Book Review: Too Small to Ignore

There are some books that hit you squarely between the eyes, revealing things you never knew and cannot imagine that you didn’t think of. What Dr. Wess Stafford lays out in his book, Too Small to Ignore, is a revolutionary approach to poverty and Christian missions that brought my attention to matters I had never considered before, and encouraged me in my own work as an advocate for children in poverty.

As the leader of Compassion International, Dr. Stafford has seen his share of poverty, but it all began when he was still a child growing up in an African village as the son of two missionaries. This is where he first learned about the ugliness of poverty and the beauty of the poor, and he has dedicated his life to saving the lives of others who might otherwise find their potential wrecked upon the hopelessness of poverty. Part memoir, part call to action, Too Small is a book meant to change your mind about children.

Book Review: Radical

“We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.” 

― David Platt, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

Poverty. Persecution. Suffering. Addiction. Darkness. These are things that consume our world, hold happiness in a stranglehold, and suck the life out of billions of people. This planet we call home is riddled with pain, and those of us who are blessed enough to be removed from such horrors as starvation, disease, and filth so easily ignore it all. It is so easy to sit inside our air conditioned houses on cushy couches and make grandiose plans about our futures.

I do not usually read books that I have never heard anything about, but when I saw a book titled Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream, I had to check it out. What I found was a gripping, convicting, inspiring call to action that continues to fill my mind and heart with questions and controversies.

Book Giveaway!

Calling all Christian homeschool girls!

If you haven't checked out www.AltogetherSeparate.com, this is a great time because we're running a lovely giveaway of that book I've been telling you all so much about.

One Thousand Gifts is a New York Times Bestselling book written by Ann Voskamp. Its purpose? Daring you to live fully right where you are by giving thanks in all things. It's something that every Christian should be doing, but how often do we forget to be filled with the joy of the Lord?

“I want to see beauty. In the ugly, in the sink, in the suffering, in the daily, in all the days before I die, the moments before I sleep.”

Ann is really a poet masquerading as a prose-writer. Her words sing off the page as she carries the reader through a journey from brokenness to absolute joy! Ann's search for beauty is not the result of a perfect life that's brought her breakfast in bed from the day she was born; it's a search that was bled out of a horrific wound—many wounds—some that I can't imagine, and some that I can identify with perfectly.  

Her challenge to herself was to find 1,000 gifts in the world around her. They weren't the kind of gifts that we usually thank God for, they were bubbles, and warm sunlight, and weathered wood, and the curl of a child's hair, and her little boy's injured hand, and tulips in a bucket with wooden candlesticks, and her scarred past, and a white fleece shirt, and what the scale read. Ann says, “How my eyes see, perspective, is my key to enter into His gates. I can only do so with thanksgiving. If my inner eye has God seeping up through all things, then can't I give thanks for anything? And if I can give thanks for the good things, the hard things, the absolute everything, I can enter the gates to glory. Living in His presence is fullness of joy—and seeing shows the way in.” This book is where Ann shows us the key to entering those gates to glory.

I know that this is a powerful book, even though I have yet to finish reading it myself. I joined Ann on her quest to find 1,000 gifts in a year (read some of my gifts here), and it's changing the way I see the world.

So, about that giveaway. If you want to be part of this amazing gift-counting experience, then join the community over at Altogether Separate!

Book Review: Bonhoeffer - Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

" The first call which every Christian experiences is the call to abandon the attachments of this world.” 

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

My Alternate Title:

The Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Abandoned to Christ

Do you have any idea who Dietrich Bonhoeffer was? He was a German theologian and pastor who lived from 1906-1945. He had something to do with a plot against the Nazis, and his death was decidedly from unnatural causes. That was about all I knew when I embarked upon reading his biography.

One of my new year goals was to read some biographies of famous Christians. As I searched the internet for titles I came across this one, found that our library had the unabridged audiobook, and checked it out. I knew so little of this man’s life and legacy, and now my view of the Christian walk has been changed forever.

Bonhoeffer was born into a decent, upper-class German family at the turn of the twentieth century. He had all the advantages of a good upbringing, fine education, and close friendships. His father was an areligious man, his mother a devoted Christian, and Dietrich decided to study theology in school. His doctoral thesis, Sanctorum Communio (which he wrote at age 21), concerned the theology of the church and delved into the complex subjects of authority, freedom, ritual, and eschatology. His career would only climb from there.

Becoming a pastor and mentor to many, Dietrich seemed poised for a life of academic and religious achievement—when the unthinkable happened. Hitler came to power and the church began to buckle. German Christians had just as much patriotic fervor as their neighbors and began backing the Fuhrer (a man gifted in speaking “Christian-ese” at appropriate times). Dietrich saw trouble and began gathering together men who were dedicated first of all to Christ, not Germany.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life story is the story of the church in Germany during the period of the second world war. What he did was far from easy. He was patriotic too, and recently engaged to the love of his life, Maria von Wedemeyer. As things progressed, however, he found himself fighting against his country and going into more and more danger. “Christians” were caving in all around him, the rotten girders of their theology giving way under the pressure of escalating hostilities. Bonhoeffer wrote of his identification with Jeremiah, who “was upbraided as a disturber of the peace, an enemy of the people, just like all those, throughout the ages until the present day, who have been possessed and seized by God, for whom God had become too strong . . . how gladly would he have shouted peace and Heil with the rest.”

Book Review: War and Peace

"Gazing into Napoleon's eyes, Prince Andrei mused on the unimportance of greatness, the unimportance of life which no one could understand, and the still greater unimportance of death, the meaning of which no one alive could understand or explain"." 

-Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

My Alternate Title:

War and Russia or Why Napoleon Wasn’t all he Was Cracked up to Be

I don’t know if it’s a small strain of masochism, a wild desire for conversation starters, a love of history and the classics, a past appreciation of Anna Karenina, or the wish to impress the next Russian I meet, but I finally buckled down and read the novel whose title is synonymous with length and boredom. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

Leo Tolstoy

The book is every bit as long as everyone says, coming in at #14 on the list of the longest novels in Latin or Cyrillic alphabets with a word count of 560,000. It’s actually shorter than another book I’ve read—twice—and enjoyed, Atlas Shrugged, which is #11 with 645,000 words. W&P seemed much longer than Atlas, though, partly because Mr. Tolstoy has a habit of getting on soapboxes and chasing after rabbits. Perhaps he’s not as bad as Victor Hugo in Les Misérables (#17), but he does talk about history and battle sequences constantly. And he included two epilogues. Who does that?

Woven throughout are dozens of weighty themes: unconditional love and forgiveness of enemies, how marriages are painful and shallow when money is all that’s concerned, the meaninglessness of “society life”, the dignity of mankind, international policy, self-sacrifice, and longing for recognition, to name a few. There’s also a fair amount of pure, abstract philosophizing (You find yourself asking things like, “Is fire really an element or is it a phenomena?”). Loving, dueling, gambling, fighting, rescuing, sacrificing, eloping—they all have their place in W&P. You probably knew this already, but don’t pick this one up if you’re looking for a light summer read. Do pick it up if you’re looking for a thought-provoking, meaty classic that sets a very high standard.

Book #11: Uncle Tom's Cabin

"This is God's curse on slavery!--a bitter, bitter, most accursed thing!--a curse to the master and a curse to the slave! I was a fool to think I could make anything good out of such a deadly evil."

- Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin

My Alternate Title:

Slaves of the South: The Honest Truth

It was the best-selling novel of the 19^th century. It was written nine years before the start of the Civil War. It played a major role in cementing Northerners into abolitionism and Southerners into entrenched slaveholders. It may very well have been partially responsible for the bloodiest war in America’s history and the consequent freedom of an entire race of enslaved people.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin has been described as a “sentimental novel”. It was heavily criticized in its own day as being grossly inaccurate, and is largely ignored today as a melodramatic novel chock full of nasty stereotypes. But there has to be something in this very long book that struck a chord in the hearts and minds of thousands of Americans, and indeed, the world.

The Style

The writing is sophisticated and a tinge flowery, with a strong motherly air of sympathy throughout. The narrator often speaks of slaves with emphatic sarcasm (repeatedly referring to them as property, i.e., “the property did this and that”). It is also heavily laced with aside notes appealing to readers’ humanity, and asking wives and mothers to put themselves in the slaves’ positions. Critical points are driven home by long dialogues in which characters discuss the causes, repercussions, and moral dilemmas of slavery.

Harriet Beecher Stowe
By Francis Holl (1815–1884)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

On one hand, nearly every character is a “type”, e.g., the wicked master, the lazy master, the

 ambitious slave, the hardened slave, the crushed slave. Many characters (Evangeline, for example) are pathetically melodramatic, and I sometimes wished Harriet would just cut the sappy imagery and get on with the story.

On the other hand, the characters are all separate people whom the reader loves or loathes in turn. By the end of the book you are aching for Tom, wishing good for him even when you know it’s hopeless, and imagining the worst kind of death possible for people like George Harris’ master, and Simon Legree.  

Two Stories

There are two major plot-threads that weave in and out of this chronicle, that of the title character—a kind, devoted, Christian, slave—and the Harris family—slaves George, Eliza, and little Harry. All of them are beset by the ills of a twisted system and the cruelty, or apathy, of their masters. It is the way that each character deals with their own situation that brings them to such very different ends.

Oliver Twist

“‘But even if he has been wicked,’ pursued Rose, ‘think how young he is, think that he may never have known a mother's love, or the comfort of a home; and that ill-usage and blows, or the want of bread, may have driven him to herd with men who have forced him to guilt…’”

-Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

My Alternate Title:

How the World is Full of Wrong, and How Oliver Overcame

This is the second time I have read this book, but the first was years ago. This time I believe I got a deeper, richer understanding of it, and was reminded of how great Charles Dickens really was.

In America we talk about our poor and hungry. We talk about how our government should be doing more, and how churches are falling behind on their duties. Perhaps all this is true, but I don’t think we have any idea what it was like to be poor—19^th century poor. England in the 1830s was a place where a child could be executed or deported for a petty theft. If you didn’t have enough money to buy food you didn’t just go to WIC. You stole, then you went to prison. Poor laws were brutal to the waifs of London—orphans who literally wandered the streets.

This was the world Charles Dickens lived in. He saw the injustice, and he experienced it first hand as a child when his father was sent to debtor’s prison and the boy worked ten-hour days in a shoe polish factory. This gave him a great sympathy for the poor of London, and when he became an author he sought to do his part to write the wrongs. One of his most impacting novels was his second—Oliver Twist.

The central character is an orphan, raised in a harsh parish workhouse, who wants nothing more than the love of a real family. He is a strictly moral little boy, despite his sordid surroundings, and though sorely tested throughout the entire book he retains his integrity. As the story progresses he is sold as an apprentice, out on his own in the wild, and thrown amongst a gang of thieves. He keeps a sweet spirit through all his trials, however, and though hated by the hypocritical, greedy, and dishonest, he is dearly loved by the pure of heart.  

The style is rather elaborate and absolutely dripping with sarcasm. The omniscient narrator tells the entire story tongue-in-cheek, treating the most appalling subjects with indifference—mocking those who thought lightly of such things when they happened in real life.

The Count of Monte Cristo

"And now, farewell to kindness, humanity and gratitude. I have substituted myself for Providence in rewarding the good; may the God of vengeance now yield me His place to punish the wicked."

-Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

My Alternate Title for this Book: 

Nemesis--God’s Justice Executed by a Wronged Man and a Fabulous Fortune

Evil is done every day—plain, outright evil. Sometimes it seems that there is no redress, that criminals are constantly getting off scot-free while the innocent are ruined. The Count of Monte Cristo is the kind of book that satisfies a certain streak of justice in us. It’s straightforward: good guys win, bad guys get their comeuppance. It’s very refreshing.


Yet, at the same time, this is an incredibly complex novel about much more than revenge. We see strains of theological inquiry, patriotic dilemma, the true nature of love and how it changes. It isn’t an adventure novel, a gothic thriller, a romance, a mystery, or a political commentary. It’s all of that rolled into one, with a  little something extra. 


Edmond Dantès is a successful young sailor in Marseilles, France about the time leading up to the Hundred Days of Napoleon (1815). He is engaged to be married to the lovely Mercédès, who is desperately in love with him, and all seems to be going swimmingly.


But where there are successful people, there will always be those mean-minded others who envy and prickle and become consumed with greed. Three such men have Dantès arrested on false charges. Another man, to save his own reputation, aids and abets them. Under a new political regime it seems that Edmond’s fate is sealed. He is imprisoned for fifteen long years.


But he meets an old abbé in prison, and is told the location of a treasure greater than his wildest imaginations. After a daring escape, Dantès finds the treasure, and embarks on a campaign of vengeance against his enemies, under the new persona of the Count of Monte Cristo.  


Throughout the story there are sprinkled comments like “There is a sweet little cherub who watches out for good men.” It is assumed by most characters that justice is always done, but the innocent, much-maligned Count thinks differently. He believes that the hand of justice must be helped along by avenging angels, of which he is one.

The Count decides to wreak vengeance in a slow, crafty, disciplined way. Not content to merely kill them, he seeks to ruin those who ruined him—destroying their families, fortunes, reputations, and sanity. 


But Dantès is a complex character, and his motivations are necessarily complex. His fiancée Mercédès has married another man, yet Edmond still has some love, or at least affection, for her. We see that Dantès still wants love and happiness for himself, though he has no hope of ever attaining it. Edmond wants to ruin his enemies, but he does it more out of a sense of duty, as God’s instrument, than out of personal hatred. Spoiler: There is a poignant speech by Monte Cristo when he is speaking to an enemy he has ruined, “I am the one whom you sold, betrayed and dishonored. I am the one whose fiancée you prostituted. I am the one on whom you trampled in order to attain a fortune. I am the one whose father you condemned to starvation, and the one who condemned you to starvation, but who none the less forgives you, because he himself needs forgiveness.” End of spoiler.


We sympathize with Dantès, a poor man with big dreams and a passionate love, who is snatched away from everything and locked up while the best years of his life are wasted. We feel some pity for Mercédès, the weak woman who could not wait for him. They are painted for empathy, we see inside the torture of their minds, we feel their pain and loss through every word and look. The enemies (Caderousse, Danglars, Villefort, Fernon) we thoroughly hate and despise. There’s a certain thrill when they meet their doom.




The Writing Itself: 

• The book is a chronicle with emphasis on the psychological: minds, emotions, motivations. 
• The narrator is omniscient, poking into cracks and crevices, unfolding the story to the reader as a meticulous narrative of many lives and how they intertwine. 
• The style is detailed, full of dialog, and apt to run off in rabbit trails, but the scenes are rarely too long and so fascinating that one gets lost in the story. 
• Dumas was living in and right after a time of political upheaval, in a place where the ideals of royalists and bonapartists clashed. This is not a political novel, but the conflicts and circumstances are heavily influenced by time and setting.    

I truly enjoyed listening to this great work of literature. The (2002) film version (though drastically different than the book) is also wonderful, and I highly recommend watching it. If you’ve ever read the book or watched the movie, please share your comments below!

Book #8: Kidnapped

WARNING: If you don't already know the plot-line of this book and have any intention of reading it, I have included spoilers in this review!


"I came to myself in darkness, in great pain, bound hand and foot, and deafened by many unfamiliar noises. There sounded in my ears a roaring of water as of a huge mill-dam, the thrashing of heavy sprays, the thundering of the sails, and the shrill cries of seamen. "
-Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped


When Aaron and I were little, Mom would sit us down on our old plaid couch every morning before breakfast and read books aloud to us. She read King Solomon’s Mines, Tom Sawyer, The Lord of the Rings, A Christmas Carol, the Laura Ingalls books, Trumpet of the Swan, Around the World in 80 Days, biographies of famous Americans, and of course, that classic story of a young boy disinherited by his Uncle and foisted upon depraved slave traders bound for the New World.


I had forgotten all but the barest bones of the story Kidnapped, (the full title of which is Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: How he was Kidnapped and Cast away; his Sufferings in a Desert Isle; his Journey in the Wild Highlands; his acquaintance with Alan Breck Stewart and other notorious Highland Jacobites; with all that he Suffered at the hands of his Uncle, Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws, falsely so-called: Written by Himself and now set forth by Robert Louis Stevenson). When I began listening to it again, I wondered if it would just be a rough-and-tumble boys’ story with little real interest. I should have trusted one of the greatest authors of his day to spin a good yarn.


This book was really made to be read aloud. My audiobook’s narrator actually had a Scottish accent, and it was great to hear all of the names and places spoken as they should be! 


Well, the full title of the book pretty much gives the plot-line away, but I will say that one of the great things about Kidnapped was that it was set against a real, historical backdrop: Scotland in the days of the Jacobite Risings (read more on that here). These were attempts to restore the Stuart Kings to the thrones of Scotland and England. In the book, our young hero actually meets a real historical figure, Alan Breck Stuart. Alan is a swashbuckling patriot who ends up being wanted for murder, and with him, David Balfour.


It really was one of those books I didn’t want to put down (or press the stop button, rather). There was action, intrigue, surprise, humorous passages, well-developed characters (I especially appreciated the writing of the protagonist).


I highly recommend this book to those of you who are fascinated with history, classics, Scotland, the sea, or just a really good book that has held its popularity for over 100 years!  

Book #7: Great Souls: Six Who Changed a Century

"A Great Soul…as we define it in this book, is “someone of preeminent attainment characterized by one or more character qualities of greatness.”
- David Aikman, Great Souls


One reason I was interested in reading this book was the variety of names on the cover:  Billy Graham, Nelson Mandela, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Mother Theresa, Pope John Paul II, and Elie Wiesel. I had heard of all of them, of course, as they were all very famous people in their own ways. Mother Theresa never sought fame for herself, it came to her. Solzhenitsyn, on the other hand, declared the truth about Soviet Russia from the housetops, as it were. They all had faith in common, but very different kinds of faith. They were from all over the world and were well-known for widely diverse reasons. I checked the CD out at the library, wondering if I would enjoy this intriguing book.


It turned out to be a collection of mini-biographies written by well-known journalist, David Aikman. He spoke personally to several of the people he showcases in this book, so every biography has a personal touch. Aikman has selected a “character quality of greatness” for each great soul, a quality which has permeated their life for many years and characterized the impact they have had on the world: Graham - salvation, Mandela - forgiveness, Solzhenitsyn - truth, Mother Theresa - compassion, John Paul ll - human dignity, Wiesel - remembrance.

I had never heard about Billy Graham’s beginnings, but it amazed me how a kid from a North Carolina dairy farm became “America’s pastor”. Circumstances like a case of mumps and the support of a greatly-disliked newspaper mogul helped take Graham in an unlikely direction. It seems as if the hand of God reached down to that little insignificant boy and turned him into something huge and extraordinary. He wasn’t perfect, by any means, but he has certainly changed this world for the better. 

Likewise I knew little about Nelson Mandela, besides what I gleaned from the movie Invictus. He was born in South Africa, in the days of Apartheid. I was surprised to learn about his headstrong, violent, almost communist leanings in his younger years, as he fought against the extreme injustice of the white minority rule. Then he was imprisoned for 27 years. The hot-headed man matured during this time, much of it spent on the isolated Robben Island. He came out a different man, still passionate for freedom, but with a spirit of forgiveness for his persecutors. He went on to become the president of South Africa until 1999 when he retired at the age of 75. 

A while back I meant to read one of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s books, but I admit that the size frightened me. Little did I know what a fascinating man the author was. He was born in Soviet Russia, and was an ardent communist. He loved Lenin’s beliefs and was a firm supporter of socialism. But he didn’t care for Stalin, and that’s what got him into trouble. Solzhenitsyn wrote some derogatory comments about Stalin in letters, which were intercepted; this resulted in eight years in a labor camp. While imprisoned he wrote the book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which is considered one of the most powerful indictments of the Soviet gulag that has ever been written. After his release he became a full-fledged anti-communist and kept writing. And he continued to be persecuted. He spread the truth about the inner cruelties of the U.S.S.R., and eventually helped free the Russian people from communist tyranny.

Mother Theresa was born Agnesë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, in what is now Macedonia. By the age of 12 she was convinced that God wanted her to be a missionary, so at 18 she left for training in Ireland. After learning English she took her vows and began teaching at a convent school in Calcutta, India. Years later she experienced her “call within the call” and felt that she must go outside the convent to serve in the Calcutta slums. She started her own order, the Missionaries of Charity, and the rest, as they say, is history. She cared for men, women, and children who had been left out on the streets to die, and reached out to outcast lepers. She won several prestigious awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, and went on to worldwide fame. But her personal creed of compassion remained the same. I was very impressed with the life story of this amazing woman, and has made me want to read about her more fully.

Karol Józef Wojtyła, also known as Pope John Paul II, was born in Poland. He suffered the deaths of mother, father, and brother before he was twenty years old, and went on to attend a university and become very interested in theater. There hadn’t been a non-Italian pope since the 1520s, and this young man who worked in a limestone quarry under Nazi occupation seemed one of the last people on earth to become the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic church. Through remarkable circumstances, Karol went from manual laborer to priest, to bishop, to cardinal, and finally, to pope. Throughout his life he maintained a respect and will to work for human dignity. 

Eliezer Wiesel was born in 1928 Romania, the son of a grocer. He was a Jew, and it was this heritage that helped make him the world-wide figure that he is today. After the Nazi army ceded Elie’s hometown to Hungary in 1940, the Hungarian authorities allowed the Germans to deport Jews in the area to the concentration camp of Auschwitz Birkenau. Elie and his father made it through to a work camp, but Elie never saw his mother and little sister again. Over eight months of excruciating living conditions passed before Elie was released. His father died in the camp. But did Wiesel repress what happened to him and forget about what others suffered and are still suffering? No. He made it his task to remember, and to make others remember, to fulfill his “duty to the dead.”


All in all it was a fascinating book which I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend. It has inspired me to learn more about these remarkable people, and to emulate their greatness in every way I can.  

Book #6: The Art of War

"Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys. Look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death!"
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War


The Art of War was written in 6th century BC China, yet it is still influencing culture and military tactics around the world today.  Mao Zedong, General Vo Nguyen Giap, Baron Antoine-Henri Jomini, and General Douglas MacArthur all claimed to have drawn inspiration from the work. The information and advice contained in this slim volume is timeless and valuable.


Before I read it, I wasn’t quite sure that War would be that interesting; it might just have been a dry book of tactics organized into dozens of subsections. But as I began listening to it I found myself stopping often to take notes for further reference, the content was so fascinating. Far from dry, this was a lively, passionate, interactive kind of rulebook, peppered with stories and legends exemplifying the subjects Sun Tzu was explaining. I read about ancient battles and sudden reversals of fortune, witty maneuvering and plenty of bloodshed.


One of Sun Tzu’s major themes is that one can only plan so far. It is the virtue of preparedness that will make one a victor. If one is ready for anything, in any situation, then success is almost assured. Sun Tzu explains how to gain victory in easy terrain, difficult terrain, neutral terrain, narrow terrain, dangerous terrain, and distant terrain, but when it comes down to it it’s mostly all about having quick reactions and making the best of bad situations. Always have a trick up your sleeve, always give yourself plenty of options when possible.


There are so many little gems of wisdom in this book, such as the five ways of winners:


1. Those who know when to fight and when not to fight
2. Those who know how to use the large or small
3. Those who agree on superior and inferior objectives
4. Those who prepare to lie in wait for the unprepared
5. Those who lead without interference from a ruler


I would definitely recommend reading this book if you have any interest in military tactics or stories of ancient China. I found it intriguing and enjoyable!  


Tata for now,
Abby Rogers

Book #5: The Return of the Native

WARNING: If you don't already know the plot-line of this book and have any intention of reading it, I have included spoilers in this review!

"The sea changed, the fields changed, the rivers, the villages, and the people changed, yet Egdon remained." 

- Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, Book 1, Chapter 1

I admit it, the main reason I listened to this book was because it was narrated by one of my all-time-favorite actors, Alan Rickman. I don’t know about you, but his voice comes as near as anything to sending chills down my spine. Thankfully Return was also a classic book, so I could count it on my reading list J. 


First of all I will address the style of the book. I was prepared for Hardy’s writing by having read Tess of the d’Urbervilles last year, but it could be a little tedious for someone new to the style. Hardy is one of those people who can spend an entire chapter writing about a landscape, and pages of description about a character’s external appearances and inner character. He does it without being tedious, however, always weaving in such brilliant metaphors and similes that he keeps a reader’s interest.


Second, the setting. Of course, anglophile that I am, I was thrilled to be reading a novel set in a Wessex moor, the fictional Egdon Heath. The landscape has a great influence on this novel, creating an impression of loneliness and solitude, setting the story in a kind of inner world that serves to enhance the glamour of far off places like Paris. Characters are often described by the ways they react to the heath: some feel trapped by it, others revel in its wild, untamed beauty.


Apparently Return stirred up quite a bit of controversy when it was serialized in the magazine Belgravia back in 1878. The story deals with issues that were touchy in Victorian England, such as a deeply-flawed heroine and themes of illicit love. I found the book rather alarming in places where it questioned, nay, denied God’s goodness to man, treating the Creator as if He simply played around with humans and didn’t much care what happened to them. 


The native who returns in the story is the wise and wonderful Clym Yeobright who has come back home to the heath with grand ideals of running a school for the peasant children. He is deeply devoted to his mother, but their relationship is strained to the breaking point when Clym decides to marry the beautiful and mysterious Eustacia Vye. His mother believes it imprudent, but Clym is in love. 


Eustacia seems to me to be the exact wrong person for Clym and I can’t imagine how he ever thought he could be happy with her. The man loves the moor and would be happy living in a hovel, Eustacia just wants to have passionate love and a life of beauty in Paris. I believe that she really loved Clym, but she also deluded herself into thinking that he would take her with him to live abroad, and was quite upset and disillusioned when she realized that this was not to be.


The divisions that Clym and Eustacia’s marriage creates are widespread and deep. The mother, a cousin, a few old lovers, and a couple of new ones, all collide and scrape against one another in the rushing tumble of misfortune and grief that seems to fall heavier upon them as every day passes. 


If I learned anything from this book it is that if one needs to do anything (visit a relative, write a letter, deliver something entrusted to you, etc.) do it immediately, or it’s bound to be too late and devastation will inevitably result. Also, if you love someone and believe that they are almost 100% right for you (heeding mother’s advice is good too), marry them, if you don’t, don’t marry them. If the characters in this story followed these two simple rules they could have avoided so much grief. Halfway measures just mess things up terribly. 


I was at first rather jarred by the way the book ended, tying up some loose strings in a tidy little epilogue that seemed to want a happily-ever-after despite the dull, depressing nature of the rest of the book. Then I found out that Thomas Hardy had originally intended the novel to end as a tragedy. However, he submitted to the pressure of his readers and tacked on a happy ending. 


All in all I’m glad I read it, but I wouldn’t pick it up again. The plot is so depressing, all about thwarted hopes and hellish fates.  Ah well, what are classic novels for if not to increase our appreciation of our own sane, normal lives?

Book #4: The Prince

A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests. 

-Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Machiavelli has gotten a pretty bad rep over the years because of his political and moral beliefs. He even has an adjective named after him, Machiavellian, describing a person who is cunning or unscrupulous. The Prince is Machiavelli’s handbook for new rulers, or any ruler who wants to keep his power and doesn’t mind justifying the means with the end. It’s a very realistic book, laying the bare truth out on the table. It says, in effect, “You want to keep your kingdom? I’ll show you how.”

I found this book to be extremely interesting from the psychological standpoint. In a way it is like How to Win Friends and Influence People, only more like, How to Manipulate Friends and Corrupt People Without Being Hated. At one point Machiavelli states, “A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.” Also, “The wish to acquire is in truth very natural and common, and men always do so when they can, but when they cannot do so, yet wish to do so by any means, then there is folly and blame." You get a lot of insight into human character. Assuming that Niccolo was correct in all of his observations.

There are several ways to become a prince: 

1. Inherit a throne
2. Acquire a throne by force
3. Be invited to take a throne (I like the idea of being invited to be the ruler of a country).  

Each situation has advantages and disadvantages of its own. Inheriting a throne is the best case scenario, but if you do something terrible your people will probably try to overthrow you no matter how long your family has been ruling them. New principalities are more difficult to handle because if you are unsatisfactory, the rabble will be very willing to rise up and overthrow you for another, convinced that their situation will be improved. Etcetera. 

A quick overview of some of Machiavelli’s beliefs and principles: 

• Self-reliance is key. Depending on mercenaries is a very, very bad idea. They have no real loyalty to your cause and will go to the highest bidder.
• You should acquire a reputation for generosity without actually being very generous. If you give away too much money the people will no longer appreciate it and just want more. Don’t be afraid to be called a miser.
• Don’t be despised and hated! There’s a fine line between necessary violence (wiping out the entire royal family of a usurped ruler), and the kind of needless violence that turns people against you. You can kill them, but don’t touch their property or their women.
• Avoid flatterers at all costs.

So, what do I think of The Prince? It has given me some major inspiration for a story I have rolling around in my head, but as far as actually applying these principles? 

Machiavelli is of the opinion that morality is wonderful in peacetime, but useless when your throne is in danger. I believe that depending on the Lord and obeying His laws is important no matter what is at stake. Lying, murdering, and stealing may pay off in the short-term, but as time goes by I believe that it will come back to bite the Prince that justifies bloodshed and tyranny with retaining power. 

Despite believing that, if one must choose an extreme, it is safer to be feared than loved, Niccolo seems to agree with me on one point, “it cannot be called prowess to kill fellow citizens, to betray friends, to be treacherous, pitiless, or irreligious. These ways can win a prince power but not glory.” 

Book #3: The Problem of Pain

Book #3: The Problem of Pain


"All men alike stand condemned, not by alien codes of ethics, but by their own, and all men therefore are conscious of guilt."
-C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain


C.S. Lewis is one of my all-time favorite authors, a man I admire both for his strong Christian faith and his superb writing style. In his novels Lewis gives the reader a thorough sense of place and empathy with characters; his plotlines are magnificent. In non-fiction Lewis is equally masterful, and though The Problem of Pain will probably never be made into a feature film, it is a challenging, fascinating read.

Many, many people have confronted the Christian faith with the dilemma of God’s goodness in a world of pain. The argument usually runs something like this, “How can a good God allow such suffering?” This is the problem of pain. In language and reasoning that is at times deep and confusing, but eminently sensible, Lewis proves this confounding subject.

Lewis makes many profound points, I couldn't possibly elaborate on them all and risk repeating the book, so I will concentrate on one of the main subjects of POP: the Fall of Man. The book makes a very good point--why do we blame evil on God? Maybe it is the fault of mankind! God is all-powerful, some say, why doesn't He make us be good and not hurt each other? One answer could concerned with free will. The Christian doctrine of free will states that at Creation the Lord decided that He would not make man a mere automaton to do His bidding, but a creature with the power to choose between right and wrong.

Lewis describes the Fall of Man as due to the sin of pride, perhaps the most basic sin because "from the moment a creature becomes aware of God as God and of itself as self, the terrible alternative of choosing God or self for the centre is opened to it." Men "wanted, as we say, to 'call their souls their own.' But that means to live a lie, for our souls are not, in fact, our own." And so humans fell from a divine, spiritual state to become a spoiled species.

God was not surprised by the Fall. Lewis states it so poetically, "God saw the crucifixion in the act of creating the first nebula." And so the Lord did the only thing a truly loving God could do: he provided a way out. That way is, of course, through the sacrifice of Christ, who reversed the sin of Adam and cleared the path for the redemption of the whole world.

The Problem of Pain is full of many other arguments for a loving God in the midst of human suffering. For instance, C.S. Lewis insists that God can do anything--except the intrinsically impossible. He cannot create a society of free persons (individuals with free will and the ability to hurt others) and then stop every negative consequence before it happens; this would result in a completely meaningless universe. Another contention: That love is not incompatible with suffering. An utterly kind deity might protect man from all harm, but a loving God will do what is ultimately best for a beloved creature, even if that means that some suffering must be borne.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the gist. C.S. Lewis is at times baffling, even esoteric, but when I finished the book I felt a little more grounded in the truth of God’s goodness and mercy, even in the face of pain. If you are interested in the never-ending debates on this topic and want a bit of creative, sound reasoning from a respected Christian author, I would whole-heartedly recommend this book for you.



Thanks to a great website resource: http://catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0032.html

Book #2: Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant

WARNING: If you don't already know the plot-line of these stories and have any intention of reading it, I have included spoilers in this review!



"It is the lives we encounter that make life worth living."  
-Guy de Maupassant




Also on the audiobook of The Metamorphosis were seven short stories by Guy de Maupassant (don’t even try to pronounce it). I will go over each one briefly:



1. The Hand—A judge recounts the mysterious case of an Englishman who was found dead in his home, the only explanation for his death being that the severed hand of his enemy (which he kept around the living room as an accent piece) had strangled him. Weird, creepy story.


2. The Piece of String—A thrifty old man picks up a piece of string from the ground. Through an odd chain of events it becomes rumored that he was actually picking up someone’s lost wallet. The poor man’s reputation is shattered and he goes mad, protesting his innocence as he lays dying. Pointless story, presumably  about he pointlessness of life.


3. The Diamond Necklace—My mother read this story in high school and remembers it with a sickening feeling to this day. A poor woman borrows a friend’s diamond necklace for one evening of glamour, then loses it. The woman and her husband buy another necklace, give it to the friend without telling her of the substitution, then spend the next ten years of their lives working themselves to death the pay their debts. After this time the poor woman meets her friend in the street one day and decides to tell her of the substitution, now that everything is finished and paid back. Wouldn’t you know it, the diamonds in the original necklace had been false and were worth next to nothing. Very depressing.


4. A Crisis—I’m not sure that this is the right title for the story, but it was about a man who has had many, many affairs and has decided with his wife that they will live completely separate lives though staying in the same house. However, he falls in love with his wife again and wants to spend some “quality time” with her. She refuses however, relenting only on the condition that he pay her just as much money as he used to pay his former mistresses. A very strange little tale.


5. The Will—A woman dies and leaves everything to her lover, and after him, her son, announcing for the first time that this son was not the child of her husband. Much to said husband’s alarm.


6. The Inn—A horrible story about a young man who stays in an inn high up impassible snowy mountains with an old man. The old man goes out in the snow one night and dies, and the young man is wracked with guilt. He drinks all the brandy in the inn, then goes stark raving mad. He even kills his dog (unintentionally). Wretched.


7. Was it a Dream?—A man visits the grave of his beloved mistress and decides to spend the night. After dark all of the skeletons come out of their tombs and erase their epitaphs (He loved his family, was kind and honorable, and died in the grace of the Lord) and rewrite the truth (He hastened his father's death by his unkindness, as he wished to inherit his fortune, he tortured his wife, tormented his children…). The man is shocked and grieved to find that even his love, whom he thought perfect in every respect, was unfaithful to him.


Very depressing, hopeless, meaningless stories. My life has meaning and purpose, do these stories only resonate with those who have none? Why is this considered wonderful literature? Please give me some insight on these matters.


Tata for Now,
Abby Rogers

Book #2: The Metamorphosis

WARNING: If you don't already know the plot-line of this book and have any intention of reading it, I have included spoilers in this review!



"That was the voice of an animal." 
-Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis (p. 8) 


“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” So commences Franz Kafka’s entirely too famous story—The Metamorphosis. 


Gregor Samsa is a traveling salesman who, upon realizing his hideous transformation seems a little less than disturbed, dispassionate even. He doesn’t seem to wonder why, he asks no questions. Instead, he seems worried about what a horrible job he has and hopes that he can haul his bug-self out of bed, get dressed and get to work on time.


The entire story takes place in the Samsas’ apartment, which I assume is located in 1915 Prague. Over the next several months we see Gregor’s family—a mother, father, and sister, Grete—cope with his metamorphosis and the problems that this transformation creates.


Each member of the Samsa family reacts differently to the change in Gregor. Mr. Samsa seems angered by the event and treats his son like a senseless animal, locking him in his bedroom and chucking fruit at him when he escapes. His mother, who is a very sick old woman, holds a deep affection for her son and wishes to see him very much, but the other two keep her away from him (she does get the chance to see Gregor once, and promptly faints dead away). Grete is a very complex character, who is at first the only member of the family who bothers to care for Gregor; she brings him food and cleans his room. She feels a melodramatic sense of possession of him, and in wishing to spare the rest of her family the horror of seeing her brother she assumes all responsibility for his welfare.


Gregor was the sole provider for his family, but now that he has been forced to quit his job, his family has had to take over. His mother begins sewing underwear, his father takes a job at a bank, Grete gets employment at a shop, and the family takes in three men as boarders. 


All of this work causes the Samsas to draw even further away from poor Gregor. Grete is now so overworked that she doesn’t bother to clean her brother’s room. The passion she once infused into her work has faded away in the light of true responsibility. The entire family grows hopeless, just living day to day, believing that they are some of the most unfortunate people on earth.


Things come to a head one night when the three boarders ask Grete to play the violin for them. She is something of a prodigy, and as Gregor listens to her through his bedroom door, he is moved by a hunger for he-knows-not-what. Beauty? The love of his sister? The boarders now seem disinterested in her music, but Gregor crawls out of his room to approach Grete, to let her know that, even if no one else does, he appreciates her music. However, things come to a sudden halt when the boarders see the massive insect and are struck with terror. They cause an awful commotion and immediately give notice. 


By this time Grete has had enough. She is much changed from the little girl of a few months ago who cried in her room at the thought of her brother losing his job. She is now a confident leader and demands that they “must get rid of this thing.” She convinces her father that this insect is not Gregor or it would have had pity on them and left long ago.


Gregor, huddled in the darkness of his filthy bedroom, understands his sister’s wish. He loves his family and decides that he will disappear as soon as possible, for their sakes. 


The charwoman comes into the apartment early the next morning to find Gregor’s lifeless insect-body, then rushes to tell the family that he has died. They are at first shocked, then relieved. The boarders come out of their room demanding breakfast, and one imagines that their threats of leaving the night before and the consequences of those threats were probably meaningless and unnecessary.


The story ends with the Samsa family, or what’s left of it, taking a tram into the countryside. They all realize that they actually enjoy the independence they have found in working jobs of their own, and begin making plans for the future.


The Metamorphosis is a story of despair. We know, almost from the very beginning, that Gregor has very little chance of changing back into his human self. He is doomed, as is the happy tranquility of his family.


Is there a purpose to this story? A secret symbolism that unlocks some deep meaning? One person said, “Kafka is sending a message of hidden worth.  It's great to have people to depend on, but never give up on your own dreams to do something wonderful with your life.” Another wrote, “The story has been interpreted as everything from religious allegory to psychoanalytic case history, but works because, though written nearly a century ago, Kafka's fantastic imaginings convey a reality of their own. We surrender to Gregor's experience, which in a way becomes ours.”


Excuse me, but his experience becomes ours? Call me a philistine, but I’m afraid that I don’t appreciate Kafka’s masterpiece in quite this way. It seems to me exactly what Kafka himself said about it, “It’s only my own personal spectre of horror. It oughtn’t to be printed at all…It is without meaning.” Also, “No one, through his own lack of hope should make the condition of the patient worse. For that reason, all my scribbling is to be destroyed.” But it wasn’t destroyed. And today we read the Metamorphosis, and wonder about the meaning.


Has anyone else here read this? Please leave comments!