PANORAMA, by H. G. Adler

 Panorama is an unconventional piece of Holocaust literature in that H. G. Adler has fictionalized his experience,telling it in a unique narrative centered on the metaphor of a "panorama", a kind of pre-cinematic slide show format. First drafted in 1948, the book was not published until 1968 and has only been published in English in 2011.  The work consists of 10 vignettes in roughly chronological order describing different times in the life of the protagonist, Josef Kramer, a Jewish Czech living through the late WWI through post-WWII period. The vignettes have no explicit links and represent various stages in the growth and maturity of Joseph. The work is in some ways based on similar autobiographical events experienced by Adler, but he claims it is not an autobiographical work. There are similarities of tone and style running through the vignettes, but they highlight various aspects of Josef's personality. Many parts are dark, but some are benign and even comical. There is also a strongly philosophical thread throughout the book, which comes to a climax in the final, post-liberation section. The book recreates the lost world of German-speaking pre-WWII "middle Europe" and chronicles its destruction through the life of one fictional individual. It's a harrowing, powerful and worthwhile read.

Click here for a review of the book from NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/books/review/Shulevitz-t.html?pagewanted=all

  

DAMNED, by Chuck Palahniuk

People react variously to Chuck Palahniuk's novels. The author who became well-known for his novel Fight Club that was later made into a popular movie, is known for milking the shock value of a concept. The results are often disgusting and sometimes exciting (but sometimes not). Damned is a creative and very funny piece of social criticism and adventure told from the perspective of 13-year-old Madison, the child of Hollywood heavyweights immersed in the pop culture we all love to hate. Madison finds herself dead and damned to Hell, which she finds strangely "homey" and to which she adapts quite readily. There's lots of hilarious antics and adventures, if you can relate to the black/gallows humor that Palahniuk pulls off so well.

Click here for a review of the book by NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/books/damned-by-chuck-palahniuk-review.html

WHITE NOISE, by Don DeLillo

Fans of DeLillo enjoy his biting wit and clean style, with Postmodern elements that never interfere with readability. His mid-80's novel White Noise, winner of the National Book Award, has the added benefit of being very funny, despite its dark theme. The book is a snapshot (or maybe I should say a sound bite) of late 20th Century America, with all its innanities, oddities, fears, ironies, etc. The book is roughly split into two  parts - before and after an environmental catastrophe (airborne toxic event) that affects the lives of the people living in the small midwestern university town, in particular, the family of J.A.K Gladney, Professor of Hitler Studies at College-on-the-Hill. In my opinion, it will make a DeLillo fan of you if you have not yet discovered this great contemporary voice.

Click here for a review of the book from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/13/books/delillo-noise.html?pagewanted=all

THE YEAR OF THE DEATH OF RICARDO REIS, by Jose Saramago

Portuguese author Jose Saramago was discovered by many outside of his native land when one of his novels, Blindness, was made into a Hollywood film a couple of years ago. He actually has had a long and illustrious career, having also won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998. The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis is a strange, quiet book that is almost plotless. It traces the return of Ricardo, a doctor, from years of "exile" in Brazil to Lisbon as he wanders the streets and has a random set of actions and thoughts. He muses on the realities of homeland, patriotism, the Spanish Civil War, and has immaginary conversations with the spirit of the dead great Portuguese Modernist poet Fernando Pessoa. The book ends, expectedly, with the death of Ricardo Reis. For readers who can enjoy the intropective and sometimes surreal style that Saramago does so well, it is a readable and interesting book.

Click here for a review of the book from The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/book-review--death-in-lisbon-a-poet-disintegrates-the-year-of-the-death-of-ricardo-reis--jose-saramago-tr-giovanni-pontiero-harvill-799-pounds-1538909.html

NATIVE TONGUE, by Carl Hiaasen

Native Tongue is a comic (more like wacky) story of environmental civil disobedience in south Florida. The protagonist, Joe Winder, works as a PR copy writer at "The Amazing Kingdom of Thrills", a kind of wannabe Disney clone theme park set up and headed by an ex-gangster turned informant who is on the Witness Protection Program. He's a greedy, low class and absurd villian who's easy to hate and laugh at. The plot has a number of convoluted twists, but is cleverly written, with lots of cutting satire and silly plot devices. Characters are mostly over-the-top stereotpes, like the pistol-packing little old lady environmentalist, steroid addicted/crazed head of security, yuppie/preppie PR head, etc. But there are also some more interesting figures, such as Winder himself, his love interest, and the mysterious activist/domestic environmental terrorist "Skink." Hiaasen sometimes goes back to the same characters to tell other stories, as he did in Stormy Weather, set in the post-hurricane Andrew chaos of south Florida. In that book, the mysterious "skink" is fleshed out more. All-in-all, Native Tongue a fun book that held my interest and had a number of laugh-out-loud moments.

Click here for a review of the book from Pele Publications: http://www.pelepubs.com/bookreview.shtml?id=46

Reread of Interest: IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME (aka Remembrance of Things Past) by Marcel Proust

Rereading a treasured and beloved book is a somewhat risky undertaking. It doesn't always work the second time around. I found that out trying to reread many books (Durrell's Alexandria Quartet immediately comes to mind). But after 35 years, I did a reread of Marcel Proust's epic 7-volume work Remembrance of Things Past (as it was titled in the 1920s translation by Scott Moncrieff). I was particularly interested in doing it because I felt I had put enough time between my first and second readings to view it with new eyes. The first time I read it, I was a 20 year old undergrad in San Francisco in the early '70s. The level of nostalgia the book conjures up is massive. Now, reread as a mid-50s world citizen, I was fearful that I would ruin the sweet memory of those days, when I would discuss the books with my close friends over espresso in neighborhhood Sunset-district cafes long before the word or concept of Starbucks was invented.I was also excited about the new translation, edited by Christopher Prendergast.

In short, I found that I loved my rereading very much. It was like getting together with a long-lost friend, surely a metaphor for our Facebook-shrunken world. I found the new translation excellent and was swept up, as I was the first time, in the sheer beauty of the book. This time, most of my reading was done holding onto a strap while riding the subway in Singapore, rather than lying in the sun streaming in from the bay window in my rental Victorian flat. The fact that the books still had the same transportative power attests to the greatness of everyone's favorite recluse writer, Mr. Marcel Proust.

Click here for a review of the new translation of Proust's work from Penguin: http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/nf/shared/WebDisplay/0,,175609_1_10,00.html

GIRL IN LANDSCAPE, by Jonathan Lethem

Jonathan Lethem has written a number of books which can be categorized as sci-fi or at least heavily sci-fi influenced. Among them are Amnesia Moon, As She Crawled onto the Table, and Girl In Landscape. All are enjoyable, but I found the latter to be particularly appealing because of the way he entertwines the genres of "coming of age novel" , "fish out of water" stories, Westerns, and sci-fi. The novel tells the story of a teenager, Pella Marsh, newly relocated to a distant planet to escape the pitiful last stages of environmentally ravaged Earth. The world is inhabited by a set of devoluted indigenous beings who are the descendents of a nobel race of civilized "arch builders". The current population is less than impressive. There are some mystical aspects of the place as well. As can be expected, the rag-tag bunch of Earth expatriates have conflicts with the locals as well as with themselves, and the girl finds herself situated in the middle, with the added problems of moving into adult womanhood to boot. The book is interesting and vivid, with the plots and subplots engaging even for non sci-fi fans.

Click here for a review of the book from NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1035917