Compton-Burnett got better, but its trick of being nearly all dialog meant it was somehow simultaneously over- and underexpository throughout.
Another on my list of personally underappreciated greats of the 20th century was F. Scott Fitzgerald; I picked up the collection of short stories published just after This Side of Paradise, Flappers and Philosophers (on the strength of its including "Bernice Bobs Her Hair"). The more I step away from it, the less I like it--several of the stories are based on rather cheap jokes--but at moments, particularly "The Offshore Pirate", it's just sumptuously elegant and riotously funny. And of course there's all sorts of parallels to draw between the 20s and today which makes a lot of the class observations seem that much keener. I'm not sure where to go next from here (I was assigned Gatsby in school, but never took to it), but more Fitzgerald is definitely at the top of my to-do list.
In between, a couple of Feynman's books, Six Easy Pieces and QED, which certainly make me feel smarter, and Ann Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, a journalistic perspective on cross-cultural conflicts illustrated by the story of the struggle to treat a Hmong child's severe epilepsy in central California. It's a bit of a mess to wrap the whole context of Hmong immigration around Lia Lee's story and felt like it could've used a stricter editor throughout, but on the whole was a brilliantly funny, heartbreakingly, and tremendously educational read.
Now rereading David Markson's two detective novels, Epitaph for a Tramp and Epitaph for a Dead Beat. Better than Chandler, although that's not saying a whole lot. There's so much in the setting that has to be taken on faith, and the use of stereotypes is pretty jarring in patches, but there's something resonant and idyllic about the way Markson's language and premises fold into the setting. Old Hollywood's got nothing on post-beatnik NYC, that is to say. |
