High speed reading

Tomorrow (correction: yesterday) we’re getting together to create the longlist for the glamorous Groene Waterman prize which will be awarded to one very lucky bastard on 4th February 2011. The concept behind this prize is that we look for great books that have been published in Belgium in 2010 and that haven’t received much publicity despite their obvious brilliance. Now seeing as it’s my first time and I hardly ever read any books on philosophy, history, foreign cultures or countries for that matter, politics or non-fiction in general, it was a daunting task to nominate books other than Anglo-Saxon (popular) fiction seeing as that’s basically all I read making me a literary xenophobe if there ever was one.

I tried to be as diverse as possible in the genres of books I nominated but sadly, they're all English so I must try to work on that (another New Year’s resolution?). The only bit I sorta forgot about is that I had to read all of them by tomorrow because “It looks like fun” probably won't be enough to get them on the longlist. The result: high speed reading of several books at the same time. I’ve never been able to read more than one book at once so this has been quite a migraine inducing challenge. Luckily I had already read a few but here's my list:

The Believer interview book which as you all know, conjured up a lot of strong emotions. Despite its ignorant and idiotic Dutch translation, I'm an advocate of the book because I personally think it's interesting to hear authors talk about their craft but I also believe it's an important tool to introduce lesser known authors to the literary minded masses despite the scandalous censorship of the Dutch version which I won't go into, again.

Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware because I absolute love the story and it took us Belgians a decade to finally realize how wonderful it really is and translate it. Ware's illustrations are simply mind-blowing, accompanied by complex characters and a semi-autobiographical tale about a middle aged man who finally meets his father alternated with the wacky dreams of a young boy who wants to be a superhero.

Shaking Woman by Siri Hustvedt is an exploration of her tremors which she started getting a few years after her father's death. Although there proved to be nothing physically wrong with her, she wanted answers and started a voyage that took her deep into the heart of psychology, neurobiology and history. I've skimmed through it and I thought it was pretty interesting and refreshing, although her interior monologue style of writing sometimes bugged me.

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman was an unexpected delight really. Pullman is a known atheist and tries to uncover the narrative aspect of the story by giving Jesus a twin called Christ who is a firm believer in God, the church and its doctrine. Jesus on the other hand, is just a good guy so Pullman questions which is more "Christian" being good to your fellow man or following a doctrine that isn't necessary divine.

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall is a about a guy with 28 charming children and 4 headstrong wives. He's embarking on a very complicated midlife crisis and proves contrary to common belief that being a polygamist isn't all what it's cracked up to be. This novel is a big and multi-layered family epic filled with genuine emotion, an interesting subject and a tasty dollop of sarcasm, giving Franzen's Freedom a well deserved run for his money if you ask me.

Paris after the Liberation finally, by Anthony Beevor is an historical account of a very troubled period in history both politically, socially and intellectually. Now, what got me interested in this book was its focus on art namely, how the war had influenced the life and work of people such as Hemmingway, Picasso, Beckett, Sartre and de Beauvoir. I only read a few fragments so I guess I'm going to have to wing it with this one. Here's hoping nobody notices.