Lighthouse by Eugenia Price

Lighthouse by Eugenia Price is a book written in the 1960s about the deep South before it became the deep South. It is the story of James Gould, a young man from Massachussetts in the late 1700's who needed to go away from home to make a name for himself. Like most stories, the hero finds trouble, overcomes obstacles, finds love and then life seems perfect, only to lose everything due to circumstances, rebuilds his life, and so on. This is classified as a historical novel because Eugenia Price, dentist turned writer, has based this story on real people who lived in the times she describes.

I was in the mood for a book about the South, because we're headed to a few days in South Carolina, and this book seemed to fit the bill...somewhat. When I said it was written in the 1960's that was an important notation, because Price has created a very strong Negro dialect in the story that diminishes her writing talent. The story itself is basic, and somewhat disappointing but then in an epilogue Price herself writes that although this is the first book in the St. Simons trilogy, it was also the last book written in the trilogy. The ending seems awkward and clearly sets the stage for book two. So now on to Beloved Invader, book two in the St. Simons trilogy.

A Week At The Airport: Book Review

Finished reading A Week at the Airport by Alain de Botton. At first I wanted to write about how awful this book was, about how the writer had no focus, and about how he violated basic writing principles such as switching point of view in the middle of a paragraph, and about how he just really put together a hodge-podge of writing into a 63 page book. But as I reflected on this book it occurred to me just how much of a social scientist I had become... I was attracted to this book because I hoped it would be a detailed ethnography about the aspects of airports that we don't see as travellers. I hoped for enlightenment and understanding about the "secrets" of airports behind the scenes. Instead, the author wandered about for a week with little focus or purpose and the result was a thin description of airport life behind the scenes. This would make for a great doctoral dissertation-- or the very least, a great research project conducted as an ethnography!!!

Knowing When to Quit

Remember my post about Freedom? It was one of my "obligatory" reads? Well, I've decided my time is better spent reading something I want to read-- something I like to read... so I've given up on Freedom after I heard a public radio review of the book. It appears as though Franzen has received critical acclaim for this book. Why I don't know. Critics have hailed it as one of the best works of American fiction. Many have argued that if this book, a fictional portrait of a middle-class American family falling apart, had been written by a woman, it might not have received so much attention. I don't know-- but to me, this book is one of those "forgettable" reads... I'm moving on to something else... time is my only non-renewable resource...