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akujunkanYes, I'm two weeks behind. I'll see about posting those shortly. And some other stuff. So that this lj isn't just about the four books I read this past week:
1) Heavier Than Heaven - Charles R. Cross
This is the best Kurt Cobain/Nirvana biography I've read. Cross' narrative takes readers from Cobain's birth in small town Washington through his early career, rocket to stardom, and decline into drug addiction and quite possibly dementia. His objectivity is remarkable--he neither lionizes nor condemns his subject but presents him in a matter-of-fact, though not unsympathetic, light. Cross also deserves credit for stripping a good deal of mythology away from Cobain and for refusing to downplay the extent of his addiction. Unfortunately, he does considerably minimize Love's addiction(s), although this perhaps due to necessity: Love controlled his access to the journals, photographs, and correspondence from which he reconstructed Cobain's story. All in all, Heavier Than Heaven is an excellent look at the man and the band, and I recommend it to anyone interested in either.
2) The Good Fairies Of New York - Martin Millar
I was a little leery of this one at first: the narrative is fairly topical and frequently jumps about between a large cast of characters, sometimes several times in one page. Still, it did grow on me due to Millar's knack for clever one liners and general ability to juggle said cast with a dearth of red herrings or dropped narrative threads (I'm looking right at you here, JKR). My end verdict is that this yarn will appeal to anyone with a penchant for light fantasy humor, although consider yourself warned that the good people at Soft Skull Press apparently do not have enough money to hire a decent editor; the text abounds with grammatical and typographical errors. It's an intelligent light read, however, despite these flaws.
3) 19 Ways Of Looking At Wang Wei - Eliot Weinberger
This slim volume is interesting in that it compiles about 23 translated versions of a single Wang Wei poem. Editor Weinberger has appended a brief commentary on the strengths and failings (more often than not, failings) of each. Unfortunately, said commentaries are childishly snide, which greatly decreases both the reader's enjoyment of, and attention to, the points he is trying to make. Still, it is an interesting look at the art of Chinese-to-English translation, and a good primer on all the ways translators interpret (and sometimes completely rewrite) the orginal text.
4) American Shaolin - Matthew Polly
American Shaolin recounts its author's adventures at the Shaolin Monastery in rural Henan province, where he attempted to master kung-fu shortly after China began opening itself to the west. His narrative, part travelogue, part autobiography, offers often humorous insights into the clashes between east and west, party member and citizen, and superior and inferior. Polly is also surprisingly honest about his shortcomings and baser moments, although he does downplay the damage caused by his sexual escapades and appears to be rather homophobic. American Shaolin is nevertheless an interesting counterpart to the glut of Japan travelogues currently on the market.
SBS: Now at 143 books. I lose this game!
That will be all.
1) Heavier Than Heaven - Charles R. Cross
This is the best Kurt Cobain/Nirvana biography I've read. Cross' narrative takes readers from Cobain's birth in small town Washington through his early career, rocket to stardom, and decline into drug addiction and quite possibly dementia. His objectivity is remarkable--he neither lionizes nor condemns his subject but presents him in a matter-of-fact, though not unsympathetic, light. Cross also deserves credit for stripping a good deal of mythology away from Cobain and for refusing to downplay the extent of his addiction. Unfortunately, he does considerably minimize Love's addiction(s), although this perhaps due to necessity: Love controlled his access to the journals, photographs, and correspondence from which he reconstructed Cobain's story. All in all, Heavier Than Heaven is an excellent look at the man and the band, and I recommend it to anyone interested in either.
2) The Good Fairies Of New York - Martin Millar
I was a little leery of this one at first: the narrative is fairly topical and frequently jumps about between a large cast of characters, sometimes several times in one page. Still, it did grow on me due to Millar's knack for clever one liners and general ability to juggle said cast with a dearth of red herrings or dropped narrative threads (I'm looking right at you here, JKR). My end verdict is that this yarn will appeal to anyone with a penchant for light fantasy humor, although consider yourself warned that the good people at Soft Skull Press apparently do not have enough money to hire a decent editor; the text abounds with grammatical and typographical errors. It's an intelligent light read, however, despite these flaws.
3) 19 Ways Of Looking At Wang Wei - Eliot Weinberger
This slim volume is interesting in that it compiles about 23 translated versions of a single Wang Wei poem. Editor Weinberger has appended a brief commentary on the strengths and failings (more often than not, failings) of each. Unfortunately, said commentaries are childishly snide, which greatly decreases both the reader's enjoyment of, and attention to, the points he is trying to make. Still, it is an interesting look at the art of Chinese-to-English translation, and a good primer on all the ways translators interpret (and sometimes completely rewrite) the orginal text.
4) American Shaolin - Matthew Polly
American Shaolin recounts its author's adventures at the Shaolin Monastery in rural Henan province, where he attempted to master kung-fu shortly after China began opening itself to the west. His narrative, part travelogue, part autobiography, offers often humorous insights into the clashes between east and west, party member and citizen, and superior and inferior. Polly is also surprisingly honest about his shortcomings and baser moments, although he does downplay the damage caused by his sexual escapades and appears to be rather homophobic. American Shaolin is nevertheless an interesting counterpart to the glut of Japan travelogues currently on the market.
SBS: Now at 143 books. I lose this game!
That will be all.