tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25137929.post6178529613158590747..comments2023-08-26T02:27:21.897-07:00Comments on Frisbee: A Book Journal: LuckFrisbeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07394353185610393979noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25137929.post-88192159019069541102008-07-08T09:02:00.000-07:002008-07-08T09:02:00.000-07:00Yes, that's the gist of it: Some writers have obv...Yes, that's the gist of it: Some writers have obviously gone back to historical periods (30 to 100) years ago) because they can't capture the voices of the new blandness. Or maybe they're afraid to. And where are the novels about the Bush-era army, the working classes, or the retail clerks who work at WalMart? Will it take another 20 years to write them? Somehow we've already had the 9/11 novels, mostly from upper-class characters' points of view. So why 9/11 and not the Bush war? <BR/><BR/>Now Ng describes the '60 in Chinatown in San Franciso and a "confession act" which allows Jack to take a risk: he confesses his illegal status to the government and applies for Suspension of Deportation. She is writing about a historical period, but one that probably we don't know. It is her style that makes this interesting.<BR/><BR/>But I do get very irritated with many books these days: the ones I've blogged about (with the exception of Ng) are by prize-winning or literary writers. Carey goes back to the '70s; Canin goes back to the '70s; and Crace jumps to the future.Frisbeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07394353185610393979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25137929.post-20232203992236994412008-07-08T06:22:00.000-07:002008-07-08T06:22:00.000-07:00I find myself distressed by the most contemporary ...I find myself distressed by the most contemporary novels which set their action in here and now. Qualification: well not by the more prestige-winning types (Booker Prize and Whitbread are examples), but if you look you discover the action is often set back in time a little, the characters are highly intelligent or well-educated, and there is often a history subplot of some sort.<BR/><BR/>It's not that I don't believe people live these sorts of lives, but that I don't live it and know no one who does, and while my circle is not extensive, through the Net and over the years I've known enough people.<BR/><BR/>The complete desperation and wildness of the stories makes me desperate. I have a young friend, Kathy, who has been trying to free herself of a husband and trying to get a decent job, and just got a decent apartment, finds herself pregnant and guess what? She won't think of abortion. The movies and pseudo-science have gotten to her; what this means is she'll fall back into one of these lives. Both young men are people in the army, as in the Bush USA there are few jobs and opportunities for the average outside the army. They are limited people, severely.<BR/><BR/>These modern books don't hold out any hope and they don't hold out an ideal or common sense. The "prestige" prize type do.<BR/><BR/>EllenEllenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14979942382683140531noreply@blogger.com