The 305 Greatest Books - #198: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. The book can be found on the BBC and My Book Lists.

Cold Comfort Farm was a rather surprising story. The plot follows Flora Poste, a recently orphaned twenty-year-old, who was left with a modest income from her parents. She decides she is going to lean on some of her ample family that she has for lodging, and ends up writing to many of them. She eventually decides to board with the Starkadder family at Cold Comfort Farm. And a more redneck variety of country bumkins I have rarely seen in literature. I would say this story has a white savior problem, but with the majority of the redneck family being white, they more have a rich cousin savior problem. Flora swoops in and really makes it her goal to fix everything in the farm and get it all sorted out before eventually flying off into the sunset (almost literally). The general premise of the story makes it seem insufferable, however, it is hilarious. While the majority of the story is clearly presented tongue firmly in cheek, the author gives us enough nods to know that she is indeed being farcical about the whole thing. And Stella Gibbons has a tremendous knack at sentences that turn her prose into a work of art in many instances. He descriptive terminology, analogies, and metaphors creates such a palette, that regardless with how insufferable many of the characters are, I am having a downright enjoyable time reading them. And the book is funny, often times laugh out loud so, further emphasizing the farcical narrative of the whole thing. If there is one issue I have with the story, it is the loose plot threads that are by no means insignificant in my opinion. Stella starts off the story with several reasons and mysteries for Flora to go to the farm, however by the end of the story few of those reasons are clarified or even explained. One is hinted at, however the others Flora outright says, "well I guess I'll never know". What was in the woodshed Stella!?!?! What was in the woodshed????? (I do hope her tombstone describes what was in the woodshed). Overall, I do recommend this one because it is short (always a plus), easy to read, enjoyable, and very well written. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #197: The Godfather by Mario Puzo

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is The Godfather by Mario Puzo. The book can be found on the BBC Book List.

The Godfather is most notably known as the book that the award winning movie is based off of. And while I have seen the movie, and Part 2, I have not seen them in a very long time, and I could not tell you what parts of the book were in the movie, or not, or even if they differed at all. The book though was a lightning fast read. I was dialed in for the whole thing and could not put it down. And while that would seem like an instant recommend, I did have some grave concerns about the book. The story follows the Corleone family, specifically Don Corleone, who is the Godfather to this Sicilian crime family. The story bounces all over the place from Don's early childhood, to his later retirement, and everything in between. We also follow along with some of his children and godchildren, at least when they help propel the story forward. And while I did enjoy the story, I mean who doesn't love a good mafia story every now and again, my biggest gripe is with the women in the story. They were all written to be slapped or beaten around and to obey their husbands without question. When any of them deviated from this narrative, the men were actually forced to account, and they shouldered with the blame of what "their women" did. Most of this treatment though was front loaded in the book, so it felt like a steep drop off into uncomfortable territory. While the women characters mostly vanished later on in the book, with a few notable examples, none escaped the derogatory treatment. And so that is why, despite my generally enjoying the book, and have a nice time reading it, it does not stand up to today's standards, so I can't recommend it. My vague recollection of the movie though is that it generally fixed these problems and so I do want to go back and compare notes between the two. 

Corollary - After watching both The Godfather and The Godfather Part 2, I have found that reading novel did greatly enhance the movies. There are so many minor plot threads, or other tidbits of information, that the movie brings up and just drops, come out of nowhere, or are just background little tidbits, that are explained in detail within the book. For that reason I would recommend it.