...Er... yeah, I took a longer break than I wanted. The Japanese magical realism will wait a bit, today I'll review something else from a favorite author of mine.
Slowness by Milan Kundera
I once read a comment somewhere in the bowels of the internet (though I can scarcely be bothered to remember where anymore- it was quite a while ago) that the first book one reads by Milan Kundera is the one that will be the best liked. I can understand this perspective for a few reasons- Kundera's style never really seemed to evolve, his books are are very similar stylistically, tonally, and even atmospherically. Additionally, the type of observations he makes are often very similar. However, I can't help but think that Slowness may actually be the exception to this rule.
While Slowness is very much stylistically the same as Kundera's other works, the message is a bit more profound, from my perspective at least. Though written a couple decades ago, it engages the fundamental problem of modernity at its very heart- we have become so obsessed with speed that we often miss life for what it is. While "stop and smell the roses" is a very cliche message, it remains one of my favorite cliches, and I have come to appreciate very much every second of slowness that I am able to capture within my life.
Aside from the message, which is probably Kundera's strongest point, the book is still stylistically interesting. The character exposition is extraordinarily advanced, motivations leaking through the text in the strange subtle way that only Kundera can present them. The atmosphere remains very dreamlike despite its distinctly down-to-earth setting because of Kundera's stylistic choices, weaving the tales together to focus on the message rather than the characters. Ultimately, it is a highly successful technique, and one I will probably never tire of praising authors like Kundera or Calvino for.
OVERALL SCORE: 79/100
Showing posts with label Novels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Novels. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
All Cities are the Same
I'm still cheating a bit and picking books that I like, but think that is necessary every now and then.
We all have one place that's particularly important to us. It can be a home, a vacation location that we've idealized, or anything in-between, but there is always a source, a place that we compare all others to. A large part of one of Italo Calvino's most famous works, Invisible Cities, deals with just this phenomenon.
Through a series of tales of auspiciously named and designed cities, Marco Polo tells of his travels throughout the world, determined to impress and enlighten the Great Khan. Each of his tales are unique and of unique cities, exploring a different aspect of human beings in society, and yet all of them display traits of Polo's beloved Venice. The depth and range of the human traits explored here are astounding, both delving deep into society towards the nature of Justice and the inevitability of human interactions, to the mere simple nature of humans to absorb the stories of others.
The writing style is highly experimental, composed of short chapters each exploring an idea within the span a few paragraphs, and thinly linked by a series of conversations between the two makeshift protagonists. In the end, it is a story about humans, and an incredibly meditative one at that. As with If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, Calvino has managed to make all of us the main characters, though in an entirely different and much more symbolic fashion.
In the end, its starkness is its greatest weakness. The work is brilliant, but not as hard-hitting as it could have been if some of the talks had received greater elaboration.
SCORE: 88/100
We all have one place that's particularly important to us. It can be a home, a vacation location that we've idealized, or anything in-between, but there is always a source, a place that we compare all others to. A large part of one of Italo Calvino's most famous works, Invisible Cities, deals with just this phenomenon.
Through a series of tales of auspiciously named and designed cities, Marco Polo tells of his travels throughout the world, determined to impress and enlighten the Great Khan. Each of his tales are unique and of unique cities, exploring a different aspect of human beings in society, and yet all of them display traits of Polo's beloved Venice. The depth and range of the human traits explored here are astounding, both delving deep into society towards the nature of Justice and the inevitability of human interactions, to the mere simple nature of humans to absorb the stories of others.
The writing style is highly experimental, composed of short chapters each exploring an idea within the span a few paragraphs, and thinly linked by a series of conversations between the two makeshift protagonists. In the end, it is a story about humans, and an incredibly meditative one at that. As with If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, Calvino has managed to make all of us the main characters, though in an entirely different and much more symbolic fashion.
In the end, its starkness is its greatest weakness. The work is brilliant, but not as hard-hitting as it could have been if some of the talks had received greater elaboration.
SCORE: 88/100
Monday, June 1, 2009
Youth, Memory, and Loss; Ghosts by Kita Morio
Ghosts, originally 幽霊 (yuurei) in Japanese, is the story of a young man coming to terms with his past in the wake of the end of World War II. Plagued by deaths, frailty, and the struggles of ordinary adolescence, the protagonist loses himself in his memories, seemingly desperate to find something to cling to, to discover the meaning and worth in his past.
The story itself is nearly plotless, allowing Kita to instead focus on isolating incidents with the utmost detail, with prose so meticulous that the images are brought to life as paintings of the fullest color. Many of these events are remarkably mundane- eating a pickled plum in rice porridge while sick, the exploits of an ameteur magician uncle- but they each bring out an important aspect of the protagonist's personality, developing his character with a clear and distinct voice, and distorting the world into his own fictionalized bias. In this sense, Kita is very much a genius. He perfectly captures not only the memories themselves, but their small significances, without ever allowing a single word to be wasted.
The negative aspects of the work stem from Kita's premise as a whole. Ultimately, the book is more of a work of art than it is a story. Enjoyable, yes, meaningful, yes, but hardly a substantial tale. I personally find this style very compelling, but in the end it forces a lot of thought and inference onto the reader, which is a somewhat ameteurish style to write in. A good writer draws the reader in, rather than leaving the reader to initially immerse themselves in the world. Still, if you can take that initial step, Ghosts is never a book you will have been sorry to pick up.
SCORE: 83/100
The story itself is nearly plotless, allowing Kita to instead focus on isolating incidents with the utmost detail, with prose so meticulous that the images are brought to life as paintings of the fullest color. Many of these events are remarkably mundane- eating a pickled plum in rice porridge while sick, the exploits of an ameteur magician uncle- but they each bring out an important aspect of the protagonist's personality, developing his character with a clear and distinct voice, and distorting the world into his own fictionalized bias. In this sense, Kita is very much a genius. He perfectly captures not only the memories themselves, but their small significances, without ever allowing a single word to be wasted.
The negative aspects of the work stem from Kita's premise as a whole. Ultimately, the book is more of a work of art than it is a story. Enjoyable, yes, meaningful, yes, but hardly a substantial tale. I personally find this style very compelling, but in the end it forces a lot of thought and inference onto the reader, which is a somewhat ameteurish style to write in. A good writer draws the reader in, rather than leaving the reader to initially immerse themselves in the world. Still, if you can take that initial step, Ghosts is never a book you will have been sorry to pick up.
SCORE: 83/100
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