This is another amazing book by Robert Morgan, who as an author amazes me. His writing style is precise but lyrical; his use of regional dialect accurate without being trite. This Rock is the coming-of-age story of a young mountain man in the early 1920s. Morgan captures details about the hardness of mountain life that are practically tangible, and his characters are full and knowable. I've had a penchant for southern literature since college, and, as far as I'm concerned, Robert Morgan is today's crowning voice of southern literature.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Book Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
May 20, 2007
This is another one of the books on my American Lit possibility list. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a candid look at life in Brooklyn's slums in the early 1900s, told through the eyes of Francie Nolan. Francie is the daughter of a lovely alcoholic papa and a hardworking, floor-scrubbing mama. She navigates through her adolescence in the midst of poverty, realizing early on that education is the key to rising above the plight of the poor and that family is ultimately what provides sustenance. I read this book as a teenager and remembered only that I loved it; to re-read this as an adult was a tremendous gift.
Book Review: One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd
May 20, 2007
This book was not what I was expecting. I must not have read the reviews carefully enough, for I believed this to be a nonfiction account of a little-known part of American history. Actually, this “historical” account never happened, as author Jim Fergus quite clearly states in his introduction. Apparently a Cheyenne chief suggested to an Army officer, sometime in the 1870s, that 1000 white women might be traded for 1000 horses; but the chief’s offer was met with scorn and dismissed. This book is a “what if” story: what if the U.S. government had agreed to provide 1000 white brides in exchange for 1000 horses, so that the American Indian and white American cultures might start to be blended?
The premise of the book sounded promising, but I have to give this book a “blech” rating. It had its moments: the writing was good and the characters interesting and some quite likeable; however, the author was too crass for my taste. My favorite chapter was probably the last, written as if it were penned by the monk, Father Anthony. Here the writing was gentle and lyrical, something I appreciate and admire much more than the “shock value” technique the author uses throughout much of the book. If this were truly nonfiction, I might recommend it for its enlightenment of a historical period; but as a work of fiction, I’d skip it.
Book Review: The Thirteenth Tale
May 20, 2007
Every time I’d go to the library, this book would be checked out—and with good reason. Diana Setterfield is a master storyteller. This was an absolutely riveting mystery/thriller/ghost story. This is the kind of book that I really thought about after I finished it. Driving for hours through the Bugaboo-induced smokiness of I75 on our way to Orlando, I replayed the whole book in my head, trying to figure out how all the pieces joined together. The story is multi-layered, with the primary being the true story of famous author Vida Winter as she reveals it to the amateur biographer/narrator. Many other tales unfold in the process, making this a perfect book for a 10-hour car trip when one has the luxury of doing nothing but reading and tossing snacks to the kids in the back. There is hardly anything more luxurious than a good book on vacation.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Book Review: The Endless Steppe
May 11, 2007
This Sonlight Core 7 novel has been given the "best Sonlight book ever" designation by my kids. The Endless Steppe is author Esther Hautzig's narrative of the 5 years she spent in Siberia as a Polish-Jewish exile during WWII. Hautzig is a master storyteller. At age 10 she and her parents went from a completely normal life in Vilna, Poland, surrounded by dozens of family members, to being outcast in a barracks in Siberia. The five years spent in exile are filled with the daily struggle of finding food, clothing, and shelter. This was one of the books, too, that spanned the ages of my kids. While written for a young adult, the novel was appropriate for my 4th-grader, as well, and even my kindergartener listened in now and then. And a warning for those moved to tears by Sonlight books: get your tissues out for the last few chapters.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Book Review: My Antonia
May 8, 2007
I am taking great joy in re-reading, or in the case, reading for the first time, classics in American Literature in preparation for my class next year. This past week I've been reading Willa Cather's wonderful novel about the immigrant experience on the Nebraskan prairie in the early 1900s. The star of the novel is Antonia, an immigrant girl from Bohemia. Told through the eyes of her neighborn, an American-born boy, the novel chronicles her optimism and innocence in the midst of struggles over the course of 25 years. The prose is simply lyrical, a quality which is most often absent in today's novels. (Even contemporary poetry lacks a lyric voice, as often as not.) Reading classics leads me to wonder why today's novelists focus primarily on telling the story, with little regard to the craft of language. But I'll save my criticism of contemporary lit for another time. My Antonia will likely make the list of books we'll read in American Lit.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Book Review: The Pearl
April 28, 2007
Who am I to review a classic by John Steinbeck? One of my big "jobs" in these next few weeks is to pick the nine novels that we'll read in the American Lit class I'm teaching next year for our enrichment class program. Boy, is it ever hard to pick just 9 classic books by American authors. I have somewhat narrowed down my list and am now reading those with a critical eye: Is this book appropriate for grades 9-12 in subject matter, comprehension, etc. Do the students have the world context necessary to understand the book? Does it represent something unique about life in the U.S.?
The Pearl is a timeless study of human nature, of the struggle between good and evil. It is fast-paced and readable--an excellent introduction to John Steinbeck. But it doesn't capture that facet of America that is so powerful in other Steinbeck novels, and so I will take this out of my stack of possibilities. Next up, Of Mice and Men.
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