#77 - "The Golden Notebook" by Doris Lessing

What can I say about #77, The Golden Notebook? It took me nearly three months to read it, and at times I'm not even sure what I read. It's a long, complicated, and often very frustrating book. It is often described as a "feminist novel," but I wouldn't say that at all. In fact, I'm not even sure what that's supposed to mean. I would describe it is an emotional novel, exploring the deep, personal thoughts of its protagonist. I'd also say that despite moments of brilliance, I don't think I really enjoyed reading it.

Anna Wulf, a writer, records her life in four coloured notebooks, black, blue, red, and yellow, each dealing with a different part of her life. Mixed in with this, is a narrative of her real life, which helps provide some context to the diary-style of her notebooks.

The black notebook records her time in Africa before and during World War II, which led to her writing a successful novel; the royalties from which, she lives off of, and supports her daughter from a failed marriage. The blue notebook records her emotional dreams, and more often, her emotional failures and breakdown. In the red book, she chronicles her dabbling with the Communist party, while the yellow notebook deals with her struggles to write a second novel while suffering through writer's block.

Why, go to bed, and sleep.

Sometimes I hear people say they "stayed up all night reading..." some great book.  They talk about how the book they were reading was so good, they couldn't put it down, and couldn't sleep because they simply had to find out what was going to happen.  I am not one of these people.

I've read a lot of great books.  Lots of books I was really into.  But I can't stay up all night reading.  Reading in bed is like taking a double shot of NyQuil for me.  Usually I can only read a couple of pages before my head starts bobbing and I can't keep my eyes open.

However, most night this doesn't stop me from trying.  The problem is that I'm not really reading, my eyes are merely glossing over the words, and nothing is sinking in.  I then arrive at where I was this morning, resuming my reading, and having no idea what is going on.  Suddenly, I find myself having to going back a page or two in an effort to piece things together. 

"It's going to be tough," said Hugh.  Who is Hugh!?  I have no idea!  Well it seems Hugh was introduced a couple of pages back and I missed his introduction to the protagonist.  So I have to backtrack a couple of pages, which I suppose it isn't the end of the world.  Each morning I just find myself at the same point I would have had I not tried to read just a couple more pages the night before.

But sometimes it isn't just that I lose a couple of pages to Mr. Sandman.  When I was reading Blood Meridian, a book I had trouble staying awake for at the best of times, I remember suffering a particularly rude awakening.  As I fell asleep, I dropped the book; the sharp corner of the hardcover hitting my eye before bouncing off the bedside table and landing on the floor.  I'm not sure if it was the shock of being woken in such a fashion, but it really hurt.  So far, it's my only injury from reading this list.

At times I wish I was able to stay up all night, or at least for an hour or two, reading.  Imagine the progress I could make each day!  There's a scene in the movie JFK where Kevin Costner's character is so engrossed in reading the 'Warren Report' he stays up all night.  I always think I would love to be so engrossed in something I don't notice time passing.  But I know what would happen if I were that character; the scene would show me sleeping in a chair with my reading spread acorss my chest or possibly on the floor, as I sawed logs.  I guess I should enjoy the fact that I rarely have any difficulty falling asleep. 

Looking back at books from The List, Gone With the Wind sticks out as one I 'couldn't put down.'  I was really into that book, especially the last three hundred pages.  But this never solved the problem of falling asleep while reading.  Of course part of the problem might have been that since Gone With the Wind was such a large book, such a heavy book, it didn't lend itself well to reading in bed.  Quite frankly, my arms would fall asleep from holding it above my head too long.  And I shudder to think what the result would be if I had a dropped that one on my head.

But I don't think I'll stop trying to read in bed.  In fact I'm sure tonight will find me falling asleep while trying to squeeze in a few more pages before the enevitable happens, yet again.

#39 - "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

In honor of the Calgary Stampede, I thought I'd read the closest thing to a Western on The List, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.  I suppose both involve horses, but really the similarities end there.  While the Stampede may have it's downsides, they don't usually involve scalping, bludgeoning or beheadings.

Set mostly around 1849, near the Mexican-American border, the book tells the story of a roving band of mercenary scalp hunters, who under the guise of protecting the locals from the dangerous Apache, reek havoc and chaos on the area.  The group, known as the Glanton Gang, roam the countryside travelling from town to town.  While at first they only hunt down their designated enemies, their thirst for blood and more importantly their lack of guilt or apprehension toward spilling it, leads them to expand their scalp hunting to include almost every living being they encounter.

As can be judged from the plot, Blood Meridian takes the cake as the most violent read from The List so far.  While the body count must be in the thousands, it is the graphic description of the violence that really stands out.  Instead of merely describing a beheading, McCarthy will describe blood shooting out of a headless neck like a fountain, before it trickles between the floor boards and into the hellish river that flowed nearby.  He describes the sounds and the smells and the tastes of so many killings, it almost desensitizes the reader by the end.  While I don't have a problem with violence, in that it doesn't offend me, I just found it to be a little much in Blood Meridian.  While the violence may be integral to the plot, often the long, drawn out descriptions were not.  Instead of being descriptive, I often only found them to be a little dull.

I think it was this language or style that lost be in the end.  I found this to be one of the harder reads I have had recently.  McCarthy uses an almost biblical-style of language, that would seem more fitting in a 19th century novel be Dickens or Melville.  While I couldn't deny it is a well written book, I found the language to be an obstacle instead of an invitation, to really get into the story.  Not only does it not seem to really fit the setting or the story, it also tends to lose my interest.  For whatever reason, I find this type of prose quite tedious.  And also for no real reason, I found it very frustrating reading dialogue, as McCarthy has decided to eschew quotation marks.  It didn't make it confusing or anything like that, but it bothered me.

But besides the style, I also never became enamoured with the characters.  Much of the book centers on a man known only as "The Kid", who joins up with the Glanton gang after is army troop is slaughtered by some Apaches.  We learn very little of the Kid's background, and thus very little of his motivations.  While he could be described as the protagonist I suppose, I never really had any interest in him or his fate.  He really never seemed integral to the story and could have been replaced by any number of characters throughout book.

If there were to be an antagonist, which is difficult, because almost every character in the novel could be considered one, it would by Judge Holden, known simply as the Judge.  The Judge seems to be a rather well-educated man, knowledgeable in a wide variety of subjects, who also happens to be a cold-blooded killer, a child rapist and basically devoid of any morals.  As the leader of the Glanton Gang, the Judge often takes on an almost god-like persona, seemingly indestructible and infallible.  While many have described him as one of the best fictional characters in recent memory, with Harold Bloom even describing him as 'the most frightening figure on all of American literature,' I found him to be too much of an enigma to really enjoy reading.  Like The Kid, there just didn't seem to be enough there for me to get into these characters, and as a result, I never really got into this book.



You can hear me discussing Blood Meridian on the CBC Eyeopener, here.


For my next book I'll be reading Appointment in Samarra which is yet another book I know nothing about.

Writes not so tedious a style as this.

I've been having a little trouble getting into my latest read, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.  I was able to get a good dent into it, but I have to admit, I'm not that excited to continue reading.  The story seems interesting enough, but I think I'm finding McCarthy's style a little tedious; I hope that changes.

Generally, I prefer a more, for lack of a better word, direct prose, which simply describes the people or the situations, instead of a more 'flowery' showcase of the English language.  This is why I like Hemingway and not Virginia Woolf.  Blood Meridian uses a similar writing style to the Bible, both old-fashioned and monotonous.  In addition to the language, McCarthy has also decided not to use any quotation marks for dialogue.  I don't know why, but I find this very annoying.  That's what they're there for, why not use them?

I'm also reading some non-fiction right now; Travels by Michael Crichton.  Yes, the same Michael Crichton of Jurassic Park.  It was written in 1988, and chronicles his journey from medical school in the 1960's to his life as a successful author, and his frequent travels around the world.  This book has been working in the way I had originally intended non-fiction books to; I must read a chapter from Blood Meridian before I can read a chapter from Travels.  It's a motivational tool.


I will be reviewing Rabbit, Run on the radio this week.  You can here me Wednesday morning at 7:40AM (MDT) on CBC Calgary.  I'll also post the podcast here later in the week.

#38 - "Rabbit, Run" by John Updike

After a good week of reading, I’ve finished Rabbit, Run by John Updike, my 38th read from The List. In many ways it was similar to number 37, The Sportswriter. Both novels follow men unsure of their place in the world, both trying to figure out where to go. But where The Sportswriter offers hope for the future, Rabbit, Run takes it away.


Harry ‘Rabbit’ Angstrom lives a typical life in Brewer, Pennsylvania; a place that could double for Anytown, USA. In high school, he was a star basketball player and an important person. But that was eight years ago. Now, after a four-year hitch in the military, Angstrom is married to an alcoholic wife, has a three year old son, works selling the MagiPeeler kitchen gadget, and lives in a drab and dreary apartment. A life that isn’t uncommon for someone of his education.  But one day, feeling trapped, Harry decides he’s had enough and runs from his less than ideal life. He eventually finds minor comfort in the arms (and the apartment) of a prostitute, having abandoned his wife and son.

In the beginning, Harry is a somewhat sympathetic character. His reasons for wanting a change are somewhat valid, and he successfully rationalizes his actions to the reader. In the beginning, it's easy to side with Harry Angstrom. But as his life continues to unravel, so does the reader's sympathy. Harry is not a hero; he's a young man who is too afraid to deal with the mess he's created. Running is his way of avoiding responsibility, confrontation, and reality, and it’s something he does over and over and over again.

Angstrom’s transition from hero to scoundrel is slow but consistent, and always had my attention. The more I got to know Harry, the more I came to realize he isn’t a very nice person, he isn’t very intelligent, and he isn’t anything special. He really is just an average man, whose life reached its zenith in high school, and he’s having trouble coping with that fact.

But what is the most interesting part of Harry Angstrom, is what he represents. I saw Harry as a stereotypical example of Middle America; a man who, in pursuit of the American dream, seemingly has everything a person of his age and ilk should: a wife, a child, a job, and a home. But while his life may resemble a window display at Macy’s at first glance, it’s devoid of anything behind that façade. There isn’t any joy in Harry’s life, nor that of his wife, and there certainly isn't any hope for a brighter future.  They are merely going through the motions, living a mundane existence of routine and depression. Harry finally realizes ‘the dream’ is actually a nightmare, and while he longs for the days when he was relevant, deep down he knows he’ll never be that star player again. And that is when Harry decides to run, because hopefully the grass will be greener on the other side. Hopefully, running will make everything better.

Rabbit, Run offers great commentary on American life that continues to be relevant today, while set in a time we look back on with the fondest of memories. Everything was supposed to be just swell in the 50’s; the people were nice, the economy was doing well, there was less crime, and people didn’t swear; it was all exactly as it appeared on ‘Leave it to Beaver.’ Of course the world was never that nice or that perfect, and there have always been people like Harry Angstrom. In reality, people can be unhappy, have affairs, failed marriages, and tragedies can occur, but literature usually focuses on those who get over their problems, not those who merely run from them.

Ultimately, it’s the realism of Harry Angstrom that made this such a great read. He truly is one of the great characters in literature; a real hall of famer.  Updike is able to create a character that is interesting and intriguing without being likeable.  It's no wonder Book magazine named him one of the top five greatest characters in fiction since 1900, a distinction I'm sure few would argue with.  Harry Angstrom is one of the most significant and complex characters in modern literature, whose life is told through four of the most highly regarded novels of the past 50 years, and told by one of the world’s most renowned story tellers. When the day comes that I’ve finally finished reading these 100 all-time novels, I’m sure the remaining three ‘Rabbit’ books, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich, and Rabbit at Rest, will be at the top of my ‘to read’ list.

Listen to my CBC Eyeopener discussion of Rabbit, Run right here.

Time magazine's original review from November 7, 1960 can be found here.




My next book will by Cormac McCarthy's novel, Blood Meridian, I believe the only book resembling anything close to a Western on The List.  I know little about the book, but have heard it is one of his more violent stories.  Having seen the movie No Country for Old Men, I figure that says a lot.