An American Tragedy:
After MONTHS of reading, procrastinating and trips to the library, I finally finished An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser. I thought this book was well written, but it took me so long to get through since I didn't really relate to any of the characters, I felt like there was too much build up in Book 1 that wasn't very relevant to the story and I don't love courtroom dramas.
I did, however, find it so interesting that a true story that was the inspiration of this fictional piece. The was a murder on a lake in New York in 1906, where a man offed his pregnant lover. His name was Chester Gillette. In the book, the main character is named Clyde Griffiths, and I think it's so neat how the initials were the same. The novel follows the true story to a tee. It seems that only the peripheral characters had much development outside the original news story.
I don't think I would recommend this book. It was too long, and I felt like the main character was so trite and one dimensional - his mantra (not that he could conceive of something like this) was: follow his penis to the highest society woman he can get. He couldn't really come to grips with the fact that what he was doing to his estranged lover Roberta was wrong, and once he was convicted, he did everything he could to make it look like he had changed his moral core. To me, Griffiths was a symbol of the American Dream gone all wrong. He was able to climb up through society even with a past and a poor family, but then when his lust got the better of him, he couldn't own up to the situation and make things right.
Catch-22:
I also read Catch-22 by Joseph Heller over a weekend on vacation in Florida. It wasn't a great beach read since it's a complex story, not just a pleasure read. It took me quite a while to get into the humor of the situations and appreciate the character development. My favorite characters were the doctor and the minister. There was something so sweetly sad about the deaths of Yossarian's comrades during WWII. Although it was initially confusing, I really liked the out-of-sequence story telling.
The definition of a Catch-22, now a part of modern day language is this (thanks wikipedia for citing this passage):
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. (p. 46, ch. 5)
I know this novel has been analyzed a lot, and I don't feel I will be able to do justice to this work without extensive dialog with a discussion group. I read this book from the view point of a curious fly on the wall. I focused on the behaviors of the men, the immoral actions that were directly in conflict with their mental state (or vice versa). The juxtaposition of how the characters acted compared to how you expected them to act was really interesting. I felt like most of the characters were cowards. But then you have to think - these are young men in a very serious war. That is pretty scary stuff and would likely make anyone act a boastful and yellow at the same time.
I'm reading The Happiness Project for book club, as well as Sense and Sensibility. More to come soon!
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