"Merry Christmas to Me!" this year was a MoMa membership and a ton of books. I usually look at lists posted here and there to get an idea of what's new and great. Not the best seller list - no judgement, but I seem to prefer books not on that list. And, thanks to Google, I stumbled upon the Man Booker List. It looked like an intriguing group of books, most I hadn't heard of. Ta-dah - New goal for the year is to read all of 2008's list. Why 2008 instead of 2009? 2008's list is cheaper.
The first foray is A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz. Critics compared Toltz's first novel to A Confederacy of Dunces - a book I have mixed feelings about. I can't stand Ignatius J. Reilly, and I am constantly disgusted while reading about his antics, and his valve problems. At the same time, I loved reading about those same antics, valve problems and all, and couldn't put the damn book down. It's an amazingly well written novel that brings joy & disgust all at the same time. So I figured AFotW would at the least be intriguing and, hopefully, well written.
It was! It is! I enjoyed the story but the writing is what makes this book. The sentences, the concepts strung together are awesome. I can't wait to read the rest of the Man Booker list, and feel like I've stumbled upon a plethera of potentially amazing books - yay! Below are my favorite quotes from AFotW:
- The moment seemed endless, but it was probably only half that.
- As I passed through the gates, the blistered hands of nostalgia gave my heart a good squeeze and I realized you miss shit times as well as good times, because at the end of the day what you're really missing is just time itself.
- No, why air every ugly, negative, loopy, idiotic thought that floats through the head? That's why when you're standing by the harbor, and your lover says, in a tender embrace, "What are you thinking about?" you don't respond, "That I hate people and I wish they'd fall down and never get up." I'm telling you. You just can't say it. I don't know much about women, but I do know that.
- The interior of the Sydney casino looks as if Vegas had an illegitimate child with Liberace's underpants, and that child fell down a staircase and hit its head on the edge of a spade.
- "Because you're like a son to me" "No, I'm not. We're more like distant cousins secretly checking each other out."
- I'd already made two attempts at seeing her, and both times I'd come off looking pathetic. The first time I returned a bra that belonged to her that she'd left in my hut, and the second time I returned a bra belonging to her that I'd actually bought that morning in a department store.
- Occasionally we gave each other looks that said, "Things are out of our hands but we have to do something, and this knowing look is it."
- Your father doesn't know how to cuddle, that's all. He only uses one arm!"
- His worldview seemd to be something like "This place sucks. Let's refurbish."
- Or about how if you listen closely, you discover that people aren't really ever FOR something but instead are just opposed to its opposite.
