Book 11: Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami

Title: Sputnik Sweetheart

Author: Haruki Murakami

Length: 210 pages

Year Written: 1999

Why I chose this book: I really enjoy Murakami. I bought this book in September 2012 and never finished it until now. The receipt from Barnes and Noble was still inside. 

This book is so Murakami. You can spot Murakami a mile away. If you've read one of his novels, you've read most of his novels — and I don't mean that in a bad way. The first two books I read by Murakami were After Dark and Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, for an Asian-American literature class I took during my senior year of college. These two were OK but I wasn't truly blown away until I read South of the Border, West of the Sun. Murakami really knows how to write about passion without sounding corny or overwrought with dramatic desire. Then, I read Kafka on the Shore, which showed a more complex and supernatural side of Murakami. Anyway, on to the book at hand — Sputnik Sweetheart shares many of the same themes as several of Murakami's other novels, including weird Freudian love triangles and escape into other-wordly realms. It is about a girl named Sumire who falls in love with an older woman, Miu, and eventually vanishes seemingly right off the face of the earth. The book is told from the perspective of Sumire's friend, a relatively easygoing guy who happens to be madly in love with her. 

This was a really quick read, being just north of 200 pages and so engagingly written as well. It certainly provoked a lot of thought with me, about loneliness, love, desire, human existence, all those things that leave you feeling mildly panicked if you dwell on them too long. 

Rating: 9.5/10

Book 10: A Spy in the House of Love by Anaïs Nin

Title: A Spy in the House of Love
Author: Anaïs Nin 
Length: 140 pages
Year Written: 1954
Why I chose this book: I purchased this book when I was 18 or 19, purely based on the feeling I got from the title and back cover description.

I once read a quote by Anaïs Nin that gave me an incredible sense of oneness with her: "If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it."

I have owned by copy of 'A Spy in the House of Love' for at least six years. It is water-warped and has a brown coffee-ish stain creeping down its slim paper side. I had no idea what the book was really about until I picked it up this year. Most importantly, it is book four of a five-part "continuous novel" called 'Cities of the Interior.' If I'd known that, I'd certainly have started at one, or not started at all. However, this small novel in itself is dreamy, emotional, and strangely moving.

The idea of infidelity in relationships being perpetrated by the girl — it's something I don't often see. It's something I can identify with personally, having been torn between different perceptions of myself that were based on dishonorable acts in love. We rarely get to see inside the head of a woman who is obviously smart, obviously wonderful in all ways except her ability to contain her love within the framework of a nice, faithful, cookie-cutter companion. Because these books are "distillations" of Nin's personal diaries, it is easy to imagine that much of her personal life flowed into this story. I can only wonder what percentage is drawn purely from imagination. Her words are poetic, strong, sometimes racist (but I guess that's unintentional, and indicative of her time - oh well). It was a very short novel, and explores themes like love, respect, guilt, and identity. I would love to read the other four parts of 'Cities,' but mostly I want to learn more about Nin.

Rating: 7.6/10

Book 9: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Title: Persuasion
Author: Jane Austen
Length: 188 pages
Year Written: 1818
Why I chose this book: 'Persuasion' was a favorite of the protagonist in Chuck Palahniuk's books Damned and Doomed, which I read (and loved).

I "read" 'Pride and Prejudice' during my junior year of high school. I couldn't remember if I actually tried to read it and couldn't, or if I was just being a lazy asshole. When I was reminded of Jane Austen while reading another book recently (where the 13-year-old dead girl Maddy Spencer adores 'Persuasion'), I added it to my reading queue. What a mistake. I must still be an asshole, because I oh-so-barely enjoyed this novel. Even at under 200 pages, it took me a while to finish - and not for lack of trying. The language is difficult, but not the oldest writing style I've encountered this far in my bookventures. The plot is very slow, very dry, and very detailed about mundane minutiae. I actually had to look up why this book, and Austen herself, is considered so great. I know the issue lies with me, and not the book itself. I've got to pay respect. It just wasn't for me in the least bit.

I did, however, find a great review that explains what it is this book does so well, that everyone else in the world besides me seems to love: http://www.bookdrum.com/books/persuasion/9780141439686/review.html

It's a love story, like so many books are, and I can't say the end was surprising or very satisfying at all. It ends happily, but didn't make me happy. Maybe I've got to wait another eight years to take a stab at Austen appreciation.

Rating: 2/10

Book 8: This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

Title: This Is How You Lose Her
Author: Junot Diaz
Length: 217 pages
Year Written: 2012
Why I chose this book: This was a birthday gift from another of my book club ladies, Bess (this actually rounds out the birthday-given book collection)!

This was the perfect book to make up for the sluggish pace with which I read the last one. I finished this one in two to three sittings, max. The language is so engaging, so easy to ingest. I'm also glad to have read a second book by Junot Diaz—it's always great to read multiple books by the same author. There tend to be themes that reappear throughout an author's collection of works. Diaz is certainly no exception.

Much like The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the main characters are Dominican. There is again a Yunior (who some say is a novelized representation of the author himself that he uses in more than one book). There is again a weaving of narratives that portray doomed relationships, family strain, and sexual escapades. This book, written five years after Wao, is more bare-bones, more focused on smaller-scale stories that still mightily represent the human experience. The book's central theme is infidelity, and we see both how a string of relationship fuck-ups dented the main character's life, and how it seems like it was in his blood for him to fuck up as horribly and frequently as he did.

There is something we can all relate to in this book, whether it is trudging through difficult post-infidelity reconciliations, or reminiscing on the struggles of a trying childhood. Lots of people told me I'd love this book, and I'm glad to say that's absolutely the truth.

Rating: 9.5/10

Book 7: The Romance of the Forest by Ann Radcliffe

Title: The Romance of the Forest 

Author: Ann Radcliffe 

Length: 363 pages 

Year Written: 1791 

Why I chose this book: This was a birthday gift from my friend Marianna, who read this book for a gothic literature class in school. 

Wow. It's day 70 of 2014 and three weeks since I last finished a book. That definitely throws me off track, but with good reason! This book was incredibly hard to read, especially coming off of a series of rather contemporary novels. The language in this book is certainly indicative of its time, which also involves haunting abbeys and escapes by horseback. 

Important to note is that I probably never would have chosen to read this book on my own. That is the good thing about books as gifts—you are urged to explore pages that might otherwise have been forever unknown to you. The heroine of this book is named Adeline, and for a while, boy does it seem like she has the worst life ever. She is handed off to strangers by her father, who then turn around and hand her off to more strangers who are on the run from the law. She falls in love with a dude that works for a king-type of guy, and after a scuffle, he ends up injuring the head honcho and is sentenced to death. That same head honcho is relentlessly in pursuit of Adeline, who has not a penny or friend to her name. She adamantly refuses, and although the story becomes somewhat convoluted with names and flashbacks, there is a happy ending. 

This book (much like other historically based movies I've seen recently) made me think about lifestyles before technological conveniences. These were days of "meet me at sunset" scrawled on wrinkled papyrus, far before "come outside" popping up as a blue iMessage bubble. There are also strong themes of power vs. helplessness, as we see with Adeline's plight (and lack of control for her own circumstances) and the Marquis de Montalt (her pursuer) being near tyrannical with his position of authority. 

I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to anyone, unless gothic literature was already their thing. I certainly wouldn't recommend it for someone on a tight reading schedule. But, if you've got the time and the willpower, this is a pretty unique book to add to one's reading repertoire. 

Rating: 8.1/10

Book 6: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo

Title: A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
Author: Xiaolu Guo
Length: 354 pages
Year Written: 2007
Why I chose this book: This was a birthday gift from my friend Yohana, who fittingly just got back from a semester abroad in London.

This book is about a young 20-something Chinese woman who goes to study in London, completely unaccustomed to English attitudes and customs. She speaks very poor English at first, and whole book she write like this. However, through studying her translative dictionary and spending time with her newfound lover who is white and almost twice her age, she strengthens her command of the English language rapidly as the novel progresses.

The woman, who is usually referred to simply as 'Z' (because no one she encounters can pronounce her real Chinese name), quickly becomes enraptured by the lover she has only known for a few weeks, even moving in with him. He eventually encourages her to travel by herself through Europe, where lots of strange and lonely things happen. The most interesting aspect of the book, for me, was imagining myself as Z: traveling foreign lands, meeting various communication barriers, longing for something that doesn't quite come to the anticipated conclusion. The book made me think about the masses of people throughout history, my mother included, who came to a new land and felt their way blindly through. I imagine it to have a potential depth of loneliness that I've not yet experienced in my life, and coming to find a oasis of intimacy in a strange country is probably very important, as Z so poignantly demonstrates.

This book reminds me of Flowers for Algernon or even Push in its diary-like, first-person format complete with the colloquial language of the narrator. It is a sad, beautiful book that stirs up many thoughts of human nature and loneliness.

Rating: 8.8/10

Book 5: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Title: Things Fall Apart
Author: Chinua Achebe
Length: 209 pages
Year Written: 1959
Why I chose this book: This was the latest selection for my awesome book club! Thanks, Kiara!

I have always meant to read this book. Most people were required to read it at some point, but somehow I evaded that assignment in my life. Last year, when Chinua Achebe died, I added Things Fall Apart to my to-read list. Luckily, it seemed the majority of my book club had not read it either, and wanted to.

This book is written like a long Aesop's fable, from the POV of some storyteller that is privy to many personal details—though not all of them. The book follows Okonkwo, his three wives, their children, and their journey from well-respected to completely disjointed. It isn't hard to learn who Okonkwo is as a man. He is strong-willed and often violent. He makes it clear that men fight, and women talk. My favorite line from Okonkwo (that nicely sums up his general demeanor)—"If a man comes into my hut and defecates on the floor, what do I do? Do I shut my eyes? No! I take a stick and break his head. That is what a man does."

Things Fall Apart raises questions about colonization, cultural and family values, and religion. In the end, things really fell apart for Okonkwo and his family. I'm not exactly sure, however, of who we can reasonably blame for the fall.

Rating: 9.2/10