The Book Report

No Time to Read?!

2006-10-25T06:49:00.000-05:00

Things have been crazy busy at work (so long, weekends...), but things should be slowing down soon, giving me time to read & post.

Elizabeth Wurtzel: Prozac Nation

2006-09-14T20:43:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth Wurtzel's Prozac Nation was at one point hailed as Generation X's The Bell Jar.This is plausable because a.) it chronicles a young depressed woman's experiences and b.) said account is updated with many, many references to pop culture. It's a narrative of pain, but it's also ironic and self-aware. Although Wurtzel does a good job or conveying the emptiness and confusion of depression, any pity I felt was marred by the "I'm so awesome" list of her accomplishments. Private school, scholorship, Harvard, accolades for her writing, numerous trips... I understand that Wurtzel is demonstrating that attaining the success our culture covets doesn't equate happiness, but the shouts of "look how fabulous I am" are distracting and, ultimately, detracting.

The title really doesn't have anything to do with the subject matter. The book smacks of a vanity project more than anything else. If the author hadn't achieved so much while young, I'm guessing this book would not have been published. All in all, Prozac Nation is most effective as a lurid tell-all. It almost feels escapist, except it's not uplifting. It's an enjoyable read in a morbid, voyeuristic way. I could identify with some of what Wurtzel is saying, and I hope that she was able to find some healthy way of getting the attention she so desperately needed (needs?). It's difficult being young and gifted, especially if one of those talents is alienating everyone around you.

Incidentally, we haven't heard too much from Wurtzel lately, but Wikipedia tells me she's attending law school at Yale. Rock 'n' roll.

B-

Kate Chynoweth: The Risks of Sunbathing Topless: And Other Funny Stories from the Road

2006-09-13T22:17:00.000-05:00

It's been a year since I've taken a trip to anywhere that's not Pennsylvania (except for a 2-day stint in Chicago's suburbs), and it's been twice that since I've been out of the country. It's understandable, then, that I've been thinking of travel in idealistic terms. I forget about incidents past, such as having my face jumped on in Denmark and running out of gas in the middle of nowhere in the good old U.S.A. Come to think of it, why do I want to leave my apartment after reading all this? Because the mishaps make travel stories worth telling, as The Risks of Sunbathing Topless so eloquently proves.

Kate Chynoweth has assembled a collection of travel nightmares from the pens of some seriously funny women. You'll laugh, you'll gasp, and you'll be really glad you didn't have to experience what the authors went through (although you'll be very glad they did and returned to tell the tale). Pick this up and read it! I wouldn't recommend reading it during a trip or just before one, though. You might jinx yourself. Although... said jinxing could give you a fabulous travel nightmare of your very own to share!

A

Bill Fitzhugh: Pest Control

2006-07-29T23:33:00.000-05:00

Bill Fitzhugh certainly has a flair for the ludicrous - and the hilarious. In Pest Control, his debut novel, Fitzhugh successfully creates a hybrid of thriller and comedy that is justthisclose to going over the edge from “that’s so crazy I can see it happening” to “I’m not willing to suspend disbelief on this level."

Our stalwart hero, Bob Dillon (pronounced the same but spelled differently), is a newly minted freelance exterminator who sees an opportunity to perfect his environmentally friendly pest control method – cross-bred assassin bugs. Events during a drunken night at a bar put Bob’s name on the list of international killers for hire, a career change that Bob remains blissfully unaware of. As Bob works towards perfecting his assassin bug strains and tries to keep his relationship with his wife Mary intact, he (unwittingly) becomes a major player in the shadowy world of international intrigue.

The supporting characters are fabulous, especially Klaus, the world’s top ranked assassin who suffers from bouts of existential despair. Bob’s family, the worlds best killers, a CIA agent who distrusts technology, and a surly landlord round out the regulars. All have quirks that are sure to make readers snicker at the very least.

This book, despite a few awkward phrases, is wonderful (It wouldn't be me if I didn't insert a touch of what I think of as "constructive criticism," would it?). I couldn’t even put it down to walk two blocks to the CVS. I had to bring it with me. It was hard to stop long enough to cross the street, even. I lost the greater part of a day I should have spent searching for jobs. I should also note that this is probably the fifth time I have read this book. It has lost none of its power to amuse and educate. This time around I identified with Bob a great deal due to his unemployment and dubious financial situation. I’d love to be able to pursue my dream as Bob did, except I’m not really sure what my dream is at this point.

This is highly recommended for those who are looking for a good read with plenty of laughs. The reader should come away from Pest Control feeling satisfied, with aching abdominal muscles, and with new knowledge of insect lore. I am totally serious about that last one, too. Fitzhugh should feel proud of this achievement. I hear a movie is in the works - I'll be all over that if it's true.

A.

Joan Didion: The White Album

2006-07-28T09:29:00.000-05:00

Here are a few things I learned from Joan Didion's collection of essays, The White Album:

1. The Sixties were cah-razy!

2. The Sixties were especially nuts in California.

3. Joan Didion gets migraines. Poor Joan Didion.

4. It sucks to go ALL THE WAY to a recording studio to watch The Doors record an album only to find out Jim Morrison is too stoned to sing. Man, doesn't that suck? I mean, HOW DISAPPOINTING!

5. I must not "get" Joan Didion. I don't find what's so appealing about a rich Californian drop names ("I was invited to a civil rights meeting over at Sammy Davis, Jr.'s house and I hear William Styron and Ossie Davis arguing..."), write boring essays about water-treatment plants, and discuss movies that no one remembers. Maybe I'm jaded and maybe I expected something as brilliant as The Year of Magical Thinking, but it didn't deliver, and I was really disappointed.

C.

NEW REVIEWS SOON!

2006-07-27T14:05:00.000-05:00

I apologize for the unannounced hiatus. Multiple major events have occurred in the past few months, severely limiting my reading time (and leaving me with even less time to write). The good news is I'm halfway through a new book and plan to post about it by the end of the week.

Nicholson Baker: The Mezzanine

2006-03-22T07:17:00.000-06:00

Who would have thought that a 133-page book that seems to be about a trip up an escalator could be so engaging? The unique and engaging aspect of Baker's novel is the attention his protagonist (he does have a name, but it is only mentioned once and is not important to the book) pays to the minutae of life - the effects of shoelace wear, the sound a button makes as it is fastened, the contagious nature of whistling. The whole book is one long tangent, filled with footnotes and observations that are all interrelated. Baker has taken the time to detail thoughts that most of us have probably had from time to time. This makes reading these small details feel very familiar.

The number of footnotes Baker includes is unusual (he adds tangents to tangents!), but this, again, is no ordinary piece of writing. It is more of a combination of fiction, philosophy, and diary than a novel. There is no real story except for the trip up the escalator. The only complaint is that, when describing a pose, Baker describes it as being "the pose of George Washington crossing the Potomac." I'm a stickler for accuracy, and this gnaws at me. Other than that, though, this is a wonderful book.

A.

Paula Fox: The Coldest Winter: A Stringer in Liberated Europe

2006-02-16T21:49:00.000-06:00

I had really high hopes for this book. The potential for greatness is definitely present. Reading about the experiences of a young woman writing in postwar Europe is a subject that sparks the imagination. Unfortunately, The Coldest Winter is more of an outline than a memoir.

Fox makes statements about things she experineces and then fails to develop her ideas. There is also very little reference to Fox's experiences as a writer. In fact, if not for the second part of the title, the reader would be hard-pressed to explain what, exactly, Fox was doing in Europe in the first place. It seems that Fox moved from country to country fairly frequently. Very little page time is given to any one place, keeping the reader from getting a feel for the atmosphere of any one place.

People Fox encounters are barely introduced, ideas are never fleshed out, and the few complete narratives of individual experiences are small and alone in the desert of Fox's seemingly unfinished work. Despite these horrors, Fox does write her few sentences in an engaging manner. Perhaps if there had been more of these lovely sentences devoted to her skeleton-book the work could have been saved. The lack of cohesiveness and completion The Coldest Winter suffers from would almost certainly keep it from being published if it had been written by someone who was not an award-winning author already.

D-

I promise I will write a positive reveiw eventually. I've just had a short run of bad luck. I do have a growing backlog of books to write about - I'll try to catch up on that soon.

C. Vann Woodward: The Burden of Southern History

2006-02-04T20:08:00.000-06:00

C. Vann Woodward is my hero. I want to be an academic just like him one day. Reading The Burden of Southern History, a collection of essays written about various southern history issues ranging from John Brown to the Civil Rights Movement, was extremely enjoyable, especially since it was so well-written.

Instead of giving a synopsis of the whole collection, I'll include my favorite passage from the essay "A Second Look at the Theme of Irony." A response to his own essay included in the first edition of Burden, "A Second Look" ruminates upon the escalation of the Civil Rights Movement from the late '50s to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr, as well as the Vietnam conflict. His thesis is that Americans have suppressed the realization that they are invincible. He writes that Southerners, even after losing one war and barely coming through the first Reconstruction period, hopelessly cling onto several lost causes, both in the historical sense as well as the present.

This passage is eerily relevant for our present times:
"...[H]istory has begun to catch up with Americans. The fabled immunity from frustration and defeat has faltered its magic on several fronts, foreign as well as domestic. National security, traditionally perceived as free, a natural right of Americans, has been stripped away by revolutions in weaponry. Such security as remains, far from free, is purchased at frightful cost. With more power than ever before, more than any nation has ever had, we enjoy less security than we did in an era of national weakness. And we have found that all our power and fabulous weaponry can be ineffective in a war with a weak and undeveloped nation torn by a civil war of its own. In the meantime the innocence and virtue with which we assume American motives are natively endowed, especially in relations with other nations, had become a stock subject of jeers and ridicule even among our friends and allies. Not only were we threatened with failure and defeat in a commitment of national honor, but we were convicted of guilt and perfidy in the court of world opinion."

A.

Amy Raphael: Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas

2006-02-01T17:59:00.000-06:00

Reading a book about contemporary music that is twelve years out of date is an interesting experience. Amy Raphael’s Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas is a collection of interviews first published in Great Britain under the title Nevermind the Bullocks: Women Rewrite Rock. Because of this, there are several segments dedicated to groups that are not as well known in the States, such as Echobelly, Huggy Bear, and Sister George. As both titles indicate, the book presents itself as a study of women in rock, but there’s very little study and not all of those profiled can even be categorized as working in rock, such as Bjork.

The better segments of Grrrls are the interviews with Courtney Love of Hole, Tanya Donelly of Belly, and Liz Phair. They wander off-topic – it would be nearly impossible not to do so at some point or another – but the reader comes away with a strong impression of a strong relationship between these women and their music. Love’s segment is the first in the book. Her segment is the longest in the book, owing largely to the fact that she had two interviews instead of one. Both interviews took place a few months after the suicide of Kurt Cobain. Many of the interviews allude to Cobain’s death in some way or another. The grunge and Riot Grrrl movements were too intertwined for it to be any other way. Love mentions Cobain a few times, but for the most part she steers away from the subject and focuses on her own music rather than her connection with Nirvana. As a whole, Love comes off as reasonably well-read and intelligent. However, the span of twelve years never seems as poignant as when Love says “I’ve got the Madwoman under control and I don’t know how I had the good grace to get that, but I did. I will die before I go mad.” The Love of 1994 is a very different creature than the Love of today, who is dismissed as a joke by entertainment media.

Tanya Donelly focuses on her own songwriting, her relationship to music, and (most importantly) her role as a woman in the music industry. Her segment is only a few pages long and is very on-message. The low page count isn’t surprising. Donelly admits she finds it “incredibly hard to trust people,” leaving her segment one of the two least confessional and most relevant in the entire collection.

Liz Phair ends the book on a high note. Like Donelly, she gives away little about her personal life and talks about her relationship to music, her songwriting, and performances. She illustrates how different it is to be a woman in the industry by relating her experiences with sex as a marketing tool and how her groupies aren’t “those who want after-show sex.” She has the honor of having the very last line in the book, a fine example of the precarious position women in music had in 1994: “I told Matador to watch out for repeat writers that might be psychotic.”

As the book progresses, the segments become shorter, creating the impression that Raphael was losing interest in her project and/or her subjects and was trying to finish up as quickly as possible. The segments highlighting Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth), Ellyott Dragon (Sister George), and Huggy Bear are poorly executed. Kim Gordon, while being hailed as “the godmother of alternative rock” and “the original Riot Mom,” is barely given time to open her mouth. Her interview is only a little longer than the introduction. Raphael is content to praise Gordon, but doesn’t give her much time in which Gordon can talk about herself as a member of Sonic Youth. Ellyott Dragon’s chapter is interesting for highlighting what an anomaly Dragon is – a lesbian Israeli ex-corporal who happens to also be involved in the alt-rock scene. Her narrative is the only one to explore lesbianism juxtaposed with alternative music, but the latter is briefly addressed, keeping the focus on the former. This is an interesting concept, and I would encourage anyone to write a book on the subject (hey, there’s an idea!), but it is distracting from the work as a whole.

Huggy Bear’s section is the only one to highlight an entire band. This interview is a definite, glaring break with the pattern of the book. On top of that, not all members of Huggy Bear are female. This is the most disjointed section – there’s some music, some books, some feminist theory, and a sprinkling of nonsensical sentences written without any sort of context scattered throughout (“Joan of Arc. Angela Davis. Elizabeth Tudor. Sarah Bernhardt. Martha Reeves.”). This last element is reminiscent of the school notebook of an angsty teenager, covered in “deep” quotes from all kinds of sources.

Grrrls certainly has shining moments, but they are unfortunately outnumbered by the book’s shortcomings. The meandering quality of many of the chapters leaves readers wondering what the point of the book is, exactly. It appears that Raphael didn’t so much interview these women as turn on a tape recorder and let them babble. The end result closely resembles a record of what goes on in a psychiatrist’s office when the doctor is seeing patients who are in love with their own voices. This sometimes pays off, but the overall effect is often sloppy. Raphael may have done this on purpose, believing that a strict tape-to-page transcription would render a more authentic experience, but all of the segments would have done better with editing to keep them on focus.

C-

James Frey on Oprah.

2006-01-27T01:30:00.000-06:00

God Bless Oprah.

2006-01-26T18:16:00.000-06:00

Oprah had James Frey on her show this morning, along with his publisher Nan A. Talese, and she angrily confronted him about producing a fictional memoir and "duping" her and her viewers.

From USA Today:
Oprah confronts Frey about disputed memoir

CHICAGO (AP) — In a stunning switch from dismissive to disgusted, Oprah Winfrey took on one of her chosen authors, James Frey, accusing him on live television of lying about A Million Little Pieces and letting down the many fans of his memoir of addiction and recovery.

"I feel duped," she said Thursday on her syndicated talk show. "But more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers."

Frey, who found himself booed in the same Chicago studio where he had been embraced not long ago, acknowledged that he had lied.

A sometimes angry, sometimes tearful Winfrey asked Frey why he "felt the need to lie." Audience members often groaned and gasped at Frey's halting, stuttered admissions that certain facts and characters had been "altered" but that the essence of his memoir was real.

"I don't think it is a novel," Frey said of his book, which had initially been offered to publishers, and rejected by many, as fiction. "I still think it's a memoir."

Thursday's broadcast, rare proof that the contents of a book can lead to great tabloid TV, marked an abrupt reversal from the cozy chat two weeks ago on Larry King Live, when Winfrey phoned in to support Frey and label alleged fabrications as "much ado about nothing."

"I left the impression that the truth is not important," Winfrey said Thursday of last week's call, saying that "e-mail after e-mail" from supporters of the book had cast a "cloud" over her judgment.

On a segment that also featured the book's publisher, Nan A. Talese of Doubleday, Frey was questioned about various parts of his book, from the three-month jail sentence he now says he never served to undergoing dental surgery without Novocain, a story he no longer clearly recalls.

Winfrey, whose apparent indifference to the memoir's accuracy led to intense criticism, including angry e-mails on her website, subjected Frey to a virtual page-by-page interrogation. No longer, as she told King, was she saying that emotional truth mattered more than the facts. "Mr. Bravado Tough Guy," she mockingly called the author whose book she had enshrined last fall and whose reputation she had recently saved.

Talese and Doubleday were not spared. Winfrey noted that her staff had been alerted to possible discrepancies in Frey's book, only to be assured by the publisher. She lectured Talese on her responsibilities: "I'm trusting you, the publisher, to categorize this book whether as fiction or autobiographical or memoir."

Talese, an industry veteran whose many authors have included Ian McEwan, George Plimpton and Thomas Cahill, told Winfrey that editors who saw the book raised no questions and that A Million Pieces received a legal vetting. She acknowledged that the book had not been fact-checked, something many publishers say they have little time to do.

In a statement issued later Thursday, Doubleday, which initially had called the allegations not worth looking into, said it had "sadly come to the realization that a number of facts have been altered and incidents embellished."

The publisher said an author's note was being prepared that will be sent to booksellers to insert into current editions and that any future printings would be delayed until the note is included in the actual book. But no changes in the text are planned and the book will remain classified as a memoir.

Winfrey's words also were harsher than her actions. She did not unleash publishing's version of the death penalty: revoking her endorsement, a devastating and unprecedented action. Only once before has she turned, relatively mildly, on a book club pick: In 2001, she withdrew her invitation for Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections, to appear on her show after the novelist expressed ambivalence over her endorsement.

Her current choice is Elie Wiesel's classic, Night, a memoir with a concise, literary style that has led some to call it a novel.

Three years ago, Frey stepped up as publishing's latest and baddest bad boy, with tattooed initials on his arm — "FTBSITTTD" — bearing a defiant and unprintable message. Winfrey's selection made his book a million seller and Frey a hero to many who believed his story was theirs.

"In order to get through the experience of the addiction, I thought of myself as being tougher than I was and badder than I was, and it helped me cope," Frey said Thursday on Winfrey's show. "And when I was writing the book, instead of being as introspective as I should have been, I clung to that image."

Frey's career will likely never recover, although so far he has not suffered for sales. His book, a million seller thanks to Winfrey, remained in the top 5 Thursday on Amazon.com. A second memoir, My Friend Leonard, was in the top 20.

He currently has a two-book deal with Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, with a novel about contemporary Los Angeles due in 2007. The publisher did not have an immediate comment Thursday.

Beyond Frey, and his publishers, stories of suffering may themselves take a fall. Frey's saga comes at a time when the work, and even the identities, of such alleged hard-luck authors as J.T. Leroy and Nasdijj have been questioned. St. Martin's Press recently added a disclaimer to an upcoming book by Augusten Burroughs, another memoirist who has been challenged.

"I think for a while, this will make people careful," said Ashbel Green, a senior editor at Alfred A. Knopf.

"But this question of fact checking is a complicated one. At The New Yorker and Time and Newsweek, you have experienced people who know where to go and what's right and what's wrong. We don't. There's been a traditional dependency on the author."

I think Oprah is fantastic. She could have just ignored the controversy and left it with the statement she made on Larry King Live. I think it was extremely bold for her to confront Frey on her show, and I applaud her for it.

James Frey: A Million Little Pieces

2006-01-23T02:33:00.000-06:00

I thought about writing two reviews of this book, one review of it as a novel and one as a memoir. I decided not to, however, because, honestly, I'm so happy to be finished with it that I don't want to spent anymore time with it than I have to. I could write my own damn book about it, but I'm not going to.

In brief, A Million Little Pieces is not good. I realize that I am a bit biased since I started the novel after the news broke that James Frey "exaggerated" a lot of details of his life. "Exaggerated" doesn't seem like the right word. Did anyone really believe this shit before Frey's lies were uncovered? The whole book is filled with elements that just fall together in just the right places. There's no way things happened that way. Now, the placement of certain elements in the book to serve the thematic essence of the story is forgivable.

What is unforgivable about Frey's book is the numerous events that come across as complete bullshit. For example, Frey's account of his treatment for drug and alcohol abuse begins when he wakes up on an airplane that has landed in Chicago. He is covered in blood and vomit, his four front teeth are missing, and he has a large hole in his cheek. Later in the book, he recounts talking to a friend who was with him the night before. His friend took him to the hospital after his accident (which, I don't think - I may not remember, Frey actually describes in the book), pleaded with the doctors to not call the police, then dropped him off at the airport to be flown to Chicago to meet his parents. Frey treats this as if it is absolutely normal. Of course he was just put on an airplane and no one was disturbed that he was covered in blood because his four front teeth had just been knocked-out, not to mention the large hole in his cheek. This happens before Frey describes receiving two root canals without pain-killers or anesthesia, which makes absolutely no sense, considering lidocaine, the most commonly-used dental anesthetic, is not a narcotic or addictive.

Other than being over-the-top and false, Frey's book is very pompous and prententious. The James "character" is completely unsympathetic; he break rules at the treatment center and is given second chances. He refuses to blame his addictions on anyone other than himself, yet when his parents try to mend a broken relationship during a visit, he reacts by explaining to them how much he hates them, even admitting that there isn't a reason but his own. What is remarkable is that all of the other characters who James feuds with end up conceding to him, a twenty-three-year-old alcoholic and drug-addict. What infuriates me the most is that he finishes his program after refusing to accept the twelve-step program. According to the epilogue, he has never replapsed. Well, if that is true, it just belittles the Alcoholics Anonymous program and the men and women who have found solace in it.

The book itself reminds me of The Shawshank Redemption: it is filled with despicable characters who demand the reader's sympathy, even though they do not deserve it. The men that Frey writes about are not victims of their own addictions. They chose their lifestyle; their behaviors at the treatment facility is just as deplorable as their behaviors outside, the only difference being the absence of drugs and alcohol.

The worst thing about this book is that people continue to defend it because "it has helped so many people." I'm dubious of anyone whose life changes based on reading a book, and I can't imagine a drug-addict similar to those in this book putting down his or her crack pipe long enough to read someone's narcissistic account of his own recovery. It has done nothing but place the genre of autobiography into further scrutiny. There is something wrong with our culture if we can let James Frey continue to deceive a nation of readers simply because calling his book a memoir makes for an easier sell.

D-

the way it is.

2006-01-22T11:47:00.000-06:00

hello. i've only read like ten books since graduation in may and i'm not going to lie to you, one of them was 'the nanny diaries.' i had such high hopes for it. and knowing this tyler STILL invited me to write book reports so i'm going to use this as motivation to stop reading crap, or at least start reading crap of a slightly higher caliber. like 'bergdorf blondes.' just kidding! i'll get back to you soon on either 'waterland' by graham swift, 'the long goodbye' by raymond chandler, or my new mcsweeney's. i haven't yet decided which one to take on. bye bye!

2006-01-19T16:56:00.000-06:00

I suppose this is my only chance to make a good impression here. I hope I don't flub it too badly. I'm the newest member of The Book Report. I've had posting access for a good few minutes now, and I must say I couldn't be more pleased.

I had a typical bookwormy childhood - always getting in trouble for doing innocent things like reading during math class. The tone of my future relationship with books was set when I composed my very first poem when I was in Grade 2:

Reading is fun
Reading is neat
If you don't read
Your mind's not complete

Books are here
Books are there
It seems that books
Are everywhere

After this masterwork was read over the school announcement system, I was a minor celebrity for an hour or two. Then the teasing began. Fortunately, this teasing forced me away from a life of popularity and back to the printed page. The next 15 years progressed from that poetic moment, and now here we are.

To prove that I have the potential to be useful here, I will now direct you all to LibraryThing, a wonderful way to keep track of your collection and attract book groupies. My personal catalog can be found here.

And now I'm off to read something so I can post an actual review! Unfortunately, I'll probably be reading a cookbook before anything else - it's time to start dinner.

William Faulkner: Requiem for a Nun.

2006-01-16T02:43:00.000-06:00

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

Faulkner's sequel to his bestselling novel, Sanctuary, is definitely a minor-work compared to his pre-World War II fiction. The book is problematic in its experimental study of how the past affects the present. Faulkner uses prose and play-form; the prose sections are much like his earlier work - full of long-winded (yet beautifully written) stream-of-consciousness passages that chronicle the history of Jefferson, the county seat of his fictional Yoknapatawpha. The play, which practically stands completely separate from the prose sections, concerns Temple Drake eight years after her kidnapping by the gangster Popeye in Sanctuary.

Temple is now married to Gowan Stevens, a featured character from the book's prequel, and the mother of two children. When the play begins, we learn that the children's African-American nanny, Nancy, has been sentenced to death for the murder of Temple's six-month-old daughter. Nancy's defense attorney and Gowan's uncle, Gavin Stevens (a central character in Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust) comes to Temple the night before Nancy's execution and convinces her (through guilt) to accompany him to the governor of Mississippi to plead clemency for Nancy.

I found Faulkner's use of the play-form to tell Temple's story very interesting. Since the plot relied on her confessions, it seemed appropriate that Faulkner would limit his study of one of his most conflicted characters to dialogue. I'm not familiar with the play's history on the stage, and given its frequent three-page monologues and awkward framing, I can't imagine it would be very entertaining to watch, especially since so much of it focuses on Temple's experiences in Sanctuary.

Overall, it was an interesting read, although it cannot be compared to Faulkner's earlier work. I would recommend it to Faulkner fans or anyone who enjoyed Sanctuary and found Temple Drake to be as an intriguing and complicated character as I did.

B+

Manifesto:

2006-01-16T00:58:00.000-06:00

This will become a group blog written by friends and/or online-buddies who enjoy reading and sharing with others about what they read. It may be about fiction, non-fiction, poetry, etc. We may throw in some noteworthy news issues that we find interesting. It may become scattered and random, but hopefully extremely enjoyable.

If you are interesting in joining the blog, leave a comment or send an email to coatesjt@gmail.com.

Thank you.