Currently physically on my bedtable:Four books, not including children's books (Silver on the Tree, Blue Sword, Secret Garden) in one month. And two I read in one day. Not good.
W. Rodman Philbrick,
Freak the Mighty
It's good. I saw a lot of The Outsiders in it and A Prayer for Owen Meany. The unfailing use of "like" instead of "as" made me crazy: though I know that Mighty (who narrates) would speak like that, no one reading the book is going to learn the distinction either. Spoilers all three: Mighty writes the book, at the end, by Freak's request. Freak dies, as Johnnycake and Owen both do, and Mighty writes the book at his request, though Freak stops short of asking Mighty to stay gold or sawing off his trigger finger. It is unreasonable to me that Ponyboy could have written The Outsiders the night before his essay was due, but the narrative voice and unfolding of the story do seem like Ponyboy's. Or maybe I just read it for the first time when I was 12 and less critical. In contrast, it is obvious (to an adult reader) that the story is from Mighty's POV because Freak cannot write it himself and that Mighty is writing it so that the author can reveal and unfold at his, the author's, own pace, where Freak would say everything at once. Mighty-John learns to read from Freak-Owen, and also to write, but nevertheless the narrative structure is nothing that Mighty, even a reformed, reading Mighty, is capable of. And still this was a fine book, a great read.
Desmond Seward:
The Hundred Years War: The English in France 1337-1453
I have forgotten so much history.
John Sutherland,
Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennet? and Can Jane Eyre Be Happy?
Richard Peck,
Ghosts I Have Been
I am so pleased Blossom Culp is just as lovable as I remember.
Margaret Drabble,
The Radiant Way
From the Feminista list, I'm not sure if because she's a major author or would have felt left out as a more prolific author when her sister's better book was included. Perhaps I just don't like Relationship books. It summed up the British cultural and political '80s as well as She's Come Undone did 40 years of U.S. pop culture, anyway. Looking back, I see Golden Notebook in it, and I wonder if it has been as important to Drabble as to Byatt.
E.L. Konigsberg,
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The View
from Saturday
Betty MacDonald,
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle; Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Magic; Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle;
and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm
Lucy Maude Montgomery,
Anne of Ingleside, Rainbow Valley, Rilla of Ingleside
Rilla of Ingleside was the best of the last three. Anne of Ingleside was obviously written after Anne of Windy Poplars, obviously and weakly; Rainbow Valley didn't stir me and all the stuff about the dogs saddened me and was only a set up for the dog in Rilla.
Evelyn Waugh,
A Handful of Dust
Reading Dickens for the rest of your life to a madman in the jungle just
because your wife had an affair: overreaction?
20 May 2001
Mary McCarthy,
The Group
Really good. The best of the Feminista list (that I hadn't yet read) so
far.
18 May 2001
Truman Capote,
In Cold Blood
I do love literary nonfiction
11 May 2001
Ghosts of
Everest
11 May 2001
Jeanette
Winterson, Written on the Body
30 April 2001
William Faulkner,
Light in August
28 April 2001
Keri Hulme,
The Bone People
Amazing. I can understand how people wouldn't like it, but I did. A lot.
15 April 2001
Shirley Jackson,
The Haunting of Hill House
Definitely creepy. As befits anything to do with creeping, it reminds me of
The Yellow Wallpaper. Also of No Exit, because there wasn't one.
10 April 2001
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