On Writing by Stephen King

Title:

On Writing

Author:

Stephen King

Copyright:

(My copy of the book isn't with me but I'll fill it in later)

Okay, so if you haven't heard of Stephen King, I'm not entirely sure that you have actually ever read a book. Stephen King is a remarkably successful horror writer, and in this book he discusses that career and the accident that almost ended it all. To be honest, I'm not particularly a fan of Stephen King, I don't care for his style and often I feel like he "gets away with" a lot of shoddy plot devices simply because of his fame. That is not to diminish his success or say that I think I could do better (Needful Things blew my mind), but in this book, you can truly see his mastery of writing.

This is not a horror novel but rather a clever blend of autobiography and analysis of craft. This is a book that carefully narrates many events from his life and turns to his discussion fo what makes a writer great as the book closes.

I adore this book so much that I bought a copy of it and keep it on my book shelf all the time, because he talks so frankly about the art of writing and what makes a great writer. This is a book written for writers, and every time I finish it, I put it back on the shelf and feel like I want to write.

I may not be a fan of Stephen King novels, but this book makes me respect him as a writer and as an artist and I highly reccommend it to anyone who wants to get inside his head.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Title
The Secret Life of Bees

Author
Sue Monk Kidd

Copyright
2002



I would not be surprised if you have heard of Sue Monk Kidd and immediately associate her with poorly done chick flicks. It's sad but true that her books tend to get turned into relatively mediocre Lifetime movies (die, Mermaid Chair, DIE). However, Kidd is a brilliant writer and this book is incredibly moving.

This novel takes place in 1964, during that tumultuous time of the Civil Rights Movement. The main character in this novel is named Lily and she has spent her life haunted by the day her mother was killed. Lily remembers this day vividly and it formed much of her identity up until that point. Her relationship with her father is, at best, shaky, but luckily she has the company of Rosaleen (a black nanny) to guide her and give her the love and affection she desperately needs.

When Rosaleen "insults the three deepists racists in town", Lily's world is turned upside down and she breaks Rosaleen out of jail and the two of them run away to Tiburon, South Carolina, a mysterious town her mother wrote on the back of an old picture of the Virgin Mary. There she meets and is "taken in by a trio of black beekeeping sisters" and is forced to confront not only her idealistic views on her mother, but also her own latent racist beliefs.

The two main focuses of this novel are racism and more importantly to the novel, the mother-daughter relationship. The novel is written compellingly with beautiful descriptions and the voice of Lily calls out to the reader and draws you into her world. This is a beautiful book and I highly reccommend it.

Note: Quotes are from the back cover of the novel.

Sayonara by James Michener

Title:
Sayonara

Author:
James Michener

Copywrite:
1954

Okay, so this is one of my absolute favorite books. It is not a recent book, I believe it was written in the fifties, actually. It is a romantic tragedy about an Airforce pilot named Lloyd Gruver. The story is set in Japan in the 1940's. At this time in our history, American soldiers were prohibited from marrying Japanese (or other "native girls") and even if they did manage to get permission to marry, their new brides were not legally allowed to move to the United States. Lloyd is completely baffled as to why an American boy would want to marry a Japanese girl, but nonetheless he is given the mission to escort a young man who has managed (through writing to his congressman) to get permission to marry his Japanese bride back to Japan. Once there, falls in love with a beautiful actress named Hana-Ogi and becomes entranced by Japan and Japanese culture.

This book covers a variety of topics including romance, tragedy, politics, class conflict, racism, and the Japanese/American culture clash. I'd reccommend reading it, wholeheartedly!

About the New Canon

I guess the most important way to start this is to explain why I have declared this blog "The New Canon". Do you know what the Canon is? Just in case you don't here's a brief description and an explanation of why I hate it.

About 50 years ago, a group of scholarly blokes at the most acclaimed universities in the United States sat down and decided what books were to be considered literature and what books were just . . . well books. They didn't have any literary value and were not even considered "literature". The books in this Canon are said to be those literary works which have defined American culture and thus are the only ones fit to be taught.

What you must understand is that these books are incredibly limited. They are essentially a list of books written by dead Eurpopean men. They were judged to be ideal books against which all other books are to be measured. I want to create here a list of great reads that aren't necessarily written by someone who could not imagine what life would be like for our generation. The value of the books included on the Canon cannot be ignored, but by limiting ourselves to a strict list of valuable books, we eliminate the voices of our current generation.

Here's a link to Wikipedia that has more information about the Canon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_canon