by Meg Waite Clayton
Two Thumbs Up (I could really use a few more thumbs for this one--it's that good.)
The story takes place in a San Francisco Bay area suburb, in the years beginning with 1967. Frankie tells the story of her friendship with Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally. Each woman has her own family, worries, heartaches and secret dreams. The story is told in such a way that the reader feels a part of the evolving friendship these women share.
After meeting weekly at the playground long enough that they begin to feel comfortable with each other, a couple of the friends decide they'd like to use their time together to do some writing. Some of the women are less interested, but they are good sports about it. Soon what started out as a playdate for the kids becomes a writing date for the moms.
As the story continues, the readers are drawn along as these women pursue their writing goals. But within this primary story, we learn of the secret burdens the various women bear. We rejoice with them as they learn to trust each other; we share with them as they celebrate the good and mourn the heartache in each other's lives; and we see them grow and change throughout the years.
Interspersed within the story is the societal growing pains the country is experiencing. The story touches on the women's lib issue, the peace movement, and racial tensions. The women themselves strive to understand these issues. Each woman brings a different background and personality as she reacts to and assimilates into her person the various social changes. Ms Clayton accomplishes this very adeptly. Her characters and their friendships are never simplistic or artificial; they way they interact and the degree to which each embraces the changing cultures is richly developed.
The book will also be helpful for an aspiring author, as the women work through various books on writing, such as E.M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel. Each woman has a "model" story against which she compares her own work and to which she turns for inspiration. A couple of the women are very adept at pulling quotations from books and calling to mind the characters and plots. And on one occasion the couples get together for a costume party with a "famous couple from literature" theme. All these snippets offer readers a constant sampling from a literary smorgasbord.
The author has included a nice appendix in which she offers a paragraph or two on each of women's model books and also reading lists of the others works cited. I know I'm going to keep our librarian busy with requests from this list, such as The Great Gatsby, Middlemarch, and Breakfast at Tiffany's; I'll also have to try something by Somerset Maugham and Sylvia Plath; and the list goes on and on.
Showing posts with label Classic lit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classic lit. Show all posts
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Giants in the Earth
by O. E. Rolvaag
Thumbs up.
This classic tale of Norwegian immigration to Dakota Territory, tells the story of the Spring Creek Settlement. Per and Beret Hansa, Hans and Sorrina Olsa, Syvert and Kjersti Tonseten, and the two Solum brothers face together, the perils of westward expansion. Among the hardships they must bear are hunger, backbreaking labor, difficulties in childbirth, fear of the native people, grasshoppers, and summer and winter storms. But worse by far for some, is the fear and loneliness of this new country. The openness and stillness are so pervasive they are hard to ignore. And for some settlers, including Per Hansa's Beret, they sometimes lead to insanity.
Rolvaag, himself a Norwegian immigrant as a young man, tells all too realistically the sights and sounds of the prairie and the various emotions of the settlers. We laugh and cry with them. We appreciate the noble sacrifices they made in order to turn what is described as a desolate and forbidding landscape into the communities and farms that thrive in those prairie lands today.
We hear with Per Hansa and Beret the, "Squeak, squeak," of the wagon wheels and the, "Tish-ah, tish-ah," of the grasses opening before and closing behind the wagon.
We share with Beret the fear of the open spaces and the almost supernatural forces that inhabit them. We can feel the great silence along with those first settlers.
We experience the manic energy of Per Hansa to get more and more ground broken and keep ahead of his neighbors. And we rejoice over each acre of sod he breaks and the large sod house and stable he provides his family.
We feel Syvert and Kjersti's sadness, and even bitterness, when they are not able to have children. We breath a sigh of relief with Per Hansa, when his wife and child make it through a frighteningly difficult birth.
We rejoice Per Hansa's faithful friends, Hans Olsa and Sorrina, when their friend's wife returns to her senses. We can appreciate the import of their steadfastness to Per Hansa and his family.
But most of all, we feel gratitude and awe toward our forebears for the hardships they surmounted that we might have the farms and towns that make the great plains the great communities they are today. These people were truly giants in the earth.
Thumbs up.
This classic tale of Norwegian immigration to Dakota Territory, tells the story of the Spring Creek Settlement. Per and Beret Hansa, Hans and Sorrina Olsa, Syvert and Kjersti Tonseten, and the two Solum brothers face together, the perils of westward expansion. Among the hardships they must bear are hunger, backbreaking labor, difficulties in childbirth, fear of the native people, grasshoppers, and summer and winter storms. But worse by far for some, is the fear and loneliness of this new country. The openness and stillness are so pervasive they are hard to ignore. And for some settlers, including Per Hansa's Beret, they sometimes lead to insanity.
Rolvaag, himself a Norwegian immigrant as a young man, tells all too realistically the sights and sounds of the prairie and the various emotions of the settlers. We laugh and cry with them. We appreciate the noble sacrifices they made in order to turn what is described as a desolate and forbidding landscape into the communities and farms that thrive in those prairie lands today.
We hear with Per Hansa and Beret the, "Squeak, squeak," of the wagon wheels and the, "Tish-ah, tish-ah," of the grasses opening before and closing behind the wagon.
We share with Beret the fear of the open spaces and the almost supernatural forces that inhabit them. We can feel the great silence along with those first settlers.
We experience the manic energy of Per Hansa to get more and more ground broken and keep ahead of his neighbors. And we rejoice over each acre of sod he breaks and the large sod house and stable he provides his family.
We feel Syvert and Kjersti's sadness, and even bitterness, when they are not able to have children. We breath a sigh of relief with Per Hansa, when his wife and child make it through a frighteningly difficult birth.
We rejoice Per Hansa's faithful friends, Hans Olsa and Sorrina, when their friend's wife returns to her senses. We can appreciate the import of their steadfastness to Per Hansa and his family.
But most of all, we feel gratitude and awe toward our forebears for the hardships they surmounted that we might have the farms and towns that make the great plains the great communities they are today. These people were truly giants in the earth.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Tortilla Flat
by John Steinbeck
Thumbs up, I think.
I seem to be giving alot of partial or mostly or kind of thumbs up lately. Some books are just not cut and dried, good or bad.
Tortilla Flat is a paisano community on the hills above Monterey, California. Steinbeck spends several paragraphs describing what this means. In summary, the paisanos are of mixed blood, early Spanish immigrants and Native Americans. They inhabited the American Southwest prior to the later waves of immigrants from Northern and Western European traditions. The paisanos live on the fringe of development and participate in modern society according to their own rules.
When Danny comes home to Tortilla Flat after his service in World War I, he finds he has inherited two homes from his grandfather. He is a wealthy man.
The story tells how Danny opens his homes to his friends and they enjoy the good life. They wake up when they want, they philosophize on sunny mornings on the front porch, they eat the charity food The Pirate brings each day. They drink wine from glass jars. And they take care of their own. Sort of.
In the end Danny is disenchanted with this subdued lifestyle. He engages in three weeks of dissipation, followed by a time of despondence. The communal structure between Danny and his friends winds to a halt after Tortilla Flat comes together for a memorable night of festivities in Danny's honor.
Danny and his friends do exactly what they want at all times. They are the protagonists. The reader cannot help but love them, in spite of their laziness, drunkenness, violence, thievery, prostitution and fornication/adultery.
Tortilla Flat was quite obviously written prior to our current age of political correctness. The paisano community is portrayed in what we today would call a negative light. But somehow, Steinbeck draws empathy from the reader toward such characters. I think the book reaches a bit of Rousseauvian romanticism in me.
There are many life lessons that a reader can ponder while reading this book. It might be useful for an ethics discussion with a upper highschool aged child. The book is rife with fodder for such an evaluation. Because of some of the vices touched upon, a parent should read the book first.
Thumbs up, I think.
I seem to be giving alot of partial or mostly or kind of thumbs up lately. Some books are just not cut and dried, good or bad.
Tortilla Flat is a paisano community on the hills above Monterey, California. Steinbeck spends several paragraphs describing what this means. In summary, the paisanos are of mixed blood, early Spanish immigrants and Native Americans. They inhabited the American Southwest prior to the later waves of immigrants from Northern and Western European traditions. The paisanos live on the fringe of development and participate in modern society according to their own rules.
When Danny comes home to Tortilla Flat after his service in World War I, he finds he has inherited two homes from his grandfather. He is a wealthy man.
The story tells how Danny opens his homes to his friends and they enjoy the good life. They wake up when they want, they philosophize on sunny mornings on the front porch, they eat the charity food The Pirate brings each day. They drink wine from glass jars. And they take care of their own. Sort of.
In the end Danny is disenchanted with this subdued lifestyle. He engages in three weeks of dissipation, followed by a time of despondence. The communal structure between Danny and his friends winds to a halt after Tortilla Flat comes together for a memorable night of festivities in Danny's honor.
Danny and his friends do exactly what they want at all times. They are the protagonists. The reader cannot help but love them, in spite of their laziness, drunkenness, violence, thievery, prostitution and fornication/adultery.
Tortilla Flat was quite obviously written prior to our current age of political correctness. The paisano community is portrayed in what we today would call a negative light. But somehow, Steinbeck draws empathy from the reader toward such characters. I think the book reaches a bit of Rousseauvian romanticism in me.
There are many life lessons that a reader can ponder while reading this book. It might be useful for an ethics discussion with a upper highschool aged child. The book is rife with fodder for such an evaluation. Because of some of the vices touched upon, a parent should read the book first.
Monday, October 11, 2010
The Old Curiosity Shop
by Charles Dickens
Mostly Thumbs Down
I used to read primarily classic literature. It was my way of trying to constantly increase my cultural literacy. Most classic titles have become classics because they are rich in some quantifiable factor: memorable characters, historical commentary, well-crafted interpersonal scenarios, ethical or social dilemmas, or simply great story telling. The really great stories combine several of these factors. There are a few, however, that become classics for some more vague, perhaps unquantifiable reason.
I will put The Old Curiosity Shop into this category. Dickens does give readers a cast of very colorful, memorable characters. He also presents a variety of ethical and social situations, many not good. But in general, the story seems to drag. And drag. And drag. I did finally feel a pull by the plot in about the final 120 pages or so of the 530 page book. But for the entire first portion of the book I really had to force myself to pick it up each time. It just wasn't that interesting.
And it was sad in wearying kind of way. I found myself repulsed by the behavior of so many of the characters. I know there are evil people in the world, but thankfully, God has spared me contact with evil such as Dickens give Mr. Quilp and a few of the others in the book. When I sit to read, I want to be refreshed, not worn down.
There were, however characters of great virtue. There were many witty paragraphs that gave astute insight into human nature. There were touching scenes of caring. I find myself intrigued by Dickens' ability to use the English language. And I was taught several words with which I was previously unfamiliar.
Mostly Thumbs Down
I used to read primarily classic literature. It was my way of trying to constantly increase my cultural literacy. Most classic titles have become classics because they are rich in some quantifiable factor: memorable characters, historical commentary, well-crafted interpersonal scenarios, ethical or social dilemmas, or simply great story telling. The really great stories combine several of these factors. There are a few, however, that become classics for some more vague, perhaps unquantifiable reason.
I will put The Old Curiosity Shop into this category. Dickens does give readers a cast of very colorful, memorable characters. He also presents a variety of ethical and social situations, many not good. But in general, the story seems to drag. And drag. And drag. I did finally feel a pull by the plot in about the final 120 pages or so of the 530 page book. But for the entire first portion of the book I really had to force myself to pick it up each time. It just wasn't that interesting.
And it was sad in wearying kind of way. I found myself repulsed by the behavior of so many of the characters. I know there are evil people in the world, but thankfully, God has spared me contact with evil such as Dickens give Mr. Quilp and a few of the others in the book. When I sit to read, I want to be refreshed, not worn down.
There were, however characters of great virtue. There were many witty paragraphs that gave astute insight into human nature. There were touching scenes of caring. I find myself intrigued by Dickens' ability to use the English language. And I was taught several words with which I was previously unfamiliar.
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