The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Look at this picture. Seriously. This sad looking lady is Carson McCullers, the author of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.


This is a novel about the socially maladjusted. People who feel strongly but have difficulty connecting.

It is one of those books that I had picked up for years at bookstores, read the blurb on the back, and decided it wasn’t for me. I mean, much as I love southern novels, the sentence, “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter tells an unforgettable tale of moral isolation in a small southern mill town in the 1930s,” just doesn’t do it. Also, why does the cover have a not-so-great picture of a sad looking woman on it? What I’m rambling towards, is I think this book has been poorly marketed. In reality, it’s a heartbreaking story of loneliness, longing, and our inability to connect to each other despite wanting more than anything to do so.

Enjoyability: In some ways this book was a rough read for me. I recognized painful aspects of myself in some of the characters. I had flashbacks to my own teen years when reading about Mick, the teen girl in the story. But this is part of what makes the book so good. We all have times of loneliness and so can identify with the characters even though they lead very different lives.

Readability: An easy read. The prose is smooth and, while not much happens, I found myself anticipating what would happen to the characters

Favorite Quotes: "But say a man does know. He sees the world as it is and he looks back thousands of years to see how it all come about. He watches the slow agglutination of capital and power and he sees its pinnacle today. He sees America as a crazy house... He sees a whole damn army of unemployed and billions of dollars and thousands of miles of land wasted... He sees how when people suffer just so much they get mean and ugly and something dies in them. But the main thing he sees is that the whole system of the world is built on a lie. And although it's as plain as the shining sun—the don't-knows have lived with that lie so long they just can't see it."

“This was her, Mick Kelly, walking in the daytime and by herself at night. In the hot sun and in the dark with all the plans and feelings. This music was her—the real plain her...This music did not take a long time or a short time. It did not have anything to do with time going by at all. She sat with her arms around her legs, biting her salty knee very hard. The whole world was this symphony, and there was not enough of her to listen... Now that it was over there was only her heart beating like a rabbit and this terrible hurt.”

“And as there was no way to disprove these rumors they grew marvelous and very real. Each man described the mute as he wished him to be."

Favorite Character: Mick. She is an angry, lonely, disconnected and awkward but she loves music more than anything, even though she has no real access to instruments or radio, and through this love for music we get to see another side of her.

Greatest Impact: I just noticed that this book is on Oprah’s book club. Eew. That aside, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was written by a 23 year old white woman, in the south, in the 1940s AND deals sensitively with poverty, racism, discrimination, socialism etc. etc—all topics that were pretty controversial at the time. Pretty neat, and gutsy.

Recommended For: People who like southern novels (you know—racial tensions, hot nights, dusty streets, poverty, injustice, violence—all that) but told from a slightly different perspective. Only the lonely (Dum dum dum, dummy doo wah).

The Yacoubian Building

Readability:
I feel it necessary to make a distinction here. This is not a book that is hard to read - the language is straight forward, the story easy to follow, etc. But note that it took me two months to finish this book, because I just had a hard time making myself sit down and read it. While vaguely interesting, I didn't feel any sense of connection to the characters or to what they go through. So while I didn't find it hard to read, I did find it hard to make myself read it.

Enjoyability:
I am so disappointed not to like this book. I was excited about it - a book from a non-Western writer that the back cover claims is about "flawed and fragile humanity," particularly about Egyptian society and the juxtaposition between the current era and the values and traditions of the past. Sounds promising, right? Unfortunately... how do I say this nicely? I hated it. The story moved around too much, the characters were flawed to the point of not being relatable or even likable, although sensitive topics like homosexuality and women's rights were covered in what might seem to some a "progressive way," I felt like they were included for the sake of including them and the bias and values of Al Aswany himself were what really showed through. There are places where a character or story line becomes engaging for a time, but as a whole I found this book frustrating and disappointing.

Favorite character: Probably Busayna, just because I felt sorry for her. She is a young girl who ends up doing some fairly un-savory things out of financial obligation for her family, and she struck me as one of the strongest characters. The frustrating of her story is that she ultimately marries someone who does not seem fit for her with only a brief explanation of how or why this would happen, and the ending is rushed - what about all the trauma she went through? And then she fell in love and everything was hunky dory? I don't think so. It didn't feel credible, and I wish we would have seen more emotional depth from her.

Most un-favorite character: Sooo many to choose from. Practically all the characters besides Busayna are just jerks in one way or another, taking advantage of each other or being corrupt or what have you. I may have to pick Hatim Rasheed, who is a wealthy newspaper man who is an extremely unhappy person, largely because he is gay and lives in a society that does not accept that and largely views him as morally reprehensible. What I couldn't stand about him is how he treats this guy that he supposedly loves, and is just horrible to - manipulative, coercive, etc. I can almost never condone violence, but this is a case when I'm tempted to say he got what he deserved.

Best Quotes:
Whatever.

Recommended for:
People who want to learn about modern Egyptian society, people who like to read about scandal but don't mind unsatisfying endings, people who can read a whole book even when they don't care about any of the characters.

Want a better version of this style of novel, with focus on multiple story lines and culture? See Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey, or Home Town by Tracy Kidder for a non-fiction version. Both of them are excellent.

The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany

This is going to have to be a bit of a different review, not only because I no longer have access to the book (I know, I could check it out from the library...but that takes work) but also because it isn't going to make the cut, GASP!

We originally put this novel on the list because we were looking to add a bit of, shall we say, diversity to the list. Like the halls of congress, the western literary world is littered with old dead white guys with the occasional woman/minority thrown in. This book is apparently the highest selling book in the Arab speaking world, but I suppose we should not have confused popularity for quality. That's not to say it's a bad book, just not good enough to make the list.

The Yacoubian Building is the story of the residents of the Yacoubian Building, a real-life building in downtown Cairo. It jumps around between the lives of those who live in shacks on the roof of the building and those who live in the run down opulence below them. Almost exactly like the book cover above, whoa.

Readability: Easily read. My only issue was keeping track of names (probably due to my unfortunate ignorance of Arabic names) and difficulty with transitions between story lines.

Enjoyability: I never really got into it. I just kept reading it to, well, finish it, and then pawned it off on a friend as soon as possible (and I have a book collecting addiction, to a serious degree).

Favorite quote(s):,Favorite character:, Least favorite character: Yep, don't have the book anymore...

Social impact: As I said earlier, this is the top-selling novel in the Arab world and it does deal with many an important, and controversial, issue-homosexuality, terrorism, women's roles/sexuality, poverty etc. but it deals with them in a way that, no offense intended, feels very stale, old-fashioned and sometimes insulting. I know, I should step back and view this from the position of someone in the Arab world where ideas like those explored in this book probably are fairly revolutionary but, from by white-person-privileged-American perspective it just doesn't work. It's sometimes like reading an 'enlightened' Victorian talk about 'women's problems.'

Greatest impact: I found the transition of one of the characters from a bright boy living in poverty to member of a terrorist cell fascinating.


Recommended for: People interested in learning more about Egyptians and Egyptian society, from a fairly mediocre book.

Overall: Eh.

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

Readability:

Through the first 7/8 of the book, an easy read. Prose is spare and not overly complicated, although it must be said that most of what happens is internal to the characters and some might say that not a lot happens. So that's the first 7/8. Then all of a sudden the last bit shifts and really feels more like a dream than anything else, or what it feels like to be inside a nervous breakdown. Actually a lot of stuff happens during this last section, but it is pervaded by the feeling of detachment or dissociation (or is that just the way the desert feels?).

Enjoyability:

I really really liked this book. I love the way Bowles describes the landscape, the desert: "By the road sometimes were high clumps of dead thistle plants, coated with white dust, and from the plants the locusts called, a high, unceasing scream like the sound of heat itself." I like the way you can FEEL the dichotomy of being a traveler, simultaneously attracted and repelled by the strangeness and otherness of this foreign place. There's this wonderful scene when Kit is homesick for Europe and pulls out all these extravagant silk dresses and then just curls up in them on her bed. There are these moments of striking beauty and then moments where all they can focus on is the flies or the heat or the food. Plus I liked that I didn't really know what was going to happen - there were several moments along the way when I just thought 'What?!'
Definitely a book and a writer I will come back to.

Favorite character: Probably Turner, just because he's such a cheerful and genuinely good-hearted fellow. Of course he does sleep with his best friend's wife, but he means well (is that any excuse?). I liked Kit in a lot of parts too, but get frustrated because she is has such a tendency to be dependent on others. I had high hopes for her during Port's illness when she stepped up and got them away from the Typhoid epidemic in S'ba, and then was taking care of him, but the ending makes me feel like maybe that was only possible because she was about to have a nervous breakdown.

Most un-favorite character: Mrs. Lyle. It's very hard to be sympathetic to someone who is a wealthy writer/photographer who spends all her time gallivanting around Africa, and yet is utterly bitter, critical, and ungrateful. Here's what Port has to say about her: "Her life had been devoid of personal contacts, and she needed them. Thus she manufactured them as best she could; each fight was an abortive attempt at establishing some kind of human relationship. Even with Eric [her son], she had come to accept the dispute as the natural mode of talking. He decided that she was the loneliest woman he had ever seen, but he could not care very much." I can only care enough to hate her a little.

Best Quotes:

"But not here in this sad colonial room where each invocation of Europe was merely one more squalid touch, one more visible proof of isolation; the mother country seemed farthest in such a room."

"As she stared she found herself wondering why it was that a diseased face, which basically means nothing, should be so much more horrible to look at than a face whose tissues are healthy but whose expression reveals an interior corruption."

"... it occurred to him that a walk through the countryside was a sort of epitome of the passage through life itself. One never took the time to savor the details; one said: another day, but always with the hidden knowledge that each day was unique and final, that there never would be a return, another time."

" 'Before I was twenty, I mean, I used to think that life was a thing that kept gaining impetus. It would get richer and deeper each year. You kept learning more, getting wiser, having more insight, going further into the truth--' She hesitated.

Port laughed abruptly. 'And now you know it's not like that. Right? It's more like smoking a cigarette. The first few puffs it tastes wonderful, and you don't even think of its ever being used up. Then you begin taking it for granted. Suddenly you realize it's nearly burned down to the end. And that's when you're conscious of the bitter taste.' "

"At least you would learn not to be afraid of God. You would see that even when God is most terrible, he is never cruel, the way men are."

"What delight, not to be responsible - not to have to decide anything of what was to happen! To know, even if there was no hope, that no action one might take or fail to take could change the outcome in the slightest degree - that it was impossible to be at fault in any way, and thus impossible to feel regret, or, above all, guilt. She realized the absurdity of still hoping to attain such a state permanently, but the hope would not leave her."

Recommended for:

People who liked The Quiet American or are fond of Hemingway, travelers and expatriates, and people who don't mind books where (according to Bowles) "all the action takes place inside people's heads."

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles: Our foray into Africa continues, and gets really strange.

Over a month has passed since our last post. All things considered it was a very strange month, so I suppose this is an appropriate book to jump back in with.

The Sheltering Sky begins as a kind of travelogue surrounding a married couple, Port and Kit, and their friend Turner's travels through post-war Northern Africa. Port and Kit have taken this trip as a last-ditch attempt at trying to save their failing marriage, and Turner is along for the ride for his own questionable purposes. They wander through Northern Africa engaging in various morally questionable actions and encountering a variety of characters, including the ever-present obnoxious Americans, until a series of events leads the book into some seriously existential and disturbing territory. (read it and you'll see what I mean)

Readability: This novel is very readable. The writing is sharp and the plot not only pulls you along with wondering what will happen next, but also with wondering what is going on in the character's heads.

Enjoyability: I'll admit, this book took me a bit to get into. At first I just kept thinking--ooh great, another book about Europeans traveling through Africa and spending a lot of time not enjoying themselves. Seriously people, why go to Africa if all you can do is complain about how 'uncivilized' it is? Somehow, though, it got under my skin. It certainly is a book I can keep thinking about and its dreamlike quality, combined with its non judgemental attitude, makes me keep questioning why the characters acted the way they did. A warning--the last 50 pages are a shocker.
Favorite quote(s):
"Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It's that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless."
"Humanity?" Cried Port. "What's that? Who is humanity? I'll tell you. Humanity is everyone but ones self. So of what interest can it possibly be to anybody?"
"In this way he missed the night's grand finale: the shifting colors that played on the sky from behind the earth before the rising of the sun."

"Its strange," he said with a deprecatory smile, "how, ever since I discovered that my passport was gone, I've felt only half alive. But it's a very depressing thing in a place like this to have no proof of who you are."

"Before I was twenty, I mean, I used to think that life was a thing that kept gaining impetus It would get richer and deeper each year. You kept learning more, getting wiser, having more insight, going further into the truth'-she hesitated.Port laughed abruptly. 'and now you know it's not like that. Right? It's more like smoking a cigarette. The first few puffs it tastes wonderful, and you don't even think of its ever being used up. Then you begin taking it for granted. Suddenly you realize it's nearly burned down to the end ant that's when you're conscious of the bitter taste."

"The new moon had slipped behind the earth's sharp edge"

Favorite character: Kit...I think. I had conflicting feelings about most of the characters in this book. They make poor decisions, complain, treat each other poorly but with all of this they feel real. What happens to Kit at the end of the novel is unsettling but could I say I wouldn't do the same? Probably not. Somehow, this end feels appropriate despite its distressing nature. In the end it's all about the desert anyway so, maybe that's my favorite character.

Least favorite character: The creeptastic caravan owners who 'help' Kit towards the end of the novel.

Social impact: Paul Bowles spent much of his life as a ex-pat in Northern Africa and clearly questions of identity for expats, as well as their detrimental affects on local culture, were an important theme for him and likely brought attention to the phenomenon. I couldn't help thinking though...man, I wish one of these novels was written by an African for a change...

Greatest impact: Identity and mortality are main themes of The Sheltering Sky and this novel does a great job examining these ideas. It also accurately portrays the feeling you get when you're in a strange country and the relationship of people who were once close but don't know how to get back to what they once had. What really got me ultimately was the desert itself and its power to change people.

Recommended for: People who enjoy novels about expats. If you like the work W. Somerset Maugham. If you like books that question the nature of identity/mortality. OR simply if it's a long, cold winter and you just need a book to make you feel warm again.

Overall:

"It was the end of the line"

And now we enter the...DUN DUN DUN...Heart of Darkness

"The Horror! The Horror!"--Kurtz

Whew, I've got to admit, when I finished this book I was happy. So very happy. That being said, I keep thinking about it, and I suppose that's a good thing, or if nothing else a mark of a good book.

'Heart of Darkness' is the story of Marlow, our storyteller, who has traveled deep into the jungles of Africa and becomes fascinated with a man named Mr. Kurtz, a man who at first seems to hold the promise of European ideals in the middle of the wilderness but who, as Marlow soon discovers, has actually gone quite mad, and who represents the worst possible side of excess. It is a dark, rambling, psychological, reflective, critical and mad novel in itself.

Readability: This has to be one of the least readable book I've come across of a long time. It's less than 100 pages long but took me over a month to read because it's just so dense. My reading pattern was this...read 4-5 pages, then fall asleep in awkward/embarrassing position. Also, Conrad needed to learn how to use paragraph breaks. Three-page-long paragraphs are NOT OK.

Enjoyability (is that a word?): I did not enjoy this book in the typical, man I sure do want to read this, way. I can't quite decide if I liked it or not, actually. It is extremely well written and does make you think-exploring some pretty universal themes. Ok, I did enjoy it...not as a page turner by any means but something that gets under your skin in other ways.

Favorite quote(s): If I can give this book one thing it is that it is infinitely quotable. The prose, dense as it is, can also be rather fantastic.


"They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a grand scale ,and men going at it blind--as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complection or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much."


"Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. There it is before you-smiling, frowning, inviting grand, mean, insipid or savage and always mute with an air of whispering, come and find out."


"It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream-making a vain attempt because no relation to a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams..."


"We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness. It was very quiet there. At night sometimes the roll of drums behind the curtain of trees would run up the river and remain sustained faintly, ,as if hovering in the air high over our heads, till the first break of day."


"She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul."


"But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself and by heavens! I tell you, it had gone mad...He struggled with himself, too. I saw it,-I heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that new no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself."


"Droll thing life is-that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself-that comes too late-a crop of unextinguishable regrets."


Favorite character: Uum, wow, I can't think of anyone and I just looked up character lists from the book to see if I'd forgotten someone but...nope. Marlow is probably the most interesting character. He is our storyteller, and he is a good one. I frequently didn't agree with him but he does have an interesting perspective. I don't really know what else to say about Marlow except that the entire story is told from his perspective and yet, I feel like we never really know him.

Least favorite character: Surprisingly not Kurtz. Yes, he is mad...completely, but I can almost understand his madness. The character who creeped me out the most was the Russian trader who Marlow encounters first in the village Kurtz is living. He is a loyal follower of Kurtz, basically telling Marlow how amazing he is, but someone who can blindly follow a madman sometimes seems less rational than the madman himself.

Social impact: This book seems represent a bit of a touchstone when it comes to writing about Africa. It is often seen in a negative light from an African perspective-'Things Fall Apart,' for example, being written as a response to the treatment of the people of Africa in this novel. Marlow's viewpoint on Africa, while undeniably racist and detached towards the Africans he encounters, was nevertheless a rather progressive viewpoint for the day.

Greatest impact: The movie 'Apocalypse Now' was based upon this book. Seeing as 'Apocalypse Now' is set during the Vietnam War, in Vietnam, and 'Heart of Darkness is set on the Congo River, in Africa, at the turn of the century shows that this book has some universal subject matter going for it. I'm thinking madness, yep. Now, I haven't seen 'Apocalypse Now' in a very long time so I can't vouch for how well this is done I'm going to watch it soon...and then I'll let you know...

Recommended for: People who think the jungle is a scary place and would probably make you crazy if you got stuck in it for too long (I mean, I'm afraid of this picture). If you like fairly dense, psychological, reading. If you're interested in colonialism as told from a slightly different viewpoint (and I mean, who isn't really?). Also, if you need a cure for insomnia.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Readability :

Although it is only about 100 pages long, this is probably not a book you'll finish in a day or even a week. I certainly didn't. Darkness isn't hard to read, it's just slow - dense paragraphs, embedded dialogue, and lots of metaphor and symbolism. You will need breaks (and maybe naps) along the way.

Enjoyability :

This is not a book anyone is going to describe by saying "oh my god I loved it so much!" That said, it's very well written and confronts immense topics like colonization, evil, and madness in a way that made me really think about them. This is a book I think would be most enjoyable reading with a class or bookgroup or at least another person - there's so much packed into it that you can't help but miss something if you're reading it alone.

Favorite quote(s):

"They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force - nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what could be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind - as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much."

"[The heads on stakes] only showed that Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him - some small matter which, when the pressing need arose, could not be found under his magnificent eloquence. Whether he knew of this deficiency himself I can't say. I think the knowledge came to him at the last - only at the very last. But the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion."

"The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness."

Favorite character : I gotta say I didn't really like most of the characters in Darkness . So I will say who I was most intrigued by: The "wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman," a native, who does not interact with Marlow or the other invaders but holds significant and mysterious power of her own. What this is, however, we never learn.

"And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense winderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as thought it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul." Oooo.

Least favorite character : Kurtz, obviously. As a representative from "the Company" who once recommended "exterminate all the brutes," Kurtz is representative of the West and of the destructive power that it had on the cultures it conquered. He is presented as "mad," but instead of this madness being redeeming, we see it as the final result of power and corruption.

Recommended for : People interested in colonialism and Africa, people who aren't offended by racism in a historical context (let's be real, Marlow is kinda racist), people who won't be off-put by some heavy symbolism and metaphors.

Things Fall Apart...and do they ever.

Ok, I'm gonna be honest here. I read this book over a month ago and am just now getting around to reviewing it so...I'm sure this won't be as good as it could have been. This is the life of a grad student, I will not apologize.


Things Fall Apart is the story of a pre-colonial Ibo tribe in Nigeria. Its main character, Okonkwo, is the local strong man. He is sometimes proud, arrogant, and violent but is also hardworking, kind and sympathetic. He's a leader in his village, and successful head of a large family, but is still constantly afraid of appearing weak. This is ultimately his downfall. 'Things Fall Apart' is not really the story of colonialism that you might expect, those British bastards don't show up till the last 50ish pages, but instead is a view of African life from an African perspective, sadly a viewpoint we rarely see.

Readability: It's an easy read. I mean, this is something regularly given to high school students, and I hear they actually will read it, so it can't be too difficult. It will also only take you a few days to get through, especially if you're not a high school student.

Enjoyability (is that a word?): I enjoyed it, and I didn't expect to, so I guess that says something. It's not suspenseful or riveting by any means but has some other quality I can't quite describe. Besides being an almost anthropological account of precolonial life in Africa (which is interesting on its own. Twins are evil according to the tribe, for example, and are left in the forest to die), it's an intriguing account of human nature. Also, it has a bad ass cover (above).

Favorite quote(s): "Okonkwo felt a cold shudder run through him at the terrible prospects, like the prospect of annihilation. He saw himself and his fathers crowding round their ancestral shrine waiting in vain for worship and sacrifice and finding nothing but ashes of bygone days, and his children the while praying to the white man's god. If such a thing were ever to happen he, Okonkwo, would wipe them off the face of the earth." "It was like beginning life anew without the vigor and enthusiasm of youth like learning to become left-handed in old age." "He had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger."


Favorite character: Okonkwo. This is partially because he is really the only character that is fully fleshed out in the novel. I liked some his wives, his children, some of the members of the tribe, but for the most part they feel one-dimensional. Okonkwo is a complex guy. I often didn't want to like him but, somehow, I did.

Least favorite character: The colonialists at the end. This is probably to be expected, as I am a bleeding-heart-liberal, but the last paragraph gave me chills. Seriously.

Social impact: This book was apparently written in response to 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad. These two books could not portray Africa in a more different light. 'Heart of Darkness,' which we will be reviewing next, is rambling, racist, and European-centered. The view we get of Africa in 'Things Fall Apart' could not be more different. While we would expect Achebe to romanticize pre-colonail tribal life in Africa he doesn't . Life is instead shown as it was, with no judgement of if that way of life was better than than any other. It just...was...and should be respected as such.



Recommended for: Anyone interested in African life, stories that seem deceptively simple but aren't, fast reads that make you seem more intelligent when mentioned in conversation, or finishing up that list of 'books you probably should have read in High School but didn't.'

Overall: Much better, and more enjoyable, than I expected. Not something I'm going to go back and reread over and over but I'm glad I've read it.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Readability/Enjoyability: I have conflicting feelings about this book. I really really wanted to like it - this is one of the few books widely read in high schools that was not written by an old white guy, it is about seriously important issues like colonialism, it is set in a fascinating time and place... and yet. If I'm being honest, I found it sort of repetitive and not that interesting. The style is very abrupt and descriptive - there are very few passages in which we find out the emotional impact of events or what the characters are feeling or thinking (although, I do like all the proverbs). It's like a documentary but without any voice-over. This book is interesting from a historical and anthropological perspective, but as a book just to read for fun... nope, I'm not going to tell my friends they should read it.

Best quote(s):

This is what Okonkwo (the main character) thinks about the world:

"No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man."

"The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart."

I just like this description:

"At last the rain came. It was sudden and tremendous. For two or three moons the sun had been gathering strength till it seemed to breathe a fire on the earth. All the grass had long been scorched brown, and the sands felt like live coals to the feet. Evergreen trees wore a dusty coat of brown. The birds were silenced in the forests, and the world lay panting under the live, vibrating heat. And then came the clap of thunder. It was an angry, metallic and thirsty clap, unlike the deep and liquid rumbling of the rainy season. A mighty wind arose and filled the air with dust. Palm trees swayed as the wind combed their leaves into flying crests like strange and fantastic coiffure."

Favorite character: Ezinma, the daughter of one of Okwonkwo's wives (he has three). He says all the time that she should have been a boy because he basically likes her best. She's not a central character but I like that she was an Ogbanje, "one of those wicked children who, when they died, entered their mothers' wombs to be born again." She's precocious and touched by magic, and is as strong a woman as anyone is allowed to be in the Ibo culture.

Least favorite characters: Just personally, I'm not real fond of Okwonkwo. I can even pinpoint when it started: at the very beginning of the book, when he lets a kid named Ikemefuna, who was stolen from a rival village, stay with him for several years, and then helps kill him with machetes. Not cool.

Recommended for: People interested in Africa, colonialism, and other cultures. People who like proverbs. And yams.

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

Okay, so you've probably all seen the movie with Jack Nicholson... and if you haven't, you should, because it's excellent. But as good as it is, it must be said that the movie cannot, CANNOT compare to the book. Because here's the thing: the best part of the book is the voice of the narrator, the Chief, whom everyone assumes is deaf/mute but really sees and hears everything and is able to contribute insight and memories of his own that sharply contrast the events of the hospital. His voice is unique and un-reproducable, especially in a movie in which he has like two speaking lines. So... the book:

Readability: Very. The only complicated bits are the early ruminations of the Chief involving fog and the Combine and machines. Possibly a bit delusional, but on the other hand... one of the most clearheaded delusional people I've ever heard of. And relates it all in a way that makes you think maybe it's the world itself that's crazy, and the Chief is the sane one. As he says, "it's the truth even if it didn't happen."

Enjoyability: Very very. Intriguing, beautifully written, characters you get emotionally involved with... A book I will definitely read again.

Best quote(s):

"I can see all that, and be hurt by it, the way I was hurt by seeing things in the Army, in the war. The way I was hurt by seeing what happened to Papa and the tribe. I thought I'd get over seeing those things and fretting over them. There's no sense in it. There's nothing to be done."

"A successful Dismissal like this is a product brings joy to the Big Nurse's heart and speaks good of her craft and the whole industry in general. Everybody's happy with a Dismissal." (Oh lord, hope this has changed. Has it?)

"Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy."

Favorite character: I'm partial to Billy Bibbitt. Because he's so sweet and what happens to him is so tragic, and like so many of the men he is in the hospital because he was "never able to adjust to the outside world."

Least favorite characters: Um, duh. Nurse Ratched. Best example of abuse of power that I can think of. And also of someone who is in the mental health profession for all the wrong reasons. It feels funny to put such a weighty word on someone who is a nurse, who always smiles, etc., but... I think she is Evil.

Social impact: Well, it certainly says something about the state of mental health care, especially in state run hospitals.... something, as someone trained as a counselor, I cringe a little to think about. And also, of course, at the old practices like Shock therapy and Lobotomy. But also I think having the Chief set up as a reliable narrator and getting a glimpse inside his mind says something about the treatment Native Americans received in Oregon and elsewhere, and also about how veterans have been treated (that's where the Chief first started getting lost in the fog). A completely unique perspective.

I just realized I've written all I wanted to about this book without once mentioning McMurphy, the main character. But on second thought... no, nope. I don't really have much to say about him.

One flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest...

We've all seen the movie, and it's a good one, but when the author of a book refuses to see the film version, as Ken Kesey did, it's probably worth looking into their reasons why. His reason apparently was that it does not show the story from the 1st person viewpoint of Chief Bromden and although I'm not sure how they could have done this on a movie I agree with him. McMurphy, the antihero of the story, is the main character in the movie and although he is certainly a fun character to follow part of the heart of the story is lost.

Readability: Very readable. Chief's narrations are easy to read and have a fantastic flow and the battle between McMurphy and Nurse Ratchet keep you reading because you want to know who will win, and it's not who you'd expect.

Enjoyability (is that a word?): Well, I enjoyed it.

Favorite quote(s): "Even when he isn't laughting, that laughint sound hovers around him, the way the sound hovers around a big bell just quit ringing-its in his eyes, in the why he smiles and swaggers, in the way he talks."

"Idiot, you just had a nightmare; things as cray as a big machine room down in the bowels of a dam where people get cut up by robot workers don't exist. But if they don't exist, how can a man see them?"

"You had a choice: you could either strain and look at things that appeared in front of you in the fog, painful as it might be, or you could relax and lose yourself."

"I'd think he was strong enough being his own self that he would never back down the way she was hoping he would. I'd think, maybe he truly is something extraordinary. He is what he is, that's it. Maybe that makes him strong enough."

I can't really quote any of the others I wanted to because I think they would give too much away.

Favorite character: Chief Bromden, the narrator of One Flew. Chief has been in the mental hospital for the last 20 years-the affect of his experience in the army during WWII (argument for providing better services to veterans anyone?) and the loss of his family's way of life with the destruction of Celilo Falls. He narrates the story and has an almost omnipotent view on what is going on because everyone assumes he is deaf and dumb since he doesn't speak. Although he is in a mental institution Chief's narration is sharp and observant and though some of his ramblings may seem insane at first he is just seeing a different truth.

Least favorite character: Nurse Ratchet. This woman is evil, pure and simple. Well, maybe not that simple. Chief sees her as being part of the combine, the machine that processes everyone and makes them, too, part of the machine. To Chief she is just part of the larger system that tries to make people conform and destroys those who don't. To McMurphy she is the symbol of that machine that must be destroyed.

Social impact: This book does a great job portraying the horrible conditions of many mental institutions. Kesey based it upon his own experience working at a mental institution and reading about the Oregon State Mental Institution, where Cuckoos Nest is set, leaves a grim image--including a room full of the forgotten cremated remains of patients. It also shows the lack of respect given to the Native American tribes who lived on the banks and fished Celilo Falls which were flooded in 1957 with the construction of the Dalles Dam. This was where Chief was from and their destruction, and most importantly what that did to his father, clearly haunts him, "the Combine. It worked o him for years. He was big enought to fight it for a while. It wanted us to live in inspected houses. It wanted to take the falls. It was even in the tribe, and they worked on him.

Greatest impact: I think the two major works of Ken Kesey, this and Sometimes a Great Notion, hold a special place for Oregonians, at least they do for me. I've been to these places. They're not just abstract visions but places I know and love which just makes it all the better.

Recommended for: Anyone who gets nerdy over the history of Oregon, mental institutions, native peoples etc. Anyone who likes a good story of an antihero up against the man or who is maybe, just a little, cracked up themselves.

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing." -Scout Finch

One of my all time favorite books To Kill A Mockingbird turns 50 this year and, according to a recent New York Times article 'A Classic Turns 50, and Parties Are Planned', there are celebrations going on around the country this summer. We'll be reviewing this fantastic book at a later date (when I get around to rereading it for the gizillionth time, I'll probably cry again too) but until then if you haven't read it yet get out there and do it! This is the time, you won't regret it I swear. I'll even loan you a copy (I have three). And if anyone wants to head down to Alabama to read it on the steps of a courthouse, while we fan ourselves in the hot sun, I'm in.

The 100 Best Books: Movie Edition #1--The Quiet American

After reading The Quiet American by Graham Greene we decided to watch the 2002 movie based upon the book. Now, first of all, I love Michael Caine who plays Thomas Fowler and, second of all, I'm not a huuuuge fan of Brendan Frasier who plays Alden Pyle (for those of you who are lost refer to our reviews of The Quiet American below). Does this really pose a problem though? I liked the character of Fowler in the book and disliked Pyle so it should actually be beneficial that I felt the same about the actors playing them. Michael Caine rocked it (although I personally think he should have smoked more opium) and Brendan Frasier actually did a decent job, even though he didn't get across the naivety perfectly.

Overall, we felt that this was a decent adaptation of the book. It changed details here and there, like all adaptations must do, but with a few exceptions they were not harmful to the overall feel of the original content. One thing we did have a problem with was in the movie Fowler does not speak French. This cut down on the awkwardness of some key scenes. The combination of two characters from the book into one in the movie was also unsettling (for reasons I can't divulge, you'll just have to read the book to find out why...).

One way in which the movie actually improved upon the book was in the character of Phuong. She actually seemed to have a say in what happened to her in the movie, even if Pyle did try to turn her into an America. Some sort of affect of modern girl power? Maybe. It also had amazing scenery. Kinda makes you want to go to war torn Vietnam. Almost.

Finially, I would like to leave you with one of my favorite Michael Caine quotes:
"There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch."

Sons and Bummers

"Paul loved to sleep with his mother. Sleep is still most perfect, inspite of hygienists, when it is shared with a beloved."
Sons and Lovers; the story of one man's (Paul's) strangely possessive relationship with his mother and how that leads to the ruin of the lives around him. Since he cannot be with his mother he treats the other women in his life horribly because they are not her.

Readability: Prose wise this book is readable enough. It's a pretty quick read also, if the subject matter doesn't keep putting you to sleep like it did to me. It's long though, ooh god, so very long.

Enjoyability (is that a word?): I wanted to enjoy this book, I really did. I'd never read any D.H. Lawrence and this book had been sitting on my shelf for years (I believe the result of one of my frequent Goodwill book binges). It started out promising enough, seeming similar to many turn-of-the-century British novels about working, family, changing society etc. etc., and I was secretly hoping for a few Victorian style naughty passages, but alas this was not to be! Soon I became slightly concerned because nothing much seemed to be happening and eventually this concern turned into despair when I realized I still had hundreds of pages of this book left to read. Characters are introduced willy nilly and then are, just as suddenly, dropped, only to reappear hundreds of pages later, giving you no time to form an emotional attachment to them, the narrative just wanders with no sense of purpose, everything takes longer than it should and few of the characters have positive qualities. To sum it up...I did not enjoy this book.

Favorite quote(s): "To be rid of our individuality, which is our will, which is our effort-to live effortless, a kind of curious sleep-that is very beautiful, I think; that is our after-life-our immortality."--Not 100 % sure what that means but I kinda like it.

"Whatever spot he stood on, there he stood alone. From his breast, from his mouth, sprang the endless space, and it was there behind him, everywhere. The people hurrying along the streets offered no obstruction to the void in which he found himself. They were small shadows whose footsteps and voices could be heard, but in each of them the same night, the same silence. He got off the car. In the country all was dead still. Little stars shone high up; little stars spread far away in the flood-waters, a firmament below. Everywhere the vastness and terror of the immense night which is roused and stirred for a brief while by the day, but which returns, and will remain at last eternal holding everything in its silence and its living gloom. There was no Time, only Space."

Favorite character: No one. Seriously, all of the main characters are horrible.

Least favorite character: Paul, the main character, and Mariam, one of his love interests. They are horrible for/to each other, they know it and yet they keep torturing each other for years in a crazy love-hate relationship. Neither of them ends up with what they want (if they even knew) and neither of them ends up happy. It's just depressing.

Social impact: The back of my copy claims this book is, "the most widely-read English novel of the twentieth century." I don't know the accuracy of this statement, but I feel sorry for all those twentieth century readers if that's the case, because there are sooooo many better books out there. The greatest social impact I can see from this book is the way in which it deals with domestic abuse and the long lasting affects that can have on a family. All these characters are unlikeable and some of them can blame it on the way abuse manifests itself upon them. I suppose this is also a relatively confessional semi-autobiographical book. But what really happened and what was made up? And why do autobiographies often suck so very much?

Greatest impact: How much I disliked it. D.H. Lawrence wrote many 'classic' novels and this makes me question if I'll ever want to read any of them. Maybe Lady Chatterley's Lover is better eh? Anyone? Opinions?

Recommended for: People who enjoy well written narratives where nothing really ever happens and none of the characters are particularly likeable. It's like the movie Closer, on all accounts a well made movie with good acting, but I hated all of the characters and their actions and so I hated the movie.

Overall: This book is getting booted off of the list. I won't say I'm heartbroken because I'm sure there are far better contenders out there, bring 'em on!

PS. This picture of D.H. Lawrence looks creepily like I pictured Paul.

Sons and Lovers, take 1

Well well, Sons and Lovers. This is one of those books that has been sitting on my to-read shelf for a long, long time, and not I can't quite remember why. Let me be honest: if it weren't for this project, I probably wouldn't ever have finished it. That said... Sons and Lovers is a story that is many things: history, family saga, autobiography, and a passionate tale of love between... mother and son.

Readability: Not too bad, really. The language isn't too difficult, except for when Mr. Morel opens his mouth. Good thing he's so irrelevant, because if he talked more I'm not sure I could have handled it. Example: "You'll be havin' th' roof in, one o' thse days.' An' I says, tha'd better stan' on a bit o' clunch, then, an' hold it up wi' thy 'ead. So 'e wor that mad, 'e cossed an' e' swore, an' t'other chaps they did laugh." Okay, so he's a miner, but the colloquial bits are hard to get through.

Enjoyability: I would give it 2 of 5 stars. I thought it was repetitive, somewhat boring, and I didn't really like any of the characters.
And seriously, every other minute Lawrence describes someone as 'and then he loved her,' and then 5 seconds later says 'and then he hated her.' The characters are all petty and cruel to eachother, even when they're in love. Redeeming qualities? I did really like the last few pages, when Paul is coming to terms with being alone in the world and is having to make the ultimate choice between life and death. The writing is just lovely, and it made me wish there had been a bit more of that earlier on.

Best quote:
"Where was he?--one tiny upright speck of flesh, less than an ear of wheat lost in the field. He could not bear it. On every side the immense dark silence seemed pressing him, so tiny a spark, into extinction, and yet, almost nothing, he could not be extinct. Night, in which everything was lost, went reaching out, beyond stars and sun. Stars and sun, a few bright grains, went spinning round for terror, and holding each other in embrace, there in a darkness that outpassed them all, and left them tiny and daunted. So much, and himself infinitesimal, at the core of nothingness, and yet not nothing."

Favorite/least favorite characters: This is going to sound sexist, but I basically hated all the male characters. Mr. Morel is an abusive alcoholic, William is a bully, Paul is a jerk and a self-centered baby. I wasn't super fond of any of the women, either - Mrs. Morel loves her children but is super clingy and cares more about herself then about them being happy. Clara intrigued me - a suffragette! But she too lets Paul treat her badly and then goes back to her jerk of a husband. Poor Miriam also allows Paul to treat her badly and is kind of pathetic. Annie is one person I wanted to hear more from - she is barely mentioned, except at the very end. I know this is sometimes considered a very modern model for it's time, but the gender roles are as entrenched here as anywhere.

Modern day equivalent of the Morel family: Arrested Development's the Bluths, of course. Mr. Morel is George Bluth, the figure head, but who actually doesn't have the most power in the family. Mrs. Morel is Lucille, the person who actually holds the power, and clings obsessively to her children. William is Michael, the eldest and most ambitious. William, for obvious reasons (no spoilers here though!), can't "keep the family together," and is actually quite an ass. Annie is Lindsey, Arthur is Job (rash, terrible decision maker, not bothered about much by the family), and of course Paul is Buster. The comparisons are endless - Paul is in love with his mother, refuses to commit to either of the age-appropriate women in his life because of his mother, etc. etc. The best example? Paul says "No, mother - I really don't love her. I talk to her, but I want to come home to you!" Okay, Paul, we know. If there was a 'Motherboy' dance in 1900, you would have been there.

Social impact: At the time Sons and Lovers first came out, it was one of the first books to look at the lives of the lower classes and I agree it does a good job showing us what their lives were like. It also examines sexuality much more openly than other literature of the time, although I'm not sure this is a strength - parts of this read like a bad romance novel.

A second look at Nine Stories

I should probably preface this by saying that I plan to name my first child Seymour. Yes, as in see more glass. So I will try to be objective in relating my thoughts on Nine Stories, but… don’t you say that I didn’t warn you.

Readability: Think a good book is always dense and full of long sentences and extra adjectives? Wrong, and this is the book that proves it. This is a book to read on a long rainy weekend, and it won’t take much longer because you won’t want to put it down.

Enjoyability: Extraordinary. I feel like some short stories are sort of hard to get into, and then by the time you have they are over. But with Salinger’s stories I feel in it, right away, and then I’m just sad when they’re over. These stories make me happy, sad, wistful, hopeful, laugh (yes, out loud… and I’m not being facetious, they really do). This is a book that I want to re-read often, and have, and will.

Best quotes:
"The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid."
- de Daumier-Smith

"I want them to have a nice time while they're alive, because they like having a nice time.. but they don't love me and Booper - that's my sister - that way. I mean they don't seem agble to love us just the way we are. They don't seem able to love us unl3ess they can keep changing us a little bit. They love their reasons for loving us almost as much as they love us, and most of the time more. It's not so good, that way."
- Teddy

"I remember wanting to do something about that enormous-faced wristwatch she was wearning - perhaps suggest that she try wearing it around her waist."
- X

Favorite story: Hard to choose… I love ‘Down at the Dinghy,’ ‘Bananafish,’ and ‘For Esme – With Love and Squalor’ so much I hardly know what to say about them. That they are charming and sad and perfect, I suppose. But in this re-reading of Nine Stories I was unexpectedly struck by ‘The Laughing Man.’ I love picturing a bus full of adoring ten-year-old boys, listening rapturously to their leader as he tells stories about a renegade hero whose hides his hideous face (smashed in a vice by kidnappers when he was a young child, of course) behind a red veil. And then being stunned and heart broken when… well, I won’t give it all away. Call it a microcosm of growing up, maybe. Weird and wonderful.

Least favorite: Hands down, ‘Pretty mouth and green my eyes.’ Suffice to say it leaves me feeling let down and a little cheated. Although it must also be said that being my least favorite of this bunch isn’t saying much.

Favorite character: Seymour, Boo Boo, and the Chief… I think what makes Salinger’s writing about children so poignant is that he treats them like they are actually people, and that’s what I like about his best characters, too.

Least favorite: It’s a tie between that jerk Muriel (I know you liked her, Seymour, but she wasn’t good enough for you) and Teddy’s parents (also enormous jerks). We’d all have been better off without them.

Recommended for: people who liked Catcher in the Rye, people who like children, people who want to like short stories and so far just don’t, people who live in rainy places.