Specifically I am thinking of all the books (and movies and TV shows) that I'd like to get through. I've told myself I have to be more ruthless in abandoning things that I am not enjoying, since it is so rare that they get better. In some cases, I know I'll never return to something, and I would like to effectively (or indeed literally) cross it off my list. But this is just silly. I definitely would have been better off cutting and running with Naipaul's The Enigma of Arrival, Reve's The Evenings, and frankly von Rezzori's The Death of My Brother Abel. But it is a hard lesson to truly internalize if part of my reason for reading is to get through the canon, for better or worse. Nonetheless, I will try to drop things sooner.
I just put this to the test with Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd. I mentioned that Hardy jumps into the action right away, which is normally a good sign, but in this case, means he is pushing an absurd soap opera plot. The dialog was surprisingly cringe-worthy. Bathsheba is foolish and flighty. I can sort of see where one critic is coming from in saying that part of the tragedy is that she had so few good choices (of men to choose from) in this rural community, but I don't think she had a particularly good character in the first place. Anyway, I simply couldn't stomach the book any more after some ridiculous scene between her and Boldwood* about halfway in. So classic or not, I am abandoning the book and can't imagine ever returning to it. Now it is possible, even likely, that Hardy got better at drawing up realistic characters as he went along, but I have to admit, I have my doubts about The Return of the Native. I guess I'll see in about 18 months...
As it happens, I was returning a book at St. Mike's when I decided I couldn't take any more Hardy, but I still needed something for the train ride home. The book I wanted to read wasn't there any longer, but they did have Didion's Play It As It Lays, which I thought would make an interesting companion piece to McCarthy's Birds of America. No question that Maria makes all kinds of bad choices (some even worse than Bathsheba's) but the writing is so much better. Anyway, we'll see how well I stick to this resolution on the next big test - Faulkner's A Fable is coming up on my reading list next week!
* I just recalled that an awful lot of the plot is actually propelled by Bathsheba just happening to have inherited a signet ring that says "Marry Me." Are you kidding me? Someone (else) would go to the trouble of making a ring (or stamp) that reads like Valentine's Day candy? And properly speaking, this should only be used once (if indeed at all, given that marriage proposals are usually done in person and not through the mail). How completely stupid and implausible. Truly a terrible novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment