Hello readers! It has been a long time since you have heard from me. Year two of university is taking up most of my time. The great thing about being an English major is all of the wonderful books I have gotten to read over this semester. I am taking a class that focuses on 20th-century novels. In this post, I will review a few of the books we have read. SPOILERS ALERT!
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley:
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I would not put it on my to-be-read-again list. I knew many people who read this book in high school but I was never assigned to read it and to be honest, I was not too upset about that. I heard it was weird but good and many people compared it to 1984 and I attempted to read that once before and did not find it interesting. I was not thrilled when I saw that Brave New World was on the reading list for this class. After reading it I can understand why people said it was weird. The part that struck me for being odd was the phrases that were engrained in the people’s mind. For example, “Ending is better than mending. the more stitches, the less riches; the more stitches…” is a phrase that is repeated throughout the novel. Overall I enjoyed the book and I can see why it is considered a significant novel of the 20th century but it was not my favorite book from this class. Rate: 7/10
2. Night by Elie Wiesel
This is the second time I have read Night and to be honest it was just as though provoking as the first time I read it. This book is about a young boy who is taken from his home during the Holocaust. It outlines his travels as he goes from the ghettos to the concentration camp and eventually to his freedom. The first time I read this book I cried and was appalled by the things that happened in those concentration camps and it was a hard read because Elie gave the honest truth about his time there. It is a short book of only 120 pages but it is so powerful. It is a great book for someone who is interested in fiction but also learning about history. I will probably read this book again and again in the future because it is one of my favorite books. Elie Wiesel is a fantastic writer and he uses words to make horrible situations sound beautiful. I would recommend everyone to read this book at least once, but chances are you will end up reading it more than once. Rate: 9/10
3. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
I was very intrigued when I read a synopsis of this book. I have always been skeptical when people take great book and attempt to make either prequels or sequels out of them. Wide Sargasso Sea tells the story of the crazy lady in the attic from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. I had a suspicion that I would not like this book because I really disliked Jane Eyre. Wide Sargasso Sea pleasantly surprised me by the ease of reading. It was written in 1966 which is over 100 years after Jane Eyre was written so it is a given that the language would be easier to read. As I said before I am always skeptical when someone touches the story of a classic book but in this case, it was not terrible. Jean Rhys did not write about the main characters such as Jane Eyre or Rochester as much as she wrote about Antoinette and Christophine. It was interesting for me because I have read Jane Eyre twice and was so focused on the main characters that I did not think much about Rochester’s crazy and mysterious wife in the attic. So hearing the side of the story from the crazy lady was a refreshing twist. I would recommend this book to people and reading Jane Eyre is not necessary. Wide Sargasso Sea is a good story by itself. Rate: 6/10
Well, those are three of the books I read this semester. In that class, we also read 1984, The Remains of the Day, and The Power and the Glory. I enjoyed all of the books we read because they are ones I would not normally choose to read and I just enjoy reading any book. I will try and blog more regularly now that I am on Christmas break.