Siam Scarlett

I can't believe I forgot to mention this last week, but while in Thailand, I had a run-in with one of the list books. It wasn't until we were going through our photos last night that I remembered...

As I've mentioned many times before, I always enjoying perusing a bookshelf. It could be in somebody's home, at a hotel, in a library, or in a bookstore; it doesn't really matter, I just like walking my eyes over the spines of books. I suppose the fun is that you might come across something unique or something you've never heard of, and it just might take your reading in a new direction.

After having spent over five years reading through this list, I'm still little amazed how often I come across these titles. Of course it shouldn't really come as any surprise, after all they are 100 "all-time novels."

What is Your Title?

I'm a little over halfway through Native Son right now, and it's fantastic. Right now, it would be in my top five books from the list. But while I've been reading it, I keep finding myself thinking back to my last book, Their Eyes Were Watching God. What I keep thinking back to though, is on line I read, on the 160th of 193 pages; specifically, the line "They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God."

Whenever I read the title of a book, in the book, I can't help but think of the "Family Guy" episode where Peter says he "usually only gets this excited when they say the title of the movie, in the movie." We then see Peter watching "Clear and Present Danger," "As Good as it Gets," and "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace." I must admit it does excite me in some small way as well.

Reading the title of the book in the book this time, started me thinking of what other books from the list have had this happen. However, unlike references to other books on the list, I haven't been keeping track of every instance, so I'm forced to go by memory.

You must return and mend it

I finally made amends yesterday for my theft of Falconer from a small Inn in rural Ontario.  I had vowed (to myself) to return it, and can now say I kept my word.  Included in the package was the book in question, a short thank you note, which also outlined why and how I stole the book, plus a small gift to show my appreciation.

The gift was an old copy of The Chancellor Manuscript by Robert Ludlum.  Sending it to Ontario worked well for me as it was not only a nice gesture, but it also saved me a trip to the used bookstore.  I'd already read it, and was never going to read it again, plus I thought it would be a good book to have on the shelves of a small rural Inn.  While the title might not be recognizable, at least the author would be, and it's the kind of light, fluffy fair someone on vacation would probably be interested in reading.  I also thought it would fit in with the other books, as I don't think any of them were published after 1985.

As I eagerly await their response, I wonder if they even noticed it was missing.  Would an Inn with seven rooms have a full time librarian to manage roughly thirty books?  Hmmm...now that I think about it, not only will they not have noticed, but they likely won't care either.

#22 - "Falconer" by John Cheever

My 22nd book from The List, is also the first book I've stolen.  Well, maybe stolen is too strong of word.  But I did 'borrow' it without permission from a tiny Newheart-esque Inn, near Markdale, Ontario. I was hoping the element of danger associated with reading a sto--borrowed book would make for some exciting reading sessions, but no luck; not once did I look over my shoulder to see if the fuzz was on my tail.  Falconer was yet another book I didn't really know anything about the story, but like Tropic of Cancer, I was aware of its' existence, thanks to "Seinfeld."  In the episode where Susan finds out here dad had an affair with John Cheever (The Cheever Letters), George is later seen reading Falconer (however he erroneously refers to it as The Falconer).

Ezekiel Farragut is serving a life sentence in Falconer State Prison for killing his brother.  Farragut is, or rather was, a university professor and heroin addict, living in a loveless marriage and a loveless life.  The book follows Frragut as he struggles to live with his addiction, with his loneliness and with his loss of freedom.  For whatever reason, when I started reading this book, I thought it was going to be like The Shawshank Redemption. I'm not sure if I was expecting a sequel, or the novelization of the movie, but I really had that type of prison story in my head.  My ideas were seemingly confirmed too, as the story started out describing the prison, an old stone structure, and then describing the various inmates and prisoners.

After I was about a quarter through the book however, I more or less forgot about The Shawshank Redemption, and was simply enjoying a good read, as the two stories seemed to head in different directions.  With Falconer, I was being pulled in only by the writing, and literally couldn't put the book down (by 'literally', I mean figuratively, as I was able to put the book down, but didn't want to, because I was enjoying it so much).  But now that I look back, despite having completely different stories, there were a lot of similarities between the two.  Both used hope as their main theme, which I suppose isn't an odd theme for a prison tale.  In Falconer, we see Farragut adapting to his surroundings, sort of accepting his fate and trying to make the best of his situation.  But slowly, the 'good' things in his life start to fade, and hope seems to disappear, until the end of the book, when a set of, how shall I say, fortunate circumstances fall into place, allowing for hope and even his freedom to return.  If you think back to the above mentioned movie, you'll remember that Andy Dufresne goes through pretty much the exact same roller coaster of emotions.  This isn't to say Falconer is exactly like Shawshank or vice versa, but I see a lot of similarities in the themes the two explore and only use it as a comparison, not a barometer.

What I liked about this book was its' ability to involve me with the emotions of the protagonist.  I found I enjoyed the book more at the beginning and the end, when times seemed to be going well for Farragut, while in his low times, I found my attention waning.  I like to think this is because of Cheever's writing being so effective at making the reader sympathize with the character.  Hopefully it isn't because I only like 'feel good' stories that don't effectively deal with realistic situations.  I'll go with the former.


Read TIME magazine's original review from February 28, 1977 right here.



I currently have eight books from the library, so I`ll select one to read next, but right now I`m not sure which it will be.

#21 - "Ragtime" by E.L. Doctorow

I had meant to write a summary of the first twenty books I'd read from The List, but haven't had a chance to finish it yet.  In the meantime, however, I was able to read Ragtime, my 21st book.  I'll post the twenty book review as soon as possible, but for now, let's talk about my most recent novel.

I suppose this novel is supposed to read like the music of it's namesake.  Musically, ragtime is described as having a syncopated rhythm, which means stressing the normally unaccented beats by the way (don't worry, I had to look it up too).  Centering around an unnamed family in New Rochelle around the turn of the century, the story passes through nearly two decades as this family encounters a series of historically famous and significant people.  Such luminaries include, Harry Houdini, JP Morgan, Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, Robert Peary, Sigmund Freud and Theodore Dreiser.  The way this family seems to continuously run into famous people, and the way Doctorow tells each story in a short, yet exciting series of vignettes, reminds me a lot of "Quantum Leap."  Each chapter of this book was a new story, with new non-fiction characters, and the family seemingly inserted into a scenario where the their lives will cross.

At the beginning, each chapter introduces a new non-fictional character, in what is almost a series of short stories.  However, slowly, the family's plot lines begin to unfold, culminating in many of the short stories coming together in the end, as the book reaches its tragic climax.  Throughout the novel, Doctorow explores many themes and topics, almost as a way of foreshadowing, that would come to dominate the United States in the 20th century, including racism, industrialism, the growth of the military, and even the motion picture industry, which made millionaires out of nobodies.

After a slow start, Ragtime really got a hold of me, and I ended up thoroughly enjoying it.  Like, I, Claudius, it combined non-fiction with fiction; something I'm always going to like.  As well, despite continuously being referred to as 'Mother', 'Father', 'Son' and 'Mother's Younger Brother', I found myself having a really good picture of the family in my mind and really understanding who they were and why they acted as they did. The story did tend to drift to the, for lack of a better word, sadder side of things, and I always found myself hoping everything worked out for them, much like I tend to do with most 'good' books.  Yet another reason the books from The List are there I suppose.


You can read Time's original review of Ragtime from July 14th, 1975, right here.

Notes:

One of the 'famous' people from the novel, was Theodore Dreiser, author of An American Tragedy, which is one of the books from The List.  That makes for three references so far of The List in The List.

I currently have six books out from the library, and had brought Portney's Complaint with me to Toronto to read next.  However, the small town Inn we were staying at featured a small common area with an even smaller library.  Scanning the shelves, I found one book on The List, Falconer by John Cheever.  I decided to 'borrow' it, as I've tried to get it in Calgary from the Library and they only have one copy and it always seems to be out.  I'll read it as quickly as possible and mail it back to them with a Thank You note.  Meanwhile, I'll continue renewing the other books until I can get to them.