What with all the rest and relaxation and not having to go to work, I’ve torn through a couple books in the past week or so.
On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
I’d been wandering through this book since mid-November, but right before Christmas I realized that if I wanted to lend it to my friend visiting after Christmas, I needed to knuckle down. So knuckle down I did, leaving the Boy in bed alone one night while I stayed up reading.
I haven’t read anything else by Smith, but I was anxious to read this one first, having heard some criticism of White Teeth being “too postmodern.” Not that I have a problem with postmodernism, but it’s doesn’t generally lead to effective elliptical reading.
On Beauty was much more accessible. It’s the story of a family over the course of about a year. The children are in the teenage to college range of age, and the father recently had an affair. They interact with one another and fight and love and have problems and have epiphanies. But in the end there is no actual resolution spelled out for the reader, one has to assume that the fighting and loving and problems and epiphanies lead to a solution beyond the pages of the book. (Or if you’re me, you don’t have to assume that, as I very firmly believe that fictional characters are done when the book is done. I have little imagination beyond what the author spells out for me. And this has caused many an argument with my friend who would like very much to belive Chandler and Monica have a child by now, but anyhow…)
Smith writing is beautiful, her treatment of her characters is a fair balance of flaws and virtues. I have no complaints.
Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster
After Zadie Smith, I wanted something a little lighter, something that would not take a month to read. Bitter took about 3 days, one of which didn’t really involve reading.
Initially I was turned off by the writing style. As a memoir, the main character and the author are one and the same, and this one was shallow and irritating. However, having read the back of the book (and Jen’s blog) and knowing the general path the book would take, I suspected the tone would change as the character did.
It didn’t really. There was brandname dropping throughout. There was self-centeredness throughout. There was a general lack of substance throughout.
I maybe should have suspected this when I read Jessica Cutler’s glowing accolades on the back cover. I felt very similarly about this book as I did about Cutler’s… so much potential, so little substance.
Through the fluff and insubstantiality, there was a story of someone who worked very hard to save her lifestyle, as well as that of her husband (whom she obviously cares about greatly and in a self-sacrificing way) and two dogs, and learned something along the way. However, I must say, I have nothing but the greatest admiration for someone who takes on responsibility for two canine lives when it fully represents a large blow to their own lifestyle.
Like Cutler’s book, I guess it just wasn’t my style.
A Spot of Bother, by Mark Haddon
The Boy bought me this book shortly before my birthday simply because he was in Borders, saw it, and thought it would appeal to me. And that is so terribly sweet. I tried to pick it up when I was still plodding through On Beauty, but saw immediatly what a mental disaster that would be, as they are very similar books. This is also a snapshot glimpse into the life of a single family. The children are older and the wife is having the affair, but it all breaks down to the same style of story.
However, where On Beauty focused on the relationship of the family members, Bother took a broader stance and examined more types of relationships. Haddon’s scope covered (and well) every possible permutation of husband/wife/lover/single-mother daughter/gay son/significant others of son and daughter. Additionally, the husband and son characters spent a lot of time examining their relationships with themselves and who they wanted to be. It was complex.
Haddon’s writing, though, is so straightfoward and the plot was actual quite simple. Each short chapter moved to a different character’s perspective, although all in the third person. Sometimes the characters did rather unbelievable things, but since you were pretty much in their head, nothing ever felt implausible or unexplained.
Again, I have no complaints. I really enjoyed this book.
I read White Teeth several years ago and really liked it. I’m not sure I remember why it would be called “too postmodern.”