my pink toes

This month, we're reading The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. Once I discovered it wasn't actually a left-wing political diatribe, I was eager to read it. (Not that I don't enjoy my left-wing diatribes, i just was hoping for some good fiction.) It seemed promising enough - New York Times Booklist, etc.

I had heard two of my friends murmuring this weekend about the slowness of the book, but I hadn't started it yet. Now that I have, I must concur. I'm not enjoying it. I feel like I know where the book is going (Nazism! In America! Oh, how awful!) and I'm not really very excited about following the writer to his destination. I consider myself a moral and socially aware person, but this book seems tedious to me.

Please tell me it gets better!?

Coincidentally, I had borrowed the book The Known World from the same friends as I had seen its high recommendations and was interested in it. I had no idea what the plot was before I flipped it over this weekend to read the back and thought - great, another morally pedantic book. This one is about Slavery! It's horrible! Feel compassion for those who went through it! Feel shame at your anscestors' complicity! I agree slavery was horrible and that its effects are still being felt in many ways that we as a society must continually address. I just don't want to read any more fiction about it.

Sigh. How about some modern fiction? Well, maybe not modern fiction if you mean the kind of 'modern fiction' wehre there is no point to the story whatsover (ala Stone Diares). But how about something like Three Junes, Peace Like a River, or the Egqyptologist?

Complicating matters is the fact that it's my turn to bring books for October. If next month's book sucks, it will be entirely my fault!

Any suggestions?

UPDATE: I acutally abandoned reading this book. I know many people think Roth is one of the best authors of our time, but I just couldn't connect. Yeah, and I hated Moby Dick in college, too, so maybe my idea of what makes a "great American novel" is a bit off. Anyway, my book club universally disliked it. So, yay for me!

*I stole this title from a book review on Amazon.com*