Hersey and McCarthy

Hiroshima by John Hersey

It doesn't quite feel right to describe this as a "good book" because of the subject that it deals with in harsh details, but it certainly is captivating. Hersey's journalistic approach presents the stories of five people who were in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan. He recounts where they were, their struggle in the days, weeks, and months following the attack, and, in an updated version of the book, revisits his characters forty years after to summarize how the rest of their lives played out.

It is a sobering account of the lives of people who lived through certain hell and told with such vivid description. Some of the characters lives are truly ruined by the event while others show an unprecedented triumph of the human spirit. It is an incredibly up-close, ugly picture of that kind of war, but one that should be understood.

Remainder by Tom McCarthy

This is probably one of the strangest books I've read, but it has a great hook at the beginning and finishes well at the end, the middle was a little sluggish - perhaps intentionally.

The story follows a man who was injured in a mysterious accident and receives a huge financial settlement as compensation. As he deliberates on what to spend this money on, he has this lightbulb-above-the-head moment, a certain clarity of what he wants to do with his money. He begins to re-enact places and events in his life. For example, his first re-enactment is this apartment complex with a lady below him who cooks liver and a pianist practicing a piece of music over and over. He re-creates this using actors and props to simulate the smell of the liver wafting through his window and the sound of the piano up through the floor boards. He goes on to re-enact an event in a tire shop, murders on the street, and a bank robbery. The attention to detail and small seemingly insignificant things is obsessive.

The writing and commentary is sharp and biting, but I didn't find it quite as smart as, say, Chuck Palahniuk in Fight Club or Survivor - but it has that sort of tone. I really enjoyed this and, if nothing else, it's certainly different than anything else you are likely to read. I think it has really interesting things to say about happiness and the memory of happiness.

The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway

I'm really not sure what to write to convince you to read this book. I absolutely adore Hemingway and this book is right behind Farewell to Arms as my favorite one of his books. The story begins in France and features Jake Barnes, as the protagonist, with his friends on their experience of the fiestas, running of the bulls, and bullfighting in Spain.

To me, it might be the quintessential Hemingway novel, capturing everything that immediately comes to mind when I think of his stories - likable but tortured main characters, unrequited love, wine, and bullfighting. I find Lady Ashley one of the most memorable female characters in his books--although I despising her throughout most of it. She is very alive and Hemingway does such a good job of creating characters that the reader knows and identifies with. It's almost as if you could put people you know in the cast to play out the story. The Sun Also Rises and The Great Gatsby were both written around the same time and attempt to capture the essence of the "Lost Generation" following WWI.

Someone told me this week that they were afraid that I had an inclination to melancholy art -- depressing songs, sad books, heartbreaking movies. I started thinking about that and why that might be true. I remember having such a strong connection with Farewell to Arms, which is the saddest story I've read, but I was so invested in the story that I specifically recall the feeling I had when I finished it. Timing is everything when it comes to those things - sometimes you read a book, watch a movie, or listed to a song at the right time, and no matter how dark it is, you are still able to take comfort in identifying with it and are able to find some joy in it.

I had read The Sun Also Rises before and I remember not connecting with it or loving it. This second time around was really good timing.

Read this book. Read it every year. It really is that good - I'll name it as my favorite of 2010 thus far.

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

A dystopian novel inspired on the Russian revolutions in 1905 and 1917 with similar themes in other such books like 1984, Brave New World, and Anthem. I felt like this books rings a bit more true than those books since the author lived in a repressive society, but who knows.


It follows the story of a mathematician named D-503 and his girlfriend, O-90, and a woman he becomes infatuated with, I-330. I-330 is completely counter-cultural to The One State and D-503 discovers her plan to overthrow the totalitarian society. D-503 begins to have dreams and explore his imagination - both of which The One State portrays as mental illnesses, which can be fixed by "The Great Operation" - a lobotomy.

I found the book pretty difficult to read and follow in certain parts and had to re-read chapters a few times to make sure I was keeping up with the story. As far as the writing goes, it's pretty clever. D-503, as a mathematician, describes everything he experiences - sex, food, objects - in mathematical terms, showing how his job and duty to The One State is the most important facet of his life. As he interacts more with I-330, he begins to describe experiences less quantitatively and more subjectively and romantically, which I thought was a really well-written part of the book in order to show D-503's change in thinking and the influence of I-330 on D-503's psychology. I really enjoy these dystopian novels, but I think I enjoyed the ending of this one the most.