A new favorite novel that balances heart and craft
Plus book cover trends and love triangle novels
My reading life had been feeling off so this week I decided to get back to basics and focus on reading a book well. I can get very in my head about what I’m reading and how many books there are that I’d like to read as soon as possible. When these feelings take over, I feel scattered and dissatisfied with anything I’m reading because I can’t read everything at the same time. Whenever this happens I try to focus more on how I’m reading rather than what and I almost always find that focusing on reading one book well helps me get back into a reading rhythm. I decided to invite you all to do the same with a one book reading challenge. There’s plenty of time if you’d like to join!
This week in books.
This week I read…
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. Sometimes I waffle when it comes to what I want my role on the bookish internet to be. I spent last year thinking I would like to write longer, more in depth literary analysis and have done a lot of reading this year to help me think about books from the perspective of a critic. At times I’ve ventured into those waters and I’ve always enjoyed it. I love mining a text and figuring out what works, what doesn’t, and how the book can be contextualized within the literary landscape. As I was reading DeWitt’s The Last Samurai, I had many fleeting thoughts about the potential essays I might write about it, but when I closed the back cover I realized I didn’t want to put my critic hat on for this one. I just want to be one more champion for it.
DeWitt’s debut novel (I am still astonished this is a debut) is about the brilliant and volatile Sibylla and her young son, a prodigy named Ludo. After abandoning her academic life at Oxford due to an unfortunate run-in with a very dense piece of German text, Sibylla becomes a secretary at a publishing house. After a one night stand with a travel writer, she winds up a single mother to Ludo, scraping together just enough money to survive by typing up boring and banal articles for boring and banal magazines. Sibylla’s intellect is staggering, but Ludo is a genuine prodigy and—practicing the advice of Yo Yo Ma’s father—Sibylla commits to encouraging Ludo’s intellectual appetite by giving him one (then two, then three…) simple tasks a day. She also introduces him to Kurosawa’s film Seven Samurai as a way to infuse his life with positive masculine role models, and this film will serve as the blueprint for Ludo’s inverted quest to find his father.
What I most admire about this book is that it never loses its soul in its formal explorations. I enjoy heady books—if I had to choose a place to live on the erudite to saccharine spectrum, I admit to being much more comfortable on the side of books that appeal to my intellect. But a book like The Last Samurai is a reminder that perhaps too many authors are sacrificing heart in order to achieve their structural aims. DeWitt manages to never lose sight of either artistic vision and the novel is warm, funny, and tender while also being experimental and boundary-pushing.
I know that this book intimidates some readers. First of all, a lot of exceptionally smart people love it—a scary sign for sure. Second, when you thumb through it, you’re bound to notice the Greek letters and Japanese characters sprinkled throughout and even a mathematical formula or two. Never a good sing. But don’t let this book intimidate you! Yes, there will always be more to mine and more to discover in The Last Samurai. Yes, there will be many things that go over your head. Much of this book eludes me still. But in spite of the fact that every single thing in her novel feels purposeful and important, DeWitt has also crafted a story that can be read, loved, and appreciated even when you feel like you can’t yet crack every code. The whole is greater even than the sum of its masterful parts, and I think every reader could find joy, wisdom, pleasure, and surprise in this exceptional novel. Bookshop
Now I’m reading…
I started Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates as my one book reading well challenge. Having recently finished Fox, it’s fascinating to see how her thematic interests have spanned decades.
New on my TBR…
The FictionMatters Patreon community has given me so many great book recommendations recently. This novel in translation, this memoir, and this new release all got added to my wish-list
The Weekly Dispatch.
This week I got back into painting my nails. Breaking news, I know! This is a little bit gross, but in the summer I find that my nails are almost always a little bit dirty. I’m playing outside with my kid a lot and no matter how much I wash my hands and scrub under my nails, they just look a little grimy. What do we do to solve this problem? Plaster it in pink paint of course. So I’ve started painting my nails while I’m working and it turns out that’s the perfect way for me to do it. I’ll paint one coat on one hand, do some writing, and then when I get stuck, I’ll do the other hand. This means I’m not interrupting my writing flow, but also that I’m giving each coat enough time to dry. It’s strange, perhaps, but it’s brought me some much-needed joy this week. My current color of choice is two coats of Essie Ballet Slippers topped with one coat of Essie Blush Jelly.
I watched a lot of America’s Next Top Model with my best friend in high school. We used to do our statistics homework in front of Tyra Banks coaching a crew of girls towards ferocity and photogenicity. After reading this snippet, I think I might be interested in reading the new memoir tell-all about the show from season 9 contestant, Sarah Hartshorne.
I wanted more analysis on the trend itself in this NYT piece (gift link), but I am all in on these covers. I want to read every single book on this list and every time I see a cover like this, I assume it’s going to be a book I will love. What do you think? Are you fan of this design or now that you’re seeing it everywhere, is it too much?
Link Roundup.
Leila Mottley on her novel, The Girls Who Grew Big. (NPR)
5 literary mysteries set in coastal Massachusetts. (Lit Hub)
A fantastic interview with Barbara Kingsolver. (Guardian)
7 love triangle novels that are about more than romance. (Electric Lit)
Two Writers Fell in Love, Married, Then Divorced. Who Gets the Story? (NYT, gift link)
15 of the best literary Substacks. (Guardian)
Is there a literacy crisis? Or am I just old? (Vox)
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Happy reading!
Sara
Hi Sara, I also just started doing my nails again...after decades. It's fun. Count me among the numbers who have had The Last Samurai on the bedside table since it showed up as the best book of the century so far on Vulture, and decided to read it along with you. It is now an all time favorite! Weird structure and use of language but WITH heart is an awesome way to describe it. And who wouldn't love Ludo?
As for all the lists right now, I would love to see a "best books" or "best authors" you've never heard of - because these lists are so samey and so many people like 90% of them, which confirms that they are catering to a particular reader. More weird and wonderful stuff like The Last Samurai please!
PS: In a different vein, thank you for turning me on to older authors, who, though less experimental, write fabulous sentences and deep character portraits: R.C. Sherriff, L.P. Hartley, and Shirley Hazzard come to mind.
I want to pump BUG HOLLOW, by Michelle Huneven. It’s a novel in stories that makes leaps in time and hands the POV to people far afield. It’s wonderful. Full of heart and characters to love.