I learned speed reading and managed to complete War and Peace in half an hour. ... It was about Russia.
It seems that readers are less patient with long books these days and now shorter versions of some classic tomes look set to hit the bookshops. The first book to receive this treatment is Tolstoy's War and Peace in a new translation by Anthony Briggs. Later, a shorter and less theoretical A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawkins is due for release: a sort of dumbed down versions for dummies like me. I've attempted this book three times and always seem to disappear down a black hole halfway through.
I was surprised though to read that Susanna Clarke's fairly recent award-winner Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is to receive this treatment as well. I must confess though that I am among the readers who have been put off the book by its size. That's not to be pathetic: a big book claims too many hours of your life! We are living in the age of ficiton overload with more titles being published than ever before while our attention spans get ever shorter.
On the other hand I have mixed feelings about the other titles on the list for the shortening treatment: I've been meaning to get round to reading Moby Dick and Clarissa for years, but always something newer and more happening gets in the way. (My cheeks are burning with shame.) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon has been sitting on my "to-be-read-shelf" since last year (More bookguilt!) when I felt it was a gap in my own education that needed filling.
But I have read Underworld by Don DeLillo and think it quite brilliant. I gave it five stars on Amazon and wrote gushingly:
'Underworld' requires time and effort on the part of the reader, but is immensely satisfying. The story of ordinary lives lived in the shadow of the cold war, fits together like a chinese puzzle : it is left to the reader to discover all the interconnections of plot and character. I found myself rereading whole sections to enjoy the beauty of the language. Worth reading a second time!
Not that I think I will ever have time and patience to read it a second time. And I'd love to know whether anyone in Malaysia has managed to even get past the very difficult first chapter?
Wonder if Vikram Seth or Paul Anderson will find themselves getting chopped in the fullness of time! A painful thought, no doubt.
6 comments:
Recently, a malay modern classic got it's shrinking treatement (edisi ringkas) - A. Samad Said's Salina. I've read both version and I think the 'edisi ringkas' is much better! Currently I'm in the process of shrinking my own novel for publication (a new concept - MMS novel!). It's a very trying process. I have to cut off a few scenes, kill off one or two characters. But then again, I think the novel is beginning to look more focused now :)
Moby Dick! i only got thru the first few pages.
too many descriptions of ports, bars, sailors, fishing, boats, clergymen, etc, whatever.
i kept thinking hey, where's the action???
me, i don't like abridged books. just as i don't like studios meddling with a film. there are reasons why artists choose to present their works in a certain way or length.
i didn't quite like delilo's 'underworld' with the first reading, being so unused to what seems like a forced detachment. i must admit, though, that on my second reading, it was fun to think through some of the connections. a dead rapstar and an emasculated president ushered about by his entourage, who we barely see/hear about at all, quite nice!
jonathan strange and mister norell is pretty good!
I love long novels! I do have to be seduced into starting one...I have to believe it's going to be worth it...but then I love knowing I have pages and pages and hours and hours of inhabiting that particular fictional world ahead of me! That's one reason I'm so keen on 19th-century novels. Bring on the Dickens! (And I LOVE Moby Dick!) Sometimes, I feel disappointed by some novels just because they're so thin. I can't be bothered!
I agree with 3rd chimp. Novels I buy have to be long! I love the idea of having the next few months with those characters. Short novels tend to disappoint me - you finally start getting to know the characters and sympathizing with their problems and suddenly it's over (all too fast). I think that was my disappointment with Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - too short!
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