Getting By, Dreaming Big

The Known World, Edward P. Jones

386 pages, @2003

Sorry that I was MIA last week guys!  I don’t know, I just felt like I needed a little break to veg, have no fear, I won’t make it a regular occurence. 

The Known World has been on my bookshelf (or my mom’s) since it came out in 2003.  I remember when this book came out it had a lot of buzz surrounding it and it won the Pulitzer Prize to boot.  A friend of mine also let me know that Edward P. Jones, the author, was a Holy Cross grad, which made me that much more excited to read it.

Henry Townsend, was freed from slavery by his parents when he was a teenager.  A favorite of his master, William Robbins, when he went into his own business he solicited Mr. Robbins assistance and became one of the best bootmakers in Virginia.  After building up some wealth he bought his own land, built a house and started a farm.  Then he purchased his first slave.  He continuously sought the help and tutelage of Mr. Robbins as he built his farm and continued to purchase more slaves.  His farm was very orderly and he never overstepped the boundaries of the law.  However, after his untimely death, his wife Caldonia, is unable to keep order.  Jones explores slavery in every light.

I wanted to love this book .  A unique story, a Holy Cross grad, a Pulitzer Prize winner, I kept telling myself I would feel rewarded when I finished, but unfortunately that just wasn’t the case.  The book had too many characters and it was hard to follow the windering story arc.  As soon as you got used to one story involving some of the characters, he would move on to another story line with other characters and I felt like I was starting all over again.  It all wove together in the end but I just didn’t find it riveting or really even that interesting.  I was incredibly disappointed that I didn’t love it.  I’m not sure if any of you have read Toni Morrison, but in away he reminded me of Morrison, but just not quite as lyrical.  Her books (I’ve only read 3 so this is a generalization) are very all over the place with cirular stories that you can’t understand until you finish the entire book. 

Overall I would not recommend this book at all.  It was long, tedious, and if I was someone who put books down and didn’t eventually finish them, I wouldn’t have finished it.  I would be curious though, if you read it and liked it, to hear what you liked about it.  So if that’s you – post a comment.

Rating:  2 stars

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What book have you recently been disappointed by?

The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk

537 pages, @1951

A couple of years ago I read, and thoroughly enjoyed, Winds of War and War and Rememberance by Herman Wouk.  My parents had recommended him to me and while I was dubious due to the nature and length of the book upon receiving Winds of War in my Easter Basket one year, I eventually was swayed to pick it up.  It did not disappoint.

My dad kept saying over and over that if I enjoyed Wouk as an author I should pick up The Caine Mutiny, as in his opinion, it was Wouk’s best book.  Last year, I purchased the book and this summer Jon picked it up intrigued.  He enjoyed it so much that it prompted me to pick it up.

The Caine Mutiny is the story of none other than the DMS (destroyer minesweeper) The Caine.  Willie Keith, a young, wealthy 20-something from Manhasset, Long Island, checks in for Midshipmen School in the beginning of the book.  After an unsuccesful time at Midshipmen School he is assigned The Caine for his first tour of duty in WWII.  Soon after arriving on The Caine, Captain Queeg arrives to takeover as Captain of The Caine.  Wouk takes the reader through Queeg’s 15 months as Captain of the ship and Willie Keith’s entire career aboard The Caine, including the Mutiny.  I would say more but I don’t want to give the story away.

While it is a book that takes place during WWII, the war is purely a back drop, it is not an active character in the book.  Wouk’s strength (at least in the 3 books I’ve read by him) is in giving the reader a sense of what everyday life was like for his characters during war.  In this instance it brought the reader onto the fictional DMS Caine and gave them a glimpse as to what life was like for all of the men on destroyers in the Pacific during the war; from the mundane everyday tasks, to the friendships, to the chain of command, to the crises that arose.  I think perhaps that is why I enjoy Wouk so much; I love trying to live vicariously through the characters in the books that I’m reading, imagining what life must have been like for that person, during that experience.  When reading The Caine Mutiny, I didn’t feel as if I was in my living room reading a piece of fiction, I felt like I was on the USS Caine shadowing this amazing characters.  Wouk addresses topics such as loyalty, competency and trust and how the relationships you form based on characteristics such as these lead to decisions during trying times.

Herman Wouk was born in 1915 in NYC.  Wouk joined the US Navy and served in the Pacific as an officer aboard two destroyer minesweepers.  The Caine Mutiny drew from his experiences during WWII.  In reading some information about Wouk’s background, I was actually reminded of certain characters from the book itself, which makes it all the more interesting to me to think that while it is a work of fiction there might be some truth behind it.

Wouk’s writing is so enjoyable to read.  While this book was written almost 60 years ago, it could have been written last year.  His writing is timeless and worth savoring.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading the rest of Mr. Wouk’s book during my lifetime!

Overall Rating:  5 Stars

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Have you read Herman Wouk?  If yes, what is your favorite book by him?