Book Reviews

I get totally behind on book reviews even when I’m not reading competitively. *sigh* Anywho, here are a few I’ve read (ok, re-read) lately:

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
I think I saw the movie and then went out and bought the book. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the movie but if I remember correctly, the movie and book were drastically different. Perhaps I should re-view the movie just to make sure. Or not. It wasn’t that great of a movie. Anyway, the whole book (as well as a few others Ms. Highsmith has written) concerns a young sociopath named Tom Ripley. Admittedly he’s had a rough life, what with both of his parents dying and him being raised by a not so pleasant aunt. By 25, he’s grown weary of his life. When he bumps into the father of Dickie Greenleaf, a young man he met once, he takes the opportunity presented to go to Italy to try and convince Dickie to come back home. He thoroughly enjoys his time in Europe, but when he’s appeared to have overstayed his welcome, he takes drastic measures to keep his new, more attractive lifestyle. He kills Dickie and transforms himself into him. Things begin to collapse around him when the police question him (as Dickie) about Tom. His own fears almost get the better of him but he manages to work it all out.

There are apparently two or three other books in the “Tom Ripley” series but I haven’t read them. Nor do I think I plan to. He’s just too psycho for me.


And Both Were Young by Madeline L’Engle
The inside front cover of this book says “To Martha from Dad. Christmas 1994.” Perhaps this should tell you how many times I’ve read this book. It’s a cute book about a girl who doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere. She’s been traumatized by a car accident that left her mother dead and her knee stiff (which restricts her athletic ability, thereby making her a social outcast at her school.) She yearns to travel with her father while he works on a drawing project but Eunice, a woman “lusting after” her father convinces him to put Flip into a girls school in Switzerland. While there she meets Paul, a troubled young man with an unclear past. No, really. He lost his memory somehow and doesn’t know who he is. They help each other out along with Paul’s aunt, Colette, the art teacher at Flip’s school. It ends with an exciting ski tournament and lots of smiling faces.

Interestingly, the foreword to this book tells how Ms L’Engle was able to revise the book after the original publication to be more accurate to her manuscripts. Apparently when it was first published a lot of her writing was thought to be inappropriate - references to men, women, their relationships, that kind of thing. Personally, if what I read was the “naughty” version of this book, I can only imagine what the “clean” version was. Oh, how times have changed!


The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
I’m not even sure why I own this book. It’s a pain in the butt to read and the story isn’t really that thrilling. It’s just a classic I guess. I think everyone probably knows the story of Hester Prynne. She commits adultery which is discovered when she ends up with a child. She is publicly humiliated and forced to wear a big red “A” on her chest. She refuses to name her partner in crime even when her husband, who had been presumed dead, shows up trying to blackmail her. She is shunned from society and spends most of her time at home with her daughter, Pearl. In the meantime, her husband takes a new name and enters into society as a doctor in the town where Hester lives. He is immediately dispatched to help the ailing minister, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. He suspects the Reverend is hiding something and when he discovers what it is, he resolves to get his revenge by slowly killing him. In the end all is revealed and everyone (well, almost) can finally move on with their lives.

This book is full of antiquated prose and lengthy descriptions of all kinds of things. It’s not quite as bad as, say, Victor Hugo or Jules Verne, but it’s sometimes frustrating. I find myself skipping over the boring sections. Perhaps not the best way to fully appreciate the book, but I get the gist of things.


Up next: a biography of George Washington.