misery loves company

okay....so it was NOT complete misery.
let us now praise famous men. this is one of those books that shows up on lists of influential books of the twentieth century. so, my book club decided to give it a try. also, one of our members is going to be teaching a course this fall on the depression & post-depression era. she had a list of books that she is trying to get through before solidifying her syllabus and we thought we would help her out. we all choose this one as it sounded interesting. i almost gave up around page 20 BUT then i got a character name around page 50..... but then finally gave up around page 130. i only made it a quarter of the way through the book. no one finished.

**i feel as if i need to clarify though. it is not that it is not a good book or worth reading..... it is just a tough writing style and was not what we were expecting. it is the story of three tenant farmers & their families..... i expected their story. not really so much plot.... again, i am a sucker for some good plot & real character development. this has stunning descriptions and prosaic writing YET somehow still lacks real plot or character. and there you have it.....

the double bind. in the midst of trying to read agee's book, i picked this one up. i remember the cover from the "best sellers" list and checked it out from the library. quick read especially in the middle of the night. i really enjoyed it and while not being as "well-written" as agee, i enjoyed the literary references to the great gatsby as the backdrop of the plot.... hooray, there was a plot. and there was even a bit of a twist at the end. nothing shocking, but nothing i really saw coming as i wasn't really paying attention.... i was just reading along and enjoying the ease of enjoying a story....and characters. one interesting thing about this book is that the author actually got the premise for it from a real life sitation where a homeless man left a collection of black and white photos when he died. they were his only possession. bohjalian constructed his story around that idea and where those photos lead was to daisy buchanan, jay gatsby, myrtle wilson, and long island. it was fun, especially since i truly do love gatsby.