Literature
Read on May 13, 2011
- To The Lighthouse By Virginia Woolf
Context Virginia Woolf was born on January 25, 1882, a descendant of one of Victorian England's most prestigious literary families. Her father, Sir Leslie Stephen, was the editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and was married to the daughter...
- The Old Man And The Sea By Ernest Hemingway
?It's silly not to hope. It's a sin he thought.? It took me a while to warm up to Ernest Hemingway but after finishing The Sun also Rises and now The Old Man and the Sea, I can see why he is held in high regard. After several negative reactions...
- A Farewell To Arms By Ernest Hemmingway
?I?m not brave any more darling. I?m all broken. They?ve broken me.? Perhaps upon further reflection my rating will go up but as it stands right now, this novel was utterly disappointing in every conceivable way. Hemingway's...
- More Than Human By Theodore Sturgeon
More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon is an innovative and bizarre piece of science fiction from the 1960's that takes on a similar narrative structure to William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury; that is, the story is often dense, focusing...
- The End Of The Affair By Graham Greene
"I had to touch you with my hands, I had to taste you with my tongue; one can't love and do nothing." Well, Mr. Greene, you've surely written another masterpiece. I'm struck with an ineffable sensation of awe after finishing this book which...
Literature
The Ninth Configuration by William Peter Blatty
It's such a wonderfully rare feeling to pick up a book and from the very first page you are instantly hooked. William Peter Blatty's The Ninth Configuration is one of these books for me where I just could not put it down and ended up finishing in one sitting. I've always been a fan of brevity, and Blatty accomplishes so much within only 130 pages: a well-written and devastating story with such vividly memorable characters, focusing on mental illness wrapped around religious parable and anti-war sentiments with perhaps even a touch of allegory sprinkled in for good measure.
Blatty prose is subtle, distilled and simple in its structure, which to a certain degree, reminded me Hemingway's style of writing. His characters are not used as didactic mouth pieces. He skillfully sets up philosophical debates that battle each other out within the context of the story amonst the different characters; namely, between Cutshaw and Colonel Kane. Blatty has a natural ear for dialogue and much of the novel consists of sharp dialogue between the characters but it never comes across as contrived or ostentatious; that is, it does aid in driving the story forward but contains its own unique rhythms and intricacies to flesh out the characters that never feels forced. While the novel does deal explicitly at times about the existence of God and can be very serious at times, there is also a lot of humor to be found especially in the witty dialogue. I particularly enjoyed the allusions to Hamlet's madness as a way to potentially explain the roots of mental illness: "Cause acting nutty is a safety valve, a way to let off steam; a way to get rid of your fucking aggressions and all of your guilts and your fears...(75). I couldn't agree more with this statement. A great and absorbing read that I am bound to revisit in the future. Thanks for the recommendation, D.
Blatty prose is subtle, distilled and simple in its structure, which to a certain degree, reminded me Hemingway's style of writing. His characters are not used as didactic mouth pieces. He skillfully sets up philosophical debates that battle each other out within the context of the story amonst the different characters; namely, between Cutshaw and Colonel Kane. Blatty has a natural ear for dialogue and much of the novel consists of sharp dialogue between the characters but it never comes across as contrived or ostentatious; that is, it does aid in driving the story forward but contains its own unique rhythms and intricacies to flesh out the characters that never feels forced. While the novel does deal explicitly at times about the existence of God and can be very serious at times, there is also a lot of humor to be found especially in the witty dialogue. I particularly enjoyed the allusions to Hamlet's madness as a way to potentially explain the roots of mental illness: "Cause acting nutty is a safety valve, a way to let off steam; a way to get rid of your fucking aggressions and all of your guilts and your fears...(75). I couldn't agree more with this statement. A great and absorbing read that I am bound to revisit in the future. Thanks for the recommendation, D.
- To The Lighthouse By Virginia Woolf
Context Virginia Woolf was born on January 25, 1882, a descendant of one of Victorian England's most prestigious literary families. Her father, Sir Leslie Stephen, was the editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and was married to the daughter...
- The Old Man And The Sea By Ernest Hemingway
?It's silly not to hope. It's a sin he thought.? It took me a while to warm up to Ernest Hemingway but after finishing The Sun also Rises and now The Old Man and the Sea, I can see why he is held in high regard. After several negative reactions...
- A Farewell To Arms By Ernest Hemmingway
?I?m not brave any more darling. I?m all broken. They?ve broken me.? Perhaps upon further reflection my rating will go up but as it stands right now, this novel was utterly disappointing in every conceivable way. Hemingway's...
- More Than Human By Theodore Sturgeon
More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon is an innovative and bizarre piece of science fiction from the 1960's that takes on a similar narrative structure to William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury; that is, the story is often dense, focusing...
- The End Of The Affair By Graham Greene
"I had to touch you with my hands, I had to taste you with my tongue; one can't love and do nothing." Well, Mr. Greene, you've surely written another masterpiece. I'm struck with an ineffable sensation of awe after finishing this book which...