Monday, August 29, 2005
Books
I've had a lucky streak this summer, choosing books that I've really enjoyed, for the most part. I thought I'd recommend a few:
The Girl With the Pearl Earring - tracy chevalier
This is a surprisingly absorbing novel that imagines what the girl in the Vermeer painting was really like. In here, she is a Protestant servant in Vermeer's well-populated Catholic household. She gets to assist the great man in preparing his colours once she proves how smart and meticulous she is. The beauty of this book is in the historical details. She captures the Dutch city (Rotterdam, I think) as it may have been, the family life and the life of a servant, the market, the class struggles, etc. The tension between the girl and Vermeer is tantalizing, even if you know how it will end, and the explication of painting technique is fascinating. Now I can rent the movie with Colin Firth and Scarlett Johannsen. I'm sure it won't measure up, but I'm curious.
A Thousand Acres - jane smiley
This book won the Pulitzer and a bunch of other awards, with good reason. It's the story of a farming family with the biggest farm in their part of the country. The old-but-still-capable father capriciously decides to give the farm to his daughters and sons-in-law and trouble (oh mama, what trouble!) ensues. It is a play on Lear, of course, and a clever one at that. The protagonist is the second daughter, whose life is ripped apart in the end. She even gives in to murderous intent, despite my mind screaming at her not to do it! Quite a brilliant novel; it seems to really capture what it is to be a farmer and the kind of slavery to land and family that can drive people crazy.
The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton - jane smiley
After reading a thousand acres I had that lovely feeling of discovering a writer I like: like sitting down at a banquet and taking the first exquisite bite -- you know there's so much more waiting for you! This novel didn't disappoint, tho' it's totally different; a story of a rebellious young woman in early19-century US and her adventures moving to Kansas (the wild west, and the site of a struggle between abolitionists who want to settle it and declare it a free state, and southerners who hate them and want them to butt out of their business). The heroine is amazingly well-drawn, real and flawed and lovable. You follow along on her adventures with breathless anticipation. The book deals with a time and a place I'd never heard about, the times leading up to the Civil War and Lincoln, and it illustrates how complex and frightening an issue the "goose question" (slavery) was. If you think that you would have been 100% "unsound on the goose question" (an abolistionist), you might have to wonder after getting a taste of the context for that decision.
I've had a lucky streak this summer, choosing books that I've really enjoyed, for the most part. I thought I'd recommend a few:
The Girl With the Pearl Earring - tracy chevalier
This is a surprisingly absorbing novel that imagines what the girl in the Vermeer painting was really like. In here, she is a Protestant servant in Vermeer's well-populated Catholic household. She gets to assist the great man in preparing his colours once she proves how smart and meticulous she is. The beauty of this book is in the historical details. She captures the Dutch city (Rotterdam, I think) as it may have been, the family life and the life of a servant, the market, the class struggles, etc. The tension between the girl and Vermeer is tantalizing, even if you know how it will end, and the explication of painting technique is fascinating. Now I can rent the movie with Colin Firth and Scarlett Johannsen. I'm sure it won't measure up, but I'm curious.
A Thousand Acres - jane smiley
This book won the Pulitzer and a bunch of other awards, with good reason. It's the story of a farming family with the biggest farm in their part of the country. The old-but-still-capable father capriciously decides to give the farm to his daughters and sons-in-law and trouble (oh mama, what trouble!) ensues. It is a play on Lear, of course, and a clever one at that. The protagonist is the second daughter, whose life is ripped apart in the end. She even gives in to murderous intent, despite my mind screaming at her not to do it! Quite a brilliant novel; it seems to really capture what it is to be a farmer and the kind of slavery to land and family that can drive people crazy.
The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton - jane smiley
After reading a thousand acres I had that lovely feeling of discovering a writer I like: like sitting down at a banquet and taking the first exquisite bite -- you know there's so much more waiting for you! This novel didn't disappoint, tho' it's totally different; a story of a rebellious young woman in early19-century US and her adventures moving to Kansas (the wild west, and the site of a struggle between abolitionists who want to settle it and declare it a free state, and southerners who hate them and want them to butt out of their business). The heroine is amazingly well-drawn, real and flawed and lovable. You follow along on her adventures with breathless anticipation. The book deals with a time and a place I'd never heard about, the times leading up to the Civil War and Lincoln, and it illustrates how complex and frightening an issue the "goose question" (slavery) was. If you think that you would have been 100% "unsound on the goose question" (an abolistionist), you might have to wonder after getting a taste of the context for that decision.
# posted by becca : 12:48 PM
