Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

I can hardly presume to write a review about such an obvious classic. This was certainly a good one, although seemed a bit long - but there was ultimately a positive resolution, so that made it worthwhile. Of course Amelia is a sweet lady and deserves her happy ending (as does patient, faithful Dobbin)... but Becky is so much more entertaining! so I'm glad she made it to the end as well. I need to see the recent movie version, but I'm glad I did read the book first... I don't see how any movie could effectively work in all the unspoken elements, like the characters' feelings and thoughts, and the author's funny little digressions. I thought Thackeray had excellent (and amusing) insights about human nature. Really, it's not the story itself, but the way that it's told that makes it a great work of literature.

His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman (re-read)

I've just re-read Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and, as always, cried at the end. I felt compelled to pick up The Golden Compass the day I came home from seeing the third Pirates of the Caribbean installment, in order to purge that disappointing trash from my mind. (It didn't work! Come on, they KILLED ORLANDO BLOOM! I don't care if he's still technically alive, since Will's gory heart is in that stinky old wooden chest with Elizabeth on that island... THEY KILLED THE MAIN LOVE INTEREST IN THE TRILOGY! What a horrible idea! Not to mention that they also killed off Norrington! WAY TO GO, DISNEY!!)

Anyway... The film version of Compass is due out at the end of this year, and I'm hopeful that this wonderful story will come across well on the big screen. I think many of the elements would be difficult to convey visually - like the mental process by which Lyra reads the alethiometer, the way the children's daemons transform, the difference between severed and normal humans, and the way humans communicate with their daemons through shared feelings. And in the next book, the whole part about the subtle knife, and the things that Lyra and Will are thinking about, and then the third book, with the angels and the mulefa... I hope the movie found a convincing way to show all of these elements, because such an inventive, epic, and heartbreaking story deserves a really spectacular film adaptation. Could be as good as Lord of the Rings... should be at least as good as the Harry Potters! (Speaking of... I can't wait to see the Order of the Phoenix movie - just a month from today!)

Sons & Lovers - D. H. Lawrence

D.H. Lawrence has been on my to-read list for a little while. A friend enjoyed some of his works and I have a high regard for her taste in books (only because it usually matches my own, ha).

Maybe I need to read something else by him before I form my final opinion, because based only on this novel I would say - BLAH. Although I enjoyed the first half of the book, the second part was just so tedious. Maybe that was the point, but it doesn't make for very compelling reading.

The story follows a working-class British family in the early 20th century, and the first half centers on the mother. She has three sons and one daughter, and a somewhat disappointing husband. Oddly, only two of the sons seem to interest her (or the narrator), and the other son and the daughter were not much part of the plot - they're disposed of rather neatly by marriage. Still, her life since her marriage and as the children grew up was a new and therefore interesting subject to me - most of the British fiction I had read either concerned the desperately poor, as in Dickens, or the fairly well off, as in Austen.

The second half of the book pushes the mother into the background as one of the sons, Paul, takes center stage, but that's where things got so boring for me. I think what started to truly get on my nerves was the frequent statement that Paul "hated" his girlfriends or mother for this or that. He hates them for loving him, he hates them for not being what he wants, he hates them for making him feel certain ways. If he's not hating them outright, he's "almost hating" them for the same reasons. I think a thesaurus would have come in handy at the writing of this book.

So Paul can't seem to resolve any of his relationships. He is certainly prevented from marrying either of his girlfriends by the presence of his mother - while she approves of one, but not the other, still he can't settle down with either, while his mother is alive. And maybe not even after her death... near the end of the book she passes away, but he is still unable to commit to either woman. One he manipulates into going back to her estranged husband, and the other he decides he can't be with either. So in the end he at least decides against giving up life, and he goes off to find himself, or something, I don't care really! Maybe to recover his artistic abilities, which had died with his mother? Bizarre really.

I understand that the young man's malaise and confusion were the focus, but the repetition, the lack of progress, the poor treatment of others - all these together left me with an impression that I would not be much interested in either learning what became of Paul Morel, or reading anything else by Lawrence.

Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (#5) - J. K. Rowling

Title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Author: J. K. Rowling
Read: January 15-19, 2007

It took me a long time to get around to this, the fifth book in the Harry Potter series. I had read #1-4 at my own pace, and had borrowed #5 from a friend, but it languished on the bottom shelf of my bookcase and I couldn't get interested in tackling such a long book. I've always liked the story, but Rowling's writing style aggravates me - excessive passive voice would be easy to avoid, with some careful editing.

I'd also heard that this book was "darker" and that Harry behaved in the erratic, irrational manner of a moody adolescent, which is not exactly a selling point for me.

Anyhow, I might have read the first page or two - I honestly don't remember - but then I started school again and there was no chance I'd be able to devote any time to the book, so I returned it to my friend. That was in early 2005. I vaguely promised myself that I would at least read 5 and 6 before their respective films came out.

Now it's 2007, and I finally got the stomach to take Harry on again. I checked it out from the local library and finished it in about 3 days, staying up very late some nights to see what would happen. It was a good story, as usual, and I didn't see the big deal about Harry's supposedly "darker" behavior. The beginning part, at Harry's adoptive home with the Dursleys, is always my least favorite section, but this time things got off to a quick enough start.

It's a bit silly the way new magical items and spells keep being introduced in each book (things we've never heard of before at all). A little too convenient, IMO. The characters sometimes seem too black-and-white for my taste as well. It's just too easy. Unfortunately, one of the more complex characters (and one of my favorites) was killed off in this episode, and at an awkward point in the story... but I found that refreshingly realistic, for a change.

I don't approve of the way Harry always decides to ignore common sense and do things his own way, not tell the adults that can help and protect him - thus creating some unnecessarily dangerous situations for his friends. I mean he does that in every book so far - while his friends and other characters don't behave that way. He is clearly not learning anything. It's kind of hard to keep liking a character who won't learn from his experiences, no matter how tortured and predestined he is.

Anyhow... I guess that is all I didn't like about the book, so overall it was pretty good - good in the sense that it kept me interested in the overall series and eager to read the next installment. Like the others, though, I am sure I will not read it again, and will prefer the movie (whenever it comes out). (Speaking of the movie, sometimes the description and dialogue seemed geared to a movie rather than a book... almost lazy... did she write them with the movies in mind? I have to wonder.)

So far my favorite is still #3, The Prisoner of Azkaban (both book and movie).


P.S. I unexpectedly found myself envying Harry & his friends for getting to take interesting, unusual classes (the ones they were griping about having to attend)! I really wish I could be back at school...