I've had my eye on Amity Gaige's The Folded World for awhile now...and I'm delighted by the universe's persistence in reminding me that I need to get a copy and read it at once. This week's The Week (there's something about that phrasing that I love and I can't quite sort out what it is, nerd that I am) features Amity Gaige's "best book" picks:
- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf -- "This 1927 novel raises writing about family life to the level of scripture."
- A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway -- "The most nostalgic book I've ever read, and one of the most beautiful....You could almost eat this book; it's full of oysters, mandarin oranges, and roasted chestnuts."
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote -- "An engrossing, don't-read-it-alone-at-night book, it's also a lament to the fact that we kill both innocent people and criminals by declining to imagine their humanity."
- Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke -- "Rilke's 1922 masterpiece poem, written in 10 parts over 10 years, seems like a message from the other side."
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison -- "Darkly funny, unstable, completely unprecedented."
- Rabbit Run by John Updike -- "This 1960 novel heralded a whole generation of crumbling marriages. But the writing, as precise and intelligent as it gets, converts the tale into beauty."
I can't sort out whether this list makes me want to read Gaige's new book or not. I am reminded though, that I've still not managed to fit Duino Elegies into my Rilke reading. Were I a completist, this would need to be done asap, as I've read everything else. So many choices and sadly, so few of them will be made as I've got several books to complete and a story of my own that's nearly finished (finally!) and needs a good editing before it can be sent out into the world for its proper rejection.
