The Color Purple

The Color Purple
by Alice Walker
read: 2014
Guardian 1000 Novels, Pulitzer Prize

The Color Purple is written in letter format. In the first chunk of the book, each letter is addressed to God. Later, Celie begins addressing her letters to her sister Nettie.

DEAR NETTIE,

I don't write to God no more. I write to you.

What happen to God? ast Shug. 

Who that? I say.

The novel doesn't have an atheist perspective, but more of a spiritualist one. The final chapter is addressed "DEAR GOD. DEAR STARS, DEAR TREES, DEAR SKY, DEAR PEOPLES. DEAR EVERYTHING. DEAR GOD." Celie's faith essentially carries her through periods of her life where very little good happens to her, whether that's faith in God, faith in Nettie, faith in her friend (and sometime lover) Shug, or just an irrational faith that things will somehow get better.

I was predisposed to dislike this novel based on Ralph Wiley's comments on it in Why Black People Tend to Shout, but I found I enjoyed it. Wiley objected to the portrayal of black men in Walker's world, but by the end of the tale some weight was given to the environmental factors that shaped Albert, Harpo, and even Alphonso. They aren't excused for their sins, but they aren't unredeemable either, and Albert in particular makes great strides to atoning for his wrongdoing.

The King In Yellow

The King In Yellow
by Robert W. Chambers
read: 2014

I've already mentioned my interest in HBO's True Detective, and like many folks watching the show I saw the article pointing out "the Yellow King's" literary heritage. I've already read most of H.P. Lovecraft's works, so another set of creepy stories along those lines sounded pretty appealing.

The King In Yellow is a funny collection, though. The first four tales are full of Lovecraftian darknesses, featuring the titular play which drives anyone who reads it insane. The rest of the stories are more mundane, culminating in two longer romance stories set among art students in Paris. It's a jarring contrast to the insidious science fiction of the first four stories.

Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon
by Toni Morrison
read: 2014
Guardian 1000 Novels

The names in Song of Solomon stand out right away - Milkman, Guitar, First Corinthians, Macon Dead, Pilate - but while they sound nonsensical, there's a method to Toni Morrison's madness. The names African Americans have is distorted by slavery and oppression, as Malcolm X notes in the following conversation:

The protagonist's given name is "Macon Dead III," but he's called "Milkman," a nickname given to him by a neighbor who glimpsed him breastfeeding at the age of four. For most of the story, he doesn't know the origin of his name or the embarrassing implications. But "Macon Dead" is no better - it was given to Milkman's grandfather by a registry board, who asked for his place of origin ("Macon") and his father's occupation ("dead"), and erroneously filled them in the first and last name boxes. The first Macon Dead, originally named Jake, was encouraged to keep the new name by his wife Sing, herself having shortened her name from its original Indian name, Singing Bird. His last name is unknown, but his father was Solomon, whose name in corrupted form provides the town of Shalimar its name - or is it Solomon that's a corruption of Shalimar? The names characters have is a series of accidents and mis-steps, which reinforces the lack of identity African-Americans have in a world dominated by the white man.

Milkman's sisters are named based on random words in the Bible, as is his Aunt Pilate, who keeps her name (the only word her illiterate father ever wrote) folded up in a gold box dangling from her ear. It's not until late in the book that Milkman understands the power of names and why Pilate treasures hers so much:

How many dead lives and fading memories were buried in and beneath the names of the places in this country. Under the recorded names were other names, just as "Macon Dead," recorded for all time in some dusty file, hid from view the real names of people, places, and things. Names that had meaning. No wonder Pilate put hers in her ear. When you know your name, you should hang on to it, for unless it is noted down and remembered, it will die when you do.

Milkman doesn't own his name - his given name is washed away by his nickname, his family name was washed away by the bureaucrat's error, and undoubtedly his true African name was washed away by slavery. Because of this, he has no sense of who he is or where he came from, and during the final part of the book he realizes that this has more value than the gold he's seeking that could set him free financially.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

On Her Majesty's Secret Service
by Ian Fleming
read: 2014

In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond finally finds (and marries) a woman who is willing to take him for what he is:

I wouldn't love you if you weren't a pirate. I expect it's in the blood. I'll get used to it. Don't change. I don't want to draw your teeth like women do with their men. I want to live with you, not with somebody else. 

Between Here and the Yellow Sea

Between Here and the Yellow Sea
by Nic Pizzolatto
read: 2014

I've been watching the first few episodes of True Detective on HBO, and I thought I'd track down some of creator / writer Nic Pizzolatto's writing. Between Here and the Yellow Sea is his first published work, a collection of short stories. I'd liken it to Flannery O'Connor's short stories in terms of weight and style, as well as the Southern setting. He doesn't do neat or happy endings. Every character seems to be chasing something he can't find, usually a void produced by a death or abandonment.

In a recent interview about True Detective, Pizzolatto talked about his interest in "memory and the idea of an objective truth." That theme permeates Between Here and the Yellow Sea. In "Two Shores," a man learns he may be the father of a child, but the mother and baby are both dead. "It's a truth that can't do anything for you," his girlfriend admonishes him, asking why he pursues paternity tests. "Because it's the truth," he responds. In the title story, the narrator travels across country to find a girl he once knew, only to be stunned when he realizes her eyes are a different color than he remembers in his mind's eye. Pizzolatto's characters are haunted by their false memories, and when they try to fill the voids in their pasts with present substitutes, it predictably ends in tragedy.

Gone With the Wind

Gone With the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
read: 2014
Time 100 Novels, Guardian 1000 Novels, Pulitzer Prize

Scarlett O'Hara is maybe the worst mom in literature. Here's a typical quote:

Babies, babies, babies. Why did God make so many babies? But no, God didn't make them. Stupid people made them.

She's an interesting character, though. It was hard not to admire her courage even as I was disgusted by her Machiavellian tactics and lack of maternal instinct.

This is a book that draws criticism for being racist. One can make an argument that Mitchell wasn't espousing a racist viewpoint but rather showing her characters' perspectives on blacks, slavery, and race relations, but she certainly doesn't give any of her black characters equal time.

The Good Earth

The Good Earth
by Pearl S. Buck
read: circa 1994
Pulitzer Prize

This was the first assigned reading book I had for high school English. I remember two things from the book:
1. the women's feet were bound to make them attractive, which makes it sound awful to be a woman in China during that time period.
2. the main character made it his mission in life to acquire land and valued land above all else.