Books Read in 1999

This is a bit of a departure for Simmons, whose novels typically are firmly in the world of fantasy. The Crook Factory, however, is a fictionalization of Ernest Hemingway's spying activity in Cuba during WWII, and so is at least loosely based in fact (not unlike DeLillo's Libra. True or not, the story is quite good, and Simmons's writing is solid, though not awe-inspiring.

This was a pretty huge disappointment, but I finally managed to finish reading it. The premise — the King Arthur legend told from the point of view of the women — is a nice one. The execution, however, with its endless rambling, is IMHO flawed. Had I been the editor, this book would have been 250 pages rather than 875.

It took me quite a long time to read this book, mainly because I started it while in the midst of dissertation mayhem. By reading it in fits and spurts, I certainly lost a lot of the continuity, and I probably enjoyed it a lot less than I normally would have. Richard Powers, however, remains one of my very most favorite authors, and I recommend all of his novels.

This is a dark tale about an insane man during the year or so after a failed suicide attempt. Johnson is an outstanding writer, though I remember liking Jesus' Son somewhat more.

I like William Gibson's writing, but this is one of his weakest novels. Makes me yearn a bit for Neuromancer. Still enjoyable, however, for the occasional inventiveness.

This is my first exposure to Franzen, and I'm impressed. Strong Motion isn't on the level of Infinite Jest or The Gold Bug Variations, but Franzen probably should be grouped with Wallace and Powers as one of the few contemporary writers to whom careful attention should be paid. Franzen's prose is clean and inventive, the characters are interesting and well-drawn, and the plot is almost brilliant.

"Dreck" is the word that comes to mind. Hannibal is a novel that would have been better left unwritten. I have nothing good to say about it. The Clarice Starling character has none of the vibrance she exhibited in Silence of the Lambs, and though we get some small insight into the Lecter character, it's hardly worth it. Even the "gross-out" scenes are uninteresting — Pynchon describing rhinoplasty is much more gruesome and disturbing than Harris describing Lecter serving Starling fresh brains out the carefully prepared corpse of one of the bad guys. (Oops, did I ruin it for you?...sorry, bring the book back to the store and get a refund. You can use the cash to buy a copy of V..)

Much better than his other novels. I'm a little hesitant to rate it a "5", because it's not really one of the greatest books I have ever read, but I enjoyed it more than many of the books I've given a "4" in recent months. The story is excellent; the prose is coherent (but nothing special).

As the title suggests, DFW's newest collection is not light reading. I had seen some of these bits of short fiction in Harper's over the last year or two, but they fare better in this form, where the various pieces comment on each other. The more I read DFW's work, the more I appreciate what a great achievement Infinite Jest is. It stands as one of my favorite novels. I eagerly await his next novel, though it may be years in the coming.

This novel did not resonate with me quite as strongly as did High Fidelity, which I wholeheartedly recommend (moreso in retrospect than when I first read it). About a Boy is quite good, however, managing to avoid some of the cliches that the opening gambit (a single man pretends to have a son so that he can hook up with single moms) suggests. Hornby's novels are steeped in pop culture, and I wonder how they will hold up over time. For now, however, they are quite a lot of fun.

This is the third in the series that starts with Last Call. It reads a lot like the other two, but it's got deus-ex-machina all over the place. For me, it got tiresome, and I didn't much enjoy the last 200-300 pages.

This sequel of sorts to Last Call isn't as good as its predecessor. It just doesn't hold up as well, and I had a strong sense that Powers relied too much on deus ex machina as a plot technique. Still, there are a lot of fun ideas here.

Well, I think this Vonnegut kick is finally over. I have finally read all of his novels (many of them twice; Cat's Cradle a dozen times). At this point, the most interesting thing about them is their interconnections. It seems that every novel refers to characters and settings in the other novels. I didn't pick up on this when I read them in high school. The themes are all consistent as well, so a beginner could probably read Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five and call it a night. Vonnegut's philosophy is so much like my own that I enjoyed reading them all just for reinforcement.

Last Call is an excellent fantasy novel. Powers convincingly layers a self-consistent mystical world atop our modern world. There are many connections to the Arthur legend, and the novel is suffused with the tarot and poker. The pace is frenzied, but the writing is pretty solid.

This is a great resource for XTC fans, but probably not of interest to anyone who isn't. I learned a lot about the history of the band and the meaning of the songs (some of which are very layered). Many otherwise inscrutable lyrics now make sense, and I eagerly await the new recording, which is due out shortly.

For the size of this monster tome, it is frustratingly thin. It's useful as a sort of stilted annotated bibliography, but not as a source of practical information.