Writer June Lee about favorite books
IN BACKGROUND "BOOK SHELF" we ask journalists, writers, scholars, curators, and other heroines about their literary preferences and publications, which occupy an important place in their bookcase. This time, an American writer of Chinese origin told us about her favorite books. June Li is the first of four American authors who came to Russia as part of the Colta.ru project Written in the USA / Written in America.
I am a real bookworm and read, it seems, most of my life. I try to write every day, and this does not always work, but I can almost always read eight hours a day. My communication is also sharpened for reading: I am friends with many writers and even discuss with my loved ones mostly books. I, for example, have a girlfriend in Montana, with whom we talk skype three times a week to talk - first of all about what we read. Morning reading for me is like coffee - I need my dose. And if you take time out with family and friends, as well as teaching, then reading is my routine and my way of life.
My dad worked in China in the field of nuclear energy, and my mother was a schoolteacher, so I grew up in a house where I knew the value of knowledge. But my parents did not inspire me to read fiction - in China it is believed that all problems begin with it, and in many respects this is true: reading free literature in communist China will sooner or later lead to consequences. I did very well in the natural sciences and mathematics, and my parents chose the future for me - as is often the case in China too. In my youth, I saw a clear path in medicine laid out before me and never questioned my parental choice. I was able to rethink my career only after twenty, when I came to study in America and suddenly I discovered all hundreds of thousands of books that I did not see and did not know in China: the problem of access there is acute. And now I feel an insatiable hunger for books that I did not find or read at the right time in childhood and adolescence - and I try to satisfy it with all means.
The book, after which I felt like myself, strangely enough, was Russian, and I read it when I was still living in China - this is Ivan Turgenev's Poems in Prose translated into Chinese. At that moment in China, most of the literature in the school and around was propaganda and straightforward, and Turgenev's book was a gloomy one, written not on the forehead. At twelve, I realized that this was real literature: everything that happened to me later was woken up by Turgenev. I memorized poems in prose in Chinese and could quote them entirely, and just recently re-read them already in English - and all that I experienced because of Turgenev again spoke gently to me. I understood why I was so impressed with this book as a teenager: he wrote most of the prose poems at the end of his life, many of them were fatalistic and very dark in atmosphere.
The best writers in your life are those who do not leave you when you grow up and turn into another person. There are writers whom you meet in life only once, there are those whom you, as close friends, visit constantly. Now I teach literature (as many writers do) and constantly discuss Chekhov - and it is very difficult for me to tell the younger generation about Chekhov, it seems to them that his stories are too ordinary. I think, reading most books in school and university, we have no idea what we actually read. The beauty of Chekhov is difficult to understand, until you start writing yourself and you will not be surprised at this simplicity and vitality. But, say, Kafka loves everything, but not me. It would never occur to me to start his books in the home library. Partly, I think, the reason is in my past: Americans consider Kafka very observant, but I look at his stories as a literal reflection of a familiar reality to me. There is a lot of Kafkaes in China, and its metaphors do not surprise me at all.
Between my native Chinese and English, in which I write, of course, there is a difference for me as a speaker and writer. I noticed that in Chinese I use words intuitively, unconsciously, not checking anything. And it seems to me that I began to write in English, because I have the opportunity to connect the mind, think about the structure of the text and carefully select words. Of course, in the second language, unlike the native, there is no intimacy and intimacy, but there is a lot of personal choice and literary reflection. I like to pay attention to accuracy and carry meaning through every word.
In literature, I am most attracted to the clarity and harmony of the story. In the complexly written and ornate text, I constantly feel the presence, almost the breath of this author right on the pages, and there are writers unobtrusive and almost transparent. They represent heroes and events, and they seem to withdraw themselves - and I am on their side. For similar reasons, I stopped reading biographies, because biographers too often interpret events and heroes for us. But the format that remains close to me is all kinds of diaries and letters: they give a very complete picture of the people who wrote these texts - how they changed or did not change during their lives. And if this is a memoir, then I prefer the books of people who do not narcissistically tell about themselves, but remember their loved ones and friends in a direct and easy manner.
Philosophy seems to the majority something tortured and dry, but I myself adore reading philosophy. And, contrary to stereotypes, it is not Eastern philosophy that is close to me, but Western philosophy — especially Kierkegaard. This is my constant companion, who can be both tough, gloomy and ridiculous: I like him most of all because he questions everything. Montaigne, for example, wrote that philosophy is necessary in order to learn how to die - and I completely agree with him on this. Literature is needed for the same. Reading for me is not for fun, but for experiencing difficult moments and overcoming the fear of death. Someone reads to make them feel better, I, on the contrary, read to think, and do not mind staying after another book. In order to get rid of hard thoughts, I always read in parallel two eternal books for me: half of "War and Peace" (the most subtle realism), half a year of "Moby Dick" (the subtle metaphor). These books reconcile me with a reality in which I don’t want to see and know very much.
Cao Xueqin
"Sleep in the red tower"
My grandfather, an old-fashioned intellectual, liked to say that the young man should not read this novel, so I, of course, started at twelve to understand what he meant. It seems to me that this 18th century novel is the pinnacle of Chinese literature. Without exaggeration, I will say that I constantly re-read it when I was from 12 to 23 years old, hundreds of times in whole and in chunks. Now I understand why my grandfather was worried that I would read the book: it tells about the instability of life and that without the experience of experiencing ups and downs, no one can truly feel the meaning of change. Now this book seems to me to be the encyclopedia of all of China and my way of being in touch with my native country - I can still quote the book in pages, and this is the only Chinese book I’m going back to today.
Clive Staples Lewis
"Overtaken with joy"
I was advised by one of my best friends, Amy, with whom we read books. She talks about converting Lewis to Christianity, and it was interesting for my girlfriend to see how atheists like me would react to such a turn.
Lewis made a distinction between falling in love with a book and its author, and agreeing with the book and the author. I can’t say that I fell in love with this book — I don’t fall in love with such books — but I constantly find that I agree with him and the book. In this book there is a passage that completely changed my views on the world: Lewis tells how he once spent a long time walking with a friend in foggy weather in nature and recalled this moment and their conversation many years later. These feelings come back to him, and the memories of that walk were enough to return the same sharp feelings. "Of course, it was a burden and a memory, not an possession, but then the feeling that I experienced during the walk was also a desire, and the possession of it can be called only in the sense that the desire itself was desirable, it was the most having what is available to us on earth. By its very nature, Joy blurs the line between possession and dream. To have is to want, to want is the same thing to have. "
William Trevor
Storybook
I read William Trevor's story in The New Yorker and immediately began looking for other texts. A friend lent me a book, and that first winter of my acquaintance with Trevor I read one story each evening. For me, this is still one of the most valuable books I don’t get tired of. Without it, I certainly would never have decided to become a writer. This book has given me space to write, and if you can name a book that completely changed life, this is the only one for me. I was going to practice medicine and build a scientific career before Trevor happened to me - and I am still very grateful for this meeting. The reason that many become writers is to talk to someone close and at the same time distant through the text. And for me, Trevor became the first such person, and then other writers.
James Alan MacPherson
"Corner Room"
This is the book that is rather on my desk than standing on the shelf. One summer, I went to writing classes with Jim — that was before I decided to become a writer, and he was the first person to advise me to continue writing. Then I read his book - it was the first fictional African American authorship that won the Pulitzer Prize. Jim was gone a year ago, and when I think what question I would like to ask him, I return to the book. She is among the texts that shaped my writing approach — especially how to write from within an ethnic minority. The value of Jim's work is that his texts went beyond the African-American community, his vision was much broader - and I continue to learn this from him.
Elizabeth Bowen
"Death of the heart"
When I was in Ireland, my Irish friend asked me if I read Bowen, and insisted that I read it immediately. Since then, I have not left her land, constantly re-reading all of her books. The last time I arrived in London, I walked around the city in the footsteps of her heroes. My second novel, “Kinder Than Loneliness,” was written in dialogue with Bowen. In general, I pay a lot of attention to women's voices in literature. Meredith Robinson, Jasmine Ward, Guiche Jen are those writers working in America now, whom I love dearly, and I want more people to know about them.
Rebecca West
"The fountain is overflowing"
I bought dozens of copies of this book as a gift to my friends - this is one of the books that I want to give to everyone. For me, her very reading is pure joy, and I often just take it from the shelf to capture a paragraph or two. When I talked about Fontana to Edmund White (modern American writer. - Ed.), he wrote me a letter of thanks and told his friends that this was the best reading experience in his life. For me, it is certain.
Graham green
"Strength and Glory"
I had a Graham Green period when I read everything he wrote. Of all his novels, this one crushed me more. Even when I think about him now, I still feel confused. I re-read the book several times, but not at all as often as other books: I feel that I need to gather courage into a fist in order to open it. In my first novel, "Tramps," much in common with "Strength and Glory," and when I did a podcast with The New York Times Book Review, my co-hosts noticed this connection. And I also constantly advise this book to my students as an ideal start for exploring Green.
Tom drury
"Hunts in Dreams"
I read the story of Tom Drury in The New Yorker, and it was inexplicably strange and beautiful, so I immediately turned to his novel, which just came out. This is the second novel of the trilogy about Grauz County and one of the best works of the offensively undervalued American writer. I love this book so far and, like all my favorite books, I constantly re-read. After the end of the novel, I immediately wrote a letter to Tom, and since then we have become friends. This book works as a secret code: when you meet another reader who loves her, you know that you have a soul mate. For example, on the basis of love for this book, we became friends with the British writer John McGregor.
Elizabeth Bishop
"One Art"
My best friend is a Elizabeth Bishop fan of poems, and she introduced me to her. I often refer to the book, reading one or two pages, because I know that my doubts are familiar to Elizabeth Bishop. Now this is one of the anchors on my bookshelf, which easily leads to the books of other authors - for example, Marianna Moore. Bishop left behind a few verses, but these letters are such a living part of her thinking.
Nicholas Tucci
"Before me"
My best friend and I walked in Strand, the biggest book in New York, when she suddenly stopped, grabbed a book, read me the first paragraph and announced that I would love this book. I remained enchanted by it. This is one of the autobiographical novels, which has a tremendous effect on the reader: it was after this that I reconsidered my attitude to autobiographies (I usually do not like to read them). This is a half-forgotten masterpiece that should be recognized by very, very many.