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"The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde 

2/4/2014

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Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Author: Oscar Wilde
Genre: Fiction
# pages: 180
Date published: 1890
5-star rating: 3.5 stars
Would you recommend it:  Yes



            Often considered a classic example of Gothic literature, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray details the consequences of sensual indulgence and uninhibited narcissism. The novel’s title character embodies youth and physical beauty, and is therefore the inspiration for artist Basil Hallward’s latest paintings. Drunk on the adolescent’s intoxicating visage, Basil paints a particularly realistic portrait of Dorian. The painting unintentionally reveals attraction in addition to attractiveness, and Basil therefore wants to hide the portrait from the public eye.

Meanwhile, Lord Henry, a notoriously witty scoundrel, enlightens Dorian about the power and influence that comes with this youth and beauty, and uses his own charm and amusing aphorisms to pervert Dorian’s worldview. Knowing that Dorian cannot bear the thought of losing his handsome features and the associated societal benefits, Lord Henry vocalizes the harsh truth of aging and deterioration, and in an impetuous instant, Dorian wishes to maintain his youthful appearance despite time’s passing; in other words, he wishes to always resemble Basil’s painting.

            The novel then describes Dorian’s descent into Henry’s hedonism and lavish lifestyle. Surrounded by perfumes, fine fabrics, and engrossing literature, Dorian cannot escape indulgence and influence. External forces become internalized, as Dorian begins to speak and act like Lord Henry, vying to preserve his beauty at the cost of his morality. Basil Hallward tries to be the voice of reason and save Dorian from moral decay, but Dorian is too entrenched in debauchery to listen to the self-conscious artist.

Wilde creates a metaphor between reality and art when Dorian finds that the vices he commits in daily life begin to mar Basil’s pristine painting. The youthful gaze that once looked out from the canvas is now sinister, and Dorian comes to realize that the painting assumes the physical mutilation to which his own face is now immune. Though Dorian’s body seems to defy time’s toll, his soul—manifested in the painting—suffers for every sin.

            Wilde plays with art’s power to corrupt, which cleverly adds another layer to the theme, given his medium of expression as a storyteller and an artist. As Dorian sinks deeper into moral degeneration, readers will become frustrated by his continuous inability to resist temptation. While the novel’s ending is predictable, even inevitable, it explores the overwhelming power of external influence and internal desire. With its mix of modern decadence and the harshness of Victorian morality, The Picture of Dorian Gray is both traditional and incredibly bold for its time, as Wilde explores aesthetics, art, and attraction.



Review by Lauren Bly, A&S '15

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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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"Telegraph Avenue" by Michael Chabon

11/6/2013

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Title: Telegraph Avenue
Author: Michael Chabon
# pages: 465
Date published: 2012
5-star rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Would you recommend it:  Yes

 







 In the half-forg
otten world of used vinyl, Brokeland Records is a hub for classic songs, obscure titles, and memorable melodies. The shop is a haven for its owners, Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe, and has become a staple in the quirky Brokeland community. Not only are Archy and Nat business partners, but good friends as well. Their wives, Gwen Shanks and Aviva Roth-Jaffe, also work together as well-known midwives in the community. Both couples learn the challenges that come with mixing their personal and professional lives, as each pair realizes the growing disparities in their professional ideals and personal ambitions. 

            When Brokeland Records faces a possible overthrow by a modern chain store, Archy and Nat are divided by the differing extents to which they want to fight for their retro refuge. Aviva and Gwen also discover tension in their relationship when a doctor directs a racist comment toward Gwen, and the scene quickly escalates to an intense verbal exchange between the hospital doctor and midwife. The confrontation then threatens to ruin Gwen and Aviva’s accreditation as midwives, and Gwen must decide what is more important to her: the practice or her values. Matters intensify when fourteen-year-old Titus arrives in Brokeland to steal Nat’s son’s heart and remind Archy about the past he chose to neglect. Needless to say, Telegraph Avenue does not skimp on complicated life decisions and complex relationships.

            While the novel conveys the myriad tensions that arise from love, race, marriage, economic pressure, and life itself, the various plotlines and motifs, at times, feel underdeveloped and unresolved. Furthermore, the abundance of obscure music, comic book, and film references can leave readers who do not share those passions feeling excluded. The sheer number of allusions, when paired with the length of the novel, would sway even the most ambitious reader from looking up every arcane detail, and therefore it is sometimes difficult to find a foothold. Still, there are moments of profundity in Telegraph Avenue, and those moments are especially poignant because they effectively address real, universal concerns. It is for those moments that readers should explore Chabon’s novel and ruminate about the issues he addresses and why it is that, despite the novel’s length, he must leave them unresolved.



Review by Lauren Bly, A&S '15

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"A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway

10/25/2013

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Title: A Farewell to Arms
Author: Ernest Hemingway 
# pages: 332
Date published: 1929 (Republished in 1957)
5-star rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Would you recommend it:  Yes

 

            To readers who enjoy happy endings, optimism, and inner peace, please take note that Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms provides none of the above. After finishing the novel, readers realize that Pat’s reaction to the work in the film Silver Linings Playbook is completely justified, and they too may feel an aggressive desire to chuck the whole narrative out the window and resurrect Hemingway to answer one question: Why? In short, Hemingway’s post-war novel makes Life is good, Inc. seem like an ironic joke. 

            Nevertheless, to say that A Farewell to Arms provides only frustration and disillusionment would be a gross misrepresentation of a truly harrowing and emotionally complex novel. The retrospective narrative details Lieutenant Frederic Henry’s relationship with war nurse Catherine Barkley and conveys how the war simultaneously brings them together and tears them apart. While Hemingway’s minimalist writing style usually connotes stoicism, A Farewell to Arms represents such an effective union of content and form that his bare prose intensifies his characters’ resistance to World War I’s overwhelming internal and external environment. While Frederic is often a hesitant narrator, not allowing his post-war trauma to flood the narration, his rare but poignant moments of unrestrained emotion illuminate the pervasive effects of war and loss. The novel grapples with the physical and psychological wounds that result from extreme bloodshed and violence, but it also explores what it means to “survive” a war.            

Although the retrospective narration makes it apparent that Frederic lives to tell his story, the novel is so tense and tragic throughout that it is easy to question if Frederic will in fact come out alive. Hemingway plays with suspense and memory in a way that emotionally invests the reader in a novel where the narration is otherwise guarded. 

A Farewell to Arms puts the reader in the context of World War I, but it also takes the reader outside to a world where war is almost entirely inescapable. Frederic and Catherine take brief respites in hotels and other intimate spaces, but it remains painfully clear that even their relationship is not a complete remedy for the physical and psychological scars they incur.         

            A truly Modernist text, A Farewell to Arms illustrates the anxiety, irreparable destruction, and disconnect of war through the lens of Frederic and Catherine’s romance. The heartbreaking end will leave readers questioning humanity itself, but this tragedy is simultaneously the most frustrating and brilliant part of the novel. The injustice and jarring indifference that Frederic faces allow the reader to wrestle with the questions that torment Catherine and Frederic and no doubt plagued Hemingway and his contemporaries, questions we continue to grapple with today. 



Review by Lauren Bly, A&S '15



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"Everything is Illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer

3/27/2013

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Title: Everything is Illuminated
Author: Jonathan Safran Foer
Genre: General Fiction
Date Published: 2002
# pages: 276
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Recommended?: Yes

               Jonathan Safran Foer’s debut novel, Everything is Illuminated, is a remarkable feat of fiction that transcends its own genre. The novel is comprised of intricately woven narratives that show the inextricable connections between time, place, culture, and humanity. The protagonist, who shares the author’s name, embarks on a journey to find the woman he believes saved his grandfather from the Nazis. With Alex, an ambitious Ukrainian teenager striving for the American dream, and Alex’s grandfather, a cantankerous man with a hidden past, acting as translators and guides, Jonathan realizes that he is not the only one looking to the past in order to better understand the present and to guide the future.

              While the themes of the novel – growing up, facing reality, grappling with love and loss, discovering family history, trying to explain inexplicable tragedy, and forming an individual and collective identity – are all clichés, Foer artfully portrays the tragically beautiful universal truths and uncovers the raw, relevant emotion in these familiar plotlines. Through the intersecting narratives, Everything is Illuminated conveys the universal bond of humanity and the struggle to reconcile reality when that bond is violated and betrayed. Simultaneously using macroscopic and microscopic lenses, Foer expresses the complex emotional existence that connects people of all ages, cultures, and religions. The juxtaposition of the protagonist’s exploration of his family’s past and Alex’s grandfather’s inability to escape his own past highlights the equal liberty and burden in acquiring knowledge, as both characters realize the duplicitous nature of history and memory.

              The work itself is fiction, but it is rooted in the illuminating truths of profound sorrow, joy, and introspection. The novel’s liminality is paradoxically jarring and comforting, foreign and familiar. When the plot becomes uncomfortably serious, Alex’s broken English provides humorous malapropisms that offer necessary comic relief, while at the same time it makes the reader explore the possibilities and powers of language. When the journey seems physically and emotionally impossible for the characters, there is a reassuring discovery that motivates them to push forward. When the darkest cavities of human cruelty and frailty are exposed, there is still the wavering glow of hope to remind the characters and the reader that it is in moments of seemingly unbearable hardship and self-discovery that everything is illuminated. 



Review by Lauren Bly, A&S '15


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