... I have started with two other books since I need a dose of good literary talent. And so I am reading two renowned names that I have always wanted to read but not read so far. (Actually, I think I may have cursorily perused through Roth's Portnoy's Complaint in the 90s.) And so I began Wedding Song by Nobel laureate, Naguib Mahfouz and The Counterlife by (future Nobel laureate?) Philip Roth. Aah...such delight in reading good literature after suffering through the pulp fiction of Vikram Chandra.
Coincidentally, both had an interesting snippets about September, with the former novel, which I started last night, started with the short but powerful lines:
September. The beginning of autumn. The month of preparations and rehearsals.And this excerpt from Roth's book, which I started this morning and already got through the first chapter (which I thoroughly enjoyed. The writing style is very different than Updike but Roth still reminds me more of Updike than Saul Bellow. It is amazing how good writing about a 39 year old dentist, his inadequacies, his affairs, and his death has gripped me and gave me more satisfaction than the cat-and-mouse games of a cop and a gangster and all the interesting side characters in Sacred Games!):
It was early in the afternoon at the end of September; from the cold touch of the breeze and the light heat of the sun and the dry unsummery whish of the trees you could easily have guessed the month with your eyes closed - perhaps have even guessed the week.Related:
- Deciding to do the impossible - NYT
- Philip Roth: Life and Counterlife: A Review Essay - Modern Judaism, Vol. 9, No. 3, 325-339, Oct., 1989 - available via JSTOR, which you may have free access to through your public library. At least you do through Boston Public Library.
- A review by The Book Diva
* I am trudging through it only to say that at 900 pages, it is the longest book I ever read! I have somehow gotten to page 500 or so and given how little it has interested me - with every passing day, the story interests me less and less --- I wonder if I will have the patience to get to the end. Given how long it is, it meanders too much and is easy to lose focus and interest. It started with a gripping encounter between Sartaj and Gaitonde, which I had read elsewhere before as an independent short story ... but this book meanders around and has petered to a very anti-climactic boring middle. Hope there is some surprise or good ending because so far the story has been only mildly interesting in parts. And the writing quality is sub-par at best. I wonder what all the hype was about!
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