Rereading Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness.
What Are You Reading?
- Thread starter TimmyBoston
- Start date
The ingredients list of Cheez Whiz®.
And your thoughts?
It's one of my favorites. I rarely re-read a book, but last year read "Heart of Darkness" again.
I love the classics, but I couldn't make it through this one, even though it was required reading in my 300-level English course back in Univeristy. I found Conrad's narrative style a little too... umm... chewy. Come to think of it, Apocalypse Now didn't really do it for me either. I feel a bit guilty for not finishing it, though. It's still one of the 100 greatest books ever written. Ah well, I'll always have Dickens.
I feel the same regarding Faulkner.
Faulkner is not my cup of tea. But I love Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now, Robert Silverberg's science fiction version, and Anthony Bourdain's visit to the Congo.
Heart of Darkness... I did not think it was such a masterpiece as many people think. If you want an incredible account of colonial Africa, in a book which for me is possibly the most powerful and ingenious ever written, try "Journey to The End of The Night" by Louis Ferdinand Celine. Bukowski, while I don't like him, wrote "Céline was the greatest writer of 2000 years". That is maybe an exaggeration, but he certainly is close to that.
Along the same lines, I seem to pick up a book by Dostoyevsky every five or six years and punish myself by slogging through it. He was a great author and they're great novels, but I think they would be better in a cliff notes version. The breakdown seems to be 25% great story/story telling, 20% overly detailed description of things, 20% overly detailed character development, and 35% mind numbing dialog between horrible characters.
I'm just about finished with The Brothers Karamazov and it has been absolutely brutal. The character development on 4 characters started at infancy, and several others started at childhood. Pages and pages of rambling irrelevant dialog between crazy women and whatever poor soul happened to be there. Pages dedicated to a description of the role of elders in the church so that he could explain why one man left a monastery.
I refuse to not finish them, so the punishment goes on and on...
I'm just about finished with The Brothers Karamazov and it has been absolutely brutal. The character development on 4 characters started at infancy, and several others started at childhood. Pages and pages of rambling irrelevant dialog between crazy women and whatever poor soul happened to be there. Pages dedicated to a description of the role of elders in the church so that he could explain why one man left a monastery.
I refuse to not finish them, so the punishment goes on and on...
Marcus Luttrell Service: A Navy Seal at War
Which I haven't found as good as Lone Survivor.
Which I haven't found as good as Lone Survivor.
It's his best novel. Dostoevsky is not for everyone, and you have to get used to his writing, but he is absolutely genius. You just have to go with the flow, and new worlds will open before you.
Liveship Traders 3: Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb.
Agreed 100%
Just starting "Why Grace Changes Everything" by Chuck Smith
The Prometheus Deception by Robert Ludlum. I'm only about halfway through it, but this one might rank up there with The Holcroft Covenant as one of his best works. IMHO anyway. If you're a fan of his, it's definitely worth looking for.
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson--A book of closely connected short stories, published in 1919. Apparently once frequently cited among the Hemingway novels, etc., as one of the top works of fiction in the 20th Century, and often discussed, but now rather overlooked and out of favor. I thought it was easy to read and written in a modern style. Good character development. Too much angst over anything sexual though and too much the say story over and over where someone let their life go by without "going for" one thing or another. Or, where someone went for something and ended up with nothing. Anderson was married four times. Seems to me likely too much about his own preoccupations.
Still, very nicely written in a seemingly very modern, clean style. Probably a decent picture of a slice of life from the early 1900s.
Edit: I read up some more. One scholar, anyway, says that this book has gone from essential to oblivion, which really seems like a fall from flavor. Apparently Anderson was an actual mentor to Faulkner and Hemingway, and both were in the end very disrespectful and degrading of him. I cannot really say about Faulkner. I find his stuff very hard to get through and I would say he is out of favor himself. I can see a lot of Anderson style in Hemingway. Simple, modern, not an excess of dialogue. First thing I have read in a while that seems like real literature, at least without wearing "I am real literature on its sleeve."
Still, very nicely written in a seemingly very modern, clean style. Probably a decent picture of a slice of life from the early 1900s.
Edit: I read up some more. One scholar, anyway, says that this book has gone from essential to oblivion, which really seems like a fall from flavor. Apparently Anderson was an actual mentor to Faulkner and Hemingway, and both were in the end very disrespectful and degrading of him. I cannot really say about Faulkner. I find his stuff very hard to get through and I would say he is out of favor himself. I can see a lot of Anderson style in Hemingway. Simple, modern, not an excess of dialogue. First thing I have read in a while that seems like real literature, at least without wearing "I am real literature on its sleeve."
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"Voices from the Grave" Ed Moloney.
Great book.
Great book.
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