About the Book:

Faith, I tell them, is a mystery, elusive to many, and never easy to explain.

Sweeping and lyrical, spellbinding and unforgettable, David Ebershoff’s The 19th Wife combines epic historical fiction with a modern murder mystery to create a brilliant novel of literary suspense.

It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. A rich account of a family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how a young woman became a plural wife.

Soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second exquisite narrative unfolds–a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah. Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to discover the truth behind his father’s death.

And as Ann Eliza’s narrative intertwines with that of Jordan’s search, readers are pulled deeper into the mysteries of love and faith.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This book was a huge let down.  The dual story lines tended to detract from both of the stories, which made it difficult to follow either one of them.  Also something that made it even harder to follow was the presentation of fiction as if it were fact, with footnotes, and documentation.  If found it very hard to orient to what I know of Utah history, and culture — and to separate that from what was being presented in this book.  I found this book to be more of an alternate time line of Utah history, more than anything else, in some instances. I also found myself wondering if the author has ever visited Utah, since his portrayals of Utah cities was almost as fictional as the story that is being told.

I was particularly disturbed by this books apparent ulterior motive, which I felt the author was trying to force feed me, as the reader.  I have never objected to opposing opinions, coming from a background that I know many people object to.  However,  I felt that the author was highly critical of a peoples religious beliefs, and he was looking for everything he could find to condemn the people, with only the supporting evidence of apostates, and those that have chosen to leave the LDS church.  I found it almost irritating, and also very disruptive to the story as a whole.  The author came across very high handed in his condemnation of the LDS culture, and the existing culture of Utah as a whole.

All that aside, I did find the characters very well drawn, and their development throughout the story was consistent, and believable.  I actually found that I enjoyed the modern story of Jordan, and his escape from the fundamentalist group, and the difficulties of his mother to be a very well developed story.  I just feel that it would have been a more effective story, if it had been separated from that of Eliza Ann Young.  The shifting back and forth, especially with the author’s apparent commentary on the LDS lifestyle as a whole, was very detracting from the power that the story of Jordan could have been.

This is probably not a book that I would choose to read again, as I felt that the author had more in mind than just presenting a well conceived work of fiction.

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

Author’s Website

The 19th Wife Homepage

Publisher’s Website

Powell’s Books Author Interview

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

AbeBooks.com

Barnes and Noble

Originally posted 2011-04-14 06:35:36. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

Hours before his untimely—and highly suspicious—death, world-renowned astrophysicist Thom Bergmann shares his discovery of extraterrestrial life with his wife, Lucy. Feeling that the warring world is not ready to learn of—or accept—proof of life elsewhere in the universe, Thom entrusts Lucy with his computer flash drive, which holds the keys to his secret work.

Devastated by Thom’s death, Lucy keeps the secret, but Thom’s friend, anthropologist Pierre Saad, contacts Lucy with an unusual and dangerous request about another sensitive matter. Pierre needs Lucy to help him smuggle a newly discovered artifact out of Egypt: an ancient codex concerning the human authorship of the Book of Genesis. Offering a reinterpretation of the creation story, the document is sure to threaten the foundation of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions . . . and there are those who will stop at nothing to suppress it.

Midway through the daring journey, Lucy’s small plane goes down on a slip of verdant land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East. Burned in the crash landing, she is rescued by Adam, a delusional American soldier whose search for both spiritual and carnal knowledge has led to madness. Blessed with youth, beauty, and an unsettling innocence, Adam gently tends to Lucy’s wounds, and in this quiet, solitary paradise, a bond between the unlikely pair grows. Ultimately, Lucy and Adam forsake their half-mythical Eden and make their way back toward civilization, where members of an ultraconservative religious cult are determined to deprive the world of the knowledge Lucy carries.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This is a book that I really had mixed responses to.  I am not exactly sure how I feel about it, and there are parts of it that the only description that applies is odd.  My first exposure to Naslund’s writing was through Ahab’s Wife. Naslund has a real gift for presenting old stories in a new light; she challenges her readers to find out how classic stories can be pertinent to the modern world.  Her treatment of Melville’s classic, Moby Dick is one that I found particularly insightful, and much more readable that the original.  And in this new work she turns her attention to another significant story of the human species — the story of creation, and the theme of the Garden of Eden.

This story explores the contradictory beliefs that inundate our world, most of them surrounding our religious beliefs, scientific investigations, and contradictory points of view.  All of these vying perspectives are presented through Naslund’s use of not only the different creation beliefs, but also the underlying suggestion of the history of the discovery of “Lucy,” once the oldest humanoid remains ever found.  Add to all this a story that is, for the most part set in a new — or “modern” presentation of Eden, with a new Adam and Eve — and you begin to see that our modern understanding of our mortal origins are anything but certain.  In addition to the clash between the creation stories and the scientific discoveries, Naslund also gives us an insight into the varying religious creeds, and their understanding of our created origins.  Many of these divisive points of view frequently lead to confusion, confrontation, and in some cases even violence.  Which is why I found this book interesting to read.  The issues that Naslund portrays are more than just valid, but they are also important for humanity.  They are the base of who we are, and how we perceive ourselves as a species.

As far as these issues go, the story is not only insightful, but also courageous in its willingness to delve into controversial questions without flinching from the hard questions we frequently face today.  But it also does so in a non-judgmental, and even open minded fashion.  This isn’t a story about religious belief, or even about the stand off between science and religion.  Rather, it is a question of is there a possibility of both of these perspectives existing in unison, in this world.

There is one glaring weakness in this particular book, however.  That is the number of unanswered questions that the story itself, opens and then fails to bring to closure.  In addition to two bizarre deaths that are suggested to be murders — but never fully explore, this book also has a mysterious secret society that wants to destroy modern advances with very little explanation of why, and even one primary character that has a very mysterious background with almost no insight as to why.  There appears to be a raging war in the year 2020, but we aren’t sure where it is, or why Adam has become a victim of this war. There there is also the fact that most of the book has the primary characters naked for most of the novel.  But it isn’t so much about sexuality, as the presentation of corruption, and the downfall of man. Overall, the book does present some of the main themes that I felt Naslund was trying to explore — but I came away feeling like there were also some gaping holes in the plot that left the reader wondering what — exactly — just happened.  So if you are looking for closure on this one, it may not be as satisfactory as some of the other books I have read.

For more information on this book, or about this author be sure to visit the following websites:

Huffington Post Article

TampaBay.com Book Review

New York Times Book Review

Ophrah Reading Guide

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

Abe Books

Barnes and Noble

Originally posted 2011-05-03 06:00:29. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

Norman Maclean’s memories about growing up in Montana revolve around mighty trout rivers and the four-count rhythm of fly fishing. It is the one activity where his family can bridge troubled relationships, where brother can connect with brother and father with son. And in the end, it is the river that makes them realize that life continues and all things are related. The strong reading of Ivan Doig, Montana native and author of This House of Sky, adds much flavor to this tender, often very funny, and beautiful story about love and loss. A tale not to be missed and to be revisited frequently.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This is not normally my first choice of reading material.  Yes, I grew up in the Rocky Mountains — However, I have never been to Montana, I know nothing about fishing, and I am really not much of an outdoor person.  But, since school is not about reading what one would choose to read, so much as learning to read what is assigned to read, and discovering the significance of all types of books — this one made it to my reading list this year.  And surprisingly I found this book to be an interesting one, once I got into it.

Granted, I missed much of the technical presentation of the fishing, and the specific requirements for knowing how to identify the appropriate type of fishing hole, type of fly to be used, and the importance of the construction of the rod.  But I wouldn’t count this a wasted experience by any means.  The underlying story has a great deal in it that is worth the effort, and it is a powerful statement on family, and the difficulties of family relations.  The struggles which the author presents between himself, and his brother Paul are much more realistically portrayed than in many of the books I have read.  It explores the realms of not the events and common backgrounds which tie two brothers together, but rather the differences that bind them, while at the same time keeping them strangers to each other.  This book brings home the true question of any relationship, no matter how intimate, or how strong — “can we ever truly KNOW someone?”  Even those in our lives that have shared the most with us — the common parents, growing up experiences, and the bond of family — there will always be something of each individual which will keep them separate, and unknown.

This book also provides an elegant presentation of the difficulties that exist in trying to help someone, who finds themselves in trouble.  How much can any one person do in the assistance of another?  And, in the end — is it possible to help someone at all?  These are problems that loved ones and family members will always have to deal with when confronting addiction, alcoholism, gambling, and all kinds of other vices, in someone close to them.  And, as Mr. Maclean so eloquently puts it in the end, “It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us.”

This is also a great book for both imagery and symbolism.  The river, the rods, the religion, and ultimately each of the relationships speak volumes, which in turn adds both depth and perspective to this short book.  Mr. Maclean is gifted in his writing and has a real gift for description.  Settings are by far his strength — but there is a lot in this book that is worth the read.

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

Norman Maclean Website

Brothers Judd Book Review

Paul Davidson Maclean

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

AbeBooks.com

Barnes and Noble

Originally posted 2011-02-15 08:02:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

“Understated but powerful and particularly resonant today, When the Emperor Was Divine is a heartbreaking first novel, the story of a Japanese-American family all but destroyed by American prejudice and policies during World War II.

The story unfolds in the third person as four family members move through the different phases of their internment. Otsuka’s language is spare, and her images are intense. The mother dispenses with the remnants of the family’s life in California when they are forced out of their home. The boy recalls his father’s arrest — how he was led out of the house in a bathrobe and slippers. On a train headed for the Nevada desert, the children reflect on how their lives have changed, with their comfortable home giving way to whitewashed horse stalls, and finally to a dusty wasteland in the middle of nowhere.

Their father imprisoned in far away New Mexico, the children and their mother eke out a new existence in the “blinding white glare” of the treeless desert internment camp. Assigned to a single room in a tar-paper barracks with three iron cots, they live through brutally hot summers and bitterly cold winters as their once happy and promising lives waste away, and as they wait, patiently, for the war to end.”

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

There are some books that I find from the moment I open them, they simply resonate with me.  The characters, the plot, the setting, or a combination of all of the above come together to strike a familiar tone within me, and it makes it a joy to get into the book and see where it will go.  There are other books that no matter how hard I try — I simply cannot make that connection.  This one frustrated me on two of the three. 

The actual premise of the book is what initially drew me in.  I have some friends that actually spent some time in these Japanese Internment camps during World War II.  They have shared some of their stories, and insights into what it was like to be thrust out of their adopted country for an event that was beyond their control.  And the impact it had on their lives ever since.  So, this is a subject that having had some third party connection to — I was interested to learn more about.  So in that aspect this story provided a solid foundation.  Since one of these internment camps was located here, in Utah, it is also another reason that I found the subject fascinating.  But since I have read a couple of books about this topic — I had some comparison material — and it didn’t work for the best for that reason.

This book just didn’t seem to have much of a comparison to one of my favorite books that dealt with this same topic — for more than one reason.  For those that have read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet — you will know what I mean.  This storyline just didn’t have quite the magic, or tone that I found in Ford’s book.  That is not to say that this is not well written — it is just that it didn’t seem to make the internal impact that the other one carried.  There was something about the storyline that was disconnected in Otsuka’s presentation.  Probably the third person voice — which had the effect of depersonalizing a very personal event.  It never really seemed to give you a sense of place or substance.  And in the end that weakness left the book lacking. 

It was also very difficult to form a connection with the characters in this book.  There was little emotional substance in their interactions, and they didn’t seem to have much depth for connecting to.  Over all I came away from the book feeling like the characters were simply going through the motions –  but no more involved in the story than I was myself.  The story was a disconnected setting that just seemed to be passing behind the characters with no real interaction between them, and the circumstances they found themselves in.  And in the end, when the characters don’t share any real bonds or ties between each other, it is hard for me, as a reader to form that bond as well.

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

Interview with the Author

Author Biography

A Book A Week Book Review

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

AbeBooks.com

Originally posted 2011-09-12 07:34:18. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

Set against the backdrop of one of the most virulent epidemics that America ever experienced–the 1918 flu epidemic–Thomas Mullen’s powerful, sweeping first novel is a tale of morality in a time of upheaval.

Deep in the mist-shrouded forests of the Pacific Northwest is a small mill town called Commonwealth, conceived as a haven for workers weary of exploitation. For Philip Worthy, the adopted son of the town’s founder, it is a haven in another sense–as the first place in his life he’s had a loving family to call his own.

And yet, the ideals that define this outpost are being threatened from all sides. A world war is raging, and with the fear of spies rampant, the loyalty of all Americans is coming under scrutiny. Meanwhile, another shadow has fallen across the region in the form of a deadly illness striking down vast swaths of surrounding communities.

When Commonwealth votes to quarantine itself against contagion, guards are posted at the single road leading in and out of town, and Philip Worthy is among them. He will be unlucky enough to be on duty when a cold, hungry, tired–and apparently ill–soldier presents himself at the town’s doorstep begging for sanctuary. The encounter that ensues, and the shots that are fired, will have deafening reverberations throughout Commonwealth, escalating until every human value–love, patriotism, community, family, friendship–not to mention the town’s very survival, is imperiled.

Inspired by a little-known historical footnote regarding towns that quarantined themselves during the 1918 epidemic, The Last Town on Earth is a remarkably moving and accomplished debut.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This book was an eerie read about the influenza epidemic that passed through America in 1918.  That is particularly pertinent now, in the midst of our own flu epidemic that is projected to increase over the winter months.  But it isn’t just the historical approach to this novel that makes it a fascinating read.  There are so many elements of this book that enthrall the reader — that it really is hard to put this one down.

The character development in this book was of particular interest because of not only the panic and fear that is very well portrayed — but also for the moral dilemmas that they are forced to encounter.  Confronted with an outsider, and the panic of the internal town, which has shut itself off from the outside world, in an attempt to avoid the flu, this really presents some interesting questions.  These are occurrences that can be seen time and again, throughout history.  The isolation of individuals, in an attempt to save themselves, and the fear of everything, and everyone they do not know.  The moral dilemma in this particular novel leads to the ultimate choice — what is the value of one life, when weighed against those of your friends and neighbors, or even your family?  And who has the right to make those choices?  Some of the greatest ugliness comes from men when they are confronted with a hopeless situation, and their own mortality.  The characters in this book are an excellent example of this personal struggle.  And what their options are for solving these types of dilemmas.  I sometimes think that in these types of books that we would never have to make this type of choice today.  But history indicates that during the plague, and other epidemics that have occurred, people did have to make these kinds of choices.

I also found the descriptive level of fear, and paranoia in this book especially intense.  Confronted with something that cannot be seen, cannot be stopped, and kills indiscriminately — this book presents the ramifications of how people choose to deal with those fears.  The intensity of the loss of trust manifested between the neighbors, when confronted with the panic of fighting the unfightable is intense.  It is also interesting to see how fear, and anxiety feed off itself in the development of this story.  The more isolated this town becomes, the more intense the story becomes.

This is a fascinating book to read.  And I would consider it particularly pertinent for our times today.

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

Thomas Mullen Website

Thomas Mullen Publisher Site

New York Times Book Review

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

AbeBooks.com

Barnes and Noble

Originally posted 2010-12-26 08:04:23. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

The Visible World is an evocative, powerfully romantic novel about a son’s attempt to understand his mother’s past, a search that leads him to a tragic love affair and the heroic story of the assassination of a high-ranking Nazi by the Czech resistance.
The narrator of The Visible World, the American-born son of Czech immigrants living in New York, grows up in an atmosphere haunted by fragments of a past he cannot understand. At the heart of that past is his mother, Ivana, a spontaneous, passionate woman drifting ever closer to despair. As an adult, the narrator travels to Prague, hoping to learn about a love affair between his then young mother and a member of the resistance named Tomas, an affair whose untimely end, he senses, lay behind Ivana’s unhappiness. Ultimately unable to complete his knowledge of the past, he imagines the two lovers as participants in one of the more dramatic (and true) moments of the war, and through the deeply romantic story he tells, creates not only the ending of their story but the beginning of his own.

The Visible World is a literary page-turner and an immensely moving novel about the vagaries of love and our need to make sense of life through the telling of stories.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This is one of those books that I’m not quite sure what to make of.  The ending was very interesting, the beginning was bizarre, and the middle didn’t quite bridge the disparity between the two.  Coming away from it I felt that it gave a pretty impressive demonstration of the difficulties that the generation following World War II had, in coming of age amidst secrets, and broken parents.  However, I am not sure the story developed far enough to adequately explain how this state of being came to be. 

On one level it is a love story — and a pretty typical one at that.  Man and woman fall in love, but the woman meets another man and finds they are destined to become star crossed lovers.  It seems to be pretty straight forward.  Very little in the way of twists — even with it set in the middle of World War II torn Czechoslovakia.  I just felt like the predictability of this book was very high.

I also struggled with the character development.  Ironically, it is Tomas — her lover that ends up being the most fully developed through all of this.  And as the story winds down, his death doesn’t play out the way you are expecting from the introduction.  Also, he is the one that seems to attach himself to the reader.  While Ivana, and her eventual husband hang almost as ghosts, haunting the perimeter of this story, Thomas becomes a powerful entity in the book, who faces extreme moral dilemmas. 

I also struggled with the flow of this story.  I found that at times it would start a chapter in a place, and while reading I suddenly realized I wasn’t sure how I came to be at this particular place in the novel.  It just had a confusing, and even disorienting rhythm to the general construction of the story. 

But on another level,  it is the combination of these two traits, which separate appear to be pretty significant weaknesses of the story, but in tandem make a very strong foundation for the overall development.  The haunting nature of the narrator’s parents adds to the mystery of the book in a much stronger way than the outright telling of the story.  The shade like quality of the characters gives the book depth and dimension in a way that a full, in-depth story telling approach wouldn’t. 

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

The New York Times Book Review

Reader’s Guide

Liberreview Book Review

Bianca’s Book Blog Book Review

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

Originally posted 2012-04-12 06:51:04. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

You have never met a main character quite like Dr. Max Aue. This brilliant middle-class entrepreneur is deeply cultured, well read in philosophy and literature, a connoisseur of fine music. He is also a merciless assassin, a cold-blooded merchant of death, and a secret survivor of the Nazi genocide machine. Jonathan Littell’s epic, 992-page The Kindly Ones places Dr. Aue in front of us as a fictional but completely plausible creation of modern culture. This novel, written in French by an American author, won the Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary award.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

I love to read about World War II, and particularly about the Nazi’s and the Holocaust.  So when I picked this book up, I was really looking forward to a great new story, in this area.  Boy, what a disappointment.  I can’t say if this was a result of just a poor story all the way around, or if it was a really bad translation, because I know this book had really good reviews in its native language of French.

For starters the simple construction of the writing really gave me a hard time.  There were paragraphs in this book that literally went on for three and four pages.  I found myself having to read, and re-read just to figure out if something pertained to the paragraph it was in, or if the author was talking about something else entirely.  It made the book really confusing, and hard to follow.

Another thing that I found that was very weird was the obsession of the main character in the area of his gastro-intestinal difficulties — on a very graphic nature.  The main character would spend literally paragraphs describing his bowel movements, and the digestive problems that he had.  Talk about a huge turn off.

He also seemed to be obsessed with his descriptions of his sexual exploits with men.  Now, not that I am being prudish — but what I found strange about this is the time frame and era.  I mean, homosexuals in Nazi, Germany fared only slightly better than those of Jewish descent.  And yet to read this book, you would think that this was a regular pastime of the military personnel of the entire Nazi military.  I really had a hard time getting that to compute.  How did all of these men spend so much time in their sexual encounters — without ending up in a labor camp, Nazi jail, a torture chamber, or worse yet — in a gas chamber?  It just didn’t ring very true to me.  I’m sure it went on, it is human nature.  But to the extent that this book implies — I find a little hard to believe.

I guess I just had a really hard time reconciling this story with my understanding of Nazi Germany during this era.  This of course really detracted from the story, in a very significant way.

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

The Washington Post Book Review

Salon.com The Kindly Ones Review

The New York Times Book Review

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

Abe Books

Barnes and Noble

Originally posted 2011-03-10 07:00:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

Set two centuries from Hawthorne’s own time, The Scarlet Letter (1850) sets its heroine, Hester Prynne, into the shaping early moments of American history. The mother of an illegitimate child, Hester is compelled both by her Puritan community and her awareness of her own moral autonomy to wear a scarlet letter “A”, a symbol of her adultery, upon her clothes. Her child is seen as the evidence of her sin and her refusal to name her lover taken as a token of her moral perversity. However, Hester emerges from the novel a woman whose integrity is intact. Born from the heart of New England, The Scarlet Letter is as much about individual choice and moral responsibilities as about the birth pangs of a nation.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

I have always loved the writing style of Hawthorne.  His simple, straight forward stories are usually basic and to the point.  And yet the allegorical elements and the symbolism of these works can keep the reader constantly coming back for more.  Just when you think that you have everything figured out — someone will come along, or you will see something from a slightly different angle and it will change the interpretation and understanding one more time. 

This is a work I was first introduce to back in junior high school.  And even back then I was intrigued.  The overwhelming Puritan influence, which has played such a great part in the establishment of this country, seemed like a strange beginning for a country seeking complete religious freedom and autonomy.  Even now I see this beginning as a paradox as readers explore how much this beginning continues to influence many of our customs today.  But that isn’t what keeps drawing me back to Hawthorne.

The strongest element of Hawthorn’s writings is in the symbolic elements of the stories he creates.  From the prison door to his use of light and dark — the reader is always aware that there is much more in the setting and elements, than there is in the story itself.  Simply put this is a classic example of the old adage of being greater than the sum of its parts.  In this reading I discovered a more in depth look into the use of colors throughout.  Hawthorne’s use of scarlet red as a very sharp contrast to the drab and subdued norm of this repressed society is a sharp contrast between how the Puritan’s lived — and the world around them — which they denounced. 

I was also struck at the prominent role of Chillingworth in my most recent reading.  His moral representation of the fallen man plays a stronger element than I first realized.  Having joined the Puritan faith — but being forcibly separated from it, Chillingworth is a character that is the odd man out from the rest of the community.  In his own way he is more of an oddity than Hester and Pearl.  Raised as a strong intellectual, his intelligence sets him apart even in the Salem community.  Compounded with that is his time spent among the Native Americans as a prisoner.  Chillingworth ends up  having a wild element in his nature that becomes more of a sharp contradiction in this carefully insulated Puritan community than Hester and Pearl could ever have been.  Where Hester is the embodiment of sin, and the fall from grace — Chillingworth is all that is dark and brooding in a very evil sense.  Contrasting this element of the wild against the very epitome of perceived love and perfection in the form of Dimmsdale and there is a sudden realization that these two men are deliberate antagonists against each other.  Dimmsdale is the moral personification of the community he teaches and is responsible for.  He is the ultimate example of devotion, obedience, commitment, and dedication to the Puritan life.  Chillingworth, in contrast, is almost savage.  His hunger for revenge lead to the dark nature of brooding vengeance and deep hatred that is a sharp counter point to Dimmsdale’s stereotypical love.  These two represent the great battle between good and evil, God and the Devil, or fallen man and perfection.  In the end — each of these men prove to be completely opposite of what their respective places in the community would suggest.  Chillingworth — while filled with revenge and hatred — remains loyal to Hester.  His justified feelings of hatred and vengeance are strangely representative of the love he always had for his wife.  While Dimmsdale remains only loyal to himself.  His need to present his perfected appearance will always supersede his need to find repentance and forgiveness. 

This is a book one could read a hundred times and still come away learning more each time.  It is a strong statement on morality in all of its forms — and how even morality can warp and corrupt a whole community.  This really is one of my favorite reads, and one that I can’t recommend enough.

For more information about this author, and his works be sure to visit the following websites:

Study Guide

Symbolism and Allegory Guide

Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography

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Originally posted 2012-03-08 07:41:16. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

Set in the Deep South that provided the backdrop for all of Faulkner’s finest fiction, Intruder in the Dust is the novel that marks the final phase of this author’s outstanding creative period. The chronicle of an elderly black farmer arrested for the murder of a white man and under threat from the lynch mob, is a characteristically Faulknerian tale of dark omen, its sole ray of hope the character of the young white boy who repays an old favor by proving the innocence of the man who once saved him from drowning in an icy creek.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This is another book that was not a voluntary read on my part.  Assigned in one of my American Literature courses — it was an obligatory read for the purpose of analysis and discussion.  To be perfectly honest, I cannot say that I am a Faulkner fan.  While the story is interesting — the writing style I fought with from the very beginning.  This is a great example of how writing styles work for some people, and not for others.  The long, run on sentences (some of them up to a page or more long) simply drove me crazy as a reader.  I found myself constantly frustrated with trying to figure out how a sentence was put together so that I could make sense of the story, which, of course, detracted from my enjoyment of the story over all.

The story itself, at least for the modern reader, may seem trite, and even over used.  However, in the time that it was written, this story had a great deal of impact, and said a lot about the society in which it was set.  The deep South, with a black man accused of murder in white America — and going in the reader pretty well decides that they know what the outcome will inevitably be.  In the days before the Civil Rights movement, and the second class designation attached to the black race — this story explores the painful growth process of the early days of the racial difficulties confronting the American South.  But Faulkner does have an ability to present the unexpected in his writing — particularly in the twists of the story line — it is just a little hard to follow.

The Suspense that Faulkner creates through simply his words is probably the strong point of the story.  Faulkner did have a great gift for being able to build an intense situation into almost unbearable drama, with very little action even going on.  As one of the earlier presentations of the courtroom drama — this book is packed with the constant intensity of the inevitable that does keep the reader wanting to finish, no matter how difficult the sentences may be to follow.  And ultimately, Faulkner’s gift with words is amazing in the extreme. 

For more information about this book, and its author be sure to visit the following websites:

Intruder in the Dust Essay

William Faulkner Biography

William Faulkner Society

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

Originally posted 2012-02-27 07:22:02. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

About the Book:

We all have dreams—things we fantasize about doing and generally never get around to. This is the story of Azar Nafisi’s dream and of the nightmare that made it come true.

For two years before she left Iran in 1997, Nafisi gathered seven young women at her house every Thursday morning to read and discuss forbidden works of Western literature. They were all former students whom she had taught at university. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; several had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, but soon they began to open up and to speak more freely, not only about the novels they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams and disappointments. Their stories intertwined with those they were reading—Pride and Prejudice, Washington Square, Daisy Miller and Lolita—their Lolita, as they imagined her in Tehran.

Nafisi’s account flashes back to the early days of the revolution, when she first started teaching at the University of Tehran amid the swirl of protests and demonstrations. In those frenetic days, the students took control of the university, expelled faculty members and purged the curriculum. When a radical Islamist in Nafisi’s class questioned her decision to teach The Great Gatsby, which he saw as an immoral work that preached falsehoods of “the Great Satan,” she decided to let him put Gatsby on trial and stood as the sole witness for the defense.
Azar Nafisi’s luminous tale offers a fascinating portrait of the Iran-Iraq war viewed from Tehran and gives us a rare glimpse, from the inside, of women’s lives in revolutionary Iran. It is a work of great passion and poetic beauty, written with a startlingly original voice.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This book was my first introduction to Ms. Nafisi, and her writings.  And if you have read through my favorite literary quotes — you will know that she is also one of my favorite authors.  That is because there is something that is so real, and personal about her writing that it is haunting in the extreme.  Her books stay with you, long after you have closed the book, and you can’t help but reflect on, and come back to her books time and time again.

This book is an incredibly beautiful look into the struggles that women encountered in Tehran, as totalitarianism took over, and women were relegated to even less than third class citizens status.  Upon organizing a “book club” during a time of extensive censorship, these women, under the direction of Ms. Nafisi, came to learn the importance of not only fiction, but the printed word.  While exploring some of the most controversial fiction, which was usually banned at the time, this group explored the reality of life through the printed word.  Covering Lolita, Gatsby, James, and Austen — this group of women have very profound and in depth discussions of the power of books, and how they can affect people’s lives.

What I found particularly poignant is how these women came together.  So vastly different, and yet so very much the same in their suppression, this book club becomes the ultimate representation of what a book club can be for people.

I belong to a book club that we started a few months back, and I have one brother that joined it — I think mainly because is wife is a reader, and she wanted to participate.  I am constantly amazed  that no matter how much harassment he takes from fellow coworkers, and friends for “belonging to a book club” — he is so quick to speak out in the enjoyment of belonging to a book club. That is because I feel that he, like the women in this book has come to understand that books are not a feminine, girly type activity — but rather an experience, and a powerful one at that, which challenges you mental and moral perceptions, and shapes and builds you into a better person.

Ms. Nafisi’s writings, and this book in particular are powerful in the extreme.  They are a representation of how influential books can be, and she has an incredible gift for conveying that importance to others through her writing.  This is a book that I just cannot recommend enough.  If there is only one book you would choose to read this year — this one is it.  A must in this world that the passion for reading if dying a slow, but definite death.

For more information about this book, and its author — be sure to visit the following websites:

Azar Nafisi Website

Interview with the Author

Reading Group Guides

When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, The Book Worm’s Library earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog by contributing to giveaways, postage, travel, and attending book industry related events. We appreciate all those that help to support our blog, and have provided links below for the direct links to this book.

AbeBooks.com

Barnes and Noble

Originally posted 2010-12-12 21:54:05. Republished by Blog Post Promoter