The Fountain Overflows

I love New York Review Book classics (NYRB).  They really know to collect the best literature of the last century.  I read this just based on the label.  It's about a family of musicians.  The talented twins are learning piano from their mother.  Their father is a gambler.  The daughter Cordelia is a violinist but she isn't very good.  She has a teacher who doesn't know any better and has her do concerts.  This book also has a touch of the supernatural. The book is around 400 pages.  I think it could have been edited a bit.  Still, I was impressed.  There were sequels.  I'll get around to them this year and next.  Rebecca West also wrote a nonfiction book I'm curious about Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. 3.5/5  

The Crying of Lot 49

When I was in my early 20's I read a bit of postmodern literature.  I read some John Barth and I read this.  I read The Crying of Lot 49 because it was short.  Back in the days, I used to avoid books that were over 300 pages.  I found them too much of a challenge. My attention would wander. Now I don't have that problem at all.  I remember liking it so I read it fifteen years later.  I still enjoyed it.  It's kind of like a postmodern Alice in Wonderland.  A woman finds out about a secret postal service and it leads her down a rabbit hole.  I enjoyed the band obviously a parody of The Beatles.  I like The Beatles too.  One of these days now that long books don't overwhelm me anymore I got to read Gravity's Rainbow.  I bought it and put it on the bookshelf.  It's just waiting for the read.

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.