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"To the Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf

12/2/2013

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Title: To the Lighthouse
Author: Virginia Woolf 
Genre: Fiction
# pages: 312
Date published: 1927 (Republished in 2005)
5-star rating: 5 stars
Would you recommend it:  Yes




            For readers who crave action-based plots and traditional narrative progression, To the Lighthouse will prove to be a frustrating and fruitless reading endeavor, as the entire novel revolves around one action: going to the lighthouse. For the open-minded reader, however, the novel is an overwhelmingly profound and rewarding literary experience. What the plot lacks in physical action, it makes up for in emotional and psychological movement, as Woolf uses a free indirect discourse to seamlessly weave in and out of her characters’ psyches.  

            Set at Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay’s summer home, To the Lighthouse fuses natural and psychological elements to explore how exterior and interior spaces interact. Mrs. Ramsay is the novel’s life force, as her beauty and natural authority charm the many visitors who frequent the beach house. Mr. Ramsay is decidedly less vivacious, and his preoccupation with academic and paternal failure leads him to constantly (and often annoyingly) crave sympathy from his wife and other female characters. To say that Mrs. Ramsay is solely a dominant and lively housewife would unfairly reduce her intricate character, and the same applies to Mr. Ramsay and his gloomy necessitousness. Both Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay fascinate Lily Briscoe, a visiting artist who exemplifies the frustration that arises from violently opposing emotions that constantly fight to take precedence. Does she love the Ramsays or despise them? Is art the bane of her existence, or is it her true passion? 

            Readers will find that the novel is full of these paradoxes—it is almost impossible to concretely define characters. That liminality makes the narrative dynamic (yes, dynamic) and realistic, because Woolf does not shy away from the volatile and often irrational emotions that shape human experience.

            Woolf finds the pulse of the philosophical, psychological, and artistic Modernist movements that emerged after World War I. While the novel does not explicitly focus on war, it does grapple with the daunting existential questions that resulted from loss and disillusionment. The novel’s three sections act as time markers, with the first section representing pre-modern life and the last exemplifying the anxiety and uncertainty of post-war existence. Characters also convey the shift from the “old way” to modernity. Mrs. Ramsay, the traditional homemaker, embodies Victorian creation; Lily, on the other hand, tries to figure out her role as a different kind of artist: the modern painter.

            To the Lighthouse asks readers what remains after devastating loss. How does one go on after dependability and reliability perish? What is creation, and how long will it endure? With her lyricism, Woolf astutely articulates seemingly ineffable emotions, and her representation of the complexities of the human condition is a beautiful depiction of everyday trials and triumphs in the midst of global tragedy. A novel about the numerous forms of creation, artistic and otherwise, To the Lighthouse is a literary masterpiece. 



Review by Lauren Bly, A&S '15


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"Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail" by Cheryl Strayed 

12/2/2013

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Title: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Author: Cheryl Strayed
Genre(s): Memoir
# Pages: 336
Date published: March 20, 2012
5-star rating: 5 stars
Would you recommend it? Yes

Recently I was wondering through Barnes & Noble, when I stumbled across this book on one of the New York Times Bestsellers tables.  In 2012, the book maintained the number one spot on the list for seven consecutive weeks.  The book was also the first choice on Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 list in 2012.  Since this is a book club memoir, it was an extremely fast read.  I finished Wild in five days.

At age 22, Cheryl Strayed loses her mother to cancer.  The events surrounding her mother’s death take an emotional toll on her.  While Strayed’s mother is dying, her brother and sister distance themselves and continue to do so after the loss.  Her stepfather also becomes completely absent from her life afterward.  All of this forces Strayed to bottle in her emotions and leaves her feeling alone.  Her husband, as hard as he tries, cannot provide enough comfort.  They drift apart as a result from Strayed’s infidelity, heroin use, and lack of investment in the marriage.

As a result at age 26, Strayed wants to piece her life back together.  She admits that she still loves her ex-husband when she sets out, but she now wants to find and love herself.  The only way to find herself is to do it alone.  While wondering through a gift shop one day, she stumbles across The Pacific Crest Trail, Volume 1: California.  While she does not buy the book that day, the trail stays at the back of her mind.  Eventually, after making the decision three times, Strayed sells the few things she owns, packs her backpack, and goes to the Mojave Desert to begin her 1,100 mile journey on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) north to the Bridge of the Gods.

The PCT is one of the toughest hikes in the United States.  Strayed has no real or substantial experience hiking or living out in the wild.  Most of the people she meets are groups of young men.  While she is a woman traveling alone, by the end of her journey she exceeds others’ expectations and earns the hiker name “Queen.”  Many times she declines offers to join a group so that her only companion becomes her backpack that she names “Monster.”

Strayed weaves together her past and the hike into a seamless tale of self-discovery.  Her anecdotes make the story believable and relatable.  In the beginning, she cannot even lift her backpack without falling down.  By the end, she can hike 20 miles in a single day.  While she is a bit arrogant in the first few days of her journey, the overall experience humbles her and helps her realize who she is on her own.  Each day of her hike has a different event that keeps your attention so that you end up cheering for her as the story progresses.

I would recommend this book to anyone because it is a classical identity story.  Since Strayed is in her late twenties, it is better geared toward women in college.  Her reflections can provide insight into the reader’s own life.  You do not need to be from the west coast or a hiker to enjoy this book.  Strayed writes in a manner that makes the long journey seem to fly by for the reader.



Review by Liz Handler, A&S '15


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"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

12/2/2013

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Title: The Kite Runner
Author: Khaled Hosseini
# of pages: 371
Date Published: 2003
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Recommend: Yes

Kite Runner is a heart-breaking story of betrayal, friendship and atonement of sins. The first chapter is rough; it is hard to understand and there is no context given. However, in the next chapter we meet the main characters Amir, Hassan and Baba. Amir and Hassan are best friends and Baba is Amir’s father. Hassan works as a servant with his father in Amir and Baba’s house. The set up is quite pleasant and they seem happy. However, racial tension arises because Hassan is a Hazara boy, therefore seen as a second-class citizen in Afghanistan. This leads Amir to a sense of superiority. Eventually Amir betrays Hassan. The guilt he deals with becomes a central theme of the story.

            This book made me cringe at points because of violence and embarrassment. Amir’s character is well rounded and has a level of depth lacked by some of the supporting characters.  However, this lack of depth is caused by the skewed view of them by Amir, the narrator. The author uses foreshadowing to keep interest peaked even during the lulls in the plot. The story crosses boundaries and gives voice to the often-silenced culture of Afghanistan. I read this with a group and it fostered great conversation about duty, patriotism, and our perceptions of the Middle East. Hosseini weaves a beautiful story allowing insight into human nature that transcends races. 



Review by Caroline Grindrod, CSOM '17

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"The Eyre Affair" by Jasper Fforde

12/2/2013

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Title: The Eyre Affair
Author: Jasper Fforde
# pages: 374
Date Published: 2001
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Recommend: Yes

            The Eyre Affair takes us to an alternate-universe England, a place where everyday life offers everything from reverse genetic-engineering to time travel and classic literature is the focus of pop culture. Thursday Next, the novel’s protagonist, is an agent for Litera Tec, a branch of the British government that handles crimes literature-related crimes: everything from high-scale Shakespeare forgeries to black-market poetry-trafficking. In the world of Thursday Next, people are very serious about their literary works.

            Unfortunately for Litera Tec, the antagonist of the novel, Acheron Hades, acquires a new technology and begins dragging fictional characters out of their respective novels and into the “real world” (or the world of The Eyre Affair), including Jane Eyre, as suggested by Fforde’s title.

            On the most basic level, The Eyre Affair is a book about books. But it is so much more than that, spanning several genres, including mystery, thriller, science-fiction and humor, all while retaining a constant ingenuity.

            For instance, the world building in this book is phenomenal. Fforde creates a setting that is at once familiar and foreign, weaving together twisted references to literary, historical and pop culture in our world with the small, odd details of his alternate England to create a unique sense of place. For example, the Crimean War plays a much larger role in the world of The Eyre Affair than it did in real life and the main protagonist’s pet is a re-engineered Dodo bird.

However, these various parts fit together well and, as a person who loves reading, it was both surprising and gratifying to see a world in which the theft of first-edition prose or the appearance of a new play by a famous playwright is an issue of national importance.

            The Eyre Affair does take a lot of effort on the part of the reader. Fforde’s frequent references to historical people, events and literary works left me baffled at first. For instance, when he brought up Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens, I felt I actually had to go look up a plot summary of that book to fully understand the happenings of The Eyre Affair. I then found myself repeating this brief research every five pages or so. While I might have been able to simply skim over the references, much of the novel’s meaning would have been lost, and I wouldn’t have fully followed or appreciated it. Therefore, while The Eyre Affair can take some time and devotion to read, it proves itself well worth the effort.





Review by Julia Walker, A&S '16

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"Sometimes a Great Notion" by Ken Kensy

12/2/2013

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Title:  Sometimes a Great Notion
Author:  Ken Kesey
# pages:  715
Date published: 1964
Stars: 5 out of 5
Would you recommend it? Yes

“Sometimes I live in the country
Sometimes I live in town
Sometimes I have a great notion
To jump into the river and drown”

These are the lines that Ken Kesey uses as an introduction in his fantastic 1964 novel Sometimes a Great Nation. Lines from a song by Lead Belly, they work as a concise summary of the novel as well as an opening into its themes.

Although the work tells of logging community in Oregon, the river surrounding the town is what drives the narrative forward. As we see a family of loggers take over, the only force that seems to have any effect on them is the river. This novel is far more realistic than Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but the character of the river is so vivid and almost visceral that it is hard not be captivated by Kesey’s descriptions: the river becomes a character itself.

In spite of this easily discernable, straightforward plot, in which a family founds a logging community and one of its members seeks revenge against his brother, whom he sees as representative of everything wrong about the community, this plot is secondary to the description of the river, to the way that the description of the town and the town’s surroundings engulf the narrative. At certain moments, the characters’ physical experiences are more important than their emotional development. When one of them swims in the river, for instance, Kesey focuses on the water against his skin.

Overall, Sometimes a Great Nation is a fantastic book and definitely recommended for anyone who likes a good (but long) read. 



Review by Michael Solah, A&S '16

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"Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

12/2/2013

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Title: Catch-22
Author: Joseph Heller
Genre: Satire
#Pages: 476

Rating: N/A
Date Published: 1961
Recommended?: Yes


Before the lack of a rating on this review leads you to believe I disliked this book, let me state that Catch-22 is a fantastic book, and one of the best that I have read. There is no rating because, if you are like me, you might only look at the number and not even bother to read the review. Furthermore, on a personal note I don’t believe a number is the best way to describe the art that is Joseph Heller’s masterwork.

Now let us get back to the review. Simply put, Catch-22 is superb. Yossarian, the novel’s protagonist, is human caught in the inane cycling of the novel’s bureaucracy.  Often referred to as crazy, because he flies dangerous combat missions, Yossarian nonetheless cannot find a way to avoid the missions because doing so would indicate sanity, and therefore competence to fly. By so depicting the ridiculousness of those who make decisions that do not directly affect them, Heller’s work can be seen as a critique of bureaucracy and its potential to desensitize people. In this case, we can see firsthand how bureaucracy has desensitized all of the authorities in Yossarian’s camp.

I won’t talk about plot details, but I will say that Heller maintains an excellent balance, by accentuating certain moods in situations where there could be many. For instance, while some chapters that deal with corruption and hatred are quite comical and light, death is always extremely serious and personal in Catch-22. Although the novel is usually considered comical, one particular chapter stands out as heart wrenching; despite his satire elsewhere, here he forces the reader to experience viscerally a scenario in which somebody else is dying.

This balance between satire and visceral emotion is one the major reasons Catch 22 is such an excellent novel. But don’t take my word for it – read the book. I would argue that it does not matter if you like it or not; Catch-22 is the type of novel that you will never forget.







Review by Michael Solah, A&S '15

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