The Blind Assassin

People seem to treat The Handmaid's Tale as the only thing that Margaret Atwood ever wrote.  But I liked this and Alias Grace just as much.  This book has a billion stories going on at once.  This is about two sisters Iris and Laura.  After their father's button factory business collapses Iris has to marry a villain Richard.  Before her suicide, Laura wrote a science fiction novel.  At the beginning of The Blind Assassin Iris is picking up an award given to her sister.  Excerpts of that novel are put into this book as well.  One of the reasons for Laura's suicide was her love for a radical named Alex.  Throughout the book many revelations are made about Iris and Laura.  Most of them are involved with Richard who turns out to be even a bigger jerk than the reader initially thought.  This won the Booker Prize. 

The Wild Duck

The Wild Duck is an interesting Ibsen play.  This one is all about the background story.  The main villain of the piece is Werle.  He once had an affair with his employee Gina.  Another employee Ekdal goes to prison while Werle is acquitted.  Feeling bad about it he pays off his son Hjalmar, who marries Gina, with photography lessons.  Then Werle's idealistic son Gregers has this idea that if he tells the truth that everything will be for the better, only setting things in a downward spiral.  Nazimova played Hedvig Gina's daughter in a production.  I would have liked to see that as I'm a fan.  This is one of Ibsen's better plays.  

Death of a Salesman

I read this play in high school.  It’s different now since I’m in my 30’s.  I know people who have drifted through life like Biff and Happy, who used to be hot shots once upon a time.  Still you feel for the character Biff. There are reasons why he never rose successfully to the challenge of adulthood. Willy Loman is one of the stage’s most famous characters.  He’s a salesman who is growing old and not doing sales like he used to.  His big dream is that he will have a huge funeral like the salesman of a man he attended.  Willy is not an admirable man.  He berates his devoted sympathetic wife.  His sons are visiting and he keeps getting in fights with his son Biff.  Willy wonders why his son doesn’t like him and can’t make out where he went wrong.  Then the realization brings his downward spiral.  The version with Dustin Hoffman is the one to watch.  The actors in that presentation really did a good job

Emil in the Soup Tureen

I remember when I was eight I was bullied for liking Pippi Longstocking.  I loved the badly dubbed movies as well.  I picked this book as a reintroduction to Astrid Lindgren.  This was charming.  It's about a boy who gets his head stuck in a soup tureen, eats all of the sausages in food storage, and has other mischievous adventures.  There's no moral at all.  It is simply just having fun.  The Swedish Astrid Lindgren proves that there are more children's authors to read than just American and British ones.   

A Raisin in the Sun

It's sad to see that this talented playwright died at the age of 34.  At least she wrote one masterpiece.  Lorraine was the first successful African American female playwright.  The characters in this play are so likable but real.  All of the family is driven by ambition.  The daughter wants to become a doctor.  Walter wants out of his chauffeur job into something better.  The religious mama wants a better house for them especially with a baby coming.  All of their dreams can come true with the father's money coming in.  But just how responsible is Walter?  This is one of the best plays I've read dealing with how family life is like. Sidney Poitier starred in the movie version.  

Oedipus the King

I had to read this a second time for school.  I didn't mind it because this is a classic.  Sophocles' play has hardly dated at all.  Oedipus is stubborn to admit an oracle's truth.  Who can blame him as it mentions incest and also says he killed his father?  He alone is the cause of Thebes' plague. Oedipus goes on a quest to find the truth.  The whole time the events are happening right in his face and he remains oblivious.  It all ends rather tragically of course.   I've got to read more of Sophocles' plays.  Actually, this is my first Greek play which means I need to catch up on this genre.

The Complete Stories Zora Neale Hurston

In my American Literature class, we had to read "The Gilded Six-Bits" and I loved it.  It was a wonderful story about adultery and forgiveness.  So I just had to read more of her short stories.  This is the first book I've read by Zora.  Some of the "stories" are just excerpts from her novels which I don't think count as a story.  However after reading the excerpts of "Moses: Man of the Mountain" it is definitely on top of my reading list.  I liked how a few of the stories had biblical themes.  There's also interesting themes of hoodoo which I see is prevalent in some of her work.  In other words, this is just a beginning for me of Hurston.