-----What the hot, the cool and
----------the controversial are reading this season.
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By the staff of Salon Books
July 30, 1999 |
The record-setting heat wave punishing much of the nation has health experts recommending that everybody stay indoors -- preferably no more than two feet from an air conditioner. Perhaps that's why the summer reading lists below -- gathered from various notables by Salon Books -- contain remarkably few beach books. The folks who responded to our query "What are you reading this summer?" have lined up some heavy lifting for themselves -- that is, if they're being scrupulously frank about the books on their bedside tables. And, if anyone switches to bestsellers, thrillers or tell-alls by August, well, who among us hasn't weakened when the heat index hits 110 degrees?
Andrea Barrett, novelist ("The Voyage of the Narwhal")
"I just finished Joseph Roth's "The Radetzky March." A friend recommended it to me, and I hadn't read any of his books. It's just splendid."
Roz Chast, cartoonist
"David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens. I know it sounds like I'm making it up. Really, I had not read any Dickens since high school. I ran across a nice edition at Borders and bought it."
Al Franken, presidential candidate
"The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization" by Thomas Friedman. I figured it was about time I confronted the realities of the global economy. And also I only read stuff by Jews.
Lucianne Goldberg, literary agent
So far I've read Michael Isikoff's "Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story," Bob Woodward's "Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate 1974-1999," Lanny Davis' "Truth to Tell: Notes From My White House Education," Christopher Hitchens' "No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton," Joyce Milton's "The First Partner: Hillary Rodham Clinton," Bill Gertz's "Betrayal: How the Clinton Administration Undermined American Security" and virtually every magazine published, regularly. I honestly don't know what's coming up but if it has to do with politics I will read it.
Larry Flynt, publisher
I'm reading Matt Drudge this summer, because of his integrity, honesty and forthrightness about our political system.
Barbara Kopple, documentary filmmaker ("Harlan County, U.S.A.")
"Push Comes to Shove" by Twyla Tharp, "Heading South, Looking North: A Bilingual Journey" by Ariel Dorfman and "The Call of Service" by Robert Coles.
Robert Wilson, theatrical director ("Einstein on the Beach")
Presently I am reading Gogol's "Diary of a Madman," as I am interested in developing it as a theatrical work. Further, I am reading about Saint Denis in France, where I am going to make an installation at the basilica.
Paul Mazursky, film director ("Enemies: A Love Story")
"For the Relief of Unbearable Urges" by Nathan Englander, "Kazan -- The Master Director Discusses His Films: Interviews with Elia Kazan" by Jeff Young, "Truffaut" by Antoine De Baecque, Serge Toubiana and Catherine Temerson (translator) and "The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink.
Mary Matalin, political commentator
"Shadow " by Bob Woodward: another masterpiece; "Peter The Great" by Robert Massie: epic history; "Turn Of The Century" by Kurt Andersen: phenomenal writing; and "Betrayal" by William Gertz: real life.
Jeff Greenfield, CNN senior analyst
Summertime means novels to me -- old, new, favorites, as long as it's fiction -- intentional fiction, I mean (As a political journalist, I deal with unintentional fiction far too often). The list so far:
Kurt Andersen's "Turn of the Century" is filled with sharp observations and is dead-on about millennial media, but a little like eating an eight-course dinner where every course is a rich dessert.
"Mr. Sammler's Planet" by Saul Bellow. It's even better the second time around. One question: would the portrait of New York City be quite so despairing if Bellow were writing today?
"A Man in Full" by Tom Wolfe. Spare me the complaints about the ending. There is nobody whose descriptive powers -- about people or places -- can match his.
"The Redhunter" by William F. Buckley Jr. This fictionalized look at Sen. Joseph McCarthy is not what you might have expected. There's a more-in-sorrow-than-in-celebration tone about the man who may have done more to undermine responsible anti-communism than a battalion of civil libertarians.
Ira Glass, radio host and producer ("This American Life")
I'm carrying around John Bayley's "Elegy for Iris." The friend who told me about this said that it's rare to read about such a happy marriage, to see any believable picture of how love could survive so long. I'm only about a third of the way in, but that seems to be true.
I'm also reading "Love Trouble" by Veronica Geng, who is so funny and so surprising and so smart. I'd never heard of her before seeing this book. The title story -- in which every sentence -- for reasons too complicated to explain here -- includes the phrases "Mr. Reagan" and "reads Proust" is so breathtakingly great that I've found myself reading it to friends over the phone.
Sister Souljah, musician, author
"Have Gun Will Travel: The Spectacular Rise and Violent Fall of Death Row Records" by Ronin Ro. Hip hop is a billion-dollar industry. A lot of people try to dismiss its relevance, but I think it needs to be looked at and analyzed so we can learn from its strengths and weaknesses.
Neil LaBute, film director ("Your Friends and Neighbors") and playwright ("Bash")
Two books at the moment: Vladimir Nabokov's version of the "Lolita" screenplay that went virtually unused in the 1962 Stanley Kubrick film (fascinating to retrace the birth of a film from two such distinctly different artists) and Christa Wolf's "Medea: A Modern Retelling," a crisp, intelligent and ruthlessly modern take on the myth.
Kathy Najimy, actress ("Veronica's Closet")
Five years ago Rosie O'Donnell gave me Wally Lamb's "She's Come Undone." It was the best book I ever read -- funny and touching, and I really identified with the heroine. I couldn't believe a man wrote it. I called Wally Lamb and ended up voicing it for the audio version. Last year, I got married on Aug. 8, and my husband gave me Wally Lamb's next book, "I Know This Much Is True," as a wedding gift. Believe it or not I just finished it this week -- I've had a busy year. Now I think I'll start reading the 400 back issues of all the magazines I get.
Jon Langford, musician (the Mekons, Waco Brothers, Pine Valley Cosmonauts)
This summer I read "London Fields," by Martin Amis, which I thought was one of the best books I've ever read, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. My brother sent me a book called "Peake's Progress," which is the selected writings and drawings of Mervyn Peake. He's the guy who wrote "Gormenghast" and "Titus Groan" and all that stuff. He led a kind of strange life, and some of his writings are really interesting. I just read an interesting thing called "Why Art Can't Kill the Situationist International," by T.J. Clark and Donald Nicholson Smith. I know T.J. Clark has got a new book out ["Farewell to an Idea"] and I want to get it. It's probably really expensive, though -- heh heh. But Martin Amis -- I'm just gonna go buy "Money" and read that again. I read that quite a long time ago and really liked it, but "London Fields" is a fantastic book.
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