Summer Reading List & Reviews

Whittaker Chambers by Sam Tanenhaus

It took me a while to get through this biography because I had to learn a lot about the Soviet Union and communist theory as I went along (it is also 500+ pages long). Whittaker Chambers' journey from the communist underground to defection gave me some much-needed insight into the minds of the multitude of people I have been around through my four years at an American university. Tanenhaus quotes Chambers' explanation of the appeal toward communism in his generation that I think can be easily transferred to my own generation today, "Marxism-Leninism offers an oversimplified explanation of the causes and a program for action. The very vigor of the project particularly appeals to the more or less sheltered middle-class intellectuals, who feel that the whole context of their lives has kept them away from the world of reality....They feel a very natural concern, one might almost say a Christian concern, for underprivileged people. They feel a great intellectual concern, at least, for recurring economic crises, the problem of war, which in our lifetime has assumed an atrocious proportion, and which always weights on them. What shall I do? At that crossroads the evil thing, Communism, lies in waiting" (pg.274). Chambers was a genius man and lived an interesting life, to say the least. His autobiography, Witness, is next on my reading list.


Selected Stories by Andre Dubus

Fiction of this kind is usually the last thing that I would choose, but after reading a few of these stories for a class this spring, I thought the author was well connected to the issues that I face at this particular time in my life. What caught my attention was Dubus' ability to capture a feeling so personally and realistically. He draws much of his inspiration from his own life, being taught by the Christian Brothers. One passage that was particularly expressive to me was, "For ritual allows those who cannot will themselves out of the secular to preform the spiritual, as dancing allows the tongue-tied man a ceremony of love" (A Father's Story pg. 461). After reading on through a few more stories, I started becoming uncomfortable with some of the emotions that he portrayed, feeling at first like they simply hit too close to home, but after a while realizing that the characters' lives were bordering on bizarre and depressing. I had to stop reading at least two of the stories part way through because of the blatant eroticism and twisted relationships. I am not completely turned off to his writing but not sure yet if I will dive into it again any time soon.


The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

I have been piecing together a complete and detailed review of this book to add to the bajillion of them already out there and then decided that it was not worth my energy, a waste of nerve impulses. An intellectual analysis of this book is not possible because it is overshadowed by poor writing exemplified through forced dialogue and adolescent suspense. My favorite criticism is how every seemingly dead-end was resolved by the character having an unexpected epiphany. It was a near complete waste of my time.


The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

I actually only made it through the first section of the first volume of this masterpiece because I had to return in to the library. It is long and intense and I did not want to miss one beat of what Solzhenitsyn is trying to relay. It amazes me how he can even begin to give explanations for the atrocities that occurred in the Soviet Union throughout much of the 20th century and that these explanations make any sense at all when most of what occurred was utterly senseless. I have only just begun digging into the work, but I already feel as though I have a better understanding of the chronology of events that brought the Soviet Union through its toughest times as well as eye-opening insight into human intellect and behavior.


Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

I felt almost the same excitement and emotion as I did reading The Chronicles of Narnia. It is a light-hearted adventure through childhood imagination but you still get a sense for the wisdom that comes with old age and experience. I can't wait to make it through the whole series.


Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

I have heard my share of opinions on Chris McCandless from Alaskans and wanted to judge for myself what this guy was all about. Admittedly, Jon Krakauer delivers his own suggestions of the content of McCandless' character but I still feel like I was left to make my own opinion. I am glad that I read his story and can gather that many people around here with strong opinions about Chris McCandless have most likely not bothered to do the same. The book was really more than an attempt to follow and understand what lead to the death of this young man. Krakauer draws parallels between the turmoil of McCandless' youth and his own quest for discovery that is evident in each one of us to one degree or another. I read the book today sitting on the beach looking out onto the Kenai Mountains. Some themes in the book might have seemed more outlandish had I not experienced the unrestraint of Alaska for myself. Thankfully, I did not get too caught up in "finding myself" here and expecting this great state to somehow absorb all of my inhibitions. Had I done so, I probably would have come to find, just as the author experienced on his Alaskan mountain climbing excursions that, "I came to appreciate that mountains make poor receptacles for dreams" (155). I'll let you know what I think of the movie once I see it.