"Everyone, Real or Invented, Deserves the Open Destiny of Life."

I don't really know what to say about Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley. It was a collection of short stories first published in 1960. And I can easily say that I've never read an author who writes the way she does. Maybe a little reminiscent of Dorothy Parker, but blunt in a different kind of way. Not overly wordy or florid language, but sometimes a very honest kind of a gut punch.

All of the stories were largely about single mothers or young women in unhappy marriages, taking place in New York, including the recurrence of one character, Faith, which I guess Paley had used multiple times across many of her writings. There were very open descriptions of sex and sexual relationships which seemed quite avant garde to have been written in the 1950s by a woman. 

And while I have much appreciation and respect for the way Paley crafted the stories, oddly enough, this book is not going to be memorable for me at all. Even now, having finished it not that long ago, I can barely remember any of the actual storylines of any of the vignettes. So it's interesting to me that the way a writer writes can leave more of an impression on me than the stories themselves (and I certainly feel the same way about other writers too in the opposite sense). So overall while I appreciated the book, I probably wouldn't pick it up again or recommend it to others. Is that a bad thing? 

183 to go (I swear I feel like I've been at 183 for an eternity).  

"You Do Not Let Your Eyes See Nor Your Eyes Hear, and That Which is Outside Your Daily Life is Not of Account to You."

I don't know how I've gotten to 43 years of age and not actually seen a movie of or read the novel of Dracula. Sure, I know all of the stuff about vampires; all the cliches, all of the fascination, all of the other stories spawned from this one legend. And you guys: this book was amazing. Given that it was published in 1897 (more on that in a moment), it holds up. It's engaging, suspenseful (and expertly built), with just the right amount of foreshadowing. 

And considering how much focus over the years has landed on the actual character of Dracula, he's surprisingly not in the book all that much. Sure, he's a presence that continues to wreak havoc on a couple of the different female characters (and their male loves in consequence), but we don't see him in his body all that much. Mostly in the beginning when he has made a prisoner of Jonathan Harker, who has travelled to Romania to go over some legal paperwork with the Count himself. I don't want to think that I let my knowledge of Dracula affect my interpretations of what was presented in the novel, but the way he was written was as one cruel being. Sure, he was able to share exchanges of intellect with Jonathan while he was initially in Romania, but after that, he is ruthless and cruel. But his evasiveness and cunning made him even more dangerous. The character in the novel really is the embodiment of pure evil. 

So I know that it's not easy to want to delve into the classics. But this is one I would say DO IT. It holds up to today's standards and is still completely engaging. I was turning the pages at the end in complete suspense for how it was going to end (because, as I mentioned, I didn't actually know the full story). 

Next up is Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley. I don't think I knew that this was a collection of short stories - it was a random selection from my list of works by women writers. We'll see how she goes. 

184 to go. 

"Everyone Had Secret Corners and Alleys That No One Else Saw - What Mattered Were Your Major Streets and Boulevards, the Stuff That Showed Up On Other People's Maps of You."

I think that one of the words I would use to describe Harlem Shuffle is authentic. In every way the story was told, the historical accuracy feels like you are genuinely transported back to 1960s Harlem. From the descriptions of the community, the neighborhoods, the buildings, the characters; they're distinct, and provide a setting that gives the story a lot of grounding. The hustling, the petty crime, the political corruption, the real people living their lives. The time and setting felt as much of a main character as Ray Carney. 

Ray Carney is a furniture store owner who is looking to keep him and his family on the up and up. Trying to be a legit business owner. With a very small dose of looking the other way when dealing with low-level petty crime. If he knows that merchandise comes to him that may have fallen off the back of a truck, he doesn't get all righteous, but just moves it as needed. He stays below the radar of the cops while still being in touch with the ebb and flow of the neighborhood. However, he gets pulled into a robbery with his brother Freddie, and he spends the next few years tiptoeing around to keep himself on the right side of everyone he needs to be on the right side of. 

I haven't read any of Colson Whitehead's other works, but if this is where I start, I'm looking forward to reading more (I don't know why I didn't start with one of his Pulitzer winning works, but I guess that means things go up from an already enjoyable read). Sometimes you read authors whose writing is just so easy it makes you jealous. That's kind of how I felt about him. Would definitely recommend. 

Next up, back to the lists with Dracula by Bram Stoker. It seemed appropriate to start reading this 2 weeks before Halloween. Amusing side note: when I ordered the book online, I mistakenly chose the version of the book in Spanish. Anyone want to read Dracula en espanol?

Happy reading!

"We Always Seem Old in These Moments, But Not in a Dreary Way. It's Rather Like We're Celebrating Something That Was Hard-Earned. We Were Young Once, and Now We Have All This."

If you're a fan of David Sedaris, you will likely enjoy A Carnival of Snackery. It includes 18 years worth of his journal entries. They consist largely of observations and funny snippets of his extensive travels around the world (to his 4 homes in France, England, NYC, and North Carolina and so much traveling for book readings/signings). But also glimpses into his life when he's just at home between events. He collects jokes from people during his book signings and boy, does he share some gems! 

I've always been a fan of Sedaris since the early 2000s when I first heard him as a contributor on This American Life. It was before podcasts and before websites made so much audio content available, so you really had to catch the program on the radio to enjoy it. And I've of course loved all of his books that I've read. 

However, this one felt different to me. And I'll acknowledge that it's probably mostly a "me thing" and nothing to do with Sedaris as an author. I think maybe I'm just older than I was when I first discovered him, but somehow, reading journal entries back to back to back (and this was only reading a couple a day, mind you) left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth about Sedaris as a person. While he acknowledges his flaws and selfishness on many occasions, it just became a lot by the end. Vanity over his clothing, cynicism for other people's eccentricities, and annoyance at serious matters that inconvenience him. It came across as a crotchety boomer vibe. I appreciate his honesty about who he is, and I get that this is the crux of what makes him so successful as a writer. And many times, the snarky stuff is just used for a punch line to a piece. But I don't know, something about the format of it just being shorter pieces and the volume of them drove this all home over and over again, and I'm not going to lie, I was a bit glad to be done with it. Mostly because I didn't want to have my opinion of a writer who I love tarnished any further. I did enjoy it and I laughed out loud many times, but I recommend it with a bit of caution - it may grate on you by the end. 

Harlem Shuffle still in progress. Hopefully completed soon.   

"It Will Be, At Times, As If It Were Less Hardship to be Sleeping in the Graveyard of Your Native Land, to be Asleep Underneath the Stones That Cover Your Island in the Sea"

The biggest thing I appreciate about the books on my list of 100 great 20th century works of fiction by women is that I come across books that never in a million years would have crossed into my awareness. I get plenty of suggestions from Goodreads and from BookTok, but even then, so many of those novels are current day fiction that are pretty widely popular. So without this list, I never would have come across a gem like Away by Jane Urquhart. 

This book was just wonderful. It had elements of mysticism based in cultural folklore that was written as true that made the characters complicated, and distant, and unique. And it actually reminded me a little bit of the novel Tracks by Louise Erdrich that I also recently read and wrote about. But this time, as opposed to Native American folklore, it was Irish. And the connection of the Irish to the sea/rivers/lakes and to the land.

Mary is a young girl living on a small island in northern Ireland in the 1840s when one day a sailor (and a multitude of cabbages and teapots) from a nearby shipwreck wash ashore. Mary falls madly in love with the man who dies in her arms and from that moment on, is connected with the soul of the sea in inexplicable ways. She ends up marrying a pleasant enough schoolteacher and has children when the potato famine comes to devastate everyone on their island. She and her family emigrate to Canada to start a new life amid an entirely new set of hardships and isolation. Her children Liam and Eileen become the next generation to learn to live off the land and improve their lives, with Eileen carrying a bit of her mother's mystical ways. Grounding the story is Eileen's granddaughter, Esther, living in present day Canada, in the town where her ancestors settled, and still experiencing a bit of the curses that were wrought over time.

This story was so wonderfully told; it felt impossible but real at the same time. The language was rich and interesting. I feel like there are probably many immigrant stories out there and plenty of Irish fiction, but this felt so unique. Maybe I'm just finding that I like a historical fiction to not always be "just the facts ma'am" and have a little bit of something unexplainable to it. That's probably why I like Beloved so much too. I can see that maybe not everyone would have the same reaction as I did to this novel, but give it a shot and maybe you'll find that generational folklore can hold mysteries that are wonderful to read.

Next up is a pause in the book lists to read Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. I've also been making my way through A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris (based on his journal entries from 2003 to 2020, I read a few every morning before I start working to give me a smile and a happier way to start the day). We'll see which one I finish first. 185 to go.  

"The World of Facts is Real, All Right, And Not to be Altered. The Physical is All There, and it Belongs to Science. But Then There is the Noumenal Department, and There We Create and Create and Create."

No lies, I kind of hated Henderson the Rain King. Actually, I didn't hate the book per se, as much as I despised the character of Gene Henderson. And while I can acknowledge that to evoke that kind of response in a reader usually means that the author is doing something right, that doesn't make my reading of the book any more enjoyable. 

He's all ego. Selfish, but self-aware of his selfishness. And while he tries to rectify this and makes (rather excessive) actions to no longer be this person, he continually falls back to being that man. He is oafish, petulant, foolish, and what I found to be incredibly annoying. If I knew this person in real life, I would run far away.

Henderson is a wealthy pig farmer and decorated war vet who is unhappy with his life. He yells at his wife, scares his children, then feels bad about it and tries to make amends (ummm...textbook abuser much??). He gets to the point where he can no longer fight the voices in his head yelling I want, I want, I want, when apparently what he wants is a different life and to seek "truth." So in his rich, narcissistic, white man way, he goes to Africa and journeys into the remotest unknown villages. 

He encounters a tribe that he is certain he can save, because you know, he's a white man savior who knows better than these poor souls, right? But he only manages to bungle things up and destroy their water cistern and make things even worse for them. He flees to the next village where he becomes a close confidant of the learned chief. Large portions of the book are these two men sharing their intellectual conversations and the chief using Henderson. He manipulates him to move a statue that the tribe believes will bring them rain (hence he becomes the rain king) and to help capture a lion who the chief believes is his father. After all is said and done, Henderson returns home and it sure doesn't seem like he has found the truth of life that he so desperately sought. He sure still seems like an obnoxious prick.

I mean, I get it. I get all of the symbolism and philosophical discussions about life and death, etc etc etc. But wrapped up around a despicable character made all of that kind of difficult to even care about. Not a huge fan of this one. Skip it is my vote.

Next up is Away by Jane Urquhart. Happy reading! 

186 to go.    

"What Really Interests Me Is How Two Such Unlike Particles Clung Together, And Under What Strains, Rolling Downhill Into Their Future Until They Reached The Angle Of Repose Where I Knew Them."

Much of what I knew about Angle of Repose was that it was a quintessential story of settling the American West. But I found it kind of fascinating that it was written from the perspective of a woman. An educated, cultured woman at that. I feel like a lot of westerns are cowboy stories. Men fighting men, fighting for land, stealing from each other, and men then fighting men, full circle. 

But not much about this novel falls into that bucket. Lyman Ward is a retired history professor and a divorced amputee who is writing the biography of his grandparents, Susan and Oliver Ward, and trying to find some semblance of self-recognition or identity in uncovering their stories. And boy, do they have some fascinating stories. 

His grandmother Susan was an up-and-coming artist from a fairly well-connected family in New York. And while it was expected of her to marry and become part of society, the husband she chose is Oliver, a mining surveyor/engineer whose job takes him all over the newly developing American West. For the first few years, Susan is unable to join Oliver out in the field where he's working, and once she is finally able to, it couldn't be more of a culture shock for her. Barely passable roads, squalid living conditions, and almost no other women to be found. But with her determined nature, she carves out a world that satisfies her, including sketching the exquisite scenery and life around her and forming close relationships with the other mining engineers and neighbors. But she still is a snob at heart and passes judgement on those who are "less cultured" (with a hearty dose of racism) in spite of everyone working with the bare minimum available to survive. There isn't always harmony between Susan and Oliver, and at one point Susan moves back East while Oliver struggles to make ends meet.  

The setting of Lyman who is pretty much a shut-in, writing her story while living in his grandparents' house, is a nice contrast to those who handle their isolation in very different ways. Lyman reluctantly accepts the assistance from his young neighbor who he develops a kindly, but stubborn friendship with. 

I thought this was a gorgeous novel and I can very much see why it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972. The descriptions and story-telling brought it all to life with such rich visuals, you knew exactly who each of these characters were. But they were all still so complex and rich. And the terrain felt real and dangerous and wild and unsettled, while at the same time beautiful and expansive and amazing. It felt how I imagined the first American settlers of the West felt when the saw it - awed but overwhelmed. If you're looking for a western that isn't your basic shoot-em-up cowboy western, I would highly recommend this one. 

And on next to Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow. I know I read something by Saul Bell0w in high school, but looking at his list of works, I cannot for the life of me remember what I read. I'm pretty sure it's not Henderson the Rain King, but if I get partway through it and have a strong feeling of familiarity, then maybe I'll cut my losses early and move on. 

187 to go!