Light Years - James Salter

James Salter's prose are like the early waking hours where you are caught between reality and the oscillating waves of your dreams, his writing style is sparse and pared down, a precision and mastery of language.

Reading Light Years was like being a fly on the wall, watching as the spider of fate and destiny spins her web, entrapping the protagonists one after another in her silken threads. As they pursue their lives, their dreams, while they search for their identities, slowly the chords are wrapped tighter and tighter, each one falling into the same trap, the promise of love and the hope of being truly understood.

The story of Viri and Nedra is one of a families growth and dissolution. It is filled with the intimacies of everyday life, the relationship with objects, the sounds of movement, the sacred rites of sharing a meal. It is a novel about relationship, like Anna Karenina only from the perspective of Vronsky, a man who spends his life seeking the counterpart of his soul, whose unhappiness is tangible... "He was self-indulgent, a failure. He had not abandoned failure; it was his address, his street, his one comfort. His life was one of intimacy and betrayal. Of himself he wrote: extravagant, false. He was impractical, moody, a deviate. He suffered and loved like a woman; he remembered the weather and the menu in restaurants, hours that were like a broken necklace in a drawer."

Viri watches Ibsen's The Master Builder and see's himself. The portrait of a failed architect begging his mistress not to leave him makes him sick and yet doesn't call forth change. He leaves the theater and continues his pilgrimage of inefficacy and failure, knowing in his bones that "One of the last great realizations of life is that it will not be what you dreamed."

Nedra is married to a man that can give her everything except what she wants, wealth. Although they live in an upper-class world, where she reigns supreme at dinner parties, the men wanting to be near her, the women wanting to share their intimacies, her marriage has become a prison of which she can only dream of escape.  Although Nedra demands change and eventually flees the confines of her cell she never truly grasps what she's looking for. She has no wealth but is ultimately free. 

The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon

Thomas Pynchon (1937-)

I basically had no idea what was going on throughout the entirety of this book...somewhat like the protagonist Oedipa Mass.

Oedipa becomes an executor of the will of a one time lover and finds herself lost within a web of mystery that seems to involve the unearthing of a centuries-old conflict between rival mail distribution outfits. There is a secret symbol that keeps appearing and leading her further into the bowels of the mystery only to finally reveal its never ending depth. Is everyone she's ever met a part of the intrigue? Is it all a practical joke? As she makes her way from one lead to the next she leaves a trail of missing links behind her, while slowly the men she comes in contact with either take their own lives or spontaneously go insane leaving her more and more isolated with no one to turn to and no answers for her endless questions.

This book has been described as a great example of postmodern writing and I picked up on that pretty quickly. There is no real concept of truth, rather its searching for truth or meaning in the rubble of endless interpretation and infinite possibility. The book ends without closure leaving the reader to determine Oedipa's truth for her. Was it all just a practical joke or as the curtain closes do we envision her on the cusp of enlightenment?

Thank god this book was only a 180 pages. Unfortunately there are another 2 Pynchon books left on the canon...so I might need to spread them out to one every 5 years or so. Pynchon is not my favorite author by a long shot, again like Oedipa, I felt like someone was playing a practical joke on me. His writing style is brisk and staccato. No poetry. No terrifically executed sentences. Just incredibly hard to follow mazes of text, with plays within plays and references within references.

The Gormenghast Trilogy - Mervyn Peake

Mervyn Peake (1911-1968)

So after trying to read Clarissa for a million years, I decided for now to throw in the towel and turn to a book that seemed like it might have a plot. Plots these days are a little much to hope for I think.

The Gormenghast trilogy is a set of fantasy novels that revolve around a remote and reclusive earldom filled with bazaar characters and outrageous happenings. The basic plot of the three books is the growth and development of Titus Groan, the 77th Earl and heir to the Gormenghast world. He is not thrilled by the prospect of living out his life day by day through the archaic rituals that have come to define Gormenghast. The rituals proceed life and Titus feels trapped and chained to a world that seems to have nothing to offer beyond endless stone corridors that open into decrepit rooms devoid of life, adventure and meaning. He envies the free and slowly plots his escape...only to realize that for him the only real option is Gormenghast.

The plot rather than linear, swirls around the many characters in almost a Dickinson sort of way, they make their entrances and exits with the plot occasionally surfacing from the shadows of their interactions.

Withdrawn and ruinous it broods in umbra: the immemorial masonry: the towers, the tracks. Is all corroding? No. Through an avenue of spires a zephyr floats; a bird whistles; a freshet bears away from a choked river. Deep in a fist of stone a doll's hand wriggle, ward rebellious on the frozen palm. A shadow shifts its length. A spider stirs....and darkness between the characters.

- Gormenghast 

He only knows that he has left behind him, on the far side of the skyline, something inordinate; something brutal; something tender; something half real; something half dream; his half heart; half of himself....

- Titus Alone

Clarissa - Samuel Richardson

So I'm 200 pages in, with another 1,300 to go and I have a feeling this is going to be just as painful as I imagined. To give myself goals and benchmarks I decided to check in every 200 pages or so and give a brief summary, while I eat copious amounts of chocolate as a reward.

So basically, there's a rumor regarding some foul play and unjust treatment of a suitor circulating about the Harlowe family. Anna Howe decides to get to the bottom of these rumors and so begins the longest correspondence in history. It seems there has been a suitor of Clarissa's older sister, but she rejected him and after a nanosecond during which he caught a glimpse of Clarissa, he decided that actually Clarissa was the better deal after all, much to the chagrin of the older sister. Clarissa thinks this guy, Mr. Lovelace, is a bit of a rake and having much higher matrimonial ambitions for herself, puts him off and except for the original encouragement of the family would have nothing further to do with him. But Mr. Lovelace's continual courtship of Clarissa is too much to bear for the older sister, who drags the older brother into the matter challenging Mr. Lovelace to a duel and forever sullying Mr. Lovelace presence and ambitions toward the Harlowe family. (Side note: Mr. Lovelace is a rake and a no-good womanizer...)

The family somehow instead finds what they deem to be a suitable match for Clarissa, a Mr. Solmes, who is completely and utterly repugnant to Clarissa. She has begged confinement to a nunnery or certain death over any union with Mr. Solmes, who nevertheless doggedly/lethargically pursues her. How can one be both dogged and lethargic? Well despite constant, never-ending refusals he waits in the guest room unperturbed as the linen for Clarissa's trousseau is procured. Yet, the family does all of the intense courtship, which involves imprisonment in her room, seizure of all correspondence and a never ending stream of family disapproval and disavowal unless she concedes to their will. 

Finally after resisting Mr. Lovelace for 200 pages...it seems like he is looking like her best option. If she is still banished to her room 200 pages from now writing letters secretly to her dear friend Miss. Howe...I think I might have a break down. This book could use a little more action and a little less endless discussion. 

Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady - Fanny Burney

Evelina is a young woman, well educated yet sheltered from the ways of the world. She is raised in rural seclusion, the unacknowledged but legitimate daughter of a dissipated English aristocrat. When she is seventeen she is allowed to spend time in London and there quickly finds herself immersed in the world of the English aristocracy, frequenting balls, becoming familiar with lords and visiting all the fashionable establishments. When her poor cousins insist on her spending time with them she is then exposed to a completely different world occupying the same topography but further away from her previous existence than a foreign country. This leads to some humorous moments (it seems there were more prostitutes wandering the Covey gardens then I had previously thought, something Jane Austin never mentions.)

Told through a series of letters, this book was much better than I was anticipating. Evelina seemed like an adorable younger sister that still has a lot of growing up to do, but her faults are from inexperience rather from lack of trying. She is altogether too malleable and could have done with a little more backbone on occasion, but all in all she was a worthy protagonist. I think if anything the moments of "satire" were a little too much. In this sense Evelina was a foil for the satire to take place around her while she went about her business of being a reliable, estimable heroine. The satire, I guess, was most evident in a couple characters never ending desire to make fun of the aristocracy with endless jokes, pranks and melodrama. I could have done with a bit less/none of it...

 After my second book now told through the exchange of letters maybe I'll finally be brave enough to attempt Clarissa (all million, zillion pages of it.) 

Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad

Lord Jim is a young shipmate aboard the Patna, in a moment of terror and confusion he abandons his ship and all it's passengers along  with the ship captain and a few other crew members. They assume the ship has hit something along it's bottom tearing open a wound in the hull and while the passengers, unaware of the danger continue to peacefully sleep, the terror and the immediacy of the situation causes the crew to panic and run for their lives. As they pull away from the boat a heavy mist rolls in and for a moment there is complete silence. The boat has sunk and the reality of the situation slowly begins to dawn on them.

Only the boat hasn't sunk...it somehow manages to limp into port and Jim is left with tangible evidence of his cowardice. To leave your ship is an unpardonable sin, but psychologically it is not a rule or regulation that strips Jim of his dignity it is his own base humanity that chose flight over honor. Jim is haunted by this one pivotal moment in his life and spends the rest of his life running from the memory of his sin. From port to port he takes jobs far beneath is competency in order to hide in their anonymity. 

This book had all the makings of a great book. I was expecting a page turner, a cliff hanger a suspense-on-the-edge-of-your-seat-not-breaking-to-pee kind of book....instead I felt like I was inside the movie Inception...only instead of dreams within dreams, I was lost within overlaying narratives. So Marlow is telling Jim's story, but occasionally the person listening to the story pipes in and says something and occasionally Marlow pulls the narrative along through interpreting letters or relaying overheard conversations. All of which serve to make the story slightly separated from the reader. This is an INTENSE story! Anyone can relate to this whether or not we have faced our cowardice or not there is always the potential that we are cowards. No one can know truly if one is actually a coward or not unless they have been put in a snap judgement situation between honor and cowardice. I would like to think I would choose honor...but it's raining (and we know how I am about a little weather) it's slick and slippery. It's late at night. You work with a bunch of people you probably hate so there isn't much solidarity...and then there's a crash. The boat rocks and sways. As Jim does, you quickly calculate the amount of passengers on the boat and the amount of life rafts...someone calls your name and through the darkness you are faced with life if you go or certain death if you stay...anyway...my point is I never really felt intimate with Jim for the rest of the story. I shared one moment that hung in the air....and waited for the next to begin but it was constantly shrouded in endless soliloquies and third party narrative. 

I liked Heart of Darkness WAY better...but for some reason that wasn't on the list. Harold Bloom...one of these days we need to have a conversation.

Pamela, Or Virtue Rewarded - Samuel Richardson

So I was a little nervous about reading a book entirely composed of letters, but the narrative style actually grew on me. It was sort of like finding a friends journal and secretly reading it under the bed...until 200 pages in...when it became more like reading a script a friend wrote in front of them and wanting to stop but every time you look up there they are sitting and staring at you full of expectation.

Pamela, is a Lady's maid and after the unfortunate lady passes away, is forced to reevaluate her position with the family. The rowdy, libertine son set his eye on her and not used to being withheld from his desires, his flirtations become more and more aggressive. As she begs to be allowed to return to her poor family, he keeps her in a state of limbo, fear and trepidation. A true villain!

Finally, after attempting to sully her virtue on many occasions, he send her off...but not to her family as she presumes...but to another form of entrapment where she is kept a prisoner for days, waiting his imminent arrival. As she pines for her freedom, her parents and her reputation she plans one failed escape after another and finally weak and distraught, with fear surrenders herself to her fate, after one attempt leaves her bruised and left in a crumple in the coal pile.

Her master comes, and after many an insinuation of his lack of honor...randomly has a major unprecedented moment of character development and goes from villain to hero in a matter of pages. From that point on (and it's another 300 pages) the book lacks the intrigue and excitement and instead reads like awkward loves letters.