I have had a productive months as far as getting through books goes. The first thing I did was finish Anna Karenina. I wanted to refresh myself on this because I will probably see the movie and wanted to see how much they changed. My guess is they will completely change it and make the eponymous character the main character in the story, they will also probably try to make her a tragic heroine rather than the narcissistic bitch she is in the book.
I started that a while back though and only finished it in the first week of the month.
Then I finished the Longest Journey by Forster. I've been reading a lot of 19th century history lately and have been trying to keep abreast of the literature of the period as well. I think it is difficult to understand a period very well without knowing what entertainment people sought out, also you can get a good idea of how things went along and what would be considered to be reasonable in light of the day and age.
My next book brought me some surprises along that line. It was Winesburg, Ohio. A story told as a series of character sketches, I was surprised at how much pre-marital sex was considered to be normal. The book took place, as far as I could tell in about 1890-5ish. The characters dealt with a lot of the same types of isolation and loneliness issues that were brought up in Longest Journey. I had not chosen the two books for that though. I didn't know ahead of time what the issues were with which they dealt.
After that was the Golden Bowl. I've gone through quite a few Henry James novels and this has to be the worst thing that he has written. It is terrible. The story is terrible and the writing, surprisingly, is worse.
A typical dialog:
"How are you doing this morning?"
"This morning?"
"Yes, and by that I mean that I know that you know that I know what has been going on."
"On?"
And so on. It got a little bit ridiculously, more than a little bit. Also the word "beautiful" was so overused, if you had a drinking game where you drank after each time you read it you would have to get a liver transplant upon completion of the book.
For a bit of change from the drama and soap opera stuff I decided that The Secret Agent by Conrad, which was a good read. Funny in parts and an interesting little detective story that is resolved in a neat, very not-Sherlock Holmes like ending.
Now I'm working my way through The Magnificent Ambersons. This deals with another narcissist, seemingly, of the male variety this time. And you really hope that the pretty female lead doesn't end up with him but you know you will.
I'm also reading God's Playground, a history of Poland. I have about 100 pages left.
I also finished reading the new Vonnegut collection that was just published. It was pretty good. I had been trying to pace myself with that, who knows when we will get any new Vonnegut stuff after all.
