Yet More What I’m reading

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Okay, okay. I know this is old news. But I’m firmly of the belief that reading widely doesn’t just mean reading “the latest thing,” and that reading the big whatever of a decade ago is often an inherently more illuminating experience. Anyway, America Psycho, for all its late-80s sheen, comes across as a surprisingly, indeed alarmingly, timeless piece. What’s most impressive and disturbing is the sheer authority of the writing, and the way the move from social comedy to horrific slaughter is achieved without the slightest change in pace. It's still the darkest possible commentary on an empty society.

The Best of Sci-Fi 12 edited by Judith Merrill

What a sadly elevating experience reading this book is. In 1966/7 when most of these pieces were written, SF was on the breaking wave of cutting edge literature. You only have to look at the names included in this anthology — William Burroughs, John Updike, J G Ballard, Brian Aldiss, Samuel R. Delany — to see how badly SF has fared since. Every story is different, and all of them push at one or another boundary, as do Merrill’s fragmented links. Sure, not all of it has stood the test of time, but there’s some fine work here, especially by the British writers. What a shame that so much of what appears probably wouldn’t even be thought of as “SF” — or the sad, narrow hybrid of so-called “hard science” (which is nothing of the sort) and “adventure” (ditto) which the genre’s become — nowadays.

The Wall of the Sky, The Wall of the Eye by Jonathan Lethem

Lethem's one of those (very few) writers who writes SF, yet is able to get away with swimming at the edge of the mainstream. His style is crisp and sure, yet his approach to such matters as alien invasion and various strangenesses is so often so oblique that you're left feeling unsure about what you've just read. At times, his writing can be frustratingly detached, but he's always interesting, and sometimes, as in the Kafkaesque Hardened Criminals, he can be brilliant. At his best, he reminds me of Steely Dan's lyrics - and I can't think of any greater praise. If you care about fresh, edgy writing and haven't investigated Lethem, do so. Now.

Flicker by Theodore Roszak

I'm grateful to Rog Peyton for recommending this big, paranoid thriller about the movies, which attempts (and, in large part, succeeds) in being both gripping and intelligent. Flicker dips into some of the same territory as The Da Vinci Code, but, although it did so ten years earlier, there's nothing particularly new in that. What is impressive, and what, ultimately, sticks in the mind, is Roszak's love and knowledge of the movies, and the power they still possess.

Property by Valerie Martin

Here’s a novel which deals with the issues of slavery in America in a concise and interesting way. The viewpoint is entirely that of the slave-owners, and, more specifically, that of a shallow and self-obsessed and woman named Manon, who has found herself married to the even less likable owner of a failing plantation. I was talking with Terry Brooks at a recent Worldcon panel about portraying evil and/or unsympathetic characters, and I think we both agreed that the way to do so was to ensure that the piece you were writing had a moral context; otherwise, the reader becomes either disinvolved or disgusted. Property is a near-perfect example of how chillingly this can be done.

Dinosaur in a Haystack Stephen Jay Gould

Reading Gould's collections of scientific essays has been a pleasure I've returned to over the years. The ones I enjoy best are the most off-the-wall. There's a lovely piece here, for example, about a textbook on molluscs which Edgar Allan Poe wrote. Most biographers of Poe skirt around this as an oddity, but Gould gives it the typically witty and full treatment it deserves. Being a leading American palaeontologist, Gould spent rather too much time debunking the stupid Creationist arguments which seem to have such a hold over there. But I suppose that was inevitable, living in the climate in which he lived. Sadly, he's no longer with us - although Gould's one of those writers who's so vibrant in his approach to life that it's hard to imagine him not being here.

Toni Morrison: Beloved - Clever, but not from the heart

Let’s start with a book I’m not reading, although it’s not for want of trying. This is the second time I’ve tried Beloved. First time, I managed a few pages. This time, I got to halfway. There’s a lot to admire in Morrison’s writing. She blends the gothic, magical realism and realistic aspects of her work about a poor black family living in America the 1880s with almost offhand brilliance. But there’s too much else about the book which seems offhand as well. Despite the understated way she deals with the considerable suffering (which I’m sure is historically documented) she inflicts on her characters, I was never convinced by it. The fractured way in which she deals with plot, and, indeed with scene and character, also seems clever rather than the sort of writing which comes from the heart. I can see why the book’s received so much praise and won so many awards, but for me it was over-academic, over-calculated and manipulative.

William Finnegan: Cold New World - Compassionate and vivid

This is a much better book about the plight of the (modern) poor in America. It came into my hands by my usual means of scrambling through the local charity shops. In some ways a similar work to Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s brilliant Random Family, Cold New World deals with big social issues by the tried-and-tested way of looking at the lives of individuals. In compassionate, vivid prose, Finnegan deals without judgement about a wide range of the underclass. Endlessly amazing, and filled with endless stories…