"'As God as my witness, as God as my witness, the Yankees aren't going to lick me. I'm going to live through this, and when it's all over, I'm never going to be hungry again. No, nor any of my folks. If I have to steal or kill--as God as my witness, I'm never going to be hungry again.'"
-Scarlett, page 421
Contrary to popular belief, this is not a novel of romance between Rhett and Scarlett. This is a novel of one woman's world, and how it is destroyed just as she is coming of age. It is a tale of how the Old South tried desperately to hang on to the tatters of its old ways in the prelude and aftermath of the Civil War. A brilliant, sweeping novel, and sadly, the only one ever written by Margaret Mitchell.
"Early in the spring of 1750, in the village of Juffure, four days upriver from the coast of The Gambia, West Africa, a manchild was born to Omoro and Binta Kinte... According to the forefathers, a boy firstborn presaged the special blessings of Allah not only upon the parents but also upon the parents' families; and there was the prideful knowledge that the name of Kinte would thus be both distinguished and perpetuated."
-Narrator, page 11
Once you have read this magnificent novel, you will never perceive American history in the same way again. This is the anguishing tale of one man's life, and how he was denied his birthright when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery by pre-Civil War era America. The story begins in 1750 with Kunta Kinte's birth, and ends seven generations later in Arkansas. An amazing journey of a novel.
"How beautiful and perfect are the animals!
How perfect the earth, and the minutest thing upon it!
I swear I think now that everything without exception has an eternal Soul!
The trees have, rooted in the ground! the weeds of the sea have! the animals!
I swear I think there is nothing but immortality!
That the exquisite scheme is for it, and the nebulous float is for it, and the cohering is for it;
And all preparation is for it! and identity is for it! and life and materials are altogether for it!"
-Walt Whitman
This is a groundbreaking book of poetry, written during the trancendentalist period of American literature. Walt Whitman demonstrated with elegance and majesty that poetry does not have to rhyme, and beauty is found within ourselves. His contemporaries considered the book pornographic and blasphemic. A century later, many of us were inspired to sing "songs of ourselves" after reading his verse.
"'Oh, Hazel! This is where it comes from! I know now- something very bad! Some terrible thing- coming closer and closer!...I don't know what it is...There isn't any danger here at the moment. But it's coming- it's coming. Oh, Hazel, look! The field! It's covered with blood!'"
-Fiver, page 15
When I hear people describe this novel as "a book about rabbits," it irritates me. This book is so much more. It is a parable of human suffering and resiliency, and of the human spirit. Yes, the characters are rabbits, but Adams has an astonishing ability to bring us into the world of warrens, hrududu, silflay, and General Woundwort. It is a moving tale that I have revisited over ten times.
"If he thought at all, but I don't believe he ever thought, it was that he and his shadow, when brought near each other, would join like drops of water; and when they did not he was appalled. He tried to stick it on with soap from the bathroom, but that also failed. A shudder passed through Peter, and he sat on the floor and cried.
His sobs woke Wendy, and she sat up in bed. 'Boy,' she said courteously, 'why are you crying?'
Peter...rose and bowed to her...She was much pleased.
"What's your name?" he asked.
'Wendy Moira Angel Darling,' she replied with some satisfaction. 'What is your name?'
'Peter Pan.'
...She asked where he lived.
'Second to the right,' said Peter, 'and then straight on till morning.'"
Ever since I was a child, I have simply adored this story. The story's original form is a dramatic play, but it has also been incarnated as a musical, several film adaptations, the Disney animated feature, and many other forms. So few children's stories speak to adults when we revisit them later in life. This is more than a story of a boy who won't grow up; this book is a parable of passage into adulthood, a monument to motherhood, and a flight into fancy each time it is read. Peter Pan remains one of my most treasured literary figures.
Do you think I missed a good book? Let me know!
Prior suggestions have included:
(..and might I add I have never read any of these fine books...)