The Fault in Our Stars and The Great Gatsby

I'm back!  I've been away for some time, but I've been reading some good stuff lately and I thought I'd share what's been on my bookshelf lately.

Just recently I read John Green's latest novel The Fault in Our Stars, which is a touching story about cancer patient, Hazel Grace as she copes with surviving into her mid-teen years despite having terminal thyroid cancer and lungs that suck at being lungs.  During a support group meeting she befriends Augustus Waters, who becomes her bosom friend, although she reserves her feelings for him because she doesn't want to be a bomb in his life if she dies.

The language is lyrical and moving, the plot is well-structured and the pace is smooth.  John Green has established his ability to craft a solid fiction that matters as much as though it really happened.  I checked this out from the public library, but purchased it before I was 2/3s through because I know this is a novel I will return to again and again.  The Fault in Our Stars interestingly demonstrates a fine use of literary references from T.S. Eliot to William Carlos Williams, but reminds us that there is some fine reading to be had in video game adaptions.  I recommend this novel to everyone.

Another novel that I finished just recently was F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby.  I don't know why I waited so long to read this novel.  It was fantastic.  The basic premise follows Nick Carraway, an up-and-comer from the mid-West who moved to New York to make a living selling bonds.  By luck he happened to move into a house that was next door to the fabulous home of Jay Gatsby, a popular and wealthy man who threw parties that people showed up to even if they weren't invited!  We come to find out that Gatsby has been in love with Nick's cousin, Daisy.  Daisy loved him too, except that while he was away at war she grew impatient and married Tom Buchanan.  There is a beautifully conceived plot that smoothly flows towards a dramatic climax.  The novel is beautifully written; more novel should continue to be written in this tradition.

Part of the reason I had chosen to read Gatsby now is because I have decided to work my way through the ALA most challenged or banned classic books.  The Great Gatsby is listed as the most challenged and/or banned book.  This is probably due to the illegal activities such as boot-legging of alcohol during prohibition (the setting is the 1920s), marital infidelity on the part of a few people, and of course a murder.  While extremely mild by today's standards, these were probably enough to trigger quite a bit of outrage, as evidenced by the number of challenges it has received and still receives.

Many seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds will encounter this work on an AP Lit syllabus, and this is one of those novels that I would say every almost-adult should read because of some of the very interesting insights that are made throughout the novel.  One in particular that sticks out vividly is the problem that Daisy can not live up to the expectation that Gatsby has imagined of her all these years while he has worked to be reunited with her.  These are important lessons to identify during one's formidable years (oh, and I should probably mention that the open lines of this novel are perhaps my favorite of any novel so far.), and unfortunately it is too late for me to read them now for the first time, having already arrived at such ideas on my own long before approaching this work.  But with that all said, this is an important work--although it may not be entirely young adult--it speaks to the spirit of the young adult, and rich with the themes most valuable to those coming of age.

Masters of Disaster

New on our shelves at the library this week is Gary Paulson's Masters of Disaster.  This quick, 100-page novel was published in 2010, and features three 12-year-old boys trying to escape the banality of suburban Cleveland life.  The group leader, Henry, comes up with the plans.  Riley, the group's secretary documents everything the group does while Reed, the unfortunate comic-relief character, has to perform all the stunts and ends up smelling like something horrible after each plan.  

I picked up this book because Paulson is quite popular for one of his books, Hatchet, which I remember reading when I was in 5th grade more than fifteen years ago.  This is not in the same vein as Paulson's survival stories, however, there are plenty of adventurous elements throughout the novel. 

One of the most insteresting aspects about this novel is the way Paulson demonstrates his influence over literature for tween readers.  In the beginning of the story, Henry reveals that he is motivated by the stories they have been reading in English class, one of them about a boy whose plane crashes and he is left to survive in the wilderness with only a Hatchet.  This of course is referring back to Hatchet and its companions which, as I mentioned earlier, children encounter sometime around fifth grade.  To have been around for so long producing literature that you can then write another book about how children have been influenced by a previous work is quite the accomplisment. 

I would recommend this to boys ages 10 and up.  Some of the stunts that the students pull off may need to be contextualized for some readers as the boys are extremely lucky they aren't hurt more, and there ought to be a "Please don't try any of these stunts at home" message on the front.  All in all though, Masters of Disaster is a fun read for a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Banned Book Week Ends

Banned book week comes to a close today.  It looks like we fell short of our goal, but not to worry, we had a great time exploring different titles that have been challeneged or banned in schools and libraries around the country. 

After taking stock in the number of books that have been banned, it would seem that they should expand the banned book week to a month long so that we might have more time to cover the many, many books that become censored or face censoship each year. 

I personally do not agree with censorship of most types.  I make a few exceptions regarding materials that aren't just unsuitable to a particular age, but that are simply unsuitable for people.  By and far, most of the books that face censorship are at the mercy of concerned parents who would rather their children remain ignorant of the realities of the world than read about some general truths from a safe distance.  One of the largest topics that came up in the lists of books that have been challenged include explorations of religion, sexuality, the use of adult-oriented language and abuse.  The books I explored this week all shared a common theme of people who felt like outsiders trying to fit into a world where everyone else seems normal.  This is a popular theme in many contemporary novels, movies and television shows because it captures a very unique quality that most of us share: we all feel like we are somehow different and that everyone else is someone the same.  The characters are oddballs, but typically so.  This is interesting to think about when pitted against the fact that these books are challenged not because they are so disconnected from reality, but because they capture an aspect of reality that many adults struggle with or are uneasy about. 

So when you read a book that is surrounded in controversy, keep questions in your mind about what it is about the novel that you read that makes people so upset.  Often times you will find it is the truth in fiction that scares people, and to that extent drives adults to protect their child from that truth that the world is not such a safe comfortable place afterall. 

Banned Books #3: Catcher in the Rye

Published in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye is notorious for having a strange effect on its readers.  It's controversy lies with the main character, Holden Caufield's, outlook on life.  He is an emotional pre-teen who criticizes virtually every person he meets for being phony.  Additionally, everything he sees depresses him and makes him wish he was dead.  It is easy to see why this novel would be popular with emo teens because of it's excessive self-indulgence.  This book perhaps does not deserve to be banned mainly because it does not deserve to be taken seriously.  For all the hype, this novel is one of the most overrated novels I have encountered.  Teens should read it, but then should revisit it when they are in their late twenties so that they can see how puerile Holden's attitude is.

For more information, see the links below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catcher_in_the_Rye#Controversy

http://www.ila.org/BannedBooks/BBW_Short_List_2010_Single_R5.pdf

http://www.banned-books.com/bblista-i.html

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/index.cfm

Banned Book #2: Weetzie Bat

 Weetzie Bat was written in 1989 by Francesca Lia Bloc.  The novel takes place in L.A. and follows Weetzie and her friend Dirk as they try and make their dreams come true.

There are elements of Magical Realism, including a genie in a lamp that grants wishes. 

This book was banned in Texas because of sexual content.  Specifically, it is the homosexual themes that run through the novel that people at Ehrhart Charter School took issue with.  

Stylistically, the novel is not the best written novel I've ever read, and contains several idioms and slang that add unique textures to the story.  While the novel was published in 1989, it did not become popular until much later, earning Bloc a Phoenix award.

The themes of homosexuality are nonchalantly woven into the novel.  It is understandable that parents might take issue with an author writing homosexuality as commonplace, but banning a book like this reflects a deep-seeded fear in conservative traditions of heterosexuality that homosexuality may just be a natural phenomena.  

This book is recommended for high school students from suburban backgrounds.  It will jive more closely to hipster sympathies than anything else.  That is one of the defining aspects of this book, it is pre-hipster with its post-punk attitude, but ultimately paves the way for the hip in the way that Kerouac's On the Road brought attention to beatitude "beat" lifestyle.   

Banned Book #1: Are You There God?

Judy Blume published Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret in 1970.  It is an interesting representative of a particular period in time in which the suburban culture was emerging that was distinctly different from urban culture or rural culture.  

The novel begins with Margaret and her family moving out of the city of New York and into the suburban community in New Jersey.  As soon as she arrives, she encounters a neighbor girl whose attitude makes Margaret self conscious about her own development.  Nancy, the neighbor girl, represents an attitude of girls on the cusp of puberty who dream of growing into sex objects.  

This book has made the ALA's Top 100 most challenged book for over 20 years.  Some may question this decision, especially in light of many recent publications that really do make this book seem tame, but there are aspects about this book that would have been a major departure from topics covered by other novels published around the same time.  The topic of explicit awareness of female development might cause a few parents to raise an eyebrow.  It also might interest some prepubescent boys who may not be mature enough to handle the content. 

There is also a religious component to the novel, a conflict in Margaret stemming from her religious duality.  Her mother is a Christian, though non-practicing.  Her father is Jewish.  Throughout the novel, Margaret discusses how she feels the need to have a regular dialogue with God and so does so secretly.  This is interrupted by a confrontation between her parents and maternal grandparents.  Margaret blames God for the fight and stops talking to him until the end of the novel when....well, I won't ruin it for you.  

I would recommend reading this if you have a pre-teen daughter or you are a pre-teen yourself.  If you are a boy, read The Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume which explores adolescence from the male point of view. 

Happy Banned Book Week!

It is banned book week this week, and to celebrate we will be reviewing a select few of the books that have been challenged or banned in our schools and libraries all over the country.  The first review which will be come up on Monday is a classic book by Judy Bloom, Are You There God?  It's Me, Margaret.  We are also going to review a title that has been challenged more recently.  We are trying to review a classic and something more contemporary each day until Friday.  So stay tuned and see you Monday!!

In the meantime, check out this link:
http://flavorwire.com/213093/mark-twains-saucy-1906-story-formally-unbanned-from-library