Yes friends, it's that time again. That time when, before washing yourself in the Lethe of a few overpriced cocktails, you look back over the previous year and reflect on how very little you actually accomplished. Or specifically, in my case, you wonder how it came to pass that the number of dogs you own exceeds the number of blog posts you wrote in an entire calendar year. Not a leap year, thankfully, but nevertheless, still quite shameful.
So, as you probably guessed, I'm now going to round out the year with six shoddy, incomplete reviews of six books which, regardless of how I felt about them, deserve much better. In no particular order, these are the texts I failed to blog about this year:
1. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barabara Kingsolver (1998), 543 pp. Nominee, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 1999.Summary: Preacher Nathan Price moves his wife and four daughters from Georgia to the politically unstable Belgian Congo during the 1960s to pursue missionary work. Narration rotates among the women, showing how Africa and Price's zealotry shape their lives in profound and unexpected ways.
Review: Wowza. A novel of immense insight and scope, beautifully rendered emotions, and characters you can authentically love and hate. This one lingers.
2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2006), 550pp.Summary: Liesel Meminger, an adolescent girl, finds a new home with foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann and her other neighbors on Himmel Street. However, the setting is Nazi Germany, and the narrator is Death, which is everything else you need to know.
Review: Interesting for its portrayal of Death as a tender and sympathetic figure, this was a highly emotional book that nevertheless failed to draw my sympathies. A novel that changed many people's lives, but not mine.
3. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (2002), 276pp.Summary: American writer Jonathan Safran Foer and his Ukrainian translator, Alex, attempt to track down a woman who allegedly saved Safran Foer's grandfather during Nazi campaigns in Ukraine. When they are joined by Alex's grandfather and dog, the plot turns madcap, but ultimately the story proves different than Jonathan expects, and the past resurges with lessons for all three men.
Review: Hilarious, imaginative, and penetrating--a marvel of a book. Safran Foer plays with the English language in ways you will still be thinking about when you go to manufacture Zs at night. Ignore the pretentious critics carping about historical inaccuracies (a book that is not a memoir but still has the author as a character is obviously taking liberties--as one can reasonably expect in a work of fiction); just find the book, read it, and love it.
4. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse (1922; translated to English in 1951), 156pp.Summary: Siddhartha, a young many of high social rank, leaves his life of comfort in a quest to find spiritual clarity and reach Nirvana.
Review: A canonical favorite that came highly recommended, this book just didn't have the effect I was hoping for. A novel that changed many people's lives, but not mine.
5. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951), 220pp.Summary: Having been kicked out of yet another ritzy prep school, Holden Caulfield has two choices: return home early for Christmas vacation, which would alert his parents to his expulsion, or spend a few days wandering through New York City and expounding his general disgust for most of civilization. He chooses the latter.
Review: A book very much deserving of its status as a staple of American literature. As a portrait of growing up in the (post)modern age, the novel's investigation of identity and disillusionment are still extremely pertinent. Additional perks: it's funny! and you'll really get a bang out of Holden's mid-century slang.
6. Into the Wild by John Krakauer (1996), 224pp.Summary: In September of 1992, the body of Chris McCandless, a 20-something from an affluent East coast home, was found in a bus in the Alaskan wilderness. John Krakauer wants to you understand how and--more importantly--why he ended up there.
Review: A really nicely executed work of nonfiction. I read this with a class of high school juniors, and we all enjoyed it quite a bit. Not only is it a page-turner but quite well-written and smartly structured, too. Highly recommend. (The film is also good if you can tolerate Emile Hirsch.)
