Two for Tuesday: Two Books You Should Read Before You Die
Morning, Prosers,
Before we continue with our Two for Tuesday spot, we'd like to update you on some behind the screens bits and bobs.
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Now, enough with the interruptions, here's this week's Two for Tuesday.
This week's Two for Tuesday is centred around a regular feature we showcase on the Blog (blog.theprose.com).
Books Before You Die, or BBYD for short, explores and reviews classic and not-so-classic books that writers and readers alike have recommended we read before we die. A book bucket-list if you will.
Here we share two of those, with the links to the full articles for you decide whether you should add these to your TBR list.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.
By Mark Haddon
The Plot:
The novel is narrated from a 15 year olds perspective who has Asperger’s Syndrome.
After discovering a murdered dog, Christopher sets off to discover the mystery but finds his world ruled by math and not a good socialiser, turned on its head. His detective work takes him on an adventure even a truly brave person could not begin to understand; let alone Christopher.
Christopher John Francis Boone describes himself as “a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties” living in Swindon, Wiltshire. Although Christopher’s condition is not stated, the book’s blurb refers to Asperger syndrome, high-functioning autism, or savant syndrome.
Haddon wrote on his blog that “Curious Incident is not a book about Asperger’s….if anything it’s a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. The book is not specifically about any specific disorder,” and that he, Haddon, is not an expert on autism spectrum disorder or Asperger syndrome.
Find out our thoughts on whether this is BBYD worthy by following the link below.
http://blog.theprose.com/2016/11/bbyd-curious-incident-dog-night-time/
Hunger
By: Knut Hamsun
The Plot
The book’s first-person protagonist is an unnamed vagrant with intellectual leanings who is probably in his late twenties and wanders the streets of Norway’s capital in pursuit of nourishment. Over several episodes he meets a number of more or less mysterious persons, the most notable being a young woman with whom he engages in a mild degree of physical intimacy, he decides to call her Ylajali.
He exhibits a baffling self-created code of chivalry, giving money and clothes to needy children and vagrants, not eating food given to him, and turning himself in for stealing. Essentially self-destructive, he thus falls into traps of his own making, and with a lack of food, warmth and basic comfort, his body turns slowly to ruin. Overwhelmed by hunger, he scrounges meals, almost eating his own (rather precious) pencil and even resorting to chewing on wood shavings.
His social, physical and mental states are in constant decline. However, he has no antagonistic feelings towards ‘society’ as such, rather he blames his fate on ‘God’ or a divine world order. He vows not to succumb to this order and remains ‘a foreigner in life’, haunted by ‘nervousness, by irrational details’.
He experiences a major artistic and financial triumph when he sells a text to a newspaper, but despite this he finds writing increasingly difficult. At one point in the story, he asks to spend a night in a prison cell, posing as a well-to-do journalist who has lost the keys to his apartment. In the morning he cannot bring himself to reveal his poverty or even partake in the free breakfast provided to the homeless.
Find out our thoughts on whether this is BBYD worthy by following the link below.
http://blog.theprose.com/2016/04/bbyd-hunger-by-knut-hamsun-robert-bly-translation/
What are you thoughts on the two we have picked? Will you add them to your list? Have you already read them? What books do you recommend we read before we die? Comment below and join in the discussion.
Until next time, Prosers,
Prose.