A Christmas Carol

We all know the story. It is so familiar and far too often overdone. (Images of the version acted out by The Muppets come to mind.) Ebenezer Scrooge is an old miser with no heart who is forcing his employee to work on Christmas. Later the same night, Scrooge is visited by a series of ghosts. The first ghost takes Scrooge back to his past, to see how much he once enjoyed life. The second ghost shows Scrooge how horrible he is currently acting. The final ghost shows Scrooge the inevitable outcome of his actions. The families and characters portrayed in the book are sure to tug at your heartstrings time and time again.

A Christmas Carol is just as relevant today as it was when it was originally written. In these times of recession and economic hardship, many families are experiencing the same hardships as the families illustrated in the book. With a little bit of hope and generosity, this season can be made happy for those on all parts of the spectrum.

The lessons learned in this classic are often lost or forgotten. It truly reminds all readers that no matter how old you are, or what current state your life is in, it is possible to change for the better. Ebenezer Scrooge had the help of spirits, but the readers have the help of Charles Dickens’ classic story. A re-read of A Christmas Carol will surely get you in the holiday spirit, and will remind all readers of the important lesson it teaches. Be kind not only this holiday season, but as Scrooge learned, all year round.

Set in the 1980s, The Marriage Plot is the story of Madeleine Hanna, a by-the-book English major, who is not on the Derrida fanwagon. In contrast to her peers, Hanna is happier with the prose of Jane Austen and George Eliot, key figures in the marriage plot that is characteristic of the most memorable English novels, and which is the subject of Hanna’s honors thesis.

However, in her senior year, Hanna emerges from the safe refuge of classical literature and signs up for a semiotics class in an attempt to comprehend the fuss arising around postmodern liberalism. It is in this class that she meets and falls for Leonard Bankhead, handsome, quite brilliant, and possibly barmy. Rounding out the cast list is Mitchell Grammaticus, Hanna’s friend, a student of religious studies, and firmly convinced that he and Hanna are meant to be together. Spanning the year after their graduation, the novel is a different take on the classic love story, exploring modern relationships and all of the elements that could possibly go wrong.

In a July interview with Jonathan Galassi on Farrar, Straus, and Giroux’s Work In Progress blog, at which point The Marriage Plot wasn’t finished and Eugenides preferred to keep the title under wraps, he had described the novel thus:

“I don’t quite know how to describe it. A college love story? Maybe. It begins on graduation day, in 1982, and involves three main characters. The sweep of the action takes place over the next year or so, as the characters begin their lives outside the university gates. The book deals, among other things, with religion, depression, the Victorian novel, and Roland Barthes. I really don’t like to talk about it. It’s about 400 pages long so far, and two-thirds done. I don’t think it will be a long book, not as long as Middlesex, anyway. It’s different from my other books. More tightly dramatized, less fanciful. What else? It’s not a Detroit book, not this time. Though one of the characters comes from Detroit, the new book ranges in setting from Providence, Rhode Island, and Cape Cod to Calcutta.”

In a painfully condensed summary, the novel tells the story of Emma Bovary, the wife of a doctor who has trouble finding happiness and fulfillment in her marriage and as a mother. To counteract this boredom and emptiness, she begins a series of sultry affairs in hopes of finding excitement, adventure, and fulfillment. As one can guess, she does not find the life for which she so desperately searches. This series of sins leads her into a spiral into ruin.

It is a classic story, told in great extraordinary detail and style. Unlike the Lifetime movies of today, which oddly enough always seem to mirror the story line of the novel, Flaubert’s tale is intelligent, calculated, and agonizingly beautiful. Even though it is endlessly studied in French classes and English literature classes around the United States, Madame Bovary really sticks out from the crowd. For example, The Scarlet Letter is a fine book, but it is hard to find more than a little relevance in it today. Madame Bovary is the tale of a problem that faces people every day: the quest for fulfillment in life.

For example, the description of one of Madame Bovary’s affairs eerily resembles something you would read in a magazine, or see in a television drama. “He had heard these things said to him so many times that they no longer held any surprises for him. Emma was just like all his mistresses, and the charm of novelty, gradually falling away like a garment, laid bare the eternal monotony of passion, which never varies in its forms and its expression.”

When it comes to classic novels, the hardest thing for me to get past always is the bulk and unnecessary length of some sentences. It just adds another obstacle that deters many younger readers from classic literature. However, as seen in the passage above, Flaubert can talk about a period of years in a single paragraph, or summarize a series of events in a concise and ordered sentence. It takes an unusual amount of talent to be so concise, but at the same time, so flawlessly beautiful in the descriptions.

When trying to think of a classic to read this fall, Madame Bovary would be a great choice. The mystery, agony, and darkness match beautifully with the grey and cloudy days of fall that are upon us. If you are in the mood for a classic, that is beautiful, bold, and scandalous, Madame Bovary is it.

Though you wouldn’t have guessed it today, during Melville’s lifetime, Typee was his most popular piece. He also published a series of other novels, including two more about his island experience. Melville had been inspired by his constant reading while at sea. Yet, few people today know about Melville’s “other” novels, or even about Typee.  Most literary critics pay little attention to Melville’s novels save one: Moby-Dick.

Moby-Dick is an epic about a sailor, Ishmael’s, voyage on the Pequod, a whaling ship commanded by Captain Ahab. Told from the perspective of Ishmael, after the event has already happened, readers learn about the lone purpose of the whaling excursion: to find a huge, ferocious sperm whale, which he calls Moby Dick. Ahab wants to find Moby Dick out of revenge; in a previous encounter, Ahab lost his leg to the whale.

Throughout Moby-Dick, Melville takes the time to weave in a number of themes. Some say the novel is a vast allegory of life in general. Melville reveals his bleak view of the world, satirizing religious traditions and moral values, among other major topics.

When Moby-Dick was first published in 1851 (simultaneously published as The Whale), it was considered a failure. That seems to be a qualifying factor for the majority of novels that are part of the Western canon today. Despite its poor initial reception, Moby-Dick is considered today to be a masterpiece, Melville’s best novel, and an essential piece of the canon of American novels. Moby-Dick is equally obscure and difficult to read as it is illuminating and open for interpretation.

Moby-Dick is a whale of a tale to swallow as a whole. Reading smaller segments and not trying to decipher every last sentence is probably the best way to tackle this novel in order to enjoy and appreciate the classic tale.

(Image: Library of Congress)

Henry David Thoreau

There are over twenty volumes of Thoreau’s books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry. However, his most notable piece of work is Walden, his semi-autobiographical book detailing his two years of living in a self-built cabin in the woods owned by Emerson, near Walden Pond (pictured) in Concord, Massachusetts.

Walden is probably unlike any other book out there. Walden was an experiment of simple living. He want to go “back to nature,” believing in the value of solitude and contemplation. (It is a common misconception that Thoreau lived in seclusion as a hermit. In fact, the cabin was only a couple miles from his family home, and one of the chapters of Walden is entitled “Visitors.”) He wanted to determine the relative dimensions of objects in nature. Where does man fit among ants (“Battle of the Ants”) and other creatures?

Thoreau switches style throughout the book, depending on the subject. Sometimes, his style is extremely poetic, such as when he describes a scene of nature. Other times, Walden reads as if it is merely Thoreau’s personal diary, and he is recording the day’s events. He can be critical of society, and one chapter later can be neutral and observational. In the final chapter, he is prophetic and didactic: “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

Thoreau‘s Walden is not a fluid piece. I recommend taking it outside and reading a few chapters at a time, allowing ample time for his ideas to float around as you observe nature.

• The Scarlet Letter (1850) – Life in 17th-century Puritan Boston is not easy for Hester Prynne, who conceived her daughter Pearl through an adulterous affair. She wears a scarlet “A” for “adultery” on her clothing as a badge of shame, and refuses to reveal to the town the identity of her child’s father. This novel explores the major themes of sin, guilt, and society.
• The House of the Seven Gables (1851) – The house of seven gables is said to be a haunted New England mansion, belonging to one of Hawthorne’s cousins. This house and Hawthorne’s ancestors who were involved in the Salem Witch Trials provided inspiration the story. A satire, horror novel, and moral fable all at the same time, this novel did not disappoint those who had be anticipating its release due to the success of The Scarlet Letter. Notably, horror fiction author H. P. Lovecraft commended it as “New England’s greatest contribution to weird literature.”
• The Blithedale Romance (1852) – If Hawthorne’s other novels seem too gloomy for your liking, this one is your best bet for getting started with Hawthorne. It deals much less with ghosts of the past and is much more modern (well, as modern as stories from 1852 can be). In 1841, to save some money Hawthorne joined a transcendentalist experimental Utopian community called Brook Farm, which he used as inspiration for this novel about a group of people living in an experimental community.
• The Marble Faun (1860) – Perhaps the least-recognized of Hawthorne’s novels and quite unlike his other novels, The Marble Faun explores the idea of American artists abroad. The story is centered on Miriam, a beautiful painter, Hilda, a simple copyist, Kenyon, a sculptor, Donatello, the Count of Monte Beni, and a crime that links them all together.

We recognize classics because of their timelessness. The Scarlet Letter is still commonly taught in high school English classes and was even recently featured in Easy A, the 2010 high school comedy film starring Emma Stone. However, if you enjoyed The Scarlet Letter, I do not recommend that you see Easy A. (Though, to my surprise, it does have some decent ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.)

• A Christmas Carol- Dickens wrote a number of Christmas-themed stories; this is by far the most popular. Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly old man who is visited by three ghosts: The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Each ghost shows Scrooge how his miserly behavior has affected others. Will this change him?
• The Adventures of Oliver Twist - Oliver Twist is the orphan who asked for more. He has a miserable existence in a workhouse. When he is placed with an undertaker, he escapes and goes to London, where he meets the Artful Dodger, the leader of a gang of kids who make their living by pickpocketing. The Artful Dodger brings Oliver to their base, where he meets Fagin, an elderly man who has been training the kids. Oliver does not realize what living with this gang would entail; he thinks they simply make handkerchiefs and wallets. What will become of him when they take him along to commit their daily crimes?
• Great Expectations- This story is told from the point of view of an orphan named Pip. Pip meets a girl named Estella who treats him coldly. Miss Havisham has raised her to break men’s hearts, as revenge for the pain her own broken heart caused her. Pip indeed falls for Estella and vows to make a fortune so he can come back and win over Estella. What will be the outcome?

Answer: A Christmas Carol. Tiny Tim is a little boy in the visions that Scrooge sees. Some know him as the character who says, “God bless us, every one!”

Other popular novels written by Dickens include A Tale of Two Cities, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Barnaby Rudge, and The Pickwick Papers.

Let The Great World Spin (Colum McCann)

Award-winning novelist Colum McCann has released his best novel yet. Let The Great World Spin is about New York City and its people in the 1970s. Corrigan is a radical and young Irish monk, who lives among prostitutes in the Bronx. Mothers gather to grieve for their sons who died in Vietnam. Tillie, a grandmother at 38, continues to play tricks with her teenage daughter to provide for her family and assess her self-worth. These and other stories make up the world of Let the Great World Spin. Read how McCann will unravel all of them.

Strength In What Remains (Tracy Kidder)

Strength In What Remains recounts the amazing story of Deogracias and his escape from massive ethnic violence in Burundi, only to end up escaping from genocide in Rwanda. He finally escapes to New York City, where he is given a new lease on life. In this book, Kidder shows us what happened to Deo in the past and how he has coped with the memories until the present day. He perseveres in America, struggling through sleepless nights, little money and even little English. He pushes through and reaches Columbia University, a medical degree and American citizenship. Today, he goes back to Burundi and offers all the help he can give, which Kidder also has successfully recounted in the book.

Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantell)

Many novels and books have been written about Henry VIII and his many wives. But few have been written about Henry VIII’s closest adviser, Thomas Cromwell. In Wolf Hall, Mantel tells the story of  Thomas Cromwell, who does not meddle in Henry VIII’s personal affairs and only is concerned about the future of a free England. Combining fiction and fact, Wolf Hall shows us a great story about Thomas Cromwell and how he was able to influence the events that led to the creation of the Church of England.

More books next time!

There were four pavilions set up in the venue. The Author Pavilion, Book Sales Pavilion, Pavilion of the States and the Let’s Read America Pavilions.

Author Pavilion

The Author Pavilion hosts all the author presentations, including book signings. Genres are separated into different booths and include Children, Mysteries and Thrillers, Fiction and Fantasy, History and Biography and Poetry and Prose. Past authors who have participated in the festival include Lois Lowry, Judy Blume, Jodi Picoult, David Baldacci, Sue Monk Kidd and Azar Nafisi, among others.

Book Sales Pavilion

At the Book Sales Pavilion you can buy your favorite authors’ books to have them signed at the Authors Pavilion.

Pavilion of the States

Learn about the literary traditions and literacy promotion projects of the 50 states. Representatives from the different states will be there to answer questions about their writers, book festivals, libraries and book awards among others. Check out other pavilion features including “Discover Great Places Through Reading” and “52 Great Reads About Great Places”.

Let’s Read America Pavilion

The Let’s Read America Pavilion features different activities to encourage reading among families and children.

Visit the National Book Festival Official Website for information on the 2010 Festival.

1. Oregon Writing Festival

The Oregon Writing Festival takes place every May at the Portland State University. Every year, they invite authors of books catering to kids from grades 4 to 12. This festival helps promote local writing activities and festivals, as well as connects writers to other Oregon writers and authors as well. They also take the time to honor and recognize outstanding student and teacher writers.

2. Tapestry of Tales Storytelling Festival

The Tapestry Of Tales Storytelling Festival celebrates its 10th year this 2009 as they continue to share love for the written word. Multnomah County Library hosts this festival every year in November. Create and share your story. Visit the festival with your family or friends.

3. wordstock

wordstock happens every year in Portland, Oregon, and gathers hundreds of readers, writers and storytellers in one place. The festival features author appearances, live storytelling performances and workshops for writers and students. This is the largest literary celebration in the Pacific Northwest, and one of the largest festivals in the US, with over 55,000 participants every year.

4. Southern Oregon Book and Author Fair

This literary fair takes place every November in Ashland, Oregon. Authors takes this opportunity to promote themselves, sell their books and meet other authors and, most especially, their readers. Dozens of Southern Oregon authors grace this event to promote reading and literacy nationwide.

So, what are you waiting for? Be sure to visit these literary fairs now!