lit · er · a · ture

This is the second time I've had to read Portis in a creative writing workshop... and I'll admit that the first time around I couldn't get through Masters of Atlantis.

As for True Grit, the merits of the novel lie mostly in the relentless pacing and the never-faltering voice of the narrator, Mattie Ross. I rather liked her, her youth and her ire, and I'm certain that she was the only thing holding me to the text. Gunslinging just isn't my thing, at least not the dirty, colt-45-esque variety. I found I liked it best nearest the end, when the chase of the plot caught up with the prose and I turned pages with a decidedly greater interest.

I was positively floored by this book. There were a number of times where I felt as though I ought to be throwing off the morality and revelation present in the text, but I was so involved that I kept nodding along, turning the pages, entirely indulgent. Alexie is incredibly talented and walks the very fine line between the heavy handed and the truly moving, succeeding with every step.

I am at a loss to explain why I persist with these books which exhibit some very fundamental issues. I suspect, at times, the author to be somewhat pervy, given how despite the strength of character and will, and sheer physical power, of the female protagonist, she is consistently put into positions where she is scantilly clad or pawed over or subjected to male dominance... and accepts it. And talks about it a great deal. And goes on at length about just how revealing her current garb is. It's damned tiresome.

But I am nonetheless interested in the underlying premise and generally can't put anything down that is so steeped in the mythologies of the old world. There are questions I still want the answers to - and certainly better recieve, as Wright persists in the equally juvenile tradition of ending each one of his books on a shocking and suspenseful revelation.

Sometimes a struggle if only for incomprehensible physics jargon, Orphans of Chaos by John C. Wright managed to turn several very traditional themes on their head. Mischievous adolescents at a secluded and v. private school, mythology, powers of a special and alien nature, greek gods and goddesses and demigods and demigoddesses... fate and all that other business. Only a few days are covered in this first book, but the depth of the story only just touched upon, the characters developed still and their relationships as yet somewhat unclear... I leave my true judgment to follow after I read the second and third books in the series, both of which have already been published. A curious book, this, but not without merit.

Begun last evening and finished just now, The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale was an enjoyable read. I always like retellings of folktales and fairytales, and though I was not very familiar with the origins of this retelling, I couldn't put it down. Recommended for those that enjoy a bit of easy fantasy and a happy ending.

Though, I do lament dialogue that is poorly written and occasionally contrived. But, 'tis YA, and I cannot always expect much.