The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

It's been thrity years since i read this - no, thirty-four. I haven't forgotten a bit of it - funny how the mind works. It's not my favorite Hemingway by a long shot. Too much drinking, none of the characters are sympathetic, and I really disliked Brett. Also, now that I know Jake's problem, it's not quite as interesting. In a way, it's too minimalist - I would certainly like a little more detail and less aimless wandering about, but I guess that's the whole point of the "lost generation".

Anyway, it was good to read it again - it's a fast read if you have read it before.

Enough reading?

I've been taking a break from writing, ever since I decided to take another class, and exposing myself to as much "different" writing as I could. I think I've done a pretty good job. The class should be starting Monday, except it has been postponed a week (what's up with that?). I still have a couple of Hemingway novels in the queue, and they are "easy" reads, so I'll probably finish those over the next week. I'm ready to get back to writing!

Joe by Larry Brown

A literary novel - don't look for any plot because there isn't any. The characters are about as Faulkneresque as you can get, moved forward into the modern times of the late twentieth century. Poor, white trash, low-down, dirty, nasty, men and women. You know it's going to be bad as soon as you start reading it, and it's worse. Yet you can't look away.

I also read Fay, some time ago. Fay makes an appearence in this book, before she runs off to ruin some lives in her own novel. The writing is great, even if the subject matter is dark and gritty. There is none of the obfuscation of Faulkner - everything is plainly written and easy to follow, even if you don't really want to know what is happening.

It's a shame Larry Brown died young. I get the feeling he was writing what he knew in these books, and I can't help but wonder if that didn't contribute to his early death.

Vacation Trip

I did another AT hike, which you can find on the new "pursuits" page. Short report: Rain, sleet, snow, lots of climbs, lots of fun.

Algonkian Class postponed

What's up with that? I sent an email this morning, since I had heard nothing from them, and got a response that it had been postponed a week - no real explanation. Of course, I planned my vacation around it. I would be pissed if I had planned my vacation for the week afterwards. I guess I will reserve judgement until I actually get into the class, but the delay does not inspire confidence.

The Third Secret by Steve Berry

I guess I am on a Steve Berry kick - this is the second of his thrillers that I have read. This is a strange one - not what I expected at all. Politics in the Vatican. Popes that commit crimes (even murder!). No, it's not the Renaisance, but modern times. Very strange and not entirely plausible, but it's a thriller.

The "secret" turned out to be political in nature - I won't spoil it for you, but it has to do with reform in the Catholic Church. I usually don't care for novels that have a political message. I don't like being preached too, but in this case it's still a page-turner, and I had a lot of fun reading it.

The Amber Room by Steve Berry

I attended a talk by Steve Berry at the GWA back in January '06. He was accepting the Georgia Author of the Year award. I was very impressed by his knowledge and dedication to his craft.

I think this is his first published novel. Sometimes it is difficult to figure the order of publication of novels out, but I believe that is what I heard him say. There are some errors, particularly the indefinite pronouns. I started out marking them, then lost interest - there are quite a few. In his favor though, I am now reading his second book (I think) "The Third Secret" and I have yet to find an error of any kind - he obviously corrected the problem.

It's an international thriller, about a group of art collectors willing to murder to acquire art treasures. A willing suspension of disbelief is required, by which I mean that the plot is a little far fetched. It moves along quickly, holds the interest, has villians that you love to hate - all the elements of a good thriller. It's meticulously researched.

I'm having great fun reading his books. After meeting him in person it's very inspiring to see him in action, so to speak. I feel like there is hope for me to get published, if I work as hard as he has.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

I somehow escaped having to read this thirty years ago. That's probably a good thing, since I would not have appreciated it then. I'm not sure I do now. There is a depressing lack of action on the part of all the family members suppressed and tormented by Heathcliff. I just want to slap them into action, any action. I suppose the book is true to its era, though. Powerless women. Weak, frail gentry. Servants that aid and abet wicked behavior. Such a cheerful time!

The narration is similar to another novel I don't really care for - Absalom, Absalom! Wuthering Heights is entirely told by Ellen Dean, a servant who just happens to be around when anything interesting happens. She is relating most of it years after it has happened to a stranger who is interested (of course) in what occured. That makes for a cold telling, in my opinion. The stilted language of the day doesn't help much.

Even more tragic is the life of the author and her sisters. Thank God for modern medicine and doctors!

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

It's a testament to the holes in my literary education that I had never heard of Robert Penn Warren until I read Faulkner's biography. This is a massive well-written book. It makes me want to quit writing, to give up my own weak efforts in embarassment.

He is the master of metaphor and imagery. Try this: There wasn't any sound for what must have been three seconds but seemed like a week while a mourning dove down in the clump of trees in the bottom where the hogs were gave a couple of tries at breaking his heart and mine.

People say this book is about the politician Willie Stark. Not in my humble opinion. It's about his employee, the narrator of the novel, Jack Burden. He's not named "burden" for nothing, since he spends most of the novel shouldering burdens on his soul. He is as sarcastic as they come, but a completely believable complex character in Warren's hands.

There is plenty of plot, just the way I like my novels. Lots of twists and turns, unexpected facts, and a satisfying tie-up at the end.

My only criticisms are that the prose is heavy and repetitious. At times Warren confuses the reader with the timeline. Those are small criticisms though, and were not enough for me to abandon reading it as I have done with some other (boring) literary novels.

So if you are like me and have never heard of Warren or been exposed to his work, give this one a read - you won't be disappointed.

one flew over the cuckoo's nest by Ken Kesey

We are lucky to have this book, and the stage play and movie based on it, since Kesey seems to be another of those self-medicating authors. We shouldn't judge the novel based on Kesey's life, but it's hard not to. Can you imagine if Faulkner or Fitzgerald had gone on a tour promoting alcohol use? Drink yourself into oblivion! Ruin your health! Reach an early grave! Ludicrous? Well, Ken Kesey went on a bus tour promoting drug use. At least he produced this one novel before he killed his creativity.

The novel is a Christ analogy, with McMurphy as Christ, giving hs life to set free the other asylum members. It's very well done, although the analogy is a little obvious at times. If you have seen the movie (with Jack Nicholson), the book had a big difference. The novel is narrated entirely by Chief, the big native-american, and everything is filtered through his medicated and insane brain. That's what I call an unreliable narrator!

Nurse Ratched, who has become an icon in popular culture because of the movie, really doesn't come off that bad in the book, at least in my opinion. Remember, everything is filtered through Chief's troubled mind. Yes, she runs the ward lik a military operation, but I remember the movie being much worse on her character than the book.

By all means read this book - you will get a much different take on the story than the movie.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

An almost perfect little gem of a book, carefully crafted and expertly written. It deserves it's place in the high school and college classroom. I think I had to read it as a senior in high school. It's nice now to go back and refresh my memory.

What is striking about it, now that I am reading and re-reading so many other novels, is that "Gatsby" has plot. So many of the literary novels are lacking in plot, focusing instead on character. Fitzgerald pulls us along, first with the mystery of Gatsby, then with the love affair, then the hit-and-run accident. The characters are strong, of course, but that little bit of plot seems to make this novel so much better.

The Centaur by John Updike

A masterful literary novel. If you can make it through the first chapter, you will be rewarded with the rest of the book. I almost gave up on the first chapter, almost threw the book in the trash (I only paid $1.95 for it at the used bookstore!), but I continued, just to see if it was more of the same, and was pleasently surprised to find a masterpiece of fiction in the second chapter. Everything is handled perfectly, from the viewpoint of a teenage boy getting up and going to school, while observing his family, and especially his father. It's an excellent model to study.

The rest of the book has more of those moments, interspersed with the "Greek Mythology" episodes. The allegory is Chiron and Prometheus, with the father being Chiron and the son Prometheus. I would almost like to see the book without the allegory, without the Greek mythology sections, just to see if it would be successful. I'm sure it's erudite and scholarly, but I can't help but wonder if it is really needed.

This is a literary novel, so if you are looking for plot, you won't find it. Now that I have read both Updike and Wolf, the famous feuders, I have to say that Updike has the edge!