Skinneejay
took the never-ending book quiz.
| questions answered: | 7 |
| correct: | 7 (100.0%) |
| skipped: | 1 |
| best streak: | 6 |
| questions added: | 0 |
I'm still a newbie to reading. So I'm reading all kinds of classics and stuff. After finishing the long-ass Invisible Man which was great, I decided to read some shorter novels for a while. My first target was The Great Gatsby which was laying in my school library. Considering many claim it's similar to The Catcher In The Rye. After finishing it, I found it more Of Mice and Men, because of the ending. But as a whole, it was a damn good novel and story.
The story revolves around Jay Gatsby. However, it is told from the eyes of a guy called Nick Carraway. The truth is Nick isn't much of a character, and doesn't do much. He won't tell you about himself either. You probably know the narrators of Invisible Man or Fight Club better. Either way, Nick goes to New York and live in a place called West Egg (There's also an East Egg nearby). Right next door to him lives this Jay Gatsby guy, who throws great parties where random people who don't know how this Gatsby even looks step in freely. It is later discovered that Gatsby had an affair with Nick's cousine, Daisy. After that, it's a downward spiral where not many good things happen.
Something feels a little strange in The Great Gatsby. It tries to be another cynical and no-hope novel like As I Lay Dying. The problem is, it just doesn't feel like that. I understand it's supposed to show the dark side of the high-class people. However, because the narrative is not judgemental, and the story is mostly told as a third-person narration could tell it, it feels like an ordinary story. You can tell when it gets darker. The right atmosphere in the end comes. But let's say I wouldn't put it next to more "shocking" stuff. Oh wait, I guess that's why I found it in my school library.
Is The Great Gatsby a classic many people claim it is? In my book, it isn't. But hey, how many novels will I read and claim they are classics? Despite the fact it isn't a classic for me, I can't say it's overrated. After all, I really did like this book. It didn't really bore me. The plot fitted greatly on the short number of pages and Gatsby is a great tragic hero. Read The Great Gatsby if you'r in need of a short novel. The language is pretty high though. This isn't really Catcher In The Rye. ]]>
Most of the time, when you hear about Vonnegut, you hear about Slaughterhouse-Five. You will also hear about Cat's Cradle or Breakfast Of Champions. Yet, here I am and the first Vonnegut book I reviewe is Bluebeard, which is considered one of his lesser novels. I didn't even choose Mother Night or The Sirens Of Titan. Why? The answer is simple: I read Slaughterhouse long time ago and just finished Bluebeard. Don't worry. I promise more Vonnegut. Someday.
So Bluebeard is a novel about an Armenian painter called Rabo Karabekian (Even after finishing the novel I had problems with his last name). The novel is written as an autobiography. In fact, it's pretty much an autobiography of a fictional character. However, the writing style and time-jumping turn Bluebeard into a long rambling, even worse than almighty The Catcher In The Rye.
There's basically a few things that are common between Slaughterhouse and Bluebeard. They both lack a certain timeline for the events, they are both close to a genocide (the Armenian genocide this time) and both got the great voice and humor of Mr. Vonnegut. However, this is where it ends. The first and main reason is that Slaughterhouse is insane, makes no sense and takes you to an adventure. Bluebeard, on the other hand, is calmer and relaxed. While Rabo basically tells you chunks and chunks of the story, seperated so you basically stopped trying to follow, he doesn't have the angry tone Holden got. However, he is still sharp. He even fantasizes about what will happen if his name gets into the dictionary. It was definitely one of the better jokes.
If I'm already talking Rabo, than I have to resort to mentioning Catcher again. That's because both Holden and Rabo turn themselves into the center of their novels. Rabo is an excellent character. Not necessarily an angry and souring antihero but not some guy with extreme talents (Actually, there's a guy here who got extreme talents. He commits suicide and you know it pretty early). Rabo feels like a simple, yet full character. A character with a background that doesn't try to be too bombastic and dramatic. Aside from that, Rabo joins many fabulous characters who have one common quality: They're lonely, either by choice or not. Rabo is more of a hermit by choice. An old man who decided to step back and rest, yet without too much contempt or something. A great character which I'll remember for a long time.
There isn't a whole lot of bad things to say about Bluebeard. It's an excellent study of a character, and definitely got a deeper protagonist than a plot. Yet, Bluebeard doesn't pack the punch Slaughterhouse packed, but that's it. If you dig deeper, you could see the novel drags a bit there and there. But most of the time, it's good, but not good enough.
So why read this novel? If you like characters and studying them. In all honesty, Bluebeard wasn't that much of a satire and doesn't feel like it has something to say. It doesn't feel like somebody got bored and wrote random chunks of plot. It's not made of a bunch of stories sticked together. It's simple a character study. As if Rabo could appear in a different novel with a serious plot, and this book would serve as a "side book" to understand him better (Actually, he appeared in Breakfast Of Champions or so I heard. But he wasn't a main hero or something). In the end, Bluebeard worths reading and far from a waste of time. A good book to add to your library. But read Slaughterhouse first, please ]]>
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