The 305 Greatest Books - #193: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. The book can be found on the BBC Book List.

Set during WWII, the story is mostly told as a flashback to the main character, Charles Ryder's, remembrances of his times at a house known as Brideshead as well as the family that owned and occupied the house, the Flytes during the 20's. And while the book is initially set up like a mystery during the prologue, it is really anything but. I went into the book (following said prologue) excited for a mystery and expecting some twist to take place, but nothing every really does. The story can be broken into two parts (even though the book is divided into three main parts), Charles life with Sebastian and his life with Julia. This first part with Charles was by far the more interesting section and the one that led credence to the "mystery" aspect of the story. It had potential to go where I could not see but overall it felt like that storyline was just dropped and the story of Julia taken up in it's place. Sebastian was mysterious and was a fantastic companion character. He traveled around with a teddy bear and communicated with it as if it was a real person. I mean this was someone who could lead us down some awesome roads. However, it seemed he was just abandoned in the story when he could have been played with more. Julia then took over the plot and while she was in the first part, she didn't seem to play a prominent role. And her story, again, wasn't bad per say, it just wasn't as interesting as Sebastian's and I didn't really care what happened with her at the end of it. I would say at the end, the story turned out to be just fine. It's not a bad story. It is well written and enjoyable to read, and you can breeze through it fairly quickly. However, I feel like I was sold a bill of goods with the prologue, and I never got over it. Overall, I feel like this book had so much potential and it just didn't go in an interesting direction. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #192: Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. The book can be found on the Observer Book List.

Having just read Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, I really enjoyed his writing style and wanted to read his other book that was on my list, Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Researching it, I discovered it was a children's book and was fairly short (~210 pages), which means I could likely finish it off fairly quickly. Turns out I could, I was able to read the book in four days, so that was the good part. The bad part is that, while it is a fine book, it does not deserve a place anywhere near this list. Within the story, Rushdie combines the feel of Alice in Wonderland and Dr. Seuss to present this whimsical fairy tale where a father and son are sent to save the Sea of Stories from those intent on destroying them. Rushdie litters the prose with jokes and word play, to the point it becomes practically insufferable. And while this is a children's book, the word play I could see giving children a difficult time to delve into the story. It took me a chapter or so before I was comfortable with it. I have run into this issue with the Observer list with numerous of the entries and I am starting to think that the list compiler purposefully chose this book over Rushdie's other works because he wanted something less popular. Overall, even though it is quick, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, despite Rushdie's sometimes clever wordplay. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #191: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. The book can be found on the Norwegian, BBC, and My Book Lists.

Salman Rushdie has become a rather infamous author over the last several decades, mostly because of another work of his, the 1988 work The Satanic Verses and the proceeding fatwa that was placed on him by the Ayatollah of Iran in 1989. Midnight's Children (1981) did not receive that sort of reception, however it is one of the few books I have left on my list that is on multiple 100 Greatest lists. Midnight's Children is about the life of Saleem Sinai who was born at the stroke of midnight on August 15th, 1947. Coincidently, the same day as India's Independence day from British rule. And because of this, Saleem had been gifted with "powers" (?), or maybe it is better termed "gifts". But not only him, but everyone born within that first hour of independence also had a wide range of gifts. And while that story sounds like it could be a fantastic fantasy novel, that is not this novel. While the book is named "Midnight's Children", the other children of midnight barely play a role within the novel, except here and there, and even then, they are sparingly used. So, if this book isn't about the powered people, then what is it about? And that is a good question because I'm still not entirely sure. We follow the course of Indian history, and Saleem's life, from a couple of generations before he is born, until he is in his thirties. And while Indian history plays a backdrop to the novel, at times it is directing the novel. Everything that is happening to him is due to India's primary players, people who actually do exist and events that had actually happened. And while the novel left me unfulfilled at the end, with an ending that wasn't really an ending, and characters plot lines that many of which were just left off or ended abruptly, I think that was the point of the story. And it made me think, while I didn't get the ending I wanted, the book ended in a way that it deserved. The writing style though I absolutely loved. So much so, that I immediately bought Rushdie's other book on my list, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, to begin reading immediately (a book that was referenced in Midnight's Children despite being written afterwards). So, yea, I would recommend this book because it was highly enjoyable, but prepare to have your expectations subverted. If you familiar with Indian history though, I feel you would get much more out of this book than those who are not (such as myself).   

The 305 Greatest Books - #190: The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford. The book can be found on the Observer Book List.

Ford's dedication letter at the beginning was interesting because he notes that the original title for the book was "The Saddest Story" and he changed the name to The Good Soldier in jest when his publisher requested a new title since the world was within the midst of WWI and they wanted something that would sell better. The book has actually nothing to do with war, or even the acts of a soldier. The principle character, Colonel Edward Ashburnham, just happens to have been a "good soldier" and therefore he became the namesake of the book. The book is written in a stream-of-conscience method which means that the plot line jumps around terribly. And while the story is fairly simple, my brain jumbled up characters, and I could never remember if we found out so-and-so died or if that was one yet to be revealed. I did have to Google some characters deaths because I just couldn't remember if they were mentioned (they were). The story is written in a first person POV by one of the main characters, John Dowell, who relays this story as it was relayed to him. He and the wife of another couple are the surviving members of this pair of rich couples who became the best of friends. However, as the story progresses and we discover how the spouses, as well as other people in their orbit, died, we learn that not everything was as straightforward as the author initially made it sound. And while the story was interesting I found it hard to empathize with these rich people who had nothing to do all day. Besides that, the passage of time has rendered a lot of this tragedy to become not as bad as other books, and in many instances real life, have portrayed. And so while it is an interesting story, and enjoyable if you can keep the plot threads straight, I wouldn't consider this one of the best stories every written but not a bad summer book read.

The 305 Greatest Books - #189: Bleak House by Charles Dickens

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Bleak House by Charles Dickens. The book can be found on the BBC Book List.

Bleak House is my final Dickens' novel on my list and probably the hardest one for me to get through. At one point, I was around 1/3rd of my way through the book, I googled "Why is Bleak House so terrible". The return results were actually rather encouraging. I found that many people consider the first portion of the book (about where I was at) to be difficult to follow because the story bounces around a LOT. However, people had said it gets better from there and that a lot of people consider it his best work. That helped and so I kept going forward, and while the book did indeed get more streamlined and better, I never fell in love with the book as many people did. I was even told I was outright wrong for disliking the book (not maliciously). The problem is that so many of the characters were just overly simplified stereotypes in one way or another and they were just grating on my nerves. Add on top of that a story plot that bounced from one chapter to the next without a clear storyline. It just got to be a lot. There were also few characters that I actually enjoyed. Even the main character, Esther Summerson, whom much of the story was told from a first person perspective, would repeatedly relay other characters telling her how wonderful she was. Gag me with a spoon. This was obviously also written as a serialized story with each and every chapter from 8 to 14 pages in length, and while that made the story easy to digest, it allowed Dickens to just write and write and write, creating a very bloviated novel. Overall, I believe having finished it that if I went back would actually probably like it better now, however I have no desire whatsoever to do that.