Prelude to: H is for Hawthorne

Here I come "The House of Seven Gables"!!!

I really hope I enjoy this book, I had to plod through a couple of my more recent selections but Ill take the exposure. I really enjoyed "The Scarlet Letter" so Im hoping to enjoy this book, which Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote in the ten months after the Scarlet Letter was published (according to wikipedia). I also enjoyed "The Crucible" so I suppose I enjoy this time period. However, I read both of those under the direction of an excellent teacher (shout out to Mrs. Reschke!) so we'll see if I can guide myself as well.

I find having a class, or even just another person who has read the same book, available to consult really useful when reading a dense, heavy book. Some things don't need this, or don't need it as much. For example, my favorite "genres" if you will, are Muslim Womens Memoirs (I realize thats a really specific area, lol) and African American literature. I know enough about this areas from classes, other readings, that when I come across things Im not familiar with in reading I can often figure it out or know enough that some quick googling clears things up.

In any case, I am excited to start reading this book and will snap it up at the library tomorrow. Im hoping I can find a cool edition, like I did when reading "Little Women". Note: Im still pissed off about the ending. Damn you Louisa May Alcott!! Sisters are NOT interchangeable.

G is STILL for Gordimer

So I just finished reading "The Conservationist". What an odd book. That is my main impression. I feel like I should have gotten more out of in, in that I feel like there were plot elements that I just didn't get.

The book is very famous because it was written at the height of the apartheid and it contrasts the experience of a rich, white Afrikaaner with the blacks who works on his "hobby" farm in the country.

I found it a bit hard to follow.

There was also a lot of sex weirdly entwined in it. This made the book creepy and confusing at times.

I did like though, the way the landscape/the land was almost a character itself in the book. All of the people in the book, even through their vastly different cultural and economic experiences had connections with/ feelings for the land, though in very different ways. So I liked that. It was also short.

I never got into any of the characters, except for being grossed out by the main character, but I think that was the point (he thinks hes above the whole apartheid thing, just looking out for himself, apolitical my ass).

I wish I had more to say about this book but it just never really grabbed me and I had a hard time following it.

In any case, Im onto my next book, yay!