Ken’s Comments (group member since Jan 21, 2020)

Ken’s comments from the The Obscure Reading Group group.

Sandra wrote: "The high school principal where I taught loved Hemingway. We used to have heated “discussions” because like you Dianne, I didn’t care for the macho persona. I told the principal to try Sarah Orne J..."

Well, if you peel away the persona and focus on the writing alone, you might treat him with a bit more leniency. Nature plays an important role in some of his stories and books, but a minor role in others.

I am a fan, but I admit some of his writing is "take it or leave it." But I genuinely admire The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and A Moveable Feast. I also admire many of his short stories.

At times he could be a real capital-R Romantic and a soft touch. Plus there's that androgyny hangup he had where he had his wives role play sex reversals with him.

But really, it's the writing alone that matters in MOST cases (except extremes). I like a lot of Knut Hamsun's books, for instance, but as a Nazi sympathizer, he loses all credibility as a human being.

It's an old argument, I know.

The conclusion: He was consumed by the persona he created. And good for your husband.

Tell him, when it comes to Hemingway books, he can do better than The Old Man and the Sea.

Did anyone watch the Ken Burns biopic series on Hemingway? What a mess of a man, equally deserving pity and scorn, though I do love three of his books.

In one, A Moveable Feast, he offers that his favorite D.H. Lawrence is Sons & Lovers, which I read many, many moons ago. He was not a fan of Women & Lovers, however. I read that one, too, I think -- but never got as far as The White Peacock, Lady Chatterly's Lover and such.

Three cheers for rescue dogs and those who rescue them!

Singrid Undset? I definitely read the first and part of the second. Then I fell into a fjord or something.

Luckily, I can draw from almost the entire state of Maine. The problem with most libraries is me, not the libraries. They logically cater to books most likely to fly out the door multiple times -- bestsellers, romance novels, crime and suspense novels, Generic Book Group USA novels.

These are not my strong suits. These are not even my suits.

Danielle wrote: "I'm starting The Ox-bow incident this evening. Apparently the people who read it really dig it, so I'm excited. Anyone else starting anything fun?"

I'm in one of those "tweener" periods where I pick up as-yet-unread poetry books around the house while I wait for library books to arrive from the hinterlands (the Hinterland Libraries apparently carrying more of the kind of books I read).

Sam wrote: "Hello, I’m Sam. In Dorset, England - yes, Hardy county!

It’s twenty years since I read Hardy. Are there any votes for poor old Tess Durbeyfield? I did love that novel so much.
I’m feeling drawn ..."


Hello and welcome, Sam. Great to have you here. Another fellow English teacher here, though I've never been one for crime novels (or TV shows, though my wife loves them). Like you, I appreciate the back and forth from fun to challenging reads. As I've aged, I've gotten better at mixing it up. See? Old dogs can learn new tricks.

Anyway, I'm sure you'll enjoy the group we have here. If you go there, I hope you like Wildfell. In around two weeks, we'll start the nomination process for our June discussion, so there's that to look forward to!

Welcome, Danielle. The more, the merrier (as a wise woman once said)!

Leanne wrote: "Hello Ken! I am beyond embarrassed, but when one door closes another one opens and I’m more than eager to stay and join your June read, if you’ll have me :) After all, like Jude, I am ‘crazy for bo..."

Glad you chose to stay, Leanne. At the end of April, if you wish (it's optional), you may wish to nominate a book when I send out a call for nominations. From there we vote in a poll and have a month (May) to track down and read the winner so we're ready to roll on June 1st.

Sheesh. Seems so weird to be saying "June 1st" already, but time, it keeps on rolling....

Hi Leanne and welcome!

Alas, we are not a Thomas Hardy group. We just happened to choose Jude the Obscure as our first group read, is all. Then we borrowed (with Thomas's permission) the word "Obscure" for our book group.

Our mission is to choose good books that are somewhat off the beaten track. That's why we are the "Obscure Reading Group."

Bottom line: You're certainly welcome to stay and see what book is chosen at the end of this month for our JUNE read! However, if your heart is set on all Hardy, all the time, I'm sad to say this isn't the answer to that Wessex dream.

Nick wrote: "Ah, teen humour, so amusing, Ken. Some of Steinbeck’s novellas would only take a lazy day to read. I would not want to travel back to year 8 and 9, although I do remember going to the school librar..."

The House on Mango Street , written by Mexican-American author Sandra Cisneros, is a collection of vignettes (most 2-4 pages short) that, taken together, outline the coming of age of a young girl in Chicago who dreams of someday having a house of her own -- you know, like the ones on TV (assume: The Brady Bunch).

The vignettes are prose but so poetic that the line is often blurred. Girls liked it better than boys (naturally), but we made it work for everyone thanks to all the creative doors Cisneros opens.

Whether you would enjoy it or not is a jump ball. Not much of a plot or story line. Kind of Impressionistic in that, taken collectively, you see the bigger picture. Great as writing prompt material, which is what I liked best! I had the kids write 4-6 vignettes based on SC's examples and call it "The House on (Fill in Name of Student's Street)."

Kathleen wrote: "Lucky kids, Ken! That sounds like fun. And my respect for you grows, knowing you taught 8th grade. **shudder**"

Thank you, Kathleen, though it has to be said that 8th graders can be funny and fun to teach. It's a tough age, sure. You need only think of yourself at age 13-14 to realize. Speaking for myself, I had a tough go of it as an 8th grader. It's kind of a time of conversion between acting like a kid and acting like an adult.

Nick wrote: "Ken wrote: "I can't imagine David Copperfield being assigned in high school. Way too long.

In fact, by the time I reached h.s., a veteran teacher said they had given up on teaching Moby Dick and s..."


The Pearl was pretty unpopular with 7th graders in my school. As I taught 8th, I didn't have to teach it. In my Curriculum Coordinator years, though, I'd visit the 7th grade classrooms while The Pearl was being read to share this sidesplitter:

Q: What did Kino say to his wife every morning when he woke up?

A: "Juana" make some breakfast?


Now that I've given you a few moments to compose yourself, here are the books I read and taught every year in 8th, the grade most teachers did not want to teach for some reason:

The House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros)
The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
Night (Elie Wiesel)
Romeo & Juliet or A Midsummer Night's Dream (Ummm...can't recall the author right now)

The first was the most enjoyable because, over a few weeks, I read the whole thing in front of class and had a chance to indulge in a little (and sometimes a lotta) dramatic reading.

Such, such were the days...

I think my Steinbeck credits extend to only four books: The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Of Mice & Men, and The Pearl.

And Sandra, I can't imagine high school kids wading into an unabridged Oliver Twist.

But thanks for reminding me about To Kill a Mockingbird. Another of those "read in school and never once since" classics!

For Diane and all other Steinbeck fans.

You can now bid on John's little fishing shed on Long Island because it's up for sale!

I can't imagine David Copperfield being assigned in high school. Way too long.

In fact, by the time I reached h.s., a veteran teacher said they had given up on teaching Moby Dick and so taught instead Billy Budd, which all of us loathed because we were way too young to see what Melville was about. I have since returned to it and learned to appreciate it more.

As for Steinbeck, I still want to read Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row. Why do I keep putting it off?

Kathleen wrote: "I feel like I missed quite a bit when it comes to reading classics in high school. The ones we did read though have made a lasting impression.

I hated The Catcher in the Rye, but remem..."


Thanks for reminding me about Gatsby. We read that, too.

Some of these books win favor due to their brevity. Thus the new popularity of Steinbeck's short novel Of Mice and Men and Orwell's Animal Farm (neither of which were read back in my day).

I can't understand why we were forced to read Dickens' Tale of Two Cities. I read a lot of Dickens on my own as a college and post-collegiate guy, and that's probably the worst Dickens novel I read.

We read a lot of Hawthorne's short stories, too, probably because they tied in with the Colonial American History being taught across the hall. All the Puritan stories like "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Maypole of Merrymount" and "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" and "My Kinsman Major Molineaux" and "The Minister's Black Veil."

Speaking of Hawthorne, I read only recently that Herman Melville had a man crush on him (Hawthorne being a good-looker in younger and mid-age days, apparently). It got so bad that Nat made a point of sending regrets for Melville invites after that.

Literary Gossip for $800, Alex. (Or Alex's guest host of the moment.)

Diane wrote: "When I worked at a small bookstore in a small town years ago, a teenager came in for a copy of The Catcher in the Rye. He was unenthusiastic and said he probably would just do the Cliff Notes, but ..."

In a similar vein, Diane, I had to teach Catcher and was shocked -- SHOCKED -- to find the vast majority of my students hated it and claimed that Holden was nothing but a whiner.

The next year, I thought like you (and the Brahmins of Boring Boston). I researched the history of the book, the reasons it was banned in some places, and started THERE, talking about language, "sex" scenes, and school boards wanting to ensure that no teenager laid eyes on it.

Catnip! That year they liked it much better, though they were amazed at how "harmless" the language and sex scenes were compared to modern times.

Teaching, like writing, is nothing but recalculating (call the GPS people!).

Nothing sells books like banning them. Ask Mark Twain. The expression "Banned in Boston" came from the Brahmins of Boston banning Huck Finn (which immediately sent sales through the proverbial roof).

We did not have to read Darkness at Noon. Is it nonfiction? Seems we skipped nonfiction -- book-lengthed, at least.

For me, a weird experience. I never wanted to pick it up to continue reading (a very, very bad sign) but, if I was wise enough to allot an hour or more to read, eased into it without a problem, taking time only to flip the pages and, occasionally, roll the eyes.

Sue wrote: "Ken, did you read ‘The Lord of the Flies’ too? I remember that being on the list.

I’ve read A Moveable Feast, which I really liked, and The Sun Also Rises, which I recall feeling somewhat indiffer..."

Good pick-up, Sue. Lord of the Flies was definitely in the mix.

Weirdly, I recall LOVING that book in high school, yet I never returned to it. It's one of those books of yore I prefer keeping on the "Books of Yore" shelf and looking at proudly. Reading it again might precipitate its fall. You know, from the Books of Yore shelf (which, by the way, hasn't been dusted in ages... and Lord, I hate dusting).