Challenging Reading

In recent months I have been working through novels that I have picked up here and there, titles by authors whose work I have consistently enjoyed.  My reading thread has periodically been punctuated by novels that have previously been nominated for the Booker Shortlist, or have been winners.  Titles such as St Urbain's Horseman by Mordecai Richler, Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess, Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes and Time's Arrow by Martin Amis.  None of these was a particularly 'easy' read.  They are not what I would call accessible novels and I found the challenging.  But there you are, I am a collector and these are four titles ticked off the list.

Meanwhile I continue with another list, my BookRiot challenge.  Slade House by David Mitchell
fulfils the 'horror' category although it is more weird and mystical as a fantasy than frightening.  It began as the series of tweets by Mitchell in July 2015 which evolved into a story and which was set in the same universe as The Bone Clocks.  But the 2,000-word story quickly acquired a life of its own and was published on 27th October 2015 just in time for Halloween.  You need to concentrate when Mitchell is doing his thing, slipping between time frames but his writing is always inventive and articulate.

And then I decide to tackle The Year of the Flood by Margaret Attwood.  I love this woman's writing, and her voice even more.  My sister in law Jenny forwards me a link; it takes me to a slot on YouTube where you can listen to Attwood read one of her poems, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGOaB7Ifg5U   Listening to ' The Moment' has a remarkably calming effect on me.  Her deeply modulated voice and the words and their meaning speak directly to me, have the ability to change a personal perspective.  The message is clear and I heed the message as I continue to sort through a surfeit of papers, documents, publications that I no longer need.   Meanwhile I plough on with The Year of the Flood......  

With a reading of MaddAddam this third novel by Margaret Atwood brings together two of her previous works, Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood.  I read Oryx and Crake at least ten years ago and have no clear memory of the book.  Tackling The Year of the Flood through the medium of an audio book requires a lot of concentration.  I find it is not always easy to hold onto the strands of narrative and I miss the ability to leaf back through pages to help re-orient myself in the narrative when I 'lose the plot'.   Some reviews of MaddAddam run as follows:

“The final entry in Atwood’s brilliant MaddAddam trilogy roils with spectacular and furious satire … Her vision is as affirming as it is cautionary, and the conclusion of this remarkable trilogy leaves us not with a sense of despair at mankind’s failings but with a sense of awe at humanity’s barely explored potential to evolve.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“An epic dystopian journey through a wasteland of high science and low deeds that ends in hope.” – The Independent

I am left with the feeling that I have not done the trilogy justice.  It seems clear to me that I should tackle a second reading challenge in that I should at some point reread the three novels, in hard copy, and try to make sense of the narrative and the new world disorder that is portrayed.