[015] 84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

What The Back of the Book Has to Say: 

"This book is the very simple story of the love affair between Miss Helene Hanff of New York and Messrs Marks and Co, sellers of rare and secondhand books, at 84 Charing Cross Road, London. It is an unmitigated delight from cover to cover." 

-Daily Telegraph

Why I Picked It Up:

Combination of ideal purse size, something seemingly light after grabbing a few 'classics' and my recent wave of affection and nostalgia for London

What I Think: 

Now, I'm the kind of person that normally goes into a book happily not knowing anything about the plot. I would rather have it gradually unveiled to me as I read than have assumptions running around in my head, the reading becoming just a sort of strange wait for what I assume is going to happen. In 99.9% of cases, I would recommend going into a book with only what the the front and back cover offer you. This, however, only holds true if you actually pay attention to what the covers are trying to tell you.

To be honest, Charing Cross is not so much a novel as a collection of letters written between Helene Hanff of New York and a small, secondhand bookshop in London over a period of twenty years. Through the fifties and the sixties, despite never meeting in person, Helene becomes the shop's most popular customer. She corresponds not only with Frank Doels, the original bookseller to write back, but with the secretary, Frank's wife, and even an adorable old woman that lives nearby. 

Through their letters, we see the various inhabitants of this world deal with world wars, rationing, the strange early sixties and various other historical occurrences that affected daily life. It's a window into the past, as well as a window into a strange, epistolary relationship. The end comes abruptly, as surely the end to the correspondence came in real life, but overall the book is a journey that starts from nowhere and ends up a strangely deep bond you can feel through the printed words.

The one thing I didn't manage to pick up from some very obvious hints the covers were trying to give was that this book is, in fact, nonfiction. Helene Hanff was a real struggling writer in New York and Frank Doels a real bookseller in (what I assume to be) an adorable little bookstore in London. All the letters are real, collected after the fact and published originally in the seventies. How I missed all this, I'm not entirely sure. You'd think I would pick up on the fact that one of the main characters has the exact same name as the author, at least. Sometimes I can be really slow about obvious things.

The most embarrassing fact of this whole misunderstanding is that I found myself judging character development in a publication of collected letters. I was thinking things like "wow, the author is really pushing this characterization" or "definitely trying way too hard to create a situation." All the while, this being completely factual accounts. How embarrassing.

My edition of the novel actually included a second piece. After reading the letters, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street (an included diary of Ms. Hanff's she kept during a later promotional tour of London) manages to be both funny and strangely poignant. It's really easy to fall into the emotions of Ms. Hanff as she finally discovered the world she had come so close to years and years before. She becomes a local celebrity and she can't really believe her luck. At the same time, though, there is this strange sensation that it's all too little, too late-- that she somehow missed her moment. The mix of melancholy and joy create an interesting mood, especially knowing that this, too, is a published diary account.

The novel is a very quick read-- I think it only took me about a day. Epistolary novels always tend to be rather quick. It's definitely worth reading, though. If you're someone who loves books, if you're someone who loves relationships, if you're someone who loves England or New York, you will love this book. 

[014] Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

What the Back of the Book Has to Say:

In this parable of commitment, loneliness, hope and loss John Steinbeck has created a powerful and moving portrayal of two men striving to understand their own unique place in the world. Clinging to each other in their loneliness and alienation, George and his simple-minded friend Lennie dream, as drifters will, of a place to call their own. Eventually they find work on a ranch in the Salinas Valley. Yet their hopes are doomed as Lennie, struggling against extreme cruelty, misunderstand and feelings of jealousy, becomes a victim of his own strength.

Why I Picked It Up:

Another in the series of 'classics I have yet to actually read.'

What I Think: 

Of Mice and Men is another one of those books that, even if you've never read it, it's enough in society's consciousness that you basically know what happens anyway. Man and his friend who is rather simple travel the West in search of employment during the 1930s. Despite their strong friendship, there is a tragic event and George has to make a tough choice. You either read it in high school or your best friend did and complained about it to you (I was the latter). 

To be honest, after I finished the last page of the book, I set it back into my purse and blinked. All I could think was "....this is it? This is the quintessential high school novel? No wonder my class skipped it." 

Now, I'm not trying to make an overall judgment on Steinbeck with this. No one is saying that the overall plot is flawed. The main theme of the book, of a man having to make the ultimate decision in perhaps one of the hardest eras of American history, is very tragic and rings true when you read the ending. The last ten or so pages are very powerful. However, the way the book meanders to get there, how incredibly short it is and just it's overall composition left me completely underwhelmed.

This may, in fact, be partly my fault. I admit that I am extremely prejudiced against "American classic fiction". I know this is vaguely blasphemous as I am American myself but I cannot think of a single American novel regarded as a "classic" that I have ever enjoyed. I don't even like our original poets (don't even get me started on Whitman) but then again, I'm not a big poetry person. 

Of Mice and Men, unfortunately, fulfills every stereotype I have of a typical American classic: hard lives on farms with lots of regional accents and brown. This is my mental image when I think of American literature and this is everything that Steinbeck's novel is. I understand that that was the situation that he was writing in, that this was published in 1937 during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era but, quite frankly, it has just never been my cup of tea.

I also cannot stand when authors write in a dialect. While I understand that it is part of character formation, I can stand it for awhile but a whole novel of characters speaking in dialect just gets on my nerves. It's like reading in a bizarre code, making you pay more attention but also making you really wish the characters would just shut up. They say that only really great writers can write in dialect and have it work. To be honest, I have yet to read a novel where I appreciated writing in accents. We'll see if it shall ever happen. 

The characters in Of Mice and Men are intriguing, to be sure, and very intelligent creations in their own right. The only problem is that the novel is so short that I hardly felt like I'd experienced anything when it ended. I never got a chance to really care about any of them so it made the tragic ending a little less painful. Of course, while writing this paragraph I've thought up several reasons why Steinbeck would choose to keep their histories and personalities more vague (a comment on the coming and going of the times, on the low value of human life, or simply making it a more everyman tale) but I'm going to stick with my first impression. 

All in all, I can understand why this book is taught in high school. It is a good introduction into literary analysis and character study. However, I do not see why it would be read outside of the ninth grade. This seems like a book that should be taught and not read.

[013] Death in Venice - Thomas Mann

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

What the Back of the Book Has to Say:

Death in Venice tells how on a visit to Venice the writer Gustav von Aschenback encounters a young boy by whose beauty he becomes obsessed. Bewitched and agonized, he desires to please ...

Using the stifling atmosphere of Venice to heighten the unbearable sense of oppression, Thomas Mann has created a sensitive and haunting portrayal of blind passion.

Why I Picked It Up:

Although (to be honest) I had never heard of it before, it looked like a book I should read, perhaps one of those classics I was trying to discover. It was also thin and did you read that back cover? Sounds super interesting. Or weird.

What I Think:

Despite the image I try to perpetuate about myself, there is one deep dark secret I hold, something that should never be uttered as an English major: I think most of the "classics" tend to be rather boring. 

I think, deep down, a lot of English majors probably agree with me; I know A does. Of course, after I read a few essays on them or discuss them in a large group, I usually come to at least respect the novel, if not actually see the good points and kind of like it. However, on my first read-through, there is a good chance I'll shrug it off with a "meh." 

In my defense, there are a lot of classics that I do adore and loved upon first read (A Tale of Two Cities comes to mind) but there is also an alarming number (in my mind, at least) that did not pass muster. This short story, as I don't think it's long enough to be even a novella, belongs to the second group.

Venice tells the tale of an old author who goes to Venice on a spur of the moment vacation. While on this trip, he encounters a young boy in his hotel that he becomes fixated on. Although they only interact fleetingly, his entire viewpoint becomes centered on this boy and while Venice slowly comes to pieces around him, he contemplates his life in relation to what he idealizes this boy to be. 

Regardless of whether you consider it a good or bad story, it is most definitely interesting, in plot at least. The idea of this old man forming a connection, if one-sided, to a young boy which throws his life into disarray, is a stunning image. When I think about it, I picture an old man in the foreground, perhaps sitting on a chair, watching an young boy in one of those 1900s bathing suits prancing on the beach. It is a fantastic visual.

The only problem, for me at least, is that there doesn't seem to be much story connected to the idea. I couldn't really tell you much of the actual plot because I seem to have forgotten it. I remember the writer and the boy, I remember the slow descent of death upon Venice but I don't remember anything anyone actually did. This is a bad sign. 

There is an amazing amount of symbolism in this story. So much so, in fact, that sometimes I felt more like I was reading a parable than a story, something I didn't want. Now, I take my symbolism with a grain of salt, normally. It's in every book and sometimes it's interesting and sometimes it's over the top but for the most part, it's easy to get past or focus on, depending on which you feel like. There was too much to wade past in this story which was annoying enough. It became even more annoying once I looked up some essays and notes on the story after finishing.

This story is sort of autobiographical. The author actually went on vacation to Venice around the same time as the fictional author and did, indeed, stay at a hotel (with his wife!) that was also attended by a family with a young boy with a strikingly similar name to the main boy in Venice. In fact, researchers managed to track down who the boy was and shared with him the story, based vaguely on him, when he was older. He was only eleven at the time of the Venetian vacation.

Finding out that the story was semi-autobiographical makes the symbolism even more aggravating to me. I don't mind symbolism when everything is fictional but I hate when people try to make facts into symbols. I appreciate what the author was trying to do but it always turns me off when I can go "or the man just happened to have red hair and you remembered it like that." Not very English major-y of me, I admit but I am a human with limits.

I think I will end this review with one of the bullet points I have in my notes. I take notes after I finish books in case I can't write the review right away (I'm writing this one about three months after finishing the book) and sometimes I think my bullet points are wittier than these blog entries are. In any case, I think this quote sums all my feelings up perfectly:

"No sympathy for any characters, if you can call them that. Reading it is like knowing something big and dramatic is going on but not really knowing what or caring."

Agreed, Past!Molly. Agreed.

[012] The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

What the Back of the Book Has to Say:

"Imagine a medieval castle run by the Benedictines, with cellarists, herbalists, gardeners, young novices. One after the other half a dozen monks are found murdered in the most bizarre of ways. A learned Franciscan who is sent to solve the mystery finds himself involved in the frightening events ... a sleuth's pursuit of the truth behind the mystery also involes the pursuit of meaning - in words, symbols, ideas, every conceivable sign the visible universe contains ... Umberto Eco has written a novel - his first - and it has become a literary event." 

-New York Times Book Review

Why I Picked It Up:

I had read some of Eco's theory papers last year and had grown to like him. Surely his fiction would be easier to read, though?

What I Think:

The reason I picked up this book has become some sort of strange paradox in my mind. My senior year of college I took English 170 (Problems in Literary Theory), perhaps the hardest class I have ever taken in my life, and my professor had centered the class on Medieval literature. That is how I met dear Mr. Eco. The very first theory paper we read was one of his and although my classmates got rather annoyed with it very quickly, I actually really enjoyed it and proceeded to write my first paper for that class based on his theory's differences to another theorist's ("Thinking Outside the Box: The Rift between Eco and Dinshaw"). I did rather well on that paper and thus, a love for Umberto was born. True story: I even dressed as him for our Halloween class for extra credit. Because that is how cool English majors at my college were. And that's not sarcasm; we actually really enjoyed ourselves.

So, when I was perusing the shelves one day, my eyes alighted on the bright gold name of Umberto Eco. After reading the back, I could only think "Eco? Monk murder mystery? Sounds amazing!" and happily checked it out. 

At this point, I think I should mention what it was that annoyed all of my classmates so much in Eco's theory paper. One flaw that Eco indeed has is that he thinks (and rightly so) that he's smarter than everyone. He knows everything about everything, whether it be religious, theoretical, philosophic. Seriously, just look at his Wikipedia and see how many different types of things he's done in his life. This man is a genius and he knows it. As such, he enjoys throwing in references and information without explaining anything. Because, if you don't understand the reference, than you really shouldn't be reading his work in the first place. 

That was really rather apparent in Rose. There were so many things going on at any given time but, at the same, really nothing much happened. The basic plot is of a young novice monk, Adso, travelling with his mentor, William of Baskerville. They are sent to a monastery that is very soon to be host to an important religious debate in order to investigate a series of murders, as William is kind of the church's top detective, so to speak. They meet all different personalities of monks and others around monastery as the murders continue, taking one man of faith after the other without so much as a clue as to what is going on. 

Now, that all sounds very interesting, in my opinion. The problem is that Eco knows so much about all of the medieval history that this story is so grounded in that he goes off on tangents about major historical events and issues of the time, the kind of throwaway facts that are not typical stored information in a normal reader's head. Whole paragraphs might be written in Greek or Latin. There are lots of references to the Great Schism and other various fourteenth century Catholic historical events. If you don't know the littlest about these, then you're kind of screwed.

The plot itself is rather interesting. I'm a big fan of mysteries and the way he weaves the tale of murder, revenge and scholarship is very fascinating. There are even some good action sequences, something I'm not usually a huge fan of. Adso, the novice who is our narrator for this story, is a bit of a wet blanket (even if he does have a crisis of sexuality at one point) but William is a great, dynamic character who really pulls the story forward. 

And thus, we return to why I feel reading this story was a paradox. I wouldn't have understood probably 80% of this novel had I not taken English 170. However, I probably wouldn't have picked it up in the first place if I hadn't met Eco originally in that class. It's a strange, self-sustaining paradox. All in all, I'm happy I read it and enjoyed the plot itself. It just tends to get bogged down in pages and pages of philosophy and extraneous details that can be hard to muddle through. 

On a side note, apparently it was made into a movie staring Sean Connery at some point. I have not seen the movie, but if they took out a lot of the deep philosophy and historical details, it could be pretty exciting. Plus, you know, it's Sean Connery...

[011] Lord of the Flies - William Golding

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

What the Back of the Book Has to Say:

At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate. This far from civilization they can do anything they want. Anything.

But as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far removed from reality as the hope of being rescued.

Why I Picked It Up:

This is the first in what will become a recurring series: classic books that I never actually read in school

What I Think: 

Lord of the Flies is one of those books that everyone has read. Even if you haven't actually sat down to read it, you've probably seen the movie or, at the very least, you know the basic plot: boys crash on a desert island, slowly go crazy, become savages. It's Hobbes's theory of the nature of mankind played out in a fictional parable. It's also, I've discovered, widely exaggerated.

Now, I'm beginning to wonder how many people in the world have actually read this novel. I went into it thinking that I knew exactly what was going to happen but, upon reading the last few pages, I discovered that my idea of the plot was more savage than what had actually happened in the book. In my mind, the boys became savages and cannibals. I very surely had it fixed in my mind that they ate Piggy. I don't know where that idea came from originally, but upon talking to A over Skype after finishing the book and relaying the story, she said "But they do." And she had read the book before. No cannibalism appears in the story but it seems that most of the world somehow got it in their minds that it happened. 

Maybe that's just more proof that this story is a classic: everyone thinks they know it and somehow embellishments have become some kind of warped canon that doesn't actually exist. Or maybe it's just a view into the minds of man and how they view this fable about boys returning to their most natural forms--it becomes something much more terrifying than it truly is. This isn't to say that terrible things don't occur in Lord of the Flies because they do, but it says something about society that we all seem to think they cross that last taboo.

The book itself is marvelous. It took me about ninety or so pages to really get into the plot but it quickly became a page turner. I don't think I could really summarize it any better than the back of the book did itself so I won't even try. All of the characters are fairly obvious tropes and personifications but they have enough individual personality that, despite knowing that Ralph stands for civilization, you still like Ralph as a person and that's a hard barrier to overcome in other works (I'm looking at you, Pilgrim's Progress). 

Of course, the symbolism is rather heavy handed but considering how often this book is taught in high school, it was honestly expected. However, despite the sometimes "hit you over the head with it" imagery, it was bearable to wade through. The story was interesting and exciting enough to stand on its own and pull you through.

I read the last four or so pages of the novel standing on the platform waiting for my train home after work one day and I admit that I was a little misty-eyed when I closed the book. I had never heard how the story ended, despite all I thought I knew about the plot, and the last few images the novel wove on that forlorn beach must have touched something I hadn't even realized. Despite being well known and almost cliche in modern society, there is something deeper in this book that hits on aspects of the human spirit and I don't think it would hurt, if you have some extra time on your hands, to sit down and give it a read-through. Just to see what you think.

[010] Ever After - Wendy Loggia

Ever After by Wendy Loggia

What the Back of the Book Has to Say:

By the time Danielle is eight years old, her mother and father have died and she has been left in the care of her new stepmother, the Baroness Rodmilla of Ghent. Twelve years later, the baroness and her two daughters have made Danielle their servant, giving her the nickname Cindersoot and order her everyday to chop firewood, tend the grounds and clean the manor house.

When Prince Henry of France begins a search for a wife, the baroness intends to make sure her beautiful daughter Marguerite becomes his bride. But when Danielle and the prince meet by chance one day, sparks fly. The baroness will do everything within her power to keep her servant from becoming the Queen of France.

Based on the classic story of Cinderella by Charles Penault, Ever After is a historical romance that is certain to charm and delight modern readers.

Why I Picked It Up:

I honestly don't know.

What I Think:

Now, I can't say that I normally read novelizations of movies. It's a very strange genre of book. It's not quite a book because it is very obviously drawing upon another source and usually, if you're reading it in the first place, it's because you saw the movie. While some might see this as a drawback, I do have to say that there is one nice thing about them, one advantage that they have by simply being what they are. 

The novelization can draw upon a reader's prior knowledge of the plot and leave a lot of obvious information by the wayside to dig deeper. The reader knows who the characters are and why they're doing what they're doing; what they maybe don't know is what's driving a character, what their inner dialogue is during key points of the plot. This is a chance to make the movie more into a fleshed out story instead of a screenplay. 

Ever After did not do any of this.

The movie Ever After, if you aren't aware, is a historical romance retelling of the Cinderella story. The heroine is a plucky girl named Danielle (played by Drew Barrymore) who is an orphan living with her stepmother and two stepsisters who treat her like a servant. Despite all this, however, she tries to live happily, making friends with the servants, going into town, and eventually accidently meeting the prince and pretending to be a gentlewoman so she can continue hanging out with him. Leonardo Da Vinci is even a side character in all this tomfoolery and I could honestly not tell you why. 

The novel was a basic retelling of the story with lines lifted directly from the movie. After checking the Amazon reviews (always a hilarious thing to do with bad books), I found that, apparently, a lot of lines had been changed but to some sort of oddly worse interpretation. I didn't think that was possible. 

The author is a romance novelist for teens and it shows. Now, to be fair, I know I'm not really the target audience of this book but give a girl a break: even at thirteen, I think I would know drivel when I read it. The whole point of the movie is that it's a more modernist perspective on Cinderella, where Danielle is a stronger character and a personality to play off of the prince, rather than just wait for him to show up with a shoe. This is all thrown by the wayside in the novel, where Danielle is entranced by his dreamy looks, even if she does discuss a little bit of politics and Thomas More with him. 

The story is virtually identical in the movie (as, I suppose, it should be) so if you liked the movie, then you will probably not mind this book. It's a quick read; I think I read it in a day, on the train to work and then home again. If you're looking for something to take up an afternoon, then this could easily be it.

To be honest, I'm a little disappointed in myself. I loved this movie the first time I saw it when I was eleven. I watched it again at nineteen and realized that it was kind of crap. For some reason, however, I saw it at the library and thought "Oh, this could be good." I don't like the movie. Why did I pick it up? 

[009] The Reaper - Peter Lovesey

The Reaper by Peter Lovesey

What the Back of the Book Has to Say:

A dark delicious tale of a handsome and popular village cleric who has no conscience.

Why I Picked It Up:

I'd seen it at the library a few times. It was purse-sized and didn't look too long. No intense interest but it could be good.

What I Think:

I had absolutely no idea what to expect going into this novel. The back of the book is a single sentence, for crying out loud. I thought it was maybe going to take place in the Middle Ages and maybe there would be some murder or something. I didn't know but I figured it couldn't be horrible.

I came out of it completely, head-over-heels in love with this book.

Now, right from the get go, you know that our "hero", the vicar Otis Joy, is a horrible man. This is established from pretty much the first sentence of the novel. He's young and charming and the congregation loves him but he's also a thief and a murderer (and that's only in the first chapter). However, despite knowing all that before you even get to know the character, somehow you are still rooting for him the entire book which is quite an accomplishment for an author.

Lovesey has created this small, modern-day village in rural England, full of gossip and bake sales and a society centered around their little Sunday services. It's all very real, all the people seeming to jump off the page to talk to you about Elaine's son or that awful Colin. Added to the mix, though, is murder and mayhem and underhandedness. Joy's plans seem to keep going awry and he has to go farther and farther into the pit he's dug for himself. 

I keep seeing this book categorized as a mystery and I don't know if I quite agree with that. I know that Lovesey is a mystery writer and thus, I understand the temptation but I think I would call this book a thriller. A mystery implies that there are circumstances that one doesn't know the truth behind and that's never quite true in this novel. You always know who exactly it is that is behind each crime (even if it may take about ten pages to reveal itself). There is some mystery solving going on, by two of the most obnoxious characters in the book, determined to pin every crime in the village on the beloved vicar (and quite right they are to do it). But they are repugnant people and no one in the village listens to them.

There's thrills and questions and twists and turns. There is a character introduced fairly early on, Rachel, who you are never quite sure what to think of. She's definitely one of the best characters in the novel. Finding out what role she plays in all this, finding out about Otis Joy's devious past, watching horrific crime after horrific crime getting committed and all along, hoping that Joy's deeds are not going to catch up with him are all part of the ride.

This book is thrilling, darkly hilarious and always entertaining. I cannot recommend it highly enough. If you read one book I review on this entire website, it should be this one.