Book 38: Maps and Legends

Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands
Michael Chabon

Usually, I'm not really one for essays, and I picked this book up on a whim and having recognized the author's name from The Yiddish Policemen's Union. I believe, after reading this wonderful and whimsical collection, that I will have to read more essays. Chabon keeps his topics close at hand in this book, which focuses on the arts of reading and writing throughout and whose essays are usually either either specific criticism or personal anecdotes, and weaves the concept of literary borderlands throughout all of his essays, giving the book an overall theme without adding unnecesasry weight or focusing too much on a thesis or particular axe to grind. If there is any overall thesis to the work it would be the theme, introduced eloquently and humorously in the opening "Trickster in a Suit of Lights", that genre fiction is not to be overlooked and that much literary innovation takes place on the boundaries of genre, where tropes collide and authors experiment to create a sum that is not merely greater than but transcends its parts. Though Chabon writes with authority, he does not seem full of himself and offers what seem to be genuine potshots at himself as he describes his childhood and his early attempts at writing, stories that are referenced in some essays and fully described in others and which give Maps and Legends a semi-autobiographical quality that is light and fun and which gives readers a sense of Chabon's credibility and a sense of familiarity that, in this case, breeds respect.

Despite the fact that a few of the essays herein are focused tightly on one work or body of work, only "The Killer Hook", which focuses on a comic series called American Flagg!, suffers for readers' lack of familiarity. Essays on The Road and the His Dark Materials trilogy are fleshed out with much plot detail and make general points about literature that are supported by the summaries Chabon gives, though these summaries take up the great weight of these essays and become a bit cumbersome as they ramble on without context or interpretation. Regardless, it is easy to sense throughout Maps and Legends Chabon's unceasing affinity for genre fiction and playful literature; his book can be taken as an argument for the respect of now-marginalized fiction and it is difficult to come away from a delightful little essay like "Kids' Stuff" without wanting to run straight for the comic shelves or, better, to write the kind of comic Chabon describes therein. Chabon's essays on other works provide great insight into a modern author's mind and on the state of literature in general, particularly when he posits that the current critical darling lit-fic genre is, itself, a genre with tropes often stricter than those found in science fiction or fantasy; that he does this with gracious humor is a bonus and keeps him from seeming pompous. It is easy to share his disdain.

The essays at the end of the book take a far more serious and autobiographical turn than the more critical first essays, but it is here that Chabon is at his strongest. "Imaginary Homelands" is a fascinating and fresh look at the meaning of Judaism in the post-Israel world, meditative and funny and with an overall poignance that is quite touching and which provokes much thought. Also delightful are his anecdotes about creating his own work and the difficulty of inspiration, particularly "My Back Pages", which combines storytelling with light literary criticism and a thread of self-criticism that pulls the whole thing together and creates an inspiring piece for aspiring writers. From the first musings of "Trickster in a Suit of Lights" to the final words of both "Golems I Have Known" and its phenomenal postmodern postscript, Michael Chabon illuminates the world of fiction in diverse essays that share enough links to make a whole book without shedding individual grace and without becoming overbearing. Any lover of literature, and especially lovers of genre fiction, would be hard-pressed to find more amusing and insightful essays than these and readers of all stripes can appreciate Chabon's mode of self-reflection and intellectual grappling with the state of literature today. I loved every minute of this collection and thirst for more of Chabon's work, both fiction and non-fiction.

Grade: A

Book 33: Why We Read What We Read

Why We Read What We Read: A Delightfully Opinionated Journey Through Contemporary Bestsellers
Lisa Adams and John Heath

Upon finding that I needed a break from the Internet theory books and the challenging nonfiction, I decided to look at this meta-book, which takes recent bestseller lists and looks at trends and what they might say about the American psyche- or at least the psyche of American readers. Just as the subtitle promises, Why We Read What We Read is delightfully opinionated in parts and delivered with a sly cynicism that is neither overwhelming nor inappropriate. The tone of the book is light throughout and the authors give a fair shake at everything from diet books to Regency romances to the Left Behind series while drawing pointed conclusions about American literary habits. It's obvious that this study isn't meant to be an end-all, be-all summation of the current reading public, but the authors do a remarkably thorough job of wading through recent bestsellers and a good job presenting their data, if it is a bit tiresome occasionally. They do an excellent job of categorizing the main traits of bestselling fiction and wisely group books that are thematically or structurally similar: it just makes sense to talk about self-help books together and, as in the lumping of political nonfiction with thrillers that embrace the same stark good/evil divide, their categories themselves are as illuminating (and well-supported) as their conclusions.

Though the book's sarcastic humor and excellent organization make it a fun and easy read, the authors can get a big preoccupied with sharing their data. The problem with writing about books for a general audience is that the audience can't be presumed to know the books, and any conclusions will be empty and insupportable without presenting data. Why We Read What We Read uses data, a lot of it, and the book is jam-packed with descriptions of books that at times overwhelm the conclusions drawn by the authors about them. Readers leave knowing the plots and outlines of a variety of books, but it's a bit harder to explain just how the authors felt each category spoke about the American reading psyche. Summations of individual books can be long and unnecessary at times, and the book occasionally seems like a collection of summaries with some short conclusions attached. Nonetheless, when the conclusions appear they are revealing and interesting, flowing perhaps more from the authors' preconceptions than the data itself, such as it is, but intriguing nonetheless. The book culminates brilliantly in a final chapter that takes the trends outlined in the preceding pages and attempts to explain the massive dominance of The Da Vinci Code in recent American book buying habits. Overall, Why We Read What We Read is an entertaining look at trends in recent bestselling books and its conclusions, while not decisive, are convincing and interesting along with the authorial insight about books readers may have read. Why We Read What We Read is a quick jaunt through the book-buying public's mind that should provoke much thought in its own readers.

Grade: B+