Discipline by Larissa Pham
Big thanks to Random House and NetGalley for sharing Larissa
Pham’s new book Discipline. I previously read and loved Pham’s book Pop Song, a thoughtful and creative collection that played with genre in a
unique and heartfelt way, examining Pham’s interests, passions, and love. What
I found most compelling about her book was how full of emotion it was, and how
candid and in tune she was in connecting her emotions to art, whether it was
painting, films, or writing. Discipline finds Pham charting similar
territory, but in fiction this time. There’s a scene at the end of Part I where
Christine is in a paleontology museum in New Mexico, when she spots a huge
piece of rock, looking “as though someone had just been working on it and
stepped out.” Christine steps closer to look for a fossil, but realizes she
doesn’t even really know what one might look like. I loved how Pham used this
metaphor of excavating the past but still being unsure of what Christine is
looking for in her past. We learn that Christine has just published her first
book, but it came at a cost-the dissolution of her relationship. Her writing,
which helped her navigate her own feelings after abandoning painting in grad
school, has enabled her to find some sense of professional identity, but she
still has more interrogation or excavation to do. This deep dive into her past,
questioning her motives and actions, as well as those of her mentor, led her to
keep her book from her boyfriend. It’s at this point in the book that the
fossil seems to awaken her own questions about how her struggles to excavate
her past caused this kind of fracture with her boyfriend. Additionally, I loved
that each chapter in the first section of the book focused on a stop on
Christine’s book tour and was connected to a meaningful painting. Even the
Edward Hopper painting in the bar that Christine encounters allows her to
reflect more on the model, Josephine Hopper, the artist’s wife who became “a
secretary, a dancer, a woman waiting for an order of chop suey. But it’s always
her.” Christine’s own reflection on this painting challenges our own
perceptions of artists and their subjects, as well as the identities of female
artists, since we learn that Josephine gave up her own career as an artist. In
many ways, I saw Christine’s focus on the female subject and how women were like
faceless supporting roles in Hopper’s painting like Christine’s own struggles
to define herself through her art. It always seemed like the men in her life
were trying to assume her roles rather than allow her to define her self or
seek out her own identity. In addition to encountering meaningful art at these
stops, Christine also re-connects with some old friends and loves, giving her
the opportunity to revisit the past, while noting how much has changed. I loved
this structure, and how Christine struggles with nostalgia and narratives, harboring
a kind of resentment or jealousy at times for her friends and lovers who “learned
how to package…previous suffering into neat narrative.” I feel like this is
such an apt description of those kinds of mixed feelings young adults feel as
their lives progress, and we’re left trying to make sense of our past decisions
and choices. I really enjoyed how Christine’s book tour unfolded and each stop
brought her in touch with art and past friends, which evoked these mixed and
slightly uncomfortable feelings about her writing and her art.
While I loved the first part, I had some reservations about
the surprising turn that the second part takes. I won’t get into it, but I
really struggled with trying to rate this book. I ultimately gave the book 5
stars, but at first I rated it as 4 stars, averaging the rating between the two
parts. However, I realized while the second part has some questionable
decisions from Christine, I actually couldn’t put the book down. Although the dialogue
is different—it felt shorter and choppier than the more in-depth conversations
that Christine shares with her friends and new acquaintances in part I, I can
understand how this dialogue takes a different tone. Furthermore, Part II is
also part of Christine’s quest to excavate her past and search for meaning
among the ruins and fossils. Furthermore, throughout the book, Pham’s poetic
descriptions of the exterior and setting add to the mood and tone of the
narrative. Those qualities of her excellent writing kept me engaged with Christine’s
quest. It’s also why I highly recommend this book, and will probably revisit it
at some point. I also think this would make a great book club pick since I
would love to see how others responded to Christine’s own questioning of her
decisions and choices, especially in the second part of the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment