"Catch-22" from Kelli

Reading Catch-22 is a Catch-22. It's not good enough to want to keep reading, but its not bad enough to want to stop reading. Out of the 450 pages there are to get through, I'm at 302 after reading for over two weeks! Usually, things do not take me the long. Especially when I'm on winter-freaking-break.

The short chapters, which I thought would make it easier to read, have proven to be excuses for me to stop reading after only a few pages each night - slowing my pace down tremendously. The book is picking up a bit - since approx. page 250, so hopefully these last 150 pages will start flowing. You'll get my full report soon (I think). Maybe Catch-22 was the wrong choice for the end of the year. I still need to finish this book AND another before the new year. Wish me luck!

"Lord of the Flies" from Kelli

I was the only one who hadn't read "Lord of the Flies" yet. Apparently it's a high school classic that I avoided at all costs so I wouldn't appear "mainstream" in my high school reading for pleasure class. Perhaps I should have read it in high school, because the novel is so impactful and has been for generations.

William Golding's symbolism is beautiful and timely (the book was published in 1954) and clearly reflects his own dissatisfaction with the current results of the human experiment with democracy and governing. In my estimation, Golding is like an earlier, less sardonic version of Kurt Vonnegut who comments on and critiques our society through this brief, but dense allegorical story.

In my brief research into the book, I found that it was not originally a success and went out of print shortly after its initial publication date. In the 60s though, the book rapidly gained popularity and has since been on three different "short lists" of the best novels of the 20th century. Perhaps the book was more appreciated in the 60s due to the rising anti-war sentiments in the Western world.

If you, like me, didn't find this book on your high school reading list, don't hesitate to add it to your current reading list,

"In Our Time" from Kelli

I hated Hemingway in high school. I found him to be a pompous, womanizing, uninteresting pile of shit. It turns out, he is pompous and womanizing, but he's actually quite interesting and his writing is understated, but beautiful.

When I first started reading "In Our Time", I thought I was going to be reading a series of stories about our country in its war-torn days during the first World War. Instead, what I found was a collection of stories chronicling everyday happenings during war. Hemingway has a wonderful way of weaving in the subtle ways that the people in the stories have been affected by the war.

About 60 pages in, I misplaced the book for 2 weeks and so I opted to pick up Franny and Zooey to continue my trek toward 100. When I thought all was lost and was ready to order the Kindle edition so I could keep going, I found it in the crevice of my couch and finished the book within the week.

My favorite story is the third to last in the book (the stories get better as you go on, so the end of the book held all of the jewels) called "My Old Man". It is written from the point of view of a small boy who idolizes his father, who is a jockey. The prose is so descriptive I was sure Hemingway had some experience with horse racing when he was younger. As it turns out, he did not, so I went in search of some other experience he may have had that shaped this wonderful story. What I found was that, for a short period of time right out of high school, Hemingway had a job as a journalist for the Kansas City Star and modeled his initial writings off of a sports writer he admired. His famously to-the-point style was taken directly from his first days as a journalist where he learned: "Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative."

Although I was initially tiffed that so many Hemingway novels were on the top 100 list (because of my deep-seated hatred), I'm now looking forward to reading more of his work. As long as he continues to be a straight-shooter, he's a-OK with me.

Defeated by "On the Road" - Lynn

I just can't do it yet.  I am supposed to have been reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac, but I can't.  This is the second time I've attempted to read this book.  The first time I got about thirty dogged, molasses, slo-mo pages in and couldn't proceed.  This time, with memories of the first slog in my mind, I gave up after a page.

Here's the thing: Jack Kerouac is a smug, self-satisfied, ass.  Of the most detestable, sexist kind.  What might have been hip in the 1950s, daddy-o, is insufferable in the 21st century.  Even his first, flip, sentence is a turn off, "I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up."

I'll bet they split up.  I'll bet they split up because he was an insufferable boor who needed to be on the road because no one could put up with him for very long.

I'm going to have to be pushing a 100 books - goal well within reach - to be able to suffer this nowheresville drag.  

"Ethan Frome" - Lynn's Take

I just finished Ethan Frome this very moment and I am so mad at Ethan that I could spit -- talk about someone who needs to grow a pair!

If he hadn't just accepted, unquestioningly, the constricts and demands of his life (and his wife), he could have done what he wanted, whether it be studying or running off with Mattie.  For that matter, if he had been less colorless, maybe Zeena would have been a better wife.

I love and hate this book.  The writing is spare and crisp, the story is compelling - that, I love.  But the women are (unflatteringly) stereotyped - that I hate.

I would love to read this same story told from Zeena's point of view, and from Mattie's

"Their Eyes Were Watching God" - Lynn's Take

I started to read the novel's introductions by two renowned Zora Neale Hurston scholars, but I stopped because they were so stiflingly academic.  I'm glad I didn't read them through, because they came close to killing my desire to read Their Eyes Were Watching God, and it is a profound and profoundly enjoyable read without all the folderol about how important it is.

I had a little trouble at first with the dialogue, which is written in stereotypical southern-black vernacular.  It made me feel vaguely bigoted for participating in something that seemed so disrespectful.  I had to remind myself several times that it was written in the early 20th century, and by an African-American writer.  Times change and context matters.

Once I got past the dialogue, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.  Janie Crawford is a strong woman who withstands, but doesn't bow to, the indignities in her life.  Despite the constricts of her position as a woman in a  male dominated society, she refuses to be satisfied with what is acceptable and looks until she finds a relationship that allows her to experience the love she wants and to be completely herself.

Beyond the strong character Hurston built in Janie, the descriptive power of the book is captivating, and the innovative framing of the story (Janie telling her story to her friend Phoeby in the course of an evening) grounds it.

"Franny and Zooey" from Kelli

Most people know J.D. Salinger for his novel "The Catcher in the Rye" (which all of us have already read, so you won't be seeing a post about it). Lesser known, but still on the top 100 novels list, is another short read - "Franny and Zooey".

The novel opens with an interaction between Franny, a young college girl, and her beau Lane. We witness a reunion between the two for about 40 pages before Franny falls out and the section ends. We then open up on the Glass' house, where we meet Zooey - Franny's slightly older brother. The rest of the novel is basically the siblings dealing with still being sad about their eldest brother, Seymour, committing suicide and Franny being disgusted with the egos of everyone around her and trying to start saying the Jesus Prayer all the time.

The best part of the book is the first 40 pages. Afterward it goes in a strange spiral where everyone is snippy and then sad and they talk about Jesus, but you're not really sure if it's really about their feelings toward Jesus, or the world, or if it's just about two siblings coming together after some tough times in the family.

Either way, Salinger still has an ear for colloquial language and it was a fairly quick and enjoyable read. If you have to choose, though, take "The Catcher".

"My Ántonia" - Caitlin's Thoughts

This was the only one of the 100 books I had brought with me to school this semester so I really had no other options when one Saturday morning I decided to check a book off the list. Here are my thoughts.

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS: Typically when a book takes place in Black Hawk, Nebraska, I won’t pick it up. Call it close-minded prejudice or husker-hatred or whatever you want. Black Hawk, Nebraska just sounds boring. This was always my impression of My Ántonia. And you know what? My impression was right. It is kind of boring. That said, I really enjoyed it. It was the kind of boring that happens in Laura Ingalls Wilder or Louisa May Alcott books. Very nineteenth century “here’s-everything-that-happened-during-my-entire-boring-day” narrative but with a twentieth century theme of nostalgia, a wonderful hint of religious apathy and just a pinch of early feminism. Plus once in awhile there’d be a just perfect sentence. Not like super beautiful literary techniques or anything an English major would appreciate but a great sentence that just ended a chapter so well that I wanted to put the book down and think about it for a minute or two before continuing. The general condemnation of eastern European immigrants was vaguely uncomfortable but the rest of the book felt contemporary and accessible. As my roommate said- “Nostalgia done well!”

SPOILER ALERTS: I typically love really happy sappy romantic endings but the fact that this book didn’t have one made it all the better.

MUSINGS: Is it wrong that my favorite character was a slutty dressmaker?

GRADE SHEET:
Narrator’s Likability: B+
Pace: C+
Readability: A
Satisfying Ending: B
Attention to Detail: A+++
Facts about extreme cold: C- (not once did she mention your breath might freeze!)

"In Our Time" - Lynn's take

It took me a long time to "get into" this book.  I was looking for a strong theme between the stories, and I didn't find it.  Finally, the beautiful writing overtook the lack of connection (at least that I could find) between the stories and I began to enjoy it.

I am so, So, SO glad that I slogged through the confusion of not understanding the book's theme.  The payoff at the end was tremendous.  I don't believe I've ever read a more absorbing story than the two part, "Big Hearted River." Hemingway's writing is so clear, so transparent, that I felt I was actually on the river with Nick.  Here's an example of the shining prose, describing Nick's interaction with a trout:

"He hung unsteadily in the current, then settled to the bottom behind a stone.  Nick reached down his hand to touch him, his arm to the elbow under water.  The trout was steady in the moving stream, resting on the gravel, beside a stone.  As Nick's fingers touched him, touched his smooth, cool, underwater feeling he was gone, gone in a shadow across the bottom of the stream."  


When I finished the book, I still didn't have a sure idea what the theme was.  I thought about it for awhile and decided that all of the stories were about men with whom Nick served during WWI.  I was wrong.  In fact the book's theme is much looser:  "In Our Time" (just after WWI) is the theme.  Good name then, eh?

The Challenge

We're all busy. That goes without saying. But sometimes our lives are so busy we lose time for what's important, sharing our lives with family, keeping up with friends, watching the Amazing Race when it's new, and most often- books. So the brilliant Kelli came up with a solution to all of those problems (well, except the Amazing Race issue)- the 100x4 challenge. We will read 100 books from the 20th century by the end of the year 2014. The list (chosen by Kelli for whatever reasons she has not disclosed to me) can be found here: http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/radcliffes-rival-100-best-novels-list/.


At first, I thought this challenge would be easy. I can read a translated 300 page novel from the 19th century in about eight hours. An English language 200 page book from the 20th century? Less than four. The problem is that to read 100 books in four years, I have to read twenty five books a year. That averages out to about a book every two weeks. That means that every two weeks I need to find four hours where I won't be reading law books, outlining for finals, trying to find a job, eating, sleeping, working out, talking to my grandparents, or watching the West Wing. Obviously, this challenge is going to be a lot harder than I thought when I agreed to participate. As a competitive person who loves reading, I think I can do it. I think we all can. And so, it begins!


Totals as of October 1st which is approximately when we began:
Lynn (who has an advantage because she's been reading a bit longer than us): 40
Marie (who was an English major): 27
Caitlin (who didn't have friends in middle school): 22
Kelli (who has a lot of work ahead of her): 21