Journal annielaurie's Journal: Book Musings 2
Thoughts about a few (very few) books from last night's list that are lifetime favorites of mine. I've added a few from other peoples' lists, and a few that weren't on this list.
Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice
In her quiet way, she seems to nail just what it was like, what went on, and how things were in her own society. Who would our Jane Austen be? For now, I'd have to say Brett Easton Ellis. Authors like this are living time machines, mirrors to their own presents. I might add F. Scott Fitzgerald to the list.
Camus, Albert - The Stranger*
As with someone else, I liked "The Plague" better.
Crane, Stephen - The Red Badge of Courage
Not very well written, even for the stilted prose of his day. I would team it with "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque for a look at what war actually does to the people fighting.
Ellison, Ralph - Invisible Man
An angry book by an angry man--but full of surprisingly witty portraits and observations. It's hard to call a book of this calibre "entertaining," but it truly is. Read also the "Autobiography of Malcolm X," an even angrier man.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Scarlet Letter
This is just a damned good story.
Homer - The Odyssey -
This book is on my nightstand. I was given it in an obscure translation by a man named Palmer that makes one drunk with the rhythms of the sea. Where the Iliad has always struck me as being about war, testosterone, and stupidity, the Odyssey is more introspective, more home-centered, more grown-up.
London, Jack - The Call of the Wild.
I actually like Jack London, too. I said last night I didn't know why, but maybe I've thought about it a bit. There has to be a place on anybody's list for just plain good yarns. Here's one.
Marquez, Gabriel García - One Hundred Years of Solitude
This is an intoxicating book.
Miller, Arthur - The Crucible
I hadn't thought about this play in years. It's certainly my favorite of all Arthur Miller's works. I couldn't help wondering how far down this same path we've walked over the past couple of years, and who the Arthur Miller of this generation might be. We're going to need one.
Remarque, Erich Maria - All Quiet on the Western Front - already paired it with "Red Badge of Courage."
Sophocles - Antigone, Oedipus Rex
Don't forget about "Electra" while you're reading Sophocles. I find it more compelling even than "Oedipus."
Those are a few.
What else is on my nightstand (or in the stack beside my bed)?
"The Shipping News" by E. Annie Proulx. Don't be duped by the boring film. This is a fine book about growth and transformation.
"Night Letters: Inside Wartime Afghanistan" Rob Schulteis. Not this war, but the one they went through ten years ago. This man loves the country and its people. That alone would make the book worth reading, but his prose is beautiful.
"Carry Me Home" Diane McWhorter. The author and I are very close in age. She grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and I spent a substantial part of my youth there. This is what it was like.
Yay! (Score:2)
I pick up The Shipping News every 12-18 months and read it again, just for the beauty of the glorious prose and the quiet, simple story that observes the depth and meaning in the life of a normal guy. If I were to write a theme paper about this book, it would be about th
Re:Yay! (Score:2)
I read it from cover to cover as soon as I got home, and then I turned right around and read it again. The film is stodgy and ponderous; the book is luminous and alive. And you're right about the women; they're all there; they're present even in the little girls.
Such a book!