Clifford Garstang

I read this while on the flight home from a long visit to Berlin, so the territory and the history of what is addressed in the novel was familiar to me, and yet so much of it surprises–from the warped sense of time and memory, the similarly warped sense of beauty and love, to the erratic thought process of the book's main character, Saul Adler. I don't think the book is perfect and I don't think Levy gets the character of Saul quite right. Nonetheless, it provided excellent distraction on a long flight.

Irving is a genius. This is now one of my all-time favorite novels.

My full review: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

A chronicle of a mental breakdown. This is the first thing I've read by Kerouac and I think there's more of a debt to James Joyce here than I realized.

I wasn't as well-informed about the Irish Troubles as I should have been, as it always seemed so remote and intractable to me. So this book, which is one of the best-written non-fiction books I've read–fills in a lot of details, including the names of key players and information about milestones in the history of the conflict and its ultimate resolution. It's a fascinating piece of reporting.

Because of the book's popularity, I felt obligated to read it, but I'm not sure I feel obligated to read further in the series. On the other hand, my main disappointment in the novel was that it focused on the friendship of two young girls, which didn't interest me much, although the environment of their friendship–working-class Naples of a much earlier time–was quite interesting. The writing is fine, although repetitive.

The narration of the audiobook is very slooow. Eventually, I switched to the Kindle version so I get through it faster. I can't say that it brought me more enjoyment, however.