Summer Reading...

1.Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
2. My Life as a Traitor by Zarah Ghahramani
3. Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
4. In the Woods by Tana French
(5. Glory by Vladimir Nabokov)
6. I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
7. Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott
8. Blonde by Joyce Carole Oates
9. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid
10. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
11. (The Truth by Terry Pratchett)
12. (Who the Hell is Pansy O'Hara: The Fascinating Stories Behind 50 of the World's Best-Loved Books by Jenny Bond and Chris Sheedy)

**Books in "()" are in the process of being read.
I finished TWO books today...Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.

Blonde is the novelistic recounting of Marilyn Monroe's life. JCO is known for her twisted novels, claiming sagely that the "truth is stranger than fiction." While I know she takes artistic license with the situations, she has written that many of her stories are based on people she has known or events she has read about. Marilyn Monroe's life is no exception.

I think it would have benefited me to have read a biography of MM's life first, though I wonder how that would have changed my opinion of the novel. Weighing in at 738 pages, I feel like the beginning chapters about her childhood could have been nixed, and we could have started with her first marriage. Interestingly enough, MM's childhood as told by JCO is reminiscent of White Oleander, but I think JCO's Norma Jeane Baker is a flat character compared to Astrid. It isn't until after Norma Jeane's first marriage, when she becomes MM, that she becomes a truly faceted character.

About two years ago a guy I was dating offered to switch a Playboy with me for a Cosmo, just to see what it was like. We did this mostly because he always said he read his step-dad's Playboys for the articles, and I told him he was full of shit. Anyway, he loaned me the edition that had reprinted an article about Lolita and Vladimir Nabokov, and it also had reprinted transcripts of Marilyn Monroe's tapes that she sent to a therapist. These transcripts were really riveting. She talked of course about her checkered sex life, but also about her desire to be considered a true actress, how she wanted more than anything to be a Shakespearean actor. JCO really captures this MM in the later part of her gargantuan novel. Even more than that, JCO captures how MM's split personalities were forced on her by the studio who only wanted to basically sell her for the sexual appeal. This novel became a great study in how women are and were treated in society, taken advantage of for trying to do what they think others want them to do.

Despite the long-windedness of this book (though I was expecting it, JCO is always the epic novel writer) I think it was a good read. Again, for anyone like me who knows nothing about MM, do research first. At least find out who key people were in her career, and have a general idea of who her co-stars were in films. Hardly any other Hollywood actors/directors/producers/etc. are mentioned by name, rather they are referred to by initials.

GILEAD was AWESOME. All of you should read it, and Judy, you should make it one of your reads for Contemporary Novel. So beautiful, so beautiful. It seriously almost made me cry. I was considering sharing it with a friend, passing it on so other people could enjoy, but I love it too much to let it go.

Robinson writes as the fictitious John Ames, a reverend in the Iowa town of Gilead. The year is 1956 and he is dying of a heart ailment, so he has decided to write his young son a long goodbye letter. This letter tells his son about the Ames family history, but it also is a gentle recounting of their time together as only a loving father could tell it. John Ames talks often about how "you and the cat have joined me in my study. Soapy is on my lap and you are on your belly on the floor in a square of sunlight, drawing airplanes." It is clear that these are the mundane moments he loves.

At the same time there are beautiful passages that are sweeping generalizations, but I say that in the most loving way. They are poetic observations about the world about him, but they are the kinds of observations that cause you to look up from your reading and look at your own surroundings.

P. 28, "I wish I had paid more attention to it. My list of regrets may seem unusual, but who can know that they are, really. This is an interesting planet. It deserves all the attention you can give it."

There is a story interwoven that I won't go too far into. It's interesting though and it is what makes a story that could simply be about an old man recounting his life into a novel.

My favorite part was at the end, I read it twice and when I finished this book I hugged it. I wrapped it in my arms and thought about what it just said to me. It was a glorious moment. I hope we all can have books in our lives that make us do that.

Now I have moved on to The Truth by Terry Pratchett, at the behest of my boyfriend. So far it is amusing, though I have to admit I think I want to revel in the glow of Gilead for a little while longer. :)