Pride and Prejudice

"The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of either merit or sense."

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, 1813

first words

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

the premise

Two young people of England's early 19th century landed gentry must overcome their own pride, false first impressions, and scandal to secure true love in a society driven by materialism and superficiality.

my thoughts

How my soul thrilled to this love story when I was a teenager!  I read it multiple times, once I finally got into the language of the period.  But then life got busy, and it sat on my bookshelf gathering dust.  So imagine my delight when I found I could still thrill to it as an adult, that there were whole passages I wanted to read over and over again, savoring them.  What's more, I could appreciate Austen's keen sense of humor and wry observation of human nature in a way I certainly wasn't able to as a teenager.  When I opened this book for the first time in more than a decade, I did not expect to be laughing out loud quite so often.  I didn't expect Mr. Bennett to emerge as my favorite character. 

And I found it a little astonishing that an entire class of people could have as their chief occupation in life visiting each other for weeks on end, reading, going for walks, attending balls and generally entertaining themselves.  Of course this wasn't so astonishing to my teenage self, since that was my main occupation as well.  But the adult me must confess to envying the Bennetts, Bingleys and Darcys their servants.  Oh to simply decide in the morning what's for dinner and have it show up on the well-appointed table at the appointed hour without lifting a finger! 

others' thoughts

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Re-reading

I've been on a re-reading kick lately.  Of course, from the few reviews I've managed to post on this blog it may be easy to assume that I usually re-read books, since two of the four are re-reads.  But it's actually something a rarely do.  Until lately.  I've discovered a certain adventure in reading over again a book I haven't read for ten years--it gives me a chance to meet myself as I used to be, to remember how a book affected me then and mark how I've changed by the way it affects me now.  Sometimes the experiences ends in disillusionment with a once-beloved book.  Sometimes I fall more deeply in love.

The next handful of reviews are all books I read ten or fifteen years ago, during my adolescence and early young adult years, and that I hadn't picked up since.  I'm behind, so the reviews will be brief (I'm always trying to convince myself that I can do "brief").  I hope you enjoy them.

What are some of your favorite books that have stood the test of time, that have grown with you?  Are there books you regularly re-read?  Any books that have been ruined for you by treading over words that should have remained in the sanctum of youthful memories?

Catcher in the Rye

"...I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around--nobody big, I mean--except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy."

Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

originally published July 1951 by Little, Brown

distinctions

national book award finalist, fiction, 1952
new york times bestseller, fiction, 1951
multiple "top 100" lists, including "most frequently challenged"

first words

"If you really want to hear all about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into, if you want to know the truth."

the premise

Holden Caulfield leaves his troubled academic career at a prestigious prep school and wanders around New York City for several days, trying to come to terms with losses in his life.

my thoughts

When I read this book in high school, I loved it.  I loved how real Holden was, and how perceptively he saw through the "phoniness" around him, how he recoiled from it and sought to protect the innocent.  So when my online book group chose it for our February read (yes, I'm more than a little behind here...), I was excited for an excuse to revisit this novel.

In some ways, I was disappointed.  Holden was every bit as real, but from my adult perspective, he was essentially a pathetic, emotionally disturbed kid, more to be pitied than admired.  I had to take his story in small doses because the tone and torrent of his narration was oppressive.  Of course, this is a mark of the genius of the author: Salinger has created a character whose narration has a visceral affect on the reader, a character whose voice is authentic beyond reproach.

Along with my changed perspective of Holden came an unexpected insight: I saw, as I hadn't seen in high school, that this novel isn't so much a diatribe against phoniness as it is a psychological grapple with profound loss, including the loss of innocence that growing up requires.  I also realized that, in a poignant way, this novel is essentially about family.

While I can't list Catcher in the Rye among my favorites, and I probably won't read it a third time, I am thoroughly impressed by the skill of the author, the way he creates such a real narrator, the way that narrator slowly but inevitably descends deeper into mental illness.  Perhaps for me the crowning achievement lies in the images Salinger pulls out at just the right moment, images that strike to the quick and linger in the mind, growing in import as the story progresses.

others' thoughts

Book Nut
The Book Nest
The Golden Road to Samarqand

Have you reviewed this book?

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.”

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, 2008

distinctions

~New York Times Bestseller, fiction, 2008
~Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year, #7, fiction, 2008
~Indies Book of the Year, adult fiction, 2009

first words

“Dear Sidney, Susan Scott is a wonder. We sold over forty copies of the book, which was very pleasant, but much more thrilling from my standpoint was the food.”

the premise

In post-WWII London, an author on the hunt for a new book idea begins a serendipitous correspondence with friendly strangers on the island of Guernsey and learns about their hardships and triumphs during the German occupation of their island. Along the way she discovers truths about herself.

my thoughts

It's always a good sign when I read the last page of a book and am sad because it's over.  It's also good when I have the impulse to go back to page one and read it all over again right then.  This book, as so many others have pegged it, is indeed charming.  It's warm, tender, witty, heartbreaking and satisfying (except for how it leaves you wanting more).  It's a book written by booklovers about booklovers for booklovers, and as such succeeds marvelously, dropping delightful allusions at every turn and suggesting much about the power of good literature in our lives, as individuals and as a society.  That in itself makes this book a winner.

Few books are perfect.  This one has its weaknesses, spots I felt were a little too gimmicky or stereotyping.  For example, the "bad guys" in the novel were all pretty flat, and I'm not talking about the Germans.  They were done very well.  I'm talking about the pinched, self-righteous "Christian" townswoman; the tall, arrogant, wealthy American; and the sleazy sneaky tabloid writer. It disappointed me to find such plot puppets poking out among all the wonderfully vivid and real characters populating the pages. They did provide their share of comic relief though, I suppose.  As for my accusation of "gimmicky," I can't really touch on that without spoiling a few plot points, so email me if you're curious, but let me just say that the plot is not what kept me turning the pages.

One of the greatest strengths of this novel is its disarming deployment of irony.  The format is key here; the novel is composed entirely of letters and telegrams sent between the characters, so the reader is given glimpses of each character from various vantage points, allowing those characters to develop complexity in a way that feels natural (and allows for lots of irony).

The interchange of letters and the various voices that emerge from the pages also provide fascinating historical details about the German occupation of the Channel Islands without ever slipping into a history lecture.  The characters simply share their experiences and feelings about what transpired, and the concrete details they include make it all so real and so heart-breaking. This novel successfully weds laugh-out-loud humor with the gravity of war-time atrocities in a way that calls to mind the Italian film Life is Beautiful. Like the film, it is true to human nature, and like the film, this book is not to be missed.

others’ thoughts

Book Nut
Dragonflowers and Books
Dragonflowers and Books (Again!)   includes some great quotes
Dreadlock Girl
Library Queue
My Thoughts Exactly
The Book Nest
The Golden Road to Samarqand

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These is My Words

“It seems there is always a road with bends and forks to choose, and taking one path means you can never take another one. There’s no starting over nor undoing the steps I’ve taken. It isn’t like I’d want to.... It’s just that I want everything, my insides are not just hungry, but greedy. I want to find out all the things in the world and still have a family and a ranch.”

These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901, Arizona Territories, A Novel by Nancy E. Turner, 1998


distinctions

~Arizona Author Award
~finalist, Willa Cather Award

first words

“A storm is rolling in, and that always makes me a little sad and wistful so I got it in my head to set to paper all these things that have got us this far on our way through this heathen land.”

the premise

An indomitable young woman born and raised on the Arizona frontier records the events of her life as she matures from daughter into wife, mother, and business woman.

my thoughts

       It’s been a long time since I’ve picked up a book and couldn’t put it down (of course it's been a long time since I picked up a book, period). This novel is gripping, chock full of adventure and romance (and one of the sweetest love stories I’ve read in a good long while, I might add). But it’s the voice of the protagonist, Sarah, that made me fall in love with her story: honest, stubborn, tender, gritty, intelligent, passionate. She’s so full of contradictions, so real, I considered looking for her in the historical records of Tucson, even though the disclaimer on the copyright page clearly states she is "the product of the author’s imagination.” Turner's powerful imagination has successfully given us a heroine whose thoughts and feelings resonate with many modern women without compromising on the sensibilities appropriate to her time and place--a feat often difficult to accomplish in historical fiction.
      I’ve always been a sucker for the epistolary novel form. I love the sense of immediacy and intimacy a diary or exchange of letters gives the reader, as well as the inevitably unreliable narrator that emerges from the form. I love the ironic ways the reader learns about the narrator from the details he or she chooses to reveal in the comments and actions of others. These is My Words delivers on this dynamic in spades. All you have to do is pay attention to a certain Army captain to know what I mean. I’d best leave it at that.
      Is this a perfect novel? No. As much as I love it, the diary trope has its pitfalls, and for all her skill, Turner does trip up once or twice, leaving at least one small plot gap and a handful of stylistic breaches. And the quantity, intensity and serendipity of Sarah’s adventures, not to mention the minute and fascinating details with which she records those adventures, stretches credibility a bit. But that’s also a big part of what makes this novel so engrossing, and it’s a small price to pay for getting to know a flesh-and-blood character like Sarah Agnes Prine.

others’ thoughts

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Grand Opening, Take Two

So I knew it was kind of silly to start this blog in November, right on the cusp of all the big holiday madness that chases out the year and consumes all my (oh so copious) discretionary time. But I just had to, since the idea for it wouldn’t let me think about much else. So I started it and promptly sat it in a corner, where it has waited patiently to go somewhere, like my 16-month-old who perks up every time shoes are mentioned and asks hopefully, “Go? Go?” (Not that I ever set my baby in a corner. Let’s not take my simile too far here.) So yes, we are finally going to go somewhere. Just as soon as I get my boots laced up.

Cry, The Beloved Country

"Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much."

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, 1948

distinctions:

~New York Times Bestseller, fiction, 1948
~Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, 1949

first words:

"There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills."

the premise:

A humble Zulu parson leaves his home in the hills to search for his sister and son in the troubled streets of Johannesburg and is forced to confront, in a deeply personal way, the complex tragedy of apartheid in the land that he loves.

my thoughts:

It seems appropriate that my first review should be of one of my very favorite books, a book I've read multiple times now (and I don't often reread books).  This novel is beautiful in so many ways: the lush landscapes, the intimate conversations, the biblical arc of the story, the cumulative power of so many voices. The writing is sparing and lyrical, its rhythms building and breaking into poetry. But perhaps what is most indelible about this novel is the way Paton lays bare the tragedies of apartheid--the poisonous fear; the gross disparities of education and wealth; the destruction of family, tribe, and land--through the development of characters who are unforgettable in their humanness: their struggles, sorrows and triumphs have the clear ring of truth.  This novel is both devastating and hopeful in a way that tends to steal one's breath.

others' thoughts:

Golden Road to Samarqand

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