But Is the Third Novel Done?
– July 28, 2004Posted in: Uncategorized
Books To Jump Up and Down Over
Magic Hours by Tom Bissell: This marvelous collection of essays chronicles everything from film shoots to novelists rescued from oblivion. (The essay on the Underground Literary Alliance, with its portrait of raucous factions, unexpectedly reveals how soft today's literary world has become.) But if you peer between the cracks of these smart pieces, you may very well see how cultural lives are formed from the most unexpected life choices. And as we follow Bissell's development as a writer over the years, that goes for Bissell as well. (Bat Segundo interview with Bissell)
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway: Harkaway's latest novel greatly improves on his previous book, The Gone-Away World, which I'm already on record as praising. Angelmaker adopts genre elements without ever feeling like a genre book, and it leads me to believe that Harkaway is well on his way to a narrative grace close to China Miéville's. Yet inexplicably this very fun book, which includes an eightysomething badass named Edie Banister, a mysterious mechanical object that may destroy the world, farcical scenarios involving lawyers and the police, and some unexpectedly moving moments about fatherhood, doesn't appear to be getting much attention in American newspapers. Nothing from the snobs at The New York Times Book Review, nothing from The Washington Post. And since I can't get Harkaway on Bat Segundo, I hope this Jump Up and Down mention gets you hopping as well.
The Age of Insight by Eric Kandel: Unless you're really pressed for time, forget Jonah Lehrer. If you want to understand creativity and its relationship to neuroscience, then the bowtie-wearing Nobel laureate is your man. In addition to being a physically beautiful book (you will drool over many of the paintings), there are helpful overviews on optical illusions, science, biographical backgrounds, and many vital figures from the Vienna Secession. Kandel's enthusiasm (and his call for greater unity between the humanities and science) is contagious.
It think Mr. Ford will either knock the ball out of the park with “Lay of the Land” or else be inviting up reviewers to get their umbrellas out. What he’s doing with this book is tricky. It’s set roughly a year before 9/11, and he’s very interested–as the New Yorker excerpt attests–in addressing the pre-attack. For instance, Clare Suddruth’s philosophical question to Bascombe, “Do you imagine, Frank, that anything could happen in this country to make just normal not be possible again?” strikes me as perhaps a bit too much. It’s one thing to have a character say something that turns out to be prophetic. Things like that happen in life all the time. But this idea of a irretrievable “normal” in the the U.S. is a consciousness that became generally evident only after September 11. Thoughts?