Archive for the 'Literature' Category

Written by C.S. Lewis and first published in 1942, the book is comprised of a series of 31 letters from a senior demon named Screwtape to his neophyte tempter, his nephew Wormwood. The letters are largely regarding the nature of man, his relationship to God and Wormwood’s new assignment, a Christian man living in WWII era London.

Why bother to post about a book this old? It reads as if written yesterday. The themes are timeless. As a Lewis fan, I cannot believe I missed this book. From Chapter II:

Work hard, then, on the disappointment or anticlimax which is certainly coming to the patient during his first few weeks as a churchman. The Enemy allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavour. It occurs when the boy who has been enchanted in the nursery by Stories from the Odyssey buckles down to really learning Greek. It occurs when lovers have got married and begin the real task of learning to live together. In every department of life it marks the transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing. The Enemy takes this risk because He has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin into what He calls His “free” lovers and servants—”sons” is the word He uses, with His inveterate love of degrading the whole spiritual world by unnatural liaisons with the two-legged animals. Desiring their freedom, He therefore refuses to carry them, by their mere affections and habits, to any of the goals which He sets before them: He leaves them to “do it on their own”. And there lies our opportunity. But also, remember, there lies our danger. If once they get through this initial dryness successfully, they become much less dependent on emotion and therefore much harder to tempt.

This is one book that will never be lent out; for one thing, I read the entire work chapter by chapter, each morning… in the bathroom. Sorry to be so blunt, but it’s custom made for this sort of reading; the chapters are very short and there is need for post read digestion and interpretation.
It’s back in the bathroom amongst the Triclear and toothpaste. I’m going to read it again.

I wasn’t really looking for something to read when I walked through the book aisle at Target Thursday. But it’s difficult to pass them and not look, so there I was, drinking in each title as if I were parched and they precious liquid.
A woman made the space too small when she joined me in the aisle, dragging her cart in backwards, like she thought it would take up less room that way. Barely glancing at me, she asked ‘are you looking for something to read?’ and I replied ‘always’. Beating a path directly to the back wall, she picked up Alice Sebold’s ‘The Lovely Bones’ and held it out for me to take while stating emphatically ‘this is a good book’. How can you argue with that? It’s like she was sent to tell me to read this book. So I did.

As it turns out, The Lovely Bones is a very good book. I love a good storyteller and Sebold is certainly that. Both easy to read and understand… yet she weaves an intricate tale so visually stunning she even makes you feel sorry for a serial killer.
That’s her gift, the balance. The understanding she bestows is a gift and a curse, much like 14 year old Susie’s heaven. Everyone gets their own heaven when they die, you see… and when Susie is raped and killed in a cornfield she goes to her own heaven where she can watch the living if she wants. But even there things are never ‘perfect’. One miraculous afternoon she actually ‘falls back to earth’ but does not, cannot stay.

Now that I’ve finished I can see obscure references, allegories and touchstones everywhere. The snowglobe, the icicle, the suburbs.
Susie’s body is never found, though the reader knows the location. It doesn’t matter, because ‘lovely bones’ are not her remains. Lovely bones [I think] references the framework of man, on a smaller scale the framework of family.

I could write a book about the book, but then you’d not need to read the real thing.

High Noon by Nora Roberts

My review

Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Perfect summertime fare. A light read that won’t stay with you once you’ve put it down to grab another mojito.

I became far more wrapped up in the more interesting secondary characters… and though the end unfolded in more than 3 pages, which I appreciate, nothing more was forthcoming after the climax.
Did Essie ever leave the house? Did Ava and Dave get together? And what about that house, which was also a central character.
All those wonderful story lines fell by the wayside as the two main protagonists came together.

And by the way, Phoebe is basically Eve Dallas. Same tough cop, same tragic, violent childhood. And oh, look: same gorgeous, rich man comes along who loves her just for who she is.

Entertaining in spots, mildly suspenseful in others, I would have loved a deeper look into these fictional people’s lives, a la Sue Monk Kidd or Anne Siddons.

Vanished by Karen Robards

My review

Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Some books afford more than a glimpse into their heroine’s life, but this is not one of them. This novel is a carefully contained slice of the tortured existence of a mother who lost her daughter to a kidnapper seven years earlier, and her relationship with her best friend, a man who loves her.

I enjoyed the ‘mystery lite’ story and actually found myself thinking about it when I wasn’t reading, which is unusual… but didn’t appreciate the abrupt ending.

There is nothing remotely fairy tale-ish about the blossoming romance between the two protagonists. Realism is the order of the day, which fits the general tone of the book.

Now I’d like to read more of the author’s work… possibly her early novels.

View all my reviews.

I love C.S. Lewis, so last week I ordered ‘The Screwtape Letters’ and what I thought was a copy of ‘Mere Christianity’. Turns out it was the Shepherd’s Notes and not the book itself. Sort of an expanded Cliff’s Notes, it looks interesting but not what I was after.

Some days everything’s a lesson.