Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels discussion

In June we will be reading Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain for our Crime category - who's in?

I have it on order from the library.

I will try to work it in. I don't know anything about it--I was surprised to see it come up in the Crime category

I’m in for this one, I hadn’t heard of it before either so am intrigued.

it's quite short, and available free on gutenberg, and I want to give Twain another chance, so...
I'll probably work this into my June reading...
;o)

Just started it. Finding the phonetic language of the slaves tough to read - but I hate it when Dickens does it with cockneys too. The odd word, okay, but whole sentences just slows down my reading massively.

Most of the way through now and I’m torn because it’s got an almost Shakespearean high concept plot of twins switched at birth, but the tone is all over the place - with so much obviously played for laughs that is grotesque and the phonetic accents of the slave class is unbearably heavy going (and patronising too). I’m tempted to go along with those who say that Twain struck lucky with Huckleberry Finn.

I found not just the tone but the plot also to be all over the place.
the whole thing just seemed a contrivance to get the fingerprinting angle in.

I can see why English teachers didn't include this along with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It's just not as exciting a story, and the ambiguity over whether "the n_ in me" is supposed to be a real thing or an illustration of how social constructs work is awkward to discuss. But I enjoyed this book and I think more people should read it.

I downloaded the (fre)e-book when I realized it was the book of the month here, but it was not at the top of my TBR pile.

But if it is short, I will try to read it this last week of the month.