Beware of these Strangers

Reading Ian McEwan’s novel The Comfort of Strangers felt a little like reading a Henry James novel.  Maybe it’s something about the setting (a vacation in Venice) or the characters (a pair of somewhat dispassionate English lovers).  I’m not sure.

I think that I first read McEwan (often referred to as a writer’s writer) with the publication of Amsterdam.  After reading that one, I went back to some of his earlier work, and I especially enjoyed Enduring Love.  I haven’t picked up any of his recent novels, but when I ran across a copy of The Comfort of Strangers (first published in 1981) in one of my stacks, I looked forward to another visit with an old friend.

Tired of their lives and of each other, Colin and Mary find themselves on a restless trip to Venice.  Lost in the twisting streets of the city on a dark night, they meet Robert, who escorts them to a seedy basement bar and regales them with the story of his life.  Over the next several days—almost by accident and almost with realizing it—they are drawn into his sinister life.

This isn’t a fast-paced suspense novel.  Instead, it’s a novel of atmosphere and character—and McEwan puts the reader right there.

 

Reading in a Distracted Age

I just finished two books—with similar titles—about the importance of reading, and the best ways to approach reading, in the digital age. 

The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books are so Important in a Distracted Time (by David L. Ulin) and The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction (by Alan Jacobs) are essentially book-length essays.  They cover some of the same territory (the changes in brain processing caused by web reading, the advent and implications of e-readers, the decrease in attention and focus caused by modern technology).  Both authors include research on the topic, quotations about reading from great writers, and illuminating personal anecdotes.

Of the two texts, I felt a stronger connection to The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction.  Jacobs presents strong arguments about the importance of Whim (that’s right—with a capital “W”) in making reading selections, of engaging in interaction with books through thoughful annotation (a section that I plan to share with some of my classes), of reading slowly, of rereading favorite books, of finding (or creating) the quiet necessary for reading.

If you’re concerned about the future of the printed word in the twenty-first century, Ulin and Jacobs remind us that reading is as vital and necessary as ever.

 

Get on this Road Now

Why don’t more people read short stories?!  In twenty pages, in something you can read in less than half an hour, a master writer can create a perfect little nugget about the human condition.

And why don’t more people know Nancy Welch?  For me, she’s right up there with Jhumpa Lahiri, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Andre Dubus, Maile Meloy—all masters of short fiction.

Welch’s 2005 collection, The Road from Prosperity, is heart-rending perfection.  Her middle-American, down-on-their-luck characters are entirely authentic; as a reader, you feel like you know them intimately—yet you can still be surprised by their choices.  (“Sweet Maddy,” for example, is completely familiar yet utterly shocking.)

If you aren’t reading short stories, The Road from Prosperity is another chance to experience the incredible power of the form.