At last, I have made it through the Slough of Despond and have landed myself in a couple books that really caught my interest. Okay, Slough of Despond is a bit extreme. The set aside Prose book and the disappointing Cantor book were more like a slightly squishy ground that got my shoes muddy. But the ground has firmed up and I am happily striding along first enjoying Don’t Let Me Be Lonely and now embarking on The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner. I just started it a couple days ago and have been reading a little every night which means I’m at page 45. But it has been a good 45 pages! I like the style and the story is going somewhere even if I don’t know where that somewhere is.
Have you read the book? So far there are two narratives. It begins with WWI in 1917. A man named Valera is cutting a motorcycle headlamp off the bike of his dead friend who had just slammed into a tree in the woods because he was going too fast and lost control. The headlamp was salvageable, the bike, not so much. The pair are in the cycle battalion and had fallen a bit behind their squadron. Up comes a German soldier and Valera beans him in the head with the motorcycle lamp.
And then we get a chapter in 1975 and we meet Reno, a young woman and artist riding her Valera motorcycle to the Salt Flats in Nevada to participate in time trials there and at the same time create what she hopes will be some interesting Land Art. It is an exhilarating chapter, first as she speeds down the highway and then later as she speeds across the salt flats at 148 miles an hour. On a motorcycle. But before we know exactly what happens we are back to Valera in 1917 who then flashes us back to his childhood in Alexandria, Egypt and a bit later to 1912 Rome where he is about to finish his university degree and where he rides his first motorcycle.
Kushner is thus far showing herself to be skilled at pacing and character development, letting Reno and Valera reveal who they are through their actions and thoughts. No paragraphs long info-dumps telling the reader about them or having some other character tell us. Nope, it is character development as it should be, a gradual getting-to-know-you.
I have no idea what the book is about. I have read good things about it without managing to retain any sort of plot summary and I have avoided reading the synopsis on the dust jacket. All I know is that I am a happy camper at the moment. Amazing what a couple good book can do for a person.
I’ve read the Flamethrowers after James Wood raved about it in the New Yorker. It was fun to read in parts, tedious in others. I’ll email you further comments.
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Richard, ah, I now have some vague recollection that you read it. Further comments will be welcome 🙂
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I like info-dumps! If they are done well, that is. I’ve never been a believe in the whole “show don’t tell” thing: what would Middlemarch be without Chapter XV, which is pretty much info-dump all the way along! Done badly, though, I agree, it can be incredibly tedious. I know what you mean about the happiness of finding a good book after a slump. I’m still kind of looking for my next GREAT read, but my recent ones have at least all felt worth the page turning.
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Rohan, ok, info-dumps do have a time and place and can be well done, I concede 🙂 I much prefer the gradual reveal though. I know what you mean about looking for a great read. Kushenr is good but not quite striking the great chord. Hope one comes along for you soon!
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I feel bad about the Prose book, but I’ve tried it about all I’m willing to try. Glad you’ve found some others that are better, as I have!
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Jeanne, I don’t feel so bad setting the Prose book aside knowing you’ve given up on it too. I was going to go see her give a reading in a couple weeks but now I think I will skip it.
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I’ve had The Flamethrowers on my TBR list forever. I really must get to it. I totally understand the slough of despond. I’ve been in a terrible reading slump. I live for my bedtime reading, but got a new puppy and getting her to sleep through the night in her crate has replaced literary pursuits.
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jmfausti, oh a new puppy! They are so adorable and so frustrating all at the same time. I’ve been there with the not sleeping through the night thing. She will soon though. Just think how extra enjoyable your bedtime reading will be once you get to do it again!
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The Flamethrowers is sitting on the sofa waiting for me to have a spare half an hour in which to pick it up. The trouble is that it is my own copy and there are so many library books that have to be read before the return date that somehow I never seem to get round to the books that I liked the idea of so much that I actually bought a copy for myself.
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I’m glad I’m not the only one who does that. Sometimes, I actually check a book that I own out of the library to force me to read it before the due date.
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jmfausti, oh now that’s a nice trick I have never thought of!
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Alex, sometimes owning your own copy of the book is a kiss of death of sorts since you are under no deadline to read it. I have lost track of how many books I have bought under the pretext of having to read it right away and years later they sit on my shelf still unread!
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It is kind of fun sometimes to not really know what the book is about and just go with it right? Hope you continue to enjoy your read!
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Iliana, it is indeed! It reminds me of pre-blogging days when it was so much harder to find out more about books than what was written on the back.
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Stefanie, your posts always strike a chord with me. In this case, just the way you are speaking of this Flame Throwers book is similar to how I am feeling about reading The Tiger’s Wife. It’s a refreshing book after a couple [or one in particular] that was a bit arduous. But — it takes place in a real war-ravaged zone [I’m not sure even which country, because it is never mentioned] — but what I so appreciate is that we don’t get what you are calling “paragraph long info-dumps” that can be so prevalent in books written during a time of war. I HATE reading those things that can get so digressional when it comes to “war”. They can become “CHAPTER long info-dumps” where an author unloads all their personal axe-handles, you know? But the author in this book [Tea Obreht, and this is her first book, no less] keeps focussing on really interesting near-mythic tales and interesting characters. One of which is even a tiger! It’s a well-crafted piece of art. And like you with your book, I’m not even sure where this one is going, but the journey is great.
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Cipriano, oh I’ve heard really good things about Tiger’s Wife! It’s another one I don’t really know what it is about. Oh yes, I know those sorts of long chapters where it feels like the author was thinking, well, I did all this research for this book and I’m going to put it to use gosh darn it! I can understand the temptation but goodness, find a different way to get some of that stuff into the book. Isn’t it fun to enjoy a book and not know where it is going? Have fun on your journey! You may have just convinced me to read Tiger’s Wife sometime 🙂
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It is such a lovely feeling when the heavens relent and the bad book wave passes over. So happy you are enjoying your reading! I’m nearing the end (boo hoo) of a wonderful memoir about a young woman’s first job at the literary agency who represent J. D. Salinger and I don’t want it ever to stop… There’s nothing like a good book!
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Litlove, it is a good feeling. I’m not head-over-heels with this book but I am enjoying it and it isn’t the grind that the other books induced. There is nothing like a good book and it sounds like you are in the middle of one! Enjoy 🙂
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