The Closed Circle

 

I finished The Closed Circle shortly after getting back from holidays but the thought of sitting at a computer after 6 p.m. to write about it set off waves of uncontrollable twitching and sneezing.

We had dinner with good friends on Saturday night and one was kind enough to ask when I planned to post again … I took that as a gentle nudge that I shouldn’t pester people to read Spineless and then ignore it for over a week. My soon to be sister-in-law helped alleviate my guilt by shouting from the kitchen something along the lines of: “What blog? You have a blog? What do you write about …?”

Sorry, you couldn’t see it but I was having a moment …

For me, the strength of The Rotters’ Club was the wonderfully written shift from the indistinguishable gang of teenagers we meet in 1973 to strong individual characters shaped by personal and political events. The Closed Circle picks up Benjamin, Claire, Philip, Doug and Sean’s story 20 years later.

I liked The Close Circle because of the way it moves back and froth through time while offering new information and filling in holes from The Rotters’ Club. Much like Saturday, The Closed Circle uses the conflict in the Middle East as a way of exploring personalities and political views. It worked for me here because the characters reflect the varied and strong opinions people have about the war. Saturday just felt passive-aggressive.

There’s much more to the novel, but last night’s celebrations have left me a bit foggy and now that the Emmy’s are over, I really want to crawl into bed.

Will try and stay awake long enough to start one of the stories in my new Virginia Woolf collection. I really shouldn’t try and read her stuff when drowsy … that’s probably why I never finished Mrs Dalloway. It’s just that it’s too big to cart around and I’ll end up picking up something slimmer for the work commute. Speaking of, I had a yellow sticky stuck to the inside of my wallet with all the books I want to read but that’s gone and I’ve been so preoccupied that I’m having a hard time recreating it … think I’ll have to spend some time this week reading book blogs and trying to get back into the loop …

Amy

Ulysses Challenge

Jian Ghomeshi, summer host of CBC’s Sounds like Canada, has thrown down the summer reading gauntlet … with nothing less than James Joyce’s Ulysses.  After reading about The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie on Bookworm and Kate’s Book Blog, I was going to tackle it next but think I might give Joyce a go.

There’s a reader review of Ulysses on Chapters.ca that mirrors what CBC listeners said during yesterday’s interview: “…Ulysses is required reading. Of course, you’re not required to enjoy it.”

Now, that doesn’t exactly scream “summer read,” but there’s no shame in having several books on the go at once and I figure I can always put Joyce down and enjoy a less dense read if needed.

If anyone has already accepted Jian’s challenge, I’d love to know how it’s going …

Amy