Working with a new goal

I'm trying to read the good stuff. Here goes.

The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen. I delayed reading this book for years after the Oprah debaucle. So Franzen didn't want Oprah's "mark" plastered on his book. What a putz! But, given all the hype, coupled with the fact that I bought a used copy so Franzen didn't directly get a dime of my money. Plus, time heals all wounds--real or perceived. So the time had come to read this book billed by many as the "Great American Novel."

It was okay. It enjoyed a bit of a positive growth spurt in my opinion over the first couple of days after I finished it. But the growth spurt has ended, and it's still only a bit more than okay. A rather dysfunctional family, with a father suffering from Parkinson's and dementia; an idealistic, superficial mother suffering from denial; a controlling, money-grubbing elder son, married to a self-centered, manipulative bitch; a hapless second son; a talented, but misguided daughter in denial about her sexual orientation (like mother, like daughter). Mix the characters with a good dose of East Coast snobbery about the Midwest, and that's the basic idea. Some of the prose is quite clever, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, but utlimately not enough to redeem it in my opinion.

Okay, so they start to make "corrections" in their lives as the story ends, after their last Christmas together that was quite a bit less than perfect. But, I suppose I'm just not literary enough to see the brilliance of this novel.

Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. A quick read, with the kind of ending that I could see coming, but was still shocked when it happened. Was it the right thing for George to do to Lennie? Was it compassionate or cold-blooded murder? Was it the ultimate buddy story or something else? So many isolated people whose lives (as was the case in The Grapes of Wrath) just seem miserable, with no foreseeable way out. Good read.

Listening to: Catch 22.
Reading: Things Fall Apart.