B List: Between books at present
C List: Knausgaard, Volume 4..................................................464/502
Still trying to finish a report for the B list.
This is a new Dickens for me, and so far it seems to me a worthy enough addition to his oeuvre. The humor and the ingenious hyperbolic sentences and descriptions are as prominent and entertaining as ever. I don't know whether it is because I am too distracted when I read these A-list books or not but I am having a little trouble getting immersed enough to keep the thread of the plot and the various relationships and romantic interests straight. This may also be the reason however why this particular book is not usually considered with the top rank of Dickens's novels, as it otherwise shares what I usually find to be their best characteristics.
When I was reading the Henry James that absorbed so much of my mental energy I largely put Knausgaard aside for several weeks. However on picking him up again in the interval between B books I have been able to come near to finishing it pretty quickly. My opinion on him is consistent with what I have written elsewhere. He is interesting enough and smart enough that I keep reading him, obviously, though the action is really quite commonplace and doesn't lead to anything Important or mind-changing, which I suppose is what we are supposed to be looking for. This volume centers on Knausgaard's teenage years, and at 18 he has still not successfully completed coitus with a woman, but he has been in bed naked with a lot of women, five or six at least, and made out with several more. He was definitely part of the sensual world with opportunities bursting upon him at seemingly every turn. (I was not. I was not. I was not. I was not. I was not. I wa.........)
I probably won't be getting to volume 5 for a while now, as I have 3 C-list books waiting in the queue, plus I got a modern book for Christmas that I intend to try to read in the Knausgaard spot, i.e., when I come to a point where I have finished a C-list book without the next one lined up.
Pictures?
Out of time this month.
No comments:
Post a Comment