“the trial” by franz kafka

i’ve always considered kafka a fantastic writer, so i was shocked when I realized that i've based this opinion having read only two of his shorter works, “the metamorphosis” and “in the penal colony". i figured it was time i had a go at one of his novels.

“the trial” is about a bank employee named josef k, who is one day arrested for an undisclosed crime. i was under the impression that the whole book would be in a court room, but k. is a free man during his trial and the story follows him as he consults with inept lawyers, falls behind in his demanding job, and gradually lets the trial take over his life. it’s absurd with a dash of magical realism, and i found myself comparing it to kazuo ishiguro’s “the unconsoled” (though the comparison should be the other way round, and p.s. I hated that book) where characters talk in monologues and doors open into places that are neither expected nor ordinary.

there are all sorts of interpretations regarding this novel. one i find particularly interesting is jean-paul sartre’s , which he discussed in “anti-semite and jew: an exploration of the etiology of hate”; (spoiler alert)

"This is perhaps one of the meanings of The Trial by the Jewish Kafka. Like the hero of that novel, the Jewish person is engaged in a long trial. He does not know his judges, scarcely even his lawyers; he does not know what he is charged with, yet he knows that he is considered guilty; judgment is continually put off -- for a week, two weeks -- he takes advantage of these delays to improve his position in a thousand ways, but every precaution taken at random pushes him a little deeper into guilt. His external situation may appear brilliant, but the interminable trial invisibly wastes him away, and it happens eventually ... that men seize him, carry him off on the pretense that he has lost his case, and murder him in some vague area of the suburbs." [88, Schocken Books].

“the trial” was just a draft when kafka died of tuberculosis, so it’s unfinished and rough around the edges. i’m sure had he lived to finish it, it would be a very different novel. while i won't rush to re-read this novel, i'm glad i did. i feel closer to kafka because of it and more justified in my opinion of his writing.

"the clothes they stood up in" by alan bennett

this rather charming short story or novella, tells the tale of the ransomes, who, after coming home from the opera one night, discover that they have been burgled. this is not an ordinary robbing as the thieves have taken absolutely everything from their furniture and electronics to their rugs, curtain rings, toilet paper and light fixtures.

mr. ransome, a solicitor with a penchant for correct grammar, dearly misses his almost state-of-the-art stereo, while mrs. ransome, after getting over the initial shock, starts to enjoy the paired down living the situation has forced. she even starts to wander into "ethnic" shops she would have never ventured in before to purchase cheap replacements for the apartment.

as the author, alan bennett, is known mostly for writing plays, the dialogue is crisp and the descriptions paired down. it is a pleasant afternoon read that is bound to be remembered fondly for its unique premise and bittersweet end.

"charmed thirds" by megan mccafferty

so i might be a little hooked on this series. in the third book, written in diary and letter format like the previous two, jessica darling goes through university. she is as witty and confused as ever and i can more than relate to her choosing a major that you love rather than one that will get you a job angst.

unlike the first two books in the series, this book, is not classified as young adult. ms.darling is growing up along with her readers and this new adult status brings with it more swearing, sex and general inappropriateness. that can never be a bad thing.

"kafka on the shore" by haruki murakami

surrealism: 20th-c movement in art and literature aiming to explore and express the subconscious and to move beyond the accepted conventions of reality by representing the irrational imagery of dreams using such techniques as automatism, the irrational juxtasposition of images and the creation of mysterious signals

that about sums it up.

"kafka on the shore" has two protagonists whose stories are told in alternating chapters. there is kafka tamura, a 15-year-old boy who runs away from home to escape from his own oedipal fate; and there is nakata, an old man, who had an event in his childhood that turned him into a simpleton, unable to read or write.

these two characters are brought together in a truly bizarre tale that has leeches and fish falling from the sky, johnnie walker and colonel sanders in the flesh and a philosophy quoting prostitute.

an interesting book, i've definitely not read anything quite like it, but i'm not going to rush to read other novels by murakami.

"mr. november" by lori foster

i read this book after a friend sent it to me as part of an inside joke. it's the first romance i've ever read and was pretty much exactly what i was expecting.

our heroine, amanda, is to all appearances, a strong confident woman. she wears matching business suits, sweeps up her hair in elaborate up-do's and never looks less than perfect. however, behind this facade hides a fragile twentysomething, who is later revealed to be (spoiler alert!) a virgin and has some serious ghosts in her closet. our hero, josh, is a hunky firefighter. he's known for his womanizing ways, that is, until he meets amanda and falls in love.

there's no sex until the second last chapter where amanda loses her virginity in a completley unrealistic orgsam and then, five pages later they're married and she's pregnant. yep, that's usually how it goes.

"on beauty" by zadie smith

there is nothing simple about this novel. the characters are complicated and well-rounded, the storyline is layered and nuanced, there are often scenes with multiple people doing multiple things. i understand where the frequent dickens comparisons come from. i don't care much for dickens, but i very much enjoyed this book.

“on beauty” tells the story of a family in the suburbs of boston. the white father, howard, is an art history professor. the wife, kiki, a self-proclaimed "big black woman”. two sons; jerome who disappoints his kin with his christian values and levi, who wants nothing more than to be a street-wise black kid instead of the privileged suburbanite, and a daughter, zora, who does her best to follow in her father’s intellectual footsteps. the family dynamic is thrown for a loop when jerome falls in love with a rival family’s daughter and harold has a brief affair with a fellow professor.

this is not a book you can skim through. it demands your full attention and i often found myself having to go back and re-read sentences that i too casually sped past. that said, it's density is rewarding.

zadie smith is only seven years older than me and i kind of hate her for that. however, i'm glad i finally got past the hype and read this book. i look forward to reading more.

"shopgirl" by steve martin

now i have to admit, i saw the movie before i read the book, so i couldn't help but see claire danes as the titular character and steve martin as her older beau. however, this didn't hamper my enjoyment of the book. i've always thought steve martin is a great writer. his play, "picasso at the lapin agile" is hilarious and intellectual and i'm sure if i ever get around to seeing "roxanne" and reading "cyrano de bergerac", i'd agree that the former is a fantastic retelling of the latter.

"shopgirl" is the story of mirabelle, a clerk who works behind the glove counter at neiman marcus in beverely hills. she lives a rather sad, solitary existence until, mr.ray porter, a customer, starts to woo her and they embark on a relationship.

this book wasn't as quirky as i was expecting. it has an understated humour, but for the most part is a simple telling of a simple story. it's quite elegantly written and there's some beautiful descriptions, but it's not something i'd gush about or read again.

i did learn a new word though. propinquity. it means nearness or proximity and was not to be found in my canadian oxford dictionary. mr. martin gets bonus points for that.

"second helpings" by megan mccafferty

since my stint on the children and young adult's floor of the public library, i've become quite a fan of young adult literature. there is a lot of high quality writing that shouldn't be brushed off just because it's targeted for a teenage audience. i find that young adult (ya) books are perfect for when i'm in the mood for something light as they tend to be less dense than your average adult fiction novel, but just as satisfying.

i read the first book of this series by megan mccafferty ("sloppy firsts") at the recommendation of a friend. now i'm onto the second and it's as much fun to read as the first. the protagonist, jessica "notso" darling, is entering her last year in high school and is at the important point in her life when she needs to make a decision regarding her future.

one of the reasons i like these diary-entry style books so much is that jessica darling reminds me of myself in high school. she's a bit of a braniac, hyper-literate, sexually frustrated, angsty and an insomniac. she obsesses over the intellectual non-conformist nerdy types that others find weird and does her best to avoid the cliques of popular, sporty and otherwise. i also love how graphic these books are. while a lot of ya literature tiptoes around sexuality and coarse language, jessica darling is free to be as crude as she likes in her journal. there is copious amounts of the word 'fuck' and candid statements about sexuality that rival adult lit. examples;

"She might have expressed her own point of view, a feminist take that would have been diametrically opposed to Scotty's, if she had taken a moment to remove his cock from her mouth."

"I tell myself to breath, Jessica, breath, and curse all those years of running for winding my leg muscles tighter than my hymen."

"This coming from a girl whose moral compass is in the form of two erect nipples pointing towards the nearest penis."

while not the most intellectually stimulating of novels, "second helpings" is an enjoyable piece of ya chick lit and i'm not ashamed to have enjoyed it.