August has been a big reading month! In less than ten days I spent about 40 hours in the car, so I've gotten through quite a lot. And we have quite a range: a few classics, 2 by the same author, 2 new absolute favourites, and a lot of books from the library! Three cheers for that public service. Here we go:
I had high hopes for Kiley Reid's Such a Fun Age. Everyone raves about it and it deals with such an important topic, but it just falls flat. Some of the dialogue is just ridiculous and there are so many contrived coincidences in the plot that it's almost painful to read. But it is very dramatic and a quick read, and the relationship between Emira and the little girl is sweet. And the prose was decent, so I gave it 3 stars.
Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh was another 3 star read, although I was less disappointed by this one. I've never read her before (I'm leading up to My Year of Rest and Relaxation) and I find her writing style to be very exciting. However, I'm not big on short story collections just because I like to get in deep with storylines and characters. But these were weird and wonderful (if you ignore the unsettling obsession with fat people) and aside from one or two later stories, I enjoyed them all. It just wasn't personal enough for me.
Lily King's Writers & Lovers very quickly became one of my favourite ever novels. You know when you read a book and feel like it was written just for you? I won't go into enormous detail, but several aspects of this (grief you don't know what to do with, feelings of inadequacy, hatred of waitressing, losing touch with friends, etc.) were just too relatable. Plus, it was a beautiful story with beautiful prose that really sucks you in. And I really connected with the main character for all of the aforementioned reasons. I was rooting for her the whole way through. 5 stars!
I'll be honest, it wasn't until the last 100 pages of Engleby by Sebastian Faulks that it raised from 2 to 3 stars. And I know life is too short to spend on books you don't really like, but I am not a quitter. Plus I just had to know what had happened to Jennifer. Even if I had to spend 300 pages in the mind of a boring creep to do so. But the book does have some funny moments to alleviate the pain of all that, and like I said, it really picks up in the last third: after spending weeks reading one chapter every few days, I read 100 pages in one sitting. Which probably alleviated its grade a little.
I loved Valley of the Dolls. It's certainly a cult classic for a reason. And of course, it's insanely melodramatic, but every emotion is so vivid that it's a devastating novel. And it starts out so hopeful that I pretended I hadn't read the blurb for most of the story until I couldn't ignore it anymore. I think that the moral of the tale is that men suck! I was so attached to Anne and she gave so much to so many other characters - and that was what she got for it? Of course, some storylines were ridiculous, but that made it all the more fun. This was the perfect read for a four hour car journey. And it has such interesting insights into the industry during that era; glad to know it's always been terrible. This gets 4 stars: I will be thinking about this for a long time, but the ending was so infuriating I can't bring myself to give it 5.
Once again, I conquered a 600 page book (or near enough). For reasons that can only be insanity, I checked Villette by Charlotte Bronte out of the library. Mainly because it sounded like a French-set Jane Eyre, which I loved. And it was a challenging read: I had to really focus on every single world in order to understand the story. But it was very interesting, a lot more suffocating than Jane Eyre, and a lot more introspective. Lucy Snowe is our protagonist and she is very alone; she is surrounded by people and she watches humanity with all its flaws. It is very slow because she doesn't do much else but I enjoyed it. 4 stars.
I had very high hopes for Caroline O'Donoghue's Scenes of a Graphic Nature because it seemed so specific to me: a girl with an Irish father but no connection of her own to the country (me) goes to visit and ends up embroiled in a murder mystery (my favourite genre of books). And I'm not saying it was disappointing, it wasn't- it was a hoot- but I did actually prefer her debut novel Promising Young Women. Although the actual mystery was fascinating, the way Charlie reached an answer was ridiculous, and the actions of quite a few characters were as well. But 4 stars because I had fun reading this.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang got 3 stars from me. I understand how it works as an allegory, but I couldn't connect with it as a story. The idea of everyone around Yeong-Hye narrating her life except herself is a good one, especially in regards to the male gaze, but it made me feel disconnected from her as a character. All of her actions are separated from us by a dreamlike sheen and at points, the novel gets a little too indulgent in the male gaze for my tastes. But the narrative is interesting in its progression so I understand why so many people rave about it.
My introduction to Joan Didion: The White Album. And what an introduction it was! Even though contemporary issues of the 1960s are not of too much interest to me, Didion has such a way with words that you suddenly find yourself dying to know about orchards in California. I enjoyed Georgia O'Keefe, In Bogota and Quiet Days in Malibu the most, just because they were actually on subjects I could connect to but the whole book was an enjoyable time. I've put half the rest of her catalogue on hold at the library and I'm excited to get to them.
Death in Her Hands, another Moshfegh novel, was a tiny bit too meta for me. I like a murder mystery that is juicy and definitely taking place on our plane of reality. This is neither of those things; most of the detective work is just Vera making things up and stalking around. But it's definitely intriguing and the ending is an interesting choice. Plus I'm pretty sure (although as I haven't read it, I could be chatting rubbish) she takes a dig at how Eileen came into existence when she mocks the online tips for writing a murder mystery. 3 stars from me.
Then I read the champion of teen angst literature, J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. And it was fun. Holden Cauldfield is a massive arsehole but he doesn't half have some adventures. I have no idea why half of these people actually showed up for him, but I guess it wouldn't be much of a book if they didn't. Now, I love any media that makes fun of private schools so I did like this. And I actually did, I confess, find Holden's relationship with his sister quite sweet. This is a good book: 4 stars. I love a good character study.
I've already written a personal review of White Oleander by Janet Fitch in my diary because it was another novel that I was so deeply affected by, so I probably won't say loads in this writeup, but just know that I really loved that book. The setting was alive, the characters were unforgettable, and the story was one of the best coming-of-age narratives I've read. As in, it was actually interesting. The concept of Ingrid was too: the idea of a woman whose entire live is run by aesthetics and who refuses to see the consequences of this for everyone around her. I was terrified of her, but she was a great character. And Astrid, my sweet girl: she is a blank canvas in the best way possible, formed in some way by everyone that she comes across. Please read this, 5 stars. And watch the film too, it was pretty great/
And in true easily-influenced Gen-Z girl fashion, I picked up some Eve Babitz. And safe to say, I really had fun with it. L. A. Woman is a charming romp through 1960s America, following Sophie who is a real rambler (I couldn't follow the timeline at any point) but also very sweet. And she's living the dream, truly, just running around Hollywood having adventures and being creative. Although this book is just a stream-of-consciousness peek into a dreamscape, it actually has some important messages. Sophie embodies the idea that it is perfectly fine not to have everything (or even anything) figured out in your twenties. A golden little novel.
On my quest to read all of Jane Austen's novels this year, I finally got round to Pride & Prejudice! And I can't believe it's taken me so long to read such a staple of classic literature - I've been missing out. I gave this 5 stars. It's honestly delightful: my favourite part is when Lizzy is just wandering around assigning random thoughts and feelings to people that she hardly knows. And the relationship between her and Mr Darcy was just so sweet. There was so much drama in this for a story that took place in 19th century English countryside. Loved it!
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