Central Market Book Club candidates - Ballot for February 13, 2006
Submitted by Alice
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA by Ernest Hemingway (publ 1952) (128 pages)
Pulitzer Prize winner in 1953 - "This classic tale of an aged Cuban fisherman going head-to-head (or hand-to-fin) with a magnificent marlin encapsulates Hemingway's favorite motifs of physical and moral challenge."
Available online (in process of confirming if this is entire text) at http://www.english.in.uh.cz
METAMORPHOSIS by Franz Kafka (publ 1915) (about 50 pages depending on copy)
In this classic novella, Kafka presents "an impossible situation, such as a man's transformation into an insect, and develops the story from there with perfect realism and intense attention to detail."
Available online such as www.litrix.com
Submitted by Diane
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner (orig publ 1930) (267 pages)
As Robert Penn Warren said: "[Faulkner's works] are without equal in our time and country."
This novel is the tragic, harrowing account of the Bundren family’s odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Told in turns by each of the family members–including Addie herself–the novel ranges in mood from dark comedy to the deepest pathos.
AFFLICTION by Russell Banks (1990) (368 pages)
...was short listed for both the PEN/Faulkner Fiction Prize and the Irish International Prize. "Banks may well be the leading voice of the working class experience in modern American letters."
A strong story about the effects of alcoholism on children. The story follows a divorced father of a pre-teen daughter. As he unravels the mystery of a murder of a Union Boss near his home, he himself becomes unravelled.
Submitted by Connie
CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London (114 pages) (first published 1903)
Superb details, taken from Jack London's firsthand knowledge of Alaskan frontier life, makes this classic tale of endurance by a sturdy crossbreed canine accustomed to a comfortable life as a family dog as gripping today as it was over a century ago.
Available on the web HERE.
THE RAZOR'S EDGE by Somerset Maughan (326 pages) first published 1944
Maugham's most successful novel. Bestseller. "The hero of the book,
Larry Darrel, is a young American drifter who wanders around the world
in an attempt to find peace of mind and answers to some of the
fundamental questions that have traditionally perplexed spiritual
seekers." Setting is India.
Submitted by Mary
THE WOMAN IN THE DUNES by Kobo Abe (256 pages) published 1962
Won Japanese Yomiuri Prize for Literature
Classic example of modern Japanese fiction-- a kafkaesque story of a schoolteacher who is imprisoned in a hole in the sand dunes resulting in his psyche being tempered ... and in the end he comes to an awakening in which he grasps a better understanding of his basic psychological makeup.
PERSUASION by Jane Austen. ( 288 pages) published 1816
Author needs no introduction.
Austen's last novel is a romance (of course) about a young woman (spinster age in the days of the novel's setting) who long ago let the love of her life get away and who has a chance to pursue his affection once again.
Submitted by Hedwiga
THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE by Shirley Ann Grau (320 pages) 1965 Pulitzer Prize winner
A novel on the Old South; What happens if a wealthy, white Southern man falls in love, marries, and has children with his black housekeeper after his white wife has died? Attacks the hypocrisy of Southern racism and examines the results of rage and revenge through the members of the Howland family.
Available in the Houston Library.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS by Alison Lurie (304 pages) 1985 Pulitzer Prize winner
Illustrates Lurie's talent for capturing the subtle ironies of human relationships. Two professors are sent to London on research assignments but end up spending more time together than on their work. "both a splendid comedy and a poignant [double] love story," "by turns hilarious and intensely moving."
Available in the Houston Library.
submitted by Lynessa
THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson (256 pages) orig publ 1959
Author most noted for her short fiction -- especially the now-classic "The Lottery"; Jackson’s elegant, subtle and at times, wickedly comic writing is finally beginning to attract the attention it so richly deserves".
This story is a "classic of supernatural fiction"; about a paranormal researcher who, seeking evidence of a haunting, brings three people to the mysterious Hill house where they experience strange phenomena.
THE STORY OF LUCY GAULT by William Trevor (288 pages) publ 2002
This work shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Acclaimed author has won Whitbread Novel Award, and the David Cohen British Literature Prize In recognition of his work .
This novel is the tale of a young girl whose Protestant family is driven from its rural Irish home in 1921; begins with a dreadful mistake committed during the partition of Ireland, when an Anglo-Irish couple, falsely believing their child is dead, disappear untraceably, leaving the girl to a solitary life.
submitted by Kellie
JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte (461 pages) orig publ 1847
a dark gothic romance; author wrote ""I will show you a heroine as plain and as small as myself."
Although readers tend to visualize Mr. Rochester as handsome, he is not. Jane's and Edward's attractiveness lies in their inner selves. Miss Bronte created, in the character of Jane, an intelligent, independent, strong-willed female, determined to make her place in the world.
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Last Revised: February 13, 2006
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