The New York Times ranked Swamplandia! as one of its notable books for 2011, and I found the first forty pages lovely and engrossing, with a bizarre p...moreThe New York Times ranked Swamplandia! as one of its notable books for 2011, and I found the first forty pages lovely and engrossing, with a bizarre plot that seemed to examine the notions of time and memory. And then, after the first forty pages, I became somewhat indifferent to this book. It seemed sloppy and amateurish. I kept thinking: "Well, if it's a notable book for 2011, I have to be missing something, right?"
But I don't think so. Russell's writing is highly--and often overly--stylized. The plot was awkward. The characters were often two dimensional. Larger issues were not resolved or were skirted around. The symbolism is often heavy-handed and cliched.
And yet, I wouldn't give up on Russell yet. She's young and has talent. There were moments--unfortunately rather spread out and few--but moments nonetheless where I was dazzled by her writing's poignancy, poetry, and insight.
Here's such a moment:
"'God' was a word I used as a spell-breaker. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't. 'God,' I'd whisper, feeling sometimes an emptiness and sometimes a spreading warmth. If a word is just a container for feeling, or a little matchstick that you strike against yourself--a tiny, fiery summons--then probably I could have said anything, called any name, who knows? I didn't have a normal kid's ideas of the Lord as an elderly mainland guy on a throne. The God I prayed to I thought of as the mother, the memory of love. She was my own mother sometimes, baggy-eyed and smiling in the Chief's heavy canvas work clothes in the morning, one of the Chief's cigarettes hanging from her mouth. The Our Father and the Hail Mary I'd picked up somehow by osmosis but it was her name I invoked out there, her memory I summoned like a wind I could lean into, and I liked this prayer much better: Mom, please help me to find Ossie. Please help me to make the net" (178).(less)
Finally, I succumbed and read this fast-paced, compelling story about Katniss, the girl on fire, and her journey into the arena for the Hunger Games, ...moreFinally, I succumbed and read this fast-paced, compelling story about Katniss, the girl on fire, and her journey into the arena for the Hunger Games, and I'm now considering pushing for this as a novel for freshmen year, with a female hero and plot and writing that, I would argue, is as sophisticated as Ender's Game (a book that I do not enjoy teaching) with its futuristic dystopia and first-person narration from the point of view of a young girl who is driven to survive and terrified to love, as she deals with the violent death of her father, the emotional breakdown of her mother, and the conflicted relationships that she encounters during the Hunger Games. A lot of interesting topics to explore in a 9th grade classroom, with students who are being taught to truly understand characterization and theme.(less)
Denis Johnson is a master of hauntingly beautiful imagery in the midst of plain-out fucked up situations involving under-privileged characters who hav...moreDenis Johnson is a master of hauntingly beautiful imagery in the midst of plain-out fucked up situations involving under-privileged characters who have little to hold onto. Someone said in a review that this book is magic realism: I disagree; it's the imagery of the high, the drunk, the desperate, and the dying. This book is so carefully crafted that although it's only two hundred pages long, it feels like an epic, taking the reader on a drunken Greyhound bus ride through Ohio and Pennsylvania, a brutal tour of Chicago, and a crime-ridden and drug-filled spree in Phoenix. Johnson is able to zoom in, like a camera, intensely on a moment, as we do sometimes in life, where suddenly we stop and notice the most minute and beautiful thing: the sulfur snap, lighting, and burning of a match before lighting a cigarette, for example. Everything goes into close focus, time slows, and then, suddenly, everything speeds up again.
This book reminds me of the film Requiem for a Dream, filled with madness, sadness, and sometimes a tender love, an understanding of the beautiful, and a mourning of what could have been but never really was. (less)
The first time I read this book, I thought it was poorly written and weird, but my second and closer reading unveiled a level of sophistication that I...moreThe first time I read this book, I thought it was poorly written and weird, but my second and closer reading unveiled a level of sophistication that I had glossed over initially. This novel, first published in 1862, presents two female characters, sisters, who choose different paths in life. The eldest chooses to leave home three times, journeying away from the domestic sphere and becoming more liberated and autonomous with each trip. The younger sister, a prodigy, chooses to remain in the domestic sphere, and her lack of journeying outward results in a regression of the spirit and mind. Stoddard may have been arguing that for true self-possession, women had to go beyond the home. They had to venture out into the world in order to truly understand and be able to articulate who and what they are, making this rather unknown novel a valuable proto-feminist work from the 19th Century.(less)
A short read that's driven by a sassy 14-year-old girl and the mysterious Rooster Cogburn. Recommend for anyone who wants a quick read, enjoyed one of...moreA short read that's driven by a sassy 14-year-old girl and the mysterious Rooster Cogburn. Recommend for anyone who wants a quick read, enjoyed one of the film adaptations. Weakness: plot is sometimes a bit sensationalized.(less)
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