Book 18: Finished.

I am not sure if I have anything of meaning left to say about The Dollmaker. Yesterday, I wrote a rather...personal post about my experience finishing the book. I think I should simply expand on it and give a few final thoughts.

The Dollmaker is centered on Gertie Nevels and her family. They live in a rural part of Kentucky in the middle of World War II. During the course of the war, all of the men of fighting age have either been drafted, or moved away to work in a factory, leaving their small village with only a few men left. The only man left of fighting age is her husband, Clovis, who is sought out by the military.

To escape being sent off to war, Clovis makes his way to Detroit to work in one of the factories. Gertie and the children stay behind, where Gertie finally purchases a piece of land for their own to farm while they wait for Clovis to come home. While Gertie and her 5 children are set to wait it out and farm the land, her mother guilts her into selling her hard-earned land and heading north to join Clovis.

Once in Detroit, Gertie and her children must "adjust" to life in the projects of Detroit. They live in a housing project with people similar to them. There, the kids learn to be normal and give up their "hillbilly" ways. Gertie struggles to come to terms with the turn her life has taken. Her only comfort is her whittling.

Gertie brought a large piece of wood with her to Detroit, which calls to her to be carved into an image of Christ. Slowly she works on it as events unfold around which spiral out of control. Through all of the tragedy and heartache that inevitably finds them, Gertie holds onto her resolve and her faith.

Ultimately, Gertie must make a sacrifice to save her family and who they are meant to be.

To say I was moved by this story is a gross understatement. My post yesterday will prove that. The pain and suffering the people face in this novel is monumental. It broke my own heart and it placed everything that I am facing right now into perspective. Through all the adversity and pain, Gertie held on to her faith and what she knew to be her's alone-her whittling.

This is a powerful novel. The characters and scenes haunt you after you close it and you feel like you are very much a part of their lives. It takes a great deal of skill for an author to accomplish that, and Arnow does it very well.

If my own personal experience with it is not enough to convince you to find a copy, I'm not sure what will. But this is a beautiful piece of literature and something worthy of being on my list, as unknown as it is.

"A body's got to have something all their own."

Book 18: Personal Reading Experiences.

As I finished The Dollmaker in the quiet of the apartment, I got to thinking yet again about why I am doing this. I was inspired because of a lack of meaning in my own life and with nothing worthwhile in store for myself. I was depressed and upset with myself for not being able to land one of the few teaching jobs in Michigan this past year. And while I interviewed in a lot of different places and was fortunate in some districts to be selected for an interview out of THOUSANDS of applicants; it was hard knowing that I still wasn't good enough.

It has been a rough road since then and in some moments the only thing that has really kept me going and kept me motivated is this; my writing and my reading. A lot of people don't understand how people who read so much can spend so much time doing so. They don't see how we can lose ourselves in another time and place and in other people's lives. For many, reading is just a chore and something they have to do. They get no enjoyment from opening pages and transporting themselves into another world.

I am sad for those people. Without books I am sure I would be feeling far worse about myself now than do. I am drawing comfort from the worlds I have been in, and gaining advice from my new mentors-writers like Arnow, Steinbeck, Forster, and Homer. They have become people that I am starting to become intimate with. They understand me on a far deeper level than those school administrators could ever possibly understand me.

Which brings me back to my beginning thoughts. Why am I doing this?

I am forcing myself through a list of 250 titles that I hopefully would have gotten to at some point in my life. Rather than wait, I am diving in head first and plowing through them one after the other. Starting this, I think I merely wanted to help myself. Reading these great works would inevitably help me become a better teacher and a better person. I would be learning from the greats and I would have a greater handle on literature as whole.

But it has become more than that. As I finished The Dollmaker I realized that I am learning far more than I thought I would, and that this experience is truly changing me. I have learned so much from these teachers. At times, I feel as though I am not expressing the depth of what I have read. Their words are speaking to me, sometimes across centuries and often across oceans. They have become my mentors and I feel as though through their work I am changing to become a much better person.

Everything they write about puts my life in perspective. Yes, things are rough right now. I am only working 15-16 hours a week making a little more than minimum wage. I don't own my own car, but am borrowing from my parents while we save up. We have some debt and Matt is still finishing school. At times, it seems like too much. I broke down in the car on the way to meet up with some friends Tuesday night because the weight of responsibility seemed like too much. Life catches up with you and sometimes you wonder, "how much more can I possibly handle?" Then life hands you another curve ball, like we got Wednesday when we found out that Matt's mom's new puppy was attacked and killed by a pit bull in front of her eyes and nothing could be done about it. Life throws you challenges and how you tackle them determines how things turn out.

Perhaps I am getting preachy, but again, as I finished The Dollmaker it all snapped into perspective. I remembered that my life could be worse and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I won't be unemployed forever. Eventually a school district will see me for the amazing teacher I know I am. Matt will finish school. We will pay off our debts. Justice will be found for Lacey needlessly being attacked by a vicious dog, and soon, these horrible feelings of despair will disappear. Life moves forward. And I have a wonderful and loving husband by my side who laughs with me and holds me when I need it. He supports everything I do and won't let me fail.

And I found all of that in the pages of a book. So when people say to me, "Why do you read so much?" or "Why are you doing this?" I can point to myself and say, "Reading has saved me."

Sure, it sounds completely crazy and obsessive, but I know it to be true. Words and stories are as much a part of my life as is Matt, or our cats, or our own memories. I take in these stories and they become a part of my own experience, my own history.

Perhaps the reason why I am doing this is so that I can hopefully inspire someone else to see reading and books as deeply as I do. They are not a hobby, or a waste of time, or something to turn to in boredom or when the power goes out; they are my friends, my family, and my mentors. Without them I would be lost.

And when I am done with this, I can add 250 more members to that list.

Sometimes all we need is a little reminder of what we're doing and where we are going to get our heads on straight again. And I think I am headed down the right path again.

Book 18: Tragedy.

There are scenes that you can come across in reading that really just chill your bones. I read such a scene in Germinal back in December. It so shocked me that I had to set the book aside and mentally get over the images before I could go back to reading that novel. I also had a huge urge to talk about it with someone, so Matt was the lucky recipient of my ranting about the disturbing images that plagued my mind.

Sometimes, the chill and feel of a book can offset you. I feel that way with The Dollmaker. From the beginning, the reader knows that pain and heartache are coming. When the first tragedy happens, you think, "Oh, things must be getting better after this." Then the next thing happens and you think, "The author can't do anymore to this family."

But she does.

And it seems like she is overdoing the tragedy that this family feels, but you have to step back and look at it all in a broader scope. The whole era the novel is set in (World War II) is a tragedy. Mothers and sisters and wives received letters that their husbands and sons and brothers were dead or missing constantly. Arnow relives that fear in the novel and the characters. They are living within a tragedy and are merely victims of circumstance.

So when the great tragedy strikes in the middle of this novel, you feel so deeply for the characters. I got to this scene late at night when Matt was sleeping and the cats were curled up on my chest.

I teared up.

I rarely get moved to tears by anything that is not directly related to my own life. Even then, it takes a lot to drive me to tears. So I am not one of those girls who cries during sappy movies, or who gets emotional reading most books.

So when I say I teared up reading about the pain of the Nevels family, it was a powerful amount of pain. And it was well-written.

And while I am only halfway through the novel, I know that Arnow is going to throw more into the lives of the Nevels family and the people living near them in the projects of Detroit. And where some writers through all this angst and torment into their novels to try and make them more appealing (I am currently thinking of those sappy Sweet Valley High novels I used to read), Arnow is not using tragedy as a way to rev up the reader. Instead, she is using it as a reflection of the time period.

I love the era of World War II in America. In college, I took a couple of classes on the era to fulfill requirements for my history degree. For one class, we had to interview an individual who lived during the time period. I was matched up with an older lady who lived in Lansing in an assisted living center. She lived in Detroit during the war as a little girl. Her father fought overseas in Europe and her mother and three older brothers all worked for the factories in Detroit. Her stories were very similar to the experiences Arnow shares (Arnow also lived in the projects during the war) and this woman also painted a very tragic picture of life on the home front during the war.

When I was interviewing this woman, I remember feeling the tragedy of the era. Everyone left back thought the world was coming to an end. Boys were being drafted into the military and being shot. There were food and gas shortages. To those left behind, some questioned whether it would be better to be "over there" fighting as opposed to staying home and waiting.

I can feel this pain and tragedy in Arnow's novel. She has captured the heart of the times.

It is simply beautiful.

Book 18: Accents, Dialect and Dialogue.

Sometimes when a writer uses a certain dialect or accent in their writing, it can make things really difficult for the reader. It gets even worse when the writer doesn't do it well. Rather than adding to the story, it distracts the reader and makes it too difficult to read. The reader spends more time deciphering the author's words than absorbing the story. Sometimes, the reader simply abandons the book.

Or, there are the writers who create a huge world and then the characters talk and ??? Nothing. The writer forgoes the idea that these people need to fit the world they created. It takes away from the impact of the story if the characters don't fit.

However, if it is done well, then it adds to the story. The reader is actually a large part of the story, as the characters' voices work their way into the reading experience. It makes the story feel more authentic and realistic.

Those are the kinds of reading experiences that I enjoy, especially when it is crafted to beautifully that I get sucked in from the very beginning.

I do struggle at first when a writer uses distinct and different accents and dialects from what I am used to. I have to pay attention a little more at the beginning until it sinks in, then it becomes second nature to make the switch in my head so I can see a new word and understand the sound. For example, when I read the Outlander books back in the Spring of 2009, I struggled at first with the Scottish accent the main characters had. Obviously as a girl from Michigan I don't speak that way, so it was an adjustment. However, by the time I finished the sixth book, I was an old pro.

In Arnow's The Dollmaker, it is the same process. The first few pages were an adjustment period and as I am chugging along, the Kentucky twang is getting stuck in my head, as it should. Arnow was from Kentucky, so she has it down to a science.

Here is an example of dialogue from the book;

"But jist between you an me-an I mean no harm-when he was home he warn't worth a continental to you in th crop maken. His coal haulen wasn't regular, an his tinkeren didn't bring in much. He loved it too well-he'd tear down some feller's old car an set it up agin and mebbe never git paid," (111).

There are some definite distinctions here between the writing style of my post and that quote. And when you have a lot of characters all speaking with a similar accent, sometimes you can get lost in deciphering.

When I was student teaching, we were reading a novel similar to this--one with a very strong accent in the writing. My students had a real hard time learning what appeared to be new words, so I had them create bookmarks out of strips of paper with the words and their meanings. This helped many of them make those connections in the story and understand the novel much better than they were.

Another favorite aspect of this dialect in the novel is what happens when Gertie's family moves north to Detroit and they have neighbors from different regions of the country. You then have a huge blending of dialects, accents, and slang melding together. Jumping back and forth is difficult, but fun to read. It keeps me entertained and I love the distinction.

"Max pondered an instant, her gum still, then nodded. 'Yu said it, sister. Damned if I'm gonna let anybody make me wanta be nothen but another piece a Hamtramck.'

'But you're very much afraid you'll start wanting to please, that's why you hate. You'll have to learn at least to cover it all up, so that they won't know and be, well, shall we say, tempted?'

'But how inu hell do yu cover up somethen that's burnen a hole inyu?'" (232).

Here Arnow is showing further distinction from what the characters in the novel see as educated and non-educated. The second speaker is a woman from a wealthy area north of Detroit, sent to the projects where the rest of the characters live to spread the Gospel. The other speaker is a young woman who lives in the projects and works as a waitress to help ends meet. You can see the difference Arnow is making between the two characters.

This way of writing the speech so accurately and making distinctions between the characters from different regions is making me fall deeply in love with the novel. It truly is excellent.

Anyway, enough of my lecturing for today and on with the reading!

Book 18: The Dollmaker.

I wouldn't be surprised if you told me you had never heard of The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow. Or if you questioned why this novel was on my list of classics right beside books by Twain, Dickens, Steinbeck, Woolf, and Conrad. However, when I was trying to figure out my list of books to add on my classics list, I turned to the AP literature list my twelfth grade teacher gave me that first day of school.

The Dollmaker was published in 1954 and was on the AP English test only once (in 1991). The wikipedia entry for the novel isn't even about the novel, but is focused on the made for TV movie starring Jane Fonda. And, when I looked elsewhere, I could find out little about this novel.

I decided to keep it on the list. I'm not really sure why I made that decision way back in August, but I wanted to read this novel. I found the descriptions on book websites and I just knew that this was a book that needed to be read.

I'm not sure yet if that was a good decision or not. I mean, this is a book I know hardly anything about and it might not even be considered a classic because no one seems to have heard of it!

When I decided to start this project, I first pulled all of my classics from my piles of books. I marked down what I had and pursued some more to have a variety to choose from. This was a book that could not be found. I went to one of the big book chains (Borders) to search their aisles and found nothing by Arnow. Since Borders is always my second choice anyway, I went to the Barnes and Noble down the road to see what they had. Again, nothing. Figuring it was time I ask, I hunted down one of my favorite employees and asked her if they had it.

Now, this woman and I have become friendly since I frequent the store way more than I should. She has excellent tastes in books and I often recommend things to her. She searched their computer system and they hadn't had a copy in the store in months. I left that day just deciding to forget about it. It would be among the long list of books I hadn't hunted down yet and would at some later date.

It was only a week or so later that I was back. It had dawned on me that I should simply hunt the used shelves at that Barnes and Noble to see what I could find there (my local store has an amazing used section). I don't have anything against used books and they are friendlier towards my wallet, so I hunted the shelves.

And there is was, in all its beaten up glory: The Dollmaker.

I made sure after I grabbed it to go find that employee to tell her I found a copy. She flipped through it and said it seemed like an excellent book.

Which brings us to now and this post. I have this somewhat elusive book with what seems to be an extremely gripping story. I am anticipating greatness, something to back up my decision to keep this book here.

So what is it about? Here is the synopsis from Barnes and Noble:

"Strong-willed, self-reliant Gertie Nevel's peaceful life in the Kentucky hills was devastated by the brutal winds of change. Uprooted form their backwoods home, she and her family were thrust into the confusion and chaos of wartime Detroit. And in a pitiless world of unendurable poverty, Gertie would battle fiercely and relentlessly to protect those things she held most precious—her children, her heritage...and her triumphant ability to create beauty in the suffocating shadow of ugliness and despair."

Now I remember the draw of this novel. Detroit is a city near and dear to my heart, seeing as I live about 35 minutes north of the city. It is a city with a long, and sometimes violent history. It was the birthplace of the automobile and the Arsenal of Democracy during WWII. And that last line? It sucked me in.

So that is why I am reading this next, to understand Gertie's fear and despair, but also to understand her ability to hope.

Sunday Salon: January 31, 2010.

It has been another busy week for us. We finally moved over the last of my things to the apartment, so I am officially moved in! There are only a couple small things to put away and then we are settled...it only took a few months. We were both joking that we don't want to move from here unless we move out of state or we buy a house. We'll see which happens first.

I also spent a lot of time bonding with Sparty, who is growing up so fast. He loves to cuddle and he is finally getting along with Hemi (our older cat). They are currently cuddling together on top of the chair in the living room. We are so happy they are getting along.

In book news, I managed to almost catch up on my reviews. I still need to put all my posts about The Dollmaker up. I should just say now that The Dollmaker was not at all what I expected. But it was very, very, very good. I have lots to say about it, so be prepared.

I am also thisclose to finishing The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare. I only have 1 act left, so I should finish it tonight before bed.

So, goals for this week are:

• Make posts for The Dollmaker
• Finish The Winter's Tale and post
• Start and finish The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• Make posts on Tom Sawyer
  
• Start something else??

Now it is time to join the hubby on the couch and watch the rest of the Grammys.

Happy Reading!

Sunday Salon: January 24, 2010

It simply amazes me how fast time goes! Over a month and half have gone by since I last wrote a Sunday Salon entry, but it doesn't feel like it. I suppose a lot has gone on in the last month and a half. I got married, went on my honeymoon, moved out of my parents' house, and have settled into life in the apartment.

This last week has been especially eventful in our house. Since getting back at the beginning of January, Matt and I have been searching high and low for a kitten. We already have an adult cat, Hemi, who has been with Matt nearly her entire life. She was found, abandoned, under his sister's front porch. His mom and sister helped bottle-feed her until she was old enough to eat normal food. She's probably never even seen another cat, seeing as her eyes were still closed when they found her!

Since moving to the apartment, Hemi has been lonely. There is a lot less hustle and bustle going on over here, so we decided she needed a buddy. But it is HARD to get your hands on a kitten! We tried Craigslist with no luck, then turned to Petfinder.com to search some local rescues. I was getting discouraged until Thursday afternoon when I stumbled on the cutest group of kittens. They had Star Wars names, so it was pretty much meant to be.

By the time we got to the shelter Friday morning, 2 had already been adopted, leaving us with the choice of Vader or Leia. We ended up bringing Vader home, and he is a spunky, mouthy little thing of 6 and a half weeks old and we are already in love with his precious little face. Hemi, on the other hand, was not to excited and starting hissing and growling immediately. After belatedly reading up on introducing cats to one another, we corrected out mistakes and isolated him, so she could dominate the house.

It must have worked. Tonight both of them were in the same room, playing and walking around with minimal hissing. I think in a few days they will be the best of friends and we'll find them cuddled up together.

We did change his name, to Spartacus, or Sparty for short. My college mascot is a Spartan and we both go up yearly for games and events, so we thought it fitting. As soon as he is less squirmy, I am sure he will end up in some pictures with books. He has already tried eating them, which I told him was definitely a NO.

Anyway, here is a picture of the little guy trying to climb up my leg:


He is a cutie, isn't he?


In book news, I have been working on trying to catch-up on the backlog of books I have. There are only 2 more books to review and discuss before my current novel. Look for entries on Ethan Frome and Sons and Lovers in the next few days. I don't like being behind, but it does give me more material to write more often!

I have also been trying to get back into the habit of reading every night before bed. It has been difficult to keep up that good habit in the last 6 months or so. I have been so busy with wedding planning and moving that reading took a far back seat. It is time to shift some other things around to make room for reading as a priority. Even if I don't have as much "me" time anymore, I still need to make an effort to continually read.

I'm halfway through my current book, The Dollmaker, and I have a lot to say about it already. It is definitely a chunker of a book, at over 600 pages. Even more difficult is the dialogue. While I love when authors make their characters sound like the region they're from with phonetic spellings of words, it makes my brain work a little harder, making my reading pace slow down. Oh well, I still enjoy it and my brain needs the work out.

Anyway, the goals for this week are these:

1. Write and post reviews for Ethan Frome
2. Write and post reviews for Sons and Lovers
3. Finish reading The Dollmaker
   
4. Write and post reviews for The Dollmaker
5. Read a new Shakespeare play; perhaps The Winter's Tale?

I think those are all perfectly doable. Let's hope for a good week of solid reading, yeah?

Happy reading everyone!

Oh! And one last thing! I have a new poll up and would appreciate you voting! Have at it!