October- disappointing on the book reading front at least

For some reason, this month was really slow going.  I blame the last book- it took me forever to get through!

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.  I'd always heard about this book as such a great work of American literature.  It definitely was a good book.  But I still had some difficulty with it.  When reading the author's own words, I found her to be a hauntingly beautiful writer.  I mean, right out the gate, she had me.  But then the characters would speak.  And I have always had a problem with reading dialects.  Janie is a beautiful light skinned black woman who lives in northern Florida during the early 1900's.  Her grandmother marries her off at 16 to save her from herself (she'd seen Janie kissing a neighborhood boy).  Janie thinks that marriage equals true love.  She didn't find that with her husband.  So, when silver-tongued Joe enters the picture, she leaves with him.  Joe quickly establishes himself as the first mayor of the first all-black town of Eatonville, Florida.  Janie realizes that she loves him far more than he loves her; to him, she is a trophy wife.  When he finally passes away, she falls hard and fast for Tea Cake, a man MUCH younger than her.  Their marriage, although tempestuous and filled with jealousy, finally provides her with the love she always pictured.  She eventually returns to Eatonville and is faced with the gossip surrounding her relationship with Tea Cake.  She proceeds to tell her story to her friend, so as to silence the gossips.  I'm not going to lie, I had a hard time following some of the story (at least when it was predominately told through dialect).  But when it wasn't?!  Amazing.  Hurston was a preeminent author during the Harlem Renaissance and I can definitely see why.  Oddly enough, one of my favorite lines came near the end of the book and was said by Janie (and therefore in dialect).  "Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves.  They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves."  Pretty deep thoughts there.

Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson.  I read about this book in another book (the author read it in a book club) and decided to read it myself.  I love my book club, but I sincerely doubt we would ever read something like this!  The narrator of the book is nameless.  You feel like you get clues about gender, but then a few pages later, there are clues that point to the other gender.  Narrator is in love with Louise, a married woman who leaves her husband so they can be together.  Narrator discusses some of the prior relationships Narrator has been involved in (men, women, single, married).  But this love with Louise is all-consuming.  Narrator eventually leaves Louise for Louise's own good, or so Narrator thinks.  It's an interesting novel about love and passion, about looking at a relationship for what makes it rather than the people who are in it.  It's very color/gender blind.  It's about knowing another person so completely that they become a part of you.  It's probably not a novel for everyone, but it was really good and a very easy read.

Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov.  Another classic that I had never gotten around to reading.  I've seen the movie, but that didn't nearly do the book justice.  In fact, it was almost nothing like the book!  Makes me wonder if the recent(ish) remake does a better job of staying faithful to the book.  Anyway, Humbert Humbert is quite the pervert, as far as I am concerned.  The fact that Delores Haze (aka Lolita) isn't the first young girl with whom he has become obsessed in more than a little disturbing.  As is their eventual relationship.  The movie merely implies a sexual relationship, candy-coating his obsession.  The book is explicit.  They are lovers.  Period.  She is 12.  Disgusting.  It was not my favorite book that I've ever read.  Far from it.  In fact, I had rather a hard time finishing it.  But at least I can now say I've read it.....