2013 50 Book Challenge - Page 13

Yep. Like I promised. Gonna dig it out tomorrow.

Good luck!!!

Clockwise counting 44/50: Juan Valera - Pepita Jimenez (1874)

Young man in strict religious 19th century Andalusia studies to become a priest when he meets young widow and extraordinary beauty Pepita Jiménez.  Young man is unable to resist the lures of earthly passion.

Juan Valera was a Spanish diplomat and ambassador to many countries and as the author of Pepita Jimenez he also secured a position as one of Spain's great literary heavyweights. This was a surprisingly engaging read, much easier and more entertaining than I would have imagined. 

I want 10 books for my list from you for next year, dude.

Are you a college lit prof?

Hahaha, not at all. Just amateur reader with "good" taste. I make my list as I go along.

Clockwise counting 45/50: Nathanael West - Miss Lonelyhearts (1933)

This is a short and sweet classic, a depression era black comedy about a male newspaper columnist called Miss Lonelyhearts. The story is full of pain, both the pain of Miss Lonelyhearts himself and the pain of his readers; it depicts a society where moral values and meaning have been replaced by alcoholic binges and pointless sexual encounters. A strange little book!

60 pages in. 1150 small type. Good God what have I done!

Have you also read The Day of the Locust?

60 pages! That's how far I got into War and Peace before I decided that it could wait until another year. Hope you have better stamina.


No, I remember seeing the movie with Donald Sutherland. Never read the book. Is it "highly recommended"?

Going for 80-100 today.

Absolutely. It's really great.

110 pages in. It's really not that bad. Maybe I will actually like it in another 200 pages or so.

EDIT 200 now. I'm enjoying it. It will be a fine, albeit LONG read.

Clockwise counting 46/50: Richard Yates - Revolutionary Road (1961)

The forgotten master of American modern realism. This is just a brilliant story about suburban hell in 1955 New York. None of Yates' novels sold more than 12,000 copies during his life time but he was regarded as one of the best by Vonnegut, William Styron and John Cheever and he is considered a strong influence on Raymond Carver. Highly recommended.

P.S. I never saw the Di Caprio movie and not sure I want to.

Glad to hear. Wish you the best of luck and perseverance. You may inspire me to undertake the same reading in 2012.

Clockwise counting 47/50: John Steinbeck - East of Eden (1952)

I have actually been reading this famous classic for much of the year and now feel quite relieved to eventually be able to put it behind me. After a good start I somehow got tired of its "grandiosity" and I have literally for months been slowly slowly reading East of Eden in parallel with many other books. 

It is of course a very nice (and long, at 700+ pages) novel with an abundance of great themes: goodness and evil, a modern version of the story of Cain and Abel, a nice narrative of small town Californian life in the early 20th century, love and loss, fathers and sons. 

Entertaining, sometimes inspiring but also, I believe, quite overblown and pretentious. A must-read, so.... I have now read it.