Jan 30
So it’s time to dive in the wonderful world of my highly subjective and completely pointless rankings of the first 35 books I’ve read from the Time list.
If you’re interested, you can see previous updates through book 31: Never Let Me Go.
Now, to somehow justify my rankings for books 32-35.
Have you ever been to a party, a wedding reception, a family reunion, and the moment in which you open the door, you feel it—that nagging sense of “Oh no. I have to put on my happy, smiley face now.”
The fakeness settles in. You smile, chat, blow smoke about the weather and baseball, but the whole time you’re thinking…I don’t really like you. I don’t really want to talk you. Your breath smells like lite beer.
Ever been there?
I think Philip Roth is like the Gandalf of the literary community.
Forget about Updike. Forget about Atwood. Forget about “young” upstarts like Franzen.
Philip Roth is a wisdom machine. He spits out wisdom bombs like Rick Perry spits out stupidity. If Philip Roth had been Obi Wan Kanobi, Annakin Skywalker would’ve never went to the dark side. In the words of Antoine from that famous YouTube video, “now go and tell that, homeboy.”
So who is this Philip Roth of whom I glowingly speak?
So, oh yeah, would you guys care to know what the next few books are?
With the week off and all the holidays, I totally forgot to give you a heads up on what’s coming, just in case you want to read along with me.
As you already know, I’m of course reading American Pastoral, book 34, as well as A Question of Upbringing–the first book in A Dance To The Music Of Time.
Other than those two, here are the next four on the list, not necessarily in the order in which I’ll read them:
I really want to try and give American Pastoral its fair due. After previewing the book two weeks ago, and then taking last week off from writing new posts, I realize I haven’t said much about the novel I’m currently reading.
Right off the bat, I can tell you American Pastoral is a different type of novel. There’s something philosophical about the way Philip Roth writes–it’s also like a study of sociology for people who lived during the Vietnam War.
But this isn’t a war novel. It’s actually more of a look at The American Dream and how it can come crashing down all around you. American Pastoral is not unlike Revolutionary Road and The Corrections in that sense.
The book looks at the fakeness of people, the masks that we all wear in order to keep up appearances in a society that cares a lot about appearances.
I want to highlight the following passage because I think it gives you a sense of the introspective style of Philip Roth’s writing, without spoiling any plot. It’s a bit long, and I really want to break it up into separate paragraphs, but I’m leaving it as is because that’s how it appears in the book.
American Pastoral will be my first experience with a Philip Roth novel.
He’s one of the authors that I’ve always had on my to-read list, but for some reason I’ve just never got around to it.
If you’re like me and a little out of the loop on the novel, here are a few facts.
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