The Olio Scholar Project: March 2011

Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Time Magazine 100 Best Novels

Ok, I found another book list and I thought it was a good one to go along side the BBC list. This one is set up a bit different. Here is a quote by the editor on what the selection criteria was:

This week we introduce our TIME 100 list of the best novels on TIME.com and I expect the debates will be just as lively. There were only two ground rules. As with our film list, we picked 1923--when TIME began publishing--as our starting point. And we focused on books written in English. That's why there is no Ulysses (published in 1922) or One Hundred Years of Solitude (originally written in Spanish).

This list is nice as it provides links to a simple description of the novel

I've colored the ones I've read with a blue font; so far, I've read thirteen on this list

A - B

C - D

F - G

H - I

L - N

O - R

S - T

U - W

Friday, March 25, 2011

BOOK REPORT: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Title: Never Let Me Go

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Original Copyright Date: 2006

My Rating:   3.5 out of 5 stars
   ( Not what I was expecting, but good )

Backcover Description
   From Booker Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro comes a devastating new novel of innocence, knowledge, and loss.
   As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Halisham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules -- and teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were.
   Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life, and for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them so special -- and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together. Suspenseful, moving, beautifully atmospheric, Never Let Me Go is another classic by the author of The Remains of the Day.

My Thoughts

If you read the above description you don't get the feeling that you'll step into an alternate version of England where things just aren't quite the same, a world which allows for places like Halisham. The veil is slowly lifted as the story progresses as to the reasons Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth were "special" growing up and how being "special" will ultimately affect them. It was interesting being this ignorant of the general plot line going in, and I don't know if I would have enjoyed it as much if I was on top of everything from page one. If you do want a slight hint as to the setting and tone, the summary on the Time Magazines writeup in the
100 best novels I really don't want to say too much more about the story line, because, if someone reading this decides to read the book, I don't want to ruin the experience.

Expectations aside, this is a very well written story. I told Maggie during the early chapters that I could see my self trying to write like this. A first person narrative where the lines of yesteryear and today are blurred and subtle. Similar to listening to a close friend look back to a pivotal time in their lives when you were not a part of it. How they spend just a bit of time explaining who or what something was after they've realized you may not know, jumping around a bit as they go to follow where the memories take them. A clarification: I have no notions of be successful at it, i could just see myself attempting it.

Kazuo Ishiguro crafted Never Let Me Go; everything about it was deliberate and the perfect words were chosen for the sublte but powerful drama that plays out in this interesting world. The further I step away from this book, the more I admire what Ishiguro did with it.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

BOOK REPORT: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

Title: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Author: Mark Twain

Original Copyright Date: 1889

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars ( might be a good short story )

Backcover Description

One of the greatest satires in American literature, Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court begins when Hank Morgan, a skilled mechanic in a nineteenth-century New England arms factory, is struck on the head during a quarrel and awakens to find himself among the knights and magicians of King Arthur’s Camelot.

What follows is a culture clash of the first magnitude, as practical-minded Hank, disgusted with the ignorance and superstition of the people, decides to enlighten them with education and technology. Through a series of wonderfully imaginative adventures, Twain celebrates American homespun ingenuity and democracy as compared to the backward ineptitude of a chivalric monarchy. At the same time, however, Twain raises the question of whether material progress necessarily creates a better society. As Hank becomes more powerful and self-righteous, he also becomes more ruthless, more autocratic, and less able to control events, until the only way out is a massively destructive war.

My Thoughts
Mark Twain wrote Connecticut Yankee as a satire on royalty, chivalry and other romantic notions of Arthurian legend (linking it occasionally to the politics of the antebellum south transitioning to the postbellum reconstruction) However, I have to say he didn't execute it very well. It might have made an entertaining short story, but this went on and on, changing voices, direction, and sometimes bringing the story to a dead stop.

The premise behind this book is a common one now-a-days, but from what I understand, Twain was one of the first, if not the first to have a person bump their head or fall asleep only to wake up in another time. In this case, an intelligent, renaissance man who works in a arms factory wakes up in 6th century England in King Arthur's court. Think of the Yankee as a nineteen-century MacGyver.

The problem is, the Yankee is too powerful. He knows everything, from the exact moment in time a solar eclipse will occur over England 1300 years before he is born in Connecticut, to mining and metallurgy, chemistry, biology, politics, art, underwater basket weaving, and other magical skills which shock and awe the native royal ignoramuses. He is not a likable character at all.

Twain spends an inordinate amount of narrative having the unlikable yankee waxing philosophical on the mundane aspects of life beyond King Arthur's court, including economics, the politics of "freemen" vs. slaves vs. nobility and the churches motivation for keeping the royal status quo. Twain will then gloss over years of time where he gains power and creates a network of educated lackeys which work diligently in the background setting up phone lines and creating an intelligentsia which will aid and support his goal of usurping this backward monarchy and setting up a proper republic. I would have found those details much more interesting.

Now, for all of its warts, Connecticut Yankee does have its moments. There is a fabulous chapter where the Yankee is sent off on a noble quest to free 9 princesses from some evil ogres in which he describes life inside a suit of armor. Then there is the way he uses the knights as riding advertisements for products for which there isn't a market yet (like soap). But, these moments are sparse and I had trouble fighting through the doldrums to get to the next enjoyable scene.

On a final note, this story was MUCH darker than I was expecting. In his quest to oust the nobility and set up a republic, The yankee is absolutely merciless in its execution. I've read a few pieces on Mark Twain since finishing this book, hoping to find some reasoning for the way Twain wrote this novel, only to really find out that Connecticut Yankee is a transition in Twain's literary career, where he enters a very dark phase. To borrow a section from the Wikipedia page on this Connecticut Yankee:

It is possible to see the book as an important transitional work for Twain, in that earlier, sunnier passages recall the frontier humor of his tall tales like The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, while the corrosive view of human behavior in the apocalyptic latter chapters is more akin to darker, later Twain works like The Mysterious Stranger and Letters from the Earth.

Monday, March 7, 2011

BOOK REPORT: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Title: The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Original Copyright Date: 2007

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ( simply amazing )

Backcover Description

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath.

Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.
But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

My Thoughts

Prologue

featuring

an introduction and an explanation of format

Why do I find it harder to write book reports for the books I love versus others? This particular book report has been especially difficult given how much I loved The Book Thief and how much this book has impacted me. I finished it over a week ago now and I've thought about this book everyday since. I am still obsessed with it and I'm telling everyone I know who reads on a semi-regular basis to read it. I've found it hard to articulate exactly what I want to say in a somewhat brief book report without overwhelming the reader or giving away too much of the plot line.

The format of this book report is a bit different as well. I've broken it up into four main parts similar to the way Markus Zusak breaks up the book where he gives hints as to what is to come with a "featuring" line. I just thought this was clever and decided to mimic it for this report.

Part One

The Book Report

featuring

A rave review and a reader jealous of the author

When I finished this book, I told Maggie that even if I don't finish the twenty-five books I set out to read last fall, this project was worth the time and energy because it led me to this book. This is the best book I've read this year. Hands down.

Even though it is technically classified as Young Adult or Children's Fiction, this is not "light" reading; it is a glimpse of the ugliness of War seen through the eyes of a 10 year old orphan girl.

And it is beautifully done.

Actually, that is one of the major themes of the book. That humans, can have moments of beauty, tenderness, and joy, even when their world is collapsing, sometimes literally, around them.

How does Markus Zusak achieve this? Besides being simply a great, well written story, he uses two fairly standard literary constructs in interesting ways.

First is his use of Death as the narrator. I can hear you mumbling as you read this, "How can Death make something as tragic the holocaust readable? That would seem to make it MORE depressing". Well, Death in this book isn't the tall, stoic, black-robed, scythe-wielding figure we all know and love from the movies. He cares for the stories of the people he helps cross from the land of the living to where ever they go. He is an emotional player in all of the events which occur around characters, even before Germany invades Poland. Death is not an omnipotent third person narrator either. This is Liesel's story, with Death's poignant commentary added in.

Second is Zusak's use of blatant foreshadowing. Death tells us up front when something significant will happen, including a few details about the event, then backs up a bit and continues telling the story. Sometimes the forshadowed event will happen within the near future, sometimes within a few months, and sometimes, the event is years away. These events are not always tragic, or sad, or life-changing, but they are important. But when they are heartbreaking, knowing about it before hand doesn't lessen or trivialize the tragedy of the moment, it just takes away a *bit* of the surprise,... sometimes... Blending this interesting use of foreshadowing somehow adds weight to small happy moments in Liesel's life, allowing you to enjoy them more completely with her.

On a side note, after I finished The Book Thief, I did a bit of research to see what else Markus Zusak has written. I found out that he is now 36 years old as of this writing. I am 35. He's written 8 or 9 books in his young career. Needless to say, I am jealous of his creative success...

and this leads me to:

Part Two

The Inspiration

featuring

A potential early "New Years Resolution"

Many of you know that I've played around with the idea of trying to writing a short story ever since I posted a link about National Novel Writing Month back in November. The goal of NNWM is to get people to write down 50,000 words (~175 pages) of a story; it doesn't have to be perfect or even good, the organizers just want to inspire people to put pen to paper and get started. Neil Gaiman's notes about The Graveyard Book inspired me further when he said he's had the idea for the book ever since his son was two years old and wandering around a graveyard behind an old church.

Markus Zusak builds into The Book Thief simply written and illustrated stories created by the characters themselves and shown completely within the narrative Death is giving us; a short story within a book if you will. These stories, these characters actually, are the metaphorical straw that broke the novelist camel's back and I am now determined to actually write something of my own...

I don't have any subject, characters, or special theme in mind as of yet; I just know I want to write something. I also don't have any expectations that what I write will be any good. I am now constantly looking out for inspiration in everything I do. I figure I would start with simple story at first, which I can then, over time, expand into a legitimate short story that I wouldn't mind if some else actually reads. I think I will make this my next "New Years Resolution". I haven't worked out the logistics of it or anything, so stay tuned.

The Ending

featuring

wrapping up the book report

I don't know why I seem to have a connection to books about war. I'm not talking about non-fiction accounts of the political causes thereof or military strategies employed during such-and-such battle, but the personal and social ramifications of one of the most devastating wars ever. Night, by Elie Wiesel, and One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn still impact me even though I read them waaaaay back in high school. And I know, The Book Thief will live long in my memory as well.