I was rummaging through some of my old things today and came across a stack of magazines I've had for years. I've kept these particular issues because something in them touched me at the time I read them, and thankfully I happened to come across the very issue that contained one of my favorite essays I've read in a silly fashion magazine. From the June 2006 issue of Allure (2006! FIVE YEARS I've had this magazine, haha) is an essay by Julia Glass called "Scents of a Woman." Glass chronicles her life not in photographs or memories, but in fragrances and scents. She writes,
"I regard my nose as a personal historian. Without a moment's notice, countless everyday smells send me hurtling back in time: hot tar, new leather, Dove soap, Hu-Kwa tea, turpentine, Vicks VapoRub, dead leaves as they are raked from the lawn. They transport me to places like my grandmother's bedroom, the kitchen in my first apartment, or to a time-the fall I changed schools, the years I studied painting. Perfumes, however, take me deeper and further, back to crucial events of the heart. They may have been invented as a form of disguise, but to my nose they are evocative, revealing, sometimes painfully so."
Now, it's been said that scent is the strongest sense attached to memory, and I whole-heartedly agree. Given Bryan brought up a theme of memory in one of our recent comment threads on Hamid, I am curious as to what scents conjures the most powerful memories for you all. Any scent, any memory.
Here are a few of mine... my mother's hairspray, for one, takes me back to being six years old and sitting on the edge of the bathtub, watching her get ready for an evening out with my father and other couples. Johnson and Johnson's "No Tears" hair detangling spray always reminds me of the lazy days of summer spent at the pool and the very real tears that still occurred whenever my dad would try and brush my hair. Lilacs, because my mother would leave them on my dresser when I'd been gone for a few days as a "welcome home" and a reminder of how I was missed, and of her love. Cigarette smoke, unfortunately, reminds me of my grandmother's home (not the stereotypical cookies or warmth answer!). I can still smell the inside of certain boys necks, the traces of Old Spice and Speed Stick, and smoky hair left over from campfires with friends. I can even remember how each of you smell, though I can never quite put my finger on exactly what it is. But it always comes back whenever we're reunited from being far apart, a certain "mmmph," mixed with warm feelings of familiarity and friendship.
I'm sure you've already heard most or all of these, but this is just some of what I'm really loving these days:
Badlands - Bruce Springsteen. A classic, and for a reason. "Born To Run" will always be my favorite Bruce, but damn, is this good.
King's Crossing - Elliott Smith. The opposite feeling of "Badlands," but haunting and stunning. A friend of mine recently reminded me of Elliott Smith and now I'm just re-immersing myself. Listening to the album "Figure 8," which is so far all beautiful.
You know you’ve read a great book when as soon as you’re done reading, you instantly just want to start over and read it again.
It comes rarely these days, but that’s how it was for me as soon as I finished David Nicholls’ One Day. The novel, set in Britain, traces the intersecting lives of good friends (and sometime lovers) Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew on the same day, July 15th , of each year. It begins on the day they graduate college when you find Dexter, the classic playboy with money and good looks and charm, and the bookish, political and less “popular” Emma somehow in bed together. It’s really kind of an awkward match, but “something” pulls them together. (Okay, it’s totally sounding corny to you guys right now, I’m sure, but this is not the standard, run of the mill “chick-lit”.) The next day they go on with their lives, figuring they’d never see one another again, but end up becoming close friends via letters while Dexter goes off traveling (and womanizing) and Emma takes a job at a lowly theater production. The novel is staged so you only get the glimpse of their relationship on that same day each year, but Nicholls is very good at weaving the other details of the year in and filling you in on what’s happened without being overtly obvious (i.e. them having new jobs or living situations or relationships). In fact, it is so stupendously written. The unique insight, and perhaps male author perspective for a love story, gives it charm and makes it different.
Of course it has a “When Harry met Sally” aspect of, “Oh my gosh, they’re such good friends why are they not together?” but really, as a reader, you come to understand all the life reasons as to why they’re not together that you’re not constantly thinking that. Whether it’s Dexter’s self-involvement or eventual alcoholism, or Emma’s indecision about what to do with her life and her stubborn denial to herself that NO they are just friends, they do not have feelings for each other… somehow it never works out. Until (SPOILER ALERT) it does. But that’s just the beginning, really (even though it doesn’t happen until well into the book). The rest is so gut-wrenching, powerful, emotional, lovely.
Honestly, while the writing is really wonderful, often it’s not so much that as it is Nicholls’ ability to tell a gripping and relatable story. He does it masterfully, ordering everything just right in his weird web of time.My heart was aching at so many points, and I cried not once, but twice while reading. And not just a few tears. I was sitting by the pool at my beach place, tears streaming down my face and gasping for air a little bit. People were staring so I had to leave, haha. But I love when a book makes you do that. Just the written word. And it’s not this overly professed lovey dovey bullshit. It’s very real, very straightforward. And yet, as simplistic and straightforward as it is, it is so powerful. He packs so much meaning into the characters that you feel as if you know them, that this is something personally affecting you. He’s able to say things so simply because you understand the gravity of everything behind it, how Emma and Dexter feel about everything and how it impacts them.
When I was done the book, I was like, What do I do now? Aren’t Emma and Dexter, like, real people? What, do I just not get to experience the rest of their lives with them? It was so surreal.
“One Day” is not a love story, it’s a life story, and at the end of it, I was like, Holy shit. What I am doing with my life? Why am I wasting my precious days lounging on a beach, not doing anything or being with the people I love or having an impact on something?
It had one of the best endings to a novel I’ve read in a long time, simply because it went back to the beginning when they first met, and you knew everything that had transpired since then. Nicholls’ says,
“This is where it all begins. Everything starts here, today. And then it was over.”
And he goes on to say more, but that is effectively the ending and it was entirely the message of the novel, and of life itself. The importance of cherishing the simple, perfect beauty of one day, one moment, seizing that (cliché, but true), because someday, inevitably, it will be over. And you will never, ever feel as if you’ve had enough time at the end of it, but that’s life. That is just how it goes. But, as Nicholls says, you will always have that "one day", or the memories you can cherish together.
PS, they are making a movie out of it, and it looks GREAT too. Hopefully the movie doesn’t ruin it! It has Anne Hathaway as Emma and Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe guy) as Dexter. And they look perfect and here is the link to the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfmh2FqhqIk
PPS, I know this post is already way too long but I miss you all dearly. Thinking of you during all my reading and wishing you were here! xoxo
I know this is a reading club but I thought I'd share about my trip to the theatre (read: "thee-ah-tuh"):
I saw The Normal Heart last night with Nathan and am emotionally drained. It's written by the man who started AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and the Gay Men's Health Crisis. It's basically a fictionalized account of his founding of ACT UP. It was first produced in 1985 and was/still is a really rage-filled indictment of the apathy of the government, the NY Times, the mayor of NYC, the public, the attitude of gay men towards sex/"liberation," etc. The protagonist is this really angry, "out" writer who can't get enough of his closeted friends to do their part or subscribe to his "radical" methods. So he ends up being kicked off the board of the organization he himsef started. Meanwhile, of course, 40 of his friends have died and his lover is sick and undergoing the experimental-hopeless-chemotherapy-attempts-at-treatment that the only empathetic doctor in city is offering.
The walls of the stage were pretty plain white, except that they had quotes, statistics, and news headlines outlined on them faintly. And between scenes, when the lights went down, projectors would shine the names of all of the people who had been diagnosed with and killed by AIDS up to that point in the play's time setting onto the walls. By the end (about 1984) the list covered the whole stage, and then after about ten seconds four more columns appeared on the walls on either side of the ground seating. I've always thought that this was a major blind spot for me and I'm going try to start learning about the history of HIV/AIDS and about organizations in NYC. There was a time that I thought about volunteering at Housing Works Bookstore, which maybe I could do this summer on some evenings and/or weekends.
Because I really enjoyed being able to read Bryan's comments after his "Reluctant Fundamentalist" reading experience, I thought it'd be a cool idea for each one of us to pick a book from our list that the others have to read. Since Devika and Bryan have both already read Hamid from me, that can be my book that I selected. That way, we get to have kind of a book club thing going on where we get some real discussion circulating about our readings.
SO GUYS.
If you want to do this, let us know your pick for the one book (or more! up to you guys) from your list that everyone else should read!
While there were some real gems in this book, and for its length it does deliver in terms of the growth of the narrator and content, there is something about the book that didn't "do it" for me. I'm trying to deconstruct that feeling - my mother read it and enjoyed it much more than I did, and I think the fact that I'm a white American non-immigrant might be an element of it. The writing style, also, was not something I'm used to. I understand that this is the author's voice, and that he's a Princeton-educated and clearly a genius, and in the sense of the writing style communicating a lot about his personality it was excellent. The problem I had with it was that it kind of made me think of his personality as being very mechanical, like an encyclopedia, and even the very emotional, vulnerable, or tender passages about his relationship, or about home, seemed to me too clinical and scientific.
I don't think I need to go too deeply into how much I appreciated other elements of the story, such as the political nature and the criticism of violence it makes. Maybe the book simply wasn't what I was in the mood for at the time. I would really like to hear Kim and Devika's thoughts on it (or anyone who reads it) because I'm sure there are things I'm missing or perspectives I'm neglecting.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Hello friends!
So I wrote a draft of what I was going to be reading a couple weeks ago, but my focus has shifted since then. Here, I present to you, Kim's Summer 2011 Literary Adventure (as of June 6, 2011):
1) White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
2) One Day by David Nicholls
3) Henry and June by Anais Nin
4) How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu
5) Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
6) Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman
... that's all I have for now. I'll keep posting because I tend to find new books I want to read as I progress, rather than make a planning list. When I list, it sucks the fun out and I worry about finishing a book rather than really savoring it. (BUT I still love the idea of this blog, which is sharing with each other our reading experiences.)
In that vein, I'll share that I just finished reading Bossypants by Tina Fey, and it was so great. I love her, and even though the book doesn't really have a coherent goal and is moreso a collection of miscellaneous ramblings, it's still so funny and wonderful. A choice quote:
"I feel about Photoshop the way some people feel about abortion. It is appalling and a tragic reflection on the moral decay of our society…unless I need it, in which case, everybody be cool."
I'm going to re-read The Great Gatsby this summer as well, because I don't think I appreciated it nearly enough in high school. And I will be picking up "Letters to a Young Poet" asap, after seeing Bryan's post. With that in mind, if anyone wants to read beautiful and emotionally sophisticated yet incredibly simplistic poetry in like a day, pick up Mary Barnard's Sappho translation. So I read it for CFI freshman year. Whatever. It's still great. Like this:
It's no use
Mother dear, I
can't finish my
weaving
You may
blame Aphrodite
soft as she is
she has almost
killed me with
love for that boy
If you can't find it, just borrow it from me in the fall. It is so short and simple to read, but ever so lovely.
Hmmm, what else? Oh yes. Movies, music, etc.
Bridesmaids was hysterical, saw it twice and laughed even harder the second time around. Last Night is a new favorite and Rabbit Hole, of course. I just watched Food, Inc. as well. Ooh boy. Has me doubting everything I put in my body. I would be glad to take any recommendations!
As for music, I am basically in a state of suspension, waiting for the release of Bon Iver's new album (TWO WEEKS!). Can't stop listening to "Calgary." I'm pleased with Death Cab's new album, "Codes and Keys" and the new Coldplay single, "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall."
So I also just downloaded Taylor Swift's "Today Was a Fairytale"? Whatever, today was a fairytale.
And you should listen to this, on repeat, forever, on long car drives at sunset, windows down, mmmmmmm:
Hey Everyone! Here is my reading list for the summer. I may add to it while I am in India, but this is the "golden goal" as of now! Lots of love to you all. Bryan darling, I hope you're having a wonderful time in Cairo (be safe, though) ; cannot wait to see you in August. And Emily, Victoria and Kim dears, SEE YOU this weekend.
1) Outliers by Malcom Gladwell
2) Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
3) South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
4) Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
5)Amour, la Fantasia by Assia Djebar
6)Small is Beautiful : Economics as if People Mattered by E.F. Schumacher
7)Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein
8) The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
9) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
10) Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
I've been feeling all of you all day. Bryan -- Fleetfoxes guiding me as I wash the dishes and read and type and sing along, Victoria, as I transition into a summer vegetarian, or pescquetarian at the least, Emily because I bravely dealt with my my emerging facial 'womp-womps' (euphamism) and remembered to floss, and Kim because I read through my middle school reading response journals and smiled at my florid language and little middle school dreams.
Fiction The Reluctant Fundamentalist Mohsin Hamid ContactCarl Sagan Heart of DarknessJoseph Conrad Zoli Colum McCann The Lazarus Project Aleksander Hemon Isabel Allende Gabriel Garcia Marquez Kurt Vonnegut Salman Rushdie Jonathan Safran Foer
Latin America/Argentina/Guerra Sucia Imagining Argentina Lawrence Thornton The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and SurvivalAlicia Partnoy A Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of TortureMarguerite Feitlowitz
Criminal Justice/Prisons The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Michelle Alexander
History The Crusades Through Arab Eyes Amin Maalouf The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as Told to Alex Haley 1491 - New Revelations of the Americas Before ColumbusCharles C. Mann Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of AmericaThomas James Fleming
Philosophy/Essay The Myth of SisyphusAlbert Camus Richard Rodriguez James Baldwin
Poetry
Jorge Luis Borges Rainer Maria Rilke (I'll probably be carrying around Letters to a Young Poet like a Bible - if anyone has not read it, it is my NUMBER ONE RECOMMENDATION, and it only takes about forty minutes to read... the first time - you will be compelled to read it more than once, I promise)
Also: My goodreads account is under bryan.zubay@gmail.com! We could all become friends on there as well?
ALSO: I wrote this draft before I even read Kim's draft and so many of her recommendations are on here! I'm so exciteddddd. I also watched "Rabbit Hole" a few weeks ago. The scene with Nicole Kidman and her mother in the basement?! Gahh, I die.
WELCOME TO SUMREADING - A summer book club blog for friends!
Bryan had the idea that we have a summer book club, and I thought, let's begin a blog and share our journeys as readers this summer!
Sum reading 2011 :
1) Make blog.
2) Everyone assembles a list of books he/she would like to read. There's no common book list. Everyone's free to read and not read as they please.
3) Everyone posts their lists on this blog (let's say by June 1st).
4) Afterwards, as the summer progresses, everyone can leave 'posts' about their reading experiences, what thoughts and feelings these books have provoked, and everything, anything else that comes to mind.
10) We can also totally keep everyone else informed on our lives as well :~)
Hope you all are down for the adventure! I have added all of you as authors, so you should all have access to write on here.
