As March and it's theme of Languages and Literature is winding up, we take a look at a wide variety of books for this week's reviews in the 2019 Reading Challenge.
Special guest reviewer Theresa Petray read Margaret Atwood's retelling of a Shakespearean play. Scott reviewed Don DeLillo's novel about a man learning German. Sharon revisited Jasper Fforde's mind-bending trip into a world where literary characters can pop out of their books (and people on the outside can pop in). What's the common thread? Why, languages and Literature, of course.
Fiction, 820C ATW 1C HAG
Scott read White Noise by Don DeLillo.
I don’t have a good reason why I avoided books by Don DeLillo in the early 2000s. I’ll put it down to youth (more youth than I now have, at least). DeLillo seemed to be mentioned a lot at that time, along with Bill Bryson and Chuck Palahniuk. But then about a month ago I heard the author, Sam Lipsyte mention DeLillo on the WTF Podcast with Marc Maron. He mentioned DeLillo as an influence and I thought I should get on board and read some. Ok, I’ll stop name dropping and get on with it.
White Noise fits this months Reading Challenge theme of Language and Literature quite well. The story’s protagonist, Jack, is a professor of Hitler studies (the man, the history and etc.) at a small town College. But he does not speak German. This is a failing that Jack is able to uneasily live with for a long time. An impending international conference of Hitler Studies hosted by his College kicks him into action. Jack takes German lessons from a man who intently studies his mouth movements. This teacher goes as far as to put his hand inside his student’s mouth to ensure the tongue is in the correct place.
This is a small part in a big book. White Noise covers a lot. We meet a very interesting family, some “unusual” academics, experience an airborne toxic event, consumerism, fear of death, and much more. This is not something that I ever expected to write but there are some great scenes in the Supermarket in this story.
I laughed quite a bit when reading White Noise. It is a darkly funny story at times. This book was not what I expected but I did enjoy it enough that I’ll read another of DeLillo’s books in the future (as soon as I hear him discussed again in a podcast).
Fiction, An author I haven’t read before, 810 DELI 1C WHI
Sharon Bryan read The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde.
Jasper Fforde is one of my favourite authors. We only have one of his books in our library (The Eyre Affair, obviously), and it happens to be his first novel. If you find yourself in a public library that can give you the full Fforde experience, do take advantage of it. I sometimes refer to him as the heir to Douglas Adams, but the truth is he's his own special version of awesome and insane. His works are highly literate, utterly ridiculous romps in which a good knowledge of Shakespeare, Dickens and Austen can come in very handy.
The Thursday Next series (which started with The Eyre Affair) presents us with an alternative world in 1985 – a world in which literature is taken so seriously that an entire police force has been created to thwart fake Boswell biographies and put paid to forgeries of missing Shakespearean plays. Thursday Next is a hard-bitten LiteraTec who moves back to her hometown after a version of herself from the future told her to. She gets mixed up with time distortions, vampires, arms merchants selling fictional weapons, and half-demon criminal mastermind who has managed to kidnap Jane Eyre.
Yes, that’s right, the actual character Jane Eyre. You know, from that book called Jane Eyre? Thursday eventually has to go under cover in the novel in order to save the character and the book. Somehow along the way she also manages to end the Crimean War, which has been going for 131 years.
The book is full of literary references and puns (with character names like Landen Park-Laine and Braxton Hicks), and avid readers will sink into this world and never want to come out. It’s bonkers. It’s brilliant. It's seriously weird (and the other books in the series just get weirder). Read it.
Fiction, 820 FFO 1C EYR
Special guest reviewer Theresa Petray read Margaret Atwood's retelling of a Shakespearean play. Scott reviewed Don DeLillo's novel about a man learning German. Sharon revisited Jasper Fforde's mind-bending trip into a world where literary characters can pop out of their books (and people on the outside can pop in). What's the common thread? Why, languages and Literature, of course.
Hag-Seed is Margaret Atwood’s re-telling of Shakespeare’s
play, The Tempest. It is part of a series of modern Shakespeare remakes published
by Hogarth Press. Shakespeare is a key name in the world of literature, and his
work has influenced contemporary storytelling and even language in really
interesting ways.
Hag-Seed is a bit tongue-in-cheek in its re-telling, and
the plot centres around a unique staging of The Tempest. I admit that I was
unfamiliar with The Tempest before reading this book (I did a google, but
actually the final chapter after the prologue is a summary of the original
play.) The “island” in Atwood’s version is actually two locations: Felix’s
hermitage in rural Canada, and a nearby prison where he teaches a course on
Shakespeare every year. There are themes of loss, revenge, and a bit of magic.
In a fun nod to the language part of this month’s theme, one of Felix’s rules in
his classroom is that the students can only use curse words from that play. It
was very readable, and I think it was a good introduction to The Tempest for
people like me who don’t know it. Those who do may find the self-referential
nature of the play within a play (within a book) might find it irritating, but
I can’t say for sure.
Fiction, 820C ATW 1C HAG
Scott read White Noise by Don DeLillo.
White Noise fits this months Reading Challenge theme of Language and Literature quite well. The story’s protagonist, Jack, is a professor of Hitler studies (the man, the history and etc.) at a small town College. But he does not speak German. This is a failing that Jack is able to uneasily live with for a long time. An impending international conference of Hitler Studies hosted by his College kicks him into action. Jack takes German lessons from a man who intently studies his mouth movements. This teacher goes as far as to put his hand inside his student’s mouth to ensure the tongue is in the correct place.
This is a small part in a big book. White Noise covers a lot. We meet a very interesting family, some “unusual” academics, experience an airborne toxic event, consumerism, fear of death, and much more. This is not something that I ever expected to write but there are some great scenes in the Supermarket in this story.
I laughed quite a bit when reading White Noise. It is a darkly funny story at times. This book was not what I expected but I did enjoy it enough that I’ll read another of DeLillo’s books in the future (as soon as I hear him discussed again in a podcast).
Fiction, An author I haven’t read before, 810 DELI 1C WHI
Sharon Bryan read The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde.
The Thursday Next series (which started with The Eyre Affair) presents us with an alternative world in 1985 – a world in which literature is taken so seriously that an entire police force has been created to thwart fake Boswell biographies and put paid to forgeries of missing Shakespearean plays. Thursday Next is a hard-bitten LiteraTec who moves back to her hometown after a version of herself from the future told her to. She gets mixed up with time distortions, vampires, arms merchants selling fictional weapons, and half-demon criminal mastermind who has managed to kidnap Jane Eyre.
Yes, that’s right, the actual character Jane Eyre. You know, from that book called Jane Eyre? Thursday eventually has to go under cover in the novel in order to save the character and the book. Somehow along the way she also manages to end the Crimean War, which has been going for 131 years.
The book is full of literary references and puns (with character names like Landen Park-Laine and Braxton Hicks), and avid readers will sink into this world and never want to come out. It’s bonkers. It’s brilliant. It's seriously weird (and the other books in the series just get weirder). Read it.
Fiction, 820 FFO 1C EYR
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