(no subject)

I finished A.S. Byatt's The Game last night. I don't have a whole lot to say about it. I didn't get much out of it, but in a way I feel that may be my fault for not concentrating on it more thoroughly. I don't know. I feel like the book was trying very hard to say a lot of things about memory, the past, the nature and purpose of art, and other such high-minded ideas, but in the end it didn't really say much at all. Everything was abstract: the characters, the speeches, the relationships... There was nothing for me to grab hold of. A bit disappointing, coming from the author of Possession. One interesting similarity between The Game and Possession is that both books feature very sexless heroines. Cassandra Corbett is a forty-year-old virgin, and although Julia Corbett and Maude from Possession have sex, they both talk about how they don't have much interest in it. I don't want to leap to conclusions about Byatt herself based on this information, but it would be interesting to see if this trend is born out in her other books.

Next on the agenda is How To Be Alone, a book of essays by Jonathan Franzen loaned to me by the wonderful N. Look, Ma, I'm reading nonfiction! I don't know how long it's been since I've read something that wasn't a novel. Anyhow, I've barely scratched the surface, but it seems very good so far. There's something about Franzen's writing that's just remarkably easy to read.