If you pay attention to that sort of thing, you may have noticed that at the beginning of 2011 I made two public resolutions: one, to have "meatless monday" meals in 2011 (why?); and two, to read twelve hefty books in the twelve months of this year.
I've had fun with meatless mondays, clearly.
But 12 in 12 has not worked out so well. Maybe it wasn't the best resolution for a mother of an infant and a toddler. Or maybe it just wasn't the best idea to read the 760 page Autobiography of Mark Twain for book number 3.
Although I haven't kept to the hefty book plan, I have been reading. At two-thirds of the way through 2011, here's what I've read, with my faves in bold.
In Whole:
Surprised by Hope - N.T. Wright - excellent
Freedom - Jonathon Franzen - good; a bit depressing
The Clare Fergusson mysteries by Julia Spencer Fleming
The coffeehouse mysteries by Cleo Coyle (these two mystery series's sustained me through the last months of pregnancy and first months of Owen's life, when I had little brain energy; that said, I really enjoyed both)
The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman - similar to Franzen's Freedom in subject, but better
Intuition by Allegra Goodman
How I Changed My Mind about Women in Leadership - Ed. Alan Johnson
Finally Feminist - John Stackhouse - compelling, but compelling enough? deliberating.
State of Wonder - Ann Patchett - excellent
Life Among the Savages - Shirley Jackson
The Imperfectionists - Tom Rachman
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
In the Middle of:
The Autobiography of Mark Twain
A Brief History of the Episcopal Church - David Holmes
The Blue Parakeet - Scot McKnight
Invitation to the Jesus Life - Jan Johnson
One Thousand Gifts - Ann Voskamp - so far, so good
Bloom's Notes on Heart of Darkness - Harold Bloom
geek out:
Jack and I both read Ann Patchett's latest (I just love her), State of Wonder; and on hearing it called a feminist retelling of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, I read (and Jack re-read) that, too. I wanted to know in what sense it was a feminist re-telling. Surely using the same basic plot but replacing the main characters (all male, in Conrad's novella) with women was not enough to make it "feminist". I'm still pondering that. And just to round out our little unit of study, we're working our way through Apocalypse Now Redux, the film from the seventies inspired by Heart of Darkness.
So, for our next unit, what should we do?
Option A:
King Lear - Shakespeare
A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley
Ran (Japanese film)
Option B:
Odyssey - Homer
The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwood
O Brother Where Art Thou
Option C:
make a suggestion!
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4 comments:
I did Options A and B in my freshman English class... So it sounds too much like college lit to me. The class was based on classic stories and their modern retelling. I hated A Thousand Acres. Option C: read Emma and then watch Clueless. That was my favorite exercise.
Please explain Heart of Darkness to me. I just read it a few months ago for the first time, and I cannot for the life of me figure out what the fuss is about. Even making provision for the outdated colonialist notions of civilization, I was hard pressed to find it a "classic".
Sorry, kind of hijacked your post here. I would go with option B :o)
@Shannon - yes, college lit is exactly what it is! Some of us wish college lit would never end. I'm glad to know your opinion of a thousand acres.
@Ramon - I am not the one to come to conrad's defense! His impressionist style of writing? The psychological journey mirrored in the physical journey? All the metaphors with light and darkness? Maybe in his context these were new and interesting literary developments, but for me it was a chore. And PS, his depictions of women - also extremely troubling.
How about add The Lost City of Z by David Grann and make it a superfecta?
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