I thought I'd post about "East of Eden" before I read the whole book. I am about 350 pages in and I am loving it. I think it is my favorite book so far this summer. The only thing I really knew about the book before I started reading was that it was loosely based on the Adam and Eve narrative and that it is considered Steinbeck's masterpiece.

What I am loving so much about the book is how well it reads. I feel like I can read for hours and never get tired of the story (with the rare exception of one or two chapters) because the language and writing style flow so well. I also think that some of the characters in the book are so well developed that I feel like I almost know these people personally. Cathy is one of the most evil well created characters I can think of in all of literature and Samuel Hamilton is almost her polar opposite. So, I'm really enjoying this read.

I do have some questions, though. Does this book seem a bit misogynistic? Is Cathy really supposed to represent Eve? If so, is she supposed to represent the curse that some people think women bare (original sin)? Even Adam's Mother is none existent in the book and most of the women are absent/minor characters. The book just seems filled with hard working men and crazy women. even Lisa Hamilton is kind of a stubborn puritan who didn't seem to appreciate her seemingly angelic husband. Faye is a great character, but she was running a brothel. I don't know. I guess it just seems a bit lop-sided in that respect. I suppose I will have more to say about this after I finish the whole book.

So, reading has been going pretty slow for me. I was working two jobs and studying for the GRE. I'm only working one job now, but the GRE studying continues. As I Lay Dying was really hard for me to get into. I really liked the idea of having a bunch of first person narrators and then allowing the story to develop without traditional background info etc. I guess it was just hard for me to follow because I didn't really know what was going on sometimes. I was totally captivated, however, by a few parts in the book. For example, when Addie died and 3-4 perspectives were given about the death. It was interesting to see how some of the characters reacted to the death when they were alone and to read their thoughts. Pretty cool stuff. So, the reading my progress a bit slower for me from here on out. I'm going to start East of Eden today. It's a pretty long book, so this might be my last or second to last book of the summer. It all depends on how my GRE studying goes.

Mrs. Dalloway

So, I'm not re-reading Mrs. Dalloway right now because I read it a few weeks ago for a class. I did write a paper on Modernist Literature using Mrs. Dalloway, however. So, I'll go ahead and post that paper to get any discussion rolling. Half of the paper is about Lawrence's "Women in Love," so just disregard the first part of the paper.

Wow - how did my last post come across as me thinking BNW was controversial???? Anyway, I actually thought I had chosen the book because I have wanted to read it since 1968. I just never took the time. Good heavens, this is a book discussion group; if I don't want to read one of the selections, I'll opt out. I'm interested in expanding my reading horizons, believe it or not. Signed, the Family Prude.

Lord of the Flies

Just starting the "Lord of the Flies" thread. Please continue commenting on BNW if you so wish. As far as LOTF, I'm not really too sure what to expect. I'm sure it deals quite a bit with the nature of human beings and how they govern themselves. I'm pretty excited to read it!!!

Brave New World

I got my copy of "Brave New World" today in the mail and it came with a cool little biography of Aldous Huxley. I thought it was really interesting that Huxley was close friends with Lawrence and Auden, who were both very progressive thinkers/philosophers/authors of the early 20th century. From what I've read of Lawrence and Auden, they were both very worried about changes in society concerning technology and societal convention. Also, I believe both Lawrence and Auden were pretty provocative for their time. In the mini-bio, I read that Huxley came from a very prominent family of scientist, a profession Aldous wanted to follow, but he went blind for a few years, leaving him incapable.
So, I am going to be reading "Brave New World" with an eye open for Nature Vs. Man-made/Machine-type elements, basically blatant attacks on what was referred to as Futurism. And if Huxley follows Auden and Lawrence, I will also be looking out for explorations on tradition/social convention and absolute truth.