Books Left: 94
Current Book: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

This entry contains spoilers for the novel Jane Eyre.

Here’s the thing about Wide Sargasso Sea. I read it for school, for this odd class called “Fiction” in which our professor had us read four sets of two novels: one older novel, and one more recent work. Each pair related to each other in some way. One of the pairs was Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea.

I didn’t want to like Wide Sargasso Sea because I loved Jane Eyre and I knew what Wide Sargasso Sea was about before reading it. I wanted to believe that Rochester was truly tricked into marrying some certifiably crazy lady. When I read Wide Sargasso Sea I had to make myself believe that Antoinette was in no way actually the same person as the woman in the attic. I read it as though the two books were just coincidentally similar. I refused to let Jean Rhys’s more-politically-correct-than-thou post-colonial attitude destroy my enjoyment of the 19th century classic.

Approaching this book for the second time, I realized I didn’t remember anything about it except that the existence of it bothered me. It’s place in the literary canon bothered me, because it was based on something else and it’s not like all those Pride and Prejudice “sequels” are going to be taught in school anytime soon. I didn’t want to read it again. I just wanted to write it off the top 100 list and be done with it.

I’m reading it again, and I’ve discovered two things:

1. Antoinette/Bertha really is kind of crazy. She’s kind of hard to relate to in the book because the parts that are written from her perspective are very muddled. This could also be because she’s young, but I like to think that when I was her age I had a clearer head than that.
2. This book is incredibly well written.

Books Left: 94

After losing my first copy on an airplane and taking my sweet time to read through the rest, I’m finally finished with Iris Murdoch’s Under the Net. I usually don’t touch on the lives of authors when I write in the blog, mainly because I don’t want to fall under the “what is the author saying here?” trap. I’m mentioning Iris briefly because I found it fascinating that she wrote so many books. There was also a “controversial” biography written about her by someone who apparently didn’t care for her much. A film was made about her life in 2002 starring Kate Winslet. I haven’t seen it, but I want to now because I like biopics and I like Kate Winslet. I fear though that the movie will get me in tears, because Murdoch dies from Alzheimer’s Disease. Nothing quite gets me sobbing like horrible dementias. (I cried for about a half hour after I watched Awakenings.)

Is the book well written?

Let me say this: it isn’t poorly written. I never found myself noticing any particularly profound language, perhaps with the exception of the short passage where Jack sends a drunken letter to his ex in the mail (which I read out-loud in the video post). I liked the description of the letters falling down once the sender has let go. It’s more physical than sending a text message, where you just type a few words, hit send, and somehow know that in seconds they are appearing on someone else’s phone perhaps miles away.

Is it groundbreaking in some way?

My gut wants to say “yes” but I’m not sure if my gut is the right organ to use to answer this question. To be completely honest, I don’t know. I think it’s impressive that Murdoch wrote the book at 25, that it’s humorous and well thought out and deals with fascinating themes, in particular assumptions: the actions someone takes when they believe things that are entirely untrue. But is that enough to call it groundbreaking? I don’t know.

Is it an enjoyable read?

I enjoyed Under the Net for the most part. It took me a while to read, although this was hindered by the fact that I left it on the airplane. I found some of the parts dull, like when Jack is running through Paris following someone who might be Anna. I loved the characters: Jack, Hugh, Madge, and most of all Mars. I felt that each character was worthy of his or her own “spin-off” tale. Mrs. Tinkham in particular, the woman who runs the newsstand and collects stories.

Does Under the Net deserve to be on the list of the top 100 books of the 20th century? Maybe. Possibly. A very tentative yes.

I found Under the Net to have quite a few similarities to The Ginger Man, partially due to Iris Murdoch’s writing style not causing me to cringe, but mainly due to Jack Donaghue. Despite his flaws, I still found myself liking Jack. Now that I’m finished with the novel, I thought I would describe some of the two protagonists’ essential differences.

1.When Sebastian gets drunk, he starts violent bar fights. When Jake gets drunk, he sends love letters.

2.Neither of them make a great deal of money, but at least Jake works. Sebastian intends to go to the park and study law, and instead he flirts with his neighbor while his daughter is present. Jake, when he realizes he needs money, gets a job that sounds to me like one of the worst available: an orderly at a hospital cleaning up after patients.

3.Jake’s friends are much better people than Sebastian’s friends, some of whom are more disgusting than Sebastian himself.

4.For Sebastian, freeloading off his friends is a regular way of life. But when Jake thinks he betrayed his friend’s trust and friendship, he feels horribly. (Also, Sebastian does not have a conscience.)

5.Sebastian probably has STDs. Jake, on the other hand, goes after one woman throughout the entire book, and at the end when he realizes she’s really not interested in picking up where they left off, he stops. Jake also has opportunities with other women, which he politely declines.

6.While I wouldn’t trust Sebastian within a 50 mile radius of his own daughter, the relationship between Jake and the dog Mars is one of my favorite parts of the book. Jake begins by kidnapping Mars to use as leverage to get back something that was taken from him. By the time Jake finds out that the person who had Mars before has no desire to get him back, he and the dog are already close friends.

Jake is by no means perfect, but with a solid balance of positive and negative qualities Jake is a much more fascinating and relate-able fictional character than Sebastian will ever be.

Books Left: 94
Current Book: Under the Net by Iris Murdoch

Instead of writing about my progress in Under the Net, I decided to go the “vlog” route. This was inspired by Christina and Jenny who are supposed to do the same thing, and Pete who has another project, which is required.

Books Left: 95
Current Book: Sophie’s Choice by William Styron

Sophie’s Choice was tough. Not just because it was long, but also because I felt like it was a book I should enjoy reading. I tried very hard to like it, to feel connected with the characters, and in the end I just wanted it to be over.

Is the book well written?

I did not think Sophie’s Choice was particularly well written. I spoke before about how I understand and almost appreciate Styron’s telling of the story as though it were Stingo telling the story of Sophie to a friend.

It still needed some major editing. When finishing the book, I felt nothing. Here I was reading about a woman making the worst choice any human being would have to make, and I had no emotional reaction. Am I that thick-skinned?

Styron could have made so much more of a powerful emotional impact, if he’d told the story in chronological order leaving out the plethora of unnecessary details that filled the pages. Instead of reading quickly because I was invested in the characters, I read quickly because I had hundreds of pages to go in this overly long book.

Does it speak about the human condition?

This is one thing I’d say Sophie’s Choice does well. The comparison between the Holocaust and Slavery in the South is fascinating. The book speaks about how human beings, time and time again, are able to commit horrible acts against each other.

Is it groundbreaking in some way?

No and no. (Yes, I think a teenage girl did a better job of writing about the Holocaust than a Pulitzer Prize winner. Note that Styron did not win the Pulitzer for Sophie’s Choice. Makes me wonder what the Modern Library was thinking. And yes, both books were published before Styron’s.)

Is it an enjoyable read?

Not at all. I couldn’t wait to be finished.

I was thinking of saying “maybe” as my answer to if Sophie’s Choice belongs on the list of the top 100 books in the 1900s, but after going through my criteria I’m changing my answer to no. How is a novel going to say something about the human condition when it’s written in such a way that the message does not make any kind of impact?