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October 04, 2005
Undue Deference, and What Could Have Been
You're right: we cut some outstanding books, and I think your list was pruned more than mine. Like you, I would've liked to see the Banville novel -- or Coetzee's Slow Man, which you also suggested, or Disgrace -- on the final list.
Our classics titles took a stronger hit than the rest, mostly out of deference to Boldtype's preference for balancing older and more recent works. I remember calling you up, excited that you'd proposed Don Quixote. Not only does the book celebrate its 400th anniversary this year, but it's considered by many writers to be the greatest novel ever written. It's a pity we couldn't fit it in.
Someone else submitted a list including Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Horatio Alger's Ragged Dick. I had a hard time letting these suggestions go. It would've been fascinating to discuss the two disparate books -- one the story of an African American man who escaped slavery and devoted his life to the abolitionist cause, and the other a facile prescription for boys in the late Nineteenth Century to achieve the American Dream -- in tandem.
My own great sadness was the omission of Giovanni's Room, by James Baldwin, from my list. Baldwin's work has captivated me for years -- if there's a more complex portrait of Pentecostalism than Go Tell It On the Mountain or that story about the kids on the church boat ride, I haven't read it -- but I only recently got around to this book, and it's nearly eclipsed the others. Talk about self-made misery (spoiler alert): the closeted narrator doesn't break things off with his long-term girlfriend, but moves in with a gorgeous Italian country boy, Giovanni, while she's away, and then deserts Giovanni and breaks his heart, precipitating tragedy for everyone. And the story resounds far beyond the personal tragedies depicted. Giovanni's remarks about American self-centeredness and blithe disregard for other peoples and cultures are as apt today as they were when the book appeared -- nearly fifty years ago, now.
In lieu of the Baldwin, I would've liked to include Margaret Drabble's The Millstone or James Hynes' Publish or Perish. But we did, as you say, get The Sea, The Sea on there. So I'm not complaining.
But I'd like to invite other people to complain. If anybody's reading, what books do you think Mark and I should've included?
Posted by maud.newton at October 4, 2005 03:54 PM
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Comments
Um...Saturday by Ian McEwan? Heh.
Posted by: Jimmy Beck at October 5, 2005 12:37 PM
Laugh it up, Jimmy Beck. You won't be laughing when I kick your ass at poker!
Posted by: Maud at October 5, 2005 02:59 PM
Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron"
Posted by: Marco at October 5, 2005 10:03 PM
how about Elle by Douglas Glover. Glover's one of the most interesting and unacknowledged contemporary North American writers. Canadian, to be specific. Elle won him the Governer-General's award in 2003, but his good work dates back to the 80's. He also just wrote an excellent book about Don Quixote and the novel form.
Posted by: suemac at October 7, 2005 04:42 AM