Wrapping Up Many Books

While I still feel like I am drowning in books most days (definitely exacerbated by a pressing need to clear out a lot of space in the basement!), I have been getting through books at a faster clip these days.  Surely part of that is due to being on transit more (than biking), but also that I am reading somewhat shorter books in the 200-300 page range.  I've been alternating William Maxwell and Dawn Powell novels from their respective Library of America volumes, and the earlier novels all top out at about 250-300 pages.

I am finding that a little Dawn Powell goes a long way.  I thought Turn, Magic Wheel was a real blast of fresh air, and there were some very amusing moments (particularly dinner parties that go wrong) in A Time to Be Born and The Locusts Have No King.  However, I liked the main characters less and less as the novels progressed.  I particularly had trouble maintaining any interest in Frederick, the male lead in Locusts, who makes a complete fool of himself over a poppet.  Of course this happens, particularly to over-intellectual people, but I definitely lost interest whenever he was pining away after Dodo.

I have about 30 pages left in Loren Eiseley's The Night Country.  While there are some interesting bits here as well, I don't really like how autobiographical these sketches are (nor the creeping in of his religious precepts).  I vastly preferred his articles that are more grounded in science, with the personal restricted to just a few minor asides.  That is not to say that many people wouldn't prefer The Night Country to The Invisible Pyramid or The Immense Journey, both of which I really liked, but this isn't really up my alley.  My general impression is that most of his books are more science-based, but that The Star Thrower (his final book) reverts back to the personal, so I'll probably want to make sure that isn't the book that I read last.  I'll probably want to end my journey through his work with The Unexpected Universe.

While I have a better understanding of what Toni Morrison was doing, after reading quite a few interviews (collected in Conversations), it doesn't mean that I actually like the work any better.  When I do like a Toni Morrison novel, such as Song of Solomon, I really like it, but the ones I don't care for as much (Sula, Tar Baby and Beloved), then I just don't care for them at all.  I finally abandoned Tar Baby after finding the plot (literally a reworking of the tar baby folk tale mixed in with Bodou Saved from Drowning) to be completely unbelievable.  I have about 40 pages left in Sula, and I figure I'll press on at this point.  I honestly don't know if I will reread Beloved, but perhaps I shall.  I probably should save Song of Solomon for last, just to make sure I end this journey on an upbeat note.

And with that, I need to get back to work.

Edit (11/22): I have made it through both works.  Now I'm launching into two relatively short novels: The Book of Eve by Constance Beresford-Howe and The Organ Builder by Robert Cohen.  This was Cohen's first novel, and it is one that caught my eye many, many years ago, as the cover reminded me a bit of a Robinson Davies' novel.