Heart of Darkness -- another trip to Hell

This week we are reading Conrad's masterpiece, although at the end of a long, intense semester, I hope I am not doing this work an injustice. It is such a beautiful piece, but the language is so complex and the ideas Conrad wants us as readers to grapple with are at times unrelenting. As we begin the third chapter of the novel, we are about to meet the famous Kurtz at last. Presented with Satan at the end of Inferno, we are aquainted with evil. However, for me, Kurtz represents a far more disturbing vision. He is man unchecked -- man without restraint. He is the potential for evil in all of us. Conrad cloaks him near death, but the actions that he has taken prior to Marlowe's arrival linger in the mind of the reader. The jungle is the world and Kurtz is alive in it. The resolution to such pure, unbridled meglomania must reside also in the mind of man, because as Conrad so eloquently writes, the mind of man is capable of anything.

A week with Kafka

For this past week, the seniors have read and discussed Kafka's chilling work, Metamorphosis. This tiny novella of three chapters is a masterful indictment of family, corporate greed, and the power of guilt to charm and disarm. Kafka is also a difficult work since it rests on its initial premise that Gregor Samsa awakens after a night of unsettling dreams to find himself changed into a monstrous vermin. This unspeakable horror evokes much discussion. Gregor is a difficult character to identify with on many levels, although his alienation and despair seem to ring true, despite his unlikely appearance. Maybe the very thing that repels us about Gregor, also makes us connect to him. He is hardworking, determined, generous to a fault. He in no way desired the life he led nor the life into which he transforms. Gregor Samsa is an emblem for the alienated man who Kafka would no doubt say is a product of the world in which he lives.
We head toward Africa next week, first with a few days of selections from Mark Mathabane's Kaffir Boy, then to Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Siddhartha and the quest

We have been reading Herman Hesse's great novel, Siddhartha for the last week in World Literature. Hesse's account of the quest for enlightenment loosely parallels both the journey of Gotama Buddha as well as Hesse's own wanderings. In the story, the central figure leaves his life as a Brahmin's son and journeys with the ascetics, then enters into a life directed by materialism and passion. After twenty years of such a hollow existence, he leaves to find his place by the river. He comes to an understanding of time and the duality of life. He learns to listen and feels the power of connecting to all that surrounds him. This novel is an easy sell to high school seniors, who often are feeling the pull of choice. Seniors see the future both with rose-colored glasses and the lens of uncertainty. They even often see the journey as a right or wrong series of choices. One of the messages that Hesse drives throughout the novel is that living in an attentive, conscious state brings clarity and peace. Instead of the automatic pilot we can switch on in our conversations and relationships, Hesse advocates remaining awake and alert to all the voices which surround us. I wish that for my seniors.

Outliers

Malcolm Gladwell's work, Outliers, was one of the books we could choose as an Upper School teacher this past summer for our discussion groups. Since I had read Gladwell's The Tipping Point as well as Blink, I had a pretty good idea of the approach he would use in this book about those rare individuals, the super successful, superior intellectual or phenome athlete. However, my suprise was in the angle he chose. Gladwell's argument bases success on factors such as family ethics, birth month and even year of birth. He compares these outliers to their fellow attorneys, hockey players, even airline pilots with startingly suprising contrasts. For a short read that makes you think more about the intangibles in life, I recommend Outliers. We have just begun Siddhartha, then off to Kafka's Metamorphosis.

Mary Karr's Lit

Outside of teaching five sections of senior and AP English, I love of course to read for pleasure. It seems that summer is ideal, but because of my amazing book club of brilliant women, I picked up Mary Karr's latest memoir, Lit. I read Liar's Club years ago and most of her second work, Cherry. So when Lit was selected, I thought I knew enough about the author to see this third installation as one more part of her sequence to self discovery. I, however, must admit that this book of all three has such powerful images of pain and recovery that as a reader I saw almost too much -- her evaporating marriage, her wheezing toddler, her bouts with depression and the ever-present alcohol. Karr is a fine writer with a love of language that supercedes all. She chronicles relationships with such crisp prose that I left the book feeling I had grown up next door to these memories. And that is the magic of the written word.

The End of Hell

Dante concludes for the seniors this week with a giant Dante Day celebration slated for Friday. The day promises to be an amazing amalgamation of food, dance, videos, games and artistic rendering -- all in the name and for the love of our favorite Italian writer, Dante. We are also blessed this week to have Dr. Bill Cook, a noted Medievalist from SUNY to pop in to all my senior classes and talk a bit about Dante. Dr. Cook will be wrapping up our study this Thursday, so it promises to be a terrific week.
Our travels around hell have finally led us to the base of the cone and to the frozen ninth layer, reserved for the traitors. After 34 cantos, the seniors all feel a bit of a let down when Dante and Virgil come face to face with Satan. Here in Dante's Inferno, Satan is the greatest sufferer and the greatest sinner. He is not the royal ruler of his underworld lair, as often depicted in movies.He represents all that treachery can, and his enormity and pain are so powerful that Dante and Virgil only observe him briefly before literally climbing down his torso to head toward a passage out. One of my observant seniors noticed this week that in the eighth and ninth layer, Virgil, aka Human Reason, seems to be much quieter than earlier in the journey. As we discussed the possible reasons for this, one offered the idea that as a teacher, he needs to step aside a bit and let Dante use what he has gleaned on the journey to work his way through these most terrible of layers. I added that perhaps Human Reason itself cannot altogether offer insight about treason; treachery to that extent seems to defy reason altogether.
Well we have certainly had a lot to ponder. As we end our visit in Hell, the seniors will move onto Herman Hesse's Siddhartha. Seems after a month of Inferno, we need the calm, cooling river of Hesse.

Senior Dante project

I am posting this link, dantesinfernoproject.blogspot.com which is an unfolding project by a few of my senior boys. They are keeping a video diary of the filming of the Dante project. They have built a greenscreen... who knows what else is coming? We head onto the 7th circle of the 9 today, so I can see the end of Dante in the distance.

Mid Hell

As we wandered through the Castle of Dis, reserved for those heretics in their custom-heated tombs, and made our way to the river of boiling blood, Phlegethon, my class discussed the idea of anger and its manifestations. Earlier in the cantos, Dante deals with what must be termed righteous anger, when he runs across an enemy from Florence whom he sees in Hell and rejoices. Virgil, Dante's guide and the manifestation of human reason, explains the concept of righteous anger as that emotion which we should, in fact, reserve for those sins and sinners who violate the trust we all have with one another. We discussed in class the ways we may all feel righteous anger and how such an emotion has played a pivotal role in movements across history, spurring Civil Rights activists among others as well as marches for equality and peace and research. In this third river in hell though, the sinners are not just angry; they are tyrants who shed blood. They are highway bandits and murderers and those who not only spilled blood but whose own blood boiled with malice. Dante seems to spend quite a bit of time detailing these feelings of anger and down further here, rage. Clearly as a man who has lost his home, his family and his position as Prior of Florence, this emotion was not foreign to him.
However, through these sinners and punishments, Dante seems to call for a tempering and a step back, away from the river alive with rage and to a place of reflection. Only with such can one see the source of this discontent. Sure it is a 700 year old lesson, but its relevance is undeniable.

Upper Hell: Sins of Incontinence

As we read our way through the first few cantos of Inferno, the seniors discussed these upper region sins -- lust, gluttony, avarice,anger -- and the punishments Dante assigns. This group collectively called the sins of incontinence reflect those urges or bodily desires that stand at the core of man, the animal. After I explain the difference in the modern concept of incontinence with its focus on bladder control undergarments, we try our hand at differentiating the desires that one has based on need and want. When we venture farther into the underworld, those wants will be tied directly into the use of intellect and that is what gives us pause. The lower one descends into this mythical Hell, the more intense thought is required by the sinner in the commissioning of his sin. This logic of splitting Hell into sins based on body and intellect was not new to Dante in 1300; Aristotle used a similar model. And that is exactly the point. Choices have consequences. As we sail past the gluttons today and the greedy tomorrow, I am struck by the relevance of Dante's insight some 700 years after he published this epic. More Hell to come.
So when my friends ask how school is, I can honestly ( at least for the next few weeks) say, it is Hell. What a perfect way to start October!

Dante's Inferno : The Journey Begins

I began the journey through hell again this week. The class of 2011 has taken their first few baby steps into the Inferno. While I have been reading this text for 30 years or so, I must say each trip to the afterworld holds some new meaning for me. I was especially struck this time by our discussion of the foyer to Dante's Hell, reserved for the apathetic. Sinners are forever chasing a banner and being stung by wasps. Dante's message here about our need for engagement is clear. People who are aware of injustice and turn their heads are forever stung by their conscience and must chase an endless banner for a cause they never joined. In our world, it is often easy to see pain and suffering caused by poverty or despair and to turn away. We are caught in our own dilemmas, and the problems and suffering of others seem irrelevant or nonexistant. We can look away assured in our convictions that their suffering is not our problem. Dante's foyer to hell suggests, in fact, it is.
Those wasps and flies represent the stings of conscience that should have been present to make us act in a noble way, to make us stop and care about the fate of others. Dante seems to be saying that being worthy of eternal reward is more than not sinning; it must involve doing good. Joining the cause for rightousness is a pretty big step, but one Dante's readers are greeted with as soon as they step foot on his journey.

Antigone, a woman before her time...

In Sophocles' play, Antigone,Teiresias,the blind prophet of Apollo, says to the unyielding Creon, King of Thebes, "The only crime is pride."
This trilogy written in the 4th century BC offers many astute observations about the nature of man, man's pride, man's temper, man's relationship with the gods, among others. In this scene when confronted with Creon's stubborness, the prophet asks him to reconsider his unjust law and take a moment to gain some perspective on the situation. Creon's red hot rage cannot be tempered with this sage advice, however. He feels justified in his proclamations and neither his son, the chorus, nor the prophet can convince him initially. When he does relent, it is too late. Creon laments, "Oh it is hard to give in! but it is worse to risk everything for stubborn pride." These words ring loudly for us all. How many times does a situation present itself that given time and counsel, we would not rather back down and acknowledge our misstep? As we wrap up our discussion of this masterful play today, I am going to suggest to the seniors that it is not Antigone's example of courage that is our only guide in the play, but rather when Creon admits his own weakness that we are privy to valuable insight about humanity. Off to Dante and a nice trip through hell.

A few last thoughts on Pride & Prejudice

As we concluded our discussion of Pride and Prejudice last week, I contemplated the lovely way that Miss Austen drew her novel to a close. The weddings that tied the novel up so neatly happened only when the characters themselves came to terms with their preconceived notions, often discounting their initial observations. Austen clearly realizes as that old deodorant commercial noted, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." She even had originally entitled the book, First Impressions. However, a careful reader will also see her subtext regarding the pitfalls of jumping to hasty conclusions, whether these leaps are the result of a person's dress or mannerisms or conversation. We are all more than one can possibly know through a few moment's acquaintance.
Austen no doubt wants her readers to learn the lessons that Lizzy and Darcy took some while to inculcate. Judging others in a hasty way, as Lizzy does when falling for Wickham or disliking Darcy, can have unintended results. I believe Jane Austen understands our tendency to like or dislike others after a brief encounter; maybe in this novel, she is asking us to pause in our judgment. Now that is a lesson we all can see the value in.In saying goodbye to Jane Austen, I hope to remember her bidding. Off to Dante later this week. But a few words on that superwoman Antigone must precede our descent to Hell.

Pride and Prejudice Part 1

Years ago one of my favorite students commented on this novel that it was just like middle school, and he hadn't liked middle school the first time around. Even though I laughed at his analogy, when I revisit Austen each year, I wonder about the world she so carefully crafts in this novel, and indeed in each of her books. Groups of young 20 somethings get together to fall in love, have a rivalry, date someone who is horrible, and eventually come to the love for which each was intended. All is happy in the world of Austen, even when a sister runs off with a bad character, who is forced to marry her, she seems delighted at the fine husband she has ensnared. This world has none of the trappings of the world we face today. Young women focus on crochet and French lessons and adding ribbon to the hat that they will sport on Sunday. Young, genteel men ride horses and enjoy a book and a fox hunt. But the essence of all these young people's lives revolves in much the same circle as ours does. They look for friendship and love and romance; they judge others or are judged by appearance and actions. As we work our way through this magnificent novel, I hope that the seniors of 2011 find that Miss Austen wrote something of the truth of relationships and how they function, nearly 200 years before these readers were born.

Greek Time

World Literature will begin its study of "Allegory of the Cave," "Oedipus Rex," and "Antigone," in the next few days. I have been teaching these works for 25 years, and when I think about Sophocles' writing them in the middle of the 4th century BC, I pause to consider what relevance they have for my seniors. How far removed are we from the Greek ideal? Can a story about a man whose horrendous prophecy propels his entire life make sense to 18 year olds? I think in a very real way that the story of Oedipus and his campaign to be his own man, not to give into the oracle's declaration may ring true with our times in a profound way. At his best, Oedipus is a man dealt a wretched hand who refuses to accept the situation. Even though fate and the gods' wills formed the basis of faith, Oedipus maintains the facade of free will. He believes in his heart he is, in fact, free. Isn't that what we all hope?

BNW ... final thoughts

As we wrap up our class discussion of this novel, a few ideas have been floating around which are indeed signs of the shifts in society since Huxley's day. When he wrote about Soma, the wonder drug which controlled the masses, he likely did not foresee all the interpretations such a force would render. In class discussions, we have wondered if this soma, not altogether unlike a prescription muscle relaxer on the market today, would be more recreational in use, like marijuana or Ecstasy or cocaine or if anti-depressants would have that spot. Some students even ventured to assert that Ritalin or Adderall is more likely akin to Huxley's drug of choice. Even alcohol and binge drinking seem to fit his purpose of the soma holiday. Regardless of the way we view this attachment to drug use, whether prescription or recreational, Huxley foreshadows the attachment society would have to this escape hatch of sorts. Papers that my students are working on now, selecting something from Huxley's fictional world and juxtaposing it with our day promise to be an interesting bit of reading. They are exploring cloning and birth control and virtual reality and even retirement home living. A few are looking closely at the propaganda Hitler used some 8-10 years after this novel was published. It is frightenly similar. Well, I am looking forward to their analysis. We head off in two directions after that, one class will be discussing Pride and Prejudice and the other will be delving into the Greek tragedies. I will see what connections await.

Brave New World: the conversation

In the final chapters of the novel, John the Savage has a powerful and revealing conversation with Mustapha Mond (aka Must Staff a World) about the choice between freedom and happiness in life. John says, "I'm claiming the right to be unhappy." Mustapha Mond believes man's happiness is more powerful than the freedom of choice. One of the either-or dilemmas that Huxley invites us to consider is how much are we willing to surrender of our lives in order to receive protection, security, and stability? What drove Huxley to this choice seems to be the very air of 1932, ripe with Pavlovian conditioning and sullied with a grave economic depression. I wonder if the book resonates with our world; how much control do we surrender for comfort? Is happiness the goal?

Brave New World

I began teaching this novel in 1983; 27 years have come and gone, most of them with me still reading and thinking about Huxley's nightmare. What I did not know in 1983 ( nor did any of my students) was that the weapon of mass destruction he chose, Anthrax, would, in fact, be one that soldiers, postal carriers, and the general public today also fears. Huxley writes that the ingenious method of destruction was the Russians' infecting the water supply. Eco-terrorism does not seem so fanciful in 2010.
In 1932, when he wrote this work, we were in that not so calm lull between the World Wars. Huxley, like many other authors, was horrified by the brutality of the world at hand, and in his fiction gave this worst-case scenario shape. Other parts of the novel, the cloning, which was rather a ludicrous notion for the readers of the 1930s now exists in many places, and we seem just a few steps from the engineered babies he describes. The feelies, his version of virtual reality, seems like Sims or Second Life on steroids. The Malthusian Drill eerily resembles birth control methods available today. In fact, the more I teach this novel, the more prophetic Huxley seems. As I spend the next week or so discussing this book with the seniors of 2010, I am anxious to know how they will feel about the world Huxley creates. With what lens will this group, who were born in 1992, 60 years after this novel's publication, read Huxley? I will let you know.

Happiness Completed & Quest Begun

I just finished Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project which explores her year- long journey looking for the path to a happier life. As I wrote last week, I found many of her ideas to be so uplifting. A gratitude journal, making new friends, starting a children's literature reading group, be a treasure house of happy memories -- all these and many more comprise strategies Gretchen devised in her year of the project. Her first rule, "Be Gretchen," seems to be the most basic but perhaps most challenging. Just as Polonius says to Laertes, "To thine own self be true." Achieving authenticity is a feat.
When I finished the The Happiness Project, I was delighted to find that I could order a Happiness Project Toolbox, could follow Gretchen Rubin on Twitter, and form my own Happiness Group with the help of a starter kit that she would send me. So, much like Gretchen, I am launching another project. First a blog, then twitter, now the Happiness Project.... when will I find time to teach?
Speaking of teaching, next week, I am writing a bit about Brave New World. I am wondering if Huxley resonates for the seniors of 2010 as powerfully as it always has for me. Community, Identity, Stability.... hmmmm

The Help

The Help by Kathryn Stockett is a moving novel about the early 1960s racial tension in Jackson, Mississippi. Having been born about that time and living in North Louisiana, I recall vividly the struggle between blacks and whites as desegregation swept the South. The Help though does not focus on the marches, the riots, the brutal clash in its most overt form, although all these are all present as a background to the scenes Stockett writes. What Stockett does achieve in near perfection is establishing the powerful, interpersonal relationships between the black women who work in homes and the white ladies of the house, their employers. Stockett depicts varying strands of these relationships, from ones of trust and love, albeit a rarer case, to the demeaning ones commonplace with the fictionalized Junior League contingency who raise funds for starving children in Africa but ignore the poverty just outside their neighborhood. The premise for the novel becomes one young, would-be journalist, Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan's expose of the trials and tribulations of being the help. She enlists at first just one woman whose own story is sad, however typical. Later Abileen and her friend Minny convince others to join in telling their experiences of working in a white household. With a New York book publisher interested in the idea, Skeeter and the maids write their own revolution, ignited with the publication of their stories. The Southern employers are exposed for all their racist behaviors, and another powder keg is lit in the Deep South of 1962. I felt a powerful connection to this novel; I was, in fact, raised by a black woman, Pansy, who worked for my family for over 40 years. She was the kindest, most generous woman I have known. She had a deep, abiding faith in God, a contagious laugh and simply loved us all without limit. When she passed away, just a few months before my mother's own death, we were all bereft. Having lived 82 years in the South, picking cotton as a child, Pansy, I am sure, had stories of her own to tell. This novel has made me wish someone could tell them for her.

School is coming

Next week, I will begin blogging about not only the new books I read, but also will revisit the classics I teach. So if you are one of my former students, and I write about a work that you enjoyed (or not) please feel free to engage. I will also invite the Class of 2011 to read and respond to the works we read throughout the year. These works will include
Brave New World
Pride and Prejudice
How to Read Literature Like a Professor
Dante's Inferno
Siddhartha
Heart of Darkness
The Metamorphosis
Oedipus Rex
Antigone
Hamlet
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
Death of a Salesman
A Streetcar Named Desire

I hope this blog can provide a great forum for exchange of ideas. I can't wait!

The Happiness Project

I am only part way through a terrific bit of nonfiction, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. She has written biographies of both Churchill and Kennedy and has a researcher's passion for any subject she undertakes. She actually stumbled upon this idea about decoding happiness one day as she says while riding the subway. What makes us happy? How can we maximize happiness? Happiness is a trendy topic these days with a class at Harvard dedicated to the very subject. Rubin's not a depressed type; in fact, she says on a scale of 1-5, she was close to a 4 in her own happiness when she began the study. However, she wanted to investigate the substructure of that ephemeral term and devised a year- long project, which incidentally she blogged about. Each month she sets specific goals to increase her happiness quotient. These may be as physical as a thorough de-cluttering of office and closet or as luxurious as a moderate splurge. Rubin works to not only increase her own level and understanding of happiness but also includes excerpts from her blogs when readers offered their own responses to the questions she posed. Since I have only arrived at July ( her book follows a calendar year) I am not sure if her final analysis will be earth shattering, but I must say I have enjoyed her journey. And by the way, I am a 4 on the 1-5 scale myself!

That Old Cape Magic

Let me begin by stating I have never been to the Cape. I have read lots of stories which evoke the Cape, and so it feels like a place I know, if only in text. So when I saw Richard Russo had written That Old Cape Magic, published in 2009, it seemed like a good choice. Russo won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for Empire Falls, a spectacular work. His 2007 Bridge of Sighs was also excellent, but this latest book is much lighter and warmer than I expected. Cape follows a year in the life of a Hollywood screenwriter/ college professor, Jack Griffin, as he struggles with his marriage, his career and his dead mother and father. He, in fact, carries their urns around in the trunk of his car for quite a while, trying to release them at a perfect spot on the Cape, their annual summer vacation spot during Jack's turbulent childhood. Both his parents -- Ivy League educated English professors -- were doomed to spend their careers in the wretched Midwest. Jack's own marriage comes into play as he tries to see the influence his parent's marriage model established for him. It is a wickedly funny novel in parts, one scene with a rehearsal dinner disaster was laugh-out loud hilarious. Russo's brilliance as a novelist is in his ability to evoke truth in his characters, and I must say he has frankly nailed the Sandwich Generation. If you haven't read any Russo, Empire Falls is more sweeping, but there is clearly magic at The Cape.

Home again, Home again

After a week of no Internet -- between the storm which actually sent a lightning bolt through my neighbor's attic, burning down his entire home, and a sojourn to Louisiana -- I am ready to blog again. Jennifer Weiner's latest novel, Fly Away Home, seems to be a combination of the many political scandals that have popped up in recent years. A long time senator and "happily" married man indulges in an affair which breaks apart his family -- while Weiner could have gotten on the bandwagon here and made the novel's focus the rage of the betrayed wife and daughters, she, in fact, turns the book into an examination of the way we live our lives and the choices we make. Neither daughter, both adults, one a physician engaged in her own extramarital romp, the other, just out of rehab and looking for direction, is quite able to judge and condemn the brief exploits of her father. The wife, however, whom the novel follows most thoughtfully, spends her time coming to terms with herself as an individual and not as an accessory of a famous husband. She must begin to live her life on her terms and happily has a coastal summer house in which to seek respite. This novel much like all of Weiner's books has believable characters and a slim plot; her talent as a writer it seems to me is in the creation of people so full of truth that we may forget we are in a world of fiction. Now having read all of Weiner's books, I must admit that Good in Bed was for me the most hilarious and well done. These last few seem to be more rushed and less quirky. Nonetheless, if you want a quick and enjoyable read for these dog days of summer, Fly Away Home will do.

Lisbeth Salander -- Asocial Sprite Extraordinare

So when the storm blew through here Saturday evening, our U verse went away for a day or so and I had the perfect excuse to finish the final book in the Larsson trilogy. I wrote last week that I was doomed to the middle of the novel which was bogging me down with the ends and outs of the Swedish legal system. At last I made my way through that spell, and the intricate novel began to spin again. Lisbeth was able to use her exceptional intellect and computer savvy to solve a stalking case ( which seemed rather odd and unrelated to the novel's central conflict); Mikael teamed up with the good, double-secret Swedish police, who apparently are all about the Swedish Constitution and the novel has a keenly satisfying conclusion. This same denouement was sorely lacking in the middle novel. I don't know the last time I have read a thriller, with spies and hit men ... much less tackled three in a few months time. But I must say that Larsson's stories are compelling, his characters unique and engaging.... what better fun for a summer day.

I am going to shift gears in my next post and write a bit about the new Jennifer Weiner novel, Fly Away Home.

That Girl who has Tattoos, Kicks at Hornet's Nests and Plays with Fire

This trilogy by author Stieg Larsson is a thought-provoking and fast-paced cloak and dagger extravaganza. The first book I read in the series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, caught me after 50 or so pages ( I read this one in actual paper form!) and as we spun around Sweden with Lisbeth Salander and her buddy journalist Mikael Blomkvist, I knew this duo would be hard to beat. Lisbeth is a punky, bi-sexual waif with superior intellect and fairly nonexistent social skills, but computer skills -- think hacker goddess -- that are unparalleled. She has a background clouded in mystery that you must get to the third book to unravel. Blomkvist is slower on the uptake with computers and puzzling the crime together, but his ability to assess people with a gut reaction makes him the perfect partner for Lisbeth. The three novels should be read in order, but I must confess, I am currently drowning in the third. I have been hanging at 52% read ( this one Kindled for summer travel) for more than a month. By the third novel, Lisbeth while still central must rely more on others for her defense, and the focus of the book becomes a corrupt government cover up scheme involving Russians and the Cold War.

I feel a bit handicapped by my lack of Swedish history and the way the Swedish government works. But the reason these three novels are so readable is not in the setting, although those are a delightful change for an American reading audience, but in the relationship between Blomkvist and Salander. They briefly become lovers early in the trilogy, but their solid foundation supersedes this physicality. Blomkvist feels protective of Lisbeth, whose childhood is Dickensian at best; she recognizes his steadfastness, even if her personality is so marginalized such steadfastness irritates her. She is scarred and damaged but proud and resourceful.

The writing in the novels is not elegant. Perhaps a translational issue is partly to blame here. But regardless, the plots are fascinating. The action is compelling, and even if Larsson --who died in 2004 -- did not live to see the success of his works, his prose undercuts the truth about humanity and the way the world seems to work. There is some discussion about an unfinished 4th novel for the series. I know if and when it comes out, I will have to see what Lisbeth has been up to.

I will finish this third book soon, and I am sure have a bit more to say about Lisbeth and Mikael.

Anthropology of an American Girl

Anthropology of an American Girl is another novel which I downloaded on Kindle without checking out the length -- 608 pages, now I know-- but still worth the time I invested. This novel was first self-published several years ago and then picked up and reissued this spring. Hamann's central character is Evie, a brilliant and introspective teeenage girl, whom the novel traces for nearly a decade, ending shortly after her graduation from college. This isn't a typical coming-of- age book , but a slow and deliberate journey through the mind of an adolescent girl who at times appears both self-absorbed and metaphor possessed. About to begin my 25th year of teaching high school girls, I have found much of Evie to be vividly accurate, so powerfully drawn, not just in description but in the actual way that I have seen girls debate their social position and muse about the ways of the adult world, just beyond their grasp. Plot here relies heavily on the two central male relationships Evie has, one to a troubled boy, Jack,who is a gifted and reclusive musician. Harrison, the older man whom Evie is spellbound by, becomes the focus of her growth, albeit pain riddled. Parents are either absent or slightly deranged or both in this novel; these young people make choices about drugs and sex and independence in a vacuum. The time this novel occurs, the late 1970s, is also evocative in the way rebellion and independence are fused and explored. Evie's struggle for love is painful if maybe a bit over the top. Evie's chronicles are well drawn, and Hamann has a debut novel that is impressive. Evie is not a female Holden Caufield, and that is OK with me.

And Another Thing...

Before I can quite let go of the viral rage, I wanted to mention the clever way that virals work. By selecting men who were condemned to execution as the experimental subjects, the Army scientists create virals who were already embedded with rage and hatred and in a few cases, sheer lunacy. So when the virals stage a revolution against their captors, they work by invading the subconscious thoughts of the humans in close proximity. Humans begin having the dreams that the virals determine, largely reliving the crime that sent their human selves to death row in the first place. Now the reason that this matters so much, this unification with the will of the viral, is in its mirroring of religious devotion. Cronin makes the virals godlike and seems to question the very nature of conscious choice. Now that's a lot for a book about vampires gone wild.

Virals, Virals, everywhere

Before I write about the new Justin Cronin novel, The Passage, I must note two things: one, I am not a big fan of vampires. Sure I read all the Anne Rice saga, over 20 years ago, but even Rice has given up on those delights who inhabited New Orleans. I have not read any of the latest books or seen the films about Edward or Bella, and I am pretty OK with that. So for me, this vampire-infested, dystopian novel was a bit of a stretch. It is also a stretch for Cronin whose first two novels, amazing in themselves, feature ordinary folks, no one with the blood lust we see in The Passage.

Now onto my second admission, I read this sprawling novel on my Kindle. I suspect some of you are purists and cannot imagine a big, juicy novel read electronically. Well that is a blog post for another time. However, suffice it to say, that Kindle makes reading so easy that it is hard to resist. The problem is in the length. I had no idea the book was 800 pages when I began, and the more I read the more engrossed I became. So it took me days of page-turning frenzy to finish the novel. Don't worry, I won't spoil the plot. But Cronin has said that this is the first in a trilogy, and so in two years he expects another installment.

Now about the book: conceived in a dark future, mankind has fallen prey to a dozen vampires, called virals here, who the Army was trying to build into a super fighting brigade, when the creatures overturned their captors and wreaked havoc on the world. Spawning legions of their kind, the original twelve vampires represent some new world order of disciples. Even the man who will lead the battle against them, Peter, has Biblical overtones. "Upon this rock I shall build my church" Christic allusion Peter represents man. Another central character, Amy is a young girl who has the power to communicate with animals, as well as the virals. She even sees the humanity of these aggressive bloodsuckers. So indeed, a "little child will lead them." Other than the fast-paced plot, the level of detail and thought in this novel is extraordinary. Each facet of the new world is carefully outlined, from energy use to food supplies. Cronin makes this "Brave New World" more believable that many of even the finest dystopians. He fills in gaps and does so with such a deft hand that the reader inhabits the landscape.

Now, what Cronin seems to be predicting is not a world filled with literal vampires, but a world bereft of humanity. Barricades and segregation from The Other does not separate but alienate. Man needs community to survive; we see several manifestations of community in this book. Whether we see a small band of 6 struggling to reach others or a secluded outpost trying to survive, mankind must reach past its safety level. Heroes in this book are small or weak or geeky... they are rash in their actions often following their hearts, abandoning the rigor of seclusion. The best of this cast understands what sacrifice means and what humanity costs.

This book is a lot to digest. It is fresh and thought-provoking for our world with its vampires at the cinema and doomsday- sayers on the streetcorners. I hope you have the chance to settle in for a read of epic proportions. I have read that a film will be made -- don't settle for that. Read the book.

Changing gears, I am going to write about Anthropolgy of An American Girl by Hillary Thayer Hamann next.

And so it goes ...

As much as I hate to start my blogging life with a plagiarized reference, I think Vonnegut would acknowledge his line is amazingly accurate. I am undertaking this new form of writing as an attempt to leap into the 21century. I have been a reluctant participant in all this technology but now have decided to give it a whirl. The subjects I intend to blog about are books I have enjoyed and observations that go along with that. Maybe even a little bit of humor or not. Anyway,tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.. (seem to be hung up on Vonnegut) I want to write about the new Justin Cronin book, The Passage. It was amazing and exhausting and I have got to think about its 800 pages one more day before I can find the words I need.