On the long drive home from L.A. last night, where we spent Mother’s Day weekend, Kevin starting reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin to me. He offered to drive the entire way, and have me read, but I wasn’t tired and told him I prefer his reading to mine. He’s very good at all the accents and dramatizing the voices.
We’re only five chapters into the book but so far I’ve found it fascinating. Not only is it well-written, it’s interesting to me to think about all the social implications involved. Apparently Abe Lincoln joked with Harriet Beecher Stowe that she was the woman who started the Civil War.
One thing I love about the book is the fact that I’m already attached to the characters. I can feel for them and empathize with them in their struggles. And I can hardly wait to learn what happens to them in the next chapter.
There have been several other classic books I’ve read where I just couldn’t get into the characters. It’s pretty bad when, about halfway through the book, you still don’t really care what happens to the people in it – whether they live peacefully or die a painful, torturous death. One particular book that I disliked (and could never force myself to finish) was The Scarlet Letter. Although the overall plot was interesting, the description of the town and the docks, etc., etc. at the beginning of the book could’ve been done adequately and skillfully in three pages, instead of thirty. Someone criticized me when I told them I didn’t care for The Scarlet Letter. He snobbishly remarked that I simply “must not appreciate classic literature.” Honestly, I do appreciate classic literature … so long as it doesn’t bore me to tears!
Is every "classic" book infallible and always above being criticized by an amateur like me? Can’t I hold classic literature to the same test as other books I read and openly admit when I like some and not others? Will the elitists in the world please allow me that discretion?
Besides ... How do you determine a good fictional writer, anyway? To me, if you can’t pull the "average Joe" reader (e.g., me) into your story within the first ten paragraphs, you're not a good writer.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I think in reading older books you have to keep in mind that literary standards and tastes have changed, and that the modern demand for action up front wasn't always the case--apparently being lushly descriptive was once a much greater virtue in writing. At least most of them wrote that way. Perhaps being more used to movies where the scene can be set in 30 seconds we are less patient with hearing about the time and place than people were 150 years ago.
Anyway, if you don't like the descriptions, skip over them and enjoy the rest. *War and Peace*, for instance, is an absolutely fascinating story, with wonderful characters, and occasional interminable lectures on Tolstoy's theories of historical determinism. Skip over those, and it's a great read.
Nathaniel Hawthorne is absolutely maddening to read. He never finishes a sentence and never gets to the point. I was once so vehement on this topic that my older sister drew a comic strip for me, in which I get stuck next to Hawthorne for a cross-country flight. I did finish The Scarlet Letter, but I don't remember much about it.
I've never read Uncle Tom's Cabin. I think I avoid it because it's to personal, seeing as it's an indictment against Southerners, by someone who never lived in the South. (As my mom said, she was irritated by the fact that one scene features people running over a frozen river. Rivers don't freeze in the South.) Not that I disagree with the book's message; but emotional attachments don't always jibe with intellect. Maybe I'll be brave enough to try it when my children get older. After all, they probably won't think it's a cool thing to hang a Dixie flag in their rooms.
-- SJ
Sara -
I really think you should give the book a try. So far it's more a diatribe on the system vs. all slave owners in the South. In fact, Tom's first owners are portrayed as good, kind, decent, Christian people who respect the humanity of their servants but are forced to sell Tom to a ruthless trader to settle a debt.
As far as the frozen river, the story takes place in Kentucky. Not that I've ever lived there but I think it freezes in KY. It definitely freezes in IN - I know this first hand!
-AK
Amy, if you like UTC you might try Jubilee by Margaret Walker. I read that for my book club and thought it was very interesting, particularly because I come from the north. Jubilee is written by the grand-daughter of a slave.
Okay, Amy, maybe I will. :) (I still don't think rivers freeze in Kentucky. They don't freeze in Virginia.)
Thanks for the lemon tart Amy. mmmmm.
And they ate it and it was good.
Post a Comment