Into The Wild - Jon Krakauer

Into The Wild, though written by Jon Krakauer is about a young man named Christopher McCandless. The book originated as an essay Krakauer wrote for Outside magazine entitled "Death of an Innocent". Though I'm really not a sports fan in the slightest, I do have a thing for these non-fiction books about men embarking on sporting adventures, such as this and 127 hours. I'm not normally a non-fiction reader, in fact I could probably count on one hand the non-fiction books I actually own, but I really, really do love Into The Wild.

It reminds me so much of On The Road, because Christopher, so like Dean Moriarty is travelling the road on the search for something...more. He doesn't know what he's looking for, but it's more than an average life. The brief blurb on the front of the book reads:

"In April 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burnt all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself..."

“The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”

But that is just the beginning of the story. McCandless travels through America, climbing and hiking. On his travels he adopts the name "Alexander Supertramp" and meets several people who become huge characters in the book and who Christopher forms real attachments to. My favourite parts are the connections he forms with other people on his travels which show him to be a genuine and likeable person and also the ending where he is so sadly betrayed by his own want of self sustainability.

Christopher McCandless in front of The Magic Bus

This is another one of those books I really don't want to write too much about, even though we find out McCandless's fate within the first two sentences of the book, because It's just such a beautiful thought provoking read and I think it should be experienced first hand.

"Happiness is only real when shared."

The book has also been adapted into a fantastic film by Sean Penn, with Emile Hirsch starring as McCandless, very much worth a watch, but I wholly recommend the book to all.

Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë

“I have dreamt in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind. And this is one: I'm going to tell it - but take care not to smile at any part of it.” 

I thought I'd finally tackle writing about this book, though I'm sure I won't do it justice! As I've said countless times before - Wuthering Heights is my favourite and what I consider to be the best love story ever written. A lot of people write that they studied the book in school but I was never that lucky, Shakespeare and Of Mice & Men were our class books, so the first time I came across this book was in my own time. My mum's a huge British classics advocate and I can usually count on her to have any classic novel I fancy reading, this was the case for Wuthering Heights. My first copy, from her, was an old yellowed paperback, whose pages fell out after the first reading, since then I've acquired a newer copy, and an old leather bound copy I'll never read, everyone should own this book. There are "spoilers" below because the beauty of this book doesn't really come from the plot twists and turns - you know the tale is doomed from the beginning, plus it might make someone want to pick it up if they get the gist of the story!

WH is the story of Catherine Earnshaw and her Heathcliff, and the twisted, cruel, love they share. Heathcliff is brought to The Heights, the Earnshaw's home, by Cathy's father after a visit to Liverpool. A young gypsy boy, he doesn't fit in with the airs and graces the other children; Cathy and her brother Hindley are being taught to posses. Hindley gathers a growing hatred for Heathcliff as his father's love for the boy grows while young Cathy finds a kindred spirit. As the children grow older and the family suffers loss, Cathy and Heathcliff become inseparable  and Cathy's wild temper and outlandish manor seem to be only tamed by Heathcliff, despite these flaws being mirrored in his own personality.

“If he loved you with all the power of his soul for a whole lifetime, he couldn’t love you as much as I do in a single day.” 

In a childish afternoon, as the two are spying on The Height's gentile neighbours; the Linton's, Cathy suffers an injury that separates the pair, Heathcliff back to the Heights to worry about his missing half, Cathy to the Linton's home; The Grange, to get well and unbeknownst to her family, to be forever changed. While at the Linton's, Cathy begins to fancy herself a lady, no longer the free-spirited wild girl running the lush greens of the moors with her gypsy. On returning home, she is embarrassed by Heathcliff, accustomed to the fineness of her new friend, dashing young  Edgar Linton. One of my favourite parts of the book comes at this point; Edgar proposes to Cathy, and in a confused rush of conversation with Nelly, The Height's housekeeper, she admits she is going to accept, not realising Heathcliff is privy to the exchange, departing at once upon hearing her news, and therefore not hearing her words about him, about what he is to her.

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire."

Time passes, Cathy and Edgar marry and still Heathcliff has made no return. Hindley has let the heights fall into a dire state, a drunkard after the loss of his wife Frances after the birth of their only child. The boy, Hareton, is not treated as family, and all care is left to Nelly, he is further led away from the path of a gentleman with the return of a figure not seen for three years at The Heights, a man with a refined face, new clothes, and many riches, Heathcliff is come back. Staying at The Heights, he slowly claims the house as his own, Hindley mortgaging it to him through many drunken bets, Hareton becoming no more than his servant.

Cathy is elated at the return of her Heathcliff, though Edgar is less than pleased. Determined to have his revenge on Cathy, Heathcliffe announces his love to Edgar's younger sister; Isabella, and the two elope, breaking the hearts of both left longing at The Grange. Isabella becomes, like Hareton  no more than a servant, trapped inside The Heights before finally breaking free and fleeing the north.
Cathy, heartbroken and despondent to Edgar, falls into a sickness of both the body and mind as she prepares for the birth of her first child. After a final visit from Heathcliff where he damns her for all she has done to separate them, Cathy gives birth to a daughter, named for herself, and passes.

"You said I killed you--haunt me then. The murdered do haunt their murderers. I believe--I know that ghosts have wandered the earth. Be with me always--take any form--drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! "

After years, things have changed greatly at The Heights. Hareton is now a man, as is young Linton, Heathcliffe's sickly son from departed wife Isabelle. In a final act of revenge, Heathcliffe kidnaps young Cathy, the perfect image of her mother, and brings her back to The Heights, forcing a marriage between her and Linton before he dies. Trapped inside the house are the four; Heathcliff, Nelly, Hareton and Cathy, and it is at this point the story begins; with a lodger for the abandoned Grange staying at The Heights until weather permits him leave to his new home. While at The Heights, this man witnesses the past and future of the house, from Cathy and Heathcliff to Hareton and young Cathy, through Nelly and the ghosts of The Heights, the cruel tale of a soul split into two bodies, then split again away from one another is lived again.

There is nothing I don't like about this story, no it has no happy ending, and because of this many people refuse to class it as a love story, but why should all love stories be about happiness? No one ever questions Romeo & Juliet's genre classification as a love story and that similarly ends in tragedy, which suggests that death and tragedy only work to inflame the theme of love.

"My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don't talk of our separation again: it is impracticable..."

I love the character of Hareton, especially his interaction and relationship with Heathcliff. Hareton becomes a character so like Heathcliff in his youth, thoughtful and wild, treated as a lesser man and never thinking himself good enough, yet Heathcliff treats him with no compassion, perhaps because he so hated the way he was and the way Cathy treated him when he was of such a temperament, that he cannot stand to see himself in that way reflected in the young boy, and in turn ends up treating Hareton in the way Hindley did to him.

If you haven't read this book, please do. It is one of the best examples of classic literature being relevant in today's world and will always be a firm favourite of mine. Also, if you're interested in seeing an adaptation, the early 90's film with Ralph Finnes as Heathcliff is fantastic, as it the ITV adaptation from 2010 which stars Tom Hardy. I would however stay away from the recent 2011 adaptation with Kaya Scodelario, as I feel it's too far away from the story, Heathcliff is so wrong, and it feels like a modern, indie remake, which I'm far from keen on.

“I gave him my heart, and he took and pinched it to death; and flung it back to me. People feel with their hearts, Ellen, and since he has destroyed mine, I have not power to feel for him.” 

What do you all think of Wuthering Heights and Cathy and Heathcliff's relationship?

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita....Lolita is an odd one. The book is about a paedophile, and with that word I think the majority of people get an image in their minds on how to perceive a character; We are prepared to villainize. Yet strangely, I don't think I really villainized Humbert at any point while reading this. He becomes a very desperate and likeable character, plus with the way she acts it is very easy to forget Dolores' age. This is such a testament to Nabokov's writing, that he can make a reader like such a character as Humbert.

"It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight."

Humbert has an obsession with young girls which stems from the death of his childhood sweetheart. He moves to America after a divorce and rents a room in Charlotte Haze's suburban house. Charlotte is rather taken with Humbert and flirts outright, unaware that Humberts attentions are drawn to Charlotte's 11 year old daughter Dolores, who in Humberts mind becomes Dolly, Dolly-Lo, and when she is at her most alluring, Lolita.

Unfortunately for Humbert, Dolores is sent to summer camp just as he is making "progress" towards his desired intimate relationship. Once she is gone, Charlotte reveals her love for Humbert and asks that he either love her back or leave her house. Unwilling to leave the place his Lolita will return to, he marries Charlotte. Things plod along in typical small town american life, much to Humberts dismay. He is soon entertaining thoughts on how to "dispose" of his new wife, leaving him alone to parent Dolores. Charlotte however discovers his lascivious intentions towards her daughter and in a rush to warn her daughter is hit by a car and killed, taking Humberts secret love for her daughter with her.

Humbert leaves to pick up Dolores from camp, where he tells her that her mother is still alive and in hospital. The two then embark on a journey in which Dolores finally becomes Humberts "Lolita" and he falls desperately in love with her.

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita. Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, an initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea."

Though some of the scenes describing sex can be difficult to read if you remember the characters ages and the fact that Dolores is being abused, you often don't even notice it is sex that's occurring. Nabokov writes in a very poetic dreamlike prose and describes his fantasies as much as reality. I really don't think I found myself offended once. The book is written as a set of fictional memoirs, and even has a foreward and meta-fiction, yet even this attempt to make the novel as real and factual as possible doesn't effect my response to Humberts character.

"Through the darkness and the tender trees we could see the arabesques of lighted windows which, touched up by the coloured inks of sensitive memory, appear to me now like playing cards-presumably because a bridge game was keeping the enemy busy. She trembled and twitched as I kissed the corner of her parted lips and the hot lobe of her ear. A cluster of stars palely glowed above us, between the silhouettes of long thin leaves; that vibrant sky seemed as naked as she was under her light frock. I saw her face in the sky, strangely distinct as if it emitted a faint radiance of its own. Her legs, her lovely live legs, were not too close together, and when my hand located what it sought, a dreamy and eerie expression, half pleasure, half-pain, came over those childish features."

I think a reason we don't make Humbert a villain is that the book is a big criticism on pop culture and the modern world ageing young girls so quickly so that they don't really have as much of a childhood any more, Lolita being that main criticism, She is aged so much by music, movies and (then) current fashions that she's not seen as much of a child despite her age. Lolita was banned and censored when it was first released in the 50's but I feel as time moves on the book has become so much more acceptable because of this lack of childhood, which has become so much more common in more recent years. Perhaps that's why I don't despise Humbert, because I have grow up in the 20th century where the sexualisation of women seems to be targeting a younger and younger age each year.

I do really recommend that people read this if they haven't and I'd also really like to hear your opinions on it, What do you think of Humbert?

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower is one of those books that's really hyped up at the moment (see: any one of a thousand "I feel infinite" wrist tattoos) but let me tell you that this book is absolutely worth the hype.

Perks centres around Charlie, a high school freshman who has trouble fitting in. Charlie doesn't really have friends, until he meets brother and sister Patrick and Sam who introduce Charlie into their social group and try to bring him out of his shell. Charlie however, as the title suggests, is the eponymous wallflower and never quite fits it.

"Maybe it’s sad that these are now memories. And maybe it’s not sad."

The book is written as a series of letters from Charlie to a unknown recipient. This person is someone who Charlie has heard stories and rumours about and decided that they were someone he could trust. We never see a response from this person or any acknowledgement to the letters Charlie is writing. I feel Chbosky leaves this person anonymous and never has them respond in any way so that we get more attached to Charlie by assuming he is writing to us as the reader, and because we are so attached we become emotionally invested in Charlie as a character, leaving the ending to hit us all the harder.

"So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be."

A poignant point of the book is the suicide of one of Charlie's only friends, (pre Sam and Patrick) Michael. Michael shows Charlie a poem before his death which Charlie takes to heart and talks about throughout the book. Though the way "Charlie" writes his letters makes it seem he doesn't understand the poem I think the scene where he reads it aloud and feels a great deal of emotion shows that he did understand and had just buried his realization along with so many other things we are yet to find out. Michaels poem is actually taken from poet Osoanon Nimuss and is entitled Absolutely Nothing which you can read here.

"Then I turned around and walked to my room and closed my door and put my head under my pillow and let the quiet put things where they are supposed to be."

The Perks movie is to be

 released on the 3/10/12 (UK) .

The book deals with all of the issues you'd expect to find in a coming of age novel; drugs, sex, suicide, depression, homosexuality etc, and similarities can defiantly be seen between Perks and Catcher In The Rye. Both have a male protagonist, both have a sister whom they love greatly, both have friendly, influencing relationships with a teacher. I think the only real difference between the two is the that Holden Caulfield shields his vulnerability from the reader, while Charlie cannot hide his. Though I do definitely class Perks as a coming of age novel, It really can appeal to all ages. Last summer I did a "book swap"with my mum where we each agreed to pick out a favourite book and the other would have to read it. She absolutely loved Perks and felt really strongly towards Charlie and his experiences, so even if you're past the "coming of age" age, this book is still very much worth your time.

"Sam tapped her hand on the steering wheel. Patrick held his hand outside the car and made air waves. And I just sat between them. After the song finished, I said something.

“I feel infinite.”"

Instead of including my own playlist I thought I'd use songs referenced in Perks.

Asleep - The Smiths

Vapour Trail - Ride

Scarborough Fair - Simon and Garfunkel

A Whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harum

Time of No Reply - Nick Drake

Dear Prudence - The Beatles

Gypsy - Suzanne Vega

Nights in White Satin - The Moody Blues

Daydream - The Smashing Pumpkins

Dusk - Genesis

MLK - U2

Blackbird - The Beatles

                                                                                  Landslide - Fleetwood Mac

                                                                               Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

                                                                              Another Brick in the Wall, Part II - Pink Floyd

                                                                                  Something - The Beatles

                                                                                  School's Out - Alice Cooper

                                                                                   Autumn Leaves - Nat King Cole

                                                                                   Broken Wings - Mr. Mister

                                                                                   Where Eagles Dare - The Misfits

On The Road - Jack Kerouac

“the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.” 

I hadn't really been all that excited for the film adaptation of On The Road coming out, but the other day I did happen to see the trailer which had the "burn, burn, burn" quote in it, and I just love that quote, it reminded me of how much I enjoyed reading it so I thought i'd pick it up again.

 So, I'm sure there's not a lot of people who haven't heard of this book, a lot of people really love it and a lot of people seem to hate just because it's so well known and they like to be a little more esoteric in their favourites choices, I suppose. I however do love this book, it's just exactly what you expect from a road trip novel, its crazy, it's exciting and you can just read it over and over. I also personally love novels from this era, the era where:

 "the country was wild and bawling and free with abundance and any kind of freedom for everyone". 

As I've said, the book is a road trip novel set during the middle of the 20th century, the basis of which are Kerouac's own travels, written under the character name of Sal Paradise. There are actually four different road trips detailed in the book, taking place from 1947-1950.

The story is a simple one really, Sal Paradise is writing his first novel while living with his aunt. He first takes to the road to go to San Francisco after meeting Dean Moriarty, a character who is idolised by Sal for his freedom and love for life. On the way he makes new friends, revisits old ones, falls in love, and leaves it behind. Sal returns home but leaves again when Dean calls for him at Christmastime, heading to San Francisco again.

"It was three children of the earth trying to decide something in the night and having all the weight of past centuries ballooning in the dark before them."

In the third trip Sal's character has begun to develop, after publishing his first book and having more money, Sal heads to New York, again with Dean, but his sense of indipendance is growing, and he is starting to realise flaws in Deans character and strengthen his own. In the fourth trip Sal, Dean and another friend Stan, head to Mexico. In this part of the novel we really are seeing Dean as more of a flawed character than the glowing idol he was presented as earlier, because his character refuses to change, to "move with the times" as Sal's does. By the end of the novel, Sal has truly grown up, planning on driving to San Francisco once again where he plans to move in with a girlfriend. Dean, in continuing to live the beat lifestyle and refusing to change, leaves Sal abandoning the friendship, and the road, behind him.

"What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? - it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's

goodbye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies." 

What's really interesting to me in the novel is that because it was written to be autobiographical, a lot of things (mainly characters names) were changed for publication, and several of the characters are major writers, such as Allen Ginsberg who appears in the novel as Carlo Marx, and William Burroughs who appears as Old Bull Lee, (and if I'm not mistaken I'm sure some of the experiences cross over with Junky). Also the character of Dean Moriarty himself, based on Neal Cassady was a huge influence in the beat generation and appears in influence of many literary characters formed in novels from this time, he is apparently the basis of Randle McMurphy in Kasey's One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest and is also mentioned in Ginsberg's famous Howl.

I think the main purpose of On The Road really was just to let the youth know what was out there for them. Though Kerouac certainly wasn't the first to publish a book on the beat generation, I think On The Road really is looked at as the centrepiece for the movement now. It's so interesting to read because you see that all these great people whose works you've grown up with, they were all together and they all lived this beautiful transient trip together and we can live it with them because it's been captured so beautifully by these amazing stream of consciousness writers. I have no doubt that countless numbers of teenagers have tried to recreate what happens in this book and it's a reflection on the modern world that it just can't happen any more; we can't just take off and drive into the night to fall in love with everything.

As I've said, I love the book and I'd recommend it to anyone, it's a beautiful, exciting read.

Adding something to the mix...

Some of what I read during reading this:

Guernica - Brand New

Lives - Modest Mouse

I Will Possess Your Heart - Death Cab

Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want - The Smiths

Early Morning Rain - Eva Cassidy

Infinite Arms - Band Of Horses

Blowing At A Wish - As Tall As Lions

Night Terror - Laura Marling

Fork And Knife - Brand New

Blackbird - The Beatles

You Really Got a Hold On Me - The Beatles

All Of Me - Angus And Julia Stone

Trailer Trash - Modest Mouse

Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen.

It is a truth universally acknowledged...

The novel is written in third person but is more or less in the point of view of Elizabeth Bennet, second eldest of the 5 Bennet girls. The story opens with a new neighbour renting a house near the Bennets, Charles Bingley an eligible young single man of five thousand pounds per year. The rest of the book is tender chase between Jane, the eldest Bennet girl and Bingley, who are separated by circumstance and the "helpful" advice of Bingley's friends and family, who find the Bennets unsuitable.

"The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of either merit or sense." 

The friend who helps Bingley in this matter is Fitzwilliam Darcy, perhaps the most famous English literary character of all time. Darcy, the brooding, thoughtful friend becomes quite taken by Elizabeth, and in their chance encounters finds himself being slowly beguiled by her. However Darcy is thought of in quite a different manner by Elizabeth herself, who has heard accounts of Darcy which paint to be a very prideful, arrogant person, that is until Darcy shows Elizabeth his true character in many ways, leading to happy endings all round.

 “Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her.”

Why I love this book...there are many reasons. Firstly I really do just love and admire Jane Austen, she and the Bronte's will forever be some of my favourite authors of all time because they wrote at a time where it was not a commonplace thing to be a female writer, let alone be a female with any kind of profession. Secondly the characters are written so well, and that kind of applies to all of the characters in the book, which is a hard thing to do: create so many wonderful deep characters without taking up the whole space of the novel implementing their back stories.

"I cannot forget the follies and vices of other so soon as I ought, nor their offenses against myself. My feelings are not puffed about with every attempt to move them. My temper would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.”

Pride And Prejudice was written in 1813, during the Romantic period and I know a lot of people avoid classic literature because it can be "harder to read" than modern English, but really there's nothing that difficult about it, if you're having trouble just be thorough, I find it's definitely worth it. (Also if you have the Wordsworth Classics copy pictured above there is a notes section in the back which details any out of use terms)

I would absolutely recommend this book to everyone, I think I read it first when I was around 11 year old and I go back to it around once a year (and if I'm honest could probably talk along with the film word for word) It's just such a great story with such lovely entertaining characters, definitely a worthwhile read if you've never picked it up.

We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

"Okay it's like this. You wake up, you watch TV, and you get in the car and you listen to the radio. You go to your little job or your little school, but you're not going to hear about that on the 6:00 news, since guess what. Nothing is really happening. You read the paper, or if you're into that sort of thing you read a book, which is just the same as watching only even more boring. You watch TV all night, or maybe you go out so you can watch a movie, and maybe you'll get a phone call so you can tell your friends what you've been watching. And you know, it's got so bad that I've started to notice, the people on TV? Inside the TV? Half the time they're watching TV....."

"All these people, Marlin." He invited the interviewer in with a nod. "What are they watching?" 

After an awkward silence, Marlin filled in, "You tell us, Kevin."

"People like me."

Okaaayyy. This book is hands down one of the best modern "product of our time" novels I have ever read. It's currently 9.04 in the morning and I've forgone sleep for the night to finish this.

First selling point: the absolutley captivating language which is neither stark nor overdone - rather just enough that as you first begin reading you need to stop; take a breath, and start again with your full attention intact. Shrivers way of describing the menial with so much passion in terms of her own stylistic writing choices rather than what eminates from the protagonist character herself is just...beautiful, theres really no other way for me to put it; her words have the capibility to take my breath away, though her language is as honest as it is beautiful. I've never been one to shy away from the abject in literature and finding an author who depicts it at all without looking for a cheaply written shock factor is certainly something, but Shriver had a way of using the abject to flesh out her characters even more (she truly writes some of the most realistic characters i've ever read);

"In truth, we are bigger, greedier versions of the same eating, shitting, rutting ruck, hell-bent on disguising from somebody, if only a three-year-old, that pretty much all we do is eat and shit and ruck. The secret is there is no secret."

Though the story itself is sometimes difficult to read, (near the end I found my self in tears after discovering perhaps the crulest moment) thats why it's so captivating. The character or Celia is there I think firstly to show that Shriver can write a vulnerable character and draw lines of real familial love through through novel in contrast, but also so that we can truly see the depravity of Kevin. Shriver is bold in this, creating something beautiful amongst chaos only to burn it down.

I really don't want to write anything more about the content itself as it's so brilliant I feel it should only be expirienced first hand. I will say however that I truly loved every little piece of this story and that i'll defiantly be reading more from this author.