Rabbit, RunJohn Updike
Unhappy with his life and the way things are going, former small-town basketball star, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, decides to abandon his responsibilities and make a run for it. In an interview with Penguin Classics Updike explained that Rabbit Run was written in response to Kerouac’s On the Road. Updike uses the novel to illustrate what happens when seemingly dedicated family men forego their duties as father and husband in hopes of finding “Something once called grace.” Rabbit Run acts as a warning to young men burdened with commitment and thirsty for a life less ordinary. Rabbit’s break for freedom comes at a price, and the people he leaves behind get hurt. His selfishness rips the fabric of an entire community and inadvertently leads to the death of his daughter. Despite Rabbit’s conceit his desire to find happiness resonates so clearly with our own. We read on, forgiving him when he betrays the people that love him. The characters inhabiting Harry Angstrom’s world are each crucial to the plot, so well rounded they carry the story well in passages where Rabbit is absent. We get a pretty good idea of who everyone is and how they play into Harry’s development, or lack thereof. Updike’s prose flows like water, spilling gracefully over each page. There’s not a single awkward sentence. Rabbit’s story isn’t too far-fetched and lesser writers could have failed, making the text overblown and self important, or throwing together something that felt hoisted from a social work file. The simple complexity of the language and its striking metaphors help turn the everyday missteps of an average Joe into a timeless social commentary. Rabbit Run is very much a case study on the shortcomings of the young American male since World War II.
Nick
The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton
The Asian Journal was neither meant to be published in its current format nor to be Trappist monk Thomas Merton's final book. Perhaps it wasn't even supposed to be a book. The journal covers Merton's reflections on an inaugural trip to monasteries and monks throughout Asia, both Christian and otherwise. Merton died during the trip after being electrocuted by a badly-wired fan before a speaking engagement in Bangkok. Therefore, the Journal has a raw and intimate feel. Merton is seeking contact and dialogue with Christian monasteries and ministries in this area as well as Buddhist and Hindu thinkers. His ideas are numerous and vacillate between smooth dialogue, choppy observations, humorous anecdotes as well as several pages quoted from books he was reading as he prepared for audiences with well-respected Asian religious leaders as well as several poems written by Merton and others.
The journal reveals a more intimate side to Merton the popular mystic and peace activist; it reveals a man thirsting for intimacy with himself as well as a profound love and respect for all human beings. When he writes "only the very unusual means anything to me", it becomes apparent as he seeks out destitute, scraggly contemplatives near Tibet as well as religious abstract artists and even the Dalai Lama himself. Day-by-day, it becomes apparent that Merton is a man asking questions about rather than seeking to explain the world to others.
The most impressive aspect of the Journal is the obvious wonder with which Merton approaches the East, "...everything is emptiness and everything is compassion. I don't know when in my life I have ever had such a sense of beauty and spiritiual validity running together in one aesthetic illumination... This is Asia in its purity... It says everything and needs nothing. It can afford to be silent, unnoticed, undiscovered. It does not need to be discovered. It is we, Asian included, who need to discover it." Unlike many of previous books and essays, this Journal was never intended to teach other but to reflect and celebrate the wonderous new sights and ideas around him. Much like the advice of many eastern sages encountered during his final trip, Merton's Journal seems to have no desire to teach, but to tell and show; it is up to the reader to take the rest of the journey.
Justin
The Lie
Chad Kultgen
Chad Kultgen has written two books. The first book, The Average American Male, followed a twentysomething as he went through a terrible relationship, fantasized about girls, and got into a new relationship. The concept sounds less than intriguing, but it was Kultgen's approach to storytelling that made the book a compelling and fantastic read. His brutal honesty and true-to-life dialogue created characters that weren't familiar in that you felt like you could relate; they were familiar because you felt like you might even know these people.
This approach continues in The Lie, his second novel. This time, we hear the story from three different people: Kyle, a college guy who hates fraternities; Heather, Kyle's sorority-girl other half; and Brett, Kyle's longtime best friend and son of a wealthy company head. Their chapters alternate one after the other, and you get to hear the story continue to move as each person tells their side. The trio are all in college together in Texas, and each has a goal. Kyle's is to do well in his undergrad work and get into Med school. Heather's is to get into a sorority and find a rich guy to marry. Brett's is to simply go to college, follow his dad's path to become heir to the company, and have sex with as many girls as possible.
Had the book followed their stories exclusively, it would have been agonizing to read. However, Kultgen has a way of layering the stories and hinting at future wrongdoings. The book doesn't focus on just a single lie. There are many lies that occur, and they all tie into each person's view of what is the ultimate "Lie." I won't give anything away, but the progression of events gets more and more complex as the story becomes more about coming out on top than just surviving the mess that is The Lie at all.
Nick
The Asian Journal of Thomas MertonThe Asian Journal was neither meant to be published in its current format nor to be Trappist monk Thomas Merton's final book. Perhaps it wasn't even supposed to be a book. The journal covers Merton's reflections on an inaugural trip to monasteries and monks throughout Asia, both Christian and otherwise. Merton died during the trip after being electrocuted by a badly-wired fan before a speaking engagement in Bangkok. Therefore, the Journal has a raw and intimate feel. Merton is seeking contact and dialogue with Christian monasteries and ministries in this area as well as Buddhist and Hindu thinkers. His ideas are numerous and vacillate between smooth dialogue, choppy observations, humorous anecdotes as well as several pages quoted from books he was reading as he prepared for audiences with well-respected Asian religious leaders as well as several poems written by Merton and others.
The journal reveals a more intimate side to Merton the popular mystic and peace activist; it reveals a man thirsting for intimacy with himself as well as a profound love and respect for all human beings. When he writes "only the very unusual means anything to me", it becomes apparent as he seeks out destitute, scraggly contemplatives near Tibet as well as religious abstract artists and even the Dalai Lama himself. Day-by-day, it becomes apparent that Merton is a man asking questions about rather than seeking to explain the world to others.
The most impressive aspect of the Journal is the obvious wonder with which Merton approaches the East, "...everything is emptiness and everything is compassion. I don't know when in my life I have ever had such a sense of beauty and spiritiual validity running together in one aesthetic illumination... This is Asia in its purity... It says everything and needs nothing. It can afford to be silent, unnoticed, undiscovered. It does not need to be discovered. It is we, Asian included, who need to discover it." Unlike many of previous books and essays, this Journal was never intended to teach other but to reflect and celebrate the wonderous new sights and ideas around him. Much like the advice of many eastern sages encountered during his final trip, Merton's Journal seems to have no desire to teach, but to tell and show; it is up to the reader to take the rest of the journey.
Justin
The LieChad Kultgen
Chad Kultgen has written two books. The first book, The Average American Male, followed a twentysomething as he went through a terrible relationship, fantasized about girls, and got into a new relationship. The concept sounds less than intriguing, but it was Kultgen's approach to storytelling that made the book a compelling and fantastic read. His brutal honesty and true-to-life dialogue created characters that weren't familiar in that you felt like you could relate; they were familiar because you felt like you might even know these people.
This approach continues in The Lie, his second novel. This time, we hear the story from three different people: Kyle, a college guy who hates fraternities; Heather, Kyle's sorority-girl other half; and Brett, Kyle's longtime best friend and son of a wealthy company head. Their chapters alternate one after the other, and you get to hear the story continue to move as each person tells their side. The trio are all in college together in Texas, and each has a goal. Kyle's is to do well in his undergrad work and get into Med school. Heather's is to get into a sorority and find a rich guy to marry. Brett's is to simply go to college, follow his dad's path to become heir to the company, and have sex with as many girls as possible.
Had the book followed their stories exclusively, it would have been agonizing to read. However, Kultgen has a way of layering the stories and hinting at future wrongdoings. The book doesn't focus on just a single lie. There are many lies that occur, and they all tie into each person's view of what is the ultimate "Lie." I won't give anything away, but the progression of events gets more and more complex as the story becomes more about coming out on top than just surviving the mess that is The Lie at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment