The Pilgrim's Regress, by CS Lewis
I enjoyed this. It's difficult for me to not enjoy something by my friend Jack. However. I felt like this was something I'd have written in a literary analysis course... obviously not to the same effect as his, but it was very much a response to a prompt, in my opinion. The way he used names of literary/psychological/cultural movements was even more overt than Paul Bunyan's original Pilgrim story. I realize this was one of his earlier works, post-conversion, and that it detailed (in allegorical form) that very conversion, but it certainly does not do justice to the imagination and brilliance we see in his other works.
Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee
A much-anticipated sequel to what is perhaps the great American novel did not live up to its hype. My opinion. While it was fun feeling like I was reading something out of a time capsule (Lee wrote this before To Kill a Mockingbird), the plot was undeveloped, and the characters were not likable. The highlights were the flashbacks to Scout's childhood, naturally - that was the character we fell in love with in the first place. I didn't like grown-up Scout. When you read about a book about a precocious young girl, don't you automatically assume she would grow up to be just like you? I know I do. And did. But Jean Louise is nothing like me. And that made me dislike her. Ha.
Perhaps the biggest hit to my soul was the tainting of Atticus's character. How dare she. The greatest father in all of literature... is not. It's a sad story. It's a messy reality. And what about Jem? He's simply been dead, without much ado or explanation. Eh. Not what I wanted. I feel a bit disillusioned with Atticus, and with Scout, strangely. An interesting read, but certainly not on par with her first published novel. Read that one again.
