The Pulitzer Project

2012-12-01T17:04:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the Pulitzer Project. The goal of the participants of this site is to read all 84 books that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. There is no time limit.

You may participate solely on your own blog (and I will link to it at right) or post to this one. Anyone interested in participating on this blog should submit an email address in a comment to this post. To prevent spamming of the email, please submit it in a format similar to the following: janedoe--gmail or janedoe atttt gmail dotttt commm.

You may post a review of each book you've read, even if it was several years ago. Or, you could also put the year read beside the title and not do a full review. It's up to you.

If you are a participant on this particular blog, please follow these guidelines for labeling:
1) Always use your name as a label.
2) "Progress" should be used for list updates.
3) For each book read, use the year won and the title of the book. See the August 2007 entries for an example.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2012-01-26T21:56:00.000-06:00

Originally posted at Book Rhapsody (January 7, 2011).

***

Image from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

Intro

This is the first novel that I ever read. I read it because of a book report that I did back in those high school years. A lot of my classmates picked Danielle Steel, Sidney Sheldon, and writers that are unheard of. I have to say that I made the most brilliant choice since it was only me who selected a true classic.

I came up with this choice thanks to the recommendation of a senior student who also chose this book for his book report. He was the editor-in-chief of the high school publication then. He even lent me his copy.

Thus said, I think this is the most appropriate novel to be first featured in this blog.

The Rhapsody

I still remember the characters: Jem, Scout, and Atticus. The series of events are now vague to me. What is still vivid to me is the fear that Jem and Scout have toward their neighbor Boo Radley. I even remember this part where Scout was dared to go inside the yard of the Radleys and touch their door. Such little adventures reminded me of my childhood.

This must be the reason the book is a required reading in most classes in the US. The prose is not hard to read; the vocabulary is just enough for one to be able to grasp what is going on. Also, it doesn’t seem very mature since the story unfolds in the eyes of two children, particularly Scout. But don’t get a too easy on it. Underneath that surface is a theme that recurs in a lot of classic novels.

Discrimination. A white man defending a black man accused of rape. Well, the white man happens to be the father of Jem and Scout. I do not remember where their mother is, but that is not necessary. The town questions Atticus Finch’s decision to defend this black man. I no longer remember if he won the case, but what I do remember is that the kids were affected by it. The family of three was ostracized from the rest, calling them things and condemning them for the choices that they are making.

But Atticus is a man of principle. How I respect that man! I am not sure if he faltered along the way, but he faced the situation with integrity. Integrity is indeed a big word, and when I try to think of a character who exhibits it, Atticus pops up in mind.

I also think that the novel tells us something about courage. During the last few chapters, and those are my favorite ones, Scout is attacked by someone while coming home from a stage play at school. I think this guy is a brother of the raped woman. I do not remember their family names. That scene was gripping; it has a very good pace. There doesn’t seem to be something fantastic about the attack, like a choreographed fight scene that is common in action movies or an armada of artillery, but the suspense that is built on it is too immense that you can’t control your eyes from racing through the sentences.

Anyway, Scout is saved by the person whom every kid in town was fearing, Boo Radley. Why they feared the person, I can no longer recall, but I remember there are a lot of horrible stories surrounding him. I think they thought of him as someone who ate kids and practiced cannibalism in general.

So there, Scout found a hero in this person that she imagined to be otherwise. Now, if I got things in order, this might have been a pivotal scene that helped Atticus win the case. As I mentioned, I am no longer sure, but I would like to think of it that way.

Final Notes

It has been a dozen years since I read this wonderful novel. The veracity of my account, and memory for that matter, is questionable. I should reread this novel, but with the humongous reading backlog that I have, I would need to put that off.

Nevertheless, this novel has a special place in me. It is this novel that made me want to read more. After finishing it and submitting my book report, which was graded an A minus, I read Danielle Steel. And Danielle Steel. And more Danielle Steel. I read a lot of her novels. I admit that during that time, I enjoyed them a lot, but looking back, I realize that her novels are unlike book that started it all. They are evanescent.

I bought a lot of Danielle Steel books back in high school, but they are all gone. That’s okay, because I’d rather have my copy of Harper Lee’s only novel than those. On that note, I often wonder why Harper Lee never published another novel. From what I researched, she was spoiled by the success of the novel, and from then on, she lived a life of seclusion. It’s even hard to squeeze something out of her. She once said that it’s better to keep quiet than to say something foolish.

Epic. I agree. But I would have loved to read more of her writings.

Angus - Intro and Progress

2012-01-24T00:38:00.000-06:00

Hello, I'm Angus. Before I start contributing, I'd like to list down the Pulitzer winners that I've read so far. A little trivia: the first novel that I ever read is a Pulitzer winner, and that is Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Perhaps my adoration for that novel is the reason I want to read all these books and to blog about them. I also read other books aside from these winners, and if you want to find out more about them, you can visit my blog, Book Rhapsody.

Anyway, here they are (27 and counting):

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Ironweed by William Kennedy
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
Independence Day by Richard Ford
Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Sorry I didn't bother to put the books in order. I just copied them from my Goodreads library. Anyway, I'll be cross-posting my previous and upcoming write-ups here. I said write-ups because I don't do the "standard" review. I even do these write-ups at least six months after finishing the book. It's quite weird, I know, but whatever works works, right?

Intrepreter of Maladies - 2000

2011-12-22T19:22:00.000-06:00

Title: Interpreter of Maladies
Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Published: 1999, Mariner Books
Genre: Literary Fiction
Accolades: 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2000 Hemingway Foundation /PEN Award

I know, I know I have absolutely no excuse on why I haven't read this amazing book before - especially since it's been sitting on my shelf for at least two years. I am so happy that I finally did decide to read it and now I have a girl crush on a new to me author.

Interpreter of Maladies is a collection of nine short stories that focus on Indians and first generation Indian Americans as they face subtle and not so subtle cultural differences that leaves each character feeling isolated and wanting in a new country. Many of the stories also center on arranged marriages and have a lingering sadness as the characters try to maneuver and assimilate to life in their new worlds with people that they barely know.

Lahiri writes each story with a refined elegance that literally took my breath away. Her writing is reflective and touching as she helps the reader find the soul in each flawed character. My favorite story was The Third and Final Continent (it's also the only story with a positive ending). All the characters in The Third and Final Continent, whether it's the newly arrived Indian immigrant or the ninety-nine-year-old American woman, feel alienated. Lahiri gently shows the reader that we all suffer from the human condition and need to hold on to each other to navigate in our worlds.

If you haven't read this book - you should. Lahiri is a master of the short story. After reading Interpreter of Maladies I wanted to read more books by Lahiri - always a good sign.

Richard Russo Empire Falls

2011-12-04T21:52:00.000-06:00

Marrying into the 1%

In our land of American opportunity, Empire Falls by Richard Russo reminded me that the fastest- and in some cases only- way into the top 1 percent is to marry in. The book’s looming character is the wealthiest woman in this small town, Francine Whiting. She married in. The town’s previous money stream was work at the Whiting shirt factory. Since it closed, the citizens wait for a limo with Massachusetts plates to buy and re-open the factory. And they depend on the generosity of Mrs. Whiting. Or, they consider marrying in. It won in 2002, it sounds like 2011.

Empire Falls by Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize 2002

putzingthroughpulitzers.blogspot.com/

Arrowsmith (1926)

2011-11-27T21:53:00.000-06:00

This is the story of Martin Arrowsmith, who seems ordinary enough but is, in fact, that rare breed of man who thinks for himself and pursues his goals without regard for the people who want him to give up.

You could say the same about Sinclair Lewis, the author of Arrowsmith. Nothing is holy: he tears apart countless traditions and habits that we take for granted. With just a sentence or two he shows us the hypocrisy, inanity or even the evil in our many institutions and ways of life.

In Arrowsmith, Lewis is focused on the medical profession and science as a profession during the early 1900’s. But much of the book feels applicable even now. We see the flaws in a medical school that churns out doctors trained to treat illnesses without thinking about underlying causes and keyed to avoid prevention because it will take away business. We see, as in his other books, the backwardness and suffocation of a small town for a free thinker. We see how a scientist is compromised by working for a company that's only out to make money. And we see that science can’t be run by committee and isn’t at the whim of “the good of society.” Lewis shows us that science may be the most individualistic pursuit there is, and men who are willing to give it everything they have are the true heroes.

Kata’s Progress

2011-11-15T13:03:00.001-06:00

Despite having a BA in English, I am more of a Science Fiction and Mystery reader. The Pulitzer Prize winners are a nice counterpoint to my usual reading. I am just starting out on this journey. Here is what I have read so far. My reactions are on my blog.

Breathing Lessons Anne Taylor 1989 -- Athena's review

2011-11-06T13:47:00.001-06:00

Breathing Lessons Anne Taylor 1989

Anne Taylor's Breathing Lessons won the Pulitzer for fiction in 1989 and it can be summed up with this Ann Landers quote -- Wake up and smell the coffee!!

I only barely remember ever reading any Ann Landers (or her twin sister Dear Abby or Dear Abby's daughter, Dear Abby) so, inspired by the Ann Landers theme in Breathing Lessons I wanted to have been in the archive. Here's a few of the letters I liked. She's a charmer.

Dear Ann Landers: I lost my hand (from the wrist down) in an industrial accident. A wonderful artificial-limb expert made a hand for me that is almost indistinguishable from the one God gave me. I have a manicure every two weeks, and my manicurist charges me full price. Is this fair? — No City Please

Dear No City: Yes, it is fair — unless the manicurist is willing to book you for a polish change, which takes half the time of a manicure.

Dear Ann Landers: Can you please tell me whether my husband is cheating on me? The reason I am suspicious is that lately, "Clyde" has been going to the store and doing other errands but refusing to take any of our four children along. He is also gone longer than I believe is necessary. He also has started to complain about how much gray hair he is getting, and last week, he made some uncomplimentary comments about my housekeeping.

Clyde is almost 40, and I think he may be going through that well-known midlife crisis. I have been trying to take better care of the house and cook his favorite dishes. We have sex as often as he likes. I will say, he never forgets my birthday or our anniversary. Am I just insecure, or is it time to start worrying? — Concerned Wife in Nashville

Dear Nashville: I'd say it's time you stopped worrying. How much trouble can Clyde get into on his way to the grocery? He probably enjoys that short break away from the kids. Wouldn't you? Keep preparing his favorite dishes, and continue to keep him well-fed, literally and figuratively, and enough with the paranoia already.

Dear Ann Landers: My husband and I are very friendly with another couple. They are kind and generous people and would give you the shirts off their backs. We love to be with them. The problem is they are the dirtiest people I ever have known. We hate going to their home because it is so filthy. Our church group avoided their offer to host a dinner for this very reason.

Both of these people have college degrees and make very good money. We enjoy their company and want to remain friends, but how can we continue to turn down their dinner invitations? (She LOVES to cook.) So far, we have managed to meet at restaurants, but this ploy won't work much longer. Do you have any suggestions? We need help. — Baltimore Dilemma

Dear Dilemma: Your friends never will be decent housekeepers. They need help. Scout around to find a good cleaning person. Tell your friends that you understand how busy they are and that you know of a wonderful cleaning person. Then give them the name and number.

Dear Ann Landers: A woman in our office ("Miss Z") has a TV on her desk that she turns on the minute she comes in. It stays on until she goes home.

The other employees and I feel this reflects poorly on our entire office, especially when someone from the outside comes in. Miss Z is very intimidating, and no one in our office dares approach her about this, plus she has the most seniority. Our boss has made it clear that he doesn't want to be bothered with such petty issues. What is your opinion on this matter? — No Name, No State

Dear N.N.N.S.: Sounds as if the boss also is intimidated. Too bad. The old battle-ax wins again.

Rose City Reader's Review: All the King's Men (1947 winner)

2011-11-06T13:00:00.000-06:00

Robert Penn Warren won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947 for All the King's Men, his fictionalized account of Louisiana's legendary governor Huey Long. In the novel, Long is Willie Stark, an idealistic country lawyer who takes on the political machine in his state and achieves meteoric success, only to be compromised by the same system he railed against.

This book has been on my list of Top 10 favorites since I read it in the mid-1990s, shortly after law school. Robert Penn Warren's combination of beautiful writing, compelling story, and political shenanigans wholly beguiled me.

Now, getting close to 20 years later, I wanted to re-read it to see if it still packed the same punch. It did, but in a quieter way. Either because I am older now or because I was familiar with the story, the political side didn't grab me, but the personal stories of Stark's family and the narrator, Stark's operative Jack Burden, struck me even harder with their heartbreak.

Warren was a poet first and a novelist second. His writing is full of metaphor, long descriptions, philosophical musings, and some long digressions away from the central plot. All these things, if not done right, can ruin a novel for me, fan of a good yarn that I am. But Warren does it right. It is definitely a book you have to settle in to and let it lead, but it is worth the dance if you do.

Also posted on Rose City Reader.

3m's Progress (1morechapter.com)

2011-10-25T21:27:00.002-05:00

I hadn't updated my progress for a loooong time. Here it is, with links to reviews where available.

26/85 for 31% so far

2010 - Tinkers
2009 - Olive Kitteridge

2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
2007 - The Road
2006 - March
2005 - Gilead
2004 - The Known World
2003 - Middlesex

2002 - Empire Falls

2000 - Interpreter of Maladies
1999 - The Hours
1995 - The Stone Diaries
1994 - The Shipping News

1989 - Breathing Lessons

1988 - Beloved
1987 - Summons to Memphis

1983 - The Color Purple
1973 - The Optimist's Daughter
1972 - Angle of Repose
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird
1958 - A Death in the Family
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath
1932 - The Good Earth
1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey
1921 - The Age of Innocence

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Marg's Review)

2011-10-12T14:37:00.000-05:00

Jennifer Egan's spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other's pasts, the reader does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect theirs, over many years, in locales as varied as New York, San Francisco, Naples, and Africa.

We first meet Sasha in her mid-thirties, on her therapist's couch in New York City, confronting her long-standing compulsion to steal. Later, we learn the genesis of her turmoil when we see her as the child of a violent marriage, then as a runaway living in Naples, then as a college student trying to aver the suicidal impulses of her best friend. We plunge into the hidden yearnings and disappointments of her uncle, an art historian stuck in a dead marriage, who travels to Naples to extract Sasha from the city's demimonde and experiences an epiphany of his own whilst starting at a sculpture of Orpheus and Eurydice in the Museo Nationale. We meed Bennie Salazar at the melancholy nadir of his adult life - divorced, struggling to connect with his nine-year-old son, listening to a washed-up band in the basement of a suburban house - and then revisit him in 1979, at the height of his youth, shy and tender, reveling in San Francisco's punk scene as he discovers his ardor for rock and roll and his gift for spotting talent. We learn what became of his high school gang - who thrived and faltered - and we encounter Lou Kline, Bennie's catastrophically careless mentor, along with the lovers and children left behind in the wake of Lou's far-flung sexual conquests and meteoric rise and fall.

A Visit from the Goon Squad is a book about the interplay of time and music, about survival, about the stirrings and transformations set inexorably in motion by even the most passing conjunction of our fates. In a breathtaking array of styles and tones ranging from tragedy to satire to PowerPoint, Egan captures the undertone of self-destruction that we all must either master or succumb to; the basic human hunger for redemption, and the universal tendency to reach for both - and escape the merciless progress of time - in the transporting realms of art and music. Sly, startling, exhilarating work from one of our boldest writers.

With inside cover copy like that, and the fact that this is the book that won the Pulitzer prize and others, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize as well, who needs a review!

When I look back on this book in a couple of years time I think the thing that will still be strong in my memory is the structure of the book - if you could call it structure as such. It isn't a novel as much as it is an interlocking collection of short stories. This isn't a book that goes from point A to point B. It probably starts at point G and eventually gets to point Z with side trips past point A and B.

In my own mind I was trying to think of a comparison to show how this book works and the closest I could come up with was one of those puzzles we used to have as kids where there was a mixed up picture in a square and there was one piece missing so you had to move all the pieces around until the picture was formed. At first you would get occasional glimpses of what the jumbled image was going to look like, but then you would have to break the picture up to make another piece of the puzzle fit. Eventually though, the last piece slides into place and you see the whole image.

Another analogy might be a really long conversation with a very good friend, where you jump topics with ease, reminiscing about the past, talking about the future, and sharing a joke. Never a linear conversation but rather one that starts at one point, and then ends up somewhere completely different and you find yourself wondering how you got there!

Another aspect of structure that was very different in this book is that Egan experiments with all different forms of storytelling. There are chapters written in the form of a magazine column, another in Powerpoint as well as different tenses and points of view. I think the Powerpoint chapter was amazing! The language was sparse, the story barely there on the page, but the concepts and the narrative were still strong enough to be clear for the reader, and I loved that we got to see Sasha's future life.

After looking at the structure, how about the characters. I can't say that I particularly related to the characters that we met in the pages of the book, but such is Egan's skill that you actually didn't need to. Our two main characters are Sasha and Bennie. Sasha is on a date with Alex when her habit of stealing things, anything, causes her to steal a wallet whilst in the bathroom. As she analyses why she steals with her shrink, Alex crosses one of her boundaries without even knowing it. We meet Sasha again as a young woman struggling to make ends meet living as a runaway in Naples, and then through the eyes of her best friend Rob who has plenty of demons of his own.

In the next chapter we meet Bennie, who is Alex's boss. He is a divorced man who is struggling to relate to his 9 year old son. One way that he can occasionally connect is through music, but even that is problematical. Through the book we see Benny with his ex wife in happier times, then we meet him as a youth revelling in the punk rock scene with his friends. We meet his mentor Lou and his very young girlfriend and her friend.

The links as we move from chapter to chapter are at times tenuous, but they are all there for a reason. Along the way, Egan makes comment about some important issues. Not only the power of music to transcend time, but also for example the power of media when a washed up PR person is employed to try and rehabilitate the image of an African dictator.

Another chapter that I really liked, not because it was enjoyable but because of the food for thought it provided, was the final chapter. It is set in New York in the not too distant future and Egan has taken our current obsession with social media and expanded it to the nth degree to come up with a quite scary world where even the youngest child has exposure to the media in a way that is similar to our own world but amplified many times over. A washed up musician is being bought back for a live concert and one of our characters is being asked to find some parrots - people who can spread the word, hype up the event to make it a success, to make it the kind of event that everyone who is anyone will claim to have been at even if they really aren't. In a way it kind of reminded me of a discussion of the difference between buzz and hype and how one, or the other, is generated, whether it is organic or whether there is someone in the background pulling the strings to manipulate the public.

This is the second Egan book I have read and liked. A few years ago now I read The Keep which was a kind of modern, gothicky ghost story. I am not sure why I haven't bothered to go and track down her other books. I will definitely be watching to see what the author comes up with next as she doesn't seem to be afraid to take risks in her writing and to take her readers on the journey with her!

Rating 4/5

The Age of Innocence (1921)

2011-08-03T21:53:00.003-05:00

This is a story about love and duty, about the choices we make and the way we let others make choices for us, about the life we have and the life we could have, if only we’d reach out and take it. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking and well worth a read.

Newland Archer is a young man in the prime of his life. He’s a member of the upper echelon of New York society and he’s about to be married to May, the most beautiful and sought-after girl of the season. On the same night that their betrothal is announced, he meets her cousin, Ellen Olenska. And so it begins.

The Archers and all the other families in New York society live by strict codes. Nothing is said outright, but they all understand each other: everything they say has a hidden meaning and everyone follows their codes so religiously that the hidden meanings are clear. But some things can never even be hinted at – anything too unpleasant must be put aside. As the narrator describes early in the book during a conversation between Archer and his mother: “it was against all the rules of their code that the mother and son should ever allude to what was uppermost in their thoughts.” Archer’s betrothed, May, follows these codes completely – she is the “perfect” woman. But he begins to see that there may not be anything else at all underneath her perfect exterior.

Archer feels different from his fellow men, and he wants to push back against these strict rules of behavior. As his relationship with Ellen develops, he feels both more desirous of breaking free and more hemmed in and unable to escape than ever before. His life is inevitable and he feels unable to act according to his own free will. His feeble attempts continue to fall short.

Archer and Ellen meet in society and catch spare moments alone in hallways or Opera boxes. They fall in love in an innocent way and neither sees it happening. But to the reader it feels so real. In one scene, when they are seeing each other after a separation, Archer is struck anew by everything that Ellen is. He says to her “Each time you happen to me all over again.” This is what love feels like. To capture that in a novel is what makes reading such a pleasure. And this novel is a pleasure, indeed.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (2005)

2011-07-31T20:49:00.000-05:00

Title: Gilead

Author: Marilynne Robinson
Published: 2004, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Genre: Literary Fiction
Accolades: 2005 - Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2004 - National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, 2006 - long list Orange Prize for Fiction

76-year-old Congregationalist Minister John Ames is dying of a heart condition. Still capable of preaching and mentally sharp he has decided to write a letter - a journal of his thoughts - to his young son to explain the family's history, who he is, and what he believes. Set in Gilead, Iowa in 1956 this quiet, profound book is the story of a life and a faith that can move mountains if only it can forgive.

There are certain books that as soon as you read the first two or three pages you know that it is special - that it will change you somehow - maybe not lightning bolt jolts, but small, subtle movements near your heart. Gilead was that book for me. Gilead begins with John Ames counting the blessings of his life and expressing the joy of having found love and having a child in the twilight of his years.

" I'm writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you've done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God's grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle." page 52

What simple words written or spoken that could be life-changing - some one's salvation - maybe we need to say them to those we love. As we read on though we discover when the "prodigal son" of a life-long friend comes back to town that John Ames has yet to give the greatest miracle of all - forgiveness. Though Ames is a minister he still struggles with a human soul and Robinson deftly and beautifully describes his torment and his epiphany.

In the bible Gilead means hill of testimony and that is what the book Gilead is for John Ames his testimony of a well-lived life.

My Rating: 5 out of 5

A Visit From the Goon Squad (2011)

2011-07-26T18:01:00.000-05:00

Title: A Visit From the Goon Squad

Author: Jennifer Egan
Published: 2010, Borzoi Book - Alfred A. Knopf
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Accolades: 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award, long list for 2011 Orange Prize

A Visit From the Goon Squad is a novel that is written as a collection of stories that center around Bennie Salazar a music executive, his kleptomaniac assistant Sasha and the people that weave in and out of their flawed lives. Each chapter is a story that moves through the timeline of Bennie and Sasha's lives and as readers we witness the moments that changed them.

A Visit From the Goon Squad has received critical acclaim, but somewhat mixed reviews from the "everyday" reader. I understand the division. This book is difficult to pinpoint and to categorize - just writing the first paragraph of this review was hard because it is a difficult book to explain. But I will tell you that I loved it. The writing is crisp, honest, and inventive. There are proses in this book that are so vivid and accurate that I had to stop and read them again and again.

"It's turning out to be a bad day, a day when the sun feels like teeth." page 60

Time is a key element to the story (The Goon Squad is a reference to time) - it is always there hovering over the characters and they each feel its impact as it changes their relationships, values, and themselves. The book weaves back and forth through a time span of about 50 years starting in the 1970's and ending in a somewhat dystopian 2020. My favorite chapter is the chapter that is written as a power point by a teenager of today. It is so in the moment - our current time - it is brilliant.

A Visit From the Goon Squad is a remarkable, strangely moving story about the one thing we can't escape - the impact of time.

My Rating: 5 out of 5

His Family (1918)

2011-07-15T21:57:00.003-05:00

Roger Gale is a widower with three adult daughters and he has suddenly realized he doesn’t know them. That is where the action begins in His Family, the 1918 winner of the Pulitzer Prize. This realization would doubtless concern him no matter what, but he is especially dismayed because he had promised his wife when she died that he would keep an eye on the girls and report back to her when they met again in the afterlife. He has since suffered a crisis of faith and withdrawn from his family. But now he means to get to know them once again.

Each daughter represents a possible path for a woman to follow, and tracing the drawbacks and benefits of each path is a major theme in the book. One daughter, Laura, is a socialite, a party girl with no plans to have children and with no social consciousness. Another, Edith, is a mother of five who is so wrapped up in her own children that she cannot think or speak of anything else. The third, Deborah, is a social reformer and suffragist who is terrified to marry and have children because she fears she will never be able to go on with her work, which is the most important thing to her. Roger Gale is most often perplexed by each daughter, and even more so by the interactions between them. The narrator clearly favors Deborah, the social reformer, from the start and Roger gets there eventually too. She is, obviously, the best of his daughters.

The woman question was on the top of the nation’s mind in 1918, so it’s no surprise that this book was awarded the Pulitzer. But there is more to it than that. A deeper and more enduring theme is mortality and how we find immortality in the lives of our family. Before she died, Roger’s wife told him, “You will live on in our children’s lives.” Throughout the book he realizes the truth of that statement, as he gets to know his daughters and finds himself in each of them. He feels the roots of his family before him and seeks comfort in the fact that he, too, will be a figure in the distance to the coming generations.

Finally, Roger often contemplates the youth of mankind – he feels as a child still, and he sees everyone else in the same way. All his life he has felt that he is just beginning, and now he is already nearing the end. As he walks through a birch grove on his farm one evening, he comes to an understanding of it all. “It seemed to Roger that all his days he had been only entering life, as some rich bewildering thicket like this copse of birches here, never getting very deep, never seeing very clearly, never understanding all. And so it had been with his children, and so it was with these children of Edith’s, and so it would be with those many others – always groping, blundering, starting – children, only children all.”

The book also deals with the growth of New York City; immigration and poverty; and World War I. Roger Gale came to New York when horses and carriages traveled its roads, and now he has to face the crush of modern life with its fast cars, tall buildings and bright lights. Little did Roger know that the chaos of urban life was only just beginning. One facet of this new city life that Roger struggles so much with is the influx of immigrants and the rise of tenements. As he gets to know Deborah he sees her work with the children of these tenements and he gains a new understanding of the deprivation they face. When World War I breaks out, he is faced with suffering on an even grander scale. Roger comes to a new understanding of humankind and he learns to make sacrifices to help those beyond his own family.

These political themes play an important role in the book, but it’s true strength is in dealing with the personal. As Roger Gale comes to know his daughters, we come to know more about life. Can we ask anything more from a novel?

Review: The Age of Innocence

2011-02-27T09:13:00.000-06:00

Title: The Age of Innocence
Author: Edith WHarton
Published: 1920, D. Appleton & Company
Genre: Classic
Accolades: 1921 Putlitzer (first Pultizer given to a woman), Modern Library List: 100 Best Books of the Century, Radcliff Publishing Course: 100 Best Novels of the Century and on and on...

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, but I was wonderfully surprised at the depth of Wharton's wit and her satirical analyze of the society in which she belonged. With the introduction of our protagonist Newland Archer we are given a "fly on the wall" perspective of what it was like to live and circumvent the twists and turns of high society in New York City during the Gilded Age. Archer is very much a product of his society and it's rules and is happy to live by them because he understands what happens to those who try to go against the norms of his world. When Archer meets his fiancee's cousin Ellen Olenska, a woman who is escaping a scandalous marriage, he knows that this women is capable of changing his world for better or worse, but like a moth drawn to the flame - he can't resist.

I found myself thinking about what it would have been like to live in that tightly guarded circle of society and how difficult it was to become a part of it or to escape it. You would almost have to be born into it to understand the nuances of what is expected - lessons that took a lifetime to learn. The society wasn't about money because they frowned upon the new money and crassness of the Carnegie's, Frick's, and Rockefeller's. Even those captains of industry could not buy themselves memberships into this elite group.

Wharton's development of her characters is artfully crafted as you realize that the characters that appeared to be weakest and shallow are the strongest and most manipulative. What one would do to preserve appearances due to the code is tragic and heart-felt. Love is not the number one priority - it is your placement in society.

My Rating: 5 out of 5
Note: I read the 2008 Oxford World's Classic edition

1989 - Breathing Lessons

2011-02-13T10:52:00.000-06:00

I could have guessed before starting Breathing Lessons that the book would involve an ordinary family in Baltimore facing problems in an awkward but genuine way and somehow bumbling through to a moderately happy and definitely realistic end. That description fits every Anne Tyler book I’ve read and it fits this one too.

Unfortunately, this book sticks close to the basic theme without the variations that made the others I’ve read more interesting. For instance, Digging to America applies the basic theme to immigrant families; The Amateur Marriage takes the story further, to a post-divorce phase; The Accidental Tourist takes the show on the road to Paris; and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant turns it around to the children’s perspective.

In contrast, Breathing Lessons is the basic story. It takes place in one day, when Ira and Maggie Moran drive to a funeral and, on the way back, stop to visit their granddaughter in Maggie’s attempt to reconcile their son and former daughter-in-law. In describing the events of the day, Tyler tells the story of the Morans’ courtship, marriage, and children’s lives. She does it with her typical and impressive authenticity.

My only problem was that Tyler’s authenticity seemed too typical. Stripped of the variations that livened up the other books, Breathing Lessons lacked a hook to grab my attention. If this had been the first Anne Tyler book I ever read, I would have loved it. But having read four others already, I felt like I was covering old territory with this one.

NOTES

Tyler won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Breathing Lessons. It was my Pulitzer choice for the 2011 Battle of the Prizes, American Version challenge.

A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain

2011-02-09T01:54:00.002-06:00

In this 1993 Pulitzer fiction winner, Vietnamese immigrants to Louisiana speak about their experiences in the old world and the new.

It seems very daring (and that is probably why this collection seems to be overlooked) that Butler decided to tell these fifteen stories from the Vietnamese viewpoint, but he's delicate, sensitive and very knowledgeable about that culture, so it works beautifully.

A few of the stories are fragments, and there's one titled "The American Couple" that approaches novella length. My favorite story is "Love", about a jealous husband with a "butterfly" wife and the extremes -- both serious and comedic -- that he will pursue to eliminate his competition.

1929 - Scarlet Sister Mary

2010-12-30T20:08:00.002-06:00

Scarlet Sister Mary won the Pulitzer as a weird switch. The Pulitzer committee wanted to change the scope of the Pulitzer from "a novel which presented the wholesome atmosphere of American life and the highest standards of American manners and manhood" to become "a novel which preferably shall best present the whole atmosphere of American life".

And, yet, even in this, Scarlet Sister Mary fails. Peterkin's depiction of uneducated blacks living in the low country of South Carolina in the early part of the 20th century is hardly believable, given today's understanding. They are the progeny of slaves who stayed where they had lived because they had no choice to go anywhere else. What could they possibly do? They continued living largely as their ancestors had.

Whites are not a factor in the book except as occasional mention that they do exist. This is not a criticism, just an observation. Peterkin's description of the life of these people, particularly that of Sister Mary, really is fiction. She suggests picking cotton is easy, more like a party, and everyone enjoys doing it. The life of Mary, a mother of 10 children with no father in the home, seems almost easy. More like a teenager bouncing through life. Some deep heartache, but even that passes.

There is a reason that Scarlet Sister Mary does not appear on any "best works" lists. An easy read, though.

1933 The Store

2010-12-25T11:59:00.002-06:00

Set 20 years after the Civil War which freed the slaves of the plantations around Florence, Alabama, those living there are still trying to sort out the relationships and rights of both white and black residents. The Store explores love and loss, trust and betrayal, and the vagaries of reputation and fortunes of the Vaiden family, both the whites and the blacks of that name. The store itself is a dream of Colonel Miltiades Vaiden which, once achieved, is rarely again mentioned and unimportant in the story.

Vaiden, a former Colonel in the Confederate Army, had his money stolen shortly after the end of the War by J. Handback when Vaiden's cotton was put in trust to Handback and then Handback was able to declare bankruptcy and deny the proceeds of the sale of the cotton to Vaiden. This created a resentment on Vaiden's part which festered for the many years since. Handback, believing the Colonel holds no resentments, hires him to work in the Handback store. Since the Colonel gives the same service to the blacks as to the whites of the community, this frustrates Handback. "A nigger pound is not the same measure as a white pound." He removes Vaiden, setting him up to oversee Handback's cotton plantings and his colored tennants thereby setting up the environment which allows Vaiden to get even with Handback. This allows the Colonel to buy his long-dreamed of store beginning a series of repercussions throughout the full community, affecting both whites and blacks, Southerners and Yankees. An intriguing read, with a bit of a ghost story included for good measure.

Until I read the other review, I was not aware the story was part of a trilogy.

Mambo Kings Review

2010-12-09T18:25:00.003-06:00

I chose to not finish this book. While it is well written and captures its subject well, part of that subject -- sexual encounters -- is something I prefer not to read. At least not with the frequency that it happens in this book. That said, this book would not be qualified even as soft porn. There were, for my tastes, just too many encounters described at more detail than I preferred to experience.

As I read the portion of the book that I did read, maybe a little more than 1/2 of it, I enjoyed the pictures it paints of its main characters, their dreams and their daily lives as they struggle to fulfill those dreams. Set in the US at the time when Latin music was in its hey day, the Mambo Kings participate in that scene, even to the point of having an opportunity to meet the great Desi Arnaz. Did this book deserve the Pulitzer Prize? The writing is enchanting and does pull one into the story. But for those who, like me, prefer to avoid that which impelled me to put the book down without finishing it with no pan to try again, I offer this brief review.

Review: To Kill a Mocking Bird

2010-10-02T19:13:00.001-05:00

Title: To Kill A Mockingbird

Author: Harper Lee

Published: 1960, J.B. Lippincott Company

Genre: Modern Classic, Literary Fiction

Accolades: 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Radcliff Publishing Course: 100 Best Novels of the Century, National Endowment for the Arts - The Big Read List and on and on and on...

Most of us have either read the book, seen the movie, or at least heard of this 1960 modern classic. I remember watching the movie years ago with my mom and listening to her tell me that I just had to read the book - "it's one of the best books out there, Jayme." Well mom, it only took 35 years, but I did finally read it and once again you were right.

The story about how one man stood up against the convictions of a small southern town in the 1930s to do what was right is insight fully told through the eyes of his daughter. Her voice is fresh and distinct and pulls you in from the first sentence. But it's the little nuggets of wisdom through out the book that holds you-

"but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience." (page 120, To Kill A Mockingbird

The writing is clever and the topic captures a time in America's history that as painful as it is the story needs to be told. This book is literary art.

My Rating: 5 out of 5
Note: I read the 2010 50th Anniversary edition from Harper Perennial Modern Classics

Randy -1917- His Family - Ernest Poole

2010-09-18T10:47:00.002-05:00

The title "His Family" refers to both the nuclear family and the family of all mankind. I think Poole's central theme is the tension that we all have in balancing our obligations to both families. I don't feel the novel was about women deciding between family and vocation- it was broader than that.

For me, the last chapter made the book. (I'd like to quote some of this chapter, but don't want to be a "spoiler").

Highly recommended.

Ag_in_TX's review of "So Big" (Ferber - 1925)

2010-08-04T08:51:00.005-05:00

So, after a long hiatus, I'm back! I was at the library last week and saw "So Big" as I was walking down the aisle and decided I'd saddle back up with this project.

Once again, I'll avoid a synopsis of the book as those are all over the Intrawebs. I'll just touch on my thoughts.

To me, the overriding theme of the book is a little deeper than "search of beauty". The theme is answering the question: "How do we spend the currency of our lives". To Selena, she believed we should create - to grow, to build, to struggle, to love. To her, that was to live.

We saw how, over the course of the book, Dirk gravitated towards what most of us gravitate towards - to be comfortable. He was not bad, or evil, or money grubbing. He just wanted to be comfortable.

The figure of Roelf juxtaposed nicely with Dirk - he who had nothing - he who had a father who thought he was useless - he who arrived in Paris with 5 francs in his pocket - he was the one who pursued creating with a passion. But even then, Selina loved her son just as much and just as deeply, even though he had chosen a different route.

This book illustates how status in life is not so important in the greater scope of things. We all will die and return to dust. What matters is what we build, what we create, and whether we left the world better than it was when we came into it.

Review: The Edge of Sadness

2010-08-01T08:26:00.001-05:00

Title: Edge of Sadness
Author: Edwin O'Connor
Published: 1961, Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Religion, Modern Classic
Accolades: 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Father Hugh Kennedy has returned to his clerical duties after taking a sabbatical to confront and deal with his alcoholism. But he is not returning to his flourishing, well established parish. He has been assigned to "Old St.Pauls" a decaying church in a derelict part of his hometown. In his search for understanding he is reunited with the Camrody family, a wealthy Irish family he thought he new well growing up, but they have secrets of their own.

Where do I begin writing a review about a book which I think is the best book I've read all year? From the synopsis it seems as if this is a heavy, depressing book. It isn't. The book is narrated by Father Kennedy and it is his reflective account of key past events in his life and how they have impact on the present. There is a lot of narration, so the book moves slowly which is OK because there is so much to stop and ponder in this book. It took me 2 weeks to finish because I would put it down and reflect. O'Connor's writing is powerful and honest, but at the same time it is gentle and spiritual. The writing is so believable that I had to keep reminding myself that this is fiction - not a memoir.

"And there were moments when... I would suddenly become aware of a stillness that was something quite apart from the stillness of the night. It was an interior stillness, a stillness inside me, a stillness in which there was the absence of distraction and unrest. A stillness in which quietly, and without effort, I seemed to come together, to be focused and attentive, to be really present, so to speak, a stillness from which it seemed natural, even inevitable, to reach out, to pray, to adore..." (page 223, The Edge of Sadness)

And then there is the Camrody family. The Camrody family is led by the patriarch Charlie Camrody - a larger than life, rags to riches man whose influence on his family is complete. As Father Kennedy is reunited with this family of his childhood he realizes that what one sees and what one knows can be two completely different things. As truths are revealed the impact on Father Kennedy's self and spirituality are profound. But again this is not a depressing book. The dialogue that O'Connor writes with the Camrody is pitch perfect capturing the essence of each person. Charlie Camrody:

"Did you read about that, Father? Did you read about Charlie Camrody the rent gouger? Oh my, ain't that a terrible thing to be called? By the son of little Georgie, that I knew all my life like a brother. And then the papers get on me and say, "Ain't it awful, Mr. Camrody, when a young feller like that calls a fine man like you names?" (page 322, The Edge of Sadness)

But what I liked most about this book was Father Kennedy. He is not a perfect person, let alone a perfect priest - he's not even a great priest, but he's honest. He's someone who is stuck and doesn't know he's stuck until...

How much do I love this book? Well, the copy that I read I had borrowed from the library, so I ordered my own copy online and this book goes on my "searching for first editions list." That should tell you something.

My Rating: 5 out of 5
Note: I read the 2005 Loyola Press edition.

The Killer Angels - Winner, 1975

2010-07-30T08:39:00.001-05:00

Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels, on which the 1993 movie Gettysburg was based, is a historical novel that gives the story of the Battle of Gettysburg through the perspectives of several different individuals on both sides of the war. I was afraid that I would have trouble following the story as I have trouble envisioning war maneuvers in my mind and keeping track of who is fighting for which side. I was listening to the audio version of the book, so when, in the beginning, the key players for each side were listed, I wrote them down so I could keep track. This helped me immensely. I found that even though I did not always follow exactly what was happening in a battle, Shaara's writing made clear which events were good and bad for each side.

The thing I enjoyed most about this book was the detail provided about the lives of each of the individuals whose perspectives Shaara used to tell the story. He showed their human sides and truly made me care about people on both sides of the battle. I especially enjoyed the depiction of Lee, which I felt fit perfectly with the description I am reading in Freeman's biography from 1934. The Killer Angels is a useful read for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of the Civil War as many of these men had fought together in the United States military before the war and cared about each other.

Early Autumn, 1927

2010-07-24T20:16:00.003-05:00

Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield tells the story of the Pentlands, a staid New England family. By extension, Bromfield offers an indictment on the "Pentlands" of high society in the early 1900s. They represent old money, Puritan values, and respectability. The story reads like a melodrama with secrets galore, family jealousies, poor marriages, and, in the end, the obligatory "all is not as it seems" twist. It would make a great soap opera. The story centers about Olivia, a wife of a "Pentland" who is nonetheless the most trusted person by the family patriarch. She is visited by an old friend with scores to settle, Sabine. Throughout the story we find out more and more about the family history complete with illegitimacies, pettiness, and forbidden love.

Bromfield so wants to write like Wharton. He even mentions her! His humor is blunt where Wharton's is subtle and witty. His characterization is obvious where Wharton lets her characters unfold gracefully. Finally, his word choice is stale. Thanks to the author, I now hate the word "indolent." The adjective is appropriately applied to Bromfield’s writing. Bromfield wrote approximately thirty books. I'm surprised he didn't run out of words at two. His vocabulary was made for non-fiction.

So, I can't recommend this one. It's unremarkable. If I was prone to suspicion, I'd suggest that the 1927 Pulitzer award was reserved for a Columbia University alum. I'm sure that can't be. Interestingly, Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises was also published in 1926.

Wish I could ask Sinclair Lewis his opinion about the criteria for the award. A future topic!

I recommend reading this book with a tall glass and Maker's Mark. It's fitting that the bottle is dipped in wax.

Arrowsmith, 1926 Winner

2010-07-21T19:18:00.004-05:00

Sinclair Lewis' Arrowsmith is the tale of one of the easiest characters to dislike that you will read. This winner of the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for the novel is a great book but most of what I read in blurbs and reviews about the main character being a devoted scientist did not ring true for me. Rather, Martin Arrowsmith starts out as a child and, 450 pages later, remains so. The story revolves (in his mind so does the universe) around a man who is torn between practicing medicine and investigating the causes of diseases as a research scientist. The story is somewhat of an homage to Lewis' father and brother and their dedication to the medical profession as well as a satire on the practice of medicine in the late 1800s and early 1900s (I've yet to fully get the "turn of the 20th century" usage straight in my mind). It is purported to be the first novel that takes up "Science" (that's right, capital "S" Science") and Lewis is masterful. Along the way, Arrowsmith agonizes over what to study in medical school, he agonizes over which of his fiancees to marry (really), he agonizes over the absence of his wife while she is away at home (but seduces a teenager as a balm for his lonely heart), he agonizes over his practice in rural North Dakota (ok, that's redundant), he agonizes over his research in the big city, he agonizes... you get the picture. He should become an artist he has so much angst. He's tiring!

Along the way he is supported unconditionally by his wife Leora. Leora is considered by those in literature circles ( I assume they gather in circles) as a model of character development. She is also the focus of feminist critiques, and rightly so. She is everything Arrowsmith could ask for, given his character, yet he is never satisfied. He's a child. Does Leora represent his mother, never mentioned in the story, as the taken for granted female figure? Perhaps, if you want to be kind to Lewis.

Arrowsmith is not a good doctor. Nor is he really a gifted scientist. He manages to stumble on discoveries but not due to talent; He spends time doubting himself than he does thinking and puzzling through scientific problems. When he chooses to be, he is sedulous. He perseveres. That is his sole redeeming quality but one he practices only intermittently. Or maybe he has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. When confronted with his deficiencies as a scientist, he mopes, then quits, then drinks, then mopes again, then returns. He is a practitioner of what Thomas Kuhn would call "normal science." Most scientists are. He is portrayed as much more. He is not.

One could imagine a discussion of Arrowsmith as representing all of us. He is a flawed character, no hero, as Lewis writes. But he is more than flawed. We are all flawed but we learn from our mistakes, we grow up. Martin Arrowsmith doesn't learn. He marries a woman yet devotes none of himself to her once married. He marries again and does the same. Why does he continue to want a female companion? At least his colleagues who marry are honest about their need for a woman to assist them in their professional and social climbing activities. Abhorrent yes, but honest. Martin has no such integrity (I know it sounds strange to call the use of women by men in that fashion as integrous but the women are portrayed as opportunist as well. Hmmm, sounds like another topic of a feminist critique--does mutual lack of hypocrisy mitigate otherwise cadish behavior?). In this regard, the story is much more simplistic. Had Lewis wanted to write about science and medicine, he could have done so without the whiney Arrowsmith as the protagonist. Had he wanted to write about a whiney man, he could have done so without the gratuitous Latin terms to define bacteria. Martin Arrowsmith is, as the boys in the film Swingers say about Wayne Gretzky, a whiney bitch. (Great scene of guys playing and old NHL video game.) Most of us are not.

In the end, most people will enjoy the book because it is written masterfully. It is a complete book. A glass of Jim Beam Rye whiskey will aid in the digestion of this book. Along the way Martin Arrowsmith will join you.

There was a film (awful) of the same name made from the book starring Ronald Coleman and Helen Hayes. It was directed by John Ford--say it an't so!-- but it doesn't resemble the book. I consider it unremarkable but only because I respect Ford.

Beloved - Winner, 1988

2010-07-20T08:05:00.002-05:00

Beloved
By: Toni Morrison
Alfred A. Knopf, 1987

Toni Morrison is a name that is often thrown around in literary circles, and, as I had never read anything of hers prior to this, I looked forward to reading (or listening to, which I ended up doing) Beloved to see what the talk was about. The story of Beloved focuses mainly on a runaway slave, Sethe, and her daughter, Denver, as they try to make a life for themselves in Ohio in the years following the Civil War. Though Denver was not born until after her mother's escape, they both spend their lives dealing with the physical and psychological effects of slavery.

Many images brought forth in Morrison's novel are painful to read about, but it is important that we understand, to the extent possible, the horrors and human toll of slavery. Morrison's writing is poetic and full of imagery that is beautiful but hard to understand at times. Because I was listening, there were times that I found myself completely lost. I thought I had missed something and went to Spark Notes online to make sure I knew what was going on. Towards the end of the book, Morrison begins shifting more and more between different perspectives. I think that if I had been reading the book this would have been clearer. What I did love about listening to Beloved is that it was read by Toni Morrison herself. I believe that there are emotions that only an author can put into the reading of his or her own text, and this recording was no exception. I would definitely recommend this book for more mature readers. There are books that have been written throughout history that might not be the most enjoyable to read but are vitally important. Beloved is not my favorite book, but I do believe that, for the sake of understanding our past, it is important.

So Big

2010-07-19T19:25:00.000-05:00

I finished reading So Big by Edna Ferber and I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't know much about Edna Ferber other than her name until picking up this book. I am embarrassingly impressed. She is responsible for such works as Showboat and Giant. (For a sideways look at the making of Giant, seeWelcome to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. You won't be disappointed.) She regarded herself as, foremost, a playwright. She was also was an incredibly strong woman at a time women were continuing (have they stopped?) to struggle for recognition and equality. Her persona is evident in her highly regarded, So Big.

The story centers around a woman, Selina DeJong, and her son, "So Big" Dirk. If you read the book, you'll quickly know the reason for the nickname and, in the end, you 'll understand the metaphor. Selina is a strong woman faced with a difficult and unimagined life living on a "truck farm" populated by Dutch immigrants on the outskirts of Chicago at the turn of the 20 century (that's 1800's to 1900s right?). She starts out as a school teacher whose first impression of the fruits of the farmers' labor (cabbage) as a thing of beauty. So she is very different from the parents of the children she will be educating. She becomes a widow and rears her son in a way that she hopes will steer him to the beauty in life, whatever he determines that to be. That's as much plot as I'll disclose because I highly recommend this book and hope you'll give it a chance. For those of you from the Prairie State, you'll appreciate the references to Chicago.

I took many things away from this book. For those who are about to enter a career path (e.g., high schoolers, college students) this book offers a message that you will no doubt hear at your commencement ceremonies. (And if you don't you should!) When choosing your life path, choose the path that fulfills your spirit. Life is hard enough you will work hard enough to not pursue a life that will do more than put vegetables on your table, buy you the next new thing, keep you dapper and stylish, and ensure your place as the one with the largest toy box. It is perhaps easier to do that than to seek out and create beauty. (As Everett Sloan playing the part of Mr. Bernstein in Citizen Kaneputs it, "It's easy to make a lot of money. If all you want is to make a lot of money.")

For those already well down our paths, it is never too late to be part of the creation of beauty. Hard work is it's own reward, true. But hard work towards a larger and deeper purpose is redemptive. Patience with life is portrayed as so much more than a virtue in this book. Here, patience is directed to oneself, rather than others. We might try being patient with ourselves and our toils since they are directed to a full life. Many of our life's loves are not found in the short term. In a society that rewards quick results and virtue in making one's first million before 30, Ferber reminds us that virtuosity is not a goal but a life's journey. Surely a reminder for all ages.

This is an excellent book.

Review: The Road

2010-07-14T17:32:00.001-05:00

Title: The Road

Author: Cormac McCarthy

Published: 2006, Vintage International

Genre: Science Fiction

Accolades: 2007 Pulitzer Award for Fiction, 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction Shortlist, 2006 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, and on and on and on...

I picked up a copy of The Road in the Detroit airport after my plane had been delayed (again) and I needed something to read. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down (I almost didn't mind the delay - almost). The Road is a frightening postapocalyptic novel about a nameless father and son who are traveling south to escape another brutal winter in the mountains. It is a story of grief and lose and struggles with the question- what keeps one going when all hope is gone and death is not the enemy?

I really enjoyed this riveting book. The writing style was unique, almost sparse, capturing the the feel of the countryside and a world without hope.

"It took two days to cross that ashen scabland. The road beyond ran along the crest of a ridge where the barren woodland fell away on every side. It's snowing, the boy said. He looked at the sky. A single grey flake sifting down. He caught it in his hand and watched it expire there like the last hope of christendom." (page 16, The Road)

The most moving part of the story is the relationship between the father and son. The father does everything he can to provide hope to his son by telling him that they have to continue on "to carry the fire" in a hopeless world even though the father has long ago stopped believing.

This is science fiction at it's best. A story that kept me engrossed while I read it and thinking about it hours after I had finished reading it.

My Rating: 5 out of 5

Laura's Review - Tinkers

2010-07-14T11:48:00.000-05:00

George Crosby remembered many things as he died, but in an order he could not control. (p. 18)

Tinkers is about George Crosby's final days. Lying in bed in the front room of his house, surrounded by family, he takes a mental journey through his life, as well as his father's. His thoughts meander in a mostly slow and meditative way. The prose is richly descriptive and even dreamlike in places:

The afternoon became warm, and with the warmth the first bees appeared, and each little bee settled in a yellow cup and took suck like newborn. Howard stopped Prince Edward, even though he was behind in his rounds, and gave the mule a carrot and stepped into the field full of flowers and bees, who seemed not to mind his presence in the least, who seemed, in fact, in their spring thrall, to be unaware of his presence at all. Howard closed his eyes and inhaled. He smelled cold water and cold, intrepid green. Those early flowers smelled like cold water. Their fragrance was not the still perfume of high summer; it was the mineral smell of cold, raw green. (p. 60)

Throughout his adult life, George carefully concealed the scars left by his father's abandonment. On his deathbed it all comes back to him, but he also begins to see that paternal abandonment, while manifested in different forms, goes back at least two generations. At 80, George has broken the cycle. And he has inherited a more positive, useful quality: that of a "tinker." George's father sold goods to country folk and handled all manner of small repairs along the way. George repairs clocks, and his memories are interrupted by excerpts from an 1870s clock repair manual.

I first heard about Tinkers when it won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and I couldn't wait to read it. This type of book is typically right up my street. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I just couldn't get into the rhythm. Maybe it was my mood. Or perhaps it was because I kept comparing it to two other books I loved, which explore similar themes: Marilynne Robinson's Gilead and Home. Whatever the reason, and despite the beautiful writing, something about Tinkers fell short for me.

My original review can be found here.

Review: Tinkers

2010-07-05T07:28:00.001-05:00

Title: Tinkers

Author: Paul Harding

Published: 2009, Bellevue Literary Press
Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Accolades: 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Spoiler Alert

George is dying. He has lived a long and fruitful life, but he has one regret - he has lost contact with his father who left George's family when George was a boy. As his body slowly shuts down his mind loses it's concept of time and his thoughts begin to wander from past to present as he recounts the moments and people who have shaped him.

In his first novel Paul Harding has written an original story about family and lose. The story is free flowing because it is the random thoughts of a man who is lying in his hospital bed dying. The story line changes back and forth between past and present as George thinks about his life and his hobby "tinkering" with old clocks and George's father Howard who was a "tinker" who traveled throughout northern Maine and Canada. Once you understand the pattern of this patternless book the imagery and the ethereal style of Harding's writing is almost magical. When trying to understanding the coldness of George's mother Harding lets you into her deepest thoughts - the thoughts one even hides from oneself:

" It is winter, and the tree has been stripped of its bright mantle of leaves. It is winter because she lies awake with a bare heart, trying to remember a full season. She thinks, I must have been a young woman once." (page 88, Tinkers)

When Harding explains why Howard left his family and never came back, he does it by comparing Howard's new wife and the wife he left in one powerfully written sentence:

"Howard brought her flowers every day, and oranges... He lifted his nose from a crate of limes, refreshed and eager to get home to a wife who spoke words out loud as she thought them up and held nothing to whirl and eddy to collect in brackish silences, silences that broke like thin ice beneath you to announce your drowning." (page 174, Tinkers)

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is a book of many layers that left me thinking about it days after I read it. I don't keep many books that I read, but I will keep this one to reread when I want delve into another layer of this powerful book.

My Rating: 5 out of 5

Tinkers - Wendy's Review

2010-06-01T10:42:00.002-05:00

He tinkered. Tin pots, wrought iron. Solder melted and cupped in a clay dam. Quicksilver patchwork. Occasionally, a pot hammered back flat, the tinkle of tin sibilant, tiny beneath the lid of the boreal forest. Tinkerbird, coppersmith, but mostly a brush and mop drummer. – from Tinkers, page 12 -

George Washington Crosby is eight days from death on the opening page of Tinkers - he is hallucinating and remembering, he is pondering his life and the life of his father. George has spent his life fixing clocks – and time plays a crucial role in this novel about fathers and sons, and connections with others. While George lays dying from cancer, he reflects on the small things which have made up his life, including the house he has lovingly built and the intricate details of clock repair.

Read the names etched onto the works: Ezra Bloxham – 1794; Geo. E. Tiggs – 1832; Thos. Flatchbart – 1912. Lift the darkened works from the case. Lower them into ammonia. Lift them out, nose burning, eyes watering, and see them shine and star through your tears. File the teeth. Punch the bushings. Load the spring. Fix the clock. Add your name. – from Tinkers, page 15 -

But Tinkers is not just George’s story…it is the story of three interconnected generations of men: George’s father Howard (an epileptic), and Howard’s father who suffered from dementia. Narrated alternatively between these three points of view, the story is nonlinear.

Howard is a dreamer and a tinker, a man who relishes the beauty of nature and spends whole days picking wildflowers and constructing art from twigs and grass. His seizures come when he least expects them, and eventually tear apart his fragile marriage. George’s memories of Howard are of a father often mysteriously late coming home, and one frightening episode of Howard seizing at Christmas dinner.

Howard’s father is a minister whose slow descent into dementia confuses his son who describes his father as ‘a strange, gentle man.‘ Howard’s loss of his father mirrors George’s loss of Howard.

Harding’s prose is like reading a long, narrative poem. Beautifully constructed sentences and stories within stories characterize Tinkers. Often the story feels like water in a river – rippled, unpredictable, dipping around corners and eddying around obstructions…and so, Harding’s use of water as a symbol in the novella seems appropriate.

The overriding themes of Harding’s Pulitzer Prize winning effort are that of time passing, the dreams of men, and the passage from life to death.

What of miniature boats constructed of birch bark and fallen leaves, launched onto cold water clear as air? How many fleets were pushed out toward the middles of ponds or sent down autumn brooks, holding treasures of acorns, or black feathers, or a puzzled mantis? Let those grassy crafts be listed alongside the iron hulls that cleave the sea, for they are all improvisations built from the daydreams of men, and all will perish, whether from ocean siege or October breeze. - from Tinkers, page 78 -

I enjoyed this slim book whose size belies the depth of the prose. This is a beautiful story which reads more like a meditation than a novel. Full of lyrical phrases, it is not always an easy book to understand, and yet it is a deeply satisfying read.

Readers who are not intimidated by literary novels which use symbolism and metaphor liberally to explore deeper issues, will want to read Tinkers. This is a novel which left me thinking about the characters long after I turned the final page.

Highly recommended.

Laura's Review - Gilead

2010-04-26T19:57:00.000-05:00

I'm writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you've done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God's grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle. You may not remember me very well at all, and it may seem to you to be no great thing to have been the good child of an old man in a shabby little town you will no doubt leave behind. If only I had the words to tell you. (p. 52)

John Ames is a Congregationalist minister living in Gilead, a small Iowa town. Late in life, he was blessed with a wife and son. Now, aware that his heart is failing, he begins writing a long letter to his son, to be read when the son comes of age. Gilead is that letter. In it Ames tells his life story, shares hopes and dreams for his wife and son, and explores matters of faith.

Ames was himself the son of a preacher. Through his writings he tries to come to terms with his strained relationship with his father, now long dead. He mourns his first wife and child, both of whom died too soon, and he rejoices in having found love at an advanced age. But there is one matter that weighs heavily on Ames, and his letter serves as a sort of catharsis.

Ames' best friend is a Presbyterian minister, Robert Boughton. The two have spent years leading Gilead's faithful, and developed a deep and lasting friendship. Boughton had several children; Jack, the black sheep of the family, was named after Ames. When Jack Boughton returns to Gilead after a long absence, Ames must face long-suppressed emotion and conflict, and accept his inability to control events after he has passed on.

This is a magnificent novel. The pace is leisurely and conversational, initially masquerading as an amusing portrait of small-town religious life, full of little details like the bizarre Jello salad concoctions served at church suppers. But Gilead is so much more: it is a celebration of life, love, friendship, fathers, sons, and forgiveness.

Marilynne Robinson followed Gilead with Home, which presents the same story from the Boughton family's perspective. Each book stands on its own, and is beautiful and moving. But the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The richness and depth of this story become apparent on reading both books. These are not to be missed.

Read my review of Home

My original review can be found here.

Olive Kitteridge - Winner, 2009

2010-04-08T08:59:00.002-05:00

Olive Kitteridge
By: Elizabeth Strout
Random House, 2008

Olive Kitteridge is a story about life. Strout used a collection of thirteen short stories about the people of coastal Crosby, Maine with one connecting character, Olive Kitteridge, to tie them all together. Sometimes Olive is the main character and sometime she is only mentioned, but in the end the story of her life has been told. I laughed, I cried, I felt annoyed, I felt empathy. It is raw and beautiful.

Because Strout's novel is a compilation of short stories, there is not a true climax of the story, but that fits well. The reader really gets the sense that they are just following through life with these people. Their experiences are mundane, which is okay because there is something in Olive Kitteridge that most people of all ages can relate to. She explores what it is like to be young and what it is like to be old. I will warn that there are parts of this book that deal with situations and contain language that might not be suitable for all ages. That aside, I enjoyed Olive Kitteridge and would be interested to if others felt the same way.

The Way West

2010-03-31T00:05:00.003-05:00

[Cross-posted at Naked Without Books]

I finally got back to the Pulitzer Project with The Way West, the 1950 fiction winner by A.B. Guthrie, Jr. The novel, which takes place in 1845, features Dick Summers, a mountain-man-turned-farmer who was also a character in the prequel, The Big Sky. Summers reminded me a great deal of Woodrow Call from Lonesome Dove, except a little more gregarious. Strong and silent, Summers is the type of character we've come to demand in a novel about the west.

Summers is asked to lead a wagon train from Missouri (near Independence) to Oregon. His wife has just died of fever and he misses his mountain days, so he agrees. The hardships of the pioneers and their conflicts with one another are detailed, as is the vast country through which they travel.

The captain of the wagon train is actually a guy named Tadlock, who is full of self-importance and one putrid idea (shooting all the dogs on the wagon train, wanting to carry on business as usual instead of tending to a dying man) after another. Not too far down the trail, realization dawns on the other pioneers that Tadlock is ill-equipped to lead and Lije Evans, a likable giant of a man is elected to take over and grows in confidence about his leadership ability as he ably handles several life-and-death situations. He and Dick Summers also have a fine bromance.

I was surprised and delighted with Guthrie's flash of sly humor in the chapter where the all-male council of the wagon train gets together and debates whether it's right to ask the womenfolk to cook with buffalo and cow chips. It's a no-brainer because they're crossing the Great Plains and wood as a fuel source is in scant supply but there's still delicacy and formality amongst these rough and travel-weary pioneers. When one of the council, a man named McBee (who is the forerunner of what would one day be "trailer trash") dares to refer to the substance in question as "shit", the others recoil from him like characters in a Jane Austen novel.

Sometimes Guthrie's prose gets a little purply as he gets caught up in describing the scenery on the way to Oregon, but one can hardly blame him since the pioneers are seeing views they'd never seen before. Another tiny complaint that I have is that some of the characters are briefly introduced and followed then only seen again rarely, in passing. However, there are two sharply drawn minor characters. One is Curtis Mack, a philanderer who seduces then abandons the teenaged Mercy McBee. Mack is a spineless, gutless bastard but he knows he's loathsome and struggles mightily with his shame and guilt. The other is Judith Fairman, whose misery from being pregnant and on the trail increases tenfold to include grief and remorse when her understandably overprotective behavior contributes to her small son's fatal accident. By the way, the son's name is Tod, which is the German word for death. Coincidence or Guthrie serving up some grim humor?

My favorite thing about The Way West is the sun-baked (western version of 'hard-boiled') dialogue. Here's the taciturn Dick Summers talking about getting the wagon train across the treacherous Snake River: "It ain't easy, but it ain't beyond doing. We'll get it done."

The ending of the novel was the prose equivalent of the ending of one of those 1950s Cinemascope westerns with a big rousing triumphant narration of Lije Evans' thoughts as he gets his first gander at Oregon. One can almost hear the orchestra music swelling, blaring out Aaron Copeland and see the huge yellow leathery-looking letters of the end credits rolling. It came off a little forced.

I was expecting to like The Way West more than I did, but in retrospect, it might have been better to read The Big Sky and The Way West together as if the two books were one big story. I'm almost sure that Guthrie won the Pulitzer on the strength of both novels combined.

The Way West was made into a movie in 1967 with Robert Mitchum as Summers, Kirk Douglas as Tadlock, Richard Widmark as Lije Evans and a very young Sally Field (pre-Flying Nun) as Mercy McBee and was directed by Andrew V. MacLaglen who directed Shenandoah (1965) which is one of my all time-favorites. Although The Way West received rather tepid reviews, I'm intrigued by that casting and would like very much to see it for myself.

Lamb in His Bosom - Winner, 1934

2010-01-28T08:04:00.002-06:00

Lamb in His Bosom
By: Caroline Miller
Harper & Brothers, 1933

In her book, Lamb in His Bosom, Caroline Miller portrays the lives of an extended family living in backwoods Georgia in the years leading up to and during the Civil War. It follows each member of the family through the years, focusing especially on the daughter, Cean Smith (nee Carver) who is recently married at the beginning of the book. Miller provides a beautiful description of the trials and joys of life and dependence on God in the rural South and I found myself truly drawn into the lives of these characters.

What truly interested me most about this book was the fact that I had also recently finished Gone With the Wind (Pulitzer winner, 1937). Both stories took place in Georgia in overlapping time periods but from opposite viewpoints. I believe that if Scarlett O'Hara lived near the Smiths and Carvers she would have dismissed them - using her term "white trash" - but these families were so much more. We see that, while they don't own plantations or slaves, they work hard and make a good living - even affording small luxuries at times. They know no other way of life and, so, have no other expectations than what comes. It was fascinating to compare the two stories of different classes of Georgians from the same period.

My favorite things to read about, whether it is fiction or non-fiction, are the ways that people live their lives everyday. Lamb in His Bosom provided me with a vivid picture of rural life unlike any I had read before. I wholeheartedly recommend it to all!

The image above is the first edition cover art published by Harper & Brothers.

House Made of Dawn - 1969

2010-01-13T08:04:00.000-06:00

House Made of Dawn
By: N. Scott Momaday
Harper & Row, 1968

N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn provides an interesting look into the struggles Native Americans who come from reservations to find identity. He follows the life of a young man named Abel who has returned to his reservation in New Mexico after fighting in World War II. He has been deeply affected by the war and struggles to hold a job and maintain relationships. Abel moves to California to try to find himself but eventually realizes that he will only find himself back home on the reservation.

Momaday based his story on his life experiences as a Native American and on the real experiences of other Native Americans. I found the book a bit difficult to follow and was not surprised to discover after reading that it was originally intended to be a collection of poems. There were times that the story felt a bit disjointed for me. I do think that he provides an interesting perspective on real issues for the Native American community and would be interested to hear how Native Americans read it today.

Bybee's Results for 2009 and Plans for 2010

2010-01-07T00:37:00.003-06:00

I threw myself into a frenzy of hunting and gathering Pulitzer fiction when I was back in the USA during February and July that I'm a little surprised that I only read 3 Pulitzers last year!

They were:

Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry

The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder

Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout

For some reason, The Bridge of San Luis Rey caught on like crazy among my coworkers. I was surprised but pleased that my copy has been read and enjoyed by several readers.

During 2010, I really want to make some headway on the list. I'm more than halfway through, so this is the time for a little push. I'm eager to read The Way West by A.B. Guthrie, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, and American Pastoral by Philip Roth.

Although I am never NEVER correct, I'd like to go ahead and try to predict the 2010 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: The Help by Kathryn Stockett or American Rust by Philipp Meyer.

Laura's 2010 Goals & Progress

2010-01-01T07:18:00.002-06:00

I've been working on this perpetual challenge since 2007. In 2009, my goals was to read 6 Pulitzer winners, and I achieved that goal. I've now read more than 25 of the 80+ winners, and I've decided I'm not really trying to complete the list; however, there is some good literature to be found here! My 2010 goal is to read another 6, including the 2010 winner.

Pulitzer Prize Winners Read in 2010 (will post as completed)
2005 - Gilead (Robinson) - review
2010 - Tinkers (Harding) - review

A complete set of my Pulitzer Prize winner reviews can be found here.

J.C.'s Progress - Updated

2009-11-30T11:59:00.000-06:00

Read and/or Reviewed:

1937 - Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1961 - To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1995 - The Stone Diaires by Carol Shields
1992 - A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
2000 - Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
2003 - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
2006 - March by Geraldine Brooks

To Be Read (currently on my shelf):

1921 - The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
1923 - One Of Ours by Willa Cather
1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
1932 - The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1953 - The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
1973 - The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
1976 - Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
1983 - The Color Purple by Alice Walker
1985 - Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
1986 - Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
1988 - Beloved by Toni Morrison
1991 - Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
1994 - The Shipping News by E Annie Proulx
1996 - Independence Day by Richard Ford
1998 - American Pastoral by Philip Roth
1999 - The Hours by Michael Cunningham
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
2002 - Empire Falls by Richard Russo
2004 - The Known World by Edward Jones
2007 - The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Laura's Review - Angle of Repose

2009-11-20T19:37:00.000-06:00

Angle of Repose
Wallace Stegner
569 pages

What interests me in all these papers is not Susan Burling Ward the novelist and illustrator, and not Oliver Ward the engineer, and not the West they spend their lives in. What really interests me is how two such unlike particles clung together, and under what strains, rolling downhill into their future until they reached the angle of repose where I knew them. That's where the interest is. That's where the meaning will be if I find any. (p. 211)

Lyman Ward is writing a family history. More specifically, it's the story of a marriage between his grandmother (Susan Burling Ward) and grandfather (Oliver Ward) who lived in the American West in the late 1800s. Day after day, Lyman pores over family records, news clippings, and letters, and records his thoughts on cassette tapes. Lyman lives alone, is out of touch with his family, and severely disabled due to a bone disease. He gets around in a wheelchair, and uses only a few rooms of his house. Every evening a neighbor woman stops in to check on Lyman and give him his bath, and they have a nightcap together. The story of Susan and Oliver Ward begins around 1870, when Susan was a budding artist in New York. She moves in artsy social circles, and spends nearly every minute with a very dear friend, Augusta. When Augusta decides to marry Susan sees their relationship beginning to change, and she sets her sights on Oliver, a mining engineer. While they agree to marry, the union is put off for several years while Oliver establishes his career and readies a home for himself and Susan.

When frontier historians theorize about the uprooted, the lawless, the purseless, and the socially cut-off who settled the West, they are not talking about people like my grandmother. So much that was cherished and loved, women like her had to give up; and the more they gave it up, the more they carried it helplessly with them. It was a process like ionization: what was subtracted from one pole was added to the other. (p. 277)
In moving west, Susan sacrificed all she knew and held dear. Accustomed to moving in cultured, literate circles, she initially threw herself into mining camp life with gusto. But she brought her art supplies with her, and continued to draw. Augusta's husband Thomas, now a successful magazine editor, commissioned several pieces and relied on Susan for her interesting portraits of life in the far-off west. Susan also enjoyed evenings by the fire with two of Oliver's colleagues, Frank Sargent and Ian Price. In them she found others who loved literature and stimulating conversation; it fed her soul.

I know that Grandfather was trying to do, by personal initiative and with the financial resources of a small and struggling corporation, what only the immense power of the federal government ultimately proved able to do. That does not mean he was foolish or mistaken. He was premature. His clock was set on pioneer time. He met trains that had not yet arrived, he waited on platforms that hadn't yet been built, beside tracks that might never be laid .... Hope was always out ahead of fact, possibility obscured the outlines of reality. (p. 382)
Oliver was a successful engineer, rewarded for his hard work through promotions and special projects. He was a bit of a dreamer, envisioning possibilities and developing new materials and methods in his own time. He was usually a bit ahead of the curve, with ideas not quite ready for prime time. And while money was often tight, Oliver refused to allow Susan's earnings to be used to support the family. Oliver and Susan had a family, and moved several times for Oliver's work. Their son Ollie (Lyman's father) was often sent to stay with relatives in New York, because the mining camps were deemed unsuitable.

Through his research, Lyman carefully pieces together the story of Oliver and Susan's marriage, reconstructing the series of events which brought their relationship to the "angle of repose" (the angle at which soil settles after being dumped). Susan loved Oliver and had faith in his abilities, but was often disappointed with the actual results. She wanted so badly for her children to grow up refined and "Eastern," and became increasingly frustrated with their living conditions and the people she encountered day-to-day. Susan and Oliver's fortunes, and their hopes for the future, ebb and flow over the years. As Lyman tells Susan and Oliver's story, he tries to come to terms with his own failed marriage and the rapidly changing world around him.

I absolutely loved this book. The prose captured me instantly, and I became completely wrapped up both in Lyman's California of 1970, and the dusty Victorian mining camps. I identified strongly with Susan: her feelings of isolation, her persistence in keeping her artistic talents fresh, her devotion to her family, her longing for intellectual stimulation. And my heart went out to Lyman, with his own isolation and struggles with a failing body. These characters were so real to me; during the week it took me to read this book, I thought about them all the time. Towards the end, I wanted to prolong the relationship -- instead of rushing to finish, I read the last 50 pages very slowly, setting the book aside to make it last. This will undoubtedly make my "Top 10" list for the year. ( )

My original review can be found here.

Alice Adams -- 1922 Winner

2009-11-15T17:29:00.002-06:00

Grounded in outmoded attitudes about class and distractingly highlighted by outmoded attitudes about race, Alice Adams has not aged well. In his 1922 Pulitzer winner, Booth Tarkington presents a heroine striving to climb the short social ladder of her Midwestern city using only her charms and well-rehearsed mannerisms.

Watching Alice struggle is painful. She has self-awareness sufficient to know she is doing things wrong, but lacks the tools to do them right. And it never seems that the game is worth the candle.

Finally, after watching Alice dither for most of the book, circumstances force her to face reality and make some difficult but intelligent decisions. The book ends on a gloriously hopeful note, which is the most redeeming feature of the story.

Also posted on Rose City Reader.

All the King's Men - Winner, 1947

2009-11-10T07:45:00.002-06:00

Thanks to the modern miracle of books on CD that can be checked out through my local library, I was able to listen to All the King's Men while working. Warren's book, not to be confused with Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's 1974 investigation into Watergate - All the President's Men, is the story of the political rise and fall of the fictional governor Willie Stark, loosely based on Huey Long, former governor and U.S. Senator from Louisiana.

Warren creates an interesting story that definitely brought to mind images of the rampant political corruption in Louisiana in the first half of the 1900s (and arguably even later) that I learned about in history class. He also show, I believe, his incredible literary skills by simply keeping his story straight. Warren makes extensive use of the "flashback" literary tool to the point that the reader tends to lose all sense of past and present. While I'm sure this is effective when reading the actual book, it caused me some problems as I listened. I often had trouble remembering where we were in time, especially after pausing to go home for the night.

For this reason I definitely recommend reading the actual printed book. Something else that helped me to follow along generally was the fact that I had watched the Academy award-winning movie adaptation recently. While the movie leaves out multiple story lines and deviates from the plot of the book, seeing the movie helped me to envision what was going on in the book and anticipate the time-jumping. Warren did claim that he did not intend for this book to be a political story, but I feel that it and the movie are both important commentaries on how power can corrupt. If you have a chance, read the book and/or watch the movie.

The image above is Huey P. Long.

Laura's Review - Empire Falls

2009-10-10T15:26:00.002-05:00

Empire Falls
Richard Russo
483 pages

Miles Roby lives in the small town of Empire Falls, Maine. Once a thriving textile mill town, Empire Falls now suffers from lack of economic development. Miles runs the Empire Grill, a job he has held since leaving college to care for his dying mother. He is separated from his wife Janine, who is about to remarry. Miles and Janine share responsibility for their teenage daughter Tick (a nickname for Christina), who is having a hard time with Janine's new relationship. Miles' elderly father, Max, is a ne'er-do-well who rarely has two pennies to rub together and is always looking to Miles for a handout.

The Empire Grill is actually owned by Francine Whiting, wealthy widow of textile magnate C.B. Whiting. Francine holds a strange power of Miles, having made vague promises that the grill would become his upon her death. And it turns out Mrs. Whiting has exerted power of Miles most of his life. Why would Mrs. Whiting care about Miles? How did their lives become intertwined? As Miles goes about his daily routine, the answers to these questions gradually become clear.

The novel unfolds at a slow pace, with Russo first painting detailed portraits of all the major characters. Then there are occasional chapters in which Miles remembers events from his past. These episodes are retold from Miles' point of view at the time. Memories of a childhood vacation, or of learning to drive, are described with the perspective of a child, who may not always understand the intricacies of adult relationships or of "real life." Yet it's through these episodes that the reader begins to see how and why the Roby and Whiting families have become intertwined.

While Miles' relationship with Mrs. Whiting provides the central tension in the novel, there are several equally rich sub-plots that are explored in similar depth. The residents of Empire Falls have grown up there together; high school friendships and rivalries play out in adulthood. And for Tick, that cycle is only just beginning, as she learns to navigate the sometimes painful paths of adolescent relationships.

Reading Empire Falls, I began to feel as if I knew these people. I found myself thinking about them when I wasn't reading; they were very real to me and will likely linger in my memory for some time. ( )

My original review can be found here.

Laura's Review - One of Ours

2009-09-21T12:13:00.000-05:00

One of Ours
Willa Cather
459 pages

This is the story of Claude Wheeler, a young man who grew up on a Nebraska farm in the early 1900s. Claude is pursuing a university education at a religious college chosen by his parents, but is both unhappy with his education and uncertain about his goals. While he longs for the finer things in life that come from an advanced degree, he also has a strong sense of family loyalty and will interrupt his studies to assist with farm work when necessary. When Claude's father buys a large parcel of land from another farmer, he also decides Claude will return home and assume responsibility for the original family farm. Claude sets aside his higher ambitions and throws himself into farming. He gets married and appears set to spend the rest of his days on the farm, until World War I breaks out and Claude decides to join the American forces in France.

My copy of this book came from my local library and, unfortunately, the book jacket included huge spoilers in its first two sentences. This threatened to ruin the book for me, but I tried to make lemonade from these lemons. Since I already knew about some pivotal events in Claude's life, I read with a view toward understanding why this book won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize. Typical of Cather's work, One of Ours is filled with vivid images of the American prairie, and the first- and second-generation immigrants who worked the land. Frankfort is a conservative community; its people are steeped in their faith and rather isolated from the broader world. As the threat of war loomed large, Claude's "mother had gone up to 'Mahailey’s library,' the attic, to hunt for a map of Europe,—a thing for which Nebraska farmers had never had much need. But that night, on many prairie homesteads, the women, American and foreign-born, were hunting for a map." Cather also shows the dark side of the community when certain members of German descent are charged with "disloyalty" and subject to a hearing in court. Cather's portrayal of wartime France is also very much focused on people, much more than the fighting. It's an interesting angle.

Since One of Ours was published just a few short years after the end of World War I, it was received at a time when emotions were still quite raw. Cather's writing is, as always, superb. And her portrayal of an innocent farm boy who serves in battle would have struck a chord for just about anyone. Unfortunately once I knew how things would turn out there were sections that seemed to drag on endlessly. I probably would have given this book a higher rating had there not been spoilers ... frustrating! ( )

My original review can be found here.

Gone With The Wind - Winner, 1937

2009-09-14T13:56:00.002-05:00

Gone With The Wind
By: Margaret Mitchell
Macmillan, 1936

I don't know what else to say except that I LOVED Gone With the Wind. Earlier this year I purchased a copy for $5 at an antique store and am so glad that I will have it to reread again in the future. As a student of history, Mitchell's descriptions of life in the Deep South before, during and after the Civil War drew me in. So often the victor determines the story of a war, and so I found a long and detailed story from the side of the losers to be quite interesting. The Civil War and Reconstruction were so complicated that it helps to read about them through the lens of a story. I was often so caught up in the story of it all that I would completely forget that I was also learning about an important part of the history of our country from a perspective that I only knew about superficially. Clearly, Gone With the Wind is fiction and much must be taken with a grain of salt, but Margaret Mitchell spent tireless months checking her facts and so it is safe to say that one can at least derive a general sense of what the era was like for those living in and around Atlanta (based on knowledge from the 1930s).

I was a bit unsure when I began reading the book because I did not enjoy the movie. But, as I began to read, I realized that there are so many things in the book that just couldn't have made it into the movie that help the reader understand the characters and their drama much more fully. For example, throughout the book there are many things that go on internally for Scarlett that could not be portrayed in the movie format but made her a fully dimensional character in the book. There are many emotions that are felt and not expressed that I imagine the filmmakers truly struggled with. I do plan on watching the movie again, from my new perspective this time. I do recommend Gone With the Wind - especially to those who have not lived in the South. Regardless of ones opinions of the South and its attitudes during that era, at least one can learn to appreciate the time, place, and culture they were coming from.
[Photo Credit: Vivian Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara]

The Fixer: Rose City Reader's review

2009-08-25T16:05:00.000-05:00

Based on a true story, The Fixer is the story of a Russian Jew who, in the early 1900s, is unjustly accused of murdering a Christian boy. Bernard Malamud’s 1966 novel won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

Yakov Bok has a hard luck life as a handyman, or fixer, in the Jewish Pale of Settlement. Although political reforms following the 1905 revolution gave Jews new freedoms and political clout, life in the Pale had not improved. After his childless wife abandons him for a goy, Yakov leaves the shtetl for Kiev, where he ends up working in, and living above, a Christian-owned brick factory. With an assumed name, no papers to allow him to live in that part of the city, and anti-Jewish sentiments on the rise, Yakov is headed for trouble.

When the mutilated body of a neighborhood boy is found stuffed in a cave, the evidence – circumstantial and fabricated – mounts against Yakov. He is arrested and left to rot in prison while the sham investigation drags on for years as anti-Semitic authorities try to build a case of ritual murder. With no indictment, no lawyer, and no idea of what is to come, Yakov’s situation is a downward spiral of gloom.

Yakov is motivated by his dwindling hope of exoneration, only meagerly spurred on by a few rare contacts with the outside and tidbits of news about his case. Although claiming to be non-religious and non-political, Yakov worries that his case will spark violent retribution or even a new pogrom against the Jews.

Malamud incorporates Yakov’s tragedy into the larger picture by having characters discuss Russia’s anti-Semitic history and Tsarist politics. It is this contextual detail that raises Yakov’s story above that of one individual’s tribulations and makes it a morality tale about freedom and responsibility in the face of evil and suffering. One of the characters explains Malmud’s thesis:

I am somewhat of a meliorist. That is to say, I act as an optimist because I find I cannot act at all, as a pessimist. Once often feels helpless in the face of the confusion of these times, such a mass of apparently uncontrollable events and experiences to live through, attempts to understand, and if at all possible, give order to; but one must not withdraw from the task if he has some small thing to offer – he does so at the risk of diminishing his humanity.

Or, as Yakov put it more succinctly as he was finally being taken to his trial, “[T]here’s no such thing as an unpolitical man, especially a Jew.”

Malamud is an incredible writer. Even though this story is horribly grim, he grabs the reader and does not let go. The Fixer is a book that everyone should read and, once read, ponder.

This book was my "double dipper" choice for the Battle of the Prizes Challenge.

Laura's Review - Olive Kitteridge

2009-08-14T19:40:00.000-05:00

Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout
270 pages

Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel centers around Olive and Henry Kitteridge, an older couple living in a small town in Maine, grappling with aging and the changes in the world around them. Good friends have died; young people are a mystery. Their son Christopher has married and moved away. The novel is actually a baker's dozen of short stories, each featuring Olive in some way. Sometimes the story is all about Olive; at other times she is but a passing figure seen on the stairs or on a balcony, or a casual observer of another's life story.

Olive is a former middle school math teacher both feared and respected by her students. She's a large woman, grown even more so in her sixties and seventies. She has difficulty showing her emotions, keeping her son's estrangement to herself rather than sharing this grief with friends. She can also be a bit brusque and abrasive. But despite this I couldn't help liking Olive. The stories flow chronologically through Olive's later years. I found a few especially memorable:

Pharmacy: This is the first story, and introduces Olive and Henry and is also the only story focused primarily on Henry's thoughts and feelings. The reader meets Olive first from Henry's point of view.
Starving: An amazing story of Harmon, who is in a lifeless marriage with Bonnie and befriends another woman named Daisy. She helps him discover himself, and he takes a significant decision in hopes of happiness, but the story ends a bit unresolved.
A Different Road: A traumatic incident disrupts Olive and Henry's peaceful lives and has a lasting impact.
Security: Olive visits her newly-married son after a long time apart. They have difficulty relating to one another as adults and this further strains their relationship.

While each of these stories can stand on its own, this book is wonderful when read cover-to-cover, as a novel. Full of rich characters and emotional impact, it will remain with me for some time. ( )

My original review can be found here.

The Store (1933) - Reviewed by AK

2009-07-06T13:36:00.000-05:00

I couldn't do it. I tried and tried to finish The Store and I just couldn't. I realized about halfway through that I just didn't care at all what happened to Colonel Miltiades Vaiden and his fellow citizens of Florence, Alabama. I know I should have persevered, but I just felt like I was wasting valuable time. Please don't judge me - this is the first Pulitzer Prize winner in the Fiction category that I have not finished. I promise I will try not to make it too much of a habit.

I discovered, after reading a good chunk of the book, that The Store is actually the second book in a trilogy by Stribling about the Vaiden family in the post-Reconstruction South. That in itself explained some of the problem I was having connecting with the characters - they had been developed in a previous volume and, therefore, Stribling felt we could skip the preliminaries that might have given me some sort of attachment. I was just so disappointed because when I started the book I had such high hopes for something different in the Pulitzer winners for fiction. This book was clearly no love story. It addresses issues that were prevalent in the South in the decades after the Civil War. What place did the former slave have in society? Where were ruined plantation owners to turn for employment when they could not function without slaves? How would the South rise up above the ruins after the War and Reconstruction? Who would be their voice in government? These issues are vaguely touched on, but mostly the story focus on things that I found to be insignificant and petty. I also did not enjoy the story enough to be willing to put up with the excessive (though culturally common at the time) use of the "N" word and derogatory comments about freed slaves. I won't rail any longer. I simply did not enjoy this book.

Ag_in_TX's review of "The Killer Angels" (Shaara - 1975)

2009-06-15T13:51:00.002-05:00

Simply put, The Killer Angels is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Great books have great characters that you care deeply about, and can you imagine better characters than Lee, Longstreet and Chamberlain?

I read this book years ago and it really turned me on to the whole genre of historical fiction. Unfortunately, few authors of this genre can write like Shaara, even his son who wrote the two books that go with this novel to tell the whole Civil War.

As with my other reviews, no book synopsis – just my thoughts.

Gettysburg was a watershed event in American history, if not world history. This is true on many levels, and one example was the way the Army of Northern Virginia chose to prosecute this battle. Pete Longstreet was nothing short of a genius – at least 100 years ahead of his time in how armies ought to fight if they wanted to win. But his ideas flew in the face of the classic ideas of how gentlemen of honor ought to fight, and hence his ideas at Gettysburg were rejected. If lee had listened to Longstreet, the CSA may very well have won that war. And how different would history be if that had occurred?

The telling of Chamberlain’s unit on Little Round Top is the version he remembered later in life. They did repel an Alabama regiment, but whether the “swinging gate” picket charge was really called or whether Chamberlain recalled that later in life is unclear. What is clear is that the 20th Maine performed with distinction that day and deserved all the accolades they have been given by history.

The peeks into the mind of General Lee are, of course, fictional, but provide plausible explanations as to what went into his thoughts on those fateful days. What a shame the old man never wrote of the war and his decisions outside of his letters – that would have been an epic book.

In summary, if you have not read this book yet, you must. It is a tremendous book that opens a window for us to look in on this monumental event in American history.

2005 Prize Winner - Gilead (Marilynne Robinson) - Review by LegalMist

2009-06-15T08:44:00.001-05:00

This review was originally posted on my other blog, LegalMist. Please read my spoiler alert before reading this review. Please feel free to comment either here, or at this review on my LegalMist blog.

Gilead (Marilynne Robinson, 2005) is written as a letter from an old man, John Ames, a Reverend in a country church, to his young son. The Reverend married a younger woman late in life, and is now afraid he will die before his son matures, so he writes a book-length letter to his son, in a conversational style, talking about current happenings and past events in the history of his family and the town he lives in; his thoughts on life, God, religion, spiritual matters, other people, historical events, and the meaning of things; and about his love for the boy and his mother. The book jumps back and forth between past and present, and can feel a little disjointed at times. This made it seem authentic, in a sense - random stories and thoughts, just as you would write if you were writing a long series of letters, rather than editing a book - but can make it hard to follow if you're not paying close attention.

The book is well-written in the sense that the author describes things with such detail you can really see them there in front of you (and yet the details seem to flow naturally and are beautifully evocative, rather than mind-numbingly thorough). I was entranced by some of the spiritual discussions and by the Reverend's firm insistence that life itself - our human existence on Earth - is a thing of beauty to be treasured despite any difficulties or earthly "ugliness," rather than as a struggle to be endured until we can rush to "heaven" or some other more beautiful / spiritual place after death. This viewpoint certainly differs from that of some other religious leaders and was refreshing in that sense.

I loved the author's beautifully stated observations about American life and religion, human nature, and the beauty of the world. The Reverend's musings and stories are interesting, amusing, and thought-provoking, and the "letter" itself contains enough interesting events and describes interesting persons well enough that you actually get a sense of their character....

but...

maybe it's my fault because when I started out, I tried to read this book an hour at a time while taking my kids to piano class or gymnastics or whatever, sitting and waiting... and with rather constant interruptions, so it was slow going (probably about 15 minutes of actual reading time for each hour I sat with the book). And so I thought the "letter" was ok, but I kept wondering why Reverend Ames seemed to so dislike and distrust his namesake / godson, who is his best friend's son? I kept thinking I missed something along the way, and so I kept turning back the pages and skimming prior chapters, trying to find what I had missed. This led to a very disjointed reading of the book.

Finally, I had to set it aside. I just felt too confused and frustrated by it.

I picked it up again two months later, when I had a chunk of free time, and started from the beginning, determined this time not to miss the critical piece of information about why the Reverend so disliked his godson, and promising myself that if I wasn't enjoying the book this time, I'd just give it up and start a different one.

This time, I read it in a few hours over the course of two relatively distraction-free days and actually liked it. (This seems to be a trend for me with these Pulitzer winners - I don't quite "get it" the first time through - it takes a second reading for me to pick up on the themes and facts that make the book interesting and/or "prize-worthy." Apparently my "English Lit" skills are a little rusty.)

As it turns out, we don't learn why the Reverend so dislikes his godson until very near the end of the book. I wasn't as frustrated this time, though, since I knew I hadn't missed anything, it just wasn't there yet.

I won't spoil the fun stuff by talking about the amusing stories in the book. I will say I found the end touching, and not in a fairy-tale happy ending sort of way (and the following may spoil the end for those of you who haven't read it).

The book explored the biblical and spiritual themes of the prodigal son, God's love despite human sins, redemption, reconciliation, forgiveness, pride, and spiritual growth. The book also deals, at a more mundane / earthly level, with stories of abolitionists and racial tension, recognizing that many religious leaders were also leaders in the abolitionist movement and that the abolitionists were, by necessity, a rather unlawful bunch. For example, the Reverend's grandfather, also a Reverend and an abolitionist, is painted as a very fallible and strong-willed character, a very religious man but with quirks and sins and human fallibility. And the book explores the sometimes strained relationship between fathers and sons - including Reverend Ames's relationship with his father, and his father's relationship with his father (the Reverend's abolitionist grandfather).

These themes are brought together in the character of the young John Ames. We eventually learn that he fathered a child when he was young and left town in shame, after refusing to marry the young mother or to support the child. His father, Reverend Ames's best friend (and a Reverend in a church of a different denomination), loves his son unconditionally in spite of this major human failing, and yearns for his son's return. Reverend Ames, the younger Ames's Godfather, does not understand this unconditional love, despite his attempts to apply his biblical understanding of the story of the prodigal son. He tries to understand, but he just doesn't, which is obvious because he so dislikes the younger John Ames and mistrusts him so thoroughly when he returns to visit his father.

Near the end of the book, the younger John Ames tells the old Reverend Ames that he has a son about the same age as the Reverend's son, and tells him about his desire and efforts to marry the mother of his son whom he loves but has been unable to marry (because in the 1950's interracial marriage was not allowed), and Reverend Ames comes to see the beauty, strength, human frailty, honor, and worthiness of his Godson, and comes to accept him despite his past sins and failures. There is a scene in which Reverend Ames formally blesses his Godson before his Godson leaves (probably never to return), and you can almost feel the years of misunderstanding and mistrust and doubts and frustration falling away, replaced by great love and compassion and understanding.

Meanwhile, the young John Ames's own father, who has always loved him despite his sins (the "prodigal son" theme), never learns of the redeeming qualities the senior Ames discovers near the end of the book. There is a suggestion that, if he knew of his son's struggle to marry the woman he loves despite the racial issues and of his mixed-race grandson, he might in fact be less accepting or loving than he has been - an interesting contrast with the Godfather / Godson relationship, and an interesting comment on the concept of "unconditional love" being doled out disproportionately to those who don't "deserve" it.

I was somewhat disappointed that the story of how the Reverend came to marry his much-younger, ethnic wife was not explored or explained further. I would have liked to have seen the racial themes explored more thoroughly, and also would have liked more insight into these characters. Why was the wife so drawn to the Reverend? Why was the Reverend so drawn to her? (We get a little information about this second question, but not much at all about why she insisted that he marry her). And although the Reverend muses some about his son and tosses in a couple of stories about the child, we never get much of a sense of the kid's personality. Perhaps exploring these areas in more detail would have made the book "too long." But I think it would have made the book more interesting and thus would have been worthwhile. As it is, I felt the description of the relationship between the Reverend and his wife was rather "flat," and I kept thinking the kid would have loved to read more about how his father and mother met and fell in love, instead of reading strange stories of abolitionists and this younger "John Ames" that he may never see again.

All in all, this was not my favorite book ever, although I liked it. I won't be telling all my friends they should rush out and read it. But I won't tell them not to, either. If you have the time to read it over the course of a couple of days so you can keep the events and people straight in your head and not feel as if you're missing something, and if you enjoy rather random musings about God, religion, and life; and character studies; and life-vignettes, then by all means, go for it. If you're looking for an action-adventure story or a romance or even a more thoroughly drawn historical fiction type novel, move along down the bookstore aisles and find something else.

If any of you have read it, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

.

The Age of Innocence (1921) - Reviewed By Monique

2009-06-09T19:41:00.000-05:00

Rating: 4 out of 5 Books
Pages: 270
Genre: Adult (Classic)
Series: No
Publication Date: 1920

Synopsis (From Back of Cover):

Newland Archer saw little to envy in the marriages of his friends. yet he prided himself that in the tender and impressionable May Welland he had found the companion of his needs. The engagement was announced discreetly, but all of New York society was soon privy to this most prefect match, a union of families and circumstance cemented by affection.

Enter Countess Olenska, a woman not afraid to flount convention and determined to find freedom in divorce. Newland, though drawn to the socially ostracized Ellen Olenska, knows that in sweet-tempered May he can expect stability and the steadying comfort of duty. But what new worlds could he discover with Ellen? Written with elegance and wry precision, Edith Wharton's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece is a tragic love story and a powerful homily about the perils of a prefect marriage.

Review:

After reading The Age of Innocence I can understand why it is considered a classic. The writing is excellent. It is elegant. But since this book was written of 80 years ago, it makes it harder to read. In fact it was slow going. It wasn't that Wharton used words unfamiliar to me but the style made me slow down and absorb what was being written and going on.

I am going to say that this is a character based novel. While not as in depth John Steinbeck's East of Eden, the characters (mainly Archer and Olenska) take center stage. I would love to say that I really felt in touch with the characters and that I loved them but I was rather indifferent to them. Maybe because this is a story about old New York society and it's inhabitants and I just couldn't wait. But Wharton does put a lot of emphasis of making sure the reader knows and understands the characters and there actions.

The plot of the books was familiar but excellently done. Basically it is a story about "forbidden love" and the chooses people make in their lives and how those chooses affect them later. I am not going to give the story way but I did enjoy getting to take a glimpse into the varies rules of old New York and how they dictates ones actions and decisions.

Pros: Writing, Characters, Plot, History

Cons: Slow read

Overall Recommendation:

I want to give this novel a great write up but I don't know how to express who much I enjoyed the book. I enjoyed it more for the writing than anything else. For you want to read a well written story than this is it. But if you are looking for action or drama, than skip it.

Rose City Reader's Review of Advise and Consent -- 1959 Winner

2009-06-09T10:13:00.002-05:00

Advise and Consent, Allen Drury’s 1959 Pulitzer winner, thoroughly covers the machinations of the Senate confirmation process as that august body deliberates the nomination of a controversial figure for the post of Secretary of State. Although long and sometimes exhausting, Drury’s landmark novel is a rewarding book for the patient reader.

At over 600 dense pages, this is not a quick read. The first 100 pages seem especially slow as the characters are introduced and the stage set. This behind-the-scenes look at the Senate may have been more interesting before 50 years of televised politics in general and C-SPAN in particular leached any tantalizing mystery out of Senate subcommittee hearings.

Once the story builds up steam, however, it powers right along. The candidate under consideration, peacenik Bob Leffingwell, has his avid supporters, including the somewhat Machiavellian President who nominated him. But he faces stiff opposition from those who think he will be unable to protect America on the brink of a nuclearized Cold War with an increasingly belligerent Soviet Union determined to send men to the moon to claim it as Soviet territory.

Whew! Full review posted on Rose City Reader.

Ag_in_TX's review of "All The King's Men" (Warren - 1947)

2009-06-02T10:52:00.004-05:00

Since I have started this project, I have yet to read a book that was the type you stay up until 2 in the morning reading because you can't put it down - up until this one. As with my previous reviews, no plot summary as they are legion on-line - just my thoughts.

This was a classic tale of the individual who wants the best for people. He starts off trying to be the only honest politician and ends up a tragic figure consumed by his own lust for power. But even then, he is thinking of his people as he tries to get his hospital built.

His initial campaign is filled with details and plans of specifics of what he wants to do. But no one seems to care about details that will make government work. So, after an epiphany, he simply appeals to people's emotions. This reminded me greatly of politics today - to heck with substance - we all just want to be entertained and have 10 seconds sound bites. We have not matured much as a society since this the 30's.

I also enjoyed the journeys into the past and how they seemed to parallel the actions of characters in the present.

The tragic nature of how it all ends for each character is fitting - no one, no matter how clean they appear to be - has their skeletons in the closet.

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Jill)

2009-05-19T19:19:00.002-05:00

Interpreter of Maladies
By Jhumpa Lahiri
Completed May 18, 2009

What can I say that hasn’t already been said about Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri? I feel like the last person in the book world who hasn’t read it – and I am not sure what I was waiting for. Interpreter of Maladies was beautiful, poignant and thought-provoking, full of stories and characters that I will remember for a long time.

This Pulitzer winner was a collection of short stories – all centered around “maladies” that affect humans, such as loneliness, homesickness and regret. Each story touches on one malady, brilliantly represented by characters of Indian origin (either living in India or the U.S.). The stories brought the reader through a full range of emotions – sometimes happiness, other times grief. This was no small feat, considering you get to know the characters in only a few pages. That’s a testament to the power of Lahiri’s writing. Each short story evoked an emotional and very human response.

Another reviewer commented that she wished each short story was a full novel. I couldn’t agree more. Interpreter of Maladies packed richness in every punch. I am not an avid reader of short stories – mostly because I want more after finishing the story – but I learned with this book that wanting more is a good thing. Without a doubt, Interpreter of Maladies left me wanting to read more by this talented young writer. ( )

Laura's Review - Laughing Boy

2009-05-05T11:08:00.001-05:00

Laughing Boy
Oliver LaFarge
302 pages

Laughing Boy was published in 1929, and is billed on the cover as "the first authentic novel of the Navajo Indians." Oliver LaFarge was something of an authority on Native Americans, working as an activist most of his life. So I expected an account of day-to-day Native American life, describing customs and rituals that are more widely understood today. LaFarge does this in a surprisingly eloquent, lyrical way, such as this passage describing the start of a horse race:

Arrows from the bow -- no other simile. At the tearing gallop, flat-stretched, backs are level, the animals race in a straight line; all life is motion; there is no body, only an ecstasy; one current between man and horse, and still embodied, a whip hand to pour in leather and a mouth to shout. Speed, speed, but the near goal is miles away, and other speed spirits on either side will not fall back. (p. 56)

But this book is much more than cultural education. It is also a beautiful love story. Laughing Boy, a Navajo brave, meets Slim Girl at a dance and is instantly taken with her. She was raised by whites, so their relationship is controversial within Laughing Boy's family & tribe. She also has a bit of a reputation that he is blissfully unaware of. He helps her reconnect to her roots and learn traditional crafts; she helps him discover the wider world beyond his tribe. Their relationship evolves as they come of age themselves. LaFarge is far less lyrical when writing about relationships, and yet he manages to convey each person's deepest feelings of love, and of fear of failing the other. This book gets a 3-star rating because while it was good, it lacked a certain depth. It almost earned another half or full star because of its very moving ending. Recommended. ( )

My original review can be found here.

His Family (1918)

2009-05-01T22:35:00.002-05:00

I read the first Pulitzer Prize winner, His Family by Ernest Poole, for my first entry into this Pulitzer Project. I see that there have been a couple of very thorough reviews already. The novel is about a widower and his three adult daughters, who each seem to exemplify a "type" of woman of that time. The oldest daughter, Edith, is caught up in her own family. She'll do anything to protect her children and would never consider working outside her family.
Deborah, the middle daughter, probably represents the "new" woman of the time--she works at a school and has thousands of tenement children she is interested in. She is a quintessential do-gooder and probably was a socialist and a suffragist. The youngest daughter represents the pleasure principle. She loves fashion and travel; she marries, has an affair (as does her husband), divorces, and remarries.

The characters never really transcend the stereotypes. I can understand, however, that the Pulitzer Committee perceived this as a novel of ideas and of society.

Ag_in_TX's review of "House Made of Dawn" (Momaday - 1969)

2009-04-27T21:49:00.003-05:00

House Made of Dawn is a novel by N. Scott Momaday, widely credited as leading the way for the breakthrough of Native American literature into the mainstream. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969.

In this story, a troubled young Native American named Abel is struggling with the modern world and the loss of his heritage. We follow him through his return to New Mexico after World War II, his time in Los Angles after a stint in prison, and his return home again. As before, I will not give a synopsis of the book as those are plentiful on the Web. I will instead focus on the themes that moved me.

At only 198 pages, I picked this book next because it was shorter. But much like a small piece of very rich cheesecake, the density of the writing made this book a joy to work through. In particular, the descriptions of the landscape are just exquisite. Having hiked the mountains of west Texas and southern New Mexico, I can tell you Momaday brings these places to life through the word pictures he draws.

The great depth and effort he goes into describing the landscape and the character’s love and bond to it reinforces how important these aspects of life are to the Native Americans – it drives home to the reader that this is the source of happiness and fulfillment to Abel. And hence – the loss of this lifestyle and attachment are what drive him to unhappiness and excessive drink to escape the pain.

The second theme is the tempo of life Abel is dealing with. On the reservation, life shares a tempo with nature – there is no sense in hurrying, no sense in rushing – the sun comes up when it comes and sets when it sets. But in the Army, and again in Los Angeles, Abel has to be at work at a certain time, deal with traffic and the bustle of the city – and he cannot stand it. The stress is unnatural and he escapes through drink. He also struggles with his fellow Native Americans who have adapted all too well to the white man’s world.

The are a multitude of themes and imagery in this book – too many to go into here. But the overriding theme of the book was – pain. The emotional and physical pain Abel feels due to the loss of all he loves over the course of the book, finally ending with the death of his grandfather (his last attachment to the past) at the end. That sounds depressing, but it is reality – the reality that existed whenever native cultures came into clash with the modern world. And understanding this pain is central to understanding the issues the Native Americans have had in adapting to the modern world.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stroud (Jackie's Review)

2009-04-26T09:22:00.004-05:00

Olive Kitteridge is described as a ”novel in stories”. I’m not a big fan of short stories, and so wasn’t convinced that I’d enjoy this book, but as it won the Pulitzer prize I thought I’d give it a try.

I think the emphasis on this being a collection of short stories is misleading, as it is essentially just a novel about one woman, Olive Kitteridge. The story is told through the eyes of various people who knew her, capturing the important moments in her life, in what at first, are seemingly random snippets. The use of small-town gossip, to tell much of the story was a clever medium, which I haven’t seen used before.

The book begins quite slowly, and I have to admit that for the first few chapters I didn’t know what to make of it. The writing was very vivid and powerful, but the large number of characters meant that I wasn’t sure who, or what, was important. About a third of the way through things began to fall into place. Olive’s character became prominent, and I felt that I understood what was happening. I don’t want to give anything away, but I think it is important that you know that the overwhelming emotion I felt on completing the book was that of heartbreak. This book is incredibly touching, and packed with feelings of sadness, and loss. It questions which things are important in life, and examines the relationships between family members who have forgotten how to love each other. Olive’s emotions are powerful and realistic. All mother’s will sympathise with her feelings of isolation, as her only son distances himself from her.

Overall, I found this to be an insightful, touching novel on the reflections of an old woman nearing death. It is a great book, and I think it is worthy of the Pulitzer prize, but I’m not sure it will stand the test of time. I think it will probably end up on that list of ‘the most forgotten Pulitzers’ in 50 years time.

Recommended to anyone who has the patience to piece together a great story.

4/5

Originally posted here.

Rose City Reader's Pulitzer-Related Challenge

2009-04-22T17:02:00.006-05:00

My participation with this Pulitzer Project has been woefully feeble. In part to jump start my enthusiasm for reading the Pulitzer winners, I just launched a reading challenge on Rose City Reader.

I call it the Battle of the Prizes because it asks participants to compare Pulitzer winners with National Book Award winners by choosing three books -- one that one the Pulitzer, one that one the National, and one that one both.

Anyone interested in participating can sign up here. If you post the challenge on your own blog, I am happy to link your post under the Participant list. Just leave a comment with the link on the challenge post.

Happy reading!

Ag_in_TX's review of "A Confederacy of Dunces" (Toole - 1981)

2009-04-13T07:57:00.007-05:00

I will start by admitting I had a hard time wading through this book. I think every parent of a college age student would have trouble with this book as it touches on illogical and unfounded fears that, after your child finishes college, they will want to move home and make nothing of themselves!

Putting aside that fear, the protagonist in this story, Ignatius Reilly, is, in my humble opinion, the most unlikeable leading character in just about any book I’ve ever read. Utterly self-centered and slothful, he blames everyone and everything for all misfortune in his life. His mother is a poor creature who schizophrenically swings between doting mother and drill instructor parent.

In fact, all the characters are fraught with shortcomings and flaws that leave you feeling various states of pity, hate and confusion – but often leave you laughing at them.

Instead of giving a synopsis of the book, I will touch on some points that came to me while I read the book.

- Ignatius’ diatribes in his journals were, for me, the hardest parts to read as he waxed melodramatically about a wide range of subjects. I thought, as the book progressed, he was descending into mental illness and his mother’s final actions were warranted.

- How interesting that, in the end, his savior is the one person, the one fixation, that he could focus his energies on throughout the book – his old college “girlfriend”, Myrna Minkoff – but almost always as hatred and anger. As he escaped a trip to the mental hospital (and, frankly, escaped his entire existence, a mental prison he had built himself into), I was left with a sense of relief – relief for him and everybody in New Orleans his life had touched.

- It was interesting that every character in the book was tied up some sort of stasis (Trixie never being able to retire, Levy hating his own company, Mrs. Reilly’s alcoholism) that had gone on for years, and that the entry of Ignatius Reilly (who lived in a most perpetual stasis of his own) was the catalyst that kick started their lives.

- Ignatius’ “valve” – what was that? What is that supposed to be an image of? He thought it a real, physical thing – but was it really his own mental block against the whole world? A true mental illness? There must be some symbolism to the “valve” that I am missing – it was so central to the way he reacted to everything he encountered.

In short, this is a book I almost hated to keep reading but could not put down. Odd? Well, yes. Perhaps I was overcome by a bad case of literary “rubbernecking” – I just had to know what happened next. But in the end, no matter how much I loathed Ignatius J. Reilly, I wanted him to escape – for the sake of everyone involved.

Laura's 2009 Goals & Progress

2009-04-05T18:38:00.005-05:00

I started this perpetual challenge in 2007, and in 2008, my goal was to read 8-10 Pulitzer winners. I read 8 and have now read 20 of the more than 80 winners. I'm less committed to completing this challenge than to just enjoying good literature. My 2009 goal is to read at least 6, including the 2009 winner.

Pulitzer Prize Winners Read in 2009

1925 - So Big (Ferber)
1930 - Laughing Boy (LaFarge)
2009 - Olive Kitteridge (Strout)
1923 - One of Ours (Cather)
2002 - Empire Falls (Russo)
1972 - Angle of Repose (Stegner)

My complete list of Pulitzer Winners read can be found here.

Laura's Review - So Big

2009-04-05T18:35:00.001-05:00

So Big
Edna Ferber
259 pages

Selina DeJong spent her childhood traveling the US with her father, who made his living as a gambler in the late 1800s. He instilled in her a sense of independence so strong that after his death Selina decided to make her way as an independent woman, finding work as a teacher in a Dutch farming community on the Illinois prairie. She boarded with a family, and despite being a fish out of water she gradually drew closer to the family and especially their oldest son, Roelf. Eventually Selina married a local man, Purvis DeJong and had a son, Dirk (known by his nickname, "Sobig," taken from a game Selina often played with him as a baby). Over the years Selina transformed from city girl to farm wife, and exerted strong influence over the development of both the farm and her son.

The pursuit of beauty is a prominent theme in this book:

"It's beauty!" Selina said then, almost passionately ... "Yes. All the worth-while things in life. All mixed up. Rooms in candle-light. Leisure. Colour. Travel. Books. Music. Pictures. People -- all kinds of people. Work that you love. And growth -- growth and watching people grow. Feeling very strongly about things and then developing that feeling to - to make something fine come of it." ... She threw out her hands in a futile gesture. "That's what I mean by beauty. I want Dirk to have it." (p. 146).

On arrival in High Prairie, Selina is struck by the beauty of cabbages and other produce, much to the amusement of the hard-working local farmers. She finds beauty in most aspects of her life, and works hard to instill in Dirk that same appreciation of, and wonder for, beauty. Most of the time Dirk respectfully tolerates her chatter, seeing it as old-fashioned but endearing. But it's clear to the reader that Dirk is on his own journey to discover beauty through education, work, and relationships.

So Big won the Pulitzer Prize in 1925 and it's easy to see why. On one level, Selina's story is a compelling portrait of farm life at the turn of the 20th century, and Selina is an unusually strong woman for that era. Then Ferber weaves in additional characters and subplots to create a beautiful tapestry. Add to that the search for beauty in its many forms, and So Big becomes infused with meaning not found in many books. Highly recommended. ( )

My original review can be found here.

Beloved by Toni Morrison (1988) - Review by Monique

2009-02-05T19:47:00.003-06:00

Before I get to a review I have a story to tell. When I was growing up, I lived in a mostly white town. In fact, I think there was only one other black family in the whole town. So, my grandmother felt the need to constantly give me books written by black authors, and try to force me to read them. I would not have had a problem with it if it had not been for the fact that the books that she picked always seemed to deal with slavery. And for 8 or 9 year old me, that topic was too distressful. So, one day she gave me "Beloved" to read. Yes, my grandmother gave me, a 8/9 year old little girl, "Beloved". Needless to say, that I was so confused by the first chapter. This book is hard for some adults to read, I cannot begin to understand why she thought it was appropriate for a child. I have a feeling that she did not read the book herself but did like the concept. But anyways, I did not pick up that book until two decades later and was quick to tell anyone who asked that it was difficult and I would never try to read it again. In walks the Pulitzer Project and 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die and "Beloved" is on my TBR list.

What a difference twenty years make. I still believe that "Beloved" is a difficult read. The language and imagery is challenge. But I have to say that I enjoyed every last page. Morrison is a master with the English language. I could see the characters, the town, their past, and their present. For me Morrison made it all come alive. Now that I have really read the book, I can't remember what I found so difficult about it. Maybe my vocabulary and reading ability have evolved (I seriously hope so or the public school system has a lot to answer too).

The characters were very well thought out and portrayed. Each of the main characters (Sethe, Paul D, and Denver) grow throughout the novel. Morrison took the reader inside their thoughts and let you see their feelings and the reasons for their actions. Nothing was left to guess about. Each character had their own personality and past that shaped their decisions. It was intriguing to see how the events in the past lead them to the point where the story takes place. How these events shape how they each react to Beloved's presence.

Now for some people this will be a difficult read. While I enjoyed how Morrison was able to pact so much into the story, I can also see where it would make it hard for some. There are a lot of different things going on. A good portion of the story is dealt with through flash backs. Sethe, has flashbacks to her time as a slave and her escape. Paul D, has flashbacks to his own enslavement, incarceration, and all the hardship he had to go through. Denver has flashbacks to her lonely painful child. Sometimes it can be hard to figure out since Morrison gives you bits and pieces at a time. But I did enjoy her method, it just made me continue to turn the page.

Another thing that can be hard is the imagery. While Morrison does not go into great detail, the subject matter is harsh. And the things that characters go through are sad and difficult (it is a post slave tale). The decisions that they made at times can be unthinkable to someone not in their position.

Pros: Language, Imagery, Characters, Plot

Cons: Language, Imagery

Overall Recommendation:

I personally loved it and would recommend it. But I would also warn that this book is not for everybody.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1961) - Review by Monique

2009-01-25T10:43:00.002-06:00

There probably are very few Americans that have not a least heard about Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird". I don't recall when I first heard about this book but I remember hearing about it some point in my life. It wasn't required reading for me in high school and since I was not one to voluntarily read classics in high school this book got overlooked.

I feel robbed. My high school English teachers felt that it was more important to assign such boring books as "Ethan Frome" but left "To Kill A Mockingbird" out, shame on them. I am not going to classify this book as a page turner, but it was almost there. The last 100 or so pages I couldn't stop reading.

The story is told in first person and the narrator is a young child by the name of Scout. Now, there are so many directions that Lee could have taken with her creation of Scout. But she decided that she would be highly advanced for a child (in the book she is between the ages of 6 and 8), and this is good. Because the reader get not only to see how Scout develops but also gets a look into her thought process and how she tackles some of the complicated adult issues she has to face. Sometimes I forgot that this story was being told through the eyes of a child.

The language in the story was both simple and complex. Every now and than Lee would through in a SAT word (at least that was what I called them in high school) but they were perfectly in context with the story and did not distract from the flow. In fact they helped illustrated and remind the reader that Scout is a child.

Now to the storyline. Even though this book was published in the 1960's and takes place in the 1930's the subject matter is still relevant to today. The struggle for equality in legal system, prejudice, and class. All these issues come up in the book and Lee handles them well, maybe because she does it from the unbias eyes of a child.

This book as been criticized for the use of the "N" word but I think that it is appropriate because first it is a historical fiction novel and second that was reality back in the time frame of the story. The only time that my eyebrow raised was when I reached the following passage on page 118:

"The warm bittersweet smell of clean Negro welcomed us as we entered the churchyard..."

I have no idea what that means. Bittersweet smell and clean.... I am lost. But otherwise a solid well written book.

Pros: Characters, Subject Matter, Language
Cons: Language.

Overall Recommendation: You haven't read it, yet? What's taking you so long? Check it out at the library or buy it.

Natalie's Progress through the Pulitizers

2009-01-12T00:25:00.003-06:00

I've just ordered His Family by Ernest Poole (the first winner--1918) from the library. I've read in relatively recent years quite a few Pulitzer winners;

The Age of Innocence, So Big, The Good Earth and Gone with the Wind and that just gets me up to 1940.

I think my goal for reading in 2009 will be to try to read all of the Pulitzers that ended in the year 9:

Hence:
The Magnificent Ambersons will be next (1919) followed by
Scarlet Sister Mary, 1929. I realize that some of these books may be impossible to find.

This looks like a great challenge!

Wendy's Books Read

2009-01-03T12:39:00.000-06:00

UPDATE: January 3, 2009 - MY GOALS for 2009

My goal for 2009: 5 books from this list

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz (winner 2008)
The Known World, by Edward P. Jones (winner 2004)
Empire Falls, by Richard Russo (winner 2002)
Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri (winner 2000)
American Pastoral, by Philip Roth (winner 1998)
The Stone Diaries, by Carol Shield (winner 1995)
A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley (winner 1992)
Breathing Lessons, by Anned Tyler (winner 1989)
Beloved, by Toni Morrison (winner 1988)
The Optimist’s Daughter, by Eudora Welty (winner 1973)
All The King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren (winner 1947)
The Magnificent Ambersons, by Booth Tarkington (winner 1919)

**********************

Read in 2005:

1999-The Hours, by Michael Cunningham (unrated; not reviewed)
1994-The Shipping News, by Annie Proulx (rated 4/5; not reviewed)
1986-Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry (rated 5/5; not reviewed)

Read in 2006:

2005-Gilead, by Marilyn Robinson (rated 2.5/5; not reviewed)
1921-The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton (rated 4.75/5; not reviewed)

Read in 2007:

2007-The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (completed May 17, 2007; rated 5/5; reviewed here)
2006-March, by Geraldine Brooks (completed April 3, 2007; rated 4/5; reviewed here)
2003-Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides (completed November 1, 2007; rated 4.5/5; reviewed here)
1983-The Color Purple, by Alice Walker (completed January 12, 2007; rated 4.75/5; reviewed here)
1961-To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (completed March 21, 2007; rated 5/5; reviewed here)
1940-The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck (completed January 18, 2007; rated 5/5; reviewed here)
1932-The Good Earth, by Pearl Buck (completed November 28, 2007; rated 4.5/5; reviewed here)
1928-The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder (completed December 23, 2007); rated 3/5; reviewed here)

Read in 2008:

1925-So Big, by Edna Ferber (completed January 17, 2008; rated 5/5; reviewed here)
1972-Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner (completed April 17, 2008; rated 5/5; reviewed here)

3M's Progress and Goals for 2009

2009-01-02T22:03:00.005-06:00

After reading 12 Pulitzers in 2007, I only read one (Beloved) in 2008! [edit: I actually read two because I read the 2009 winner, Olive Kitteridge] I'm not happy with that result at all, so I'd like to commit to reading at least 6 titles in 2009. These are the leading contenders (bolded were read in 2009):

2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
2002 - Empire Falls (Russo)
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon)
2000 - Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri)
1992 - A Thousand Acres (Smiley)
1989 - Breathing Lessons (Tyler)
1987 - A Summons to Memphis (Taylor)
1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces (Toole)
1973 - The Optimist’s Daughter (Welty)
1937 - Gone with the Wind (Mitchell)
1936 - Honey in the Horn (Davis)
1935 - Now in November (Johnson)
1932 - The Good Earth (Buck)
1926 - Arrowsmith (Lewis)
1925 - So Big (Ferber)
1921 - The Age of Innocence (Wharton)

Progress so far:
2008 - Olive Kitteridge

2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
2007 - The Road
2006 - March
2005 - Gilead (read in 2006)
2004 - The Known World
2003 - Middlesex
1999 - The Hours
1998 - Beloved
1995 - The Stone Diaries
1994 - The Shipping News
1983 - The Color Purple
1972 - Angle of Repose
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird
1958 - A Death in the Family
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea (read in 2002)
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath (read in 1985)
1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey

The Road....................a Short Review

2008-12-22T16:08:00.004-06:00

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is my first read from the list of Pulitzer Prize winners. This book, I thought, was quite interesting. Why? I was able to conjure up possibilities of all human kind being eliminated due to wars, rampant diseases, or catastrophic climatic changes. The end result being one or a few individuals left to survive on their own without all of the amenities that we have become accustomed to. The book relates the experiences of a boy and his father traveling along a road to somewhere (perhaps nowhere). As they make this journey, they are faced with various encounters all along the road. This consists of finding adequate food supplies, staying away from strangers, and locating resources for shelter. All throughout the story, I felt, the father was trying to impart knowledge to his son that would insure his son's survival after his death. All said, I thought the book was a good read. Although, sometimes, I found it difficult to establish who was speaking at times. This was because of a lack of affirmation to indicate such. (This may be the writer's technique. I would have to read more of the writer's works to know for sure.) It took me 4 solid days from cover to finish to complete the novel.

Laura's Review - A Death in the Family

2008-12-20T15:41:00.001-06:00

A Death in the Family
James Agee
318 pages

James Agee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a stark, realistic portrayal of the searing emotional pain in human response to tragedy. The novel takes place over just a few days, as a close-knit family copes with the sudden loss of a loved one. FIrst, there is the waiting -- knowing an accident has occurred, but not yet knowing the outcome:

This heaviness had steadily increased while he sat and waited and by now the air felt like iron and it was almost as if he could taste in his mouth the sour and cold, taciturn taste of iron. Well what else are we to expect, he said to himself. What life is. He braced against it quietly to accept, endure it, relishing not only his exertion but the sullen, obdurate cruelty of the iron, for it was the cruelty which proved and measured his courage. Funny I feel so little about it, he thought. (p. 136)

When the death is discovered, Agee delves deep into the souls of his characters and their varied responses. The adults try to explain the loss to two young children. One of the children, a 6-year-old boy, meets up with children on their way to school and uncomfortably revels in his celebrity status. Some of the adults become stronger in their grief, and take care of those who have fallen apart:

"That's when you're going to need every ounce of common sense you've got," he said. "Just spunk won't be enough; you've got to have gumption. You've got to bear it in mind that nobody that ever lived is specially privileged; the axe can fall at any moment, on any neck, without any warning or any regard for justice. You've got to keep your mind off pitying your own rotten luck and setting up any kind of a howl about it. You've got to remember that things as bad as this and a hell of a lot worse have happened to millions of people before and that they've come thorugh it and that you will too. You'll bear it because there isn't any choice -- except to go to pieces." (p. 149)

This book is well written, and immensely powerful. Agee takes the reader deep inside the hearts and minds of his characters; I could identify with everyone in some way. He plumbs the depths of emotion, such that the book must be set aside every so often to work through feelings evoked by the text. I was most touched by the children in this story: the boy and his younger sister. Their emotional needs were largely ignored. The adults underestimated their ability to grasp the situation. Some wanted to exclude the children from the rituals of mourning; others took them under their wing and allowed them to grieve in their own ways. Agee writes from his own experience, having experienced a similar tragedy at a young age himself.

While it was a very sad book, I am glad to have read it -- it will occupy a place in my heart for a long, long time. ( )

My original review can be found here.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Jackie's Review

2008-12-12T15:24:00.004-06:00

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001.

The book started off really well, and by page 35 I was so fond of the characters that I had tears in my eyes when they had to say goodbye to each other. This is a very rare event for me, as I don’t often cry when reading. There are perhaps five books that have managed to move me to tears in my entire lifetime, so this just goes to show the power of the writing in this book.

It continued well, and I loved the detail of the magic tricks, and Joe’s escape from Prague in 1939 to his cousin’s flat in America. Then everything went wrong. There were about 200 pages of boring details about life in a comic book office. I completely lost interest in the book, and at one point I nearly gave up on it. I’m really glad that I didn’t though, as the last third of the book was as good as the beginning. The plot was clever, the vivid characters were back and the ending was very satisfying.

An amazing book, with a long, dull bit in the middle. It could easily have had 9 or 10 stars if the boring bit had been condensed to about 10 pages.

Recommended, as long as you are able to get through a long slow section – it is worth it in the end!

Originally reviewed here.

1999 Prize Winner - The Hours (Cunningham) - Review by LegalMist

2008-12-08T15:09:00.003-06:00

This review was originally posted on my other blog, LegalMist. Please see my spoiler alert before proceeding, and also feel welcome to join me for more discussion at the review posted on my LegalMist blog.

The Hours (Michael Cunningham, 1998) tells separate stories about a day in the life of each of three different women: Clarissa Vaughan, a modern New Yorker planning a party for a close friend who is dying; Laura Brown, a 1950's homemaker in a Los Angeles suburb; and Virginia Woolf, struggling to recover from (apparently) her mental illness and migraine-type headaches in a London suburb while beginning to write the novel Mrs. Dalloway in the early 1900's. Interspersed within the chapters about these three women, the book also provides some details of a day in the life of a fourth woman – Clarissa Dalloway, the title character of the book Virginia Woolf is writing.

A quick plot refresher – not intended to be comprehensive:

Clarissa Vaughan is planning a party for her friend, Richard Brown, who has won a literary award for his writing but who is also dying of AIDS. On the surface, the novel tells of her party preparations – buying flowers, arrangements for the food, stopping to visit Richard. The real focus, however, is on Clarissa’s thoughts, history, and relationships - with her friend and former beau Richard, her lesbian partner, her daughter, and her daughter's lesbian friend.

Laura Brown is planning a family birthday celebration for her husband and trying to make the "perfect" birthday cake while pregnant and caring for her three year old son. She is struggling with depression and finds that reading is her only escape from the harsh reality that she is unhappy with her seemingly perfect husband, home, and life. Her neighbor "Kitty" (also a 1950's homemaker) comes by with the news that she has to have exploratory surgery for a growth in her uterus, and they share a sensuous but ultimately awkward almost-kiss while her son looks on. Mrs. Brown is, for this day, obsessed with reading Virginia Woolf’s novel, and ends up guiltily leaving her son with a neighbor while she checks into a hotel room for several hours to read Mrs. Dalloway. Again, the real focus of the story is on Laura's thoughts, history, and relationships - with her husband, her son, and her neighbors.

Virginia Woolf is struggling to write her novel about a single day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway. She is also planning tea for her sister and sister’s children, who are supposed to arrive at four p.m. that day. The novel details the herculean struggle it takes for Virginia Woolf to overcome her crushing headache pain and to write her novel (or even to eat) and to entertain her sister and the kids. The real focus, again, is on Virginia's thoughts, her overwhelming desire to return to the big city, London, from the suburb where she currently lives, and her relationships - with her husband, her cook, her sister, her sister's kids. The prologue outlines Mrs. Woolf’s later suicide by drowning.

The subject of Virginia Woolf’s novel, Clarissa Dalloway, is also making party preparations. Woolf tells us that in the novel she "will have had" a love, a "girl she knew during her own girlhood," and she will "kill herself over something that seems, on the surface, like very little." (pages 83-84*).

My rambling thoughts:

The characters, although living in different times and circumstances, are tied together by the similar tasks that lie before them and the similar psychological challenges they face in getting through their days which appear ordinary and even potentially fun, yet are difficult for them due to their feelings of desperation and being not fully present, but more like spectators of their own lives. In this sense, the book is a comment by the author on the continuity of the human condition across the generations and the universal human experience of isolation and despair.

The stories of the three women are told in separate, alternating chapters. At first I found it a little confusing to keep up with which character was which, particularly because Clarissa Vaughan’s nickname (given to her by Richard) is "Mrs. Dalloway" and her chapters are labeled "Mrs. Dalloway," so at first I kept thinking her chapters should be about Virginia Woolf’s character. But overall, reading the women’s stories in separate chapters made it easier to keep the characters and their stories straight in my mind.

But the separateness of the stories also nearly blinded me to the ultimate connection between Clarissa and Laura: At the end of the book, after Clarissa Vaughan’s party preparations have been made, she stops by to help Richard get ready for the party (page 195*), but he is sitting on the window ledge in his fifth-floor apartment when she enters ... and he jumps from his apartment window and kills himself. Clarissa returns to her apartment where her lesbian partner has assisted in calling off the party, then welcomes Richard’s mother into her home to begin the grieving process.

It wasn’t until several days after I read the book that I realized that Richard’s mother, Laura, who came to Clarissa’s apartment after Richard’s suicide, was the same Laura Brown featured in the chapters on "Mrs. Brown" with her three year old son "Richie." Either I’m clueless (most likely conclusion), or the book is a bit obscure, perhaps intentionally, on this point.

The author inserts tons of parallels between the lives of the three characters in this book, and the character in Virginia Woolf’s book, Mrs. Dalloway. From the types of flowers they buy, to the similar structures of their days, to their depressing thoughts and attempts to be happy despite their despair, the novel provides a smorgasbord of foreshadowing and parallel events, exploring each character’s reaction to similar events. The author "mixes it up" a bit with some opposition, as well -- for example, Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Woolf are each married to (kind, loving) men, while "Mrs. Dalloway" (Mrs. Vaughan) is in a long-term lesbian relationship -- though at one point she refers to herself as being like a typical housewife. Mrs Woolf and Mrs. Brown both live in the suburbs, while Mrs. Dalloway (Vaughan) lives in New York city.

On one hand, this parallelism and foreshadowing can be a useful literary device, allowing the reader to draw connections between the characters and highlighting ideas that otherwise might pass unnoticed. On the other hand, I found it distracting to be so constantly reminded of the parallels between the characters’ lives. For me, it was harder to "suspend my disbelief" and get into the characters’ minds because the constant discovery of ways in which this character’s life was somehow parallel (or opposite) to that character’s life merely served to remind me that the whole thing was made up by a single author, Michael Cunningham, who could insert these random parallel facts wherever he liked.

My initial reaction to the book was, therefore, that I did not understand why it won the Pulitzer Prize. It was an entertaining enough read, but rather clumsily (I thought) drawn – I noticed the literary devices too much, and felt that the characters and plots were a little too similar. And among all these distracting parallels and other connections between the characters, I missed the obvious and probably most important one -- that Clarissa's friend, Richard Brown, was also Laura Brown's son "Richie."

But the book grew on me, particularly after I made the connection between "Richie" and "Richard" and "Mrs. Brown" and "Laura Brown" and then went back and re-read portions of the book. I found myself liking the characters more, and liking the story more.

Recognizing this connection gave me a lot more to think about: Was Richard's preoccupation with "Mrs. Dalloway" (calling his friend Clarissa "Mrs. D") caused by his mother's obsession with Virginia Woolf's book early in his life? (On the first read-through, I had seen it as merely another "random" connection between the characters). Is the author really showing us the "universality" of human experience, or trying to say that Virginia Woolf's book Mrs. Dalloway was so powerful that it could so profoundly alter these three lives? (Should I rush out and read Mrs. Dalloway next? Or is that a recipe for disaster?) Is this another instance of society (or this particular author) trying to blame women in general (Virginia Woolf as author) and mothers in particular (Laura Brown) for their children's mental health problems (depression, suicide) as adults? How does this theory fit with Clarissa's musings on her relationship with her daughter?

And what of Laura Brown's marriage? She married her husband, she says, out of "guilt" and a sense of duty. Wow. I can't think of anything that is less fair to a person than to marry them because you think you should instead of because you love them. How did that color her relationship with her son, and her son's subsequent relationships with the women and men he loved in his life? Is it, after all, the mother's fault that the son ended up depressed and suicidal? Yes, I recognize he was depressed due to his physical illness and probably suicidal because of the med's he took, but there are many reactions to physical illness; was his reaction merely a genetic predisposition, or do we, as a society, perhaps even unconsciously, blame his mom? Or is this a comment on the universal experience of human suffering and isolation?

I also found myself more intrigued by the slightly different perspectives of the characters and the fact that their different personalities showed through, even though much of what they did and said was similar. Clarissa Vaughan, for example, remains determined to be or become happy in spite of her inclination not to be, while Virginia Woolf's determination, it seemed to me, was merely a determination to "push through." Is this seemingly small difference enough to account for Virginia's eventual suicide? And there are interesting observations about human nature and human interaction throughout the book. For example, the discussion of Virginia's relationship with her maid / cook and her sense of a sort of power struggle in the relationship was fascinating.
So in the end, for those who haven’t read it, I recommend the book as one worth reading if you are "into" character studies and can stand a book so focused on depression and suicide. If a book makes me want to take a second look at it, it must be doing something right. However, if you are seeking a fast-paced adventure story, or a suspenseful thriller, this is not the book for you.

If you have read it, I bet you have come up with many more interesting questions and thoughts about the book than I have. I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of the above questions, or pose your own questions and I'll think about them, too. I have not read any other reviews of this book (other than the blurbs on the book jacket) because I didn't want any preconceptions about the book. Perhaps I'll go read some and see if those reviews spark any additional thoughts.

I’d also love to hear from anyone who has seen the movie (with Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman). Is it worth renting? Better, or worse, than the book?

Feel free to respond here, or over at the LegalMist blog. Thanks for reading!
.

Beloved by Toni Morrison - Jackie's Review

2008-11-20T14:12:00.005-06:00

‘Beloved’ is the story of a woman haunted by the ghost of her baby. Set in post-Civil war Ohio it is the story of how former slaves, psychically and emotionally crippled by years of labour, attempt to deal with their past.

I found the first half of the book very slow. It was confusing, as it skipped around so much, and as I didn’t have a clue what was happening, it had no forward momentum.

I found certain aspects of it the book very irritating. Why did there have to be 3 characters called Paul? Why was the Grandma also called a baby? And why did all the female characters seem to have male names? This all increasing my frustration with the book.

The second half was much better. I began to work out what was happening, and could cope with the changing of narrator/time period. As it neared the end I was totally hooked. Some scenes were very moving, and will stay with me for a long time.

I think this would be a great book to study, as I'm sure there were lots of things I missed out on first time round.

Recommended, if you’re able to get past the first 100 pages.

Originally posted here

Jackie's Progress

2008-10-29T05:48:00.003-05:00

I'm excited to be starting a new reading challenge!

So far I have only read 4 Pulitzer prize winners:

1961 - To Kill a Mocking Bird
1983 - The Color Purple
2003 - Middlesex

and I've just finshed reading

1998 - Beloved, so hopefully I'll be able to add a review soon.

The Amazing Life of Kavalier and Clay is near the top to my reading pile, but I'm also going to try to get hold of some of the early winners soon.

I look forward to sharing some good books with you all in the future.

Jackie

Laura's Review - The Good Earth

2008-10-23T14:13:00.001-05:00

The Good Earth
Pearl S. Buck
260 pages

Pearl Buck's classic novel is an epic portrayal of agrarian China near the turn of the twentieth century, leading up to the 1912 Revolution. The novel opens on the wedding day of Wang Lung, a poor farmer. His wife, O-lan, has spent her youth as a slave for a wealthy family in town. Up to this time, Wang Lung has had to care for his father in addition to farming the land, and he is simply glad to have someone to cook, clean, and tend to his father while he works the land. His relationship with O-lan develops, in a traditional way, as she bears him children and works with him in the fields. During a time of widespread crop failure, they migrate to a southern city and learn to survive in far different conditions. But the pull of the land is strong, and eventually Wang Lung and his family return to their home town and prosper as farmers and landowners.

Over the years the family experiences birth, death, marriage, and war; happiness as well as suffering. Buck brings the characters of Wang Lung, O-lan, and their children to life. Wang Lung could be rather distasteful by modern, western standards, even when he was simply trying to provide the best for his family. At other times, he was motivated by selfish desires and made decisions which would be harmful viewed through any cultural lens. And I felt sorry for O-lan, who was helpless under his partriarchal rule.

Towards the end of The Good Earth, Wang Lung prepares to pass his land to his sons, just as China is preparing to pass over into a new era of its own. My edition of this book included a reader's supplement with cultural notes and photos of weddings, markets, and ordinary people which helped bring the story and the time period to life. This book is more than just an epic family saga, it also paints a fascinating picture of the life and customs of a country on the brink of dramatic change. ( )

My original review can be found here.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - Tammy's review

2008-10-23T11:30:00.000-05:00

Title: The Grapes of Wrath

Author: John Steinbeck

First Published: 1939

No. of Pages: 464

Synopsis (from B&N): Although it follows the movement of thousands of men and women and the transformation of an entire nation, The Grapes of Wrath is also the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, who are driven off their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots, Steinbeck created a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its insistence on human dignity.

Comments and Critique: John Steinbeck was a master storyteller. He had the ability to get you interested in the story and to hold your interest for page after page. The story of the Joads is heartbreaking but at the same time shows mankind’s strength of character in the face of overwhelming odds, especially in the character of Ma Joad. Without doubt, she was my favorite – she showed resilience through poverty, hunger, and death, all the while presenting a brave face to the outside world and trying everything she could to keep her family together.

It’s always been difficult for me to imagine what it was truly like to live through the Great Depression. The only family I have that was alive then is my grandmother. She’s told me a little about her life growing up on a central Florida farm as the 2nd oldest of 8 children, but has never wanted to talk much in detail about the experience. I’ve noticed that many elderly people do that, they either don't discuss it or they downplay the hardships that you know they suffered, often with the comment that, “We didn’t have much, but then neither did anyone else.” It’s almost like it wasn’t as bad because so many were suffering right alongside. That was also a theme in this book. Steinbeck really focused on the interaction of the migrants and showed how they looked out for one another, shared their food and lodgings, and provided moral support.

My copy of the book has extensive commentary, which provides a good look at the historical and social context of the story. My next step is to watch the movie version, which I’ve always heard is excellent, and see how it compares to the book.

Interesting facts:: John Steinbeck lived with an Oklahoma family and travelled with them to California as research for this book. The Grapes of Wrath won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1940. John Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

Would You Recommend This Book to Others: Yes

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

2008-10-23T01:39:00.002-05:00

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, 1999
A Collection of Short Stories, 198 pages
Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin Company

Winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award.

Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri’s first book, is a collection of short stories depicting the lives of Indians or Indian immigrants. Some may immediately wonder how they could relate to the stories or characters. You may not to them individually, but what you will find is that the themes are universal thus eliminating such a concern.

“A Temporary Matter” centers on a couple estranged by the loss of a child:

But nothing was pushing Shukumar. Instead he thought of how he and Shoba had become experts in avoiding each other in their three-bedroom house, spending as much time on separate floors as possible.

“Sexy” about a woman having an affair with a married man and coming to terms with the choices she’s made:

There was no reason to put it on. Apart from the fitting room at Filene’s she had never worn it, and as long as she was with Dev she knew she never would. She knew they would never go to restaurants, where he would reach across a table and kiss her hand. They would meet in her apartment, on Sundays, he in his sweatpants, she in her jeans.

“Mrs. Sen’s” showing the hardships faced emotionally by someone having to adjust to a new life. One in a country where there is little to connect to on any level as there is no immediate family or a community of those with similar backgrounds to lean upon for support, thus the homesickness felt is as much as any one person can bear:

Mrs. Sen took the aerogram from India out of her purse and studied the front and back. She unfolded it and reread it to herself, sighing every now and then. When she had finished she gazed for some time at the swimmers.

“My sister has had a baby girl. By the time I see her, depending if Mr. Sen gets his tenure, she will be three years old. Her own aunt will be a stranger. If we sit side by side on train she will not know my face.”

There are nine stories in total and in each one there was always some aspect that touched me in some way that I could not picture myself, or anyone I know, caught up within those same circumstances and possibly having the same responses. I can say in truth, that I did not understand every nuance in some of the stories, as understanding the culture would have been helpful. But really, it does not detract from the enjoyment I had in reading this book. In fact, it was the first one I completed when participating in the recent Read-A-Thon.

As I stated in an earlier post, this book has got to be one of the better Pulitzer Prize Winners I have read in some time. In addition, I have not read many Short Story collections this year even though I had planned to.

I am glad I decided that this should change. This was a wonderful book and will be a nice addition to my personal library.

For this reason I am giving it 5 stars and a definite ‘must read’ recommendation.

March by Geraldine Brooks

2008-10-19T19:11:00.000-05:00

In reading Little Women, I never really gave much thought to Mr. March and his experiences as a chaplain in the Civil War. (In fact, when I read it at a much younger age, I didn't even know it was during the Civil War!) This 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner gives us a chronicle of what his experiences might have been, and the realities of war that he does not write about in his letters home. A lot of his experiences are based on Louisa May Alcott's father, a transcendentalist who rubbed shoulders with Emerson and Thoreau. March encounters racism, both from Northerners and Southerners, and other cruelty that he struggles to take action against, but fails. We learn in flashbacks about his courtship with Marmee (and learn where Jo gets her temper from!) and why the family has become so poor.

The best word I can use to describe this "listen" is "interesting." It didn't grab me in any way, it was just "interesting" to see the different perspectives of various individuals and groups during the Civil War. I like to meet famous people in works of fiction and experience what a conversation with them would be like, and there are a few instances of this in this book. The books I love usually fit into one of two catergories--great storytelling or great writing. Occasionally a book fits into both. March didn't fit into either one for me, but I don't regret reading it, if that makes sense.

Where I Stand Coming Into This

2008-10-19T19:00:00.002-05:00

Here are the ones I have read previous to joining the Pulitzer Project:

1921 The Age of Innocence
1928 The Bridge of San Luis Rey
1932 The Good Earth
1937 Gone With the Wind
1940 The Grapes of Wrath
1945 A Bell for Adano
1961 To Kill a Mockingbird
1999 The Hours
2004 The Known World
2005 Gilead
2006 March
2007 The Road

I think I have a couple of these books reviewed in archives. I'll see if I can find and post them.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Audiobook)

2008-10-19T18:47:00.003-05:00

Read in November 2007:
I found this novel uplifting and deeply thoughtful. John Ames, a preacher in 1956 Gilead, Iowa, knows he is nearing the end of his life. The novel is a letter to his almost 7-year-old son who will not know or remember much of his father. He writes of his family's history, his thoughts on life and religion, and tells of some difficult experiences he has had learning forgiveness. This is one of the few audiobooks I've listened to that I loved the voice of the narrator. This was a good one to listen to, and reading it around Thanksgiving was appropriate, because you see the things that are important to John Ames at the end of his life. I checked out the books so I could quote some of my favorite passages, but there were just too many. It's far from a plot-driven book, but I see it as one that can sit on your nightstand and be read a little bit each night.

Laura's Review - The Yearling

2008-10-12T05:56:00.001-05:00

The Yearling
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
354 pages

The Yearling is a coming-of-age story about a boy, Jody, living in the Florida wilderness during the late 1800s. Over a year's time, Jody grows from a 12-year-old focused mostly on recreation, to a contributing family member working alongside his father to provide for his family. Jody's family lives off their crops, game hunted in the forest, and trades made in a nearby village. It's a tough life full of back-breaking labor.

At Jody's side during most of the year is Flag, a fawn adopted after being found orphaned. As an only child, Jody longs for companionship, and his parents long resisted allowing him to adopt wild animals as pets. For some reason, in this case, they relented. Flag is a devoted pet, often at Jody's side, but as he grows it becomes more and more difficult to keep him on their farm.

This book is well-written -- it won the Pulitzer Prize after all -- and the very descriptive language brought the landscape to life. However, I tired of the graphic hunting scenes, and I was never emotionally invested in Jody and his family. I was hoping for a more compelling read and was disappointed. ( )

My original review can be found here.

Laura's 2008 Goals and Progress

2008-09-20T19:00:00.004-05:00

I joined The Pulitzer Project because I love reading prize-winning books. I read 5 Pulitzer winners in 2007, which was a lot less than I hoped. I’ll start 2008 having read 12 of the 81 winners. Before the year is out, I’d like to read another 8-10, including:

2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Diaz) (DNF - 5/9/2008)
2006 - March (Brooks) (completed 1/22/2008)
2004 - The Known World (Jones) (completed 4/20/2008)
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon) (completed 9/20/2008)
1958 - A Death in the Family (Agee) (completed 12/20/2008)
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway) (completed 8/9/2008 )
1939 - The Yearling (Rawlings) (completed 10/11/2008 )
1932 - The Good Earth (Buck) (completed 10/23/2008)

Complete List of Pulitzers Read (with links to reviews where available)
2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Diaz) (DNF)

2007 - The Road (MacCarthy)
2006 - March (Brooks)

2004 - The Known World (Jones)
2003 - Middlesex (Eugenides)

2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon)
2000 - Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri)
1995 - The Stone Diaries (Shields)
1994 - The Shipping News (Proulx)
1992 - A Thousand Acres (Smiley)
1988 - Beloved (Morrison)
1973 - The Optimist’s Daughter (Welty)
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)

1958 - A Death in the Family (Agee)

1953 - The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)

1939 - The Yearling (Rawlings)
1937 - Gone with the Wind (Mitchell)

1932 - The Good Earth (Buck)
1921 - The Age of Innocence (Wharton)

Laura's Review - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

2008-09-20T18:44:00.002-05:00

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Michael Chabon
636 pages

In 1939, Josef Kavalier's parents, wishing to keep him safe from persecution against the Jews, arranged for him to travel from Prague to the United States. On arrival in New York City, he met his cousin Sam Klayman and, through both talent and luck, the two young men were able to launch a superhero comic book just at the point when the genre was becoming popular. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is the story of their business partnership and their lifelong friendship.

The book covers a period of some twenty years and is both broad in its scope and deep in its many layers of character and plot. Joe is the most well-developed character in the novel. In Prague he trained as a magician and a Houdini-like escape artist. He is also a very talented artist. However, he is haunted by guilt and other demons. Tormented by leaving his family behind, he tries desperately to rescue them and acts out his anger on Germans he encounters in New York City. He finds love in Rosa Saks, but leaves her behind when, immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he enlists in the Navy to act out his need for revenge on the Germans.

Sam Klayman's character is somewhat less developed, but still appealing. Abandoned by his father and devoted to his mother, it is Sam who spots Joe's artistic talent and persuades his boss to launch a comic book featuring a character known as The Escapist. Sam is largely unaware of his sexual identity, and one of the more touching scenes involves both emerging awareness of his homosexuality, and his realization that society would not accept him if this were known. Sam proves himself a true friend when he sacrifices his own happiness in a selfless act for another person.

Despite its length, this book was an easy and fun read. In addition to the well-drawn characters, the book offers up historical detail concerning the comic book industry, the Empire State Building, World War II, and post-war New York City. It's easy to see why this book won the Pulitzer Prize. ( )

My original review can be found here.

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

2008-09-10T07:36:00.001-05:00

Pearl S. Buck's classic story of family and life in pre-revolutionary China. This did not take as long as I thought, and while sad at times, I liked the book. I think the prose is distinct, the story compelling and honest, and the characters very real. I liked the themes of the novel which explored man's relation to the earth, changing fortunes, China at the turn of the century, and women's role in society and family. She writes everything so deftly and without judgment; a very true story teller. I am very familiar with Chinese culture, family, and livelihood. Buck said she wrote about China because it was all she knew. She might have been a foreigner, but there is such an candid and wonderful perspective in her writing. Dare I say it, but this book is very Chinese. It is difficult to describe how she captured the Chinese characters and cultural identity so well. Once again, I found so much honesty in her writing. I liked how she painted the picture of O-Lan and the other women in Chinese society. While I appreciated the writing and the book, I do not think I will continue with the trilogy because I am not particularly attached to the characters beyond this book, and the stories can be rather sad. I would be interested in reading more of Buck's other stories.

Crossposted from aquatique.net.

Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair 1942

2008-08-20T09:21:00.002-05:00

This novel was outstanding and introduced me to Upton Sinclair's 11 volume Lanny Budd series. Dragon's Teeth is the 3rd book of the series. Lanny Budd is a 30-something rich American living in Europe in the early 1930's. The plot revolves around the rise of Hitler in Germany and the beginning of Jewish persecution and the competing forces of socialism, facism, communism and capitalism. Lanny's sister's husband, Freddi Robbin is Jewish and Freddi's family has close connections to the Budds and their struggles in Europe create a riveting plot within the larger historical context. I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

Here is a link to a New York Times article dated 7/22/2005 about the Lanny Budd series:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/22/books/22sala.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Laura's Review - The Old Man and the Sea

2008-08-09T15:02:00.000-05:00

The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway
128 pages

When reviewing a classic like The Old Man and the Sea, it's difficult to find something to say that hasn't already been said. This concise novella packs a punch in 128 short pages. Santiago is the old man in the title, a Cuban fisherman who has gone more than 80 days without a catch. He's a lonely man, ridiculed by other fishermen and forced to fish alone after losing his assistant (forced by his parents to fish with another, luckier, fisherman). Santiago decides to go further out into the sea than the other fishermen and, sure enough, snags a marlin larger than his boat.

The rest of the book recounts Santiago's efforts to reel in the fish (this task alone takes more than a day), and then bring the fish back to port. He demonstrates powerful mental and physical strength as he combats the marlin, sharks, hunger, fatigue, and loneliness. Much has been written about this work's themes of pride and redemption, and comparisons to Hemingway's late career. And while there are certainly symbols and messages in this book, it's also a great story that holds your attention the entire way through. ( )

My original review can be found here.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 1961

2008-08-05T19:42:00.001-05:00

Harper Lee wrote one novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and it won the Pulitzer prize in 1961. Its themes still resonate with readers and her novel has become a part of our culture. That, I believe, is success.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee almost perfectly captures the main challenge of growing up: realizing human nature, both good and bad.

(I say "almost" perfect because I am sure there are faults in the novel, but I love this novel so much that I don't want to search for them.)

To Kill a Mockingbird follows Scout Finch from age 6 to age 9 in the midst of the Great Depression in rural Alabama. Scout is a tomboy in overalls but is expected to be a little lady. She sees many opposites in the people around her: not as poor versus very poor, boy versus girl, old town residents versus newcomers, drunk versus sober, kind versus mean, and, underscoring it all, black versus white.

And yet, in her eight-year-old wisdom, Scout observes:

Naw, Jem, I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks. (chapter 23)

When Scout and her older brother are given air rifles for Christmas, they are told they can shoot at anything but mockingbirds:

Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. (chapter 10)

Scout learns by experience that people often disregard such obvious advice in terms of how they treat each other. To Kill a Mockingbird is honest yet beautiful examination of how we all look at each other. Why do people judge and hurt those who "don't do one thing" to harm the world around us? Why do people bring heartache on the helpless? Why are people prejudiced?

Through Scout's young eyes, I was reminded of how important it is for me to avoid judging others "until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." She also helped me see what it means to be a neighbor.

As it has been said before, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee has really said everything that needs to be said. I say, if she didn't write any other novel, that is her business. Writing "only" one book doesn't make that book any less powerful or her skill any less impressive.

I plan on rereading it again. And then again. It's that good.

Originally published on Rebecca Reads in slightly different form.

libraryelf.com

2008-07-23T19:18:00.001-05:00

I thought this service might be useful to you. I think it's great. It basically keeps track of all your library books (from different libraries) which are out, and sends you email reminders "before" they are due. It works with RSS readers as well.

Take a look at their demo (http://www.libraryelf.com/Demo.aspx).

It only takes a few minutes to signup and add your library cards to a single account.

Give it a try if interested -- http://www.libraryelf.com

2008 - The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

2008-07-20T13:48:00.001-05:00

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is the story of Oscar Cabral, an overweight, nerdy, and utterly atypical Dominican aspiring sci-fi and fantasy author who lives in New Jersey. It’s also the story of his sister, Lola, of his mother, Beli, of La Hija, who brought her up, and of the lives Oscar’s grandparents lead in the Dominican Republic under the dominance of dictator Rafael Trujillo.

The story moves back and forth in time, with different sections focusing on different characters and offering different points of view. Lola’s section is narrated in the first person, and it took me a while to realize who the other first person narrator was. And if this sounds confusing, don’t worry, it isn’t. The structure works perfectly the way it is. And the more you learn about the characters’ backgrounds and about the past, the more significant things become, the more power the story gains.

Reading this book taught me so much about the Dominican Republic. I knew there had been a dictatorship there for a great part of the twentieth century, but I had no idea about the specifics. I didn’t know any of the horrifying details – the genocide of the Haitians, the rape of young girls, the senseless brutality. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is full of horror, tragedy, loss, death, unspeakable violence. But it’s also full of humour, life, energy, love, even hope. It’s a book that made me laugh and made me cry, both alternately and simultaneously.

Plus, it has just a touch of magic realism, which is something that always gives a book cool points in my book. Oscar’s family believes they are the victims of fukú, a very powerful Dominican curse. And plus there are the inexplicable apparitions of the Golden Mongoose.

And if all of this wasn’t enough, there are all the nerdy references: to the Twilight Zone, to comics, to Lloyd Alexander, to Ursula Le Guin, to the Sandman, to Dune, to The Lord of the Rings. How could I not love a book with sentences like “…and a guardedness so Minas Tirith in la pequeña that you’d need the whole of Mordor to overcome it” or “Closed his eyes (or maybe he didn’t) and when he opened them there was something straight out of Ursula Le Guin standing by his side. Later, when he would describe it, he would call it the Golden Mongoose, but even he knew that wasn’t what it was.”

There was just one tiny thing I had a bit of a problem with. At one point the narrator tells us:

At the end of The Return of the King, Sauron’s evil was taken by “a great wind” and neatly “blown away”, with no lasting consequences to our heroes; but Trujillo was too powerful, too toxic a radiation to be dispelled so easily. Even after death his evil lingered.

This made me wonder if perhaps we’d read different versions of The Return of the King. You can perhaps say that The Lord of the Rings doesn't leave too much room for ambiguity, and that Sauron is the ultimate one-dimensional villain. I don’t care, though, because the books are so completely awesome in so many other ways. You cannot say, however, that at the end the bad guys vanish and that all the terrible things that happened leave no enduring consequences. You really can’t. Taken out of contest, this passage could give you the impression that all the nerdy references are given in a mocking, superior, dismissive “look at how silly and unlike real life all this stuff is” tone. But that isn’t the case at all. I’d have been very annoyed and disappointed if it were. And it's exactly because that isn’t the case that I was surprised with that passage.

But anyway. This is a great book. One thing: there’s a lot of Spanish in the text. And I mean a lot. It made me wonder if readers who don’t understand it would feel lost and/or annoyed after a while, but raych said it didn’t happen. Most of the time the context does seem enough to make the meaning of what’s being said clear enough.

I feel like I’m doing a lousy job explaining what this book actually is about. But that’s because it’s about so many things. About immigration, about love and loneliness and longing, about living under a horrifying dictatorial regime, about parents and children, about loss, about death. I loved loved loved the very ending. The thing about the little unexpected intimacies. I can’t say more without giving too much away, but you know when you think you couldn’t enjoy a book more, and then the very ending makes you like it all that much more? I love it when that happens.

In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow, 1942

2008-07-19T12:12:00.004-05:00

Asa is the long-suffering husband of Lavinia. He never loved her and is financially dependent on her wealthy uncle, William. Asa has two young daughters, Stanley and Roy (I never figured out why they have male names). Roy is married to Peter and Stanley is engaged to Craig. Stanley breaks her engagement with Peter and elopes with her sister's husband. Roy and Craig strike up a relationship and talk about getting married. Peter eventually commits suicide and Craig confesses he still loves Stanley but wants Roy to "rescue" him from her. All Asa wants is his daughters to be happy. He relates to and loves Roy to pieces unlike his feelings toward Stanley.

It's a story of the generational contrasts of the attitudes about marriage and the commitment to relationships. I found the plot drawn-out and repetitive. A middle-of-the-road Pulitzer.

Beloved review - Athena

2008-06-28T17:39:00.001-05:00

This Pulitzer Prize winning and critically acclaimed novel is very sad and includes many stories of horror and trauma. The persistence of memory and the past is part of the novel from a mother's obsessive overprotection to the reconciliation of people's past personal and with slavery as a whole: "To Sethe, the future was a matter of keeping the past at bay. The 'better life' she believed she and Denver were living was simply not that other one."

The narrative shifts with a stream of consciousness writing towards the end of the book. It also reminded me of an even more twisted version of Oscar Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray by that time.

It's a complex novel, but very beautifully written. I love the prose. It is difficult to read due to the story and plot, but the literary prose is wonderful. Morrison is also very adept at characterization. I get a total sense of these characters whether or not I agree or actually sympathise with them. She presents them so clearly and honestly. It is not a pleasurable read, and like many books literary books, it is not for everyone. It's difficult, but honest and well written.

Just A (Reading) Fool's Progress

2008-06-26T00:35:00.002-05:00

Books already read:

1992 - A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
1975 - The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
1947 - All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
1945 - Bell for Adano by John Hersey
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Ones I'd like to read by year's end:

2007 - The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2004 - The Known World by Edward P. Jones
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
2000 - Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
1991 - Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
1982 - Rabbit is Rich by John Updike
1972 - Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
1958 - A Death in the Family by James Agee
1955 - A Fable by William Faulkner
1937 - Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1932 - The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1926 - Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis

These are books of which either I have a copy or I easily can get a copy.

Now in November by Josephine Johnson, 1935

2008-06-21T19:11:00.002-05:00

This story reminded me of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. It is a very bleak story of burden, desperation and tragedy, woven with a thread of hope, of a farming family in the dustbowl days of the Great Depression. Marget tells the story of her two sisters, Kerrin and Merle, and her parents, and the farm-hand, Grant in a ten-year span starting in her early teen years. Battling debts, drought, unrequited love among other challenges over this time period, the characters never prevail but never completely lose their sense of hope. A raw and gritty novel that deserves a read.

2004 - The Known World by Edward P. Jones

2008-06-21T14:59:00.001-05:00

Set in the 1840’s in the fictional Manchester County, Virginia, The Known World is the story of Henry Towsend, a former slave who became a farmer and a slave-owner himself. The story is told in a non-linear way, with several flashbacks and flash-forwards. The main focus of the book are the events leading up to and following Henry’s death, but there are also episodes that take place several years before (concerning Henry’s life as a slave, for example, and how his parents saved money for years to buy his freedom) or after, and episodes that deal with many other characters – the other inhabitants of Manchester County, slaves and freemen alike. After Henry’s death, his widow Caldonia, an educated free woman of colour, is left in charge of the plantation, but very soon things begin to fall apart.

The Known World is a stunning book. It’s beautifully written, it’s subtle, it’s very moving, and it’s complex. It’s a book in which several tragic things happen, but it moves beyond being a parade of tragedies. It deals with race and gender, but it also goes beyond that. I’d say it’s the best book about slavery I’ve read so far, except it’s not so much a book about slavery as it is a book about several people caught up in a system whose full consequences are not easy to grasp.

It’s not easy to capture all the emotional complexities that slavery must have involved, but Edward P. Jones seems to have done just that. And I say “seems” because I’m still not sure that any of us can really grasp all that must have been involved. Looking back now, from the safety of historical distance, it’s easy to forget that these were people doing such things to one another, and so of course that all kinds of feelings would have been involved. Feelings that weren’t easy to label, feelings that weren’t always what they were supposed to be. From the part of masters and slaves alike.

Then there’s of course the question, how could an ex-slave ever become a slave owner? This book doesn’t really answer it (is there an answer?) but it deals with it in a manner that never becomes simplistic:

"Henry had always said that he wanted to be a better master than any white man he had ever known. He did not understand that the kind of world he wanted to create was doomed before he had even spoken the first syllable of the word master."

The week before I started The Known World I had to read a few chapters from James Walvin’s Black Ivory: A History of British Slavery for a project, and then I ended up reading the whole thing because the book was too good, too well-written and too informative, for me to put it down. I found that reading The Known World and Black Ivory side by side increased my understanding and appreciation of both books. While one gave me the facts, the other gave me the human realities behind them. The actual human lives. I want to share with you a passage from Black Ivory that perfectly describes what we see in The Known World:

"Overseers and drivers in the Southern cotton fields were presumable no more or less inhuman, kind, sadistic or tolerant than their counterparts in the previous century in the Caribbean. It was the system which debased and corrupted. Doubtless it attracted its fair share of low life; of men, like men on the slave ships, not noted by their humanity or feelings. But even the most considerate of men generally found themselves debased by slavery. In so tainted a system, it was difficult for anyone in a position of authority not to be dragged down into slavery's corrosive mire. Whatever the management's ideal (and there were plenty of whites who sought to pursue it), the reality was much coarser, much cruder, less human."

The Known World is an honest, haunting and thought-provoking look at slavery and all that it involves. Edward P. Jones created a world in which everything has multiple shades of grey. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time, the kind of book that the more I think about, the more I like. Highly recommended.

Tammy's progress

2008-06-20T18:11:00.006-05:00

Hi everyone! I'm Tammy from Tammy's Book Nook. I'm excited to jump into this challenge, and hope that I can make some real progress -- I've been wanting to read a number of these books for a long time.

Books I've read so far:

1919 - The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
1921 - The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
1932 - The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
1937 - Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces by Robert Kennedy Toole
1988 - Beloved by Toni Morrison
1995 - The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
2002 - Empire Falls by Richard Russo

On the shelf to be read in 2008:

1940 - The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1948 - Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener
1955 - A Fable by William Faulkner
1990 - The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos

I'm afraid I'm not much of a reviewer, but I'm going to try to get better. I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's reviews.

The Known World (Jill)

2008-06-20T17:32:00.000-05:00

The Known World
By Edward P. Jones
DID NOT FINISH

Those of you who visit my blog regularly know it's rare when I don't finish a book. What's even more unusual is when I don't love a book set in the antebellum South. Unfortunately, with The Known World, this is the case. I gave up on this book when I reached page 60.

The storyline was difficult for me to follow. It meandered aimlessly, and I felt no attachment to the characters. After hearing several other reviewers (with similar tastes as me) express their frustration with this Pulitzer Prize winner, I decided it was a sign that this was not a book for me.

It's unfortunate because I usually love books set in this time period. I am very disappointed that I could not finish The Known World. Perhaps I will pick up again another day. (no rating)

Gilead review by Athena

2008-06-18T09:28:00.002-05:00

This Pulitizer prize winning book by Marilynne Robinson is the definition of modern literary novels. The novel does not have much in the way of plot. It is an epistolary novel of an old man writing for his very young son about his life. It is extremely introspective and beautifully written. I do not think it is for everyone, but I could relate to it because I am like the character and the style. It is not to say that I think as the character does all the time, but I certainly do understand why they mean with lines such as this:

I don't know why solitude would be a balm for loneliness, but that is how it always was for me in those days, (p 18-9 hardcover)

It is the kind of book I can see myself rereading because it reminds me of so many things of myself and my inner world. It is introspective and reflective, spiritual and pensive:

Our dream of life will end as dreams do end, abruptly and completely, when the sun rises, when the light comes. And we will think, All that fear and all that grief were about nothing. But that cannot be true. I can't believe we will forget our sorrows altogether. That would mean forgetting that we had lived, humanly speaking. Sorrow seems to me to be a great substance of human life. (104)

Such passages like this are why I would not recommend it to everyone. It took me awhile to read this book because I knew how reflective of myself it was, and how moody I was to avoid such deep thoughts. Many people, even bibliophiles would not necessarily enjoy this book. It is not everyone's cup of tea especially since it does talk of faith and God, but not necessarily in an obtrusive way. I think it would vary for each individual's faith. Here a particularly spiritual passage:

Calvin says somewhere that each of us is an actor on stage and God is the audience. That metaphor has always interested me, because it makes us artists of our behavior, and the reaction of God to us might be thought of as aesthetic rather than morally judgmental in the ordinary sense. How well do we understand our role? With how much assurance do we perform it? I suppose Calvin's God was a Frenchman, just as mine is a Middle Westerner of New England extraction. Well we all bring such light to bear these great matters as we can. I do like Calvin's image, though, because it suggests how God might actually enjoy us. I believe we think about that far too little. It would be a way into understanding essential things, since presumably the world exists for God's enjoyment, no in any simple sense, of course, but as you enjoy the being of a child even when he is in every way a thorn in your heart. (124-5)

I have quoted from the book so much in this review because I really love and can relate to the words, prose, and style so much. The tone is like my own when I write in my journal, but obviously not as well written. I think there a few people who can appreciate such a work, but they truly will if they read it. It's not for everyone, and I am one of those reviewers who ultimately review for myself so I would not recommend it at all if you do not think you can enjoy an introvert's novel. I do want to reread this again which says enough about how much I like this book.

Here are some more exerpts:

When I'm up here in my study with the radio on and some old book in my hands and it's nighttime and the wind blows and the house creaks, I forget where I am, and it's as thought I'm back in the hard times for a minute or two, and there's a sweetness in the experience I don't understand. But that only enhances the value of it. My point here is that you never do know the actual nature even of your own experience. Or perhaps it has no fixed and certain nature. (95)

Remembering when they said what they did about looking in windows and wondering about other people's lives made me feel companionable with them. I could have said that's three of us, because as the Lord knows, for many years I did exactly the same thing. (202)

Oh!, I will miss the world! (115)

Crossposted from Aquatique,net

The Stories of John Cheever -- 1979

2008-06-17T16:38:00.005-05:00

The Stories of John Cheever, which won the National Book Critics Circle award in 1978 and the Pulitzer in 1979, is a chronological collection that spans Cheever’s short story career, from pre-WWII up to 1973. To read this collection – just shy of 700 pages – is to live in Cheever’s head, tracking his artistic and personal development in a way that a single novel or volume of stories doesn’t allow.

These are not happy stories. The earlier pieces are particularly bleak and raw. While the later stories are deeper and more nuanced, they are still pretty dark. Precious few have cheerful resolutions. The best Cheever’s characters seem to achieve is contentment despite imperfect circumstances.

Cheever’s is a world of commuter trains and cocktail parties, where everyone wears hats, has a cook, drinks martinis at lunch, summers, sails, and commits adultery. Not everyone is rich; in fact, money problems are a continuing theme. But the trappings, however tarnished, of a mid-century, Northeast corridor, upper crust way of life hang on all the stories. And that is Cheever at his best. He can bring us so deep into that world that it feels like living it.

First posted on Rose City Reader.