Haha yeah, I hate Updike. Never read Cheever but for me that type of subject matter, that sort of Salingerian “everyone’s a phony in my phony world” just falls flat and reads tired.
Reading / Literature Club
nickecks
#146
I think it appeals to people who were raised in / live in that upper middle class white world, most importantly the people who edit and publish “Literature”, the people who have controlled the gates to finance arts and media for decades in America and are finally losing that power. DeLillo does a good job of skewering this group but to me it’s a tired narrative. Maybe in the early 70s it was refreshing but for me it’s been done ad nauseum. So for me I was hoping the protagonist would find himself out of his comfort zones and into freak space more often but I understand that’s also the irony, he’s always in power always asked for an autograph always winning.
dzyg
#148
this thread is amazing. shoutout to everyone thats contributing - ill come back often
omitting my recommendations to keep the content trimmer. reading all this makes me sad all the time i wish i had to read more stuff
criminiminal
#149
totally fair! but I’ve read just about everything he’s written and can assure that DeLillo is definitely no one-trick pony. if this book wasn’t exactly your cup of sustainably harvested single origin aeropress, which it sounds like it wasn’t, I would strongly urge you to read one (or all) of the following: White Noise, Libra, or (his magnum opus, arguably the Great American Novel) Underworld. his range is incredible and his style is so innovative and influential (every single contemporary writer, male and female alike, has ripped him off at some point during their career) AND easy to read (unlike, ahem, Pynchon who’s waaaay too far up his own ass to be of any use to me).
nickecks
#150
I enjoyed White Noise but found it to be full of much of the same “I’m a white guy with a good job and got my slice of the American Dream and now my subconscious fears are creeping up on me and becoming conscious, woe is me, isn’t it ironic” Which isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it. Mao II was probably my favorite of his, of the three I’ve read. And yeah i’d say Pynchon’s way far up everyone’s ass including his own, thats the fun of it for me 
nickecks
#154
dude ive tried with that book 3x now. have yet to get past 250…you’re not alone. perseverance, i will conquer it one day. it infitinitely jests at me on the daily from my bookshelf…teasing me…
that’s a website by people breaking it into 75 pages a week to be read over the course of a summer. may be helpful…
deprecate
#155
I think breaking it up is probably the best way to tackle it! I read about someone who literally broke it up by sawing it into three parts. I’ve read at least ten books since buying it, one of them was Crime and Punishment, which was a breeze after those first 67 pages of Infinite Jest.
S.A
#156
I haven’t seen it – it’s been a long time since I’ve really had the set up to watch movies. Free trial months on the laptop, lol. There are so many things to see I don’t know where to start. Is the movie great?
Edit: actually I now have my brother’s password to a lot of streaming sites, so I have the resources to watch as long as I can tolerate the small screen and occasionally spotty wifi.
noaa
#157
Last fantastic book I read was “Swing Time” by Zadie Smith.
I was totally and utterly absorbed. Dance and the body, friendships between black girls, the contrasts between the diaspora and contemporary africa, conspiracy theories, grassroots leftism, celebrity narcissism, NGOs, white cultural colonialism: it covers so much while focusing on really deep investigations of just a few characters. It’s a bit of a slow burn (the protagonist isn’t super active) but it never lets you out of its world.
Highly recommended!
nickecks
#159
Been meaning to read her but hadn’t quite found the book that pulled me in. Have U read anything else of hers?
bths80
#161
a small book full of information on this musician and actress who has an alluring beauty and the perfect look for the types of cult films she was cast in. yet to watch any of her films in full yet (have flicked through a few) but will start with the female prisoner boxset.
DAICON
#162
Well, so far this one’s a novel about a young man in France who feels psychologically sick and can’t really explain why. It’s Sartre’s first attempt at explaining his philosophy, which later became known as existentialism. I live in a similar situation and picked it up after reading an old interview with Paul Schrader explaining that he read it before he wrote Taxi Driver.
noaa
#163
I loved the hell out of NW. It’s a bit weirder cause you’re in the fragmented thoughts of different narrators (the first one is high and absent minded a lot), but by the end you have a rich perspective of their lives in impoverished London. I would read it just for the Felix part, which is about a day in the life of a dude struggling to lead a respectable life, drop drugs, and manage the friends and family he’s still connected to.
Drix
#164
Just started reading Michel Houellebecq, and started at the beginning with Whatever. Halfway through it now and although not hooked I enjoy it a lot, and I’ve already bought the next ones so the plan is to read all of them chronologically.