Wading Through the Madness

I was really proud of myself for finishing part one of Crime and Punishment.  And now I can't get through part two! It's so easy to get bogged down in the details. I've re-read the first four pages of part two over four times, but when I try to pick up where I left off, I can't remember what happened.  It's going to take a lot of patience and un-interrupted reading to finish this book. 

Sketchy Stuff in Bedford

Eccentricity has nothing on Flannery O'Connor.  First of all, I know the kids don't pick their own names, but Flannery? What is a Flannery? And in the biography of Ms. O'Connor, her works are described as presenting "complex experiences that cannot be tidily summarized".  That was the highly-phrased statement of the textbook.  Secondly, what villain is called 'The Misfit'?  It sounds like an unknown toy Santa named the Island of Misfit Toys after.  Strangely though, I liked "A Good Man Is Hard To Find".  It was a little obvious from the attention the grandmother gave the criminal that later in the story there would be an encounter, and the circumstances that brought the family and the gang together were very mundane, but once the car crashed, I watched the action unfold in a black-and-white-Hitchcock-scene in my mind's eye.  The attention to detail is magnificent.  I was highly impressed with how well O'Connor carried the creepy tone throughout the story, even before the criminals were present.

Over the River and Through the Woods, To Owen's Family Quarry We Go

This isn't an outside reading book, but I was browsing Mrs. Ramirez's bookshelf and came across A Prayer for Owen Meany.  After two pages I was hooked.  How Johnny describes his childhood amuses me- he never can sequentially tell his story.  He starts relatively at the beginning, but circles around a few years before continuing with the narration.  Every connection is explained and inside information made privy as the author explores his true purpose of the book: to figure out who the people in his childhood (including himself) really were.  Even with the round-a-bout approach, the book is very entertaining.