Whenever I stand in front of my bookcases thinking 'I have nothing to read', I feel a bit like one of those stereotypical women who have tried out a dozen outfits and decide that they have 'nothing to wear'. I have over 200 books in my house, surely, I have more than enough to read? The point is, of course, that I don't have the book that I want to/need to read right at that moment. About once or twice a year I get into a weird mood, book-wise; a mood in which I just cannot find the book that fits. Usually, I then reread novels I have already read. Getting started in a new book would only spoil the new book because I will invariably not 'get into it', and throw it aside after a couple of chapters. Rereading familiar stories is a safer bet.
After finishing The Sellout, which put me in a bit of a gloomy mood, I was looking for something lighthearted. Interestingly, I do not own many lighthearted novels. Even the ones that I do have, such as the Jasper Fforde novels, or anything by David Nicholls, have a serious literary undertone. I usually take to rereading Bridget Jones's Diary, but the new film has put me somewhat off. So my safest bet was Nick Hornby.
I love almost everything Nick Hornby has written, be it novels, short stories, reviews, or screenplays. You have probably seen a movie adaptation of one of his novels (High Fidelity or About a Boy) or one of the films he actually wrote (An Education, Wild, Brooklyn). I own all of his novels with the exception of How to be Good, for reasons I cannot explain. This time, I settled on Juliet, Naked.
Now I mentioned that I was looking for something lighthearted, and Nick Hornby may not be the first person that comes to mind. Almost all of his novels are populated by characters that are lonely, suicidal, depressed, and generally unsure what direction their life is supposed to take (A Long Way Down, one of my other favourites, is a good example: four people meet at the top of a building because they all planned to commit suicide by jumping off it). So why call it lighthearted? Because he brings these subjects with a funny note, not ha-ha funny but with a lightness and an irony that cannot help but bring a smile to your face. His novels deal with very heavy subjects, but they do not feel heavy, they feel light and manageable.
Juliet, Naked centers around Duncan and Annie, a couple in their late thirties living in a small seaside town in the north of England. Duncan is a great fan of Tucker Crowe, a has-been singer from the eighties who has mysteriously disappeared after his last album, Juliet. Annie is not that big of a fan, but for the past fifteen years she has let herself being dragged along in Duncan's obsession. However, when Tucker suddenly releases a new album, Juliet, Naked, their opinions clash and they both have to reconsider what it is they want out of life. Needless to say, things don't end that well between them. Breaking up a fifteen year relationship because of a music album? This is all very real in a Nick Hornby novel.
However, the Duncan/Annie story is just half of the novel. The other half is about Tucker himself. And this is where the novel got a bit more personal than Nick Hornby's other novels. Tucker, by now, is in his late fifties, no longer an alcoholic, no longer an artist, and basically living off the latest wife that thinks she will be able to sort him out and put him back to rights. He has a six year old son, who is constantly worried that his father will suddenly drop dead on him. This existential angst somehow creeps into Tucker's mind too, especially when more and more of his forgotten children try to find their way back into his life. Tucker Crowe is by far the oldest main character a Nick Hornby novel has ever had, and the whole feeling of 'my youth is now truly over' permeates throughout the novel. When he wrote it, he was nowhere near sixty, but he is advancing upon that age pretty quickly now. The Tucker Crowe storyline felt, upon rereading, as one of his most realistic and heartfelt in all of his novels.
So did I get my lighthearted distraction novel? In a way, yes. But somehow, the 'I don't know what I want to read' mood hasn't been lifted, so I will continue to reread until I find myself looking for something new. I may end up diving into The Hunger Games or Harry Potter just to snap out of it, but for now I'll stick to one of my favourite David Mitchells. Desperate times...
Sunday 12 February 2017
Monday 6 February 2017
The Sellout
I don't read a lot of American novels. This is not a genuine hardline decision or anything, it just happens to be that almost all of my favourite authors are British writers. This is probably a style thing, or maybe a culture thing. When I took American literature classes in university, I was told the early American writers tried to radically break away from the British style of writing to create their own cultural legacy (same is true for theatre, painting, music, etc). And while reading something, I usually have a pretty good idea whether the author is a Brit or an American (in my opinion: too much show, not enough tell). And 'American' doesn't mean I'll automatically dislike it; I have read some American classics that I liked, and Richard Yates is one of my favourite authors. But to be honest, I never would have read The Sellout if it wouldn't have been the first American novel to win the Man Booker Prize. I always read the Man Booker Prize winner, so I simply had to read this novel too.
The Sellout was written by Paul Beatty, as he said in interviews, because "he was broke". This is probably meant satirically, as every scrap of text I've ever read about The Sellout mentioned the word 'satire' in one of the first three lines. However, I didn't really get all of the satire. Or in other words; I found this book to be more dark and sad than satirical, probably because I don't live in the US and missed a lot of the cultural references. But to me, it felt like a seriously dark novel, with a dark message.
So what is it about? In the prologue we meet the protagonist, who faces trial in the Supreme Court because he has been keeping a black man as a slave. The 'satirical' part of this is that the protagonist himself is also a black man. And that his father has been indoctrinating him on black history and black rights all his life, and that he has been 'resegragating' his hometown of Dickens (and keeping the slave) to enforce black rights. This is basically what the novel deals with; a black man, living on a farm in the middle of a city, resegragating busses and schools and painting a white line around where his hometown used to be to make everything better for everyone. Sounds like a tragic hero to me, but apparently, it was all meant to be satirical. I don't think I had one proper laugh while reading this novel, I just felt sorry for almost every single character in it, but most of all for the protagonist.
Some reviewers have compared Beatty to Mark Twain, but that must just be because of the racial thing, because Mark Twain's writing had a sharpness and a wit to it that I failed to see in The Sellout. But again; maybe I'm just missing a lot of cultural references and subtext an American reader would get.
It's funny, I've visited the US twice now, and the thing that struck me most both times is how different it is from Europe. When I visited China or Jordan or Mozambique, I noticed the similarities, the things that connect us, even though our cultures are so very different. In the US, where you somehow expect things to be very similar, it's the differences that stand out. I think I can group The Sellout with those differences; this is a novel I as a European don't understand in the way an American would. And that is probably why I didn't like it very much. This was only the second novel I've read this year, and it took me a really long time to get through. Not because the reading was hard or because the subject matter was so heavy, but because it didn't grip me. I couldn't really be bothered to find out what would happen next. And that must be a death sentence to any good story.
For the first American novel to win the Man Booker it is an apt choice, because this is by far the most 'American' American novel I've read in a long time. But in a way, that made it less like a Man Booker winner to me.
The Sellout was written by Paul Beatty, as he said in interviews, because "he was broke". This is probably meant satirically, as every scrap of text I've ever read about The Sellout mentioned the word 'satire' in one of the first three lines. However, I didn't really get all of the satire. Or in other words; I found this book to be more dark and sad than satirical, probably because I don't live in the US and missed a lot of the cultural references. But to me, it felt like a seriously dark novel, with a dark message.
So what is it about? In the prologue we meet the protagonist, who faces trial in the Supreme Court because he has been keeping a black man as a slave. The 'satirical' part of this is that the protagonist himself is also a black man. And that his father has been indoctrinating him on black history and black rights all his life, and that he has been 'resegragating' his hometown of Dickens (and keeping the slave) to enforce black rights. This is basically what the novel deals with; a black man, living on a farm in the middle of a city, resegragating busses and schools and painting a white line around where his hometown used to be to make everything better for everyone. Sounds like a tragic hero to me, but apparently, it was all meant to be satirical. I don't think I had one proper laugh while reading this novel, I just felt sorry for almost every single character in it, but most of all for the protagonist.
Some reviewers have compared Beatty to Mark Twain, but that must just be because of the racial thing, because Mark Twain's writing had a sharpness and a wit to it that I failed to see in The Sellout. But again; maybe I'm just missing a lot of cultural references and subtext an American reader would get.
It's funny, I've visited the US twice now, and the thing that struck me most both times is how different it is from Europe. When I visited China or Jordan or Mozambique, I noticed the similarities, the things that connect us, even though our cultures are so very different. In the US, where you somehow expect things to be very similar, it's the differences that stand out. I think I can group The Sellout with those differences; this is a novel I as a European don't understand in the way an American would. And that is probably why I didn't like it very much. This was only the second novel I've read this year, and it took me a really long time to get through. Not because the reading was hard or because the subject matter was so heavy, but because it didn't grip me. I couldn't really be bothered to find out what would happen next. And that must be a death sentence to any good story.
For the first American novel to win the Man Booker it is an apt choice, because this is by far the most 'American' American novel I've read in a long time. But in a way, that made it less like a Man Booker winner to me.
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