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I had a chance recently to catch up on some reading. I love to read, and would describe myself as a binge reader. The inter-web not withstanding, where everything is text and reading is the main, I will go in phases of reading where I devour books, and adore them, watching them turn from fresh, crisp documents into dog eared, spine folded, second hand friends by the time I’m done with them.

Best American Short Stories of the 20th Century edited by John Updike
I was given this book as a gift at the turn of the century. I began to read it with lusty hope of a compiled record of the best of the best. Already a fan of the Best American Short Stories annuals, I was excited to grip the fiction of William Faulkner, Ernest Hemmingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Willa Cather, Cynthia Ozick, Alice Monroe, Alice Adams, James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Dorothy Parker, Vladimir Nobokov, Tennessee Williams, John Cheever, Flannery O’Conner, Susan Sontag, and Joyce Carol Oats all in a collected volume claiming to be the best of the best.

I read with open hunger, despite my complete disdain for John Updike (the man who starts all of his paragraphs three times before starting, stops several times, and then chokes completely when only trying to say simple things. The man who would have killed Papa by the end of page one if he wasn’t dead already,) and I wanted to see what this prestigious collection of stories had to offer.

I will summarize what I didn’t like before laying out my praise. I felt that Updike made many errors in his judgement with regards to which stories were “best.” Though that doesn’t surprise me, my taste is usually quite a bit different from the main and that’s all right with me. I felt that in some cases the authors were chosen (for instance, Mr. Updike’s decision to include himself in the best stories of the century) our of nepotism, or perhaps professional camaraderie or obligation. But in most cases it was simply disappointment at the great author’s being represented by unpopular, wan, and pale examples of their great gifts and in most cases wide variety of possibilities. It’s possible I am an amateurish reader, despite my BA degree in literature with emphasis on the 20th century short fiction, and I failed to really grasp what Updike was trying to show us with his choices. Perhaps he was limited by titles which were submitted and accepted for previous volumes of Best American Short Stories (which I actually think is the case) in which case it would take a great deal of effort to locate the scoundrels who made such poor choices year in and year out. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Regardless of my fuming outrage, it was more fun re cataloging the amazing stories of my all time favorite authors in my head and balking at Updike’s decisions than it is to sit on the couch and yell at the television that’s for sure.

I was stunned to make new finds. John Cheever’s ‘The Country Husband’ was a breathtakingly beautiful story, written in a clear and modern style, which was the real gem of this book. Also Nabokov’s story ‘That in Aleppo once…’ completely blew me away. So deeply was I affected by both of these stories (new to me in this volume) that I had to read them twice, make notes in the margin, and discuss them with anyone who would listen.

It may be too little too late here, but if you are even vaguely interested in the 20th century short story (where we culturally evolved from meaningless poems about Jesus and hand pressing into rich torrents of humanist prose about temptation, death, divorce, sex, and childhood’s end) then I would point you off in the B isle of the fiction section of your local indie book shop.

Candide by Voltaire
This was also a gift, from Sonia, who felt I needed to read it. I did need to read it, and I read it three times before passing it on to my step-father who read it even faster than I did and we enjoyed a few happy conversations about language, circumstance, ancient politics, and how useful it is to include a cartoon timeline and maps in a book of epic and sarcastic proportions. I don’t know what’s better, Candide’s ironic sense of tragedy and optimism, or the footnotes which are so carefully included in this new, and deeply improved edition of the book. The only thing I didn’t like about this book was the introduction. But then I always skip the intro, and read it afterward to see if it’s any good. I don’t like to know the end of things, or have someone else’s opinion ringing in my head while I read. I much prefer laughing at the scholar who took the time to write an introduction even longer than the work, and smiling happily at how accomplished they must feel. Silly business.

What’s not silly about Candide is the healing power of this book. If you are having trouble in your life, if you feel that things are all wrong, or perhaps heading off in the wrong direction, do yourself a favor and find out what infuriated Flaubert so deeply, and sent Voltaire to prison twice.

The daily adventures of Mixerman by Mixerman
After more than a year I’m back at Mixerman’s adventures. I read most of this online at prosoundweb while it was being written, and bought the book to read the ending (which wasn’t posted to the site.) I tried to read the book, but it was different somehow in book form. I packed the volume into my back pack to give to Matt Corwine as a gift when I met up with him in Miami, but I missed my plane, so I started reading it instead. After a year or more away from this hysterical account of a major label session gone insane, I find it even more amusing, over the top and brutally accurate than I did the first time through. This time, the main difference is that I can also see the irony of the protagonist (professional audio engineer Mixerman) as well as the cast of characters. If you are an audio professional, or a studio employee, this is a must read. The single most important work of art related to the music business since ‘This is Spinal Tap.’

Read On!