7 posts tagged “coming of age”
I can't remember the last time I was so gripped by a novel. I loved the way this story was told. There are basically three sections and each section is one day in the storyline. The first part is told from various points-of-view. Sometimes we go forward in the day and sometimes we reverse a bit. The second and third sections are told from the viewpoint of a single, but different, character.
There is so much you could talk about with this book. I am not sure what the main theme is. Crime? Love? Time? One might think from the title that it would be atonement itself?
As a statement about life starting out at one point and ending up somewhere else completely unimagined, it's a wonderful analogy. We never really know what another person might be thinking or his/her true motives. Even friends. Even family. And there is a certain amount of danger in that. And loneliness.
There is so much you could talk about with this book. I am not sure what the main theme is. Crime? Love? Time? One might think from the title that it would be atonement itself?
As a statement about life starting out at one point and ending up somewhere else completely unimagined, it's a wonderful analogy. We never really know what another person might be thinking or his/her true motives. Even friends. Even family. And there is a certain amount of danger in that. And loneliness.
I finally picked this book up after years of people either telling me to read it or assuming I already had.
Enjoyable read, a little too tongue-in-cheek maybe for such a topic, but well researched.
Nothing shocking, or even revealing, if you know much about intersexual issues. The side issue (of incest) was the topic I found much more interesting.
Desdemona was a great, great character. Maybe one of my all-time favorites. It was worth the read just for her.
Enjoyable read, a little too tongue-in-cheek maybe for such a topic, but well researched.
Nothing shocking, or even revealing, if you know much about intersexual issues. The side issue (of incest) was the topic I found much more interesting.
Desdemona was a great, great character. Maybe one of my all-time favorites. It was worth the read just for her.
I started this book back in June, but it ended up being the last book I finished in 2008. The book was mostly one long character sketch written as interlacing short stories. It was an interesting concept, but often felt like an album where each song sounds the same.
Winesburg, Ohio is a story of a Midwestern kid who decides to leave and make his way in the "big city." I could identify with him very much, even down to the detail that he had the same job I did when I lived in that small, Midwestern town. It brought back a lot of memories.
And it drove something home. I was reminded of this fact--first by visiting Ohio this summer--and then by reading this book. Those of us who grow up in the Midwest have to decide whether to leave or stay; whichever route we take we always wonder if the other choice would have been better.
Kids in other parts of the country, I suspect, never feel this way. Whether you grow up in Houston or New York City or Seattle, you have a sense of place. In the Midwest, we feel lost for some reason--and Anderson captured that feeling uncomfortably well.
Winesburg, Ohio is a story of a Midwestern kid who decides to leave and make his way in the "big city." I could identify with him very much, even down to the detail that he had the same job I did when I lived in that small, Midwestern town. It brought back a lot of memories.
And it drove something home. I was reminded of this fact--first by visiting Ohio this summer--and then by reading this book. Those of us who grow up in the Midwest have to decide whether to leave or stay; whichever route we take we always wonder if the other choice would have been better.
Kids in other parts of the country, I suspect, never feel this way. Whether you grow up in Houston or New York City or Seattle, you have a sense of place. In the Midwest, we feel lost for some reason--and Anderson captured that feeling uncomfortably well.
Housekeeping does not have much in the way of plot, but it certainly is haunting. It is rightly considered a modern classic for its beautiful, poetic language.
I love the title of this book too. We have so many underlying notions about that word--many of those preconceptions come up in this book.
I kept thinking of The Secret Life of Bees (a book I particularly loathe) while reading this. In that book the main characters are also females in a situation that is a bit out of the mainstream, but that's where the similarity ends. Housekeeping is powerful where the other book is cheesy. This book deals with loneliness, expectation, and waiting and results in with a life-usually-does-not-give-you-what-you-expect ending. The Secret Life of Bees has an everything-works-out-in-the-end-if-you-just-believe-hard-enough ending.
Generally, books about women with female characters and a domestic plot line are more like Secret Life of Bees. I am glad Marilynne Robinson was able to give us something else.
I love the title of this book too. We have so many underlying notions about that word--many of those preconceptions come up in this book.
I kept thinking of The Secret Life of Bees (a book I particularly loathe) while reading this. In that book the main characters are also females in a situation that is a bit out of the mainstream, but that's where the similarity ends. Housekeeping is powerful where the other book is cheesy. This book deals with loneliness, expectation, and waiting and results in with a life-usually-does-not-give-you-what-you-expect ending. The Secret Life of Bees has an everything-works-out-in-the-end-if-you-just-believe-hard-enough ending.
Generally, books about women with female characters and a domestic plot line are more like Secret Life of Bees. I am glad Marilynne Robinson was able to give us something else.
I often feel like I'm in a foreign country in Connecticut. I can't relate to the residents' attitudes, thoughts, or behaviors. So when I heard about this memoir of growing up in Connecticut I thought, "Finally, something that will give me some insight into the minds of Nutmeggers."
Further, I have never read a bad review of this book. People always rave about it. I could hardly wait to start reading it.
Maybe I was hoping for too much because now I'm just unsettled. People reading the book often point out how funny it is, but living here it's hard to find most of this funny.
Some examples: a high school teacher gets tired of waiting for a hotel to check the students out and get on the bus so he calls in a bomb threat.
The author's childhood kung fu teacher neglects him on a camping trip and the teacher spends most of the trip getting it on with a woman in his tent.
The author himself tries to drop out of high school and accidentally ends up going to Yale.
If I had never lived here I would say these things sound implausible to impossible. But I see and experience crazy stuff every day, so I know these things could very likely have happened. I think people enjoy this book for the same reason they like Connecticut. It's fun to laugh at the insanity and chaos. But really, it's not so much fun to LIVE in the insanity and chaos.
The author made everything about himself--even his friend's death--which was a bit too much for me. I expected some mention of community or region. But if the author's father hadn't said he hated New Haven and the author hadn't said he was living in Connecticut I would have had no idea where this even took place. Perhaps I'm just upset because I got exactly what I hoping this book wouldn't be--an author who seems to be a typical Connecticut resident with no ability to think about things beyond himself. At the very end of the book the author even makes this point about himself. His father just says "Welcome." The great "revelation" at the end of the book basically makes no sense. I took it to mean, "Great, you've realized you're a selfish bastard, so now you're a man."
One final point, the subtitle to the book is Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia. I often find it funny that people say the entire state of Connecticut is one big suburb or a suburb or New York. I think the thing that really makes you feel Lost in Place while in Connecticut is that it's actually not suburbia. It's not the city or the country either. We call it suburbia for lack of a better term, but it's something else I just can't name that feels as though it has no identity...at all.
Further, I have never read a bad review of this book. People always rave about it. I could hardly wait to start reading it.
Maybe I was hoping for too much because now I'm just unsettled. People reading the book often point out how funny it is, but living here it's hard to find most of this funny.
Some examples: a high school teacher gets tired of waiting for a hotel to check the students out and get on the bus so he calls in a bomb threat.
The author's childhood kung fu teacher neglects him on a camping trip and the teacher spends most of the trip getting it on with a woman in his tent.
The author himself tries to drop out of high school and accidentally ends up going to Yale.
If I had never lived here I would say these things sound implausible to impossible. But I see and experience crazy stuff every day, so I know these things could very likely have happened. I think people enjoy this book for the same reason they like Connecticut. It's fun to laugh at the insanity and chaos. But really, it's not so much fun to LIVE in the insanity and chaos.
The author made everything about himself--even his friend's death--which was a bit too much for me. I expected some mention of community or region. But if the author's father hadn't said he hated New Haven and the author hadn't said he was living in Connecticut I would have had no idea where this even took place. Perhaps I'm just upset because I got exactly what I hoping this book wouldn't be--an author who seems to be a typical Connecticut resident with no ability to think about things beyond himself. At the very end of the book the author even makes this point about himself. His father just says "Welcome." The great "revelation" at the end of the book basically makes no sense. I took it to mean, "Great, you've realized you're a selfish bastard, so now you're a man."
One final point, the subtitle to the book is Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia. I often find it funny that people say the entire state of Connecticut is one big suburb or a suburb or New York. I think the thing that really makes you feel Lost in Place while in Connecticut is that it's actually not suburbia. It's not the city or the country either. We call it suburbia for lack of a better term, but it's something else I just can't name that feels as though it has no identity...at all.
This book was not on my list. And I've never read anything by Balzac. So why did I read it?
Besides the fact that I'm easily distracted I had heard that it mentions Madame Bovary in the end and it's a very short book.
First off, the title is awful. It makes sense in the end, but still, it just distracted me the entire time since the story is about two Chinese boys. The book and the seamstress come in about midway.
I was a little offended that the "little Chinese seamstress" was never given a name even though all the other characters were. Perhaps it was a commentary on how the boys saw her more as an object than a person, but I'm probably reaching on that.
Most of the book was superfluous and boring, but the ending was very good. It perfectly illustrated the "dangers" of knowledge. And I'm a sucker for books about censorship.
Oh, and unlike Madame Bovary, the "little Chinese seamstress" escapes from the trappings of family, love, materialism, and sensuality.
Besides the fact that I'm easily distracted I had heard that it mentions Madame Bovary in the end and it's a very short book.
First off, the title is awful. It makes sense in the end, but still, it just distracted me the entire time since the story is about two Chinese boys. The book and the seamstress come in about midway.
I was a little offended that the "little Chinese seamstress" was never given a name even though all the other characters were. Perhaps it was a commentary on how the boys saw her more as an object than a person, but I'm probably reaching on that.
Most of the book was superfluous and boring, but the ending was very good. It perfectly illustrated the "dangers" of knowledge. And I'm a sucker for books about censorship.
Oh, and unlike Madame Bovary, the "little Chinese seamstress" escapes from the trappings of family, love, materialism, and sensuality.
It seems most people read this book in high school. After I finished it, I could not decide if it would have been better to read it fifteen years ago or not.
Part of me would have gotten more out of it at the age of eighteen. Now, it's hard to believe that there is a place where children play outdoors, listen to their parents, and everyone is wise.
Except on the topics of race and class, that is--
which is one reason this book is so poignant.
Telling the story through the eyes of a child is a powerful tool. It reminds the reader that everyone was young once. Everyone saw the world without the contemptuous of adulthood at one time.
Living in a very jaded place for the last eight years, I can really relate to the message. I fight to keep the cynicism and animosity at bay. But I know some of it has crept in over the years. In some ways it seems like the South has made more progress in the last hundred years than many places in the North. Where I am living the class struggle might as well be given a name that holds the same weight as racist does. Because it's no less ugly and no less harmful.
In high school I would not have known any of this. I was living in the rural Midwest, perhaps one of the most sheltered places in the U.S. I would have just thought this was a nice story about how kindness will win out in the end and if you get to know people you'll find they're basically good. Now I know it's a lot more complicated than that.
Part of me would have gotten more out of it at the age of eighteen. Now, it's hard to believe that there is a place where children play outdoors, listen to their parents, and everyone is wise.
Except on the topics of race and class, that is--
which is one reason this book is so poignant.
Telling the story through the eyes of a child is a powerful tool. It reminds the reader that everyone was young once. Everyone saw the world without the contemptuous of adulthood at one time.
Living in a very jaded place for the last eight years, I can really relate to the message. I fight to keep the cynicism and animosity at bay. But I know some of it has crept in over the years. In some ways it seems like the South has made more progress in the last hundred years than many places in the North. Where I am living the class struggle might as well be given a name that holds the same weight as racist does. Because it's no less ugly and no less harmful.
In high school I would not have known any of this. I was living in the rural Midwest, perhaps one of the most sheltered places in the U.S. I would have just thought this was a nice story about how kindness will win out in the end and if you get to know people you'll find they're basically good. Now I know it's a lot more complicated than that.
