Stuff Ive Been Reading June 2021 (Pride Month)

Books Read June 2021 (Pride Month)

1. The Hakawati by Rabih Alemeddine. (kindle and audible audiobook). 528 Pgs 528 running pgs. 2 June.
2. Memorial by Bryan Washington. (kindle and overdrive audiobook). 320 pgs. 548 running pgs. 3 June.
3. The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr. (kindle and overdrive audiobook). 400 pgs. 948 running pgs. 7 June.
4. Real Life by Brandon Taylor. (kindle and audible audiobook). 329 pgs. 1277 running pgs. 9 June.
5. Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett. (library hardcover and overdrive audiobook). 356 pgs. 1633 running pgs. 11 June.
6. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. (library paperback and overdrive audiobook). 371 pgs. 2004 running pgs. 12 June.
7. I Married a Communist by Philip Roth. (library hardcover and audible audiobook). 325 pgs. 2329 running pgs. 15 June.
8. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. (overdrive audiobook). 272 pgs. 2601 running pgs. 16 June.
9. Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James. (kindle and overdrive audiobook). 637 pgs. 3238 running pgs. 29 June. Made it to 58% but did not finish.

 Books Purchased June 2021

1. Street Cop by Robert Coover and Art Spiegelman. (paper — size of a pack of cards). From Isolarii. 10 June.
2. I Married a Communist by Philip Roth. (audible audiobook). 13 June.
3. Real Life: A Novel  by Brandon Taylor. (audible audiobook). 8 June.
4. Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor by Barry, Lynda. (paper). from amazon. June 22.
5. The Temple of the Golden Pavillion By Yukio Mishima. (audible audiobook). 23 June.
6. Shakedowners  by Justin Woolley. (kindle). 26 June.

Here are a few comments on this month's reading and book purchasing:

I see that I read nine books and purchased six; any month where my books read exceeds my books purchased is a good month. I first got the idea of writing down the books I read and the books I purchased from Nick Hornby who (at least used to) have a regular Stuff I've Been Reading column in Believer Magazine. Here is an example he wrote in the summer of 2020. I don't pretend to be as entertaining a writer about books as Hornby. As an example of the quality and humor of Hornby's writing, here is one paragraph of his thoughts about reading Elizabeth Strout:

Another person you should probably avoid reading is Elizabeth Strout, if you’re of the comparative disposition. Strout has won a Pulitzer, and her books sell well, but what makes her uniquely enviable is that she has achieved a lot of this success by writing about a frequently unlikable character in a series of interlinked short stories. To say that agents and publishers advise against attempting this is like saying that, on balance, parents would prefer their children not to smoke crack. Short stories don’t sell. Nobody wants to read about an unlikable character. But, kids, listen: the crack-smoking analogy falls apart at this point. There isn’t an Olive Kitteridge version of crack smoking, one where the crack smoker triumphs against all odds. Yes, crack smokers can triumph against all odds, but they invariably have to do it by giving up the crack. Elizabeth Strout wrote Olive Kitteridge, a collection of stories with a grumpy old woman mostly at their centers but occasionally right on the edge of the frame. She won the Pulitzer, the book was adapted into a really terrific miniseries (prime-time Emmys galore), and then she went back to the pipe. Olive, Again is the result, and is every bit as smart, tender, and unblinking as its predecessor.

Hornby has collected his essays into at least four different books. The first one is called The Polysyllabic Spree. 

Ok, that was Nick Hornby on stuff he has been reading. Let me switch back to books I, Scott Baxter, have been reading.

June was pride month. Seven of the nine books I read in June were written by openly gay authors. Philip Roth was the only exception to being gay; and Yukio Mishima, did not publicly come out during his lifetime, as far as I know. I think that for a long time I avoided any sort of deep dive into queer literature. I am not entirely sure why. I think I was concerned that the books would be filled with explicit descriptions of gay sex. However, on reflection, I realized that there is plenty of serious or literary fiction written by queer authors. (I do not think David Sedaris falls into the literary fiction category, but serious people do read his humorous books.) So, after doing some thinking about my reluctance, I took the plunge into Pride Month.

Here are some thoughts about the specific books.

The Hakawati. I first heard of Rabih Alemeddine when I lived in Beirut, Lebanon during the 2008/2009 academic year. My graduate students at the American University of Beirut were enthusiastic about his book Koolaids: The art of war. The Hakawati was released in 2008 and I remember seeing the book in boookstores at that time and flipping through it and saying I should read this book. So, I thought I might read this book one day, I did not realize that it would take me more than ten years.

A Hakawaiti is, apparently, a storyteller in the Arab/Persian/etc. world. And Alemeddine's book is a new version of the 1001 nights or a collection of traditional tales told in a frame. The frame in this case is one family's experience with the Lebanese civil war.

The Hakawati exceeds 500 pages and belongs on a list of long books (500+ pages) worth reading along with, say, McMurtry's Lonesome Dove or Powers' The Overstory. If, for some reason, you have a hard time thinking of long novels worth reading, Emily Temple has an excellent listicle on that topic.

Memorial. Bryan Washington is a talented writer worth reading. President Obama recommended his first collection of short stories, Lot. I have a library copy of that book waiting for me. Hopefully it will not take me ten years to get around to reading Lot.

Memorial is the story of a relationship between two gay men in Houston, Texas that, after four years, is probably ending. A large chunk of the book is about the parents of the two men and how those parents shaped and continue to influence these two men.

The Prophets. Robert Jones Jr. first came to my attention when I heard him interviewed on the radio program Bookworm. Here is how the host described Jones' book:

Robert Jones, Jr. says that Toni Morrison spoke to his spirit when she told him, “If you cannot find the book you wish to read then you must write it,” because it presented him with the daunting task, the terrifying task, of writing a book in which he imagined two enslaved young men being in love during antebellum slavery. And slavery is not the character of people—they were not the thing that happened to them. The debut novel of Robert Jones, Jr., “The Prophets,” is lyrical prose about the dimensionality and interiority of people.

At least in my opinion, the language of The Prophets is careful and poetic. This novel is very different from other perspectives on the experience of being a slave such as The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass. And on that topic, I highly recommend David Blight's excellent book Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.

As I stand here today, Republicans and their media allies on Fox News have created a fake controversy about critical race theory. Those of us who are serious about books and learning can, by contrast go far beyond simple claims like the one Mike Pence recently uttered, "America is not a racist country" by reading and thinking about the deep and complicated history of race in American history and literature.

Real Life. Brandon Taylor's Real Life is about a black gay science graduate student from the deep south. I liked the emotional depth of the book. However, the book was a bit off for me because I did not think the experience of doing science was nearly as well written as Weike Wang's Chemistry. Like I said, though, the emotional depth of the narrative is impressive.

Mostly Dead Things. Kristen Arnett's novel is unique. The story includes a father's suicide, taxidermy and erotic art, as well as doomed lesbian romance. Decide for yourself if this is a weird book or a deeply sad book.

I do like the cover.

Tales of the CIty. I watched a PBS documentary about Armistead Maupin from their archive that inspired me to read this book. The stories started as a daily newspaper item so they are all flash fiction that never exceeds three pages about a large cast of characters, mostly but not all gay, pursuing happiness in pre-Aids San Francisco. As Maupin said about his work, "gay, in every sense of the word."

I Married a Communist. After I read Blake Bailey's epic and, now, controversial biography of Philip Roth, I have been slowly working my way through most of Roth's novels. I Married a Communist dives into a period of twentieth century American history when communism was a force to be reckoned with. (One page of memorable dialogue starts with the line, "What do you mean, what is Trotskyism?") The book has some minor flaws, at least in my opinion, and I would not make this my first Roth book. But there are many things to admire about this novel. For example, Roth is a master of rhythm in dialogue.

Me Talk Pretty One Day. I first heard David Sedaris read this book on cassette tape when it was first published when my family and I were on a long car trip when the book was new. Hearing this book again reminds me that I enjoy Sedaris' sense of humor.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf. I first heard of Marlon James because he came to Grinnell College when my son was there. My son did not attend the event; I read about it on the college's website. I have found James to be an articulate man in interviews I have heard with him on Bookworm and in talking about favorite movies for the Criterion Channel.

I made it through about 60 percent of this pan-African fantasy quest tale. There is a lot of sex in this book. Sex in forms I never considered before.

As far as the contents of the book, here is what Roxane Gay had to say about James' book

This book is a lot--a labyrinth within a maze, an enigma within a conundrum. Beautifully intense prose that doesn't allow for lazy reading. Immense physicality--a very embodied narrative. The length is... a lot. I don't mind a long book but if you're expecting this to be a traditional fantasy novel you're going to get smacked in the face. The plot is meandering and elusive. There are a hundred characters and settings. Epic is truly the word for this book in terms of scope, narrative, ambition, execution. Also, it is nothing like Game of Thrones. They should stop saying that shit immediately.