Walden and Other Writings

by Henry David Thoreau

     I finally read this, after two previous attempts (years ago) and a break in the middle for something easier. My copy contains not only Walden: or Life in the Woods but also Civil Disobedience, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown and Life Without Principle. 

Here's the thing: this is not at all what I expected. I always thought it was some wonderful if slightly archaic nature writing full of observations on the weather, birds and creatures, growing things etc. Not really. It's a lot more about politics (as they were back then), protests on slavery, umbrage at modern developments ruining mankind (there's pages and pages about how the train makes people hurry and rush about), how government should or should not affect our lives, why people should be engaged in something useful and soul-lifting instead of just working to earn money, etc. He criticizes his fellow man a lot. He does mention a few birds here and there, how peaceful it is to just sit under the trees, how much he appreciates the simple life. But he wasn't far off in the woods in isolation. Tons of people visited him all the time it sounds like, really curious what he was doing out there by himself. The train ran very close to his cabin, the pond was a regular fishing spot for many, farmers and kids out picking berries walked close by, and he could hear cattle in the adjacent fields. It was walking distance to the village. He eschewed coffee and other so-called luxuries to live pretty much just off what he grew or gathered (I think): mainly his beans, and fish he caught. I thought there I would relate, there's a whole chapter about cutivating the bean plants and I'm a gardener too, but nope. It starts out about hoeing the beans and how nicely meditative that task can be, but soon unravels into other lofty topics that supposedly relate to what bean plants with their nice broad leaves made him think of but I can't make head or tails out of it.

That was my main problem. Thoreau is very much a philosopher and it either makes my mind wander, or go in circles, or I have to read a passage three, four, five times in a row and I still don't get what he was saying. So many pages of this book I was actually thinking about something else as the printed words marched through my head unheeded (so now I know how a fellow book-blogger could sing while she reads, which I didn't comprehend before). The parts I liked? where Thoreau describes in detail the ice on the pond, the air bubbles into it, the way it forms and later on breaks up in the springtime, the industry of hired people who come to cut blocks of it, harvesting for use in summer- people had ice-boxes back then, not fridges and freezers, so this was interesting to read how that was done and how it was stored to prevent melting. How mud makes weird shapes during the spring thaw (but again he turned this into some lyrical comparison I did not get). The voices of owls, a mouse that got used to his presence, the geese he observed on the pond and fish under the clear water. I liked reading how he undertook to plumb and measure the pond's depth, as people in the vicinity claimed it was bottomless, but nobody had ever really tried find out. I liked a lot of his sentiments and agreed with many of his opinions on what's valuable in life etc, but it sure was tough to wade through all the words. Philosopy and political rants are really not my thing. 

Note on below: this is obviously one of those great books which I personally have difficulty appreciating. I didn't exactly enjoy reading it, though I do feel enriched by it. It was pretty hard to get through. If it had been easier and more enjoyable, definitely would have given it a 4. The publication dates noted span the five works in this volume.

Rating: 3/5                368 pages, 1849-1863

The Good Earth

by Pearl S. Buck

I think this book may have sat longest unread on my shelves, and it's actually been there twice. I had a different copy and tried it a few times when I was in high school, didn't get far, re-shelved it. Weeded it out once, then after finding that I liked Peony, decided to give this a second chance when I came across another copy. 

This is about the Wang family, in China. When the story begins Wang Lung is a young farmer on his way to get married. It's an arranged marriage, with a woman who has been a slave in a wealthy household in the town. She's not beautiful but he's satisfied because she's a faithful wife, a hard worker, and bears him many children (promptly going straight back to work in the fields after each birth, without complaint!) The family survives through floods, drought, and locust plague. Every handful of years one or the other natural cause results in a famine and people around them starve. During one famine (so bad that people are literally eating dirt) Wang Lung takes his family south to a big city where they live in deplorable conditions, beg, and work at hard physical labor for very little pay. There's no way to get ahead, until unrest sweeps through the city. The homes of the rich are broken into, Wang is swept up with the mob and intimidates a terrified wealthy man into giving him handfuls of silver. Then they flee the chaos and return to the countryside. Wang uses the money to rebuild his house, and eventually buy more land. Soon he needs help with the harvest, eventually finds himself as a landowner instead of a farmer- with hired help and overseers, never actually working the fields himself anymore. He moves his family into the town. Being frequently idle now, he starts to explore the pleasures of the wealthy class- and dissatisfied with his wife's appearance, takes as second wife a much younger woman. He thinks that having success and money will ease all his troubles, but new problems arise instead- unpleasant relatives connive him into letting them live in his household, there's constant friction between his two wives, and his growing sons have their own interests- none of them really want to keep or work the land as he did. As the book closes, Wang is an old man and his sons are inspecting the fields, talking among themselves of selling the land that Wang had worked so hard for, and built the security of his family upon.

I can well see why The Good Earth is a classic. It's not very descriptive, the writing style is kind of plain- in the manner of he-said-this and they-did-that which usually bores me. But this was compelling nevertheless- I read it straight through in just a few days. In the end, I didn't like the main character Wang much- I felt like he sometimes made selfish or poor decisions, thinking of prestige and appearances more than I expected, when he came into wealth. In particular I felt bad for his first wife. Overall women are not treated well in this story. It's simply a fact that in the era and culture it depicts, girls were not valued and if the family was in need, they were often sold as very young children to be slaves or prostitutes. During the famine times some poor families quietly performed infanticide rather than see their babies suffer and starve. In this case I was glad of how sparse the prose is, reading about such hardships and terrible things people did to survive. 

The story really shows a broad spectrum of human character. It wasn't only what people stooped to when their survival was at stake, but also what they indulged in or did with their money when fortunes changed, that seemed to demonstrate what they were really made of. Or what they cared most about. I think that's why I liked and felt most for Wang's first wife. She was steadfast, never asked much for herself, saw and did the work required in hard times as well as good. Wang really was unkind to her in the end.

There's a sequel called Sons. I'll probably read it at some point. But I'd have to be in the right mindset, this one takes a particular kind of mood to appreciate it.

Rating: 3/5                357 pages, 1931

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A Passage to India

by E.M. Forster

Just a quick note on this one. I tried to read it on a very long drive. Sixty pages in, after picking it up and putting it down repeatedly, I had to give up with a sigh. If this is Forster's best work, it makes me wonder if I should cross Room with a View and Howard's End off my want-to-read list. It's about a bunch of people in India nearing the end of colonialism, snobs of the British ruling class trying to mix socially with native Indian people (who are well-educated themselves) but nobody understands each other and it all goes wrong. At least, I gathered that much from the back cover text and glancing at a few reviews online. I just could not picture anything in my mind, or figure out what was going on, or keep the characters straight, while reading this. So I ended up disinterested and bored. Of course, it could just have been my mood and the surrounding circumstances (long hours in the car with a restless eight-year-old in the back seat) so I am re-shelving this one to try again at a later date. Do tell me if it's worth the effort of another attempt.

Abandoned              335 pages, 1924

Heart of Darkness

by Joseph Conrad

I had a hard time with this classic, even though I found the prose riveting. I'm glad I knew a little about it beforehand, or I might have been thoroughly confused and not made it through. The narrative is by a seaman telling a story to his fellow sailors while waiting for a tide to turn- about a former trip via steamboat upriver into the depths of the Congo. He was hired by a trading company to travel to a remote post to collect a man named Kurtz who has a load of ivory extracted from the interior- as far as I could tell. Kurtz is strangely held in awe by many, and when the narrator finally reaches the destination, it's obvious he's been out in the jungle wilderness far too long- he has the native population (depicted in very racist, stereotypical fashion from a nineteenth-century imperialist perspective) under his thrall, raves in lunatic fashion and appears to be suffering from some awful disease.

Most of the novella is about the frustrating travel upriver through the dense jungle, suffering frequent breakdowns, lack of materials, poor management, horrific exploitation and suffering on the part of the natives. It's very rambling and dense, a lot of it internal monologue on the depravity of human nature and moves without description or explanation between scenes- so I often had difficulty understanding what was actually going on. In a way it is Kafkaesque, in another way the deeply visceral prose reminded me of William Golding's The Inheritors (which I now regret I culled out of my library- this book makes me want to read that one again, oddly enough). Many of the passages also brought to mind Lord of the Flies, and I rather wonder if Golding wasn't heavily influenced by Joseph Conrad. Sample of the descriptive power in the text:

Trees, trees, millions of trees, massive, immense, running up high; and at their foot, hugging the bank against the stream, crept the little begrimed steamboat, like a sluggish beetle crawling on the floor of a lofty portico. It made you feel very small, very lost, and yet it was not altogether depressing, that feeling. After all, if you were small, the grimy beetle crawled on- which was just what you wanted it to do...

or: 

The mind of man is capable of anything- because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valour, rage- who can tell? - but truth- truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the fool gape and shudder- the man knows, and can look on without a wink. But.... he must meet that truth with his own true stuff- with his own inborn strength.

It's a book I found hard to put down even though it was difficult to get through, and one that definitely merits a re-read (or several!) in order to understand. I read this one in e-book format.

Rating: 3/5              280 pages, 1902

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The Moon and Sixpence

by W. Somerset Maugham

 * * * warning there are spoilers here * * *

It is a highly fictionalized account of the life of Paul Gauguin; in this novel the character of the artist is named Charles Strickland. It is told through the eyes of a bystander, a man who happens to meet Strickland's wife at a dinner party and later becomes curious about the man's character and becomes a close acquaintance. I wouldn't say friend, as he never liked the man, who had a blatant lack of regard for other people's feelings. In this story, Strickland suddenly leaves his wife and moves to France in order to pursue his art undistracted. The narrator encounters him again through the friendship of another artist- a simple, trusting man who admires Strickland's then-unrecognized genius. When Strickland, often destitute, falls seriously ill, this other artist takes him in; things happen and the poor man's marriage is destroyed. Strickland leaves- and our narrator (willingly) looses track of him for a while. Later he conveniently happens to meet other men who have had later acquaintance with the artist, and finds out that Strickland went to live in Tahiti, where he lived among the natives, seeking out a primitive idyll. He lived with a young woman who was his unofficial wife, and died in isolation and great suffering from leprosy. All the while, to the very last trying to paint and express some ideal vision from his soul.

While the book has a rather pessimistic view of human nature- at least, as far as the character of Strickland is concerned- it is so well-written I did enjoy it. Being told as a second-hand account, it has a lot of other characters and little side-stories. The writing style and descriptions of life in Paris, reminded me somewhat of George Orwell's work, Down and Out in London and Paris.

It did spur me to look up more about Gauguin, so I learned how many liberties this story actually takes. While a lot of it is roughly true to case, he didn't, for example, leave his wife in the way described. He did have quite a number of sales during his artistic career, had a dealer, didn't die in complete obscurity - nor of leprosy- and lived on a few south sea islands in succession, not just Tahiti. He had a different, young "wife" at each tropical locale- quite arguably the man was a pedophile. One of the scenes in the book which I found most moving, where he painted the entire walls of his house in a mural considered a masterpiece, and then his young wife burned it to the ground at his request after his death, was completely fabricated. I did wish more of the story covered his life in the tropics- that was such a short segment at the end of the novel.

The idea of a man driven to express something, having no desire for anything but to paint, and forsaking everything in his comfortable life to pick this up at age forty, facing the ridicule of those in polite society around him- well, there is something admirable in that. I know what it is like to be enthralled by the act of creation with your hands, even if the resulting product is not so great- to want to keep doing it just because you feel so alive when you do.

Does anyone know what the title refers to? I could not quite figure that out. I'm now curious to read a travelouge Gauguin himself wrote, about his time in Tahiti, called Noa Noa, and perhaps another fiction loosely based on his life by Mario Vargas Llosa, The Way to Paradise.

Borrowed from a family member.

Rating: 4/5                   264 pages, 1919

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How Green Was My Valley

by Richard Llewellyn

I can't remember the last time it took me a month to read one book. I have simply been busy- all the regular stuff plus a basement remodel, guests for the holidays and a very large project at work that has gone way past the deadline, have eaten up all my free hours. I'm still trying to wrap up stuff at work, often too tired at the end of the day to focus on more than a magazine article before sleep...

Well, this is a book that sat a very long time on my shelf- for over eight years. I can't recall what prompted me to first pick it up at the Book Thing, except perhaps the title caught my eye. Reading it at once I was reminded of Germinal, because of the similar theme. How Green Was My Valley is set in a coal-mining village on a mountaintop in Wales. It is told from the viewpoint of a younger son in a large family, Huw Morgan. Most of this bildungsroman is about family centeredness- the strong moral code, the younger son learning skills from his father and older brother. There is an incident in his childhood which leaves him weakened and bedridden for several years, so he studies a lot and becomes well-versed in classical literature. It is baffling later on when he is sent to receive formal schooling, but the school is run by the English and they look down on him and think he is ignorant, just because he is Welsh. Huw learns carpentry from the local preacher and boxing from a group of prizefighters- and there are lots of ins and outs in the story about love- his brothers wooing different women and getting married, the unrest some of these pairings cause in the family, his long infatuation with his brother's wife, his curiosity about 'the facts of life' and final realization with a girl from the next valley over- this part of the story was actually quite funny, as he didn't like the girl at first but she weaseled her way into his company. For some reason I never really connected with the main character- nothing about him really stood out to me, except that he had a strong sense of right and wrong, curiosity about how the world works, and didn't hesitate to question the actions of those around him when they seemed senseless.

The parts about mining and its effect on the valley loom in the background- slag heaps piling up to nearly topple over the houses, grime slowly covering everything, the meadows of flowers suffocating, the streams devoid of fish- but it all occurs so gradually people don't notice until it seems too late. Most of their concern was keeping their livelihood- Huw's brothers are involved in creating a union and there is a lot of unrest, times of suffering and famine. The ending, when Huw's father goes down into the mine to find one of their men who didn't come back after going down to see why the tunnels are flooding- well, it ends in tragedy as you might expect. All the fighting and suffering and despoiling of the mountain, to end in loss and sorrow.

The language is beautiful. Throughout the entire book there is a unique pattern of phrasing that comes from the Welsh language- it took me a while to get used to it, and then I loved the way the descriptions would put images in my mind. Huw's thoughts on the nature of the land and the depth of relationships in people around him are quite eloquent. It is for this I might keep the book on hand to read again, or look for others by this author- although from reviews I glanced at, the sequels to How Green Was My Valley aren't as good.

Rating: 4/5         497 pages, 1940

Julie of the Wolves

by Jean Craighead George

The pains of growing up and culture clash meld into a story of animal communication and survival skills with some beautiful nature writing. No wonder this book is a classic. It is told in three parts, and the first one is about Julie's interactions with a wolf pack, which hooked me from the beginning. In the opening scene Julie, a thirteen-year-old Inuit (or Eskimo as they are called in the book) is lost on the Arctic tundra. She had run away from home, trying to reach the coast where a ship would take her to San Francisco. She ran out of food and in spite of finding ways to hunt and forage, is slowing starving. She comes across a small wolf pack and decides that her only hope is to gain their trust and share their food. Incredible patience and close attention to the subtle ways the wolves communicate allows her to do this. I really loved reading about how Julie integrated herself into the wolf pack, and how she lived alongside the animals. It felt quite plausible.

The second part of the book is a flashback to Julie's childhood, which tells how she got into her present predicament. Her father, a great hunter who taught her many traditional skills, disappears one day on a trip and is presumed dead. She is forced to move away and live with an aunt who only seems to want Julie in her household as a source of free labor. Julie escapes this situation via an arranged marriage to an Inuit boy, but this new home is also insufferable. Having run away, got lost in the wilderness and found ways to survive, Julie (whose Eskimo name is Miyax) gradually discovers that she loves living close to the land, that she has a deep appreciation for nature and finds satisfaction in using her skills (not without some major challenges, though). When she finally reaches populated areas again, she's no longer sure if she wants to live among men. Her value system is different now. She directly sees the threat modern man poses to her wolves (who follow along towards the village). And when she makes contact with people, she discovers that far more has changed than her own perceptions. I really felt like the ending was too quick, and I had forgotten what sad notes it contained.

But it does make me more eager to pick up the second book and see where the story goes. Julie of the Wolves was a re-read for me. I'm not sure if I read the sequel before. I have a dim memory of abandoning it, but will see how much is familiar.

Rating: 4/5        170 pages, 1972

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The Time Machine

by H.G. Wells

This was a strange view of the far, distant future. It's projected from the Victorian era, where an eminent scientist announces to his friends and colleagues that he has built a machine which can travel through time. They are skeptical and the first chapter of the book is a detailed discussion between them about the nature of time and space, physical matter etc- a lot of it over my head, frankly. At the end of the discussion the Time Traveller (as he is identified throughout the novella) announces that he is going to experiment with his machine. When all the men arrive for a dinner party the following week, the Time Traveller arrives late for the meal, looking disheveled and shaken. He relates a detailed story about where he has been- to the year 800,701 and beyond.

It is a very strange report that he makes. The world he visited is practically unrecognizable. The people he encounters are small, mild-mannered and apparently unintelligent. They seem to live at ease in a world without disease, animals or any conflict. Of course he can't understand their language, and his first attempts at understanding the situation turn out to be greatly mistaken. He's only there for eight days but soon finds out that there is another population living underground- that, in effect, the human race evolved into two very distinct groups. Alarmingly, the Time Traveller discovers that his machine is missing- and he thinks that the underground people have stolen it...

I can't think of another story or premise that shows mankind becoming less advanced in the future. The idea that Wells posited of human abilities becoming atrophied and the entire population slowly falling into decline made sense when finally explained, but I also found it odd. And although the book is quite short, it feels very dense- full of ideas and theories and speculations.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 3/5       122 pages, 1895

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Tom's Midnight Garden

by Philippa Pearce

I really enjoyed this story. Tom is sent to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle when his brother has the measles. His aunt and uncle live in a small flat, part of a larger house. There is very little to entertain Tom- the small walled yard has only dustbins and a parked, and he can't go out because he might be contagious. He thinks he's going to die of boredom until he makes a wonderful discovery. When the grandfather clock downstairs chimes thirteen, the back door opens into a vast, manicured garden. Pretty soon Tom is sneaking out every night to explore the garden. He meets other children there, catches glimpses of the gardener and a few adult members of this other household. Only one little girl can see him, and they strike up a friendship. Eventually Tom puzzles out that the children in the garden are from the Victorian era, and also that time moves differently for them. His life becomes so enmeshed in the happenings of the garden that he never wants to leave it.

Funny, if you think about it this book is something of a mystery. Who are the other kids in the garden? where do they come from? why can't they all see Tom? is he a ghost in their world- or are the Victorian children all ghosts themselves? It all comes together neatly in the end. I didn't find it sad like some other readers, I rather liked the ending. Very well written, believable characters and lots of interesting stuff to think about time, aging, how relationships change... Definitely one I'd read again, or put into my kids' hands.

Borrowed from the public library.

Rating: 4/5        229 pages, 1958

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Cry, the Beloved Country

by Alan Paton

This is one of those books I picked up at a used sale one day just because I recognized the title as being famous. Then it sat on my shelf for at least eight years. I chose it to read this weekend and was surprised at how intent the story was and how quickly I moved through it.

It is told in two parts. In the first half, a Zulu parson leaves his small, rural village and travels to Johannesburg in search of several family members who have dispersed there. His sister, his son, his brother. The great sprawling city at first bewilders the elderly parson, but even more bewildering and painful is what he discovers of his lost family members- they have each fallen into disreputable ways of making a living. Dispirited, he tracks them down, learning of their troubles and attempting to bring them back home. Some cannot be found, or cannot be recovered, or simply don't wish return. It is with a very heavy heart he returns to his village with fragments of his family and a burden of shame for the crimes his son, in particular, has committed.

Yet on his search through dark corners of Johannesburg and its skirting slums, he met with great kindness and help from strangers. And now, come home again, the parson struggles to help his village. The land is depleted, crops are failing, young people deserting the area, children dying. He carries the shame of his family back with him, and worse yet, discovers that a white man who owns farmland near the village was personally wronged by his son's crime. It is with the deepest sorrow that he admits this relationship to his neighbor. It seems that everything is falling to pieces, when help for the village comes from an unexpected source. I did wish this part of the story was fleshed out more- it interested me to read about the efforts to change farming methods, the villagers' resistance to change and new ideas even when it was obvious the old ways were failing. And while I enjoyed the simple clarity and lyrical writing, was deeply touched by the depiction of forgiveness and compassion between the characters of this story, I was also baffled at moments when the parson expressed anger. Maybe I did not read between the lines enough, but sometimes his responses seemed out of character to me.

It is a very good book, one that is difficult to put down, or stop thinking about.

Rating: 4/5      316 pages, 1948

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A Girl of the Limberlost

by Gene Stratton Porter

If you loved Anne of Green Gables, you're sure to like this book. It has a rather similar story, set in the late 1800's. Elnora lives with her distant, embittered mother on the edge of an Indiana swampland. Her mother has a cold, unfeeling attitude due to the father's untimely death when Elnora was an infant, and yet Elnora is patient, kind and understanding beyond measure. She loves the wild things of the woodlands, especially the large, beautiful moths which she collects and studies. Her greatest dream is to attend school but she has no money to pay for books and tuition, and her mother refuses to help. She doesn't want the assistance neighbors and friends offer, either, but finds a way to use her knowledge of the forest and her moth collection to raise money for highschool. Through many setbacks, Elnora comes through with determination and not a little cleverness in finding solutions as new problems that arise. The storyline shifts directions when a revelation about the past changes her mother's attitude towards her. Later Elnora is attempting to raise college funds when she meets a young man from the city who is spending time in the countryside to convalesce from an illness. You can guess right away that something will develop between these two, but it's complicated by the fact that the young man is already betrothed to a wealthy, primping lady who isn't about to let some unknown country girl disrupt her engagement. It does end well, but the route to that ending was not what I expected, and really made the moral fiber of these characters shine.

It's a really good book, and I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't actually love it. In the first place, I was expecting more nature writing, or at least descriptions of the swamp habitat. There's not much of that. In fact, there wasn't any of it for the first 150 pages. I almost wonder if the book I read was missing some of the original? because a few other reviews I see online mention the first few chapters of the book having wonderful descriptions of nature in the swamp and forest, whereas the first chapter I read was about Elnora going to school... And the parts about moth collecting aren't until the later third of the book.

It's really mostly about relationships and while that is interesting enough to make a good story, the people are a bit too noble and kind in these pages, a bit hard to believe. The turnaround Elnora's mother makes is also hard to credit, so instant and complete. I was also rather dismayed how much importance everyone put on appearances, that Elnora and all those around her were so set on getting her nice clothes to wear so she wouldn't be scorned and laughed at by other kids at school. I think it would have made a much bolder story if Elnora had found acceptance in spite of her old-fashioned, poverty-stricken looks. And it distressed me how much neighbors kept urging Elnora's mother to sell portions of her land for logging or oil drilling, so she could provide for her child. Both mother and child obviously loved the land and didn't want to see it despoiled, yet they couldn't be in accord with each other? And if she so loved the forest, why did she have so few qualms about collecting hundreds of moths and cocoons, especially the rare ones, to sell to collectors? Grated, they kept stating how important it was to educate other folks about wild things, but it seemed a hollow rationale to me.

Am I being too nitpicky? I probably would have adored this book as a younger reader, and I do love the solid message it gives of being honest and forthright, forgiving and true to yourself, kind to those in need, etc. The love story that unfolds near the end of the book is particularly well done. It shows just how true certain people can be, and how spiteful others. How some people are attracted to each other for all the wrong reasons, and how deep love can go when you approach it in the right way (at least, in my opinion). Elnora sure is an admirable character. (Oh, and did I mention she is pretty much a self-taught genius at playing the violin?)

But I do want to read more of this author's work, particularly Freckles, which precedes this story. Its characters and events were alluded to a lot, without enough satisfactory explanation. The author wrote as if she expected her readers already knew half her characters from before, and while I often find rehashing of previous books annoying, here I did want a little more backstory! Maybe I would have appreciated Limberlost a bit more, if I'd read Freckles first?

Bonus material: looking for pictures of the beautiful moths mentioned in the book, I found these images of incredible moth sculptures by artist Michelle Stitzlein

Rating: 3/5      485 pages, 1991

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My Ántonia

by Willa Cather

This is the story of an immigrant family adjusting to life on the Nebraska prairie during the early 1900's. It's about one girl in particular, the oldest child of a Bohemian family. Told by their neighbor Jim, it details the family's early struggles and how things changed throughout the community as they grew into adulthood. The hard work on the farm, living with deprivation, struggling to learn new ways in a new country, missing the old land. I found the personalities of Ántonia's parents intriguing- one caustic and demanding of respect, the other gentle and longing for home. Jim describes Ántonia as a strong, curious, determined girl who worked hard. Later she moves into town to work in a rich family's home, but retains her love for the countryside. I won't tell you all what happens, but I did admire Ántonia, how she held staunch to her morals, how she made the best of a bad situation, how she was beloved by her children and esteemed by her close friends in the end. It was interesting to see the portrait Cather builds of a frontier town, and how the fortune of several characters didn't turn out as you might expect.

But in spite of all that, it was a book I just couldn't get into. Partly because I have been preoccupied of late, but also because the story felt distanced to me. Jim the narrator never really tells much about himself, he seems to be a bystander without much personality. And the story of Ántonia is told in a rather dry fashion- events reported, things described, but without much emotion (at least, it didn't come through to me). It's more the story of a town and of the wide landscapes, and I wasn't quite in the mood for that. In fact, the entire thing came across to me as a grown-up version of a Little House on the Prairie story. Which is not at all meant to be insulting- Wilder's books are very good!

This is one of those books I'd always meant to read, and it's a classic, so I feel kind of bad not appreciating it more. As if I'm missing something. I've heard it's one of her best novels so now I have misgivings to try any more Cather, which disappoints me as well. Maybe later down the road...

Rating: 3/5        290 pages, 1918

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The Sea-Wolf

by Jack London

A seafaring adventure that at first glance would be something like Captain's Courageous (which I actually liked) but similarities are only on the surface, as I surprisingly found this book very forgettable. Not sure why, as I've like other books of adventures at sea before, and also London's books about intrepid canines in the North (Call of the Wild and White Fang) are among my favorites, very memorable. Maybe this one waxed too philosophical. Or got me lost in nautical terminology and descriptions I couldn't quite follow.

Anyway, it's about a well-to-do young man named Humphrey (unfortunately his nickname is Hump) who survives when the ferry he's on capsizes, and gets picked up by a sealing vessel. The captain, Wolf Larsen, is a cruel taskmaster and forces Humphrey to work as part of the crew. So a lot of the story is about how life at sea hardens this young man, and friction among the crew. The main points I remember are an attempted mutiny, and that somehow a young woman ended up on board. Of course Humphrey falls in love with her, then has to protect her from the attentions of all the other men on board. I think at the end Humphrey and the woman end up shipwrecked on an island, surviving off seals, but that somehow the captain ended up there with them as well and there is some final confrontation. But I forgot most of it, and don't really feel inclined to read it again.

Rating: 2/5     244 pages, 1904

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Down and Out in Paris and London

by George Orwell

This is the second or third time I've read this book; you can read my earlier post of it here. I found that my memories of it had gotten quite mixed up with Jack London's People of the Abyss. Orwell's book is much narrower in scope than I had recalled; it details mainly his fruitless searches for work in Paris and finally landing a few jobs- first scrubbing dishes in the basement of a "nice" hotel, then working in a poorly-run restaurant (the source of my revulsion, it was much worse conditions than the hotel, which I had remembered incorrectly). In between jobs he scrapes pennies, pawns his clothes, follows up useless leads, and often just lies around bereft of energy due to hunger. The second half is about his time spent as a tramp in London, when he showed up for a job that did not materialize for several weeks. Having nowhere to go and no money he slept in various charity wards, other homeless men showing him the ropes. He analyses the system of public assistance (such as it was in his day) from the perspective of the recipients, makes suggestions for its improvement and most of all, lays bare how insulting and demeaning the offers of aid can actually feel to men in dire straits.

I had forgotten completely that the book opened with an unsavory scene where a friend of his pays a nun for the privilege of raping a girl- or so it seemed to me; the scene was more suggestive than than explicit. I think if I had been a bit more of an astute reader the first time around, this would have put me off the entire book! More interesting to me than the narrative itself this time around, what what I gleaned from the introduction. I did not realize before, for instance, that Orwell used a pen name. His real name is Eric Blair, and he assumed a pen name because his parents were appalled that he wanted to be a writer. I also found interesting the descriptions of how much he had to edit out swearwords from the original text, and the variations between the French translation and the English version. Orwell's own little list of local slang terms he encountered on the streets and their various meanings intrigued me as well.

Rating: 4/5 ........ 230 pages, 1933

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Curious George

by Margaret and H.A. Rey

I've missed reviewing children's books lately, and so am trying to get back into that. Especially as my youngest is starting to move beyond the board books and into regular picture books, which are a bit more interesting to write about. She's really into Curious George lately, and this is the one where it all started (we have five Curious George books on our shelf at home, and keep finding others to borrow from the library).

The basic storyline here is that a man who seems to always dress in yellow with a wide-brimmed hat captures a young monkey from the jungle, takes him home to put in the zoo but ends up rather adopting George (in a subsequent book) to live in his house. George causes all kinds of mischief but it always turns out alright in the end.

All the stories about George follow a similar pattern, although I find the originals more endearing; the later books that have been written by a different author are a bit too formulaic for me. But the originals have a few issues of their own. One is that they definitely show evidence of being written in a different era. There seems to be no problem with the idea that a man on vacation (or whatever he was doing there- exploring? collecting more likely) can just bring a wild animal home with him. I find the method of capture charming, as it reflects the insatiable curiosity of the little monkey- the man simply puts his hat on the ground, George approaches and tries to put it on himself, hides his own eyes, and is caught.  On the way home via ship George falls overboard and is rescued; once back in America he spends the night at the man's house and eats dinner at the table, then smokes a pipe (hello- what?!) before going to bed. The next day the monkey is left alone for a while and plays with the telephone (a very archaic-looking instrument to my kids!) which gets him in trouble with the fire department and thrown in jail. He escapes, walks across telephone wires, flies away with a bunch of balloons and eventually is found by the iconic man-with-the-yellow-hat (this fellow never has a real name) who takes him to the zoo where he appears happy despite the austere environment- a bare cage with just a swing.

I'm guessing most of the issues here won't bother kids at all. The one that actually bugs me most is that George is consistently called a monkey when he looks like a chimpanzee- although his fur is reddish brown, not black.

It's funny though; even though when I think closely about it I find some things odd or inappropriate about the original stories, I still like them better than the newer books. (There are two sets of these, which we've found at the library. One which mimicks the original style closely, the others seem to be based on a tv series and has a smooth, animated look, not hand-illustrated. I have another set of minor issues with these, which will come up later if I continue to write about them). The originals just have more charm, and of course are loaded with nostalgia for me. My mom read them to me over and over, when I was a kid.

Rating: 4/5 ......... 64 pages, 1941

The Reluctant Dragon

by Kenneth Grahame

This is one of those books I just can't believe I never read before! It's a charming little story about a boy who befriends a dragon near his cottage home. The dragon is quite the gentleman, loves poetry, and is also rather lazy- he likes his quiet time, let's say. The local villagers discover his cave is occupied and get quite upset. Even though he's never bothered them or so much as set foot in the village, they ask the famous knight St. George to come get rid of the dragon. When the knight arrives, everyone is eager to see a battle- except that the dragon doesn't want to fight at all. The boy is just as excited as the others about a fight, but of course he wants to help his friend. How can he work out the situation? I thought the solution quite clever, and funny too. The original illustrations by Ernest Shepard (of Winnie-the-Pooh fame) are just lovely.

I really discovered this one because of another, newer edition with colored illustrations that I found on a library shelf. I wanted to read the original before the adapted version. It's really not a long story so I'm not sure why it had to be adapted, but I'll find out soon enough if a lot of text got cut; reading that one next.

rating: 4/5 ........ 48 pages, 1966

Tess of D'Urbervilles

by Thomas Hardy

I don't know how or when Tess of D'Urbervilles first got on my reading list, and I really had no idea what it was about before reading it this week. I've been fitfully participating in our public library's summer reading program (yes, they let adults play too) which this year is mostly about familiarizing yourself with the library's many resources- so for the first time I've browsed their DVD selections, and used some of the online databases- interesting stuff! One of the requirements however is to read a classic you've always wanted to and I picked Tess.

This is one of those cases where I don't quite know how to write about a book without possibly giving spoilers, so you've been warned!

It's been a long time since I read a classic and I've never read Hardy before- let me tell you, it was a rich experience! I was drawn in immediately by the descriptions of rural lifestyle and the character of Tess herself. She lives in Dorset, 19th century. Her family the Durbeyfields is poor but her shiftless father discovers one day that they are supposedly connected to an ancient aristocracy named D'Urberville and he immediately starts putting on airs, gets so drunk he can't function the next day so Tess is sent on an early-morning errand. She falls asleep on the road and gets into an accident which kills their family's only horse. They are now facing ruin but the mother urges Tess to visit a well-to-do lady in the next valley who is also supposedly of the D'Urberville line, and ask for help. Tess reluctantly agrees because she feels guilty about the death of the horse. When she arrives at the estate she immediately catches the eye of a certain young man. He's not really related to her- his family assumed the D'Urberville name for their own reasons- so he has no qualms about flirting with her, then practically stalking her, then well- things go badly for Tess- who disliked him from the start- and she ends up back at home with an illegitimate child. Things are miserable for a while but Tess eventually moves on, vowing to never marry.

She takes work as a dairymaid in another part of the country where people don't know her history, and then falls in love with a man who has rejected his family's standing as clergymen to become a farmer himself. This Clare sees Tess as a beautiful unspoiled country girl, even though she repeated tries to tell him of her sullied past he refuses to listen. Tess wants to marry him, but feels unworthy and is afraid of his finding her out. And then- of course- the man who ruined her life in the first place makes a repeat appearance- and things just get worse and worse. I've probably said too much already so I'll stop now. But it has a sad ending. Rather melodramatic, I thought. I mean- really- Stonehenge? I can't imagine anyone sleeping on a slab there, when today you can't even step inside the circle to take photos, it's so roped off (or so I've gathered, never having been there myself)

But regardless, what a story. I really felt bad for Tess. She was a good person at heart, smarter than her family, had her pride, did what she thought best. Some seem to think she deserved her lot and put herself in harm's way with her so-called "cousin" but that guy gave me the creeps from the start. Ugh, what an awful man. What I really enjoyed about the book was all the details about how people lived in rural communities more than a century ago. The tasks of threshing wheat, preparing straw to thatch roofs, digging turnips in the fields, and particularly how work was done on the prosperous dairy farm- all so different from today's operations. The dialect of the people being particular not only to the time and locale- many words out of use- but also to the family's being poor it was often hard to understand what exactly they meant but I was usually able to gather it from the context- I like that kind of reading challenge- and only after finishing the book did I realize there was a glossary in the back.

It's not as long as it looks. The edition I read (borrowed from the library) had appendixes, maps, several different forwards and afterwords written by different people for various other editions, excerpts that had been edited out of early editions (which shocked contemporary readers) and copious notes on the text. It's the first time I've ever read a book which had a note at the head of the forward warning of spoilers! so of course I didn't read that until later, glad I did as it gave away some of the crucial twists in the plot. I didn't read all the extra material, but did find interesting an included article all about the artists who illustrated early editions of Tess (which was first published as a kind of magazine serial). I definitely want to read more Hardy now.

That was rather rambling, apologies. It's late but I wanted to jot something down before sleep while it's all still turning in my head. I could say a lot more but will rest now.

rating: 4/5 ........ 518 pages, 1891

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Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov

My computer was down for a few days so I have a backlog of book posts to catch up on, but I'll start with the most recent one, a book I gave up on: Lolita. I'd been wondering for a long time if I even wanted to try reading Lolita, because I knew well what it was about: a pedophile professing his twisted ardor for a preteen girl he forces to basically be his sex slave. The only thing that made me curious about this book was that all those bloggers (see a few below) profess that despite the distasteful subject matter, the story was so well-written and such a fascinating character study of this disgusting man Humbert that it made good reading.

For the most part, they were right. The writing is very rich. In spite of what you know is really going on between this older man in a fatherly role and the twelve-year-old he is abusing, the revolting bits are never stating explicitly, and in fact you might even miss them because they are so casually mentioned between pages and pages of rambling lists and descriptions. It's really rather frustrating to read, actually. I'd rather have known more about what was happening, or more about Lolita herself; the bare glimpses you get of her through Humbert's endless dronings on about how lovely she is or describing all the hotels they stopped at or all the cars they saw or all the landmarks they visited etc etc are so obscure you never really know what she's thinking or feeling about all this. One moment it seems she is actually flirting with the creep, the next she's sobbing and protesting. Overall she comes across as a spoiled brat (he's constantly buying her gifts to keep her compliant), mouthing off, talking back, acting like a regular teenager. He's constantly paranoid that she's going to run away, or ogling her friends, or worrying about how to keep his obsession a secret. The first part, about how he weaseled his way into her family and became her stepfather, was interesting but then it gradually just got so dull I couldn't stand it anymore. Not that I wanted more details of a particular sort, I just wanted more story. Of course I suppose this is just to give the reader a picture of what it's like inside a depraved mind, but it was boring. I really did try to finish, because I wanted to know what happened to Lolita. I quit actually reading the book around page 180, then did some skimming, enough to find out

SPOILER ALERT highlight if you want to read the next paragraph

that she ends up in the hospital and then later on is married and has her own kid, escaped from Humbert's clutches and still it appears, communicating with him begging for money, and so on while keeping her distance. Unfortunately I didn't care anymore, not even enough to try and read the pages in between to learn how she got to that final place, much less interested in the agonies Humbert was going through being apart from her or the mess his life was afterwards.

Bah. O well. I didn't finish it, and I don't care. If somebody ever writes a book about Lolita from the girl's point of view, I might be interested in that, but just barely.

This is the first Nabokov book I've attempted to read, and I'm afraid it might also be the last. In the back of the edition I borrowed was a list of all his other titles with brief descriptions, and not a single one caught my interest.

Borrowed from the library.

Abandoned ......... 317 pages, 1955

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Bambi

A Life in the Woods

by Felix Salten

This is one of my most favorite books ever. I read it many times in my childhood, but it's been years since I last visited its pages. I happened across a beautifully illustrated edition at the library and borrowed it (even though I have my own copy) to enjoy again with these new images. The paintings by Michael J. Woods really make the forest setting and animals come alive. They are so lifelike, and so expressive at the same time. I paged through the book several times after reading it, just to look at the pictures again. (click on images to view them larger)

Bambi tells the story of the life a deer leads in the forest. It begins with his birth and follows him through the unfolding of his understanding, from the first questions he asks his mother- reminiscent of any toddlers incessant why is the sky blue? but why? - to his playful explorations in the meadow to his youthful feelings of invulnerability. He soon learns that the forest isn't safe at all, often full of dangers. For some time the exact nature of danger is unclear as his mother is unwilling to speak of it and he speculates with his playmates what it could be. But soon enough he learns about the threat of man, who seems to be an inescapable and incomprehensible horror. This combined with the hardships of his first winter make Bambi realize that life is a very serious thing indeed.

In fact, a lot of the book deals with themes of facing mortality and the constant threats to life. Bambi sees plenty of other creatures die, from his mother to other deer they associate with; a squirrel gets its throat torn out by a predator, crows attack smaller creatures, a dog relentlessly tracks down an injured fox, etc. And yet he finds plenty to delight in as well. His first experience of the mating season is a time of giddy passion, surging emotions that culminate in fights with the other bucks (although there's nothing "twitterpated" here at all). He also takes simple joy in his surroundings, the colorful flowers, birdsong, warm sunshine etc. The nature writing is wonderful, beautifully evoking the seasons and surroundings of lush plant life and bird voices. As Bambi moves into adulthood his life becomes more solitary and then he begins to associate closely with an older stag of the forest, who mentors him and shares his wisdom.

One of the most interesting parts of the books is about another deer named Gobo whom Bambi grew up with. During their first winter Gobo collapses in the snow and is rescued by a hunter. The other deer are all shocked and amazed when he reappears healthy and well later on. But even though Gobo survived at the hands of Man, he is now unfit for life in the forest and his inability to live as a wild deer is painfully illustrated. Another part of the book also shows how the animals interact with mankind: when the fox is tracked by a hound they end up arguing about their relationships to man. The fox sneers at the dog for being a traitor to animals by serving man; the dog asserts that man is good to those who work for him. Other parts of the story that also show how humans affect wildlife, as in when a massive tree is chopped down and many small creatures are suddenly homeless.

I could go on and on, but I won't tell you more because I want you to read the book! I think most people are only familiar with the Disney film version of Bambi, and that's a shame. There are few similarities, namely the early death of Bambi's mother. There are no giggling bunny and skunk friends; the Hare Bambi meets is a serious creature and the Owl he knows is a little screech owl who delights in trying to frighten others with his shrieks. There is no fire in the book, and the threat of human hunters is much more prominent. This story is so different, much deeper and so beautifully written. I wish more people would read it, especially to their children.

Rating: 5/5 ........ 158 pages, 1928

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The Plague

by Albert Camus

I thought it would be interesting to read another account on similar subject, after The Dancing Plague. This novel tells about a French town in Northern Africa that suffers a plague outbreak in the 1940's. The citizens are not much concerned when they start to see dead rats everywhere, even when the animals come out and start dying by the thousands in the streets they feel horrified and repulsed but not yet fearful for themselves. Then people start to die of suspicious symptoms- high, raving fever, swollen buboes in the armpits and groin. A few isolated cases which quickly escalate until there are hundreds a day. There are long passages about the emotional unrest of people separated from their loved ones when the city gates are locked, of the preacher's sermons harping guilt into the people, of the magistrate's futile efforts to enact laws that halt the spread of disease. The main characters are a doctor, a reporter and a few other French men. But I found I didn't care much about them. And I kept taking breaks from the book to read other novels in the meantime. Each time I had less interest in coming back to this one until I just decided I didn't want to read any more. I wasn't interested in any of the characters and the long passages were so dull. I read a bit about this book on wiki to find out how it ended, and it said there that the novel was in part a metaphor of French resistance to Nazi occupation during WWII. I didn't see any of that in the novel, but then I wasn't looking for it while reading. Made it halfway through. Moving on.

I had The Stranger on my TBR list but after my experience with The Plague I don't feel very interested in reading more Camus.

Abandoned ........ 278 pages, 1947

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