Wow, I am way, way behind on my “currently reading” posts. Three books behind, to be exact.
Since finishing My Ishmael, I have completed The Song of the Lark and The Bohemian Girl, both by Willa Cather. I am attempting to complete all of Cather’s works this year, as she is my favorite authoress. I don’t want to read them back to back, however, because I think that they might all bleed together, and I wouldn’t be able to distinctly recall each book. So I have determined to read a couple at a time, taking breaks to enjoy other novels, as well.
I will try to give a short review of the two books before moving on to the book I am currently in the middle of, W Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge.
The Song of the Lark is one of Cather’s earliest novels, and by far her longest. Many critics are very hard on Cather for The Song of the Lark, suggesting that the novel is too long; that Cather extends the ending of the novel well past the point of interest. I think the novel is wonderful, and I found myself engrossed in every inch of the story, even the ending chapter, which reviewers are most critical of. I think the last chapter only further cements ideas Cather presents in the novel, but in an unexpected way.
I was so intrigued with the main female protagonist, Thea Kronberg. I always find Cather’s females interesting, because they seem to never fully understand who they are and what they want, and I think to examine Cather’s female psyche is to examine Cather herself. Cather’s females are always driven by an ambition for self-improvement and to escape undesirable circumstances, whether they’re the circumstances of youth, family, or place. Once Cather’s females achieve their ambitions; they often find themselves missing something that they can never quite put into words. Most often their inability to see themselves clearly leads to a state of confusion concerning their own true desires that can only be resolved by some connection to “The Male”. Such is the case with Thea Kronberg, the daughter of a Colorado minister. Thea is a talented pianist who escapes the life of a common piano teacher by moving to Chicago, where she improves her musical talents and learns that her true gift lies in her voice. Thea becomes a famous opera singer, but at the height of her success, she is plagued by self-doubt and the feeling of never being able to achieve her true potential. In the end, Cather suggests that our feelings of success and failure are a menagerie of different points in life and our notions of how we are perceived, by ourselves, by characters from our childhood, adolescence and adulthood merge together to provide us with a sense of who we are and also where we are in connection to where we and others thought we would be. This novel is definitely worth reading. A notable section in the book is Thea’s summer spent amongst Native American cliff ruins in the west. Cather’s description of the ruins is beautiful. I could go on and on about all of the different things Cather brings up in this novel, as well as how this novel reveals so much about Cather’s complicated relationship with self and with place, but I won’t. Read it.
On to The Bohemian Girl. This work is actually a collection of Cather’s short stories, rather than a novel.
The Bohemian Girl is brilliant because in it, Cather links a single idea together seamlessly through stories that on the surface, differ so much from one another. The linking element in all of the stories is LIFE. Life in its brevity, in its beauty, in its terror, in its quietness. The task of all of the characters in these stories is to understand what version of life is most desirable. In one of her stories, a brief but brilliant life of self-satisfaction is gratifying above all others. In another story, a life based on a sense of place and belonging is most attractive. Cather makes no indication as to which versions of life are the “best”, but rather which will bring happiness or pain to certain types of people. I loved every story in this collection, even Paul’s Case which was rather disturbing.
That’s all I have to say about Cather for now.
Finally, I’ll relate a few thoughts about the novel I am currently reading, The Razor’s Edge.
I have never read a novel like it before. The novelty (ha!) I am referring to is not so much in the story, but in the construction. Maugham relates the affairs of a handful of characters through his interactions with them, meaning he is in the novel – his thoughts, his actions, his dialogues with the other characters, etc. I know that this is not a new construction, but it is one that I have never encountered and enjoyed as I do this novel. Once I overcame the notion of having the author as a character in the novel, I was able to focus on the story, which is wonderful. Maugham’s story is really about a young man, Larry Darrell and his interactions with Isabel, the girl he is in love with, her family and their circle of friends. The story spans almost half a century, covering post-WWI America, the Great Depression, and the years of recovery after the Depression all while following how these events affect the character’s relationships. Maugham only encounters the characters a handful of times, but through these interactions, and various items of news he receives concerning them, he reconstructs the rises and falls in their lives during this turbulent time in the world. I find this novel wildly appealing, because it explores how people who are about my age react to a very troubling time in American history. Some of the characters are faithful to the American dream and industry, both personal and economic, while Larry chooses a path of nomadic spiritual enlightenment, which seems to bring an inner peace. Through his clever observations, however, Maugham questions who is really happy – and the answer is so complicated! I am only half-way through, but I will say that after reading as much as I have, I feel a strong desire to leave my job and my place in the world and loaf about Europe concerning myself only with the pursuits of the spirit – as Larry does in the story. Be careful when reading this novel, you may wish to join me!
I don’t know about anyone else, but I find writing about what I read immensely helpful. Whenever I finish a book, I like to think about it for some time and writing my thoughts helps me sort out how I feel about the work. This blog has been a great way to journal what I read. My problem lies in remembering to write within a reasonable timeframe of finishing the book!
Hopefully, I can do a better a better job of cataloguing my reading in the future, and take one novel at a time to write about, but if I know me, I will probably continue writing extremely long posts anyways – one novel at a time or not!
p.s. I love cover art. I think these are particularly beautiful, especially the first and the last!
images via wilbrahamlibrary.org and amazon.com
