Next on my plate....

The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton. I so loved Ethan Frome that I decided to go back to Wharton for the early holiday season. Originally published in 1913, this is a tale of a mid-western girl trying to make it in New York City society. I'm curious to see what, if any, parallels there are between this story and The Age of Innocence. We shall see...

Something I really must read again...

...if only to truly understand the story and it's many, many elements. I finished James Joyce's The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (published 1916) last night and it touched me. I enjoyed the story and found the journey of Stephen Dedalus to be compelling. I have heard that this piece is a semi-autobiographical one and that through this story Joyce paints his experiences of becoming a writer. I can certainly believe this.

The part of the novel that I found most engaging was the struggle Dedalus had with his religion. His desire to be accepted, forgiven and ultimately saved was certainly realisitic, and his fall from these desires equally interesting. I think that without this struggle Dedalus would have been a far less intricate character, one that I would not have cared about or for and as a result would not have found this piece to be worth my time.

The imagery used by Joyce is also quite beautiful. His descriptions of heaven and hell and his ability to create a vivid image of a scene is something to which many novelists strive. I think the most striking aspect of his writing is its concise nature. Joyce says a lot with very little. Perhaps this observation is simply a result of my recent experience with the Victorian novel, and the inexperience Victorian novelists have with brevity, but Joyce is able to paint a detailed and visceral image with very few words, a talent I wish more authors possessed.

I will go back and reread this novel in the future, if only to delve deeper into it's imagery, but for now I will be happy to say that I enjoyed my first reading of Joyce and look forward to more.

Stein and Stream of Consciousness?

I finished Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons several weekends ago. At first I was confused and annoyed by this seeming babble of thought, but soon recognized that there really wasn't a thought present. What I mean to convey is that instead of creating a piece that is connected and sensical in plot, Stein instead creates a masterful poem of sorts, playing more on rhythms and sounds than content. This "novel" is more of a sketch of ideas and images presented not only through words that create a visual in one's mind, but also through language that presents auditory and tactile suggestions. I had to read through the piece several times, aloud, to truly take from it what I believe the author intended, that being an experience rather than a concrete idea.

Originally published in 1914, this exercise in experience is best read aloud by the reader. There were many times when I believe I would not have received what was being offered in the piece had I not read it aloud. It is for this reason that, while at times the work is confusing, I believe it would be an excellent piece of writing to use in a writer's workshop at the late high school or even early college level. Presenting students with a finalized example of poetic prose I believe could produce some excellent musings.