Some C.S. Lewis

I recently finished A Grief Observed and The Abolition of Man.  Both were pretty short.  If I had to pick one, I think I liked A Grief Observed better.  Lewis wrote this book when his wife died, and he shares his feelings and thoughts.  What I liked the most about this book was how real it was: his pain was definitely evident.  Sometimes he expressed anger, sometimes sadness, sometimes confusion.  It was real and it was touching.  

The Abolition of Man had a completely different feel.  It was very rational; there wasn’t any of the raw emotion found in A Grief Observed (understandably).  It was a good book, and he definitely made some very interesting points. 

A Passage to India - by E.M. Forster

A quick summary: Mrs. Moore and Adela, two British ladies, go visit Mrs. Moore’s son in India.  Adela is supposed to marry him at some point.  There, Mrs. Moore meets Dr. Aziz, an Indian gentleman who invites her and Adela to go see some caves.  At one point when Mrs. Moore doesn’t feel well enough to keep walking, Adela and Dr. Aziz continue on their own, with the tour guide.  Adela accuses Dr. Aziz of making some inappropriate advances in the caves.  The book then continues to talk about the trial that follows.

I wanted to like this book because I really like E.M. Forster.  Sadly, I didn’t enjoy it very much.  The story just didn’t interest me at all.  In fact, I have to confess: there were some parts I skimmed over because I was so completely uninterested.  I feel terrible saying that.  I was so looking forward to enjoying this book.  It’s not that I hated it, it’s just that I was completely indifferent to it.  Maybe my expectations were too high…?

Man's Search for Meaning - by V. Frankl

A quick summary:  The author was an Austrian psychiatrist who was a concentration camp survivor.  The book is divided in two sections.  In the first, the author shares some of his experiences in the concentration camps, and in the second, he describes his theory of logotherapy and how people can find meaning in their lives.

This was a great book.  Something I really enjoyed was that he discussed some of his experiences from a psychological perspective: he explained why certain people acted in certain ways, from a psychiatric point of view.  His theory of logotherapy was also something that resonated with me.  He writes that everyone can find meaning in their lives, even if it is through suffering (though suffering is not necessary to find meaning).  The fact that he lived through an awful experience and was still able to find meaning in his life definitely added credibility to the things he talked about. 

Here are some quotes I liked:

“No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.”

“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread.  They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

“From all this we may learn that there are two races of men in this world, but only those two – the 'race' of the decent man and the 'race' of the indecent man.  Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society.  No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people.”

“Only slowly could these men be guided to the commonplace truth that no one has the right to do wrong, not even if wrong has been done to them.”

This was an amazing book, and everyone should try to read it!

June Prompt - A Classics Challenge

The book I read this month was The Good Soldier, by Ford Madox Ford.  This quote is found towards the end of the book:

I am that absurd figure, an American millionaire, who has bought one of the ancient haunts of English peace. I sit here, in Edward's gun-room, all day and all day in a house that is absolutely quiet.

No one visits me, for I visit no one. No one is interested in me, for I have no interests. In twenty minutes or so I shall walk down to the village, beneath my own oaks, alongside my own clumps of gorse, to get the American mail. My tenants, the village boys and the tradesmen will touch their hats to me. So life peters out.

The Good Soldier - F. Madox Ford

A quick summary:  Edward Ashburnham is married to Leonora, but has several affairs, including an affair with the narrator’s wife, Florence.  The book is mostly about the Ashburnhams and their relationship with each other and with others.  

When I finished this book I didn’t really know what to think.  I liked it in the sense that it sucked you in – once I started reading I had difficulty putting the book down.  But somehow I didn’t like the story itself that much.  And it didn’t help that the narrator kept going back and forth in time, so I sometimes had difficulty remembering the order in which things happened.  Finally, I didn’t identify with any of the characters, not even the narrator.

Although I have mixed feelings about this book, I’m very glad I read it.