5 ways to write a protest novel

 Disclaimer: Monsta Reader is affiliated with bookshop.org, and Waterstones. If you should make a purchase through any of the links in this blog, I may earn a small commission from one of these sellers. However, this does not affect the cost to the consumer, and it does not influence the content of this blog.

1. Native Son by Richard Wright

This novel is the reason I decided to make protest novels the subject of this blog piece. 

This novel was written as a protest, and was first published in 1940. It made its author, Richard Wright, the first Black best-selling author in America.

In Native Son, we follow the protagonist, Bigger Thomas, a young Black man who is trapped in poverty and the slums of Chicago. This is a novel that shocked readers at the time, and still has the power to do so today.

You can purchase Native Son by Richard Wright here.

2. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

A classic. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award.

Set in the deep American South between the wars, this epistolary tale brings us into the world of Celie, a young Black girl born into poverty and segregation. She meets Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker - a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny. 

You can purchase The Color Purple by Alice Walker here.

3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Another classic, and one that still has the power to provoke thought and shock the reader.

World Controllers have created the ideal society. But Bernard Marx feels alone, harbouring a vague desire to break free. 

It is hard to read this book and not draw parallels between what lies within and our own world . . .

You can purchase Brave New World by Aldous Huxley here.

4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

If you've read this novel, you know its power.

This book was published sixty-eight years ago, in 1954.

A group of schoolboys are deserted, stranded, on an island after a plane crash, and they await rescue. This tale is a warning of what comes when order fades, of how, when rules of society are abandoned, something cruel and savage can take their place.

You can purchase Lord of the Flies by William Golding here.

5. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Callum is a nought. 

Sephy is a Cross.

In their world, noughts and Crosses do not mix. But Callum and Sephy are determined to be together.

This is a novel that will absorb you.

You can purchase Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman here.

Thank you for reading. I am passionate about books and hope that my pieces reflect that. That passion is why I share this content with you. If you can, please consider supporting me with a coffee on ko-fi.com - the caffeine keeps me reading, reviewing, and writing! Thank you to every supporter and reader!

Charles Dickens' Ghost Stories - analysis and review

 

Disclaimer: Monsta Reader is affiliated with bookshop.org and Waterstones, and if you should make a purchase through any of the links in this blog I might earn a small commission from the sellers,but this does not affect the cost to the consumer. It also does not influence the content of this blog.

During Dickens' lifetime (1812 - 1870), interest in the supernatural was high, and in the middle of the nineteenth century movements such as mesmerism (belief in a sort of invisible natural force that influence the physical world) and spiritualism (a belief that spirits of the dead exist and can be communicated with by the living) became incredibly popular. Therefore, it's probably to be expected that authors of the Victorian period would write an awful lot of good ghost stories.

From the hand of a spirit at the window, in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, through to The Turn of the Screw by Henry James toward the end of the Victorian period, spirits of the dead haunting the living make many an appearance in Victorian novels and novellas.

In reality, Dickens was something of a sceptic, and had little interest in Spiritualism, except that he did attend a number of séances, but only to investigate and debunk the claims being made by peddlers of the "spirit business". However, he had just as much of a love for the ghost story as any other Victorian of his time.

In Dickens' most famous ghost story, A Christmas Carol, the spirits are a means of exploring those links between humanity that go deeper than the everyday and mundane. Through these figures of death, the author could explore what it is that makes life good and beautiful - worth living. In a precursor to A Christmas Carol, Dickens' short ghost story, The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton, also features supernatural beings that seek to interfere in the life of a man, at Christmas time, who carries hate inside of him. Clearly a theme that had been on Dickens' mind a while - The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton featured in The Pickwick Papers, along with three other short ghost stories, about seven years before the publication of A Christmas Carol.

As well as uplifting tales, like A Christmas Carol, Dickens was also quite capable of exploring the darker and more brutal side of humanity, and in his short story, The Ghost in the Bride's Chamber, he does so unflinchingly. In this story, a young woman endures a constant drip of cruelty until she is worn down by its power. 

There was a darkness in Dickens' mind, perhaps informed by his troubled early years, and he offered up some of the most haunting scenes ever committed to English literature. He was a wonderful humourist, but he could craft a gothic and haunting tale just as well.

The ghosts and spirits in his stories were a useful device for exploring the deeper meanings of life. Because death, life extinguished in this world, is the only forever in this life. And so, death can be a powerful inspiration, a reminder of what makes life rich and meaningful. But his ghosts could also be a manifestation, a warning, of how acts of abuse and cruelty can haunt and mark a life. His best ghost stories are a reminder to live life decently and well.

You can purchase a collection of Dickens' ghost stories here, a collection published by Pan Macmillan and which brings together all of Dickens' ghost stories.

Thank you for reading. You can support my writing with a coffee on ko-fi.com - the caffeine keeps me reading Victorian ghost stories and reviewing them for you here! Supporters keep me writing - thank you!

Village Christmas And Other Notes on the English Year by Laurie Lee analysis and review

 

Disclaimer: Monsta Reader is affiliated with bookshop.org and Waterstones, and if you should make a purchase through any of the links on this blog I may earn a small commission from the sellers. However, this does not impact the cost to the consumer, and it does not influence the content of this blog.

Christmas is only a memory now. We work our way towards it gradually, over the course of months, but then it dies back in only days. 

I purposefully selected more festive books from my shelves over Christmas. Of course, there was Dickens, but another book I selected from the shelves was a collection from an author that I hadn't read before - Village Christmas . . . by Laurie Lee. And, I fell in love.

Reading Laurie Lee for the first time, I felt the thrill readers feel when they discover something wonderful for themselves. And, I felt stupid for not having read any of his writing before. What he wrote on the page made almost absolute sense to me. 

That's the great thing about art of all kinds, despite the fact that it is there for many, it can feel wonderfully personal.

I write another blog, in which I focus on my passions for nature and wildlife, and in my blog posts over there I often wax lyrical about my love for wandering countryside paths. And there is some of that in this, this collection of brief essays by Laurie Lee, only it is done much better. Of course.

Village Christmas And Other Notes on the English Year takes us through the seasons of the English year. And it is mostly rural England, a rural England that isn't really there any more.

Throughout the book, the writing is infused with Lee's passion and care for his subject. Each brief essay is almost poetic; a collection of lyrical portraits.

After reading this book, I had a desperate need to read more of Lee's work, and so - because of course I had a Waterstone's gift card somewhere amongst the Christmas gifts - I ordered myself As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, and reminded myself that Cider With Rosie was still awaiting my attention, on my bookshelves.

Discovering Laurie Lee is to discover a great writer.  

My love for the English countryside supplemented my first experience of Lee's writing, and I very much enjoyed the way the book took the reader through the seasons of the year. This structure adds to the experience of the book. Countryside life has been entwined with the changing of the seasons, and the structure of the book, moving from one season to another, conveys this well.

For my money, this book does that wonderful combination of things - not only does it entertain, but it inspires also. It inspires - or reminds the reader of - love for our countryside; it inspires interest in old English tradition, life, and communities; it inspires the reader to consider how their own homes and pasts are a part of who they are.

Yes. I would recommend this book, and I fear that everything I have written above does absolutely no justice to how good I think this book is!

If you would like to purchase Village Christmas And Other Notes on the English Year by Laurie Lee, you can do so here.

Thank you for reading. You can support this blog with a coffee from ko-fi.com - the caffeine keeps me turning pages! Thank you to all supporters!

The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun, translated from Korean into English by Lizzie Buehler - analysis and review

 

Disclaimer: Monsta Reader is affiliated with bookshop.org and Waterstones and, if you should make a purchase through any of the links in this blog, I may earn a commission from the sellers, but this does not affect the cost to the consumer, and it does not influence the content of this blog.

The Disaster Tourist is something different. It is a thriller that takes in themes such as environmental activism, capitalism, dark tourism, being a woman in the world today, and the human reaction to disaster and tragedy.

Yona works for Jungle, a Seoul-based company that specialises in tours to disaster zones. It is Yona's job to take people's fascination and intrigue with disaster and turn it into something that can be sold back to them. Something quantifiable.

The whole novel is an exploration of how human beings manage and manipulate pain and tragedy, especially in the interests of making money. The company for which our protagonist works is itself sinister. Corruption and toxic elements of the company are mostly quietly accepted or ignored. And when Yona suffers sexual harassment at the hands of her boss, the matter is not explored and investigated, but manipulated to protect the interests of the company and the status quo. Yona herself manipulates the situation in her own mind, tries to convince herself that the event isn't what it was.

'I'm sorry, there's been a misunderstanding,' Yona replied nervously. 'Something unsavoury did happen to me, but I don't know if I'd call it sexual harassment. I think I misunderstood Mr Kim's intentions.'

- Chapter 1, Jungle, The Disaster Tourist, Yun Ko-eun

I think that this is a novel about how people manage their fears. Fears of death, pain, tragedy, and failure. Sometimes the characters in this book seek to manage their own fears and tragedies, in the interests of self preservation. Sometimes they seek to manage the fears and tragedies of others, so that they can exploit those disasters for themselves or to make money. But the managing and manipulating of these pains, rather than real attempts to heal, only lead to further pains.

This is a novel about many of the problems our world is facing today, and how we face them. Or not.

You can purchase The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun here.

Thank you for reading. You can support this blog with a coffee from ko-fi.com - the caffeine keeps me reading and reviewing! Thank you to all supporters!

Maya Angelou, US quarters, and making history!

 

Maya Angelou (image from New York Times website; nytimes.com)

There is a glut of authors that I have not yet read, writers who have been on my personal reading list for a while. And I am ashamed to say that I have yet to open the covers of a book authored by Maya Angelou. However, I recently purchased Letter to My Daughter, and I am now just awaiting its arrival. I can't tell you why that that is my first purchase of Angelou's writing, just that it came to my attention and it appealed to my interest. That's all.

And, just as I begin my discovery of Angelou's work, she has become the first Black woman to appear on a US quarter (theguardian.com/books/). 

Though I haven't yet read any of Maya Angelou's work, I am aware, of course, of the weight of her writing on the literary landscape, having brought Angelou respect and recognition as a spokesperson for Black people and women. 

I am sure that I will be back to tell you all about my discovery of Angelou's work at a later date.

Thank you for reading. I hope to be back soon, writing about Maya Angelou and her work, and perhaps other small celebrations recognising icons from the world of books and literature.

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This Be The Verse by Philip Larkin - an analysis and review

 

Disclaimer: this blog is affiliated with bookshop.org, who support local and independent bookshops in the UK, and if you should make a purchase through any of the links in this blog I might earn a commission from the sellers, but this will have no impact on the cost to the consumer and it does not influence the content of this blog.

My favourite parts of this lyric poem are its subject and its sing-song flow.

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

  They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had

  And add some extra, just for you.

This Be The Verse, first stanza, Philip Larkin

It isn't hard to see why this poem has been voted one of the UK's favourite poems. The verses flow almost as easily as a nursery rhyme. But there are dark and heavy themes within. In the second stanza, the poet tells us that human misery is handed along from parents to children. And, in the third and final stanza, that the only way out of this misery is "don't have any kids yourself."

Given the quite breezy flow of the verses, it can be easy to miss these weighty themes, and just get a little lost in enjoying the way the words fall from lips and tongue. The reader can get lost in the flow of the poem before they realise what exactly they are reading.

That simple and explicit first line is unforgettable, and often quoted.

Some consider Larkin a controversial and even unsavoury figure since his death in 1985. Others have argued that he was kind and charming, pointing towards accounts from people that knew him. Either way, his poetry is considered some of the best of the 20th Century. And there is no denying the wit and ability demonstrated in this poem, This Be The Verse. It is a poem I enjoy very much, and one that I return to often.

If you would like to purchase a copy of High Windows by Philip Larkin, which features the poem discussed above, you can do so here.

Thank you for reading. It is both quite easy and extremely difficult to write. If you would like to support this blog, you can buy the writer a coffee on ko-fi.com. All support is much appreciated.