Book Reviews

Teaching really squelches your blogging life. I used to write witty (at least in my humble opinion) posts quite frequently. But now my life revolves around my students and for obvious reasons I can't go mentioning specific details about them on the internet. Therefore, almost any funny, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy story I could share...well, I can't.

But I do want to honor the four of you who remain faithful readers (or at least faithful checkers for updates). And since I've talked about this book with at least 3 of you, I figured I might as well post something.

A Prayer for Owen Meany. Or "How John Irving thinks you should view New Hampshire Protestants." Or "How to tie in constant symbols of sexuality, religion, and armlessness/amputation. The first half of the book was awful. It started to be less hodge-podge and a more coherent narrative and ended up with some pretty good redeeming qualities. Enough to justify the constant and explicit reoccurrence of the above mentioned intertwined themes? Doubtful.

The icing on the cake was reading A Brave New World directly after Owen Meany. I get the whole "sex sells" idea. But why does it need to be the driving force of books when it's clearly a forced focus? I don't think I'll ever understand it as long as I teach English.

Okay, enough book ranting; I've gotta get up for new teacher training tomorrow morning. Thanks faithful readers!