What is Your Title?

I'm a little over halfway through Native Son right now, and it's fantastic. Right now, it would be in my top five books from the list. But while I've been reading it, I keep finding myself thinking back to my last book, Their Eyes Were Watching God. What I keep thinking back to though, is on line I read, on the 160th of 193 pages; specifically, the line "They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God."

Whenever I read the title of a book, in the book, I can't help but think of the "Family Guy" episode where Peter says he "usually only gets this excited when they say the title of the movie, in the movie." We then see Peter watching "Clear and Present Danger," "As Good as it Gets," and "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace." I must admit it does excite me in some small way as well.

Reading the title of the book in the book this time, started me thinking of what other books from the list have had this happen. However, unlike references to other books on the list, I haven't been keeping track of every instance, so I'm forced to go by memory.

#54 - 'Ubik' by Philip K. Dick

I'm not the world's biggest science-fiction fan.  It isn't that I dislike the genre, I just don't get too excited about reading it.  So, when I come across one of the few sci-fi novels on the list, like #54, Ubik by Philip K. Dick, it isn't a burden, but nor is it one I look forward to that much; it's just another entry on the list.

Ubik  is the story of Joe Chip, a technician with the prudence organization, Runciter and Associates, who enforce privacy by blocking psychic powers.  Set in the future, in 1992, Joe and his team head to Luna for a mission when things go horribly wrong; their employer and friend, Glen Runciter is killed in an explosion.  But after returning to Earth, things begin to change for the survivors, as everything around them regresses to earlier times.  Food goes stale, buildings morph into run-down, derelict shacks, and cars cease to hover.  Soon they realize that perhaps it Glen Runciter was the only survivor and they the casualties, suspended in 'half-life.'

All in all, Ubik was a good, short read, with an engaging story and interesting characters.  The protagonist, Joe Chip reminds me of Harry Angstrom from Rabbit, Run. I don't really care for him as a person, but I'm intrigued by his flaws and interested in his future (or maybe in this case his past).  The story throws quite a few curve balls as well, and left me a little puzzled as to what actually happened.  Not in the sense that it was confusing, but in the sense that it leaves the reader, like the characters, unsure of what is reality and what isn't.
Reading this book started me thinking about re-thinking the sci-fi genre.  What makes this book 'sci-fi?'  My first thought when thinking about sci-fi is Star Trek or Star Wars; basically stories set in space.  This book has a scene set in space, but space isn't really the focus of the novel, so I'm hesitant to say this would be sci-fi for that reason.  The other thing I think of with sci-fi is the future, as being set in the future.  This book was written in 1969 and set in 1992, so I suppose this is where the label comes from.

When I look back at Ubik however, I don't think of it as a sci-fi novel, rather merely as a novel set in the future.  This may sound like me trying to avoid labelling a book 'sci-fi' because of the genre's often unwarranted reputation as being lesser writing, but really, I'm just trying to avoid labelling it altogether.  I look at a novel like Slaughterhouse-Five, which to me, would meet much of the criteria to be classified as sci-fi; there's time travel and aliens, but I doubt any ever would consider it that.  And perhaps this is why some novels, as great as they may be, never receive the critical acclaim they might deserve; because they have been unnecessarily classified as a certain type of book.  And this has made me realize that I need to stop thinking of books as 'sci-fi' or 'fantasy' and look at them for what they are; well-written, entertaining reads like Ubik.




I've started #55, Money by Martin Amis.  I don't really know much about this book, other than Martin is the son of Kingsley Amis, author of Lucky Jim, my 16th read from the list, and one of my favorites as well.  I'm hoping to get through it pretty quick, continuing my game of catch-up following The Recognitions.

#53 - 'The Recognitions' by William Gaddis

I find it difficult to discuss a book that took me on a 66 day odyssey of confusion and apathy.  Where to begin?  I suppose I could start with the plot, but deep down, I wonder how much I really know about it.  Much of what I write may be things I have taken from secondary reading about the book.  My reading experience, with its ups and downs, quite often left me wondering what was going on.

The Recognitions follows Wyatt Gwyon, a forger, and his adventures into the art world, where he becomes involved with a sorted cast of characters.  I guess the book also touches quite a bit on religion, to a lesser extent sex, and probably a few other things that simply eluded my attention.  In fact I'm sure there is more, but whether or not that 'more' is important could be left for debate.  This is a book that I feel could have easily been four or five hundred pages shorter, and still contained a readable, and maybe more interesting story.  There are just so many parts of the book that seem to drag on forever, seemingly without any reason for doing so.


Looking back, I think my brain started distancing itself from the book quite early on, after a didn't read it for a few days.  At that point I had begun to have trouble following the story, and difficulty keeping track of all the many, many characters.  Halfway through, I was simply confused and uninterested.  But I don't solely blame myself for this.  There are several scenes taking place at cocktail parties, where so many different characters are introduced, half of which don't seem to really have anything to do with the main plot.  It is these scenes that I feel could have easily been cut from the book without taking anything away from the story.  Add this to the two months I took to read it, and I end up with a disjointed, lethargic story that didn't seem to go anywhere.


What I may have disliked the most about this book was how it made me feel like an incompetent reader.  Apparently there is so much brilliance in this book, so why did I not see it?  It leaves me wondering if there is something wrong with me or if I'm just not a strong enough reader to tackle a book of this magnitude.  But then I start thinking that, no, that's not it, that maybe it just isn't my type of book at all.  Gaddis himself describes the book as "not reader friendly."  As I think books should be written for readers, I don't find this to be a virtue.  Jonathan Franzen, author of one of my favorite books, The Corrections, called it "by a comfortable margin, the most difficult book I ever voluntarily read."  I have no problem with "deep reads," but at the same time, I don't approach many books with the mind set that it's a challenge between me and the writer.

Reading other people's reviews of The Recognitions, I see I'm not alone in thinking the book could use a few hundred fewer pages, nor am I alone in finding it to be a very challenging and often tedious read.  However, most people still seem to have taken it more from it than I did.  Perhaps, as I have mentioned before, I was unlucky in when I chose to read this book and maybe, under different circumstances, this wouldn't have been such a struggle, or at least not such a disappointment.


You can read Time magazine's original review from March 14, 1955, right here.

As I have fallen behind in my progress on the list for 2012, I will need to get some serious reading done in the next few weeks to have any chance of reading 25 books this year.  For this reason, I have chosen Ubik as my next read, Philip K. Dick's 1969 science-fiction novel.  It's less than 200 pages, so hopefully I can whip through it as quickly as possible and hopefully I find it a little more interesting than #53.