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Benutty’s Book Review: By Nightfall
Oct 22nd
(Michael Cunningham, 2010)
I have to start with the fact that Michael Cunningham is my favorite author; I completely adore his previous novels Flesh and Blood and Specimen Days, as well as the one he’s most notable for, the Pulitzer Prize winning The Hours. His new one, By Nightfall, contains a lot of the elements that made the others endearing — the AIDS-afflicted gays, Manhattan, dramatic older women with a flare for style, and a sexy undercurrent of forbidden love. Cunningham’s style is to pull heavily from his own influences (Woolf & Whitman were some of his previous muses), but here he steps beyond literary art and looks to visual art for inspiration. By Nightfall centers around Peter Harris, a middle-aged art curator in New York City who struggles with a need to “measure up” — trying to find the next big artist, rebuilding a broken relationship with his daughter, saving his addict brother-in-law, and moving past the death of his older brother, among other things. Surrounded by the problems of the people in his life, Peter needs to find a way to address his own and it is in this struggle that Peter begins to analyze the depths of beauty and art, and the ways that each is ever-changing and dependent on the eye of the beholder.
So I’m a little biased and love this book simply because it’s a Cunningham, but I’d be a liar to say I wasn’t slightly disappointed with it. The plot of the novel, when present, is slow-moving and the ruminations on beauty & art become repetitive. The writing even becomes a little bit annoying during a few awkward asides where, as a reader, it isn’t clear whose voice is speaking to us and from what angle, is it Peter or Cunningham who has become burdened with insecurities of worth? It might not be far-fetched to guess that By Nightfall is actually a mask for Cunningham’s struggle to live up to the prize-winning name he’s made for himself. Is he really just asking us to forego immediate judgment on the value of his art, delaying any critique of each book’s individual beauty until they have withstood the test of time? Should we even care if we won’t be around to take a second look at it centuries from now? Whatever the answers, By Nightfall has its moments of tenderness, thoughtful intellect, and intrigue that make it as lovable as anything else he’s written, putting it in its place as a part of a larger body of work, artful in its collectiveness.
Recommended for fans — like a risky album from your favorite musician you’ll only enjoy it if you’re familiar with their other work, but don’t expect it to bring in any new admirers.
Notable excerpt:
Remember, how often the great art of the past didn’t look great at first, how often it didn’t look like art at all; how much easier it is, decades or centuries later, to adore it, not only because it is, in fact, great but because it’s still here; because the inevitable little errors and infelicities tend to recede in an object that’s survived the War of 1812, the eruption of Krakatoa, the rise and fall of Nazism.
Benutty’s Book Review: The Woman Warrior
Jun 20th
(Maxine Hong Kingston, 1975)
I was first introduced to this book in my sophomore year of high school and, although hating it at the time, have found myself to have had a favorable idea of it throughout my more literarily mature adult life. I’ve only recently returned to it as part of my office’s book club and am pleased to realize that the romanticization of it in my head wasn’t without merit. I like it as much as I had convinced myself I had!
Kingston diverges interestingly from the typical Asian-American literary style by using what her mother calls “talk-story,” to speak to ideas of womanhood rather than focusing on the now cliche frustration of fitting into America as an immigrant, as seen in any one of Amy Tan’s boring novels. Talking story creates a hybrid fact/fiction story for Kingston that all at once includes the story of Fa Mu Lan, her mother’s own life, and lessons enveloped in Chinese tradition but stamped with American ideals. Although at times sleepy and seemingly endless, The Woman Warrior is a gem for its use of metaphor, fierceness, and simple tale-telling.
Recommended to anyone with a taste of cultural lit and/or feminism.
Notable excerpt:
“What’s the matter with her?”
“I don’t know. Bad, I guess. You know how girls are. There’s no profit in raising girls. Better to raise geese than girls.”
“I would hit her if she were mine. But then there’s no use wasting all that discipline on a girl. When you raise girls, you’re raising children for strangers.”
Benutty’s Book Review: Things Fall Apart
Feb 10th
(Chinua Achebe, 1959)
I’ve been a part of a book club at my office for about 6 months now, and of the books we’ve read in that time, this is by far my favorite. What stood out most to me was the struggle of the main character, Okonkwo, — who I can’t help but think may have inspired, if only a little, Star Trek’s Worf — to stabilize the ever-teetering relationship between the voice of what he calls his chi, or personal god, and the will of the grander gods that his culture pays tribute to. The battle of choosing when to fight openly against personal disgraces and when to relinquish responsibility to one’s faith is at the very heart of this story. Add to that themes of masculine vs. feminine, the nature of violence and fear, and the politics of cultural and religious homogenization and you’ve got yourself a masterpiece, honey!
Beautifully written as if transcribed word-for-word from the mouth of a tribal African orator yet through the mind of a Greek poet, I think everyone can find something to appreciate about this book. So read it you crazy bitches!!
Notable excerpt:
A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.