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Of wives and winds (two book reviews)
Sep. 24th, 2012 10:15 am33. American Wife, Curtis Sittenfeld
I loved Sittenfeld's Prep but resisted this book for a long time -- needlessly, as it turns out, because it was very enjoyable. I don't know a lot about Laura Bush, but watching her qua Alice Lindgren, and George W. Bush as Charlie Blackwell, made them both a lot more likable. That is to say, made them more redeemable than the view I'd had of them before, as 1) George, stupid and rich, and 2) Laura, Stepford wife, cipher. As the reviews all say, this book is fascinating during Alice's childhood and early adulthood, especially during Charlie's courtship of Laura, which really made me like him and feel affectionate for his weird, horny, drunk character...but then the whole thing gets boring once she/they get to the White House. Furthermore, as a character I was kind of repulsed by Alice, frequently, for her "oh horrors we are privileged and other people are poor" attitude, alleviated by very occasional good deeds, and for her "I really liked housework, it was just kind of soothing, even though we were rich enough to hire servants" attitude (what the fucking fuck). This portrait of a small town working class girl who ascends to the highest privileges was perhaps just truthful, in that sense, by portraying someone who really didn't put a lot of thought toward housework, or fame. Though that was also its weakness (and the weakness of Laura as first lady), because some of the most fascinating dilemmas of the person -- a liberal pro-abortion librarian married to the GOP president? -- came down to, essentially, well I believed in supporting him so I kept it to myself. In that sense, a lot of the tragedies of her generation come down to simply not thinking very much about tragedy/complication. I know my grandmothers are like that, too. Weirdest things: wishing good old George had stayed a horny rich drunk bastard, wishing the Karl Rove character had more substance, wishing Sittenfeld had kept the Bush twins in the book (the Blackwells have only one daughter). Oh, and wishing that Laura/Alice was not quite so eye-rollingly orgasmic, in that predictably novelistic sense, where it seems she is Super Vanilla Girl who reliably, obediently comes in missionary, somehow. Whatever, Sittenfeld, fix that next time, but otherwise you write pretty damn good fan fic. Keep up the good work.
34. The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
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mordicai's excellent recommendation -- this book fucking rules and I have a crush on Rothfuss now. This is the first fantasy book I've read since finishing the Song of Ice and Fire series over a year ago, and it soothed a lot of my pain about Martin's books. Why? Because yes, it is really *is* possible to be a feminist author writing about a male protagonist in a not very enlightened society who is not constantly engaged in rape culture! And it's not heavy-handed! And I trusted Rothfuss as an author! You know, I didn't trust Martin because I genuinely disagreed with his character-killing choices, the further I got into it; not because I didn't want the characters to die, but because it was so sloppily done and further evidence of a so-so writer at work. With Rothfuss I was neither anticipating/dreading the plot moves nor questioning his choices. It's actually a little rare for me, when reading a book, to just fall into the prose and not rewrite the sentences in my head, but I fell full into this book. Awesome. Kvothe, the main character, is one of those I'm A Magical Genius Prodigy At Everything I Do characters, but I didn't mind it, because he held genuine mystery; in fact the book was loaded down with so many fantasy tropes (magic! the wayside inn! lonesome journeys! mysterious powers! manic pixie dreamgirls! apprentices! traveling performers! street urchins!) but Rothfuss managed to make it feel fresh, deliberate, made with careful authorial intent, and the world feels expansive and rich. Even the Hogwarts and Obi-wan Kenobi parts of the story were good, because they scratched that itch for tropes of the genre, but Rothfuss never tried to trade on familiarity, nor did he belabor his tropes or try to make them overly unique. It felt genuine. I really got caught up in this book, aside from being a good story it just gave me genuine hope for the genre, can you tell? I found bits of the book's rhymes caught in my head, too, sure sign of a novelist with a poet's soul. What's their plan, what's their plan / Chandrian, Chandrian. If you like fantasy, go get this right now.
I loved Sittenfeld's Prep but resisted this book for a long time -- needlessly, as it turns out, because it was very enjoyable. I don't know a lot about Laura Bush, but watching her qua Alice Lindgren, and George W. Bush as Charlie Blackwell, made them both a lot more likable. That is to say, made them more redeemable than the view I'd had of them before, as 1) George, stupid and rich, and 2) Laura, Stepford wife, cipher. As the reviews all say, this book is fascinating during Alice's childhood and early adulthood, especially during Charlie's courtship of Laura, which really made me like him and feel affectionate for his weird, horny, drunk character...but then the whole thing gets boring once she/they get to the White House. Furthermore, as a character I was kind of repulsed by Alice, frequently, for her "oh horrors we are privileged and other people are poor" attitude, alleviated by very occasional good deeds, and for her "I really liked housework, it was just kind of soothing, even though we were rich enough to hire servants" attitude (what the fucking fuck). This portrait of a small town working class girl who ascends to the highest privileges was perhaps just truthful, in that sense, by portraying someone who really didn't put a lot of thought toward housework, or fame. Though that was also its weakness (and the weakness of Laura as first lady), because some of the most fascinating dilemmas of the person -- a liberal pro-abortion librarian married to the GOP president? -- came down to, essentially, well I believed in supporting him so I kept it to myself. In that sense, a lot of the tragedies of her generation come down to simply not thinking very much about tragedy/complication. I know my grandmothers are like that, too. Weirdest things: wishing good old George had stayed a horny rich drunk bastard, wishing the Karl Rove character had more substance, wishing Sittenfeld had kept the Bush twins in the book (the Blackwells have only one daughter). Oh, and wishing that Laura/Alice was not quite so eye-rollingly orgasmic, in that predictably novelistic sense, where it seems she is Super Vanilla Girl who reliably, obediently comes in missionary, somehow. Whatever, Sittenfeld, fix that next time, but otherwise you write pretty damn good fan fic. Keep up the good work.
34. The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
On
mordicai's excellent recommendation -- this book fucking rules and I have a crush on Rothfuss now. This is the first fantasy book I've read since finishing the Song of Ice and Fire series over a year ago, and it soothed a lot of my pain about Martin's books. Why? Because yes, it is really *is* possible to be a feminist author writing about a male protagonist in a not very enlightened society who is not constantly engaged in rape culture! And it's not heavy-handed! And I trusted Rothfuss as an author! You know, I didn't trust Martin because I genuinely disagreed with his character-killing choices, the further I got into it; not because I didn't want the characters to die, but because it was so sloppily done and further evidence of a so-so writer at work. With Rothfuss I was neither anticipating/dreading the plot moves nor questioning his choices. It's actually a little rare for me, when reading a book, to just fall into the prose and not rewrite the sentences in my head, but I fell full into this book. Awesome. Kvothe, the main character, is one of those I'm A Magical Genius Prodigy At Everything I Do characters, but I didn't mind it, because he held genuine mystery; in fact the book was loaded down with so many fantasy tropes (magic! the wayside inn! lonesome journeys! mysterious powers! manic pixie dreamgirls! apprentices! traveling performers! street urchins!) but Rothfuss managed to make it feel fresh, deliberate, made with careful authorial intent, and the world feels expansive and rich. Even the Hogwarts and Obi-wan Kenobi parts of the story were good, because they scratched that itch for tropes of the genre, but Rothfuss never tried to trade on familiarity, nor did he belabor his tropes or try to make them overly unique. It felt genuine. I really got caught up in this book, aside from being a good story it just gave me genuine hope for the genre, can you tell? I found bits of the book's rhymes caught in my head, too, sure sign of a novelist with a poet's soul. What's their plan, what's their plan / Chandrian, Chandrian. If you like fantasy, go get this right now.
