Some Assistance Please

Nippy · Post by **Nippy** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 11:47 am

Hi everyone,

I need some help. For my English Lit A-level we need to study a post-1900 text and I would like some of your opinions on what I should read. Some options for me are Catch 22, The Wasp Factory, The Collector and High-Fidelity. Any other ideas for me?

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 12:13 pm

Are you confined to a certain genre or period (or just anything since 1900)? Fiction or non-fiction?

Timekeeper · Post by **Timekeeper** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 12:14 pm

Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse Five are almost mandatory. Other good choices would include The Waste Land (TS Eliot), Fences (a play), Waiting for Godot (another play), several others which don't immediately spring to mind.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 12:26 pm

If you have your pick of any book written since the beginning of the 20th Century, you should read:

The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien

Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

Goodbye, Darkness by William Manchester (non-fiction, autobiographical)

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young by LGEN Hal Moore and Joe Galloway (non-fiction, history, memoir)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Misery by Stephen King

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Nippy · Post by **Nippy** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 1:54 pm

Thanks for your replies.

@ HLD, it has to be a fiction, although I suppose a narrative biography may well be ok.

R.E. your selections, I argued VEHEMENTLY for Tolkien, but the examining board won't allow us to study the book. We apparently have to have a complicated book (so Animal Farm is ruled out) but not too complicated...

Another succesful form of education!

Could you give me a brief synopsis of every thing but Tolkein and Starship Troopers? Persuade me why it might be worth forcing my class into reading and studying your selections...

@ Timekeeper, a play is outlawed from this section of study. I presume you think Catch 22 is good, what are The Wasteland and Slaughter House Five like?

Thanks all! Keep your suggestions coming!

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 2:04 pm

Some good suggestions!

How about Kes? or Catcher In The Rye?

Nippy · Post by **Nippy** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 2:12 pm

Originally posted by Yshania
Some good suggestions!

How about Kes? or Catcher In The Rye?

Catcher In The Rye was another suggestion from someone else. I can see that I need to read these books anyway even if we don't study them!

What is Kes Ysh?

der Moench · Post by **der Moench** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 2:19 pm

Catcher in the Rye is an excellent, excellent book. Consider also JD Salinger's other great work: Franny and Zooey. I think I like that one even better.

Can't make many other suggestions - I like older stuff!

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 2:21 pm

Kes is about the world through the eyes of a teenaged northern lad - written in Yorkshire dialect - He feels rejected by his mother, who considers him a hindrance, and is bullied by his older brother, as well as kids from school and he is generally considered educationally retarded....as a result he becomes a bit of a loner, and befriends a kestrel, who he spends much time and emotion with...a sensitive and moving book

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 2:26 pm

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
A man is born on Mars, raised by martians and is returned to earth for some culture shock (for the humans, that is). One of Heinlein's four Hugo Award winners, Stranger in a Strange Land features loads of his Tolstoy-style preachiness. It's very thought-provoking, although some of the subject matter (monogamy and monotheism) may be a bit mature for some high-schoolers.

Goodbye, Darkness by William Manchester (non-fiction, autobiographical)
Manchester is a Professor Emeritus (U. of Virginia, I believe; his other books are about ancient Roman history and the hagiographic American Caesar about Douglas MacArthur) and WWII veteran who was wounded in the south pacific. In an effort to exorcise his demons from the war (PTSD), he takes a tour of the Pacific theater some 30 years after last being there. A lot of history, with personal memoirs mixed in, including how it felt to kill another human being. Some mature content (a little sex, a lot of violence).

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Before there were expose journalists, there was Sinclair who wrote this book about wage-slavery and "the jungle" of American factory life. It's a fictional story about a Lithuanian immigrant who goes to America in an effort to find the American dream, but ends up working back-breaking labour in a dirty meat-packing factory. It caused an uproar in 1906 and is a classic in "muckraking" journalism.

We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young by LGEN Hal Moore and Joe Galloway (non-fiction, history, memoir)
Another historical-based memoir, they just made this into a movie with Mel Gibson as then-LTC Moore. Moore and Galloway recount the first major battle between the US Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment (Airmobile) and the NVA. Moore and Galloway are generally apolitical, and the focus is on the bonds between soldiers, both American and Vietnamese. An absolute must read for anyone interested in military history (of any era).

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Told through the eyes of his children, this book is about a lawyer in the 1930s Depression-era South who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. The movie is magnificent, and the book is better.

Misery by Stephen King
An author has a car accident and is "rescued" by one of his faithful fans. Unfortunately, she is quite insane and ends up holding him hostage until he writes a story especially for her. Absolutely terrifying in parts. Pet Sematary is another good King book.

As a side note, I hated Salinger and Catcher in the Rye; slow and boring. Hemingway stinks, too.

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 2:37 pm

Posted by HLD

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Good book! and on this subject, another consideration would be The Color Purple, by Alice Walker...a very moving and inciteful book.....

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 2:39 pm

Other possible suggestions,

All quiet on the western front
lord of the flies (too simple as well)
Asimov's foundation trilogy
Grapes of Wrath
East of Eden

I like Salinger HLD, couldn't agree more about Hemingway though. I just recommended The Brigade by Howard Blum to folks in the book club thread. It is an investigative book into a handful of Jewish troops trained in Palestine by the british to combat the nazi's. Setting is right at the close of WWII. I'm reading it now and it is quite good.

Your NF military memoir books sound very good. A lot of those texts are difficult to comprehend as non fiction (such a sheltered life here in the US for my 30 years.)

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 2:44 pm

Night by Elie Wiesel
Wiesel was a Jew who survived the Holocaust, but writes about losing his faith in God and humanity after witnessing Auschwitz. This is a quick-read, but very, very powerful.

Robnark · Post by **Robnark** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 2:52 pm

how come you get a choice of any text? jealousy

Robnark · Post by **Robnark** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 2:56 pm

but if you want suggestions, try anything by Haruki Murakami - preferably 'norwiegan' wood or 'the wind up bird chronicle'.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 3:01 pm

@Nippy: Is it supposed to be a novel, or can you chose poetry as well?

Some suggestions I'm sure you teacher will like (and novels I like as well)

A portrait of the artist as a young man - James Joyce
To the lighthouse - Virginia Wolf

Both novels are of literary importance, and are reasonably complex inasmuch as they have underlying motives that can be analysed.

posted by HLD
As a side note, I hated Salinger and Catcher in the Rye; slow and boring. Hemingway stinks, too.[/b]

I agree 100%! I think Hemingway is totally overrated, and I absolutely hated Catcher in the rye!

Nippy · Post by **Nippy** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 3:17 pm

@ C Elegans, we are doing poetry as part of another module, we will be studying Seamus Henlen or something and Chaucer, Milton or another bloke who I can't remember!

Thanks very much all! Keep 'em coming! I am speaking with my tutor tomorrow so I will give him some of your suggestions...

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 3:25 pm

don't forget to bring your pep pills when studying Milton Nippy.

Nippy · Post by **Nippy** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 3:29 pm

Originally posted by Ned Flanders
don't forget to bring your pep pills when studying Milton Nippy.

Oh trust me, I know! I've just studied Keats and the Romantic Movement. I swear if I hear drugged up on opium and huggy feely one more time...

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 3:41 pm

@Kes, i had to study this in school, it is fairly complicated, it is all in stream of conciousness. It is fairly interesting, but still might be easier to choose something else

Interesting choice @Wasp Factory, good book, but a difficult one to write about IMO.

Personally i would go for To Kill a Mockingbird, well written book, defiantely one of the better choices IMO.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman is also a great deal of food for thought, not exactly a classic, but a decent book