Thursday, August 02, 2007

Is he - one of us?

NOW FINISHED: One of Ours by Willa Cather
NEXT UP FOR A-TO-Z PROJECT: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
ANNUAL BIG BOOK I'M BLOWING OFF: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
BOOK I WILL READ NEXT, FURTHER PROLONGING THE BLOWING OFF OF DON Q: Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain


So I finished One of Ours, and I am happy to report that once I got past page 100 it started to get really good, so I am glad I stuck with it. Not that I could have done otherwise, because Pulitzer=I read it. However, it really was kind of blah-blah-blah on the prairie and got exciting only once Claude married his silly Prohibition-thumpin' prairie girlfriend and then set off for France to be a soldier in World War I. There was a lot of grappling with the meaning of life, death, war and the like. The end, though, was strange. So my overall report is that it's a great book from about pages 120-365. (out of 371)

And by the way, no, I'm not entirely sure the answer to "one of our" - what, exactly? Quick, somebody call Umberto!

Coming soon -- very soon: my Official Literary Snob Report!

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