It shouldn't surprise you that I'm rededicating myself to reading 30 books in 2014. I've been fighting for this victory since... 2010? I'm not even sure any more. This year I really want to claim the title of 30 Book Reader, so here goes:
1. At Fault by Kate Chopin - ☆☆☆½
2. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - ☆☆☆½
3. Six Memos For the Next Millennium by Italo Calvino - ☆☆☆
4. Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher - ☆☆☆☆
At Fault (1890) is a story of moral relativity and miserable marriages and love that does, in fact, prevail (after some messiness and myriad debacles). I recommend it only because it disrupts the genre of the sentimental novel in illuminating and utterly cheeky ways.
Ethan Frome (1911) is the story of another miserable marriage, minor adultery, and ultimate decay. Actually, let me go back and bump it up a half star, because it was quite entertaining.
Six Memos (1988) were meant to be six lectures about craft (fiction writing), but Calvino tragically died before presenting his work. They were a bit muddy and contradictory, but ultimately Calvino knows his stuff. I learned some invaluable tips, like that fiction should be more than people doing things.
Do yourself a favor and read Understood Betsy. I plan to read it to my children one day. It's a juvenile novel written in 1917 and it is as didactic as you'd imagine, but so wonderfully and entertainingly written that I didn't much care! In fact, I loved it. (A 4 star rating is no easy feat these days)
Coming up next: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Yes, I am crazy.
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