Brighton Rock

What a sad book! I kept hoping - again the optimist - that something good would happen in the end. Even the very last with Rose going for confession gave me a glimmer of good, but no. Greene had to dash those hopes by reminding me of the recording. How sad!

After reading these novels this semester, I'm not yet convinced that I really like the modernist movement. Maybe the reality of life is appropriate. I know that I enjoy rose-colored glasses, but the emphasis still seems to be heavy on the negative. I know that life is not perfect. I know that bad things happen. I know that we all face difficulties that are a part of life, but that is not all there is to life. Really great things happen in life, too. I guess that is why I have been frustrated so much with the reading. I want to somehow talk to the characters in the book and be a voice for the positive side of life. That cock-eyed optimistic perspective is my demise. However, when it is all said and done, I'm happier. To be clear, I've had devasting things happen in my life. I have seen my share of tragedy. I grew up in a funeral home - I have seen a lot of tragedy. But, I also realize that life is short and needs to be lived and appreciated every day. Choices are crucial, but life goes on and offers new options. I also have a hope for eternity, so my perspective is very different from the authors I have read this semester. The reading has opened my eyes to the ways that other people look at the world, but it is has also convinced me that I have made some really good choices.

Handful of Dust

This week was much better for me as far as enjoyment of the book was concerned. I loved the dry wit of Waugh in A Handful of Dust, but I did struggle with the depth of the dark humor presented in the book. The middle section where John Andrew was killed was really hard for me to get through - I'm a mom of two little ones - so I know that my reading of that part of the book was tainted. I also realized after reading the book that that particular section was where I completely lost any sympathy or patience with Brenda. Her response to the death of her child was so cold and void of emotion. I really found that difficult to come to grips with. I haven't figured out if I am put off by her lack of emotion or if I should just come to expect that she was responding in typical British fashion. I don't want to count the British people as cold and unfeeling, but I haven't figured out her reaction in a way that I can really believe yet.

Lady Chatterly's Lover

I must admit, I didn't like this book. The characters were hard for me to understand and so far from my own way of thinking. They also seemed almost unbelievable because of their differences. Connie and Clifford were married in name only. I never sensed anything between them that would even hint at a marriage relationship.

Connie's physical relationships that she had so casually also seemed really hard for me to buy. She was able to simply treat those relationships as just a physical encounter, but that doesn't seem very realistic for most of the women I know.

From what I've read, I know that this story may have had some personal aspects to Lawrence himself, but writing from the female's perspective as he did really didn't work for me.

Passage to India and the week thereof

Wow! What a week. I have really been stretched with deadlines this week and frustrated with putting a webpage together with a server that wouldn't save - some glitch in the online world. Aughh!

Anyway, the webpage is complete, and I have made it through the fourth week of class. :)

About Passage to India, I found myself really getting aggravated with the mindset of the British and the expectations they had of one another throughout the book. There seemed to be no end to the mixed messages and double standards that they held for themselves in comparison to the Indian culture. Unfortunately, this kind of double standard and suspicion of others is still prevalent in our world today. Just because a culture or group of people is different than our own is no reason to isolate or constantly be expecting the negative. The novel definately showed that people - regardless of culture - could show the negative side of humanity. On the other hand, the positive traits that all people possess is also possible regardless of nationality.

If I take anything from this book, it is that I want to view people as individuals and not as a mass of humanity. Everyone needs to be given a chance. The pressure that is put on us by society to receive people in a certain way needs to be examined and scrutinized more than the people we are supposed to reject.

Mrs. Dalloway

I must be honest. I have spent the last three weeks mumbling about stream of consciousness writing and how frustrated I was with feeling that there was no point. I have been exhausted trying to follow a plot or find a traditional structure with this type of writing. However, after finishing Mrs. Dalloway, my mind is a little more open. Now I am not a complete convert, but I must admit that I enjoyed this book more than the others up to this point.

I have to sit and digest the work for a little while before I can really process what the intent of the book is - sorry maybe I'm just slow - but I am finding that I do spend time really thinking about the issues addressed in the book. For me at this point, I am learning to appreciate this style and what it offers to the reader; the challenge to think about life issues without providing concrete or definate answers.

The Good Soldier

I'm late in posting this blog - for which I am terribly sorry - but I wanted to make sure that I really understood the story. I kept getting a little lost in the telling because of the structure of the novel.

The story itself was upsetting because I think at the core of my being, I really want to believe in the goodness of mankind. This book, unfortunately, did not hold out a lot of hope for me. The opening line about it being the "saddest story" rings true to me to some degree. I think more than it being so sad is that it is really disappointing to me. That probably is the nature of several things written during this period. It is frustrating for me to read of the way that life seemed to take on such a feeling of hopelessness. The story was sad, but I think I am struck more by the fact that there seems to be no hope of redemption or progress. That is the part of the story that was so sobering to me.

British Novel Fall '07

This is a site set up for my fall online course British Novel 1900-1945.