What You're Not Reading, Day 2

Gianna: How are you?
Liz: Okay, but I'm on my Friday conference call.
Gianna: Any chance you can meet for lunch?
Liz: Can't. Visiting stores. Everything okay?
Gianna: Yeah, I'm working on blog ideas. Will send you an email a little later.

And then the next thing I know, Gianna is saying that we're going to be posting something every day for, like, 100 days in a row. She doesn't understand that it's March Madness and I need to watch obscene amounts of basketball (Zorro the cat is currently winning my bracket pool, by the way). She doesn't seem to remember that baseball season starts in a week. Also, she has forgotten that she was the one complaining about a 30 day book challenge.

Humph.

Fine.

In the spirit of Gianna's decision to co-opt my life for a third of the year (at least), I'm picking The Antagonist by Lynn Coady as today's book that you aren't reading but definitely should.

Here's the premise: Gordon Rankin Jr, or "Rank" as he's known, is 40, grumpy, and wondering what's happened to his life. And then he discovers that a college friend has published a novel. Then he reads the novel and discovers that the book...is based on Rank's life. He's pissed off; his life has been stolen from him (sound familiar, Gianna?), and he's not afraid to write the author, his former friend, to tell him exactly what he thinks. Thus begins Lynn Coady's big, funny, smart, compassionate book. The book is written as a series of Rank's email messages--many fueled by alcohol--expressing his hurt and outrage, and also Rank's version of his life.

Dear Lynn Coady,

I think we could be pals.

I love your book.

Do you like cats?

Best,

liz

Rank was adopted, and so while his father, a royal pain in the ass and general failure, is a tiny, banty rooster of a guy, Gordon Rankin Jr. is a boy giant. While Gordon Sr. is the guy who throws kids out of the parking lot of his food stand, Rank is becoming an ace hockey player and Gordon Sr. apologist. It's a complex relationship, and Rank believes his life is "King Midas in reverse;" everything he touches turns to shit. Things happen (I don't want to spoil everything). Thus, it's not completely a surprise when he discovers that one of his best friends in college decides to steal his life for a novel, and it's not really a surprise that he's angry.

Discovering new books is one of the best parts of working in Book Land. The best emails and phone calls I receive start with things like "Have you read ________ yet?" or "You have to read _________." The Antagonist is one of those books. It's a book that my fellow book nerds couldn't shut up about. It's really that good. And in case you think we're wrong (and we're never wrong), The Antagonist was nominated for the Giller Prize (Canada's Pulitzer) and genius book critic Ron Charles of the Washington Post wrote this delightful, perfect review of the book.

Oh yeah, and Lynn Coady is a Canadian. I love my Canadians.

New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 18

Day 18: A Book That Disappointed You

Gianna:

Today we are choosing a book that disappointed us. I wish we could pick a person that disappointed us. [Liz.] Or continues to disappoint us. [Liz.] Or we know is just going to disappoint us no matter what they say or do! [Liz.] Wait, I lost track of what I was saying. Oh, books that disappointed us. 

In an attempt not to be mean spirited, I am going to just pick a book that I was really looking  forward to reading that ended up not being so great for me, and book that got rave reviews, or friends and colleagues were raving about, that left me wanting.

I love John Irving, and anytime there is news of a new novel in the works, I always get a bit giddy.  There is a long list of Irving novels that I absolutely love, from Hotel New Hampshire to The World According to Garp, to Widow for One Year.  I have to say though, and I think it's pretty clear it pains me to admit this….I didn’t love Last Night in Twisted River.  And you know what, I sold this book and I had to be pretty creative when asked if I liked it.  Doesn’t matter, his latest book In One Person is absolutely fantastic, it’s Prayer for Owen Meany fantastic.

I will keep this next complaint short: The Age of Miracles. I had so many colleagues rave about this book, and the reviews were crazy good, so I had no reservations diving in; I knew it would be a fantastic read.  Let's just say I was surprised to find that it was a YA book. I can actually say that I don't know anyone who didn't love this book. Except Ron Charles at the Washington Post. He made me feel less crazy.

Liz:

Even the cover
was heralded.
Why?

I am a huge Zadie Smith fan from the very beginning. I actually once sold a copy of White Teeth to Sandra Bullock one day when she was shopping at BookPeople and asked for "the best book you've read recently." I didn't hesitate. I was really, really excited when her publisher announced a new novel in the fall, and the Penguin rep, knowing I'm a huge fan, sent me an advance reader copy of NW. 

Zadie Smith

I didn't hate it, but really, my ire rose with every best of the year list that NW made. It is not a best book of the year. As a novel it falls short and is a hot mess of fragmented characters and ideas. I don't have an issue at all with the unconventional writing styles that Smith utilizes in sections, but, well, they don't really work. They serve mostly to make the book more difficult to read, but don't add to the story or characterization in any way. What I don't understand is when Zadie Smith became one of those writers above criticism. No one feared calling her second book, The Autograph Man, a disappointment, so why did NW not receive similar criticisms? How did it end up on the New York Times Best Books list? 

I will read Zadie Smith's next book as soon as it goes on sale and won't carry (much of) a grudge. I just was really, really disappointed with NW.