Thursday, November 5th, 2009
My summer and winter reading couldn’t be more different. In the summer, like a lot of people, I want something fast; something that moves and communicates and gives me a good, satisfying story. But with winter on its way I want books as heavy as bowling balls; stories you feel like crawling into a cave with and rolling the stone to shut yourself in. I want dense, crowded books that give you a universe but make you work for it.
This is my to-read list…
Imperial, William T. Vollman
With fiction, I write about where I grew up and, because of that, I do a lot of reading within the region. Narrowing the focus even further, Vollman’s Imperial is 1,300 pages on a single county in my hometown. I’d say that makes it essential.
Ulysses, James Joyce
I’m actually on this one already. Halfway through. People talk a lot about Ulysses being dense and referential to the point of unreadability but I think I must’ve just found it at the right time in my life. I get this book. It’s funny, engaging, and it hits you with some truth that’s hard to miss. Over the course of 900,000 pages we follow Leopold Bloom through one day in 1904 Dublin. But it’s more than that. It’s life; a big, struggling, wormy, steaming, scary, laughing, vomiting chunk of it.
Black Spring, Henry Miller
I started Black Spring a few years ago and thought it was crazy, unintelligible B.S. This was before I’d read any Miller and a book like this is not a good gateway. You need to read the lighter stuff first, the Tropics, maybe the Rosy Crucifixion. But now, just a few years later, Miller’s my guy. I’m ready.
The Reivers, William Faulkner
Same as above. This was the first Faulkner I read. Story of three thieves and a car. Not a lot of payoff. Very Southern and dry. Didn’t feel it. Then, this summer, a friend gave me Faulkner’s The Wild Palms, and his style suddenly made sense. Now I’m down for a reread.
Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
Moby-Dick is no simple man versus whale story. Melville’s greatest is a wordy, complex, labyrinthine piece of experimental prose. To think this was published and read when it was blows my mind. Where were people’s heads at back when this was released? Definitely not where they are now. Maybe we’ve hit a sagging point in culture–or maybe the collective consciousness doesn’t need books like this anymore. Whatever it is, no agent in their right mind would pick this up in 2009. And that’s a shame.
So there’s my list. None of these are easy books but they’re worth your time. Dig in. Hunker down. Here come the dark months…
BIO: Adam Gnade's (guh nah dee) work is released as a series of books and records that share characters and themes; the fiction writing continuing plot-lines left open by the self-described "talking songs" in an attempt to compile a vast, detailed, interconnected, personal history of contemporary American life. Check out recent writing here and songs here. Contact: adam@asthmatickitty.com