The Very Hungry Bookworm

Update

2010-12-12T10:42:00.000-05:00

So, I've been incredibly lax about updating, but in the next few weeks expect some posts on the following books I've finished:

Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Dancing on the Edge
The Penderwicks
March
along with a few others...

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

2010-07-02T09:03:00.000-04:00

I wasn't sure what to expect of this 1959 Newberry award winner. Knowing only that it was a historical novel from the American colonial period, I dove in. I was surprised at how quickly the narrative moved and how attached I became to the central character Kit.

Kit is a young woman from Barbados fallen on hard times. In a rash attempt to escape an unwanted marriage to a much older man, she abandons her tropical home for an unforgiving shore in colonial Connecticut. Inserting herself into her Aunt and Uncle's (literally) Puritanical society is not easy for the free-spirited young girl.

But, I was surprised at the growth that Speare allowed her character and the richness the author gave to all her characters. So many times children's literature can trend towards heavy-handed stereotyping in the characters. Over the top characterization of "good" and "bad" characters was happily absent from this. That is not to say that Speare didn't have some characters who were "bad". But I liked that those characters were minor and not as central to the plot.

In the end, I will admit that the ending is one you can see coming a mile away, but when it did finally arrive, I enjoyed it none the less. All the characters end happily and in a rightful place for their needs. There is no disappointing open ending or replication of life's own lack of closure. All in all, Speare's likable characters and well constructed story were enjoyable without being too preachy/life's lessony.

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

2010-07-02T08:52:00.000-04:00

Timothy Egan's 2006 National Book Award winner for Nonfiction came in my favorite form of non-fiction. His history of the great American Dust Bowl didn't read like a history, but like a disturbing and homey narrative.

Egan artfully marries oral histories collected from survivors with his non-fiction factual text to bring the subject alive. Knowing only surface information about the Dust Bowl (mostly from Grapes of Wrath), I knew little of what to expect of this history.

The text outlines most expertly the lead up to one of the greatest man-made natural disasters of all time. Egan does not attempt to sugar coat or protect any of the agencies or groups involved in the destruction of the natural prairie of the high plains. Yet, the personal histories of the ranchers and the settlers of the area keep the book from becoming overly preachy or accusatory. There is a human face to both the conservators and the destructors in the book.

I also enjoyed that he provided insightful looks into adjacent and supplementary veins of history that bring a richness to the history he tells without bogging down his central subject with too much extra information.

I would recommend this well balanced (if frightening) history to anyone, whether or not they enjoy non-fiction writing.

A Death in the Family by James Agee

2010-07-02T08:42:00.000-04:00

This 1958 Pulitzer Prize winner centers around Jay Follet and the void his sudden death leaves in his family. Set in Knoxville in the early part of the 20th century, the narrative skips back and forth between Jay (pre-mortem), his wife, his young son, his wife's spinster aunt, and his young son (with a few other characters thrown in there for effect).

Agee's prose is eloquent and moving at times. Yet I wonder if I would have read the book differently and gotten a different sense from it had I not read the introduction first. The author of the introduction reveals that this book was not finished at the time of Agee's death (how fitting to his subject). The book had not been altered from the final version submitted by Agee and the chapters on the end of the novel had not yet been placed where they were meant to ultimately go.

In knowing this, I did feel a sense of the novel not really being finished. There were times when the narrative felt a little too bloated or too frenetic. I don't know if that was me reading too far into the prose, or trying deliberately to find those situations. Either way, I did leave the novel with a sense of unease, like the story was not fully formed.

Agee's characters were satisfyingly human though, he expertly portrayed each one's inner monologue of doubt, anger, insecurity, and more. I enjoyed the character studies of each one and would have loved to see them more polished. As it was, they did each have a very raw emotional quality to them that was heartbreaking and real.

Overall impression: great characters, if a little unfinished.

Onion John by Joseph Krumgold

2010-05-17T00:51:00.001-04:00

A few months ago, I felt that I had read the book version of condensed soup. I now feel after reading the 1960 Newberry winner I have found the literary version of Leave It to Beaver. Krumgold chronicles Andy, a plucky 12 year old boy (the Beave) living in Serenity, NY in the 1950s. Andy's dad runs the local hardware store and is a community leader in the Rotary club. Baseball, Americana, Roll-up-the-sleeves and stick-to-it-ness abound. The conflict in this slice of Apple pie narrative comes in the form of Andy's friendship with the titular character, Onion John.

Onion John is the lovable, vaguely ethnic eccentric of Serenity. Also vaguely middle aged, Onion John is a staple in the community, partitioned off from the town by his inability to clearly speak English and also because of his off beat notions and practices. Onion John attempts to make gold from lead and believes in all manner of semi-religious rituals.

At the top of the novel, Andy learns how to decipher Onion John's speech and thus opens the door to all sorts of hijinks and misunderstandings. Until this new communication line opened with Onion John, Andy was happily growing in the shadow of his father's dreams. MIT and NASA were in his future. Andy's father didn't really take his son's wants and needs into consideration.

In a nutshell: Andy befriends Onion John and starts participating in some of his off beat rituals. Andy's father (Andy Sr.) gets concerned that Andy is losing site of the MIT "dream" (and getting perhaps a bit jealous of Andy's new friend). Andy's father intervenes in his son's friendship with Onion John and tries to main stream the lovable immigrant. Onion John (who has previously been living in a house he built himself) can't deal with the new way of living and new-fangled house. Onion John accidentally burns his new house down. Andy can't deal with the guilt he feels. Andy and Onion John plan to run away. Onion John backs out. Andy Jr. and Andy Sr. have a heart to heart. MIT plans put on hold until Andy Jr. decides for himself. "Awwww" moment ensues.

Fluffernutter sandwiches and Tang will be offered later.

White Noise by Don DeLillo

2010-05-12T00:46:00.000-04:00

How to start my several weeks overdue review of Don DeLillo's 1985 National Book Award Winner? I found myself marking pages throughout the book to cycle back and re-read DeLillo's amazing prose. His look at an educated and somewhat desperate middle class family was rich and scarily true to our own times.

Even though it was written in the 1980s, DeLillo's characters operate in a world driven by catch phrases, hollow status and the warm glow of the television. Even the "chemical event" which drives much of the novel would not be out of place on any current news channel.

Following a professor at a small liberal arts college and his almost cliched mixed family as their lives slowly but inevitably unravel, DeLillo digs away at the initial image of a well functioning existence. Jack and Babette and their mixed brood of children assembled from various marriages are buffeted on all fronts by mass media culture, fear-mongering, and their own need for each other. I feel like I can't even begin to describe the way DeLillo has encapsulated the bubble of middle class (we're trapped in our own education and need for security).

I'm sure that I could go on for many pages about the love I have for this book and how well crafted it is. But I won't bore anyone. :) I just recommend that you go read it.

The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens

2010-04-12T07:22:00.001-04:00

I finished The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens and Booker Prize Winner in 1970 a few weeks ago. So my post is a bit overdue. Rubens chronicles the Zweck family, a tight-knit and phenomenally dysfunctional family living in London and struggling with a number of past and present family dramas. Rabbi Abraham Zweck is the patriarch and a British immigrant. The story hop-scotches between his perspective, his unmarried daughter Bella's and his drug addicted son Norman. The three main Zwecks slowly peel back the layers of their stormy family history through their musings and recollections.

Abraham's wife was once the glue that anchored the family together with her love of tradition and her command of guilt and need. In fact, Rubens explores that delicate family balance of need, guilt, love and resentment that has fallen so far out of whack for the Zwecks.

Norman, a linguistic genius from an early age and once great lawyer taxes his father and sister heavily with his drug addiction and the hallucinations it brings. Their decision to admit him to a mental hospital acts as a catalyst for all of them emotionally. They each then need to recall the past wrongs and wrong choices of their lives. Rubens unfolds their family story from different perspectives and keeps her reader off balance by revealing new facts and tainting the stories with the different remembrances.

Yet, through it all, she tells mostly the story of family and the need and dependence that family ties create. Father, son, and daughters all responded to mother's need and in their resentment, formed needs and guilt of their own.

I thought it was a masterfully told family drama.

Interpreter of Maladies

2010-03-24T00:37:00.001-04:00

Jhumpa Lahiri, the 2000 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. This slim collection of short stories was a quick read. I was a bit apprehensive when picking this one up. I had read Lahiri's full novel The Namesake a few years back and was fairly underwhelmed, but I will say I was pleasantly surprised by her short fiction. Lahiri's prose flows in each story as she lovingly reconstructs the full array of sensory glory for each of her characters.

Each of her stories explores a separate kind of sadness in her characters. Loss of family, loss of culture, loss of self, loss of faith. I think this wistful nature of the stories is what gives the collection a great deal of its beauty. The majority of the stories focus on characters who have left their native India (or in some cases have never known it) and Lahiri uses that cultural disconnect to both bind her characters together but also to isolate them.

I think mostly what pleased me most in reading this was that the way the compilation is ordered. The stories create delicate layers for the reader that pull him/her through the stories and binds them all together, even though they are different characters. It feels as though all the characters share an emotional bond. The final story in the collection shares the same sad tenor, but of all the stories ends with the most hope and a sense of peace.

Lahiri's stories are touching and thoughtfully written. With warmth and sadness she leads her characters through their lives. I enjoyed this collection and would recommend it highly to others.

Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida by Victor Martinez

2010-03-12T11:49:00.002-05:00

Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida won the National Book award for Young Adult Fiction in 1996. Martinez follows 14 year old Manny in observations about his life in a scrubby California town. Manny really is more of an observer, bringing the reader up to speed on his poor, dysfunctional family, from his alcoholic father to his long suffering and cleaning obsessed mother. Manny's older brother and sister are not exactly help either.

This family drama was tense for most of the book, through joblessness, hunger, abusive arguments and even a miscarriage. Yet I find it hard to call the novel a coming of age story in the way that many others have. As I mentioned above, Manny does not really participate much throughout the narrative, but rather recalls as things happen to him and to his family. I don't feel like there was much of a change between the Manny you meet at the beginning of the book and the Manny at the end.

The narrative itself is very Wonder Years, recalled mostly as memories from what feels like a man much further in his life than his character in the book.

Overall, it was an interesting to read, but not one I feel will stay with me.

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

2010-01-28T15:47:00.003-05:00

Reading The Moviegoer by Walker Percy, I enjoyed the breezy southern style Percy used throughout. The sense of place in the novel was amazing. Percy has (had? I don't know if he's dead or not) a great ability for description that really encompasses all the senses in a way that is almost hard to define.

This 1962 National Book Award Winner seems to have fallen into the theme of the award winning novel about ennui. While I have already read several award winners who depict young men battling with their own sense of ennui, their disconnect from their time and place, I felt like Percy achieves his own place in history with a particular flair. His character, the moviegoer of the title, Binx weaves in and out of the New Orleans with loads of style.

Overall it's a book I enjoyed, a quick read that was a good time, though, like with The Fixer I can't think of much more to say.

The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem Van Loon

2010-01-20T09:59:00.002-05:00

Last night I finished reading the book version of condensed soup. Hendrik Willem Van Loon's The Story of Mankind was the first ever Newberry Award winner in 1922. Van Loon set out to record the history of humankind for his grandchildren and selected events from thousands of years of history. His criterion for an event to be mentioned was whether or not the event had a significant influence on the global sphere.

This 292 page book starts back with pre-historic man and flows up through World War I. My own disconnect with this book I think is 2 pronged. For one, Van Loon's theory (for which he spends far too much time mea culpa-ing about not including more) that the only important events in history are the ones that rocked the global stage. This "greatest hits" approach to history gives the shallowest, most superficial view of how our cultures have evolved and how certain events have come to pass.

The second objection I have to Van Loon's "story" is that along with his apologies for cutting out certain events and flows of history, he tries to maintain that he wrote the "story" as a neutral party, not injecting his own opinion. Yet, this tale is riddled with his own prejudices and thoughts. Many of which are wildly racist (and granted, it was written in a much different era), but this white protestant man takes many a stab at the Romans, the French, the Catholics, and many others.

What I am most looking forward to is comparing this book to the other winners of the award to see how they have evolved from this first winner and from the era of the first winner.

White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

2010-01-15T09:48:00.003-05:00

Earlier this week I finished reading White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, winner of the Man Booker award in 2008. It's a book I enjoyed immensely for the voice of the narrator and the biting social commentary it laid at the feet of the Indian subcontinent.

Munna/Balram/The White Tiger narrates the story of how he went from a small village boy to a driver to a murderer and now successful entrepreneur. His path and his struggles are all artfully narrated as letters to the visiting Chinese leader who will be arriving in India shortly. The sense of place Adiga creates with his descriptions is pretty incredible, and Balram's colloquial voice is enjoyable.

It is hard to rejoice in the picture he paints of corrupt government, the ugly reality of the monied class, and his own struggles with family obligation. These are all a dark undertone to Balram's perky letters. But, overall it lends a great balance to the book. Adiga walks a fine line with his writing, but the final result is a cutting social commentary with a great satirical feel.

I enjoyed reading White Tiger and found it a quick, easy read. I'll be interested to see what else comes from Mr. Adiga.

Update

2010-01-13T10:01:00.002-05:00

Last night I finished White Tiger which was the 2008 Booker winner. I've got to get my self up to writing the review...but it's coming.

I also started the very first Newberry award winner The Story of Mankind.

The Fixer - Bernard Malmud

2009-12-21T22:47:00.003-05:00

Well, I have finally finished The Fixer by Bernard Malamud. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1966, Winner of the National Book Award in 1967. This book read like a cross between To Kill a Mockingbird and Crime and Punishment. The heavy philosophical musings of the main character, the "fixer" Yakov, were hard to wade through at times. This book, like All the Kings Men falls into the category in that I am happy I read it, but don't necessarily think I will read it again.

Yakov's morose pondering on life and spirituality from behind the bars of a Russian prison both provoke the reader and turn them off. Malamud's portrayal of the anti-Semitism Yakov faces brings the reader into close contact with the evil side of human nature which is hard to look at face on.

At this point I can't even think of what more to say about the book. The book is achingly well written, but its hard for me to go further than that....

Maybe I'll have more to say later...

Ironweed by William Kennedy

2009-10-05T11:04:00.002-04:00

On my plane ride to Washington DC last Friday I finished the short but powerful Ironweed by William Kennedy, winner of the Pulitzer in 1984. This book, unlike All the Kings Men struck a really deep emotional chord with me.

The story follows down-on-his-luck bum Franny Phelan through his return to Albany, NY. Franny, a former big league ball player, fled Albany 20 some years before after dropping his baby son accidentally and causing his death. What I found so breathtaking about the novel was the way Kennedy has Franny interact with his past memories as he slowly builds up the courage to reunite with the family he left all those years ago.

Kennedy not only relates Francis's memories through the omniscient narrator, but takes Franny and other supporting characters through fantastical conversations with the dead and visions of what might have been. There are times when the fantasies weave in and out of the narrative so smoothly, you won't even know that the character has been wrapped up in one until 10 pages later.

Kennedy's characters broke my heart with their broken down lives and almost cheerful acceptance of circumstance. They all had great weight in reality and were incredibly easy to relate to, sympathize with, and root for.

Overall, I found the novel an emotional punch to the gut, but in a good way. I highly recommend this one and will be reading it again.

Mini-Update

2009-10-02T10:30:00.004-04:00

10/2: 140 pages into Ironweed by William Kennedy and completely in love. Everyone should read this book.

The Fixer by Bernard Malmud is on deck.

I should have a review/response for Ironweed by the end of the weekend.

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

2009-09-15T19:20:00.003-04:00

So, after a SNAFU of leaving my book accidentally in Florida and then getting myself hooked on a new series a week afterward, I have finally finished All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, Pulitzer Prize winner for Fiction in 1947. All 659 glorious pages.

First off, I feel my reaction to the novel is somewhat tainted in that I couldn't get into an easy rhythm while reading it. Warren has the novel split into 10 "chapters" that each span no less than 50 pages. This division of the book made it hard to find natural pauses in the narrative to pause my own reading in between sittings, which is never my favorite way to read.

Turning my attention now to the novel itself, I feel very much at a middle ground with it. I neither loved nor hated it. I see it's literary merit and applaud Warren for masterful writing, but could not find my own hook or level with which to bond to in the novel.

Often in my reading I found myself remembering The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. Though not as a result of the prose. Warren is far more verbose and descriptive than Hemingway, but writes his characters with the same sense of malaise and clinical detachment. Not to mention the overt misogyny enjoyed in both novels.

What struck me most about the novel was the acute and almost antiseptic observation and commentary that Warren achieves of American politicians and politics. Willie "the Boss" Stark, his caricature of corrupt Louisiana governor Huey Long, offers a story arc that is almost a parable on how politics and power corrupts a man. But, what I found more probing and disturbing even was the description of the reaction of Stark's staff, seen through the eyes of his go-to man Jack Burden, and the public of Louisiana.

Warren offers up a treatise on mob mentality and the fantasy of politics that the American public applied to politics then. What chilled me most was that it is still relevant now. Willie Stark lives his life of corruption almost openly, sending Jack Burden on errands that lead to the downfall of numerous careers and lives. Stark also manages a public reputation of "tom-catting," yet his numerous extra-marital affairs and his corrupt politics do not seem to phase the good people of Louisiana. As long as Willie maintains his marriage to his backwoods sweetheart, promote his all-American football hero son, and focus his silver-tongued speeches on his work for the common man, he retains his valor in the public eye.

Even Jack, his trusted advisor, who has watched the full spectrum of his career is complacent with the Boss's doings. Only when one hits too close to home does he begin to question the Boss he knows now, not the ideological man he knew from the start.

Warren's novel definitely encourages the reader to question their own views (maybe even their ennui) on politics, which resonates now as it did in his time.

Overall feelings: chilling look at the American political scene, yet hard to slog through.

The Depths of My Insanity

2009-08-21T09:52:00.000-04:00

So, calculations have been made and I am officially crazy.

I have made my lists (in nice neat spreadsheet format, of course), to track all the books I have committed to reading, all the books I have already read, and what I own already. I also decided last night that it would be awesome to add more books to the list.

I've been on a non-fiction kick of late (truly my mother's daughter) and while reading John Adams by David McCullough, itself a winner of the Pulitzer for Biography/Autobiography, I thought "hey, why should I let the fiction have all the fun?" So, I have added more scope. I now wish to also read all the Pulitzer and National Book Award winners for non-fiction. Stand and be amazed at the depths of my crazy.

Between all seven award categories there are 398 books. So far in my previous reading (some of it since January of this year), I have tackled a paltry 32 books from this list. And, thanks to my sad and expensive addiction to Borders, I own 25 more that I'm hoping to read before the year is out.

So, as of today, kids, that's 366 books to tackle and one woman's questionable sanity.

August 21, 2009: 342 pages into All the Kings Men by Robert Penn Warren. Looking to make my total 365 by next week.

Away we go...

2009-08-20T12:59:00.000-04:00

So, acting out of a sense of peer pressure, I have begun a blog. My goal is to track my progress as I make my way through a list of over 300 books that have won literary awards.

A life-long and self-avowed bookworm, at the beginning of this year I began a project of reading every book that has won one (or in some cases more) of the following awards:

-Pulitzer Prize for Literature
-Man Booker Prize
-National Book Award for Fiction
-National Book Award for Young Adult Fiction
-Newbery Medal

My inspiration came from a bookmark I picked up in June of 2007 at Powell's (A.K.A My version of the happiest place on earth). The bookmark displayed a list of the Pulitzer Prize winners and I thought "It's kind of sad that I call myself an English Major, yet have not read even half of these books." These books are the foundation of many of the literary movements, books that have inspired films, art, poets, and more. So, I decided to broaden my literary boundaries.

Wish me luck folks.