Pethricks

You Shall Know Our Velocity | Dave Eggers

I’ve heard a lot about Dave Eggers via the NYT Book Review and the like and so was pleased to find this novel in the stacks at the Stratford Library.

I’ll be honest with you, after the first couple of hundred pages or so, it was pretty hard going. Not that struggling with a book is not an enjoyable nor worthwhile pursuit, but after all is said and done, you expect a little bit of reward for hanging in there and I’m afraid, I was left wanting a little more payoff when I turned the last page of this one.

There’s no doubting Eggers’ writing chops, it’s just that, like many talented folks, these are best employed with discretion to provide readers like myself, with a bit of space to appreciate what they’ve just experienced. I’m not talking about the plot being more literal here, rather that there are a few more pointers to remind the reader that they are still on the right path!

That all said, I haven’t given up on Eggers and having thoroughly enjoyed watching “Away We Go” recently, which he co-wrote, I’ll look for a copy of his perhaps more acclaimed novel “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.”

Shakespeare | Bill Bryson

Another book on CD and one thoroughly enjoyed. Bill Bryson has done a good job here focusing on the things that we don’t know about William Shakespeare, rather than the things that we do know, or, more to the point, think that we know. He of course has a point in doing so – for what we the things we don’t know for sure about the Bard and his contemporaries, significantly outnumber the things that we actually do know, and then, for someone of his time, we know an extraordinary amount about him. A publisher with a glint in their eye (and perhaps more restraint than yours truly) could have even subtitled the book, “Much Ado About Nothing!”

Bryson doesn’t pretend to be scholarly and this is what makes this book refreshingly credible. He doesn’t over-reach nor take himself too seriously, as more than one Shakespearean academic has done in the past.   He has done an excellent job in placing Shakespeare in his historical context. If one already knows a little about British history for the period, then Bryson’s explanations only serve to enhance your knowledge and make your appreciation of Shakespeare and his time even richer. Yet again, a little context goes a long way.

One of my favorite snippets: the only thing that our collective understanding of the hallowed Globe Theater in London (which showcased many of Shakespeare’s plays) is based upon nothing more than a tourist’s sketch. What artifacts for the future are we then creating today?

“Only one man had the circumstances and gifts to give us such incomparable works, and William Shakespeare of Stratford was unquestionably that man – whoever he was.”

Rag Man | Pete Hautman

I was pleasantly surprised to find a bunch of Pete Hautman books at the Stratford Library having read “Doohickey” a few years back. “Rag Man” is a tidy read that dwells upon what happens when an individual, part through choice, part through circumstance, decide to change what they value and how they value others.

The book kept me intrigued and I like the way the author situates his novels in places where he resides, you get a feel that can only be conveyed through a little local knowledge.  For mine however, Hautman brings ‘the plane in to land’ a tad too quick and so I was left feeling a little rushed and unresolved over the last few pages.

Creationists: Selected Essays | E.L. Doctorow

Found this as a book on CD at the library and decided to give it a listen while a captive of I-95, really enjoyed it. Doctorow examines the notion of literary and scientific creation, considering how creators shape, and are shaped by, the culture that surrounds them.

The works he features include: The Bible, Poe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Moby Dick, and Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn to name a few. Perhaps my favorite essay was the one focusing on Franz Kafka’s first novel “Amerika,” a book written about a country by an author who’d never been there. My mind couldn’t but help but think of work, the similarities between Kafka and how a good many products are developed amidst the fluorescent glow of a corporate HQ somewhere, rather than where the product will be used.

J-Pod | Douglas Coupland

I like a good Coupland read, having enjoyed “Miss Wyoming” and “All Families Are Psychotic” as well as the obligatory “Generation X” in the the past. “J-Pod” had been on my To Read list for some time and while it was one that I have and will recommend to others, it’s not a must read.

The workplace references made me laugh and cringe at the same time, being all a little close to home at times. Coupland was perhaps just a little too self-indulgent featuring himself in his own novel and devoting a good chunk of the book to the almost predictable page fillers of spam, brand names, prime numbers etc. Math junkies should buy the book for the 41 pages devoted to decimals of pi – as for me, I’m glad I borrowed it from the library!