The Different Shades of Love

One particular theme is always present in my mind when I read Love in the Time of Cholera is love and all the different levels is has in the novel. There is the love Fermina shares with Florentino and then the love she shares with Dr. Urbino. Although both of these men care for her, the different types of love they show Fermina contrast severely. From the very beginning, Floretino’s love of Fermina has been extremely passionate, even bordering on obsession. However as his character matures throughout the novel, his love, while still great, definitely lessened in intensity. The relationship between Dr. Urbino and Fermina did contain love, but it differed from that of Florentino’s. I believe that the old-fashioned formality of Dr. Urbino’s character prevented him from showing just how much he loved Fermina. He may have loved her with all the same passion and loyalty as Florentino, but did not show it because it would have appeared as “inappropriate”. So then, since Dr. Urbino maintained a sense of propriety at all times with Fermina, their love grew to be more of a “I love you, I’m just not in love with you”.

Another level of love we see in the novel is in the relationship between Dr. Urbino and his mother, Doña Blanca. My heart went out to Fermina when I read about her encounter with Urbino’s ruthless mother (206). I feel that my initial reaction to their meeting matched many of my classmates when they read this scene, feeling sympathy for Fermina and taking an immediate dislike to Doña Blanca. As we discussed in class, the main reason Doña Blanca is so mean to Fermina is because she does not want to be replaced in Urbino’s life by some younger, prettier girl. Also, she feels that no one is good enough for her son. While her behavior comes off as out-of-line, I can relate to Doña Blanca. Whenever Chris begins to date a girl, I take an immediate dislike to her. Call it my sisterly nature. It does not matter who the girl is; I do not want her to date my brother. I think that Doña Blanca and I share the same idea that when our children (or in my case brother) gets married or gets into a relationship, it is a sign they are growing up and are no longer little babies. In Dr. Urbino’s case, he could have brought home a princess and I bet his mother would have even just a little disdain for her, because to her, a wife for her son shows that he is mature enough to care for another person besides himself. Gabriel García Márquez brilliantly intertwines the themes of love and the passage of time through this particular relationship and others as well. He addresses the fairy-tale, Princess Bride “meant to be together” love through Florentino and Fermina; the caring, compassionate love between Fermina and Dr. Urbino; and the protective love between a parent and a child through Doña Blanca and Dr. Urbino.

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L.O.V.E.

One of the central themes in the novel Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez is the idea of love. He addresses many different levels of this well-known emotion throughout the story. Márquez creates a love so devastatingly powerful it completely consumes those affected by it, more specifically Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino loses all sense of self when he falls in love with Fermina, who quickly becomes his only world. In the beginning he spends all of his time thinking about her or watching her, for just seeing Fermina was enough for him (56). The problem is since now he has made this one person his everything, when she leaves, he is left with absolutely nothing. We develop an almost negative view of Fermina because we see how much Florentino loves her and how he pines for her, and she does nothing to stop him when her feelings do not mirror his, “In reality they were distracted letters, intended to keep the coals alive without putting her hand in the fire, while Florentino Ariza burned himself alive in every line” (69). Even though it is not Fermina’s fault that she does not love Florentino as much as he loves her, we still feel some resentment towards her. This resentment only increases when she is able toss aside her love for Florentino so easily, “She came back . . . stunned by the revelation that one could be happy not only without love, but despite it” (87).

Along with a life filled with overwhelming love, Márquez discusses what a life would be like with very little or no love at all. Much like Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, there are several marriages in Love in the Time of Cholera that lack love. The first thing Márquez mentions about the marriage of Lorenzo Daza and his wife, who was also named Fermina, was that there was no foundation of love between the two, “Aunt Escolastica was a refuge of understanding and affection for the only child of a loveless marriage” (58). Since her parents were not in love when they married, it is much easier for Fermina to quell her feelings for Florentino and enter a loveless marriage to Dr. Urbino. Despite it never being directly stated, one can assume that there was no love between Florentino’s mother, Tránsito Ariza, and his father, Don Pius V Loayza. If Loayza never acknowledged his son past the money sent to support him, it is difficult to believe that he truly loved Tránsito. “Although he always took care of his expenses in secret, he never recognized him as his son before the law” (53). Yet Florentino reaction to his first encounter with love is much different from Fermina’s. While she is much more reserved in showing her feelings, he can hardly contain them. Florentino never stops loving Fermina, even when she moves away to marry the doctor. Why the two characters interact with love so differently, despite their parents having similar, love-less marriages, is a mystery.

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Stick to the code, the Southern code

In Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, the members of the Compson family are constantly worrying about how the appear to society. I believe it is this unrelenting anxiety severely influences the family’s dysfunctional tendencies. Focusing more specifically on Mrs. Compson, Caddy, and Quentin and the belief that they must follow the “Southern code” causes the family to fall apart.
The most obvious character concerned about their social standing in Mrs. Compson. We see this very early in the novel when she is upset about Bengy getting past the gate in he garden. On the surface it seems the front gate is kept closed to keep Bengy from getting out and possibly hurting himself. Yet it could be speculated that the real reason Mrs. Compson is so adamant about keeping Bengy in the garden is so no one will see him. She is ashamed of her challenged son and is worried if people saw him, they would gossip, “I thought Bengy was punishment enough for any sins I have committed” (103). Although the reader still has the right to dislike Mrs. Compson for being embarrassed by Bengy, it is not entirely her own doing. Mrs. Compson was raised in an environment where society was only viewed as two extremes, “I was taught that there is no halfway ground that a woman is either a lady or not” (103). Her worry of what others think stays with her throughout the entire novel, especially when she is raising Miss Quentin. Her illegitimacy causes enough stress to last Mrs. Compson a lifetime, but Miss Quentin’s wild behavior only results in her fretting even more, “But to have the school authorities think that I have no control over her, that I can’t—” (180). Mrs. Compson’s lifelong attempt to fit in with a higher social level only causes emotional and physical health to deteriorate.
Mrs. Compson’s focus on social appropriateness carries over to Caddy and how she handles certain situations. Although Caddy does many things that are considered to be social taboo, she does try to adhere to social standards when her antics become out of control. Her scandalous pregnancy and ignorance of who the father is forces Caddy to give in to something it seems she has been fighting her entire life: the rules of high society. She enters a loveless marriage to a man of awful character because according to society good young ladies don’t get pregnant before marriage. Her ironic fate ultimately ostracizes her from her home and her family.
The other child affected greatly by the norms of the upper social levels was Caddy’s brother Quentin. Quentin’s deep love for Caddy and preoccupation with social morals drive him to depression, intense thoughts of incest, and eventual suicide. Since Caddy has associated herself with an especially nasty social ill, an illegitimate pregnancy, he tries to protect her from horrible gossip he knows will spread like wildfire. When Quentin attempts to confide in Mr. Compson about Caddy’s disregard for social morality, he only learns that his father does not care about their social status either. This affects his depression the way gasoline would a fire. The fear of society thinking poorly of them is the Achilles’ heel of the Compson family and the characters that try the hardest to “fit in” end up suffering the most.

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Sister Act

Throughout my reading of William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, I was finding myself to be quite confused about the character Caddy. It is apparent in her relationships with her family, especially Bengy and Quentin, that she is full of love and compassion. Caddy appears to never want to cause them any pain and when she does, she deeply repents it. The cause of my confusion then is, as she gets older, her actions seem to become more and more emotionally harmful, both to her and to her family. If she cares about them so much, why is she making these awful decisions? Caddy’s promiscuity, marriage to a cheat, and illegitimate child all has a negative affect on the Compson family. The love and compassion she feels toward her family and, more specifically, towards Bengy and Quentin, are not in sync with her choices. I believe Caddy is the kind of character who does not think about how their actions affect others. She is selfish, but not in the typical sense. Caddy does not put her self above others, nor does she think her needs are more important. In reality, she always tries to please Bengy, removing her perfume (41) or washing off her lipstick (48) because she knows those things upset him. Yet, due to her own self-involvement Caddy cannot see that, like in most families, her emotions are contagious. When a child is upset, the parents become upset because their child is hurting. The emotions disseminate like dye in water. When Caddy is younger and is attempting to climb the tree (39) she does not take into consideration that if she got caught, Jason and Versh could potentially get into trouble as well for not keeping her out of the tree. Another example is when she finds out she is pregnant. Caddy’s pregnancy causes Quentin to cry incest, all to protect his little sister. This is not saying Caddy deliberately got pregnant, but is alluding to her loose relationships with multiple men, “ I don’t know too many” (115). She does not recognize the affect her scandalous behavior could have on her family. Caddy is like a domino, her actions affecting the bigger picture and everyone in it.


The problem is, if Caddy were to taken everyone into consideration before she made her decisions, she would be being unfair to herself. If she were to never kiss a boy or wear perfume again because it made Bengy upset, she would be denying herself many aspects of growing up. Early in the novel it is obvious that Caddy is no shrinking violet and does not want to spend her life thinking of different ways she can please people. Caddy represents and lose-lose situation. She too self-involved to see her actions hurting her family, but if she were to attempt to prevent her decisions from having a negative affect on anybody, her life would have been lived for others and not for herself. It is almost impossible to find some kind of middle ground in this situation. A person is either a little too selfish or a little too complacent.

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All Alone in Shiloh

In the short story Shiloh by Bobbie Ann Mason, there were two main aspects of the story that remained in my mind after reading it. The first is the swapping of gender roles within the story, something almost everyone else picked up on as well. The story opens up with Leroy’s wife, Norma Jean, lifting weights (5). This is the first image the reader receives of Norma Jean and frankly, a very masculine one to that. My first mental image was Leroy as this small, skinny twig of a man with a super muscular wife in neon exercise spandex, complete with matching headband. Now that Leroy is incapacitated and no longer employed, it is Norma Jean who goes to work and supports them. Norma Jean is the one improving herself physically and mentally, while Leroy does needlepoint (35). Leroy’s overall image throughout the story is a weaker one compared to his wife. It seems that Norma Jean has the more dominant, powerful personality. Leroy comes off as more laid back than his wife, casually sitting on the couch smoking a joint while Norma Jean bustle around with her weights or the organ (15). Leroy’s nonchalant attitude and Norma Jean’s motivation and energy often clash, causing conflict, such as when Leroy joking threatens her with leaving out a joint for Mabel to see (60). As Norma Jean shrieks and freaks-out, Leroy attempts to ease her, “I’m just kidding. Here, play me a tune. That’ll help you relax” (60). I believe the differences between the two personalities play a significant role in the inevitable break-up of the marriage.

The character of Norma Jean is one I found to be very interesting. When I first read the story, I felt no sympathy towards her and even a little bit of contempt when she leaves Leroy. However, when we learned of her intentions when she got married and how that has affected her in the long run, she starts to become more human and less of a cruel woman leaving her lovesick husband. It is safe to assume the only reason Norma Jean married Leroy because she was pregnant and she felt the baby deserved a mother and a father. Yet when Randy dies, there is nothing left for her in the marriage. It’s as if she gave up her life for nothing and now she is trapped in this practically arranged marriage. When Leroy begins to spend more time at home, Norma Jean is forced to come to terms with her unhappiness and realizes that she needs to experience what is left of her life, “ . . . I have this crazy feeling I missed something” (15). Although we still feel sorry for Leroy when his wife leaves him, we know that it is for the best. It is unfair to Leroy and to Norma Jean if she stayed married to a man she did not love. Unfortunately the longer it took for her to figure this out, the more in love Leroy became. When Norma Jean announces her leaving Leroy, it hits him like a dull pain, one that he cannot fully comprehend (140). Norma Jean does eventually find her independence and is able to live her life to the fullest, but it was all at the expense of the man who truly loved her.

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Harrison Bergeron's Yellow Wallpaper

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. creates chilling portrayal of society seventy-four years into the future in his story Harrison Bergeron. At first, the story really freaked me out with the idea of everyone being totally equal. The fact that most of the people were forced to live their lives with weights, masks, and handicaps is truly frightening. The detailed imagery Vonnegut uses when describing the different handicaps makes the story only more disturbing. George and Hazel’s inability to fully comprehend information is both shocking and heartbreaking. When George is explaining to Hazel why he can’t take off his handicap weights, he refers to the “dark ages, with everybody competing with everybody else” (25). I assume that the “dark ages” are supposed to be this present day. George, along with most of the other characters in the story, is so brainwashed that he thinks the uncomfortable weights and the painful brain handicap are good for him and for society. This sense of acceptance towards extreme conformity is almost inconceivable to the reader. Vonnegut is able to create sympathy for these two characters, as well as for the others, because they are all forced to live lives where individuality is looked down on and conventionality is praised. The idea that everyone is “equal” causes those who are gifted to feel guilty about their uniqueness, “She had to apologize at once for her voice, which was a very unfair voice to use . . . a warm, luminous, timeless melody” (40).
It is this recurrent theme throughout the story that caused me to draw upon a quote from the Pixar movie, The Incredibles, “They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity, but if someone is genuinely exceptional...” I believe it is safe to say that this phrase applies perfectly to the story. Also, the reader feels sympathy for George and Hazel because they are so brainwashed that when Harrison is taken away from them (5) and then when he is later shot (80), they do not even feel sad due to their handicaps. A couple cannot morn the death of their child because it would cause them to feel certain emotions that would cause them to be unequal with the rest of the population.

However, despite the government’s attempts to create an equal society by using handicaps, the handicaps still create an almost ranking system based on the severity of the disadvantage. For example, George is able to ascertain the variety in attractiveness between the ballerinas due to the differences in their handicaps, “She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous. And . . . she was the strongest and most graceful . . . for her handicap bags were a big as those worn by two-hundred pound men” (40). The sensation of an almost class-like system that underlies our own society is still evident in this futuristic world. An interesting aspect of Vonnegut’s story is that even while this is set in the year 2081 and there is evidence of technological advancements, the gun Diana Moon Glampers uses to kill Harrison and his Empress is one that we currently have in 2007. If this society is set so far in the future with the tools that are able to control other people’s thought process, why use such an archaic weapon? I believe it is to symbolize a regress back to more primitive times by those whose thinking is not controlled. When Harrison discards his handicaps and regains control, he declares he is Emperor (55), a title that had not been used for hundreds of years. It proves that when you try to force something, in this case extreme equality progressing society, it will only rebel and produce an opposite effect, a relapse to more elemental times.





In the short story The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman creates an extreme case of a stereotypical marriage, with a domineering husband and a submissive wife. John, the husband and a physician, is described as “practical in the extreme . . . has no patience with faith . . . and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures” (5). In fact, the wife claims that his over controlling manner is the main reason why she seems to be unable to get healthier (5). Her constant need to please her husband causes her to give up many of the things she enjoys or to do them in secret, such as writing (15). Also, she is reluctant to often tell him what is on her mind for fear of disappointing him. The control that John holds over his wife is so strong is seems that he has almost brainwashed her, causing her to believe that whatever he says and does is best for her. Therefore when she questions his actions about her recovery he causes her to feel guilty about it, as if she is being selfish and unappreciative by doubting him, “He takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more” (30). In the beginning of the story the wife appears to be quite sane, yet as the plot progresses we see her mental health spiral down. This is due to John’s “care” of her. It is he that worsens her condition by keeping her isolated all the time. The wife writes to us that John is always gone all day on “important” cases (90). If he truly cared about his wife’s recovery, he would have been by her side making sure she was ok. John’s almost mentally abusive behavior towards his wife is what ultimately drives her insane and forces her to look towards the “woman” in the wallpaper for some kind of company.


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Where Have All The Good Men Gone?

In the short story A Good Man Is Hard To Find, Flannery O’Connor retains the title of a “Southern Gothic” in her ironic and almost predictable tale of one family’s road trip from hell. One of the defining aspects of the story is O’Connor’s ability to consistently foreshadow throughout the entire narrative. The story opens with the grandmother attempting to deter her son from taking the family to Florida, using the warning of the criminal at large The Misfit as one of her arguments (3). At this point it apparent that this character is integral to the story or else the author would not have introduced him so early. O’Connor uses the grandmother, through her dialogue and actions, to foreshadow most of the dark events that await the unsuspecting family. When getting ready for the long car ride, it is explained to the readers that she is dressed in such a proper manner because “in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (12). This darkly humorous comment acts as an indirect prediction of her and her family’s unfortunate future. O’Connor skillfully sets the stage for the family’s meeting with The Misfit not only through the grandmother, but through other characters as well. When Red Sammy’s wife expresses her would be lack of surprise if The Misfit attacked their diner (43), this re-affirms the reader’s suspicion that an encounter with him is likely.

In addition to the more direct references to death in the story, there are a multiple allusions, some not so subtle, to an inevitable meeting with this unfortunately real-life bogeyman. One is the passing of the graveyard on the way to the diner. When the grandmother points out that it was a family burial ground (24), the parallelism is undeniable. A blatant indication towards death is the description of The Misfits car that the grandmother hails down, which is most accurately illustrated as a hearse-like vehicle (72). Throughout the long-anticipated meeting of The Misfit, O’Connor becomes more and more direct in her references to death. When the escaped killer requests that Bailey and John Wesley step into the woods, it is obvious to the reader that they will not be returning (95). It is the same case when The Misfit asks the mother if she would like to “join” her husband in the woods (125). There is some irony in the grandmother’s being the last of the group to die. She was the only one of the family to casually point out the potential dangers of a mundane car trip. The other irony is that her actions are what ultimately create the sequence of events that lead them to The Misfit. This includes her suggestion to visit the “plantation” (48), her cat hidden in her purse (11), her hailing down the criminal’s car (73), and her recognizing The Misfit (84). When he informs the grandmother that she would have been better off if she had not identified him (85), we begin to wonder if The Misfit really would of spared their lives.

Though the reader knows very little about character of The Misfit, through his conversations he seems to be very ironic. He comes off as almost a proper man with a polite disposition, such as when he apologizes for not being appropriately dressed (100). One of the most contradictory things about The Misfit is his view on killing people. At first this man seems completely amoral, declaring “it’s nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can—by killing someone . . . “(135). However, he contradicts himself by dismissing Bobby Lee’s comment about killing the grandmother, saying that murder had no real pleasure in life (140). O’Connor ends the story with one final irony: the cat. The cause of their accident and ultimate murders becomes the only member to engage The Misfit’s humanity and thus survives.


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Everyday Wasteland

Alice Walker creates two extremely different characters in her short story Everyday Use: Dee/Wangero, the “cultured, intelligent, trendy” daughter, and her “poor, uneducated, rural” Mother. However, even though Dee was the smartest in school and received scholarships to college, it is Mother’s character that seems to be more sensible and more grounded. Walker adds humor to Mother’s character when she indirectly calls Dee out on her ridiclousness. For example, when Dee declares she has changed her name from the “oppressive” one she had, Mother tells her that she was actually just named after her aunt (30). Mother has a much more realistic outlook on life than Dee does and this is especially apparent when she and Dee are arguing about the quilts. Dee wants to hang them as decorations and Mother can’t seem to understand why anyone would do that (73). Coming from an extremely poor background, it can be assumed that Mother was someone who never used a quilt, or any kind of household object for that matter, as “art”. The way in which Mother conducts herself and her mannerisms really show us that “less is more” in that she is a more rational, pleasant, and overall more likeable person than Dee, despite that fact she lives much more modernly. You would assume that since Dee went to college and followed the current times, her behavior would mirror it. However, it does not. Dee comes off as silly and ridiculous, however it is not funny, but instead rude and disrespectful. When Walker describes Dee when she is younger, you come to learn that she was embarrassed by her heritage and who her family was. Yet, when family trees become the next big trend, she then decides to embrace it. Dee feels no emotional connection to her past; rather to her it is just another accessory. She embraces her heritage only when it is convenient for her.


In Teenage Wasteland, Anne Tyler shows us the emotional battle Daisy must face when trying to figure out a way to salvage her relationship with her troubled son Donny. When she first learns of her son’s problems in school Daisy is embarrassed and confused (4). Her confusion never fully leaves her throughout the rest of the story. Daisy can’t figure out why her son is behaving like this, and since he is her first child, she has no experience in dealing with it. I think this is one reason why Daisy is so willing at first to let Cal work with Donny, despite her instincts telling her otherwise (30). She is so lost in the situation that it seems Daisy will to listen to anybody with a PhD, even if they do more harm than good. Daisy is caught in a very tricky situation with Donny because no matter what she does, he will just rebel. Donny protests when his parents constantly monitor his schoolwork, but when his parents leave him alone, Donny doesn’t do any of his work. It is a lose-lose situation for Daisy, because she always comes off as the bad guy not only to Donny, but to her daughter Amanda as well. Daisy has to push her time with Amanda aside when she is attempting to help Donny (50). This severely damages Amanda’s relationship with her parents and she begins to gradually distance herself from them (113). I think that another thing that causes both Donny and Amanda to drift away from their parents is that neither of their parents set good examples. The father seems to be working most of the time, leaving Daisy by herself. Daisy’s overwhelming insecurities and lack of confidence do not create a good role model for her kids to look up to (10). Her obsession of what other people think of her affects her parenting and therefore causes her to feel twice as ashamed when Donny begins to struggle.

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The Lovely Reactions

In the novel The Lovely Bones, it is the reactions of the characters to Suzie’s death that show their true colors. When Jack Salmon, Suzie’s father, finds out she is dead, it completely consumes him. He becomes obsessed with catching his daughter’s killer because he feels that in some sense he can make it up to Suzie for not protecting her enough by catching the murder. I believe that this reveals the father’s humanity because the loss of his first child has hit him so hard it eventually becomes what drives him. He has no one to reach out to to help him deal with the loss for two reasons; the first being that he is the father and therefore must be the strong one to help his family get through this. The second reason is his wife Abigail becomes so completely overwhelmed by Suzie’s death that ultimately she has to sever all ties with her family to overcome the shock. Suzie’s murder also causes Jack to become understandably more protective of his other two children Lindsey and Buckley, “Before leaving the house, my father checked on Buckley—to make sure, to feel the warm breath against his palm.” Although as time goes on and people get on with their lives, it seems that he never completely overcomes Suzie’s death, but rather it is always sitting there in the back of his mind.


Suzie’s sister Lindsey is another character who reacts to Suzie’s death in a while that I think most teenagers do when someone close to them dies; she shuts people out. When Lindsey finds out her sister is dead she is so shocked she becomes frozen. When talking to her principle about her playing soccer, Lindsey mentions Suzie’s murder as casually as the morning weather. Cold and distant, Lindsey emotionally secludes herself from everyone, including her father when he tries to find comfort in her, “‘What? she said. Her face was rigid, an affront . . . ‘I want to know how you are,’ he said . . . ‘I’m handling this alone.’ He looked at her and could of said ‘I’m not, I can’t. Don’t make me,’ but he just stood there.” I feel like Lindsey is taking the “If I don’t talk about it or think about it, it’ll go away” approach to dealing with Suzie’s death. She does not begin to open up until Samuel Heckler reaches out to her and gives her the necklace for Christmas. Lindsey realizes that it would not be fair to Suzie to entirely shut down. After Lindsey begins to recover and move on from Suzie’s death, there is a brief moment where she too becomes focused on catching her sister’s killer, although not to the extent that her father does.

Both of these characters deal with grief in a way that reveals their characters. Alice Sebold humanizes her characters in The Lovely Bones by having them feel pain and make mistakes, for those are some of the things that separate the mortal from the immortal. Jack tries to relieve the guilt of having let his daughter down and Lindsey works to accept and move on with her life after loosing someone that was so close to her. (537)

Natalie's food for thought.

Dear Mr. Coon, you described my relationship with reading perfectly in class today when you used the roller coaster analogy. From the age of about eight to roughly fourteen I was an avid reader. Mostly I stuck to age appropriate books, but when I began my teenage years I started to drift toward the gossipy novels my Mom would and still calls “junk food for the mind”. When I entered high school, my reading roller coaster plummeted. Swamped with papers, tests, and required books, I stopped reading on my own except for the occasional short paperback book over the summer. However this summer I went out on a limb and along with my required books for school, I somehow managed to read two books that were not on the list.

My taste in reading genres is colorful to say the least. I now find myself agreeing with my Mom and am avoiding the “junk food” books like the plague. Instead, I lean more towards historical fiction. I like this genre because I learn something interesting and at the same time still have the juicy scandals without the book falling into the “trashy supermarket novel” category. Two historical novels I read this past summer were Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and Close to Shore by Michael Capuzzo. The first novel tells the story of a young immigrant and his experiences in the chaotic world of a traveling circus. Along with chilling murders and promiscuous relationships, the author wove in historical facts and accounts of circus life. The other novel, Close to Shore, recalls the horrifying shark attacks of 1916 that Peter Benchley had used as the basis for JAWS. I was particularly fond of this book because it satisfied my inexplicable fascination with sharks.

I believe it is a fair argument that my reading status is similar to a double-edged sword. Although my taste has definitely matured and I am moving towards more sophisticated books, I clearly do not read as much as I did back when I was thirteen and clutching the latest Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. This year though, I hope to finish a book that does not contain graphs or a list of vocabulary words, but rather one where I do not mind staying up all night to finish it. (383)