In all honesty, it took me quite a while to read my first summer novel, Adam & Eve, due to the fact that I was still in AP Lit mode and close read the entire text! All of it, which took forever! I kept underlining the patterns of alliteration - euphonic, cacophonous, combinations thereof, and somehow kept circling back to the author's use of anaphoric asyndeton and cumulative syntax. Once I finished this tedious read, I determined to not allow a pen near me during reading time, which has, for the most part, helped me to just read.
Hence, when I picked up Varina by the extraordinary writer Charles Frazier, I restrained myself, still mentally noting all of the enumerative polysyndeton and all the characterization passages probably for next season's AP Lit, and became part of the literary world that only Frazier can write. Charles Frazier is my second favorite author - that must surprise some of you who only know my passion for nineteenth century Britannia and everything Bronte. He is the man who created Inman and Ada, the protagonists of Cold Mountain, my second favorite novel of all time. I figure I should have a whole separate blog on my love of his writing, so that shall be in the near future.
By the time I was in The Tea Rose and Anno Dracula, the pen has completely disappeared! And, funnily enough, both novels involved Jack the Ripper. The former is more of a Romance; the latter is more of a test of allusions regarding Dracula, the Ripper, 1890s literary figures, artists, pop culture oddities, and the British monarchy.
And to end the month, I read a hard-boiled detective novel centered around Elvis & Marilyn. I did take a hard-boiled class in grad school, and these mysteries are not my cup of green tea, but I did enjoy all the clever similes.
I hope all of you - past AP Lit students and future ones - are reading a great deal this summer! I recommend, of course, the top 101 novels for college students to read, anything by the Brontes, George Eliot, and Jane Austen, Cold Mountain, The Dogs of Babel, and any of the fabulous mysteries by Carol Goodman - such as The Lake of Dead Languages - her works center around literature and languages.
Time to head back to the pool for my 100 laps and my 100 pages of reading. My favorite spot to read in sitting on the second step of the pool (only dropped 3 books in the water so far and, after some serious air drying, all survived).
