read:
The Other Typist, by Suzanne Rindell, an impulse buy, purely because it seemed like a fun holiday read (or my idea of a fun holiday read). Much has been said about the 'twist' in the book, which surprises me because its not really a twist at all. Rose, relating the story after it has happened, as much as tells the reader what's going to happen. Only the last paragraph undercuts that, leaving many readers, including myself, confused.

The Woman Upstairs, by Clare Mussad, which I loved it because it made me think a lot more about art than The Goldfinch did. It's partly about what it means to be a female artist and a contemporary artist, but also an engrossing character study. Although I wasn't overwhelmed when I finished it, I'd still recommend it.

Nightfilm, by Merisha Pessl, which I hope I'll be writing more about in future. Strangely enough it was a negative review that made me want to read this book. The detective story was criticised, and I can see why, although, like others, I was seduced by the mystery at first. Even if the ending wasn't entirely satisfactory and the murder mystery format didn't really work, I loved learning about the fictional director, Cordova. I definitely want to explore film more in the future.

All of these were kindle books- I feel like I haven't read a physical book in an age. I'm in a bit of a slump at the moment, but I'm looking forward to getting back to reading.

Beloved, Toni Morrison

Synopsis: Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Her new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

"Anything dead coming back to life hurts"

'Beloved' was not what I expected. For one thing, I couldn't have been prepared for how devastating it was. It took me a while for me to gather my thoughts into something mildly coherent. Therefore this isn't really a review, just some of my reactions.

I was surprised by the 'magic realism' element, i.e. Beloved coming back to life (I know its ambiguous as to whether Beloved actually is that same child). I like ghost stories, not because I like being scared but because the appearance of a ghost is a good way for a writer to explore the living characters' relationships with the dead, and how the past connects to the future. In Rebecca, for example, Mrs. de Winter believing she hears Rebecca's ghost reflects her own anxiety about her predecessor. This quote from The Secret History sticks with me:

"There are such things as ghosts. People everywhere have always known that, and we believe them every bit as much as Homer did. Only now, we call them by different names. Memory. The unconscious." 

And memory is definitely a theme in 'Beloved'. How could it not be, with the narrative shifts between characters, times and places? This structure put me off at first, and I think its one of the main reasons people dislike the book. But if you're struggling with it, I'd say stick with it: the story comes together, and it makes sense for the narrative to be jumbled. Sethe talks about the concept of "rememory", which involves reliving the past. The past is unbearable for most of the characters,and they find various ways of repressing it, but it is never gone. Sethe warns her daughter Denver about "rememory" by telling her:

"if you go there--you who never was there-- if you go there and stand in the place where it was, it will happen again; it will be there for you, waiting for you. So, Denver, you can't never go there."

But part of Sethe's tragedy is that the past is undeniable. And Sethe does "go there" at the end of the novel, with catastrophic results which mirror the first tragedy.

Do you have any thoughts on 'Beloved'? I think its a very multi-layered novel, and I've only really touched on one element of that here, but if you have anything to add I'd be glad to hear it.

What I've been reading

I've just finished two novels, so it feels like a good time to sum up my reading over the past few weeks.

• Possession, A.S Byatt 

This was a christmas present and a book I'd been really looking forward to. I had such high expectations (it won the Booker prize), although unfortunately I was disappointed. The modern day characters didn't interest me, the plot was formulaic and the poems were imitations. I can see why Byatt did this, but I found myself wondering why I didn't just read the poems she was mimicking. So thats one positive consequence- I decided to read some Victorian poetry.

• Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee

Disgrace is one of those books you are always being told you should read- and I can see why. I think people can easily be put off by the main character, disgraced professor David Lurie, but I don't think the point of the novel is to like him. Regardless Disgrace is very thought provoking about a whole range of issues, and strangely moving.

• Fingersmith, Sarah Waters

I suppose I have developed an affection for the Victorian period, so I decided to read Fingersmith, a sort of historical crime fiction novel. I thought the first plot twist was brilliant, and I like novels which show two characters' perspectives on the same story. But I felt like the rest of the novel was disappointing in comparison.

• The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

The Haunting of Hill House is a short novel about, as the title suggest, a haunted house. It was not as scary as I thought it would be, it was more a story of gradual descent into madness. I love the subtlety and ambiguity of Jackson's writing, although I prefer We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

• The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton

I had been meaning to read The House of Mirth for a long time, and I thought because of this it might be a chore to read. However I was presently surprised: it was much cleverer and more interesting than I imagined. It's not a perfect novel, but so many aspects of it are fascinating, and Lily's situation is so tragic.

• Burial Rites, Hannah Kent

Burial Rites tells the story of Agnes Magnusdottir, the last person to receive the death penalty in Iceland in 1828. Agnes is placed with a rural family awaiting her execution, and visited by a reverend. In the months leading up to her execution, Agnes tells her story. I really enjoyed this book, even though I felt the conclusion was a little weak. It really emphasised the importance of stories, and the Icelandic setting is particularly interesting to me.

2014 Challenges

I'm new to this book blogging thing, but I had no idea there were so many yearly challenges. I've always thought new years resolutions were pretty arbitrary (making a change in your life takes dedication over a long time, no matter what the date), but I'm very impressed by the creative ways that book bloggers plan to read over the next year. Reading about challenges of course made me want to enter them, and why not? These are the ones that stood out:

2014 Chunkster Challenge

There don't seem to be many requirements on this one. A 'Chunkster' is any book over 450 pages, which actually includes quite a lot. I'm going to aim to read 5 chunksters, including Middlemarch and Anna Karenina.

Back to the Classics 2014 Challenge

This is an interesting one- you are required to read books written before 1964 in specific categories:

A 20th Century Classic

A 19th Century Classic 

A Classic by a Woman Author

A Classic in Translation  

A Classic About War  

A Classic by an Author Who Is New To You

There are some optional categories as well, but at the moment I'm content with focusing on these six. The categories really get you thinking about what to read- I've already started planning (and hopefully some will overlap with the chunksters challenge!).

2014 Shakespeare Reading Challenge

This challenge is actually perfect for me- I've been saying I need to read more Shakespeare for ages, and I really want to properly read his plays. The edition I currently own is from the 1940s and is falling apart, so I don't think I'll feel guilty about buying new editions of some of the plays. I'm aiming for the lowest level, 'Occaisional theatre-goer', which requires reading 1- 4 plays (But we'll see if I manage more than that)

2014 Victorian Reading Challenge

Victorian novels are currently my favourite, so I felt like I just had to enter this challenge. The goal is to read two or more Victorian books. I was already planning to read more Thomas Hardy (Far from the Madding Crowd, The Woodlanders), George Eliot (Middlemarch, Silas Marner) and the Brontë sisters (Agnes Grey, Villette, Shirley), but I also want to try some new authors. I've only read a bit of Dickens and I've never read Wilkie Collins. Anyone have any suggestions?

Classics Club

This is something I see a lot of people doing and I think its a great idea. I do already have a list of books I want to read (it's very long), but as soon as I read one I add three more. Setting 50 or 100 books to read over 5 years seems like a good way to recognise an achievement (because 100 books is an achievement) and feel like you are getting somewhere with your reading. I'm currently working on a list.


I really only intended to enter a couple of challenges but it seems like I was sucked in! I may be taking on too much for my first year of doing challenges, but I feel like they will give me an extra push to read within difficult categories.