A Review of 'As I Lay Dying' by William Faulkner

"'As I Lay Dying' was a tour de force, William Faulkner claims: 'I simply imagined a group of people and subjected them to the simple universal natural catastrophes, which are flood and fire with a simple natural motive to give direction to their progress.'  This 1930 novel is anything but simple, however.  At its heart is the Bundren family's bizarre journey to bury Addie, their wife and mother.  Faulkner lets each family member-- including the dead Addie herself-- and others along the way tell this story.  As they talk, they reveal what Addie calls her own 'secret and selfish though'-- their private reasons for undertaking the perilous journey to bury her.  'As I Lay dying' is a dazzling display of Falkner's virtuosity with the English language as well as an extraordinary examination of the essential loneliness at the core of their Mississippi family.


Boy what a trip this book was.  When I say 'trip,' I mean 'piece of work.'  Earlier this year, I and three of my classmates in my Intro to Literature class last semester opted to teach this entire book in an hour or less.  This included plot summary, leitmotifs, symbols, themes...the whole nine yards.  We picked this book thinking that it was going to be a piece of cake.  We couldn't have been more wrong.

The plot itself isn't hard to figure out.  It's a family bringing their deceased wife and mother to Jefferson to be buried.  It's everything in between that just makes you stop for a moment and stare at the page.  At least, that's what I did.

What I found most interesting was the symbolism and themes rather than the story itself.  It was almost like a treasure hunt when I was looking for animals that represented Addie and following the toolbox that represented stability within an impoverished family.

I feel terrible "dissing" this really well-known writer, but this book just wasn't my cup of tea.  The plotlessness just kind of drove me nuts, the language was hard to get through because the accents of the family members were taken into account, and I was having trouble relating to some of the characters.  I will say that I admired how Dewey tried to take control of her life, even if things didn't turn out well for her.  She was one of the few female voices in the story.

I enjoyed taking part in teaching this book immensely-- it was a good discussion book, even if no one in my group particularly cared for it (we were cool with it, but no one was ga-ga over it) and most of the other elements of the book (symbols, themes, etc.) were impeccable and fun to decipher!

Overall, this book was a challenge.  I think I will try reading it again later, but for now, I give 'As I Lay Dying':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

Friday!

Welcome to Friday!  On Fridays, I try my best to answer some questions posed to us by Ginger @ Greads and Parajunkee.  Let's get right to it!

TGIF

Social Networking: Do you use Twitter or Facebook to promote your blog?  How has it benefited your book blogging experience?  If not, how do you promote your blog?  Share you twitter handle and/or Facebook link!

I do use Facebook to promote my blog!  I have a little box in the side bar to the right.  I'm not sure how much good it has done me though.  I have some followers on Facebook, but if my non-existent calculations are correct, they came through Blogger first as opposed to stumbling over my blog on Facebook.  If you have any tips or advice for making this work better, I'm all ears!  My Facebook link is: 

FACEBOOK

My hope was to have a lot of communication so that I could further improve my blog without having to create dozens of polls and questionnaires (though they are good fun!).  If you'd love to help with books suggestions, design tips, that kind of thing, I would be very appreciative!

Follow Friday

Q: What is the best book you've read in the last month? What is the worst book you’ve read in the last month?

I haven't posted a review of it just yet, but the best book I've read this month is "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein.  It was a beautiful and honest book.  I would give it to my future children as soon as they were old enough.

The worst book I've read this month would be, judging by the rating that I gave it upon review, would be "What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know" by Sonya Sones.  There were just a lot of holes that I wish had been taken care of before the book was published and distributed.  Otherwise, this would have been an excellent book!

What are your answers to these questions?  If you'd like me to stop by for a visit, leave your web address below and I'll try my best to make a visit sometime this weekend!

Have a lovely week!

--Jude

A Review of 'What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know' by Sonya Sones

"My name is Robin


This book is about me
It tells the story of what happens
when after almost 15 pathetic years of loserdom,
the girl of my dreams finally falls for me


That seems like it would be
a good thing, right?
Only it turns out to be
a lot more complicated than that.


Because I'm not gonna lie to you--
there are naked women involved.
Four of them, to be exact.
Though not in the way you might think


Don't get me wrong-- my girlfriend's amazing.
But the way things have been going lately,
I'm starting to believe that the only thing worse
than not getting what you want


is getting it."

Here's another story that is told through a series of poems.  The last book that I read, The Weight of the Sky, was like this and there's one not-so-good thing that I keep noticing-- the story typically starts in the middle of what's happens and we don't always get the proper context.  In this case, the story stars with Robin telling us that there really isn't anyone at his school who likes him, so when Sophie likes him back, it comes as a bit of a surprise to him.  What I failed to comprehend was why Robin Murphy is the one that is targeted when it could easily have been someone else.  Why is a Murphy such a bad thing?  Perhaps this was left out because of the perspective this story is written in, but I feel like a little back story would have helped.

The poetry style of this books makes it a relatively quick read.  So if you have a shortage of time, this would be a good book to read in a two or three hour sitting.

Something else that I didn't really like was how quickly Sophie and Robin fell in love-- there didn't seem to be any courtship at all!-- and I'm not even sure how much of their relationship can qualify as love as much as it does infatuation because there didn't seem to be much talking, just a lot of making out.  I feel like that's a slight towards high school couples.  I say it's a slight because this purely physical relationship doesn't reflect what I see in my school (that isn't to say that it doesn't happen at all, but they aren't a prominent part of my every day school).  The couples I see like to hold hands and keep good conversation.  It's not all about kissing or sex or whatever else makes up a physical relationship.

Another thing that was kind of confusing was when Robin would go to Harvard to sit in on an art class.  He made friends, but he lied about his age and so did another person in his circle of friends.  The whole scenario, while I think could have been a good handful of scenes, felt very incomplete and there was a bit of a disconnect between what was going on with Sophie and what was happening at Harvard.  It felt like a totally different book.

Let's move on to some good things.  I thought that the way some of the poems were formatted was quite clever.  Sonya Sones would create shapes out of words or offset words for emphasis.  My favorite is a poem that is two pages long, but on the second page, there's only one word: alone.  I was absolutely giddy when I saw that.  Admittedly, more giddy that anyone should have been.  I just thought it was so cool!

Generally, this was on okay book.  The characters weren't particularly exceptional and the story itself could have used some reworking as far as the plot and maybe even in the way this story is told.

I give 'What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

Life Updates

Taken February 21, 2012-- Louie was being super cute that day!  He was content to nap on my bed 

for several hours.  They may or may not have had something to do with the treats I was hiding from him...

Hello everyone!

I haven't done much of an impromptu post in quite some time, so I will write this one to update you on my goings-on (if you are interested).

First of all, I have a bazillion reviews that I have to finish writing.  Later I will type and schedule them.  So I've been working on those a lot-- filling up notebooks full of them and making sure I have the proper pictures to accompany the review when it comes time to typing and scheduling them.

I've also been working on a number of videos.  I've uploaded them to YouTube, but I will tell you why I haven't posted them on here.

In fifteen days, I will be on a plane headed to France!  I have my host family, a voltage adapter, and I just have to figure out what presents to bring: something for my host sister, something for the friend that I hosted two summers ago (unfortunately, I will probably not be able to see her because I'm not allowed to leave my host family for even a few hours, so I already need to plan a second trip to France-- I haven't even been there once!), and something else for my other friend whom I've hosted twice now.  I get to stay with her family for another two or three days!  While I'm there, I don't want my blogs to be abandoned, so I've been trying to write and edit everything so that I can schedule them over the roughly three weeks that I will be gone between both of my trips.  Eventually, you will see pictures and video.  I have three memory cards and I'm not afraid to use them!

In other non-blog related news, I have narrowed down my college choice to two and I just have to hear from the colleges about financial aid before I make my final decision.  Two and a half months until graduation!  I'm so ready for this!

I will leave the update at this.  What are you all up to this fine day?  I'm off to go shopping in this wonderful 54 degrees Fahrenheit weather (hopefully warmer!  I heard 60 or 70 this weekend... in Minneapolis).

Have a lovely weekend!

--Jude

Friday!!!

Hello and welcome to Friday!  For once, I'm doing this post on time!

Follow Friday and TGIF is brought to you by Parajunkee and Ginger @ GReads.

Follow Friday

 Have you ever looked at a book's cover and thought, This is going to be horrible! but was instead pleasantly surprised?  Show us the cover and tell us about the book.

I wasn't sure about this book when I picked out this book, the synopsis sounded very intriguing but the cover only got me mildly interested.  While I was listening to it, I realized just how amazing it was and now I really think that everyone should read it sometime in their lives.  It's very relatable and it'll appeal to the young and the old.  It's about a girl that is bigger than the stereotypical girl.  she looks nothing like her parents, but she isn't adopted.  She is essentially alienated by her parents because she isn't the daughter they wanted her to be-- beautiful and trim.  She ends up being a successful English teacher, but her success is lost on her parents who tell her that she needs to grow up and get a "real job."  This book is about a woman who learns to love herself-- who she is and who she wants to be-- and to let others love her.  It's beautiful.

TGIF

Promote and Author: Is there a particular author that you wish got more recognition?  Pick one author and tell  us why we should read their work.

Mr. David Levithan!  I think he's getting a little more attention now, but not the kind of attention that J.K. Rowling and Anne Rice get.  He writes brilliant work-- "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," which he co-wrote with Rachel Cohn and "Will Grayson, Will Grayson," co-written with John Green.  He also wrote "The Lover's Dictionary," which I have reviewed here.  He writes a lot of romantic literature, but not raunchy romantic literture.  It's beautiful and it's about teens of all different backgrounds.  He's just a lovely writer!

Feel free to leave a comment below with your web address and I will try my best to stop by and pay you a visit!  Have a lovely weekend!

--Jude

A Review of 'The Weight of the Sky' by Lisa Ann Sandell

"Sarah, like every-college bound junior, deals with constant pressure from her teachers, friends, and parents.  And on top of that, there's the isolation of being a marching band geek and the only Jew in her class.  So when the change to spend the summer working on a kibbutz in Israel comes her way, Sarah jumps at the opportunity to escape her world.  No one in Israel know anything about her, and from the moment she arrives, Sarah joyfully starts shedding the weight of her past.


But living in Israel brings new and very real complications, and when the idyllic life Sarah creates for herself is shattered in an instant, she finds herself longing for the home she though she'd outgrown.


Lisa Ann Sandell's lyrical debut novel beautifully captures the experience of leaving behind a life that's too small, and the freedom that comes from starting over."

I love books that relate to travel!  Israel certainly wasn't one of the places that I expected to desire to visit.  One thing that I really liked about this book was that it gave a more positive view on a place that has always seemed so violent, no matter how much background knowledge you had.

As far as characters go, it didn't really feel like they had a purpose or a mission to them.  If they did, it never lasted very long.  Sarah had a mission to get to the kibbutz  She completed this in three or four chapters.  She was on a mission to be accepted by her peers.  That was two or three chapters later.  You could never tell what was on the mind of Nadav.  The girls, including Katie, were pretty flat from the beginning.

As far as other elements go, the romance felt very thrown in.  It was there, but the characters didn't seem to know what to do with it.  The boys would sometimes begin to talk about being in the army, but it never got much farther or more elaborate than, 'It was fun, but sometimes we had to fight.'  After that, they would cut themselves short.

The end was a little confusing to me.  Sarah figures out what she wants to do and where she wants to go after high school, but her mother refuses to accept this decision.  Ordinarily, this wouldn't have been so confusing, but Sarah never really explained her parents.  She mentions that her parents want her to go to an Ivy League school, but she never explained or delved into how adamant they were about this.  So when her mother blew a gasket at the end when she announced that she was going to Hebrew University in Jerusalem, it came as a complete surprise to me.

The poetry style of this book made it a quick read-- I was able to read 292 pages over the course of roughly three hours.  It was lovely to be able to take an afternoon and just read.  I can't imagine reading this book in anything but one sitting.  The setting sucks you in and never lets you go.  Sarah's narration is thoughtful and it really adds a lot to what readers are supposed to be envisioning.  It's not just a play-by-play.

Often, this book would touch on themes like religion and coming of age, but it was never enough information to make you think that certain parts fit it.  Had they been developed more, this would have been a very effective novel.

Overall, this book was good for those who long to travel, but falls short on more other accounts.

I give 'The Weight of the Sky':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

A Review of 'Lucky' by Alice Sebold

"In a memoir hailed for its searing candor and wit, Alice Sebold reveals how her life was utterly transformed when, as an eighteen-year-old college freshman, she was brutally raped and beaten in a park near campus.  What propels this chronicle of her recovery is Sebold's indomitable spirit-- as she struggles for understanding ('After telling the hard facts to anyone, from lover to friend, I have changed in their eyes'); as her dazed family and friends sometimes bungle their efforts to provide comfort and support; and as, ultimately, she triumphs, managing through grit and coincidence to help secure her attacker's arrest and conviction.  In a narrative by turns disturbing, thrilling, and inspiring, Alice Sebold illuminates the experience of trauma victims even as she imports wisdom profoundly hard-won: 'You save yourself or you remain unsaved.'


This book was a difficult read.  The writing was lovely, the descriptions, while not entirely over-powering, are very vivid.  These qualities are great to have in any book, but it makes a true story about rape incredibly difficult to get through.  While reading the scene of the rape (which happens right away, like, within the first page or two), I had to put the book down and just stare and breathe.  Any book that provokes a reaction like that is worth reading, no matter how hard.  It was a lot to take in and at times, it became too much.

'Lucky' isn't a book that you can approach as I did.  You have to know what you're walking into.  It's a book about rape and Alice Sebold is imploring you to listen and listen carefully.  It's not a book that you just skip into a room to find and joyfully pick up because you're bored.  No.  It's necessary to be in the mindset and be a little mentally prepared for what you might come across.

Perhaps I'm exaggerating.  My point is, this isn't light reading even if the book itself is pretty average-sized.

I was surprised to learn that there aren't many rape cases that make it to court.  To me, it just seemed like something necessary to do if you told someone right away, but that's not the case.  The whole while Alice was in court I was rooting for her, but I was equally frustrated with some of the dumb questions she was asked.  It just seemed like justice was actively working against her and it made me sick to my stomach.

I thought it was a good idea that she included the part about her friend being raped a year or so after Alice.  It showed a contrast and a more typical treatment of rape cases.  I'm sad that there is little that could be done for her.

Alice Sebold spoke some about identity after rape and I thought that that was important to touch on too.  In my mind, that was one of the bigger things affected.

The ending was a little clouded to me.  Alice Sebold sank into almost desperate circumstances, but it seemed to end rather abruptly, which was a little disconcerting.

Overall, this was a decent, though very difficult, read.  I would not recommend it to readers as young as middle school until they are mature enough to handle the beginning part in particular.

I give 'Lucky':

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

Friday Memes

Welcome to Friday!  Let's get right to the questions.

TGIF and Friday Follow is brought to you by Ginger @ GReads and Parajunkee.

TGIF

Book Moments: What has been your favorite moment (scene) in a book that you've read so far in 2012?  Please be kind and not include spoilers.

I think that my favorite moment in a book is from Your Voice in my Head by Emma Forrest:

"When it happens," he asks me, "what will get you through?"

"Friends who love me."

"And if your friends weren't there?"

"Music through headphones."

"And if the music stopped?"

"A sermon by Rabbi Wolpe."

"If there was no religion?"

"The mountains and the sky."

"If you leave California?"

"Numbered streets to keep me walking."

"If New York falls into the ocean?"

Your voice in my head.

--Page 193-194

For me, it's a very hopeful place in the book.  Emma is determined to get better and this just shows that she's not going to let anything stop her.  There will always be something for her to stick around for, however complex or simplistic.

Follow Friday

What book would you love to see made into a movie or television show and do you have actors/actresses in mind to play the main characters?

I would love to see 'Elsewhere' and 'The Fault in Our Stars' made into a movie.  I think 'The Fault in Our Stars' as a prospective movie makes me more nervous than 'Elsewhere,' although those are two of my favorite books of all time so far.  I haven't really thought about who would play the main characters though.  Whenever I sit down and think about that, adequate just isn't good enough.  There's no one perfect out there. I'd be terrible at casting shows of any sort.

What are your answers to these questions?  Leave a comment with your web address below and I'll try my best to drop by for a visit this weekend!

Thanks for reading!

--Jude

Movie Time! 'Star Wars Episode1: The Phantom Menace'

"In this Star Wars prequel, jedi Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) must protect Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) from the evil clutches of Darth Sidious and Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).  Along the way, they meet Anakikn Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), a child who shows intimations of a great gift.  Terence Stamp and Samuel L. Jackson so-star amid spectacular CGI scenery in director George Lucas's sci-fi epic."

To be honest, before I started the movie, I wasn't expecting to see a very good movie.  But I pressed on because I've grown up with the original three Star Wars movies, not to mention that I have seen the two most recent prequels (not including any of the cartoon versions).  But I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this was a decent movie.  The light-saber fights were exciting (I love Darth Maul's two-handed light-saber.  It's pretty ingenious) and the Pod-Racing caused a bit of an adrenaline rush in me as I watched it.  I kept getting scared that little Anakin Skywalker was going to take a wrong turn and impale himself on a mountain on Tatooine.

Amidala's costumes were beautiful in a really strange and flashy way.  That's one thing that I've always loved about the Star Wars movies.  That and the hair of the women.  I wonder how much hairspray and/or false hair was involved in the most unique hairstyles.

I wish that there had been more action from Qui-Gon.  He seemed to act as the wise man until the end and then all of that just... stopped.  Qui-Gon was the Legolas of the Jedi.  He totally deserves a bigger part in the series.

Compared with the other Star Wars films, this isn't the greatest one, but it was still a great film to set up everything that comes afterwards and it will not disappoint.

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

P.S. Jake Lloyd is freaking adorable in this movie!  I want him to be my little brother.