Re-ignitions

Hello followers, I have looked over this corner of the internet and found my blog quite forgotten lately. So I'm back, to write more and to maintain better than I have. This is still most certainly about my reading through the Time 100 novels list, and I'm going to post an update. I started back in 2012 abouts, so after 2 years how much has it changed? I had only read 9 books when I found the list, so what's the READ list look like?

Animal Farm
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
The Assistant
At Swim-Two-Birds
Beloved
The Big Sleep
Brideshead Revisited
Call It Sleep
Catch-22
The Catcher in the Rye
A Clockwork Orange
The Crying of Lot 49
The Day of the Locust
Falconer
The French Lieutenant’s Woman
Go Tell it on the Mountain
Gone With the Wind
The Grapes of Wrath
The Great Gatsby
A Handful of Dust
I, Claudius
Invisible Man
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Lolita
Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Rings
Lucky Jim
Midnight’s Children
Money
Naked Lunch
Neuromancer
1984
On the Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Pale Fire
A Passage to India
Play It As It Lays
Possession
The Power and the Glory
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Rabbit, Run
Ragtime
Revolutionary Road
Slaughterhouse Five
Things Fall Apart
To Kill a Mockingbird
To the Lighthouse
Tropic of Cancer
Under the Volcano
Watchmen

That's a bit of a cheat, the list includes the novels I have, but not particularly read. There's about 7 books I have to go through, and am currently stuck on CATCH-22. That means there's exactly 50 books I haven't read, so I'm fairly close to halfway.

I will also post a link to another, more dedicated reader who's doing the same thing: https://www.facebook.com/101BooksBlog. They write nicer and more regularly than I do!

For the rest of this returning post, I'll write quickly about Things Fall Apart and the ending of Catch-22 (ending meaning my reading to the end of the book, not it's actual conclusion).

People think of the Lion King when you talk about Africa these days, so good job Disney! In a more real sense, the names, the places, the traditions and everything is completely different in this book from everything I know (as a middle age white guy living is Australia), so it was absolutely that breath of fresh air I hope to get from books. It starts off detailing the African traditions and yam farming and how to be a powerful man, with Okonkwo our hero.

Of course as the story progresses, white man is slowly introduced, and changes the tone of the story as well as how quickly and carefully it's told. The opening, learning, sprawling first part of the book really gives you an experience of living in Africa, and what it was like. It's not quite a holiday but pretty close considering you're just reading words on a page. Plus I once again felt hot and sticky while just reading--that's something that good books will do, put your mind into their location, and it happened before with The Power and the Glory (very dirty, though dirt used as a natural/down to earth object in the book) and 1984 (how clean WAS the ministry of Love?). The opening is very deliberately kind on it's reader, and generous with itself.

This changes once the story sees Okonkwo needing to move out. As he is treated to a new way of life (the men aren't as manly where he lives) we see a changing of gears, so the story slows down a bit. We aren't learning as much, seeing we should now know what the author intended, and it instead becomes about events. This may be true of every book, but is particularly notable here. While Okonkwo is away (for 7 years) the white pilgrims come and begin trying to turn the "savages" toward salvation.

The final part of the story deals with rising tension, and Okonkwo's belief in the power of his people and their traditions, versus white Empirialism. It's not a clear cut case of "boo, go away!" or "Wait you want us to change? OK," but is rather an examination of the situation, with reasons on both sides.

The pilgrims turn some Africans, abandoning their own Gods but not all their traditions. They're still African even if they're not devote.

The pilgrims irritate plenty of Africans, including Okonkwo. The Africans rely on their Gods to deal with the intruders, but little comes of it. When this doesn't work, some are inspired to take matters into their own hands, what else can they do?

The pilgrims mostly annoyed me, for being my ancestral icon within the book, and showing us how rude the entire endeavor was. It's OK to have a comparison of faiths, but to outright tell someone else that theirs is wrong doesn't sit well with me. To push it to the point of "Actually, you've GOT to convert, or we'll kill you pretty much, and we're going to collect all your land anyway, so you don't have any choice, power, or say" really makes the savagery of the intrusion apparent, and in fantastically stark contrast to the idea that the pilgrims are civilising the Africans "savages". There's nothing savage about their society, it works and is good for the environment and has it's own systems of reward and punishment. It doesn't have concrete houses etc, but that's barely a reason to call it "savage", and decide it must come down.

Themes aside, the story is good, because you read through all the way to the train wreck that is coming. Okonkwo is made a symbol for Africa, once proud and unbeatable, and then reduced to humble pie as the story progresses. It's not their fault though, when you're truly invaded, under the guise of niceness, especially when to kill one off is to invite another 5, what can you do?

It's a good book that I'll suggest to anyone who wants a nice holiday read, seeing it feels like you're standing in Africa when you read it. I'll definitely read it again, because the wash of African Everything is so nice a change as well. In terms of "believability" it's up there with Grapes of Wrath. I should define what I mean by believability moreso in another post, but basically I mean how much I bought the story, the main character, and felt like I was reading an actual journal of someone's life story. For the MOST believable book, see 1984. (For a book not on the list, see 2001: a Space Oddysey. Surprisingly bloody brilliant!)

That's Things Fall Apart. Now Catch-22.

I'm reminded first of of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Episodic, very clever, filled with themed jokes (in this case literary, not mathematical) and quite capable of finishing at any point. Only it doesn't. I've seen people complain about the length of this novel, but I don't get why. We're told very early on about the notion of Catch 22. Yossarian, the lead pilot of a bombing flight coordination, wants to leave flying behind. So he asks the Doctor to send him home, he must be crazy. The Doctor says he's sane enough to know he's crazy, and can ask, so he's not crazy. A person would have to be crazy to get sent home, but at that point you're too crazy to realise it and ask.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Of course that's not the main message of the book, I still haven't finished it at this reading and wont make that decision until I actually have, so I can talk about the colouring of the book.

My comparison to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is actually quite apt--I've read that book about 10 times now and will always read it throughtout the rest of my life (I even started reading it to my gf, mostly because I knew the animals would hold her interest during the start). Although Catch-22 isn't such a quick and light read it's still as brilliant a piece of writing, and jokes. It feels more like a book written for writers, seeing they're the audience members most likely to be able to get the joke. You could liken that to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as well, seeing quite a few of their jokes don't translate that well when spoken aloud.

The hierarchy of the army is examined in the book, and shows the absurdity of the rank of command quite prominently. There's a powerful member who's scared of someone lower down, so they avoid them at all costs. Milo, in particular, is made incharge of the mess hall and I'm quite absolutely 100% confident that he represents the Devil in this novel. He's quite funny at first, but then you learn about how much everyone loves him, and how he gets everyone naturally involved in his schemes and how they applaud his horrendous efforts (he really really does some hilarious, horrible things!). If Milo is the devil, I don't know who the angel/God figure is, possibly Orr, not the priest he represents the coward, but you could envision an entire moralistic theme here, and Yossarian is the best character in all that - the neutralist. No agendas, just brains, and trying not to get himself killed.

At the very moment everyone seems to be dying, so I'll write what I predict will become the books end. And I don't know that I can call this spoilers, seeing I'm not sure of anything, not having read it.

Everyone dies in horrible and/or embarassing ways, leaving Yossarian to consider life and everything, before the whole medical tent is bombed anyway, just as he hilariously comes to re-realise a concept he walked into the army with. "You're dead once you enter." He just finishes the book realising he was right.

Should I now finish the book, and confirm what I predicted, or let you know that I wasn't close/wasn't far off? I don't think so, I'll just leave it here, like it is.

And thank you for reading! What books do you suggest I read next? It's subject to availability, as well as the books that I already have. I should really finish the ones I've paid for, before buying a new one, right?

Right?

FM.