List of 10...

There is a Facebook status that was making the rounds in my group of friends a while ago, and it's one I wish would come back. It's simple. You list 10 books that have stayed with you for whatever reason. You do it quickly...no over-thinking. Then you ask, cajole, and/or order your friends to do it as well. I like it for numerous reasons: 1) I like it anytime we talk books; 2) it interests me because it isn't planned. These are supposed to be snap judgments; 3) writing my list reminded me of many wonderful people who have given me the right book at the right time; and 4) this list could change drastically due to the quick forum that is Facebook--I feel like every time I would think of ten different books. On Facebook, you simply list them, but I wanted to explain why I chose the books I did because they all made me approach reading and the world in a different and new way.

So here is my quick list turned not-so-quick with explanations:
1. The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
My sister gave me Cannery Row to read when I was probably a little too young to understand its nuance. But I loved it. It filled me with feelings I had had before but had never articulated. When I was older and read it again, I realized it had helped me learn how to articulate them. After I read Cannery Row, I found The Winter of Our Discontent. I asked to borrow it, and my sister, who always knows best, told me I probably was too little. I read it anyway, or rather I read to within a page and a half of the ending and couldn't go any further. It broke me. It was too sad, too despondent. Years later I read it and loved it, but I needed those years before I could understand the beauty and hope and love that carry you to the end of that story.  

Giovanni's Room

I'm mad at the world right now. I'm angry at all of my professors, friends, bookstore salespeople, really anyone who knows how much I love to read or has listened to what I like to read and never suggested I read James Baldwin. I mean, I get it. I know I will never be able to read everything, and professors have to pick and choose carefully, and my friends might not have read Baldwin, and I need to be my own hero. But really?! I love the early- to mid- 19th century artistic movements the best, and I only recently discovered Baldwin for myself? Not cool, World, not cool.

Okay, now that that is out of my system, let's look at Giovanni's Room. It was published in 1956 and follows the story of a young man's desperate and sad love life in Paris. Why is his love life desperate and sad you ask? Because he is gay, engaged to a woman, living with a man, and quite self-loathing. Not only is this novel tackling taboos of homosexuality, Giovanni's Room is beautiful. The language is lyrical. Baldwin creates believable characters. The plot is easy to follow, but not boring. All-in-all this novel represents great fiction.

Giovanni's Room thematically investigates loss, sexuality, culture, and the individual's response to outside stimuli. I want to explain how it took me through such a range of emotions, but I think the best way to say it is that this novel will make you feel. It will be different for each reader, but I don't think you could read this novel and not feel something--anger, hope, fear, love, joy, sadness, something. Baldwin makes you feel the absolute hopelessness and pure beauty that exist simultaneously in the world and in the act of falling in love. I really can't recommend this novel enough.

It might have taken me a long time to find my way to James Baldwin, but now that I have, I'm planning on making my way through his work. One down, eighteen to go. I can't wait!