The Infinities by John Banville

Of the things we fashioned for them that they might be comforted, dawn is the one that works. When darkness sifts from the air like fine soft soot and light spreads slowly out of the east then all but the most wretched of humankind rally. It is a spectacle we immortals enjoy, this minor daily resurrection, often we will gather at the ramparts of the clouds and gaze down upon them, our little ones, as they bestir themselves to welcome the new day. What a silence falls upon us then, the sad silence of our envy. Many of them sleep on, of course, careless of our cousin Aurora's charming matutinal trick, but there are always the insomniacs, the restless ill, the lovelorn tossing on their solitary beds, or just the early-risers, the busy ones, with their knee-bends and their cold showers and their fussy little cups of black ambrosia. Yes, all who witness it greet the dawn with joy, more or less, except of course the condemned man, for whom first light will be the last, on earth.

-The Infinities 

When I was growing up, one of my favorite books was D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. I read it cover to cover, over and over again. I didn't grow up with organized religion, so while other children learned Bible stories, I knew the tale of Persephone by heart. Even though the Greek gods seemed both formidable and alarmingly capricious, I was secretly disappointed that they went unworshipped in modern times.

All that is to say, I have a particular affection for Greek mythology, so when I heard about John Banville's The Infinities, I was intrigued.  A story about Greek gods meddling in the affairs of an Irish family--what could be better? I had been watching Battlestar Galactica, in which Greek mythology plays an important part, so I was especially ready to enjoy some Zeus & Hermes action. Unfortunately, while I found the prose of The Infinities to be beautiful, its story left me cold.

The Infinities is a fairly short novel--less than 300 pages--so I anticipated that I would finish it quite quickly. The story, which takes place over the course of a single day, never really drew me in, though. Patriarch Adam Godley is in a coma, and his family has gathered around him to ready themselves for his presumably incipient death.  The day's events are narrated (for the most part) by Hermes, who makes note of his father's lusty advances (shock!) toward a woman in the house, as well as his own mischievous interference. The story is short on plot and long on description, unsurprisingly given the parameters of the novel, with Banville particularly seeming to relish a certain earthiness that I could have done without. I was intrigued by some of his characters (fragile daughter Petra and her would-be beau Roddy, to name two), but I found the gods themselves to be surprisingly...human. And while, as I noted above, the Greek gods have always had human traits writ large, never before have I found that that made them common or boring, as unfortunately I did here.

The Infinities is quite an admired book--made a number of top book lists last year, as I recall--and it does seem like the kind of book that would benefit from a deeper reading. (Maybe then I would better understand the ending, which seemed to come out of nowhere.) I believe, though, that the best books are those that can be enjoyed purely from a story standpoint. You might want to find the deeper meanings if the story is good, but you shouldn't have to do so to enjoy the book. That is probably essentially why I was not an English major, right there.

Up next: Another critically-acclaimed book, The Age of Wonder, which thankfully I'm enjoying much more so far!

American Nerd by Benjamin Nugent

The distinctive thing about so many nerds I've met is their willingness to pursue a dream version of their lives even when that dream isn't a plausible aspiration. Playing Sir Guillaume doesn't have anything to do with reinventing yourself through ambition. It has no careerist or pragmatic component. It's imitating the thing you most want to be, and that only, with no hope of the world outside your own head and your own group of friends coming round to accept it as the truest version of who you are. 

-American Nerd

In American Nerd, Benjamin Nugent sets out to investigate the origins of the idea of a nerd and to explore how nerdiness manifests in culture today. He also establishes his own nerd cred quickly, and returns to ruminate over his transition out of nerdiness in the strongest parts of the book.

I found aspects of the evolution of the concept of a nerd (or, as it was once spelled, nurd) interesting, but the early part of the book was not quite as absorbing as I had hoped. Although American Nerd is a short book, I didn't read it as quickly as I anticipated, simply because I found it a little dry at first. I did appreciate Nugent's explaining the relation between anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic sentiment at the turn of century and the low rung nerds still occupy on the social ladder, which I'd never considered before. Still, I found myself eager to move on to Nugent's exploration of modern nerd culture.

I was slightly disappointed that Nugent mostly looks at aspects of nerd culture that I don't really have any interest in, like video games and anime. Still, it can be fascinating to see how people can be obsessed with something that I wouldn't give two seconds' thought to. After all, I have plenty of my own geeky obsessions (currently Battlestar Galactica, which ought to get me plenty of nerd cred). I think I would have liked this section of the book to be a bit more substantial--more nerdy subcultures profiled, and more depth in each one.

Throughout the book, Nugent references his own childhood nerdiness, which included plenty of Dungeons and Dragons and video games. At some point he consciously decided to leave behind childish things, breaking ties with his former roleplaying buddies and finding a home in any group that would have him--any group but the nerds, that is. American Nerd gave him the opportunity to consider this decision, and he talks with several of his childhood friends about what nerd culture meant to them. It turns out to be a lot deeper than you might expect, a true safe haven for friends who were doing their best to survive in very unstable households.  It's emotionally affecting, and I wouldn't have minded seeing more reflections from men (and women, who are pretty underrepresented in the book) on how their nerdy habits affected their lives.

So overall, American Nerd has some interesting parts, but it wasn't quite as compelling as I had hoped. No worries.

Up next: The Infinities by John Banville. Winner of the Man Booker Prize, what what.