So, another semester at college means an end to another relaxing summer without a summer reading list. However, for those select few who hold a bit of nostalgia for joggling the sand out of your paperbacks, fall classes are no reason to stop reading for leisure. Here is a quick list to get you back in the habit.
The Nimrod Flipout by Etgar Keret (2006)
This is a book of short stories by an Israeli writer. The stories are equally humorous and incredulous. Keret’s writing style can be as crass as his often-lewd subject matter, but you feel tricked after every story. You get going on a story, really committed to it and, all of a sudden, in a single moment you realize he’s talking about something much funnier or sadder than whichever mood you thought he projected. This is all done in very simple language.
Keret writes, “If life is one big party, Sinai is definitely the chill-out room. And even Miron and I, who hardly did anything in regular life anyway, could appreciate the ultimate nothingness of this place. Everywhere you looked on our beach, you saw dozens of spaced-out hippie chicks, and Miron kept hitting on them, going on about all the time he’d spent in the East. It even worked, sometimes.”
Keret’s stories focus a lot of attention on insanity. His candid understatements pull you along through easy tales that have a lot of demons below the surface.
*Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan (2006) *
Mo Yan, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature, is a lot like a curmudgeon. His writing is cynical, irreverent of some Chinese traditions, but also very positive and curious, especially about his characters, who are clear representations of childhood friends and fellow villagers.
In this particular novel, “Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out,” the main character has been dead for some years and is on a path of continuous animal reincarnations. He is tasked with watching over a peasant tenant farmer who refuses to conform with Mao’s collectivized agriculture. The events in the book align with much of China’s history since communism. The farmer endures the clash of stoic individualism against a changing popular tide. Each chapter is painted like a folk tale, stocked with animals and ancestors. The author inserts himself as a character in this work and relentlessly self-deprecates. He describes the character Mo Yan as “almost unbelievably ugly.”
“Mo Yan, who always wanted to be a part of everything and was a real pain most of the time, someone who was not easily shamed could not care less,” is one of the first introductions of his young, childhood self. He continues, “Even members of his family called him a moron.” The author’s folksy wit makes even the many dark events in the book seem comical.
*Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer (1996) *
This one is for your inner hippie. Krakauer’s book follows Christopher McCandles’ journey across America and into the Alaskan wilderness. It is a non-fiction account of a college graduate seeking something other than a family or a career. There are plenty of eccentric characters and it has the feel of a wild road trip. For those who are looking to get away to the west but are tight on gas money, this book is your best free option.
The focus of this book, McCandles is tragically ideological. A man he met along his way remembered, “…[M]aybe part of what got him into so much trouble was that he did too much thinking. Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often.” Maybe this book won’t inspire you to abandon all your material possessions and live out in the wilderness, but it would certainly give you perspective on the type of person that is often seen as crazy or egg-headed or too smart for his own good. So if you don’t have mountain trips planned and music festival season is too far away then nose-dive into this one.
*Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (1963) *
Another writer wielding an understated style, Vonnegut is an icon in both American literature and postmodern literature. He uses science fiction to explore the ethics of the atomic age. The chapters are shockingly concise (many between one and three pages), which allows a hallmark to be such a quick and easy read. This introduced the world to Vonnegut’s made-up religion Bokonoism which trips over itself in paradoxes. Its followers in the book utter the quasi-lamentable phrase “and so it goes,” when a death has occurred.
Vonnegut’s humor is famous and this book is vital for those interested in the cross between science and spirituality. This book forces the reader not only to question what is true but also the necessity of truth itself. After interacting with a woman who thinks, “I don’t know whether I agree or not. I just have trouble understanding how truth, all by itself, could be enough for a person.” the narrator concludes “Miss Faust was ripe for Bokononism.” While the main characters are in a mess of uncertain worldviews, Cat’s Cradle sits at the crossroads between fun and insightful.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1955)
Frankly, everyone should read this book. It’s incisive, dark and hysterically funny. The contradictions that riddle this book don’t make any sense on paper but anyone can relate to what Heller is trying to say. His character descriptions are spot on, portraying many people you likely know. He writes, “The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likable. In three days no one could stand him.”
The tension of the book is that the main character doesn’t want to fight and thus must prove he is insane, the only way out. However, only a sane person would not want to fight and therefore he cannot exit the war. Sanity becomes a laughing stock in Heller’s dark comedy. If your high school English teacher unfortunately couldn’t get this one to you then go ahead and grab this American classic.
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