I finished reading Cormac McCarthy’s, The Road, for a third time and participated in a library-sponsored book club. The book club consisted of a group of retired people, and I was particularly interested in their reaction to this particular book. It was not entirel positive. In fact, when I was introduced to the group as a big, big fan of Cormac McCarthy some of the members jokingly told me to get out. I think they found the story a bit too depressing and gruesome. Can’t argue with that. Still, they had plenty to say, and it was a lively discussion. All in all it was pretty cool, I have to say. I had my doubts, but I enjoyed it. Not sure if I’ll do it again. Perhaps when the book club reads No Country for Old Men, also by Cormac McCarthy.
So now I’ve returned to Glamorama, by Brett Easton Ellis, in large part to simply finish it. In some ways it seems a bit of a chore. There’s something both compelling and repelling about this Ellis novel, but then I found American Psycho to be kind of the same way, and I read that finally, at least in part, so that I could say that I’d read it all the way through, but also to provide myself with some ammo for people who like to bash it. So it is with Glamorama. It is an interesting book but I can see why perhaps many people did not like it. One thing I would like to note, although I doubt that it is very novel, is the main character’s (Victor Ward/Johnson) penchant for the phrase “spare me,” which he is constantly invoking. By the end of the novel, when he is caught up in terrorist plots, he is literally pleading to spared. Ironic, don’t you think? Anyway, I’ll be glad to have finished it so that I can move on.
I am also still in the midst of High Fidelity, by Nick Honrsby, but I’m not so sure I’ll finish that. I saw the movie and know how it ends in any case. But since I consider this a good example of GenX lit I’ll hang onto to it in hopes of finding time to read the rest. Because for some books there is more than just knowing how it ends.
I do want to finish reading Millennial Makeover, the nonfiction about political cycles and the roll of the Millennial Generation in bringing about a new political realignment, but I fear that I may end up giving up the ship before I ever get to the end.
junkdrawer67 