Reviews: Book Log for 2008 and 2009 – 2666

I have been trying to keep track of all the books I read, even try to review them occasionally Facebook. Unfortunately, my little bookshelf application on Facebook keeps annoying me with popups and glitches, so I thought I would just record my recent reads list here, starting with the end of last year. I think I will try to do this every year.

2008

1. Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin: B-
2. The Blue Place by Nicola Griffith: A-
3. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning by John Mahler: B
4. Persepolis I and II by Marjane Satrapi: A+
5. After Dark by Haruki Murakami: B-
6. Cover Me by Mariko Tamaki: B
7. The Devil’s Cup by Asshole McAsshole: F
8. Two Ends of Sleep by Lizard Jones: A
9. The Glass Cell by Patricia Highsmith: B
10. After Dolores by Sarah Schulman: A
11. Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil, Gillian McCain: A+++
12. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami: B
13. Slow River by Nicola Griffith: A
14. Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood: A+
15. Godspeed by Lynn Breedlove: B (But the first ten pages are, like, A. Too bad she couldn’t sustain the style.
16. The Corner by David Simon: A- (It had issues and some sketchy decision making, but it was too engaging to blow off.)
17. The Chelsea Whistle by Michelle Tea: B+
18. People in Trouble by Sarah Schulman: B
19. Beebo Brinker by Ann Bannon: B (Clearly this is the section of the year where I was raiding Stark’s lesbian fiction collection)
20. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters: A-
21. Tea by Stacey D’Erasmo: B-
22. Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs: D- (This book was so profoundly disappointing. Ugh.)
23. The Code Book by Simon Singh: A
24. Every Contact Leaves A Trace by Connie Fletcher: A

2009

1. Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury: Unfinished.
2. From the Velvets to the Voidoids by Clinton Heylin: Unfinished, but let’s give it an F for pretension.
3. The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel: A+
4. Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino: B
5. Master & Commander by Patrick O’Brien: A-
6. World War Z by Max Brooks: A
7. Homicide by David Simon: B (Having read The Corner first, it’s impressive to see how much Simon’s writing has improved. It’s amazing how many stories appeared almost exactly in Homicide.)
8. 2666 by Robert Bolano: Oh dear…. where to begin with this?

Has anyone else read 2666? Because I would love to discuss it with someone. Someone who is not a pretentious lit critic, who are really only interested in sucking Bolano’s deceased cock. I read this book because my friend D, whose opinion I respect greatly, is a fan of the author, and also, because it came in this beautiful three part boxed set, and I am a sucker for good book design.

This book was intense. I should probably say “these five books were intense,” because it actually was intended to be five individual novels. I was enraptured by the first part, confused by the second, baffled by the third, sickened by the fourth, and then re-enraptured by the fifth. What is it about? Um… everything. Violence, love, death, hate, racism, sexism, genocide, globalization, exploitation, intellectualism, literature, war, immortality and the futility of trying to control your own posterity, all in just under a thousand pages. Like pretty much every book I read by Serious Male Authors recently, it also includes the requisite giant cock vignette. But, giant cocks aside, this book actually is one of the most honest depictions of worldwide misogyny that I have ever read. It doesn’t try to put the blame on one man, or a group of men, in order to forgive all the other guys who “really aren’t like that, we swear.” It doesn’t try to shift the blame onto the women, blaming their violent end on the fact that they were whores or teases or walked down a dark alley in a short skirt. It bluntly depicts the world as it really is – a place where terrible violence against women can be committed over and over with impunity for the simple reason that a woman’s life is worth nothing.

Let me tell you, the month I spent reading this book was a pleasant one.

So anyway, I won’t go into more than that because I don’t want to spoil anyone on the story, in case I’ve just sold you on the idea of reading the book with that heartwarming description. But, if anyone has read the book, I would really appreciate some incite into The Part About Amalfitano and The Part About Fate. It makes me feel better to know that even the translator remains confused about certain aspects of this book. I feel like I just sat down and read it over again, it would really make complete and total sense. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time or the energy to reread a book about the mass murder of women. So I am going to read a Nicola Griffith novel instead… Oh, Aud….