One Post for 2011

I guess I made it right in time to get at least one post in the year 2011. While I have not been posting as diligently as I would like, I can cross a few books off my list this year and have read a few books not on the list as well.

I checked off the classic Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell right before I got my Kindle so unfortunately I was lugging around a giant book that kind of looked like a romance novel. It was an easy, absorbing read, however it's hard to overlook the fact that its treatment of race is just so different from today that it's almost impossible to get over.

I also checked off Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. A much harder book, at least for me to understand. I read it during the summer of 2011, and I don't know if it was too heavy for summer reading, but a lot of it seemed to fly over my head at least in terms of greater themes and considerations of religion and faith and compatibility.

While not on the list, I also read Count of Monte Cristo. It was slow going at first, but when the revenge dominoes start following there's a lot of gasping, a lot of "oh no he didn't!"'s, and a satisfying, happy ending for the Count. I found it a lot easier to get into than The Three Musketeers which must be why I was able to finish it and not The Three Musketeers. Too bad The Count of Monte Cristo's not on the list and The Three Musketeers is.

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

I never actually got around to reading The Invisible Man. I made two attempts at starting it then gave up and took a hiatus from fun-reading as work-reading took up all my time. Now that my schedule's freed up ever so slightly, I'm making my way through France in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

For ye olde classics, it always takes me a while to get into them. Much like The Invisible Man I made several attempts at beginning this book only to be thwarted by sleepiness. Lucky for me, I took a trip to Houston and spent my entire flight home avoiding the in-flight movie (Leap Year, a romantic comedy even I don't want to watch) and reading The Three Musketeers. One flight and several before bedtime readings later, I'm about 300 pages into this 700 page novel and I really wish I had another prolonged period to just sit and read. Unfortunately for me (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), I've been busy with work, friends, and tv that I haven't been able to sit down and really read. And The Three Musketeers really lends itself to extended periods of reading. Dumas does a great job of building up the action and intrigue and reading the book in 30 minute segments detracts from the flow of the narrative.

So far, I can't really tell the Musketeers apart aside from D'Artagnan and Porthos. I guess that's half the Musketeers so I'm only having trouble telling apart Athos and Aramis. Aramis is the one who wants to be a priest I believe. All the characters are getting fleshed out and there have already been several intrigues, most notably D'Artagnan's trip to London to fetch the diamonds the Queen gave to the British Duke (his name escapes me at the moment and my copy of the book is all the way across the room -- I'm lazy what can I say) before her husband finds out they're missing at a ball he's throwing where he especially requested that she wear these particular diamonds. I'm not even halfway through and I honestly don't really know what's in store next since I haven't seen a Three Musketeers movie since my youth. So no one spoil it for me!

On a side note, apparently Doug Liman (director of the Bourne movies) is directing a new version of the Three Musketeers. What a perfect time to pick up this book!

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!

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.

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 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.

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.