Monday 4 March 2013

Devouring Books: Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch

"The whole world should tremble and shake at every death, but if it did, we would never be still. The world would literally rock with death and sorrow. How is it that we hold on to the shell of the earth and of our lives, and go on?"

For some reason, I've been obsessed with Tolstoy and the Purple Chair for the longest time. I think it's been around since juuust about the time I started blogging, and apparently I'm really suggestible just by seeing the cover of a book, if it's a good cover (it doesn't hurt that I read Anna Karenina not long after I started blogging, and, I don't know, I really like purple? And chairs, obviously) and obviously I decided that I MUST read it. And so, 2 years later, I did! (Huge thanks to Hanna, who sent it to me!)

And. Well. I didn't love it. I liked it fine, and I did read it in, I think, 2 days, but it really is pretty short, and reading a book about someone who's reading a book a day (ooh, meta) does sort of get you in the mood to, I don't know, compete with Sankovitch and at least read this book in a day (and a bit)? Although that might just have been my reaction to it all. I'm pretty sure that when I first heard the concept, 'oh yeah, she read a book a day for a year' my reaction was 'cool!' which is pretty far from what my reaction should have been, which is 'what a crazy!' because, if you think about it, that's a pretty consuming, almost life ignoring goal.

Which, to be fair, is something that I think Sankovitch appreciates and admits to, but she thinks that the positives of reading a book a day for a year will outweigh the negatives, and besides, it's something that she needed to do to try and reconcile herself with her sister Anne-Marie's sudden death. My thoughts on the grieving process are, essentially, if you need to do it then do it, and that's kind of what Sankovitch did. But then, my question becomes, did I really need to read a book about it, and was a book about it any good?

Well, yes and no, to the 'any good?' question. I liked it when Sankovitch was talking about specific books and what they meant to her, and I appreciated that she tried to tie in lessons she'd learnt from books to things that had happened in her life, and things she was going to do with her life, because, you know, that's the whole point of books! There were also a few books that she'd read that I actually own, and her enthusiasm about them has really made me go 'oooh! I want to read it now!' which is really awesome, actually.

But, and I really feel like a douchbag saying this, but there were points where, when it came to her sister, she became really repetitive. I'm not saying that I don't care about her dead sister, and I can't even imagine how awful, how much of a shock it must have been to have her sister die so suddenly. But...I didn't really need her repeating, in basically every chapter, that her sister was the greatest person who ever lived. I understand why she feels that way, and I think death makes people very difficult to be objective, but it's basically impossible for a person to be as perfect as Sankovitch says her sister was, and more than that, it's kind of dull to have it pressed upon us AT ALL TIMES that she was amazing. I got that after the first chapter, I didn't really need to hear it over and over again.

To be slightly less, um, MEAN TO THE DEAD, I have to say that, in the end, I felt a tiny bit cheated by the reading challenge (if that's what you'd even call it) itself. I had kind of assumed that Sankovitch read a full sized (ish, I'm not saying she should have read, like, The Stand every day or anything) book every day, but practically all the books she read were pretty teeny, or they were novellas, or short stories. Which, you know, makes sense because she was also writing a blog and so had to have thoughts about these books and then write about them etc etc, but... I kind of thought it was more of a challenge than it actually was, and so yeah, I felt a little cheated!

So. As far as books about books goes, it's maybe not the amazingest, but I still liked it plenty (see: reading it in two days) and there are some good insights about books in there, mixed up with many, many complimentary paragraphs about her sister. It hasn't exactly inspired me to read a book a day for a year (I once read 3 books in 3 days and it nearly KILLED me) but I appreciate knowing that it can be done, and yeah, books are the coolest. Maybe you should pick one up sometime.

SPECIAL OFFER! Since Hanna sent this to me cause she's lovely, I thought I'd see if anyone else maybe wants to read it? Let me know in the comments if you'd like it, and I'll see what I can do (i.e. I'll send it to one of you because I am passing on the love).

18 comments:

  1. I see this book in the bookshop all the time and I LOVE the purple chair on the cover, but I've never bothered to actually read the blurb so I had no idea this is what it was about!

    I don't know that I'll bother with this one, the conceit sounds interesting but I think I'd have been more interested reading it on her blog as it happened, rather than as a book however many years after the fact.

    I think you know you're a blogger when you aren't particularly impressed by a book a day because they're novellas!

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    1. Hahaha, I did truly enjoy just the title for a REALLY long time.

      I think it would have been a lot more interesting just reading her blog as it happened, because I think then it would have been more about the books than, like, her sister, with the books being tooootally secondary.

      Hahaha, THIS IS TRUE! A normal person would be like 'what an achievement!' and I'm just like 'you big cheaterrrr!' (I'm totally sending this to you if no one wants it though. Just so you know hahahaha)

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    2. Send away! Unless someone definitely wants it, then they should absolutely have it instead.

      I'm pretty sure it's because of this review (which I read at 10pm my time), that I dreamed about my sister dying last night. It was a surprisingly non-traumatic drea, but I do recall calling her "the greatest person ever" several times in my eulogy.

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  2. ..."obviously I decided that I MUST read it"
    For some reason I read that as 'I decided that I MUST eat it' the first time around. *swigs more coffee and waits for the fug to clear*

    I haven't read the book yet, but every review I've read has been along similar lines. "Good for book lovers, not as amazing as expected, some interesting bookish stuff but waaaaaay too heavy on the dead sister." If you're writing for a wider audience, feverishly extolling the awesomeness of a deceased relative that THEY DIDN'T KNOW over and over is probably something you want to keep for your journal; the book would be for the journey to acceptance and maybe a wider sense of perspective and How Life Goes On.

    Aaaanyway, maybe I won't read that one just yet. :)

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    1. Mmmmmm, books are SO tasty...

      I wouldn't have even minded her just going 'my sister was basically the greatest person ever to have lived', like, once, because obviously she's going to think that when she's all dead and stuff. But it's the CONSTANT repeating of that that got to me, and frankly, those pages could have been taken up with, like, more book talk please! There was some acceptance and moving on attemptedness too, but like, less than the constant praise? I dunno, it was pretty weird.

      It's not terrible though! And it's a pretty quick read. Just so you know :)

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  3. Yeah, this definitely made me add a few books to my TBR list.

    I guess she thought it couldn't just be about her reading, but should revolve around something? But yeah, I get what you mean about her sister's death. My goodreads thing says "too much of a memoir and not enough about books." I think the main problem is how it was represented, which seemed to be wayyy more about books.

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    1. It's definitely sold as being more about books than a memoir, and... I feel like, I kind of wanted her sister's death to FRAME the whole thing rather than being something that she returns to over and over and over and never saying anything new about? It really doesn't make me feel good to go 'GOD, she just goes on about her bloody sister!' though because, you know, grief is hard! Which should probably have been the tagline of this book...

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    2. I'm finally reading all these comments now I've read the book myself, and YES, THIS. This was my big problem with the book - that all the marketing and articles and stuff focussed very much on the 'book a day' thing and not at all much on the 'grieving for the dead sister' thing. The first few pages - where she's reading up on the cliff, devouring Dracula, and rides off on her bicycle to buy lunch and comes back and reads some more - were so idyllic, that's what I wanted more of! When did you read, how did you read? Sometimes the experience is just as important as what you learned from it, and it's definitely what this nosy reader wanted to know more about!

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  4. I am clearly a fan of books but the plan is to read a book a day. That is...why? How does one have the attention span or time for that??

    That is a pretty cover though...

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    1. Welllll, the thing was that she'd been rushing around doing everything for everyone for three years after her sister died, and she decided that this was what she should do for herself to try and heal? I don't know man, grief is weird. But, like I say, a lot of them WERE novellas...

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  5. This has been on my TBR list for a long time. Even though I'll probably never have a time in my life when I can read a book every single day, I'm still interested in ready it. It's an ambitious goal! If nobody else calls it, I'd love it!

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    1. Ooooooh, Melissa, I think you might just get this book in the post in a little while! I still have your address, I think, so... :)

      It IS a pretty noble goal. But weirdly, a lover of reading though I am, I don't think I'd really want to do it! It kind of... adds a certain amount of pressure to reading that I just don't need!

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  6. Haha, I just went back to read my review of this. It was one of the very first I wrote for my blog and my God, it's awful. I can't believe I ever had THE GALL to comment on other people's writing...

    Anyway, I was kind of disappointed by this one too. She actually really irritated me by the end. I liked the idea, but...

    Surely a better way to deal with your grief is to face up and deal with your issues, not hide your head in the sand (or a book) and pretend they don't exist? Her husband goes to bed alone every night because she's too busy reading and her children beg for attention. She completely ignores the real world in favour of reading. Trust me, I know it's an appealing idea sometimes but it comes across as very, very selfish.

    I know the idea is to judge the book, not the project, but I couldn't get past it. She set herself up as a bit of a martyr for no reason, I think.

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    1. Well... I think it's ok to comment on other people's writing when, you know, they're trying to be a writer! I just went and read your review though, and it's really funny cause you start off all formal and then you're like 'but ARGH SO ANNOYING!' Ahhh, the early days of blogging :)

      I definitely liked the idea, but I also definitely thought that... that's not a way to deal with grief, man! ALSO something which REALLY annoyed me (even though I didn't really have any right to be annoyed with it..) was that her husband's sister died like not long after hers, and she was like 'I just didn't have the energy to go to her funeral' and I was FUMING because FUCKING HELL WOMAN, THAT IS YOUR HUSBAND'S SISTER!!! So yeah, I think her project was a little bit selfish (although, like, I wouldn't call a working mother selfish, and she did treat it *as* work, so... *shrugs*) but it kind of seems like she was sort of selfish to begin with.

      WOW I FEEL SO MEAN! But yeah.

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    2. Oh I remember that part! It must have annoyed me too, because it's clearly stuck in my head. She didn't have the energy to go to her BROTHER-IN-LAW'S funeral, but she's fiiiiine to read a book a day and write about it.

      No, working mother's aren't selfish in the slightest. They HAVE to work. You know, for money to use for shelter and food? Reading a book a day and neglecting your family to do so, is NOT work.

      I liked the book, I think. I liked the style and the book aspect, but I really, vehemently did NOT like the woman herself.

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    3. I mean, her sister in law did die like not long after her sister and the book thing was 3 years later, but STILL, I'm like... Your husband has just suffered the same loss as you and you can't go and sit by him at his sister's funeral? Are you kidding? And I think THAT is waaay more selfish than, like, reading all the time for a year.

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  7. Well this is sitting on my shelf waiting for me to read it anyways, so I'll probably read it eventually... maybe I should save it for when someone dies and I'm feeling all sad? And then I can commiserate with the author and her constant dead-sister love?

    That sounds like such a depressing plan, but there we have it.

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    1. That is SUCH a depressing plan Sarah! I think it's a lot more fun to read it when you feel fine and more able to SHOUT AT HER about her grief. You know it's the right thing to do.

      Although I have moaned about it, it really wasn't a difficult book to read, and in places was really nice, so it's definitely worth a read. I just... Have issues with the woman herself.

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