Bloodorange
I'm a GoodReads user testing new waters after the serious website changes. I mostly read fiction, usually Anglophone classics/ modern classics; I like nonfiction (mostly social and cultural history), good fantasy and graphic novels. For guilty pleasure, I read advice and how-to books.
I made at least two reading resolutions recently; 1. read less, live more; 2. read books which give me more pleasure. I have poor filters, and books I find stylistically pleasing tend to be depressing, so I need to do something about that; if you think you know a book that is very well written, but won't make me weep, please drop me a line.
Triburbia: A Novel
This is an episodic novel about thirty-something inhabitants of Tribeca, men representing the better-earning end of the American creative class - mostly affluent, sometimes successful, invariably deluding themselves.This was not a pleasant book to read, but mostly due to content, not any technical deficiencies. Greenfeld may be to some degree sympathetic towards his characters, but mostly he shows them tough love, exposing their weaknessess with reporter's precision, looking at them from angles one is usually incapable of looking from at oneself. Drug abuse; self-justification; willing blindness to one's own and other people's misdemeanours and character flaws which might turn disastrous in the long run; conspicuous consumption; vanity. These are not only things we are all capable of, but - worse - we _would like_ to be guilty of them if only we could afford it.
One of my main thoughts when reading this novel was how lucky I am not to be one of Greenfeld's characters. What would his angle be on me? Money? Unfulfilment? The fact that 'those who can't do, teach'? There surely is something.
