It's Okay Because She's Pretty?

In Book II of Tender is the Night we learn...(**major spoiler alert**)

Nicole Diver is mentally ill and a patient of Dick Diver's before they marry. I can't even begin to tell you what I thought about this. It went something like "...!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

http://www.cartoonstock.com/

WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? Why would you look at a person suffering from schizophrenia and decide "You should definitely be the mother of my children"? At least I'm assuming that's what Dick thought, because I'm pretty sure they didn't have a lot of birth control options post-WWI. Yes, she's severely mentally ill. Yes, she was sexually abused by her father. Yes, her sister straight up tells you that they want to "buy" a doctor to marry Nicole so they don't have to worry about her anymore. Yes, she will probably ruin your life and irrevocably screw up your offspring. But don't worry about it because Nicole is just so darn pretty.

...!?!?!?!?!? again. Did men really think like this back then? Maybe don't answer that.

It's probably a good thing that I'm listening to the novel in the solitude of my own car so that people can't hear me yelling "WHAT!?" about a book.

In this morning's installment, she just tried to kill Dick and their children by purposefully wrecking their vehicle. I don't really see how their marriage can survive that, but she's still pretty and still seems to need Dick, so maybe it will? Not my kind of logic, but seems to be the prevailing thought pattern in Tender.

Zelda Fitzgerald, partial inspiration for Nicole Diver.

I really do feel sorry for Nicole. She's had a rough go of it, and she definitely deserves compassion and sympathy for the horrible upbringing she had living with her incestuous creepster father. Whether that should have extended to marriage...probably not. I even feel sorry for Dick, because I'm almost sure this insane union is going to wreak havoc on every other aspect of his life, especially his practice as a psychologist.

So maybe I was wrong in my earlier assessment. This isn't just Disillusioned People Behaving Badly. It's...really it's just plain depressing. And when you stop to think that this is based on Fitzgerald's real life marriage. Uf! Almost makes me think I too need two fingers of gin (except I don't technically know what that is...shhh).

Gin and tonic, anyone?

Zelda Fitzgerald image found here.

A Passage to Zzzzs

I can't remember the last time it took me THREE DAYS to finish the last 20 pages of a book, but I literally fell asleep every single time I sat down and tried to finish A Passage to India. Lying on my nightstand or my coffee table, it started watching me like the Money I Could Save with Geico, and yet, I still just could not keep my eyes open through those final passages.

Friends, this book is boring.

And there are quite a few boring books that have great and edifying messages to make them worth the reading. This was not one of those books. Well...I take that back. I do think that Forster was promoting racial tolerance and encouraging people to develop empathy and compassion for their fellow man. Yes, good. Why he had to deliver that message via mostly unlikable dull goobers, I don't really know (the Unlikeable Dull Goober also seems to be a popular character type for novels on this list). Maybe he's trying to test how compassionate I can really be by forcing me to read about these people.

Further beef - you don't actually get to find out whether anyone assaulted Adela in the cave or not. She decides that Aziz definitely was not her man, then in later conversations wonders if anyone even attacked her at all. What. How can you not know this, woman?

And Aziz, oooooh, Aziz. He's offended that anyone would even think he would try to rape Adela because she's ugly. Of all the blows to his honor, that's the one he gets really bent out of shape about?

A Google image search result of "ugly British lady." Apparently a famous painting?

I can only recommend this book to those suffering from lack of sleep; it will quickly send you into sweet, sweet slumber. Or maybe creepy dreams about caves.

How do you feel about books or movies with ambiguous events? Love'em? Hate'em?

Massys' Old Lady painting found here.

Waaa waaa, waaa waaaaa, waaaa, waaaaaaaaaa.

I'm trying something new and different whilst I am stuck on A Passage to India (see my previous post for more on that). I just checked out my first audio book from the library, F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night.

I started listening to the CDs this past Wednesday. So far this is how I feel:

And yes, I had to draw that myself, because when I Google image searched "Charlie Brown classroom" I almost got a computer virus. Danger on the interwebs.

I really really really wish that I could be one of those superproductive people able to turn my work commute into an awesome "catch up on my reading" or "learn language from audio tapes" session. Alas, that may remain a lofty dream. For some reason, it's just easier to stay awake and enthusiastic listening to the latest fluffy pop song or playing Name that Tune along with the morning show.

Example of productivity I cannot manage. Of course, not really too sure how she's talking on the phone AND drying her hair either. Must be a Magic Secret of Multitaskers.

As for Tender is the Night, well...I have a feeling this will fall squarely into the Disillusioned People Behaving Badly subcategory on my reading list. I'm about twenty chapters in and pretty much all that's happened is that a young actress has met Dick and Nicole Diver and their group of friends while in post-WWI France, and she's fallen in love with Dick and begun an affair with him. Oh, and of course the whole crowd has had lots of parties, shopping excursions, late nights, too much drinking, and a duel. You know, the standard Disillusioned People activities. I have a hunch they might all start feeling better if they'd just get full time jobs (Seriously their careers include an actress, a musician, a mercenary soldier, and a non-practicing physician; on further reflection, judging by their daily activities, it would seem they all are non-practicing).

How do you feel about audio books? Easy way to sneak in extra reading or quick trigger for a snooze?

Forster and Four Letter Words

I started A Passage to India a couple of weeks ago, expecting to once again fall in love with E.M. Forster's witty prose. And I'm not going to lie...I'm feeling a little let down by this book.

The basic concept of the novel is to explore the relationship between the British and the Indians during the Imperial occupation of India (according to the intro, Forster spent so many years writing it that it can't be specifically dated to a year). The book jacket tips you off that there will be an incident involving a young Indian doctor and an Englishwoman, and it will deal with the repercussions following. Duly noted.

Here's my beef: when you are dealing with two different cultures, I think there are a HUGE number of incidents you could pick from where there is a legitimate misunderstanding between two people because of their own background and familiar practices (some perfect examples here). But so far, that isn't what's happened in A Passage to India.

Warning - spoilers ahead!

Dr. Aziz puts together an outing to the Marabar Caves for the young English girl Adela and her future mother-in-law Mrs. Moore. While exploring the caves, Mrs. Moore tires and decides to rest, leaving Adela to go on with Aziz and a guide. Aziz and Adela explore separate caves, then reunite with the larger group and head back into town. Upon their arrival, Aziz finds himself under arrest for allegedly assaulting Adela in one of the caves. In the novel, I'm now getting into the nitty gritty of he said, she said and characters taking sides in what's become an Indians vs. British conflict.



Thus far there isn't reason to believe that Adela is lying, although she may have accused the wrong man. And truly, if I was in a pitch black cave with some stranger grabbing at me, I would flip out too!

Obviously I haven't finished reading yet, so the reasoning for this specific intercultural conflict might not be apparent. It just seems that an irrational hullabaloo about touching one of "our women" doesn't really explore the specific tensions of British occupied India - you could interchange any number of racial/ethnic groups and likely end up with the same type of storyline (unfortunately). Remember in Gone with the Wind A Passage to India when Scarlett Adela gets attacked and then the men all round up and go on a Klan raid conduct a farce of trial? See.

Sidenote: My literary disappointment is in no way meant to demean the emotions of women who are attacked by men of any color, shape, religious background, or political affliation. The stories I'm referencing aren't about the experiences of the women - they are about the social response by uninvolved parties to the incident

I guess all this is to say that I expected something more unique from my dear Morgan (I have discovered his friends called him Morgan, so I'm going with that for now). "I think that most Indians, like most English people, are shits, and I am not interested whether they sympathize with one another or not" (Intro).  Oh. That leaves me wondering...what happened to "Only connect!" from Howard's End?

Perhaps we are only supposed to connect with non-sh*ts? Or maybe the universal nature of the novel's conflict shows that humanity needs to work on becoming something that's best described without using four letter words?

Image from A Passage to India film found here.

Oh what a guy...Faaaaaaaulk-ner!

Me. Kind of.

"How can you read this? There are no pictures!" While not feeling precisely the same sentiment, I've suffered more than a few instances of staring at a page with furrowed brow and intense frown during this undertaking. A lot of these books are just plain hard to read.


So you can imagine my excitement when I began Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! and...I understood it. Not the referencing-Shmoop-and-CliffsNotes-every-other-page kind of understanding, but actual, immediate comprehension of the words on the page. It's like that moment in Spanish class where "¿Dónde está la biblioteca?" ceases to sound like gibberish and actually becomes "Where is the library?" Oh happy day! And yes, that was also a Dodgeball shout out.

"That's me, taking the bull by the horns. It's how I handle business. It's a metaphor. That really happened though."

Now, some might say that Absalom, Absalom! just isn't as difficult to understand as Faulkner's other stream-of-consciousness, multiple-narrative-points-of-view craziness, and that's probably true. Nonetheless, I choose to believe that I am growing as a reader through this project. Just think how smart I'll be when I'm through. And if not smart, I will at least understand the humor in things like the The Reader's Drinking Game.


So here's my word to the wise: if you are going to attempt the Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! is a great place to start. It's not as convoluted as some of his other works and the story is pretty darn juicy. Secret pasts, sordid affairs, potential incest. This has all the makings of a daytime soap. But it's classic literature, so you can feel a lot better about yourself afterwards.


This is not to say the story is without meaning, because Faulkner Dearest packs quite the wallop of symbolism into the character of Thomas Sutpen. Sutpen's character represents the South and shows how ideals and dignity built on the suffering of other men ultimately lead to destruction. Deep. And if you're like me, you'll wonder what's up with the title, and you'll learn about the Biblical story of Absalom (or maybe you already knew it, in which case, good on you and shame on me!). The tale does contain some spoilers, so be ready for that.


Overall, Absalom, Absalom! gets two thumbs up from this gal. Now...onto more Forster! Even happier day!

Pssst...gotta admit, that exclamation point at the end of the title really upped my enthusiasm each time I typed it. What's adding a little extra punch of fun to your day?
Beauty and the Beast image here. Dodgeball image here. Forster image plus hearts by myself. :)

The Power of Choice

I have emerged! Somehow between planning our family reunion, hosting out-of-town guests, and doing more business at work in two months than we did all of last year, I've barely been able to read. Or blog. Or really even think straight.

I abandoned The Satanic Verses shortly after my last post, in favor of plunging in to Sophie's Choice. Back in the days of yore 7th grade, I performed a dramatic monologue piece from the novel, so I was familiar with the basic premise of the book and thought I might find it a little more compelling than slogging through Rushdie (Sorry Salman...sure loved your cameo in Bridget Jones though!).

I really enjoyed Styron's writing style and found myself eagerly reading chapter after chapter, despite the sometimes overbearing use of ominous foreshadowing. For those unfamiliar, the story is narrated by Stingo, a young would-be writer living in NY just after WW2 who develops a relationship with Sophie, an Auschwitz survivor, and Nathan, her lover. Stingo is from the South, and Styron often uses his character to draw parallels between Southern racial inequality and Nazi genocide.

This book is the second on the list to deal with the Holocaust (the other was Schindler's List, also very good), but where that story focused on the actual events that took place during the war, Styron spends an equal amount of time looking at how Sophie's life is altered afterwards. It is not an easy read. Even though I knew the outcome of the titular choice made by Sophie, I couldn't keep the tears from welling up as I read that passage.

As as adult, what has become truly frightening to me about the entire concentration camp system is realizing the sheer manpower needed to create and implement the systematic destruction of so many lives. I often wonder what the Nazi participants were thinking, how they could live with themselves after behaving so cruelly, and how could there have been so many of them. I think it's easy with the benefit of hindsight to say things like "Oh, I would never have supported slavery. I would never have been a participant in something like the Holocaust." Yet we constantly see headlines proclaiming that bullying is on the rise, bitter rancor increasing in American politics, and we can use all the various channels at our disposal to mock those that see/act/look differently than we do, ostracize them, make them the unimportant, inhuman "other." Consider that there is danger in doing so. Of course it's a huge leap to go from mockery to actually trying to exterminate a group of people, but those Nazi ideas started somewhere. At some point, tiny seeds of contempt and discomfort grew into full blown hatred, not just from a few, but from a shocking, terrifying, normal everyday many.

Okay, off my soapbox.

If you have the chance, read Sophie's Choice. And more importantly, if you have the chance, choose to be kind to someone else today.

Distractions

I'm losing steam.

The first hints of spring are in the air (and this is Texas, so I really have to pay attention and enjoy it for the five minute it lasts here), and I'm finding that I just don't have the motivation to read. I especially don't have the motivation to read The Satanic Verses.

Everything I'm about to share could possibly reveal me as a superstitious and mildly crazy person, but here goes. Even though I know it's not really about Satan, I don't like reading a book with the word "Satan" in the title. I don't really want to be seen reading it in a public place. I left it at home on purpose during my trip to San Fran because I felt weird about carrying it on a plane (I am far enough to know it starts with a plane exploding in the air). And even though I know most of the books on my list have been offensive to one group or another at some point in time...this book earned Salman Rushdie death threats from an organized government in recent history. Eeeeek.

I'm not Muslim, and quite frankly I don't even understand half the cultural and religious references I've read so far in the first hundred pages, but I just feel some bad ju-ju about a novel that has been so upsetting to people of that faith. So instead I've been...

Planting flowers.

Painting doors.

Snuggling with my cat.

Learning to grill lobster tails and bake cheese bicuits with the Hubs.

Am I being too superstitious about The Satanic Verses? Or even better...how ready are you for spring?

And please welcome...Robot Jim?

Last month, I posted an article about the upcoming Bowdlerized version of Huck Finn with all instances of the n-word removed.

Today I ran across this article about some folks who saw a comedic opportunity in the whole controversy. Have to admit, it gave me a chuckle!

Happy Friday!

A Risky Review

I already know that there are going to be at least two friends out there who disagree with my assessment of Franny and Zooey, but here goes.

I thought it was okay. Not great. Just okay.

Dare I admit in this risky review that I felt the same about In-n-Out Burger?

Of course, I finished reading it on the plane to San Francisco. Maybe heavy, philosophy-of-life type reading just wasn't the right pre-vacation material?

Unless you are my husband. Clearly he's solving the problems of the universe here.

I actually enjoyed Salinger's messages delivered via Zooey (Franny's older brother). Christ is everywhere, even in little, everyday things like their mother's "consecrated chicken soup." You may not like how a person behaves, but that individual still deserves respect/love just for being a person. Basically, Franny need not go through the ritual of the Jesus Prayer to attain enlightenment; she just needs to open her eyes to the spiritual world already present around her. Good stuff.

Not so good stuff...this book felt really long to me, even though it was just a little over 200 pages. After the "action" of Franny, Zooey was basically extended dialogue between Zooey and his mom Bessie, and then more extended dialogue between Zooey and Franny to guide her out of her nervous breakdown. Even though it was awesome that Zooey tried to help his little sis through her crisis, he seemed like kind of a jerk, especially when speaking to his mother (Is it just me, or should I create a label "Books with Jerks"?).  If he's so keen on love and respect and all that jazz, why is he calling his mom fat and stupid to her face?

I realize this is a personal pet peeve of mine, and that it won't necessarily keep others from liking the book. As for me, I don't have time for Mean People, in the real world, or in novels.

Evidently I'm not the only one! Order anti-mean people postcards here!

Now I know other people out there have read this one...did you love it? Hate it? Or are you in the middle like me?

Fainting, Frog Legs, and Franny

I've just finished the first half of Franny and Zooey (the Franny part); Franny was originally published as a short story in The New Yorker two years prior to the publication of Zooey, and they were later combined into one novel.

The story opens with a young man named Lane picking up his girlfriend Franny from the train station and taking her to lunch at a fancy French restaurant before they attend the Yale game. Lane is what I'd like to call a First Class Jerk. He begins the lunch by talking all about how awesome he is, how a paper he recently wrote should be published, and at one point he actually looks around the room and thinks how happy he is to be in a "right" place with a "right looking" girl. He's exactly the kind of person you'd expect to see on a reality tv show.



Franny makes an unfavorable comparison between Lane and the kind of pompous English professors who spend entires classes disparaging other writers and ruining them for the students. Nobody likes that kind of comparison, but least of all a Jerk. Franny goes on to say that her college is a joke, and after a bit more bickering with Lane, she excuses herself to go to the bathroom and have a good cry.

After she returns, they order their lunch, and Lane is put out when she orders a chicken sandwich. He, of course, orders snails and frog legs. You are so awesome, Lane. At this point, Franny keeps growing pale, sweating, and pushing her food around on her plate, so it would seem that everyone in the restaurant but Lane can tell something is wrong with her. She seems to be generally dissatisfied with life at the moment (she's quit theatre, can't stand Lane's friends, wishes she could just be "nobody"), but perks up a bit when she starts telling Lane about a religious book that she's been reading. In the book, a Russian peasant discovers the secret to praying without ceasing, and Franny is fascinated with the phenomena and how it is not confined to only one religion. Lane's response is to ask if she wants dessert or coffee. Wow.

Franny excuses herself again, but on the way to the restroom, she faints. When she comes to, she's in the restaurant manager's office with Lane. He tries to comfort her and tells her not to worry about the game, that he will call them a cab, and maybe tonight he can sneak into her room for some special hugs. Dude, your girlfriend is in the middle of an emotional breakdown. Not the time. As he leaves, Franny's lips move (praying without ceasing?), and the story ends.

Initially I was frustrated after reading - there was little action, less resolution, and how in the world could this be considered the Best? The mysticism and religious overtones led me to think that perhaps I missed an important point that would unlock the meaning of the story for me, so I turned to my dear friend Shmoop.com and found:

Huh.


Has anyone out there read Franny? Can you help enlighten me?


Spencer Pratt image here.

My Mother is a Fish aka As I Lay Dying The Movie

Yes, you read that right. And for those of you who've read any Faulkner at all, you are probably joining me in thinking "HOW!?!?"



Evidently James Franco stopped making movies for pot smokers somehow became a serious actor (can someone please tell me when that happened?), and he's going to tackle the project. I'm not sure how Faulkner's multi-narrator, stream-of-consciousness style is going to translate onto the screen, but I admit I'll be curious to see it.

Read more on Franco's ideas here (Thanks Katie for sending me the link!).

What do you think? Ambitious film making or potential disaster?

Pineapple Express image found here.

Virginia Woolf Brain Snack

Yesterday was Virginia Woolf's birthday, and this article includes 59 informational tidbits about her. It looks like the only we have in common is a complete and utter dislike for James Joyce.

Enjoy!

Only connect!

So it would probably be a useful exercise for me to post more frequently here so I don't have to cram so many thoughts into one small space, but I get too involved in the story and forget to write. Oops.

I thoroughly enjoyed Howard's End. Even though dear old Eddie pulled the "I'm including characters to represent lofty ideas" ruse, I didn't find that as bothersome or obvious as I have in other works (*cough* The Jungle *cough* Lady Chatterley's Lover). The Schlegels, representing liberal intellectualism, unite with the Wilcoxes, conservative, practical businesspeople, through the marriage of Margaret Schlegel and Henry Wilcox.

And let's be honest here, if I wasn't imagining Henry Wilcox as Anthony Hopkins, I would think he was pretty much a giant jerk. Sometimes even the imagined Hopkins charm couldn't salvage his remarks. Upon learning he'd caused Leonard Bast to lose his job, Henry's response was pretty much "There will always be poor people. Not my problem!" And some of the terribly chauvinistic remarks he would make to Margaret made me seriously question how someone as awesomely smart, practical, and loving as Meg could have fallen for a guy who is more or less an arse. Women's expectations were a lot lower in 1910? I wanted to like Henry because Margaret loved him so much, but never could quite make myself do it.


.

But she crossed out "I do understand"; it struck a ... false note. Henry could not bear to be understood. She also crossed out, "It is everything or nothing." Henry would resent so strong a grasp of the situation. She must not comment; comment is unfeminine. (28.3)

Through a series of events too complicated to relay in their entirety here (but including such juicy tidbits as a former mistress, an unexpected pregnancy, and a possible murder), everything works out in the end. Meg's mantra of "Only connect!" not only helps her love all the very different personalities in her new family, it indeed helps Henry and her sister Helen learn how to better love and "connect" with others. Forster leaves us with the idea that the different English classes will soon intermingle and learn to respect one another. As I am not British, I can't really say whether I think his prediction came to pass, but it's certainly an optimistic way to end the novel. And if there's anything I really treasure on this list, it's an optimistic ending. Trust me, there are plenty of dire endings to balance this one out. And bonus - Meg gets Howard's End after all!

I'm really excited to watch the movie some time this week to see how it compares to the novel, as this seems to be one of only a handful of cases where the book and the movie receive favorable reviews.

Want to read Howard's End yourself? Download the ebook from Project Gutenberg here.

Bonus question - what do you think is the best movie adaptation of a novel? What's the worst?


Anthony Hopkins image found here

More Howard's End Love!

Just spotted this on Design*Sponge today. Enjoy!

A Little E.M. Forster Love

I'm a third of the way into Howard's End, and I admit that I've been remiss in posting about it. Mostly because I just get school girl giddy when I'm reading me some Forster, and I wonder if anyone would find it interesting to read my gushing over his way with words. I love - dare I say luuuuurv? - how this man puts together his sentences!


I heart you and your funny moustache, Eddie.

One sticking point of this project is that the novels are predominantly...well...sad/angry/life-is-so-crushingly-depressing type stories. It's super refreshing for me when I actually get to read a novel that's happy or even (gasp!) funny! And though I don't know how Howard's End (which, by the way, is a house) will end, I love Forster's dry humour so much that I'm going to start spelling like a Brit. And there's a movie adaptation with Tony Hopkins and Emma Thompson?


I think I'm in Heaven. Even if he is clearly too old for her.

Now on to the story. Thus far we are following the Wilcox family, the Schlegel family, and a poor gentleman named Leonard Bast (whose name I love because my friend Sarah always wanted to name a cat Leonard). Mrs. Wilcox has just died and left a handwritten note that her home, Howard's End, is to be left to the oldest Schlegel girl Margaret, whom she recently befriended. Of course, the Wilcoxes aren't having this, and they tear up the note and throw it into the fire. Ouch!

Does anyone else feel like they'd have a much more serious moral dilemma about discarding their mom/wife's last wishes? Of course, being put out of your own house isn't much of a proposition either.

In any case, Margaret doesn't know about Mrs. Wilcox's last wish, and now several years have passed. I'm pretty sure it will come up again, because that's how stories like this work, right? In the meantime, Helen, the younger Schlegel sister, has just had an interesting run in with a strange visitor who seems to have lost her husband. And I will leave you with a brief excerpt of the incident, just to show that really it is funny and not sad, despite the plot description so far!

"Now, Helen, what did really happen?"

"What I say. I was, as it were, orating my speech. Annie opens the door like a fool, and shows a female straight in on me, with my mouth open. Then we began--very civilly. 'I want my husband, what I have reason to believe is here.' No--how unjust one is. She said 'whom,' not 'what.' She got it perfectly. So I said, 'Name, please?' and she said, 'Lan, Miss,' and there we were.

"Lan?"

"Lan or Len. We were not nice about our vowels. Lanoline. "

"But what an extraordinary--"

"I said, 'My good Mrs. Lanoline, we have some grave misunderstanding here. Beautiful as I am, my modesty is even more remarkable than my beauty, and never, never has Mr. Lanoline rested his eyes on mine.'"



Howard's End photo found here. 

Future Best Books?

Here's a fun trip into the past! Check out the best selling books on the day you were born.

Sadly, I've not read anything notable from my birthday. Since novels written in 1983 could have been included in the Radcliffe Publishing Best List, I guess they weren't that great? :)

But for those young'uns born after 1998, we could be looking at candidates for future Best Lists! I'm crossing my fingers that Harry Potter will make it (and The Da Vinci Code...not so much).

Final Thoughts: My Antonia

So I finally finished My Antonia last night. And if you guessed from the dearth of posts that I didn't find it overly interesting, you'd be right!

I'm still debating why I think this book made the 100 Best list. Willa Cather's writing was fine. The story was fine. Characters were fine. I guess when I'm reading something that makes the final cut of 100 from the many thousands (millions?) of books in print, I expect a little more than fine.

The nostalgically written story basically followed Antonia and Jim Burden, the story's narrator, from childhood into young adulthood, covering all the triumphs and mistakes along the way. Perhaps the story was lackluster to me because it was almost too normal. Some of the kids go to school, others go into business, Antonia gets pregnant out of wedlock but ends up finding a kind man and having a large family with him. These things happen in life.


That's why we have Teen Mom.

I try to imagine reading the story at the time it was written, when gender roles were much different, and how that experience might change my perspective on the narrative. Cather's women are predominantly strong characters, capable of handling hardships that the men in the tale seem to buckle under. In 1918, I'm sure the inverted gender roles made My Antonia much more intriguing to the reader. Today, I found the female characters relatable but just...not that interesting.

Too, I think Antonia was supposed to symbolize the earth/Nebraska/the country lifestyle. I'm not sure about you, but I often have trouble with symbol characters and find them difficult to care about.


Is it me, or does this Earth Mother look suspiciously like the gal from My Big Fat Greek Wedding?

Of course, had I read this immediately following A Room with a View or something by Edith Wharton, maybe I would have been in a better mindset for a sweet story of times gone by.  A Clockwork Orange doesn't really prepare you for that. :)

Overall rating: Meh.

Teen Mom photo found here and Earth Mother image found here.

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Thus far, My Antonia has read like a delightful blast from my childhood past, the sweeping prose describing the expanse of the Nebraska landscape, the harsh realities of farm life on the frontier, and the wonder of it all seen through Jim's ten year old eyes. Cue montage of beloved prairie girls:


The book that inspired me to drag my sister in a covered red wagon across the frontier my grandparents' farm.





Yes, my mom did sew me a dress and apron similar to this so I could go to school rocking the prairie style.

Then somehow last night my pleasant prairie fantasy turned into something from Grimm's Fairy Tales when the Russians Peter and Pavel tell the gruesome story of why they were forced to immigrate to the U.S. Wedding party, fun and games, drinky drink, good times, and suddenly...the Russian wedding party is being overrun by wolves. What! And to save their skins, groomsmen Pete and Pavel toss the bride and groom out of the sled to the wolves.


The Neverending Story was pretty scary too.


Does this happen? Can wolves really outrun a horse? Will they really attack you out of the blue and eat you!?

I thought I had this genre down pat, but clearly my adult experience is going to be a little different...

Neverending Story image found here.

A Brief Side Trip

I begin most mornings with a cup of coffee and some quality time with my Google Reader (yes, I guess I do read an inordinate amount). Today's news included an article about a new edition of Huck Finn that will have all instances of the n-word removed. Read the full article here.


Huck Finn also has the distinction of being the first movie I saw at the theater with a boy. Awww...

While Huck Finn isn't on my 100 Best list, which only includes novels from 1900-1998, I'm sure in most people's minds it qualifies as a classic. What do you think of this new edition? Will it make Twain approachable to a wider audience of readers? Is it criminal censorship of the worst kind?

Talk amongst yourselves.

Huck Finn image found here.

Deep and Hard Questions

I've been pondering for the last three days on what I wanted to write about A Clockwork Orange. My mind's been in overdrive since I finished it Thursday night. Perhaps it's that the book coincided with the end of one year and the promising start of a new one; perhaps it's that I'm enjoying an unusual amount of solitude while my husband visits family in California; perhaps it's that I saw Black Swan yesterday and now I have to think about something else or I get the creeps. In any case, I'm struggling to find the right words to describe a novel that I didn't really like, and yet somehow loved. Yes, this one deservedly makes the Personal Best List.

Jake tries to help me collect my thoughts.

Burgess poses a tough problem with Alex's forced conversion to model behavior. Clearly he finds the government's power to snatch away free will to be more terrifying than Alex's brutal, destructive nature. In a sense, I understand that - the enormity of that power and the ability to inflict it even on those who do not need "reform" is quite disturbing. And yet...I'm not quite buying it either.

My version of the book included the "controversial" last chapter, which was not published in the original U.S. edition and thus not included in the Kubrick film's ending. Essentially the last chapter sees Alex grow out of his hedonistic ways and voluntary choose the straight and narrow, to the point that he now focuses his energies on finding a mate and perhaps starting a family of his own. Errr...wait. Wait. WAIT. So, murder, rape, beatings, etc. are just the product of youth's folly??? I'm sorry Mr. Burgess. I see that you might want to end the book on a more positive, upbeat note, but really, this ending is a cop out. It's much more unsettling, and I think realistic, to end the book with Chapter 20, wherein Alex is cured of his conditioning and able to terrorize the night once more.

Perhaps it's too American Puritan of me, but I want consequences when someone chooses to inflict harm on others. It's galling to me that Alex brutally murdered at least two people, raped children, and attacked old men, and the only punishment he may potentially suffer is having a child that will go through the same "stage" of violent behavior? I don't think he even feels remorse for what he's done, just boredom with it all and readiness to move on to something new. Murder is so old hat, you know.

Despite all of that, I liked the questions that the novel put forth. I like that it really made me think carefully about the nature of good and evil and the motivations for our actions. A Clockwork Orange reminded me that our free will is a terrible and wonderful gift. And so, with that, I shall leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the novel as spoken by the prison chaplain (or charlie):

"It may not be nice to be good, little 6655321. It may be horrible to be good. And when I say that to you I realize how self-contradictory that sounds. I know I shall have many sleepless nights about this. What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some ways better than a man who has the good imposed upon him? Deep and hard questions…" (2.3.13)