I'm having an awful time "getting into" the book, and I don't think it's Doctorow's fault, fiction just doesn't grab me anymore. Each time I pick it up I more or less have to force myself to read it. I'll give it one more lunch...

I'm having the exact opposite reaction to reading this book. Fiction is like a breath of fresh air for me, and knowing this is "somewhat" of historical fiction makes it all the better.

What page are you?

I have been on a fiction kick lately. I forgot how fun it was to read a good story without worrying about how it impacts on current events or divisive issues. While these topics are present in any good fiction, I treat fiction as just stories for the most part. A way to escape for a while without having to resort to TV.

Mr. P.

The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.

The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart...Scorsese's "Mean Streets"

I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper

Fiction indeed is a great escape mechanism. I'm thoroughly enjoying this book and looking forward to diving back in later tonight. I'll always participate in the nonfiction book discussions here on BookTalk, but this new fiction thingy is going to be a pleasure.

My favorite "escape" genre is fantasy. I suppose I became addicted to the world of swords, castles, dungeons, dragons and magic decades ago when I was introduced to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Since those days I have always sought out movies, books, and online games that transport me back in time or into an alternate universe where magic is the norm. Maybe one of these days we can all do a fantasy genre book - even if it is in the Additional Book Discussions forum.

Chris

I am all for that...Sci-Fi, Fantasy is my preferred choice for fiction...which is why I am not participating in the selection (and probably will not in the future) - I do not usually like the NYT Best Sellers.

Mr. P.

The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.

The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart...Scorsese's "Mean Streets"

I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper

<>

63

Jeremy1952: I'm having an awful time "getting into" the book, and I don't think it's Doctorow's fault, fiction just doesn't grab me anymore.

It's funny. I used to read nothing but fiction. I have a long history of blowing off school work to read whatever fiction author I was into at the time. When I got out of school, that ended almost over night. I still enjoy fiction, but I read less of it than I used to. I think there's probably two reasons behind that. One is that I've gotten pickier. The other is that a lot of the non-fiction reading that I do is more precisely motivated. I'm trying to follow up ideas or learn more about some aspect of the world that I think is important. Fiction has its own uses, though, so I keep reading it, and it continues to be rewarding. If you're not finding fiction rewarding any more, maybe it's because you haven't found the right book.

misterpessimistic: I forgot how fun it was to read a good story without worrying about how it impacts on current events or divisive issues.

This probably won't surprise you much, but I don't do that very often. I feel that fiction gives us a different avenue for approaching... not issues... let's say, things that are meaningful to us. That isn't to say that I look at fiction as a repository for ideas. I just think it's a creative way to get at the grist of what's important in life. Good fiction can be transformative.

But I don't think that difference really devides us. You may read a book as a form of escapism, but if you remember what you've read, it will usually come up in your life later on. There's a little paradox there, maybe: you escape by reading, but eventually it brings you back around to that from which you were escaping. We tend to hold on to these things and compare them with our experiences. Good fiction makes our perceptions richer, and I think that's what's most compelling about it.

Chris OConnor: Maybe one of these days we can all do a fantasy genre book - even if it is in the Additional Book Discussions forum.

I've got some recommendations...

Good post Mad.

Have you guys ever read a fiction book that was so well written and so incredibly immersive that years later you still have thoughts and memories of the situations, scenes and events of the story?

Well, I haven't.

Just kidding.

Plenty of fantasy genre books have left that type of lasting impression for me.

Chris

I've had lasting impressions, but I don't know if it was due to the calibre of the writing or the "immersiveness" of the story. Books that take me out of reality don't tend to stick with me. It's the books that have some bearing on my life and experiences that I tend to remember. In fact, I'd say one good reason that I don't remember much of what I read when I was a child is likely because it didn't have much to do with my experiences at the time. There was some appeal because a lot of the things I read when I was younger had a novelty to it, being somewhat new to me, and if I read them again now, a great many of them would probably strike me in a totally different light because of all I've gone through in the meantime.

<> Robertson Davies, The Deptford Trilogy, Robert Heinlien, Stranger in a Strange Land

---

If you make yourself really small, you can externalize virtually everything. Daniel Dennett, 1984

Interesting that you should mention Davies. I just finished his collection of short, tongue-in-cheek ghost stories, "High Spirits", which was light but enjoyable, with a few genuinely creepy touches here and there. Those stories were written for a particular context, though -- he told one each Christmas to the faculty of the college of which he was headmaster -- and I get the feeling that they're more the icing than the cake so far as Davies' literary career is involved. I'm interested in checking out some full-blown novels of his; since you say the Depford trilogy left a lasting impression, I may feel inclined towards those, rather than some of his other works. Is that the one that begins with "The Lyre of Orpheus"?