My third book on my book reading journey and I'm very proud of myself for keeping it up this long. Hopefully this doens't end up like my other half-baked blogs and I can see this one through to the end. I picked this book because it's completely different from either Middlemarch or My Antonia and also because it's one of the books on the list that the Borders Express on my way home from work actually carried. That Borders Express in the Westfield Culver City Mall is severely lacking in great literature let me tell you. I couldn't even find any Charles Dickens!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
My third book on my book reading journey and I'm very proud of myself for keeping it up this long. Hopefully this doens't end up like my other half-baked blogs and I can see this one through to the end. I picked this book because it's completely different from either Middlemarch or My Antonia and also because it's one of the books on the list that the Borders Express on my way home from work actually carried. That Borders Express in the Westfield Culver City Mall is severely lacking in great literature let me tell you. I couldn't even find any Charles Dickens!
Monday, November 23, 2009
My Antonia Part 2
I finished My Antonia. Basically, though Antonia has a bright spirit and everyone is quick to love her, misfortune befalls her when she falls in love with a man who promises to marry her, but leaves her pregnant. Antonia is forced to return to her home disgraced. She's contrasted with Lena who becomes a successful dressmaker and businesswoman even though she is thought by the town to be promiscuous and airheaded.
Antonia gets a happy-ish ending. After many years, Jim finds Antonia set up in her own farm with a husband and a bunch of kids. She seems happy and healthy and her connection with Jim is still as strong as ever. Jim never marries and has no children but is happy to see Antonia settled down to a good man and with a good family.
This book really captured the pioneer spirit of a strong, spirited, and loving woman, Antonia. It also gives the reader a perfect glimpse into the time period. I felt transported to this era and this way of life and how it was all so much simpler. It became difficult to put down and kept me up many nights way past my bedtime. I'm happy Antonia and Jim got endings that suited them. Since Antonia's father died so early in the novel, I thought something tragic was going to befall her like Tess in Tess of the D'Ubervilles, but thankfully Cather allowed the heroine to have a life that suited her. I enjoyed this book and I can completely see why President Sample is so enamored with Willa Cather.
Antonia gets a happy-ish ending. After many years, Jim finds Antonia set up in her own farm with a husband and a bunch of kids. She seems happy and healthy and her connection with Jim is still as strong as ever. Jim never marries and has no children but is happy to see Antonia settled down to a good man and with a good family.
This book really captured the pioneer spirit of a strong, spirited, and loving woman, Antonia. It also gives the reader a perfect glimpse into the time period. I felt transported to this era and this way of life and how it was all so much simpler. It became difficult to put down and kept me up many nights way past my bedtime. I'm happy Antonia and Jim got endings that suited them. Since Antonia's father died so early in the novel, I thought something tragic was going to befall her like Tess in Tess of the D'Ubervilles, but thankfully Cather allowed the heroine to have a life that suited her. I enjoyed this book and I can completely see why President Sample is so enamored with Willa Cather.
Monday, November 16, 2009
My Antonia
After a slow start, I've finally started tearing through My Antonia. I realize this book will be over soon! I'm about halfway through the ~250 page novel and I'm really enjoying the change of pace from Middlemarch.
My Antonia is basically the memories of a boy, Jim Burden, as he grows up in the farm lands with his neighbor Antonia Shimerda. The Shimerdas are Bohemians who've recently come to America to start their own farm. The father has a difficult time adjusting to his new life in America and, during his first winter in America, shoots himself in the Burden's barn. From there, Antonia's older brother assumes the role of patriarch in her family. He uses Antonia as a farm hand while Jim, a few years younger, goes to school.
Right now, Jim's going to school in the town and Antonia is working as a helper to his neighbors, the Harlings. Antonia just exudes a good vibe in the novel and I don't quite know how Cather is able to do that since we really don't know much about her. She's passionate and childlike despite her hard life. She loves her family and the Burdens and isn't frivolous. Look at that. I guess that's how Cather got us to love Antonia.
The farmland, middle America setting is interesting as well. I've never really read many books that take place in this part of the world. I'm enjoying it. There's a sense of camaraderie and neighborliness in this book that's not stifled and overly polite like it is in Middlemarch. Everything about My Antonia feels so vast even though it focuses on so narrow a subset of people.
My Antonia is basically the memories of a boy, Jim Burden, as he grows up in the farm lands with his neighbor Antonia Shimerda. The Shimerdas are Bohemians who've recently come to America to start their own farm. The father has a difficult time adjusting to his new life in America and, during his first winter in America, shoots himself in the Burden's barn. From there, Antonia's older brother assumes the role of patriarch in her family. He uses Antonia as a farm hand while Jim, a few years younger, goes to school.
Right now, Jim's going to school in the town and Antonia is working as a helper to his neighbors, the Harlings. Antonia just exudes a good vibe in the novel and I don't quite know how Cather is able to do that since we really don't know much about her. She's passionate and childlike despite her hard life. She loves her family and the Burdens and isn't frivolous. Look at that. I guess that's how Cather got us to love Antonia.
The farmland, middle America setting is interesting as well. I've never really read many books that take place in this part of the world. I'm enjoying it. There's a sense of camaraderie and neighborliness in this book that's not stifled and overly polite like it is in Middlemarch. Everything about My Antonia feels so vast even though it focuses on so narrow a subset of people.
Monday, November 2, 2009
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Bought the next book on my list, My Antonia by Willa Cather. I was inspired to read this book by an article I read in the LA Times about USC's president, Steven Sample, stepping down this summer. According to the article, he wants to continue teaching at USC by doing a leadership class that he's done for a number of years during his presidency and also a literature class about Willa Cather, his favorite author. So in honor of one of my alma mater's greatest presidents, I'm reading My Antonia by Willa Cather.
I will also say that I got a great deal on this book. With my Borders membership 40% coupon, I got this brand new paperback edition for $3.26.
I will also say that I got a great deal on this book. With my Borders membership 40% coupon, I got this brand new paperback edition for $3.26.
Middlemarch - finished
Finally finished Middlemarch last night and I found myself surprised at its relevancy today. Obviously we don't really have the same social situations as we do now, but some of Elliot's ideas regarding marriage and idealism still ring very true today.
The quick summary: Dorothea and Ladislaw end up married, impoverished, but happy. Mary and Fred end up together (yay!) and live a modest life. Lydgate and Rosamond eventually end up financially secure but Lydgate dies at the age of 50 and gave up all the ideals he came to Middlemarch with. Bulstrode goes into exile but his wife stands by him.
Idealism plays a huge part in the novel. Dorothea and Lydgate are the characters with the best intentions. Dorothea only wants to do good in the world. She's really a great character on the border of insufferable if she weren't written as someone with such a pure heart and a desire to help others. Lydgate wanted to make great strides in medicine through his experimentation but ended up getting a small fortune treating rich patients of gout. This is what we find out in Eliot's epilogue and it's very sad. I had conflicting emotions. I appreciated Lydgate's attempt to make it work with Rosamond and his realization that he held both their happinesses in his hands. In the end, however, neither of them was ever really truly happy. And really Rosamond is so awful you want her to get her comeuppance at the end but it never comes.
Marriage and compatibility are also large themes in the novel. Dorothea's marriage to Cassaboun is doomed b/c he's old and crappy and she's young and wonderful. In her attempt to do what she thinks is for the greater good, she ties herself to a man whose work amounts to nothing and who's definitely not as good a person as she is. She finds a better match in Ladislaw who shares her idealism and with her support is able to make something of his life in politics.
My favorite couple, Fred and Mary, end up happily married in a relationship that seems to resemble Mary's parent's marriage. They are well-matched and have similar temperaments, but balance each other out as well. There's a cute part that Eliot puts in where Fred publishes a farming book but everyone thinks Mary did it and Mary publishes a children's book but everyone thinks Fred did it. So they're perfect for one another!
In the end, a good novel. I'm glad I read it and I'll definitely keep it in mind for future courtships.
The quick summary: Dorothea and Ladislaw end up married, impoverished, but happy. Mary and Fred end up together (yay!) and live a modest life. Lydgate and Rosamond eventually end up financially secure but Lydgate dies at the age of 50 and gave up all the ideals he came to Middlemarch with. Bulstrode goes into exile but his wife stands by him.
Idealism plays a huge part in the novel. Dorothea and Lydgate are the characters with the best intentions. Dorothea only wants to do good in the world. She's really a great character on the border of insufferable if she weren't written as someone with such a pure heart and a desire to help others. Lydgate wanted to make great strides in medicine through his experimentation but ended up getting a small fortune treating rich patients of gout. This is what we find out in Eliot's epilogue and it's very sad. I had conflicting emotions. I appreciated Lydgate's attempt to make it work with Rosamond and his realization that he held both their happinesses in his hands. In the end, however, neither of them was ever really truly happy. And really Rosamond is so awful you want her to get her comeuppance at the end but it never comes.
Marriage and compatibility are also large themes in the novel. Dorothea's marriage to Cassaboun is doomed b/c he's old and crappy and she's young and wonderful. In her attempt to do what she thinks is for the greater good, she ties herself to a man whose work amounts to nothing and who's definitely not as good a person as she is. She finds a better match in Ladislaw who shares her idealism and with her support is able to make something of his life in politics.
My favorite couple, Fred and Mary, end up happily married in a relationship that seems to resemble Mary's parent's marriage. They are well-matched and have similar temperaments, but balance each other out as well. There's a cute part that Eliot puts in where Fred publishes a farming book but everyone thinks Mary did it and Mary publishes a children's book but everyone thinks Fred did it. So they're perfect for one another!
In the end, a good novel. I'm glad I read it and I'll definitely keep it in mind for future courtships.
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