Reading Log: February Recap
Jennifer Egan, migraines, and Taylor Swift
February was a slower month for reading. I had tons to do for work, it was my birthday this month and I took a quick trip upstate to celebrate, and also I’ve been dealing with debilitating migraines (which is why this recap is late!).
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan. I loved this book. While not a direct sequel (the publisher describes it as a “sibling novel”) to A Visit from the Goon Squad, it follows many of the same characters and introduces new ones, but they’re all connected in some way. Bix Bouton, a computer science student in the previous book, has created a company called Mandala. With Mandala, he creates a new technology that allows you to “Own Your Unconscious” and share every memory you’ve had in exchange for the memories of others. Goon Squad had its PowerPoint chapter and Candy House has one consisting of tweets and another told via e-mails. I couldn’t stop thinking about the concept of memory and the lengths some people will go to remember or to forget.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It’s fun, what else can I say? There’s a reason why it’s sold over a million copies.
I Remain in Darkness by Annie Ernaux. Annie has a way to pack so much emotion in 80 pages. In I Remain in Darkness, Annie recounts her attempts to help her mother recover from Alzheimer’s and her gradual decline. Through journal entries, some longer than others, she captures what it’s like to see a loved one live out their last days and the frustrations and sadness that come along with it. She spares no detail: from odors and bodily fluids to her own feelings about writing about her mother, as she sees “writing as an act of betrayal.” We’re all going to die, and Annie reminds us so, haunting us in the process.
I Don’t Think of You (Until I Do) by Tatiana Ryckman
Red Milk by Sjón. Icelandic writer and Björk collaborator Sjón’s novel is “both biography and mystery” and tells the story of Gunnar Kampen the founder of Iceland’s antisemitic nationalist party. This is the first novel I’ve read translated from Icelandic. I got a bit frustrated reading this. It’s told through letters and flashbacks and I often felt confused and like I missed an important plot point (when there really is no traditional “plot”), but that’s part of the beauty of reading literature in translation.
CURRENTLY READING: Pure Colour by Sheila Heti.
LISTENING TO: “right where you left me” by Taylor Swift. I’m convinced this is her saddest song. “I’m sure that you got a wife out there/kids and Christmas, but I’m unaware/’cause I’m right where/I cause no harm, mind my business/if our love died young, I can’t bear witness.” Where is her NOBEL?!