Bookpig Reviews

V – Thomas Pynchon

What can you say about a Pynchon novel? Most of the time you don’t know what’s going on due to the multitude of characters and sub-plots. And yet there is a compulsion to read on. Why? The prose is so inventive, so detailed and extravagant that you can only marvel at the author’s ingenuity. This is Pynchon’s first novel and a precursor to what’s to come in the award-winning Gravity’s Rainbow. There are manic relationships, geographical uncertainty, marginal sex practices all held together by the search for the mysterious V. A concise synopsis of the novel reads, “the exploits of a discharged US Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York with a group of pseudo-bohemian artists and hangers-on known as the Whole Sick Crew, and the quest of an aging traveller named Herbert Stencil to identify and locate the mysterious entity he knows only as "V". The prose is rich with a dream-like quality so that even if you can’t make sense of the plot you are drawn to the information-intense words from Pynchon. While V is not recommended as an easy read, (none of Pynchon’s novels are), it does herald the debut of an astonishingly original writer with staggering promise. Maybe file under absurdism…

A Man in Full – Tom Wolfe

My literary hero, John Updike, reviewed this novel by saying it wasn’t literature but rather entertainment. Together with his bestseller status, Tom Wolfe wants to be taking seriously by the literary pantheon into posterity. He even went so far as to call John Updike, John Irving and Norman Mailer, his most vocal opponents, the three stooges. Wolfe believes literature has lost its way because of its lack of social realism, an extension of the new journalism idea he brought out in the past which blended journalism with literary techniques. Well I can only say after reading A Man in Full, I was thoroughly entertained, for a start. There is an all-encompassing major plot fuelled by other minor plots which enlighten and amuse. Characterisations are original and detailed. The themes of race and class are featured here again as with his previous novel, Bonfire of the Vanities which I have featured under the All Time Favourites link. The only reason I can see why this novel wouldn’t be considered literature is the prose and some of the description which borders on commercial simplicity. Could this be the only reason A Man in Full is relegated down the literary ladder or is it being penalised because it actually has a plot? Many of Updike’s novels are below par only to be lifted by his scintillating prose and sometimes even that’s not enough. Tom Wolfe is an excellent introduction to reading for the man who doesn’t read much. There is plot to keep the pages turning, characters to keep you entertained and themes to keep you thinking above the level of commercial fiction. The prose isn’t demanding so I can’t help wondering if there was more attention to language if it might be considered literature by the elite. As it stands A Man in Full is excellent both as entertainment and literature and I can’t wait until Wolfe’s new novel, Back to Blood, is released sometime in 2010. Enjoy all 740-odd pages of A Man in Full.

The World According to Garp – John Irving

Wow! What a tour de force! This novel written in 1978 has it all and hasn’t dated. There are comments here on feminism, the media, the publishing industry, the process of writing, the negative consequences of lust and parental fear for children in an increasingly unsafe world. The story begins with Jenny Fields attacking a lustful soldier with a scalpel showing her obstinacy towards a conventional life of marriage. She doesn’t want to share her life with anyone yet wants a child. She finds a way to achieve this and so Garp is born. Irving wasn’t sure when writing whether it was the mother or Garp who would be the protagonist and so both feature heavily in the novel. Irving’s writing is full of energy and rampant plot lines if not a little gimmicky but you can forgive him as you turn the pages at a furious pace to see what happens next. The other author which comes to mind in terms of a similar style and simple prose is Paul Auster. Both writers draw the reader into their worlds and force you to read on with an abundance of interest. Garp is brilliant and wholly deserving of its bestseller status. Expect reviews of A Prayer for Owen Meany and Last Night on Twisted River in ensuing months.

The Solid Mandala – Patrick White

The psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, saw the pattern of the mandala as "a representation of the unconscious self," and believed his paintings of mandalas enabled him to identify emotional disorders and work towards wholeness in personality. Maybe this is what White is aiming to portray in this dreary novel. The portrait is one of two twins, Arthur and Waldo, the latter being the smarter one who considers the former a laggard and burden. Together they somehow make a whole perhaps. The story is set in Sydney and a lot of fuss is made of the twins’ relationship with the Jewish family belonging to Dulcie Feinstein, the girl for which they both feel affection. There are other neighbours and deaths in the family but nothing saves this novel from lack of action and narrative. Where is the conflict? I much preferred Voss to this tedious non-event. I will however continue reading White’s other novels namely the Vivisector and Twyborn Affair in ensuing months in the hope that there is a narrative somewhere among all this prose, albeit interesting and original description. This novel is a massive come-down after reading the perfect execution of Margaret Atwood.

Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood

Ever since I read the Blind Assassin I’ve been hooked on Atwood. Once again in the Booker-shortlisted Alias Grace she doesn’t disappoint. There are many positives about Atwood’s writing – the interesting prose and use of language, the erudite insights, the unflinching emphasis on narrative which so many literary fiction writers ignore these days. However, I think Atwood’s most positive attribute is her perfect pacing. Yes, pacing. The novel moves forward at an ideal speed so that the reader is rarely bored. Having said that, I did find the beginning a little slow until the characters are introduced and the real story of the 1840s murderess begins properly. Yet once the protagonist starts reminiscing about her tale or murder, sex and subterfuge in the nineteenth century you simply can’t put it down and don’t want it to end. This is a tale of women’s values and constrictions in another time. Adding weight to the novel’s story is that it is based on facts. Atwood deserves all the accolades she has received with perfectly nuanced characterisations, appealing sub-plots and that driving narrative propelling the story forward. I’ll be reading more of Atwood in coming months.

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned – Wells Tower

I picked up the much-awarded Wells Tower as I am trying to write short stories so I thought I’d see how an established recent writer does it. The stories here don’t waste time in drawing in the reader, most of the time from the first line which I think is of utmost importance in the short form. The language and tone is conversational with original action taking place. As with many short stories today the endings are slightly limp but it doesn’t seem to have stopped all the awards he has received. I prefer some sort of major revelation or event at the end of a short story so that there is a beginning, middle and end but it seems I’m in the minority. The stories have a diversity about them which are appealing and shows Towers has real range and imagination. I enjoyed this collection and will look forward to Towers’ novel if he chooses to put one out. I must say in closing that I didn’t read the last story which seemed to fall in the fantasy genre, something I have no interest in. Otherwise, a solid debut, the story set in the carnival named “On The Show” being the best only because there was a satisfying conclusion.

Voss – Patrick White

I thought it was about time I read Patrick White. After all he is Australia’s only Nobel-prize winning writer so how bad could he be? I am not a great fan of Australian writing as it tends to get sidetracked in the outback, or with convicts and not deal with contemporary issues. Despite Voss being about Australia’s convict heritage and the outback not to mention aborigines, it did not disappoint me. There is something archetypal about White’s subject and prose so that the outback takes on a philosophical resonance, a metaphysical higher ground which the characters are in search of. This is a sumptuous novel as we hear of the telepathy between Voss the explorer and his love, Laura, back in Sydney and how it grinds away for most of the novel. This is not a breezy read as it is quite heavy in tone and exaggeratedly eloquent in prose, something we’re not used to today from Australian writers. In fact Patrick White’s writing was sent in to a publisher in recent years only to be rejected, showing how different the market is today compared with the 1950s. Read this for the striking imagery, for the snapshot of colonial Australia, for the quest that Voss just has to undergo and for the religious undertones much in the same vein as Melville’s Moby Dick.

Solar – Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan has written some superb novels (like Atonement and On Chesil Beach) yet his latest release is patchy. We are told by other reviewers that this is a story about climate change and it is to some degree but the overwhelming emphasis is on the protagonist, Nobel prize winning physicist Michael Beard, and his deceptiveness and complete egocentricity. Beard is a womaniser and plagiariser and it seems the issue of climate change takes a back seat to Beard’s underhanded actions. The first part of this novel is slow, however, the second part is stronger and compelling. The slapstick in the novel (penis getting frozen to his fly, vomiting during a speech) is a good contrast to the sermonizing on climate change, which the protagonist and I’m assuming the scientific McEwan, are in favour of combating as it presented as very real and not a myth. McEwan is always a better read than most, with intelligent prose, if on the heavy side in tone particularly in the first part. There is an issue of plausibility with the Nobel prize winner’s actions, particularly following an accidental death, so you must be willing to believe McEwan’s characterisations, which generally are original and flawless. Once it gets going Solar veers towards enlightening and one feels a sense of elevation not to mention a little more informed about climate change. It is a component outing but not up there with McEwan's best.

The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood

This is my first exposure to Margaret Atwood as I don’t really read female writers. Before feminists crucify me I find the female point-of-view written by a female too florid in emotion and style. Having said that, Atwood is a revelation! This Booker-winning novel is brilliant. Not only is the prose scintillating in the tradition of Updike but so is the structure of the story which presents a novel within a novel to some degree. Essentially the story is about one sister reminiscing about the other sister’s suicide and life together in the first half of the twentieth century. The plot is deceptively simple until the twists and turns come about. This is essentially a story of betrayal, sisterhood, and the mores of pre-war society vs the anomie of late twentieth century life. It is a love letter to the constraints a family can place on you, on the repercussions of each family member’s actions and words on another which are lifelong and can echo onto future generations. My only qualm was the beginning which was slightly jumbled but the novel soon settles into a rhythm. Read this for the exciting prose (“headache red” anyone?) and for the suspenseful finish. Margaret Atwood has acquired a new fan in me.

Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

The New York Times recommended this book and so I picked it up. I was especially intrigued by the structure of the novel where the story or stories are told by six narrators over different eras. The action begins in with a notary in nineteenth century travelling the high seas. The story then veers off to the 1930s where an aspiring composer befriends a musical genius and acts as his sounding board and notetaker; continuing on to 1975 where a journalist investigates the underhanded doings of a nuclear plant; a publisher running away from bad debts into a false incarceration is the next tale; a brilliantly inventive story set in the future is next where ‘clones’ must work twelve years before they are released to Hawaii (or are they?). This story tells of the ascension of one particular clone into a ‘pureblood’, ie a free-thinking human being. The tale is endlessly original and echoes Huxley’s Brave New World. This story alone would have made an excellent novel in its own right. Lastly, there is a time set well into the future, after ‘the fall’ has occurred leaving people in savage tribes. The tale’s protagonist is a boy named Zachry and we hear of his adventures in this post-apocalyptic world.

All the strands of the six scenarios are linked in some way. Indeed at one point Mitchell tells, “ souls cross ages like clouds cross skies”. Each tale is evoked with its own particular language and each character sticks in your head despite the disjointed quality of the novel requiring the reader to sometimes look back to previous chapters to remind himself what has occurred. This is a highly original novel that discusses themes like the need for domination between humanity’s clans and the malevolence embedded within civilization, regardless of which era you are located. It’s as if Mitchell is saying people are always at war with each other and the need for subjugation is the ultimate force driving societies around the globe, in the past, present and future.