What is Todd Robins Reading?
Seasons of Todd...
Summer 2008
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill:
Read review
Spring 2008
Lush Life by Richard Price:
Read review
Winter 2008
Last Night At The Lobster by Stewart O'Nan.
I picked the novel up a couple days ago (as I write,
it's December 22), and went right through it. What a poignant little gem
this is. O'Nan's portrayal of a restaurant, the inner workings and the
personality conflicts, is just right. Mostly, though, I like the main
character Manny, who memorably experiences the pull between longing and
responsibility. This is his story, his day. The author casts the narrative
arc with such skill that he makes it look easy. It's probably wise, however,
to remember the Latin saying, "difficilia quae pulchra." (Things that are
beautiful are difficult to attain.)
Christopher's Ghosts
Charles McCarry.
If you walk in the store and tell me you're looking
for a really good espionage novel, this is what I'm recommending. For the
double whammy, grab Boyd's novel, "Restless," as well.
Brothers: The Hidden History Of The Kennedy Years
David Talbot.
This book offers a compelling exploration of the
Byzantine network of forces that were at play during JFK's shortened
presidency and the Cold War.
Autumn 2007
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson:
Read review
Summer 2007
Exit Ghost by Philip Roth:
Read review
Spring 2007
Restless by William Boyd.
At least three customers recommended this
book, which is
significant: it means they paid $25 and got their money's worth. I paid for
the book in hardcover as well, at least in part because I truly love
hardcovers. Plus, back in January, The Wall Street Journal ran an
interesting article about the author. Truth to tell, it has never been all
that tough to talk me into reading British Secret Service stories. John
Banville's The Untouchable comes to mind. After 100 pages of
Restless, it's clear that Boyd has command of his material about a
half-Russian, half-English woman who becomes a spy in 1939. I put him in the
Ward Just category.
Winter 2007
Prime Green:
Remembering the Sixties by Robert Stone.
Stone
remembers sixties experiments with droll humor. He was out in California
with Kesey, and he was down in New Orleans as a census taker. He also had
comical experiences as a seller of Collier's Encyclopedias. Unlike so many
memoir writers, Stone knows how to be pithy.
Autumn 2006
The Road by Cormac McCarthy:
Read review
Summer
2006
The Civil
War: A Narrative by Shelby Foote:
Read review
Golf in the
Kingdom by
Michael Murphy: Read
review
Spring
2006
True Confessions by John Gregory Dunne.
Just think: if Kevin Kelly's vision comes true, I
could actually read John Gregory Dunne's novel as a snippet. For a detailed
account of Kelly's dream, you need to round up the May 14 issue of The
New York Times Magazine. (I already chucked mine in the garbage.) Kelly
argues that in the future, we will all love computers so much (look at me,
Mom! I'm blogging!) that we will bypass books altogether, just so we
can sit in a chair all day and stare into the wondrous little tube. I'm even
planning to get my food there, simply Google up a virtual plate of spaghetti
and sit around reading snippets all day. Dunne published True Confessions
a long time ago, and I doubt that he envisioned it as a snippet. Here's the
point: I don't want to read it as a snippet. I want to read the whole thing,
from beginning to end, without an interruption from a blogger, some clown
sitting around in his apartment posting links to everything because he can.
I want Dunne's vivid prose and mean voice and his depiction of each
character's inner life. Thunder's Mouth Press recently reissued it.
Apparently they hadn't heard the prophecy.
Consider The Lobster by David Foster
Wallace.
Wallace had to delay covering John McCain's
presidential campaign
for Rolling Stone because "I happen to have dogs with professionally
diagnosed emotional problems who require special care, and it always takes
me several days to recruit, interview, select, instruct, and field-test a
dogsitter." In addition, this author ridicules journalists on the campaign
trail for wearing chinos with pleats. Critics sometimes take shots at him
for using footnotes in his work. I can't help noticing that Wallace is more
interesting than the critics.
Intuition by Allegra Goodman.
As I write this note, I am halfway through the
novel and glad to
be reading it. The characters are intelligent and grounded, yet susceptible
to selfishness and envy. The portrait of these cancer researchers is rich in
detail and nuance and limned with deeper meaning. I can't wait to get home
and pick it up again:
Read review
Winter
2005
Dreaming Of Babylon by Richard
Brautigan.
McComish brought Dreaming Of Babylon over from Watermark West.
This was approximately 13 years ago, sometime after Nebuchadnezzar
died. Speak of the devil, he's a character in Dreaming Of Babylon,
even though the novel is set in 1942 San Francisco. C. Card, the
protagonist, prefers dreaming of Babylon over finding a few bullets for his
gun. Who can blame him? He has a very fine girlfriend there. This book is
highly recommended for people who tend to spend daylight hours in the dream
world. If you've ever had lunch with Amenhotep, for example, you can take
this artifact off our hands.
Let Me Tell You a Story: A Lifetime in the
Game by John Feinstein and Red Auerbach
Read review
Autumn 2005
Tales
from the Kansas State Sideline by Stan Weber with David Smale:
read
review
Summer 2005
No Country for Old Men
by Cormac McCarthy
I, Fatty by Jerry Stahl:
Read
review
Spring 2005
Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo
The Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard.
That old buzzard Elmore Leonard is at it again,
this time dropping you into the Oklahoma oil patch in the 1930's. If you
come from small town Kansas or Oklahoma oil patch country and like crime
fiction, you won't want to miss this book. It's populated with the likes of
Pretty Boy Floyd and his gang. I was surprised that Leonard, who has lived in
Detroit for a long time, could get the dialogue right for this setting, but the
book does ring with authenticity. It makes me want to go back and do a Jim
Thompson novel or two. It's a Midwestern noir extravaganza.
