Tender is the night and other books I read in August
a classic, a memoir, and two contemporary literature
August is Women in Translation Month. Unfortunately, I didn't get to read any translated works because I didn't plan accordingly. I had a few books in my physical TBR already and I did not want to buy more. I hope to read more translated works in the coming months though and I will plan better next year. If you're looking for more translated works written by women, here are what I previously read and reviewed:
Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura translated by Philip Gabriel
Please Look After Mother by Kyung-sook Shin translated by Chi-Young Kim
Here are the translated works I want to read soon:
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
What I read in August
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout - Lucy by the Sea is a pandemic novel narrated by Lucy Barton, the main character of Strout's Amgash series. I read this book as a stand alone and wasn't aware it was part of a series until I was halfway reading the book.
As the world goes into lockdown, Lucy leaves her Manhattan life for Maine. Her ex-husband, William, practically dragged her to Maine for her safety. At least that's what William tells her. Or does he just want to get back together with Lucy and make her as his companion for the remainder of his life? We follow their lives as they start to live together again and what it means to their relationship.
I wasn't all too happy reading this book. Having witnessed people who were hit hard by the pandemic and reading Lucy's privileged life during the lockdown wasn't the type of pandemic novel I was looking for. I rant all about it here. In the middle of reading this book I also realized that I wasn't ready for this book. But after a few days thinking about it I realized that, deep down, I liked it.
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen - I had a weird thing about this book for years now. You can read all about it here.
Girl, Interrupted is a memoir by Susanna Kaysen that talks about her 18-month stay in a mental hospital during the 60's. You've probably watched the movie already and so, I encourage you to read the book too. It gave me insights to the nuances of mental health illnesses that I have never read before. Kaysen’s memoir is not just a story of illness, but also an exercise towards empathy and compassion.
Kaysen is a bit privileged I know. McLean Hospital is not cheap after all. However, the memoir is beautifully and smartly-written. Kaysen's voice is funny and ruthless.
More like this: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald - The book opens with a gorgeous description of the French Riviera that instantly sets the mood of carefreeness people do on vacations. I wasn't on vacation though when I read this. I wish I had. The writing was soooo inviting.
Tender is the Night is the story of Dick and Nicole Diver, an ultra rich couple living an idle life across Europe. The book chronicles their rise and fall. Well, Dick's fall but Nicole's empowerment. When I was reading this book I was imagining the face of Don Draper of Mad Men as Dick Diver. They are both charismatic and is excellent in commanding a room. But both are insecure and have a past they're not much proud of. Nicole, on the other hand, comes from a very rich family and spends money like its nothing. She is very dependent on Dick.
Dick and Nicole's relationship are more than just husband and wife, which I will not divulge much because I want you to discover it for yourself. Because of this dual role that Dick plays in Nicole's life something has got to give and he can't support both roles long-term. The book starts all sunshine-y in the French Riviera but it takes a dark turn towards Books 2 and 3. I was really fascinated with this shift. I didn’t know anything going into this book so I was surprised.
Book 1 is a Rosemary's POV, one of the minor characters. She meets the glamorous Divers while vacationing in the French Riviera and are instantly enamored by them. By the end of Book 1, she discovers that there's more to them than meets the eye. Then we see this power couple break down in front of our eyes as we read their past in Book 2. Book 3 goes back to the present and kind of circles back to Book 1 where we first meet the Divers.
Dick and Nicole are unlikeable and selfish people but they are complex characters. I pitied Dick when he reached his downfall despite it being of his own doing. Nicole has a complex past but she can be sometimes selfish. Yet, you can't but help root for her when she finally takes control of her life.
At this point I have read three out of four of Fitzgerald's completed novels. They are basically all the same just with different characters and circumstances. He writes about unlikable characters, the nihilistic attitude during the Jazz Age, all the carelessness and excesses during the 20s, prosperity without responsibility. People say that this is his best book, better than The Great Gatsby even. I will have to reread Gatsby again though to judge this. Nevertheless, this is my best book of August 2024.
More like this: The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak - Research says our brain is still functional for 10 minutes and 38 seconds after we die. Our heart stops beating but our brain remains active. And this is what happens to Tequila Leila, a sex worker in Istanbul, after she is murdered and left in a dumpster. Each minute after she dies she recalls a memory brought about by a sensuous experience. For example, she remembers the taste and scent of lemon and sugar wax used by the women in her village when she was young. And along with that sensuous memory, she recalls an even broader memory. The day the women wax their legs using this mixture was also the day Leila learned she was not her mother's child. Each chapter in Book 1 is structured as a countdown to 10 Minutes 38 Seconds with the accompanying memory. Along with these memories we also discover Leila's childhood in the country and of how she came to be a sex worker in Istanbul. I always say that scent is the harbinger of memory and I've always been fascinated with the concept. This book executes that well.
In Book 2, the narration shifts to Leila's grieving friends and what they do after they find out about Leila's murder. What follows is a comedy of mishaps and it's a little bit cliched if you ask me. I didn't care much about Book 2 and I wasn't fully invested in Leila's friends. When the set of friends were first introduced, I wrote on the marginalia "I sense a chaotic but loyal and fun set of friends" but I was disappointed. The shift in focus between Leila and her friends in Book 1 and 2 respectively didn't flow well to me. I didn't root much for her friends as much as I did for Leila.
What I like about this book is that Istanbul is a character in itself. It’s a central character to the story. Much of Shafak’s books are like this. In The Island of Missing Trees, a fig tree is the narrator of the story. In her new book, There Are Rivers in the Sky, the rivers Tigris and the Thames, plays a central role.
Istanbul has always been a mysterious city to me as it is often tagged as the gateway to both Asia and Europe. It's a city of clashing and opposite cultures. Old City meets New City. The capital of two great empires. A city where everything is always shifting, always changing. And so, it’s interesting to me that Shafak wrote it as if it was one of the central characters. Shafak writes this book like a love-hate letter to the city of her early youth and to Istanbul's complicated past and of what it's becoming.
More like this: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Substacks I loved in August
A list of reissued classics this month by
A fun post by
if Gilmore Girls and Co had SubstackA touching essay by
on how she wants to spend her time on earth- ’s top 10 recommended translated books written by women
- on becoming an author completionist
What I want to read in September
In September I will be continuing Anna Karenina and I am down to the last two books (Book 7 and 8). So excited to finish this at the same time, I am sad that this reading journey will be ending soon. I am also still reading The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh in between books.
I have been holding out on reading Kavalier and Clay because it’s such a thick book and I am also in between reading a thick book. Tethered is a memoir by the owner of my go-to indie book store in my city. So excited to read this. I am not sure if I will be in the mood to read A Whistling Woman after the two books I mentioned earlier but we’ll see. If not, I will find a copy of the translated books that I want to read that I mentioned above.
In case you missed this..
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You've convinced me to read Tender is the Night.
I've recently bought Tender Is The Night because I found an old edition for pretty cheap at a second hand bookstore, I'm hoping to read it soon but also I feel like I should be reading Gatsby first 😅