April 2014 Reading List

Here's what I finished reading this month:

1. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago
2. Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahar Delijani
3. Earth Abides by  George R Stewart
4. Manuscript Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho 
5. The Circle by Dave Eggers

I guess I expected something different from Gospel.  I expected a rational account of the life of the man.  Instead, and I in hindsight I feel appropriately, that what I got was a version of the story the man himself might've written to set the record straight.  Saramago's writing is simple and beautiful.  The story seemed more cohesive than the actual gospels.  However, what made the reading more challenging was that there was no punctuation like question marks or quotation marks.  I assume that this was to make the narrative more like other books in the New Testament.  While the din has probably died down now for the 20 years this book has been around, it still packs a punch.

For Children, again my expectations were not met but in a different way.  I was expecting something like Hosseni's And the Mountains Echoed but I was disappointed.  While the story was similarly arranged and dealt with a similar topic and region, the end result was not as good.  I found the characters to all be very similar.  The narrative seemed to shift from person to person rather than sitting clearly with the protagonist.  I frequently got lost or my mind drifted until I encountered a poignant phrase that would jar my attention back again.  So the potential was there but by the end I was just relieved it was done.

Written in 1949, it could be argued that Stewart created the original post-apocalyptic novel in Earth Abides.  He clearly gave a lot of thought to what it would be like to be the only person left alive in a world where humans had essentially disappeared -- a Robinson Crusoe of America.  However once others coalesce around Ish, the protagonist, the central theme of the book becomes: How can one impart their intelligence and civilization to descendants and put off a descent into barbarism?  The title should provide a clue.  But I couldn't help thinking for myself how I would perpetuate my thoughts and experiences to those I leave behind.  I guess we all struggle with this "meaning of life" quandary.  This book is not so much an action-thriller as it is a philosophical musing that could easily become all too real.  Very well written.

I had to look up whether Manuscript Found in Accra was based on something real or whether it was a work of fiction.  Turns out it is the latter.  But that is how good the little book of "wisdom" is.  Given this is out of Coelho's head, it is clear he has a lot of stuff on his mind that he wants to leave us with.  It reads like a book out of the Bible -- perhaps like David or Solomon would've written.  While it doesn't take long to read per se, it is dense with philosophically good advice.  It would take time to absorb it all -- and probably many, many reads.  I'll be going back to it in the future to spend more time with it.

No doubt people have already written more about The Circle than I can observe here.  I was wary of reading another book by Eggers since I really didn't enjoy A Hologram for the King that much.  But the notion of seeing what he had to say on the issues around the evolution of social networking and the effect that has had on our privacy as a society -- well, I couldn't resist.  And I'm glad I did read it.  The unfolding of the story gave me the creeps.  I discussed some of what Mae (the protagonist) was adjusting to, with my wife.  She didn't think it was a big deal where I was horrified.  This tells me that those of us that have issues with the erosion of our privacy from the likes of Google and Facebook, are numbered as a minority.  And this is one of the major points Eggers seems to be making.  Sure the plot is a little flimsy in parts and some of the characters seem a little shallow but top marks for making us think consciously about what we're doing each time we put ourselves "out there".