COMMITTED by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin, 2010)
As a fan of Gilbert’s mega-jumbo-hit memoir EAT, PRAY, LOVE (by all accounts a tough act to follow) I was ready to adore her latest non-fiction piece about marriage. As casualties of ugly failed first marriages, Gilbert and her (new) lover swear that they will never marry again, until they are forced to marry in order to accommodate Felipe’s entry visa to the United States. The book is a drawn out justification of how Gilbert overcomes this major philosophical hurdle where, page after sometimes tedious page, she overthinks and overcooks marriage to its very skeletal core. While Gilbert is a gifted and witty writer, she tries to create drama and intrigue where there is none. Instead, the reader is left to mull over the obvious, reading pedantic passages on the history and anthropology of marriage. In the end, the book feels forced and lacks the instinct and genuine exuberance that characterized EAT, PRAY, LOVE. Alas, you can’t win them all (6/10).
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
RollnSmoke Reviews: OLIVE KITTERIDGE
OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout (Vintage, 2008)
Worthy Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in literature, this episodic third novel features the flawed, brusque and evolving Olive Kitteridge as revealed via various satellite characters in 13 skillfully linked short stories that take place over the years in a small coastal town in Maine. Strout’s lyrical diction is indeed “distinguished” in its rare ability to capture perceptive detail in ordinary “American Life” that achieves a marvelous and riveting picture of humanity – in all its various foibles and vulnerabilities – through childhood memories, thoughts of suicide, heartbreaks, divorce, depression, mental illness, adultery, life and death. And Olive Kitteridge herself, the central feast at the table of this rich story, is subtly rendered as moody and unapologetic, but also as enduring, hopeful and capable of enormous tenderness. (9.5/10).
Worthy Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in literature, this episodic third novel features the flawed, brusque and evolving Olive Kitteridge as revealed via various satellite characters in 13 skillfully linked short stories that take place over the years in a small coastal town in Maine. Strout’s lyrical diction is indeed “distinguished” in its rare ability to capture perceptive detail in ordinary “American Life” that achieves a marvelous and riveting picture of humanity – in all its various foibles and vulnerabilities – through childhood memories, thoughts of suicide, heartbreaks, divorce, depression, mental illness, adultery, life and death. And Olive Kitteridge herself, the central feast at the table of this rich story, is subtly rendered as moody and unapologetic, but also as enduring, hopeful and capable of enormous tenderness. (9.5/10).
Monday, January 18, 2010
RollnSmoke Reviews: NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF
NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF by Julian Barnes (Vintage International, October 2009)
Named one of The New York Times Book Review’s Best Book of the Year, this is a memoir-like rumination on the meaning of death that draws from history, philosophy and, most enjoyably, from Barnes’ own experience, particularly regarding the separate deaths of his own parents. A young atheist with no religious upbringing, Barnes has become, over the years, an agnostic (now that he has become “more aware of ignorance”) and grapples honestly here with the question of whether or not God exists. He addresses the universal fear of human mortality and discusses the relationship between death and consciousness. At one point he wonders, “Why do we need God to help us marvel at things?” While there are spots of smart humor, there are even longer, often tedious spells involving historical (often French) thinkers (Montaigne, Flaubert Stendahl, Volataire). In the end Barnes’ meditations do not lead to a position or a climax – there is no resolve; indeed no real direction – and no new ideas are truly uncovered (7.5/10).
Named one of The New York Times Book Review’s Best Book of the Year, this is a memoir-like rumination on the meaning of death that draws from history, philosophy and, most enjoyably, from Barnes’ own experience, particularly regarding the separate deaths of his own parents. A young atheist with no religious upbringing, Barnes has become, over the years, an agnostic (now that he has become “more aware of ignorance”) and grapples honestly here with the question of whether or not God exists. He addresses the universal fear of human mortality and discusses the relationship between death and consciousness. At one point he wonders, “Why do we need God to help us marvel at things?” While there are spots of smart humor, there are even longer, often tedious spells involving historical (often French) thinkers (Montaigne, Flaubert Stendahl, Volataire). In the end Barnes’ meditations do not lead to a position or a climax – there is no resolve; indeed no real direction – and no new ideas are truly uncovered (7.5/10).
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
RollnSmoke Reviews: GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson (Vintage, 2009)
A national bestseller loaded with the signature aspects of a suspenseful crime novel including sexual exploits, dark family secrets, slowly revealed mysteries, ghastly torture and grisly murder. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the novel is that the Swedish author died in 2004 under suspicious circumstances, and his work is only now being published posthumously. In this first installment of Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy crime series, a Swedish-Casanova-investigative-journalist is charged with uncovering a family’s torrid past amidst his own libelous scandal involving a corrupt, billionaire, international financier. Eventually he pairs up with a young-tattooed-goth-hacker and together they untangle a 40-year old island murder mystery. While the language (albeit in translation from Swedish) is often artless and the hero-less story is undercut with a relentless and ugly thread of misogyny, the book is still a page-turner that keeps the reader hooked until all shocking and bloody truths are revealed (8/10).
A national bestseller loaded with the signature aspects of a suspenseful crime novel including sexual exploits, dark family secrets, slowly revealed mysteries, ghastly torture and grisly murder. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the novel is that the Swedish author died in 2004 under suspicious circumstances, and his work is only now being published posthumously. In this first installment of Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy crime series, a Swedish-Casanova-investigative-journalist is charged with uncovering a family’s torrid past amidst his own libelous scandal involving a corrupt, billionaire, international financier. Eventually he pairs up with a young-tattooed-goth-hacker and together they untangle a 40-year old island murder mystery. While the language (albeit in translation from Swedish) is often artless and the hero-less story is undercut with a relentless and ugly thread of misogyny, the book is still a page-turner that keeps the reader hooked until all shocking and bloody truths are revealed (8/10).