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The Idle Book Log: unofficial recommendations for forthcoming Idle Thumbs Book Clubs.

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After seeing Mr. Brown namedrop it a couple of times on these forums, and Chris Remo give it five stars on Goodreads, I picked up Carl Wilson's book on Céline Dion's Let's Talk About Love. An absolutely amazing read so far. Thank you.

Just one third into this tiny volume, Wilson has covered an incredible amount of ground. It has none of the snarky or obvious points I expected from the premise (a critic who dislikes Céline Dion trying to pinpoint her appeal). Instead, he uses Céline as a sincere launching point for all sorts of fascinating tangents: Quebec's national identity, the myths of globalisation and the lineage of parlour music and Italian opera, to name a few.

It's funny, earnest, well-researched, and full little epiphany moments I have to stop and write down. It would make a wonderful change of pace if you're ever looking to shake things up.

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I think the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving, would be a pretty good book for the cast.

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Infinite Jest! I've been half way through this book for 2 years and need a push to finish. So yeah, I guess I'm saying, make this about me, please.

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I am going to make a case for Jennifer Egan's 2010 novel A Visit from the Good Squad:

tumblr_lruokfgf9b1qjam74.jpgYo Max, what is the book about?

Ernst_Max.jpg Well, it is about a lot of things. Essentially, it is a decade spanning story of socially linked individuals trying to resist the inevitable deterioration of the self brought on by the passing of time. Cultures and counter-cultures are examined under a close lens, as the novel sharply explores how our attitudes and ideologies change with life experience. The book dates as far back as the early-seventies, and spans into the near-future, so we are talking about plenty of time here.

tumblr_lruokfgf9b1qjam74.jpgThat doesn't sound that radical, Max. What makes this book so different?

Ernst_Max.jpg Well, most apparent is the book's unusual form. The book darts not only between different narrators, but also different vernaculars. There is a chapter in first person, second person (I know, right?), and third person. There is even a chapter entirely in PowerPoint. These different narratorial modes are done with a specific purpose, and working out why Egan chose a particular frame of narration for a particular character is one of the joys of the novel.

Also, the book elegantly weaves its swirling cast of characters in a way that makes you realise how connected everyone really is. Do you ever stare at someone on the bus and go "who is that guy, anyway? What is his story?" Egan looks to answer that.Without escape, we all wear the baggage of time.

tumblr_lruokfgf9b1qjam74.jpgIs the book actually good, or just a neat experiment? Don't lie to me, Max.

Ernst_Max.jpg The book is great! It is far too early to deem it a classic, but as dead German surrealist, it has my stamp of approval. But don't take my word for it, the book won an assload of prizes, including a Pulitzer and the National Book Critics Circle Award. People dug this book.

tumblr_lruokfgf9b1qjam74.jpg So, I'm going to love it?

Ernst_Max.jpg Perhaps not! The book has its detractors. A lot of the complaints towards this text accuse Egan of writing a novel that is solely supported by its form. They argue that if it weren't for the interwoven narrative or the crazy perspective switches, no one would care about this book. Myself, I completely disagree, but I respect the argument. But who am I to talk, I haven't painted anything new since 1976 (on account of being dead).

tumblr_lruokfgf9b1qjam74.jpgAny final piece of evidence you wish to present before you end this overwrought forums post?

Ernst_Max.jpg I will leave you with quote from the book, which exemplifies the novel's themes and the sharpness of Egan's prose:

“Like all failed experiments, that one taught me something I didn’t expect: one key ingredient of so-called experience is the delusional faith that it is unique and special, that those included in it are privileged and those excluded from it are missing out.”

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Well, that's ten minutes of work completely undone.

Hey, it was still a really good and useful post—unlike that one time I spent 10 minutes calculating US marijuana consumption in mega-Snoops.

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It is pretty bad. (I have read this book.)

(It was better than Super Sad True Love Story at least. Probably shouldn't have beat Freedom for all the awards though)

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This is the first time I've fully read through this discussion. I'm fully entertained. Thank you.

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As Greg Brown was saying on Twitter, try John Williams's novel Stoner. I'm reading it. When I'm not reading it, I'm thinking about it. I echo Greg's sentiment about it being a deep well of introspection.

If we're going to take some hyperbole, it's been described as something rarer than a great novel: it is a perfect novel. Apparently.

I'll let time decide where it fits between "good" and "perfect" in my own head, but I suspect it's at least "great". Which isn't so bad, if you think about it.

9781590171998_jpg_180x450_q85.jpg

Read this.

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I recommend anything by Cesar Aira. He's a prolific Argentinean novelist, although only a handful of his novels have been translated into English. I've read all that are available though, and they are incredibly addictive. They also have the added benefit of being brief (typically only around 80 pages), and fitting in a coat pocket very easily making them convenient for public transit reading. He writes in a surreal style where his novels often begin in a very conventional realist style, but nearly imperceptibly shift into stranger and stranger territory.

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I turned my non-gaming girlfriend onto the bookcast, and she really liked it. She had read both books already, and had a suggestion. The Manual Found at Saragosa. She noted that you guys might be open to pre-20th century books, and said this one is easily readable, and surprisingly modern for something 200 years old. It's a polish book written in the very late 1700s, and she said it reminded her of Cloud Atlas a bit. It's like 700 pages, so maybe not easy or feasible in a month. From the wiki:

The Manuscript Found in Saragossa collects intertwining stories, all of them set in whole or in part in Spain, with a large and colorful cast of Gypsies, thieves, inquisitors, a cabbalist, a geometer, the cabbalist's beautiful sister, two Moorish princesses (Emina and Zubeida), and others that the brave, perhaps foolhardy, Walloon Guard Alphonse van Worden meets, imagines or reads about in the Sierra Morena mountains of 18th-century Spain while en route to Madrid. Recounted to the narrator over the course of sixty-six days, the novel's stories quickly overshadow van Worden's frame story. The bulk of the stories revolve around the Gypsy chief Avadoro, whose story becomes a frame story itself. Eventually the narrative focus moves again toward van Worden's frame story and a conspiracy involving an underground — or perhaps entirely hallucinated — Muslim society, revealing the connections and correspondences between the hundred or so stories told over the novel's sixty-six days.

I just read this on this recommendation and holy crap, this book is amazing. It's a cross between 1001 Nights, Foucault's Pendulum and Much Ado About Nothing. Fantastic.A lot of the readability is probably due to the excellent translation1 but the themes and stories are also largely in that universally human category of star-crossed lovers, jealous aunts and what have you.

1. Although a lot of the footnotes drove me crazy with their redundancy.

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It is pretty bad. (I have read this book.)

Why is it bad? I already bought it. Is it worth reading?

Edit: I just saw the comic on the previous page. I'm going to read it.

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Why is it bad? I already bought it. Is it worth reading?

Edit: I just saw the comic on the previous page. I'm going to read it.

It seemed really trite, with every story trying to be a little parable where the main character learned some truth. Egan's a solid writer on the prose level, but she also exhibits the tics and worldview that I'm already tired from seeing run rampant in MFA writers and This American Life. The futurism at the end is also pretty egregious.

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