Book 16: Mary by Vladimir Nabokov

Title: Mary
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Length: 114 pages
Year Written: 1926
Why I chose this book: I was once intrigued with (Nabakov's most famous novel) Lolita, and purchased this book in 2012 to explore more of his writing (as you can see, I have a habit of buying books and not reading them immediately).

I love books that have plots socially predating modern forms of technology. You know, the stories involving letters that take weeks to reach their recipients, and love affairs that spawned from a chance locking of eyes at the local fair. That kind of stuff. No phone numbers, no email addresses. Definitely no Instagrams.

The main character of this book is Ganin (which I believe is his nickname - the book was originally written in Russian so perhaps some things are lost in translation for me), who is a young guy (20s, maybe) staying in a boarding house with a bunch of random roommates. He learns that one of his housemates is awaiting the arrival of his wife, Mary. In some way or another, Ganin determines that this is the same lovely young Mary with whom he'd fallen in love and had a brief affair with a few years prior.

The book is very short, and not much happens. It seems like Nabokov spends a bulk of the novel just setting the scene, and there isn't actually much action. My favorite part of the book comes quite near the end, and it really spoke to me about the validity and importance of memories versus reality. Ganin was holding on to memories of a woman he had only known for a few days, and in his mind their relationship took on a new life. In reality, however, he was likely nowhere as important to her. After all, she'd gotten married to another man. Such is life.

Nabokov is smart and artistic, and although Mary is nowhere near as layered or heavy as Lolita (which comes later, as this was his debut novel), it was still a fairly enjoyable read with subtle yet vivid imagery.

Rating: 7.8/10

Book 15: We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

Title: We Need New Names
Author: NoViolet Bulawayo
Length: 292 pages
Year Written: 2013
Why I chose this book: This book was actually on display at the library, and after reading a few pages I decided I'd buy it from Amazon.

We Need New Names is the story of a young girl named Darling who is from Zimbabwe, but moves to Detroit to live with her aunt, leaving behind a colorful cast of friends named Bastard, Chipo, Sbho, Stina, and Godknows. The first half of the book follows Darling's life in Zimbabwe, where she spends much of her time ransacking guava trees with her hungry, feisty friends. Though pre-teens, these kids are sharp-witted (though often imprecise) and face an environment of poverty, violence and racial conflict with a flippancy that could come only from children. Darling brags about what she will have in America, only to move to Detroit with her aunt Fostalina and realize that not all Americans live in luxury.

The second half of the book is dedicated to Darling's acclimation to the United States as it parallels with her formative teenage and young adult years. There is a noticeable rift between her and the friends she left behind, and she grapples with her new surroundings and just where she considers "home" to be.

We Need New Names is riveting, and at many times heartbreaking. One of the saddest and most memorable scenes of the book is one that is responsible for its title—it involves a bunch of clueless children attempting to address the issue of 11-year-old Chipo's pregnancy, since her condition hindered their game-playing. It was an extremely unnerving chapter to read. Overall, the book is craftily written, weaving together different cultures and opinions and stereotypes to create a story that feels very honest. Darling's story is the story of many just like her, and reflect even broader themes of cultural identity and negotiation. This is a really great first novel from Bulawayo and I am excited to see more from her.

Rating: 9.6/10

Book 14: Indignation by Philip Roth

Title: Indignation
Author: Philip Roth
Length: 233 pages
Year written: 2005
Why I chose this book: I bought this book on sale when Borders went out of business. It's been laying around for a few years.

Philip Roth is old. Apparently, he's quite the productive author as well. Indignation is third novel Roth released within three consecutive years. He wrote two more in the following two years, and nearly thirty in his entire career. Though this is the first novel of his that I've read, I can bet that many of the book's themes are personal to Roth and appear across his many works.

Indignation takes place in the early 1950s during the Korean War. The main character, college freshman Marcus Messner, is Jewish and overall quite the irritable and indignant (hey!) guy. His father's paranoia about Marcus getting into trouble or getting killed drive him away mentally and eventually physically, when he transfers to an out-of-state college to avoid his dad's overbearing behavior. At his new school, he finds multiple dorm arrangements to be intolerable, and ends up living alone in the worst room on campus. On top of all of this, he goes on a date with the campus nutbag, Olivia (who is a "goddess," but sports a scar on her wrist from an unsuccessful suicide attempt). His strange, stilted relationship with her seems to govern most of his actions thereafter, and for lack of better words (and to avoid revealing too much about the plot), it all spirals downward. I was reminded of the tragic movie The Butterfly Effect (featuring cinematic genius Ashton Kutcher) — as his dad warned him, every small misstep has the potential for tragic consequences.

Roth is funny, disgusting, and powerful as a writer. I'd definitely be interested to read some of his more famed works.

Rating: 8.5/10

Book 13: Sanshiro by Natsume Soseki

Title: Sanshiro
Author: Natsume Soseki
Length: 228 pages
Year Written: 1908
Why I chose this book: I read somewhere that Haruki Murakami is a big fan of Natsume Soseki, and I was curious to know more about my inspiration's inspiration (in fact, Murakami wrote the introduction to this version of Sanshiro).

I did it again. I read a whole book, only to realize at the end that it is the first of a series. First of all, this book took me just over a month to finish (life has been a bit hectic). Secondly, the plot was so subtle that I can't really remember what happened. This 50 book challenge has really been a challenge of a new kind. Let me try to feel my way through this.

Sanshiro is about a 23-year-old guy who's just left a small community college in his rural hometown for a big university in Tokyo. He is the equivalent of a kid who's spent his whole life in Oklahoma and then heads for NYU. He is confused by the banter, the customs, and especially the women (this was written during a time, apparently, when women were like toy poodles and had to be escorted everywhere). He develops an intense crush on a woman named Mineko, who is coy, reserved, and yet bolder than any chick Sanshiro's ever encountered. The pace of the book is very slow, and really seems to spare no expense on setting the scene of Sanshiro's maiden voyage. Compared to Murakami's writing (which came several decades later), Soseki can seem a bit dry, but it does not deduct from the beauty and elegance of his storytelling technique. This book required a bit of patience, but at the least it was an ethereal experience.

Rating: 8/10

Book 12: Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Title: Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Length: 115 pages
Year Written: 2005
Why I chose this book: I bought this book as well as Love and Other Demons by Marquez a few years ago, and hadn't read either until recently. It was a very slim book, and I was intrigued to find out what level of storytelling he could accomplish in that number of pages.

One thing I always think about when I'm reading, without fail, is what was going through the author's mind when they chose that thought, that sentence, that idea. Memories of My Melancholy Whores is about an old bachelor deciding to celebrate the end of his run as an octogenarian with a virgin prostitute. Here enters 14-year-old "Delgadina" (he doesn't know, and doesn't want to know her real name). We don't hear directly from her the entire novel, but we are led to believe she fell just as deeply in love with the 90-year-old narrator as he did with her. However, it is the narrator's own assertion that he is prone to telling the same stories to friends over and over — and one can only imagine the credibility (or lack of) that such a fact lends to his perception and honesty in telling this tale. The narrator recounts moments throughout his life, mainly encounters with women that never coincided with romance or love. In Delgadina, he finally finds the elusive fuse in his heart and sets it aflame. While reading, I constantly wondered whether these were the diluted experiences of Marquez himself, and if not, how he dreamed up such a love story.

In our society, this storyline falls under the category of pure perversion. In different cultures, and throughout time, no one would bat an eye at what transpires between Delgadina and the old bachelor. It was very interesting to read this story from the most unbiased perspective I could adopt. In the few pages he wrote, Marquez tells a very tender tale of romance and awakening, if only on the narrator's behalf.

Rating: 7.9/10

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