Recent Readings

Since I last posted about reading Joyce, I have read:
Freakonomics, by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt
Bastard out of Carolina, by Dorothy Allison
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, by Dai Sijie

Freakonomics was fairly disappointing, but perhaps that is only because I had such high hopes from it. It's publicity mainly comes from its startling assertion that the crime drop seen in the mid-90s occurred because of the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that struck down laws outlawing abortion. If you have not heard this claim, the reasoning is that introducing abortion prevented a generation of mostly poor, unwanted children from being born. And since this demographic is the one most likely to commit a crime, crime decreased. Overall, the argument makes sense to me, but I don't think it should, nor was it intended to, change people's opinions on abortion since they run along moral lines, which this information does not affect. The downfall of the book, though, is that the rest of its chapters are less intriguing, though the chapter on cheating in Sumo wrestling was pretty interesting.

Bastard out of Carolina was the best book I've read of recent. It details the struggles of a girl coming of age in a poor family and the repercussions of the sexual, emotional, and physical abuse she suffers from her step-father. It was very clearly semi-autobiographical, as its raw details were too harrowingly realistic. This topic is very difficult for me, so it was an emotional read. Still, it was not an overwhelmingly dark book. Also, it offered a psychologically nuanced view of several characters where it would have been easy to have pushed them to be as expected. Overall it was well done, yet not quite breathtaking.

Ender's Game was somewhat of a disappointment, but also very enjoyable. Since it is regaled as the greatest sci-fi book of all time, I met it with certain expectations. To a certain extent, it met them. The story was gripping, its world was interesting enough, and it managed to interest me by its sci-fi gadgetry without becoming carried away. Ultimately, though, Ender fails as an intriguing character. Oddly enough, he was too messianic for me. Real people have flaws; they fail, at least at times. Ender was always the best. At everything, quasi-immediately. I almost got suckered into reading the rest of the series, but decided it was more worth my time to just read the plot summaries on wikipedia. I'll wager I was right about that.

Lastly, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress was moderately interesting, though mainly not for its literary qualities but for the section of history it captures. It takes place during the Cultural Revolution in China during the early 1970s, which, since is was also mildly autobiographical, makes for a good read. If you are unfamiliar with this section of history, spend a little time here. The anti-intellectualism and blind pastoral obsession with the simplicity of peasant life wrecked the country for years, and it's worth investigating the reasoning and events that led up to this movement.

I have also started Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, by Nick Flynn, and The Blind Assassin, but Margaret Atwood, but neither book was able to hold my interest. Please post if you have read either of these and would recommend them.