Angela > Recent Status Updates

I love it. Dorothy West may be the most undervalued writer of the 20th Century. I question whether it is our culture's under appreciation of literature in general, or racism which has kept the work of this amazing author so obscure.

In case anyone is worried by my abnormal lack of reading lately, I want to reassure you I am still alive. I have been doing more writing lately and to put it bluntly am too distracted by the imaginary people of my own creation to enjoy reading about other characters at this point. So don't worry about me, I'm in my own little world, and I like it there because I have control over everybody who lives there. :)

I think Fielding intended this to be a moralistic tale, and keeps pointing out the heroine's virtues and the hero's virtues and one glaring vice. However based on his main characters' behavior he did not seem to put much stock in honestry. I'm taking another break from this book, but plan to finish it next month.

I'm still enjoying the book, but becoming a bit bored with some of the narrator's long monologues, and wonder if all lower-class English people were really as greedy in the mid-1700's as Henry Fielding depicts them.

I am very impressed by the complexity of Tom, I've found very few complex characters in pre-19th century English literature so far, and he is so human. I am going to be taking a break from this book, and will let you all know when I resume.

It is easier reading than I was expecting for a book written 250 years ago, the editor has included sufficient footnotes to explain the more obscure 18th centuries references, but I'm not sure it can hold my attention enough to finish such a large tome.

So far it is not as good as the other Lisa Jackson novels I have read. If not for my prior satisfaction with her work, I would not have made it through the first 200 pages.

My largest complaint against the book is Bunyan's obvious prejudice against catholicism. I am willing to overlook this flaw in recommending this book, because I realize Bunyan's views reflect the political/religious conflicts specific to Britain at the time in addition to the conflicts christians have faced over the past two millenia.

I am at the end of part I and taking a break for two reasons, vacation and how heavy the reading is. For 17th century literature the book is very readable, but English has changed enough since the book was written to make it challenging. The themes, the challenges a Christian faces have not changed. I highly recommend for christian classical literature lovers.

For the first several chapters, the only comment I would have ventured would be the word, "odd." However on page 172 I had an "A Ha!" moment. Now that I think I know where the story is going, I'm really getting into it.

The point at which I started feeling like I was really relating to Tris is when she is beating the crap out of Molly. What does that say about me?

I'm savoring these stories slowly. Of course, as with most short story collections, some stories are better than others. From what I have read so far, the 5-star stories are: "Young Goodman Brown", "Fire-Worship", "The Celestial Railroad" and "Feathertop".

I cannot promise that my punctuation will improve due to my reading this book. Now, however, I have a ready excuse for the abundance of commas in my writing: it is because I read so many novels written in nineteenth century English.

I could not help laughing out loud while reading the introduction. Unfortunately I'm in the library. I am almost to page 1, already I am thinking this book is a 6!

The foreword deserves five stars!

I am still loving it. I missed Christine at first, I don't know how many times she drove by before recognizing her.

Over 350 pages in 2 days, I am loving it!