318. Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf
Herman Hesse
Around 250 pages
1927

Of course Herman has to Hesse up my one chance to have a werewolf novel on this List. What should be a simple story involving a full moon and sexy growling instead revolves around some profound spiritual crisis. I guess I shouldn't expect the man who brought us Rosshalde to be very fun.

Our aimless hero Harry is ill at ease in bourgeois society. He wanders around the city until a stranger hands him an advertisement for a magic theatre and a book about a man with two souls (one man/one wolf). The advertisement is hella specific, referencing Harry by name, even claiming Harry is a name for a baby. Hey, nobody insults Harry Potter in front of me. Anyway, things only get weirder from there.

I am not a particularly spiritual person, so some of Hesse falls flat for me. I often feel like I lose the thread of the story. I'm just not very interested in the themes he explores, and his characters are too surreal to feel real to me. Just not my style.

Of course, he is a very skillful writer, just not my cup of tea.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Hesse has claimed this novel was violently misunderstood by readers. In other words if you don't like it, you don't get. 

UP NEXT: Nadja by Andre Breton. 

317. Remembrance of Things Past

Remembrance of Things Past
Marcel Proust
1913–1927
Around 4,215 pages

Despite being a cybersleuth, I was unable to locate a site that lists the Books in order of page counts. I would be curious to look at that, so if you know of a list like that, drop the link in the comments! If I had to guess, I was say this is the longest book on the list. Even Clarissa can't hold a candle to this chunkster.

I read this awhile ago with my mom. I think it's important to have another person as an anchor when embarking on an experience like this. You can share confusion, frustration, heartbreak, adoration. And eventually, smugness at having read seven volumes. Personally, I alternated between volumes and other books because, you know. You can only take so much.

It's challenging to give a plot summary of a work like this. Marcel is a simp before the term was coined. He reflects on his childhood and the meaning of time. He details his experience of adulthood in French high society. He occasionally messes in his pants when play wrestling with girls.

Okay, I might not be painting the most flattering portrait of Marcel. He is a rich character who obviously stands in for the author, he is not being particularly discreet on this point. So many closeted authors in this era. I get sad thinking how much happier they could have been if they had been born in this decade. Fully out and sick with COVID like the rest of us.

His descriptions are stunning, he engages all the senses beautifully. The most memorable description for people seems to be the madeleines (maybe they didn't make very far into the book? Totally understandable). But it is brilliant how he ties everything into memory and then makes you question why any of it matters. 

Obviously an inadequate tribute to arguably the greatest novel ever written. From what I gather from Little Miss Sunshine, people spend their lives trying to explain Proust. I'll just say we are blessed to having writing like this in the world, and the rest of us will never be this talented.

Oh, and I should pick a favorite. If forced at cursor point like I am right now, I would have to say Swann's Way. I really enjoyed Charles Swann as a character. He was so different than Marcel and I enjoyed exploring the contrast.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Swann's Way was rejected by numerous publishers. So, any aspiring writers out there, keep on trucking!

Virginia Woolf wrote of the novel: "Oh if I could write like that!" You were doing just fine, honey.

Kazuo Ishiguro and Evelyn Waugh, however, both were critics of the novel. You can't please everybody, even if you are literally Proust.

UP NEXT: Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse. Herman, good to see you again. You're looking well.

316. To the Lighthouse

To the Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf
1927
Around 210 pages

We are officially entering the weird phase of Virginia Woolf's career. I don't dislike her as much as I dislike other modernist authors, like this blog's favorite punching bag, James Joyce. But I still miss the Night and Day days.

The novel's setting is in the Ramsays' summer home on the Island of Skye. Family dynamics are explored through little things. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay disagree about the weather, the kids don't want to go to the lighthouse. Mostly, the novel explores the feelings behind the characters as time marches relentlessly on.

I know many people who love stream of consciousness. I can take it, in small doses, but I much prefer a more coherent narrative. I like how she focuses on the particular, while conveying something universal. Definitely a talented lady.

She also builds the setting well through the characters' perceptions. Not a favorite, but still an impressive novel.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Woolf viewed this as her best novel.

The house in the novel is based on Woolf's childhood home.

UP NEXT: Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust, which should make every book we've read so far on this List look like garbage.

315. Tarka the Otter

Tarka the Otter
Henry Williamson
1927
Around 280 pages

Look at that fluffy monster. I read otters rape baby seals and are known necrophiliacs. I don't know about you, but it sure makes me wonder why Hermione Granger's patronus was an otter. But I guess this was written in a simpler time, when otters were just those cute animals you shoot on sight. 

So we get to hear about the life of Tarka the Otter, which among other things involves mating, eating, and hiding from hunters. Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of your animal stories (The Call of the Wild, Watership Down, etc.). And Williamson doesn't really make an attempt to anthropomorphize Tarka, and it's kind of boring just reading a record of Tarka's movements, when there's no emotional depth to it.

I suppose it is well-intentioned, demonstrating the cruelty of hunters. Hey, you don't have to tell me, I've been baiting hunters on dating apps since Tinder became a thing.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Williamson claims he was inspired to write this novel after saving an otter cub. Sure you did, Professor Lockhart.

Williamson supported Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists. Man, so many authors on this List are serious d-bags.

UP NEXT: To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. She strikes again!

314. Amerika

Amerika
Franz Kafka
1927
Around 340 pages

We come to the last Kafka on the List, so he can stop squirming in the afterlife because people are paying attention to him (sorry Franz). 

Karl Roßmann emigrated from Europe to escape the scandal of having a child with a housemaid. Or, as Kafka puts it, "being seduced by a housemaid." Anyway, he wanders around New York City, gets a job as a lift-boy, and gets stuck in a fat woman's apartment. 

Once again, we are only treated to fragments, so it's hard to judge it as you would a complete work. It's weird, he's weird, but I really like the dark themes he explores in his writings. And his version of Amerika is actually less strange than the real thing.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Kafka's working title was The Man Who Disappeared.

UP NEXT: Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson.