Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

I downloaded this book on my phone and read it - even though it is tedious with the tiny screen. Lord Jim is, lucky for me, public domain, so it was free. Apparently I only download free books to my phone. Anyway, I started this book before I read 1Q84, but set it aside when I received that book for two reasons - 1. I wanted to read 1Q84 more, and 2. I was at a point in Lord Jim where it was a little slow and I wanted things to happen. I'm one of those readers that will start something and have to finish it, even if I don't really like it or enjoy it. I have to know what happens, even if it ends up being terribly written or horribly depressing. This was not the case with Lord Jim, and once I got over that slow bit, the story was a compelling read.

Some Background
I had read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness in high school, and hated it, probably because I was being forced to read it, and in high school I was one of those go-through-the-motions kind of student. looking back though, I probably just didn't get it. I read it again in College and enjoyed it more, because I wanted to read it this time, and I was (probably!) more mature. I just read Heart of Darkness for a third time last year, as well as watched the movie Apocalypse Now, which is loosely based on Heart of Darkness. It is one of those books that one should read again as one ages, so that new perspectives can be brought to the table, and it really was a different experience each time. 

So, when I saw Lord Jim as an option for download in Google books, I of course downloaded it out of curiosity for what Joseph Conrad had to offer me again.

My thoughts on Jim
Jim is a character that I think almost everyone can relate to. He feels that he is a good man who made a mistake, and the mistake continues to follow him, to the point where he can't escape from the infamy of his act and the shame he feels regarding it. His name is tarnished; so he has to escape to a foreign land and live among foreign people, completely isolated, and simply stay there. Basically, he wants to live out his days where he can't be dogged by his act and his guilt by the outside world.

Honestly, no one person in the book is harder on Jim than he is on himself regarding the mistake that drives him into isolation. Conrad describes Jim's cowardice, which he ultimately overcomes through his experiences in this foreign land; by the end of the book, he is anything but a coward.

I think I see some of myself in Jim - an arbitrator and a generally good person who can be misunderstood. I also have trouble forgiving myself for my mistakes. That's what draws me to the character, even though at times he can be awfully irritating in his excuses and behavior - the narrator, Marlow, does not seem to like him much, but helps him out of a weird paternal bond with him. Conrad repeatedly describes him as "childlike" and "romantic", which of course are suitable - I would add that Conrad might as well say Jim is unrealistic in his expectations of himself and others, and naive in his dealings. 

What I like about Conrad, and common themes
I have only read two books by Joseph Conrad, but what I see in both:

• Westerners going to foreign lands, usually third world countries, in search of riches
• The setting of the river
• Nature as being ominous, the wild as being dangerous; a sense of unhinging of the surroundings. The people and the land are wild and therefore dangerous
• In Heart of Darkness, the narrator went to Africa; in this book, it was Southeast Asia
• A sense of a large world and of travel and adventure
• Impending doom and a feeling of no turning back; Characters being haunted by someone or something

I like that Conrad embeds little gems of wisdom right in the work without sounding too preachy - it fits well in the flow of the narrative. His descriptions, particularly of people and of the environment, are vivid and wonderful, but there are slow bits in the book to slog through. I thought the beginning was a little slow, but then it picked up nicely about 1/3 the way in. 

Lastly, the way the ending of the book is presented, as an epilogue, was smooth and nicely done, and kept the reader hooked until the end. when I reached the point right before the epilogue, I was like, wait, what happens to Jim?! the book teases you into thinking it's done with the narrative, but then you turn to the next chapter, and Conrad is like but wait! there's more! And the reader is relieved by that.

The Bottom Line
I got into a discussion about personal accountability and action versus inaction with my dad this weekend, and I recommended this book to him because I think it plays to those themes nicely. All in all, a worthwhile read if you can slog through the slow bits. 

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

I got this book from my Aunt Lynn for Christmas - she actually didn't know I was interested in reading it. She just saw that it was from a Japanese author and I would probably like it (the cover is "Margaret-y").

Some Background:
I have read almost all of Haruki Murakami's work, including: Wind Up Bird Chronicles, Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, The Elephant Vanishes, Sputnik Sweetheart, Norwegian Wood, Dance Dance Dance, Kafka on the Shore, and his non-fiction works Tokyo Underground (about the subway attacks in Tokyo) and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. I started with Sputnik Sweetheart and went on to read the others since I liked it so much, but by the time Kafka on the Shore came out, I had begun to sour on him a bit.

Over the years I've been able to identify certain themes in his work that began to rub me the wrong way: his choice of sexual expression in the books and immature female characters that I find hard to like or care about. But every time he releases a book, I think to myself, maybe he won't do it this time, maybe he's changed or matured as an author and he won't disappoint me. I had also read a portion of the novel that was released in either the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, I forget which. I think that there was a lot of anticipation regarding the release of this novel, and I was looking forward to it, but with the reservations I had above. I guess technically he didn't disappoint me, because the problems that I disliked about some of his previous works are still there.

First, the good bits
Murakami is very skilled at story weaving, don't get me wrong - it is well written and engaging, and the way he took two story lines and made them converge is impressive work. I found myself looking forward to the moment when the two stories met and we learned what the connection was between Aomame and Tengo (the two main characters). I enjoyed his description of fantastic and otherworldly events in the story as well - it is imaginative and convincing as a portion of the narrative.

Then, the bad bits
I did find, however, that the book was too long. as a result of its length, there was some repetition and drawn out portions of the narrative. I was curious as to why he chose to make his characters repeat themselves like this - was there a desired effect, other than distracting the reader and taking them out of the moment of the story? I found this irritating, and I felt the book was longer than it needed to be. With that said, there were some loose ends that bothered me a little. With a book so long, one would think Murakami would have managed to tie up those loose ends, but it seems he didn't bother. I won't spoil them here, but anyone who has read the book will know what I mean. Is this the first part of a series? I don't think so, because the Tengo and Aomame story lines had a definite conclusive ending.

My next point is more of a personal objection. I was reading this book when I was eight months pregnant with my baby girl, and I actually found some of the graphic violence towards women and girls so disturbing that I stopped reading the book and continued it after I had birthed my child. I am not usually upset by violence, but the fact that a. I read right before bed and b. I was about to have a little girl and the violence is clearly directed toward girls and young women made for some pretty disturbing and horrifying dreams. I wonder why such violence, particularly of a sexual and domestic nature, is directed at women in these books, or why Murakami chose this as a major plot element. Not to say that there isn't violence toward men in the book, but the violence towards men isn't so sick and twisted in the description (with one exception), and that violence is over quickly. Don't get me wrong - it's not that I object to the violence, it's the nature of the violence and the seeming flippancy with which the description of the violence is placed in the book that bothers me. It has a "now this is happening" feel to it.

My next problem I have with this book is one that I have had with his books for some time - when I was younger, I liked it more, but as I've aged I have found it just plain annoying. I find that his descriptions of sexual encounters between the characters to portray a level of sexual immaturity that is wholly out of place. He peppers them throughout his books, not just this one - and it gets to the point where I want to skip that part because I don't find it convincing and it breaks the "spell" of the novel for me. I am by no means prude, but something about, again, the flippancy, makes the scenes seem out of place and unnecessary. He just threw them in there for a certain portion of his audience and all other audience members are asked to tolerate it for the moment. One line in particular at the very end of the book made me so angry at its sheer unnecessary and childish stupidity that I wanted to throw the book - but it's quite heavy and big, and I didn't want to break anything. I think I put it down and came back to it an hour later.

I think I've figured him and his formula for fiction out. he has the aloof but competent male character and the myriad of messed up/helpless female characters; in this novel, he broke the mold (or so I thought) with Aomame, but then throughout the book, her various weaknesses, shortcomings, and feminine stupidities weaved into her character come out. He could have really done something special with her, creating a new female archetype for himself, but he didn't. I am disappointed. So he takes these two typical characters that he's worked before, introduces them and their lives, and gives them a thing that they do; insert fantastic weird portion, insert sex, portray feeling of extreme loneliness and isolation, and voila, novel comes out. The end.

The bottom line
So Haruki, the thrill is gone, and I'm afraid this is goodbye. I am so over you. Our paths in our literary lives have diverged. It's not you, it's me. I've changed, and you've stayed the same. So I guess, if I put it that way, it is you. It's totally you.