I could honestly "take or leave" this book. The format fit well into my busy schedule recently with nice short chapters and a pretty fast-moving plot line. It held my interest; I just didn't love this book. I need pretty language and lovable/hate-able characters, but Casino Royale was more of a straight forward, (to me) stereotypical boys' book. James Bond, like in the movies, is that man that everyone wants to be...he has a hot girl, a cool job, and he gets to eat/drink/play like he's filthy rich. Bond, however, hasn't completely become that stereotypically "cool" guy. This time, he actually falls in love with the girl and gets burned...which is what probably sparks the detached Bond of the later movies (I've only read Casino Royale of the 007 book series, and I think I may keep it that way). I think what really kept me from loving this book was Fleming's preoccupation with "boy" things; he focuses on the gambling exchange between Bond and Le Chiffre for way too long, the torture scene is close to being too graphic for my taste. Generally, Fleming paid much more attention to the plot line or his own personal hobbies (like gambling) instead of fully developing the characters.
Sorry I didn't give much of a plot line or anything; just one of those books where you have to read it (or watch the movie) to get the story, but there's nothing in the novel to really pick up on and discuss.
My rating: 7.5/10
Next up: Labyrinths by Jose Luis Borges. I love Latin American authors, but this book seems a little out of my typical comfort zone for reading. It's a compilation of many of Borges' fiction, essays, and parables, most of which are explorations of physics and social theories, so I may end up struggling a bit. At least when I get bored of one story, it's probably going to be relatively short and can move onto the next one soon. I'll update you as I go or when I'm finished, depending on my time constraints.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
So Long A Letter by Mariama Ba
I read this novel as another part of my required reading for my Gender in 20th Century Africa class, and, like God's Bits of Wood, I really liked this book. It's a super-fast read, only about 90 pages or so, and I'm interested to see what we're going to do with it during class discussion.
The novel is set up as a letter between the main character, Ramatoulaye, and her friend Aissatou; both are women who went to school to become teachers in a time when African women's limits in professions were limited largely to being either midwives or teachers (rather reminiscent of an article I read recently that discussed Saudi women's limitations in education to teaching or medicine...makes you kinda rethink the pervasive stereotype that Africa is far behind any place else in the world). The novel begins as Ramatoulaye finds out that she has been widowed by a husband that she married for love soon after school and who had recently broken the trust in the marriage by taking a second wife and beginning to ignore her and their children together for the sake of a younger girl, who was forced to marry by her mother in hopes of increasing that family's material standing.
Although the story is fantastic, I was much more fascinated by the underlying theme that I saw in the story: a discussion of the place that marriage should have in a "modern" African society. The story ends happily, with two of Ramatoulaye's daughters marrying/planning to marry for love (one completely by choice; the other's marriage is accelerated due to an unplanned pregnancy), rather than material wealth. None of the main characters at the end of the book were taking social expectations for granted. Very early in the novel Aissatou leaves her husband for taking a second wife and takes her sons to the U.S., where she works as a translator. Ramatoulaye has forsaken expectations, turning down marriage proposals from her husband's brother and another well-to-do man to begin courting. The novel contains ample amounts of heartache throughout the story, but, by the end, I think that it presents a realistic hope for improvement for the lot of women in Africa.
My rating: 9/10
The novel is set up as a letter between the main character, Ramatoulaye, and her friend Aissatou; both are women who went to school to become teachers in a time when African women's limits in professions were limited largely to being either midwives or teachers (rather reminiscent of an article I read recently that discussed Saudi women's limitations in education to teaching or medicine...makes you kinda rethink the pervasive stereotype that Africa is far behind any place else in the world). The novel begins as Ramatoulaye finds out that she has been widowed by a husband that she married for love soon after school and who had recently broken the trust in the marriage by taking a second wife and beginning to ignore her and their children together for the sake of a younger girl, who was forced to marry by her mother in hopes of increasing that family's material standing.
Although the story is fantastic, I was much more fascinated by the underlying theme that I saw in the story: a discussion of the place that marriage should have in a "modern" African society. The story ends happily, with two of Ramatoulaye's daughters marrying/planning to marry for love (one completely by choice; the other's marriage is accelerated due to an unplanned pregnancy), rather than material wealth. None of the main characters at the end of the book were taking social expectations for granted. Very early in the novel Aissatou leaves her husband for taking a second wife and takes her sons to the U.S., where she works as a translator. Ramatoulaye has forsaken expectations, turning down marriage proposals from her husband's brother and another well-to-do man to begin courting. The novel contains ample amounts of heartache throughout the story, but, by the end, I think that it presents a realistic hope for improvement for the lot of women in Africa.
My rating: 9/10
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Reading Update
Just a quick update on my 1,001 Books reading process:
I think I might give myself a bit of a break from The Autumn of the Patriarch. The set-up of the book is just not conducive to my reading habits. I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez's writing style with long, descriptive sentences and hugely symbolic language, but it's hard to follow when I'm trying to read a few lines in between classes and such. So, I'm pondering my next book choice a bit. I'm thinking Casino Royale by Ian Fleming or taking a break from the 1,001 Books list for Isabel Allende's Zorro (I adore her...I'm sure I'll be writing a retroactive review of House of the Spirits sometime soon), which was recommended to me a few years ago.
And just a warning in general: reading and, therefore, posting will be a bit infrequent over the next few weeks as my last! semester winds down. I have some papers and tests (and job applications!) that are going to be more important than reading for fun over the next few weeks.
I think I might give myself a bit of a break from The Autumn of the Patriarch. The set-up of the book is just not conducive to my reading habits. I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez's writing style with long, descriptive sentences and hugely symbolic language, but it's hard to follow when I'm trying to read a few lines in between classes and such. So, I'm pondering my next book choice a bit. I'm thinking Casino Royale by Ian Fleming or taking a break from the 1,001 Books list for Isabel Allende's Zorro (I adore her...I'm sure I'll be writing a retroactive review of House of the Spirits sometime soon), which was recommended to me a few years ago.
And just a warning in general: reading and, therefore, posting will be a bit infrequent over the next few weeks as my last! semester winds down. I have some papers and tests (and job applications!) that are going to be more important than reading for fun over the next few weeks.
Monday, March 30, 2009
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
This is honestly a book that I deem "take it or leave it." Although parts of it are really, really good, there are plenty of parts that you just have to slog through that really made this book a somewhat difficult read.
The best parts of the book revolve around the story of a Lithuanian family, and its leader Jurgis, that comes to the U.S. in the early 1900s looking to get a better life in America. What they find is the dismal working and living conditions presented to immigrants in the Chicago meat packing factories. I thought this book would be totally about the processes of meat packing that got so much criticism as a result of this book, leading to the Food and Drug Act, but there's a largely ignored element of this story: the exceedingly harsh treatment of workers in the plants who had no choice due to language limitations, economic hardship, and families needing support. Personally, I found the study of the human toll the so-called Meat Trust enacted on the Chicago working class was the most horrific element of the novel; yet, it's rarely discussed when putting the book in it historical context (which is where most of my knowledge about this book came from before reading it) because it's place in muckraking literature and the prompting of the Food and Drug Act are its lasting legacies in the popular discussions of the present.
Yet, Sinclair falls into the trap that many authors do when they try to insert their politics into their novels. Even though the story itself presents obvious support for change in the political and economic leadership of the U.S. at the time, Sinclair still feels the need to use the end of his book to blatantly set out the Socialist Party's agenda, using long speeches of fictional party leaders. It became boring rather fast; it's actually very similar to the John Galt speech in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, which I skipped when I read that novel. I just tend to respect authors who wrap their political statements into the story without setting aside pages and pages to act as simply a manifesto of their political ideas. It made the book slog along a bit towards the end.
Ultimately, this novel contains a very good story that could have been used alone as an impetus for social and political change in the U.S. (especially considering its popularity at the time). It's downfall was Sinclair's need to delineate his political ideas in a party document fashion. Still, there is much more to the story than just a wholesale criticism of the meat packing industry, and the family members' struggles to deal with a life that they had never expected.
My rating: 7.5/10
Other reviews:
Debi at nothing of importance
Next up: The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The best parts of the book revolve around the story of a Lithuanian family, and its leader Jurgis, that comes to the U.S. in the early 1900s looking to get a better life in America. What they find is the dismal working and living conditions presented to immigrants in the Chicago meat packing factories. I thought this book would be totally about the processes of meat packing that got so much criticism as a result of this book, leading to the Food and Drug Act, but there's a largely ignored element of this story: the exceedingly harsh treatment of workers in the plants who had no choice due to language limitations, economic hardship, and families needing support. Personally, I found the study of the human toll the so-called Meat Trust enacted on the Chicago working class was the most horrific element of the novel; yet, it's rarely discussed when putting the book in it historical context (which is where most of my knowledge about this book came from before reading it) because it's place in muckraking literature and the prompting of the Food and Drug Act are its lasting legacies in the popular discussions of the present.
Yet, Sinclair falls into the trap that many authors do when they try to insert their politics into their novels. Even though the story itself presents obvious support for change in the political and economic leadership of the U.S. at the time, Sinclair still feels the need to use the end of his book to blatantly set out the Socialist Party's agenda, using long speeches of fictional party leaders. It became boring rather fast; it's actually very similar to the John Galt speech in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, which I skipped when I read that novel. I just tend to respect authors who wrap their political statements into the story without setting aside pages and pages to act as simply a manifesto of their political ideas. It made the book slog along a bit towards the end.
Ultimately, this novel contains a very good story that could have been used alone as an impetus for social and political change in the U.S. (especially considering its popularity at the time). It's downfall was Sinclair's need to delineate his political ideas in a party document fashion. Still, there is much more to the story than just a wholesale criticism of the meat packing industry, and the family members' struggles to deal with a life that they had never expected.
My rating: 7.5/10
Other reviews:
Debi at nothing of importance
Next up: The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
A Child in Time by Ian McEwan
A bit of time has passed since I finish this book, so this post is likely to be more general and significantly less detailed than I hope for my other posts to be. I would imagine that this post will be updated at a later time after I reread (which I can almost guarantee will happen).
Let me begin with a bit of a disclaimer: I adore everything that I've ever read that Ian McEwan has written. I loved Atonement, which, I must admit, made me hate the movie. When I am in love with a "real" literature kind of a book, I can't stand that some movie producer/screenplay writer (including the author him/herself...I know, I'm weird) would think to take out that part of the book when they turned it into a movie, which is probably why I got so angry at the Twilight movie. I adored Amsterdam, for reasons that I'm not really sure of. And I adored A Child in Time.
McEwan's descriptions and language slay me every time. I love that he goes deep into his characters minds, particularly when talking about emotions. It makes him masterful at the love story...and was this a love story. The basic element of the novel was the story of a couple whose child gets stolen from a grocery store when Stephen, the father, takes her shopping one day. It recounts how the relationship is fundamentally changed as a result of their loss. The pulling and pushing that their shared, albeit different, experiences have on each of them and the effects that this has on their marriage. Early in the book, they decide to separate, but the love is still there, pulling them together and pushing them apart at the same time because they are constantly worried about the other's needs and wants in the situation. The ending is just plain beautiful and full of so much hope despite everything that the two had been through. The book could have easily fallen flat with another author, but McEwan takes so much time on the supposedly "mundane" elements of life (Stephen's involvement in meetings about children's education in Britain come to mind here) and makes the reader realize that there is always more there than meets the eye. On the surface Stephen seemed to be coping with his daughter's disappearance well, but since the reader can see and feel Stephen's real emotions, he/she knows better.
McEwan also uses the story to play with other things too, namely time. One of the most climactic points in the book is when Stephen's face appears to his youthful mother in a restaurant as she decides whether or not to abort a baby...him. His mother sees the grown man's face in the window, even though he has not yet been born. McEwan also describes Stephen's seeming emotional breakdown when he sees his own parents in the restaurant on his way to visit his wife in the countryside, prompting him to elicit the story from his mother when he visits. In addition to this vignette, McEwan also uses Stephen's friends to play with theories of time; his friends, a couple, consist of a physicist who studies theories of time and her husband who, during the span of the novel, begins to revert to his childlike persona, eventually ending in his suicide when his attempts to return to childhood fail. As usual, McEwan mixes the more theoretical elements of his novel with a fantastically moving story that most readers can appreciate.
My rating: 9.5/10
Let me begin with a bit of a disclaimer: I adore everything that I've ever read that Ian McEwan has written. I loved Atonement, which, I must admit, made me hate the movie. When I am in love with a "real" literature kind of a book, I can't stand that some movie producer/screenplay writer (including the author him/herself...I know, I'm weird) would think to take out that part of the book when they turned it into a movie, which is probably why I got so angry at the Twilight movie. I adored Amsterdam, for reasons that I'm not really sure of. And I adored A Child in Time.
McEwan's descriptions and language slay me every time. I love that he goes deep into his characters minds, particularly when talking about emotions. It makes him masterful at the love story...and was this a love story. The basic element of the novel was the story of a couple whose child gets stolen from a grocery store when Stephen, the father, takes her shopping one day. It recounts how the relationship is fundamentally changed as a result of their loss. The pulling and pushing that their shared, albeit different, experiences have on each of them and the effects that this has on their marriage. Early in the book, they decide to separate, but the love is still there, pulling them together and pushing them apart at the same time because they are constantly worried about the other's needs and wants in the situation. The ending is just plain beautiful and full of so much hope despite everything that the two had been through. The book could have easily fallen flat with another author, but McEwan takes so much time on the supposedly "mundane" elements of life (Stephen's involvement in meetings about children's education in Britain come to mind here) and makes the reader realize that there is always more there than meets the eye. On the surface Stephen seemed to be coping with his daughter's disappearance well, but since the reader can see and feel Stephen's real emotions, he/she knows better.
McEwan also uses the story to play with other things too, namely time. One of the most climactic points in the book is when Stephen's face appears to his youthful mother in a restaurant as she decides whether or not to abort a baby...him. His mother sees the grown man's face in the window, even though he has not yet been born. McEwan also describes Stephen's seeming emotional breakdown when he sees his own parents in the restaurant on his way to visit his wife in the countryside, prompting him to elicit the story from his mother when he visits. In addition to this vignette, McEwan also uses Stephen's friends to play with theories of time; his friends, a couple, consist of a physicist who studies theories of time and her husband who, during the span of the novel, begins to revert to his childlike persona, eventually ending in his suicide when his attempts to return to childhood fail. As usual, McEwan mixes the more theoretical elements of his novel with a fantastically moving story that most readers can appreciate.
My rating: 9.5/10
Thursday, March 19, 2009
God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane
I know this isn't on the list of 1,001 Books, but I had to read it for my Gender in 20th C. Africa class. It's totally worth writing about, even though it's not on the list (and, in my opinion, rightfully so). Still, I liked the book a lot.
The basic premise of the book is the description of the various people and groups involved in a railway strike in colonial Senegal. Written by an extremely politically active man, it puts faces to the history read in more "historically-geared" books. Like most historical fiction, he takes liberties with the history involved to help push his own political agenda, particularly in dealing with the Women's March to the city. He does, however, embellish for a reason; there is a strong undercurrent of support for women's equality within the nascent independent Senegal. (Ousmane wrote the novel on the cusp of Senegalese independence.)
I really believe that this book is worthwhile for one major reason: it puts individuals within the history. Often historians discuss "the strikers" or "the Africans" when discussing African history, especially in regards to protests, strikes, etc., but this book, even though the characters in the novel are either entirely fictional or based loosely on major historical leaders, really highlights the idea that this strike, and others, was led by people, and people were involved in every element of this strike. Each dealt with it in their own way, depending on their personal level of agreement with the strikers, their gender, their economic standing, their relationship/position in the company and in greater Sengalese culture and society, and so on. The strikers and their supporters were not a homogenous group of faceless Africans; each person individually helped shape the strike itself and the aftermath according to their needs and expectations.
Yet, I thought, personally, that there was something missing from this book; Ousmane is, in my opinion, not Achebe or Ngugi. He writes well, but there are some elements to the story that are unclear, and his use of some characters tends to be artificial; for example, I think the inclusion of the character Sounkare didn't advance the story much. He acted more as a symbol that didn't necessarily advance the story and had much more to do with Ousmane's push for worker solidarity (after all, he was a member of the Communist Party in France). In general, though, the book was a good supplement to my class (the role of women in the strike was similar to the roles of women in other strikes and protests in other African colonies during this time period) and provided a more individualized view of African-led protests against white colonizers.
My rating: 9.5/10
The basic premise of the book is the description of the various people and groups involved in a railway strike in colonial Senegal. Written by an extremely politically active man, it puts faces to the history read in more "historically-geared" books. Like most historical fiction, he takes liberties with the history involved to help push his own political agenda, particularly in dealing with the Women's March to the city. He does, however, embellish for a reason; there is a strong undercurrent of support for women's equality within the nascent independent Senegal. (Ousmane wrote the novel on the cusp of Senegalese independence.)
I really believe that this book is worthwhile for one major reason: it puts individuals within the history. Often historians discuss "the strikers" or "the Africans" when discussing African history, especially in regards to protests, strikes, etc., but this book, even though the characters in the novel are either entirely fictional or based loosely on major historical leaders, really highlights the idea that this strike, and others, was led by people, and people were involved in every element of this strike. Each dealt with it in their own way, depending on their personal level of agreement with the strikers, their gender, their economic standing, their relationship/position in the company and in greater Sengalese culture and society, and so on. The strikers and their supporters were not a homogenous group of faceless Africans; each person individually helped shape the strike itself and the aftermath according to their needs and expectations.
Yet, I thought, personally, that there was something missing from this book; Ousmane is, in my opinion, not Achebe or Ngugi. He writes well, but there are some elements to the story that are unclear, and his use of some characters tends to be artificial; for example, I think the inclusion of the character Sounkare didn't advance the story much. He acted more as a symbol that didn't necessarily advance the story and had much more to do with Ousmane's push for worker solidarity (after all, he was a member of the Communist Party in France). In general, though, the book was a good supplement to my class (the role of women in the strike was similar to the roles of women in other strikes and protests in other African colonies during this time period) and provided a more individualized view of African-led protests against white colonizers.
My rating: 9.5/10
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Welcome
I'm not going to lie; this blog is mostly for me to keep track of my reading so I can look back on past books as a go through and see if I get anything new out of re-reading a few favorites from before.
Right now, most of my reading is mostly revolving around the 1,001 Books that You Must Read Before You Die book by Peter Boxall, but I'm more than willing to read other stuff. As a history undergrad, I also have to read tons of books for school and will likely comment on those here as well. If I end up in grad school, I'm sure school-related books will increase in number, and 1,001 Books may be forced to take a bit of a break.
I would imagine that first up will be a discussion of God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane, which I read for my Gender in 20th C. Africa class. It was good stuff. A better summary/review to come soon. Right now, I'm chugging through The Jungle by Upton Sinclair from the 1,001 Books. I'm not all that into it right now, so we'll see if I finish it this try through.
Right now, most of my reading is mostly revolving around the 1,001 Books that You Must Read Before You Die book by Peter Boxall, but I'm more than willing to read other stuff. As a history undergrad, I also have to read tons of books for school and will likely comment on those here as well. If I end up in grad school, I'm sure school-related books will increase in number, and 1,001 Books may be forced to take a bit of a break.
I would imagine that first up will be a discussion of God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane, which I read for my Gender in 20th C. Africa class. It was good stuff. A better summary/review to come soon. Right now, I'm chugging through The Jungle by Upton Sinclair from the 1,001 Books. I'm not all that into it right now, so we'll see if I finish it this try through.
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