Books I Read January 31st, 2021

Basically I spent all week waiting for this giant rain storm which ended up not being shit. So that was kinda disappointing. Apart from that I’ve been baking a lot of enriched breads. I also read the following.

Sundays in August by Patrick Modiano – I was walking around Atwater Village in the pleasant sun and felt like feeling nostalgic and faintly noir-y and there was Pat, waiting for me in the book store. Before picking it up I did have to go through the last three years of book reviews to make sure I hadn't already read it and just forgotten. Take that for what you will.

Ladivine by Maria Ndiye – The destructive power of love as demonstrated through three generations of women. Also, colonialism. There's a lot of talent here but it didn't come together for me.

Watership Down by Richard Adams – To write a book which can be appreciated by individuals widely varying in reading comprehension is an enormous and difficult achievement, to judge by its rarity far more challenging than writing a book which can be appreciated only by people of high ability. I think this book is a genuine masterpiece, evocative, horrifying, beautiful, charming. The sketch of rabbit civilization is enormously well realized without being intrusive, the narrative is exciting and heroic in the best of ways. Maybe my favorite all time work of fantasy? Certainly up there.

Keeping An Eye Open by Julian Barnes – Essays on the last 200 odd years of Western art. Thoughtful, witty, engaging, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

The Train by George Simenon – The German invasion of France offers a petit bourgeois the opportunity to express hidden passions. Hell of a sting – Simenon could chop them out.