Dracula

Dracula
by Bram Stoker
read: 2014
Guardian 1000 Novels

The pacing in the first section of Dracula, where Jonathan Harker meets Count Dracula and stays at his mansion in Transylvania, felt outdated. A more modern take would have created more suspense, but in Dracula Harker knows that he's been imprisoned by a superhuman creature in first 30 pages or so. After his escape, however, the novel shifts locations to England, and the struggle to save Lucy's life and determine what is plaguing her had a lot more mystery and suspense.

As long as I can remember, vampires have been portrayed as attractive in popular culture. There's a little of that in Dracula, with the female vampires Jonathan encouters in Dracula's mansion, but Dracula himself is a monster. To the extent that he's able to compel behavior in others - and not just women, but men, too - it's clear that it's the result of dark powers, not super-sexiness. It's typical of Hollywood to reduce any male / female interaction to a romantic or sexual relationship, and in this case I think it's a little demeaning towards women. The influence of demonic powers have been reduced to, "that dark guy with the accent is cute!"

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings
by J.R.R. Tolkien
read: 2012
Time 100 Novels, Guardian 1000 Novels

In most fantasy novels, the reader is brought into the world by an outsider. Tolkien uses this convention in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The reader doesn't see the world through the eyes of Gandalf or one of the elves, but through a lowly hobbit. This allows him to learn about the world as Bilbo or Frodo does. But partway through The Lord of the Rings, the narrative shifts perspective from Frodo to Samwise Gamgee. This is a sign that Frodo's extended ownership of the ring has transformed him from a simple hobbit we can relate to it into someone wrestling with forces beyond our understanding.

Tolkien's best characters tend to possess a lot of humility. Gandalf knows he cannot possess the ring because it will destroy him. Gandalf is also the only wizard who is interested in the lesser beings of Middle Earth, such as the eagles and the hobbits, and this ends up being one of the major factors in his success. Frodo recognizes his own lack of courage and this inspires his brave choice at the end of book two - he knows he must leave alone with the ring right then because he will not be strong enough to do so later.

Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's Baby
by Ira Levin
read: 2014

My favorite part of Rosemary's Baby is the rich world that Levin created outside the scenes and actions described in the novel. He alludes to a Higgins / Eliza Doolittle history between Hutch and Rosemary; that informs the relationship, but he doesn't write much about it. Terry's journey, including the Castavets plans for her, seem interesting enough to spawn a whole novel, but we just get one conversation around a washing machine. The Castavets themselves are fascinating. The point of view is almost entirely Rosemary's, however, and she has a limited perspective for the history of the people she encounters. But the hint of other tales and stories flesh out the characters and give the story depth.

My biggest issue with the novel, however, also has to do with actions "off-screen." We don't know what the conversations were like leading to Guy deciding to sacrifice Rosemary to be raped by Satan. Did he believe that would actually happen? Did he think the Castavets were crazy? Was he secretly on the verge of bankruptcy? Did he have any occult leanings before? It seems strange, abrupt, and monstrous that Guy would serve up Rosemary having known the Castavets for only a short amount of time.

The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds
by H.G. Wells
read: 2014
Guardian 1000 Novels

At one point in The War of the Worlds, the protagonist runs into another survivor and they discuss plans for surviving underground as a human species in a world controlled by the Martians. It's a funny sort of post-apocalyptic novel where the apocalypse does not actually happen.

The Golden Notebook

The Golden Notebook
by Doris Lessing
read: 2014
Time 100 Novels, Guardian 1000 Novels

I've read few books that have as much depth and as many themes as The Golden Notebook. Doris Lessing's magnum opus can be viewed as feminist literature, exploration of Communist society, or the tale of one woman's inner journey. It has themes of sex, politics, race, motherhood, infidelity, and the relationship between men and women.

The metafictional elements of the novel bring the thematic components to a new level. In the introduction, Lessing writes that "fiction is better at 'the truth' than a factual record." The protagonist of The Golden Notebook, Anna, a writer herself, also recognizes this paradox. Unable or unwilling to publish anything after a moderate initial success, she writes in notebooks of different colors. Some of these stories feature Ella, a woman whose biography bears a strong resemblance to Anna's. Is Ella just Anna roman a clef? If so, why the veil of fiction at all? Or are the two characters different? Even Anna struggles with this: "Why a story at all - not that it was a bad story, or untrue, or that it debased anything. Why not, simply, the truth?"

In the titular Golden Notebook, Anna writes the story of an affair between Ella and an American, but when we see the story of Anna's affair outside of the lens of the notebooks, it plays out very differently. Is this a sign that Anna has broken from reality? Is it a sign that she's ready to write again? The layers to the fiction can be read many ways, giving the novel terrific depth.