At the picture show

Written by Kathryn Fuller

Published in 1996

An eminently interesting book exploring how the moviegoing culture took root in small town America. I suppose it isn't the kind of book that would interest everyone but I really enjoyed reading it.

String too short to be saved

Written by Donald Hall

Published in 1992

A book I would never pick up if it weren't required reading for a course. It is a quick read. A collection of autobiographical stories about rural life in 1940s New England. The prose is not exceptional, nor are the stories. Its main value is as a snapshot of an era, which is exactly how it was used in the course.

Alongshore

Written by John Stilgoe

Published in 1996.

The book is about an eclectic bunch of things all related to the liminal American landscape between land and sea.

If on a winter's night a traveler

Written by Italo Calvino

Published in 1979.

Now this novel I can describe as postmodern without hesitation. Perhaps it would be best described as an investigation of reading and writing, of the compulsions of the reader and the author. The novel is a bit discombobulating at first but it is worth sticking out till the end. The end is in fact quite beautiful. It has been a few weeks since I read this book, so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details but I certainly would enjoy reading it again someday.

The Volcano Lover

Written by Susan Sontag

Published in 1989

A very well-crafted novel. Sontag's works of literary criticism show her to be a very perspicacious scholar. This book puts all her observations about literature into work. It is a historical novel about Le Cavalier, a British ambassador, and his life in Naples. Le Cavalier is an avid collector: he collects ancient Roman vases, bits of volcanic ash from nearby Mt Vesuvius and even women. The novel is a comment on property, ownership, collection and what it means to engage in these activities. It is a comment on capitalism couched in a story that unfolds in pre-capitalist times.

But it is also a book very interested in women. It is not feminist in a stereotypical sense. The female characters are in fact usually overshadowed by Le Cavalier but in the final part of the novel, Sontag gives voice to four women in the novel. These peripheral characters take control of the so-far omniscient narratival voice and speak their stories. It is quite unusual. I don't know if postmodern is an accurate description because the omniscient narrator does dominate most of the novel. I guess Sontag's approach is summed up best in the words of a poetess character. She was hanged by the royalists in Naples and was only passingly mentioned in the novel proper. But her story is what ends the novel and in the final lines she says:

"Sometimes I had to forget that I was a woman to accomplish the best of which I was capable of. Or I would lie to myself about how complicated it is to be a woman. Thus do all women, including the author of this book. But I cannot fogive those who did not care about more than their own glory or well-being. They though they were civilized. They were despicable. Damn them all."

The most enjoyable aspect of the novel for me was her supreme command over her prose. Her sentences were calibrated almost to a fault. I'm quite glad to have read this book.

Hunger by Knut Hamsun

The first novel by a great Norwegian writer, Hamsun really knows what human destitution and suffering are all about. The story follows an unidentified man looking for food on the streets of Christiania, Denmark. That's about it. The plot, if we can even call it that, concerns his pursuits, his trials and struggles to sustain himself as he roams about searching for something to eat, much like an animal, from one part of the city to the next. The most important identifying markers about our protagonist are completely missing: his name, his origin, his history: parents/family, life before his present predicament etc. Unlike the typical sans-abri: begging for spare change, eating out of dumpsters, waiting in line at the local shelter for a loaf of bread, this character is resourceful and obsessively preoccupied with grandiose notions of pride and dignity. Even though his situation gets progressively worse as the story develops, our hero (subject to interpretation) never loses hope. Rather than being concerned about his physical degradation, the protagonist rants about his eternal soul, his moral salvation, Christ the saviour and such. He is convinced that, like Jesus, he too is meant for some higher purpose in life. The story takes on a more sinister turn when his starvation seems to be self-induced: a voluntary fast, a sacrifice for a greater good.
Episodes pile on top of episodes: he falls in love with a girl he meets randomly while walking down a street, he pawns off nearly all his belongings, has several run-ins with the law, begins to lose his mind, tries to rape the girl he met. In one particularly poignant scene, the protagonist take a bite out of his finger, not out of desperation but just to feel what it would be like.
The brilliance of the book lies in the simple fact that it is not about what it appears to be. It doesn't concern hunger at all, or rather, not the kind one would be led to believe. Hamsun presents the complexity of modern satiation for a hero who seeks to transcend his baser urges. It is a man's struggle to reclaim his masculinity, it is a human's struggle to remain moral in a world which demands nothing short of immorality. Highly recommended for a quiet summer read: depressing, morbid and ridiculously funny.