Getting By, Dreaming Big

Dead Man’s Walk, by Larry McMurty

463 pages, @1995

Obviously, I didn’t get around to finishing my double posts last week before I left for Florida.  I just ran out of time.  I need to start thinking about traveling with my laptop and getting some sort of internet connection when I travel.  So I apologize, once again for the disappearing act.  I don’t have any trips planned until March though so I should be able to keep fairly steady through the month of February.

Back a year or so ago I attempted two reading challenges.  As one of my books for the reading challenge I selected the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Larry McMurty, Lonesome Dove.  When I went to Barnes & Noble to pick up the book I discovered that Lonesome Dove is the 3rd book in a 4 book series.  I decided then and there, that even though McMurty wrote Lonesome Dove first, I had to read the series from the beginning, meaning the book that was meant as the first book, so I purchased Dead Man’s Walk instead.  I will admit that I started this book back in November, but due to my lack of interest in reading around the holidays I got 100 pages in and just couldn’t really stick with it.  However, with my new goal of 2010 in hand, to read a book a week, I decided that I better go back and tackle this beast.

Dead Man’s Walk, introduces us to Gus McCrae and Cal Woodrow, two Texas Rangers, working missions in the Wild Wild West.  When the book first begins they are in Comanche territory and their mismatched group of Rangers realize that this mission is hopeless as they are outmatched.  Awhile later, they are invited to join, an expedition to capture Sante Fe from Mexico and annex it as part of Texas, under the pirate Caleb Cobb.  Other interesting characters that join them are Matilda Roberts and Bigfoot Wallace.  They find themselves in Comanche territory again and have to face off against the mighty Buffalo Hump and Kicking Wolf as they journey to Sante Fe.  Unfortunately for the group of Texas Rangers, they are being led by a shoddy commander who hasn’t put much thought into the expedition, and they encounter many hiccups along the way.

I find this time period tough to read about as this part of our country was pretty desolate and there was a lot of violence.  I couldn’t imagine being a Texas Ranger.  I thought McMurty did a good job in drawing Gus and Call for us as characters since they’re going to be the main characters we follow through the series.  They are very distinctive and standout among the rest of the characters.  The storyline is a little repitive in that you have a group of Texas Rangers setting out to explore further West who constantly end up hungry, starving, without horses, water or hope and struggling to stay alive.  Those themes appear again and again in the book. 

I will stick to the series just so that I can read the infamous Lonesome Dove though.  I enjoyed this first book and I liked taking myself outside of my comfort zone by reading a Western.  I can’t imagine I’ll pick up the 2nd book really soon but I’ll get around to it eventually.

3 Stars

Post in Comments:

Do you like Western’s (movies or books)?

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

225 pages, @ 1818

One of my blog New Year’s Resolutions was to post everday.  I didn’t get off to a very good start in that I didn’t post at all last week.  To make up for that I’m double posting all week so that we stay on track (in a way).  I’m off to a good start this year in my challenge to read one book a week; I’ve already finished 3, hopefully I can keep this pace up. 

My second book this year was Frankenstein, chosen by my friend Alison as her book group book.  I was excited to read this book – 1) it’s a classic, 2) it’s on my magical book shelf and 3) I had never read it.  Frankenstein is the story of Dr. Frankenstein from childhood to adulthood.  Obviously the most life altering thing that happened to him was that at University he created a “monster”.  A monster that was leashed on society and seeked acceptance from his creator.  When that was not received he set out to destroy everything/everyone that was dear to Frankenstein.

For a book that was published in 1818 this book read remarkably well.  Sometimes when I read old classics it takes me a good 50-75 pages before I can adjust to the language.  That was not the case while reading Frankenstein.  The main thing that our book group was most surprised by was that our idea of Frankenstein from movies and Halloween images (you know, tall green, screws in his head, incoherent speech, etc) was not at all the Frankenstein from the novel.  And just for the record the monster in the novel isn’t even called Frankstein, his creator is Frankenstein.  Anyway, the monster in the novel is tall, super human, but human looking, and incredibly intelligent.  The monster surprisingly was a sympathetic character.  All he wanted was to be accepted and loved by his creator and by those in society.  I didn’t think what he was asking of Frankenstein was a lot and I didn’t understand why Frankenstein didn’t just acquiesce.  Obviously the way the novel was written was a reflection on society.  That those that are on the fringe of society or are different many times aren’t accepted by those more fortunate or more in the main stream of society.  It’s a sad reflection…but one that still holds true some 200 years later.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would highly recommend it to all.  If you decide to pick it up, make sure to pick up a version that has a synopses on Mary Shelley’s life.  Her life is reflected in many ways in the novel (creator/author; monster/novel; water themes, etc).  In addition, her life was pretty interesting (and scandalous for 1818).  We all enjoyed discussing the appendices almost as much as the novel itself.

5 stars

Post in Comments:

Have you read Frankenstein, if so, what did you think about it?

Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann

349 pages, @2009

As you know, if you read the blog post last month, my friend Jen and I had the pleasure of going to one of Colum McCann’s book readings for Let the Great World Spin.  This was the first book that I finished in my 2010 quest to read one book a week! 

How to describe what this novel is about…  Essentially it centers around Philippe Petit’s tightrope walk in the 70’s in NYC.  For those of you that aren’t familiar with it, he walked a tightrope between the World Trade Center towers, without a net below him, nor was he attached to any kind of safety device.  Colum McCann said at the reading that he wanted to compare the feat of Philippe Petit with the feat of people walking their own tightrope down on the ground – the challenges that the everyday person faces in their life.  Their are a lot of characters in this book, but the main stories center around John Corrigan, an religious Irish man, who lives in the Bronx and tries to help out those around him, namely the hookers that live and work in his neighborhood.  Two of those hookers, who are also central to the story, are Tilly and her daughter Jazzlyn.  Then the other main storyline going on follows a group of women, mother’s of men lost during the Vietnam war.  Namely Claire, a wealthy woman who lives on the Upper East Side, and Gloria, a mother of three lost sons from the Bronx. 

McCann’s prose is poertry.  He is one of those writers that as you read his novels (or even when you hear him speak) you are just blown away by the way he phrases thoughts, ideas, descriptions, etc.  This novel was no exception.  It’s a powerful story of right vs. wrong, compassion, passion, empathy, friendship, love and family.  I will say however, the one thing that I could have done without was the sheer number of characters in this novel.  It almost in a way reminded me of a Toni Morrison novel, where as you’re reading it you’re introduced to all of these characters and they have a purpose but it’s hard to see until the end of the novel as they are all twined together.  Not that being compared to Toni Morrison is necessarily a bad thing. 

Before I leave off, I wanted to give you a sample of McCann’s beautiful prose.  The following paragraph in the novel is a description of love:

“Some people think love is the end of the road, and if you’re lucky enough to fine it, you stay there.  Other people say it just becomes a cliff you drive off, but most people who’ve been around awhile know it’s just a thing that changes day by day, and depending on how much you fight for it, you get it, or you hold on to it, or you lose it, but sometimes it’s never even there in the first place.”

The following paragraph is from the reading guide in the back of the novel:

“There is an act of creative reading, and writing is more about a reader’s imagination than anything else.  A book is completed only when it is finished by a reader.  This is the intimate privilege of art.  In fact, it’s the intimate privilege of being alive.  When telling stories we are engaged in a democracy like no other.”

Ah, if only I could think or write or express myself in such a beautiful way.  I’ll continue trudging along on my little blog and hopefully over the years I’ll get better:)

4 Stars

Post in Comments:

What author have you read that you feel just writes on a different level than other authors?