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May 2007

Atonement by Ian McEwan   «ordinary»

I tried to read this about a year or so ago, and became tired with it about half-way through. This time it was slightly more bearable. Ithink McEwan is a good writer, but the book was too slow for me, with more descriptions about what was going on than dialogue.
Started: May 7, 2007
Finished: May 30, 2007
Summary: We meet 13-year-old Briony Tallis in the summer of 1935, as she attempts to stage a production of her new drama "The Trials of Arabella" to welcome home her older, idolized brother Leon. But she soon discovers that her cousins, the glamorous Lola and the twin boys Jackson and Pierrot, aren't up to the task, and directorial ambitions are abandoned as more interesting prospects of preoccupation come onto the scene. The charlady's son, Robbie Turner, appears to be forcing Briony's sister Cecilia to strip in the fountain and sends her obscene letters; Leon has brought home a dim chocolate magnate keen for a war to promote his new "Army Ammo" chocolate bar; and upstairs, Briony's migraine-stricken mother Emily keeps tabs on the house from her bed. Soon, secrets emerge that change the lives of everyone present... (from amazon.com)
Quotes: "[E]very lover is in his heart a madman, and in his head a minstrel." (p 78)
"Adventures are all very well in their place, he thought, but there's a lot to be said for regular meals and freedom from pain." (p 178)
"We must have bearers, and outriders, and perhaps an elephant--they are so imposing, nothing says 'Get out of the way' quite like an elephant in the front..." (p 238)
"Have been unavoidably detained by the world. / Expect us when you see us." (p 246)

«recommended»   Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

This book is part of my goal to read some of the classics I never did during school. I just found out that the book is made up of two short stories, so that makes me like it a bit more. This book should really be read in only a few days if not more quickly.
Started: April 23, 2007
Finished: May 5, 2007
Summary: Volume containing two interrelated stories by J.D. Salinger, published in book form in 1961. The stories, originally published in The New Yorker magazine, concern Franny and Zooey Glass, two members of the family that was the subject of most of Salinger's short fiction. Franny is an intellectually precocious late adolescent who tries to attain spiritual purification by obsessively reiterating the "Jesus prayer" as an antidote to the perceived superficiality and corruptness of life. She subsequently suffers a nervous breakdown. In the second story, her next older brother, Zooey, attempts to heal Franny by pointing out that her constant repetition of the "Jesus prayer" is as self-involved and egotistical as the egotism against which she rails. (from amazon.com)
Quotes: "Everything everybody does is soÑI don't knowÑnot wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless andÑsad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much as everybody else, only in a different way."
"I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody."