Read Any Good Books Lately?
Right now I'm reading through two collections of Flannery O'Connor's short stories. I'd read her first novel Wise Blood and didn't much care for it, but I'm finding her shorter works to be much better.
An interesting similarity I've noticed between her works and those of other prominent Catholic writers like Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh -- they all seem to write about the most thoroughly unpleasant characters and give them some kind of grace and dignity that you wouldn't expect them to have.
I'm also reading False Impression by Jeffrey Archer -- a thriller about shady dealings in the world of impressionist art (although I think the Van Gogh painting at the center of it all is actually post-impressionist). It's entertaining and fun, if generally predictable so far.
An interesting similarity I've noticed between her works and those of other prominent Catholic writers like Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh -- they all seem to write about the most thoroughly unpleasant characters and give them some kind of grace and dignity that you wouldn't expect them to have.
I'm also reading False Impression by Jeffrey Archer -- a thriller about shady dealings in the world of impressionist art (although I think the Van Gogh painting at the center of it all is actually post-impressionist). It's entertaining and fun, if generally predictable so far.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bethany B. on -
Yeah, Wise Blood was a "difficult" (but long-remembered) novel for me, though I've enjoyed several of O'Connor's short stories.
My favorite reading lately has probably been Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson and The End of the Affair by Graham Greene (surprise, surprise).
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Permalink Reply by Josh McDonald on -
I think what most kept me from enjoying Wise Blood was the main character -- I just didn't like him. Not that I'm usually one who has to like the main character to enjoy a book (when has Greene ever had a likable main character?) and I do enjoy O'Connor's short stories, mostly with characters no more likable than Hazel Motes. So I'm not sure what it was about him, but I just couldn't get into the story.
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Permalink Reply by Josh McDonald on
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Just finished Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, and loved it. Very fun ... heavily steeped in ancient mythology and folklore (which I love) and the voice is very light and funny throughout -- like Douglas Adams, with more plot.
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Permalink Reply by Bethany B. on
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I don't know. I seem to like Greene's characters (so far) a lot more than O'Connor's, but I don't mind hanging out with O'Connor's characters for the length of a short story. Maybe O'Connor's characters seem more rigid to me?
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Permalink Reply by Josh McDonald on
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Bethany B. said:Maybe O'Connor's characters seem more rigid to me?
That's a good point ... her characters do tend to have a harder edge to them.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that she lived her life so fully immersed in the culture she wrote about? Greene, by contrast -- ever the journalist -- tended to write more from an outsider's perspective.
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Permalink Reply by Josh McDonald on
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Right now I'm reading Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It's a really fascinating examination of the modern American food industry.
So far it's pretty much reinforced my overall belief that our consumer-driven economy is just a bad idea altogether and we should be seriously looking for better alternatives.
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