The Quest of An Everyday Soccer Mom to Read the Modern Library's 100 Best Fiction Books of the 20th Century.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Update

I hope all of you are having as nice of weather where you are as we're having here. It's heavenly.

Kim is going very slowly. I chalk that up to several things. 1)The nice weather....being outdoors gives me less time for reading, although I spent about an hour out on the deck reading yesterday, 2)We're totally taken in by back episodes of Entourage and The Tudors, and 3)the story for whatever reason is just not captivating to me. Maybe, as with so many of the books I've read, the story will mercifully pick up steam in the last 1/3-1/4 of the book, but right now, it's just another picaresque hero on the lam, with all sorts of strange friends, getting into countless scrapes and somehow worming his way out of them. It's like Under the Net in India. I really like the lama's character, but as with so many of the stories I've read lately, Kipling decided to pull his character out mid-story.

Am also wondering how Kim, Augie March, and Brideshead Revisited could be higher on the ML list than Angle of Repose.

I realize that with every page I read of Kim, I am one page closer to Finnegan's Wake. When I start that one up, I will be adding a new daily featurette to Journeys, called Surviving Finnegan, where I will be sharing literary frustrations, incomprehensible quotes, and possible hypotheses on what the hell Joyce is thinking (or smoking), just to keep myself sane. :) Feel free to check in and share your Finnegan experiences. It'll be a blast.

Pam

2 comments:

  1. Pam - let me know whe you start Finnegans Wake...maybe we can do it together.

    When you get to it, let me suggest two things. Firstly, check out Sheila O'Malley's posts on it (www.sheilaomalley.com). I couldn't have gotten through Ulysses without her, and her suggestions on Finnegans Wake are really going to be helpful. Secondly, perhaps check out Joseph Campbell's book, "A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake." I will be reading it in conjunction with FW.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I sure will. Am getting through "Kim" page by page. I will also look into the Skeleton Key. I read about that on a couple of other sites so it might help!!! :)Thanks for that website too...I will go there today and check it out!

    ReplyDelete