What I'm Reading: 'Persepolis' by Marjane Satrapi

As I've said before, I'm not exactly a big graphic novel/comics reader, but only because I find the medium to be intimidating and inaccessible. I really enjoyed reading Alison Bechdel's graphic memoirs, and got a good response from readers, so I decided to give Persepolis a try, which is probably a much better-known graphic novel because it was adapted into an animated film in 2007.

I'm probably giving myself too much credit for reading two very critically-acclaimed graphic memoirs by women authors -- I still can't call myself a comic book fan or reader. However, I really enjoyed Persepolis and along with Alison Bechdel, it is has served as a good segue into the genre. A lot of folks don't like reading graphic novels or comics because the flow of panels can be confusing, but I read a lot of Archies as a kid, so that's never been a problem for me. I still found Persepolis to be an easy, quick read, and the narrative/panel structure felt very natural. I particularly love Satrapi's stylization, which results in very graphic, very minimalist panels, and very unlike a lot of comic book artwork you might have seen.

What I'm Reading: 'The Autobiography of Red' by Anne Carson

Autobiography of Red

By Anne Carson

My "To Be Read" list is very long, and normally my reading habits follow a structure. I've got my next several books already queued up next to my bed, easily enough literature to last into October. I'm a pretty serious book buyer, and typically I let my books marinade on my shelves for a few weeks/months before I finally get around to reading them. However, there is always that occasional book that grabs my attention and demands to be read immediately after purchase, and The Autobiography of Red is one of those rare specimens. It's certainly helped by the fact that it is so very short, so very unique and intriguing, and that it was recommended by someone over at Insatiable Booksluts. 

To call it a novella would be to ignore its poetic language, and to call it a poem would be to ignore its novel-like narrative structure and character development. It lands in this really magical middle ground, more like epic poetry, but without the negative associations most of us probably have of reading Homer in college. It is a pseudo-retelling/modernization of the Greek myth about Geryon, a monster whose killing was one of the labors of Heracles, but in Anne Carson's version Geryon is not a monster per se, but a young man struggling with is sexuality and identity.

There's a hefty dose of magical realism and some will probably be frustrated by the prose, but I would advice you to just power through, because although it starts out with a confusing framing device, everything becomes clearer as you delve into the Geryon narrative.

What I'm Reading: 'The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis'

I'm sure I've written before about my long-standing distaste for short stories. It probably stemmed from early adolescence, when I was forced to read 'The Gift of the Magi' one time too many. All of the awful short stories that English teachers make kids read give the impression that all short stories must have some kind of macabre, twist ending. As an adult, I skipped over the short story in every issue of The New Yorker, and it wasn't until I read George Saunders that I really started to enjoy them.

I'm not too proud to confess that I bought The Collected Short Stories of Lydia Davis purely for its aesthetic appeal: it's tiny and thick and the most beautiful blushy-orange color. It looks extremely satisfying on my nightstand, and I'm really enjoying the slow process of consuming it. Some stories are as short as a paragraph or a even a sentence, so it's hard to recommend to short story skeptics like myself, because Davis' stories are an exercise in the dismantling of the genre. Even so, for those who never found short stories appealing, the fact that her collection is so very different may be precisely what converts you. 

What I'm Reading: 'White Teeth' by Zadie Smith

I broke my own rule regarding an author’s chronology by reading NW by Zadie Smith immediately upon its release, instead of backtracking to White Teeth and On Beauty. Afterward, many Zadie Smith fans told me I had made a mistake, and shouldn’t let NW dictate my impressions of her.  Although it received very mixed reviews, I enjoyed NW; it didn’t make an enormous impression on me, but there were certain elements of it that I absolutely loved, and most importantly, and whetted my appetite for more Zadie Smith fiction.  And as a New Yorker devotee, I have always loved her essays, and am looking forward to finally reading some of her published essay collections in the coming months.

Much like NW, White Teeth explores the intertwining lives of Londoners, particularly in regard to their immigrant experiences.  I found that the chapters devoted to Irie, the daughter of a British father and Jamaican mother, really came alive most for me, and I wonder if this has anything to do with the obvious similarities between Irie and Zadie Smith herself.  Even so, I’m still finding myself in this weird Zadie Smith limbo; I like her writing, but I’m not losing my mind over her, which seems to be the most popular reaction among women my age.  She certainly has incredible style and charisma, and she’s one of those enviable young female writers who is heaped with praise at a very young age (see also: Tea Obrecht, Karen Russell, Chimamanda Ngzogi Adichie and a few dozen more; come to think of it, this might warrant its own post).  Objectively, I can tell it’s good writing, and I certainly want to keep reading more of her work, but I’m just not as overwhelmed by her as so many others seem to be.  Am I missing something, or are there others out there?

What I'm Reading: 'How Should a Person Be?' by Sheila Heti

How Should a Person Be? made such a splash when it was published, and I certainly had every intention of reading it, but as the Heti hysteria died down I sort of forgot about it until it was suggested by a girlfriend for our Book Club selection. I’m really glad I got the reminder, because I’ve just devoured it.  I hadn’t read anything else by Heti before I got my hands on How Should a Person Be?, and I don’t know that I will necessarily scramble to get any of her future books, only because I loved this so much and don’t expect her future work to resemble it; it is too unique and idiosyncratic and personal for anything else to come close.  A part of me wishes that she wouldn’t even try, which is a very cynical viewpoint, I suppose, but I think everyone has had that feeling, of reading a truly, singularly excellent novel, and then avoiding anything else by the same author in order to preserve that impression and experience.  

How Should a Person Be? is something of an indescribable novel-memoir-play, but if I had to pin it down, I think I would focus on its core relationship, between Sheila and her closest friend, the painter Margaux Williams (in this case, the lines between fiction and reality are very deliberately blurred).  There aren’t enough great books about female friendship, and so many elements of the core relationship felt very authentic to me and forced me to reflect on my own friendships.  There is a pervading self-awareness to the novel, which some readers will probably hate; and the constant tension between sincerity and irony feels very millenial generation-esque, and a blurb from Lena Dunham on the back of my paperback copy does not help.  (Full disclosure-- I could not be more ambivalent about Lena Dunham; she says something intelligent in an interview, and I think Good for You, Lena Dunahm! and then she inevitably disappoints me by walking around NYC barefoot following the Met Gala. Girl, no.  That said, when her forthcoming book finally drops, this should be your only destination for long and hopefully fruitful discussions of it).  I would advise you not to get discouraged by its youthfulness; after all, James Wood loved it, and he was born in 1965.