The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Delta Trade Paperbacks, [2003], c1982.
294 p. ; 18 cm.
I first read The Color Purple back in the early 80s, and so it was an interesting experience to reread it, now that it has become a classic of American literature and is still popular with readers - including our high school students.
There is a lot to recommend The Color Purple - strong narrative voice, dynamic characters, shifting relationships and conflicts, and satisfying outcomes. The novel deals with incest, abuse, women's rights, racism, and religion - so it's not surprising that there is an inherent interest in the novel. Also the novel is very accessible, written in letter format - mostly imagined letters from the main character, Celie, and a few from her sister Nettie.
I remember back when I read Alice Walker's book, it was a popular sensation: many people were reading and talking about it, and then it became a major motion picture. I enjoyed it a lot back then. Reading it a second time I found myself less taken with it.
I'd say my greatest problems with the novel are the extreme character change in the main character - from timid, whipped-dog subservient victim to sassy, smart and free-thinking feminist - the set pieces where characters go on and on, basically expounding the author's beliefs about pantheistic religion, Afrocentric pride, feminist principles, and new-age self esteem. It's not that I disagree with all of her views; it's just that they seem out of place historically and out of character at times. My last disappointment was with the unbelievable happy outcomes of the novel. I like just a little more salt and less sugar to end my favorite novels - and without giving away the ending, there is just so much triumph and happiness in the end that I was scratching my head in disbelief.
Negative criticisms aside - The Color Purple remains a powerful, engaging story that many readers - young adult to old adult - are likely to enjoy.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Wind, Mist, Shipwrecks and Shadows
The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
New York: Little, Brown, 2011, c2010.
232p. ; 21 cm.
[trans. from Spanish]
Ruiz Zafón is the author of the bestselling novel, The Shadow of the Wind, which I read about 5 years ago on the recommendation of an exchange student from Argentina who was attending our high school. He was very enthusiastic about Shadow of the Wind, telling me it was the best book he ever read and that it changed his life! I read it and was an immediate fan. So, when The Prince of Mist was recently published in the US, I bought it for our library right away.
The Prince of Mist is interesting in that it is Ruiz Zafón's first novel, and was written back in 1993. It was published in Spain and was both written for and marketed to young adults - unlike Shadow of the Wind, which was written for adults.
I was not surprised to find out that The Prince of Mist was his first novel - the writing is just not as accomplished as his later novel. That he wrote it for younger readers is also apparent in that the writing is far more conventional and cliched than his later work. I was wondering as I read it, if some of the weaker passages were the fault of the author or the translator - but since Lucia Graves is the translator of both, I'm guessing the shortcomings are of the author.
Shortcomings aside, The Prince of Mist is a great read. It's an excellent example of an atmospheric novel - set in an indeterminate place along the coast during WWII, where clocks sometimes run backwards, statues move, and a cat has more personality than many people you may know. It also has a lot of nice touches of creepy horror - demonic voices, a malign cat, an evil clown, a shipwreck where all but one passenger died, etc. The book is also well plotted, compelling the reader to want to find out what happens, and has romance, family relationships, romance and a climatic violent struggle. The novel is also a good example of the archetype "fairy tale" between good and evil, promises made and broken, and the dangers of making deals with the "devil."
I was meaning to read it when I bought it - since I liked Shadow of the Wind so much - but I knew I had to read it when a student returned it recently and asked if we had the sequel to the book. He definitely liked The Prince of Mist and was eager to read the next book by Ruiz Zafón,.
Monday, January 2, 2012
More Baldwin, Better Baldwin
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
New York: Delta Trade Paperbacks, [2000], c1956.
169 p. ; 21 cm.
After reading Go Tell it On the Mountain during the summer, a teacher at our school suggested that I read Giovanni's Room. She said it was her favorite Baldwin novel.
The novel, published in 1956, is a powerful story of a young gay man struggling to come to terms with love, identity and convention in 1950s Paris. The novel is passionate and heartfelt, and is one of the great early gay novels rich in character and the nuances of Parisian expatriate and gay life in the 1950s.
I really loved how subtly Baldwin is able to convey the complexities of characters trying to unravel their identities and live in authentic ways. He also conveys the self-deception and destructiveness that homophobia and conventional mores foster in those characters.
I would definitely recommend Giovanni's Room to anyone wanting to explore the novels of James Baldwin.
New York: Delta Trade Paperbacks, [2000], c1956.
169 p. ; 21 cm.
After reading Go Tell it On the Mountain during the summer, a teacher at our school suggested that I read Giovanni's Room. She said it was her favorite Baldwin novel.
The novel, published in 1956, is a powerful story of a young gay man struggling to come to terms with love, identity and convention in 1950s Paris. The novel is passionate and heartfelt, and is one of the great early gay novels rich in character and the nuances of Parisian expatriate and gay life in the 1950s.
I really loved how subtly Baldwin is able to convey the complexities of characters trying to unravel their identities and live in authentic ways. He also conveys the self-deception and destructiveness that homophobia and conventional mores foster in those characters.
I would definitely recommend Giovanni's Room to anyone wanting to explore the novels of James Baldwin.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Reckoning the Experience of War
What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes
New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, c2011.
xii, 256 p. ; 22 cm.
I bought this book after reading a positive review of it in Leatherneck, the magazine of the US Marines. I was interested in it since the author had been a US Marine in Vietnam and a Rhodes scholar and a novelist. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm really very opposed to war, except as a last resort and have no interest in books that romanticize or glorify combat.
This book is a thoughtful, honest account of the experience of deadly combat on a young, intelligent person. The author takes exceptional pains to be honest about his behaviors, motivations, fears, successes, and what he as learned of war and combat through both experience and study. He is not interested in glorifying combat or vilifying enemies that the US has waged war with. His goal seems to be to try to convey what the life-altering and profoundly destructive nature of war is like to anyone who will read his book.
Whatever one's opinions are on the military adventures of the United States, anyone working with young people knows that many of the students we work with choose the military as an option after high school or are considering it as an option. With that in mind, a book such as What It Is Like to Go to War would be a very beneficial book to get into the hands of any thoughtful student who wants to wrestle with the idea of war and his or her possible participation in war or who asks if there is an account of what war is like.
New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, c2011.
xii, 256 p. ; 22 cm.
I bought this book after reading a positive review of it in Leatherneck, the magazine of the US Marines. I was interested in it since the author had been a US Marine in Vietnam and a Rhodes scholar and a novelist. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm really very opposed to war, except as a last resort and have no interest in books that romanticize or glorify combat.
This book is a thoughtful, honest account of the experience of deadly combat on a young, intelligent person. The author takes exceptional pains to be honest about his behaviors, motivations, fears, successes, and what he as learned of war and combat through both experience and study. He is not interested in glorifying combat or vilifying enemies that the US has waged war with. His goal seems to be to try to convey what the life-altering and profoundly destructive nature of war is like to anyone who will read his book.
Whatever one's opinions are on the military adventures of the United States, anyone working with young people knows that many of the students we work with choose the military as an option after high school or are considering it as an option. With that in mind, a book such as What It Is Like to Go to War would be a very beneficial book to get into the hands of any thoughtful student who wants to wrestle with the idea of war and his or her possible participation in war or who asks if there is an account of what war is like.
War, Survival, and... Oh, That Other Thing
New York : Wendy Lamb Books, c2004.
194 p. ; 22 cm.
How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff's first novel, came out almost eight years ago - and it was about that long ago when I first read it. It received a lot of critical praise - including the Printz Award - and I recall that I liked it well enough. I revisited the novel because recently our English department was looking for a novel that would be required reading for English 9 classes - and the teachers wanted a novel that was engaging, relatively contemporary and had a high lexile score. How I Live Now seemed to answer all those requirements: it involves teen characters in an imagined contemporary England, its lexile score is over 1300, and it involves suspense, war and violence, family relationships, and romance - so it should be popular for both young men and women.
I found I really enjoyed the novel the second time. It is well written, interesting, timely and mature. It deals with themes of terrorism, violence, survival, family bonds, mild dislocation (an American in England), serious dislocation (war refugees) and is well plotted and moves along. There would be a lot to discuss in a classroom regarding this novel...BUT...
...there would be one (very big) problem with using this novel as required reading in a class: the main love affair involves a sixteen year old girl (the narrator) in an intense and sexual relationship with her fourteen year old first cousin. It's too bad - really - because the plot and deep issues of the novel do not depend on having these two lovers being family or being fourteen and sixteen. If they both were sixteen or seventeen and not blood relatives, then the novel would be fine for classes - since the sexual activity is just referred to and not detailed by the author. Of course, one can not expect an author to change their artistic expression just to fit the needs of a school curriculum, but it would be interesting to hear why Rosoff felt it was necessary to have the two lovers be blood relatives and for one to be so young....
That addresses the usefulness of the book as required curriculum material, but my other dislike was with the end of the novel. Without spoiling too much of the plot, I found the six year jump in time at the end of the novel and the absolute and complete personality change in one of the main characters to be rather unbelievable. I think a shorter jump in time would have been effective and a more subtle (and yet still disturbing/damaging) character change would have made the ending more poignant and less melodramatic.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Uglies a Pretty Good Read
New York : Simon Pulse, 2005.
1st Simon Pulse ed.
425 p. ; 18 cm.
Uglies is the first of the trilogy by Scott Westerfeld exploring a utopian/dystopian future where everyone is surgically made beautiful when they turn 16. In the tradition of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, all is not perfect in the perfect world of those who are turned into "pretties" and set to live out a life of fun, beauty and light-hearted distraction.
The main character, Tally, discovers that there are those who opt out of becoming "pretty" and live in a hidden settlement called the Smoke. Tally's interest in the Smoke brings her to the attention of the ultra authoritarian Specials who run her society, and leads Tally into some serious ethical dilemmas.
There is a lot of substance to Westerfeld's Uglies. The book holds an uncomfortable mirror up to our current social situation with its obsessions with appearance, shallow pursuits, conformity, and social controls. The plotting of Uglies is deft and draws one in quickly so that you really want to know what's going to happen.
Another positive aspect to Westerfeld's Uglies is that there is something for both male and female readers in this novel - relationships, romance, thrills, danger, violence, excitement and a creatively imagined future world. Lastly, my experience in a high school library is that the book is popular and circulates frequently - as do the follow up books to the trilogy: Pretties and Specials - and there's nothing ugly about that!
Monday, November 14, 2011
Dessen Does Not Disappoint
Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen
New York : Viking, 1998.
281 p. ; 22 cm.
Novels by Sarah Dessen are popular at UHS Library and I've been meaning to read one of her novels for a long time. After finishing The Handmaid's Tale for our book club, I decided to pull Someone Like You off the shelf and take it home to read.
The novel focuses on two senior high school friends, Scarlett and Halley who are neighbors and best friends. Early in the novel Scarlett is pregnant and Halley is changing from her parents' "good girl" into a young woman interested in serious dating, and breaking rules. Halley's coming of age is complicated by having a mother who's professional life is being a writer/expert on raising adolescents. It sounds all rather boilerplate and boring, but...
Dessen has an extraordinary ear for dialogue and for subtlety that escapes many less capable YA authors. Her strength is very rich character development that avoids stock characters and stereotypes. Additionally her plotting is interesting and moves along briskly; I found the book hard to put down. Probably the most refreshing aspect of this book was the way in which almost all the characters in the book are sympathetic, but imperfect. Reading it, I found my sympathies shifting between characters as they developed and confronted situations that showed their deeper qualities...
I would definitely recommend Sarah Dessen to anyone interested in the "problem novel" who wants a well written, complex, character-driven but enjoyable story.
New York : Viking, 1998.
281 p. ; 22 cm.
Novels by Sarah Dessen are popular at UHS Library and I've been meaning to read one of her novels for a long time. After finishing The Handmaid's Tale for our book club, I decided to pull Someone Like You off the shelf and take it home to read.
The novel focuses on two senior high school friends, Scarlett and Halley who are neighbors and best friends. Early in the novel Scarlett is pregnant and Halley is changing from her parents' "good girl" into a young woman interested in serious dating, and breaking rules. Halley's coming of age is complicated by having a mother who's professional life is being a writer/expert on raising adolescents. It sounds all rather boilerplate and boring, but...
Dessen has an extraordinary ear for dialogue and for subtlety that escapes many less capable YA authors. Her strength is very rich character development that avoids stock characters and stereotypes. Additionally her plotting is interesting and moves along briskly; I found the book hard to put down. Probably the most refreshing aspect of this book was the way in which almost all the characters in the book are sympathetic, but imperfect. Reading it, I found my sympathies shifting between characters as they developed and confronted situations that showed their deeper qualities...
I would definitely recommend Sarah Dessen to anyone interested in the "problem novel" who wants a well written, complex, character-driven but enjoyable story.
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