The Women - plural.

First let me say, and I am the first to admit it, I am pretty superficial. I did not want to read this book because I hate hate HATE the cover with a passion. It is horrible. But, like swallowing a bitter pill, I knew this book would be good for me so I read it. And I liked it.

Frank Lloyd Wright, the father of the Prairie style of architecture and creator of Fallingwater (1939) and New York's Guggenheim Museum (1959), Wright carried on scandalous romances, endured personal tragedy and routinely uttered the kind of arrogant statements that feature heavily in the writing of this novel. A cracking quote serves as the novel's epigraph -

Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility; I chose arrogance.

TC Boyle's novel, set in the early 20th century, chronicles the lives of Wright's three wives and mistress from the point of view of Tadashi; a fictional Japanese apprentice and biographer of Wright who inserts footnotes and, we are given to understand, spent many years at Taliesin- Wright's physical and spiritual home in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Boyle has written about huge historical personalities before - notably, cereal magnate and doctor John Harvey Kellogg in The Road to Wellville and midcentury sexologist Alfred Kinsey in The Inner Circle - but Wright's eminence and notoriety towers over both. Boyle has said The Women "is part of my egomaniacs of the 20th century series," but to me this is the apotheosis. As a study of self-regard, how do you top a novel about Frank Lloyd Wright? With one on Picasso? Or Donald Rumsfeld? Or Kanye West?

A book I read on the Art Noveau movement, the time when Wright was at his height of fame, called it a period of "spiritual anxiety"- old forms of being and living dissolved into the new social, cultural, and moral climate. Ideas about sex, art and life were intertwined. These threads of anxiety are cleverly interwoven throughout the text of The Women.

I feel like his writing is fearless. His novel is epic - big, heavy and well researched. It's hard to belt a theme around such a sprawling body of work, but the cause and effect between human appetite for fame, sex, money, freedom, and the folly of these is what I saw most in this novel. It is emotionally complex and deeply felt - the characters are flawed and perfect all at once. I won't lie, this was not an easy or particularly enjoyable read but the writing, for me, won out in keeping my interest. I think you either need to love the writing style or the subject matter to really like this book, and if you like both you are on to a winner.

American Road Trippin’

Too much rebel rousin’goodness for one entry.

Read all these, especially Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and if you love Steinbeck his autobiography is a revelation. And if you have not yet read On the Road, do so. Immediately.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Great-Road-Trips-in-American-Literature.html

Horny Historical Romance – it should be a Booker Prize genre

“He gave his heart to no woman….until he met her”

HA!

Well...this is really hard for me to talk about. Really hard. And that sentence is not a double entendre. But it would be in the books I am about to confess to reading.
I have a bad addiction. It creeps up on me when I am between novels or had a really busy week and I don’t want to have to think too much. I was not expecting to love this so much. But I do. And I cant help it.

I, the Reader, am addicted to horny historical romance novels. I can’t stop. It’s a problem. All those protagonists - dashing, obscenely rich, emotionally retarded men in tights. Those heroines, all bound up, stunning, aristocratic with genius level intelligence and large hats. It is formulaic, predicatable and no brainer entertainment.

Here is the run down so you know what to expect. Boy is highly successful, good looking, rich and a womanizer. He “never wants to get married”. Enter girl. They hate each other. Then their hate turns in to love. Then they have earth shattering, bone crunching special cuddles. Numerous times. Then they fight. Then he realises all life was meaningless before her and he is a horrible human being. Then he resues her from something. Then they reunite. And are deliriously happy. Then more special cuddles. The End.

Stephanie Laurens and Julia Quinn are the authors of the moment for this kind of writing. And I am sure I am not the only one – Stephanie Laurens has written 24 novels all with the same formula- and every single one has made it on to the New York Times best seller list. Every. Single. One. That is a lot of gold coins stashed in velvet bags.

Go on, try one. I won't judge you.

The Angel’s Game – reward yourself

A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange for a story. He will never forget the sweet poison of vanity in his blood and the belief that, if he succeeds in not letting anyone discover his lack of talent, the dream of literature will provide him with a roof over his head, a hot meal at the end of the day, and what he covets most: his name printed on a miserable piece of paper that surely will outlive him.

This is the macabre and sinister tale of David Martín, a journalist who turns to writing books. Initially, these are regularly churned out, trashy stories, written purely for income. Usually I don’t mind spoiling a story for someone but this story has so many twists and turns needless to say you will have to trust me and read it yourselves. I will say it this –he is commissioned by a mystery man to write “the best book in the world” and it all becomes totally weird and a bit Vanilla Sky-esque (those crazy Spaniards!). Suffice to say that this book is packed with action and mystery. I will however flag my favourite idea in the novel which is the underground bookstore that operates in sewers under Barcelona – all dark and candle lit and damp and delicious.

If you build an affinity with the strongly crafted character of David Martin, then you will love the way this story follows his despair and rewards. He is written like a grown up child character in a Charles Dickins novel. Every scene I pictured him in, especially in the house he comes to live in, I automatically visualize decay all around him, mould and dirt. A life lived in a haze of dull sepia full of heavy air and sadness. Despite all this, Martín’s tale is so compelling that you cannot leave it until you have read to the last sentence of the book.

This book was a visual feast – to communicate the descriptions of place and people impressive as it is a translated text in to English. If you are sick of reading fairy floss (not that there is anything wrong with that!) and its time to find something to sink your teeth in to, then read this book.

More like the Crappy Diaries

This is the story of Carrie Bradshaw at high school before she makes it to New York City.I have no idea why I even bothered to open this book. I actually never liked Candace Bushnell's books I've read - Sex and The City and Lipstick Jungle. I am quite sure my enjoyment of the shiny things on the TV show affected my judgement when I reached for the book on the shelf.

This novel was terrible and it took me all my strength to finish it. Boring, superficial, directionless high school melodrama galore with personality-less characters and no sense of time or place. I don't think even the fans of the show will enjoy the novel because Carrie of The Carrie Diaries had nothing to do with neurotic, intelligent, layered character Carrie of the show. Kudos to Bushnell for being smart enough to see that she, like everybody else, could cash in on exploiting the teen fiction boom. Too bad she chose to produce this.

All work and no play makes Florence something something...

"It is a curious story I have to tell, one not easily absorbed and understood, so it is fortunate I have the words for the task. If I say so myself, who probably shouldn't, for a girl my age I am very well worded. Exceedingly well worded, to speak plain. I have hidden my eloquence, under-a-bushelled it, and kept any but the simplest form of expression bridewelled within my brain."

Lets start this off by saying that I freakin' loved this book. Think Secret Garden meets Edgar Allan Poe meets The Omen. Totally my thing.

In a remote and crumbling New England mansion in the 1800's, 12-year-old orphan Florence, who is our narrator, is neglected by her guardian uncle and banned from reading. Left to her own devices she devours books in secret and talks to herself - and narrates this, her story - in a unique language of her own invention. By night, she sleepwalks the corridors like one of the old house's many ghosts and is troubled by a recurrent dream in which a mysterious woman appears to threaten her younger brother Giles. Sometimes Florence doesn't sleepwalk at all, but simply pretends to so she can roam at will and search the house for clues to her own baffling past.

After the sudden violent death of the children's first governess, a second teacher, Miss Taylor, arrives, and immediately strange phenomena begin to occur. Florence becomes convinced that the new governess is a vengeful and malevolent spirit who means to do Giles harm. Against this powerful supernatural enemy, and without any adult to whom she can turn for help, Florence must use all her intelligence and ingenuity to both protect her little brother and preserve her private world.

This novel is written in a startlingly different and captivating narrative voice. It is amazing that this author, this man, can channel the voice and feelings a 12 year old crazy-as-a-coconut, trapped girl. The great thing about the narrative is that the voice of Florence reveals things to us that only we can notice and that goes unnoticed by Florence - people she thinks enemies we see as friends and the truth is revealed by her naive interpretations.

Please read this book...and tell me what you thought!

Roll Up! Roll Up!...

This novel by Sara Gruen explores the pathetic grandeur of the Depression-era circus. It is audacious material yet is sentimental. Water for Elephants is seeped in romanticism - both for a "brotherhood" feel of human relations and connections, for a harder but better time long past, for animals and their emotions. Although the narrative seems at times overly complicated and confusing, the feelings that the story evoke were enough to make me really get into this book.

Water for Elephants begins weirdly and gets weirder. Jacob Jankowski, a veterinary student at Cornell, discovers that his parents have been killed in a car accident. Aimless and distraught, he climbs aboard a train that happens to be carrying the second rate and seedy Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, and falls into a job as an animal doctor. His responsibilities draw him into the unpredictable orbit of August Rosenbluth, the circus's unsettling menagerie director, and his beautiful wife, Marlena, whose equestrian act attracts enthusiastic crowds.

Jacob immerses himself in the bizarre subculture of acrobats, aerialists, sword swallowers and lion tamers, that reflects a rigid caste system of the time. The troupe crisscrosses the country cannibalizing acts that have gone bankrupt in the Depression-era economy. After Uncle Al, the autocratic ringmaster, purchases Rosie, an elephant with an unquenchable thirst for lemonade and the inability to follow the simplest command, Benzini Brothers looks doomed. How Jacob coaxes Rosie to perform — thereby saving the circus — lies at the heart of the novel.It is August's mistreatment of Marlena and cruelty toward Rosie that is the most shocking element of the novel:

"I look up just as he flicks the cigarette. It arcs through the air and lands in Rosie's open mouth, sizzling as it hits her tongue. She roars, panicked, throwing her head and fishing inside her mouth with her trunk. August marches off. I turn back to Rosie. She stares at me, a look of unspeakable sadness on her face. Her amber eyes are filled with tears."

Gruen's circus, with its frank study in morality, symbolizes the warped vigor of capitalism in the western world. No matter how miserable or oppressed, the performers love the manufacturing of illusion, sewing a new sequined headdress for Rosie or feeding the llamas as men die of starvation in a devastated America. August's paranoid schizophrenia feels like an indictment of a lifetime spent feigning emotions to make a buck.

Circuses showcase human beings at their silliest and most sublime, and this allows writers to explore a world in which reality and the imaginary are blurred and anything is possible. I think Gruen has succeeded in transforming a glimpse of historical Americana into an enchanting fairy tale that to me was pure escapism.