Anna Karenina

by Leo Tolstoy

Oh my! For years I have picked up Anna Karenina in bookstores and libraries and thought of reading it, only to return it to the shelf, not ready to tackle the monstrosity. I finally succumbed to the pressure from one of my Classics reading friends who has been anxious to discuss it with me. Well, I am done!

Anna is a classic in style, in prose, in characterization, in societal and cultural issues of the day and in addressing love, marriage, jealousy, religion, depression and death. Tolstoy gives us real people with real problems and delves into their inner turmoil as they struggle to make choices. He shows us how these decisions affect each character individually and as a part of society.

One of the main themes throughout the novel is love in marriage. Tolstoy uses two characters, Levin and Anna, to compare and contrast marital love. While Anna is trapped in a loveless marriage and seeks comfort in another man's arms, Levin truly loves his wife and works to keep that love strong. He takes us along the path as each faces the consequences of their actions. Many other relationships are explored through these pages as well.

In addition, Tolstoy presents long and tedious expositions about farming and Russian politics. For me, this interfered with the flow of the story and required much persistence to "get back to the good parts." And although I hate giving away too much, I was frustrated to have invested so much into Anna only to come to that final decision of hers.

It was mostly good, I am glad to say I have read it, but it is long my friends.

Must Read Literature

Ever on the lookout for book lists, I found a new one that I thought was really cool:

Here's the link so you can have a better look: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/14/information-beautiful-books-read-100

Dracula

by Bram Stoker

A few years ago several of my reading buddies were abuzz over The Historian, which at that time I didn't add to my "to-read" list. A few weeks ago, I was discussing with a friend that I was contemplating reading it now and her instant response was, "Have you read Dracula?" Well, no I never had and from her tone I assumed that must be read first. Since the timing was right, I decided to do the audiobook, and even though I loved listening to this story, as I was listening I kept thinking, "I wish I were reading this!" May be partly due to my lack of enthusiasm for the book I was actually reading.

Undoubtedly, you know the basic premise of Dracula, but in case you too have never read it, the book is written as a series of journal entries that give an account of the quest of Van Helsing and friends to destroy this evil among men. Even though I was listening to this story, I could tell that Stoker did a great job of distinguishing the voices of his characters, including the two women. He also portrayed the Count just as he was, a non-emotional entity, terrorizing generations of people, living off the blood of innocent victims and gathering a dedicated army of followers. No teen romance vampire here!

I liked many many things about this book: the strong female character, Mina Murray, the tough American, the insane asylum and Renfro, the discovery process of the group as they began to understand who Dracula was and how he must be conquered, the dedication these friends had to one another, to future victims and to God, and the presentation of the story through the perspective of each character. 

If you haven't read it, you should. And now that I'm cleared to read The Historian, it's going to have to go in the queue.

The Bird Sisters

by Rebecca Rasmussen

If you read my last post, you already know how I felt about The Bird Sisters. And if you read my last post you'll understand that I had high expectations because it got rave reviews. And when I kept forcing myself back to read just one more chapter before playing 7 little words, I also kept wondering what I was missing since I wasn't so enthralled by this story. But I really just didn't care. I didn't particularly like the main characters, I didn't like what was going on in the story, I wasn't overly impressed with the writing style, the plot was slow, nothing much really happened and nothing much was really resolved, even though the author kept going back to wrap it up. When she finally did finish writing, I was glad to be done, but not really glad I fought myself to finish it. 

But, don't let my harsh criticism deter you.... many readers found it "a beautiful debut novel" (wonder if they read the whole thing). I know; I'm sassy.

Distractions

It was a slow July for reading and I'd like to make several excuses, none of which is very good: heat, headaches, school prep, and several word games that keep distracting me. However, the main reason is because this month I have made poor book selections. The books I have chosen haven't been holding my attention, but I have begrudgingly stuck with them as I have no other pressing alternatives. If you've read a great book lately I'd love to hear your suggestions. 

And another diversion from my usual posts. I recently read a blog post by a "professional reader" asking how much of a book a person needed to read before they could say they read the book. I have always thought in order to say you've read a book you must have read the entire thing, but apparently I am way off base. This blogger, who reads and reviews books for a living, along with most of those who responded to his post, said that after halfway, you could consider it read! HMMMM, that explains a LOT! I have frequently wondered how certain books could get such glowing reports... now I know. 

The Orphan Master's Son

by Adam Johnson

Johnson wrote this book after a visit to North Korea and extensive research on the country, with the intention of relaying the story of a nation built on propaganda. To the North Koreans, it doesn't matter that the foundation is fictitious, "every citizen is forced to become a character whose motivations, desires and fears are dictated by the script." Johnson shares the miserable living conditions, the violence, the torture and the attitudes of the citizens in a way that seems unbelievable, even when you know it is true. 


The story is written in two parts, meeting Jun Do and the confessions of General Ga, however, these two men are so intertwined as to become one. Jun Do's story reflects the life of an average comrade, who works in the mines, conducts diplomatic missions and spends time in the work camps. General Ga realtes the life of the privileged, those who are in the upper ranks of Kim Jong Il's regime. He receives better rations, lives in a mansion in a secluded neighborhood and is elevated above the mainstream.

The information presented in The Orphan Master's Son was interesting, astonishing and horrifying all at once. The nature of this story was so dystopian that it wasn't a book I was naturally drawn to reading even though it was well written. Perhaps if I hadn't just been on a spell of reading several in that genre, I might have digested this account better. This is a lengthy story and gets confusing at times, particularly in the second half. I also got a bit tired of the interrogator's narrative. But, if you are interested in learning about North Korea and don't want a history, I would recommend this book. I realize even though this is fiction, much of it is a reality for those living in NK. My life is just so far removed from this lifestyle I can't imagine how people would succumb to that totalitarian regime.

Doc

by Mary Doria Russell

If you're looking for a dramatized story of the gunfight at the OK Corral you'll need to find another book, as the point of this one is to paint a picture of Dodge City in 1878, the people and politics that ruled the day and the relationship that grew between Doc Holliday, Kate Horony and the Wyatt brothers prior to that notorious event. Although Ms. Russell clearly did a lot of research and dedicated significant space to feature each character, her slant on them might cause a true historian to question this account.  The discrepancy isn't necessarily in details as in her desire to present John Henry Holliday in a sympathetic light, which is diametrically opposed to any other rendition I've heard. Keeping in mind that the majority of my western cowboy information was gleaned from the playground and the movies, I understood Doc Holliday, the Earp's and the rest of that crowd to be a bunch of cheating, drunken, philandering hustlers. But after reading Doc I learned a few other things.

I didn't know Doc was classically educated, spoke several languages, was a pianist and lived most of his life dying of consumption (tuberculosis). I didn't know he was born with a cleft palate, his mother died when he was 15 after which his father quickly remarried and sent John off to live with an aunt. I didn't know he would rather have made his living as a dentist than as a gambler. Didn't know Kate Horony grew up in a wealthy home but was orphaned when she was 15 then sexually assaulted by the foster father. Didn't know the Earp's father was physically abusive. So if you can ignore the hot tempers and altercations and run-ins with the law, the gambling and drinking and prostitution, these make out to be pretty good guys.

Throughout the book, Ms. Russell comments on the western era media's over exaggeration of this group and these events in order to make best-selling dime-store novels; I assume in a effort to give credibility to her version. Which brings me back to a quote from Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending, "That's one of the central problems with history, isn't it sir? That question of subjective versus objective interpretation, the fact that we need to know the history of the historian in order to understand the version that is being put in front of us."

Regardless, Doc was interesting and well written. If you like historical fiction this would be a good summer read.