All the books I read in May and what I thought of them

I read 5 books!! I am once again suffering on account of the time of year. People ask me, Clara, how are you? but this is actually just the same question as, Clara, what month is it, and what's the weather like?

First, I read The Story of a New Name again, and I enjoyed it (again), and I just wish the characters treated each other well instead of poorly, but I think the next book features Enzo being a nice guy, so that's something to look forward to. Then, I read The Cat Who Saved Books. I think it may have been a mistake to acquire this book permanently before I read it because it is not really that good. When I explain my problem with it, I sound very pretentious (this is just a warning). I read an article for my ancient Greek class called "The Hand of God Artfully Placed" by which the author means that Xenophon shows how the gods are influencing events and decisions in a way that is apparently sophisticated. I would say of The Cat Who Saved Books that the hand of the author is unartfully placed. You can tell constantly that the author wrote this book, and wrote every description, and wrote everything that every character says. Every character talks the same way, and talks the same way as the narrator. I don't know whose fault this is, so I would like to extend my formal apologies to the narrator if it's the translator's fault and the translator if it's the author's fault. I liked this book immensely when it was arguing with itself over what the point of books is and how we should read. I love when books argue with themselves. I didn't like the romantic subplot because guys and girls can be just friends, and Rintaro and Sayo were interested in each other literally just because they were the most proximate instance of the opposite gender. I guess I only wanted this book so its cover would match with The Master and Margarita, which it does!! Then I made my book club read Despair and I'm not sure any of them liked it, but I did!! This book is like if The Double  was good and not terrible. I like that Hermann is scared of mirrors. I've never met anyone who was scared of mirrors. What a fascinating way to be frightened of the world! I relate to Hermann and understand where he is coming from (i.e. being afraid of the guy who allegedly looks exactly like him) because I feel threatened by the musician Clairo because her name is not mine and is too similar to mine. This is not meant to be understood as a threat of violence against Clairo; I enjoy her music, and I am not going to do anything bad to her, I just don't like her. She can feel perfectly free to change her name to Clara or really any dissimilar name, and then I will like her. I read probably in a Goodreads review that Despair is an allegory making fun of Marxism because Hermann recognizes himself in a poor person and then becomes very frightened and hostile, but I really dislike that reading because I don't like political novels. I like taking the unreliable narrator at face value. 

Then, I read Cymbeline because I saw an article about how Cymbeline is about living through the end of the world, and sometimes I kind of feel like the world is ending. That was such a lie. "oh because all of their relationships fall apart and they don't know who they are anymore" that's not the end of the world that's everything is changing and nothing will ever be the same which is completely different. Most books with central conflicts are about everything changing and nothing ever being the same. Then I thought to myself, I wonder why it's not really interesting or cathartic to read about everything changing in a book when everything in your life feels like it's changing. I think this is because you become very desensitized to the high stakes in especially genre fiction like thrillers and fantasy, and it's just expected. But it's still very jarring when everything changes in your life because it's not a book, it's your life. Then, I read Catalina which is like if Selin from The Idiot had strong opinions. Also, Catalina does not like anyone except potentially her friend Delphine. I found this a little troubling, but Catalina has been through it, so her character is interesting and believable. Some of the reviews said that this book is totally different from The Idiot, but it is in fact basically the same, which is a compliment. I did not like the degree to which the events in Catalina were totally subordinated to Catalina's internal monologue. I think the events should have been a bigger deal. I'm not implying there should have been a plot. I would never suggest that. 

If I don't complete my Goodreads reading goal, I am going to simply stop using Goodreads, ostensibly because I don't like Jeff Bezos, but I suppose you all know the actual reason now (obviously the blog will remain and potentially become a (free obviously) substack). 

The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (reread): ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa: ⭐⭐⭐

Despair by Vladimir Nabokov: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cymbeline by William Shakespeare: ⭐⭐⭐

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky: ⭐to be clear I read this book in 2022 but I hated it so much

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐