I've read two interesting books lately, both semi-autobiographical books of young people starting out in life: Chicago by Brian Doyle and Either/Or by Elif Batuman. Neither of these books were quick reads, but both were engrossing, so I read them hungrily. Despite the similarity of being semi-autobiographical novels about young people finding their way in life, they are quite different novels.
I love Brian Doyle's writing, and Chicago did not disappoint. Doyle writes so lyrically and joyfully about places and people. The book is slim on plot, but it is rich in character sketches. The main character is a young college graduate who moves to Chicago to work for a Catholic periodical (very similar to Doyle's own path). He finds an apartment in a building near downtown, where he gets to know his fellow renters, the building owner, the caretaker who is in love with the owner, and the caretaker's dog, who is the wisest individual in the book. The book has a touch of magical realism - the dog communicates clearly, people meet and form relationships easily and raise money for each other, the building inhabitants all get along magically well. The main character, who remains unnamed, wanders the city and its alleys, plays pick-up basketball on inner city courts, discovers bars and restaurants and helps the sisters who live nearby. He forms a friendship with the caretaker and his dog, goes to baseball games with his neighbors, and falls quietly in love. He walks the city for miles, exploring the place but also contemplating life. As with other Doyle books, Doyle's lyrical style of writing makes Chicago almost a poem, creating an image of a particular slice of life in the city, describing the people and the place as they enlarge both the narrator's understanding of life and the reader's. The narrator transitions from a somewhat clueless young man, to a young adult who appreciates kindness and generosity, who sees the goodness/light rather than the dark. It's a book full of wonder.
Elif Batuman's narrator considers becoming a flaneur, or a walker about town, also, but despite a few similarities in curiosity and exploration, the two narrators are very different personalities. I had not read Elif Batuman's books before, but Either/Or kept me engaged because it was such a curious presentation of the mind of a young woman on the cusp of adulthood. The semi-autobiographical work is a follow up to her book The Idiot, which I have not read, and now I'm not sure if I will since I was able to piece together what happened in that first novel, the story of Selin's first year of college, so there would be no suspense about the outcome of the book.
Batuman's narrator, Selin, is Turkish American, a sophomore at Harvard trying to make sense of life. She is naive, but also very book smart, and becomes cynical about her classmates' obsession with pairing off, even as she herself is recovering from heart break and interested in discovering what makes sex so fascinating. She turns to books to discover the meaning of life and Kierkegaard's Either/Or, which contrasts the moral life and the aesthetic life, is a formative book for Selin. She begins to experiment with living an aesthetic life, and continues to find insights and guidance from the books she reads for class and for pleasure that help her escape the malaise she has been in since her boyfriend form the first novel broke up with her. She chooses classes based on how interesting they sound and whether they will help her become a novelist. Her roommates and best friend, who is also Eastern European, drag her out of her room and out and about so that she will get over her broken heart, but they are continuously pairing off with guys they meet at drunken parties, which doesn't appeal to her while she is still in mourning. But eventually she discovers someone is attracted to her, and so she decides to leave a party with him. Since she is seeking experiences while testing the aesthetic life, she barely questions the morality of what she is doing when she calls him back a week or two later so she can lose - or just get rid of - her virginity..
The second half of the novel follows Selin as she travels Turkey as a writer for Let's Go - which funds her visit back to visit extended family. Soon after she heads out to the locations designated by the Let's Go people, she finds herself in a relationship with a guide, who turns out to be not a decent guy, but then she falls into the clutches of several questionable characters whom she tries to shake, but doesn't always succeed. Her inability to stand up for her own feelings allows her to be victimized by some creeps - Selin talks herself into letting them have her way with her because she can't think of a reason to say no. Even though she studies Russian, she must not have come across Ivan Karamazov's rationalizing that if there is no God, everything is permitted. Or maybe that's what she is testing out.
The novel ends in such a way that I suspect future sequels are in the works. No terrible tragedy befalls Selin in Turkey, and she should have lots of material for her own novel, or at least for a Let's Go Guide to Turkey. As a reader, I both pitied Selin and also recognized similar twisty ways of thinking about what I was reading and how I should apply it to my life - which is the big question she is trying to decide. A peril of reading too much is having no way or too many ways of determining a map to life. But then if someone reads too narrowly, perhaps some wisdom or insight might be overlooked. And then there's all that knowledge and potential wisdom to be found in relationships and experiences . . . or the confusion/loss of sensitivity when one has too many experiences...
Other readers' insights:
https://www.pastemagazine.com/books/chicago-by-brian-doyle-review/
https://www.upbeacon.com/article/2016/04/brian-doyle-chats-with-us-about-chicago-his-new-novel
3 comments:
Both of these books sound really interesting... I wonder if Either/Or would be too sad for me to finish... hmmm. I'll check them out of the library, or look for them at the paperback store I keep meaning to visit in a nearby town.
Great reviews!
Either/Or is a downer at the end - I have really mixed feelings about it. Her project to find meaning is interesting - but I feel like she's looking in the wrong books!
I'm glad I came back here because I just picked up Chicago at the library and didn't immediately remember where I got the idea to read it!
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