6 posts tagged “books”

"The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heavn' of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n."

Lines 254-5 of Paradise Lost by John Milton. It's an excellent read so far and I'm getting along with it much better than I am with Don Quixote (so long...so repetitive). There's a lot of memorable lines and the blank verse makes it very readable. Satan is so charismatic.

What modern book do you think will be read in high school by the next generation of kids? 
Submitted by Tom.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International)

No? Fine, I'll be more conservative and go for Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. It's a deeply moral, chilling, complex tale and pretty adaptable to typical high school How-can-we-turn-this-book-into-a-series-of-study-guide-questions curriculum.

And I'll go one better by naming an early 20th century book that should be taught in classrooms: Ivy Compton-Burnett's Manservant and Maidservant. The insight into dysfunctional family dynamics, the memorable characters, the painful humour, the distinctive style all make me confused as to why this novel is not more well-known.

The Land of Spices (Virago Modern Classics)

I thought I'd get some thoughts out about this novel before I do something more formal at wordpress. This mid-twentieth century novel was set in the early 20th C, ending right before WWI. The prose wasn't particularly notable, but O'Brien's deft depiction of characters, and even the kind of characters she chose to focus on, was what made it memorable.

Mere Marie-Helene is the head of a French teaching order and all-girls school in Ireland. She was born in England, raised in Belgium where she attended a school run by the same order, and had no real intention of taking the veil until she discovered a family secret that shattered her illusions about the highly intellectual, carefree life she had had with her father.

Anna Murphy arrives at the convent school at the age of 6, a year or so earlier than is usual, the daughter of a loving, anxious mother and an alcoholic father. She is curious, intensely observant and sometimes unusually serious for a girl her age. Her absorbed air is what draws Mere Marie-Helene's first notice in the chapel where three of her former pupils became postulants, starting their first stage at becoming a *sister. Anna and Helen form a bond through poetry, and the novel explores their past and present, the peculiar solitude, almost alienation that they feel in their surroundings, and how they let down their guard, to others, and each other, in acknowledgement of their warm humanity.

There are many things I loved about this story. One of the best things was the way O'Brien mined the psychological depths of both characters. It's interesting to see how both were academically nurtured, and what it was that made them seem cold and unlovable to their peers but not their emotionally sympathetic relatives. Irish nationalism was on the rise during this period and the arguments between Mere Marie-Helene and the priests raised interesting questions about how, if at all, one should mix religion with politics and the influence of education particularly when the system is not of the country in which it is established. The double life of religion and class where the outer layer is not always true is a theme as well, and notable because of its particular manifestations in Irish rural life.

Sexism, nationalism, literature, religion -- all of these are explored and conveyed in a language readily accessible while retaining a sophistication. And there's a lot of comedy as well as O'Brien shows playful, good humour when describing the younger students fanatic adoration of various admirable older students or handsome priests, and their mischievous disobedience. And the sisters are not spared the author's mockery.

I'm still turning over the matter, though, of whether the book deserves the status of a "classic". It makes me wonder just what sort of criteria is used to give books such a title in this day and age where publishers like Penguin and Virago offer these "modern" classics.
 

*A sister is a particular kind of nun who engages with the world through missionary work, education, charity etc. A proper nun is one who lives a cloistered, solely contemplative existence.

I read this one at Superfast reader's blog so I thought I'd post it here since my main blog has enough memes/quizzes on the front page at present.

A book that made you cry: Quite a few of them actually, I'm a big wuss. One was Guy Gavriel Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry. As any fan of Kay knows his books can give quite the emotional wallop.

A book that scared you: You mean frightened? :D I remember reading The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty in boarding school and feeling the shivers. I showed one of my friends a particularly horrible scene while in the bus on a school trip. (Believe me you don't want the details.)

The Importance of Being Earnest (Dover Thrift Editions)

A book that made you laugh: Any play by Oscar Wilde.

A book that disgusted you: Some parts of Moravagine by Cendrars were fairly revolting. A misogynistic character with an enthusiastic flair for violence does not a pretty scene make.

A book you loved in elementary school: A poetry collection that I "acquired" from the class library. It gave me first Ogden Nash, Tennyson, Noyes, Whitman and countless more.

A book you loved in middle school: We don't have middle schools in Jamaica, having inherited a British school system. Prep school (private primary aka elementary) ends at grade 6, high school starts at grade 7. There are "all-age" primary schools where the grades go up to 8 but that's for particular reasons (that I won't go into here).

To Kill a Mockingbird (New Windmill)

A book you loved in high school: To Kill a Mockingbird. I read it in grade 8 with one of the best English teachers in the world and have read it about two times since. I forever associate it with bright days in class, sitting at the front with her on the desk reading lines in a booming voice, her hands moving, every word and gesture radiating enthusiasm.

A book you hated in high school: Samuel Selvon's A Brighter Sun: the most boring book on the planet. Woo, was reading and analysing that book line by line, torture. It's the only fiction book that I read in high school and disliked. The only one.

A book you loved in college: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust, translated by Lydia Davis. The reading experience. helped to clarify and realise my entire aesthetic and artistic philosophy. I've still only read the first two though, because the second translation wasn't as good as the first. (Damn Penguin for giving each book to different translators. :( )

A book that challenged your identity: My identity? Can't think of any.

A series that you love: Do quartets count? They'll have to so that I can mention Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori. There's some good writing on those pages.

Your favorite horror book: I don't have one at the moment. I've read Stephen King but the only books of his that have stayed with him are the first four in his Dark Tower series and none of them rank as a "favourite". I've never read any of Edgar Allen Poe's fiction, only his poetry. Can't think of any other horror writers off the bat who aren't pop writers.

Your favorite science fiction book: I don't read science fiction.

The Silmarillion

Your favorite fantasy: The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Your favorite mystery: I don't read much mystery either.

Your favorite biography: Ditto on the biographies. The only one I ever complete was Nelson Mandela's when I was a teenanger and while memory tells me I enjoyed it, can't count it as a "favourite". These days the only biographies I'd be interested in are those of writers and, generally speaking, I prefer to read the works that made such figures great, rather than stories about whether their Mommy loved them and if they liked to ride bicycles in the countryside.

Your favorite “coming of age” book: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It's the best book in the universe.

Your favorite classic: This is tough. Today I'm going to say The Iliad by Homer, translated by Richmond Lattimore. Tomorrow it could be Pere Goriot by Balzac, translated by Marion Ayton Crawford. You never know.

Your favorite romance book: This is tough, I've read a lot of romance. Today I'm going with By Possession by Madeline Hunter. Tomorrow it could be Born in Fire by Nora Roberts. (It could be a lot of Nora Roberts books.)

Your favorite book not on this list: Kingdoms of Elfin by Sylvia Townsend Warner. I mention this book a lot but you don't understand: this is the best, most absurd, amusing, chilling, highly entertaining collection of fairy tales you will ever read. Some of the stories from this collection were published in the New Yorker, something I find hard to believe because they're so extraordinary.

If you feel like doing it, consider yourself tagged, and please leave a link to your response in the comments so I can read it.

so I thought I'd cross-post an entry from my main blog here. Of course, it's about books.

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My newest favourite blog is The Caribbean Review’s blog The Antilles. I’ve read very little of the journal’s offerings but The Antilles is proving to be one of the few blogs at which every single post is worth reading. Nicholas, the editor there, shared his many stacks and asked readers to participate. Mine would be too long an entry for comments so I’m posting it here.

I often literally sleep with books or journals. Sometimes it is too much effort to turn over and place them on top of precarious table piles so I simply push them aside and fall asleep. These are my reading group books, the April 5th issue of the LRB and a hand-stitched paperblank notebook. On the actual table are:

Hamlet (The Sourcebook edition) - Not nearly as good as the Arden editions but I do like the CD with audio excerpts of various scenes.

The Monk (Modern Library Classics)

 by Matthew Lewis - A Modern library edition with an amusing cover

Love in Excess by Eliza Haywood - I bought this at a local used store because it was 18th century — thanks to Dorothy I’m more interested in this period — and a Broadview edition. Since last summer I’ve become a fan of Broadview: my copy of The Good Soldier is one as well.

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Richmond Lattimore - I pick it up ever so often to read a randomly chosen adventure.

The Pornographer

by John McGahern - I hope to get to it some time in the summer

The Girl in the Glass by Jeffrey Ford - A few of the LBC group are a fan of his work so I mean to try it.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris - This one is probably here because I have nowhere else to put it.

Mason & Dixon and Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon - We’ll see if my estrogen appreciates this manly writer.

The Paris Review No. 38 - 40 - Three old issues from the late 60’s that offer, among other things, interviews with Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter (Art of Theatre) and Jorge Luis Borges; poetry by David Shapiro, Ted Hughes, and Pablo Neruda; fiction by Christina Stead; and letters from e e cummings to Ezra Pound.

Rose of No Man’s Land by Michelle Tea - I heard about it on a blog last year, went into the store and saw it on the staff’s recommendation table at the local indie, so of course I had to get it.

The Plausibility of Life by Marc W. Kirschner et. al - All about evolution

Mercy Among Children by David Adams Richards - Richards is allegedly one of Canada’s great unsung writers. We’ll see.

Native American Fiction: A User’s Manual by David Treuer - This was the only book of his held in stock by any store here in Mennonite country (at an independent, of course).

Paradise Lost by John Milton - At the moment I cannot recall what finally persuaded to pick this one up.

The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay - I’m not sure why this one’s out. I do plan to re-read his books but not quite yet…

Witch Craze by Lyndal Roper - Who wouldn’t want to read about witches in the old days?

I'm just here for comments. My blog is over at wordpress: The Books of My Numberless Dreams. You can get an idea of my reading tastes by going through my collections in the sidebar.