Post: Abridge too Far (har har har)

poster advertising an illustrated edition, via

Post by Christina

Sooooo.  If you've been reading all the way to the bottom of my last couple of reviews, you may have noticed that I'm chipping away at one of the mightiest of the classics: Les Misérables.  My book club selected it for this month in anticipation of the forthcoming movie, and I definitely wouldn't have picked it up without that external motivation.  Here's why: it is LONG.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, people who love to read are supposed to laugh in the face of all those finely-printed pages, especially when it's a beloved classic we're talking about.  It's wonderful to be able to soak in an author's style and really live with the characters and be in their world for a month or so.  And generally I do love being fully engaged in a long book.  I just have trouble working up the willpower to get to that place when I've got 50 bzillion other shorter, easier books waiting on my shelf.  So what can I do to get myself up to speed on a classic without committing to a huge endeavor?

Should I... gasp... read an abridged version?

I suppose it's time to admit it:  I'm reading an abridgment of Les Mis.  Please don't tell me what a travesty this is- I have a finely tuned sense of bookish guilt about it already.  And, in my defense, I did choose my edition carefully.  It's the Barnes & Noble Classics edition, the original 1862 English translation by C.E. Wilbur, edited and abridged by Laurence M. Porter.  Here's what I like: Mr. Porter's fairly involved introduction gives plenty of historical and author biographical context as well as mentioning a few themes to look out for.  His notes are useful (though I wish there were more of them) and- this is the important thing- he summarizes the abridged sections.  So I know what I'm missing.  And it's still 800+ pages, so curious onlookers probably won't guess that it's an abridgment; I can hang on to a little of my pride while also skipping 400 likely boring pages.

When I went to pick up my copy of Les Mis, I almost traded it for a similarly-priced unabridged edition that had no introduction, no notes, no mention even of who had translated it from French.  I was tempted to buy it because I wanted to have the satisfaction of having read the full text.  But I know it wouldn't have meant nearly as much to me without some at least semi-scholarly commentary.  So here's my question: is it better to read a marginally respectable abridgment or an unedited mass market complete text?

Tell me now: what has been your experience with abridgments?  Should I be ashamed for choosing a bastardization of The Great French Novel of the 19th Century?  Are there certain classics that you would recommend only in a certain form, whether abridged or unabridged?  Have you read both versions of any one novel?

Downton Abbey and Gone with the Wind

Posted by Connie

How many of you are addicted to Masterpiece Classic's award-winning series, Downton Abbey? I know I'm not the only one. It ensnared us last season with the very first episode, when the sinking of the Titanic left a noble English abbey without a direct heir (as the current Lord Crawley has only -- gasp! -- three daughters, who cannot inherit).

This past Sunday began season two, bringing the residents of Downton Abbey as well as the rest of England into World War I, and there is no character that remains untouched by the trenches.

As I have been watching this recently, I cannot help but compare it to one of my favorite books (even if Chioma didn't like it), Gone With the Wind. Both illustrate the effects of war and chronicle the end of an era by following one previously privileged family, allowing the reader or viewer to experience the changes more personally.

In Gone with the Wind, the O'Haras are rich, slave-owning plantation owners in Georgia. At the beginning of the novel, at the very end of the Southern Aristocracy's rule, Scarlett and her sister think only of what balls to attend and how many beaux they can acquire.

Similarly, Downton Abbey begins with the wealthy, aristocratic Crawley family, whose three daughters' primary concerns involve marriage and maintaining their wealth after their father's future passing. In place of slaves, Lord Crawley's family employs an entire staff of servants, who live separately in another part of the house and work night and day to maintain the status and respectability of the abbey and its family.

I think it can easily be argued that both have very similar themes. Both demonstrate a love for the land that will eventually die out in both societies. Gerald O'Hara constantly expresses his love for Tara plantation, which Scarlett does not originally understand, though she comes to feel the same love later. Lord Crawley loves Downton Abbey so much that he is unwilling to pursue legal actions to separate his wife's money from his, because he fears that the land will be split in the process.

Both also investigate the social changes that accompany their respective wars, particularly through the slaves and servants. In Gone With the Wind, when the war begins and the slaves are freed, we see the field hands abandon Tara without any attachment, while the house servants stay with the family out of loyalty. You see a similar tension in Downton Abbey. The higher status servants, so to speak, such as the head butler, Carson, and the housekeeper, Mrs. Hughes, are fiercely loyal to the Crawleys. The younger and lesser status servants, however, such as the maids and footmen, are happy to leave for other jobs and openly talk about being equal to the aristocracy.

We come at last to our heroines. I can't help but see the similarities between Mary Crawley, the eldest of the Crawley daughters, and Scarlett O'Hara. For Mary, especially in season one, life is a game of attracting the richest and most desirable man. She flits from beau to beau on a whim, and she even steals a suitor from her less attractive younger sister, just as Scarlett O'Hara steals Frank Kennedy from Suellen. Both are beautiful and privileged, driven by pride and a desire to maintain their status of living.

They are foolish and selfish, and both fail to recognize until too late that the man she loves is not the man she had always fantasized about, but rather the man who is her equal.

There is no sequel to Gone with the Wind, so whether there is hope for Scarlett and Rhett will only ever be left to our imaginations. As for Mary, well, we've only just started season two.

Guest Post: African Fiction

Today we are delighted to have a guest post from Christina's friend Leslie! Leslie has been a law librarian for three years, but she has been addicted to all things Sub-Saharan African dating back over ten years to four fantastic months she spent in East Africa. In fact, she just returned from two wonderful weeks in South Africa (you can read about her trip and see pictures on her blog). So when Christina offered her the opportunity to share some of her favorite African fiction with you, she jumped at the chance.

I am a Southerner, and I grew up pretty convinced that no other region could rival the Southern knack for stories. With all due respect to Eudora Welty, I was wrong. In college, when I was more thoroughly introduced to African fiction, I reassessed my traditional Southern bias and realized that when it comes to brilliant storytelling, writers from the African continent have a tremendous amount to offer. After all, they have a tremendous amount of writing material: colonial legacies; shifting alliances; corrupt leaders and political struggles for power; tradition wrestling with modernity; gender roles and feminism; rapidly changing social structures; beautiful landscapes; all combined with a wonderful tradition of meaningful storytelling as a way of communicating knowledge across generations.

In compiling a list of my favorite African fiction works, a few caveats and criteria: First, the writer has to be African. This means that they must have been born in Sub-Saharan Africa and be a citizen or national of an African country. I know, I love Out of Africa too. If it hadn’t been for Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen, I might never have fallen in love with Africa, but she isn’t an African writer. Second, the book must be fiction, not a memoir or other work of non-fiction. It is my personal opinion that you will soon develop an addiction to Africa by reading these books, and you might then find yourself longing for some African non-fiction and history books to offer up some context. When that happens, please feel free to drop me a line if you are in need of some suggestions for those too! Happy African reading!

1. The Wizard of the Crow, Ngugi wa Thiongo (Kenya): Ngugi is probably my favorite African writer, and it was hard choosing just one of his books. I picked this one because, in addition to being one of his most recent, it is a compelling, simple story that is a perfect allegory for modern African politics. Part mystical fantasy, it showcases the disparate worlds of the powerful and powerless in a fictional African country, that too closely fits the profile of many modern African political states. Also try by this author: A Grain of Wheat, Devil on the Cross.

2. So Long a Letter, Mariama Ba (Senegal): What is so great about African literature is that in spite of the unequal status of women that exists in several African countries, there is no shortage of powerful and strong African women writers. Ba is just one example, and her female protagonists showcase that power and strength can be found in African women despite their treatment as inferiors. In So Long a Letter, Ba (deceased) wrote from the perspective of a woman wronged by her husband’s decision to take a second, much younger wife. The entire book (which is rather short), is written as a letter from the first wife to her husband. There are so many passages in this book that I underlined, highlighted and memorized; I don’t even know where to begin. Ba wrote in French, but the English translation I found was pretty perfect. Also try by this author: Scarlet Song.

3. The Ambiguous Adventure, Cheik Hamidou Kane (Senegal): This book is also a book in translation from the original French, but is a great introduction to how keenly Africans can write about navigating growing up in a world of conflicting cultural expectations. In this coming of age book, the central character must wrestle with his traditional African, Muslim upbringing and the modern world.

4. July’s People, Nadine Gordimer (South Africa): Gordimer wrote this book in 1981 as her prediction of how she believed apartheid would end in South Africa. The central characters, a white family more liberal in their sensitivities than the apartheid government, ultimately must flee their home and seek the protection of their former servant as violence envelops their country. I don’t want to ruin the story, but in particular, the metaphor presented by the family’s gun still gets to me. If you read it (or have read it), I would like to hear your thoughts on it. This book was banned in South Africa when it was published. Interestingly, Gordimer, a member of the African National Congress when it was a banned political organization in South Africa, also had her book banned in some schools in the Gauteng province by the post-apartheid ANC government. The ban was later overturned after an outcry from writers and other people across South Africa. Gordimer’s works are unparalleled in their ability to naturally question the privilege people of European descent in Africa encounter. If you spend any time in Sub-Saharan Africa, you should spend some time ruminating on that unfair privilege, and Gordimer’s books are a great place to start. Also try by this author: Burgher’s Daughter, The House Gun (her first post-apartheid work).

5. Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria): The central character is fifteen-year-old Kambili, daughter of a wealthy, Catholic father, who is subject to his harsh punishments. When political instability breaks out because of a coup, Kambili and her brother are sent to her aunt’s home, where she experiences happier family life. The plot takes off from there, and untangles complicated family relationships set against the transition from youth to adulthood. Also try by this author: Half of a Yellow Sun

6. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe (Nigeria): Achebe is a must if you are really going to tackle with any depth African writing. This is a classic. Also read No Longer at Ease.

7. To Late the Phalarope, Alan Paton (South Africa): Sadly, Paton died before apartheid ended in South Africa. But his work seen as a part of the battle to end apartheid will stand the test of time. Also read Cry, the Beloved Country and Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful.

8. Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangeremba (Zimbabwe): Told from the point of view of a young girl, struggling to attend school and deal with cultural conflicts, this is an unparalleled work of African feminism.

9. The Joys of Motherhood, Buchi Emecheta (Nigeria): The epitome of an African woman writer. Also read The Bride Price.

10. Song for Night, Chris Abani (Nigeria): This novella is written from the point of view of My Luck, forced into the life of a child soldier. It is powerful beyond measure.


On my reading list next:
Maps, Gifts, and Secrets, Nuruddin Farah: The “Blood in the Sun” trilogy by the Somalian author.
Snake Pit: Moses Isegawa (Uganda)
By the Sea and Paradise: Gurnah Abdulrazak (Zanzibar/Tanzania)

Literary Blog Hop: June 22-25

Welcome to the Literary Blog Hop hosted by The Blue Bookcase!

This blog hop is open to blogs that primarily feature book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion.

How do I know if my blog qualifies as "literary"? Literature has many definitions, but for our purposes your blog qualifies as "literary" if it focuses primarily on texts with aesthetic merit. In other words, texts that show quality not only in narrative but also in the effect of their language and structure. YA literature may fit into this category, but if your blog focuses primarily on non-literary YA, fantasy, romance, paranormal romance, or chick lit, you may prefer to join the blog hop at Crazy-for-books that is open to book blogs of all kinds.

Instructions for entering the Literary Blog Hop:

1. Grab the code for the Button.

1. Grab the code for the Button.



<a href="http://www.thebluebookcase.blogspot.com"><img src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y91/IngridLola/LiteraryBlogHop-1.jpg" alt="Literary Blog Hop" width="150" height="150"></a>


2. Answer the following prompt on your blog.
(Suggestions for future prompts? Email to them us at thebluebookcase@gmail.com) 


Should literature have a social, political, or any other type of agenda? Does having a clear agenda enhance or detract from its literary value?


This week's answer comes from Connie:


I chose this question, because I ask it of myself quite frequently. My initial instinct is to answer (a little self-righteously), No, literature is an observation and interpretation of life, and any conscious attempt to incite social or political change taints it.


Examples that immediately come to mind are Charlotte Brontë's hunk of a novel, Jane Eyre. We discussed this in the comments of Meagan's review of A Room of One's Own, but I happen to agree with Virginia Woolf when she says that Brontë's talent was made less by her digressions from the story to bemoan the female cause, like so:

Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags.

These not-so-subtle diatribes have no place in a novel, in my opinion. It interrupts and detracts from the story. So, thinking of Jane Eyre and Brontë's method of executing her agenda (whether I agree with the agenda or not, and I happen to), I am inclined to reassert that literature should NOT have an agenda.


BUT, it is not so simple, my friends. Did you really think it could be? If you remember when I listed my top ten favorite books of all time, I listed George Orwell's 1984 at the top of the list, and Orwell is one of my favorite authors. However, Orwell, a converted communist, openly acknowledges his political agenda in writing both Animal Farm and 1984:

I wanted to kill the "Russian myth:" the myth that the Soviet Union was a working model of what a socialist state would be like. That was nothing but a lie. I wrote a history of the Russian Revolution and called it Animal Farm... 

I also wanted to write a book about a totalitarian future in the real world. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, I tried to dramatize how totalitarianism could take over, even in countries like England which have a long democratic tradition.

These two books contain some unarguably pronounced agendas, and yet, 1984 in particular is one of the most profound and truly frightening commentaries on human nature ever written, not to even speak of the incomparable writing style. 


And then I think of Jane Austen, who used her writing career to subtly express her desire for social change, particularly in regards to women and marriage. 


It seems that many of the canonized works of literature have been written with an agenda, so my original inclination proves false. I must conclude, then, that though literature shouldn't necessarily be written with an agenda, it can still prove excellent literature if and only if it is executed with great skill, enhancing the story rather than detracting from it.


This post is already quite lengthy, which is a shame, because I also wanted to bring up books like Uncle Tom's Cabin or The Jungle, books that, like 1984, have a clear political agenda, but which are of a much lower quality than Orwell's work (Stowe is unbearably sentimental, and Sinclair is painfully verbose). However, they did spark such great societal and political changes, so do the effects of their publication negate their lower quality? A discussion for another day, perhaps :)


All right, it's your turn to weigh in. What do YOU think?
3. Add your link to the Linky List below.Happy Hopping!

*PLEASE NOTE: if you do not answer the question and link back to The Blue Bookcase in a post on your blog, you will be removed from the Linky list.

Post: Whatcha Readin'?

(via. Click to Enlarge.)

Post by Christina

I used to live in Boston, and one of the things I miss most about urban living is reading in public parks and on the T. Now that I live in a smaller city, I have a back yard and I drive my own car everywhere. I rarely have the pleasure of reading in public, and I don't often see other readers out and about with their books. I miss wondering about what other people are reading and wondering if they're also wondering about what I'm reading.

How do you feel about being interrupted by strangers who want to know what you're reading? That's exactly what the authors did for the illustration above. I like that the people they interviewed are giving reviews of books they're still reading- it's not a perspective we often get in the book blogging world, since we all tend to finish a book and then review it. So, if you have a moment, I'd love to hear what you (yes, you) are reading right now, and what you think of it so far.

I'll go first, but I'll be brief since I've already gushed about The Instructions, which I'll be finishing and reviewing soon. I'm on page 639 now, and still loving it. I find Gurion's slang seeping into my thoughts sometimes, and I can't resist calling my baby boy "boychik." (Cutest Yiddish word EVAR!)

So people, whatcha readin'? Do tell!

Post: Are feminism and romance mutually exclusive in literature?

Post by Connie

Warning: This is not your average Valentine's Day post.

It may not have passed your notice that all of the writers here at the Blue Bookcase happen to be women, and if you are truly perceptive, you've probably picked up on the fact that many of us tend to be more than a little opinionated and not at all shy about being equal rights feminists (i.e. we're not bra-burning man-haters; we just wanted to be treated fairly). There, it's said. WHEW.

The elephant of the blog now having been acknowledged, what more perfect topic to address today, the day of sweethearts and candy boxes and roses and love, than the issue of romance plot lines in literature and what that means for women?

Relationship Addiction

Relationship addiction is an affliction addressed by Anne Wilson Schaef in her book, Escape from Intimacy: Untangling the "Love" Addictions: Sex, Romance, Relationships. What a title, eh? As it suggests, Schaef includes chapters on various "love addictions." The one I will be focusing on today is relationship addiction. She says:

Men who are relationship addicts believe they cannot survive without a wife, and women relationship addicts believe they have no identity without a husband...It is absolutely essential to be part of a couple. Persons suffering from this addiction look to the relationship to tell them who they are. They have no concept of establishing an identity of their own, on their own.

Unfortunately, so many female protagonists in literature are relationship addicts of varying levels, and reading about them feeds into women's own relationship addictions.

Level One, Anorexia, includes persons obsessed with relationships; they are obsessed with avoiding them.

A little counter-intuitive, huh? I don't want to spend much time on this one, as it's less common in literature, but books about women who are anti-love, anti-relationship, feed into that same stereotype that love is the controlling motivator for women.

At Level Two, the addict spends much of his or her time in fantasied relationships...The fantasy is in being coupled with another person. There is little content to the fantasy other than the coupledness, the need for the belief that theirs is a relationship.

Your standard plot-line of woman spending all her time thinking about a man, wondering if he could possibly feel the same way. As much as I love Gone With the Wind, the Scarlett/Ashley relationship is a perfect example of this -- an obsessive relationship that's not really based on anything real (good thing that's not the driving plot of the book). I recently began reading The Hangman's Daughter. The opening chapter about the hangman was fascinating, but once it skipped to the part that was actually about the daughter, it was all about her fantasizing about an imagined relationship with a forbidden man she hardly ever even talks to. Gag.

Level Three... These are the people who are acting out their relationship addiction in relationships... There is a frantic quality to their quest for relationships and a terror that is palpable if they think they may be alone.

 Pretty much any "romance novel" here (which genre, by the way, is booming, according to this interesting article). Getting closer to the level I really want to talk about...

The Vampire Phenomenon

Level Four includes violence and death...Because of the mood-altering, insane, illusionary aspect of relationship addiction...At this level of the disease, judgment is so impaired and self-esteem is so low that they simply cannot mobilize themselves. They may even hope to be killed. In fact, they are frequently suicidal.

Aha! We have arrived at last. This is the level I find to be the most dangerous in literature right now, and a large portion of it can be attributed to the Twilight saga. Even more disturbing than the terrible prose of the books is how popular they have become despite the series' anti-feminism in terms of Bella's advanced stages of relationship addiction. Observe:



Note the severe depression that results from her "man" leaving her, the self-destructive habits, and that the ONLY THING THAT MAKES HER FEEL BETTER AGAIN IS ANOTHER "MAN" (Jacob, the shirtless wonder). Does no one else notice anything wrong with this picture? Plus, when Edward and Bella finally have sex in the upcoming book/movie, she wakes up with bruises all over her, and she LIKES it. Can't wait for it to happen to her again.(.....)

It is alarming that this is the kind of romance young adult (and even adult) readers (mostly female) are aspiring to, looking to find their "Edward." It has sparked a resurgence of popularity in "vampire romance," which has always been popular among romance novel readers but is now being extensively read by fiction and young adult fiction readers.

It didn't take us here at the Blue Bookcase long to figure out that in the book blogosphere, for every literary or general fiction book blog, there are 30 "paranormal romance" and "vampire romance" blogs.

So the big question: Can romance exist in novels without being anti-feminist?

The question that remains is obvious: is it possible to write about romance without stereotyping and degrading women?

Surprisingly enough, I would answer that question, "yes." If we return to Schaef's original definition of "relationship addiction," it says, "Persons suffering from this addiction look to the relationship to tell them who they are. They have no concept of establishing an identity of their own, on their own."

Therein lies the key. In my opinion, romance is a perfectly legitimate dimension to include in a novel of literary merit, as long as it is not presented as the defining aspect of the female protagonist's sense of self.

And yes, there are plenty of novels out there that do so successfully! But I have spent enough of your time rambling on about this. If you want to find out what love stories get my stamp of approval, come back tomorrow for Top Ten Tuesday (favorite love stories).

Your thoughts?

P.S.

Happy Valentine's Day

Book Lists

Post by Ingrid

I love lists. I especially love lists of books. (I think Christina does too, judging by her last few posts.) One list I particularly admire is Jillian's 300 list. I've found that reading a lot of books provides a special opportunity to make lists of these books, specifically books read and to be read. Let me take a moment to  tell you about my lists.

First, I have a Moleskine address book that I bought in Paris in 2007 (I even wrote "Paris 2007" in the front cover) to keep track of my books. I list books under each section by the author's last name. I write books I want to read in pencil, and books that I've read in pen. Next the title I sometimes write who recommended it to me.

Next, I have a Goodreads account, which is probably the list of books I've actually read that I update the most often. I give each book I read a rating out of 5 stars (which I usually apply impulsively without much thought, though sometimes I change them later.) This is the list I refer to when updating my other lists.

I also of course have an Amazon wish list, which is where I best keep track of books I want to read but don't own.

Last, I keep a google doc that is based on Max's list from The Millions. On this list I record what what books I read this year, what I'm currently reading, what book is on deck (to be read next), and which books I plan on reading next and in what order. I CONSTANTLY change this last part of the list around, and almost never read the books in the order I list them.

Maybe it seems a little narcissistic to assume you all are interested in the details of my reading lists, but I am always fascinated by other people's reading lists and thought maybe some of you might be interested in mine.

Now PLEASE tell me all about your reading lists.

How do you keep track of books you've read?
How do you keep track of books you want to read?

Post: "A Pack of Lies"

Post by Christina

A few months ago, I heard this interview with Georgann Eubanks, author of a pair of books about literary landmarks in North Carolina. At the very beginning of the interview, she tells an anecdote about the day she went to visit the real Cold Mountain.

Ms. Eubanks stopped in a gas station in Bethel, North Carolina, to ask which of these mountains was the actual Cold Mountain. The woman working behind the counter pointed it out to her, and Ms. Eubanks asked whether she had ever read the book. She hadn't, but another customer in the store had. When Ms. Eubanks asked what he thought of the novel, he said "Well, I thought it was pretty good! But you know, Inman's descendant Ted Darrell lives here, and he is really upset. He thinks it is a pack of lies." Ms. Eubanks said, "But it's fiction!" and the man replied, "See what I mean, it's a pack of lies!"

(Haha! You should really listen to the first minute or so of the interview. It's a much funnier story when she tells it.)

Then, a couple of days ago, I ran across something related in a David Foster Wallace story called "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way." An instructor in a graduate writing seminar tells the students: "Basically what you're doing when you're writing fiction is telling a lie, ... and the psychology of reading dictates that we're willing to buy only what coheres, on some gut level, with what we already believe."

This is a subject that has interested me for a while: the relationship between fiction and the real world, and how readers' expectations fit into that relationship. What's the difference between fiction and a lie? I would say that a lie is a lie because it's being passed off as truth. That's why there was such a ruckus about James Frey's A Million Little Pieces a few years back. The book was published as nonfiction, a memoir, so when it came to light that a whole lot of it was false, people (rightly) felt they'd been lied to.

Contrast that whole situation with one of my favorite memoirs which is called Lying. Here the author, Lauren Slater, freely mixes fact and fiction. She refuses to give the reader any hints about which events actually happened and which events are more symbolic or metaphorical. We can't even be sure this book truly belongs in the Nonfiction category. It works beautifully; she can manipulate her story at will, and no one will accuse her of lying. Or, at least, not lying in the same sense that James Frey was.

Going back to Georgann Eubanks' experience in the gas station, we have another fiction/nonfiction conundrum altogether. Is historical fiction really pure fiction? Or does it belong somewhere in between? I haven't read Cold Mountain (though I'd like to) so I'm not sure exactly what Inman's descendant is so upset about. But apparently the story doesn't "cohere, on some gut level" with what he already believes about his ancestor. So to him, it doesn't matter whether you call it fiction or nonfiction- it's just not true.

I love books that explore (whether intentionally or not) the relationship between truth, fiction, and history. So I'm going to start a little list here, with a few different categories. Please comment with your recommendations, and I'll add them to the list! For starters...

Memoirs that Lie
A Million Little Pieces, James Frey
A Child Called "It", Dave Pelzer
Go Ask Alice, by "Anonymous" (Beatrice Sparks)

Memoirs Containing Fictional Elements
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir, Lauren Slater
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
A Fan's Notes, Frederick Exley

Fiction that is so closely based on actual events it's almost not fictional
The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara
Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay
The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien

Books about this topic
Language, Thought, and Falsehood, Nicholas Denyer

RIP Reynolds Price

Post by Ingrid

Reynolds Price

I was stunned to find out that Southern author Reynolds Price died yesterday at the age of 77. I spent a considerable amount of time studying his first novel, A Long and Happy Life, for a class last semester (which, unfortunately, I also never got around to reviewing.)

I highly recommend you check out the article at the New York Times about his life, and if you are looking for a short, enjoyable read, I also highly recommend Price's very first book published in 1962, A Long and Happy Life. From the NYT article:

Few writers have made as dramatic an entrance on the American literary stage as Mr. Price, who published his first novel, “A Long and Happy Life,” in 1962 to near-universal acclaim for its pungent Southern dialogue, highly wrought prose style and vivid evocation of rural Southern life.

The novel — the tale of Rosacoke Mustian, a young woman desperate to clarify her relationship with an untamable boyfriend, Wesley Beavers — inspired critics to welcome Mr. Price as the brightest literary talent to emerge since the Southern Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s. In an extraordinary vote of confidence, Harper’s Magazine published the novel in its entirety as a supplement.

Price also wrote a good deal of literary criticism and essays, some of which are found in the collection A Common Room, Essays 1954-1987. One of my favorites that I've read from this collection is an essay titled "A Vast Common Room," in which Price talks about the problem of writing a novel from the POV of the opposite gender. I was extremely impressed with Price's ability to get into the mind of his young female narrator in A Long and Happy Life, a process that he describes in depth in this essay.

It's a sad day in the literary world. RIP Reynolds Price. 

Gone With the Wind: A Literary Pilgrimage

Posted by Connie (yes, Connie!)

Hello, my dear, dear bookish friends! It has been several weeks since I've last been able to post anything, but right now I am just bursting with ideas for posts and topics I want to discuss with you. Who knows if I will have the time to write them all, but I thought I would chip away at them with this post, which will allow me to gush over one of my favorite books of all time -- Gone with the Wind.

This past weekend while meeting up with my in-laws in Atlanta, Georgia, we got to do one of my favorite touristy things to do in any city -- visit a literary landmark there. And what a literary landmark there is to see in Georgia! We went to the home of Margaret Mitchell, author of the truly great American novel, Gone With the Wind, the apartment in which she actually wrote the novel.

First of all, I just need to express sincere appreciation for those champions of literature who help in preserving houses like this. Apparently, developers in the 1980s tried to tear down the house to put up two high rises in its place, and thanks to the mayor of the time, it was preserved as a historic landmark.

Though not much else from Mitchell's life there remains -- the desk that she worked on and the clipboard she used while making edits -- the museum dedicated to her life and work was just wonderful, and it also featured a great exhibit dedicated to the movie (which I also love).

Perhaps my favorite part of the visit was getting to do one of my favorite literary nerdy things -- buy a copy of the book in the house where it was written. Yes, I do realize that they overcharge and I am a sucker for doing it, but I can't help it -- it's one of my favorite souvenirs. I did the same thing at the Charles Dickens house in London, and I still regret that I didn't do so at the Brontë parsonage. I just love getting the little stamp or sticker that shows where you got it.

My pretty hardcover copy

See the pretty sticker showing where I purchased it? *sigh*

In the spirit of my literary pilgrimage, here are some fun facts about Margaret Mitchell that I learned:

• She worked as a journalist, and it wasn't until she suffered an ankle injury that she began writing the book -- out of sheer boredom.
• As with her journal articles, she started Gone With the Wind by writing the last chapter first, so she knew to what she should build. After that, she wrote chapters randomly and in no particular order, keeping each one in its own manila folder. The stack, by the time she was done, came up to eye level on her (she was only 4'11", but regardless, it's a pretty high stack).
• She was killed in a car accident in 1949 when a car swerved to miss her husband but hit her instead.
• She made her husband promise to destroy her entire manuscript when she died, believing that an author should only be judged by his or her published work. For that reason, pretty much none of it exists today.

All right, gush over. What literary landmarks have YOU visited? Do you have any nerdy traditions like my book tradition?

The Margaret Mitchell House is located at 990 Peachtree Street in Midtown, Atlanta, Georgia. It is open for guided tours daily. Tickets cost $13 for adults, $10 for seniors and students, and $8.50 for children ages 4-12. For more information, visit www.margaretmitchellhouse.com

"[Learning to read] is the most important thing that has ever happened to me."

A few days ago, Mario Vargas Llosa received the Nobel Prize for Literature. This post's title is from his beautiful Nobel Lecture called "In Praise of Reading and Fiction," which you can read in its entirety here. Or you can just read this article for a summary and some soundbites, including one of my favorite parts:

"We would be worse than we are without the good books we have read, more conformist, not as restless, more submissive, and the critical spirit, the engine of progress, would not even exist. Like writing, reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life. When we look in fiction for what is missing in life, we are saying, with no need to say it or even to know it, that life as it is does not satisfy our thirst for the absolute – the foundation of the human condition – and should be better. We invent fictions in order to live somehow the many lives we would like to lead when we barely have one at our disposal."

Really, I'd like to post the whole thing. He says so much about not just the importance, but the necessity and power of literature, its ability to mobilize, inspire, and change readers. And what's significant, I think, is that he's writing about fiction. I know a few people who believe that reading fiction is a fluffy, escapist waste of time. And it certainly can be- not all fiction is created equal. But when the distinction "reading for information" is applied solely to nonfiction, my blood boils. The information I've learned from fiction is personalized, applicable, and memorable to me. Some nonfiction achieves that, but not all.

I'm not a good debater. I'm too emotional, and my end argument will always be something like "Fiction is important because I LOVE IT SO MUCH" which, of course, makes no sense. So maybe I need to keep a pocket notebook of quotes from Vargas Llosa's speech and let him do the talking. Here's one more, which sums up my thoughts:

"Without fictions we would be less aware of the importance of freedom for life to be livable, the hell it turns into when it is trampled underfoot by a tyrant, an ideology, or a religion. Let those who doubt that literature not only submerges us in the dream of beauty and happiness but alerts us to every kind of oppression, ask themselves why all regimes determined to control the behavior of citizens from cradle to grave fear it so much they establish systems of censorship to repress it and keep so wary an eye on independent writers."

Ingrid's End of 2010 survey

Post by Ingrid 

As my inaugural post as the new chief moderator of The Blue Bookcase, I present you with my answers to this end of 2010 survey. 
...Actually, I just saw this over at The Perpetual Page-Turner and thought it would be fun to fill out.

1. Best book of 2010? 
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (my review)
2. Worst book of 2010?
Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson
3. Most Disappointing Book of 2010?
Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann (my review)
4. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2010?
Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott (my review)
5. Book you recommended to people most in 2010?
No More Goodbyes: Circling the Wagons Around our Gay Loved Ones by Carol Lynn Pearson
6. Best series you discovered in 2010?
Didn't read any series books this year.
7. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2010?
Joseph Campbell, Tao Lin, Geraldine Brooks, Jonathan Franzen, Anne Lamott
8. Most hilarious read of 2010?
The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall (my review)
9. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2010?
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (see no. 1)
10. Book you most anticipated in 2010?
Richard Yates by Tao Lin (my review)
11. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2010?
I read the Briggs translation of War and Peace this year, and I really like the chandelier on the cover: 

(my post on War and Peace)

12. Most memorable character in 2010? 
The Judge from Blood Meridian was probably one of the most fascinating/horrible characters I encountered this year.  (my review)
13. Most beautifully written book in 2010?
One Hundred Years of Solitude (currently reading)
14. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2010? 
No More Goodbyes: Circling the Wagons Around Our Gay Loved Ones by Carol Lynn Pearson
15. Book you can't believe you waited UNTIL 2010 to finally read?
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

If you want to fill out this survey, head over to The Perpetual Page-Turner and add your link to the list!

Hint Fiction

Post by Christina

Ernest Hemingway, on a bet, said that he could write a short story in less than ten words. Here's what he came up with: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Let's set aside the fact that there's a good chance this anecdote about Hemingway never really happened. What's important is the six-word story's function as the inspiration for a new form called Hint Fiction. A few weeks ago I heard this NPR piece. It's an interview with Robert Swartwood, who compiled a collection of short stories, each 25 words max. Despite my initial skepticism, I was surprised by the emotional punch of a few of the stories Swartwood read. Here's my favorite, Golden Years by Edith Pearlman:
"She: Macular. He: Parkinson's. She pushing, he directing, they get down the ramp, across the grass, through the gate. The wheels roll riverwards."
Ah! It's amazing that that really is a complete story in itself. I don't believe that's the case for every story in the collection. Here's one that sounds like a setup or opening for a really great traditional story or novel. Dickie by Minter Krotzer:
"Everyone in town went to the same gynecologist, Dickie. Even Dickie's sister went to Dickie. No one thought this was strange except for the out-of-towners."
See what I mean? I like it, but I think it's a stretch to call it a story in itself. There are also some that are more like jokes than stories, like David Joseph's Polygamy:
"I miss her more than
the others."
Very clever, but is it really a story?
I'm not gonna lie, these teeny tiny stories intrigue me, and I'd like to read more of them. I've got Swartwood's collection on my wishlist. I haven't talked to anyone about this yet- I've just been stewing in my own thoughts. What do you think?
Is hint fiction a symptom of our internet-age urge for immediate satisfaction? Does it have the potential to contribute to this urge?
Is Hint Fiction a brand new art form, or just a glorified writer's exercise?
How is Hint Fiction not poetry?

A couple of related links:
Robert Swartwood himself wrote about the idea behind Hint Fiction here, and here's his Hint Fiction homepage. If you'd like to try your hand at writing a six-word memoir, you can do so here.

Post: Reading War and Peace

Post by Ingrid

I often don't like to admit it for fear of sounding pretentious, but War and Peace is my number one, absolute, definitive favorite book. It feel as if it is my child, I cherish it so. Sometimes I'm afraid to talk about it because I'm afraid people will bash it and I will be personally hurt. It saddens me when people say that they will never read this book because of its size, or difficulty, or whatever else. Well, today, my friends, to act as a counter to the difficulties this book may present, I offer you 5 simple and helpful suggestions for tackling this masterwork. If you follow my suggestions, you will most certainly have a more pleasant and satisfying experience reading Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. 

5 Tips for Reading War and Peace

Pevear and Volokhonsky translation

1. Choose a good translation.
This is extremely important. Two different translations can feel like two entirely different books. I highly recommend the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. This translation is ideal because it sticks as closely to the text as possible. The other translation I've read by Anthony Briggs has lots of British colloquial terms and idioms which I found distracting. Though, one potential benefit of the Briggs translation is that the French sections are translated the same as the rest of the book, whereas Pevear and Volokhonsky keep the French sections intact, providing a translation in a footnote at the bottom of the page. I actually prefer the French kept intact, as it is fairly significant to the meaning of the work as a whole to recognize who is speaking French where and for what reason.

2. Know the history of the Napoleonic wars.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte plays an important role in this novel. I highly suggest that you familiarize or refamiliarize yourself with the history surrounding the Napoleonic wars, especially the invasion of Russia in 1812. If you understand what's going on you are far more likely to enjoy the war sections. At the very least, read about the Napoleonic wars on Wikipedia. (See links below.) Otherwise, I highly recommend Vincent Cronin's biography of Napoleon, which is very readable and actual portrays Napoleon in a more positive light ... interesting to compare to his characterization in War and Peace.

3. Familiarize yourself with Tolstoy's writing style by reading some of his short stories
Tolstoy actually has a very beautiful, straightforward writing style. It might be nice to familiarize yourself with his style before begin War and Peace so you can hit the ground running. I highly recommend "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" and "Family Happiness."

4. Make it a goal to finish by a certain date, or within a specific frame of time. 
It is extremely helpful to give yourself a specific window of time to read this book, or to make a goal to finish by a certain date. The first time I read War and Peace was during winter break between my sophomore and junior year in college. I knew I had to finish before school started again, so it gave me motivation to push through sections that weren't so interesting. It can be intimidating and discouraging to hit a less interesting section and realize you still have hundreds of pages left. Don't let this hold you back. The last third of the book is the best part. Keep pushing, don't give up.

Leo Tolstoy

5. Bookmark the character page.
There are hundreds of different characters in this book, and yes, they all have Russian names with their many variations. Most editions of this book (I think) have a page listing who all the characters and the variations of their names.  Keep a bookmark or post-it note in this page and refer back to it if you forget who a certain character is. You're going to have to turn to this page quite a bit in the first few sections, but you will be surprised at how quickly you get to know the characters.

So there you go! Anyone who attempts this tremendous work of fiction, I wish you the best of luck and encouragement!


Relevant Wikipedia articles:
Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky
Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace
Napoleonic Wars
Napoleon's invasion of Russia
List of characters in War and Peace
Historiography

defamiliarization (ostranenie)

literary realism

Ingrid's Thoughts on Authorial Intent

This is a subject often discussed in the blogging world, and today I thought I'd toss my opinion into the mix.

For a long time, I've been one of those "intentional fallacy" fanatics who believes the best approach in interpreting a literary text is to stay far away from attributing any sort of authorial intent.

Yet ... my opinion was soon to be challenged. In one of my literature classes this week we have been reading the essays, interviews, and journals of the author whose work we have been studying. Our next assignment is to find something that stands out to us from any primary authorial text and "connect a dot" to the novel itself. At first, my head was saying ALERT! ALERT! This isn't how to interpret a text! But as I eased into the idea of exploring this author's thoughts about his own work, I found that a little bit of background info was not only extremely interesting, but allowed me to peek inside the author's head to better understand his process in crafting and laying out his story - and ultimately to understand his novel better.

Needless to say, this assignment has made me reevaluate my opinon concerning the relationship of an author to his or her text. Here are some loose conclusions I have drawn:

• An author's opinion on writing in general, what they've said about imagery, symbolism, and/or meaning in their writing, can be used as a help to decode the text. But ultimately, the text must speak for itself.
• A good writer will be aware of literary symbols that appear in the text, and provide evidence within the text for or against it.
• Ideally, the text should be able to be understood by the reader as the author intended it to be without the author ever having to say anything about it.
• A good author will understand that many interpretations are possible, and many good authors will encourage even opposing interpretations.
• One should avoid projecting meaning on to a text, but rather closely study its patterns and connections, while being open to many interpretations and possibilities.

Now comes the fun part: What do YOU, dear reader, think about authorial intent? Has anything an author said or wrote about their work changed how you read it? Do you think it's better to stay away from primary authorial texts in general, or can they be a helpful resource?

Even if you don't have any literary background I'm interested in hearing your opinion! Ready, set, discuss.

(image: On the Road original manuscript via)

The Funeral Song of our Bookish Haven

It's about time for another our-celebrity-culture-is-bleeding-into-and-taking-over-our-sacred-bookish-world rant, ladies and gentlemen.

Earlier this year, when Tyra Banks announced she was writing a novel -- Modelland (I sneer and repeat caustically to myself) I was peeved enough. (see my rather controlled comments about it here). But now, while struggling writers with possibly the next To Kill a Mockingbird, the next Catcher in the Rye, even the next Harry Potter receive rejection letter after rejection letter, their manuscripts likely never to see the light of a printing room, we have people like Justin Bieber writing a memoir and Snooki writing a novel. 


SNOOKI, who admits openly that the only two books she has ever read in her entire life are Dear John by Nicholas Sparks and Twilight by Stephanie Myer. Now, our favorite bookstore shelves will be favored with this rich, Pulitzer-worthy novel by a literary genius: A Shore Thing -- the story of a girl “looking for love on the boardwalk (one full of big hair, dark tans, and fights galore)”.


And Justin Bieber. A sixteen-year-old fad pop star who has been famous for less than a second, telling his success story about how he "made it." Smart move, Bieber -- capitalize on your fleeting fame and fortune before your voice changes and everyone realizes what a horrible dancer you are. Please, do give us your sage advice, recount for us your harrowing journey -- tell us, just how did your first love break your heart for the first time, and how you were like baby, baby, baby, oh.

Am I alone in deploring how pop culture continually tries to commandeer -- nay, assault! the sacred literary space? Can our bookish universe not resist the allure of a Banks, a Bieber, or a Snooki? Can it not rise above? I am alive, and yet this still feels remarkably like me rolling in my grave.