My new book blogging strategy is to let a few weeks go by and let it "sink in." I started this "latest" before we got Rocky. It's hard to think of what life was like without him (in a good way), so it really seems like I finished this one eons ago (eons = 2+ weeks). Anyhow, today's book post is:
Ten Days in The Hills by Jane Smiley... and yet another hardcover... this is my 3rd hardcover of the year... already equaling the number of hardcovers I read all of last year. But being a Jane Smiley fan (or so I thought) and having read some good reviews of this book, I stepped right into that impulsive book purchasing puddle.
First off, an explanation for that parenthetical "or so I thought." I will sheepishly admit I got my Janes confused... I thought this was Jane Hamilton... alas there was no A Map of the World or The Book of Ruth when I reviewed the author author bio and the "Also By" page (I told you it was an impulse buy). But, no worries... I lucked out having read Smiley's A Thousand Acres and a Pulitzer winner too... so no literary slouch here or buyer's remorse.
Smiley likes to update the classics (i.e. Acres was a re-imagination of King Lear). In Ten Days, Smiley puts a modern spin on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron (originally published in the 1300s!). If your reaction is "what?!".. don't worry I had never heard of it... and it is certainly not required reading to enjoy this book. In Boccaccio's work, 10 people flee to a villa in the Italian countryside during the Black Death plague in Florence. During their stay, they share stories with each other, with 100 stories ultimately being told (in a Canterbury Tales-esque fashion) over the course of 10 days.
The modern spin? 10 folks informally gather at the film director's home in Hollywood Hills the morning after the 2003 Oscars... "fleeing" news of the recently underway Iraq war.
Ok, pretty cool concept... and don't worry there's not 100 stories... just 10 chapters (with some section breaks), one for each "day." You are pretty much the proverbial fly on the wall. There's a whole lot of conversation... about politics and the new war, relationships (the "cast" is largely extended and blended family members), movies, and sex. Those last two topics even combine as the director gets this idea to create a sexually explicit My Dinner With Andre-esque indie movie called My Lovemaking with Elena.
That pitch (a sex version of Andre) segues into two potential reasons why some might want to pass up this one. First, the characters do "make love" quite a bit... and while it didn't make me blush, at times it was a bit "well, hello?!" in the explicitness department. So while I'm no prude, I would be cautious recommending it to certain folks... i.e., Mom (or at least my Mom).
Secondly, if you are familiar with My Dinner With Andre, the book is pretty much about nothing (Seinfeld-ian one may say). If you are one of those picky people who like to have a plot in your novel, well this one may not be for you either. There's a lot of conversation... some sex... more conversation... eating breakfast... more conversation... sitting by the pool.... more ... well, you get the idea. I had to laugh when I read this Amazon review:
"I gave this book 200 pages to hook me and it failed miserably. I had to stop reading it and ask my husband (who had just finished it) to tell me if anything actually ever happens. He said nothing happens. So I put it down."
I can't argue with her! I, for one, didn't mind it. Agreeing with the characters' political beliefs (though are overly obsessed with the war) certainly helped... and although pretty elitist, I enjoyed the Hollywood tangents as well.
But it was certainly the "thickest" book yet in this year's reading challenge... and I am not talking number of pages (though it is one of the longer books). I had good intentions of reading it in 10 days... but the new puppy changed all that... but even if Rocky had not come along (sacrebleu!), it would have been a challenge with its leisurely pacing. For the record, it took me a whopping 18 days (including 3 days I did not read at all).
So recommended... but certainly not for everyone... caveat emptor.
2007 10K Reading Challenge: + 449 pages (Total Pages: 2554 pages)
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