Reading Wednesday

[troisoiseaux]

Recently read

I was a teenager in the early- to mid-2010s, so OBVIOUSLY I've read all most of John Green's books, with varying levels of sincere vs. ironic interest. (Having checked Wikipedia to see if I should add the qualifier "before 2014", I realized I have in fact only read about half of his books. So, amending my statement to: all of his books written a. before 2014 and b. by himself.) Of these, I decided to re-read An Abundance of Katherines because... well, actually, because it was the only one available to borrow immediately, but also because, while I know I've read it before, I remembered absolutely nothing about it.

The premise, as it turns out, is that a former child prodigy who only dates girls named Katherine goes on a post-high school graduation/post-breakup road trip with his best friend, and they find themselves in a small town in rural Tennessee that is allegedly the final resting place of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. They end up staying to work on a local oral history project, while the main character tries to develop a mathematical theory to predict the longevity of romantic relationships and slowly falls for his first non-Katherine.

I enjoyed it... more than I expected?? The first few chapters prepared me to spend this reading experience in a haze of annoyance, and not to be like, and in breaking news, water is wet! but it was very obviously a YA novel from the mid-2000s in both endearing and not-so-great ways, but it made me smile or laugh out loud as often as cringe or roll my eyes. Ultimately, it was warm and funny and I’m glad I revisited it. 

On a wildly different note, I read Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss. It's a short, tense novel: a LGBT coming-of-age story inside of a Brexit analogy inside of a plot that from the beginning moves obviously and unstoppably towards "and then the classics archaeology department started a cult" like a car crash you can't tear your eyes away from.

Finally, I checked out a couple of Georgette Heyer's detective novels, having discovered on a trip to the library over the weekend that she had, in fact, written detective novels— I only knew of her Regency romances, although I'd never read any myself. I have... mixed feelings. I enjoyed Detection Unlimited (1953); her detective was oddly bland, but the overall story was engaging enough that it didn't matter. On the other hand, Duplicate Death (1951) ended up as a DNF, because it took a sharp turn for the blatantly homophobic that I found super upsetting.

Currently reading

I'm recovering from the emotional bruises of my foray into Heyer's detective fiction in the familiar arms of Agatha Christie, with Mrs. McGinty's Dead, and still working on The Trials of the King of Hampshire.

Comments

[osprey_archer]

Are non-classics departments even allowed to start cults?? Seriously, though, I love that "academic department becomes cult" is actually its own weird little subgenre.

[troisoiseaux]

Well, I'm not sure if it's a matter of not allowed, or if it's just that all the English professors are too busy having midlife crises and cheating on their wives with undergraduates, and the law professors are too busy committing and covering up murders to bother... :P

[osprey_archer]

Mmm. True! Perhaps each department has its own special way of dealing with its dysfunctions. Cults, adultery, murder...

An anthropology department is a natural fit for a cult, anyway. Once they've started the cult, maybe they can study their own cult practices??

[troisoiseaux]

Oh, wait, did I write anthropology? I meant archaeology. *facepalm*

Anyway, it was more of a The Secret History-type case of "sometimes things from ancient history should say theoretical," although at least in this book they did stop short of actual murder.

[osprey_archer]

It works with archaeology too! Although I guess archaeologists, like lawyers, could also commit and cover up murders: all that digging, plenty of excuses to have bones lying around...

[rachelmanija]

Me too!

[maplemood]

Ghost Wall's been on my radar for a while, and I really need to just buckle down and read it--it hits so many of my interests, like folk horror and reenactments and (obviously!) cults.

[troisoiseaux]

It is... slightly less about all of those things than you would expect? Especially the folk horror, unless musings on bog bodies count.

It's a really, really short book - I could have easily finished it in one afternoon - but it took me like 2-3 days to get through because I found the first half to a third of the novel so stressful I could only take it in small doses, but then for the last 1/2-1/3, I literally could not put it down.

[sovay]

Especially the folk horror, unless musings on bog bodies count.

Yay, bog bodies.

[kore]

I thought Ghost Wall was fucking amazing -- beautifully written, and it kind of turns a very well-worn genre inside out at the end. Genuinely haunting.

[troisoiseaux]

Oh, yeah, it was a really, really good book— I didn't mean for my comments to come across as dismissive of it! I actually tried writing up an actual summary and some of my thoughts, but it just felt so flat and I couldn't capture how thoughtful and unsettling the novel was, so I figured that brevity was the soul of wit and moved on.

[kore]

Oh yeah, I did think you liked it! It's just kind of so unsettling. Haunting, even. (I also read it kind of as a reply to Red Shift, altho I don't think the author probably meant it that way.)

[sovay]

(I also read it kind of as a reply to Red Shift, altho I don't think the author probably meant it that way.)

Now I really want to read it.

[sovay]

On the other hand, Duplicate Death (1951) ended up as a DNF, because it took a sharp turn for the blatantly homophobic that I found super upsetting.

Poop.

I shall check out Ghost Wall.

[troisoiseaux]

I mean, in retrospect, I'm surprised it's taken me this long to encounter outright homophobia in an early- to mid-20th century murder mystery novel? But, UGGGGH.

Let me know what you think about Ghost Wall!

[chelseagirl]

No Catherines or Kathryns, though? (I'm a Catherine, and my vaguely unscientific poll over the years has suggested mine is actually the most common spelling.)

[troisoiseaux]

Yes, very specifically Katherines. Admittedly, the main character, Colin, did somehow manage to find eighteen of them in eighteen years - although the term "dating" was used extremely loosely here, because it started with the first little Katherine who decided she was going to be his girlfriend for all of three minutes when they were five, and included multiple elementary- and middle-school nerd camp flings.

I had, off the top of my head, 2 Catherines and one Katherine (possibly Katheryn?) in my grade, from K-8. (It was a small school.) I also knew a Caitie.