A Riff of Rants on Roth

Finished Plot on Thursday and felt dejected, much akin to the hangover after Election day, what's wrong with me, I pondered? Plot Against America made the NYT Book Review Top 5 Novels and was on a Guardian crit's top 10. I shouldn't be rash, the segments dealing with the child protaganist's logic were achieved with aplomb but the corresponding counterfactual narrative. . . Perhaps it was every bit as absurd as the headlines i see thoughout the day on Yahoo News. Much like Snow by Pamuk, I felt the applause directed towards such was indicative of a current political climate, much more than the merit within. David Mitchell appears to be a lonely champion at this point in my survey in the last year in fiction. That said, I broached the latest by Cynthia Ozick alter that quiet night and while I enjoyed the first 30 pages, i decided it wasn't the proper time.

Friday required something hopefully essential and quick. I decided upon Banville's Newton Letter, the concluding element in his physics trilogy. The novella lacked the erudition and fire of the first two in the series: Kepler and Doktor Copernicus. It was also an apology, a book about not finishing the composition of a book on Newton, a recursive loop which apparently set the stage for Geoff Dryer's Out of Sheer Rage, which Joel bought me for xmas a few years back, a book about not writing a book on DH Lawrence. That was promptly digested and has been shelved.