The Battle of Alberta

Continuing with these "bad books", I recently read a non-fiction doozie called The Battle of Alberta, written by Edmonton journalist Mark Spector. Having grown up in Calgary, the battle between the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s, has always been close to my heart and I had been looking forward to this one since it came out in December. It would be a chance to relive the excitement of hockey in Alberta, in the 1980s.

I had been expecting a deeply researched book offering a behind-the-scenes look at one of hockey's great rivalries. Instead, this was only a collection of present day interviews with players reminiscing about events that took place 30 years ago.

The problem is that nobody can accurately remember things that happend 30 years ago. In the afterword of this book, Spector even concedes the players had a lot of their facts wrong; who scored that big goal, who was in that fight, and even in a few instances, who that playoff opponent was. But he never corrects them, and instead tries to omit the incorrectly remembered details, thus leaving us with a bland, innaccurate account of a few hockey games from long ago.

Forty Down, Sixty to Go

I've now hit my next 'milestone', book number forty.  I am now two-fifths of the way through this list of 100 All Time Novels.  Two-fifths doesn't sound like as many books as 'forty' does, so I'll stick with that; I'm forty books into this list.

The second twenty books has had some ups and downs, and has taken me from October 2010 to today.  By far the two longest books I've read were in the last twenty, those, being, Infinite Jest and Gone With the Wind, which are both 400 pages longer than any other book I've read so far.  The shortest two books have also been since October, with The Bridge of San Luis Rey and The Day of the Locust.  I had assumed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or Are you there God? It's Me, Margaret. would be the shortest.  I suppose the latter still could be. 

I've also noticed I've changed by library borrowing habits in this past segment, having returned 19 books without reading them, including Gravity's Rainbow twice.  I also incurred more fines this go around, with 13 book, totalling $13.30 in fines.  I guess this is because I now usually have 10 to 20 books from The List borrowed from the library at any given time.  It ensures I'll always have something ready to read, but also that I'll incur more fines.

Lastly, I see I've been on an American author kick, with 17 of the past 20 books being my American authors.  This is purely by coincidence, as I haven't ever really taken the author into consideration when selecting my next title.  But, I think I'll try to make a concious effort to squeeze in a few more international talents in the next twenty reads.

Well, forty books down, only sixty more to read!


Here's the second twenty books 'by the numbers':

Misc.:
Shortest - The Bridge of San Luis Rey - 107 pages
Longest - Infinite Jest - 1,076 pages
Oldest - The Bridge of San Luis Rey - 1927 (Gatsby - 1925)
Newest - Infinite Jest  - 1996 (Atonement - 2002)
Longest Reading Time - Infinite Jest - 50 days (To the Lighthouse - 56 days)
Shortest Reading Time - Play it as it Lays - 6 hours (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - 4 hours)
Books Started but Not Finished - 0
Books borrowed from Library and returned, unread - 19

Books by Decade from this Twenty: (total)                                           
1920's - 1  (4)        1960's - 4  (6)                           
1930's - 3  (7)        1970's - 3  (4)                           
1940's - 3  (4)        1980's - 2  (5)                            
1950's - 2  (6)        1990's - 2  (2)                            
               2000's - 0  (2)                          


Nationality:
Books by American Authors - 17
Books by British Authors - 2
Books by Russian Authors - 1

Source of Book:
From the library - 19 (35 Total)
Borrowed from friends - 0 (3 Total)
Books I own - 0 (1 Total)
Book Stolen from Rural Hotels - 1

Library Fines:

Gravity's Rainbow - $2.80
Herzog - $0.70
On the Road - $0.70
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - $1.05
Play it as it Lays - $0.35
The Death of the Heart - $1.05
The Blind Assassin - $1.05
The Berlin Stories - $0.35
An American Tragedy - $1.05
Painted Bird - $0.70
Lolita - $2.10
Slaughterhouse Five - $0.70
All the King's Men - $0.70
Total Fines: $13.30


References to The List:

Infinite Jest - William Burroughs is mentioned by one of the characters

The Sportswriter  - Frank Bascombe is reading The Sun Also Rises
The Sportswriter - Bascombe refers to Tropic of Cancer
Appointment in Samarra - A character is reading Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms
Appointment in Samarra - One of the club members reportedly went to school with F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Second Twenty Books:
Ragtime
Falconer
Snow Crash
On the Road
Herzog
Play it as it Lays
The Berlin Stories
Infinite Jest
Lolita
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Day of the Locust
The Sheltering Sky
Gone With the Wind
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The Sportswriter
Rabbit, Run
Blood Meridian
Appointment in Samarra

The First Twenty Books:
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Brideshead Revisited
Naked Lunch
Light in August
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Great Gatsby
Catcher in the Rye
Catch-22
Beloved
Tropic of Cancer
Midnight's Children
The Corrections
Atonement
The Power and the Glory
To The Lighthouse
Lucky Jim
The Sun Also Rises
I, Claudius
Housekeeping
Deliverance

#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.

#37 - "The Sportswriter" by Richard Ford

I finished The Sportswriter last night, Richard Ford's first novel in his Bascombe Trilogy, and my 37th read from Time magazine's 100 greatest English language novels.  It was an engaging read, one that kept pushing me forward, but one I'm still trying to figure out.

The story follows Frank Bascombe, recently divorced, resident of middle New Jersey, and, of course, a sportswriter.  The book takes place over Easter weekend, starting with Bascombe and his ex-wife meeting at the grave site of their deceased son Ralph.  While he seems mostly content, Bascombe still struggles with many things. 

He still aches for his son Ralph, he's unsure if he should have given up his career as a novelist to be a sportswriter, and he seems to have a degree of regret about his divorce.  He is having an affair with a nurse from Texas, who he tells himself he's ready to marry, but who the reader has a hard time seeing as a match.  The Easter weekend then hits a couple of roadblocks, causing Bascombe to take a closer look at some parts of his life, take a closer look at himself.

Without a doubt, my favorite part of any good book is the characters within it.  Whether I love them or hate them, well-developed characters can always engage me.  They cause me to pull for or against them, and they allow me to have a vested interest in the outcome of the novel.  It is the characters that will always be my litmus test for a book, while the plot or the style will always be secondary.  So when I reflect on The Sportswriter, I'm sort of at a loss.  Basically I'm unsure of what to think about Frank Bascombe.

There isn't really anything spectacular about Frank Bascombe.  He doesn't have a terribly interesting job like, say Alec Leamas in The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, and he isn't really going through any extraordinary experiences like Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind.  He's just an average guy, with a house in the suburbs, an alright job, a couple of kids, an ex-wife and an uncertain future.  Really, he sounds like half the people out there.  Of course ordinary isn't what people read books for, and it's much more diffcult to make interesting.  I think it speaks to the quality of the writing when such an ordinary character in such an ordinary situation, can be interesting.

But I think in a way, it was his common existence that made him interesting.  Finally, there wasn't a character with some crazy job you only see in the movies, nor was he going through some kinds of traumatic event we only read about in history books.  He's just plodding through life at age 38 wondering what to do next, questioning himself, his motives, and his goals.  Bascombe reflects on years gone by, and wonders if he made the right decision.  He looks at some of his present situations and wonders if he's headed in the right direction.  Who amongst us doesn't do the same?



You can read TIME's original review from May 24, 1986 right here.


For my next book, I'll be reading Rabbit, Run by John Updike.  Like The Sportswriter, its' sequel won the Pulitzer Prize.  In fact, two sequels to Rabbit, Run did; both Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest.

A goodly house: the feast smells well;

I've nearly finished my 37th book, The Sportswriter, with only a few dozen pages left.  I'm still not sure what I think of it as a book.  There are times when I'm mesmerized and can't put it down, and there are times I find it drags a little.  But all in all, it's one I'm enjoying, even though it doesn't really have anything to do with sports.

It has also provided me with two links to other books on The List, which for some reason I find really interesting.  I don't know why, but it seems odd or funny to me, that a book from a list of great books, would mention other books from the same list.  It first happened in The Corrections, when one of the characters was reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  In The Sportswriter, Frank, the protagonist, is asked how long it has been since he read The Sun Also Rises.  He doesn't recall, but figures it's probably been quite some time.  For me, I read it last September, #17 on my list.  Later on in the novel, Frank is listening to the radio, where a feminist announcer is reading dirty passages from Tropic of Cancer, my 10th read. If I had never read this book, I wouldn't really know what he was talking about.  I suppose, in a way, I can thank The List for making me a little smarter.  Or maybe just a little more aware.

While reading The Sportswriter I have also continued my plan of reading a non-fiction book at the same time.  Yesterday, I was able to finish A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway.  Another book that mentions The Sun Also Rises, but I guess that's to be expected.  The book is really an account of Hemingway's time in Paris in the mid-20's while he was working as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star Weekly.

Really, this book reads just like one of Hemingway's novels with short, too-the-point dialogue, and limited descriptions about settings or surroundings.  Hemingway talks about his experiences in Paris, being what he describes as 'very poor and very happy.'  He talks of the people he spent time with, most notably Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  It is the chapters about Fitzgerald I found particularly interesting.  Hemingway really paints an almost pathetic picture of the writer.  He describes him as a drunk and a  hypochondriac, who has very little self esteem and is basically an all-around helpless human being.  I think of The Great Gatsby and how it is received today and wonder how somebody like the man Hemingway describes, could write such a masterpiece.

#36 - "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" by Muriel Spark

I finished my 36th book from The List, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in just over a week.  Not bad I suppose, but it's one I probably could have finished in a day or two if I had put my mind to it.  While reading Gone with the Wind, my previous book, there was a sense of duty.  I had to read so many pages each day, or I'd never reach the end.  But with this book, at a mere 171 pages, there wasn't any urgency in my reading habits.  I would sort of think to myself, 'if I don't read anything today, it's okay, as I can easily make up for it tomorrow.'  And before long, a week had passed.  I actually read the last 100 or so pages in one day.  Something I could have done a week ago.  Oh well.

I found this to be a little bit of a different read.  Spark tends to get to the point, which is probably why the book is so short.  In a way, the style reminds me a little bit of Hemingway.  Miss Jean Brodie is a teacher at a girl's school in Edinburgh, in the early 1930's.  She proclaims to be in 'her prime' and feels she can teach her students more than just the three R's.  Hand-picking six students, who go on to be known as 'the Brodie set,' she thrives on making these girls 'la creme de la creme.'  She takes the girls to many extra curricular activities, like the theatre, art shows and golfing.  Slowly, a deep bond forms between teacher and students.

But through a series of prolepsis (a new word I learned meaning flash-forward), we learn that eventually, Miss Brodie will not only be dismissed from the school, but that it was one of the girls from her set that would betray her.

My first reaction to this book upon finishing it, was admittedly, that it was nothing special.  A short little story about some girls in Scotland.  It was an alright read, but nothing more.  But the more and more I've thought about it, the more I've come to appreciate how clever the story is and how complex the characters are.  Jean Brodie herself, at first seems to be nothing more than a rather confident young teacher, with a more liberal attitude than would be expected at the time.  But as her betrayal unfolds, we realize that she is really quite 'a ridiculous woman' and perhaps not a very good teacher either.  She manipulates and exploits her students for her personal and professional gain.

The students themselves also appear to be nothing more than typical ten year old children.  But we learn about their growth and how Miss Brodie's unconventional teachings shape them as young woman.  As they become more self aware, they begin to see things a little clearer.  They slowly realize that Miss Brodie was not all she made herself out to be, and one even sets out to bring her down.  In reality, it is Miss Brodie who brings about her own betrayal, but like the loud, obnoxious person at the office, who never understands why they always eat lunch alone, Miss Brodie seems genuinely confused as to who from her set would do such a thing to her, or why they would do it.



You can read TIME's original review from January 19, 1962 here.


I have started Richard Ford's 1986 novel, The Sportswriter.  While there are a few Pulitzer Prize-winning novels from this list (9 to be exact), The Sportswriter shares a more unique distinction.  Along with John Updike's Rabbit, Run, they are both books from The List, whose sequels were awarded the Pulitzer Prize.  Updike won for both Rabbit at Rest and Rabbit is Rich, while Richard Ford won for his follow up novel, Independence Day.