It's been a while since I've written, which sometimes happens when I go on a reading spree and am too absorbed in picking up my next book to write about the one I just finished.
There is exactly one month left of my summer, and of now I have read sixteen books! Though a lot of these are shorter than books I usually read, I've enjoyed them all. I want to write about the one I most recently finished, though I will keep all my comments as short as I can, considering I have five books to write about.
As Meat Loves Salt, Maria McCann
I withhold a full 5 star rating simply because I don't think I could recommend this book to many people, though my personal experience with it was 5 stars. The novel raised serious questions of sin, reparation, penance, eternal damnation, all the while demonstrating that it's the consequences of our own actions, faced on this earth, that punish, torment.
Set in mid-17th century England, As Meat Loves Salt is a sprawling novel that moves through the downstairs life of gentry servants, the battlefields and camps of the Civil War, London in all its foul glory, and finally to the English country sides. It follows Jacob, who, after being found out as a murderer, must run away with his bride and brother. But Jacob then finds himself alone, lost, hungry, and guilty. He meets Ferris, a soldier in The New Model Army, who saves his life. A friendship between them grows, but a friendship with Jacob is dangerous. Jacob is jealous and relies on his strength to deal with all the conflicts he imagines. Ferris understand this about Jacob, however, and they desert the army together, Ferris hopimg to avoid any confrontations Jacob may later regret. When they arrive at Ferris' home in London, the true drama begins to lay itself out.
Throughout the whole novel, Jacob imagines, dreads and anticipates his going to Hell, only to bring it upon himself (and others) while still living. Thanks to Good Reads, I've been able to record the vicissitudes of emotional reactions I had while reading As Meat Loves Salt, all which contributed to the sadness I felt upon finishing the novel. This sadness had everything to do with both the actual story content, the tragedy of As Meat Loves Salt, as well as with the regret that such an overwhelming, complex, and frightening novel had come to an end.
" Intriguing…I just hateee Jacob, or now Rupert. The Kindle edition also has an infuriating amount of really bad typos- sometimes whole words are just gone...I've been thrust in this story that seems to be going in all sorts of unseen directions!" --> "It's hard to read a book where the narrator is as repulsive as Jacob... He's cruel, jealous, unthinking and so unendingly frustrating. There is something to him, however, that stops you from just throwing the book away…" --> "I am definitely warming up to Jacob... his love for Ferris is redemptive in my eyes. He is not a bad person, though he hath done cruel things. I find this third era of his life to be the most boring, the whole colony thing is quite strange, but it gives him more of a chance to prove his goodness!" --> "…maybe Jacob does not have it in him to overcome his own evil- wrath, violence, mastery. His love for Ferris, which is true and great, it breaks my heart, was not enough. Or rather, it was too much…This won't end well."
I picked this book to read simply because of how amazing reader reviews were. I had no idea what the plot was or anything, I just knew it left a lot of people feeling emotionally overwrought and irrevocably embroiled in a passionate story that is visceral and unique, beautiful, and horrifying. Again, I don't know if everyone would like this novel. I find it hard to convince someone that they will feel as attached, as empathetic towards Jacob as I often felt, when it is hard to deny his seriously flawed nature. Also, it is quite explicit in its dealings with Jacob and Ferris' homosexual relationship. That is not to say I did not enjoy this aspect of the novel, which blew me away in its raw emotional intensity. It was a more moving romance (gone wrong) than presented in many other novels, heterosexual or otherwise. If one is comfortable about getting into the mind of a fervently possessive man disposed to violence, and are okay with gay sex scenes, than yes--read this book. Read it now. Because for whatever reason, this book might be my favorite of the summer.
Bluebeard, Kurt Vonnegut
It's quite a shame that I did not write about this while I was reading it, but I must confess I find myself uncomfortable with writing anything about Vonnegut's books. I feel like I am never quite sure of the message, like I can't read what he's really saying. His sentences ostensibly childlike in their simplicity and directness, but there is a complexity in them that always make me feel like I'm missing what's unsaid and more important. Bluebeard is a fictitious autobiography of a man reaching old age who failed at most things in life (being a painter, a father, a husband) and only succeeded at other things by accident (a collector, a soldier). More importantly, it chronicles how this man finally came to do something with soul, with meaning and purpose.
Taipai, Tao Lin
Maybe one of the weirder books I read this summer, I started off really enjoying this novel, but ended feeling a little ambivalent. Reading about an extremely contemporary way of life can sometimes be boring or uncomofortable, but Taipei drew me in with a very unique, breezy-yet-deadly-serious feel. The main character, Paul, may be having a level of success as a writer, but he is also dealing with some profound issues. Along with his "spiraling out of control" habit of drug use, he is feeling a certain amount of depression and isolation, regardless of his frequent partying, socializing, and romantic endeavors. Tai Pei seems to be about Paul, who I think is really a partial reflection of Tao Lin, suddenly finding out he is an adult without even an instruction manual to go by. The writing, though colloquial, funny and sometimes ironically mocking, can be extremely beautiful, with tiered sentences to match Proust. The content of these sentences often had me closing the book to just think about what I had just read. This mostly happened in the beginning of the book, which I feel was very different than from the second half (and better).
Anyways, I think that's all for now! 'Till Next Time...
The Avid Readr
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