Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood (TBR Challenge Book 3)

Leaving on a jet plane in a little while, so this will be short!


I always think Atwood is going to be harder to read than she actually is, though this might be because I gravitate toward her books about women and their complicated, often hurtful, relationships with each other.

However, because of this, it was also emotionally wearing to read. I was bullied as a child when I was around Elaine's age and there were times when I had to put the book down because my skin was crawling at the spot-on voices of Elaine's friends, the things they said to and *how* they said it, the way they used niceties to police her in really not-nice ways.

And yet, the sections about her life as a child were the most vivid, the most interesting to me - the descriptions of her unusual family, their trips away, the day-to-day minutae of being a child and finding out piece-by-piece how the world works. Elaine the grown woman, the artist, while she continues to talk in first person, seemed to become more and more distanced from the reader, from the world around her, as she reveals more about her past, revels more in the stories of the past than in her present.

But in the end, I liked it - couldn't say I enjoyed it, but I liked it. And hopefully this makes me more willing to read more Atwood.

**

Also, RIP Diana Wynne Jones. My first DWJ book was Black Maria (which hardly anyone mentions anymore) at around age 9 and it was creepy and wonderful and made me want to read more about magic worlds. I then went on to read Magicians of Caprona, then in quick succession all the Chrestomanci books. I will miss the joy of coming across new DWJ books in Kino - I will continue to look out for those books of hers I haven't managed to read yet.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac (TBR Challenge Book 2)

On the Road is jazz music; it's made up of riffs and improvisations. It sprawls at times - over space, time, form - but it can also seem rather hermetic at other moments, sealed in the repetition of yet another drifting/madcap travail from one end of America to the other, narrator Sal once again towed along by his best friend Dean. Or more correctly, by Dean's manic energy and his endless dreams - both in his limitless capacity for dreaming, and foor the fact that these dreams never come to fruition, never reach the end.

It's Dean that's the pulsing heart of this book - he's fascinating, and at the same time, you can't help be aware that if he were real he would the most infuriating person to be around. And then you realise he *was* real, that the beauty of the book in part is the way Kerouac has captured this portrait of his friend Neal Cassady, the way he manages to make music out of his character who leaps off the page, burning so bright that you can see why Sal/Jack stuck with him for so long, why he was drawn into Dean's schemes again and again.

It's actually taken me around five goes to finish reading this book. Some of the writing - oh, perfect in its poetry, its precise story-telling.

Marylou was watching Dean as she watched him clear across the country and back, out of the corner of her eye - with a sullen, sad air, as though she wanted to cut off his head and hide it in her closet, an envious and rueful love of him so amazingly himself, all raging and sniffy and crazy-wayed, a smile of her tender dotage but also sinister envy that frightened me about her, a love she knew woulld never bear fruit because when she looked at his hangjawed bony face with its male self-containment and absentmindedness she knew he was too mad.

But some other sections I couldn't leaf through fast enough, bored, frustrated. I'm not sure if I ever will attempt to give it a solid read through again - it seems to me such a rich text that it's best served in small bites, snatches of music, bursts of life at its most haphazard.

TBR Challenge - my 12 books for 2011

related reading

On the Road, Revisited
Loved reading this back and forth discussion between Megan O'Rourke and Walter Kirn on Slate about their reading of On the Road. I particularly enjoyed O'Rourke's response to the book, the way it expresses an idea of an America that was and never was and could've been.

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas (TBR Challenge Book 1)

It all starts at that well-known symbol of the Australian summer, the suburban backyard BBQ. In attendance at Hector and Aisha’s house one hot summer afternoon is a party doubles as a cross-section of modern Australian society - young and old; friends, family and colleagues; and a mix of races and cultures. Then in one heated moment, Hector’s brother slaps the recalcitrant child of another guest. The Slap then follows the story of ten people at the BBQ that afternoon as they navigate and weather the repercussions of that moment in their own lives.

If you’ve never encountered Tsiolkas’ writing before, The Slap may be the place to start – it’s his most accessible novel to date. He leaves behind in-your-face tales of the marginal and the grotesque that so marked Dead Europe and Loaded and focuses on the heart of the suburbs, that bubbling cauldron of fidelity, friendship, family tension and race relations in every day Australian life. The characters he draws are so vivid, so human; presented with myriad flaws that can make them hard to like, but Tsiolkas is smart enough to flesh out their motivations that you can never fully condemn each person for their apparent sins.

My main issue with the book is that the divergent character points-of-view never quite gel together as one narrative for me. ‘The slap’ ties all the characters together but not their stories, and the exploration into the personal life of each character takes away from the overall narrative drive. But as standalone character pieces, they’re each an interesting commentary on romantic, familial and platonic relationships in contemporary Australia, though some are arguable more successful than others in their critique and/or emotional impact. The sections that struck me the most were Manolis’ bittersweet elegy on ageing, as Hector’s father reconnects with his past, with the brothers-in-arms who immigrated to Australian alongside him, who supported each other through those early days in an unfamiliar clime; and the joy of being young and alive in the tender, surprisingly hopeful ending section seen through Richie’s eyes.

Tsiolkas is such a powerful, angry writer that in the end, it doesn’t really matter that this ambitious, sprawling novel doesn’t completely hold together. I appreciate that it’s a good, uncomfortable read, a book that challenges, repels, and provokes thoughts about the ugly truths and issues that are too often kept hidden under the facade of polite and respectable society.

TBR Challenge - my 12 books for 2011

2010 reading round-up / The 2011 TBR Pile Challenge

So in 2010, I read 113 books, which was a fair bit up on last year's total (of 68). Yay for public transport time once more!

My top 3 books from last year were:

Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
This is such a rich, wonderful book - in story, in themes, in the storytelling. It’s a memoir in comic form, tracing Alison Bechdel’s childhood to her early twenties, her relationship with her somewhat distant father, and the complex, related issue of sexuality. It’s beautifully written and drawn, funny and heartrending in turn, as she circles closer and closer to an understanding of childhood memories that seem to gain more sinister meanings in the wake of her father’s death a few weeks after she comes out to her parents. Beautifully written and drawn, funny and heartrending in turn.

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
I started one morning before work in April, thought about it all day when I wasn't reading it, and finished by that night. And months later, I still find myself thinking over it every now and then. I loved so much about this - the different voices, the different genres he plays with, the fantastic structure folding into each other.

The Orchid Thief - Susan Orlean
This was such a fascinating, beautifully written piece of journalism, thoughful and detailed and somehow quite loving about the very insular, slightly crazy world of orchid breeding and collecting. I definitely looked at orchids in a different light after reading it - and I don't even *like* orchids.

rounding out my top 10:

The Fall of Kings – Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman
Perfect Circle – Sean Stewart
The Cutting Room – Louise Welsh
The Monkey's Mask – Dorothy Porter
In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
Magic for Beginners – Kelly Link
Hikaru no Go (manga series)

Where do I get all these books from?! Well, every year I love seeing where and how I economically acquired each year's reads. As always, Alison is my greatest single book enabler...

47 borrowed from Alison (which includes 29 volumes of manga)
22 bought from secondhand bookshops, Book Basement and other discount book sellers
13 from the library
11 from Bookmooch
10 read for free at bookshops
4 borrowed from other friends
2 bought full price

This brings me to The 2011 TBR Pile Challenge. I may read a fair bit, but it's safe to say that I acquire even more books each year - and a large number of these then sit forever on my 'to be read' shelves (and I literally have four shelves of books TBR). Hence, the TBR Pile Challenge:



The Goal:
To finally read 12 books from your "to be read" pile, within 12 months.

Each of these 12 books (plus 2 alternates, just in case you can't finish one or two of the original 12) must have been on your bookshelf or "To Be Read" list for AT LEAST one full year. This means the book cannot have a publication date of 1/1/2010 or later (any book published in the year 2009 or earlier qualifies, as long as it has been on your TBR pile).

So I went through the pile and decided on:

1. The Slap - Christos Tsolkas
2. Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco (see Alternate no. 14)
3. Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood*
4. A Contract with God - Will Eisner
5. We So Seldom Look on Love - Barbara Gowdy
6. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
7. The Flight From the Enchanter - Iris Murdoch*
8. Nekropolis - Maureen McHugh
9. Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
10. Beauty - Shari S. Tepper
11. Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy*
12. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh - Michael Chabon*

alternates
13. Beauty - Robin McKinley*
14. On the Road - Jack Kerouac

* indicates a book I've borrowed from Al, most likely for years

One of the requirements of the challenge is to post book reviews as I go, so that should ensure that I blog at least 12 times this year...which would probably double the amount of posts, ahahahasigh. So watch this space!

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Collected thoughts, thematically arranged. Note: Book1= PS, book2=CoS, book3=PoA, book4=GoF, book5=OotP, book6= HBP

Dumbledore

I chose to be spoiled for the end, so I knew his death was coming, but it didn’t dampen my wont to know *how* and the circumstances leading up to it. However, knowing probably did play a part in dampening my emotional reaction to it – I didn’t cry or feel particularly sad – but it’s also because everything from that point on happens so fast, event upon event piling up on each other until you run smack bang into the end: the death, then the frantic chase and fight between Harry and Snape, curses being thrown around everywhere, and everyone else still battling on; then there’s a quick reprieve in the hospital wing knowing that people are mostly ok, apart from Bill; and then it’s the funeral, the break-up between Harry and Ginny, the trio’s resolve to go find the horcruxes, and then “Oh yeah, before you go and save the world there’s a wedding to attend THE END”.

I think, as OotP is one of my favourites and possibly one of the most telling books of the series in terms of the deeper thoughts and motives of the characters and the plot, I was influenced by Harry’s own frustration with Dumbledore in the 5th book, and I carried that into this one. All-knowing as he is presented to be, and as kind and obviously good he’s been written as from the very beginning of the series, I think Rowling’s shown that he can make mistakes (the way he withheld information from Harry in a way that led to his rash and angry actions in OotP), that he’s a master manipulator (all books) and that he plays all his cards too close to his chest – no one knows much more than the other, so that everyone under Dumbledore is forced to rely on him alone in the end – made me doubt him as all-wise and powerful in the end. And so, maybe his death is a key part of his plan, but it could also be a consequence of having made a wrong move in his complex plans and having no one to rely on in the end.

Snape

I’d like to believe he isn’t completely evil; that his actions in this book are a part of the plan Dumbledore worked out with him, a way of convincing Voldemort’s supporters that he is still loyal to the Dark Side while working on the side of good. But I know it’s quite hard to prove conclusively. Certainly chapter 2 of HBP threw me for a loop. I’d always just trusted Dumbledore’s trust in Snape, and having him seemingly and comfortably colluding with Voldemort’s supporters was jarring. I do think the Unbreakable Vow had to be made to keep Bella, who we know to be volatile and dangerous and completely loyal to the Dark side, from stirring things up even more against Snape, when he’s already in a precarious position (if he really is a spy for Dumbledore).

I think by the end of the book that Snape is cracking under the burden of what he has done and still has left to do – keep Draco safe as per the vow (first by killing Dumbledore, then afterwards protecting him from Harry as well as the wrath of Voldemort and his crazy supporters), and carry out whatever plan Dumbledore had in place, and hopefully not get killed by wizards on either side. All the while knowing that killing Dumbledore, the only person who would vouch for him, is killing any hope he has left. In the chase, Harry angrily calls him a coward, which drives Snape crazy – the strain of having sacrificed so much with nothing to show but hatred and a future of hiding, while others are lauded for being obvious ‘heroes’ (such as James, and now Harry).

One of the things I love is that Rowling spent 5 books developing Snape as one of the most complex characters in her canon – looking typically like a villain, acting selfish and jealous and unjust, and yet forcing Harry (and her audience, by extension) to accept that he is good by Dumbledore’s sacred word – and then pulling it all out from under Harry’s (and our) feet by this one action, turning all her good work to dust. It has to be for a reason, and it’s really craftily done.

Harry

Considering that there are ‘his’ books, I have surprisingly little to say about Harry. I was much less affected by him than in OotP, where he was an annoying ball of hurt and teenage angst, but so much more *real* for it. Here, he’s becoming more typically hero-like – developing a sort of patience with his elders, less mopey overall, more confident in his skills – and in that growth he’s become more distant as a character. One of the best scenes in the book though is where he has to force the potion in the cave down Dumbledore’s throat and lie to him at the same time, the whole way. It is so painful and right and terrible and oddly satisfying all at the same time. It’s like Harry finally gets his revenge on Dumbledore for his frustration in OotP and yet it’s an unwanted reverse/revenge scenario because he understands why he must do it despite his reluctance and love for the old man, and I think it shows real bravery and mettle, it makes me really believe that he could WIN in the end, more than his ability to throw Unforgiveable Curses and defeat people in battle could ever.

Voldemort

I like his backstory. I like that his family was so screwed up already – the rotted mad ‘nobility’ of his wizard heritage (abuse, incest) and his careless goodlooking Muggle father tricked by a love potion into producing him – it only seemed right that Rowling go over the top with a gothic explanation of his obsession with purebreds. And I’m glad that we got to see why there was always tension between Dumbledore and Tom, hinted at in CoS, that explains why Dumbledore seems to care, personally, so much about the war against Voldemort. Rowling has said before that she excised a great deal from CoS which was used in HBP, and I think the story of Tom Riddle is what she’s talking about.

There’s also the repeated theme of Harry being so much like Tom, as already started in CoS; at one point in HBP Dumbledore even mentions that Harry may feel pity for Tom, a sense of their kindred backgrounds. I think this is to push that the use of their power for good or evil is a choice – while Harry is bullied at the Dursleys his magic manifests to help him out of bad situations and never for malicious use; Tom uses his to gain power over others and to cause harm – so despite their many similarities, their unhappy childhoods, you can see that Harry constantly chooses to do what is good (though not always what is *right*, which makes a difference, and makes him a lot like James, who we see to be a good person, but we also see in flashbacks that he could be cruel). I think Dumbledore also pushes that this is because of love – James and Lily’s relationship, Lily’s love for Harry as a baby, the love from his friends, etc – while we see that nowhere in Tom’s life does anyone demonstrate, nor offer him, love – definitely not his crazy mum, his horrified father, his disgusting relatives, the people at the orphanage, not even Dumbledore, who offers a kindness and guidance but not love.

Draco

I admit that Draco is one of my favourite characters, underdeveloped as he has been in the past 5 books. I always had a feeling he had a part to play and I’ve been vindicated, yes! He’s a redemptionist’s dream – this idea of half-baked evil in a confused boy that’s just waiting for someone to show him what’s really right and turn him for good. Whether or not this is what Rowling has in store for him, well. Knowing her predilection for twists, he’ll probably have to die for one side or the other to settle whether he is finally shown to be good or bad. (But I hope not.)

What I thought interesting was how, in another flip, Rowling turns Draco’s previous obsession with Harry into Harry’s obsession with Draco. In PoS, they first meet in the robe shop, where neither knows who the other is, and Draco is shown to be a spoilt empty brat BUT he shows no real enmity for Harry, and even seeks solidarity in some way. And when he does know who Harry is, he makes an effort for a alliance with the handshake before the sorting. I think this showed an innocence on Draco’s part – despite being the child of a Death Eater who supported Voldemort, no matter how half-heartedly, he didn’t see a real problem in being on Harry’s side, Harry who partly destroyed Voldemort. Hm. But because of Harry’s public rejection of his friendship, Draco seeks revenge in sport, schoolwork, against Harry’s friends. It’s petty, childish, useless. This is probably why, despite his constant efforts, in books 1-4, it’s often RON who gets most annoyed at what Draco does, not Harry, because Harry tends to have bigger things on his mind and a greater confidence that he is, in fact, better than Draco in everyway.

However, in HBP, Draco’s energies have now been focussed elsewhere. They meet again in the robes shop, Draco is still a brat, but right before that is the chapter two where we have an inkling that, with Narcissa’s worry, Draco is involved in something that’s really quite dangerous, and straight after that we see the scene in Knockturn Alley that eventually culminates in Draco successfully smuggling Death Eaters into Hogwarts, a challenging feat. And on the train, he allows himself a vicious petty moments – smashing Harry’s face in – but that’s it. No more annoying pranks and catcalls, nothing. He spends the whole year on a bigger task, obviously having found out between OotP and HBP that things are more serious than a schoolyard fight but a battle between two sides that involves his parents (who are important in his mind). And so we see that all through HBP, it is HARRY who does the chasing, who tries to find out what Draco is up to, who stalks Draco’s footsteps and constantly dobs him in to no avail.

So on one level he's still a vicious braggart so you can totally see why Harry would suspect him, and on the other hand there's the feeling that he's part of something bigger that he probably can't handle (and, in the end, really can't and needs saving.) I loved the bathroom scene - not for the crying so much as Harry's absolute shock at the severe damage the Sectum sempra spell and his reaction of inaction; it was just so intense and critical.

Relationships

Ah, the book of hormonal explosion. It’s the alleviating humour the book needs against the rising fear and suspicion in the pre-war politics.

I was very ‘eh’ about Harry/Ginny, having never been a fan of the idea, and also because HBP is sorely lacking any scenes to truly explain the attraction. Sure, Harry is still the boy-most-likely, and Ginny has become the single ‘feisty’ girl power character in the series, but the fact that the book never develops their actual period of dating beyond the fact that Harry spends a happy month being part of a couple, never shows true comfortable relationship-y moments with the two of them, shortchanges the dynamics of their pairing.

Ron and Lavendar were very funny in a rom-com way. The use of “Won-Won” and the Christmas gift of relationship bling made me laugh, and it was a good way to delay the seemingly inevitable relationship between Ron and Hermione. Which, of course, made me very happy as a Ron/Hermione fan, but also because they were cute without being gag-worthy, with their ability to still really piss each other off, and Hermione still having a backbone through the whole thing (heheh, “I like really good Quidditch players”) and not becoming soppy and unnaturally girly about it all.

Oh, which brings me to Tonks, a complete waste of a character considering how she seemed pretty cool and not at all interested in Remus in OotP. Ugh. I’m not against the idea of the relationship, just the way it was played out, with a sudden turn-around after the ONE open argument in the hospital, and suddenly they’re holding hands at the funeral, whatever.

On the other hand, Fleur redeemed her seemingly nonsensical and out-of-nowhere relationship with Bill, because she is so funny, and in the end heart-warmingly devoted. “I will be good looking enough for ze two of us!”

Miscellaneous stuff I really liked

- details like the Amortentia spell, with the three smells that you associate with the one you love; it’s cute, evocative, and exactly what I love about Rowling. She’s built this incredibly fun and interesting world that’s separate from the dramatic action plot, and she’s not afraid to flesh it out while keeping the story going.
- Crabbe and Goyle using the Polyjuice to become unobtrusive 1st year GIRLS was so inspired. It never would have occurred to me that they’d a) actually turn themselves into girls for Draco’s sake, and b) be *tiny* little girls.
- The Dobby and Kreacher show is just bluddy good CRACK. I love that Kreacher is unrepentantly evil but he’s caught by the House Elf Code which frustrates him even more, while Dobby is FREE from the code yet follows good (another idea about the freedom of choice?), and the fight they have was so unexpected yet completely satisfying.
- U-No-Poo makes me laugh, every. single. time. Thinking about the jingle is enough to make me crack up. On another note, while I loved the idea of Fred and George becoming great moneymakers, it troubles me to have read theories saying that Fred and George and basically evil by association, as their products can be used for bad – and is used for bad in the end – but they seem indiscriminate in who they sell to for the sake of money; which is an interesting and unsettling argument
- "Mollywobbles!" L.O.V.E. I just adore the Weasleys, and I have a soft spot for Molly in particular.

HBP is one of the better written books in the series, but it still isn’t a favourite because I think I had less of an emotional response to it, unlike OotP and GoF. However, Rowling included a lot more plot and story, kept it going with intrigue and suspense and humour, manage to still flesh out more of her created world, and kept me hanging on for the next book with the new twists and directions, which means it’s still pretty damn good!