The big book

It wasn't a deliberate strategy, but it appears 2009 is becoming the year of the "big book." I've tackled a number of hefty tomes so far, most recently turning the last page (over 800 of them!) on Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. This is the second time I've tackled the classic novel. A few years back, I read about ten pages of the Penguin version, but my heart just wasn't in it. But I bought the new translation (the husband and wife team of Pevear and Volokhonsky, who seem to be tackling the major Russian works; I had intended to buy their Crime and Punishment at the Strand in NYC, but ended up leaving the store without it, although I did walk out with their translation of War and Peace), and I was hooked from the start. A proverbial page turner! The true definition of a classic! A timeless masterpiece! Well, you get the picture. This reading comes on the heels of other lengthy novels, primarily Roberto Bolano's wonderful works 2666 and The Savage Detectives (which was a re-read). I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm a novel reader, not a short story reader.

This actually is difficult for me to admit, that I love the long novel over the short story. For years, I thought I was a true short story aficionado. The evidence, while not overwhelming, was there. I had a subscription to the New Yorker when I was 17, largely because I loved the idea of having a new short story to read every week since, at the time, I fashioned myself to be an aspiring writer. And how does one "break in" to the business? By writing short stories, I reasoned. Yet, I barely remember any short stories from those early reads, although I can rattle off a good number of excellent non-fiction pieces. And even today, while still a faithful New Yorker reader (there was a several-years gap when I barely glanced at the magazine on the newsstand), the short story tends to be the last thing I read. (Unless, of course, they publish a new Haruki Murakami or Roberto Bolano story. I'm not sure David Sedaris counts, but of course I faithfully read him too. And Woody Allen, although his "casuals" are becoming increasingly lame.) I'm not outright dissing the short form - after all, I love John Cheever and Mavis Gallant and Alice Munro short stories, and there was a recent John Updike piece that blew me away; and Salinger's Nine Stories is still such an important book in my reading history - but I think I prefer the sprawling, sometimes messy, aspect of a novel over the "perfection" of the shorter work. Maybe because my own life is so messy!

That being said, I'm currently reading The Song is You by Arthur Philips.

(This post was going to be about my own attempts at writing short stories, but it morphed into something else. Which is a good clue as to why I never become much of a writer...)

General thoughts on reading

My apologies to my reader(s?) for not updating the blog in a while. It's been a bit of a crazy couple of weeks, largely with writing a cover letter (yes, it takes me that long, particularly since I used the intelligence of many different people to help me craft something appropriate and that will stand out amongst many, many letters) and updating my CV (an exercise I haven't done for three years) for a new job. Cross your fingers and wish me well.

In my spare time, I turned the last page on Robert Bolano's 2666. There's always a sense of accomplishment, finishing a neary 900-page tome. It's quite a wonderful work - in fact, upon completion, I was tempted to pick up the first book (I bought the three-volume paperback, figuring it would be easier on my back when carrying it in my bag) and start it all over again. It will be a book I'll reread, I'm sure of it. In fact, it did inspire me to pick up Bolano's The Savage Detectives, which I read during my 2006 xmas holidays. I'm actually not one to revisit a book when I'm done, my reasoning being that there are so many other great books to gorge on, why waste my time reading something I've finished? Yet, I'm still attuned to the Bolano sensibility right now, I don't feel ready to leave him yet. And while I can pick up one I haven't yet read (Amulet is an obvious choice), there was something drawing me back to The Savage Detectives. Maybe it was my friend M., who recently finished it and was effusive in his praise. Also, now that I'm in tune with Bolano, it would allow me to pick up some things I missed on the first go-around with the novel, when I was totally new to the author. Anyway I'm 100 pages in and very happy I picked it out of the book shelf.

I wish I had the energy to write about why I prefer the novel to short stories, but I'm feeling a mite wiped from the day's activities. Watch this space (hopefully tomorrow) for a post about shorter works, John Cheever, and more on Bolano. I really just wanted to get something on here, for fear that my reader(s?) will no longer visit here.