3 Fiction

1. The Street of Crocodiles. Bruno Schulz. Translated by Celina Wieniewska.
Sometimes the book is published under the title Cinnamon Shops, but I think it's usually billed as TSOC. The translation is a feat in and of itself. TSOC is a "collection" of longish-stories about Bruno's childhood, written from a child's point of view....not strictly autobiographical but not made-up, either. More memoir-ish. It's an incredible book-- mythological, imaginative, particular, innocent, a little claustrophobic but "big" at the same time. I haven't read anything like TSOC. Schulz is a rare talent. A writing god. I think some would say that his prose is like poetry, but I don't think he's aiming to write poetry. He stays true to the beat of the prose and shows that a lot of magic can happen in a sentence.

2. Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte.
My favorite novel ever. I read Jane Eyre a year or so ago. I was convinced that Jane Eyre could be nothing but a very bad book. I imagined it'd be about as exciting as reading Aphra Behn or Phyllis Wheatley or Mary Rowlandson whining about her baby. I was wrong. All in all, it's a sheer delight to read. I love the novel the most for it's imperfections.

G.K. Chesterton says this about Jane Eyre:

"'Jane Eyre' is in itself so monstrous a fable that it ought to be excluded from a book of fairy tales. The characters do not do what they ought to do, nor what they would do, nor, it might be said, such is the insanity of the atmosphere, not even what they intend to do... The scene in which Rochester dresses up as an old gipsy has something in it which is really not to be found in any other branch of art, except in the end of the pantomime, where the Emperor turns into a pantaloon. Yet, despite this vast nightmare of illusion and morbidity and ignorance of the world, 'Jane Eyre' is perhaps the truest book that was ever written. Its essential truth to life sometimes makes one catch one's breath. For it is not true to manners, which are constantly false, or to facts, which are almost always false; it is true to the only existing thing which is true, emotion, the irreducible minimum, the indestructible germ....It would not matter if George Read stood on his head, and Mrs Read rode on a dragon, if Fairfax Rochester had four eyes and St John Rivers three legs, the story would still remain the truest story in the world. The typical Brontë character is, indeed, a kind of monster. Everything in him except the essential is dislocated. His hands are on his legs and his feet on his arms, his nose is above his eyes, but his heart is in the right place."

3. The Book of Disquietude. Bernardo Soares. (Fernando Pessoa).

It's hard to say who wrote this book but I'll give credit to the heteronym known as Bernado Soares.

"Fernando Pessoa, strictly speaking, doesn't exist."-- Alvaro de Campos.

Alvaro de Campos happens to be one of Pessoa's heteronyms, too. I recommend TBOD because Pessoa is a fascinating guy. Usually books are supposed to be all about the writing, yes? But TBOD is also about authorship. More than anything, TBOD invites people to think about authors and truth and trust...about the lines separating fiction and non-fiction and what or who "makes it so". Identity is a big thing in this book and thankfully, exploring identity isn't a cliche venture in Pessoa's world. TBOD is a philosophical-diaryish impression about everday life. I say impression (which is almost too "strict") because there's not any kind of narrative to gel TBOD together into a cohesive beginning middle or end. TBOD is different structure-wise, but not to be reactionary or rebellious. More so to be genuine. It's a sensitive book and Pessoa doesn't resort to cheap tricks to write it. I sometimes read this book by opening up to any given page and stopping when I feel like it.


1 Non-Fiction

Strong Democracy. Benjamin R. Barber.
It's a nice mix of political theory and pragmatism and it's all about participatory politics. This book helped me to stop being so apathetic. In a sense, the book puts out the idea that a responsible citizen is someone who has a sense of his responsibility for others and for their community. Ofcourse, Barber's got a way to get people to feel invested in performing their civic duties. The citizen that's apart of strong democracy kind of brings up a moral question but I don't think Barber ever explicitly poses it as one. I'm glad he doesn't. He simply offers a solution in a practical manner. SD re-distributes power to "we the people" without proposing a system of government that's unfamiliar or unconstitutional.

1 Poetry

De/compositions: 101 Poems Gone Wrong. W.D. Snodgrass.
Sondgrass re-writes famous poems the "wrong" way. It's a demonstration about poetry (what poetry does, rhyme, meter, metaphor, blah blah) without being text-booky like Sound & Sense. It's also funny. Which is an achievement. Funny isn't usually something people would think of if they had to learn about poetry.

Few things grieve me more than bad poetry. Most poets have written a bad poem or two and Snodgrass shows how come poems go bad. I consider what he's done a public service. I also like the book because it shows that rules and form aren't always the enemies of poetry. Free verse isn't always the hand-maiden of the creative flow. Imagine that.

Thank you Snod.