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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.