Review of 'The Virginian, A Horseman of the Plains' by Owen Wister

The 'Wild West' is something that's never really grabbed my fancy too much, and as such I don't think I've ever actually read a book based around it. But it's such a massive part of the American literary canon that I couldn't ignore it forever. The Virginian is the first fully-fledged Western ever published, so I think it was a pretty good place to start!

The Virginian is the unnamed protagonist of the novel. He is a ranch hand who has an unsavoury past, but stands up for justice throughout the novel. The Virginian gambles, drinks and is no virgin to killing, but the latter he has only done to criminals, in particular, cattle rustlers. 

The Virginian's morally dubious past makes everything a little tricky when he falls for the new school marm in his town, Miss Molly Wood. The Virginian isn't a man who stays in one place; as a ranch hand he must move from place to place, wherever his work takes him. Soon, he begins to miss the town he belongs to, and the woman that stays there.

Molly too sees the allure in the badass ranch hand. But, when she learns of sordid details in his past, she is stuck with a moral dilemma. Does she agree to court the man she loves, even though his past is not clean?

Back in her home town, Molly was destined to marry a pure man that she had known since childhood, but she simply had no feelings for him. She knows her family would be against her pursuing a relationship with the Viriginian, but she does so eventually, and soon finds out who her true supporters are.

Have you read it? What did you think?

Review of 'Station Eleven' by Emily St John Mandel

Every so often I find a book that I get obsessed with. And this is one of them. When I finished this, I spent a good couple of hours trawling the Internet to see if there's a sequel to the novel out yet. Spoiler alert: there isn't. I almost cried at the news.

Station Eleven is a novel that I really wasn't expecting much from. The blurb made it sound a little like The Walking Dead, which I love, but is honestly so repetitive. Thankfully, there was none of this in Station Eleven. 

The novel has no main protagonist, but rather centres around a group of characters that are all in some way connected with an actor named Arthur Leander. We meet his best friend, a couple of ex-wives, and a girl who worked on stage with him when she was a child. Arthur Leander passed away just before the virus hit, but many people weren't so lucky.

The virus was always going to be a fad, right? Like bird flu or swine flu, or any of the other flus that get eradicated almost instantly. After weeks of panic of course. This virus however, should have been taken seriously, but it spread too quickly for many people to even get a chance to hear about it, let alone become concerned.

Who knows why the virus killed off the people it did, but within a few months 99% of the population of America was gone. We travel through most of the novel with a travelling symphony, who believe that 'survival is insufficient' (in the words of Star Trek). They live 20 years after the virus hit, and have learnt that even with hardly any people left, some are willing to kill for territory, food or sport. 

Society has lost its way, naturally. There's no electricity, no processed food, no laws, and no governing power. There's a divide between people who can remember the 'before' and people who can't.

Alongside this aspect of the novel, we follow the life of Arthur Leander in a disjointed manner, through the accounts of various people involved in his life. This gives the reader a jarring comparison between the 'now' and the 'before', and shows us how trivial concerns were before the flu.

I found the book utterly terrifying, and intensely gripping at the same time. It was so real that I had nightmares about our world being hit with the same kind of virus, and I spent so long daydreaming about how I would handle life if I survived. 

This has honestly been my favourite book I've read in months, and I'd definitely recommend that you all give it a go!

Have you read it? What did you think?

Review of 'Coelebs in Search of a Wife' by Hannah More

It's a bit scary that some people still adhere to the beliefs within this statement, which was written over 200 years ago. As you can probably guess, I wasn't the greatest fan of the morals set out within this novel, but yet I wasn't the least fan of it either. It's set worlds apart from the modern day, and despite this quotation being largely negative, it was actually seen as a feminist novel in its heyday. 

It largely looks at how to parent young girls, which was a bit of a risky topic back then, as it is now. Coelebs is looking for a wife (as you may have guessed), but every woman he comes across is too 'something'; they're too religious, or too dowdy, or too loose in their morals, or spend too much time reading novels (whoops). 

Coelebs' dying father asks him to spend some time with an old friend, Mr Stanley, after he passes away. Coelebs does this and is struck with the wonderful way in which Stanley raises his children, in particular his eldest Lucilla. They are taught from a young age that, though they are a family of means, the girls must do charitable work for the goodness of doing it, not for any praise or reward. They raise their own garden together, and sell the flowers they produce to raise money for the infirm in their area, or give the flowers for the poor to sell themselves. They are taught all aspects of domestic life and come to love them, as well as being competent in other pursuits such as singing and instrument playing.

All in all, Coelebs begins to see them as ideal women. And he falls in love with the eldest Lucilla, but does not know how to reveal this to her father. When he does, Mr Stanley tells Coelebs a tale that shocks and thrills him (as well as the reader)!

Have you read it? What did you think?

Review of 'A Grain of Wheat' by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Do you remember when I promised you guys that I'd start doing more reviews of books written by authors from other parts of the globe, not just the UK or America? Well, I'm kick-starting it off with this one. This novel, written by Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o is set in Kenya during its struggle for independence from Britain.

We move back and forwards in time throughout the back, and switch frequently between different characters' perspectives. In this way, we come at the resistance movement against British rule from a number of different areas, and discover how it gathered strength as well as weaknesses.

The main character is arguably Mugo. A man who seems to not want to get involved in the fight. But he's always stuck at the centre of it. Mugo attained fame for being a man who couldn't be broken in the detention camps for resistance fighters. He was sent there for saving a woman from being beaten. But whatever the guards did to him, he would not break down and submit to them.

Kenya is preparing for Uhuru, or their Independence Day, but Mugo is backing away from it because of his guilt. He doesn't want to be hailed as a hero of the movement, because he knows he's not. But why?

Have you read it? What did you think?

Review of 'A Walk to Remember' by Nicholas Sparks

I've never really resonated properly with a review of a book on its cover. They're usually filled with 'Amazing', 'Unputdownable', or a whole variety of buzzwords. The one on the back of A Walk to Remember, however summarises exactly how I feel about this novel: 'every now and then you stumble across an extraordinary book that at first appears like countless others, but then you read it and are amazed at the treasure within'. This review is by the New York Sunday Post, in case you were wondering.

A Walk to Remember is something that I've been meaning to read for years. I bought it before I went to uni, so it's been sitting on my shelves for at least five years now. The film that is based on this book is one of my favourite films of all times, and it's why I picked up the novel in the first place. I absolutely whizzed through it, lapping up all the extra little details that the book had to offer. The one thing I would say is that if you've seen the film and want to read the book, then the Landon you know is not quite like the original Landon. He was a little meaner, a little more selfish, and a whole lot less likeable.

So, A Walk to Remember is all about a girl called Jamie. Her father, a preacher, is her only family, as her mother passed away a few years earlier. Being brought up in such a religious family has greatly impacted Jamie's outlook on life: she attempts to see the best in people, carries a bible around with her everywhere, and does an immense amount of work for the local orphanage. 

Naturally, this introvert, who's a little saintly and carries around a bible with her isn't the most popular girl at school. Thankfully for Jamie, she either doesn't notice the sarcasm of the bullies or at least pretends to. One of those bullies, Landon, is forced to work with Jamie for a drama class assignment. They're the leads in a play and Landon, a 'popular guy', simply can't be seen with Jamie. Eventually he comes to realise that this shy exterior of a girl has a wealth of goodness and character beneath it. With Landon we being to see that everyone is worth getting to know.

This novel is beyond heartbreaking, but I've decided not to spoiler any of that part for you. If you've read the novel or seen the film then you'll know what I mean. Reading the end part of this on a bus was a total mistake for me, and I ended up sobbing and getting some interesting looks. Just remember that this is the guy that wrote The Notebook. 

Have you read it? What did you think?

Review of 'The Monk' by Matthew Lewis

Gothic books are undeniably fab. I think every literature student has been through a phase where this genre is just the shit. But, have I ever read 'the original' Gothic novel? Nah. This year I really want to read more classics, and this was definitely a good place to start. The Monk is something that I've been told is a must-read for a good, well, six years now. Being told that however actually made me want to read it less. 

Now that I've read it I have so many regrets about not reading it before. It is one of the best books I've ever read. I really wish I could go back and read it before reading Dracula because comparing the two whilst I was at uni would have made for some fab coursework. 

I was also genuinely surprised at the content, as well as by how much I enjoyed it. Despite being a Victorian novel, The Monk was a whole lot darker than some of its contemporary counterparts. Although, the Marquis de Sade's Juliette was published only a year later.

The Monk is a story all about the vilification of the Catholic faith. It's a story made up of stories; some of which are interlinked by obscure characters and settings. We have the story of the bleeding nun, all about a nun who rejected her veil and was brutally murdered in the past. And in the present we have a pregnant nun: someone who has violated her vows and wishes to lose the veil. There is a monk who commits a vile number of sins against both humanity and his faith. I'm not going to spoiler what he does for you, but it's all filled with a whole load of twists and turns.

This is a novel that both gave me nightmares and made me not want to stop turning each page. It's possibly the first ever truly scary book I've ever read, so if that's your jam then I would 100% recommend it.

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph

Review of 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' by Anne Bronte

Ah, the oft-forgotten third author in the Bronte family. Up until I was 18 I had no idea that Emily and Charlotte had a sister who also wrote a novel, and I reeled in shock at the fact of it. I found The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in a dusty paperback exchange store in Bognor Regis a couple of years ago, and treasured it by forgetting that I ever owned it until a few months back. I've really been getting back into Victorian fiction at the moment, and, as I'm still a little intimidated by Villette, I decided to go for the only other unread Bronte book on my shelves. Despite loving Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, I really didn't have great expectations (oh the Victorian literature puns coming out in this post) for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Mostly if I'm honest because I've never heard about it, or never heard it discussed in a literary manner.

I'm now feeling genuinely disappointed that this book isn't discussed with more frequency and vibrancy. Like her sisters, Anne challenges the notion of what is allowed within the confines of being a proper woman, and creates an image of a heroine we cannot help but love, even if she doesn't bear an exact resemblance to the ideal Victorian woman. Much like her sisters' novels, this also contains a metanarrative, taking us back to a past which completely alters our perspective on the present, and I love it.

Helen Huntingdon, our heroine, moves to Wildfell Hall and is at once the target of many a rumour. Clad in mourning garments and never letting her son out of her sight, Helen spikes everyone's curiosity with her refusal to attend church and strange relationship with the owner of Wildfell Hall. Many of her neighbours think it unwomanly to be living alone in a house owned by a man when she has no husband, and rumours about her sexual licentiousness abound. 

Helen hardly helps the matter, with her vague answers to the neighbours' questions about her past, and her refusal to pay social calls on the other ladies. She even seems unwilling to attend parties and gatherings she is invited to, much to the shock and insult of the local ladies. 

Gilbert Markham however, gives the lady a lot more credit than his comrades, and decides to get to know her a little better. With her natural grace, good lucks and intelligence he begins to fall for her, but she insists that she can never return his affections. Confused and insulted, Markham begins to believe the rumours about Helen; that is, until she sets them straight with a written account of her past.

You see, Helen is in fact not a widow, but a runaway bride. In leaving her husband, and taking their son in this way she has not only violated English conventions, but also laws. An abusive marriage takes its toll on young Helen, who avoided the advice of her wise aunt regarding her choice in husband. This aunt speaks out and instructs her not to follow only her heart, or wealth, or whims, but discover who a man really is, what his intellect is like, and what kind of husband he would be before marriage. Helen believes she will do so until she meets Huntingdon, and falls in love immediately. She casts off the practical feminist advice of her aunt and marries him quickly and without much thought for the future. All too soon she realises her mistake.

For many critics, this is one of the first feminist novels, and I can see why. Helen was an example to all women out there during the Victorian period, showing that abandoning a vicious husband does not mean one has to abandon their morality or hopes of a heavenly afterlife. Helen is blameless in the entire affair, and piece by piece we learn how faith kept this strong woman upright in a time of peril.

Have you read it? What did you think?