The Circus Presents – Two Great Books for Summer Reading!

For those academics that miss the thrill of mandatory readings over your summer vacation, despair no more. I feel it necessary to share another Circus approved list of novels that I feel are not only mandatory to read within the span of your lifetime, but are appropriate to share during times of heat, vacations, and fireworks. I only selected two this time around to keep the list more manageable 😉  Enjoy!

The Hours — Michael Cunningham 

The best thing about summer reads is that they aren’t too heavy. They are usually quick, profound, and lasting even though they are slightly cushy on the brain. I wouldn’t necessarily say that this means that The Hours is cushy. For anyone that has seen the excellent, excellent heart breaking film based on this book, you know its not necessarily “light” and “happy.” But it is triumphant and inspiring. It is a very quick read. The Hours floats between the musings of poets, party throwers, and house wives and examines the relationships and beauty of love in a very pure way that makes music through words. I first read it while travelling in Japan. I read the entire thing in two days on trains passing through gorgeous mountainous kyushu countryside and the cadence of such an experience still resonates with me today. If you are a literature fan and enjoy the works of Virginia Wolfe, this novel will speak to you directly since it examines her life, relationships, and writings of Mrs. Dalloway. It is an excellent quick read and I believe that it will leave a distinctive mark on its readers. It goes fast but it slows down time for you so that you can really feel the presence of each moment and all the hours.

Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World — Haruki Murakami

 

It seems I can’t manage to put up a list without including Haruki Murakami. So sue me; I don’t care. He is one of the most underrated writers of our times and his works are fantastic. Perhaps harping on about him will result in at least one reader giving him a go — and then that will make my echoing praise worth all the rolled eyes and exasperation. This novel was my very first Murakami book — the one that started it all. It’s perfect for the summer in the sense that it feels like Murakami is attempting an action flick. It reads more like a thriller than his other novels. Wind Up Bird is his war novel, Kafka is his coming of age story — and Hard Boiled? Well its Murakami’s Inception. I particularly like this edition and image from the novel — the mirror image of a young girls eye…The experience of reading any Murakami novel is to fall down the rabbit hole. I would say this novel is the ultimate rabbit hole because your narrator and main hero experiences that plummet within his own consciousness. You, the reader, are a cryptic witness but also you decode the layers of reality and peel back the layers of narrative from modern day Tokyo and find that you are experiencing the act of hypnosis…of deep withdrawal into the consciousness…and suddenly a time bomb ignites. It’s one of Murakami’s most exciting novels. Read it!

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The Circus Reopens — and reviews Karen Russell’s Swamplandia!

Swamplandia! = B+

I won’t even contrive an excuse for not blogging over the past couple of months. I’ll just jump back into it.

And I couldn’t think of a better book to start with!

I’ve read a lot of books…but none quite like this one. It didn’t start off smooth at all. I was extremely skeptical and not comforted by the first 30-50 pages. I began to doubt my ability in selecting a higher quality of reading material than your average grocery store mystery. But somewhere in between the exposition and climax, I’m happy to say that things turned around.

I think, in a lot of ways, Swamplandia is an experiment with your average ghost story. There are ghosts, seances, possessions…even an allegorical descent into the underworld. It has elements of a southern gothic too — with a rich environment that isn’t just picturesque –it’s alive. Your territory as the reader is just as murky and strange as it is for the characters.  Yes, its mystical and dark, and features a surreal Floridian twist on reality. It’s also soft and curious and imaginative in a refreshing way. It really is the product of its time.

At first I wasn’t sure — because there really is no real introduction into what is believable and discernible in Russell’s strange world. She is counting on you to eventually get caught up and used to her characters’ neurosis and their strange way of living — a quacky kind of poverty. Everything is nostalgic and strange in Swamplandia! — even down to the Bigtree family museum that houses artifacts from the family’s Genesis.  It really has the feel and sharp edges of a bumpy carnival ride into the backwaters of the Everglades…but essentially it is more than just the thrill and imagery — but an ode to devastating loss that is captured through a diverse writing style — a really unique imagery in a really unique setting.

There are two narrative conventions used in this novel. Half is 1st person narrative — Ava who is our main character and alligator wrestling champ. It’s her eyes that are the most wild and also skeptical. The other half is third person. The narrator observes Kiwi’s attempts to leave the swamp and assimilate with “mainland” culture.

The contrast really pushes the plot forward and is a refreshing change of pace. I have to say — the novel wouldn’t have worked JUST from Ava or Kiwi’s perspectives independently…but the interwoven pieces are much better at bringing a sense a believability and depth to the family dynamic that is the Bigtree family. I’ve read stories that used similar conventions…but there was something a bit outlandish here that really works and was quite interesting to read.

The mystical parts of the narrative revolve around Ava and Kiwi’s big sister Osceola’s sudden obsession with the occult, witchcraft, and talking with spirits. Her obsession is really mental illness – or is it? And with the Dredgman’s Revelation (one strange chapter) — I really started to question my own judgments I had made as a reader. I never really could land on one conclusion about TRUTH in this novel…and that is what is SO awesome about it.

All of it is tied to loss. Grief. All three siblings have lost their mother and experience that grief in different ways and through different paths. Each path is symbolic — Kiwi’s is quite sardonic, Ava’s is thrilling and horrifying, and Osceola’s is quite…well…Dante-ish for lack of a better term.

Osceola is the one character that didn’t quite get on my good side…but its’ not really ABOUT her. She is meant to be hard to grasp — a mirage for both Ava and Kiwi to make their own judgments in their pursuit to  “save her.” Ava’s pursuit and kidnapping of the strange Bird Man character is both the high light and heart break of the story…but her resilience was in no way cliche –but quite brave of Russell. I really think it was a new way of looking at recovery — at maturity…and at overcoming your environment.

Overall — I would highly recommend Swamplandia! though I know not every reader will really appreciate or love it. I think that it is a nice twist on your southern novel. I do hope to give it another read and approach it from a whole new perspective one day — because it feels like one of those tales that always morphs and changes with the telling.

And I think that Karen Russell has proven that she is quite a different sort of story teller…in a good way.

If you enjoy a pinch of humor, a dab of mystical surrealism, and a hint of allegorical pilgrimages into the depths of hell and back again, then you will find something to like…and of course, you need to have a penchant for alligators.

Until next time!

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