Review: The Awakening by Kate Chopin

I expected The Awakening to be a much longer book. For all of the criticism and banning it gets, I expected it to be a pretty hefty book. Imagine my surprise when I was able to read the entire book in one afternoon. Most of my friends on GoodReads gave it four or five stars so I had high expectations. These expectations were so not met.

 

Title: The Awakening

Author: Kate Chopin

Publication Date: 1899

Publisher: Dover Publications

Pages: 116

Where I Got It: Used Book Store

Dates I Read It: May 12, 2013

Read It For: The Classics Club, 2013 TBR Pile Challenge (October Selection- I do realize it's May...Don't ask), 1001 Book Challenge

Number of Stars: 3/5

The story is Edna Pontellier’s and it begins whilst she is on vacation in Louisiana where she falls in love with Robert. Robert feels the same so he sets off for Mexico since Edna is married and has two children. Edna goes back home to New Orleans where she pines for Robert. Soon her husband goes away on business and sends the children to his mothers. For the first time Edna is able to be on her on with just herself and she’s given plenty of time to consider her life and how she wants it to be. Having found a comfort in this independence she moves from her family home to a smaller one around the corner. She soon takes up with Alcee who is somewhat of the neighborhood player, yet Edna holds her own with him only to come undone after her affair with him. Robert returns to confess his love only to realize this mistake. He then leaves Edna a John Deere letter causing Edna to drown herself at the same beach that she first met Robert.

I did not like this book.  I could not relate to the main character at all, which is unfortunate because I should have been able to fully connect to her as someone who has always craved independence myself. Edna was very unlikable. I wanted desperately to be fond of her, but the character development was exceedingly lacking for me.

It was not just Edna that I did not like; I also did not particularly care for the story. I had a high anticipation for this particular book as there are so many positive reviews, it was banned which is always a plus for any book, it was shocking when first published, it was about a young woman’s sexual awakening- what’s not to love? Well, for starters I did not care for the writing style. I normally like the naturalism approach, yet this one bored me to tears. I personally found that the book was not all that shocking. I kept comparing the book to one of my favorite books dealing with marital infidelity: Anna Karenina. While making this comparison I found Anna to be much more shocking. I felt connected to Anna and Vronsky and Daisy and every single character in Anna, yet I can barely even remember the characters names in The Awakening (and not just because they were French/Creole!). There was not much story to the story. It felt like the book built to a crescendo only to let the reader down in the end. I wanted to feel more remorseful over Edna’s suicide, yet I just didn't care enough about her, or any of the other characters really, to give a damn. I did really like the one part where her husband thought that she was going crazy and got a good chuckle out of that, but that is about it. There was no anticipation to the novel for me. It was a page turner, but only because I wanted it to be over with. If the book were longer, I probably wouldn't have finished it. I did end up giving the book three out of five stars (it was okay) only because of the impact that the novel had on feminism and feminist literature. I’m just grateful that all feminist literature are not like this one. 

Review: The Great Gatsby

I could almost swear to God that I read this book in high school, old sport. Didn't I?! I was under the impression that I had. I even rated it on GoodReads (4 stars, thank you very much) but I realized that with the movie coming out soon I should probably do a re-read and plus the commercials make it look tre' appealing so Friday night I picked up a copy and I really don't think I actually have read this book before. Perhaps it was assigned and in a fit of rebellion I refused to read the book. Maybe I was protesting something...



Title: The Great Gatsby
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Publication Date: 1925
Pages: 180
Publisher: Scribner
Where I Got It: Barnes and Noble Booksellers, Huntersville, NC
Dates I Read It: April 26 & 27, 2013
Number of Stars: 5/5

So, my first thought right in the middle of Barnes and Noble was "what the fuck, this isn't The Great Gatsby. This book is way too small. Is this some abridged bullshit or something? I bet it is, it's even got the movie cover. I hate when books have the movie cover on the cover on the book. Damn." Turns out the book is not actually all that thick (I had it finished Saturday evening despite being out of town all day Saturday). I do remember hating the original cover, there is absolutely nothing appealing about it at all. I wish that the publisher would "jazz" it up a little. I judge books based on their covers. There. I said it. I didn't like the original cover but I freakin' hate the movie one (even if DiCaprio is fun to look at).

Okay, let's get on with the review. So we get this story told to us from Nick Carraway. I have to start with Nick. I am so in love with Nick Carraway; he is one of my all time favorite narrators in literature. I refuse to accept the fact that he may be an unreliable narrator, because he is so simple and naive and concurrently grand and sophisticated that I want to believe every bit of the tangled web of Gatsby's mess of a life that Nick weaves for us. I love the outsider looking in narrator and I trust them more because they are just that- the outsider. There are some other characters that have to come in to play and I did not care for many (any) of them really ( did empathize with Gatsby and I did like him all right), and I really don't think that I was supposed to. Let's start off with the title character of Jay Gatsby (a.k.a. Jimmy Gatz), shall we. This guy had a poor upbringing, fell in love with a girl, fell in love once and almost completely. He is then shipped off to war where he does extraordinarily well and finds that Daisy is tired of waiting and has married someone else (here's your first sign that you're better off alone, dude) and then he comes back home, accrues wealth like a boss, moves in across the sound from Daisy (and her freakishly wealthy and total douchebag of a husband, Tom) and then he begins to throw meaningless parties (someone even put champagne in his hair- JUST FOR THE FUNSY OF IT), sits back and waits for Daisy to show. If your girl is easily lured out by the sounds of a kegger then here's your second sign, old sport. I get it though, Gatsby, I really really do. I was so in love with this one guy all through college and graduate school and I ruined good relationships with great guys because I would do anything this unattainable guy told me to do. It was a very unhealthy infatuation and I, unlike Gatsby, was fortunate enough to have real friends. One of them finally sat me down one day and told me that this guy was a chump, a user and not all that good looking. "BV, ya gotta let that fish fry." were his exact words to me and I did let that fish fry, and I'm better for it today. And I was never shot to death in my own pool.

I've been ripping on Daisy, and that's not quite fair. Did I care for her as a person? No. Was she vapid, annoying, spoiled, selfish driftwood? Yes! Do I fault her for these things? No. Why? Because I would LOVE to be a party girl in the 1920's! What a life! She was only playing the part that she had been born into and no one can blame her for that, as vexatious as she was. So this book is about wealthy people living wealthy lives and basking in their wealth. I have to admit that I was jealous as hell of most of the characters in this book. They're living the life of Riley! I mean... aren't they? I have to admit that I lead a pretty charmed life in school myself. The coursework came naturally to me so I never really had to put in a great deal of effort with homework. All I really had to do was sober up long enough to sit through a few hour long classes a week (usually in the late afternoons) and then commence partying. I was out of my mind with grief when I was finally forced to grow up and start working a 40+ hour a week job. I wish I could live the life these people lead, until I started to think about these characters- did I really want what they had, let's look at the facts: Tom's got mistresses all over the world. Daisy I swear has some sort of underlying mental health issue (perhaps a touch of Bi-Polarism or Manic Depression). Gatsby can't get over a summer fling from five years before and is stalking the shit out of her and as it turns out, money really can't buy him happiness. I really believe that Jordan, the female golf pro, is a closeted lesbian. Myrtle is literally ripped open. And Daisy is probably going to eventually commit suicide from the guilt of her actions. Okay, my life's really not so bad and their lives really aren't so great. However, I am still chasing down that dream. Sure my dream may not be a dude that I loved a few years ago, it's a job I really care about doing each day, a family I love, a little bit of money for a rainy day, and a sweet little cat named Rasputin to sit on my lap while I watch the Golden Girls reruns. Don't we all have something that we are yearning for? Aren't we all still shooting for that American Dream that Fitzgerald introduced us to? Aren't we all longing for something or someone? When you think about it, aren't we all Gatsby at heart?

Review: The Hours by Michael Cunningham

While I was visiting my parents house the movie version of Michael Cunningham's The Hours came on and I watched the first half of it with my mother. I was thoroughly hooked on the movie, but I knew that I wanted to read the book before I finished the movie so I stopped watching and went off to read whatever book I was reading at the time.
Having been sick and confined to bed all week I was ready for a new read after finishing two in two days. I was in the mood for something serious and I knew that it was time for me to read The Hours. I should have consulted my 2013 TBR Pile list before diving into this book as it was my pick for May of this year, but I was so strongly feeling the urge to read it that I abandoned all thought and read the book in two days in February. Oh well, that frees up May some for me then I suppose.

Title: The Hours
Author: Michael Cunningham
Publication Date: 1999
Publisher: Macmillian/Picador
Pages: 240
Where I Got It: Ed MacKays Used Books, Winston-Salem, NC, July 2012
Dates I Read It: February 7 & 8, 2013
Number of Stars: 5/5
Read For: 2013 TBR Pile Challenge (May Selection, oops); 1001 Books to Read Challenge

The Hours is the story of three women in different eras living their life in one day. First we meet Virginia Woolf, yes, THE Virginia Woolf, on the morning that she begins writing Mrs. Dalloway. Next we meet Clarissa Vaughn living in the late 1990's New York City who is planning a party for her long-time friend, Richard, who is being honored with a distinguished literary award, and finally we meet Laura Brown who only wants to read Mrs. Dalloway and escape from her mundane housewife life in 1950's America. We journey on one day in the lives of each of these ladies much like we journey one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway in the novel Mrs. Dalloway. In the end the three lives will interchange and all come together in an act of interconnectedness like no other. If you do not see the shocking connection before the association is revealed, plan to be in for a big surprise.
I got a lot out of this book. Having never read Mrs. Dalloway (though I certainly plan to do so very soon) I was not sure that I would follow along with this novel very well. However, I do know the synopsis of Mrs. Dalloway which did help to understand the mechanisms that Cunningham used to write this novel. The prose is deliciously great. The story as a whole flows like a river pulling the characters (and the reader) along a smooth flowing stream in a day. There is little to no action at all and we mostly get thoughts  descriptions of places and motives, and some dialogue. While this may sound quite prosaic, I assure that it is anything but. Each of the women are struggling with an inner unrest that leaves you wondering what she will choose to do about it.
The characters were astonishingly realistic. Though it's almost impossible to know the exact actions and thoughts that Woolf had during her time at Hogarth House (there is really only so much one can gather from letters), Cunningham does a splendid job of giving life and feeling and depth to Woolf as well as the other two women in the novel. Though there is little character development aside from Laura Brown I felt a sense of belief and trust in these three women. They behaved as women do in their individual dilemmas and they spoke the way I would expect them to and they thought in a manner that was true to their time and person. Even the minor characters like Vanessa (Woolf's sister) and Kitty (Laura's neighbor) and Julie (Clarissa's daughter) were fully formed and believable.
I found no fault with this novel which is very rare for me. I credit as being a great work of fiction and can easily understand how it won the PEN/Faulkner as well as the Pulitzer and the Stonewall.
The video version of the book is currently available on Netflix and I hope to be able to watch it this weekend sometime and do a review of it comparing it to the novel. The first half seemed to follow the book to a T. However, look for a review for that soon and check back for more information on my sister blog which is up and under construction, but not quite ready for me to say "go to this great new blog I've got, you won't be disappointed" yet.