Book meme! Day 10
Jul. 30th, 2010 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vcmwDay 10 - A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis. I swear I'm not trying to be pretentious. We had to read this for my junior year AP English class. It sounded just awful. It has stuck with me forever.
I think part of the effect of the book came from the context I was in when I read it - that was the summer I spent at my grandmother's apartment in Manhattan with my dad, after my grandmother died and before we made the building owners VERY happy by not continuing the lease (the apartment was rent controlled, and had been rent controlled for a Very Long Time).
My grandfather was a guy who had ambitions that he didn't really get to follow. In different ways, so was my dad. There was a lot of love between them that never managed to communicate itself very well. (I actually saw the Beautiful People letter that my dad wrote my grampa during the 60s. It was seriously a Beautiful People letter just like in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.)
So here I was in this apartment that was slowly being emptied of its decades of tasteful knick knacks, clothes, and mementos. There were the books on the wall about writing novels, mystery, and science fiction that my advertising copy writing grandfather never made use of - or at least, never cracked into fiction with. He had pretty wide ranging taste - Tony Hillerman, A. E. vanVogt, the best of Galaxy, plays of Jean Anouilh. He wanted to write fiction and got nowhere with it. He was quite successful with the advertising.
I was lying in the bedroom on the chenille spread, and reading about this guy who is totally crushed by the life he's agreed to have, the life other people pushed on him. A life he didn't even really have the language to protest effectively.
And he really... I think that people get Babbitt all wrong. To my mind he was deeply heroic, because in the end he found the courage to be a lot like an Indigo Girls song and let the next life off the hook.
In a way I think his story is very noir - it seems like his life is fine until he falls through the cracks. And once he's fallen through he can never not see them. But neither can he escape them. His life is overdetermined.
Also, the story was written with such specificity. I can still see him contemplating the pile of rusting razor blades on the top of the medicine cabinet.
The book gave me a lot more empathy for my parents and grand parents, and for all the people who make choices and then realize that the choices they made didn't fit them, or weren't taken from a big enough set - that there were other sets of choices out there.
Day 01 - A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)
Day 02 - A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
Day 03 - The best book you've read in the last 12 months
Day 04 - Your favorite book or series ever
Day 05 - A book or series you hate
Day 06 - Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time
Day 07 - Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
Day 08 - A book everyone should read at least once
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A book that disappointed you
Day 12 - A book or series of books you’ve watched more than five times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)
Day 14 - Favorite character in a book (of any sex or gender)
Day 15 - Your "comfort" book
Day 16 - Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Day 17 - Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)
Day 18 - Favorite beginning scene in a book
Day 19 - Favorite book cover (bonus points for posting an image!)
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite romantic/sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 22 - Favorite non-sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 23 - Most annoying character ever
Day 24 - Best quote from a novel
Day 25 - Any five books from your "to be read" stack
Day 26 - OMG WTF? OR most irritating/awful/annoying book ending
Day 27 - If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!
Day 28 - First favorite book or series obsession
Day 29 - Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!)
Day 30 - What book are you reading right now?
Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis. I swear I'm not trying to be pretentious. We had to read this for my junior year AP English class. It sounded just awful. It has stuck with me forever.
I think part of the effect of the book came from the context I was in when I read it - that was the summer I spent at my grandmother's apartment in Manhattan with my dad, after my grandmother died and before we made the building owners VERY happy by not continuing the lease (the apartment was rent controlled, and had been rent controlled for a Very Long Time).
My grandfather was a guy who had ambitions that he didn't really get to follow. In different ways, so was my dad. There was a lot of love between them that never managed to communicate itself very well. (I actually saw the Beautiful People letter that my dad wrote my grampa during the 60s. It was seriously a Beautiful People letter just like in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.)
So here I was in this apartment that was slowly being emptied of its decades of tasteful knick knacks, clothes, and mementos. There were the books on the wall about writing novels, mystery, and science fiction that my advertising copy writing grandfather never made use of - or at least, never cracked into fiction with. He had pretty wide ranging taste - Tony Hillerman, A. E. vanVogt, the best of Galaxy, plays of Jean Anouilh. He wanted to write fiction and got nowhere with it. He was quite successful with the advertising.
I was lying in the bedroom on the chenille spread, and reading about this guy who is totally crushed by the life he's agreed to have, the life other people pushed on him. A life he didn't even really have the language to protest effectively.
And he really... I think that people get Babbitt all wrong. To my mind he was deeply heroic, because in the end he found the courage to be a lot like an Indigo Girls song and let the next life off the hook.
In a way I think his story is very noir - it seems like his life is fine until he falls through the cracks. And once he's fallen through he can never not see them. But neither can he escape them. His life is overdetermined.
Also, the story was written with such specificity. I can still see him contemplating the pile of rusting razor blades on the top of the medicine cabinet.
The book gave me a lot more empathy for my parents and grand parents, and for all the people who make choices and then realize that the choices they made didn't fit them, or weren't taken from a big enough set - that there were other sets of choices out there.
Day 01 - A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)
Day 02 - A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
Day 03 - The best book you've read in the last 12 months
Day 04 - Your favorite book or series ever
Day 05 - A book or series you hate
Day 06 - Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time
Day 07 - Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
Day 08 - A book everyone should read at least once
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A book that disappointed you
Day 12 - A book or series of books you’ve watched more than five times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)
Day 14 - Favorite character in a book (of any sex or gender)
Day 15 - Your "comfort" book
Day 16 - Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Day 17 - Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)
Day 18 - Favorite beginning scene in a book
Day 19 - Favorite book cover (bonus points for posting an image!)
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite romantic/sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 22 - Favorite non-sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 23 - Most annoying character ever
Day 24 - Best quote from a novel
Day 25 - Any five books from your "to be read" stack
Day 26 - OMG WTF? OR most irritating/awful/annoying book ending
Day 27 - If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!
Day 28 - First favorite book or series obsession
Day 29 - Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!)
Day 30 - What book are you reading right now?
