G is for A Grief Observed: C.S. Lewis

This book helped me get through a very difficult time. Although this is written after and in response to the death of Lewis' wife, he had many perspectives and thoughts that were very applicable to what I was suffering.

I appreciated that he didn't try to give us any answers to grief. He didn't try to show us how to get through the grief or get over the grief. Instead, he just acknowledges or observes grief, and it's very helpful, as someone who is also grieving, to read about the journey through grief and how someone else handled his grief. It helps provide a sense of camaraderie and fellowship which is often lacking in grief. It's easy to feel isolated, but Lewis gives us a partner through his writings.

It's difficult to offer any sort of review on this book, because I had such a great emotional response to his writing that I don't feel that I am in any position to critique it. Therefore, I'll leave it at this short analysis of how I felt when reading.

F is for Flags in the Dust: William Faulkner

I've never been able to decide how I feel about William Faulkner's writing. I read As I Lay Dying years ago, and I thought it was an okay book: very dark, sad, and almost twisted, but it was very well written. I can't deny that Faulkner was a very talented man. The biggest struggle I have with him is the dialect he creates for his characters to speak in. I have to work pretty hard to understand what they're saying, and I don't particularly like that, but I did get used to it after 100 pages or so. I am thankful that the narrator speaks without a dialect, giving readers a break from the concentration and thought they must have when reading a character's speak. It's hard to focus on the themes of the book when I'm working so hard to understand what's being said.

Speaking of themes, there are so many I could touch on. Holy cow, does Faulkner speak on a lot of ideas and concepts, and I can see when he is so studied. Any student could have a field day with his work. 

He touches on race, wealth, marriage, feminism, societal expectations, and so much more. I'm not going to delve into each of these topics because a full-fledged essay could be written for each. I will say that this helped me appreciate the novel all the more. There is so much to be said about every character Faulkner created, and that doesn't always happen. Even the minor characters aren't actually minor characters and either play a crucial role or present a crucial theme/idea throughout. 

I find it very interesting that when Faulkner's characters converse with each other, they all sound like country bumpkins, not very educated, working to put bread on the table, and just getting through the day to day. But then, a character is left alone and has pages of the most beautiful thoughts, where they're pondering deep questions and the idea of world peace while quoting Keats. This creates some tension for me because I can't figure out what kind of people they actually are. They must be intelligent and worldly and full of thought and philosophy. But when we hear them talk together, they sound like such simpletons. 

Then ending of this book is just so sad, but I guess I shouldn't have expected otherwise given the characters and their behavior. It is an ending that did not leave me feeling content, rather, I finished the book feeling anxious, restless, and unsatisfied. But I guess that's Faulkner for you.