Hard to put down, hard to like: IQ84

Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite authors, so I was very excited to read IQ84 as my first book of 2012.  At nearly 1,000 pages it is a behemoth of a book, and yet, not epic.  When I read such a large book, I usually expect that it will be a multi-generational sweeping tale with detailed descriptions and intricate story lines.  Yet, here Murakami focuses on a few characters within landscapes (both real and surreal, of course, as Murakami usually does), that feel sparse and cold.  IQ84 is very readable, and for that reason I found it hard to put down.  One the other hand, I found the ending very lackluster.  All in all, if you haven't read Murakami I would suggest starting with Norwegian Wood (soon to be released as a movie) and Kafka on the Shore.  As The New York Times wrote recently, Murakami certainly does have a "fierce imagination," and that is what makes him such a widely read author with almost a cult following, but for me, there was not enough to grab on to emotionally with IQ84.

Armchair travel: Around the World in 80 Days

Around the World in 80 Days, by French author Jules Verne, is a quick, enjoyable, and lighthearted read that recounts the tale of Phileas Fogg's circumnavigating the globe in eighty days as a result of a wager.  While the storyline was predictable, it is nonetheless a fun book to read.  Perhaps more interesting is to mention the time in history in which the book was written.  The novel was published in 1872, soon after three major technological breakthroughs came to fruition which would ultimately enable one to travel across the globe - the completion of the First Continental Railroad in the U.S., the linking of a railway system across India, and the opening of the Suez Canal.  This made for a good adventure tale, but I did not find the writing particularly sophisticated or memorable. 

Just can't get enough (of Steinbeck)

If you were to ask me what author to read right now, Steinbeck would be at the very top of my list.  He is simply a master of creating immensely readable and interesting stories that tackle larger subjects such as race, class, and socioeconomic status while also exploring intimate relationships among families, workers and friends.  Quite unlike the breadth of East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath (which are two of my favorite books of all time), Of Mice and Men is of much narrower focus, and is what Steinbeck himself coined as a "playable novel," that is, a novel that can also be read as a play due to its heavy emphasis on dialogue.  This short novel (you can easily read it in one sitting), tells the story of George and Lennie, two friends who stick together as they travel around California to find work as laborers.  The book explores themes of loneliness, hope, and friendship, and depicts the daily life of the laboring class during the Great Depression.  While I think it is an important piece of work and still relevant today (see the link to a recent article in the New York Times below), it is not my favorite of Steinbeck's works.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/education/studying-steinbeck-new-jersey-students-find-common-ground.html?_r=1&ref=johnsteinbeck

Back in the (Victorian) day: Dickens!

My last memory of Dickens was reading A Tale of Two Cities in high school.  I have noticed that an increasing number of book reviews make reference to a cast of "Dickensian" characters.  Curious to know what this meant, I decided to pick up this great edition of Great Expectations published by Vintage Classics in 2012, for the nifty price of $7.00!  In this famous tale, Dickens tells the story of the iconic Pip, an orphan who grows up in a working class household, destined to be a blacksmith until a mysterious benefactor grants him the opportunity to become a "gentleman."  This is a wonderful bildungsroman, which not only tells the story of Pip's coming of age, but also explores such themes as social class and loyalty.  Also, Dickens includes many characters and describes them with panache, for example, referring to one character's "walnut-shell countenance," another one's "sawdusty fragrance," and my favorite, the "Pumblechookian elbow."  I also liked this sentence - "Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts."  The novel moved along quickly and held my interest, though it did drag toward the end.  While this wasn't a standout read for me, I'm glad I reacquainted myself with this classic author considered to be essential to any reader's literary canon.