Other recent reads
In the last couple of weeks, in addition to Bogosian’s Mall, I’ve read several great books.
Doug Dorst’s Alive in Necropolis was fully satisfying on many levels. While I typically shy away from fantasy in favor of science fiction, Dorst’s writing is remarkable and the type of speculative fantasy/fiction that he practices is perfect. Nominally about a cop investigating crimes of the living while dealing with the distraction of (maybe) seeing the crimes and visages of the dead, this book is really a modern coming-of-age story. And that age is the new “real” manhood - beyond the ‘fake adult” feeling of your 20s, once you’ve accepted that you’ve (by choice or luck or lack of either one) closed many doors in your life and now it’s time to figure out who you are and how you’re going to act and find your place in the world. And face that it’s still going to be a struggle. Somehow, I found it similar to Pynchon’s Inherent Vice, another book I thoroughly enjoyed, leaving me wondering throughout what would end up being real and always guessing (but never quite sure) where it was all going.
Don DeLillo’s End Zone was laugh-out-loud funny in a way I haven’t experienced with him before. It was a pretty quick read (I read each of the 3 sections in 3 relatively brief sittings, and it’s a pretty slim volume) and along with the humor was a real sense of humanity and emotion that was rather powerful. I love the cleverness of White Noise, but I thought End Zone went deeper into the humanity of the characters, similar to The Names (but with a simpler story/structure).
A colleague recommended Rudy Rucker upon hearing that I’m a fan of William Gibson and Philip K Dick, and I picked up Master of Space and Time and The Hacker and the Ants. Both were good, quick reads. The writing itself isn’t spectacular, but the science and math are spot on (Rucker is a mathematician and former math and computer science professor). The writing is way more PKD than Gibson, stylistically speaking. Perhaps the best thing about picking up his books right now is that I’m also in a book club doing a slow read of Hofstader’s Godel Escher Bach, and Rucker explains some of the concepts that Hofstader introduces way more clearly and in a context that I find a lot more interesting.
Finally, I have to admit I enjoyed one of Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books. Both my brother and I caught The Dresden Files on hulu when it had a paucity of programming options, and the books are a little more fun than the TV series. It’s fantasy rather than sci-fi, but the kind that I like - if they’re gonna have me suspend disbelief in vampires, at least make all that other ridiculous shit like werewolves and magic exist to (a la whedon, asprin, etc). A guilty pleasure, pure escapism, but fun.
