Day Nine-- Summer Reading

Here are a couple of reviews on books I've read or am reading this summer. Besides The Alchemist and Crime and Punishment, I also read the Stieg Larsson series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and The Book Thief. Very good for me as I'm a slow reader. I know, I know, English teachers are supposed to rip through them, but I just can't--maybe because I'm a writer too?

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Mixed feelings about it. Really liked it in some places and then other times it was too heavy-handed for my taste. I did really like some of the writing. I'll add some of my favorite quotes later.

Here's one of my favorite quotes:

"But the sheep had taught him something even more important: that there was a language in the world that everyone understood,....It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as a part of a search for something believed in and desired" (62).



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Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Read years ago in college, but I wanted to read it again.

I'm just starting the third chapter--slow because I'm trying to read too many books at once, but I remember now how brilliant Dostoyevsky is and why I love this book.

Here's the speech by the drunkard Marmeladov who has reached the depth of his despair: "...He will summon us. 'You too come forth,' He will say. 'Come forth, ye drunkards, come forth, ye weak ones, come forth, ye children of shame!' And the wise ones and those of understanding will say, 'Oh Lord, why dost Thou receive these men?' And He will say, 'This is why I receive them, oh ye wise, this is why I receive them, oh ye of understanding, that not one of them believed himself to be worthy of this.' And He will hold out His hands to us and we shall fall down before Him...and we shall weep...and we shall understand all things! Then we shall understand all!...and all will understand, Katerina Ivanovna even...she will understand..."

Oh my. That is astounding.

Here's another great quote (Part II, Chapter 5) and very apropos, I must say.

"What answer had your lecturer in Moscow to make to the question why he was forging notes? 'Everybody is getting rich one way or another, so I want to make haste to get rich too.' I don't remember the exact words, but the upshot was that he wants money for nothing, without waiting or working! We've grown used to having everything ready-made, to walking on crutches, to having our food chewed for us. Then the great hour struck, and every man showed himself in his true colours."

Quite fits, doesn't it? Uncomfortably so.



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