The War of the Worlds

Sorry for such a delay in posting. As I was logging on to post about The Forsyte Saga, I realized that I had starting my post for War of the Worlds and apparently never finished my post. Tonight I will finish War of the Worlds and post The Forsyte Saga later this week.


"What was needed now was not bravery, but circumspection". The unnamed protagonist says this while thinking about his wife and his cousins. He does not consider his cousin to be a brave man, but now was not the time for bravery. These words really tell you all you need to know about the mood of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. Considered at the time as a scientific romance, known today as science fiction. I can only imagine as a reader in the turn of the century, wrapping my head around what Wells was describing. Even now, with all of the alien movies that I have seen over the years, I am in awe of Well's very detailed orientated descriptions and imagination. It is also interesting to note, that if you have seen the movie version of this film starring Tom Cruise, it is very true to the story, of course, with a little adaptations here and there. A lot of people's problem with the movie was that it didn't have a Us vs Them story line. However, I feel like a lot of the integrity of the book would be lost, and that raw, true human emotion would not be there.
 One of my favorite things about this book is that Wells captures and relates them to pen and paper. There is this one passage in the book where the unnamed protagonist, after the aliens have started their initial attack, but before news of their doings has spread to his village, borrows a horse and dog cart from the village inn landlord. The narrator says "At the time it did not seem to me nearly so urgent that the landlord should leave his [home}" after the landlord, not knowing of the aliens or the imminent danger ahead, asked him why he was leaving his home. This is one of those moments where in this world, in this reality, it is every man for himself. The narrator could have warned him of the aliens and what they were capable of doing, but instead he says nothing and promises to return the dogcart by midnight and the bewildered, unnamed landlord gives him the dogcart with no further questioning and not realizing he has no means of escape when the time came.
Another interesting subject that Wells brings up is religion. The narrator, after the attacks from the aliens have been going on for a few days, meets an unnamed curate, who is slowly losing his sanity. A few of his more interesting quotes "Why are these thing permitted? What sins have we done?" and "All the work- all the Sunday schools- What have we done- what has Weybridge done? Everything gone- everything destroyed. The Church! We rebuilt it only three years ago. Gone! Swept out of existence! Why?". The curate, who as I mentioned, slowly becomes unhinged and a hindrance to our narrator, is asking why God is punishing his people, when they have done all that has been asked of them. I don't know too much about Wells and his stance on religion, but I believe I can infer that he was somewhat skeptical. Especially with his treatment of the curate. The narrator tells him that he saw a fellow minister get killed by the aliens and the curate responds "Killed!" he said, staring about him. "How can God's ministers be killed?". The chapters involving the curate are quite interesting and are actually some of my favorites in this book. I could go on for pages about these particular chapters.
The book really captures the isolationism of people and what can happen during calamities. No one is named, everyone is referred to by what they do, such as the landlord and the curate. It is as if names do not matter now. The narrator's main objective was to reunite with his wife and to survive. There were times that he has even given up on whether he should even try to continue searching for her, because she was more than likely dead. But he needed something to live for. He never had the desire to gang up with other survivors to kill these aliens. That thought never even crosses his mind. His only thought is to survive. And isn't that what everyone is trying to do?

I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would so I give it four out of five stars. It was good and I highly suggest you see the Tom Cruise film. A great adaptation of the book.

As of right now, I finished the first book of The Forsyte Saga "A Man of Property". I will be breaking up the different sections because 1) this book is 900 pages long 2) it was written in different books but they decided to lump them all together. So, I am reading a few filler books in between. Currently reading a Martha Grimes' Richard Jury novel. But I do promise to get my next review up post haste!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

I would just like to say that what I wanted to write for this blog was ??? and call it a day. That is how I felt about this book. It took me two weeks to read 196 pages... and if you know me, I never take that long to read when I have the time. I read a book in between (Museum of the Missing) because I needed to clear my head of what I was reading. With that, I will try to give you some sort of review of this novel.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce apparently "represents the transitional stage between the realism of Joyce's Dubliners and the symbolism of Ulysses, and is essential to the understanding of the later work" (from the back of the book) and apparently the main character, Stephen Dedalus shows up in Ulysses, another book that's on the list, which I have no desire to read anytime soon. The book starts with "Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy name baby tuckoo..." (Joyce, pg. 4). I should have known where this book was going. This book is suppose to be about self discovery, figuring out what is important and trying to find your place in the world. However, for me, the stream of consciousness technique coupled with the jumping of years, was very hard to keep up with it.
This stream of consciousness was more of moments of reflection, where Stephen reaches his epiphany... questioning his family, religion, faith and education. There were some parts of the novel that I found myself enjoying, but those were short lived. There was one chapter (and mind you, there are only five) which was a sermon, telling those who have committed sin to repent, or face damnation in hell. That chapter was one of the most arduous for me to read. I do not have a Catholic upbringing, nor am I very religious, so it pained me.
I don't really have much more to say on this book that would be of any intellectual value. I am sure Joyce would think of me as Lady Gaga would think of those who don't get her "art", that I don't know what good literature is. To him I say "whatever, I hated your book".
If you too want to read a book that is suppose to be about self discovery with a disjointed timeline, this book is for you!
I gave this book three out of five stars because the parts that were good, were GOOD.

Currently reading a short story, Marquis de Sade's Betrayal. My first Sade book. He has two on the list, but this one is not. I just ordered three more books, but I need a 1001 book to read next. Should I start The Forsyte Saga? The Three Musketeers? The Portrait of a Lady? I need some input!

Until next time,

happy reading!