I am currently preparing an American literature survey course for future job materials, so I am on this 19th/20th century American fiction kick. I’ve never read The Red Badge of Courage, and I know it’s a staple of American fiction. So, I decided I would need to read it. . . . What do I do with this book? I don’t know. Someone tell me. There are parts I liked, and parts I *hated* with fire. Let me try to work this out: Henry Fleming […]
A Free Man at Heart
Before the Academy Award-winning film came out, I had no idea who Solomon Northup was, or that he had written about his experience as a free man ensnared by slavery for twelve awful years. And then, once the movie came out, I didn’t know if I had the courage to see it. I decided to read the book first. Wow. Told from the first-person perspective, Solomon Northup is born a free man, though his father was a freed slave. He is educated, hardworking, married with […]
Piper Kerman threw her pie for you
Like any red-blooded TV watcher with good taste, I am a huge fan of the Netflix show Orange is the New Black. I mean, what’s not to like? I waited a long time to read the book, because I knew as a memoir it would lack the spicy salaciousness of the show. I am glad I jumped in, however. Piper Kerman does an excellent job of describing her personal experience as a woman incarcerated for white-collar crime, and she explains the kinds of sentencing injustices […]
The Lives of the Brodie Set
I went on vacation last weekend, and I needed a palate cleanser. If you’ve never read Muriel Spark, she’s just the refreshing sort of writer that I needed to really enjoy. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is about an unorthodox teacher of young women in Scotland. She mentors a select group of teen girls, called the Brodie set, and treats them more like equals than children. She tells of her love affair thwarted by her fiance’s death in World War I, secretly pines for […]
Requiem for the (American) Dream
First, a confession: I had a total meltdown over my dissertation last week. When I mean meltdown, I mean stopping my episode of Gilmore Girls so I could sob hysterically. I was away from my husband for a dissertation workshop, so he had to sort through my bawling phone call. I believe the phrases, “I’m never going to get done,” “my writing sucks,” and “I’m so tired” were all used. Now, let me clarify: I’m doing well for where I’m at. I’ve got two chapters […]
The other side of Longbourn
I cap off my month of Pride and Prejudice with Jo Baker’s Longbourn. I had read several favorable CBR reviews already, and I was eager to see what the fuss was all about. Can I just say, I would like to see this as a PBS special over Death Comes to Pemberley? Because I just did. If you *have* to make a fanfic, do it right: give us something new. We all know the plot to Pride and Prejudice. But we often don’t think about […]
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