The Great Divorce. I am planning to read a bunch of C.S. Lewis this year; I started with this one because it was on our shelf. Short, intriguing, and timely in view of book #7 of '06 (which will get its own post one of these days). The narrator describes a bus trip from hell to the outskirts of heaven, in which any interested residents of hell are invited to stay. They decline -- an artist because he cannot see that "if you are interested in the country [heaven] only for the sake of painting it, you'll never learn to see the country," a mother because she will not subjugate love of her son to love of her Father. Good stuff. I liked the quote Lewis put in George Macdonald's mouth: "There is always something they insist on keeping, even at the price of misery. There is always something they prefer to joy -- that is, to reality."
Henry IV, Part 2. Every year I read a Shakespeare play, in hopes of getting the complete works read by menopause. In the beginning I loved this plan, but for the past few years I had been enjoying the plays less. I do a lot of reading, but it's mostly in fits and starts -- five minutes while the water is boiling for the mac and cheese (oh, wait, I mean for the organic brown rice with tahini-miso sauce), ten interrupted minutes while I am supervising the Lego pickup, a few pages at the park. And it doesn't work very well for me to read Shakespeare like that.
I took the first part of Henry IV with me in December when I went to visit my brother and his wife and baby. Because of a travel snag I ended up spending a whole day in the city, arriving at my brother's house in the small hours of the next morning. That day I read Shakespeare whenever Pete slept and loved it. I couldn't wait for part two, and I resolved to carve out some time for uninterrupted reading since it made such a difference. But uninterrupted time is in short supply (isn't it ironic that I stopped in the middle of this very sentence to save in draft form and deal with a sibling blow-up?) around here.
Now I wonder: did I like Part One more because I read it away from the usual clamor for band-aids, snacks, and justice, or is it a better play? I enjoyed the Hal/Hotspur contrast in Part One, with its reminder that parents need to love their own children and not pine for somebody else's. (In my head I was calling their opposite trajectories "chiasmus," but apparently chiasmus is only a smaller-scale kind of crisscrossing. Is there a word for it when one character triumphs and another character tanks?) I'm not a fan of Falstaff on the page (too many obsolete puns about booze and unfaithful wives) -- does he play a bigger role in Part Two or did it just seem that way?
Anyway, resolved: Shakespeare is best read in larger chunks with fewer distractions. Maybe that means I'll be past menopause before I finish the complete works after all.
gods in Alabama. Joshilyn Jackson's blog makes me laugh out loud consistently, and her book is even funnier. It is also a well-plotted mystery and I stayed up late galloping through it. Interesting stuff about love, family, and race, and the battleaxe aunt brought to mind my own tough-as-nails Aunt Mary Bob. I'll be reading her next one when it comes out.
i'm also going to be reading the great divorce; my father-in-law told me i had to borrow it, and it's on my pile of books for this year. :)
i normally lurk, and i love the thoughtfulness and the honesty with which you obviously compose each entry.
~ faithful reader
Posted by: rachael | January 29, 2006 at 05:36 AM
It's a better play. Henry IV 2 is the necessary bridge to get to the full glory of Henry the V.
Hotspur and Hal are foils...but I'm not sure that is the exact term you are looking for...if you find the term...let me know...
Posted by: Jennifer | January 29, 2006 at 08:13 AM