Review: Alice in Wonderland

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

Title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Author: Lewis Carroll 

Year: 1965/1971

Publisher: Vintage

Pages: 327

7 year old Alice is sat under a tree in her garden and she’s bored. A white rabbit wearing a jacket and checking its pocket watch of course immediately grabs her attention and she follows it, even down into its rabbit hole. Curiously, upon entering the hole she starts falling, and keeps falling, and falling, and falling. So begin Alice’s adventures in wonderland.

 When it was first published in 1865 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland mainly received bad reviews because it was seen as nonsense. By the time Through the Looking Glass was published in 1871, though, it had gained critical acclaim. Up to this day it’s one of the most widely known children’s stories. Often both of Alice’s adventures are bundled in one volume, as was mine. This review will thus be of both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

This novel works on so many levels, and all these layers are worth exploring and studying, making it a book that can be read over and over again. And you have to, if you really want to understand it. Linguistically, it is so interesting, it makes you think about language, it makes you consider every word you’re saying. However, sometimes the language is incredibly difficult to understand, it doesn’t always make sense. This is mostly so when reading the poems integrated in the story. They’re very hard to understand, but they do add to the story.

In terms of the main plot, a lot happens as well, and many things can be analysed in very different ways. I feel like Alice’s discomfort – never being quite the right size, is something that likely alludes to puberty, meaning the target audience is slightly older than children. But it also speaks to me as a young woman who’s just finishing up her master’s degree and has to venture into the real world, but doesn’t really know how to fit in. This ties in with Alice’s realisation that not all puzzles seem to have a solution – some things just don’t make sense, and you have to give in to that. This struggle is continued in Through the Looking Glass where Alice learns that she cannot control everything that happens to her, which is represented by the chess game. Hashtag relatable!

I myself had interpreted the mushroom as a kind of drugs – allowing all the weirdness. But I read somewhere that people see the caterpillar as a symbol for sexuality because of its phallic shape, and the mushrooms – given to her by this caterpillar – would help her gain control of puberty as it helps her change sizes. This all worries me slightly, as Alice is seven… but I am interested in hearing whether people agree and have evidence from the novel for this claim?

All in all, I really loved this novel. It intrigued me in terms of language, and I didn’t expect its themes to relate so much to my situation. I was a little annoyed by Alice in the first book, but in the second she was much less of a brat.  What did bother me greatly were the lousy endings to both novels. 

Review: Station Eleven

"The more you remember, the more you've lost"

Title: Station Eleven

Author: Emily St. John Mandel

Year: 2014

Publisher: Picador

Pages: 333

I recommend going into this novel without knowing what it is about, so I’m not going to give a summary. It’s even difficult to classify it as one particular genre, but to give you a general idea of what the novel is about, I’ll tell you this: There’s a pandemic which could have apocalyptic consequences. We learn about the world before the disease, during it, and many years after.

This is the only book I was able to get through in the month of June as it left me in a major slump. I don’t really know why, though. Writing this review now makes me realise I have forgotten quite a bit of the story, it hasn’t stuck with me as much as I thought it would. I have to admit the feelings it made me feel, the impressions it made on me, they did last. However, because the story didn’t, I can’t rate five stars, which is what I initially wanted to.

Still, four stars means it is a brilliant book nonetheless. Its structure is so clever and well thought out – we get to know our characters through many years and even though it jumps back and forth, it never becomes confusing. Moreover, it is very original in the way it handles the potential apocalypse. Generally, books surrounding an apocalypse focus on the actual downfall itself and direct survival, leaving to the reader’s imagination how the world will continue. Mandel offers much more insight, leaving out the tumultuous years right after the pandemic, skipping quite a few years. For this very reason, many people whose reviews I read, actually disliked the novel. I feel, though, that this is just the originality needed in such a popular genre. It’s even more original because it also focusses so much on how the characters lived and developed many years before the disease.

I would say the main themes of the novel are memory and nostalgia. The story is driven by nostalgia, because our main character collects things associated with the past and the story builds around this. We’re constantly reminded of the past, as are the characters in the future parts of the novel. Those who remember the past are nostalgic about it, yet focus on moving on. The past is not a taboo, but they’re also aware that they can’t go back. Because of this positive spirit of moving on, Station Eleven is not as bleak as other apocalyptic stories. I’m not saying it is a happy one, though, a lot happens in this book, and hardly anything will make you smile. 

Tag Tuesday: On My Shelf #1

As I'll never really do a bookshelf-tour kind of post, I thought another way of showing off what books I own is the On My Shelf tag, originally created by Iain Broome. The idea is simple: random numbers which form coordinates will determine what book on which shelf you’ll be talking about. So if the numbers are 3 and 5, you’ll talk about the fifth book on the third shelf. I used random.org to generate ten numbers, so I’ll be talking about 5 books.

18,3 – Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

I bought this after I’d read and loved Fangirl and read it immediately after I received it. I absolutely adored this book. I thought it was better than Fangirl, less cheesy, even though this one’s quite cheesy too. I rated it five stars, cause for a young adult love story, it’s perfect.

7,19 – Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

Almost two years ago, I saw an advertisement on a Dutch version of Craigslist for a huge box filled with old Wordsworth Classics for very cheap. So I got it and now I have over 50 books in this old series. This is one of them, I haven’t read it yet, and although I’m excited to get to it, I doubt it’ll be soon.

22,8 – Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

Another one that I got in that big box. I own many of Verne’s books, because as a kid I had this abridged version of Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, which I loved. So as an adult, I decided to buy his books. Never got around to reading them though..

1,4 – Little Women & Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott

Yet another Wordsworth Classic, but not one that belongs to the older series. I bought this about a year ago, and have always been avoiding any kind of spoilers of Little Women. One day, a few weeks ago, my friend was talking to me about spoilers and how an episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. talks about spoilers and this book. In recounting the episode, my friend spoiled Little Women. I tried reading it about a week ago, and couldn’t get into it. Now I don’t know if it was because I was spoiled, though, because I wasn’t enjoying the writing either..

1,11 – The Complete Novels of Jane Austen

I’m not a Jane Austen Fan. But you may have noticed I do collect Wordsworth Classics (because they’re cheap, not because they’re pretty). I own all of The Complete Novels collections they have brought out so far, I think, and I haven’t read much from them. I prefer owning the separate books as well, because these huge books are difficult to read. 

That's all for today! Be sure to check back soon, because I have a ton of reviews to post!

Review: Grapes of Wrath

"You're bound to get idears if you go thinkin' about stuff" 

Title: Grapes of Wrath

Author: John Steinbeck

Year: 1939

Pages: 536
Purchase this edition 

We follow the Joad family who were forced to leave their home in Oklahoma during the Great Depression. One of their sons, though, has just been released from prison and is on parole. For that reason, he is not allowed to leave the state. Nonetheless, the whole family head to California, where they hope to find a better future.

     The setup of this novel is interesting. We read chapters from the Joad family's perspective alternated with chapters in which we see a nameless family (or families?) struggle. This allows the novel to be read as a bigger chronicle: the unnamed characters show us the issue is omnipresent and concerns anyone, and the chapters zooming in on the Joads evoke sympathy.

As a novel which was written and published during the Great Depression it is more often read as a history than a fictional piece of literature. However, reading reviews from the time of publication shows us that people protested against its legitimacy as they felt it was an exaggeration of the situation as well as of the people. I can see how at that time this resulted in much criticism especially by groups of people represented in the novel such as the Okies. However, I disagree with this approach as I think this was part of Steinbeck's purpose. I feel like he may have altered the facts slightly to come across better, to emphasise on how important the issues were. This is also the case with the character descriptions, as they're almost caricatures. This may be seen as annoying or unbelievable, but as a consequence character development is much clearer which in its turn highlights the impact of the Great Depression. Accurate or not, The Grapes of Wrath is a social commentary which makes you think about the way society works.

I say here 'society', but one might think a novel like this is more about politics. While it cannot deny how the government deals with the issues in the 1930s, the novel much more focusses on the importance of community and family in times of need. For Steinbeck, this seems an important theme, as his novella Of Mice and Men also deals with how friendship defines a person's fate. That is not to say that his works are sweet stories about companionship, quite the contrary, especially in the case of Of Mice and Men in which betrayal is a major theme. In this aspect, The Grapes of Wraths can be seen as at least a little bit positive: while not all bonds are strong in the novel, the Joads illustrate that both family and comradery can at least bring us one step further.

While there are many layers to the novel - many different themes and parallels to the story of Exodus - it can also be read as 'just a story'. It is both plot and character driven: if there is no action there is immense character devleopment. Consequently, the novel is never boring. Moreover, as a result from some themes not being very sublte, such as the importance of kindness, it does have you think about life and about yourself, even if you are just reading it leasurely.
   
   

Top 10 Tuesday: Hyped books I've never read

Top 10 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by brokeandbookish.com. This week's topic is hyped books I've never read. So here's my list.

10.  A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
9.    Any Percy Jackson book by Rick Riordan
8.    The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
7.    Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
6.    Any Charles Dickens (only read some of his shorter works)
5.    Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
4.    My Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
3.    Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguru
2.    Interpreter of Maladies  by Jhumpa Lahiri
1.    The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling (only read the first three 😰 )

Excuses

l could say I haven't been posting because I've been busy. But to be frank, I've been lazy. Yes, I've been working and I'm still writing my dissertation, but those things are not requiring as much energy as I've been claiming. Honestly, I'm writing this as a kind of reality check. Trying to get my life back on track.  No, it hasn't been awful, I haven't been 'depressed', all I'm saying is that I'm not happy with how I'm spending my hours off. I can't even tell you what I've been doing because it's plainly nothing. You'd expect I'd be up to date with all YouTube subscriptions, seen all the newest episodes of every tvshow I've ever followed, read all books on my tbr, and have had my apartment cleaned and tidy every single second. Quite the contrary on all those statements. I haven't really watched many of my favourite youtubers, I haven't seen any shows, haven't read at all , and my apartment was often a mess. Picked up any new hobbies, then? Nope. Nothing. So. No more excuses. Let's make these days / weeks / months count, step up my game, and live life a little better.
But for now, sleep tight and I'll see you soon
xx

Thank you

Dear readers,

I just wanted to thank you all for patiently waiting. I haven't been posting at all since my April wrap up, which is all because I've been very busy with uni, writing my dissertation, trying to obtain my Master's degree. Today I handed in my prefinal, which means I'm at least nearing the end. This also means I will have time to read books again and write about them on here! I'm super excited to publish reviews of books I read for uni in the past 4 months, because I've read some amazing novels. But I'm also excited to have time to read for pleasure, continue my Harry Potter challenge (reading all the novels and novellas in the year 2015), explore more genres, try to get through my TBR. And although it's scary, nearing the end of my academic carreer, it is also a gateway for new opportunities and fun experiences, and most importantly it gives me a chance to catch up with friends - yes, uni has robbed me of much of my social life.
Anyway, expect more of me here soon.

Love, Suzan.