The Wonderful Wizard of OZ

I recently read the classic children's novel that inspired what is probably the most well known and loved movies of all times, The Wonderful Wizard of OZ by Frank L. Baum. I was surprised to discover that this is one of those rare occurrences where Hollywood took a delightful and imaginative book and, in making a film version, actually improved it!! The plot of the movie is entirely based on material in the book and any changes made are both understandable and only help to create cohesion and avoid confusion. The biggest change in the movie is that the Wicked Witch is made into a larger, more pervasive character, which adds an element the book lacks, an antagonist. The movie also merges two characters together to create Glinda, so that in the book Dorothy meets another good witch in the beginning who doesn't know about the powers of the ruby slippers (The witch of the South-ever wonder what had happened to her?) I would whole heartedly recommend taking a walk down the yellow brick road again and discovering the original characters and situations- including Boq, who is absent from the movie but who reappears in Wicked.  Definitely more interesting after having seen the movie!

Finished at last

I finished My Ántonia this afternoon. There is a charm to the story I must admit. It has an honesty to it, and according to the afterward, most of it is actually true. Although the plot is not compelling and the story-line does not follow a very direct path, there are some interesting stories imbedded within. I'm glad I read it. I enjoyed the little anecdotes here and there about why a character had come to Nebraska, or what they did after they left. I did not enjoy the unconcerned and removed tone that the author used to portray the lives of the interconnected people. I never became invested in them and perhaps that is why I never really cared what ended up happening to them. I doubt if any of it will stick with me for very long.

My Ántonia

I find myself still reading My Ántonia and not particularly excited about it. Several of the chapters I have read were actually interesting, but there doesn't really seem to be much to the book. It's a portrait of the early settlements on the Nabraska plains. It is much more about the place then the people in it, although some of them have fun stories. I have little to no sympathy for the main character. But then again I had this same problem with Catcher in the Rye, and a lot of people seem to really like that book- even obsess over it. Either way, I am determined to finish this book. perhaps it will redeem itself in the end.

My Ántonia

My Ántonia by Willa Cather

I wonder why Willa Cather chose to write about her own experience from the point of view of a boy. It seems to me that the experience she had growing up on the frontier of Nebraska would be pretty different from the experience a boy would have. Perhaps that isn't true, but it just strikes me as odd that the book is so close to autobiographical except for that one glaring difference. Laura Ingles Wilder did not choose to write her experience as a boy. Did it have to do with targeting readers at that time? Or was it Cather's way of exploring her own experiences through the eyes of someone else. 

Either way the imagery in the novel is sublime. It makes me want to visit Nabraska! Which is not a place I've ever considered worth exploring. I have to say though, so far, the book reminds me of every other novel that bemoans the hardships and relives the joys of trying to survive on the American frontier. What makes this one so great? Was it the first? or just the most loved? And perhaps it will become more clear to me as I read further. 

Stay tuned!

My Ántonia

My Ántonia by Willa Cather

I began reading this book a long time ago; back when I believed that classic literature was the only think worth reading. I never got past the first chapter. But now I find myself once again holding this book in my hands, unsure of how it got there but eager to find out. I reread the first chapter and it seems so enchanting now. The metaphors and phrases that Cather use are unique yet familiar. Reading this book so far is like spending time with an old friend. I hope it continues to feel that way. 

Diary 3

Final thoughts on Diary by Chuck Palahniuk.

SPOILER ALERT- I AM ABOUT TO TALK ABOUT THE END OF THE BOOK, READING IT WILL SPOIL THE MYSTERY FOR YOU.

The second half of this book turns from angry and resentful to twisted and convoluted. The most fascinating part for me was the way that the houses on the island where almost characters of their own- more so then the families that lived within them. The inhabitants are known by their family name and they are as transient as the money they represent.  

By the end of the story I was not any closer to really understanding what was happening which is eclipsed by the phrase repeated throughout the book, "What you don't understand you can make mean anything"

The ideas that struck me most; Art that is so beautiful, or fascinating that people will walk into a fire in order to look at it; The thirteen year old Tibbi who betrays her own mother in a plot to kill all the people she loves most, and secure the financial security of everyone in her generation (as well as the next 100 years of island inhabitants). I can understand her being brainwashed by her grandmother. But that this same brainwashing led to her being convinced to burn her most beloved Granmy alive? really? who's the real psycho here? How do you convince a 13-year-old that she needs to starve her mother, fake her own death, and then set fire her own mentor/brainwasher? 

I have to say though, the entire set up for the plot is extremely well thought out, original and fascinating. It's fairy-tale meets horror film. It reminded me of something that might have appeared on the Twilight Zone- a seemingly perfect island community, but scratch the surface and you find psychologically disturbing conspiracies hiding behind each flawless facade. 

Diary 2

Further thoughts on Diary by Chuck Palahniuk.

The style of writing is so aggressive and angry that I wonder often if the author is expressing some dark part of himself or if he has created the anger for the character out of imagination and fascination with the character. Are all of his novels this angry? There are so many layers and illusions woven into the plot that it's hard to tell what's really going on. The three main characters, Grace, Misty and Tibby, The mother the wife and the daughter remind me of the three fates in Greek mythology; the maiden the mother and the crone. The link between them all, Peter Wilmot, is physically absent. The story is written from the point of view of Misty, his wife, who is writing a diary for him while he is in a coma so that he will know what happened when he wakes up. Or at least, that is what I am being led to believe as the reader right now. There is an underlying current that makes me feel like something else is really going on. Some twist that will reveal itself as the story-line works itself out. What is the deal with Grace and her red diary? Who are these artists that Misty feels the presence of everywhere? Well the book is nothing if not compelling!