While I work on my (very) long post about out trip to Japan, here is something to read in the meantime. I hope it inspires you to read a book about anything that is interesting to you!
“The Autograph Man,” Zadie Smith
I have read several of Smith’s previous works, including “On Beauty” and “White Teeth” and I wholeheartedly recommend both of these because of their well-developed characters and female-driven plots. “The Autograph Man”, while interesting, has only one well-rounded character, Alex, who is a broken young man trying to figure out his purpose in the world while dealing with a fledgling obsession with an actress from the past. The only female characters (of which there are two) are rather flat and stereotypical and lack the well roundedness that they deserve. While Smith’s writing style hasn’t changed—it’s still page-turning in its wittiness—it’s the flat characters, stale plot, and lack of women storylines in general that disappointed me. Hopefully her next novel will return to her earlier themes of well-rounded, powerful female characters and storylines that made me love her so much in the first place.
“The Circle,” Dave Eggers
“The Circle” is the modern day version of “1984”. My review could end there, because we all know how that novel ends. It follows the story of Mae, who gets a prestigious job at The Circle, a technology company that is striving to be the be all, end all for all social media and technology use. As Mae’s position in the company grows, she is exposed to darker and darker secrets and eventually has to make a decision: expose the company for what it is, or help it to protect itself and grow stronger. Needless to say, the ending is not what optimists would hope for, and gave me the same dreadful feeling when I finished “1984” not too long ago. After finishing the novel, I also watched the film of the same name, which came out last year and starred Emma Watson, but it was disappointing as the large majority of book adaptations are, and I would not recommend it at all.