Opening Sentence of the Day: Portland Noir

"I wonder how people think of Portland from the outside."

-- From the Introduction to Portland Noir, edited by Kevin Sampsell.

This is part of the Akashic Books Noir series, "a groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book."

This one has been languishing on my Guilt List for too long! I started it yesterday and am now entranced by these moody, sometimes creepy, stories set in my own city.

Review of the Day: The Studs Lonigan Trilogy

James Farrell's Studs Lonigan trilogy is justly lauded as a milestone in American literature, a monument to a new "naturalist" style. But monuments can be boring, even if they are important.

The trilogy has not aged well. The slang the characters use, their clothes, even some of their concerns, are anachronisms now that require a great deal of "willing suspension" to appreciate the spot on description of the rough world of second generation, Irish Catholic toughs in Chicago in the 1920s. This is definitely not the glittery 1920s of Fitzgerald or Dorothy Parker!

The final book of the trilogy, Judgment Day, is the longest of the three and the most accessible. Unlike the first two volumes, which concern mostly what is inside Lonigan's head, there is a lot of plot and action in this one.

Judgment Day takes a compelling look at the Great Depression, focusing on the middle class characters and what they lose because of the depression. Because these people have jobs, own their own businesses, invest in real estate, speculate on the stock market, they seem more familiar and relevant than Dust Bowl dirt farmers (The Grapes of Wrath), labor agitators (The USA Trilogy), or other soup line characters from books and movies about the Great Depression.

Except for compulsive "list" readers, skipping the first two volumes and only reading Judgment Day may be the way to go. It stands alone as the most worthwhile of the three.


NOTES

I read Studs Lonigan a couple of years ago. I am only posting my review now because I am updating my Modern Library Top 100 post to include my comments about the books I read.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

Opening Sentence of the Day: Fishes & Dishes

Fishes & Dishes is a collection of recipes and stories by sisters Kiyo and Tomi Marsh and friend Laura Cooper, with contributions from women like us -- women who have worked in commercial fishing in Alaska.

--From the Introduction to Fishes and Dishes: Seafood Recipes and Salty Stories from Alaska's Commercial Fisherwomen by Kiyo Marsh, Tomi Marsh, and Laura Cooper.

OK, that sentence is a little dry, and the switch from third to first person, while understandable, is awkward. But this has all the makings of a terrific book, so I'll cut them some slack.

There are plenty of other books that have been sitting on my Guilt List longer than this one has. But it is too tempting to pass up. I already know that I'll be getting it for my adventuresome friend Tracey for her birthday -- even though I think it may inspire her to buy a fishing boat and sail the seas.

Announcements

The February edition of the Internet Review of Books is live now. It looks like an amazing edition, packed with lots of great reviews. I am very pleased that my review of Eden Springs is in the Brief Review section.

My second announcement is not all that exciting, except for me because I have been meaning to get around to this task for a long time. I finally updated my post on the Modern Library's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century list.

Completing all the books on that list was one of the things that inspired me to start this blog.  But that also meant that it was one of the very first posts I put up and, looking back at it, it was very difficult to read. The layout was bad. And it did not include links to my reviews, which I have now added.

Thanks goes to 100 Books/100 Journeys for getting me interested in the Modern Library list again. She has a great blog dedicated to reading the books on this list. (Although I worry that she may be disappointed when she comes to appreciate that there are 121 books on this list -- but "121 Books/121 Journeys" just does not have the same ring to it).

If anyone else is reading the books on the Modern Library list, please leave a comment on the main post with a link to your progress report (or your blog if is it dedicated to the list) and I will add it.

Review of the Day: Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five is an incredible novel, but it is not a book for me. 

I had avoided reading this famous book because I thought it would be unbearably dreary. How could a book about the firebombing of Dresden during WWII not be dreary? But it is on the Modern Library's Top 100 list, so I finally read it.  Now I know the answer: If you write a book about the firebombing of Dresden and fill it with time travel, space ships, and extraterrestrials, it's not dreary, it's goofy.

But I don't like goofy books about extraterrestrials, especially when they are really serious books about the morality of firebombing your enemy during war. I realized that I would rather have a dreary, realistic book than a goofy book.


NOTES

I read Slaughterhouse-Five a couple of years ago. I am only posting my review now because I am updating my Modern Library Top 100 post to include my comments about the books I read.

There are people who feel very strongly that this is the greatest book ever written. I know this because when I first posted my review on LibraryThing, several of them sent me comments expressing their disappointment that we didn't see eye to eye. (That is a watered-down description -- what I actually got were Unibomber-style manifestos on Vonnegut's genius.) 

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it -- unless your review is a Unibomber-style manifesto.)