Book Lovers' Society

Something wicked comes this way

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Under the Red, White, and Blue

Was the last documented name of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Inspired, or should we say urged, by the parties attended in the twenties in Long Island, Fitzgerald started contemplating on a new novel as a precautionary tale of “American Dream”. The book not only speaks to the ones who see America as the dream country where everything can happen it appeals to every age group. Themes of social politics, betrayal, inequality can be read between the lines. As well as the topic of starting over, nouveau riches, vengeance, superficiality… Many still relevant issues are covered by the author all wrapped in a nice story of a man deeply in love. In addition to the great plot, sleek characters and educational storyline, The Great Gatsby is famous for the Jazz Age. Lively parties with music, dances and costumes are depicted in detail, taken from the reality. Published in 1925, the novel was not received with applause – its’ future was doubtful. Only in 1942, The Great Gatsby was incorporated into a mission of book distribution to soldiers fighting in World War II where proved to be "as popular as pin-up girls". Things went uphill, starting 1960, sales were steady on 50 000 a year.

If the book is not familiar, the namesake movie with Leonardo DiCaprio is as known as The Titanic. In my opinion, the movie is a great advertisement to pick up the book.

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Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of THE METAMORPHOSIS

An examination of the greatness of Franz Kafka's THE METAMORPHOSIS

Read a fantastic overview of Kafka’s famous Metamorphosis - parallels between protagonist’s and authors life, familial ties, separation of body and mind.

Happy 100th, Metamorphosis!

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Harper Lee Announces Third Novel, ‘My Excellent Caretaker Deserves My Entire Fortune’

NEW YORK—Shocking the literary world once again, acclaimed author Harper Lee announced through her publisher Tuesday the surprise release of her third novel, My Excellent Caretaker Deserves My Entire Fortune.

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if you liked the very exclusive chapter Go Set a Watchman, check the follow ups

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Of war

With a stormy situation in the world let’s remind ourselves of the classics that vividly state the consequences of bloody conflicts and political issues. Although the novel of Erich Maria Remarque All Quiet on the Western Front is quite old (published in 1929) it is extremely valued and read until today. Emotions of the soldiers, feelings while being in the hot spot, all consuming doubts in fighting young minds still remain. E. M. Remarque does not detail the fighting scenes, the combats soldiers have to witness on a daily basis. Instead he talks of the minds of the brave first hand. Being a World War I veteran, author gets in readers subconscious and creates images that cannot be unseen. The protagonist in the war zone story is an 18 year old believer Paul Baumer. From his lips the story of psychological violence and abuse is spread to the nation. Even if the battles are not as often as one who has never been to war would think, the silence and stillness is killing soldiers even more. From the first chapters of the book, Paul reveals the main theme: although all the boys are young, their youth has left them. Remarque also adverts the idea of questioning the gains of war. Many characters of the book are either killed in the battles or suffer back home after being wounded. However, the suffering is not external, the amputations, pains and damages are nothing compared to the broken psychology. Young high school graduates don’t know how to act, how to simply be in the society after seeing the horrors. Civilian life is a taboo to soldiers – how can you be sitting home while others still fight: “saying farewell was very hard, but it is something a soldier learns to deal with."

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Go Set A Watchman: read the first chapter - interactive

An exclusive extract from the new novel by Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird, published on 14 July

Is it possible that famous Harper Lee is announcing one more of her chef d’oevre?

Visit http://buklovers.tumblr.com/post/119590893492/novelist-lees-prose-has-an-edge-that-cuts-through to learn more about the incredible author and her world famous To Kill a Mockingbird

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Moderato Cantabile just saying it gives you the feeling of positive apathy filling up your body just as the novel contaminates your mind with slowness. Published by Les Editions de Minuit, a Nouveau Roman representative, Moderato Cantabile is often ascribed to Nouveau Roman novella despite M. Duras will not to frame her work. As one of Duras’s works has already been discussed in the previous blog entries (see here: http://buklovers.tumblr.com/post/116100061482/duras-of-ill-timed-and-inappropriate-love) let’s take a look at the exclusive touch of Duras. Firstly, symbols present in The Lover are to be noticed in Moderato Cantabile: water and the son’s toy motor boat create nostalgic atmosphere of a young and bored rich woman stuck in her routine. Dark colors in the restaurant Anne visits religiously intend to set the mood – Anne’s personal hell repeating every day, smothering her from inside while making her quiet on the outside. Secondly, motives of love seem to be the main story in Duras’s novels, however, they’re just a cover up. Chovin’s and Anne’s love affair even not being an affair as they spend time talking exhibit the feeling of loneliness and ambiguity, absurdity of life. On the other hand, there’s the scene of violence in the beginning of the book that is not let go throughout the entire novella: woman screaming, red sky, red wine… Rough and brutal repetition, same actions as familiar to the bones days go by are as violent as it gets to the heroine and the writer.

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Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: “Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.” That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.

Camus, The Stranger, 1942

The opening lines of the novel that introduce Mersault character and reveal his main trait - emotional indifference. "That doesn't mean anything" states the mood and the first thing about this novel of Camus, the meaninglessness of human existence.

The book released in 1942 exposes famous ideas of Camus - absurdity, doubt in reason of human existence, eternal questioning. The stranger is called a philosophical novel as it touches important existential questions still not answered by the human race, however, the doubts and lingering between the absurd and comprehensiveness is incorporated into the plot, into the characters what make the reading quite nice and easy.

It cannot be denied that one of the main reoccurring motifs in the novel is death (death of Mersault's mother, murder of the arab). With this symbol Camus the absurdity of the process. The protagonist does not feel guilty of killing, for his it cannot even be explained, even though the judges try to rationalize his behavior. But in the end, we, the readers, feel (maybe even share the feeling) the growth of Mersault - he accepts his death penalty as being inevitable part of human life.

After reading the novel the reader is left with sour aftertaste. The writer creates new levels your mind has yet to explore in life - search for the meaning, find the absurd and make peace with it, bond with it.

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This time, I would like to promote a movie based on a novel but not the book itself. The reason to this unconventional to this blog method is the movie. It not only makes justice to the novel but helps the reader to imagine characters, create a perfect image. The year is 1963, U.S.A. Racism. But do not be fooled, this is not a typical story where they criticize white citizens of their ancestors behavior. This is a story of hope and laughter in the States, whoever you would be, whatever you would do. Traditionally, it is a story of maids who are perpetually belittled by the white ladies, but how often do you see the story is told from their side? Veteran actresses Sissy Spacek and Cicely Tyson deliver incredible performances. The viewer can definitely feel the need for the character even if it has only a couple minutes of screen time and almost no lines (I am talking of the memorable Cicely Tyson performance). The exceptional ladies Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard and Allison Janney did a wonderful performance and made us feel the story suffer, laugh and cry together. To talk of the both, the movie and the book, it was not meant to illustrate the ugliness of the era, not to shame anybody or make feel uncomfortable. Its purpose was to enlighten of the good in that time – the ability to love no matter of the hatred. The plot combines humor and deep emotions that create realistic characters that the viewer/ the reader falls for. The novel was Stockett's first. It took her five years to complete and was rejected by 60 literary agents before it finally got published. The Help has since been published in 35 countries and three languages. As of August 2011, it has sold five million copies and has spent more than 100 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. As for the movie, it was directed by the author’s childhood friend Tate Taylor and gotten many awards and rated as 8,1 on imdb.com

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Have you ever caught yourself more emotionally involved in others life than yours? Have you ever been jealous of others happiness? Did you happen to spend a day in a perfect fairytale world that you just can’t stop to reminisce about? Do you compare your life to others? And maybe find it less attractive? If there are yes’es in your answers than Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary is a good summer’s read for you! So, what’s it all about you ask? A young girl Emma Rouault (future Bovary) meets a young promising doctor Charles Bovary. They get married and live happily ever after, however the story only begins from this point. One night Emma spends an evening with her husband at a very wealthy family’s party. She enjoys it, a little too much as it will be obvious later on. From that day, Emma drowns herself in reading to catch the glimpse of that miraculous evening. That is not enough and she starts buying expensive things, finds a lover, abandons her daughter, finally killing herself by poison. As from now on you know the main storyline and event of the book, I would like to dedicate this review not to an entire book (however it would be appropriate as well, as Gustave Flaubert’s impeccable writing style and every thoughtfully placed word ought to get some recognition) but to Emma Bovary’s character as it makes the reader to think on so many levels, opening new themes and point worth discussing every now and then. From the first sight, Emma Bovary is a spoiled housewife who spends money on glamor. Yes, this notice is completely right. A bored young woman tries to recapture her one glorious night. Unfortunately, Bovary’s problems are on a deeper level. Through Emma’s character Flaubert shows pointlessness of life, how things make us happy for a second and then it’s back to the same old and grey reality. Using Dr. Charles Bovary, the author creates contrast between a normal life most people lead (the “happiness of wedlock”) and the life that Emma craves – romanticized novel. Using the protagonist, Flaubert also takes a critical look on society, capitalistic views of must-have’s that drive people to moral and financial bankruptcy. For readers looking for a more feminist point of view, Flaubert uses Emma (a female character not by chance) to get the attention on the problem that a woman has no power or control over anything (the scene where Emma searches for money in despair having to offer in return only sexual favors depicts it perfectly). This French novel is written in third person, however, comprehending female character and her train of thoughts straightly. Flaubert’s mastery does not leave place for indifference .

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Another bildungsroman for your evaluation – Jane Eyre by Ch. Bronte. A quick reminder of the meaning of bildungsroman, the type of novel that tells a story of formation of a character, his education, becoming-of-age. To get back to the topic, Jane Eyre was not a fully fictional novel. First of all, the original title was Jane Eyre: An Autobiography which means Eyre, the protagonist, told her life story. Secondly, there are many scenes of the book that remind of Bronte’s experiences (Helen Burns's death from tuberculosis as her sister’s death; John Reed's decline into alcoholism recalls the life of Charlotte's brother Branwell etc.). Having this in mind, let’s look closer at Jane and her hard life, the symbols and meaning of the beautiful novel. As an orphan child, Jane continues her life as a quest for love. This type of love does not necessarily mean in a romantic sense, it is more of a feeling of need and belonging. She has to learn no to simply love (it is hard enough for a kid without a family) but also not to lose herself and her freedom in the process. During her life and efforts to find her place, Jane encounters religious morals. The main character meets three people (Mr. Brocklehurst, Helen Burns, and St. John Rivers) in her life that represent different streams of religion that Miss Eyre finally all rejects in order to follow her own moral compass. Three main figures in the book (Mr. Brocklehurst, Edward Rochester, and St. John Rivers) advert another delicate issue remaining the same in our times as well. These males struggle to keep Jane in submissive position and make her feel inferior as a female. Topics above are crucial to the novel, however, social class is examined by Bronte in more depth. Jane was educated by an intellectual and has sophistication as an aristocrat, but living in Victorian era and being paid for services automatically puts in a servant category. Jane being culturally aware, understands the situation and feels the tension every time she’s around her employers which grounds the reason of rejecting Rochester.

Visit buklovers.tumblr.com on Sunday to read about symbols in Bronte’s Jane Eyre

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Paul Goodman on the Nine Kinds of Silence

"There is the dumb silence of slumber or apathy... the fertile silence of awareness, pasturing the soul... the silence of peaceful accord...

P. Goodman’s Speaking and Language read in the British radio show Stylus analyses the origin and cultural evolution of silence, not to miss!

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We're no longer shocked by the sex and drugs. The slang is passé and at times corny. Some of the racial sentimentality is appalling, the tale of passionate friendship and the search for revelation are timeless. These are as elusive and precious in our time as in Sal's, and will be when our grandchildren celebrate the book's hundredth anniversary.

John Leland

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And if you read the book closely, you see that sense of loss and sorrow swelling on every page. In truth, 'On the Road' is a book of broken dreams and failed plans

Philadelphia Inquirer

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Kerouac typed about 100 words a minute, and replacing regular sheets of paper in his typewriter just interrupted his flow — thus the scroll.

JIm Canary

Roman à clef is in the spotlight this time. French name meaning “novel with a key” represents novels where a true story is the key. Sometimes ridiculously called characters are real personalities with changed names. Do you have a book in mind? Yes, Kerouac is Roman à clef writer of the Beat generation. What is Beat generation you may ask, a title that Kerouac created himself.  A group of writers popularized after World War II. Kerouac’s rejection of materialism, bohemian lifestyle, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, sexual liberation and exploration made him a beat generation person and his On the Road with nontraditional narration a beat generation novel. With that out of the way – Oh the Road. The famous three week scroll story of how Kerouac created the 20th century chef-d’oevre I’m sorry to burst that bubble is a myth. As Jacks scholar P. Marion explains, "Kerouac cultivated this myth that he was this spontaneous prose man, and that everything that he ever put down was never changed, and that's not true."  In life, the beat rep was a craftsman and rethought every word of this book from 1947 up to 1949, and later again while typing. So the scroll continuously exhibited around the world was not a writing spree, it was typed in three week. Firstly published as a simple novel, the book was squeezed into the format – chunks of true experiences were cut out. Later published unedited piece “the scroll” had more Kerouac’s thoughts on various aspects (e.g.: My aunt once said the world would never find peace until men fell at their women's feet and asked for forgiveness…). And the end, there is none, did you know? It was chewed by Lucien Carr's cocker spaniel, instead of it Jack Kerouac wrote  - 'Ate by Patchkee, a dog'.