Book update

Article on Murakami in today's NYT! Lucky Harvard, getting him as a writer-in-residence. Must be nice to be well-endowed. NYT also pans Michael Cunningham's new book. I liked, but did not love, The Hours. Now I know not to bother with this one.

Murakami related, I recently read Underground, his non-fiction book about the 1995 Tokyo subway gas attacks. It was very Studs Terkel-esque, comprised of concisely edited interviews with victims and witnesses. It was slow-going and a bit repetitious. I would probably feel differently if were Japanese and needed the acknowledgement of the cultural shock. It was notable how few of the victims felt rage toward the Aum attackers.

I also recently read Life by Gwyneth Jones, one of Wiscon's guests of honor this year. It was a jolly good read, although ultimately unsatisfying because of a too quick climax and denouement. (This is becoming the Mila-complaint.) I'm not sure why it's classified as science fiction, other than she typically writes primarily in that genre and that it was fiction that was marginally about science, although the science was the least engaging part of the book. I thought its exploration of gender and feminism was much more interesting.

I am savoring Kalpa Imperial, the first novel of Argentinian writer Angelica Gorodischer to be translated into English. I remember reading an article about her in the NYT a couple months ago and then stumbled across this novel at one of the dealer's tables at Wiscon. When I asked the dealer if it was any good she referred me to her colleague who said it was one of the best books he'd ever read. It is excellent. Borges is the obvious comparison, but the diverse stories about the same empire really reminds of Calvino's Invisible Cities, with all the different stories of Venice. It is fantastic. It's a short book, so I should have finished it by now, but I find myself re-reading passages, which is something I rarely do. Ursula K. Le Guin did an excellent job translating it. If you can read Spanish, I strongly encourage you to read her other books.