I need the perfect book, yet it escapes me.
I’m currently reading Nabokov’s Pnin and The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake by Breece D’J Pancake. I bailed on Didion’s The White Album and Alexsandar Hemon’s Love & Obstacles. I don’t have the attention span at present.
Books I’ve loved recently:
- The Green Girl by Kate Zambreno
- Incendiary by Chris Cleave
- a visit from the goon squad by Jennifer Egan
- Living Arrangements by Laura Maylene Walter
- The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obrect
- The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
- The Empty Family by Colm Toibin
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I’m now in a heavy editing phase and I’m having trouble with my reading material. I’ve always been of the school to read above what you write. So Nabokov sets the bar and perhaps by osmosis my writing will improve. What I’m finding is that instead of him improving my writing, he is destroying my ability to believe in my writing at all. He’s just too good.
I just looked at my shelves and nothing, as hard as that is for me to say, nothing is catching my interest. So many spines uncracked, and I just want a well-written story, but not a story whose lyricism holds an impossible reach.
Short list of the books unread that are on my shelves:
- Howard Jacobson’s The Finkler Question
- Robert Bolano’s 2666
- Ha Jin’s A Free Life
- Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin
- Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book
- Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
I’m certain all of these are fine books, but not one screams out to me. Normally all books scream out and are competing for my attention. Right now? Nada.
So, my friends, what I’m looking for are suggestions for a good book with a great story. I’m looking for something that isn’t brilliant lyricism (no Rushdie, no Nabokov) so I don’t feel like a moron when I sit down late at night. I’m looking for something that keeps your attention, but is more character than plot-driven. I’m looking for something that screams beauty, and is complicated enough to make me strive harder without destroying my confidence. Essentially, I’m searching for your favorite comfort books.
What are those books that you return to time and again because they mean something to you, even if you don’t know exactly what it is? Any and all suggestions welcome.
Talk a writer off a cliff, won’t you?
Surfacing by Margaret Atwood is a book I return to again and again for the story and the deep abiding insight into human nature.
The only Atwood I’ve read is The Year of the Flood and I adored her writing. After hearing her speak at AWP, I can’t believe I didn’t think of her right away. Excellent.
Okay, hear me out: Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. It’s funny and brilliant and simple and there’s sex in it (for the wrong and the right reasons) and family and trust and love. And mob bosses and flamingos. I keep my copy behind the Throne of Solitude in the back bathroom.
I mean, if raising the literary bar isn’t working—raise a different bar. Capisci?
Perfect. It’s time to leave my comfort zone.
Comfort zones are for suckers. You heard it here first.
I would recommend anything by Kate Morton and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.
Lea, welcome!
Now down to business. Give me your top Kate Morton pick for this situation. I’ve never read her. Man, this list is going to be fantastic. I don’t know why I didn’t reach out sooner.
My top Kate Morton pick would be The House At Riverton. It is her first and her best!
Character driven….. Angle of Repose, Cat’s Eye, A Thousand Acres, Ordinary People,The Tortilla Curtain, Alice Munro short stories.
I feel for you and hope you find exactly what you need!
I can’t believe I forgot about Jane Smiley! I remember thinking when I went to her talk about writing big, that I need to read her. Yes. Ordinary People is another one. Never read it. Thank you, thank you.
What would I do without you guys??
Hmmm…I’m not sure. Why don’t you come to my house and pick something off of my shelf? You can borrow whatever you want. (I’ll probably have Lifeboat done by the time you’re here–so you can have at that one too.) What’s a ten-hour road trip for the perfect book?
It really seems the only answer. Let’s see, if I leave now, I’ll be there for a late dinner…
Is it really 10 hours? I thought it was 6. Nuts.
(10 hours round trip…you would have been there in time for appetizers!)
I have a few of these books listed. The Historian and some Jane Smiley. I’d be happy to send them your way.
How sweet are you?? I’m raiding the library this weekend, but if I don’t have luck I’ll let you know. Plus I fear your lending program, “Borrow two books and I throw in a cat free of charge!”
Short stories are good when your concentration is lagging. Grace Paley, each story is a gem. I also have loads of unreads on my shelves and am about to finish the disturbing A Summer of Drowning, set in the Arctic Circle, although when I forgot it one day last week I read An Imaginary Life by David Malouf, which speaks of the exile of the Roman poet Ovid, just brilliant.
It depends what you are up for, but I find it so delicious to choose a new read.
I was just eyeballing Grace Paley last night. Her specificity on the sentence level is astounding. Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find was up there too, but I’m looking for something less dense than shorts. I think. Hell, I don’t know what I’m looking for but I’ll have a nice look list when I go to the library tomorrow.
I’ve read Philip Roth’s novel The Ghost Writer more than twenty times. Of course it’s about a writer, but still. I always find something new in it. I’ve read several Iris Murdoch novels more than once (The Sea, The Sea, and I’ve been through Walden at least thrice.
Iris! She’s another that has been on my long list that I forgot about. What a fascinating woman, a woman who forgot more about writing than most of us ever knew.
Ghost Writer, excellent. I’ve read most Roth but I don’t believe that one. I’m a sucker for stories with a writer as the main character.
I love The Ghost Writer and can never talk anyone into reading it.
I like reading a different genre than what I’m writing. Of course if you read poems I’d have certain recommendations, but seeing as you don’t…(big Jewish mother sigh), how about some memoir? Blue Jay Dance by Louise Erdrich, Names of Things by Susan Brind Morrow, Firebird by Mark Doty, and Two or Three Things I know for Sure by Dorothy Allison. There’s also Heart You Bully You Punk by Leah Hager Cohen. (I LOVED The Summer Book, but haven’t read it in years.)
I Louise Erdrich and haven’t read that one. I feel like a little kid rubbing her hands together, hehehe, all of these wonderful books to read!
I wonder the maximum they’ll let me check out…
Make that “I heart Louise Erdrich…”
Stupid phone.
If you’re trying to boost your writing morale, I suggest reading children’s literature. It’s simple, to the point, and doesn’t weigh you down.
Good point, MSB. I’ve been meaning to read The Mysterious Benedict Society after I heard an interview with the author and my daughter showed no interest.
I’m not sure I agree with the ‘read what you write’ school. I’ve been trying to do that, but most thrillers bore me to tears. Read whatever you want, I say, and write whatever you can. I don’t think the two necessarily need to go together.
I loved The House at Riverton, Lea’s choice. Also The Shell Seekers or September by Rosamunde Pilcher, and Scarlet Feather or Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy. All those books are beautifully written but accessible. Good for morale!
Good! There you are. I have written it down more than once, but can’t find it. You keep telling me to read one specific writer, one book in particular…who is it? Is it Binchy? Pilcher? For some reason I thought it was someone else…
Yes, it’s Absent in the Spring, by Agatha Christie writing under the pen name Mary Westmacott. But I’ve beaten that drum for so long I figured everyone was sick of hearing it!
I enjoy coming-of-age when in a reading slump for they are inspiring for what they are and read without much effort. John Green’s lastest, The Fault in Our Stars is wonderfully done….I warn, bit of a teary read…
Otherwise, I adore short stories and am inspired by them: Dubois’s In the Bedroom; Binocular Vision: Edith Pearlman; Berlin Stories: Robert Walser
good luck ~
Thank you, Angela. And welcome!
I adored John Green’s Looking For Alaska, so more from him, great idea.