The Iliad

The Iliad
by Homer
read: 2016

Man, the ancient Greeks were not squeamish about violence.

Achilles is not a sympathetic character - he spends the first two-thirds of the Iliad nursing a grudge in a fit of pride, and the last portion on a wrathful rampage. Even the gods are jerks - there really aren't any models for good behavior here.

Dubliners

Dubliners
by James Joyce
read: 2016

I read "The Dead" probably about 10 years ago, and re-reading it now I found I remembered the absolutely brutal, cutting last few pages, but I had forgotten most of what came before. Joyce yanks out the rug from under Gabriel, as all of his concerns, desires, and thoughts are rendered foolish by the revelations of the last few pages. Gabriel is a newer, educated Irishman, pulled towards the idea that England and continental Europe are more serious and urbane than his native land, but this attitude is exploded by the events of the story. This kind of political undercurrent runs through Dubliners, particularly in stories like "After the Race" and "Ivy Day in the Committee Room." The class struggles that exist in contemporary British stories are present here, but the stories also struggle with the idea that Irish culture is often perceived as somehow lesser than many of the other nations of Western Europe.

Kindred

Kindred
by Octavia Butler
read: 2016
Guardian 1000 Novels

Everyone knows slavery is bad, but I have the luxury of feeling it's mostly bad in an abstract sense. The conceit of Kindred - modern African-American protagonist Dana travels back in time to a Maryland plantation where she interacts with ancestors, both black and white - makes the trials and tribulations of the slave's plight more immediate. Dana has modern education and sensibility, but it helps her only a little against the weight of society's oppression. Just as jarring is the effect on her white husband, Franklin, when he accompanies her on one of the trips. Despite his more privileged status as a white man, he is just as powerless to change or improve things for the slaves. It is easy for them to fall into the routine of the pre-Civil War southern society. Octavia Butler doesn't turn a blind eye to the individual acts of cruelty and torture that slaveowners inflected on the slaves, but what she paints as the most troubling feature is just how easy it is for everyone to accept.

The Martian

The Martian
by Andy Weir
read: 2016

The Martian has a terrific premise - an astronaut thought dead is abandoned on Mars, but he unexpectedly survives, finding himself alone and needing to survive for months if not years before rescue comes. He has limited food, no way to communicate with Earth, and no one is scheduled to return to the red planet for another four years. The gripping novel delivers on its promise, with Weir throwing different obstacles and challenges at Mark Watney in his quest to survive long enough to return home.

I don't think I've read anything that captures the process of problem solving as well. Watney often tries things that don't work, there are complications he can't foresee, and he often has to adjust on the fly. Some readers might consider those kind of minute descriptions of process mundane, but I thought it refreshingly realistic.

The Song of the Lark

The Song of the Lark
by Willa Cather
read: 2016

The Song of the Lark isn't a perfect book - Cather herself found flaws with it - but I think the story of Thea Kronberg will stick with me a while. In part, that's because I still have a lot of questions: why does Dr. Archie serve as a framing character, the lens through which we see Thea at the beginning of the story and in the final section? Does Thea ultimately choose to compromise her career (unlikely) to marry Fred Ottenberg, or does Fred compromise his desire to have a family (more probable)? Does Fred divorce his wife or does she die? What happens to Wunsch, and why don't we get an epilogue of his story as we do for the other father figures in Thea's life? Why bring Spanish Johnny back at the end, and what does Thea failing to notice him mean?

I've written about Cather's empathetic, all-seeing eye before, and that is present in this story. Thea's journey to becoming an accomplished artist leaves little room for the people around her. Her single-mindedness is both her best quality and her worst. This quality attracts others to her, but also forces her to keep them at arms' length. Her passion for her music cannot be contained; either she pursues it absolutely, or she cannot reach her aims. Cather does not praise this decision, or condemn it; she knows - and Thea knows, too - that there are benefits and drawbacks to whichever path the heroine pursues.

O Pioneers!

O Pioneers!
by Willa Cather
read: 2015

Immigration is something of a hot issue in the news, so it is interesting to read a novel like O Pioneers! which deals with new immigrants from groups that are now long-established. The Bergson family are Swedish-Americans that inhabit frontier Nebraska in the early 1900's, but they still have memories and traditions from their homeland. The French, Swedish, and Romanian immigrants of the time and place all have their own culture but are working together to make it in a strange, new America. It's a nice reminder that we were all aliens here once.

One of the themes of the novel is the relationship between mankind and nature. Protagonist Alexandra says at one point, "There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years." The first part of that quote is the novel's most famous, but I think the second part is just as interesting, implying that in many ways people are hardly different from birds. The land provides sustenance for Alexandra and her family, and her life is inextricably tied to the land, but she wants her younger brother Emil to be able to transcend an agricultural existence and experience more of the world.

Cather's empathetic, all-seeing eye reminds me of Faulkner or Toni Morrison, She has sympathy even for those who do wrong, and seeks to explain rather than condemn.

The Old Wives' Tale

The Old Wives' Tale
by Arnold Bennett
read: 2015
Modern Library #87, Guardian 1000 Novels

Oh my God! We are totally like the girls in The Old Wives' Tale! You are such a Constance, and I am such a Sophia!