Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Nice little novel!... I like the descriptive, vivid writing, which is a contrast to the bitter, frosty winter setting... The ending, while very sad, is also satisfying and ironic... The novel raises several important themes worth thinking about, along with being interestingly similar to the author's life.

Diary of a Bad Year by J. M. Coetzee

About a writer named Senor C, who writes his thoughts on various subjects for a book that will be published in German, of which he is one of six contributors.

This book very intriguingly dogmatizes about a range of subjects, including politics, music, and writing. A commentary on the modern world, it gives voice to those of us who feel frustrated at what has happened and what we have become in recent years.

I can't quite grasp specifically what to think about this book, however. My feeling about it seems just beyond my reach.

There is the dichotomy between the old world, represented by Senor C, and the modern world, embodied in Alan, which are at odds with each other. Alan is what is wrong today, and Senor C is the ideal of how things ought to be.

Certainly, the book is about the nature of writing. How a writer's perceptions change with age. That a writer does not write in isolation, but is influenced by the world, although perhaps writers and those who wish for change have been marginalized.

It is interesting that the work is supposed to be "fiction," yet Senor C's initials are JC, he is a writer who moved from South Africa to Australia, and he admits authoring Waiting for the Barbarians: obviously, Senor C could be Coetzee himself. I think Senor C is both Coetzee and fictional at the same time, as Coetzee plays with realism and the novel form. Still, it makes me wonder if the other parts of book are true too; maybe Coetzee has written a book about how this book was written.

The book tests the boundaries of the novel. Each page is divided into three parts: at the top is Senor C's commentary (called "Strong Opinions"), in the middle is Senor C's account of his writing and of his typist Anya, and at the bottom is Anya's thoughts about the book and her relationships with Senor C and Alan. Reading the book requires comprehending three storylines that also weave and merge together into a single story. I read that Coetzee has been experimenting with the form of the novel in his last few books. Elizabeth Costello is structured by a series of lectures delivered by the protagonist, many of which have been given by Coetzee. In Slow Man, a character named Elizabeth Costello appears, claiming that the protagonist is a character in a book she is working on.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

A journey through post-apocalyptic America, a man and his son walk south towards the coast, toting some paltry scavenged items to survive...

My take on the novel: Amid the burnt ashen landscape, utter destruction and loneliness, cold nights and strong winds and piercing rain, sun and moon blocked into darkness, the world as before left only to their dreams, the man and his son are bonded by love, courage, and their need for each other... Out of that comes beauty, a triumph against the utter devastation rendered by mankind... Also, the boy wants to help the few people they encounter on the road... He is troubled by killing and by taking what is not theirs...He has inside him, as his father tells him, "the fire," or goodness, revealing that morality and virtue are indestructible in the face of total cataclysm, and the roaming cannibals left in its wake... This is symbolized both by the fires they make each night to keep themselves warm and by their repeatedly saying to each other that they are the good guys... Indeed, the man and, especially, his son may be seen Biblically, and their journey over mountains, rivers, caves, and wildernesses as a pilgrimage.

My only question: What is meant at the end when the man said they decided to track the boy?

The novel's language is poetic... A haunting novel... I really like this book.

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

A new favorite book... I learned a lot about the Civil War, particularly about some of its main players. It seems that although both the Johnnies and the bluebellies fought for the Cause, there were personal issues that trumped whatever reasons drove them to war. For Lee, duty was towards Virginia above all else. A believer in offensive tactics, his age and growing tiredness, along with years of war that produced too many deaths, affect his judgment. Longstreet, who discerns the war clearly but lacks the power of persuasion, is also haunted by the deaths of his children and by commanding against people he knows. Chamberlain is a valiant soldier, but struggles with putting his brother in the face of danger. And Armistead longs to see his good friend Win Hancock again, but dies in Pickett's Charge.

I cannot imagine having fought in this war, but the men had a special camaraderie I enjoyed reading about. Spirit, jokes, drink, and songs percolated both camps, in contrast to the fierceness with which they tried killing each other in battle after battle.

The way this book details what each man was like, their personal thoughts and problems, in addition to their war movements and decisions, is what makes this book wonderful.

Teacher Man: A Memoir by Frank McCourt

One of the best books I have ever read.

McCourt's writing style is lush and cadenced. No gobbledygook. His words are lyrical and rhythmical, imaginative and bustling, a literary Willy Wonka-esque factory of grammar and diction treats.

This book explicates, completely, the life of a teacher. I relate to all his descriptions of what it's like to face a classroom with the immense duty of educating these rebellious, hormonal, indifferent teenagers. He recounts situations of troublemakers, students grieving over a dying parent or moving between divorced parents or living on violent streets or some other sad and difficult life; he remembers struggling to keep discipline and going home with endless papers to read, check, grade. This is the most truthful account of what teaching is like that I have read. Nothing in graduate school as an education student, no class, no book, no instructor, no internship - nothing - related what being a teacher is really like as does this book.

McCourt is a storyteller. He not only tells his own story as a teacher, but also the many from his life he told his students. Those stories, his story, is that of someone eager to escape his poor Irish Catholic upbringing, always trying to become something more than he is. He goes to Stuyvesant High School, planning to stay only two years, hoping to eventually work in a plush office, his days filled with meetings and flying to conventions. Instead he stays many years more, until he retires. He goes to Dublin to pursue a Ph.D., but fails to complete his dissertation. Throughout his thirty years of teaching in New York and a failed marriage, he struggles to become comfortable as a teacher and with himself, always fearing being fired, always looking to solve his life's aimlessness, always thinking he should stick to the curriculum and be more of a disciplinarian, a traditional teacher. It is not until Stuyvesant that he finds his stride, his voice, himself. There he is allowed to teach as he wishes. No administrators hound him to read literature, diagram sentences, do grammar, to give multiple choice, essay, true and false, fill-in-the-blank tests. Instead, he grades on attendance, participation, if they read their writings, if they comment on classmates' writing, on whether they are able to reflect upon the class and say what they learned, and whether they used their imaginations. He has them play music and sing recipes, read about their own lives, write food reviews of the school cafeteria, and picnic in a park. Grammar, he says, behaves like a pen. Excuses are written for Adam and Eve to God. This is the teacher man. McCourt asks his students, "What is education, anyway? What are we doing in this school?" His answer is for them to achieve freedom, and in so striving down that educational Kerouacian trek, McCourt finds his own freedom, the comfort with himself and what he became that he always wanted.

Such a discovery is a joy to read about. It is inspiring that years later he finally finds himself, a reassurance to those who are still figuring themselves out, what to become, where to go, what it all means, and how to be okay with it. McCourt was in his 50s when this happened for him, and in his 60s when he published Angela's Ashes and 'Tis.

Jonathan Eig - Luckiest Man

This is a biography of Lou Gehrig, the legendary first baseman of the N Y Yankees of the 20's and 30's. I grew up thinking about Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and Ty Cobb. I grew up thinking about baseball period.

In this book I learned the following.

The Gehrig family is German. Lou Gehrig was second generation.
Gehrig was a shy and insecure man.
He lived at home with parents before he married Eleanor.
During the legendary season of 1927 he lived at home with his parents.
He was considered dull especially in comparison to Babe Ruth.
He hit the ball probably as hard as anyone who has ever played the game.
The disease that killed Gehrig, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, now popularly known as Lou Gehrig Disease, was first diagnosed in 1874. It is a horrible disease. The mind remains intact while the body's muscles slowly atrophy. The victim slowly loses all muscular control. To this day, we do not know the cause nor is there a cure.
Lou Gehrig was a model of courage and endurance.

Other books I've read recently

Richard Matheson - Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
I don't read many so-called horror stories, but Matheson is an exception. His horror is very literate and probably influences my writings.

Holly Smith - Alabama Ghosts
A gift from Dinah Denison. Delightful little ghost stories.

Keith Olbermann - Truth and Consequences
What a delightful collection of progressive commentaries! A perfect counterbalance to the rightwing trash that pollutes our culture.