Jane's Fame

    I will be the first to admit that I love Jane Austen's work, however if you had asked me before what it is about her writing that continues to intrigue me, I don't know that I could have told you. Jane's Fame by Claire Harman not only clarified the reasons that I return to Austen's novels but it also showed me the opposite end of the spectrum.  Reading this book informed me that there is a much larger cult following of Jane Austen than I had previously believed. Though I have never referred to myself as an "Austentonian" or "Janeite", I am absolutely a fan and therefore was intrigued by this in depth study of her success and popularity. Her level of popularity has certainly ebbed and flowed throughout the generations and yet the question always resurfaces, "Is she or is she not a great writer?" One of the most interesting observations in this book is the lack of middle ground when discussing Jane Austen. Writers seem to either love or hate her and most readers are either obsessed or disinterested.

     As with many great writers, Jane Austen did not live to see her work fully appreciated. In fact, she did not even live to see it published under her own name. After many years and quite a few let downs, Jane did see most of her works in print and the little feedback she received was positive. The great debate did not begin until after her death in 1817. At this point in time there were not many Austen novels in circulation and it seemed as though their presence would die with the author. It was only after the publication of a short biography in 1870, by her nephew,  that the spark was reignited. It was by no means a great biography or ever a completely accurate one, but it did provide a glimpse into the anonymous author of the once popular novels, particularly Pride and Prejudice. The book illustrated Henry's aunt as a sweet tempered woman not interested in the least with fame or success (false). Despite its discrepancies, the public loved it and felt validated that they had enjoyed the writings of such a worthy woman. The biography was incredibly popular which resulted in multiple printings of the novels and a wealth of criticism to go along with them.

     Some of Austen's more harsh critics included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charlotte Bronte and Mark Twain. Emerson believed Austen to be "sterile in artistic invention, imprisoned in the wretched conventions of English society, without genius, wit, or knowledge of the world." Charlotte Bronte was of the opinion that there was nothing at all great about the author because there was no poetry in her writing. When discussing Austen with a fellow writer Bronte responded, "Can there be a great artist without poetry?" Mark Twain however was by far the most violent in his antipathy for the author. On one occasion he wrote to Joseph Twitchell, "Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone." In one unpublished essay, Twain expands on his dislike of all things Austen, "Whenever I take up Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility, I feel like a barkeeper entering the kingdom of heaven. I know what his sensations would be and his private comments. He would not find the place to his taste, and he would probably say so." One friend of Mark Twain's, W. D. Howells, was a great admirer of Jane Austen despite his friend's disapproval. Howells said later that Jane Austen was Twain's "prime abhorrence" and once received a letter from Twain stating, "Jane is entirely impossible. It seems a great pity to me that they allowed her to die a natural death!"

     For every harsh critic of Jane Austen there was also a fond admirer. One of the most interesting supporters of Jane Austen was Felix Feneon. Feneon was a poet, essayist, and anarchist bomber that happened upon Austen's work while serving time in the Mazas prison. He was permitted to read Northanger Abbey (thought to be inconsequential because its author was a woman) and acclaimed the prose's "pithy style and keen insights on human nature." Four years later he finished a translation of the novel into French and became editorial secretary of a literary magazine. Another famous advocate of Austen's was Winston Churchill. In 1943 Churchill became ill and was confined to bed and recalled in his memoir," I had long ago read Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, and now I thought I would have Pride and Prejudice. What calm lives they had, those people! No worries about the French Revolution, or the crashing struggle of the Napoleonic wars. Only manners controlling natural passion so far as they could, together with cultured explanations of any mischances."

     The author of this book, Claire Harman, sums up the complexity of Jane Austen's appeal when she concludes, "A genuinely popular author as well as a great one, she has come to exist, more obviously than any other English writer, in several mutually exclusive spheres at once. What appeals to one reader as a biting satire on eighteenth-century provincial life is read by another purely for its nostalgia value; the feminist message of, say, Pride and Prejudice translates as a paean to sexual pragmatism and the virtues of the status quo, while the frustrations of the thwarted professional writer evident in Austen's letters strike some as marks of a delightfully unworldly amateurism. She has truly become all things to all men." (p.197)

If two incredibly different minds, such as a confused twenty something and an anarchist bomber, can find merit in the work of Jane Austen than in my opinion the author must be great.

Strangers on a Train

    
  
    
      When most people hear Strangers on a Train, they think of the film by Alfred Hitchcock. The film version was made in 1951; a year after the novel was published. Since then it has also been adapted for the theater and its theme has been used in many television shows as recently as 2009 when Castle based an episode on this central idea. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith, in my opinion, is an extremely intelligent, disturbing read that forces the reader to re-examine human nature. Before beginning this book I had an idea of what to expect, having read The Talented Mr. Ripley for a class in college. I knew that this novel would, at times, be uncomfortable to read yet impossible to quit without knowing it's ending, just as Ripley was for me. Many critics have commented on the sense of claustrophobia and paranoia that Highsmith's writing often evokes and I feel that those words perfectly describe the two novels I have read so far. Throughout this novel in particular, I felt as though the story was continuously weighing on me. The distress and agony that Bruno inflicts upon Guy is absolutely tangible.
    
     Strangers on a Train is based on the premise that everyone is capable of murder. Though I am not sure I agree with the point Highsmith is trying to make, I am once again impressed by the way she juxtaposes humanity with iniquity. The novel begins on a train where we meet Guy Haines, an architect living in New York that is traveling back to his hometown in order to divorce his estranged wife Miriam. Guy is a simple man that believes in love, honesty, and integrity. Enter Charles Bruno, a spoiled young man of leisure that despises his father and is traveling to meet his mother, whom he is a bit too fond of. Bruno is a man full of his own ideas and not exactly interested in men or women, with the exception of his mother, until he meets Guy. After a very brief conversation Bruno invites Guy to his private room for dinner and, based on what I can only imagine is instant infatuation, proceeds to tell him about his plan for a perfect murder. In this plan, Bruno would kill Guy's wife while Guy is out of town and a few months later Guy would kill Bruno's father while Bruno is away, thus providing both with airtight alibis. Guy is so disturbed by this complete stranger and his outlandish proposition that he hardly knows how to respond and therefore excuses himself as soon as possible. A couple weeks later Bruno, undeterred, decides to carry out his plan and travels to Texas to murder Miriam. Bruno's obsession with Guy and the fact that Miriam's murder goes off without a hitch sparks a series of events that devolves the rational and just Guy Haines into an erratic shell of a man.

     This novel portrays two seemingly opposite men that end up at a similar conclusion, which then begs the question, "Can anyone be brought to murder?" The way Highsmith proves her theory is by taking a man initially disgusted by the thought of murder and illustrating the ways in which his righteousness and humanity are broken down until he is reduced to his most base form. I have to say, Highsmith makes her case quite well, though at the end of the novel I am left with more questions than answers. Therefore I want to end this post with questions instead of excerpts, as those are what remain with me this time.


What is it about Guy Haines that makes Charles Bruno, a vain narcissist, instantly taken with him?

What is it that Bruno immediately notices in a complete stranger that would make him certain he has found a partner in murder?

Why is it that a smart and sensible man would not choose a different path than Charles Bruno? Or was Guy not a sensible man, merely a weak man that was waiting for a dominant personality to unearth his true character?

Can a person become someone else, or is that the person they always were, they just didn't know it?

Why Owen Markman? It seemed clear that he did not love Miriam so why confess to him of all people?

    

The Glass Castle

Some stories are so incredible, they are almost hard to believe. With an opening sentence that reads," I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster", you know you are in for a strange ride. This memoir by Jeannette Walls is a sad but electrifying coming of age story in the poor, eccentric Walls household.

Jeannette's mother, Rose Mary, was an artist that abhorred the idea of a typical, domestic lifestyle. She preferred painting, writing, and reading to working, supervising, and raising a family. Jeannette's father, Rex, was charismatic and sneaky, a genius and an alcoholic. He despised any sort of authority and always insisted that the family do the "skedaddle" before they were noticed by the "gestapo". The relationship between mother and father was dysfunctional at best, and created an unstable and often hostile environment for their four children: Lori, Jeannette, Brian, and Maureen. One story from the book recounts an incident where an argument between Rex and Rose Mary got so out of hand that the children, watching from the front yard, saw their father hang their mother from outside a window by her arms. Events such as these were frightening but not unusual for the kids to witness. A perfect example of this unique relationship is described on p. 122 when Rex came home drunk and screaming, looking for a fight with Rose Mary. After a struggle, he pinned her to the ground and demanded to know whether or not she loved him. When she finally relented and said yes, they both hugged each other and laughed while Jeannette observed," It was as if they were so happy they hadn't killed each other that they had fallen in love all over again."

Throughout their childhood, the children lived in cars, slept in cardboard boxes, scavenged for food in dumpsters, and relied on one another for support and protection. Their parents did not believe in rules or discipline, but they also didn't see the need to take care of their children. One of the stories that Jeanette describes in the novel is her first memory as a three year old. She had been standing on a chair, in order to reach the stove, and making herself hot dogs for dinner. She caught fire and was rushed to the hospital where she remained for six weeks. Needless to say, the children were left almost entirely to their own devices, because Rose Mary and Rex believed that they needed to learn to fend for themselves, immediately.

As children, everything was an "adventure". Every time their parents decided to move, which happened every couple of months, they told them that it was an adventure. When they could not fit in the car and had to sleep on the ground in the desert, it was also an adventure. The kids grew accustomed to not having heat, indoor plumbing, and often times, food. When Rex took odd jobs or Rose Mary decided to work (she was a certified teacher), the family would have groceries for weeks at a time, but that never lasted because Rex was continuously let go and Rose Mary hated going to work. As the children grew older they realized that things were not going to change and if they wanted something more, it would be up to them to make it happen.  They took small part time jobs, babysat, and recycled metal, anything they could to save up money. One by one, the children moved to New York and left their parents behind in West Virginia. Jeannette worked as an assistant at a newspaper and saved money to go to college. Several years later, the parents followed the children to New York and continued their "adventurous" lifestyle on the streets, rummaging through trash and sleeping on park benches.

The hardships and struggles that Jeannette and her siblings went through in this novel were sometimes painful to read, but all the more inspiring when you realize everything that they have accomplished, and how far they have come. I think the most surprising part of this novel, for me, is that the Walls family did not have to live the way that they did. Rose Mary could have been a teacher. Rex was brilliant and could have worked almost anywhere, yet they refused to conform to the ways of society and were determined to live only for themselves, despite the impact it had on their family. These sad stories made for a fantastic novel that proves it doesn't matter where you came from, it only matters what you make of yourself.

Jayber Crow

    
     My senior year of college I took a class on Wendell Berry. When I enrolled I had never heard of Wendell Berry, I only knew that he was a Kentucky author and that the class was rarely, if ever, offered. So naturally I went to the bookstore to take a look at some of his novels, which from first glance appeared to be about farming. I have nothing against farming, I honestly just don't know much about it and was unsure if I would be interested enough in the subject matter to get me through a semester. I was a little hesitant and a little curious going into the class but was exceedingly impressed with the emotion and depth in each novel that we studied. The class also covered several of his essays, short stories, and poetry and the more I read, the more I loved. Each of Wendell Berry's works examines the strength and ties of a community through love, loss, and change. The rural community of Port William is the backdrop for many of his novels and is roughly based on Berry's own life in his hometown of Port Royal, Kentucky. Berry's life and experiences are reflected in his work which repeatedly focus on the themes of respect for the land, membership of a community, and the importance of family.
     Jayber Crow was not one of the novels that we read in class however the name was mentioned in several of the novels we studied. I love that the more I read by Wendell Berry, the more I learn about not only the protagonist of my current book but also about characters from previous novels. Each new perspective further illustrates the intricate world of Port William that Berry has created. This particular novel is told by Jayber Crow, an elderly man reflecting on a lifetime of clients' stories as they intertwine with his own. Orphaned as a child, Jayber learns about life as an outsider that, in part, remains with him for the rest of his life. He is sent away to The Good Shepherd school which is not a fit for him but after many years gives him the idea that he has been called to the ministry. In college, it is not long before he realizes that the questions and uncertainties he has about his faith will prohibit him from ever becoming a minister. The only force that seems to drive him over the next couple of years is to make his way back to the place he was born. Though he no longer has any relatives he feels the only connection he has to the world lies in the area of Port William. By becoming the town barber Jayber not only learns about the private inner workings of the community but is also accepted into the membership of Port William.
     One if the best parts about this novel is that despite it's melancholy tone there are moments of humor and love that touch the reader as though you were part of it's world. Wendell Berry has the incredible ability to create vivid characters that linger with the reader long after the novel is completed. Here are a few passages that initially struck me and that I think will give you a glimpse of Berry's prose style:

"But the mercy of the world is time. Time does not stop for love, but it does not stop for death and grief, either. After death and grief that (it seems) ought to have stopped the world, the world goes on. More things happen. And some of the things that happen are good. My life was changing now. It had to change. I am not going to say that it changed for the better. There was good in it as it was. But also there was good in it as it was going to be." (p.296)

"And I knew that the Spirit that had gone forth to shape the world and make it live was still alive in it. I just had no doubt. I could see that I lived in the created world, and it was still being created. I would be part of it forever. There was no escape. The Spirit that made it was in it, shaping it and reshaping it, sometimes lying at rest, sometimes standing up and shaking itself, like a muddy horse, and letting the pieces fly. I had almost no sooner broke my leash than I had hit the wall." (p.83)

"Somewhere underneath of all the politics, the ambition, the harsh talk, the power, the violence, the will to destroy and waste and maim and burn, was this tenderness. Tenderness born into madness, preservable only by suffering, and finally not preservable at all. What can love do? Love waits, if it must, maybe forever." (p.294)

As you can probably tell I am a huge Wendell Berry fan, and though this post in no way does his work justice, I would highly recommend that you read something of his, as it is truly a joy.