Reading Recap: April-May '25

 

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Something I took for granted in the past was authors being able to create multiple distinct pieces of work. As much as I wish Tartt finished books quicker, it's worth it when the outcome is this iconic. Not only do the timeskips not anger me, I can see their worth in separating the moods of the books. There must have been an insane amount of research that went into this, from major plot points to minute background details, and you can tell. Theo Decker is a real person. I wish I had read this back in 2019 when Donna Tartt Mania was making its way around Tumblr, and I have a million thoughts about what the movie could've been, but at the end of the day this is a beautiful stand alone piece of writing that invites its audience to read between the lines. The book is only half the story. / ★★★★½

 

Five Plays by Jean Cocteau

"Orphée" is arguably Cocteau's most important work. It contains beautiful imagery and forces the audience to participate in the storytelling, but that's not where Cocteau shines. His original plays are a playground for complicated, unsettling relationships and their allure. "Intimate Relations" revolves around a love affair between mother and son and the girlfriend that threatens to ruin everything. "The Holy Terrors" tells the story of an aging actress stepping aside to facilitate her husband's affair. "The Eagle with Two Heads" takes a page out of Authurian legend, with a princess and the love of her life that's doomed to kill her. It tells you from the start that nothing will end well.

    Many plays struggle with the medium. They're trapped in the handful of sets and maybe an outfit change, if they're lucky. Cocteau tells stories of people trapped in the confines of traditional relationships. It works. In "Intimate Relations," the apartment becomes a pressure cooker of volatile personalities until its inevitable explosion. A few of his plays' movie adaptations are available on Tubi, and I've been meaning to check them out, but the source material will always hold a place in my heart. / ★★★★½

 

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon

Honestly, it's probably a good book. My issue is that I read this after reading Kavalier and Clay, Chabon's best work, so this seemed childish in comparison. The copy I read also had a strange reissue cover that made it look like a YA meaning-of-life tearjerker, when it wants to be a meandering oh-shit-here-comes-real-life semi-satire. I might keep it on the shelf until I graduate so Art and I can get through it together.

    I can't decide if I like the switches in genre or not. It left me unsure of where I stood, but I appreciated how it emphasized Cleveland as a force of nature. He changed everything, and while Art might've been in a relationship with Arthur, that's not what the story is about. There are no lasting consequences, except the biggest one you can imagine. That's how summer works. You move on. / ★★½

 

The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson

My low rating doesn't mean this is a bad book. Unfortunately, The Lost Weekend is wrapped up in a tangled mess of uncomfortable memories and anecdotes best left behind. The same can be said about the Riverdale episode named after it, but I went into this with an open mind because I though enough time had passed. I was wrong.

     I guess you could say my discomfort is a testament to how well-written it is. The reader feels like they're suffering the sweltering New York air alongside Don. Time stretches, and stretches, and right when you think it'll break in snaps back into place. On the bright side, I got a kick out of the library lending me a 1944 first edition with no book jacket. It was beautiful. It wasn't so beautiful when I had to beg for a ride to urgent care. / ★½

 

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

I would say I read two duds in a row, but that would be unfair. I would read Choke again in a heartbeat and I'd probably get a lot more out of it. Palahniuk's style is jarring if you're not used to it, so I need to read through his entire catalogue and familiarize myself with it before I make a final judgement--I changed my rating from two to three stars within a week with no outside influences. I'll get back to you after I read Fight Club and Invisible Monsters and Lullaby and everything else available at my local library and maybe gotten punched a few dozen times. The movie might be another good place to start because I have a much higher tolerance for gross-out films. That said, I loved Denny's characterization and his friendship with Victor. More books about questionable people need sidekicks! / ★★★

 

A Matter of Time by Glen Cook

I bought this because I read another book by Glen Cook, and while A Shadow of All Night Falling was decent (for a pocket paperback), Cook struggles to mix fantasy and realism. I loved the concepts this book brought to the table! If the story followed through on the three converging timelines and a dead body appearing out of the past, I would've been hooked, but none of it mattered when he revealed it was a clone the whole time. That's cheap. The stakes were too big and too small at the same time, and after being surprisingly un-misogynistic (not really, but compared to other similar books of the time) for the first 200 pages, Cook decides to crank the rape factor up to 11, and he beats a dead horse making sure you understand the pro-USA propaganda in the last chapter. I won't stop reading bad 80s sci-fi mysteries, though. / ½

 

2 books — 938 pages — avg 4.50 ★ 

4 books — 1338 pages — avg 1.88 ★