Lit Chat Vol. 34 — March/April in Review
Hi friends,
I did something recently that I haven’t done in a long time: I read some bad books, all the way to the end.
These books all had vastly different faults: in one, the dialogue and the pacing were clunky to the point of distraction. In another, the language was dense and overwrought, muddying what little plot existed. The last was just poorly written and could have sorely used a better editor.
Two of these books were advance copies I read for the Center For Fiction’s first novel prize, so I’m not including them here because they’re not even published yet and it feels mean. All of the “bad” books were debuts, though, which made me realize how often I’m reading books by writers much farther along in their careers, and how much this shows in the level of skill and execution. That said, I have another couple of novel debuts in this round-up which I found genuinely delightful, so it can’t all be chalked up to a lack of experience.
In general, I found it refreshing to be reminded that the books I tend to choose for myself are often exceptionally good. This can be explained by a combination of taste (sue me!), great recommendations from trusted friends and critics, and having clearly defined interests and preferences as a reader. But reading subpar books every now and then is also helpful from a writing perspective, to learn how to pinpoint where things go wrong and how to avoid those pitfalls in my own work. Reading is learning! Reading is craft. None of it is ever wasted.
Anyway, now that I’ve teased you enough, shall we chat about what I’ve been reading lately?
THE FOUNDATION:
The Art of Vanishing — Morgan Pager
I really do hate to rag on a debut, but this was the first of the bunch to make me realize how much I take the high quality of my normal reading diet for granted. I would have DNF’ed it thirty pages in, but Paige insisted I finish so we could discuss. The premise is promising: a girl who can enter and move through paintings in an art museum, and who falls in love with one of their subjects. This book needed to go through like, three more rounds of developmental edits, though. The romance felt rushed and forced, the characters underdeveloped, and there were a few too many plot twists for it to feel narratively cohesive. This one needed a lot more time in the oven, and it’s frankly a shame it didn’t get it, considering the author’s high profile as a well-known bookstagrammer.
Brideshead Revisited — Evelyn Waugh
I’m realizing this is going to be an audiobook heavy round-up, because I’ve been doing a lot more walking and moving this spring than I have sitting down reading. A sign of the times! That said, I had been listening to this audiobook in fits and starts since September, because I kept not finishing it before the due date and then having to wait 4-6 weeks to get it back from the Libby gods. I think this is one I should return to on paper someday, because I simply could not remember all of what had happened before and I didn’t care enough to rewind. That said, Jeremy Irons is lovely as the narrator, and his stately voice evokes the perfect atmosphere of postwar British pride and nostalgia that the novel aims to capture. Maybe I’ll just watch the movie and call it a day.
Lost Lambs — Madeline Cash
I first encountered a wild excerpt from Cash’s debut novel in The Drift, and knew then I was going to have to read the whole thing sooner or later. I listened to it on audio, and while I enjoyed that experience, part of me wishes I could have read it on my own so I didn’t have someone else’s voice and inflection influencing how the jokes landed. Lost Lambs is about a family in individual and collective crisis, and I was pleasantly surprised by how it managed to make all five distinct storylines (mother, father, and three teenage daughters) converge with a satisfying and surprising final twist. It’s witty and weird and a bunch of fun, and while the strongest storylines were those of the daughters, Cash manages to make each character’s voice feel distinct, urgent, and vulnerable. She’s one to watch IMO—and not just because of that Gap ad.
SOLID SUPPORTS:
The End of Romance — Lily Meyer
This book was not on my radar until my friend Sarah quite literally pressed it into my hands, and after a stint of disappointing reads, it was SUCH a joy to immerse myself in a smart, well-written, and thoughtfully crafted novel. It follows a young woman who escapes an abusive marriage to enroll in a Philosophy PhD, where she tries to argue for an ideal post-romantic world, only to find it much more complicated in practice than in theory. I can’t express how much of a relief and a treat it was to witness a character deep in thought. There are entire pages where all she does is walk around thinking about philosophy and her thesis and you’re like wow, yes, thank you, now I remember what it’s like to have a brain. As a bonus, the inevitable romance is equally smart and sexy, and leads to further intellectual reflection and stimulation. Education, love, and personal growth—women really can have it all!
The Rachel Incident — Caroline O’Donoghue
This audiobook was a top-tier recommendation from fellow Irish Lit enthusiast Katy P, and it was a delight to have in my ears as I restarted my seasonal morning walks through Brooklyn Bridge Park. It’s primarily about the friendship between a young college student, Rachel, and her gay roommate James, but also about how their relationship intersects with that of one of Rachel’s professors and his wife. It’s clever and surprising, at once deeply Irish and also somehow universally relevant to anyone who has ever been young during (or before, or after) a recession. With humor and tenderness, O’Donoghue nails that specific flavor of economic anxiety and how it compounds the preexisting struggle of being young and trying to reconcile the gap between who you are and who you want to be. Evergreen content, honestly! I whole-heartedly undersign Katy’s endorsement.
THE TIPPY TOP:
On the Calculation of Volume IV — Solvej Balle (translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell)
Come on, guys. Be so for real. Did you really expect a new one of these to come out and for it to not be the top book on my list? I’ll keep this short because it’s hard to talk about the fourth book in a series without some major spoilers, but what I admire most about this installment is the balance between some of the philosophical-forward thinking I enjoyed in the first couple of volumes, and more actual plot! Plus, Balle continues to knock us flat with cliffhangers and then force us to wait another six months for her faithful English translators to bring us sweet relief. A deviation in the routine—what could it mean??? We are once again counting down to the 18th of November in this house.
That’s all for now! I’m in the Berkshires this weekend and it’s raining, and there’s a spot on the couch in front of the wood-burning stove with my name on it. If you want to chat some more in the meantime, you can find me in all the usual places.
Until next time, happy reading!
❤ Catherine
Housekeeping note: all book links go to my Bookshop storefront, where each purchase supports independent bookstores (and this newsletter, because I get a small percentage of each sale).
Catherine Thoms 