Blogcritics

The Great Book Adventure: Don Quixote - Part Two

Chris Bancells — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:30:25 EDT

Don Quixote rides into an awfully familiar mess.
To call Miguel de Cervantes a great writer might be a bit of a stretch. Some of the speeches he penned in Don Quixote are worthy of filibuster status, and he seems to be a little lax on certain details as well. Sancho Panza's burro, for example, gets stolen, then magically reappears for a while, then vanishes again, having been stolen the...

The Great Book Adventure: Don Quixote - Part One

Chris Bancells — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:26:06 EDT

Don Quixote de la Mancha, more modern than you know.
Well, this is why I got into this mess in the first place: to read the giants of western literature. And no matter who you are, there is little doubt that Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote is a qualifying entry. Four-hundred years old, and inspiring more art and interpretations than any single work I know of, this is a book to be handled with...

The Great Book Adventure: The Three Musketeers - Part Three

Chris Bancells — Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:29:00 EDT

It's been called the greatest cloak and sword story ever written. Now I know why.
Talk about turning a corner! No sooner had I finished writing the last column and picked up my book again, that things got dramatically better. Where the heroes had been wishy-washy and divided, they become courageous and united. Where the villains had been distant and vague, they suddenly snap into nefarious focus. The last third of Alexandre...

The Great Book Adventure: The Three Musketeers - Part Two

Chris Bancells — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:44:48 EDT

Where are the brothers in this brotherhood of men?
If I've learned anything so far in The Great Book Adventure, it's that expectations will get you absolutely nowhere when reading classic literature. It seems that people will take whatever they want from books and apply them however they want, simply ignoring the parts they don't like. This can lead the prospective reader far, far astray. ...

The Great Book Adventure: The Three Musketeers - Part One

Chris Bancells — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:03:06 EDT

The French can't fight? Don't tell that to The Three Musketeers.
"All for one, one for all."As far as literary one-liners go, that's pretty far up there on the recognition scale. Indeed, the idea of the three musketeers, three compatriots, is one which has permeated the cultural language fairly consistently. How many times has a group of three American friends, usually children, been dubbed such?...

The Great Book Adventure: Slaughterhouse-Five

Chris Bancells — Sun, 25 May 2008 10:16:53 EDT

Is Slaughterhouse-Five a great book? I'm still trying to figure it out.
I've been finished with Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five for about two weeks and I'm still not sure what to make of it. That it involves war, I get. That there are aliens and weird happenings with time travel, I understand. What I don't think it's about at all, even though it claims to be, is the bombing of Dresden,...

The Great Book Adventure: Walden - Part Three

Chris Bancells — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:14:52 EDT

The 21st century could use more Thoreau.
When it comes right down to it, Walden is about simplicity. I know, profound insight, right? But what I've realized about Thoreau's simplicity is that it must be sought as much in the material world as in ourselves. It seems to me that finding that intersection could be the difference between happiness and misery for many modern readers.As much...

The Great Book Adventure: Walden - Part Two

Chris Bancells — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:12:47 EDT

"Simplify! Simplify!" Is more complex than you think.
I was walking through a Barnes & Noble the other day and saw a table with the sign 'Green Reads'. Curious, I stopped to look over the titles. There were some books about making your home more green, gardening, something with Al Gore's name on it, and, oddly, Walden. I was surprised, maybe even a little shocked. Having just blown by...

The Great Book Adventure: Walden - Part One

Chris Bancells — Tue, 8 Apr 2008 21:36:09 EDT

Thoreau calls us to simplify and it's one we should heed, now more than ever.
Within the first couple of pages of Henry David Thoreau's Walden, the narrator comes off as a little rambling and a bit self serving. Nevertheless, it is precisely these aspects of his personality which bring him to the solitary shores of Walden Pond and, ultimately, to write a book relevant beyond his time.The premise centers around...

The Great Book Adventure: Peter Pan - Part Two

Chris Bancells — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:05:55 EDT

Between Captain Hook and Peter Pan is Wendy and a word of caution.
"Hook or me this time."With Part One having prepared us for the dark side of Neverland, Peter's oath ends chapter 13 and sets up the controlling dichotomy for the last third of the book. It's more than just the two characters, though, more than just Hook vs. Pan. It's a too serious adulthood against a too forgetful childhood....