It’s been a while, but I recall the book coming out considerably earlier than the TV adaptation. I was for that reason impressed as all hell by the book when it came out and unable to watch more than a few minutes of the show.
I’m 75 pages in but I’m enjoying it so far. I will post my thoughts when I finish.
I am worried that I’m enjoying it because I’m getting some confirmation about my previous held beliefs. Confirmation bias or something like that.
This looks fun and interesting
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Since Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, probably the most influential book on my life, has come up in the LC thread, I thought I’d ask here.
Have you read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?
- Yes
- Yes and also Lila
- Some but not all
- No
- I have never head of that book
0 voters
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I have read Zen many times and found his epiphanies in the moments of crisis to be affirming and cathartic. I’d never felt so much finally articulated.
I perused his other works at the time but am not familiar.
In what way did the book influence you?
Edit: The beat down on the philosophy professor is one of my favorite moments of story.
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I felt like I had a lot in common with the narrator and that he was describing a potential path that my life might mimic. It probably was the genesis of my lifelong infatuation with postmodernism.
When I feel the time is right, I think I’m going to do a thread dedicated to a read-through.
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When I was doing my undergrad, I took a course in human geography and the prof assigned Zen. It seem so out of left field that like 10% of the class read it. I was one of them and was so glad he had assigned it. I loved it and immediately saw the connections.
From everything I heard about it from people who read it, the most optimal way to reach a state of Zen involved not reading this book.
The audio book is great too
As usual, second place goes to Bret Easton, edged out just slightly by Nabokov.
I just heard a preview for this podcast that sounds interesting.
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I remember reading American Psycho on the train to work and getting to parts where I would look around and make sure nobody is seeing what’s on the page I’m reading. The book is way more graphic than the movie (which was shocking on its own).
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It would be just a few short years later that readers would discard their hesitation and proudly show off their much-thumbed copy of Fifty Shades of Grey
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That’s quite a few book clubs!
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Mates, I am halfway through this one and I am unable to put it down. Incredible premise and writing. @anon46587892, this one might warm your sadistic heart.
When a mother is targeted by a dangerous group of masterminds, she must commit a crime to save her kidnapped daughter – or risk losing her forever – in this “propulsive and original” thriller (Stephen King) that has won the Barry and Macavity Awards, and was named the ITWA Best Novel of the Year.
It’s something parents do every morning: Rachel Klein drops her daughter at the bus stop and heads into her day. But a cell phone call from an unknown number changes everything: it’s a woman on the line, informing her that she has Kylie bound and gagged in her back seat, and the only way Rachel will see her again is to follow her instructions exactly: pay a ransom, and find another child to abduct. This is no ordinary kidnapping: the caller is a mother herself, whose son has been taken, and if Rachel doesn’t do as she’s told, the boy will die.
“You are not the first. And you will certainly not be the last.” Rachel is now part of The Chain, an unending and ingenious scheme that turns victims into criminals – and is making someone else very rich in the process. The rules are simple, the moral challenges impossible; find the money fast, find your victim , and then commit a horrible act you’d have thought yourself incapable of just twenty-four hours ago.
But what the masterminds behind The Chain know is that parents will do anything for their children. It turns out that kidnapping is only the beginning.
Reviews from literally every major thriller author working today
“McKinty is one of the most striking and most memorable crime voices to emerge on the scene in years. His plots tempt you to read at top speed, but don’t give in: this writing – sharply observant, intelligent and shot through with black humor – should be savored.”
– Tana French“A masterpiece. You have never read anything quite like The Chain and you will never be able to forget it.” – Don Winslow
“Diabolical, unnerving, and gives a whole new meaning to the word “relentless”. Adrian McKinty just leapt to the top of my list of must-read suspense novelists. He’s the real deal.”
– Dennis Lehane“Pairing an irresistible concept with a winner protagonist, The Chain promises to be your new addiction once you succumb to the first enticing page.”
– Alafair Burke“A grade-A-first-rate-edge-of-your-seat thriller. I can’t believe what went through my mind while reading it.” – Attica Locke
Review
An instant New York Times bestseller!
Named the Best Novel of the Year by the International Thriller Writers Association!
Winner of the Barry Award and the Macavity AwardOne of the best books of 2019…
TIME
Chicago Tribune
New York Post
Booklist
Kirkus
The Strand Magazine
― -“McKinty hangs on to his wit and literacy even under duress…Beneath its surface of high-speed thrills, “The Chain” is clearly the work of the philosophical thinker McKinty has always been.”
― Janet Maslin, New York Times“The pace quickens and the tension builds whenever the mother and daughter appear in a scene. In the end, what makes The Chain so frightening - and why it works so well as a thriller - is that all of Rachel’s actions remain completely relatable, even as she whipsaws between terror and determination, morphing from victim to perpetrator.”
― Tina Jordan, The New York Times“A deeply unsettling story about the limits of morality, raising questions about the nature of good and evil and the depths of parental love.”
― Joumana Khatib, New York Times“This is more than nail-biting; think cuticle-shredding.”
― Bethanne Patrick, The Washington Post“A chilling, diabolical page-turner you’ll want to savor.”
― People Magazine, Book of the Week“Thrillers… don’t get much more psychologically rich than The Chain.” ― David Canfield, Entertainment Weekly
“Told in a spare, punchy style, this is a blazing, full-tilt thriller that entirely justifies the hype.”
― The Guardian" The Chain is a straight-up, stone-faced thriller, a present-tense race…thunderous ride into the darkest, most fearful reaches of a parent’s mind")― Paddy Hirsch, NPR
" The Chain turns out to be awfully hard to put down."― Connie Ogle, Newsday
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Blink twice if you’re in danger
I’m halfway through this and its pretty great.
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Neat! I am running to the library apps to see if that’s available.
Like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Tom Stoppard’s famous play, the characters see and comment on the artifice of their creation.
It’s mind-bending storytelling, not easy to pull off. Yu does it with panache. Now they’re shooting, now they’re talking, a fantasy sequence becomes real, all in screenplay format.
Readers may know author Charles Yu as a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree or remember his popular 2010 novel, “How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.” Television aficionados might recognize him for his work as a writer and story editor for HBO’s “Westworld” and as co-producer on FX’s “Legion.”
Yu was among a wave of novelists who moved to television, and it’s as if he’s returned from another world with a mission to blend the two.
Above is taken from this somewhat spoilers review at WP:
Somewhat spoilers
“Interior Chinatown” follows a Generic Asian Man in his efforts to become more than a bit player. “Ever since you were a boy, you’ve dreamt of being Kung Fu Guy,” he tells himself over and over, a mantra for success. He wants to move from the background to the center of the screen
He’s proud of the work but frustrated by the stereotypes he plays. He sees that the African American and white leads on the show have full-fledged characters while he’s forced to perform with a fake foreign accent.
He complains about it to his fellow actors. One replies, “Look what you made yourself into. Working your way up the system doesn’t mean you beat the system. It strengthens it.”
One good thing about COVID is that I’ve been reading for pleasure more consistently. Here’s all the books I’ve read this year.
- Bill Bryson, The Body
- Donna Tartt, The Secret History
- Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk about Race
- Confucius, The Analects (trans. Arthur Waley)
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War (trans. Roger Ames)
- Aeschylus, The Oresteia : Agamemnon , The Libation Bearers , and The Eumenides (trans. Richard Lattimore)
- Homer, The Iliad (trans. Robert Fagles)
- Homer, The Odyssey (trans. Robert Fagles)
- Sophocles, Oedipus the King (trans. David Grene), Oedipus at Colonus (trans. Robert Fitzgerald), Antigone (trans. Elizabeth Wyckoff)
- Euripides, Alcestis , Hippolytus , Electra , Medea , The Bacchae , and The Trojan Women (trans. Paul Roche)
- Herodotus, The Histories (trans. Andrea L. Purvis)
- Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War (trans. Richard Crawley)
I would recommend all of these except for The Secret History.
I’m still working my way through the supplemental material in my edition of Thucydides, but I may be able to squeeze in a few more plays before then end of the year.
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