Written in 1937, when the Depression was still affecting all aspects of the farming community, this powerful novel depicts the lives of migrant workers–grim, pessimistic, and offering little hope for an improved future. Focusing on two characters who arrive in the Salinas Valley during peak season, Steinbeck creates touching scenes between Lenny, a big, severely limited worker who does not know his own strength, and George, a whippet-thin man who serves as Lenny’s constant companion and protector. Both Lenny and George have dreams of one day living on their own farm, where Lenny, who loves the feeling of soft things–even dead mice–wants to take care of rabbits. George hopes one day to benefit from his own hard work on his own farm and to create an environment where Lenny can be safe from his own impulses. As Steinbeck brings the characters on the ranch to life, he shows how every person there has dreams of a different life but few opportunities to change the lives they already have. (To read the full review, click on the title on this excerpt.)
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Posted in Classic Novel, Japan, Literary on Jan 10th, 2011
Written in 1929, Some Prefer Nettles is as relevant and fresh today as it was more than seventy years ago. Illuminating the conflict between the old, traditional ways of Japan and western, “modern” influences, obvious in Tokyo even in the 1920’s, this story of an unsuccessful marriage could be contemporary, except in the details. The social unacceptability of divorce in Japanese culture and the resulting tensions felt by three generations of a Japanese family allow the western reader to enter an emotional world, a world of conflict rarely shared with outsiders and almost never understood. Kaname and his wife Misako “do not excite each other,” but they are stuck, perhaps permanently, in their loveless marriage. If Misako leaves Kaname, she will have to return to her father’s home, a social outcast, without her son, who will stay with his father. Kaname will also suffer–he has failed as a husband. Considering himself “modern,” Kaname has allowed Misako to take a lover, while he finds satisfaction in geisha houses and with prostitutes.
(To see the full review, click on the title of this excerpt)
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Posted in Classic Novel, England, Literary on Jan 10th, 2011
“The end of a novel, like the end of a children’s dinner-party, must be made up of sweetmeats and sugar-plums,” Trollope says, and he does, indeed, fill the ending of this delightful social satire with all the “sweetmeats” any reader could desire. Between the introduction and conclusion are so many moments of wry humor, genuine thoughtfulness, and satisfying come-uppances that the extra sweetness at the end is actually a bonus. In this second of the Chronicles of Barsetshire, published in 1857, Trollope continues the story of Mr. Septimus Harding, the gentle and unambitious clergyman who, in The Warden (1855), resigned his appointment as warden of Hiram’s Hospital for the poor and became the vicar of a small church, living frugally above a chemist’s shop. His daughter Eleanor, who married reformer John Bolt at the end of The Warden, is now a widow with a small son–and considerable inheritance. Ecclesiastical controversies, many of them linked to the desire for power within the small world of the church hierarchy, still exist in Barchester, and the arrival of Mr. Slope, as chaplain to Bishop Proudie, signals fireworks. Slope, one of Trollope’s most unforgettable characters, is one of the slimiest, most sycophantic, and manipulative clergyman ever to appear in English literature. (To read the full review, click on the title of this excerpt)
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Posted in England, Literary on Jan 10th, 2011
Mary Thorne, the main character, is a girl of uncertain parentage who is often in the company of the Gresham sisters, with whom she has been schooled. Mary is attracted to their brother Frank. The Greshams, of high social level, own a dilapidated estate with rapidly increasing debts, and their only hope is that Frank, who will inherit the estate, will marry a wealthy woman who will solve their financial problems. Frank, however, is in love with Mary, who is increasingly ostracized because of her lack of high birth. The death of Sir Roger provides a turning point in the conflicts. Though the earlier Barsetshire novels are highly satiric, casting wry glances at the church and the behavior of its clergy, this novel is more rooted in day to day activities, accurately depicting the class divisions in England at the time and emphasizing their absurdities. (To read the full review, click on the title of this excerpt.)
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The fourth of the Chronicles of Barsetshire, Framley Parsonage (1861) is a gentle novel filled with memorable characters, including many characters from The Warden, Barchester Towers, and Doctor Thorne (Barsetshire Novels). Mark Robarts, a young vicar with a devoted wife, has a comfortable situation at Framley Parsonage on the estate of the indomitable Lady Lufton. Her son, now Lord Lufton, had been a friend of Mark Robarts at school, and it was their friendship which resulted in Mark’s position. Mark, though conscientious in his duties and grateful for his situation, is ambitious, however, anxious to expand his horizons beyond Framley. Lady Lufton, who rules with an iron hand, is appalled when Mark decides to spend a weekend with a “fast” crowd, one which he believes can advance his career. Young and naïve, he becomes the dupe of an aristocratic “con-man,” an MP named Nathaniel Sowerby, who persuades him to help him out of a financial jam by signing a note for five hundred pounds (more than half Robarts’s yearly salary), allowing Sowerby to draw funds on Robarts’s name. (To read the full review, click on the title of this excerpt.)
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