Books: Chabon, Gregory, Simmons
May. 26th, 2016 05:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inevitableentresolI finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, after a long gap during the middle of the book where I put it down. Up until the middle, I was sure it was going to join my favourite books list without a doubt, and when I eventually picked it up again I was still hoping that the story would make a recovery after the sudden and horrifically sad direction it took. Unfortunately, it did not, and the book ended on a long, miserable drawn-out and ultimately boring note, after starting with so much promise.
After that, I turned to The Cousins' War series of novels by Phillipa Gregory. Not something I had chosen for myself, these were a present. The books are set in Tudor times and I really appreciated that they were firmly told from the perspective of women. I was watching the new Hollow Crown series of Shakespeare history plays on the BBC at the same time, and it was fantastic to have the female characters from that more fleshed out, even if the versions of the stories were often at odds with each other. My main worry with the books was that they would be dull bonkbusters that stomped all over history. This was not really the case. A lot of research had obviously gone on, and characters were allowed to have genuine beliefs in witchcraft etc that seem ridiculous to modern eyes. The main failing, instead, was that the author seemed to have convinced herself that her version of history was the right one, in a similar way to a fanfic writer who convinces themselves that their version is more canon than the one by the original creators.
Another problem was that Gregory's prose can be very repetitive. She likes to remind us every single chapter who all the characters are and what relation they stand to each other, even when they are major characters like the husband of the narrator who we've known for ten chapters. Still, I was glad to have read this series. They've given me a genuinely new perspective on that time period.
Current reading: Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It's science fiction based on the structure of the Canterbury Tales, and so far it's ticking all the boxes of many of things I like: epic world-building, dense cultural references and weird non-human cultures.
After that, I turned to The Cousins' War series of novels by Phillipa Gregory. Not something I had chosen for myself, these were a present. The books are set in Tudor times and I really appreciated that they were firmly told from the perspective of women. I was watching the new Hollow Crown series of Shakespeare history plays on the BBC at the same time, and it was fantastic to have the female characters from that more fleshed out, even if the versions of the stories were often at odds with each other. My main worry with the books was that they would be dull bonkbusters that stomped all over history. This was not really the case. A lot of research had obviously gone on, and characters were allowed to have genuine beliefs in witchcraft etc that seem ridiculous to modern eyes. The main failing, instead, was that the author seemed to have convinced herself that her version of history was the right one, in a similar way to a fanfic writer who convinces themselves that their version is more canon than the one by the original creators.
Another problem was that Gregory's prose can be very repetitive. She likes to remind us every single chapter who all the characters are and what relation they stand to each other, even when they are major characters like the husband of the narrator who we've known for ten chapters. Still, I was glad to have read this series. They've given me a genuinely new perspective on that time period.
Current reading: Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It's science fiction based on the structure of the Canterbury Tales, and so far it's ticking all the boxes of many of things I like: epic world-building, dense cultural references and weird non-human cultures.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-26 07:12 pm (UTC)Which reminds me, I should get the courage to pick up the other books in the series.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-14 12:01 pm (UTC)In Kavalier and Clay, it was more like the writer had become depressed and just allowed it to seep into his writing. Which I can understand - I've had it happen to me. But it's not the mark of good writing. He should have stood back later and edited those parts when he was feeling more objective.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-14 08:06 pm (UTC)The author of Kavalier and Clay has a nicely sized bibliography, so I wouldn't be surprised he was on a deadline and just had to get the book done in time, regardless of anything else.
no subject
Date: 2016-06-15 02:14 pm (UTC)I only really find violence, and especially sexual violence, disturbing when it's presented as throwaway and without emotional consequence. When I was a kid I had free run of our local library and I read a lot of really violent stuff. I was okay with that.
What really chilled me, however, is when the author obviously thinks that violence or rape is okay, cool, entertaining, something to stick into a story for easy plot points, or perhaps worse, inherently deep and artistic. Even low levels of violence when presented like that disturb me immensely because they speak volumes about the person behind the story. I don't like being reminded that real life people like that exist. It ruins my immersion in the story.
From what I've seen of the Game of Thrones TV series, while violence is common, it absolutely is presented as having serious consequences and being highly traumatic. Although the amount of violence in the story does get a bit wearing. It's one of those things that is exciting for a while and then just depressing. I made the mistake of watching Series Four back to back (I had a free online code) and it put me off it for over a year. Far better to watch the episodes one by one.
I'd hate to be a professional writer. Deadlines seem like the least fun thing ever. If I put out a book and I wasn't happy with it, it would eat at me forever. This is why I'll never finish a single novel, but I think I'm okay with that.
I'm nearly at the end of Hyperion now. I really liked it, apart from the fact that it's very obviously written by a straight man, even the section where a woman is narrating. The descriptions of her being attracted to a man and having sex with him are so badly done. Did he not think of asking one single woman what that felt like? He makes all the most basic of mistakes. Firstly, the women never seems to check out the man's equipment. It's all about how beautiful the man is and how he has nice hands. That as well, obviously, but given he just spent paragraphs on breasts for the male narrators, the lack of more basic urges for the woman stands out, particularly because it absolutely does not suit her character. Then there's the sex scene, in which the most explosive moment of sensation for the woman is when the man comes! Give me a break. Jeez. Lack of basic research, or even common sense. The rest of it is really great, so it's such a pity.