A Few Good Men

Harper Lee: To Kill a Mocking Bird

A “great American novel”. Probably the best of the four US-American classics I have read this summer.

The story takes place over the course of three years in a small town, Maycomb, in 1930’s Alabama. It centers on lawyer Atticus Finch, his son Jem and daughter Jean Louise a.k.a. ”Scout”. A widower, Atticus has mostly been raising his children on his own. He is a soft-spoken man, but tries to set an example for his children through his morally righteous behavior. A coming off age story, there are numerous sub-plots which describe small town life in the American South:

•  In the beginning of the story, Scout is just starting school. Thanks to her family’s black cook, Calpurnia, she already knows how to read and write. This, and Scout's "smarty pants" attempt (I admittedly googled this expression...) to explain Maycomb’s peculiarities to her teacher from out of town creates significant conflict at school. 
• Dill Harris (1), a boy who spends his summers with his aunt in Maycomb, becomes Jem’s and Scout’s best friend and kind of Scout’s first boyfriend. Together, the children aim to lure reclusive Arthur “Boo” Railey, who essentially hasn’t been seen in public since his teenage days, out of his house. It does not become clear whether Boo is staying in his house voluntarily or whether he is being kept from going out by his brother Nathan. Boo seems to be reaching out to the children by leaving them little gifts in a hole in a tree, before Nathan puts an end to this.
• The children are good friends with Miss Maudie Atkinson, their neighbor from across the street who grew up together with Atticus. She feels kind of apart from the “foot-washing Baptists” of Maycomb who condemn the pride Miss Maudie takes in gardening. In the course of the story, Miss Maudie’s house burns down and she is forced to move in with a neighbor, an event to which she reacts stoically.
• In the latter parts of the story, Atticus' sister, Aunt Alexandra, moves in with the Finchens and attempts to turn the rather boyish Scout into more of a Southern lady, which leads the two to clash with each other repeatedly.

The book’s core, however, is the story of Atticus taking over the legal defense of a black man, Tom Robinson. Robinson has been accused of rape by Mayella Ewell. Mayella is one of eight children from a family that very much stems from the social fringe of Maycomb. After Atticus accepts the mandate, parts of Maycomb’s society and even their own extended family ostracize Jem and Scout for racist reasons. During the trial, Atticus succeeds to demonstrate that the injuries that Mayella sustained were likely inflicted by her drinking, violent father Bob. Moreover, Robinson also plausibly argues that Mayella had actually tried to seduce him. In spite of the strong case of the defense, the jury still finds Tom Robinson guilty of rape, a crime for which he is likely to end up on the electric chair. Atticus and his childrens' faith in the judicial system is badly shaken. Moreover, Bob Ewell sees that the trial has damaged his already low credibility in Maycomb. He is out for revenge against anybody involved in the trial. Events take a turn to the worse, but I won’t spoil the ending for anybody who hasn’t read the book, yet.

A fascinating combination: the book is written from a child’s perspective (or retrospective?), but deals with deeply adult topics such as racism and social boundaries. It also provides the perfect description of what I would imagine a childhood in the southern states to be like: porches, kids playing in the nature, families going back generations, Baptism, Southern ladies meeting for tea and cake etc. The court room drama of Atticus mounting a defense for Tom Robinson is gripping. At times, the description is so perfect that the novel almost conveys the feeling of watching a movie. Moreover, the main protagonist, Atticus Finch, is a morally righteous but at the same time three-dimensional figure, not the easiest combination for a writer to achieve. Overall, highly recommended. Comes out ahead of Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” and Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye”. Well, and I won’t be talking about Kerouac’s “On the Road”. Ever again.
Next on the list of American classics: John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath".       

Random movie reference:

Boo Radley kind of reminded me of Bart’s Siamese twin brother, Hugo…

Favorite quotes:

“There are just some kind of men who are so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.”(Miss Maudie)

“People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.” (Miss Maudie, again, smart woman).

“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience” (Atticus)

“Real courage … ‘s when you know you are licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” (Atticus)

“With him, life was routine; without him life was unbearable. I stayed miserable for two days.” (Scout)

“Serving on a jury forces a man to make up his mind and declare himself about something. Men don’t like to do that. Sometimes it’s unpleasant.” (Atticus)

“Atticus, he was really nice” … “Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.”

Notes:

(1) Interestingly, Dill is based on Truman Capote, a childhood friend of Harper Lee. In this incarnation, Capote seems significantly less annoying than the Philipp Seymour Hoffmann version I had in mind.

Hit the Road, Jack

Jack Kerouac: On the Road

The next American classic on this summer’s reading list. Well, read it, been there, done that. The novel had a few moments, but, all in all quite a struggle to get through it.

Kerouac tells the story of four road trips writer Sal Paradise takes between 1947 and 1950. Freshly divorced and recovering from an illness, Sal meets the free-spirited Dean Moriarty, an ex-convict, aspiring writer and man living on the road. Sal then decides to hit the road as well. On a first trip, Sal links up with Dean and other friends in Denver, before heading on for San Francisco. A French friend of his, Remi Boncoeur, gets him a job as a watchman at a camp for sailors. After falling out with Remi, Sal leaves San Francisco and meets a Mexican girl, Terry. Together with Terry and her son he takes up work in the cotton fields. While Sal enjoys the simple life, he finally decides to leave Terry and head back for New York.

The second trip begins in New York and includes, among others Dean Moriarty and his mistress Marylou. From then on, the entire story is increasingly centered around Moriarty. The journey first takes the group to New Orleans where they stay with morphine-addicted Old Bull Lee. The group then heads on to San Francisco and Dean leaves Marylou to be with his wife Camille again. A third trip takes Sal from New York to San Francisco and back again. A fourth trip takes him, Dean Moriarty and others to Mexico, where Moriarty leaves Sal, who has fallen sick with dysentery, behind. The novel finishes with Sal back in New York, finding a girlfriend and meeting both Remi Boncoeur and Dean Moriarty.

The book is widely regarded as a classic and it has its moments. I liked the depiction of the first journey. Here, Kerouac conveys a good impression of the feeling of being on the road, while not spoiling it with Dean Moriarty’s endless monologues (yet). The historical background of the novel is also interesting, as the characters are based on Kerouac and his circle of beat-generation friends. The main character, writer Sal Paradise, is based on Kerouac himself, Neal Cassady is the real-life Dean Moriarty. 

Still, both writing style and content make this novel hard to read. Especially after the first journey, with Dean Moriarty taking a more prominent role, the whole thing becomes a seemingly endless repetition of fast driving, petty crime, parties, girls and senseless psychobabble of characters who are evidently taking too many drugs. The narrative style, a seemingly furious, but also endless enumeration of the characters’ activities, doesn’t help much neither. Moreover, most characters do not come over as very likable, right on the contrary. Dean Moriarty and others instead seem simply like idolized drug wrecks who take themselves way too seriously.
After reading the book, I realized I could just have watched the movie instead... that would have saved me two weeks of struggling with "On the Road".

Random movie reference:

The first association I had with Dean Moriarty... the lizard queen.

Favorite quotes:

“He is the prettiest child I have ever seen. Look at those eyes …I want you par-ti-cu-larly to see the eyes of this little Mexican boy … and notice how he will come to manhood with his own particular soul be-speaking itself through the windows which are his eyes, and such lovely eyes surely do prophesy and indicate the loveliest of souls.” Dean Moriarty. Kind of says it all regarding the book’s dia-/ monologues.

“… the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn, burn, burn.”

“I was so lonely, so sad, so tired, so quivering, so broken, so beat, that I got up my courage, the courage necessary to approach a strange girl, and acted.”

“It was always manana. For the next week, that was all I heard, manana, a lovely word and one that probably means heaven.”

“I was going home in October. Everybody goes home in October.”

“I want to marry a girl. … This can’t go on all the time- all this franticness and jumping around.”

“It was a sullen moment. We were thinking we’d never see one another again and we didn’t care.”

You can't always get what you want...

John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men

Another classic of American 20th century' literature on this month's reading list. 

It is a short story, so, well, the story is quickly told. Lennie and George move from farm to farm in California in search of work. Lennie is physically imposing, innocent, and good-natured , but mentally retarded. He likes to pet soft things, but usually inadvertently kills the animals he has. George, the smarter one of the two, takes care of Lennie. Together, they hope to realize their hope of having their own farm. The two had to leave their previous farm after Lennie's love for touching soft object (in this case a girl's skirt) led to him being accused of rape.

At the new farm they meet Candy, an old farm worker whose savings may bring the two closer than ever to realizing their dream of a farm. At the same time, the situation slowly escalates. Their boss's son Curley, a short, easily irritable man, soon gets into a confrontation with George and Lennie. Curley's promiscuous wife (referred to as Curley's wife throughout the novel) flirts with the farm workers. Lennie ends up crashing Curley's hand in a fight. Sometime later, Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife, after she had asked him to stroke his hair, and runs away. The story ends with George setting out with Curley and the other farm workers to find Lennie... (won't spoil the rest).

Great read. An impressive description of farm life in 1920's California. The novel got the feel of a classic drama, with the hopes of the protagonists being built up, while the foreseeable bad ending is kind of hanging over the story. Also, there are more than enough themes to identify with. Unrealized hopes, friendship, the loneliness of moving people etc. When compared to the previous American classic on my reading list, Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, loneliness seems to be a theme running through both books. However, there is much less depiction of the characters' inner lives in Steinbeck's book. Moreover, having two farm workers in rural California as the main characters also nicely contrasts with private school educated Holden Caulfield. I have the impression that Caulfield's privileged upbringing and the material security afforded by well-off parents allow him to uphold an alienated attitude that characters like George and Lennie can't afford, given they have to survive, get along with people and make their living on a daily basis...

Next on the list of American (to-be) classics: Kerouac's "On the Road", Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath", Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mocking Bird", Joan Didion's "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", Tom Wolfe's "A Man in Full", and Yanigihara's "A Life in Full".


Random movie reference:
Apparently, two gremlins called George and Lennie feature in the second Gremlin's movie, but I couldn't find a proper clip. So let's go for the intellectual gremlin in the first part. The way how he deals with the less intellectual gremlin is also kind of remotely reminiscent of the novel...(no spoiler intended)

Favorite quotes:
"Ain't many guys travel around together ... I don't know why. Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other."

"Take a real smart guy and he ain't hardly ever a nice fella."

"I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain't no good. They don't have no fun. After a long time, they get mean."

"Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody- to be near him."

Runaway Train

J.D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye

Another classic I had on my list for years but never managed to finish. Fascinating read, I had really missed out on something up to now.

I guess there is an "outer" and an "inner" story to this book. 17 year old Holden Caulfield gets once more kicked out of a prestigious boarding school. Having some days  left before his parents expect him back for Christmas holidays, Caulfield sets off for New York City. He books himself into a  run-down hotel, hangs out in various bars, gets drunk, tries to hook up with some tourists and ends the night with a botched attempt to hire a prostitute.

The next day, Caulfield manages to organize a date with an old date of his. Caulfield gets mad at her after she refuses to run off with him, ending the date in an argument. After more drinking, Caulfield finally heads home to see his baby sister Phoebe, all the while evading his parents' attention (who still do not know that he has been kicked out of school). Sneaking out of his family's apartment once his parents arrive, Caulfield visits his old English teacher who seems to be making an approach on him while he sleeps. The next day arranges for a meeting with Phoebe. Caulfield is all set on finally running off and heading west, but, after an argument with Phoebe, finally decides to head home. 

The "inner story" is much more relevant, though. Not sure whether the narrative technique can be labelled a stream of consciousness, but the whole story is told on the basis of Caulfield's thoughts and perceptions. Alienation and the loss of innocence seem to be the big themes. Caulfield feels surrounded by a world of "phonies", essentially (adult) people pretending to be something they aren't. He is definitely not a loner in the classic sense, having no problem finding people to spend time with during his days in New York. At the same time, he maintains his distance to virtually everybody he engages with. Caulfield's baby sister, Phoebe, seems to be the only person in the story he can properly relate to, mainly because she has still got the innocence of a child.

Overall a great read and a classic not to be missed... Salinger gives a great depiction of 1940s New York. Much more important, the book's central themes are easy to identify with. Wondering whether alienation would become a life-long theme for Caulfield, or whether he will simply settle into a life in accordance with social expectations one day....

Random Movie Association

Feels a bit like Home Alone 2. Drunk, on prozac and with a bit more sex.

Favorite quotes:

"Almost every time somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad"

"I'm not kidding, the hotel was lousy with perverts. I was probably the only normal bastard in that place- and that isn't saying much."

"Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell."

"Guys that are very mean. Guys that never read books. Guys that are very boring"

"Lovely my ass"

"All of them swimming around in a goddam pot of tea and saying sophisticated stuff to each other and being charming and phony."

"I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dumb me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery."

"You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you are not looking, somebody will sneak up and write "fuck you" right under your nose."

"Don't ever tell anybody anything. if you do, you start missing everybody."