We're all feeling a little post-Labor Day nostalgia over here for a summer that is hardly long past. It seems like just yesterday that we were sitting in the park, reading books and basking in the glorious summer sun. Okay, maybe it was just yesterday, but we're already feeling those back-to-school blues. So this week, to soothe our melancholy spirits, we've decided to throwback with books we read during those golden days --- when things were simpler, when the world was our sweaty oyster, when it was socially acceptable to drink Bud Light Limes in public. Because the grass is always greener --- but for real in the summer.
Emily: THE GREAT GATSBY
THE GREAT GATSBY was absolutely inescapable if you were a human on the planet this summer, and I, shameless pop culture junkie that I am, didn’t even try to be an exception. The movie came out in May, and as the mania swept the city, I took to my roof to reread the Fitzgerald masterpiece. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that the first time I read THE GREAT GATSBY was in tenth grade, and I read it not once but twice before it was due for class. This summer, I had just graduated from the New School with an MFA in creative writing, and I worried that I’d been carried too far from the sentimental teenager I’d been on some literary high horse --- and GATSBY wouldn’t have quite the same effect on me. Guys, I’m happy to tell you I was totally wrong. I reread the whole thing on a sunny Saturday afternoon in July, and had to cancel my plans that night because my heart was just too broken. Gatsby’s frenzied, unrelenting love for Daisy? Daisy’s own complicated ambivalence? As a savvier, more grown up reader (read: I actually had an ex-boyfriend this time around), I was able to understand the profound emptiness at the heart of the novel --- that longing for something that doesn’t really exist.
Alina: IN THE BODY OF THE WORLD
This summer was all about change for me. I wanted to become powerful and successful. I wanted to become the woman I had always dreamed of being, but most people know that no matter how much you try, essentially you are who you are. Still, there are some things that you encounter in life that alter your beliefs and thus alter who you are as an individual. IN THE BODY OF THE WORLD by Eve Ensler changed me. Eve is notoriously known for writing “The Vagina Monologues” and I have to admit that before I read her memoir that is the only thing I knew about her. Reading this memoir has opened my eyes to horrors that many women face. I am now more aware of the world around me and more aware of what it means to be a woman. Eve has been through so many things --- rape, cancer and a miscarriage --- yet she has still found her purpose in the world. Through her work with rape victims in the Congo she was able to overcome adversity. As I read, I realized how little I knew about the women of the world, about myself and about my body. Eve taught me how to be strong, aware and brave just by telling about her own strongest and weakest moments.
Liz: WHY BE HAPPY WHEN YOU CAN BE NORMAL?
Beginning sometime last year, I became obsessed with everything written by Jeannette Winterson, and when her autobiography, WHY BE HAPPY WHEN YOU CAN BE NORMAL?, came out in paperback, I HAD to read it. I finally got my hands on it this summer, and it did not disappoint. While her first novel, ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT, is also an autobiographic novel of sorts, WHY BE HAPPY WHEN YOU CAN BE NORMAL? actually takes you into Winterson's difficult adolescence as an adopted child in a Pentacostal family through her decision to run away from home. Her characteristic whimsical style, insights into how to be happy and the Wintersons’ childhood beach photo made this the perfect summer read. Take me back!
Nate: HOUSE OF LEAVES
In an age where post-post modern parodies and dangerously genre savvy novels pop up on a daily basis, we are presented with a variety of literary mediums. There are of course, good old books; then there are books about books; there’s even the occasional book within a book about a book. And then there is HOUSE OF LEAVES, an incomplete book within a book within a book, about a film within a film. Oh, and the film (films?) has only ever been seen by one critic --- a blind man.
If you were able to read this far and retain even a vague notion of what I just said (which is more then I have), then you may be prepared to tackle this tome. Along with making INFINITE JEST look like DICK & JANE, this doorstopper of a book will likely lead to severe and lasting trauma, particularly when facing closed doors. I’m not going to lie; I have yet to overcome my childhood fear of monsters, witches, ghosts, angry deer (long story) and anything else that goes bump in the night. Still, I never thought I would be afraid of doors. This book may or may not have been responsible for me sleeping on the living room couch for three weeks while my roommates were gone, as the prospect of opening the bedroom door...or the closet…or the bathroom…or the fridge was more then I could bear. Luckily I had a nice t-shirt, a nearby public restroom and a large stash of Skittles. When my roommates returned, they found me disheveled, emaciated and carving chopsticks to make spikes for my ever-growing assortment of pit-of-doom traps. In my darkest moment of horror, I realized I, like the book’s questionable protagonist, had found myself driven to madness by the story of a lonely man and a door to nowhere. If this prospect intrigues you, then by all means, walk (you’ll want to enjoy your last moments in the sun) to your nearest bookstore and grab a copy of this mind-boggling tale. And don’t forget to stock up on Skittles and chopsticks on the way home.
Nicole: DUCK AND GOOSE, GOOSE NEEDS A HUG
Most of the time, I am ecstatic to be 20something. Life is good, and sometimes I am completely carefree, particularly so when I'm not worrying about getting to work on time, paying bills on time, doing my laundry...and doing all the things that I have to do now that I'm an adult and live on my own. I am happy that I've grown out of wanting to be a TOYS-R-US kid. I talk about grown-up things like politics, texting boys, taxes, dating boys...the list goes on. And while all of these "adult" things are nice, it is also nice to be a kid every once in awhile, especially when things get stressful. That's where DUCK AND GOOSE, GOOSE NEEDS A HUG comes in. This children's board book has gained its own reputation around the office as the go-to story when the going gets tough and the tough get going. This heartfelt story about a goose who just needs a hug from his friends tells a bigger story about how the simple things in life --- like giving someone a hug --- is sometimes all we need to get us to keep waddling along.
Austin: THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE
At the risk of sounding nauseatingly poetic, I’m going to say that Neil Gaiman’s latest adult novel reminds me of a spiderweb. Think of one. One of the big circular ones, probably early in the morning so you can still the the droplets of dew clinging to all the filament. Got it? This book is that spider web. It’s ethereal and magical and just seems to hang there, unsupported in front of you, perfect and shimmering and beautiful. You can’t see how it works or why it’s so enthralling --- it just is. On the surface, this novel (pushing into novella territory, to be honest) is about a man who returns to his childhood town for a funeral and remembers a story about the girl who used to live down the lane. Her name was Lettie Hempstock. She said the pond outside her farmhouse was an ocean and she had been eleven years old for a very long time. But that’s just the story the book tells, that’s not what it’s really about. The book is really about being a child and being an adult, and what it means to be one or the other. The real scary bits here aren’t supernatural creatures (although there are a couple and they are fantastic). They’re the very human fears of being alone in the dark, of not having friends, or finding out your mother and father aren’t as kind or as strong as you thought they were. This book captures what it feels like to be a child, and that’s the most important part of all.
