This is a book that you have to be prepared to read. It's definitely not an easy book to get through, but it's so worth it. When I say it's not an easy book to get through, I mean emotionally. I flew through the book because the writing was so enthralling, but emotionally, you have to be prepared.
This is the story of a pedophile... who marries a girl's mother just so he can have unlimited access to her. When the mother dies in a freak accident, he runs off with the girl and drives all over the country trying to make her (Lolita/Dolores) fall in love with him (she's twelve when the book begins). Fortunately the protagonist (Humbert Humbert) is in jail when he writes his story, so at least you can rest securely knowing he's not roaming the streets.
Despite it's disturbing storyline, this book is a must-read. Written by a Russian, it shows his complete mastery of the English language. More than just that impressive feat though, is the interesting angle that many scholars have put on it. This is more than just the story of a pedophile, it's the story of the "Old World"s fascination with America. Humbert is a Swiss citizen who was raised in France, but came over to America to get away from the stodgy traditions and feelings of Europe. He fell in love with the idea of America and her vibrancy.
One thing that really struck me with this symbolism is his travels. He first travels from coast to coast trying to make his new "lover" happy. She's a spoiled brat who only wants junk food and movies, while he tries to encourage her in the finer things of life--good literature for the most part. Once he's travelled everywhere, he returns to New England and puts Lolita in a private school in order to give her the best in modern education (the school by the way, is absolutely ridiculous). When she loses interest in that, it's back to travelling, but in a more structured way with Lolita controlling things more (she's 14 at this point).
While it's a very frustrating novel to get through, it ends up with Lolita escaping from Humbert to have a semi-normal life. At the end of the novel she's 17, married, and pregnant. She has to ask Humbert for money, but after that she goes on to lead a happy life with her husband.
While I whole-heartedly loved this book, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who shies away from "hard" books.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Last summer I read The Kite Runner by this author and loved it, so I knew I would love this one. I absolutely love this man's writing style! He manages to write novels that have so many different levels, but they don't bog you down. At first glance you may look at the book and think that it's going to take you at least a week to get through (depending on how quickly you read, etc.), but it goes so quickly.
This novel had one major difference in style from The Kite Runner that I loved though. The Kite Runner is written in one person's point of view (or maybe 3rd person omniscient... I don't remember... but it follows just one person), but A Thousand Splendid Suns is written from two different points of view. I loved his style for doing this because the story continues... he doesn't tell about the same event from the two different points-of-view. While the multiple angles of the same story may work for some people, telling a continuous story while switching between points of view helps to keep the story going.
Like The Kite Runner, this book makes you realize how good your life is. It's a heart-breaking look at how women were treated in Afganistan for many years. In some ways it reminds me of Reading Lolita in Tehran, but these women have even less options than the narrator of that book did. They are the traditional women who were married very young (14 or 15) and had very little education. They married a man many years older than them and had to deal with sharing a husband although they are 15 years apart in age and 20-40 years apart in age from their husband.
I loved this book and would whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read before school starts.
This novel had one major difference in style from The Kite Runner that I loved though. The Kite Runner is written in one person's point of view (or maybe 3rd person omniscient... I don't remember... but it follows just one person), but A Thousand Splendid Suns is written from two different points of view. I loved his style for doing this because the story continues... he doesn't tell about the same event from the two different points-of-view. While the multiple angles of the same story may work for some people, telling a continuous story while switching between points of view helps to keep the story going.
Like The Kite Runner, this book makes you realize how good your life is. It's a heart-breaking look at how women were treated in Afganistan for many years. In some ways it reminds me of Reading Lolita in Tehran, but these women have even less options than the narrator of that book did. They are the traditional women who were married very young (14 or 15) and had very little education. They married a man many years older than them and had to deal with sharing a husband although they are 15 years apart in age and 20-40 years apart in age from their husband.
I loved this book and would whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read before school starts.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Best Part of Being an English Major
So, I was just getting ready to write about this amazing book that I just finished, when I got distracted by the fact that the BYU Bookstore isn't waiting until the week before classes start to publish the booklists on-line. Not all the professors have submitted their book lists yet, so I wouldn't take this as the final word quite yet (for all you BYU students out there), but as I was looking at my book list I got really happy for a couple of reasons.
1) In one of my classes we're reading 14 books over the semester. It's my children's lit class and I couldn't be happier... sure I have some sports books that I'm not super excited about, but there are some really excellent novels that I am excited about and that were already on my to-read list. I've actually heard that we'll end up reading 30 books for this class, so I'm excited to get to read all those good kids books I've been wanting to read.
2) I already own some of the books. One of the best things about being an English major is the fact that you can read the same novel in more than one class. I've read several books more than once and I've learned that if there's a book that's particularly defining of a generation, I should hold on to it, because I'll probably read it again. This is great because it cuts down on my homework time and the cost of my books. Plus I usually have already written a paper on the book which I can just revisit and use as the basis for another paper.
3) My number one favorite thing though is the cost per book. While most of my friends spend over $100 for a single text book, I get to buy 25-30 books for about $10-15 per book (and cheaper if I can get it off Amazon or used). When I walk out of the bookstore it's with a full backpack (or 2 if I can enlist someone to go with me) and a happy heart. Sure sometimes I get a little overwhelmed looking at the sheer number of pages I have to read in the next four months (and even more overwhelmed when I think about the number of pages I have to read besides thos books--research for papers, online supplementary material, etc), but mostly I'm happy. I'd rather be reading any day.
1) In one of my classes we're reading 14 books over the semester. It's my children's lit class and I couldn't be happier... sure I have some sports books that I'm not super excited about, but there are some really excellent novels that I am excited about and that were already on my to-read list. I've actually heard that we'll end up reading 30 books for this class, so I'm excited to get to read all those good kids books I've been wanting to read.
2) I already own some of the books. One of the best things about being an English major is the fact that you can read the same novel in more than one class. I've read several books more than once and I've learned that if there's a book that's particularly defining of a generation, I should hold on to it, because I'll probably read it again. This is great because it cuts down on my homework time and the cost of my books. Plus I usually have already written a paper on the book which I can just revisit and use as the basis for another paper.
3) My number one favorite thing though is the cost per book. While most of my friends spend over $100 for a single text book, I get to buy 25-30 books for about $10-15 per book (and cheaper if I can get it off Amazon or used). When I walk out of the bookstore it's with a full backpack (or 2 if I can enlist someone to go with me) and a happy heart. Sure sometimes I get a little overwhelmed looking at the sheer number of pages I have to read in the next four months (and even more overwhelmed when I think about the number of pages I have to read besides thos books--research for papers, online supplementary material, etc), but mostly I'm happy. I'd rather be reading any day.
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