Welluvia Curated Reading List #1
As I’ve been watching a lot more movies lately, I’ve also had the time to read more books that I’ve wanted to read for a long time. I’ve revisited some of my old favourites - some of which I’ve loved even more, and some that I’ve noticed I didn't really like anymore.
For Welluvia’s first curated reading list, I focused on novels that centred around topics of the human condition, whether it be interpersonal relationships, our psyches, or expressions of extreme emotion in our modern world.
The Light Years
by James Salter
The most recent I’ve read and I’m so happy I did. I found out about this title from a reading list written by Tilda Swinton a few years ago. Salter narrates an exquisite portrait of a perfect marriage - days spent on the beach, at dinner parties and lavish art events. However below the surface there are cracks, and throughout the novel this perfect relationship begins to slowly burn and deteriorate beyond repair. The relationships between the characters and outside families was also fascinating to read. One particular chapter where characters leave a dinner party hosted by the protagonists and talk candidly in the car about what they actually think of them was shocking and realistic. The Light Years tells a story about a generation that has found the limits to its own happiness, and is compelled to destroy it.
Veronika Decides To Die
by Paulo Coelho
A book I read in high school when I was going through a rough stage, given the title I was expecting something a bit more fitting to the way I was feeling. My parents had always loved Paulo Coelho’s works and I found this book in our family library. The story revolves around Veronika who lives in Slovenia (my birth place), who, as the title suggests, decides she wants to die. This is the beginning of the novel and though she is given a second chance at life, her choice has created a tragic future for her. The novel follows her life in an institution as she grapples with a new founding perspective on life and love. It’s a novel for people asking themselves - “why should I go on living?” Heartbreaking and inspiring, the novel gives you a lot to think about and definitely helped changed my perspective on many things. The movie adaptation featuring the iconic Sarah Michelle-Gellar is also worth a viewing, and passed relatively under the radar. The opening scene still sticks with me to this day.
The Catcher In The Rye
by J.D. Salinger
A classic that many people have probably read through compulsory classic reading lists in high school. I was prompted to exploring this novel through an article in the Virgin Suicides Magazine. The Catcher in the Rye is a classic coming of age tale that hosts a variety of narrative voices throughout- ranging from adults to children, imaginary voices to inner dialogue. The Catcher In The Rye articulates a cry of pain and pleasure, a perfect recollection of teenage angst and rebellion.
Dream Story
by Arthur Schnitzler
Arthur Schnitzler’s Dream Story was the base for Stanley Kubrick’s final film Eyes Wide Shut. I read this when I was younger and again recently when a new translation was released. This novella explores the human sexual psyche through the lens of the main character after his wife admits to having a fantasy about someone who wasn’t her husband. This confession sets off a series of internal chasms within the protagonist as the two are driven apart in sexual rivalry. Is everything in the novel real or imagined? There is a variety of views on what really happens, with my belief being that most of what happens is just a mental expression of erotic intrigue, revenge, deeper fears, fetishes and fantasies. A complex look at relationships and how they trigger certain responses within our psyche.
Owning Your Own Shadow:
Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche
by Robert A. Johnson
Another book I found on Tilda Swinton’s reading list that was really quick and interesting to read was about embracing the dark side of our psyches. Robert Johnson guides us through an exploration into our shadows - where it comes from, how it interacts with us and what we do with it. Johnson asserts that until we have accepted and honoured the shadows within us, we can’t be balanced or whole, because what is hidden deep within never goes away, but merely turns up in unexpected places. Thought provoking and interesting.
The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath
(Originally published under pseudonym Victoria Lucas)
The Bell Jar written by Sylvia Plath in her short life was an instance of life imitating art. The novel resembled many facets of Plath’s own life. The character of Esther, who has many similar attributes to Veronika written above - was successful, beautiful young and talented, but in extreme existential pain. A fascinating and depressing study into the character of Esther, who’s breakdown is written with such intensity that her pain is almost palpable. The Bell Jar is a deep incision into the dark and most harrowing parts of the human psyche. The Bell Jar remains an extradoinary and haunting American classic novel.
The Sorrows of Young Werther
by Johann Wolfgang Van Goethe
Goethe’s first novel published in 1774. The Sorrows of Young Werther is written in diary form and tells the story of an unhappy young man who is hopelessly in love with the wife of a friend. The novel is very similar to events that happened in Goethe’s own life and is one of the earliest examples of romanticism. What makes the novel even more intriguing is the book was one of the first known examples of copycat suicides. For years to come, many men ended their lives in similar ways to the character in the novel, in a raincoat with the book usually being found at the scene as well. The sociological phenomena was then coined ‘The Werther Effect,’ and is just as fascinating to research as the book is to read.
Welluvia Book Store
To mark the launch of Welluvia’s first book guide, I’ve launched the Welluvia book store. The store features a variety of rare and hard to find art books that I’ve collected over the years. I’ve found many in auctions or through the premium collectable retailer IDEA Ltd. The book store ranges titles focusing on photography, fine art, collectable film photo books, fashion catalogues, music and rare cookbooks. Available to view and purchase here.
Happy reading!
Aleksandar
