I know...I know...I'm running a little late this week...and once again it's a short book, but a book is a book is a book. I'm still reading Moby Dick which is almost 700 pages with all the annotations and such. I think if you average out book sizes I'm not doing too bad. I'm hoping to be done with Moby Dick by the end of this week, but even if I am, I might read something else and review it (I'll explain why if I do), and save Moby Dick for the following week. I'll play it by ear.
Week 7 - The Pearl - John Steinbeck
The Pearl is the story of a poor pearl diver named Kino, who lives in a town by the sea with his wife, Juana, and his infant son, Coyotito. Coyotito is stung by a scorpion, and the local doctor refuses to treat him because they have no money. Juana prays that they might find a pearl so they can pay for Coyotito's treatment. They take their boat out together and Kino goes diving. Kino finds the "pearl of the world," a perfect pearl the size of a seagull egg.
News of his find travels quickly. The doctor is now willing to treat the baby, even though the couple has most likely healed the baby already with a folk remedy. The town's pearl brokers, who are not really competitors but work for the same entity, collude to cheat Kino and pay him far less than the pearl is worth. Kino suspects this is the case and refuses to do business with them.
Juana thinks the pearl is evil, and wants Kino to get rid of it. She tries to do so, but Kino stops her, and almost immediately thereafter is set upon by thieves who try to steal the pearl. Kino kills one of them, but not before they burn down his house and destroy his boat. Kino and his family flee, but trackers are following close behind.
Steinbeck packs a lot into a small space. Although the characters are simple, the descriptions of them are vivid. He also makes use of a soundtrack of sorts to help convey the mood. Kino hears various songs, the song of the family, the song of evil. He also hears the song of the pearl, which sometimes sings the hope of a better life for his family, and other times sings an evil theme of greed.
So do I recommend it? Absolutely! It is a book full of simple dreams and emotions and drama and truth. And it fits my most important criteria for a book - size! It is also one of those books which if you haven't read, you have to ask yourself, "Why not?"
Seriously, it is a quick read, but that is all the more reason to tackle it. Enjoy!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Week 6 - The Princess Bride - William Goldman
Well, partially due to all the snow we have received in the Washington D.C. area over the last week, I am finished with this week's book a whole day early! It might have been earlier than that, but I am also trying to read "Moby Dick" at the same time. This book also fulfills a weekly challenge by Robin of My Two Blessings to read a fantasy book. Well rather than reread Tolkien, or read something by Neil Gaiman, I instead decided to tackle yet another book that has been sitting on my shelf for a very long time, just waiting to be read. So without further ado:
The Princess Bride - William Goldman
"The Princess Bride" is a fantastically fractured fairy tale, full of fencing, fighting, fire swamps, and of course Rodents Of Unusual Size (R.O.U.S). Many will be familiar with the movie, directed by Rob Reiner and featuring an amazing cast: Cary Elwes, Robin Wright Penn, Andre the Giant, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, and Peter Falk, to name but a few. William Goldman wrote the screenplay for the movie as well, so it should be no surprise that much of the book is faithfully reproduced on the screen.
The story centers around a beautiful young girl named Buttercup and the farm boy who loves her. At first she does not return this love, ordering him around like her slave, but over time she realizes she loves him as much he loves her. Upon this realization, Westley decides to go to America to make his fortune. On his way, he is apparently killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts, but in reality takes up with the Pirate, and eventually assumes Robert's role as the most feared marauder of the high seas.
In the meantime, Prince Humperdinck, looking for a bride, asks Buttercup to marry him. Even though she has no love for him, she agrees. Not long after, she is captured by 3 criminals: Vizzini, a Sicilian mastermind (in his own mind); Fezzik, a giant strongman, capable of besting anyone in hand-to-hand combat; and Inigo, an expert swordsman and a recovered drunk, bent on finding the six-fingered man who killed his father. Westley, in the guise of the Man in Black, the Dread Pirate Roberts, pursues them with the intent of rescuing Buttercup.
The story is full of action and moves along quickly. Goldman tells us that the original story was written by a S. Morgenstern and was intended to be political satire. The book would supposedly ramble on for pages and pages about the extravagance of royalty: the clothing, the parties, royal lineage, etc. Goldman's father supposedly read the book to him as a child when he was sick, and left out those portions of the book in order to make it more interesting. Goldman's version is represented as simply an abridgment of the original book ("The Good Parts"), with Goldman's comments to tie things together at the points where he excised large blocks of the text. Of course, in reality, the entire work is Goldman's.
While Goldman's book supposedly abridges Morgenstern's text, Goldman's screenplay abridges Goldman's book, somewhat. The changes are minor, and merely condense the story. The character of the Countess is completely left out of the movie. The Prince entertains the notion of a political marriage to a princess from the rival country Guilder before proposing to Buttercup, but this never makes it into the cinematic version. Much of the backstory for Vizzini, Fezzik and Inigo is reduced to a few lines in the script. However, most of the rest of the story matches nicely with the movie adaptation.
In my opinion, the book is every bit as entertaining as the movie. The book was written in 1973, fourteen years before the movie came out. At that point, Goldman was already an experienced screenwriter, having done the screenplays for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Hot Rock," and was working on "The Stepford Wives," at the time of the book's publication, and would go on to write the screen adaptations for his books "Marathon Man," and "Magic," as well as "All the President's Men," and "A Bridge Too Far." The book's tight descriptive prose reads almost like a screenplay, as if he intended to make a movie of it from the beginning.
This book is a very fun read, and I highly recommend it!
The Princess Bride - William Goldman
"The Princess Bride" is a fantastically fractured fairy tale, full of fencing, fighting, fire swamps, and of course Rodents Of Unusual Size (R.O.U.S). Many will be familiar with the movie, directed by Rob Reiner and featuring an amazing cast: Cary Elwes, Robin Wright Penn, Andre the Giant, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, and Peter Falk, to name but a few. William Goldman wrote the screenplay for the movie as well, so it should be no surprise that much of the book is faithfully reproduced on the screen.
The story centers around a beautiful young girl named Buttercup and the farm boy who loves her. At first she does not return this love, ordering him around like her slave, but over time she realizes she loves him as much he loves her. Upon this realization, Westley decides to go to America to make his fortune. On his way, he is apparently killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts, but in reality takes up with the Pirate, and eventually assumes Robert's role as the most feared marauder of the high seas.
In the meantime, Prince Humperdinck, looking for a bride, asks Buttercup to marry him. Even though she has no love for him, she agrees. Not long after, she is captured by 3 criminals: Vizzini, a Sicilian mastermind (in his own mind); Fezzik, a giant strongman, capable of besting anyone in hand-to-hand combat; and Inigo, an expert swordsman and a recovered drunk, bent on finding the six-fingered man who killed his father. Westley, in the guise of the Man in Black, the Dread Pirate Roberts, pursues them with the intent of rescuing Buttercup.
The story is full of action and moves along quickly. Goldman tells us that the original story was written by a S. Morgenstern and was intended to be political satire. The book would supposedly ramble on for pages and pages about the extravagance of royalty: the clothing, the parties, royal lineage, etc. Goldman's father supposedly read the book to him as a child when he was sick, and left out those portions of the book in order to make it more interesting. Goldman's version is represented as simply an abridgment of the original book ("The Good Parts"), with Goldman's comments to tie things together at the points where he excised large blocks of the text. Of course, in reality, the entire work is Goldman's.
While Goldman's book supposedly abridges Morgenstern's text, Goldman's screenplay abridges Goldman's book, somewhat. The changes are minor, and merely condense the story. The character of the Countess is completely left out of the movie. The Prince entertains the notion of a political marriage to a princess from the rival country Guilder before proposing to Buttercup, but this never makes it into the cinematic version. Much of the backstory for Vizzini, Fezzik and Inigo is reduced to a few lines in the script. However, most of the rest of the story matches nicely with the movie adaptation.
In my opinion, the book is every bit as entertaining as the movie. The book was written in 1973, fourteen years before the movie came out. At that point, Goldman was already an experienced screenwriter, having done the screenplays for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Hot Rock," and was working on "The Stepford Wives," at the time of the book's publication, and would go on to write the screen adaptations for his books "Marathon Man," and "Magic," as well as "All the President's Men," and "A Bridge Too Far." The book's tight descriptive prose reads almost like a screenplay, as if he intended to make a movie of it from the beginning.
This book is a very fun read, and I highly recommend it!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Week 5 - Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Going into today, I had yet to really even start a book for this week. Fortunately I am pretty much snowed in for the weekend. We got at least a foot and a half of snow in DC, and some nearby suburbs got as much as 3 feet. I examined my current book list, and while there are some short books that I could have easily read, I decided to tackle something a little more substantial, but not so long that I wouldn't be able to finish it today. I went to my bookshelf and found "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. This is one of those books that I'm not sure why I never got around to reading. I started it once or twice, but never got more than 20 pages in. So here we go:
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
"Brave New World" is Huxley's story of a supposedly utopian future in which all aspects of humanity have been engineered in order to foster societal order. Sex for procreation is outlawed - contraception is mandatory. Fertilization takes place in a labratory/factory, and a special process is applied to the fertilized egg, causing them to divide into many identical beings - there can be any where from 8 to 96 clones from a single unique fertilization. The fetuses are separated into castes, predetermined for the type of work they will do. The lower castes are stunted in their intellectual and physical development, so that they will better accept their station in life. Extensive indoctrination is performed so that each member is well conditioned to accept the rules of society. There are no parents, no siblings. Promiscuity is encouraged, and a drug called Soma, distributed by the government, keeps the masses from feeling any strong emotions, good or bad.
Nonetheless, a few members of society emerge with individualistic tendencies. Bernard Marx is an enigmatic fellow. Born to an upper cast, but for some reason physically smaller than others in his caste, causing him to view himself and to be viewed by others as somewhat of an outcast, to the point where his career is in jeopardy. Lenina Crowne fights urges to be monogamous. Helmholtz Watson, a member of the upper-most caste, yearns to express himself artistically.
In a trip to see the "savages," Native Americans that live on a reservation and are not part of the artificial society that has been created, Marx befriends a man who is born by natural childbirth to a woman of society that was stranded there years before. He brings mother and son back to society for the purposes of research, and suddenly enjoys a degree of celebrity because of it. The savage grows tired of being on display, and backs out of a major appearance, thrusting Bernard out of favor once more.
Written in 1932, Huxley's view of the future is somewhat dated, but it is often very prescient. Soma is not far off of modern day psychotropic drugs such as Prozac. His imagined reproductive technology is very similar to what could actually be achieved today. The scenario of giving the workers just enough education to do their jobs and keeping them entertained during their leisure time, looks very much like modern day America.
Huxley's attempts to describe this world wind up being somewhat heavy handed, however. This society has done away with religion, but reveres Henry Ford, as the father of efficiency and automation. This is a joke Huxley can't let go of, and dialog is frequently peppered with the use of Ford's name as an oath or an expletive ("Oh, for Ford's sake!"). The notion of promiscuity being morally right in this society is also beaten into our heads ("every one belongs to every one else"), as is the sexual indoctrination of children. There are however, profound truths buried in this book. What it means to fit in to a society, what it means to be an individual, what it means to be happy, what it means to have passion, what it means to maintain order, and most of all, the cost of each of these things.
So do I recommend it? It seems to stand up fairly well over the years and still be relevant, so sure, why not?
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
"Brave New World" is Huxley's story of a supposedly utopian future in which all aspects of humanity have been engineered in order to foster societal order. Sex for procreation is outlawed - contraception is mandatory. Fertilization takes place in a labratory/factory, and a special process is applied to the fertilized egg, causing them to divide into many identical beings - there can be any where from 8 to 96 clones from a single unique fertilization. The fetuses are separated into castes, predetermined for the type of work they will do. The lower castes are stunted in their intellectual and physical development, so that they will better accept their station in life. Extensive indoctrination is performed so that each member is well conditioned to accept the rules of society. There are no parents, no siblings. Promiscuity is encouraged, and a drug called Soma, distributed by the government, keeps the masses from feeling any strong emotions, good or bad.
Nonetheless, a few members of society emerge with individualistic tendencies. Bernard Marx is an enigmatic fellow. Born to an upper cast, but for some reason physically smaller than others in his caste, causing him to view himself and to be viewed by others as somewhat of an outcast, to the point where his career is in jeopardy. Lenina Crowne fights urges to be monogamous. Helmholtz Watson, a member of the upper-most caste, yearns to express himself artistically.
In a trip to see the "savages," Native Americans that live on a reservation and are not part of the artificial society that has been created, Marx befriends a man who is born by natural childbirth to a woman of society that was stranded there years before. He brings mother and son back to society for the purposes of research, and suddenly enjoys a degree of celebrity because of it. The savage grows tired of being on display, and backs out of a major appearance, thrusting Bernard out of favor once more.
Written in 1932, Huxley's view of the future is somewhat dated, but it is often very prescient. Soma is not far off of modern day psychotropic drugs such as Prozac. His imagined reproductive technology is very similar to what could actually be achieved today. The scenario of giving the workers just enough education to do their jobs and keeping them entertained during their leisure time, looks very much like modern day America.
Huxley's attempts to describe this world wind up being somewhat heavy handed, however. This society has done away with religion, but reveres Henry Ford, as the father of efficiency and automation. This is a joke Huxley can't let go of, and dialog is frequently peppered with the use of Ford's name as an oath or an expletive ("Oh, for Ford's sake!"). The notion of promiscuity being morally right in this society is also beaten into our heads ("every one belongs to every one else"), as is the sexual indoctrination of children. There are however, profound truths buried in this book. What it means to fit in to a society, what it means to be an individual, what it means to be happy, what it means to have passion, what it means to maintain order, and most of all, the cost of each of these things.
So do I recommend it? It seems to stand up fairly well over the years and still be relevant, so sure, why not?
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