Angel Time by Anne Rice Book review From Mike Sullivan

Angel Time by Anne Rice

Book review From Mike Sullivan

 

The Bottom Line

If only she had given it more time. Anne Rice, renowned mistress of the modern vampire and accomplished author, tackles another fantastic realm in Angel Time. A distraught assassin is asked by one from the realms of the heavens to join the other side. He does. And then they go back via "angel time" to shape another's history. This could have been an intriguing origin to a potential new series. Instead, it reveals glimpses of better stories, but the main storyline doesn't excite like the speed of light.

Pros

• Rice writes with a strong attention to detail.
• The two stories told in retrospect (Toby's and Fluria's) are haunting and moving.
• There's potential here...

Cons

• ...but Rice needs a new storytelling approach to make this read as dynamic and mysterious as needed.
• There's not enough menace or action to warrant an angel needing an assassin for the mission.
• Rice should have studied a real thriller's pacing & dialogue to make this thriller crackle.

Description

• 'Angel Time' by Anne Rice was published in October 2009.
• Publisher: Knopf
• 268 pages

Guide Review - 'Angel Time' by Anne Rice - Book Review

The first half of Angel Time deals with Toby O'Dare's first-person confessions of atheism and assassination until an angel drops in and forces his beliefs to change through a revelatory travel down memory lane. This takes the first 130 pages or so. The other 135 pages deal with Toby's mission for the good side as the angel goes on a different travel with him back in time to help a Jewish family from being killed during the Dark Ages.

The angel's recollection of Toby O'Dare's fall from faith and into hired killer is a good read. So is the Jewish Fluria's confession of how she had twin girls with a man who became a Christian. These stories are both told in retrospect, and they showcase Rice's strong ability to tell a good tale. Why she didn't focus more on these stories may be the fault of her editor or a lack of time. Rice has the potential for two novels worth of sin and redemption in the stories of Toby and Fluria. The strong characters, symbolism and well-earned empathy would have been a pleasure to sit with longer and ponder, like the angels who reflect on these things.

Instead, we get the shortened versions with the forced ""angel time" storytelling device to connect the tales. In the end, it all feels a bit shallow. Toby's first-person narrative feels too fake, too often including weak emotional leaps and trite dialogue.

http://bestsellers.about.com/od/fictionreviews/gr/angel_time.htm

Love in the Time of Cholera Movie Review A ‘Love’ Story That's Hard to Like By Rebecca Murray

Love in the Time of Cholera Movie Review

A ‘Love’ Story That's Hard to Like

By Rebecca Murray, About.com Guide

Directed by Mike Newell (Mona Lisa Smile) and adapted from Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ novel by Ronald Harwood (Being Julia), Love in the Time of is a surprisingly passionless love story. Flitting back and forth between five decades and littered with supporting players who come and go with little explanation, Love in the Time of Cholera takes what appears to be a very simple plot and twists it into a convoluted tale focused on characters that simply aren’t that interesting.

The Story

A man never stops loving one woman for five decades, although he shows his undying loyalty to his unrequited love by bedding 600 others in her stead. During those same five decades, the object of his desire weds a distinguished doctor noted for taking care of cholera patients. She has one, maybe two – or it could be three or four – children, but never achieves happiness in life. After dozens of years she figures out she might have been better off with the young man whose proposal she accepted and then rejected. The end. Stretch that story over two hours and 15 minutes and you’ve got the clunky, confusing yet sporadically entertaining Love in the Time of Cholera.

The Cast

Javier Bardem stars as Florentino, the man whose unfailing love leaves him in emotional turmoil as well as feeling physically ill at times. Falling in love with Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) the instant he sets eyes on her, Florentino spends his entire adult life mooning over the woman who spurned his advances. As the lovesick Florentino, Bardem’s expressive face suits his character’s forlorn demeanor. Bardem brings the film to life in fits and starts as he wiles away the years by filling his bed – and diary – with a succession of intriguing women of various ages, attractiveness, and social classes with whom he connects but never loves.

Mezzogiorno is a fine actress however she doesn’t seem to fit the part of a woman so magnetic, so engaging, two men would fall immediately under her spell. Mezzogiorno’s Fermina is stand-offish and disconnected. That sparkle isn’t there leaving one to puzzle out what these men see in a woman who shows no more than a passing interest in romance or love. Fermina’s cousin, played by Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace), comes across as much more likely to have won over the hearts of strangers after just a quick meeting. When the two share scenes, it’s Moreno your eyes are drawn to and it’s Moreno’s character that has a real energy to her.

Benjamin Bratt completes the love triangle as the handsome Dr. Juvenal Urbino. Much is made of his reputation with cholera patients, however not much to do with the disease is included in the film. Bratt’s not given much to work with as his character is nothing more than a caricature of a snappily dressed, successful doctor. Who he really is, how he came to be so passionate about his work, or why he so suddenly and inexplicably fell for Fermina is never spelled out, and Bratt doesn’t exactly take the little we know about this good doctor and run with it.

Although he doesn’t portray Florentino as a young adult (that job's smoothly handled by Unax Ugalde, who can easily pass as Bardem’s younger brother), Bardem is required to age up to his 70s and he very convincingly plays a senior citizen still hungry for love and life. Mezzogiorno is handed the task of playing Fermina from her young 20s into old age although, through no fault of her own, she doesn’t really show signs of aging until she’s supposed to be way up in years. In fact, all three main characters – Bardem, Mezzogiorno, and Bratt – appear to age at different rates. It’s annoying, and it takes you out of the film as you try and figure out whether events are occurring simultaneously or the scenes are meant to be flashing forward or skipping backward in time. The lead players' ages don't match up at times, and trying to keep track of the time line becomes a complicated task.

The Bottom Line

Having sat through Love in the Time of Cholera without the benefit of having read the Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel that inspired the film, I’m left feeling lost and a little empty. There must have been a lot more meat on the bones of the story in Marquez’ popular novel for that work to have been so well-received and widely acclaimed. Love in the Time of Cholera, the big screen version, assumes its audience will be willing and able to read between the lines and fill in story gabs and flesh out characters. However there’s not enough on the screen to interest us into putting that much extra thought into the film.

Because we’re shown a glimpse of the story’s final act in the films first few minutes, there’s nothing to look forward to and wonder about as the plot moves sluggishly forward. There's also a problem with continuity in that Fermina and the good doctor are shown as the proud parents of a newborn. Said child then disappears for the length of the film, only to reappear - along with a batch of siblings - toward the end of the movie.

Love in the Time of Cholera is much more of a comedy than you’d assume from the synopsis, however a lot of the humor comes from very uncomfortable situations (I have a problem laughing at a man forced into sex, even if it's shown later he enjoyed the experience). The film changes tone often and there’s no cohesiveness to the story. Ultimately, Love in the Time of Cholera is a romantic film without any real heart.

http://movies.about.com/od/loveinthetimeofcholera/fr/cholera111507.htm

Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories by Tobias Wolff - Book Review From Mike Sullivan

Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories by Tobias Wolff

 - Book Review From Mike Sullivan

The Bottom Line

Our Story Begins says it all. Tobias Wolff captures our stories with his clear distinct voice. With his focused direction, a short story never says so much.

Here is the master of the genre blessing us once again with an incredible collection of stories. Twenty-one, the perfect hand, are formerly published favorites he has decided to revisit again; the 10 others are new, near perfect, captures of people in relation and conflict.

Pros

• Anything new from Wolff is an addition to our literary cannon
• Every word is sharp, every emotion blossomed, every sentence sincere
• This collection belongs with the works of Chekhov and Hemingway

Cons

• Some people just refuse to read short stories; Wolff can change that perspective.

Description

• Published by Knopf - March 2008
• 400 Pages
• 31 short stories in a masterwork collection: 21 classic works, 10 new stories
• Wolff probes universal subjects including love, passions, loss, family ties, marriage, identity, cultural divides, etc.
• Wolff captures people including single mothers, stranded sons, wounded friends, striving marriages, distant neighbors

Guide Review - 'Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories' by Tobias Wolff - Book Review

Since I can't review all 31 stories in this three paragraph space, I'll cop out and just tell you to either buy this collection at your nearest book store or at least reserve it now at your nearest library. This is one of the top books of 2008.

Tobias Wolff is worthy to be mentioned among the greats of short story writing. Like Hemingway, his stories often begin in action, immediately capturing the attention. Like Chekhov, his endings break the flow of life and cast a reflection on our own weaknesses and strength. He has a fluid style and voice embedded in the rhythms of 21st American life. He's unobtrusive, yet knowing. He's streamlined in capturing every detail.

In reflecting on why he chose to revisit the first 21 stories in this collection, Wolff addresses the question of whether a story should be revised by an author later in life (he did tweak some of his most revered stories in this collection). Proud and humble, he says "...truth is that I have never regarded my stories as sacred texts." When his work is finished, there will be many who will.

http://bestsellers.about.com/od/fictionreviews/gr/story_begins.htm

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - Book Review By Erin Collazo Miller

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Book Review By Erin Collazo Miller, About.com Guide

The Bottom Line

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout is described as "a novel in stories." Each story is moving and well-written on its own. Taken together, it is clear why this book won Elizabeth Strout the Pulitzer Prize.

Pros

• Well written, but not a difficult read.
• Strout produces empathy for characters and situations that are usually judged harshly.
• Each story is good on its own, but all together the book is very satisfying.

Cons

• The overall tone of the book is sad.

Description

• 'Olive Kitteridge' by Elizabeth Strout was published in 2007.
• Publisher: Random House
• 288 Pages

Guide Review - 'Olive Kitteridge' by Elizabeth Strout

Most of the thirteen stories in Olive Kitteridge are told in different voices, although Olive shows up as narrator more than once. In some stories, Olive Kitteridge is the main character. In others, she just makes a cameo. By the end of the novel, though, you will have walked through many years of Olive's life, and be intimately acquainted with Olive and the town of Crosby, Maine.

The beautiful thing about Olive Kitteridge is the way it touches on deep truths about life and love through stories about everyday events. The overall tone of the book is melancholy, and Olive is a deeply flawed and not entirely likable character. That Strout got me to feel sympathy for Olive even though I am sure I would not want to meet her shows what a skilled writer she is. Indeed, Strout deals with the disappointments and trade offs people make in life; however, this compilation of sad stories is not without hope.

I recommend Olive Kitteridge for book clubs or individuals looking for a good read. It is literary without being cumbersome. It is also satisfying, as a busy reader, to be able to finish a story in one sitting while knowing I'll get more of the characters next time around.

http://bestsellers.about.com/od/shortstorycollections/gr/olive_kitteridge.htm

The Innocent Man by John Grisham - Book Review By Erin Collazo Miller

The Innocent Man by John Grisham

- Book Review By Erin Collazo Miller, About.com Guide

 

The Bottom Line

The Innocent Man, John Grisham's first nonfiction book, is the story of Ron Williamson's wrongful murder conviction and twelve years on death row. Although The Innocent Man has been hailed as a real life legal thriller, it is far from thrilling. While Williamson's story is sad and certainly a miscarriage of justice, Grisham  does not do a good job building suspense. In fact, I found The Innocent Man boring and had a tough time finishing it. Grisham recounts details well in this book, but has not produced the sort of page turner that his fans have come to love.

Pros

• The Innocent Man is informative, presenting a harsh look at the realities of the justice system.
• The Innocent Man tells a true story that deserves to be told.

Cons

• Grisham provides a lot of details, but does not keep the story moving.
• Grisham provides strong anti-death penalty examples without being explicit about his agenda.

Description

• In the major league draft of 1971, Ron Williamson signed with the Oakland A's and said good-bye to Ada, Oklahoma.
• A bad arm, addictions and mental health issues destroyed Williamson's dream and sent him back to Ada.
• In 1982, a 21-year-old cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was raped and murdered in Ada. The case was cold for 5 years.
• In 1987, Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz were charged with the murder despite no physical evidence linking them to the crime.
• Ron Williamson was convicted and spent 12 years on death row. He was eventually exonerated on DNA evidence.

Guide Review - The Innocent Man by John Grisham - Book Review

When I heard John Grisham was writing nonfiction, I was excited to see the result. I imagined that he would apply his skill for writing page turning legal suspense to a true story, captivating readers with a tale too amazing to be fiction. Within the first 100 pages of The Innocent Man, I knew my expectations would not be met.

Grisham's challenge was to build suspense despite readers knowing the outcome of the story from the beginning. Truman Capote mastered this in his classic, In Cold Blood. Grisham doesn't even come close.

I feel bad saying The Innocent Man is boring since it is a true and awful story. If you are expecting typical Grisham, though, you will be bored. The writing is detailed, but dry. It is a very straightforward account with no dialogue or suspense.

Putting aside my opinion about the slow pace of the book, I will say that The Innocent Man is a powerful story. The details Grisham provides about incorrect convictions, shoddy police work and poor prosecution certainly make a case for some sort of judicial reform. Perhaps even more compelling is the story of Williamson's mental decline and society's inability to deal with his mental illness. In many ways, Williamson's story before and after his imprisonment is just as tragic as the time he spent on death row.

The Innocent Man will give you issues to think about and discuss with friends. Just don't expect to be entertained.

http://bestsellers.about.com/od/nonfictionreviews/gr/innocent_man.htm

Ford County by John Grisham - Book Review By Erin Collazo Miller

Ford County by John Grisham

- Book Review By Erin Collazo Miller

The Bottom Line

Ford County is John Grisham's first collection of short stories. Grisham returns to Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of A Time to Kill, and brings readers seven stories of life in this small, Southern setting. Grisham has previously tried to branch out from legal thrillers with books like Bleachers and Playing for Pizza. Ford County is a better read than either of those, combining his skill at writing page turners with his observant eye for small town life and moral ambiguity.

Pros

• The stories are easy to get into, lessening the start up costs of having to learn new characters.
• Grisham covers a variety of topics, but they are all well written & engaging.
• Grisham gives us a taste of the legal thrillers he's known for in some of the stories.

Cons

• Outcomes are not always realistic.

Description

• 'Ford County' by John Grisham was published in November 2009.
• Publisher: Doubleday
• 320 Pages

 

Guide Review - 'Ford County' by John Grisham - Book Review

I'm always a little bit hesitant about collections of short stories. I wonder if there will be enough meat to justify having to learn new characters and situations every 50 pages or so. Starting a new book is always a little risky, and I wonder if I will have to endure those same start up costs seven times in one collection.

Fortunately, Grisham makes reading easy. His books are popular because they are immediately entertaining, but don't shy away from moral dilemmas and complex characters. Each story in Ford County was easy to enter and satisfying throughout in its own way. In fact, I appreciated being able to start and finish a whole story in one evening, giving me the freedom to take the book at my own pace without losing track of important plot threads.

If you want to get a feel for Ford County, Grisham has made one of the stories, “Fetching  Raymond,” available for free on his Web site. "Fetching Raymond" shows how Grisham's ability to tell a bigger story through one snapshot of some characters' lives.

Some of the other stories I particularly enjoyed were "Michael's Room" and "Quiet Haven." "Michael's Room" feels like one of Grisham's legal thrillers, and by the end makes readers question what justice would actually look like. "Quiet Haven" also blurs the lines between good and evil -- is a con man who brings to light horrible conditions in a nursing home better or worse than the people who don't profit but perpetuate a system that ignores the needs of those who can't speak for themselves?

Overall, I recommend Ford County. It is a must read for Grisham fans, and would be satisfying for anyone who wants beach or airport reading that is substantial without being too heavy.

http://bestsellers.about.com/od/shortstorycollections/gr/ford_county.htm

Refiguring Huckleberry Finn By Esther Lombardi

Refiguring Huckleberry Finn

By  Esther Lombardi, About.com Guide

In Refiguring Huckleberry Finn, Carl Wieck tackles Huck's famous story with a passion, saying: "The following pages have furnished me with the princely privilege of skipping along for a space with the sprightly Mark Twain, and I am grateful to him for sharing so much with us all."

Wieck offers a discussion of how Mark Twain was influenced by the Declaration of Independence, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and others. He then goes further to a chapter on death and the floating house, a discussion of the importance of numbers in the novel, a look at lying, race relations, knowledge, and much more...

 

Between Lines

Drawing from Twain's notes, historical evidence, letters, and more, Wieck provides a whole wealth of details that can only serve to inform a reading of the text. Each time we read through the novel, Twain's humor shines through even more brightly, and it becomes apparent why this novel is considered such a classic.

Mark Twain has already stretched our imaginations with Huck Finn's adventures. However, Wieck writes that "we are furnished no direction for sorting out the seemingly arbitrary paths on which he often takes us." With Refiguring Huckleberry Finn, Wieck pulls us further into a discussion of the novel as he attempts to help the reader "discover ideas, feelings, and perceptions" that will hopefully "kindle enthusiasm for the enlivening experience of Huckleberry Finn."

 

The Ending or Beginning

In the end, Huck is free to make his own choices, as he says, "I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest..." Wieck explains, "The point would appear to be that people need not feel condemned by their background, no matter what it might be, and even if as miserable a rapscallion as pap."

http://classiclit.about.com/cs/productreviews/fr/aa_refighuckfin.htm

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn From James Topham

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

From James Topham

 -Mark Twain-

Mark Twain's second book detailing the life and times of the young ragamuffin, Huckleberry Finn came as something of a sequel to his ever-popular The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and it provides a similar mix of heady southern atmosphere, child-like larks, and fantastic prose.

Like his earlier book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is firmly ensconced in the atmosphere and social structure of eighteenth century life by the Mississippi river, a river that (even more so than in the book's predecessor) comes to be more of a character than a mere setting. A beautiful novel of fun and great beauty, it has been a must-read for adults and children for more than a century.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn return us to the town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, and its opening pages reacquaint us with the characters that we met in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huckleberry Finn, who once a child of the river, found a robber’s loot, and now had quite a large amount of money held in trust at the bank. He has been adopted by an old widow, and has been forced to go to school, keep clean, and do all the things that a respectable boy should.

However, such a veneer of respectability does not last, when Huck's father Pap returns to town claiming custody over Huck (and, of course, wanting his money). A drunk and a n'er-do-well, Pap often beats Huck and locks him in a cabin when he goes out drinking and so, in an attempt to escape, Huck fakes his own death using pig's blood and runs away to an island in the center of the river. After a few days of living rough he meets an escaped slave by the name of Jim, and they join forces, living lives close to nature. However, the island could not hold them forever, and when Huck overhears that Jim's owners are planning to look for Jim on the island, they both escape--traveling on a log raft down the river.

On their journey they have a number of run-ins with various river folk--including a gang of robbers whose loot they managed to steal, and a group of slave-hunters whom Huck lies to in order to save Jim. Finally, in the dark one night, a large steamer collides with the raft and, abandoning ship, Huck and Jim are parted. However, they are not parted for long, as Jim finds Huck and gets him out of a tight spot when he is caught up in a gun battle between two warring southern families.

Returning to the river, Huck and Jim get mixed up with two small-time con artists going by the names the Duke and the Dauphin, who get attempt a number of scams at the towns they come across along the river (and which Huck does his best to spoil). However, this agreement comes to an end when the two men betray Jim. Huck swears to help him, and is helped in this endeavor by Tom (who coincidentally turns up when he goes to visit his aunt and uncle).

The escape goes badly awry however, when in the process of breaking Jim free, Tom is shot in the leg. Caring more for the boy than his own freedom, Jim gives himself up and is once more put in chains. However, when Tom awakes he explains that, in fact, Jim is a free man (having been freed months earlier in the will of his recently departed owner). On their return to St. Petersburg, Huck's father is revealed to have died, and Huck once more faces the prospect of being "sivilised" this time by Tom's Aunt Sally. He says no thank you, and heads off on his adventures once more.

A wonderful, sprawling book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has all the components to make a truly great adventure story. And, in the end, Huck firmly determines that the adventurous life is for him--forsaking any notions of making himself a good child. Like a Peter Pan for the American frontier, one feels that Huck will never grow up, and will never fall into civilization's traps. His interest lies in the excitement and adventure of the river--and in the final analysis those are what he chooses.

A brilliant book, perhaps surpassing its predecessor in readability and plotting, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a boy's own story told at a wonderful pace. It should be an instant recommendation in any list of great American literature.

http://classiclit.about.com/od/adventuresofhuckleberry/fr/aa_huckfinn2.htm

What Have Writers Said About Huckleberry Finn? By Esther Lombardi, About.com Guide

What Have Writers Said About Huckleberry Finn?

By Esther Lombardi, About.com Guide

You may already be familiar with the historical controversies surrounding "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain. But, what specifically, have writers said about Huckleberry Finn been so frequently banned and challenged in classrooms and libraries? Read more about what writers have said...

Huckleberry Finn -- T. S. Eliot says:

"It is Huck who gives the book style. The River gives the book its form. But for the River, the book might be only a sequence of adventures with a happy ending. A river, a very big and powerful river, is the only natural force that can wholly determine the course of human peregrination.... Thus the River makes the book a great book... Mark Twain is a native, and the River God is his God."

Huckleberry Finn -- F. Scott Fitzgerald (1935) says:

"Huckleberry Finn took the first journey back. He was the first to look back at the republic from the perspective of the west. His eyes were the first eyes that ever looked at us objectively that were not eyes from overseas. There were mountains at the frontier but he wanted more than mountains to look at with his restive eyes--he wanted to find out about men and how they lived together. And because he turned back we have him forever."

Huckleberry Finn -- Ernest Hemingway says:

"The good writers are Henry James, Stephen Crane, and Mark Twain. That's not the order they're good in. There is no order for good writers.... All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called 'Huckleberry Finn.' If you read it you must stop where the Nigger Jim is stolen from the boys. That is the real end. The rest is just cheating. But it's the best book we've had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since." -- from Ernest Hemingway, "The Green Hills of Africa" (1934)

Huckleberry Finn -- Hamlin Hill (1985) says:

"We are aware that Huck cannot live comfortably in any of the worlds he inhabits. He searches for a father he cannot find, having killed, at least symbolically, the legal one. He cannot find a home, at Widow Douglas's, in Pap's cabin, on Jackson's Island, at the Grangerfords, on the raft, or at the Phelps plantation, either because none of his worlds is insulated from outside interference or because he loses them to circumstance or expediency. The entire structure of the novel is one of frustrated attempt to escape from restrictions only to find the refuge susceptible to invasion and destruction. Judith Loftus's husband is 'after us'; the slave-hunters and the Duke and Dauphin violate the pastoral immunity of the raft; Tom Sawyer appears at the Phelpses to orchestrate an attempt at freedom."

Huckleberry Finn -- H. L. Mencken says:

"I believe that 'Huckleberry Finn' is one of the great masterpieces of the world, that it is the full equal of 'Don Quixote' and 'Robinson Crusoe,' that it is vastly better than Gil Blas, 'Tristram Shandy,' 'Nicholas Nickleby' or 'Tom Jones.' I believe that it will be read by human beings of all ages, not as a solemn duty but for the honest love of it, and over and over again, long after every book written in Aerican betwen the years 1800 and 1860, with perhaps three exceptions, has disappeared entirely save as a classroom fossil. I believe that Mark Twain had a clearer vision of life, that he came nearer to its elementals and was less deceived by its false appearances, than any other American who has ever presumed to manufacture generalizations, not excepting Emerson. I believe that, admitting all his defects, he wrote better English, in the sense of cleaner, straighter, vivider, saner English, than either Irving or Hawthorne. I believe that four of his books--'Huck,' 'Life on the Mississippi,' 'Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven,' and 'A Connecticut Yankee'--are alone worth more, as works of art and as criticisms of life, than the whole output of Cooper, Irving, Holmes, Mitchell, Stedman, Whittier and Bryant. I believe that he was the true father of our national literature, the first genuinely American artist of the royal blood." -- from H. L. Mencken, Review of Albert Bigelow Paine's biography of Mark Twain, in "The Smart Set" (February 1913).

Huckleberry Finn -- Eric Solomon (1985)

 "Huckleberry Finn himself is the most American of heroes: he is the boy-man in a male world... and solitary--alone even among others, a first-person narrator who is at home in nature and, like Cooper's Natty Bumppo, at a loss in town, yet as able to cope with the venality and evil of knaves as any Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler version of the Scout. As alienated as a James Baldwin youth, and as deeply engaged in the search for a proper father as a Faulkner boy, Huck Finn, an American orphan... is, above all, a lonely survivor, one who accommodates to his changing world..."

http://classiclit.about.com/od/adventuresofhuckleberry/a/huckfinn_writer.htm

Review of 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' A Boy's Coming of Age

Review of 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'

A Boy's Coming of Age

From Katharine Swan  

Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the most celebrated novels in American literature--arguably the greatest novel in American literature. As such, the book is frequently taught in high school English, college literature classes, American history classes, and every other opportunity teachers can find.

The justification usually cited is its commentary on the social institutions of slavery and discrimination; however, no less important is the aspect of the story that demonstrates one boy's coming of age. Mark Twain ends The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with the cryptic statement: "So endeth this chronicle. It being strictly the history of a boy, it must stop here; the story could not go much further without becoming the history of a man."

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, on the other hand, contains much less of the perpetual jokes and scrapes of the first book. Instead, Huck is faced with the emotional growing pains of becoming a man in a morally flawed society.

At the beginning of the novel, Huck lives with the Widow Douglas, who wants to "sivilize" Huck, as he puts it. Although he dislikes the restraints society puts on him (i.e. stiff clothing, education, and religion), he prefers it to going back to living with his drunken father. However, his father kidnaps him and locks him up in his house. Therefore, the first major chunk of the novel focuses on the abuse Huck experiences at the hands of his father--abuse so bad that he must fake his own murder in order to escape alive.

Escape to Freedom: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

After staging his death and running away, Huck meets up with Jim, a runaway slave from the village. They decide to travel down the river together. Both of them are running away to gain their freedom: Jim from slavery, Huck from his father's abuse and the Widow Douglas's restrictive lifestyle (although Huck does not see it that way yet). For a major part of their journey together, Huck views Jim as property.

Jim becomes a father figure--the first Huck ever had in his life. Jim teaches Huck right and wrong, and an emotional bond develops through the course of their journey down the river. By the last segment of the novel, Huck has learned to think like a man instead of a boy.

This change is most poignantly demonstrated when we see the melodramatic prank that Tom Sawyer would have played with Jim (even though he knows that Jim is already a free man). Huck is genuinely concerned with Jim's safety and well-being, whereas Tom is only interested in having an adventure--with complete disregard for Jim's life or Huck's concern.

Coming of Age: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Tom is still the same boy as the one in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but Huck has become something more. Experiences that he has shared with Jim on their journey down the river have taught him about being a man. Although Adventures of Huckleberry Finn contains some very poignant critiques of slavery, discrimination, and society in general, it is also important as the story of Huck's journey from boyhood to manhood.

http://classiclit.about.com/od/adventuresofhuckleberry/fr/aa_huckfinn.htm

Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1, by Mark Twain

Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1

by Mark Twain

Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith

University of California Press, November 2010

The wait for Mark Twain's autobiography has been longer than the interval between the appearances of Haley's Comet that conveniently book-ended the life of Samuel Clemens. This first installment of three is well-worth the long wait. There are nuggets here that show the full force of Clemens's rapier like wit and acerbity. There are nuggets of great hilarity and moments of deep introspection.

A word of caution is in order before you undertake volume one. It contains two books. One is a more academic exposition that is intended for those who are serious in their pursuit of what makes Mark Twain tick. Well written though the first and last sections are, the casual lover of Mark Twain should remember they are written for more serious readers, and one should expect to be enlightened rather than entertained. The serious reader and the most dedicated researcher will find a wealth of information that will put Clemens into a broader and deeper context.

Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith and other editors of the Mark Twain Project, the first section contains an extensive introduction and facsimiles of pages from the autobiography, along with explications that place these writings in context. The final section of this volume contains explanatory notes and an extensive bibliography. The editors note, "This edition... offers the reader an unmodernized, critically constructed text, both of the preliminary manuscripts and dictations and of the final text that Clemens intended his "heirs and assigns" to publish after his death.

The middle section, the second "book," is Clemens in his own words. That is what the general public is looking for; indeed, has been waiting for all these years. This section and the essays it contains do not disappoint. The reader will find Clemens at his most honest, his most pointed. Clemens notes, "The chapters which immediately follow constitute a fragment of my many attempts... to put my life on paper... It starts out with good confidence," but is soon abandoned for other pursuits. It is "the plan that starts you at the cradle and drives you straight for the grave, with no side-excursions permitted on the way. Whereas the side-excursions are the life of our life-voyage, and should be also, its history." It is these side-excursions that readers have been eagerly awaiting.

Clemens decreed that his publisher must wait until 100 years after his death had passed before publishing his autobiography. Clemens wanted to be sure that those about whom he wrote ("after I was in my forties") were definitely dead. This simple expedient gave him the freedom to let his mind roam free and candid. Some times he even stuck entirely to the truth; some times, he took that step to the side. The result is spectacular.

He mentions the early branches of the Clemens family, "stretching back to Noah's time." He writes about the dedication to Innocents Abroad and a meeting with Robert Louis Stevenson who was "most scantily furnished with flesh." He gives instructions to future editors about how to treat the numerous newspaper clippings he "shall scatter through this Autobiography... without end." His poignant entry on Friday, February 2, 1906 recounts the death of Susy Clemens, his beloved daughter, only 24 years old. On August 18, 1896, while in England, he received a telegram that said simply, "Susy was peacefully released to-day." The description of his reaction is one of his most eloquent and heart-rending pieces of writing.

The Autobiography was conceived and published by the Mark Twain Project of the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. The Project contains the most comprehensive collection of Clemens' personal papers and things written about him. More than 35 volumes have been produced by the Project since 1967. All of the documents contained within this volume have been published elsewhere, but no venue has provided more scholarly elucidation than one finds here. This volume will stand the test of time.

http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/memoir/fr/Autobiography-Of-Mark-Twain-Volume-1.htm?nl=1