(no subject)

[aslant]

last night i finished haruki murakami's the wind-up bird chronicle. it is utterly weird. most of it i read while on the road trip last month, and perhaps that contributed to my general feeling that it went on and on, in such a surreal fashion, and never arrived anywhere in particular at the end. it made it easier to keep in mind that it is translated from the japanese; somehow this explained a lot of the structural & grammatical peculiarities. has anyone else read it? were you as confused as i was? am i being too linear and dense?

.

i am starting margaret atwood's oryx and crake, partly because i couldn't get the title out of my head after reading a review. i'm reading it also to get away from ian mcewan's atonement, which is breaking my heart into tiny pieces and scattering it all over world war two.

a lecturer at the virginia woolf symposium last saturday referred to mcewan's style in 'atonement' as similar to the inner-thought procession of woolf's characters. 'atonement' is my escape from 'mrs dalloway', which i started in turn to escape from hermione lee's virginia woolf biography.

ok, but at least i am reading! even if in a roundabout, jacob's ladder kind of a way.

Comments

[i-am-carmel.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to read the new Atwood book.

[radegunda.livejournal.com]

i thought there were a few plot/character wobbles in 'atonement' towards the end, though overall i thought it a very fine novel.

i'm getting the hermione lee VW biog for my birthday...

shall have to wait until 'oryx and crake' is out in paperback, though...

Re:

[aslant.livejournal.com]

ooh ooh. i haven't finished atonement yet, no spoilers! i am actually very impressed with it. i bet someone is trying to movie-ize it as we speak! bah. it is not often that books raise a real feeling of horror in me, and some of the scenes in the first part of atonement did that. oh, heartless briony. i thought it was such a pretty name when i started, and now i hate it! ha ha.

the hermione lee is fantastic. so amazing. i don't know how it is possible to read woolf without having read this biography, because all of the characters in her fictions are real people from her life. reading over pieces of woolf books i've already read, within lee's analysis, so much more is illuminated.

Re:

[radegunda.livejournal.com]

no - no spoilers :-)

but do let me know what you think of 'atonement' when you've finished it!

[thistle.livejournal.com]

i just finished the oryx & crake this weekend and i thought it was great.

also, i'm in love with virginia woolf. i thought you should know.

[stark.livejournal.com]

atonememnt made me so sad... have you read any of his other books? i liked his book "the comfort of strangers" he has a very good way of making people feel uneasy and sad.

after atonememnt i was so pissed off i wanted to make him write it again..